Halycon's Spiked Collar
Rare
Binds when picked up
Neck
+7 Stamina
Requires Level 55
Equip: +48 Attack Power when fighting Beasts.
Aside from the +7 Stamina, the special effect on this neck was mostly useless. Unless someone had Skinning and planned to farm beasts out in the wild, there was no real point wearing it.
Carlos looked at the collar and immediately passed.
"My professional recommendation is that we give this to Igor."
Hugo inspected it, then nodded seriously. "I can throw in an iron chain."
"Walking a dog without a leash is irresponsible," Lunatori added. She loved pets, after all.
Igor stared at them with a dark expression.
"Since none of you want it, I'm disenchanting it."
He turned Halycon's Spiked Collar into Large Brilliant Shards on the spot.
Gabryell smiled but said nothing.
Some jokes were better left inside his own head.
After Halycon went down, a larger worg emerged from the passage: Gizrul the Slavener.
Since he was already there, Gabryell's group killed him too.
Gizrul dropped Wildheart Spaulders, one of the Druid T0 pieces from Wildheart Raiment. Lunatori took them as a solid stat upgrade.
They continued forward.
The next boss had to be killed, because he could drop Hands of Power.
Hands of Power.
What a deceptive name.
This was not Warrior gear. It was a pair of top-tier cloth caster gloves with 6 Intellect, 6 Spirit, and 26 spell damage. They were even better than Mage T1 gloves and counted as a pre-raid BiS-level caster piece from the major level-60 dungeons.
Gabryell let the absurd logic of Vanilla itemization run through his head.
Strength was obviously a Mage stat.
That meant Warriors needed Intellect and Spirit.
A smarter Warrior could come up with better pulls, and a Warrior with enough Spirit probably stopped feeling pain when mobs beat him into the floor.
Beautiful design.
Truly inspired.
Quartermaster Zigris was basically a melee Hunter. He knew how to reposition, back away to shoot, and even throw stun grenades.
This boss tested positioning. His stun grenade had a 30-yard range, and anyone hit by it would be stunned for five seconds. Healers especially had to avoid it, because five seconds without healing could make the tank suffer badly.
"Holy crap," Igor said. "This bastard drinks potions too? What is he, murloc-trained?"
Quartermaster Zigris used Healing Potions, not healing spells, so they could not be interrupted.
Igor hated potion-drinking mobs more than anything.
"No way. This guy is definitely related to murlocs."
Of all the awful habits to learn, why did it have to be the murloc potion habit?
Hugo immediately gave Zigris a ridiculous voice.
"Hahaha! You saw through my disguise! That's right. My sweetheart is a beautiful, adorable, gentle little murloc. Every time we're in bed, she goes mrrglglgl in the sweetest voice you've ever heard. Soft as a pillow, too."
The whole party went silent for half a second.
Carlos finally said, "I hate that you committed to the voice."
Then Zigris used Hooked Net.
It picked a random target, and Igor's luck was terrible. He got netted in place, unable to move for ten seconds while taking damage over time.
"Igor, heal yourself."
The damage was not high. One self-heal would keep pressure off Lunatori.
Igor cursed, "He throws nets too? That's it. He's not murloc-trained. He is a murloc in disguise. Kill him. Kill him right now."
Then he used Divine Shield to break free from the net and charged in with his two-handed sword.
"All murloc collaborators deserve death."
Something in him apparently snapped. Several hits in a row crit, and his damage actually looked respectable for once.
Quartermaster Zigris went down under Igor's righteous anti-murloc crusade.
"In your next life," Igor said, sheathing his sword with great satisfaction, "don't learn filthy murloc tricks."
He was so pleased with himself that he forgot Lunatori was supposed to handle the looting.
His hand moved.
His mouse clicked.
And he looted the corpse.
Cloudrunner Girdle
Rare
Binds when picked up
Waist
Leather
185 Armor
+15 Agility
+14 Strength
Durability 35 / 35
Requires Level 55
Gabryell looked at the drop and nearly choked.
"Igor. Step away from the corpse."
Igor froze.
"Where are my Hands of Power?"
No Hands of Power.
Only Cloudrunner Girdle.
Lunatori did not play Feral, so she had no use for it. The belt was not terrible, but it was not what Gabryell wanted.
"Hugo, you take it," Gabryell said, fighting down the urge to complain for another ten minutes.
Strength and Agility made it usable for a Hunter.
"Cloudrunner, my ass," he muttered. "If you're going to put 'Cloud' in the name, at least be Cloudkeeper Legplates."
Cloudrunner Girdle and Cloudkeeper Legplates were not even in the same universe. One was forgettable leather filler. The other was actual treasure.
Depressed or not, Gabryell knew he would have to come back and farm Hands of Power later. It was a pre-raid BiS-level caster glove. There was no skipping it.
Carlos shook his head. "Igor, your loot luck is cursed. You should learn from me. If you can avoid touching the corpse, don't touch the corpse."
Igor gave the classic guilty-clicker excuse.
"My hand slipped."
After Quartermaster Zigris died, only the final boss remained.
Overlord Wyrmthalak.
For DPS players, physical or caster, LBRS was almost mandatory before their first serious UBRS run, even if someone else already had the UBRS key.
Wyrmthalak dropped General Drakkisath's Command, which started the quest leading to one of the strongest pre-raid trinket rewards in the game: Blackhand's Breadth, the 2% crit trinket.
And that was not the only reason to kill him.
He also dropped Mark of the Dragon Lord, an epic ring most players treated like a toy, while the top tiny fraction of Hunter experts considered it a god-tier tool in the right hands.
They fought their way to Wyrmthalak's room.
He was a black dragonkin drakonid in red scale armor, with a model similar to the red-scaled drakonids players would later see in Blackwing Lair's suppression room.
"Hugo, put a Freezing Trap on the ramp."
Gabryell began assigning positions.
As for Wyrmthalak himself, was he strong?
Strong enough to punish a careless group.
Impossible?
Not even close.
A geared Hemo Rogue in later dungeon and raid gear could even face-tank him with enough skill. Gabryell could solo him right now if he abused the small platform on the left, jumping back and forth until the boss wasted half the fight running around.
As long as Gabryell stayed alive, Wyrmthalak would eventually die.
"Carlos, pull him into the corner. Don't get knocked back."
Wyrmthalak's knockback could drop threat. If Carlos kept him pinned and held aggro, the boss was manageable.
Hugo placed the Freezing Trap.
Carlos charged.
Because of course he did.
What kind of Warrior did not Charge-pull?
A proud Warrior either reached the boss first or died halfway there. No in-between.
The fight started smoothly.
Then Wyrmthalak's health dropped to a little over sixty percent.
"Help! Guards! Intruders! I'm being ganged up on!"
Carlos froze for a second.
"Did this boss just call for help?"
Two elite mobs came rushing in.
Igor was offended. "That is pathetic. He's embarrassing the entire Black Dragonflight."
"I'll sheep one," Gabryell said. "The other will hit the trap. Hugo, when it breaks out, kite it away."
Gabryell Polymorphed the ogre elite.
The other add ran straight into Hugo's Freezing Trap and froze in place.
Once it broke free, Hugo led it away. All the trash along the path had already been cleared, so he had enough space to kite.
With both adds handled, the rest of the group focused on Wyrmthalak. They were missing Hugo's damage, so the fight slowed down, but it stayed stable.
"Hugo, Feign Death."
When Wyrmthalak dropped to around twenty percent health, Gabryell called Hugo back.
Hugo used Feign Death, and the add began running back toward the group.
By then, Wyrmthalak was already at eight percent.
Gabryell cast Frost Nova.
"Carlos, pick them up."
They could have sheeped one add and killed the other from the start. Gabryell had deliberately chosen not to do that.
He wanted Hugo to practice kiting.
Later, in UBRS, Hugo would have a much more important kiting assignment. This was a safe place to drill the basics.
Hugo returned.
Wyrmthalak fell.
They did not loot the boss immediately. First, they swapped targets and killed the two elite adds.
Only after the room was safe did Gabryell speak.
"Igor, step away from the body."
Igor looked wounded. "I said my hand slipped."
"Exactly. Step away."
Gabryell turned to Lunatori.
"Luna, you're up."
If the Gemstone of Bloodaxe was going to drop, Gabryell wanted Luna touching the corpse, not Igor.
The gemstone had a drop rate above forty percent. With Luna's loot luck, their odds had to be better than letting Igor curse another corpse.