"Green Wing Macaw."
Lunatori asked, "Is this a pet? Should it go to the Hunter?"
Since Gabryell hadn't taken them to Saldean's Farm to pick up the chicken earlier, they didn't really understand the difference between vanity pets and Hunter pets.
"This isn't a Hunter pet. It's a vanity pet—anyone can use it. Just click it and it'll follow you around."
He wasn't interested in pets from this era. Back then, there was no pet tab—pets took up bag space. For a mage, every slot was basically gold.
"Everyone roll."
Gabryell made the call and rolled first.
Ogabs 36.
The others followed.
Lunatori 87, Egides 24, Grada 65, BentArrow 91.
Hugo burst out laughing. "Haha, nice."
He tried to trade it to Lunatori, but she canceled.
"Lunatori, I've already got a Goretusk. I don't need the Green Wing Macaw—take it."
"Damn, Hugo, what a simp," Igor sneered.
"Just passing it on," Hugo shot back.
"A Hunter pet and a vanity pet don't conflict—you can have both out at once. Since you rolled it, it's yours to give to Lunatori."
It was obvious she really wanted it. After a brief pause, she said, "Thank you!."
"The Green Wing Macaw's drop rate isn't actually that low. The really rare one is the Hyacinth Macaw in Booty Bay—0.02%. There's also another pet in Deadmines. Cookie can drop a Black Tabby Cat."
Lunatori summoned the Green Wing Macaw and couldn't stop looking at it. "Where's Cookie?"
She was clearly a cat lover.
"After Mr. Smite. Next boss."
He was after Cookie's Stirring Rod—a wand with 22.3 DPS and 1.3 speed. Extremely useful for leveling, especially for Priests. Without a good wand, leveling was rough.
Mr. Smite was the flashiest boss in Deadmines, with three phases—like a Saiyan, getting stronger each time.
Gabryell told them to kill the two stealthed Defias Watchmen first. Most first-time groups wiped here. If you attacked Mr. Smite and triggered a phase change, he'd stun the whole group while the Watchmen were still up, free to wipe you.
Once the two Watchmen were down, the fight was trivial. He went down quickly under five players' focus.
This time, Lunatori's luck dipped—no hammer, just a green one-hander, Rogue's Blade.
Since there was no Rogue, the +3 Agility sword went to BentArrow for stats.
"One bad drop just means the next one's lucky."
His main goals in Deadmines were Cookie's wand and Captain Greenskin's Emberstone Staff. If both dropped, the run would be perfect.
"Egides, go left."
Once on the ship, he directed Carlos to the left deck.
In this version of Deadmines, Cookie still patrolled the deck. Only in later updates was he moved upstairs to fight alongside Vanessa VanCleef.
They pushed forward. Luckily, he was halfway through his patrol, so they didn't need to clear everything.
"Damn murloc."
Igor gritted his teeth the moment he saw him.
"All murlocs in Azeroth should just go extinct."
He was speaking for pretty much every player.
"Save your interrupts for Cookie's heal," Gabryell reminded.
Then he summed up the classic WoW approach: "Tank holds, healer heals, DPS go all in."
Interrupt the heals, and the fight is trivial.
"It dropped—blue!"
The moment Cookie went down, Lunatori looted. The loot window popped up—and Cookie's Stirring Rod appeared.
Gabryell was the only one who could use a wand, so he immediately hit Need.
With the wand secured, his attention shifted to Captain Greenskin's Emberstone Staff.
"Only Captain Greenskin and VanCleef left. If nothing goes wrong, we finish in half an hour."
The run had gone smoother than expected. Another thirty minutes, and they could clear Deadmines—possibly the first team in the open beta to do it.
"Good run, guys."
After a full day of play, fatigue was setting in. As leader, Gabryell stepped in to keep morale up.
"I recorded everything. I'll put together a video and upload it to TeamSpeak and the forums. First full clear in open beta—we'll make a name for ourselves."
"Stay sharp. One clean push and we're done."
He wasn't stopping here—he wanted every first clear from now on.
The pep talk worked. The group shook off their fatigue and pushed ahead, fighting their way to the upper deck.
Captain Greenskin patrolled with two adds. As the second-to-last boss, he was actually easier than Mr. Smite.
When they reached the deck, Greenskin happened to be right in front of them.
"I'll pull."
Hugo had grown fond of pulling—there was something satisfying about it.
He fired an arrow. Greenskin and his two adds charged in.
Egides stepped up and grabbed Greenskin—but not the adds. Their aggro stayed on BentArrow.
Hugo immediately panicked, running in circles.
"Stop running!" Gabryell shouted.
One more step and he'd hit the cabin entrance—and pull VanCleef.
This was the most common wipe point in Deadmines. A lot of new players didn't know VanCleef was inside. One bad step, and he'd get pulled.
VanCleef would summon three adds. Combined with Greenskin's two, that made seven mobs at once—enough to wipe any group.
With two mobs on him, Hugo had no choice but to stop and brace.
If only Ogabs had Blink—he could've Frost Nova'd instantly. But at level 18, that wasn't an option.
"Hugo—if you pull VanCleef, I'm docking at least 50 DKP."
Gabryell couldn't help thinking of that infamous raid callout—get knocked into the whelp cave, lose at least 50 DKP.