Lord mardrom (please read)

[ilhanna]

Well, the first thing you want to do is look at the level requirements for the dead city expansion......... The dead city campaign is meant for characters who are lv14 - lv21, which means you should be at lv21 before challenging the final dead city expansion map & boss (some of the more skilled players can easily beat him before they reach lv21 but, for the average, lv21 or higher is more suitable for battling him). As far as gear goes, at that level, the average player should not really have a problem being adequately geared enough to battle him so, it basically winds down to being appropriately leveled and/or having a good enough team to get through the battle.

I've cleared Dead City solo on my level 16 mage before. This alt is geared in whatever legendary and epics I looted from chests and mobs (Permapress armor, Mystic Satin helm, Dark Hole Brutality staff, some epic ring and amulet, no jewel, and Ethyl as pet). After reading this post, I went back there. Found myself sharing map with a level 16 rogue and level 17 warrior. We went up to boss floor, no problem. Got in, used the back-against-wall tactic, killed boss and mages, nobody died (the warrior never budged from the entrance). I was using fireball, frost bolt, timeshift and lightning (no shield, no heal).

After that, just for the fun of it, I went to Kraken Isles. I didn't have the quest, which was given at level 19, but I could go in.

Here's what I found out: when STS said they nerfed Kraken Isles they weren't kidding. I could go up all the way to Bloodhammer in Skull Cove, soloed all the bosses and got the achievements.

In a way, I think this is a great idea to keep undergeared lower level players progressing without much frustration.

On the other hand, I think what makes these lower level maps hard for new players is mostly experience gap. I mean, for endgamers who have run the maps on elite level, running them with low level, undergeared toons might pose no problem, because we've been through worse in the elites (elite Kraken Isles at cap 36 was a nightmare). Chances are by the time we've reached cap level, we might have learned enough about our chosen class to know what build is most efficient. And over time we have learned some tactics that might help (I wouldn't have been stumped with normal Bloodhammer for so long if I had known that he has an attack that drains my HP and heals himself). Anyway, in a sense these horror stories of crazy hard bosses on low level maps are part of a learning process. Guilds, forums, friends might advise, guide and help when things get really hard, but when you're new you can't learn the meaning of triumph if everything is handed out to you easy and painless.