After clearing all the shallow graves, Gabryell gained over 40,000 XP. That was the huge benefit of coming here to solo farm at level 42. The XP was so generous it was almost shocking.
Leveling from 42 to 45 required a little over 310,000 XP. At 40,000 XP per run, he only needed eight runs to level up.
After looting every corpse and opening every shallow grave, he had picked up more than five gold in raw coin alone, along with all kinds of worthless gray junk, some common and uncommon gear, silk, and Mageweave Cloth. The total value was over ten gold.
Gabryell didn't plan to skip the boss in the graveyard section, Witch Doctor Zum'rah. His staff, Zum'rah's Vexing Cane, had only 4 less spell damage than Staff of Jordan, making it the best spell-damage staff currently available.
Before Dire Maul opened, players who didn't have Ogre Mage Staff and couldn't afford Staff of Jordan could use Zum'rah's Vexing Cane all the way into Molten Core. It only really got replaced once you obtained something like Sorcerous Dagger, Staff of Dominance, or Azuresong Mageblade. In other words, it was basically pre-raid dungeon-level gear and offered incredible value.
Jumanza Grips had a strong stat spread, making them the best solo-farming gloves available at his current level.
The Witch Doctor's blue item drop rate wasn't 100%. With bad luck, killing him only dropped green gear. Roughly speaking, a blue item dropped once every three kills, and Zum'rah's Vexing Cane appeared about once every five kills.
Witch Doctor Zum'rah was a level 46 elite boss with 10,957 HP. Gabryell's level 42 Mage definitely couldn't fight him head-on. Trying that would be suicide.
Player creativity was endless. Because of Zum'rah's mechanics, he could be killed with special terrain positioning. There were two safe spots: one was the jar behind him, and the other was the reset spot by the right-side wall of the graveyard.
How did you jump onto the jar behind Witch Doctor Zum'rah? Simple. Use the statue on the right-side wall to jump onto the platform on the right, then jump along the invisible wall to the high platform behind Zum'rah and walk onto the jar.
That method was more annoying. Every time Zum'rah summoned a warding totem, it had to be killed immediately. Otherwise, the skeleton adds it spawned could reach the player standing on the jar.
The second method was simpler. There was no need to target the warding totems. As long as he broke line of sight every time Zum'rah started casting, he could dodge the Shadow Bolt. Then, the instant the cast ended, he stepped back out to keep Zum'rah in combat so he wouldn't reset.
Gabryell thought it over and decided to use the second method to kill Zum'rah.
He attacked Zum'rah directly, then ran to the corner on the right, jumped onto the small ledge, and used the statue to break the boss's line of sight.
Every time Zum'rah cast, he had to hide. Otherwise, he simply couldn't withstand the boss's attacks. The moment the cast ended, he had to come out immediately. If he was even one second late, Zum'rah would reset and recover to full HP.
This required practice. An inexperienced player might try for an hour and still fail to kill Zum'rah, constantly making him reset to full HP until their morale collapsed.
Gabryell's proficiency needed no explanation. He had this down to muscle memory. Ducking in and out, he played Zum'rah like a fool, forcing him to choke on every single spell. Even by the time he died, he hadn't successfully cast a single Shadow Bolt.
The frustrated Witch Doctor left behind only a warding totem and two skeleton adds. Gabryell didn't rush down. He waited until the skeletons and the totem disappeared before going over to loot the corpse.
Incidentally, after the shallow graves had been opened, Zum'rah wouldn't summon zombies from them. If the graves hadn't been opened, he would summon a whole pack of them. Even if he died, his corpse would be surrounded by zombies, making it hard to loot him safely.
"Gloves, gloves. I want the gloves."
Gabryell currently needed Jumanza Grips more than Zum'rah's Vexing Cane. For AoE leveling, raw stats were king. Being able to cast one more spell was stronger than gaining 21 spell damage.
Zum'rah's Vexing Cane (Rare)
Item Level 47
Binds when picked up
Unique
Two-Hand Staff
88–133 Damage, Speed 2.70
(40.9 damage per second)
+10 Intellect
+10 Stamina
Durability 100 / 100
Requires Level 42
Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 21.
Jumanza Grips didn't drop. Instead, it was Zum'rah's Vexing Cane.
"Oh well. Getting it on the first kill is better than never getting it."
Gabryell "reluctantly" equipped Zum'rah's Vexing Cane. The blue gear dropped by Witch Doctor Zum'rah had one extremely annoying restriction: every piece was Unique. Since he wasn't an Enchanter, if another Zum'rah's Vexing Cane dropped later, he could only watch helplessly as a staff worth more than two gold to a vendor rotted on the corpse.
After finishing one graveyard run, resetting the instance became the big problem. Since he hadn't prepared an alt to reset it, he could only mount up and run out of the instance himself.
Gabryell wasn't a newbie. He wasn't going to foolishly run back out the way he came. He ran near the path to the first boss, Antu'sul, climbed up the terrain onto the wall, avoided the mobs below, and ran along the wall until he was near the entrance. Then he dropped down and safely left the instance with both shields up.
Reset, enter, sit down to eat and drink.
All in one smooth sequence.
His second Zul'Farrak graveyard run began.
"Wait. I think I forgot something."
Gabryell thought for a moment, then slapped his forehead.
"Damn it. I actually forgot to farm a scarab pull."
Even veterans make mistakes. One small oversight had cost Gabryell several thousand XP.
"Holy crap, Gabryell, are you speedrunning or what? How did you hit 44 in one hour?"
An hour later, Igor happened to check his friends list and froze when he saw Gabryell's level.
He immediately looked over at Gabryell's screen. When he saw Gabryell kiting Zul'Farrak Zombies and Zul'Farrak Dead Heroes with Cone of Cold, his jaw practically hit the floor.
"Over 800 XP? Damn, killing one of those mobs is worth five of our mobs in Scarlet Monastery."
Igor was full of envy.
"Why can't Paladins AoE a whole pack of mobs at once?"
After finishing off a wave of mobs, Gabryell sat down to eat and drink, then laughed. "After level 50, Paladins can go to Western Plaguelands to kill zombies. With a shield, you can also tank three or four zombies at once."
The only things Paladins could really AoE were the zombies in Western Plaguelands. With Protection, they could tank three or four at a time. As for efficiency, by the time a Mage finished two pulls, the Paladin would probably have just finished killing their pack.
"With XP this high, won't you hit level 45 soon?" Igor asked.
Gabryell said, "If I don't wipe, I can hit level 45 within an hour."
Igor looked at his own level 38 Paladin and felt even more depressed. "What are you planning to do after you hit max level?"
Gabryell said, "I'll catch up on some must-do quests. Once you guys hit level 39, we'll run Cathedral together. Oh, right, I also need to take you through Uldaman once. The Artisan Enchanting trainer is inside Uldaman, so you have to run Uldaman before you can raise Enchanting to Artisan."
Uldaman was a required dungeon for every Enchanter. Who knew what Blizzard had been thinking during design, placing the Artisan Enchanting trainer inside a dungeon and forcing Enchanters to make a trip to Uldaman?
"There's still a month before launch. We have plenty of time to farm level 45 dungeons. Once we've gotten enough gear, we can go cause trouble for the Horde together."
Since this world's World of Warcraft could have a global synchronized open beta, and the official launch date had been moved up by a week, the PvP Honor System would probably be moved up as well.
Gabryell estimated that Blizzard would open Honor around mid-May. By then, players tired of farming dungeons could gather together and go looking for trouble with the opposing faction, gaining Honor from killing them.
Once Honor opened but battlegrounds weren't available yet, Azeroth would descend into chaos. Every contested territory would be set ablaze with war. The entrances to Zul'Farrak and Maraudon in particular might end up looking like Blackrock Mountain battles. Players from the weaker faction who wanted to enter the dungeon would probably have to corpse-run their way in.
"Purple! Holy crap, purple gear!"
Igor suddenly shouted in excitement.
Gabryell had been chatting while looting corpses and hadn't paid attention to what dropped. Hearing Igor shout, he turned his attention to the chat window in the lower-left corner and checked the system message.
He really had looted a purple BoE, and it was a weapon.
Gut Ripper (Epic)
Item Level 45
Binds when equipped
One-Hand Dagger
42–80 Damage, Speed 1.80
(33.9 damage per second)
Durability 75 / 75
Requires Level 40
Chance on hit: Deals 95 to 122 damage to the target.
"Awesome."
On his very first day grave farming in Zul'Farrak, Gabryell had actually dug up a purple BoE dagger. With so many Rogues in the game right now, listing Gut Ripper on the Auction House would definitely fetch over a hundred gold.
There was no doubt about it. Gut Ripper was absolutely the highest-DPS dagger at the level 45 cap, and it even had a special effect. Paired with Satyr's Lash from Maraudon, its damage at level 45 would be explosive.
After looting Gut Ripper, Gabryell could proudly pound his chest and say his account wasn't cursed. It was lucky as hell.
There was no need to get tangled up in pointless theorycrafting like whether daggers were suitable for Rogue leveling, or whether sword Rogues leveled faster with Sinister Strike. During open beta, there was basically no such distinction as dagger Rogue or sword Rogue. People used whatever weapon they had, and plenty of Rogues mixed swords and daggers.
Backstab, Sinister Strike, whatever. Right now, no matter what weapon Rogues used while leveling, they all just spammed Sinister Strike anyway. If someone really wanted a sword in their main hand, they could put Gut Ripper in the off-hand, and the damage it provided would still be high.
Most importantly, Gut Ripper wasn't Unique. If you had money, you could equip two of them. Anyone who saw that would have to say one thing:
"Damn. Whale."
With its purple quality, Gut Ripper would definitely sell for a good price during the open beta period, especially because many Rogues believed daggers were the true signature weapons of the class, while using swords looked awkward and improper.
Gabryell looted the purple dagger, and Carlos and Hugo came over to watch. The Underworld Band from last time didn't count, since everyone had gotten that together. Gut Ripper had been looted by Gabryell personally, making it the first purple item in Dorm Room 301.
"What are you planning to do with it?" Carlos asked.
Gabryell said, "You guys definitely told the people in your party, didn't you?"
Hugo scratched his head and said awkwardly, "I got too excited and blurted it out."
Gabryell looked at guild chat, where people had already started asking if the guild leader had found a level 40 purple weapon. He smiled.
"What else can I do? I'll sell it inside the guild first. If no one in the guild can afford it, then I'll list it on the Auction House."
Prioritizing the guild's Rogues was the right move. When they went to Maraudon, bringing a high-damage Rogue would greatly improve efficiency.
Gabryell linked Gut Ripper in guild chat. The moment he posted it, guild chat exploded.