06-02-2004, 08:40 AM
In my experience, any time you go into a cave or mine solo, you had better be willing to make some corpse runs, even if you are several levels higher than the mobs. Skull rock is not exceptional in this regard, but the fact that every enemy is a caster and has a minion can make it even more difficult. But in general, there is just a lot that can go wrong in these areas, and good play can't account for all of them. One of the biggest problems is respawns. When all of the monsters are up and you are working your way in, it is often possible to lure them in a manageable manner. But if you have to deal with respawns, it becomes almost impossible to ensure that nothing respawns on top of you while you are already in a deep fight. And if it happens, you will have no place to run because your retreat has been blocked off by the respawns.
Goldtooth is a great example of how screwed up things can get. Every single time I've attempted the Goldtooth quest (and I've completed this quest with probably 10 different characters), I've suffered multiple deaths. And that is often with characters who are in the level 10-12 range, while the mobs in the mine are more like 6-8. This is supposed to be a newbie quest! The geomancers are very dangerous, but they end up getting trained all over the place screwing up their positioning. You get kobolds randomly spawning/reappearing not one at a time, but in waves of 3 or 4. And of course you always have to deal with respawns, because Goldtooth has always already been killed by the last party/player to successfully find him.
Goldtooth is a great example of how screwed up things can get. Every single time I've attempted the Goldtooth quest (and I've completed this quest with probably 10 different characters), I've suffered multiple deaths. And that is often with characters who are in the level 10-12 range, while the mobs in the mine are more like 6-8. This is supposed to be a newbie quest! The geomancers are very dangerous, but they end up getting trained all over the place screwing up their positioning. You get kobolds randomly spawning/reappearing not one at a time, but in waves of 3 or 4. And of course you always have to deal with respawns, because Goldtooth has always already been killed by the last party/player to successfully find him.