First, OldSeven had been scared straight.
Now David had been scared straight too.
After that disaster of a loot window, David lost his right to loot bosses. He also gave up on Fury tanking, obediently equipped his shield again, and switched back to Defensive Stance.
Since Finkle's Skinner had not dropped, they could not skin The Beast, which meant the Rogue missed the chance to work toward Breastplate of Bloodthirst.
"We'll use the same method as before," Gabryell said. "The three of us Mages sheep the humanoids. The three remaining mobs get picked up by one tank each."
The difficulty of the trash ahead went up again.
Each pack had grown from five mobs to six: three humanoids and three dragonkin.
This was where having three Mages and three tanks showed its value perfectly.
"Careful. Don't fall."
Standing on the bridge leading toward General Drakkisath's room, Gabryell reminded everyone.
"That place down there looks familiar," Hugo said.
He looked at the fat ogres below and felt like he had seen them before, but he could not immediately place where.
Gabryell said, "That's LBRS. If you fall from here, you're probably dead."
LBRS and UBRS were connected.
If someone fell from Upper Blackrock Spire into Lower Blackrock Spire, even if they somehow survived the fall damage, the trash mobs below would still teach them a lesson.
"That's LBRS?"
Everyone was surprised.
This was the first time they had seen two dungeon sections connected like this.
Gabryell smiled. "LBRS and UBRS are just player names. Officially, it's all Blackrock Spire. It's one complete dungeon, so of course the two parts are connected."
Carlos looked down at the structure below and sighed.
"Blizzard's dungeon design really was something else back then."
At this stage, Blizzard was still at its peak.
At the time, the saying that anything made by Blizzard had to be good still carried weight. Much later, that sentence would slowly become a relic of the past.
Carefully avoiding the edges, they cleared the trash mobs on the bridge and arrived near the entrance to General Drakkisath's room.
"Everyone fall back to the room across the bridge," Gabryell said. "We'll pull the front pack over there and kill it first."
Inside Drakkisath's room, there was a patrolling pack. If they killed the pack at the entrance in place, the patrol could walk over mid-fight and turn the pull into a wipe.
Many first-time UBRS groups died here.
Gabryell was not going to make that mistake.
He had everyone fall back first, then sent Hugo to pull.
They waited until the mobs reached the room across the bridge before using Polymorph. If they sheeped the mobs directly inside Drakkisath's room, the patrol could still be pulled into combat.
There were three dragonkin, so the three tanks each picked one up.
Gabryell had everyone kill Carlos's target first, then Susie's. David's target was left for last, giving him more time to build threat.
After that, they broke the sheeped mobs one by one.
As long as no one made a stupid mistake, a fifteen-player raid could handle this safely.
"Sit down and eat. Drink up," Gabryell said. "Hugo, pull the patrol over."
It was better not to fight that patrol inside Drakkisath's room either, because there was another pack in the left corner right after the entrance.
Fighting the patrol there made it far too easy to pull that pack too.
They had already reached the final boss of the dungeon.
This was not the time to get impatient.
Slow and clean was the right way.
After clearing the patrol, they returned to the final boss room and killed the pack in the left corner.
"Damn," Igor said. "This boss is shameless. He brought bodyguards."
From where they stood, they could see General Drakkisath.
One minion stood on each side of him.
Those two minions were stronger than ordinary elite dragonkin. They had to be treated as mini-bosses.
"There's still another pack over there," Hugo said, pointing to the right corner across from the boss. "Are we clearing that too?"
"No," Gabryell said. "As long as we fight Drakkisath here, we won't pull them."
That pack had always been ignored by experienced groups.
There was no reason to waste time on it.
"Three mobs," Carlos said. "I tank the boss, and Susie and David each take an add?"
That was the most straightforward method, but also the hardest.
Without enough gear and healing, it was basically asking to wipe.
General Drakkisath was the strongest boss most players would face before stepping into Molten Core. His abilities hit hard, and with two powerful guards beside him, the healing pressure could easily become unmanageable.
Once healers fell behind, people would die.
Once people started dying, the fight would spiral out of control.
That was why players developed the Hunter kite strategy.
One Hunter would kite General Drakkisath away from the room while the raid killed the two adds first.
The strategy required a Hunter with solid kiting skills. If the raid did not bring a Hunter, or if the Hunter was useless, then the group could only pray and try to brute-force the fight.
Gabryell had deliberately trained Hugo's dungeon kiting earlier for this exact moment.
Now it was time for him to earn his place.
"Hugo," Gabryell said, "I'm giving you the hard job."
Hugo straightened immediately.
"You're kiting the boss away. The farther you take him, the better. We'll use that time to kill the two adds."
Hugo froze.
"Kite the boss?"
He had kited trash mobs before, but kiting a boss was different. The pressure alone was not the same.
"Yes," Gabryell said. "You kite the boss."
Hugo was clearly nervous.
"Can I actually do that?"
"Treat him like a trash mob," Gabryell said. "Your job is to drag him as far away as possible. If your Feign Death works, great. If it gets resisted and you die, that's fine too. As long as you buy us enough time, you've done your job."
General Drakkisath was high level, so Feign Death could easily be resisted.
But it did not matter.
If Hugo could kite Drakkisath far enough and give the raid enough time to kill both adds, his survival was optional.
A Hunter who could do that was useful.
A Hunter who could not kite was just ranged DPS with a pet.
"How about I do it?" Smooch asked, sounding eager.
Hugo immediately said, "I'll do it. I've practiced."
Gabryell nodded.
"From now on, every Hunter in the guild's core raid team needs to learn dungeon kiting. Smooch, OneShotCrit, you two need to practice when you have time too."
Hunters were brought to raids for more than damage.
Tranquilizing Shot, pulling, kiting, utility — that was the class's real value.
Kiting was one of the most basic Hunter skills. A Hunter who could not kite did not even qualify as proper utility.
Smooch and OneShotCrit naturally did not want to be pushed out of the core raid team.
"Don't worry," Smooch said cheerfully. "I'll practice. If he can kite a boss, I can at least learn before he starts acting smug."
"Good."
Gabryell began assigning positions.
"Hugo kites Drakkisath away. Carlos and Susie each pick up one add. David, stand near the doorway. If Hugo fails and the boss comes back early, you pick him up immediately."
That backup plan was necessary.
If General Drakkisath lost his kite target and returned to the room too early, he would start killing people. Any clothie hit twice by him would be dead.
"Hugo, you pull. Target General Drakkisath."
"Carlos, Susie, each of you Taunt one add and hold it here."
"Everyone else, do not attack the boss. Do not heal Hugo."
Attacking the boss or healing Hugo could both interfere with threat and ruin the kite.
A Hunter kiting a boss could only rely on himself.
If his skill was good, he lived.
If his skill was not good enough, he still had to buy as much time as possible and trade his life for the raid.
"I'm going in."
This time, Hugo was the one who said it.
He aimed at General Drakkisath and fired an arrow.
Drakkisath roared and charged straight toward him.
Hugo turned at once and ran toward The Beast's room.
"Taunt!" Gabryell shouted.
If they failed to keep the two guards behind, the kite would mean nothing.
Carlos and Susie each Taunted one dragonkin guard and locked them in place.
"Everyone, use cooldowns. Kill these two adds as fast as possible."
Gabryell had no idea how long Hugo could keep Drakkisath away.
That meant the raid had only one job.
Burn the adds before the boss came back.