A Mage who can't wand their way through Azeroth isn't a good Mage.
Gabryell finally hit level 22 and maxed out Improved Blizzard. He teleported back to Stormwind to learn new skills. At level 22, Mages gain Scorch from the Fire tree. With its 1.5-second cast time, Scorch pairs well with Fire Blast, making it perfect for finishing off low-health mobs that slip through.
"Why are you only level 22?"
Dreamshade logged in and immediately checked Gabryell's level. Seeing he was only 22 surprised him. "I can hit level 25 within an hour."
It had taken Gabryell half a day to go from 20 to 22, which only boosted Dreamshade's confidence in reaching level 45 first.
Gabryell replied, "No rush. Level 45 is still far off. You'd better keep leveling. I'll catch up soon."
Dreamshade just laughed. He didn't believe Gabryell, who was supposedly grinding nonstop, could overtake him so easily.
After learning his skills, Gabryell didn't rush back to Redridge Mountains. Instead, he headed to the Auction House, calmly buying up every underpriced item worth flipping and listing all his excess gear.
He checked the mailbox outside the bank. At least half of the items he'd posted the night before had sold, including the Recipe: Elixir of Minor Agility he'd listed for 2 gold. Then he went into the nearby inn and handed over all the flipped goods that could turn a profit. His gold shot up to 172.
A hundred-gold player.
Gabryell was probably the only player in the entire game with over 100 gold right now.
No point hoarding money. He returned to the Auction House and searched for Eagle gear.
"People really can't tell treasure from trash."
Gabryell was thrilled. There were too many newbies and not enough experienced players. Plenty of level 15+ Eagle cloth pieces were listed for just over ten silver, barely above vendor price.
He bought a full set of Eagle cloth gear. His health and mana immediately increased by about 20%, giving him much more confidence for AoE grinding.
After gearing up, he left Stormwind and returned to Redridge Mountains.
"We wiped."
David spoke up in the guild chat from inside The Deadmines.
"David's terrible. He can't hold aggro at all. I've pulled aggro several times already," DesertWanderer complained.
David sounded miserable. "Warlocks generate too much threat. I can't even pull it back with taunt."
"That's not true. When I run with Susie, her aggro is very stable," FirstEncounter chimed in, expertly stirring the pot.
SevenDays: "Compared to Susie, David's a trash tank."
David protested, "It's not my fault—my teammates are just too strong."
Gabryell stepped in to smooth things over. "Warlocks generate the highest threat in the game. In dungeons, they need to control their threat. If they go all out, no tank can hold aggro."
"So basically, we're like a sports car stuck behind a speed limiter?" DesertWanderer joked.
"You could say that," Gabryell replied. "Warlocks have high damage, but in raids, they often have to play support roles and make sacrifices for the team."
"Should've never picked Warlock," DesertWanderer grumbled.
"Warlocks are strong in duels. If you're unhappy, go duel David and take it out on him."
David: "Leader, that's not fair. Even tanks have dignity."
DontPanicHealz cut in, "You can die with dignity."
The guild chat quickly filled with increasingly creative ways for David to die. "A Hundred Ways for David to Die" became their go-to entertainment during the grind.
Gabryell was pleased with the lively atmosphere. If things kept going like this, the guild would only grow stronger and eventually feel like a real family.
After arriving in Redridge Mountains, Gabryell left the party, letting Igor, Hugo, and Lunatori continue questing together. He had Hugo keep Carlos's account logged in.
There were several gnoll camps in Redridge Mountains. Gabryell chose the level 21–23 camp on the right side of the map. The Blackrock Gnolls there were melee mobs, making them safe to AoE.
This was his first time AoE grinding in the open beta, so he stayed cautious. At level 22, he was just a small-time Mage, not a level 60 powerhouse. There was no way he could pull an entire camp at once.
"One pack at a time."
The corpse run was long, so he had to be careful. For his first attempt, he only pulled about four or five Blackrock Gnolls.
In this version of the game, Blizzard had no activation delay. He could drop it directly to pull mobs.
At level 22, he only had rank 1 Blizzard, with no bonus spell power. The damage was underwhelming, but the lack of delay meant every tick hit cleanly. Blackrock Gnolls had around 580 HP. At most, three Blizzards were enough to kill them.
"A Blizzard without delay is the real Blizzard. A Mage who can cast it like this is a true Mage god."
Gabryell felt an unmatched sense of satisfaction. This was something you could never experience in later WoW Classic.
As Blizzard fell, damage numbers popped up instantly over the five gnolls. Ice covered their bodies, slowing them to a crawl.
One full Blizzard, step back, cast again. After three casts, all five gnolls were dead. Not a single one escaped.
"This is real leveling."
Watching five lines of XP pop up in the chat, Gabryell felt completely at ease. Clearing three packs gave about the same XP as a quest reward. Each pull took around 30 seconds. Including eating and drinking, it was like finishing a quest every two to three minutes.
No one could match this efficiency.
No wonder so many players in later WoW Classic preferred grinding mobs over questing. As long as there were enough mobs, even killing them one by one wasn't slower than doing quests.
Players were already starting to appear in Redridge Mountains. Gabryell needed to hurry. Before others reached this gnoll camp, he had to grind to level 25 and leave for Duskwood.
Keep grinding. If he didn't wand his way across Azeroth, he couldn't call himself a Mage god.
"Holy—Gabryell, you just killed five mobs at once?"
Igor happened to glance over and saw Gabryell wipe out another pack of five gnolls. His jaw dropped.
His Paladin struggled to kill even one mob. Trying to handle two meant giving up on healing entirely.
"Mages are this strong?"
Thinking about how he had to apply Seals and slowly auto-attack mobs to death, Igor silently cursed the class designers.
"That's insane, bro. Can my Hunter do that too?"
Hugo imagined himself killing five mobs at once, winning Lunatori's admiration.
Carlos kept working on the website nearby. As a Warrior, he wisely chose to stay quiet.
Gabryell shook his head. "Not right now. But once you level up, I can teach you how to kite. You'll be able to solo elite mobs, even boss-level ones."
The peak of Hunter kiting was probably dragging Kazzak all the way to Stormwind, creating one of the most iconic events in WoW history. It got so bad the servers had to be restarted.
In later WoW Classic, Blizzard changed the mechanics so Kazzak couldn't leave the Tainted Scar. If he did, he'd instantly reset.
Other feats, like kiting the Horde Onyxia attunement elite dragon to Ironforge, were nothing compared to that.
A Hunter who can't kite isn't a real Hunter. It's a fundamental skill.
Hugo's eyes lit up, imagining himself standing over a boss corpse while Lunatori looked at him in awe.
"What about Paladins?" Igor asked gloomily.
Gabryell pulled another pack of gnolls and continued AoE grinding. With no one competing for mobs, there were more than he could handle.
"Paladins? Put up a Seal, auto-attack, alt-tab to watch a show, then come back."
One sentence perfectly summed up the misery of leveling a Paladin. By the time a Paladin hit max level, you could've finished ten TV series with over fifty episodes each.