As the ruler of Maraudon, Princess Theradras dropped more loot than the other bosses. Under normal circumstances, she had two guaranteed blue drops, plus one or two random world-drop greens, blues, or epics.
Of course, if your luck was terrible, she might only drop one guaranteed blue and several random greens.
Blackstone Ring
Binds when picked up
Unique
Finger
+6 Stamina
Requires Level 49
Equip: +20 Attack Power
Equip: Improves your chance to hit by 1%.
A ridiculously strong ring for its level. Before Dire Maul opened and Tarnished Elven Ring became available from Tribute runs, Blackstone Ring was one of the best physical damage rings outside of raids.
It was stronger than Painweaver Band and Magni's Will for many players. Pair it with either one, and until you got Quick Strike Ring or Band of Accuria, you were sitting pretty.
Blackstone Ring held its value extremely well. Before Dire Maul opened, countless melee players wanted it and had no choice but to pay Mages, Hunters, or Warlocks to farm Princess for them. Hunters who solo-farmed Princess were mostly doing it for this ring.
Even once Dire Maul was out, pre-raid tanks were still better off using Blackstone Ring over Tarnished Elven Ring.
Cassandra's Grace (Rare)
Binds when equipped
Head Cloth
55 Armor
+9 Spirit
+7 Stamina
Requires Level 42
Equip: Increases healing done by spells and effects by up to 44.
A blue BoE helm, and a seriously strong healer piece. Cheap, easy to get, and ridiculous value for the price. If all you cared about was raw +healing, it was better than Crimson Felt Hat from Magistrate Barthilas in Stratholme. Healers who were not chasing Tier 1 set bonuses could wear it all the way until their Tier 2 helm.
"This must be the random world drop Princess threw in as a bonus. Not green, either. A blue. Looks like she's being generous today."
Normally, Princess was far more likely to drop random green BoEs. Blue BoEs showed up sometimes, but epic BoEs could stay invisible for hundreds of runs. In his previous life, Gabryell had farmed Princess more than a thousand times, and the best random epic BoE he had ever seen from her was Freezing Band.
Since there were two blue items, one guaranteed drop and one world drop, the epic could not be a random world drop.
That left only one possibility.
Excluding world drops, there was only one epic item on Princess Theradras's loot table.
Blade of Eternal Darkness (Epic)
Binds when picked up
Unique
Main Hand Dagger
33 - 69 Damage Speed 1.50
(34.3 DPS)
Durability 75 / 75
Requires Level 49
Equip: Chance on landing a damaging spell to deal 100 Shadow damage and restore 100 mana to you.
Gabryell's eyes widened.
In his previous life, he had farmed Princess more than fourteen hundred times before this weapon finally dropped. He never expected that, after being reborn, Blade of Eternal Darkness would drop on his very first Princess kill.
"This has to be the first Blade of Eternal Darkness on the server."
Gabryell could not be completely sure whether any foreign groups had killed Princess during beta, but on their server, no group had killed her yet. The Princess they had just killed was the server first.
"An epic dagger?" Igor said enviously, clearly not understanding what Blade of Eternal Darkness meant to Mages. "Rogues are eating way too good today."
"Purple dagger. Rogue weapon, right?" Coldhands said.
That was the kind of comment that could make future Mages lose their minds. If he knew what Blade of Eternal Darkness meant, he would probably want to slap himself later.
"Whoa, an epic dagger. The damage is high too."
DeathScum, who also had no idea how precious the weapon was, stared at the stats in amazement. "Its DPS is higher than Satyr's Lash from Lord Vyletongue, and it's close to Gut Ripper. The effect is weird, though. Why does it look like a caster effect?"
Afraid the Rogue might get itchy fingers and click Need by accident, Gabryell immediately said, "Physical classes, do not roll. This is a caster dagger. It's useless for you."
If a Rogue actually took Blade of Eternal Darkness as an ordinary dagger, Gabryell might cough blood on the spot.
DeathScum blinked. "So it really is for casters?"
"Exactly," Gabryell said quickly. "Strictly speaking, it's a Mage dagger. Other classes can use it, but they can't get the same value out of it."
Technically, if a level 49 Rogue equipped Blade of Eternal Darkness, the weapon damage was not terrible. The problem was that doing so would invite divine punishment. Later on, once everyone understood how powerful the dagger was, any Rogue who rolled Need on it would be condemned as a loot ninja until the end of time.
"A Mage dagger with no spell damage?" DesertWanderer asked.
He did not think much of it. The dagger had no stats and no spell power. At first glance, it looked strange.
"The effect," Gabryell said. "Look at the effect. That is the real spell damage."
DesertWanderer studied the tooltip carefully. "So if I equip this, my damaging spells can trigger an extra 100 Shadow damage and restore 100 mana?"
"Right. It's written right there."
To make everyone understand why the dagger belonged to Mages, Gabryell explained patiently.
"The main value is mana return. If you're killing mobs one at a time, restoring 100 mana once in a while isn't a big deal. But if you're AoEing an entire pack and the effect procs over and over, then one cast can restore hundreds or even thousands of mana. That's when this weapon becomes absurd."
"Mages are the strongest AoE class in the game. Cone of Cold and Arcane Explosion can both trigger Blade of Eternal Darkness. With enough mobs, it turns a Mage into a mana engine."
"Think about it. What happens if a Mage never runs out of mana and can keep AoEing forever? Warlocks and Shadow Priests have some AoE farming tools, but even with this dagger, they still can't clear big packs the way a Mage can."
In his previous life, Gabryell's Priest had also owned a Blade of Eternal Darkness, which he had farmed as Shadow. Only after getting it did he realize that, for a Priest, the dagger was mostly useful for blowing up the little flowers in the Warpwood Quarter, and that was not a huge deal. Even without Blade of Eternal Darkness, a Priest could clear those flowers easily enough.
"So Blade of Eternal Darkness is a dagger that truly belongs in a Mage's hands. Only a Mage can bring out its full value."
Gabryell sighed. "Give a Mage this dagger, and he can AoE his way across Azeroth."
If he equipped this Blade of Eternal Darkness, he could easily one-pull the Zul'Farrak graveyard. Once Zul'Gurub opened later, he could also use it to one-pull the Zul'Gurub crocodiles.
"Blackstone Ring. All physical classes roll, tanks included."
Gabryell used his authority as guild leader to settle the loot distribution.
Blackstone Ring's Stamina and hit chance were exactly what tanks needed right now. Not letting them roll would be blatant robbery.
Carlos, Hugo, Igor, Warquell, and DeathScum rolled together. No matter what, Retribution Paladin was still a physical class. They were not going to discriminate just because Igor's DPS was low.
"I won!"
Hugo shouted excitedly. His 89 secured Blackstone Ring.
"Healer helm. Luna, ServerHeals, you two roll."
Although Cassandra's Grace was cloth, it was still one of the best pre-raid healing helms available for Restoration Druids. And no one needed to argue about armor type here. If anyone could find a better leather healing helm at this stage, every Restoration Druid would love to hear about it.
Same old story: the players were not the problem. Blizzard's Vanilla itemization forced plenty of classes to swallow their pride and roll on armor outside their own type.
"I'll roll first, then."
ServerHeals had no objection to the arrangement.
As expected of a whale, even his roll was strong.
Lunatori rolled 87.
"Then I won't be polite."
Winning by one point was still winning. ServerHeals took Cassandra's Grace. Since it only required level 42, he equipped it immediately.
"Don't be sad, Luna. When we get back, I'll check the Auction House. If there's one listed, I'll buy it for you."
Even after winning the roll, ServerHeals still tried to cheer her up. The guy really was loaded, casually offering to buy another copy from the Auction House as a gift.
Igor immediately jumped in. "Careful, Hugo. Mr. Moneybags is trying to steal your girl."
Hugo snorted. "Luna's not leaving me over one piece of gear. Besides, I've got money too. I can buy her one myself."
He really was rich. It was just that after spending so much time with Gabryell and the others, everyone had gradually forgotten it. If Hugo actually wanted to buy gold, money was not an issue.
"I'll give you a Dreamweave set. Trade it to Luna after the dungeon."
Gabryell helped him out by trading over the three-piece Dreamweave set. Dreamweave was also very good for Restoration Druids.
"As your brother, this is as much as I can do for you."
Hugo accepted the set, already grinning as he imagined Lunatori's reaction when he gave it to her later.
With the two blue items distributed, only Blade of Eternal Darkness remained.
Gabryell turned to Coldhands. "Coldhands, come on. Let's roll."
Coldhands hesitated. "How am I supposed to roll against you for this?"
"Roll."
Gabryell wanted Blade of Eternal Darkness badly, but he was not going to ninja it. If he lost, then fine. At worst, he would come back and farm Princess every day.
This was the first time Coldhands had seen him this serious, so he stopped refusing and clicked Need.
At the same time, Gabryell clicked Need as well.
Whether he got it or not was up to the roll.