Last night was very educational, especially when it comes to 'you have zero chance against a mob that is 10+ levels above you'. My brother and I were cleaning out minotaur slavers in their cave in Steamfont when the Minotaur Lord popped at one of the slaver placeholders (spawn points). Now, we have no trouble taking on the slavers, they're only lvl 9-13 or something like that, but a Minotaur Lord is a level 28-31 and lower level players then have to convince an upper level player to come kill the Minotaur Lord so we can go on our happy way killing the slavers for experience.

Unfortunately, there were no high level players in the zone willing to come and take care of the nasty beast (actually Allan a upper level druid was there but was staying out of local business, I think he was doing ports to the druid ring). Basically I was the next biggest in the zone, a pair of level 14 players (my brother and Kondessa a gnome warrior) and a few level 11s then a bunch of players under level 5. Kondessa got the bright idea of trying to overwhelm it with multiple lower players to see if we could take it out. Well, pretty soon we had 4 fools pacing out front of the caves or getting their binds updated while we discussed strategy and tried to recruit additional help. A level 22 just laughed at us when he zoned in and heard our planning, but didn't stick around to help.

About this point, we're thinking 'we're going to die in this encounter, no question' but it really wasn't bothering any of us (it was late and there was honor involved at this point). Sorta like those warriors in the 5th Element with their line 'for the honor' just when they decide to blow the ship up. It was quickly decided that we would roll a die for a chance to loot the corpse if we took the minotaur lord down (or got a higher level player to come help us take it down). My brother quickly named us the 'death wish group'. I figured I'd fight until me and my pet were the last one standing, then gate before it finished chewing through my pet. (Casters are usually the last to die because they stand away from the mobs.)

I managed to sign on a level 37 druid (Allan) who had never seen the mino lord and was curious (and our chances went up tremendously because Allan should be able to take the mino lord himself if things started to go bad). So we're standing around waiting for the druid to show up (he's KoS by the guards in Steamfont, so he has to be really careful, and he still managed to get zapped). All of us are playing and practicing their emotes...

Rekage prays to Brell Serillis for strength and endurance in the coming battle . again.
Kondessa gets all excited.
Kondessa hopes she doesn't die again.
Vorish wonders where the druid got to.
Kondessa hopes that she can do some good damage.
Kondessa sings the coming battle song.
Vorish plays with magic dice to pass the time.
[we were going to either draw lots to see who would be the puller or get a volunteer, Kondessa volunteered]
Vorish looks relieved at not having to be mino lord bait.
Qpdaj moons the mino lord.
Kondessa bucks up and prepares to become minotaur bait.
Qpdaj twiddles his thumbs.
Kondessa runs on the spot and does jumping jacks.
Qpdaj sprinkles salt & pepper on Kondessa.
Vorish wonders if Kondessa will enjoy the after life.
Kondessa sneezes.
Kondessa has died about 5 times today already.
Kondessa stands on her tip toes and does a dance of joy!
Kondessa cries.
Qpdaj rolls on the group in laughter.
Rekage flips open the Praying for Dummies book and turns to the section: what to do when you may die soon?
Kondessa knows that the only thing you can do is get a good 50+ character to help you get your bloody corpse back.
You tell your party, 'I can cast invis and sneak back in for the corpse run'
Kondessa tells the group, 'Woo''
Qpdaj tells the group, 'Ah, handy. I thought I might be better off going in naked'
Qpdaj tells the group, 'You know, scare factor'
Kondessa hopes she doesn't have to get naked .
Rekage snores slightly.
Qpdaj grabs hold of Vorish and begins to dance with him.
Qpdaj grabs hold of Xebn and begins to dance with it.
Rekage grabs hold of Xebn and begins to dance with it.
Qpdaj grows jealous.
Qpdaj grabs hold of Xebn and begins to dance with it.
Rekage pets the mighty mage's pet.
Qpdaj feeds the nice pet a snack.
Qpdaj wonders whether Xebn will fetch a stick.
Rekage throws a stick. and watchesas Xebn just sits there .
Vorish wishes his pet were smart enough to play fetch.
[Kondessa sweet talked the high level mage, Combo, into joining us at this point.]
Vorish is happy Combo showed up.
Kondessa cheers at Combo.
Qpdaj thinks combo's pet could beat up Vorish's pet.
Kondessa thinks that both pets are cool.
Rekage thinks that Kaser can play fetch but is too afraid to try
Vorish understands the frustration of green pets [it took me 6 trys to get even a almost-black con pet for this battle]
You say, 'Kondessa is our designated bait, um, puller'
Combo says, 'Heh'
Kondessa says, 'Haha , bait '
Kondessa knows that she is bait.
Qpdaj says, 'We've already seasoned her so the mino lord will find her tasty'

Finally around 20 after 1am we got everyone ready, Combo cast a damage shield on the melee group (a very nice DS that does 29pts at a shot) and Kondessa ran into the tunnel to pull anything she could find (there's always a slaver that pops on the way to the Minotaur Lord's spot). We made short work of the slaver and immediatley pulled the Minotaur Lord out into the open. Kondessa hit for 13 max, my pet was hitting in the low-teens, but all of my 92hp spells were completely resisted, and I'm not sure that Qpdaj or Rekage landed any blows at all (Qpdaj was basically a meat shield, taking 62 pt blows from the Minotaur Lord) but I may have been standing too far away to get their hit reports. After Qpdaj fell, Combo stepped in and let his pet take the Minotaur Lord down (his earth pet hit for 40hp per whack). After it died, we rolled a magic die to see who got to loot (I won and got a Minotaur Axe).

I think a set of low to mid 20s might be able to take the Minotaur Lord on, but everyone would need to be level 20 or higher to have a shot at it. (Maybe we'll come back in our mid-20s and see if we can't take him again.) All in all, everyone had fun even if we were out of our league and had to stand around waiting for the two higher levels to get to the battle site.

Vorish of Morell-Thule, High Elf Mage lvl 17