Cannon Master Willey himself was not difficult. The real problem was that he summoned large numbers of Crimson Riflemen.
The longer the fight dragged on, the more riflemen appeared. Their individual damage was low, but there were far too many of them. Once they started firing in a dense barrage, anything that was not instant-cast became almost impossible to get off, because every shot kept pushing the cast bar back.
The normal way to deal with them was to assign someone to pick up cannonballs and fire the cannons at the riflemen.
Or they could bring a Mage with effectively infinite mana and blow everything up.
That Mage, of course, needed Blade of Eternal Darkness.
Gabryell had the blade, so he was not afraid of the riflemen piling up. He could run in with Ice Barrier and Power Word: Shield, then spam Arcane Explosion. The amount of mana he got back was absurd.
"You guys kill the boss," Gabryell said. "I'll handle the riflemen."
The riflemen could not be cleared permanently. Killing the boss as quickly as possible was the real solution.
With Gabryell blowing up the adds, Danielly's casts would not be constantly interrupted, and Cannon Master Willey became much easier to deal with.
"What are these cannonballs for?" Smooch asked curiously after picking one up.
Before Gabryell could answer, DeathScum said, "Looks like the cannons here are usable. Try firing one."
Smooch walked up to a cannon and used it, then said in surprise, "It really works. The cannon seems to be aimed at Ogabs."
"Then fire at him," DeathScum said immediately.
This man was clearly asking for trouble.
"Offer Ogabs to RNGesus, and the boss might drop best-in-slot gear."
"Got it."
Since she had been given permission to loot the boss, Smooch got excited as soon as she heard that and fired the cannon at Gabryell.
Boom!
The cannon went off.
Gabryell was completely unharmed, while the riflemen behind him were wiped out.
"Aw," Smooch said, sounding genuinely disappointed. "Why is Ogabs fine?"
"Want to fire another shot?" DeathScum asked, afraid the situation was not chaotic enough.
"No need," Gabryell said. "Hurry up and kill the boss."
He still found time to throw a Frostbolt at Willey.
"I'm invincible. I could Ice Block a nuke."
That was not even bragging.
Mages had Ice Block. In theory, they really could immune a nuclear blast.
Smooch finally stopped messing around and focused on attacking the boss.
Under the party's focused fire, Cannon Master Willey went down.
"I'll loot it, I'll loot it!"
Smooch ran over excitedly to loot the corpse.
Cannon Master Willey would later have plenty of blue items with decent stats, but unfortunately, those items would only appear after Ahn'Qiraj opened. His current loot table did not have much worth getting.
Miniature Cannon Balls
Rare
Binds when picked up
Ammo
Bullet
20 - 21 Damage
Speed 3.00
6.8 damage per second
Requires Level 56
These bullets were guaranteed to drop every time, 200 rounds at once.
Cannonball Runner
Rare
Binds when picked up
Trinket
Requires Level 56
Use: Summons a cannon that fires at enemies in front of you who are attacking you.
5 min cooldown
Another toy trinket.
It seemed Smooch really was a toy-trinket specialist.
"That's a dud," DeathScum said.
Smooch immediately panicked.
"It's not a dud. It's not! Look, this trinket summons a cannon. I just wiped out a whole pack of mobs with one shot. This thing has to be strong."
She was afraid she had really looted badly and would lose boss-looting privileges, so she forced an explanation on the spot.
Gabryell actually agreed with DeathScum.
For a Rogue, not getting the Rogue T0 set piece, Shadowcraft Spaulders, was definitely a dud. Rogues who wanted to play around with the eight-piece Dungeon Set 2 bonus later would even have to come back and farm Cannon Master Willey specifically.
"Next time," Smooch said, sounding a little guilty. "Next time, I'll definitely loot something amazing."
Gabryell did not stop her from continuing to loot.
Being able to loot toy trinkets was a skill too.
After killing Cannon Master Willey, they returned the way they had come. When they reached the fork, they fought their way left.
They cleared all the way to the door of Archivist Galford's room.
To the left was Archivist Galford.
To the right was the final boss of the Scarlet side, Balnazzar.
"There are two bosses," Carlos said. "Which one first?"
"Our main goal this time is Of Love and Family," Gabryell said. "We kill the Archivist first."
Getting the Of Love and Family painting from the Archivist's room was the real priority.
"I'm going in," Carlos said. "Keep me healed."
He charged forward.
Archivist Galford was a mage-type boss with very high damage, so his Pyroblast had to be interrupted immediately.
"Ah, I got Burning Winds!" Smooch cried out as her Hunter started losing health.
Burning Winds was not ordinary wind. Anyone hit by it would be stunned and take heavy damage over eight seconds.
"Snowy, Renew on Smooch, then heal her."
Anyone hit by Burning Winds needed healing attention. Otherwise, they could easily die.
"Smooch, take a few more Winds for the team," DeathScum said. "Then the rest of us will be safe."
That line deserved a beating.
Still, it was better for the Hunter to get hit by that skill than the healer.
However, bosses loved teaching mouthy players a lesson. The next Burning Winds went straight onto DeathScum.
"Hahaha, now you got hit too," Smooch said, bursting into laughter.
The healer had not been hit.
Good enough.
They kept fighting.
Archivist Galford did not have much health. Before he could use many skills, he fell to the group's damage.
It was worth mentioning that Gabryell carried two weapon sets. During boss fights, he switched to a spell-damage staff to increase his output.
"I'll loot it, I'll loot it!"
Smooch rushed over excitedly to loot the corpse.
Archivist Cape of Healing
Rare
Binds when picked up
Back
43 Armor
Requires Level 56
Equip: Increases healing done by spells and effects by up to 33.
Equip: Restores 4 mana every 5 seconds.
This was excellent.
Archivist Cape had random enchantments and could roll all kinds of stats: primary stats, Shadow damage, Frost damage, Fire damage, Arcane damage, various resistances, and more.
For Warlocks, an Archivist Cape of Shadow Wrath was currently the best Shadow-damage cloak. Likewise, an Archivist Cape of Frozen Wrath was currently the best Frost Mage cloak.
As for Archivist Cape of Healing, before Dire Maul opened and before Hide of the Wild became available, it was the best healing cloak players could get.
Random enchantments were a nightmare.
To farm the exact suffix you wanted, you would need at least dozens of runs. Their luck this time was genuinely good. They had rolled an Archivist Cape of Healing that Danielly could use.
"Hahaha, Dani, I told you I'd loot something amazing for you."
Looting a best-in-slot cloak for Danielly made Smooch extremely excited.
Did best friends have some kind of hidden buff that helped them loot gear for each other?
Superstition.
It was all superstition.
Smooch's terrible loot luck had probably just flipped red for once.
"There's also a Righteous Orb," Gabryell said. "Everyone roll."
Archivist Galford had dropped a Righteous Orb, so Gabryell rolled first as a show of respect.
"Pretty awesome, right?"
This time, Smooch actually won the roll.
It seemed her luck really had turned around.
After the loot was distributed, Gabryell burned the Scarlet Archive on the table, completing The Archivist.
At this point, they had two choices.
They could keep fighting, or they could return to Light's Hope Chapel first, turn in The Archivist, then come back and kill Balnazzar so his head would drop and start The Truth Comes Crashing Down.
That chain would eventually lead to The Argent Hold.
The three blue-quality rewards from The Argent Hold looked average in terms of stats, but Argent Avenger was an extremely good-looking one-handed sword.
Style was the real endgame.
Pair Argent Avenger with Teebu's Blazing Longsword, and you would be one of the flashiest players in the game.
Classes that could equip one-handed swords should avoid choosing the other two blue rewards if possible.
For style, choose Argent Avenger.
It would not disappoint, and anyone who skipped it would definitely regret it later.
"Get the painting first."
They should complete as much of the Argent Dawn chain as possible, but they needed to grab the painting before going back.
Gabryell took the Of Love and Family painting down from the wall.
Once he brought it back to Fordring, he could accept the follow-up quest.
"Everyone, take the painting. Once you have it, we'll head back to Light's Hope Chapel and turn in The Archivist."
They were not here to farm gear, so there was no need to obsess over efficiency.
Finishing the whole chain in one proper route was better than coming back two or three extra times.
After all, they still had to go kill Baron Rivendare later.