With the king-of-the-hill format, the matches moved quickly. From preparation to finish, each duel only took around five minutes.
"I'm out," DesertWanderer said.
He had held the field for more than twenty matches before finally losing to Merciless, Freedom's guild leader.
Rogue versus Warlock was all about execution. If the Rogue chained his abilities properly, two full burst windows could be enough to kill the Warlock outright.
"A Hemo Rogue with Preparation and Thistle Tea? Yeah, that burst is nasty."
When he fought DesertWanderer, Merciless drank a bottle of Thistle Tea and forced the kill with two burst windows.
"Using consumables in a duel? Come on, that's cheap."
"Trash move. Who pots in a duel?"
A lot of Fearless players were unhappy about it.
"The rules never said items were banned," Gabryell said. "If you've got no shame, forget Thistle Tea. You could chug a health pot too."
Now that the precedent had been set, the tournament would quickly turn into a consumable war, with potions and Engineering items flying everywhere.
"I'll take him."
As a fellow Rogue, RedAce wanted in.
"Go ahead. You're an Engineer, right?" Gabryell asked.
"Yeah, I am."
"Got Iron Grenades?"
In Engineering PvP, Iron Grenades were one of the most practical tools available. If you threw one at the right time, it could change the entire fight.
"Plenty," RedAce said. "I keep a stack on me all the time. I use them in PvP, dungeons, leveling—whatever. Extra AoE is extra AoE."
"Blow his ass up," DeathScum said from the side.
He could not enter the tournament himself, so he was hoping RedAce would knock Merciless down.
A Rogue mirror was a test of patience. If both players were stubborn enough, they could stalk each other for ages.
Whoever got the opener usually won.
It was basically hide-and-seek with knives. The first Rogue to spot the other and open with Cheap Shot could chain the opponent to death. Unless the gear gap was massive, there was almost no room for a comeback.
Human Rogues had the biggest advantage in mirrors because of Perception, their racial ability, which let them detect stealthed targets earlier.
RedAce was a Human Rogue, while Merciless was a Gnome. The smaller model helped, but not enough to beat Perception.
RedAce used Perception, spotted him first, and immediately threw an Iron Grenade, stunning him in place.
He popped Sprint, got behind him, Vanished, and reopened with Garrote, putting a bleed on Merciless so he could not safely Vanish back into Stealth.
Unable to reset, Merciless had no choice but to fight him straight up.
RedAce was not about to give him a fair trade. He used Blind immediately, leaving Merciless helpless while his energy ticked back up.
"Beautiful play."
Landing Blind first meant he could use that window to recover and prepare another burst.
Once his energy was back, he went all in.
Merciless panicked and quickly popped Evasion, then used Ghostly Strike. Unfortunately for him, RedAce had those tools too, so for a moment neither Rogue could land anything decisive.
Then both of them used Preparation almost at the same time.
Merciless drank another Thistle Tea and prepared to Blind.
"Holy crap, he Vanished!"
RedAce timed his Vanish perfectly and made Merciless whiff Blind.
"As expected," Gabryell thought. "Half-baked Rogue."
He remembered Dreamshade's evaluation of Merciless. With reactions that slow, how did this guy have the nerve to play Rogue?
After Vanishing, RedAce used the three combo points on him to land Kidney Shot, locking him down again.
From there, the fight was simple. Merciless's hands could not keep up with what he wanted to do, and RedAce completely outpaced him. One clean combo later, he dropped.
"RedAce is a monster!"
The Rogue mirror sent the Fearless players into a frenzy.
With Merciless defeated, all five players from Freedom had been eliminated. The guild that kept dreaming of becoming the Alliance's number one had taken another hit.
"Mentor, I want RedAce next."
Danielly stepped forward at last.
"RedAce, do you want to wait for your cooldowns?" Gabryell asked. "You waited for Merciless, so it's only fair."
RedAce was happy to be polite.
"No need. If Danielly wants the duel, she can have it."
Most of his long cooldowns were still unavailable. If they fought seriously right now, he really would not be a match for a Dwarf Shadow Priest, especially one with Stoneform, which could deal with bleed effects.
But since he was willing to give her the advantage, Gabryell let him do as he liked. In any case, the last Fearless player to step up would definitely be Gabryell himself. As long as he was still there, winning today's tournament would not be a problem.
"Ogabs, when do I get my match?"
Dreamshade sent him a whisper. He only wanted a one-on-one duel with Gabryell.
"Are you taking the hill first, or am I?"
"Let's roll for it," Dreamshade said. "Loser goes first."
He invited Gabryell to a party.
"Careful," Gabryell said after joining. "My RNG is legendary."
"Same here. Don't cry when you lose."
They rolled at the same time.
And then...
They both rolled a 1.
Dreamshade went quiet for a second. "That one doesn't count. Obviously."
"My hand slipped," Gabryell said, using the classic excuse every basketball player loved after missing a shot.
Both of them were embarrassed.
What kind of cursed roll was that?
They rolled again.
This time, one got a 3, and the other got a 5.
A legendary five-point victory.
Dreamshade immediately laughed. "Ogabs, somehow your rolls are worse than mine. I'll take the win."
He had rolled a 5 and still won the cursed roll-off.
Gabryell looked toward the field. After beating RedAce, Danielly had gone on to defeat several more players and was now holding the field.
Shadow Priests really did have a huge advantage in level 45 duels. Shadow Word: Pain hit absurdly hard, and a Mind Blast crit could chunk someone for a terrifying amount. With damage reduction, shields, crowd control, and the option to drop Shadowform and heal at critical moments, they could grind opponents down through sheer attrition.
Gabryell walked up to Danielly's Dwarf Priest and dropped the duel flag in front of her.
"Mentor...?"
She had not expected him to step up and challenge her personally. For a moment, she did not know what to do.
"Let me see how your training has been going," Gabryell said. "Don't hold back. I want the real thing."
Danielly accepted the challenge.
"Then I won't hold back."
"What do you guys think? Shadow Priest or Mage?"
"Shadow Priest, obviously. Damage, healing, control—they have everything."
"Bullshit. Mage wins that. Too much control. They can kite a Shadow Priest to death."
Whether Shadow Priests or Mages were stronger had always been a popular argument. Priests believed Shadow Priests crushed Mages, while Mages believed they had nothing to fear from Shadow Priests.
The truth was simple: a skilled Shadow Priest could burst down a Mage, and a skilled Mage could control a Shadow Priest to death.
However, in major duel tournaments, Shadow Priests usually had the higher win rate in that matchup. That was why, in vanilla, people often called Shadow Priest one of the nastiest Mage matchups.
"Come on," Gabryell said. "I won't sheep you."
He was giving her a handicap.
In truth, if a Mage landed Polymorph on a Shadow Priest, he could use the most obnoxious reset loop possible: sheep, Frostbolt or Fireball, sheep again, then repeat until the Priest died.