DEADMINES

Also commonly known as Vancleef's, this is one of the first instanced dungeons that many alliance based characters will encounter.

It all starts in the area known as Westfall. Not very far from Stormwind, the zone starts at around lvl 10-12 and has creeps that can take you all the way to lvl 20. Most alliance characters will spend at least some time in this zone questing. Creeps range from animals such as boars, crabs and vultures, to the vile murlocs and gnolls. However, the dominant threat in the area is the Defias Brotherhood, and thus begins the journey to rid the lands of this plague.

         <--- Westfall Pictures

Sentinel Hill is the bastion of civilization in Westfall. Be that as it may, it really consists of merely a guard tower, a lumber mill and a few roving merchants whos wagons rest alongside the road near the sanctuary of the guards.

The captain of the guard starts you out slaying the lesser of the defias, and as you slay them he assigns you more advanced members of the brotherhood to slay. Eventually he realizes your potential and send you after the leader of the Defias Gang, Edwin VanCleef himself.

A traitor to the brotherhood reveals the hidden entrance to you and you begin the plunge into the uncharted darkness of the Deadmines.

It starts out pretty basic. There are hundreds of workers mining for precious metals as you descend into the gloomy caverns. Machines designed to rip huge chunks of stone from the walls line the caverns. The workers are not too happy to have strangers in their mines, and attack you on sight. Luckily the noise of a mining cave keeps the skirmishes rather small.

<--- The portal leading into the instanced part of the dungeon

Further into the cavern you come across some guards, such as Defias Summoners who use warlock pets on your party, and some nasty AoE spells. (this is now inside the instanced part of the dungeon) Traveling down one long tunnel which slopes precariously downwards, you are suddenly face with the bulky mass of an ogre. He guards a huge iron gate which leads even deeper into the dungeon.

<-- Ogre guard (from an earlier attempt at this place)

After defeating the huge adversary, it is some more of the same, fighting your way ever deeper into the earth. Suddenly you come into a huge cavern. Heat raises sweat from your pores as you watch a river of molten iron flow from smelting pots hung from huge chains stretched across the roof of the cavern. At the bottom are numerous goblin engineers working in a furious manner belting out weapons and engineering devices. The goblin leading them on is a huge specimen, but hold no trickery when confronted. He falls easily to the combined might of a careful party.

<--- The Forge Room

Shortly thereafter you come across another huge iron door. This one is guarded by the fruits of the goblins laboring, a Shredder. The huge mechanism is not easy to destroy, and once it falls, the pilot jumps out and continues the battle. If your healers arent acting quickly, expect to lose some limbs to the whirring blades of this metal beast.

  <--- The Shredder

After a bit more cavernous traveling, you finally happen upon your destination. The huge armed and armored riverboat belonging to Edwin VanCleef. The guards grow thicker, and the battles more precarious. A huge Tauren guards the ramp up leading from dry land up to the ship. The cook, a Murloc named Cookie puts up a very good fight with his AoE DoTs spelling doom for unwary adventurers. Finally upon reaching the upper deck of the vessel you find Edwin VanCleef himself. When provoked he calls his personal guards, black assassins, out of the shadows. They appear out of thin air to attack from all angles. Even as mighty as he is, my party was able to put him down. His head was delivered to the captain back at Sentinel Hill, and rewards were won by all.

  <--- a hell of a casino boat

     <--- on the boat

<---  Kindred -1   VanCleef -0

We had 2 lvl 35 toons with us, which were a warrior and a priest, then a lvl 24 rogue, 19 mage, and 15 priest. Had it not been for our high lvl help I dont think we would have ever made it through that place alive. It took us about 3 hours or so, and I imagine if we had tried to be more careful, could have easily been 4-5 hours. We had a nice system where the lvl 35 warrior would run around collecting aggro from all the mobs, then our mage would aoe freeze them, which convieniently tapped the mobs, then all of us would kill until all mobs were dead, leaving the xp to the lower lvl group. This worked well, except for the goblin shredder, which the warrior accidentally tapped first. I have to go through that again if I am to complete a quest I have for that infernal device.

Overall this has been the most fun I have ever had in WoW. It was great getting together with a few guildies and rampaging through a dungeon. I cant wait till we have 2 full groups down there working on a common goal. I hear that higher lvl instances will take 7-8 hours to complete. Sounds like a logistics nightmare, but just make sure you have warlocks handy for the "shift change" when new people log in, hehe. Anyway, we are planning to ruff up the Stockades next time, so check back then for that write-up as well. Lata.

<--- escape tunnel led to a ledge where you jump off into space and end up in the graveyard of  Sentinel Hill, but alive