Efficiency mattered more than anything in Shatterspear Village.
If Gabryell returned to town too often, the time wasted going back and forth would seriously hurt his leveling speed.
So if something was not valuable, it went in the trash.
Aside from worthwhile green and blue gear, he even threw away cloth, all so he could stay in the troll village a little longer.
Not loot the bodies?
No chance.
What if a valuable BoE dropped?
And Gabryell's luck was not bad.
Not this time, at least.
He actually looted two valuable BoEs.
Maiden's Circle (Rare)
Binds when equipped
Finger
+6 Spirit
+7 Intellect
Requires Level 55
Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 18.
A very strong ring. Before getting Ring of Spell Power from Molten Core, it was one of the best spell-damage rings a caster could get. Paired with Songstone of Ironforge from The Princess's Surprise in Blackrock Depths, it could even last until Blackwing Lair or Zul'Gurub opened.
Twig of the World Tree (Rare)
Binds when equipped
Two-Handed Mace
147 - 221 Damage Speed 3.70
(49.7 damage per second)
+14 Strength
+12 Spirit
+21 Stamina
Durability 100 / 100
Requires Level 53
A favorite for Retribution Paladins. Its practical damage output was actually higher than Destiny, the BoE epic two-handed sword of the same level. The only problem was that it was blue-quality, so its price could not compare to Destiny's.
Rich players bought Destiny for the purple name and the flex.
Budget Retribution Paladins got amazing value from Twig of the World Tree.
Unfortunately, no epics dropped.
These hidden trolls were way too poor. If they were going to live in a secret village no one could reach, the least they could do was stockpile a few BoE epics for visitors.
There was no way Gabryell would sell Maiden's Circle. He equipped it without hesitation.
As for Twig of the World Tree, he planned to put it on the Auction House. Better to sell it off than let Igor reach level 60, see the mace, and insist on continuing down the doomed path of Retribution Paladin.
Anyone who wanted to seriously play Retribution should at least wait until The Burning Crusade.
If they wanted the true faceroll era, they had to wait for Wrath of the Lich King.
"Blade of Eternal Darkness really is ridiculous."
Gabryell used Blade of Eternal Darkness to solo farm the trolls. Blizzard cost too much mana, so after using Rank 1 Blizzard to gather mobs, he still had to rely on Cone of Cold kiting to kill them efficiently.
Without Blade of Eternal Darkness, he would have to slowly grind the trolls down with Cone of Cold alone.
With Blade of Eternal Darkness in hand, he could use Arcane Explosion while Cone of Cold was on cooldown, doubling his farming efficiency.
Gabryell spent the entire day in the village, farming wave after wave of Shatterspear trolls.
Level 60!
Around eight in the evening, he finally reached level 60, becoming the first max-level player on Tichondrius.
"Sorry. Already 60."
The first thing Gabryell did after reaching max level was check Dreamshade's level. Dreamshade had been leveling almost twenty-four hours a day, but he was still only level 56.
Dreamshade had already gone numb to Gabryell's absurd leveling speed.
"I'm starting to believe your uncle actually works at Blizzard. No normal player has routes like this."
"Then tell your uncle to apply," Gabryell said with a smile.
The "my uncle works at Blizzard" crowd would eventually become one of WoW's most mysterious and powerful factions.
Dreamshade sighed. "Forget it. My uncle's a farmer. Blizzard isn't hiring him."
At level 60, Gabryell had a lot of things he could do.
He planned to finish the essential max-level quests first, then start leveling an alt. Once Carlos and the others reached level 60, he would run Blackrock Depths and the big three endgame dungeons with them: Scholomance, Stratholme, and Upper Blackrock Spire.
Unlike other games, max level was not the end of World of Warcraft.
It was the real beginning.
For every version of WoW, max level was where the game truly opened up.
Aside from farming max-level dungeons, there were many quest chains worth doing at level 60. Those quests were full of epic atmosphere. Skipping them was almost like never truly experiencing the game.
For example, there were the must-do attunement quests for Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair, as well as the worthwhile BRD princess quest chain, The Princess's Surprise.
There were also classic storylines such as Of Love and Family, Order Must Be Restored, The Battle of Darrowshire, and more.
Gabryell planned to do those quests properly and experience them again. After all, in later WoW Classic, he had skipped many questlines to save time, only doing the attunements, The Princess's Surprise, and Order Must Be Restored.
"Carlos, you guys still haven't finished Sunken Temple?"
Gabryell turned and glanced at Carlos and the others' screens. Carlos's group was currently level 53 and fighting through the Sunken Temple in the Swamp of Sorrows.
"Hold on, you guys wiped?"
Gabryell looked over just in time to see Carlos and the others running back to their corpses.
Carlos gave a bitter smile. "Shade of Eranikus. We can't get him down."
"How many wipes?"
"Three."
Three wipes was already plenty.
Gabryell said, "I'll come help you kill Eranikus. After that, you guys can get back to questing."
Shade of Eranikus was the final boss of Sunken Temple, a level 55 elite. Carlos and the others had gone in as a five-player group, and since they were not familiar with the fight, wiping was normal.
The Sunken Temple, formally the Temple of Atal'Hakkar, had been built by the Atal'ai trolls to summon the Blood God Hakkar back into the world.
Trolls again.
Eat, sleep, kill trolls. That saying was never wrong.
Later, Ysera and the Green Dragonflight sank the temple into the swamp, leaving Eranikus to guard the evil sealed within. Over time, even Eranikus was dragged into corruption, leaving only his shade behind.
On Shade of Eranikus's loot table sat an absurdly rare epic one-handed sword: Dragon's Call.
Its proc could summon a small green dragon whelp to fight for the wielder, making it a great weapon for Rogues and Fury Warriors. Just the possibility of seeing it drop made the run feel worth doing.
"You're coming to help?" Carlos immediately perked up. "Great. Hurry up before we all lose our minds."
"You're already 60?" Igor urged from the side. "Then stop flexing and come help us kill this thing."
With a max-level Mage joining them, the level 55 Shade of Eranikus would be much easier to handle.
"Fine, fine. Give me a few minutes. I'm on my way."
The party needed him, and this was a good excuse to take a shot at Dragon's Call.
He returned to Stormwind, cleared his bags, learned his new skills, then flew to Darkshire.
To reach the Swamp of Sorrows, he had to ride east out of Darkshire, pass through Deadwind Pass, and continue into the swamp.
He was in such a hurry to help with Sunken Temple that he did not even stop to buy his level 60 epic mount.
"This place is right next to Alliance territory, so why the hell does the swamp only have a Horde town?"
As he rode, he complained about Blizzard's awful zone design.
The Swamp of Sorrows only had the Horde outpost Stonard. Alliance players had to rely on Nethergarde Keep down in the Blasted Lands.
The swamp was remote. Horde players found it too far out of the way, and Alliance players had no proper camp in the zone, so they were even less willing to visit.
That was exactly why Sunken Temple became such a neglected dungeon.
Outside of level 50 class quests and the occasional loot run, almost no one bothered with it.
After passing through Deadwind Pass, he rushed straight to the temple without stopping.
"Carlos, send me an invite."
The invite came through, and with him joining, they had six people: Gabryell, Carlos, Igor, Hugo, Lunatori, and DeathScum.
DesertWanderer was not there. Otherwise, he could have waited for a summon instead of running all that way himself.
"Might as well do one run," Gabryell said casually. "Maybe Dragon's Call drops."
Then he swam toward the Sunken Temple and ran for the dungeon entrance.
He was now a level 60 Mage. As long as he kept moving, he should be able to ignore the elite mobs inside and run straight into the instance.