The Great Thief

Ruling Sword didn’t rush to get into the Instance Dungeon. In other words, they always took their time to enter.

After Naxxramas had been opened up for a while, the other clubs had already brought their teams to attempt it. At the same time as they fought, they fixed up their team. If they needed any potions or other roles, they could address that later. Anyway, they had over a 100 elite players, so they could have three or five teams and it wouldn’t be a problem.

The core of Lu Li’s group was the three-way alliance’s First Clear team. Although the rest also entered the Instance Dungeon, they didn’t have much impact.

With the three-way-alliance’s First Clear team, it didn’t look like Drizzle Court and Peerless City had to worry.

However, it wasn’t that there wasn’t any hidden danger. If they took their time, their First Clear team would become weaker and weaker.

The first Boss of the plague zone was the Plague Messenger Nois. He was a renowned mage of Dalaran, the same as Kel’Thuzad. He followed the summoning of the Lich King, and in the same way yearned for power. He agreed to use his achievements in necromancy and evil magic for the service of Scourge.

However, when Nois saw that Scourge had seized countless innocent lives in the third major war, he began to doubt Kel’Thuzad’s decision.

However, Kel’Thuzad quickly sealed up Nois’ heart with ice, blocking away any signs of mercy.

A man who was able to become the lady Faerlina’s husband would be one of the most outstanding men. This was certainly true. As the 7th husband of the lady Faerlina, the “Lordaeron Necromagus Association President” Nois Abrahams, had made many great achievements in researching and communicating with spirits.

There was a clear distinction between a Necromagus and a Necromancer. Before Sthe courge had been established, Necromagi had already been officially recognized by humans as an important role. By summoning spirits of those who had been harmed, the police would be led to who the real killers were. Historians would find Necromagi in the hope that they would have had conversations with eyewitnesses to uncover realities lost in the mist of time. Of course, not every departed spirit could be summoned out, and likewise, it wasn’t just anyone who could become a Necromagus. Before the Scourge invaded Lordaeron, there weren’t even 100 Necromagi in this kingdom, and every one of them had a good and peaceful heart.

Nois was the kindest and friendliest one of them all (note: to be a Necromagus you needed to have a pure heart, and the kinder you were, the higher chance you had of successfully summoning a spirit). Within his territory, people lived peacefully, praising their kind and easygoing master.

“As the man that was Black Widow’s prey, his final end would only be death.”

Perhaps Nois didn’t know about this common phrase. When he, who had been single his whole life, saw Faerlina, he could only stop and stare. Two days later, a grand wedding ceremony took place in Nois’ manor. At the same time that the people welcomed their beautiful mistress, they realized their master’s radiant golden hair had actually turned all white.

After a month, the power of the curse had come onto this peaceful land. Those spirits who had been cursed loafed around in the night. Unclean and undead spirits of lifeforms ventured out on the fields. Creatures of darkness would randomly launch attacks on people. All the while, Nois and his wife Faerlina didn’t take a single step out of their manor.

The people worked their hardest in these dark days, waiting for their master to save them. However, they ended up waiting for the plague and death.

When the manor door was opened, the Plague Messenger Nois emerged wearing a Scourge uniform. All that was left in the manor were just corpses of villagers who had died from plague.

“Get up! Fight loyally for your master!” Countless skeletons bore their way out from the graveyard, exiting out from the rooms and standing up from the fields.

As the saying went, even the strongest warrior can be seduced by a beautiful girl. Nois ended up becoming a Necrotic mage.

There were actually too many people like this in history. Everyone was too lazy to look down on their opponents, but actually, they weren’t qualified enough to look down on others. At the very least, those they looked down on could be cool by dying and still getting with the girl. This was much better than just being a dog stuck in a house.

“Glory to my master!” The former Necromagus had now fully become a servant of the Lich King.

Under normal circumstances, if normal damage wasn’t high, it meant that the Boss’ skills were extremely powerful. What the players were most afraid of were those powerful skills which often led to a team wipe.

Although it was only the Boss guarding the gate to the plague zone, not long after he came out, Nois had already made them fail once.

About 15 seconds after the battle started, he let out a group curse. Everyone within a 30-yard radius was hit with it. The curse persisted for 8 seconds, but the damage was negligible, so everyone took their time in getting rid of it. The result was that a few of the people who were affected ended up exploding.

That’s right – they really blew up.

They didn’t only destroy themselves, but they also killed the people around them.

“Ranged players, be careful of your position. Try to keep your attacks more than 30 yards away. Melee players, you have to get rid of the curse. Work it out yourselves,” Lu Li said. He pulled two more Mages in, so now there were five Mages in total. He also added in two Druids who could also dispel curses. This time, they would be able to remove it.

“I’ve got a curse-cancelling potion,” Hachi Chan piped up, as she reached her hand into her bag and took out a few potions.

She really had whatever was needed; she was even cooler than Doraemon.

However, there was a limited number of these potions. If they could help not using them, of course that would be best. As long as the Mages and the Druids didn’t make any mistakes, they could definitely guarantee being able to dispel the curse within 8 seconds.

This Boss definitely wasn’t the type that would stand firmly. About a minute after the battle started, he removed all of his own aggro targets and used a Blink skill. After that, he would use normal attacks at random before casting area-of-effect skills.

The first time they faced such a shameless Boss, everyone didn’t even respond. By the time they could, the team had already died.

Actually, attacking people at random with normal attacks was fine. Nois’ normal attacks weren’t strong, and even if he could kill a player by chance, this wasn’t a big deal. The key thing was that the area-of-effect curse was unbearable. Apart from the group curse, there was another thing that crippled the whole team.

This was a group speed-reducing skill with an even more ridiculous range. Azure Sea Breeze rushed over but failed to pull the Boss. This was because he was afflicted with the speed-reducing attack.

The way to deal with this was really simple though. Lu Li had the secondary Tank stand in the group, and as soon as the Boss Blinked, they would pull the Boss over. This would continue in cycles, and as long as they executed this cleanly, there would be no issues.

In the second stage, the Boss would run up the walls and summon smaller monsters.

The first time this happened, four Plagued Champions were summoned at once. They would cast a group Shadow Shock, dealing about 2000 Shadow damage.

After this happened, the Mages would tend to use Frostbite straight away, and at the same time, the Priests would Lock as quickly as they could. The Warriors who could pull one would concentrate all their firepower onto it and kill it as fast as they could. Then, they would move onto the next one.

The second time, there were four Plagued Champions and two Plagued Guardians at once. The guardians would cast an Arcane explosion and deal about 1000 Arcane damage. Since there was no Buff that increased Arcane resistance, before the battle with the Boss began, they would have to drink some Arcane Resistance potions.

The third time, there were four Plagued Champions, two Plagued Guardians and two Fanatic Constructs all at once. The constructs could Cleave and deal group damage – about 1400 to Warriors and 3000-4000 to other professions. They couldn’t be Stunned, Locked or Silenced, and they had little HP. Like before, four priests would Lock the Plagued Champions while the melee players would quickly kill the Plagued Guardians. Two Warriors would pull the constructs down and stay away from the group. Ranged firepower would first kill the Plagued Guardians before targeting the constructs.

After all of this, the team entered the third stage of the battle.

There weren’t any new skills in the third stage, so it was much easier than the second. There was just a Plague debuff. Those who received it would definitely die; there was no way to get rid of it. They could only roll away from the rest of the team, otherwise, they would infect nearby people with the plague. Five seconds after someone was infected with the plague, they would incur massive damage and would die.

This Boss likewise didn’t waste too much of everyone’s time.

First there were Stones, materials and Skill Books, and then came the equipment.

Nois’ Frigid Heart, a piece of exquisite Off-Hand Magic equipment, was taken away by Kitty Likes Meat in the end. Last time, she had received a magic sword, which matched her perfectly.

Libram of Light – this was a Libram only for Paladins. This equipment was positioned similar to where a Thief’s bow was. It was Darkness’, without a doubt, because it was perfect for a Tanky Healer.

The Band of the Inevitable was an exquisite magic ring. Finally, Lu Li saw something which could be considered interesting.

They most likely had achieved the First Clear with this Boss.

You could imagine the fierce competition for a ring that used magic, especially since Lu Li had used five Mages for this Boss. Who wouldn’t want such a powerful ring?

In the end, Lonesome Flower purchased it for 220 DKP.

However, the ring he took off to replace it was also in high demand. In the end, Azure Sea Breeze used 120 DKP to take it. All in all, Lonesome Flower only ended up paying 100 DKP for a valuable piece of equipment.

As a mage, none of them wanted to fall behind in damage output.

An old mage always had the pride of an old mage.

The Desecrated Girdle was used by Paladins, Hunters, Shamans and druids. Remnant Dream easily won over her enemies to purchase the equipment.

This Boss didn’t give out any shards or fragments or splinters, but gave out a quest item – Fate of Ramaladni.

Ramaladni was a warrior from the Brotherhood. Well before Silver Dawn was established he was a student under Mograine. When news of Mograine’s death spread, hatred and anger filled his heart and soul. He got out of his shelter and became a hunter for the Scourge in the Plaguelands.

Naturally, he was arrogant about his power. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be a hunter, but would instead be the prey.

The reward for this quest was a ring with Ice resistance. Any role could go and complete the quest and would receive an appropriate piece of equipment.

After Lu Li explained the quest, this item was bid for as a piece of Epic equipment. The one who received the quest item in the end was Deadly Gold Underpants from Peerless City. He felt like he really lacked Ice resistance. When it came to PVP against Ice Mages, he would lose much more often than he would win.

In this patch, Warriors were really quite embarrassed when pitted against magic roles.

All up, there were actually six items, so it should have been a First Clear.

The following Boss was that despicable Heigan. When they saw him, everyone laughed. At the battle of Tyr’s Hand, the Boss everyone faced was this one. Or, you could say, everyone faced Heigan last time, who was even stronger than in the Instance Dungeon. They had seen all his skills before.

What was different was that last time, there were more of them, but this time, there were only 40 people.