"Holy shit!"
"No way!"
"It actually dropped!"
The party exploded all at once.
"A purple sword. That thing's a melee DPS dream."
"Let's roll."
Gabryell immediately shut that down. "Roll for what? Igor, what the hell are you going to do with a one-hander as Ret? Hit 60 and heal like a normal Paladin."
Igor was not convinced. "That's Ret discrimination."
Gabryell directly traded him Twig of the World Tree, shutting him up on the spot.
"Use this. It's better for you than Dragon's Call."
For a Retribution Paladin, a two-handed weapon was the proper path. A one-hander and shield belonged to Protection. If someone really had money to burn later, they could go into a GDKP run and buy Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker just to show off. Standing around in town with Thunderfury looked amazing.
"Another great day to be a Rogue," Carlos said.
He had no use for Dragon's Call. As the main tank, taking it would be pointless. If he grabbed it anyway, that would be straight-up ninja looting.
DeathScum was so excited he almost cried.
"Thank you, everyone. Luna, you're blessed by RNG. If you ever need a Rogue, I'm your guy."
"Get lost."
Hugo was even more direct. "Take the sword and shut up."
DeathScum happily accepted Dragon's Call. Since he happened to be level 52, he equipped it immediately.
"From now on, I'm a Sword Rogue. Human Sword Rogue is the real deal."
Of course, if someone handed him Felstriker right now, he would switch back to dagger Rogue in a heartbeat.
What kind of Rogue someone played depended entirely on which good weapon they got first. Once they had all the good weapons, they could choose between swords, daggers, fist weapons, or maces based on preference.
Sticking to one path the whole way was fine too. It just meant the right gear would take longer to collect, and the build would come online more slowly.
"Sword Rogue isn't bad," Gabryell said. "The gear is straightforward, it comes online fast, and you can respec Hemo later for solo farming."
Dagger Rogues dealt higher damage than Sword Rogues in dungeons, but the tradeoff was that they lost a lot of solo-farming convenience. Human Sword Rogues had a 5-point sword skill bonus, which made gearing much simpler, and they did not need to sit behind the target for Backstab. After respeccing into Hemo, they could fight five-man dungeon bosses head-on and solo farm.
DeathScum stared at Dragon's Call in his main hand.
"Style is everything. If it looks cool, it's correct."
Gabryell smiled. "Once someone lists Krol Blade, buy one from the AH. Krol main hand, Dragon's Call off-hand. Before raids, you'll be one of the strongest Sword Rogues on the server."
Unfortunately, Gabryell had not managed to farm a Krol Blade. Otherwise, DeathScum would already be the highest-DPS Sword Rogue on Tichondrius.
"What's Krol Blade?" DeathScum asked.
Gabryell said, "It's a weird-looking—uh, let's call it distinctive—level 51 BoE epic one-hand sword with 2.80 speed and solid damage. You run it main hand and keep it until you start replacing weapons in raids. Krol main hand, Dragon's Call off-hand. Before raid gear, you wouldn't need to replace either weapon."
Gabryell thought about it and decided not to mention the old "butcher knife" nickname. If DeathScum decided it looked ugly and refused to buy it, that would be a waste.
With Krol Blade and Dragon's Call, he could skip farming Dal'Rend's swords entirely. Walking into Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair progression with two epic weapons was a hell of a lot more impressive than showing up with two blues.
DeathScum said excitedly, "I'm checking the AH the second we get back. If anyone listed one, I'm buying it."
"With what gold?" Igor cut in. "You got a thousand gold sitting around?"
A level 51 BoE epic one-hand sword was definitely going to be outrageously expensive. Based on current BoE epic prices, it would cost at least 500 gold, maybe even 1,000.
DeathScum did not hesitate. "I'll buy gold."
Gabryell said, "If you're buying gold, buy it from me. I'll beat the platform price by five percent."
"Ogabs, sell me 1,000g," DeathScum said immediately.
Converting gold into cash while also improving a guild member's strength was a win-win. Gabryell sold DeathScum 1,000 gold on the spot.
After clearing Sunken Temple, Gabryell opened the shortcut gate and headed out. Unless someone specifically wanted the Drakestone off-hand, there was no reason to run this dungeon twice.
He had no interest in Drakestone. With that time, he might as well go to Un'Goro Crater and do Linken's quest chain for Spirit of Aquementas and its 20 spell damage.
Carlos and the other five followed him back to Ironforge. They were preparing to head to Western Plaguelands to quest and level.
As it happened, Gabryell was also going to Western Plaguelands, so they could go together.
"I'm buying my epic mount first. You guys hang around the city for a bit. I'll be right back."
Gabryell suddenly remembered that he still had not bought one. As the first level 60 on the server, how could he not have an epic mount for the flex?
"Buy it," Carlos said at once. "You have to. You're the face of the guild now."
He leaned in with interest. "After you buy it, take it for a spin. I want to see how fast an epic mount really is."
"Zero to sixty in four seconds."
"Hurry up. Let's see what that overpriced horse can do."
Gabryell teleported back to Stormwind and rode straight to Eastvale Logging Camp in Elwynn Forest. When he reached the stables, he found the horse breeder, Katie Hunter.
At level 60, Humans could choose between three epic mounts: Swift Palomino, Swift Brown Steed, and Swift White Steed. Aside from color, all three had identical stats.
How could a Mage possibly ride a palomino or brown horse?
It had to be white.
Gabryell bought the Swift White Steed without hesitation.
Swift White Steed (Epic)
Binds when used
Mount
Races: Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome
Requires Level 60
Requires Riding (150)
Use: Teaches you how to summon this mount. This is an extremely fast mount.
Other Alliance races who wanted to ride a Human horse had to raise their Stormwind reputation to Exalted first. Unless someone was a mount collector, wasting that much time and money on it was not recommended.
The mount was bind-on-use. As long as it had not been used, it could be traded to someone else. That was why World of Warcraft had plenty of mount resellers. Players with Exalted reputation could buy racial mounts more cheaply, then resell them to players who did not have the required reputation and pocket the difference.
Gabryell bought several horses in one go and brought them back for Carlos and the others. Once they reached level 60, they would be able to use them. With the gold the three of them had, there was no way they could afford epic mounts on their own, so Gabryell could only cover the cost.
It was worth mentioning again that in Vanilla, riding skill was not the expensive part. The mounts were. Only later, in The Burning Crusade, did Blizzard reverse that structure, making riding skill expensive while the mounts became cheap.
After using the Swift White Steed, Gabryell became the first player on Tichondrius to ride an epic mount.
"It doesn't look that different."
Carlos leaned over to take a look. "It's just the level 40 horse with a bit of armor."
Gabryell said, "Who cares? Speed is what matters."
If someone wanted to look truly cool, they needed a rare mount. Racial mounts could show off in the early stage, but once everyone had money, they would become common.
"Come on. Let me show you the speed of my four-legged Ferrari."
Gabryell opened a portal back to Ironforge, Blinked out into the street, and summoned the Swift White Steed.
Tichondrius's first level 60 was about to take his new mount for a spin and become the flashiest guy in Ironforge.
With Carrot on a Stick equipped, he mounted the server's only epic mount and rode from the Mystic Ward all the way across the bridge near the Great Forge, drawing stares the entire way.
"First epic mount spotted in Ironforge! Screenshots inside, no fake!"
Some forum goblin took screenshots and posted them on the Azeroth National Geographic Forum.
Gabryell went viral on the forum once again.
As the first level 60 player on Tichondrius, it would have been harder not to.