And so onto my first pug with my priest. I'm level 25, so I'm just within range to do Deadmines. I've never done this dungeon before, and as I'm the max level allowed to join a pug for it I figured it should be interesting to do something new but not too difficult.
I joined the LFG (looking for group) queue for Deadmines while questing in the Wetlands, and I was impressed that I got a group in just a few minutes (I guess being a healer helps). I'm teleported to Deadmines (DM) to find a mage, a warlock, a paladin and a druid in my group, all below level 20. The druid is tank.
So we buff up and the druid starts pulling before we even have a chance to check everyone's ready. Then strangely, after the first pull the druid just leaves without warning. The mage quits immediately, probably fearing a long wait for another tank.... The remaining three of us are confused and moan about the quitters, but we're shortly joined by another druid tank and a rogue.
I'm startled when the druid immediately jumps into a pile of mobs, in caster form, and starts smacking them with his staff. I'm just about to vote to kick him from the group, seeing as he seems to be just messing about, but he switches to bear form and we get going.
The rogue does pretty good damage as he's over level 20, and things move along pretty quickly. I find that it's not hard to keep the group up, even with the rogue and paladin constantly pulling aggro, and I have plenty of time to switch targets and heal. I remember the days of early BC, when I first started heroics with my druid tank - one mistake meant a dps or healer would die, and it would result in a wipe. I guess normal dungeons are pretty forgiving and the dps can take a lot of punishment. It probably helps that I'm 5 levels above everyone else. I guess we're all used to the Northrend method of doing dungeons, because noone suggests any crowd control.
The tank doesn't seem all that skilled, but what can you expect? It might be his first time tanking, and as I know how hard it is to become a good tank, I'm very understanding. He's fine on single targets, but frequently fails to tank groups, and a few times I find mobs running towards me and starting to smack me. He doesn't react, and seems blissfully unaware that his group is getting overrun. Sometimes, he's even looking to charge the next group of trash while his party members are dseperately trying to kill an errant mob.
Anyway, I have plenty of time to react. The blizzard interface helpfully shows when a dps is high on threat and I can pre-emptively put a shield on them (I love this part of disc healing - I don't need to wait until someone takes damage before I can do something about it). I use my renew (small hot) a lot, and flash heals on anyone who takes a chunk of damage.
Unfortunately, the druid tank dc's some time after the first boss, right in the middle of a group of trash. We thankfully don't wipe - in part because the rogue and paladin don't take a lot of damage. We persuade the paladin to continue as tank while we search for a replacement, and he does a good job. However he seems keen for us to find someone else to tank (even though he's using a shield), possibly because he's only level 17.
Our third tank finally arrives a few minutes later, in the form on a level 19 warrior with rezz sickness, and only 290 hit points. However, he seems chatty and confident, and by the time he's run through the instance to meet us his rezz sickness has worn off and he sets about tanking with gusto. He does a good job of pulling back and we have no problems with the tricky pulls in the cove that's packed tightly with mobs.
We finish the instance fairly quickly, with no wipes and not even a single death! So my priest's record is now level 26 with only 1 death.
I enjoyed Deadmines - I like the pirate theme and I think the cove is definitely reminiscent of the Goonies, one of my favourite childhood films.
What did I learn from this instance?
Take more water with me
Have big, empty bags before you start
Use fade! I forgot to use it, and this probably made it harder for the tank
For those priests starting pugging or looking to improve their success, I recommend this useful guide from Wow.com!
Tune in next time for Shadowfang Keep!
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