Tichondrius's first Ironforge duel tournament had been set for the night of May 14, the evening before Honor went live.
Today was May 13.
That meant in two days, World of Warcraft would enter the Honor era, and every contested zone on the server would turn into a battlefield.
For the past half month, Gabryell had spent most of his online time in the Zul'Farrak graveyard. He now had more than 7,000 gold to his name, making him the undisputed richest player in the game.
Coldhands, the first Mage he had taught to solo the Zul'Farrak graveyard, learned fast. After thirty-eight wipes, he finally figured out how to farm the graveyard with Cone of Cold kiting.
At first, his efficiency was terrible: one run per hour.
But practice did what practice always did. After a few days, he could manage two runs per hour. A few days after that, he had improved enough to squeeze in three.
"Ogabs, you say the word and I'll jump off any cliff you point at."
Coldhands was genuinely grateful. The Zul'Farrak graveyard farm had already pushed his savings past 3,000 gold, making him one of the richest players in the game after Gabryell.
Fearless Corp's trading platform had launched a few days earlier. After being mentioned on the official forums and a few major fansites, it had quickly become the preferred marketplace for World of Warcraft players. Daily transactions had already reached several hundred orders and were still climbing. In a few more days, breaking a thousand per day would not be surprising.
Everything was moving forward steadily.
Most players had already reached level 45, and the server had officially entered the age of everyone farming Maraudon and Zul'Farrak.
"The Ironforge duel tournament?"
Skybro, who had also reached level 45, heard the news and immediately came to Gabryell, hoping to participate.
"Ogabs, the guild clearly needs its best Warrior on stage. I accept this burden."
Skybro had been fighting Horde players in Stranglethorn Vale every day lately. And as it turned out, NoTrace had finally found his counter. Every time he ran into Skybro, he got a headache.
Skybro's greatest strength was simple: he was not afraid to die.
He was not afraid of corpse runs either. He was either fighting, dead, or running back to fight again. The guy had the survival instincts of a rabid terrier and the confidence of someone who had never looked at a repair bill.
A level 45 Warrior entering a duel tournament was basically signing up for pain. Almost every class had ways to bully him.
Still, since Skybro was so enthusiastic, Gabryell would not refuse. In fact, this was a good chance to turn him into one of the server's first recognizable PvP movie makers.
"My advice? Start recording your fights," Gabryell said. "Turn your usual PvP into videos. Duels, world PvP, little breakdowns, whatever you can put together."
He was gently pushing Skybro toward the path of becoming a server legend.
"Post them on the official forums and the big fansites. If you make them fun to watch, people will pass them around."
"You really think people would watch that?"
For once, Skybro actually sounded unsure.
"Absolutely," Gabryell said. "You already talk like you're a pro. Now make everyone else believe it."
That was all the encouragement he needed.
"Done. I'll grab FRAPS and figure it out. When I'm famous, I'll make sure everyone knows Fearless discovered me."
And just like that, Skybro's career as a self-proclaimed PvP instructor began.
The Ironforge duel tournament was being organized by Dreamshade. Each guild would send five players. Ten guilds had been invited in total, all from the Alliance side of Tichondrius, and all widely recognized as top guilds on the server.
Gabryell himself was definitely participating.
With Skybro taking one slot, the remaining three would go to a Warlock, a Rogue, and a Priest.
Warlocks were nightmares in Vanilla duels. One well-timed Fear could ruin almost anyone's day, and in many duel tournaments, Warlocks were among the most dangerous classes in the bracket.
Rogues were born for PvP. If you did not like PvP, why roll a Rogue? A good Rogue could open on you, lock you down, and kill you before you ever got to play your character.
Then there was Priest.
More specifically, Shadow Priest.
At level 45, a Shadow Priest with the right damage-reduction talents, Power Word: Shield, and Inner Fire could brawl directly with physical classes. Add a full set of Shadow damage gear, and one Shadow Word: Pain was enough to make anyone miserable. At this level, its damage was absurd. One Shadow Word: Pain could match several Warlock DoTs by itself.
For the Warlock slot, Gabryell chose DesertWanderer. He was currently the most active and best-geared Warlock in Fearless.
"Ogabs, you sure you want me?" DesertWanderer sounded surprised, but he was clearly excited to be trusted with such an important slot.
"Why not?" Gabryell said. "Just pretend everyone is David."
David loved challenging him to duels and had never won once.
That did the trick.
"Alright. If they're all David, I'm good."
If his opponents were anything like David, this would be easy. He could summon a Succubus and make their lives miserable.
For the Rogue slot, Gabryell thought it over and gave it to RedAce. The rich Rogue had won yesterday's internal guild Rogue tournament, his gear was absurdly expensive, and he was dual-wielding Gut Rippers.
The Priest slot surprised him the most.
Danielly came to him on her own and asked to participate.
Gabryell had originally planned to send DontPanicHealz, but since Danielly volunteered first, the situation became awkward.
"It's fine," DontPanicHealz said. "I'll duel her for it. Winner gets the slot."
He had meant to make Danielly realize the gap and back down.
Instead, he lost.
Badly.
"As expected," Gabryell thought. "Shadow Priests and Dwarf Shadow Priests are basically two different species."
He knew exactly why DontPanicHealz had lost. In a Human Priest versus Dwarf Priest duel, the Human Priest was at a huge disadvantage as long as the Dwarf Priest was even halfway competent.
The strongest control tool in Priest PvP was Fear. Fear Ward made the Human Priest's Fear useless, while the Human had no answer in return. Once the Dwarf Priest landed Fear, there was more than enough time to push the Human Priest low and secure the win.
"I won't waste the slot," Danielly said.
She was happy to fight beside Gabryell. It had always been what she wanted, and now she finally had the chance.
She had been farming dungeons every day to build up her gear. Once the game officially launched, she wanted to keep up with him, fight beside him, and stop being just someone watching from the sidelines.
After confirming the lineup, Gabryell arranged for the rest of the guild to serve as sparring partners.
No one knew what tomorrow's matchups would look like, so the only thing they could do was duel constantly and get used to every class. The more familiar they were with each matchup, the calmer they would be during the tournament.
Gabryell himself did not need special training.
It would not mean much.
He had more important things to deal with.
"Ogabs, I found the people you asked about."
Isenor, the Night Elf Priest, was Victor in real life: the accountant working for Fearless. After Victor joined the guild, Gabryell had promoted him to officer and planned to let him handle DKP management in the future.
"You found them?"
Gabryell was pleasantly surprised. Finding those people before launch was not easy.
"They agreed to roll on our server and join the guild," Victor said. "They'll be online tonight. You can talk to them yourself."
Gabryell was very satisfied with his efficiency.
He had asked Victor to find two people: one woman and one man.
The woman was Ava Summer.
In Gabryell's mind, she was the perfect voice for an addon warning pack. If they recorded her properly, lines like "Fire wall! Move out!" and "Move, move!" could become burned into every player's memory.
The man was Walnut.
Once World of Warcraft officially launched, Gabryell planned to start work on a WoW-style animated guild comedy. If possible, he wanted to gather the core voice cast early and bring them into the company before anyone else realized their potential.