Deep Breath hit before most of them even understood what was happening.
Once the wall of fire swept over them, there was no time to react.
They were already dead.
"What the hell was that?"
"Does anyone know what just killed us?"
"How should I know? I died too."
Everyone stood at the Graveyard, completely confused.
None of them had any idea what had just happened. In the blink of an eye, almost the entire raid had dropped dead.
"It looked like the whole floor turned into a wall of fire," OldMan said. "The damage was insane. I didn't even have time to hit Divine Shield before I died."
"Yeah, it was a wall of fire," ServerHeals agreed. "I got Power Word: Shield up, but it broke immediately and I dropped right after."
"That damage is ridiculous," David complained. "I'm a main tank and I got deleted in one second. What the hell are you supposed to do against that?"
"Who can even survive something like that? Maybe a Mage with Ice Block or a Paladin with Divine Shield."
"If you're a Mage and you're too slow to hit Ice Block, that's on you."
"Same for Paladins. Divine Shield doesn't help if you're dead before you press it."
They had plenty of Mages and Paladins in the raid.
Yet among everyone caught in Deep Breath, only Coldhands had reacted quickly enough to Ice Block and survive.
Everyone else had died.
"Wait... you didn't die, did you?"
Someone had finally noticed.
"And I think a few other people survived too."
"Seriously? What, did Onyxia look at the rest of us and decide we were too ugly to live?"
Four people had avoided Deep Breath this time: Gabryell, Smooch, Lunatori, and a Warlock named Shadowlord.
Gabryell had moved early and hugged the wall off to the side.
The other three had simply been outrageously lucky, happening to stand just outside the breath's path.
"I didn't take any damage," Shadowlord said. "I watched all of you burn, but there wasn't any fire where I was standing."
"No fire?"
"Where were you?"
"By the right entrance to the whelp pit. I stood there the whole time and didn't get hit."
"Yeah, I was near there too," Smooch said. "I was hugging the wall and shooting from that side."
Lunatori added, "I was standing with Smooch."
The rest of the raid immediately latched onto the idea.
"So that spot's safe?"
"What if we all stack there next pull?"
"Maybe," Shadowlord said. "From where I was standing, the fire seemed to cut through the middle of the room, a little toward the left."
He thought about it.
"Next pull, we could all stack on the right and hug the edge. I don't think the breath reaches that side."
Gabryell listened with a smile.
If the entire raid stacked there next pull, Deep Breath would probably kill every last one of them.
He still wanted them to solve the mechanic themselves, so he kept quiet.
The real answer was that Deep Breath followed Onyxia's facing and cut a path across the room. The safe areas were off to the sides of that path.
"We have to test it."
"Yeah. Hurry up and run back. Let's pull again."
"Now that we know where to stand, there's no way I'm dying to that again."
Everyone immediately started running back to their corpses.
Gabryell checked the time.
It was already eleven.
"That's it for tonight. Once you resurrect, you're free to do whatever you want."
The people in the middle of the corpse run practically stopped in their tracks.
"Wait, why are we stopping?"
"Yeah, we've only pulled her three times. We finally figured something out. One more pull."
"Exactly. We know the strategy now. We can definitely kill her next time."
"I'm still waiting to kill the dragon and get some gear!"
The real temptation was obvious.
Onyxia dropped good loot.
If they stopped now, some of them were worried they might not get a spot the next time Fearless came back.
Gabryell knew exactly what was going through their heads.
"It's already eleven. Some of you have class tomorrow. The rest of you have work. I'm not keeping the whole guild up all night for one more pull."
"From now on, guild raids start forming at 6 PM. We pull as soon as everyone's ready, and we're done at 11."
For progression, six in the evening would be the standard start time.
Once the content was on farm, they could push that back to seven.
The eleven o'clock cutoff would stay.
Maybe they would extend by half an hour on the occasional important night, but that would be the exception.
"Real life comes first. That's not negotiable."
Gabryell had learned that lesson the hard way in his previous life.
He had no intention of turning raid progression into an excuse for people to neglect school or work.
"That's it for tonight. If you want a progression spot next Tuesday, use the next few days to shore up your gear."
He wouldn't organize another official progression raid this week.
Next Tuesday, Fearless's core raid would begin Molten Core progression for real, with DKP officially in effect.
"When I build the Molten Core roster next Tuesday, better-geared players get priority."
It wasn't elitism.
First-kill progression demanded a minimum level of gear and commitment.
If someone had barely touched the major level-60 dungeons, they either didn't have enough time for a progression schedule or hadn't put in enough effort yet.
Either way, they weren't ready for the core roster.
Bad RNG was different.
Sometimes an upgrade simply refused to drop no matter how many times someone farmed it.
Missing one stubborn dungeon drop wouldn't count against anyone.
"How many spots are we talking about for the core roster?" someone asked.
"Forty core members and twenty reserves."
"So if you're reserve, you don't get to enter the raid?"
"Think of reserves like backup players on a sports team. You stay ready, and when we need you, you step straight in."
Twenty reserves wasn't excessive for progression.
Especially in 2005, when attendance was wildly inconsistent.
Someone could show up for progression today and quit the game two days later.
"If you don't want to sit reserve, earn yourself a core spot."
"And if you make core, don't get comfortable. Stop performing and someone else takes your spot."
Gabryell continued.
"We won't run another official progression raid before Tuesday, but you're free to organize your own."
"When I build the core roster, if two players are similarly geared, experience breaks the tie."
He had no intention of stopping guild members from organizing their own Molten Core or Onyxia's Lair attempts.
It didn't matter how far they got.
The initiative alone was worth something.
The more Fearless members who tried Molten Core over the next few days, the better.
When official progression started next week, at least some of them would already have experience.
Even if that experience consisted entirely of wiping and running back to their corpses.
"Anyone want to mess around in Molten Core later?"
The moment Gabryell finished speaking, someone started putting a run together.
It was ServerHeals.
"I'm in."
"Same."
"Count me in."
"Me too."
Responses poured in immediately.
ServerHeals did a quick count.
They had about twenty people.
"I'll grab another twenty from the guild and we'll take a shot at MC."
Gabryell smiled as he watched everyone pile in.
At this rate, they were going to spend the entire night wiping in Molten Core.
And nobody wanted to be the first one to tap out.
"Gabryell, you're really not coming with us?" Carlos asked.
He was already getting restless.
Gabryell kept running back toward his corpse. His plan was simple: resurrect, Hearthstone out, and log off.
"Go if you want."
As Fearless's main tank, Carlos getting some extra Molten Core experience certainly wouldn't hurt.
Even a night spent learning the entrance trash would be useful.
Carlos immediately perked up.
"All right. I'll sneak out and hit the internet café later."
He didn't have class tomorrow.
He could do whatever he wanted.
"Carlos, you bastard. You're really ditching us to go have fun by yourself?"
Igor and Hugo weren't so lucky.
They both had morning classes, so pulling an all-nighter wasn't an option.
All they could do was envy him.
Gabryell smiled.
Fun?
More like wiping until he completely lost it.
Dreamshade had just sent him another private message, ranting nonstop about how brutal Molten Core was.
He already sounded one wipe away from snapping.
And if Dreamshade was in that state, it wasn't hard to imagine everyone else.
Who knew how many players were going to lose their minds tonight, running back to their corpses through the Searing Gorge?