Shadowfang Keep

I always think of SFK as a higher level dungeon than it actually is. Before the 2.3 patch level adjustments, I remember someone inviting me to heal SFK as a level 22 priest, and I said, “I don’t think I’m high enough level, but thanks anyway.” They reassured me that 22 was plenty high, so I went, and of course I was fine. Since that patch, and I’ve been accidently exceeding the level recommendations for lots of instances, so I decided I’d better hustle and get my 22 mage into SFK there before she missed her LFG window. Curiously, all the quests were orange or red, but hey, it wasn’t like I was going to solo the thing, right?

I entered the LFG and a level 23 paladin (in a guild) invited me to join his group almost immediately. Sweet! I refreshed the LFG window, and noted another group of two had already appeared, a level 22 Blood Elf mage and a 22 Undead warlock (both from the same guild). The paladin seemed to be on top of things — within a few moments, our groups had merged. So, looked like we had plenty of DPS. I asked the paladin if he would be tanking or healing. “I tank.”

The paladin was in the area right next to the instance, but everyone else was scattered about. I was killing harpies in the northwest part of the Barrens, but since nobody else seemed to be heading to the stone, I decided to make my way there while we waited for a healer. I hoofed it back to the Crossroads and hopped a flight to to Orgrimmar. During all this time, the paladin didn’t seem to be making much of an effort to recruit a healer. He wasn’t posting in the LFG channel or anywhere else. Instead, he was busy linking us all the blue items he’d picked up in a previous SFK run. Ah, a budding Loot Linker. He informed us of other drops that could happen while we were in there, and lets us know which ones he would like. (Annoying as this was, he didn’t carry it to the next behavior that often accompanies this, the “If [this] drops, can I have it?” No, if that drops you can roll for it, kiddo.)

After about 10 minutes of waiting, the other mage said, “This isn’t working. Bye.” He left the group. Crap. I decided I’d better take recruiting into my own hands if we were going to get this run going. (I know, here I go interfering again…) I posted in the LFG that we needed 2 more, including a healer. Someone whispered me and asked if we cared about getting experience. They were a level 56 something or another. I said yes we were, but thanked them. “That’s cool,” they said, and added that they really loved SFK and were always looking for an opportunity to run through it.

A few minutes later, I advertised again, and got another whisper, this time from a level 40ish person who said they could bring in a level 22 warlock. I told them that would be great! “I know finding people for low level instances is rough these days,” they said. I don’t know that I necessarily agree, but what the heck. “Indeed,” I said. They switched characters and were added to our party.

Still no healer, so I took a more aggressive approach to finding one by messaging people who were questing in the area. (Cold invites? What is this project turning me into?! I’m going native… the horror…) “Sorry to bother you, but we’re looking for a healer for SFK. Would you be interested in joining us?” I asked a few priests in the level range and each turned me down. Questing with a friend, logging off soon… all the same reasons I usually give when my priest gets random invites. (Sometimes I do accept these invites, but when I really want to run an instance, I’ll put myself in the LFG.) I also started posting in the General channel. “LF1M for SFK, need healer please.”

“I’ll go,” whispered a level 28 paladin. Woo! 28 seemed a little high, but I really wanted to get the run going, so I asked the tank (who was still our leader) to invite him. “Hes 28,” said the tank. “That’s fine,” said the warlock. Good good. Turns out we couldn’t summon him because 28 was too high for the stone, but he was already in the area, so was able to join us shortly. Buffs were exchanged and away we went!

The tank was pretty much a charge in and start swinging kind of guy. No discussion, no marking. This was fine because we had plenty of DPS and people seemed to improvise pretty well, but for healers, SFK has a lot of line of sight issues. With all the multi-level rooms and winding stairs, just standing out of the fray means you’re not always in a good position to heal everyone. The healer was standing a bit far behind us at times, but when he did actually get a heal in, it was a big one, so it didn’t seem we were in danger. I hoped that after a few close calls, he’d come closer to the group.

We got to the bit where the guy unlocked the door for us, revealing a staircase leading down into a large courtyard filled with mobs. The tank charged down the stairs into the first group and we followed. I watched the tanks health get lower and lower and … I looked at the healer’s health, and it too was plummeting. I checked the map, and it turns out that the healer had gotten attacked before he managed to get through the door. Uh-oh. I don’t know if he hit patrols or whether he grabbed aggro off a group we skipped, but he was getting totally nailed by something back there. My inner priest felt completely helpless. “HEAL” said the tank. Well, that’s helpful.

I figured that just as long as one of paladins survived, they could resurrect the other, so I stayed and helped the tank finish off the mobs he was killing. He must have had a healing potion or healed himself, because he managed to survive, and we all ran up the stairs to help the healer. The healer survived, but just barely. The tank said, “Y NO HEAL????” The healer actually said nothing in his defense, so I spoke up. “He was getting attacked back here, and had no line of sight on you.” “Yep,” said the healer. The tank was not apologetic at all, and in my notes about the run at this point, I scrawled the word “obnoxious” in capital letters, but I forgot to take a screenshot of what was said next, so you can fill in the blank there.

After we were all healed and buffed again, we proceeded down the stairs together and took on a few more groups. We talked to the dude laying on the floor to complete the Deathstalkers in Shadowfang quest, and as we were waiting for folks to get their mana back, the healer disconnected. “WTF” said the tank. Frankly, I don’t blame the guy. He wasn’t getting any experience for the run. He was there just to help us out and the tank was a jerkface to him. “He just disconnected,” said the warlock. “Maybe he’ll come back.”

So, we waited. And waited. And we did all the things that groups usually do while they wait. We danced and told jokes. The Undead warlock flirted with me a bit, and I actually hadn’t heard most of those lines before, so I thought it was pretty amusing. (I’m better acquainted with the male Blood Elf flirts.) The warlock must have felt he was on a roll, because he decided to whip out (so to speak) this joke for us, which although possibly safe for where you work will be hidden behind a link here, because it is kind of inappropriate. Classy! As you can see, the tank thought it was pretty funny.

Five minutes went by, then five more. It was pretty clear that the healer wasn’t coming back. If the cat stepped on his power strip, he’d have come back by now. So, the leader removed him from the group and re-entered the LFG. (Oh great, everything sounds mildly dirty now. Thanks, warlock.) We ran out of the instance to the stone, so we could summon as soon as we got somebody. Again, I recruited aggressively, advertising in both the LFG and the general chat, and within five minutes or so, got us another healer, a level 18 priest. While we were buffing up, the warlock took the opportunity to repeat his joke from above, not once, but twice. Once was for the party, and the other was out loud for the other folks around the summoning stone. He must have a macro for that.

There weren’t any respawns yet, so we were able to run straight back to where we were before and continue. The new healer kept up with the tank pretty well, and the warlocks and I managed to keep ourselves out of aggro trouble. We handily squished Baron Silverlaine, who dropped the Baron’s Sceptor. After this, we ran up the stairs to get to the next area, but the healer stayed behind by the body for some reason. I thought maybe they were getting their mana back, so I asked folks to please wait for him. Of course the tank didn’t, but he was able to handle the one or two mobs he engaged. And then, we saw the healer’s health bar plummeting. Erm…

We ran down the stairs and killed the patrols standing by the priest’s corpse. “Awesome,” said the healer. “Use ss,” said the tank. “Wait, why don’t you resurrect him and save the soulstone for later?” I said. “Cant rez,” said our paladin tank. What??? Turns out he didn’t do the quest to get that skill, so he was going to have to wait another level to train it. Now that, to me, is just irresponsible. Good thing we had some warlocks with us.
We cleared the next hallway, and when we got to the end, the tank said, “u guys stay” while he went ahead to pull the mobs out for us. That was a nice surprise, given how he’d been charging in before, but knowing he’d been in the instance recently, maybe he had some sense of which parts were the most dangerous. He still got us totally jumped by Commander Springvale, however. It was a classic “ok, guys, coast is clear!” followed by “Raaar!” as the Commander attacked us. Our mana pools weren’t full, but thankfully we had plenty of DPS to take him down. He dropped the Night Watch Shortsword, which one of the warlocks won in a greed roll. I’m sure that will come in handy.

At this point, the tank started giving us frequent updates on how close he was to leveling. Maybe it was the reminder of how close he was to getting that resurrection skill that made him notice his XP bar, I don’t know. Or maybe he thought we’d think the countdown was exciting? “3000 more xp til 24.” “2000 til 24.” “1000 til 24.” One of the warlocks finally said, “Is this your first character?” “Yes,” said the tank. Ah-ha. “500 more,” he said. “200 more until ding!” And then…

Hee hee hee.

Odo dropped the Girdle of the Blindwatcher, which was kind of disappointing. (I’ve seen him drop his Ley Staff almost every time, and think it’s nice to see the priest of the party walk away with it for their troubles.) We got the rare spawn Deathsworn Captain, which was pretty cool because I’d never had a chance to kill him before. The tank immediately linked the Captain’s loot for us: “He drops [Haunting Blade].” Sure enough, that’s what he dropped. “See,” said the tank.

Fenrus the Devourer dropped his hide for us, which I won on a greed roll. I’d passed on every other BoP roll, and since I could potentially use this, I rolled. I should have taken an extra second to look at it though, since it turns out I really didn’t need it. (I got the Feyscale Cloak in Wailing Caverns, and like that better for my mageness.) I felt so bad about this ninja-esque maneuver that I equipped the new cloak for the rest of the run.

Finally, Archmage Arugal. We killed the stuff down on the floor below him, and then the tank arranged us all at the top of the stairs by the entrance and asked us to stay there during the fight. He ran up the stairs across the room, initiated the battle, and the DPS swiftly dropped Arugal to the floor. He only had a chance to port across the room once before he died. I was really hoping for his robes to drop with so many clothies on the run, but he dropped the next best thing for us, his belt. The warlocks, priest, and I rolled need, and I won the roll. Huzzah!

So, three instances down, and how many to go? I don’t think I’ll be able to get to Stormwind Stockade, but if I include Deadmines and Gnomeregan, it looks like I have 37 left!

Total time spent in the group:  1 hour 15 minutes

Total time spent in the instance: 1 hour 10 minutes

Wipes: 0

Factlet: I ran into the Warrior from the second RFC run when I was in the Undercity after this run, and he was level 49. Wow! I guess that was back in December, and this character isn’t exactly my main focus, but still… time to pick up the pace.