Two healers managed to run out of the dungeon. After everyone inside died, they came back in and resurrected the raid.
"Anyone have anything to say?" Gabryell wanted to hear everyone's thoughts.
Susie said, "The Lava Annihilator's threat mechanic is really strange. This is the first time I've seen a mob that three tanks still couldn't hold. It seems like it switches targets immediately after attacking once. There's no way to build threat on it at all."
David, thoroughly disgusted by it, said, "Susie's right. The three of us tanks kept taunting it. It does respond to taunt, but there's just no way to build threat. It only comes to us when we taunt. The rest of the time, it goes after everyone else."
Nightlord said, "Since we can't hold the Lava Annihilator, I suggest we kill it first."
"The Lava Annihilator is disgusting. I strongly demand we kill it first."
BigHealsShortLegs said, "It hammered me several times. Every single time, it interrupted my Heals."
The others who had been hammered to death by the Lava Annihilator all chimed in, saying they should kill the Lava Annihilator first.
"We still don't have enough experience."
Gabryell sighed, feeling slightly disappointed. Not a single person had thought of the Warlock's Banish, which could banish elemental creatures.
"Kill the Firelord first."
As the Main tank for the Firelord, Carlos had a different opinion. "If we don't kill it, it'll keep summoning Lava Spawns forever. When we wiped just now, there were already eight of them."
A melee player who had been instantly killed by a pack of Lava Spawns said, "When eight Lava Spawns attack together, I drop instantly. If we don't kill the Firelord first, I'm guessing it'll keep summoning even more."
"Then what are we supposed to do? Both sides need to die first. Which one are we actually killing first?"
"How about this? We split into two groups. Groups 1, 3, 5, and 7 kill the Firelord, while groups 2, 4, 6, and 8 kill the Lava Annihilator?"
"That's not a bad idea. Guild Leader, should we try it?"
A little wiping was good for you. Gabryell did not mind one more attempt. "Then let's try it."
They tried it. They died.
Unsurprisingly, the second attempt still ended in a wipe.
With everyone's current DPS, splitting into two groups to kill them separately was impossible. The result was even worse than the first attempt, and they wiped even faster.
"Splitting up doesn't work. Our DPS isn't enough."
"Speaking for the healers: that was way too much pressure. We went OOM and you still hadn't killed either mob."
"It's not that our DPS is bad. The mobs are just too strong."
Two wipes were enough. Any more would just burn time off their flasks. "The Lava Annihilator is an elemental. We don't actually have to kill it first."
Susie did not understand. "If we don't kill it, it'll hit the healers."
Gabryell said, "Then we make it unable to move."
"We can't hold it," David complained.
At that moment, DesertWanderer caught on to what Gabryell meant. "Guild Leader, you mean we Warlocks should Banish the Lava Annihilator?"
Now that was why Gabryell had picked him as vice guild leader.
"Exactly. All three of you try Banish. Once one lands, that Warlock owns the mob—forget DPS and keep it Banished until the Firelord dies."
With three Warlocks rushing to Banish it, even if one or two were resisted, one of them would succeed.
"Damn, how did I not think of Banish?" David sighed.
"Because you only know your own class. If you want to raid-lead, you need to know what every class can do."
Gabryell said, "Do your homework, or you can't call the fight properly."
David said, "You learn something new every day. One lesson from the Guild Leader beats ten years of reading guides."
ServerHeals remembered every word Gabryell said. He had already begun considering leveling every class to 60.
Gabryell continued. "Warlocks keep the Lava Annihilator Banished. Everyone else burns the Firelord. And we're not letting the Spawns stack up—every Spawn dies the second it appears."
Gabryell did not explain that the Lava Spawns split on their own rather than being endlessly summoned. After they fought the Firelord more, everyone would slowly understand the mechanic. In any case, as long as everyone switched to the Lava Spawns right away, their numbers would not keep growing.
"When a Lava Spawn appears, melee switch targets immediately and kill it as fast as possible."
This task was best left to melee. They could just treat the Lava Spawns like totems and burst them down.
"Switch immediately. I don't want to call it three times before people move. Keep missing calls and I've got reserves outside ready to take your spot."
Sometimes a raid leader had to put his foot down.
"If you're good, click Ready."
Before the pull, Gabryell started a raid ready check.
Only after everyone clicked ready did he say, "Smooch, go pull."
Smooch went up and pulled the two mobs over.
"Warlocks, Banish."
The three Warlocks rushed to cast Banish and Banished the Lava Annihilator on the bridge.
"Haha, Banish is awesome."
"Damn, how did we not think of something this simple?"
Seeing the Lava Annihilator frozen in Banish, everyone lit up. They had always treated Banish like a throwaway spell. Here, it suddenly looked god-tier.
"Priests, dispel Soul Burn properly. DPS, go all out and burn down the Firelord as fast as possible."
Gabryell snapped out the call. "Lava Spawn up. Melee, switch."
No one wanted to be benched, so everyone switched targets immediately and quickly killed the Lava Spawn.
Without the Lava Annihilator interfering, the healers and ranged DPS had a much more comfortable fight. This attempt went exceptionally smoothly.
"Haha. It really is that simple."
Once the Firelord died, everyone relaxed. This pull was finally under control.
Gabryell glanced at the Lava Annihilator, which had 10 seconds left before Banish ended, and said, "Don't Banish it again. The four tanks will take turns taunting the Lava Annihilator. Try to make it come after you."
Taunt had a 10-second cooldown. With all four tanks taking turns taunting, they should be able to keep it under control.
Without the Firelord beside it, the Lava Annihilator was harmless enough. Four tanks rotating Taunt kept it under control until it died.
"It really is that simple."
Gabryell said, "As long as you find the right strategy, Molten Core isn't difficult."
Once you knew the mechanics, MC itself was simple. The bosses did not have many abilities or phases; the real wall was the tuning.
Flasks and elixirs were how players overcame that numbers check.
"Everyone recover quickly. Once you're ready, Smooch, pull the two Molten Giants on the left over."
There were still two Molten Giants on the left, both level 62. They were not very difficult. With their experience from fighting the two Gatekeepers, killing them was just as easy.
"It really is this simple," Carlos said. For the first time since he had started running MC, he actually felt relaxed.
"Everyone, cross the bridge. Smooch, once everyone's topped off and has mana, pull."
There were a lot of trash mobs in MC, and Gabryell wanted to speed things up.
"I fell in!"
Someone suddenly shouted.
Gabryell looked down and saw someone hopping around in the lava. "Warlocks, start a summon and bring them back up. Everyone else, stay away from the edge."
MC was just full of annoying incidents like this. Even in later WoW Classic, there would still be people finding all kinds of ways to fall into the lava.
After the Warlock pulled the person back up, Gabryell had Smooch continue pulling. Now that everyone had experience fighting the Firelord and the Lava Annihilator, they advanced step by step, clearing their way to the corner ahead, where they encountered their first patrolling Ancient Core Hound.
"I'll pick it up." Carlos went to grab the Ancient Core Hound.
"Ground Stomp." Gabryell had not expected the first Ancient Core Hound they ran into to have Ground Stomp.
Each Ancient Core Hound spawned with two random abilities chosen from Ground Stomp, a Fire Resistance debuff, a health-reduction debuff, AoE Fear, and a movement-speed slow. Ground Stomp paired with one of the curse-style debuffs was the nastiest combination, since the stun was usually followed by heavy AoE damage.
"I'm already in the Ice Block, Grandpa. Please spare my life."
When Gabryell saw that yell macro, he immediately thought, This is bad. That idiot OldSeven had actually used Ice Block.
OldSeven instantly used Ice Block to remove the stun, then cast Frostbolt on the Ancient Core Hound. The whole sequence was smooth and looked extremely impressive.
Moves like a tiger, brains like an idiot.
"Moron!"
Gabryell said, "Ignore that idiot OldSeven. Let him die. Everyone else, wait until the MT breaks out of the stun and stabilizes threat before attacking."
With no MT holding it, the Ancient Core Hound went straight after OldSeven, who had attacked it. Since the healers were also stunned, OldSeven did not even have time to use Cold Snap to reset his Ice Block cooldown before the Ancient Core Hound bit him to death in two hits.