Level 42 was the bare minimum for a Mage to solo farm the Zul'Farrak graveyard. Anyone below that shouldn't even try. Forget the chance of mobs resisting Cone of Cold or Blizzard—even the trash mobs on the way in could easily knock you off your mount.
ZF grave farming was something 90% of Mages knew how to do in later WoW Classic, and it could be roughly divided into tiers.
Beginner ZF grave farmers could only do it at max level and had to AoE the mobs down in two or three pulls.
Intermediate ZF grave farmers could do it at max level or level 46 and above. At max level, they could move from two or three pulls to a single pull. At level 46, they still had to split it into two pulls.
Advanced ZF grave farmers could start at level 44 and already pull off jaw-dropping high-skill plays. At level 44, they could attempt the Cone of Cold one-pull method—a risky, high-adrenaline style that could draw a huge following if turned into a video.
Master-level ZF grave farmers could start as early as level 42. Whether using Cone of Cold or the ledge-jump Blizzard method, they could finish the farm in under fifteen minutes. If they had time left, they could even grab an extra scarab pull, reaching up to 50,000 XP per run.
Even stronger than ZF grave farmers, of course, were the Mage gods who could solo Maraudon's purple side at level 48 and solo Maraudon double-pull routes at level 52. Starting from level 48, those Mage gods could make a fortune every day, leveling and farming gold at the same time.
Back in WoW Classic, Gabryell had tried solo farming Maraudon's purple side at level 52. One run gave over 50,000 XP and required Nature Protection Potions and Shadow Protection Potions, but it was faster than paying for Stratholme boosts and made money on top of that.
In fact, solo farming the Zul'Farrak graveyard at level 42 also gave close to 50,000 XP per run. Two and a half runs were enough for one level. The efficiency was astonishing. From level 42 to 45, assuming no wipes, it only took two hours.
But if there was no chance of wiping, it wouldn't be a challenge. One bad RNG streak, a few resists, and the whole pull could go sideways. Gabryell didn't expect to hit level 45 in two hours. He set his goal at three hours, giving himself room for two wipes.
He dodged elite mobs along the way and arrived at the entrance to Zul'Farrak. There was no one there. Players would only slowly start gathering here once the average level reached 45. Like Maraudon, Zul'Farrak was an endgame dungeon during the level-45-capped open beta period.
After entering the instance, Gabryell refreshed his buffs, ate and drank to full, then put up Ice Barrier and Mana Shield. With both shields active, he finally felt confident enough to charge in.
He mounted up, hugged the edge to avoid pulling extra mobs, and waited for the right moment to rush through.
Charging to the Zul'Farrak graveyard at level 42 required a complete lack of fear toward death. As long as he wasn't knocked off his mount, he absolutely could not stop. He had to rush all the way to a reset spot before resting.
There were several reset spots along the path to the graveyard. Under normal circumstances, he only needed to drop combat twice on the way. If he got knocked off his mount near the scarabs, he could reset again at the rock to the right of them. The key was that he absolutely could not use Frost Nova and trigger the scarabs, or he would die miserably.
Gabryell ran through the first corridor and went straight to the first reset spot: the rock behind the two mobs on the left after the corridor.
He slipped in, hid between the two rocks, and broke the mobs' line of sight, leaving them standing there like idiots, completely unable to figure out what to do.
You could say World of Warcraft mobs had decent AI, but sometimes they were absurdly stupid. Any random rock could block their line of sight and make them freeze in place. Of course, the biggest failure of WoW mobs was that they couldn't jump. Any random platform could mess them up completely. Plenty of bosses had died to tiny ledges and been solo farmed in all kinds of ways.
After successfully dropping combat, Gabryell recovered a little health, then put both shields back up, mounted, and continued the charge.
Past the gate ahead, he used the two rocks on the left to drop combat again.
"Holy shit."
Accidents always happened when you least expected them. A Sandfury Blood Drinker knocked Gabryell's level 42 Mage off his mount, making him panic-Frost Nova and Blink away. By sheer luck, he made it behind the rocks and hid.
It was dangerous. The moment he was knocked off his mount, both shields shattered almost instantly. Luckily, he hadn't been slowed, and the reset spot was only one Blink away. Otherwise, he would have been releasing and corpse-running right now.
With only a third of his health left, Gabryell wiped away a cold sweat. As soon as he dropped combat, he immediately sat down to eat and drink, restoring himself to full.
Once he was back to full, he put up both shields again, mounted up, and ran toward the graveyard.
This time, he didn't plan to reset midway. He was going to push straight to the graveyard in one go. This was the longest stretch in the Zul'Farrak graveyard solo route, and there was no room for carelessness. Even the smallest mistake could get him killed.
He ran wildly, head down and focused. Thanks to his hundreds of Zul'Farrak graveyard runs, Gabryell didn't slip up and get knocked off his mount again. If he had been dismounted this time, the run would have been over.
He safely reached the scarab area. His luck was good. He managed to avoid Zerillis, passed through the scarab area, and reached the graveyard safely.
Once he reached the graveyard, the first thing he did was drop combat. After all, a huge pack of mobs was chasing behind him. There were many reset spots in the graveyard, and Gabryell chose to ride all the way to the large jar on the left side of the graveyard exit, hugging the wall to break line of sight and drop combat.
"Finally made it in."
Gabryell let out a breath of relief. This was his first Zul'Farrak graveyard run since his rebirth. If he had wiped halfway, it would have been a disgrace to all reincarnators.
For a level 42 Mage solo farming the Zul'Farrak graveyard, reaching the graveyard safely meant the run was already half successful. At level 42, the chance of being knocked off the mount was simply too high. Wiping on the way in was normal.
Gabryell didn't rush to activate Witch Doctor Zum'rah. First, he killed the elite patrols at both graveyard entrances one by one, so they wouldn't suddenly appear while he was AoEing later and ruin his rhythm.
His luck was good. The patrols were Sandfury Soul Eaters, those pushover mobs, not Sandfury Witch Doctors. Otherwise, a level 42 Mage really might not have been able to solo them.
Over 900 XP!
That was the XP from a single Sandfury Soul Eater, even more than the mobs spawned from the graves.
Over 900 XP from one mob was equal to three or four same-level outdoor mobs.
Solo dungeon XP really did feel amazing.
Of course, Gabryell hadn't come to the Zul'Farrak graveyard to kill mobs one by one. That would be less efficient than AoE farming outdoors. After clearing the two patrols, he mounted up and rode to Witch Doctor Zum'rah's doorway, then activated him.
Once Witch Doctor Zum'rah was activated, the shallow graves on the ground could be opened. The Zul'Farrak Zombies and Zul'Farrak Dead Heroes that came out wouldn't directly attack the player who opened the graves. They would first run toward the spot where Witch Doctor Zum'rah stood, then turn back and attack the player who had opened them.
That back-and-forth time might not look like much, but it gave solo players a lot to work with. It was the key to gathering the mobs.
"Cone of Cold or Blizzard?"
There were now two paths in front of Gabryell. The traditional method was using Rank 1 Cone of Cold to kite the mobs. The other was the method discovered later in WoW Classic: jumping onto the left-side ledge, using the terrain to kite the mobs back and forth, and slowly wearing them down with Rank 1 Blizzard.
Both methods used Rank 1 spells and relied on slowly grinding the mobs down, which was the only way to preserve enough mana to kill Zul'Farrak Zombies with more than 5,000 HP.
"Cone of Cold can get resisted easily. At my current level, I can't pull off a full one-pull clear. To be safe, splitting it into three pulls is best."
"Ledge-jumping is basically exploit territory. Blizzard can be strict about that stuff, and I don't want them coming back later, refusing to count me as the server-first level 45, or straight-up banning my account."
That was Blizzard's style. Ordinary players could exploit bugs all they wanted, but the first player to reach the level cap was absolutely not allowed to use them. Guilds going for first clears or speedrun records were also forbidden from using them.
As long as you weren't first, Blizzard wouldn't care no matter how you exploited a bug. But if you were first and used a bug to take the first level cap or a raid first clear, congratulations. Blizzard would most likely strip you of the honor and ban your account while they were at it.
The nail that stuck out got hammered down. Blizzard was especially good at that. If Gabryell really ledge-jumped and AoEed with Blizzard, there was a real chance his account would be banned.
To be safe, Gabryell gave up on the easier ledge-jump Blizzard method and chose to kite the mobs with Cone of Cold. Since he didn't want to wipe, he wouldn't play the one-pull style and would split it into two or three pulls instead.
Cone of Cold kiting was a required lesson for every Mage. Only a Mage who knew how to kite with Cone of Cold was a qualified Mage.
Gabryell was absolutely an old hand at Cone of Cold kiting. Forget the Zul'Farrak graveyard—even if all eight waves of crocodiles in Zul'Gurub were grouped together, he could kite them to death with Cone of Cold.
After deciding on his method, Gabryell opened the graves on the left first. Using the hand speed he had trained from twenty years of being single, he rapidly clicked the graves while moving forward, avoiding the wasted time from crouching down.
Many zombies and several dead heroes emerged from the graves. They all ignored Gabryell at first and ran toward Witch Doctor Zum'rah.
Once every grave on the left had been opened, Gabryell put up both shields and used Ice Block at the right position to gather the mobs.
When the mobs gathered together, the timing for leaving Ice Block was extremely important. It was best to come out during the gap between their attacks so he wouldn't instantly die the moment Ice Block ended.
Gabryell could catch that attack gap with his eyes closed.
He had already made a macro to cancel Ice Block and cast Frost Nova. The instant Ice Block was canceled, the mobs were frozen in place while the Mage moved forward and left their attack range.
Perfect.
No resists.
Gabryell didn't rush to use Cone of Cold. Instead, he waited until the freeze had only two seconds left, then used Rank 1 Cone of Cold from the best angle and slowed every mob.
What came next was the kiting show. He gathered the mobs together as quickly as possible, preferably stacking them on top of each other. He avoided using Frost Nova whenever possible to prevent a resist from breaking up the formation.
Frost Nova had to be saved for when mobs resisted Cone of Cold. That way, he wouldn't panic and wipe.
Flashy move.
Jump-turn Cone of Cold.
Gabryell controlled his Mage while kiting a pack of overlapping elite mobs. The moment Cone of Cold came off cooldown, he immediately hit the spacebar, jumped, snapped his mouse backward, and used jump-turn Cone of Cold to slow them again. By the time Cone of Cold went off, his character had already turned back around and continued moving forward.
Inexperienced Mages shouldn't try this. It was very easy to miss Cone of Cold completely.
After kiting them for a minute or two, the lower-health Zul'Farrak Dead Heroes died, each giving 800 to 860 XP depending on their level.
After a few more minutes, all the Zul'Farrak Zombies died as well. Their XP was the same as the dead heroes, all over 800.
"Awesome!"
Gaining over 10,000 XP in just a few minutes, Gabryell watched his XP bar rise nonstop and felt great. At this rate, as long as he didn't wipe, he really should be able to reach level 45 in two hours.
His first Cone of Cold grave-farming pull went very smoothly. There were only one or two occasional resists, and he handled them all with emergency Frost Novas.
Mana was still the only thing limiting his solo farming efficiency. After CoC'ing down this pack, he used a Mana Jade. Since Evocation was still available, he didn't have to wait for Mana Jade's cooldown and could keep farming.
Gabryell didn't forget to loot the corpses and open the shallow graves that didn't spawn mobs. Grave farming in Zul'Farrak wasn't just about XP. It also made gold.
One run guaranteed at least ten gold. Four runs an hour meant forty gold.
Even after reaching level 45, Gabryell would keep grave farming in Zul'Farrak whenever he had time, until he had enough gold to buy the ten basic mounts needed as rewards for the guild's first ten members to reach level 40.