Mr. Smite

Mr. Smite is the first mate of the Defias warship in The Deadmines, a tauren pirate who greets intruders in Ironclad Cove. His fight is the most memorable in the dungeon: twice he stuns the whole group, stomps back to a chest and comes back with a bigger weapon.

Background

At the end of the Deadmines' tunnels lies Ironclad Cove, a sea cave where the Defias Brotherhood has nearly finished its juggernaut, a warship Edwin VanCleef means to send against Stormwind City. VanCleef hired pirates to crew it: the goblin Captain Greenskin commands, the murloc Cookie cooks, and Mr. Smite serves as first mate, keeping the crew in line.

He is one of very few tauren bosses in World of Warcraft, and the game never explains how a tauren ended up crewing a human outlaw's ship off the coast of Westfall. Blizzard's guidebook to the Eastern Kingdoms says he liked to toy with his opponents, letting them think they could win while he reached for deadlier and deadlier weapons, and that is exactly how the fight plays out.

Abilities

• Smite Stomp: at about two-thirds and one-third health, he stomps, stunning everyone nearby for several seconds, then walks to a chest to change weapons.
• Smite Slam: a heavy blow that stuns his target.
• Thrash: grants him extra attacks.

He starts with [Thief's Blade], switches to a pair of Smite's Reavers after the first stomp and to [Smite's Mighty Hammer] after the second.

Strategy

When the group blasts open the gate to Ironclad Cove, Mr. Smite shouts for the crew to repel the invaders and pirates rush down to the dock. Once those are handled, Smite waits on the ramp to the ship with two stealthed bodyguards, Defias Blackguards.

• Deal with the bodyguards first, or have a mage polymorph one while the tank holds Smite. Left alone, they keep hitting the group during his stuns.
• Expect the stomps at two-thirds and one-third health. Damage over time spells keep working while everyone is stunned.
• One trick: pull Smite well down the dock, away from his weapon chest. After each stomp he has to walk back to the chest, which gives the group time to heal and kill the guards. With enough damage over time on him, he can even die on the way.
• Stunning him right before each threshold and pushing his health past it can avoid a stomp.

Loot

Smite drops one of his weapons.

Smite's Mighty Hammer is the prize: a rare two-handed mace with a large Strength bonus.

Quests

No quest asks for Mr. Smite. He stands between the group and the ship, where Captain Greenskin and VanCleef wait; VanCleef's head is the goal of The Defias Brotherhood.

Trivia

• Later expansions keep joking about him. A tauren named Yorik Sharpeye in Pandaria drops Mr. Smite's Brass Compass, a toy that turns players into the first mate, and in Hearthstone he appears as a card whose flavor text has him introduce himself as Yorik.

Later history

In Cataclysm a vision of the past shows Mr. Smite's body lying on the ramp to the ship. The 1.12 encounter returned with World of Warcraft Classic in 2019.

Sources

• Mr. Smite, Warcraft Wiki
• Deadmines (Classic), Warcraft Wiki
• World of Warcraft: Exploring Azeroth: The Eastern Kingdoms, p. 23
• WoWDB NPC, loot and quest data for patch 1.12