What is the true nightmare for new players in World of Warcraft?
Hogger in Elwynn Forest? The Sons of Arugal in Silverpine Forest?
Neither.
The real nightmare for beginners is a Murloc that runs when it's nearly dead, accidentally pulling extra mobs—then coming back with a whole pack charging straight at you.
Murloc packs in Azeroth are notoriously annoying. While leveling, solo players usually skip Murloc quests whenever they can. Unless absolutely necessary, no one leveling alone wants anything to do with them.
There are two Murloc quests in Elwynn Forest. The quest chain in the northeast corner of the map can be skipped, but the "Collecting Kelp" quest in Goldshire is practically mandatory if you want to level quickly.
"Just these little guys?"
Igor looked at the patrolling Murlocs ahead with disdain, completely unconvinced they posed any threat to his level 8 Paladin.
"I can kill one with a single swing."
Early on, healing wasn't an issue, so his Paladin wielded a two-handed sword and fought alongside Carlos's Warrior.
Gabryell smirked. "Go ahead and try. Carlos, let's step back and watch the show."
He backed his character away, and Carlos followed, leaving Igor's Paladin on his own.
Since he'd already bragged, Igor had no choice but to follow through. Spotting two Murlocs patrolling together, he charged forward without hesitation.
Murlocs had average attack and defense—their only notable trait was speed. Two of them weren't enough to kill a level 8 Paladin.
"See? Easy. I could take three of these guys."
He started bragging again.
Gabryell just smiled and said nothing.
One of the Murlocs dropped to low health and suddenly ran off.
Seeing this, Igor burst out laughing. "Look at that! It's running already!"
He switched targets and started attacking the second Murloc. His Paladin still had half health left—more than enough to finish it.
"Haha! That's right, run!"
The moment he finished speaking, his expression changed instantly.
"Holy crap!!"
He spun his Paladin around and bolted.
"Damn! Carlos! Gabryell! Stop watching and help me!"
Igor shouted frantically. On his screen, no fewer than seven Murlocs were charging toward him.
"How did there suddenly become so many?"
Hugo, who had been watching from the side, asked in confusion, "Weren't there only two just now?"
Gabryell explained with a smile, "Murlocs are social mobs. Like humanoids, they run when their health gets low, which makes it very easy to pull a whole pack. When you fight a lone Murloc, you should pull it away from the others first. If you're fighting several at once, you really want a party."
If you've never had your corpse camped by a pack of Murlocs while leveling an alt, then your World of Warcraft experience isn't complete.
The scary thing about Murlocs is how many tricks they have and how easily their aggro chains together. Some rush you, some root you in place, some heal themselves or drink potions. If you try to run, they'll even throw nets to immobilize you.
The most infuriating part is that even if you burn all your cooldowns to get them low, they'll run straight into another pack—then come back with reinforcements and beat you down together.
You could say Murlocs are the true nightmare of low-level players. Unlike Hogger or the Sons of Arugal, Murlocs follow you throughout your entire leveling journey—almost every zone has a pack of them somewhere.
At Blizzard's various BlizzCons over the years, whenever players voted for the most hated monster, Murlocs always took first place.
When Gabryell first played World of Warcraft, between level 1 and level 20 he died to Murloc packs more than twenty times. Sometimes he would even hear their "Mrglrlrlrl!" cries in his dreams—it was practically nightmare fuel.
"Igor, give it up and just corpse run."
Gabryell looked at the low-health Paladin trapped in a net, completely unable to move, and could only shake his head.
With more than seven Murlocs attacking, even if his Mage and Carlos's Warrior joined the fight, there would be only one outcome—everyone would end up corpse running together.
"Aaaah—!"
Igor let out a tragic scream as his Paladin died gloriously, falling to a pack of Murlocs for the first time in World of Warcraft.
After releasing his spirit, the screen turned gray and the character became a ghost.
"Run back to your corpse and resurrect there," Gabryell reminded him. "Don't resurrect at the Spirit Healer. If you do, you'll get Resurrection Sickness for ten minutes—it'll slow us down."
Grumbling, Igor ran his ghost back to his corpse and only resurrected once he confirmed the area was safe.
The moment he revived, the Paladin immediately sat down to eat and drink.
"Still feeling cocky?"
Seeing Igor's arrogance crushed made Carlos very happy.
Igor glared resentfully at the Murlocs in the distance. "When I'm higher level, I'm definitely coming back for revenge."
Gabryell chuckled. A lot of people probably had that exact thought. Unfortunately, by the time most players reached max level, looking back felt pointless. Only a handful ever actually came back for revenge.
"Pull them out and kill them one by one."
He had no intention of dying to a pack of Murlocs again.
Carlos wasn't like Igor. Calm and steady, he had seen the earlier disaster and carefully pulled the patrolling Murlocs one at a time to avoid accidentally aggroing another pack and causing a wipe.
With some experience under their belts, the three friends spent over ten minutes finishing the quest. This time Igor had learned his lesson—whenever a Murloc tried to flee, he immediately intercepted it and burned all his cooldowns to burst it down before it could pull more.
After finishing the quest, the trio continued picking up new ones, progressing all the way to Eastvale Logging Camp and Stone Cairn Lake.
"Ugh—why are there Murlocs again?"
Another group of Murlocs lived along the riverbanks near Eastvale Logging Camp and Stone Cairn Lake. Seeing how densely packed they were—far worse than the ones outside Goldshire—made Igor's scalp tingle.
"I hate Murlocs."
After being thoroughly bullied by them, he now loathed the creatures.
Gabryell disliked Murlocs too, so while doing the quest to find the second wrecked body, he only killed a few and skipped the rest in favor of other tasks.
When they left Eastvale Logging Camp, Igor stopped near the riding trainer Randall Hunter and exclaimed in surprise:
"They sell mounts here? Holy crap, they're expensive! One costs a hundred gold? Damn, there's even one for a thousand!"
Gabryell explained, "The hundred-gold one is a basic mount with a 60% speed increase. The thousand-gold one is an epic mount with 100% speed. You can ride the basic one at level 40, and the epic one at 60."
Whether it was one hundred gold or a thousand, both were astronomical amounts for players at this stage. Only by scrimping and saving all the way to level 40 could someone hope to buy their first mount the moment they reached it.
Reluctantly, Igor closed the purchase window.
"When I get rich, I'm buying all of them. I'll ride one, lead one, and keep another in reserve."
Hugo leaned closer to the screen. "Do Night Elves ride horses too?"
Gabryell replied, "Night Elves ride Nightsabers. Dwarves ride rams, and Gnomes ride mechanostriders."
Hearing "Nightsaber," Hugo's eyes lit up. In his opinion, riding a giant panther looked far cooler than riding a horse.
"If you want to ride mounts from other races," Gabryell continued in guide mode, "you need to grind that race's reputation to Exalted."
"Humans need Exalted with Stormwind. Dwarves need Exalted with Ironforge. Gnomes need Exalted with the Gnomeregan Exiles. Night Elves need Exalted with Darnassus."
Gabryell had no interest in those common racial mounts. What he really wanted were the Winterspring Frostsaber, the Deathcharger, the Zul'Gurub mounts, and the Black Qiraji Battle Tank.
The discussion about mounts reignited everyone's motivation to level up. Leaving Eastvale Logging Camp, he led Carlos and Igor to Brackwell Pumpkin Patch to complete the quest "Princess Must Die!"
"Why is the princess a pig?"
When Igor saw "Princess" wandering around the pumpkin patch with three boars, his dream of rescuing a beautiful princess instantly shattered.
"If you kill it, the curse breaks and she turns back into a Human princess."
Gabryell couldn't resist messing with him.
Igor bought it instantly.
"Seriously? Then what are we waiting for? Let's go save the princess!"
Princess wasn't an elite mob. Under combined attack, the boar quickly died.
Ding!
"Obtained Brass Collar."
"Obtained Ancestral Tunic."
Gabryell looted the quest items and finally got his first green item from a mob drop.
"Why didn't she turn back into a Human?"
Igor stared blankly at Princess's corpse.
Gabryell didn't explain anything. Instead, he simply walked his nearly level-10 Mage out of the pumpkin patch.
Only after the Mage had moved far away did Igor suddenly realize he had been fooled.
"Gabryell! I'm gonna kill you for that!"
"Hahaha—!"
Carlos and Hugo doubled over laughing.
Igor was only shouting. He obviously wasn't going to start a real-life PK match with Gabryell.
After turning in the "Princess Must Die!" quest, they were only a sliver of experience away from level 10.
Gabryell opened the social interface and checked the player list. In all of Elwynn Forest, only the three of them had reached level 9. Everyone else was still wandering around between levels 1 and 6.
"Let's pick up the Wanted: Hogger quest," he said. "Once we kill Hogger, we'll hit level 10. Then we'll go back to Stormwind to learn our other professions—and register our guild."
"When Hugo gets here, we'll head to Westfall together."
They had almost cleared every quest in Elwynn Forest. Only the watchtower quest near the forest edge remained.
And very soon, they would face one of World of Warcraft's most infamous newbie killers—Hogger, the first elite enemy most human players in the Alliance ever encounter.