The Deadmines

My big event over the weekend was going partying in the Deadmines, an instance dungeon located beneath a building in Moonbrook. It is probably one of the more popular dungeons in the region, lovingly referred to as the “DM”. There are a few words of wisdom I have to impart for those brave enough to venture in.

First and foremost, this is a long dungeon. Some of my friends claim to have run it in as little as an hour or two, but it took me three hours with a well-organized and fully capable party, which included a 28th-level paladin who agreed to tank for us. The whole of the dungeon includes no fewer than five major bosses, each of whom must be defeated in order to proceed. Before even considering going to the Deadmines, make sure you have your packs in order and plenty of real-world time to devote to the task. You’ll need both for the long haul.

The second tip I have is to make sure you’re in a good party. As you can probably ascertain from the LFG messages, having a devoted healer is essential to the task. A sturdy tank is also highly recommended, as many of the enemies in the dungeon can take down a spellcaster in two or three hits. Beyond these two requirements, any mesh of characters classes will probably do fine.

Of course, it is also important to bear in mind the level requirement. I was 17th level when I went down, and I would say that’s about the minimum. Anywhere between 18th and 22nd level would be ideal, and a party of five or six people in this range would do just fine, provided that they are organized well enough.

The dungeon supposedly completes several quests at once. I personally had to retrieve an item from the second boss, a goblin engineer in a mech, in order to complete a gnome racial quest. Of course, I continued through the rest of the dungeon out of courtesy to my fellow party members, much to my own sleep deprivation. Still, it was well-worth the experience, the treasure, and the fun involved.

Overall, the Deadmines are a challenging instance that can be very fun if approached correctly. If you find that your group is encountering difficulties early on in the dungeon, I suggest you turn back, because it only gets harder as you go further in. Just remember, you’re not finished until you exit the instance, because there are monsters around even after you’ve finished off the final boss.

[…] Once you return to Stoutmantle, he finally gives you the quest to go kill Edwin VanCleef, who is the final boss of the Deadmines. All in all, your time spent doing delivery work will net you more than 5000 experience, making it well worth the hassle. Of course, completing the final stretch will be a great deal more difficult than the quests leading up to it. For more information on tackling this, see my Deadmines post from earlier this week. Trackback URL […]