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Myself and an ex-UO guildmate spammed up some people to do the deadmines tonight.  We ended up with a total party of three pallies, a mage, and a warrior, all between levels 20 and 25.  The entire dungeon went without a hitch.  Everyone co-ordinated their auras and buffs, the mage sheeped and did frost novas where appropriate, the warrior pulled with his gun and held aggro just fine, and everyone stayed healed.  It was a cakewalk.  Everyone added everyone to their friends lists, and we plan to call on each other again.  So yeah, it does happen.  Just figured I'd say so.

I personally think it happens more often than bad grouping.  But it's the bad groupings you tend to remember because the guy was A COMPLETE FUCKING RETARD ALL THE WAY THROUGH AND THEN ROLLED ON EVERYTHING AT THE END.


Ahem.

That's actually great to hear. My first deadmines group made me so angry I about popped a fucking blood vessel in my eye.

PUG's are sorta like customer service.  You'll tend to remember bad experiences far more vividly then good ones.

My 1st 5-man PUG for scholo was pretty awesome, except we couldn't beat alexi (we didnt know the trick to it).  The one after.... wiped... what was it, 7 times?  In the first room with the deed?

BTW, you're almost of the level to do Shadowfang Keep (25).  Not sure if alliance has any quests their, but its alot of fun.  The boss fight at the end is genuinely challenging, its one of my best memories as a lowbie with my first character.  Not 100% sure if it has pally loot, but the Robe of Arugal that i got from it lasted me till i got the Lich Robe from Razorfen Downs.

This past weekend was the first time I had such bad pickups (three back to back) it ruined my gameplay.  I've always had pretty good experiences.

Admittedly, Deadmines is a rather easy instance. But good find! :)

I find my best PUGs were in Stranglethorn Vale, and were mostly formed out of necessity to avoid roving bands of Horde.

Generally I've had good luck with pickup groups, but not always.

Went through three instances of Scarlet Monestary for the first time last night. It was a lev 60 rogue in my guild leading us through. We had him, a 47 Druid, a 35 mage, and myself tagging along for fun, a 30 Hunter. Along the way, we picked up a 40 something hunter who asked to join us.

As we start, this new guy starts asking if he can have some certain axe if it drops. Our leader informs him that he's welcome to roll on it if he needs it. Our guild always loots on a "need before greed" method - discuss before touching blues, and are really quite fair to each other.

So the guy starts on about being willing to pay people gold to pass on a roll if this axe drops. Ok, whatever, I just ignore him.

Ten minutes in, we kill some guy in an area full of hounds. He drops a bind on pickup dog whistle. Hunter boy runs in and grabs it... Leader promptly drops him from the group. No yelling or screaming from us, just a simple explanation that if he can't listen to the rules, he doesnt get to group with us.

So the hunter promptly runs down the hall and trys to train us. 6 monks kick his ass about 20 feet away from us, and then calmly turn around and walk away. The comedy factor made it all worth while. (So did picking up a lev 29 Axe of the Monkey later on)

I second third and fourth the recommendation to hit shadowfang. I think there are a couple quests there but mainly its a terribly cool instance. The end box is a nasty nasty bastard I won't tell you his tricks because half the fun is starting the fight and having that WTF experiance. Its a fun fight but he is a nasty nasty bugger at that level.

Also one cute thing is some of the ghosts curse you with a power that randomly causes one level 24 or so ghost with VERY few hp to appear and start attacking you randomly for as long as you are cursed. I once finished the dungeon and hearth stoned home to stormwind while I still had it on me without thinking. I get to the inn a ghost spawned and wtfpwned two newbies DOH. The higher level guys who knew the proc and knew where I must have been just started busting up laughing.

I did not do it intentionally infact my druids damage shields were so good that the stupid things instantly died when they hit me so I was just ignoring the curse  poor newbs.

If you have a caster or caster friends BRING THEM HERE this dungeon has a freaking ton of good caster loot for your 20 to 30 range.


kaid

Release Your Rage !!!

Where's Shadowfang Keep? I've never heard of it strangely enough.

Silverpine, up the hill from Pyrewood Village. Never did manage to get that robe.

yeah, Shadowfang is one of those places that the alliance probably dont see too much of, since it is almost in the heart of Undead Starter Territory.  Much like Deadmines for the Horde.  I still have no idea where Deadmines is other then somewhere in that zone south west of Stormwind.

SFK is actually easier to get to from Ironforge than, say, BFD since SFK is a relatively short run from Southshore which is a direct flight from Ironforge.

I would imagine SFK would be easier to get to from Ironforge then BFD, being that they are on different continents entirely and whatnot.

Then again, wouldnt BFD be like a short trip from Auberdeen (whatever the elf place is on the shore in Darkshore) to Astranaar in Ashenvale and then a quick run to the Shore?  BFD is always a pain for Horde cause to get the flightpoint on the coast you have to treck completely across the zone, past a fair sized Alliance city, always avoiding the road (so you dont get ganked), just to get there.

Hell, I imagine it is probably a much more annoying treck for the alliance to get to Wailing Caverns, being that it is in central Barrens.  You guys have absolutely no close flight points there do you? What, 1k Needles, The Marsh, or Ashenvale would be the only ones, none of which are even remotely close really.

Kind of like us and Deadmines, our closest flight point would be, what, Grom Gol in Stranglethorn?  Like 2 full zones away?

I mentioned BFD since it's roughly the same level as SFK (BFD is slightly lower) but seems to be much more popular for the Alliance (though that's understandable given the dearth of Alliance quests at SFK) even though the travel time is longer from Ironforge. Once you take the boat across to Darkshore it is easy for Alliance to get to BFD.

No we don't. For low levels you have to go through Ashenvale into north Barrens. For higher levels you can take the boat to Theramore Isle and make the run through Dustwallow Marsh but by then you wouldn't be interested in WC though I did the later run a lot to get to south Barrens for RFK (I was too cheap to fly to Thalanaar next to Thousand Needles).

Shadowfang keep is not hard to get to at the level you should be at to run the instance. Also paladins have part of their super spiffy quest hammer in there which is what led us to it in the first place. Due to the numbers of paladins on the alliance side there are a fair ammount of folks who travel to shadowfang.

Black fathom deeps is a very similar run if you have the astranar hippy route. Blackfathom deeps is a damn nice instance again great gear for the casters. One thing to note is if you go into blackfathom deeps and you see some clickable candles make sure your gnomes are tied down so they cannot click them all at the same time. Our groups gnome saw clickies and decided to click them all super fast. The results were sub optimal.


kaid

That was one of my crappy pickups last weekend.  The warrior leading the group just wanted to zerg him.  The druid just wanted to tank.  The priest couldn't comprehend advice that we wear down his mana pool.  We got through it but only because I as a warlock kept all the aggro... just call me wolfboy.  :-P

SFK is a great instance - so far still my favorite at level 45.

What level range do you recommend for Shadowfang? I'm always looking for new interesting places to see.

Depends on your class of course.  As a support class low twenties.  As a damage dealing class or tank high 20's is good.  But don't make it a Candy Run like so many assholes in this game do - try and make sure the guys in your group are within the instance level range so it does not become trivial.  The main boss fight at the end is quite challenging and the drops will last you a long time.  Robe of Arugal, belt of Arugal and Ring of Sylvanus (quest) are gear pieces some folks keep into their low 40's.  He also drops a cool dagger - but like any weapon they get dated fast with the dps of new weapons that do become available as you level.

Time for an embarassing story. I had never been to Blackfathom Deeps, so I took my level 48 Warrior there recently. I pretty much slaughtered everything up until the candles. I lit all of them at once and was then gangraped by a zoo.

We were in there at the right level range for it and we were proud we "beat"  the dungeon the damn gnome saw candles and without telling anybody he rapidly clicks all four and then goes ooo clicky candles. I go um what clicky candles WTF OMG GAAAAAAARRRGGGGG and we got ran over by a freaking zoo worth of mobs.


kaid

yeah, the clickie candles almost always get you on your first run through.  same thing happened to my first group through.  If you manage to get back there again, do the candles one at a time, and it opens the path to the last boss in the dungeon, who drops some fairly nice stuff (some sweet caster pants can drop off him), along with an altar that ports you out of the instance as a quick exit method.

Ya we redid it and beat the end hydra thing but man the first time through the ebil tempting clickies are a group wipe waiting to happen.

It's a learning tool.

As in "hey, tools, stop fucking clicking on everything in the hope of lewts."

Hehe also a communication tool it teachs you to let people know BEFORE you start looking to click on shit so they can be ready for the unexpected.

kaid

I did something worse.  In Uldaman.  I forget the name of the boss mob - but while my party was clearing the room to eventually "summon" her I noticed this cute little model village in the room and in the center of it something I could click on.  So I did.  Like a scene from Raiders of the Lost Arc, a beam of light projected from the little village to the giant iron doors across the room.  hehe So while we were still clearing trash mobs, the boss to be summoned swung open the doors and entered the room lol.

Fortunately I was the only one who died.
 

Heh, I once did the whole stuff up the candle event in BFD. In my defence though the group leader said "ok, now lets click the candles" which *I* thought meant lets go click ALL the candles. My bad. :evil:

Ironya? She scared the shit out of me when my then near-cap (and now AT cap) pally friend took me into Uldaman to show me the layout and help me complete a couple quests (and to pay a visit to the master enchanter). It wasn't her visage so much as it was the fact she conned as a skull. My friend reassured me that she was "pathetic" and that Blizz just made her level appear as 500+ to keep the suspense up.

She was indeed pathetic, since we killed her quite easily. She did kick me across the fucking room like 3 times in a row though.