They finally reached the last ziggurat. Beyond it lay the way to Rivendare, while the courtyard outside was packed with patrolling Abominations.
"That's a lot of big guys."
Smooch stared at the courtyard. "If all of those things come at us at once, we're getting turned into paste."
Each Abomination hit almost like a mini-boss. With the party's current gear, two at once was about the most they could comfortably handle. Pulling three was asking for a wipe.
"Smooch, pull them one at a time," Gabryell said. "If two are standing too close together, two is fine. Just don't bring us three."
This was exactly the kind of job Hunters were made for. A clean pull took awareness and good judgment. A bad Hunter could wipe the group before the fight even started.
"No problem. Watch a real Hunter work."
Full of confidence, Smooch moved forward and lined up a Bile Spewer.
"Multi-Shot!"
Gabryell's heart nearly stopped.
Before he could yell at her, a single arrow flew out and only one Bile Spewer came lumbering toward them.
Smooch laughed. "Got you."
The moment she engaged it, the portcullis behind the group slammed shut.
DeathScum turned around.
"Uh... we're locked in."
"Then there's only one way out," Gabryell said. "We clear the courtyard."
Retreat wasn't part of the plan anyway. They weren't leaving until Rivendare was dead.
"Carlos, bring it farther back."
Several Abominations were constantly wandering through the courtyard. Fighting too far forward made accidental adds much more likely, so Carlos dragged the Bile Spewer deeper toward the entrance.
Bile Spewers spat poison and spawned little adds, but Gabryell was ready for them. Cone of Cold flowed straight into Arcane Explosion, cleaning up the small bugs before they became a problem.
Once the first Bile Spewer was dead, he said, "Keep doing it like this. Slow and clean. We're not racing anyone."
This was one place where rushing accomplished nothing except turning a good run into a corpse run.
They worked through the courtyard carefully. Nearly twenty minutes passed before the last Abomination finally hit the ground.
"Finally." Smooch exhaled in relief.
Every pull had kept her on edge. One bad shot could have dragged several Abominations into the party and ended the run.
"The door opened," Carlos called.
He'd been watching the ziggurat the whole time.
"Everyone sit. Eat and drink now."
The entire party immediately dropped to recover.
A moment later, the final boss before Rivendare emerged.
Ramstein the Gorger.
"He's coming this way," Smooch said.
Ramstein lumbered toward them at a painfully slow pace, giving the party a brief window to finish recovering before he reached them.
By the time he was close enough to engage, everyone was ready.
"Carlos, take him."
Carlos stepped forward.
"Nobody DPS yet," Gabryell warned. "Give Carlos a threat lead."
Ramstein hit hard, but raw damage wasn't the real problem.
Knockout was.
The ability stunned the tank for several seconds and cut his threat sharply, which meant Ramstein could immediately turn on whoever was next on the threat table.
Gabryell wanted that second target to be someone who could survive it.
"Snowy, Fade."
Danielly had already started healing, so Gabryell had her shave off some threat before the first Knockout came.
A few seconds later, he gave the call.
"Go."
Gabryell opened with Frostbolt.
If Ramstein was going to turn on somebody after Carlos got stunned, a ranged DPS was much safer than the healer—or DeathScum standing in melee range.
Gabryell deliberately kept himself second on threat.
"I'm stunned!"
Ramstein slammed Carlos with Knockout.
His threat dropped, and the Abomination immediately turned toward Gabryell.
"Yep. Here he comes."
A Mage had no intention of standing still and trading punches with an Abomination.
Gabryell Blinked away and began kiting Ramstein across the open courtyard.
The boss moved slowly enough that keeping distance wasn't difficult. All he had to do was buy Carlos a few seconds.
The moment the stun ended, Carlos charged back in, Taunted, and took control of the boss again.
"Snowy, keep Fade on cooldown. Scum, use Feint. Smooch, Feign Death whenever you need to dump threat. I'll stay second."
That was the safest setup.
Hunters had Feign Death. Rogues had Feint—and Vanish in an emergency. Gabryell had Blink, Frost Nova, and Ice Block.
If somebody had to sit right behind the tank on threat, the Mage was the obvious choice.
A little later, Ramstein used Knockout again.
"Stunned again!"
Carlos froze in place, and Ramstein immediately turned back toward Gabryell.
"Of course."
Gabryell Blinked away again.
This time, however, the timing was worse. Ramstein had already closed too much distance, and Gabryell didn't have enough room to keep the kite clean.
So he used Ice Block.
The moment Gabryell became untargetable, Ramstein switched to Danielly, who was next on threat.
Gabryell immediately canceled Ice Block and hit the boss with Fire Blast.
Ramstein turned straight back toward him.
"That's right. Over here."
By then, Carlos had recovered.
He closed the distance, Taunted Ramstein back, and Gabryell Blinked out of melee range.
The boss didn't actually have that much health. If the party had been free to unload from the start, Ramstein would've died much sooner.
Instead, they had to manage Knockout and threat carefully.
After several more minutes, the Abomination finally collapsed.
"I'm looting!"
Smooch rushed toward the corpse almost before it finished falling.
DeathScum noticed several Stratholme Supply Crates nearby.
"I'll check the boxes."
"Don't—"
Too late.
Gabryell hadn't been worried about the crate itself. The problem was that both of them had immediately stopped thinking about the encounter.
The correct move after Ramstein died was to sit down and recover.
Immediately.
A lot of first-time groups relaxed here because the boss was dead.
Then Stratholme punished them for it.
A side gate suddenly opened.
A swarm of non-elite skeletons poured into the courtyard.
"Holy shit!" Carlos shouted. "That's a lot of mobs!"
He immediately used Challenging Shout to get their attention.
Gabryell reacted even faster.
Frost Nova locked the front of the wave in place, and the party dumped what AoE they still had into the skeletons.
Smooch and DeathScum finally understood why Gabryell had tried to stop them.
Fortunately, these were only non-elites. Even with partially depleted mana bars, the group had enough left to wipe them out.
The last skeleton collapsed.
"Sit down," Gabryell said sharply. "Eat and drink. Now."
The skeleton wave wasn't the real danger.
What came next was worse.
Five elite undead guards would soon emerge, and going into that fight half-empty was an excellent way to wipe.
This part of Stratholme caught first-time groups all the time. Ramstein died, everyone relaxed, and then the dungeon dropped another fight on their heads before they'd recovered.
Smooch and DeathScum didn't need to be told twice.
Both immediately sat down.
By the time everyone had recovered most of their health and mana, five elite undead came marching out.
Just like Ramstein before them, they headed straight toward the party.
Smooch watched them approach and swallowed.
"Okay. Yeah. Opening those boxes was a bad idea."
DeathScum said nothing.
He'd reached the same conclusion.
"Snowy, Shackle one. We burn the others one at a time."
Five elites at once would put unnecessary pressure on Carlos. Four was still rough, but much more manageable.
Danielly cast Shackle Undead on one of them, taking it out of the fight.
Carlos moved in and picked up the remaining four.
"Scum, watch out!"
Gabryell's warning came a second too late.
DeathScum stepped into melee just as all four mobs Cleaved.
Four weapon swings hit him almost simultaneously.
He dropped on the spot.
DeathScum stared up from the floor.
"What the hell was that damage?"
It wasn't that each individual mob hit impossibly hard.
DeathScum was a Rogue.
Four elites had simply decided to Cleave the same fragile leather-wearing target at the exact same moment.
Carlos had lost nearly two-thirds of his own health from the same sequence.
DeathScum never had a chance.
Fortunately, the elites themselves didn't have particularly large health pools. Once the party stabilized and focused them down one by one, the rest of the fight went smoothly.
After the last one fell, Gabryell finally said, "All right. Now you can loot Ramstein."
Smooch still looked suspicious.
"Nothing else is going to come out, right?"
Gabryell paused.
"Probably not. If Blizzard throws another wave at us, that's just cruel."
Only then did Smooch return to Ramstein's corpse.
Crest of Retribution (Rare)
Binds when picked up
Off Hand
Shield
2,057 Armor
38 Block
Durability 100 / 100
Requires Level 55
Equip: Deals 5 to 35 damage every time you block.
Gabryell stared at the shield.
"Is this thing designed for Carlos to boost lowbies through the Stockade?"
Against low-level mobs, a Warrior with a shield could block a ridiculous amount of incoming damage. Add the Crest of Retribution's damage every time a block landed, and dozens of weak mobs would practically kill themselves by hitting him.
For Stockade boosting, it was surprisingly useful.
As long as you ignored the repair bill, a well-geared Warrior could clear the place in just a few large pulls. It still wasn't Mage-level AoE farming, but with a reflect shield and the Warrior's own abilities, it was much faster than anyone would expect.
Block.
Reflect.
Repeat.
Beautiful.
Rich players had an even flashier option: Skullflame Shield.
That thing could turn low-level mob farming into its own little spectacle.
Gabryell looked back at Ramstein's corpse and sighed.
"Shame the Animated Chain Necklace didn't drop."
Then he glanced at Smooch.
"Next time we farm Deathcharger, we're bringing you again."
If it didn't drop today, they'd simply have to come back and farm it.
Animated Chain Necklace was easily one of Ramstein's most valuable drops for healers. For an ordinary healer gearing up for raids, it was the kind of necklace that could last deep into Molten Core without any realistic need to replace it.
Later, when Zul'Gurub opened, Jin'do's Evil Eye would become an obvious healing-focused upgrade.
There was technically another option even before that: Choker of the Fire Lord from Ragnaros.
But that was raid loot, highly contested, and in a traditional DKP guild healers weren't exactly first in line for a necklace that damage casters wanted just as badly.
For most healers, Animated Chain Necklace was the practical choice.
Of course, that logic didn't apply to whales.
Once GDKP raids became common, anyone rich enough could simply throw gold at Choker of the Fire Lord and walk away wearing it.
Money solved a lot of loot problems.