You'd Think I'd Know Better, Part XXVIII

Sometimes, it's better to just come right out and admit it.

I got smashed by a boss that's 29 levels lower than me.

You'd think that I'd know better, particularly since I've had this happen before with instance and heroic bosses (old SWTOR 4 man heroics and Age of Conan 6 person heroics), but nooo... I don't learn.

This is what I prefer to call The WoW Effect, where in WoW a non-raid boss simply stops being a threat once you get, oh, 15 levels or so higher than that boss. As any one of my top level WoW toons, I used to crash the low level instances I never got a chance to pop up on the LFG menu, such as Scholomance or Stratholme.* On Neve and Tomakan, I farmed Magister's Terrace until I finally got Exalted with the Shattered Sun. As Azshandra on L90, I farmed the Pit of Saron until that blasted Battered Hilt dropped so I could do the Quel'delar quest line.

But try to do that sort of thing with other MMOs, and you're likely to run into trouble.

There's a boss in the upper 20s area of Conall's Valley in Age of Conan that I've yet to beat. He's a Ymirish General, and in spite of the major level difference (I'm presently L56 and he is L28), he simply hits too hard for my Barbarian to take him out. I don't have any damage mitigation that a tank does, so I get the full effect of this Ymir's hits. Sorry, Charlie, but AoC doesn't allow me to simply outlevel a boss to the point where his hits don't cause damage. Regular enemies can still hit --at a greatly reduced rate-- but bosses don't get that treatment.

The thing is, I've known about the Age of Conan boss limitation for (primarily) solo players for a while now. But I wasn't expecting a similar situation on LOTRO.

***

The instance in question is The Tomb of Elendil in Annuminas** that I've had in my quest queue for a long time now. I'm starting Part III of the Epic Questline, and so when I reached Tinnudir to talk to a certain Ranger, I figured I really ought to do something about that questline. I'd read up on it and knew that the final boss takes forever and a day to beat down if you attempt it solo, so I figured my L69 Champion could handle it, as it's an instance for L40.

Well, the first thing I discovered is that yes, if enough mobs beat on you that you can die to them in the instance. If you've done the instance, the first main room straight ahead I got rid of one mob, then attempted to take out a single elite by the door.

That was my first mistake.

That elite runs into the middle of the room and then aggros everything left in the room on me. With about a half dozen DoTs on me plus about 15 enemies, I died fairly quickly. I respawned and reentered the instance, then spent about 5 minutes slowly beating up the individual mobs before tackling that elite again.

I shook my head, grumbled something, and continued onward.

Taking note of any of that type of elite throughout the rest of the dungeon crawl really slowed down my progression into the tomb, and made this instance into a full clear. I wasn't taking any chances, so that turned what I felt would be 1/2 hour run to the final boss into an hour, including resting to heal up and recharge my Power bar.

I reached the ending of the instance, which the questline said to find the maguffin, and I stealthed on over (I'm an Elf and can pull that off without being a Burglar) and kept trying to click on the maguffin.

No dice.

I unstealthed and let the intro to the final boss fight begin. "So much for being clever", I thought.

Then the final boss started hitting and drawing adds.

I went from full health to 50% in nothing flat, and I started cursing up a blue streak as I realized I was NOT going to be able to take this boss out.

The youngest mini-Red wandered over, looked over my shoulder, and said "Ooo... That's bad."

I unclenched the mouse and massaged my right hand. I hadn't realized I'd had the thing in a death grip. "No kidding. I'd figured that being 29 levels higher than this thing would be enough, but I guess not."

"Well, that explains the cussing."

"Gee, thanks."

At least my wife wasn't around, otherwise she'd think that I'd come down with a sudden case of Tourettes Syndrome.

***

Games such as LOTRO still surprise me, even though I've been playing MMOs for over seven years now. A lot of times they're good surprises, such as finding a twist in a storyline that really sucks you in, or the background scenery looking so majestic all by itself. But this, this is one of the nasty surprises. It's a kick in the pants that says, "You don't know everything, so you'd better stay cautious."

I'd better remember that about life, too.





*There was one memorable LFG run into Blackrock Depths that began in the intro area, and everybody decided to stick together to do a full run of the place. It took us about 1.5 to 2 hours, but it was an incredibly fun ride.

**For the Tolkien fanatics, yeah I know, Elendil isn't buried there. And yes, I know where he's actually buried (it's provided in Unfinished Tales). That is even referenced in the questline, so the devs definitely did their homework putting this in place.