Gabryell's method for solo farming Maraudon completely overturned Carlos, Igor, and Hugo's understanding of the game.
For the first time, they realized just how important terrain was in World of Warcraft.
"In WoW, terrain isn't just for breaking line of sight or dodging abilities," Gabryell explained. "It can stop mobs from reaching you directly and force them to path around."
Even a tiny step could count as terrain.
The most classic example was Hydrospawn's pool in Dire Maul East. The small ledge on the right side could not be crossed directly by mobs, so they had to go around before they could attack the player.
"If you know how to use terrain, you can pull off solo farms other people think are impossible."
Many World of Warcraft boss strategies also relied on terrain. It was one of the game's best design elements, and one of the reasons it became such a hard act to follow.
"Well, damn," Carlos said. "Learn something new every day."
He, Igor, and Hugo nodded like students listening to a lecture.
"In WoW, the scary thing isn't messing around and experimenting," Gabryell said. "The scary thing is never experimenting at all. Half the weirdest tricks in this game were found by players screwing around until they discovered something even Blizzard didn't expect."
Countless dungeon solo-farming guides had been discovered that way: players with too much time, too much curiosity, and no fear of wiping.
Carlos and the other two exchanged glances.
"So basically," Hugo said, "go back to the game and keep screwing around?"
"Exactly."
Gabryell suddenly remembered the most important part.
He had not looted the mobs yet.
A single Maraudon purple entrance run gave around 5 gold in raw coin drops. Once junk and gear were included, the total value could reach around 10 gold.
If it was the purple entrance plus waterfall route, the total profit per run could pass 15 gold.
Maraudon trash could also drop BoE epics. The most valuable one was Edgemaster's Handguards. The only question was whether Gabryell would be lucky enough to see one before leaving Maraudon.
"No summons," he muttered. "What a pain."
When solo farming Maraudon, his bags filled up too quickly. The trip from Nijel's Point back to the dungeon was long and wasted a lot of time.
Stop looting?
Impossible.
Silver was still silver. To reduce the number of trips back to empty his bags, Gabryell could only destroy junk worth less than 15 silver.
"Each purple entrance run costs me two Nature Protection Potions, one Shadow Protection Potion, and either one Superior Healing Potion or one Greater Mana Potion. The healing and mana pots can drop from the mobs, so they basically pay for themselves. The real cost is the protection potions."
At level 48, his resistances were not enough. Without Nature Protection Potions, he could not safely tank the demons' attacks. Between looting time and consumable costs, his actual gold profit was cut nearly in half.
Fortunately, this was not really about gold.
The main goal was experience, so he could accept the expense.
And since he could accept it, he kept farming. After solo farming Zul'Farrak hundreds of times, he was not exactly short on money.
Gabryell finished looting, exited through the purple entrance, reset the instance, and went back in.
Time always passed quickly while leveling.
Before 11:00 p.m., he finally reached level 52.
Level 52.
A ridiculous level, high enough to put him above basically everyone on Tichondrius.
The current second-highest-level player on the server was a Mage from Freedom named MrPerfect. By the time Gabryell reached level 52, MrPerfect had only just hit level 49.
The others, including Dreamshade and Carlos, were still part of the leading pack, sitting around level 48.
It was not that they were slacking. There were simply too many players competing for mobs, quests took longer than before, and the Horde kept causing trouble now and then. Being able to reach 48 was already impressive.
"Where did this MrPerfect guy come from? Anyone know?"
Someone in guild chat asked about him. Aside from Gabryell, he was the only level 49 player on the server, so he naturally stood out.
Checking levels was simple. All you had to do was use /who and search for levels like 49, 50, or 51. If the results hit the display cap, it meant more than fifty players had reached that level.
"I heard he's Freedom's second-in-command. Their money guy. Super rich, throws gold around like it's nothing. Right now, his word in Freedom might carry more weight than Merciless's."
"How rich can he be? We've got ServerHeals and RedAce. RedAce is a real high roller. Can this guy actually beat those two?"
"He might. I heard he bought 5,000 gold. He could be the richest player in the game right now."
"Holy crap, 5,000 gold? For real? Don't mess with me. I didn't sign up for math class."
"Not messing with you. People from Freedom keep bragging about it. The guy gives away gold and gear like candy, and he's still buying more. If you're selling, he'll buy."
Coldhands suddenly spoke up.
"So he's buying gold just to give it away?" he asked. "Isn't that just lighting money on fire?"
He sneered inwardly.
Five thousand gold? So what?
Their guild leader had even more than that.
And Ogabs had farmed his gold through skill. Buying it with cash was nothing impressive. Farming ten thousand gold yourself was what actually took skill.
After reaching level 52, Gabryell returned to Ironforge to rest and prepare for another Maraudon run tomorrow.
At level 52, he could run the purple entrance plus waterfall route, which would make leveling even faster. Once he reached 55, he could leave Maraudon and head to the hidden Alliance farming spot.
"Money guy, huh?"
Gabryell saw the guild chat and could not help smiling.
"This MrPerfect is probably Freedom's mysterious backer. If he hit 49 that fast, he either bought the account or hired someone to power-level it."
Back when they were running Maraudon, Freedom had gained a mysterious wealthy supporter. That was the person who spent money buying gear for the guild's core team, allowing them to clear the dungeon.
Money had tremendous power.
Maybe before long, Merciless would be pushed to the side, and MrPerfect would become Freedom's real guild leader.
"Ogabs, I screwed up."
Coldhands suddenly sent him a whisper.
Gabryell was confused.
"Did you leak the ZF graveyard farm?"
If it was not that, there was no reason for Coldhands to come confessing on his own.
"No way," Coldhands replied. "I'd never leak that without your say-so."
"Then what happened?"
"I sold 5,000 gold on Fearless Corp's trading platform. From what everyone's saying, the buyer was probably MrPerfect, Freedom's second-in-command."
Coldhands sent a crying emoji.
"I messed up. I shouldn't have sold gold. I shouldn't have helped the enemy."
Fearless and Freedom did not have a good relationship, which was why he had come to admit it.
Gabryell laughed.
He had thought something serious had happened. In the end, Coldhands had only sold gold through Fearless Corp's platform, and MrPerfect had bought it.
"That's it?" Gabryell said. "Selling gold was the right move. If he has money and we can farm gold, why wouldn't we sell?"
Coldhands was pleasantly surprised.
"So you're not mad that I helped the enemy?"
"That kind of help? Do more of it," Gabryell said. "Let the enemy spend real money buying our gold, then still get crushed by us."
"Haha..."
Coldhands immediately relaxed.
"As long as you're not blaming me, I'm good. This guy has more money than sense. He likes big trades and doesn't care about small ones. I'll keep selling to him. Even if I raise the price a little, he'll probably still buy."
"Do it," Gabryell said. "Sell as much as you can."
Then he added, "Gold is only going to lose value as the game goes on. Holding too much is a waste. Keep enough for emergencies and turn the rest into real money."
He had more than 10,000 gold on him.
Instead of sitting on it and watching it depreciate, he might as well take advantage of a walking wallet and sell it off.
For a Mage who could solo farm, gold was the least valuable thing.
Turning it into real money was far more practical.
Gold would keep depreciating as the game progressed.
Real money would not.