Two run wild in the Deadmines

9th September 2009 – 5.01 pm

Melmoth's hunter and my mage are tasked with entering a dangerous hideout of the Defias Brotherhood and to stop its leader, the dreaded Van Cleef, by whatever means. It must be an inordinately difficult challenge if no one has managed to defeat Van Cleef yet, several years in to his reign of villainy in Westfall, particularly as the most seasoned adventurers choose to remain in the relative safety of Northrend, under the gaze of the Lich King, and don't dare to enter the ominously named Deadmines. I reckon the two of us, both now 24th level, are up to the challenge, though. Onwards!

Early thoughts of being stereotypical newbies at our respective classes bear no scrutiny at all, particularly not when I summon my white kitten instead of sitting down to drink, twice; or when Melmoth's pet bear, acting as the tank, rushes off to attack untargeted mobs; and breaking the polymorph spell on a mob by damaging the penguin is a simple coordination issue and nothing to worry about. Melmoth throws himself fully in to the method of a newbie, going so far as to pretend for half the instance that he doesn't realise hunters get a frost trap. Even when he finally 'remembers', getting a polymorph penguin frozen in the trap is clearly not a mistake, we are just taking a 'belt and braces' approach to crowd control. All we need now is a rogue to sap the frozen polymorphed mob to make really sure he's not going to cause trouble.

We quickly get in to a groove pulling and slaughtering mobs, particularly the goblins. Not only do I get quite good at running and blinking away from over-eager pulls but my masterful experience of the instance is also put to good use in determining tactics, like pointing out which mobs are linked and which ones summon adds to fight for them. My experience is then modified when the mobs aren't linked, and different mobs than I remember summon adds. My errors are obviously made on purpose, though, to prevent the instance run from declining in to a stroll in the park, as we instead hurtle down false memory lane. Besides, the simulated mayhem only serves to bring back glorious memories of earlier, and more fatal, visits to the Deadmines by spiritual ancestors of our characters.

It could be argued that my biggest piece of erroneous information is declaring the climactic Van Cleef fight as being slightly nerfed, and that his second group of adds no longer turns up half-way through the fight. Apparently, the two ninjas didn't get the memo and turn up anyway. I hope payroll correct this mistake. Luckily, Melmoth drops Van Cleef before the ninjas flip out and leave our ghosts standing at the spirit healer in Westfall. It's an invigorating run back through the Deadmines, which gives HR plenty of time to get security to escort the ninjas off the premises, leaving us a clear path at the end of which we get to decapitate Van Cleef's corpse.

We run out of the Deadmines giggling with girlish glee towards Sentinel Hill, where our efforts at crushing the Defias Brotherhood are rewarded with a hefty cheer from the Westfall militia. I also am offered a rather marvellous staff, which I happily accept. But our work is not complete. Before dashing out of the Deadmines we grabbed an ominous message off Van Cleef's stiffening body, one that hints at problems in the Stormwind Stockades. It's a good thing we found that message too, because having the head warden panicking loudly outside the Stockades about riots and prisoners taking over the gaol wasn't attracting enough attention. I think we have the target for our next adventure!

  1. 4 Responses to “Two run wild in the Deadmines”

  2. We're like a well-oiled train wreck.

    We really should get that Rogue for the group, though.

    By Melmoth on Sep 9, 2009

  3. One of the most fun Deadmines Runs I ever did was pre-BC, when Blizzard were offering Beta Keys to the 1,000 people with the most level 25 Toons on their Speed Leveling Server. Being a Hunter I naturally leveled up 4 more Hunters (which was enough to get me a BC Beta Key) and even took one of them into the Deadmines.

    Everyone in our group knew what we were doing and how to play our respective Classes, and the Warrior even let me do the Pulling when I proved I knew not only how to LoS pull but was able to split Mobs that may not have been linked, but could still have come together on a bad Pull. With prior knowledge we knew what to expect but weren't really over-powered, so the run was challenging without being stressful. Being run through is all well and good if you want EZ-Mode, but running an Instance as Blizzard intended it to be is a lot more fun.

    By Capn John on Sep 9, 2009

  4. I agree, Cap'n. Running instances whilst they are a challenge makes for a much more interesting and enjoyable time.

    By pjharvey on Sep 12, 2009

  1. 1 Trackback(s)

  2. Sep 9, 2009: Killed in a Smiling Accident. » Blog Archive » Never was anything great achieved without danger.

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed.