"Voone," Gabryell said, already casting Frostbolt, "hand over the Gemstone of Smolderthorn, and I'll let you live."
Carlos glanced at him. "You're literally attacking him right now."
Gabryell ignored him and continued the bit in a terrible monster voice.
"Please, mighty mage, spare me! I'll give you the gemstone!"
War Master Voone, unfortunately, did not cooperate.
He died without dropping the Gemstone of Smolderthorn.
Gabryell stared at the corpse in silence.
Igor was the first to speak. "So much for negotiations."
"He had one job," Hugo said.
"And he failed it," Gabryell said. "No gemstone, no mercy. Next run, he dies again."
Carlos laughed. "You were going to kill him either way."
"That's not the point. The point is he wasted our time."
"And threatened you with Nefarian?" Igor added.
Gabryell looked down at Voone's corpse as though it had personally insulted him.
"Sooner or later, I'm hanging Nefarian's head at the gates of Stormwind."
Poor Nefarian.
No one would have guessed that one day, his strongest ability, Shadow Flame, would be hard-countered by cloaks made from his own sister's scales.
"Wait," Hugo said. "Is this set gear?"
Voone had dropped Beaststalker's Gloves.
"That's Hunter T0," Gabryell said.
Hugo's mood immediately recovered. "Then that's mine."
Every class had its own Dungeon Set 1, better known to players as T0. Each set had eight pieces, with bonuses unlocked at two, four, six, and eight pieces.
For Beaststalker Armor, the two-piece bonus added 200 armor. The four-piece bonus added 40 Attack Power. The six-piece bonus gave ranged attacks a chance to restore 200 mana. The eight-piece bonus added 8 to all resistances.
For most T0 sets, the four-piece and six-piece bonuses were the real breakpoints. If a player could not collect at least six pieces, they were often better off mixing stronger dungeon drops instead. Once six pieces came together, though, the set bonuses and decent base stats made T0 a solid stepping stone before raid gear.
It still was not true pre-raid BiS for most classes.
There were exceptions, of course. Rogues, for example, had several dungeon-set pieces that stayed competitive for a surprisingly long time, and the upgraded T0.5 set later became famous for punching above its item level.
But very few players actually wore a full T0 set.
Most people used two or three pieces to patch weak slots and moved on. Completing all eight pieces meant brutal dungeon grinding, and back in the subscription-card era, every extra night spent farming was paid time burned.
"Still no Gemstone of Smolderthorn," Gabryell said.
That was the real disappointment.
Gear was nice, but the gemstone was why they had come here.
"If David's or Susie's team doesn't get one, we're coming back," he said. "Voone can keep being stubborn. I can keep killing him."
After War Master Voone, they headed toward the Firebrand section.
On the way to the spider lair, they ran into a rare elite: Bannok Grimaxe.
As a mob, Bannok was not much stronger than ordinary trash.
The important part was his name.
Grimaxe.
And the huge axe in his hands.
Plans: Arcanite Reaper
Rare
Requires Blacksmithing 300
Requires Master Axesmith
Use: Teaches you how to make an Arcanite Reaper.
Arcanite Reaper
Rare
Binds when equipped
Two-Hand Axe
153 - 256 Damage
Speed 3.80
53.8 damage per second
+13 Stamina
Durability 100 / 100
Requires Level 58
Equip: +62 Attack Power.
Requires: 20 Arcanite Bars, 6 Enchanted Leather, 2 Dense Grinding Stones.
The moment Gabryell saw the plans, his eyes lit up.
"Now that," he said, "is good stuff."
Carlos inspected the recipe. "A blue axe?"
"A Warrior's murder weapon," Gabryell said.
Vanilla WoW might not have been the smoothest version of the game, or even the most mechanically exciting, but old Warriors all remembered one thing.
The Arcanite Reaper era was glorious.
Looking back from later expansions, its stats were not that outrageous. Its biggest selling point was the brutal 3.80 weapon speed. So rather than saying the axe created an era, it was more accurate to say the era made the axe legendary.
Before Molten Core gear became common, most players only had a little over 2,000 health. Cloth classes had almost no armor worth mentioning. Warrior burst revolved around heavy weapon damage, and slow two-handers hit like trucks.
That was the perfect environment for Arcanite Reaper Warriors.
Mortal Strike plus a white swing could delete a clothie before they understood what had happened.
Maybe too many Warriors missed those days, because later on, Blizzard even added Bloodied Arcanite Reaper as an heirloom to commemorate the axe's old reputation.
"Carlos, you take the plans," Gabryell said. "You're the Blacksmith."
Carlos was the only one in the group who had leveled Blacksmithing, so Plans: Arcanite Reaper naturally went to him.
"Go to Winterspring later, learn Master Axesmith, and craft one," Gabryell said. "Alterac Valley should open within half a month at most. Once battlegrounds open, Arcanite Reaper prices are going to jump."
Carlos looked at the materials again and hesitated.
"Is it really worth that much? You said Arcanite Bars come from Arcane Crystals, right? This thing needs twenty of them."
"And it's blue," Igor added helpfully. "Expensive blue gear. Sounds like a scam."
Carlos clearly agreed with that part.
In most players' minds, blue gear was supposed to be below purple gear. Spending a fortune on a blue weapon felt wrong.
"It's worth it," Gabryell said. "Think of it like Pendulum of Doom. Pendulum is ridiculous in the level 39 bracket. Arcanite Reaper is the same kind of thing for early level-60 PvP."
He paused, then gave Carlos the line that mattered.
"One swing, one clothie. That's the dream."
Carlos stopped arguing.
That image was too tempting.
A Protection Warrior main could still have an Arms alt. Take an Arcanite Reaper into battlegrounds, catch a cloth caster out of position, and erase half their health bar with one swing.
That sounded extremely satisfying.
"I'll supply the Arcanite Bars," Gabryell said. "You craft one first so we can test it. Later, when we duel David and Susie, one swing will take off half their health. I guarantee those two will start begging you to craft one for them too."
Playing an Arcanite Reaper Warrior before Molten Core gear flooded the server was pure fun.
Even Gabryell was starting to feel the itch to roll a Warrior alt and run around deleting clothies.
Carlos finally nodded. "Fine. I'll learn it."
That settled it.
Plans: Arcanite Reaper was an unexpected bonus. Even if they got nothing else from this LBRS run, the trip had already paid for itself.
They fought their way out of the Firebrand section and reached the spider lair. After clearing the spiderlings up the ramp, they pulled Mother Smolderweb over and killed her.
With a Druid cleansing poison, Mother Smolderweb was not much of a threat.
"Gilded Gauntlets," Gabryell said after checking the loot. "Caster mail."
He paused, then looked at Igor.
"Congratulations. They're yours."
Igor immediately sensed danger. "Why do I feel like I'm being punished?"
"Because you are," Hugo said.
"It's starter gear for your future Holy set," Gabryell said. "Take it."
"I'm Ret."
"For now."
Igor went quiet.
A trash drop was still a trash drop, but since no one else wanted it, they forced it onto him anyway. If he eventually respecced Holy, at least he would have a few pieces ready.
After passing through the spider lair, they reached the area where Urok Doomhowl could be summoned.
To save time, they had not picked up the quest item needed for the summon, so they skipped Urok for now. They could always come back another time.
"David, Susie, where are your teams?" Gabryell asked.
He had not forgotten about the other two groups.
David answered first. "We're in the Firebrand area."
Susie followed right after. "We're at the spiders."
Susie's team was moving faster than David's and only a little behind Gabryell's group.
"Any gemstones?" Gabryell asked.
That was what mattered.
"We got two," David said. "Gemstone of Spirestone and Gemstone of Smolderthorn. Milo looted both."
"Milo actually has good-guy RNG," Hugo said.
A player who was always helping others really did seem to get rewarded by the game sometimes.
Susie, on the other hand, sounded irritated.
"We got nothing. Desert looted everything, and his luck is cursed. From now on, he is banned from touching corpses."
DesertWanderer protested in the background, but no one cared.
Susie's team had terrible luck and came away empty-handed.
"Then David's team has the best chance of finishing first," Gabryell said.
Right now, David's group was ahead of the other two. It all depended on whether the final boss would drop the Gemstone of Bloodaxe for them.
After checking in with both teams, Gabryell led his group onward toward Halycon's territory.