we had a druid tank who didn't even know what form he was supposed to be in
Heh, does that bring back memories of when WoW was young and Gnomeregan still hadn't gone through the massive nerfs it later saw. I joined a PUG which had a druid tanking in non-shapeshift form. The reason? He had according to his words a level 60 paladin with whome he had tanked all non-raid instances in the game at that point with a two hander.
We wiped IIRC 11 times, but finally made it through...
EDIT: Found the original post I wrote on Paradox forums June 12th 2005:
"Let me tell a horror-story.
Once upon a time, there was a tauren called Takuur. Takuur was a hunter with 28 seasons, his profession Engineering. Takuur's pet Kisu was "The Rake" and had 27 seasons.
Now Takuur was a good Engineer, he had already got a 200 in Engineering. And he had this obsession to get theses pants, Triprunner Dungarees they were called. They would be the reward for doing a horde quest in the dungeons of Gnomeregan.
Takuur did understand that he would be in great peril in Gnomeregan, but he still applied when a 40 season druid was asking for a hunter, wizard or priest to join to Gnomeregan. A hunter asked to join for Gnomeregan! Takuur voluntered, and he was accepted after he told his spirit (called Tracer) in the dreamworld had visited Gnomeregan a few times (it appeared none of the others had any experience with Gnomeregan).
The 5 man party consisted of a level 40 Tauren druid (the leader of the party), his pal 24 level Undead Rogue, an Orc warrior with 32 seasons and a warlock with 35 seasons, and of course Takuur. Takuur was a bit worried as the first lines of the warlock were "I will be using girlie only, my other pets suck", but of course was no warlock and couldn't know if that was a good sign or bad sign.
The party set off to Booty Bay where the teleporter to Gnomeregan was. The warrior somehow got lost and ended in Undercity instead, but of course slight errors (like missing the target by a continent) happen.
In Gnomeregan the illustrious leader told the other three they should kill a robot for a blue item while they waited for the warrior. Takuur had time to say "Ummm" under which time the druid changed to cat-form and together with his rogue friend vanished using their nifty skills. The warlock said "Oh %¤&%" and ran as fast as he could into the instance when a group of ?? Alliance fellows appeared. Without anybody else around they hacked Takuur to death.
The illustrious leader, the druid, then asked why Takuur didn't follow. Apparently he as the healer of the groupd didn't notice Takuur was sort of dead. Anyway, as a ghost Takuur ran from Kharanos to Gnomeregan (a damn long way btw, but a path Takuur's ghost soon would be quite familiar with) because the druid said he will not rez.
So, to Gnomeregan Takuur arrives. The warrior has appeared, and the other four has gone into the instance. Takuur asks if they sort of could come and help him in, as the level 30 elites walking around will surely hack him down. "Nah, just run ok" replies the illustrious leader. Takuur materialise and make about half-way when he dies. And runs in ghost-form from Kharanos to Gnomeregan. He dashes forwads, and just makes it in into the instance, barely alive.
Meanwhile the rogue has died and the druid has resurrected him. As Takuur sits down and eats some boiled clams the warrior tells "Sorry dudes, dinner. I'll be AFK for a while." The warrior runs back to the beginning of the instance and goes AFK.
Takuur runs through the instance to join the others. They are helping a gnome to kill troggs coming through the wall. The Rogue dies, and runs in ghost form from Kharanos. Others continue, the druid tells he will tank, and does so in *human* form, not in bear-form. Soon after the party is wiped out after the warlock's pet goes amok and follows an escaping trogg into a bunch of elites. The druid uses the warlock's soulstone while others run up in ghost-form.
The warrior pops in, tells he still afk. Others continue, and are wiped out a further four times. The rogue then tells his dad tells him to get to bed, and leaves the party. Takuur, the druid and the warlock press on, and are wiped out again.
The warlock then tell his level 49 warrior friend is joining. He just have to get to Gnomeregan.
Takuur is frustrated, but the group really is overpowered. The 30-33 elites go down in droves, but the druid have this odd habit to run forwards before the last mobs are killed, resulting in the warlock and Takuur being out of mana when the next mob attacks. The warlock then kindly asks the druid to not rush forth before he has mana, the druid tells "But I like to fight against heavy odds! As a Paladin I do that all the time." Yeah, well, a druid in human form ain't quite the same as a Paladin...
The warrior then informs he can't get past the guards and Alliance patrolling south of Ironforge. Takuur asks if he has run all the way, didn't he use the teleporter? "What teleporter?" is the response of the 49-level warrior. The warlock then tells he can summon the warrior from outside the instance, but needs two helpers. The druid tells Takuur and the Warlock to go back and with the help of the still AFK warrior summon the 49-level warrior. He himself takes cat-form and "go scouting".
Takuur asks how the heck the two are going to get back to the start of the instance, and the warlock says "Like this!" and chareges closest enemy and dies. Well, what the heck, Takuur does the kamikaze too.
The bad thing is that *all* of Takuurs equipment is now yellow, as he has died 10 times by now. The party has suffered seven wipe-outs. The warlock and Takuur makes it to the beginning of the instance, where the AFK-warrior goes off-line. But no worries, mean-while the druid has died too.
So, the level 49 warrior is summoned. The party gets to the final hall-way before the final boss. Takuur warns the others about the mine-equipped Dark Dwarves, and tells the others to be smart and fall-back about 10 yards when the mines are dropped.
So the Dark Dwarves come, drop the mines, and the warrior and the Druid (who still fight up-front in human form) dies in the explosions. The remaining life-time of the warlock and Takuur can be counted in seconds.
The druid asks why Takuur never feign death (Takuur has told he has jumper cables). Takuur tells he can't feign death until level 30, to which the druid says "Lol, you can learn it at 28!!!" He does believe Takuur only after the warrior and warlock tell Takuur is in fact correct.
Takuur's equipment breaks after this 11th death. The druid, despite himself advocating the n/g system had rolled a gun for himself despite Takuur tellin he needs it. Now that Takuur has no equipment he grudginlgy gives the gun to Takuur for 20 silver but only after the warrior says "For ¤%&/'s sake, give him the gun!"
After that things goes finally smoothly. The warrior tells the others to listen to Takuur, as he seems to know what will happen. The final boss is killed without a sweat, and the quest is completed. The druid says "gg dudes!". Takuur wants to cry.
In real life it took over 4 hours. Takuur was killed 11 times, the party was wiped 8 times. It must be the worst example of how badly a way overpowered group can work. I stayed in the group only because I knew it is *impossible* to not succeed eventually. But I now have the pants."
