After wiping twice in a row on Onyxia, the four patrolling Onyxian Warders had respawned.
"Melee DPS, stay away from the guards. If you're bored, use your ranged weapons to tickle them a little. We're not asking for much damage. Every bit counts."
It was already getting late, so this time Gabryell planned to take full control of the raid and make sure they pushed Onyxia into the air phase.
Everyone needed to experience the terror of Deep Breath at least once.
To make that easier, he temporarily disabled open mic and left speaking privileges to only a few officers.
"Priests, dispel the debuff on the main tank immediately. I don't want to see it stay up for more than three seconds."
Normally, when there were only a few debuffs to deal with, one or two classes would be assigned to dispel duty. Since Gabryell had the Paladins focused on healing the main tank, he left dispels to the Priests.
"Good dispels. Keep that up."
The Warders' Fire damage was extremely high. If the debuff stayed up for too long, the main tank's incoming damage would jump by at least thirty or forty percent.
No matter how tough the tank was, that would eventually become unhealable.
"If we execute like this next week, the MC entrance trash won't be a problem."
Gabryell had just heard from Dreamshade that Madhouse had wiped seventeen times on the two Gatekeepers.
Seventeen wipes.
Every attempt meant several minutes of rebuffing and recovering, another corpse run, and then less than a minute alive once the fight actually started.
It was like spending a fortune on oysters, supplements, and every performance booster you could find, only to be done in under a minute.
Once would be embarrassing.
Seventeen times in a row would break a man.
Madhouse had actually gotten off easy.
The worst guild had wiped more than twenty times before eventually collapsing hard enough to disband.
For a slower group, one wipe—corpse run, recovery, rebuffing, arguing over what went wrong and all—could eat up half an hour.
Even an efficient raid needed at least fifteen minutes.
Wiping that many times in one night meant spending the entire night doing little besides running back to your corpse.
"Warlocks, watch your threat. Don't pull aggro."
"Old, wake the hell up. This is trash, not Onyxia. Why are you still wanding?"
"Igor, wake up. Slack again and I'm stripping your gear and making you heal the next pull in your underwear."
A raid leader had to be fair.
If anything, his own friends deserved to get yelled at even harder when they screwed up.
At this point, the trash no longer posed much of a threat to Fearless.
It was just annoying and wasted time.
"Ignore the level 60 Warder. Everyone hug the left wall. Don't drift too far right and pull it."
The lazy guard around the corner had respawned at only level 60 this time, so Gabryell had no interest in killing it.
They simply skipped it.
Back at Onyxia's chamber, Gabryell hesitated.
He could let Carlos try the lower-left corner they had discussed...
Or he could stop pretending and show him the proper tanking position.
The lower-left corner was wrong.
It cramped the DPS, still allowed awkward knockbacks, and left everyone dangerously close to the whelp pit.
"Screw it. I've let them struggle enough."
Gabryell decided to reveal the best position early.
If they wanted to see Deep Breath tonight, they first had to reach the air phase.
If they wiped again, they would call it for the night.
Next Tuesday, Gabryell would build the official Molten Core core roster and put the DKP system into use.
Tonight was about experience, not pretending they could walk into Onyxia's Lair on day one and take a first kill.
"Carlos, look at where Onyxia is standing."
Carlos looked over.
"What about it?"
"There's a full wall behind her. If you get her backed into that spot with her head facing the wall, the knockback shouldn't send you anywhere. That has to be better than the positions we tried before."
Gabryell guided him toward the answer step by step.
Carlos caught on immediately.
"Right. If I back her into that wall and keep her facing it, I've got nowhere to get launched."
"Damn, Guild Leader. Good catch," ServerHeals said. "I missed that completely. Once you pointed it out, I looked at the room again and it makes sense."
ServerHeals had excellent awareness.
He was naturally suited to raid leading.
If Gabryell hadn't been reborn with all his experience, ServerHeals would have been more than qualified to lead Fearless's progression raid himself.
That was also why Gabryell had left his mic privileges enabled.
"If we pull her back into that wall and keep her head pointed into it, the raid can DPS from both sides," ServerHeals continued. "There are walls on the left and right too."
He looked at the terrain again.
"It's basically a pocket in the wall. We fight inside the recess, with walls behind us and on both sides."
"Exactly," Gabryell said. "Carlos, pick her up, turn her around, then slowly back her into that pocket."
Then another problem occurred to him.
This pull would introduce something they had not dealt with during the first two attempts.
Onyxia's head.
If the DPS and healers rushed forward too quickly and passed her head while Carlos was repositioning her, she could turn and breathe straight through them.
The pull could be over before it even started.
"That could be a problem."
Gabryell couldn't exactly tell them that nobody should pass Onyxia's head—or that even moving level with it could put them in danger—without making it obvious he already knew the fight.
Still, there had to be a way around it.
"Which Paladin has Improved Lay on Hands?"
SevenDays typed in raid chat.
"I do."
"Before the pull, use Lay on Hands on Carlos."
Improved Lay on Hands increased the target's armor from items by 30%, which would help keep Carlos alive while he backed Onyxia into position and the healers were still moving with him.
"No problem," SevenDays said.
"When Carlos pulls, everyone follows me. Nobody passes me. Follow my path exactly."
They couldn't split groups one, three, five, and seven left and groups two, four, six, and eight right this time.
Everyone had to move together.
Gabryell would lead the route himself to keep anyone from crossing in front of Onyxia's head and eating a breath.
"Stay on me. If I position us wrong, that's on me."
His tone hardened.
"But if anyone decides to sprint ahead on their own, they're benched next week."
"Got it, Guild Leader. I'm staying right behind you."
"Same. Anyone who runs ahead after all that deserves to get benched."
"I'm glued to you this pull, boss."
Gabryell relaxed a little after hearing the responses.
Anyone who still managed to run ahead and get breathed on after all those instructions really would be sitting out next week.
There was no room in the core roster for people who ignored calls.
"ServerHeals, once Carlos turns Onyxia away, put Renew on him. Luna, get Rejuvenation and Regrowth rolling. Everyone else, hit him with a quick heal if he needs it."
"With Improved Lay on Hands active, Carlos shouldn't drop too hard at the start. Use your fastest heals, get one into him, then keep moving."
"If you fall behind, you're entering Tail Sweep range."
Gabryell was worried the healers would tunnel too hard on Carlos, lose pace with the raid, and drift backward into Onyxia's tail.
Getting launched into the whelp pit at the start of the pull would be a perfect way to ruin the entire attempt.
"Got it. We won't fall behind."
The healers confirmed the call.
Finally, Gabryell added one last rule.
"If I don't call DPS, nobody attacks. Anyone I catch attacking early is also benched next week."
To reach Phase 2, Gabryell intended to keep the pull deliberately slow.
Wands and auto-attacks first.
Real abilities only after Carlos had established a safe threat lead.
If they could push Onyxia into Phase 2 and see Deep Breath even once, Gabryell would call the night a success.
Phase 3 could wait.
They were almost certainly wiping during the air phase anyway.