shadowmaw kicks like a truck

[Smeagolheart]

so I'm strolling along in normal and meet this thing and three bites and dead. He hits harder than anything I've seen before in several games, perhaps he's unbalanced. Anyone else run into him and have him ruin your day?

[Iroh]

yeah, i did. In a cave not far after Delphi. He was lvl 21, in an area of the game that is way lower than that. Me thinks his level is a bug or he's not suppose to spawn there. Only time in many years of TQ I've ever had to move on and leave a mob behind lol.

[Skeleton Mage]

Sounds like one of the suprise challenge heros that randomly spawn - I rember getting slaughtered by some random rare spawn skeleton hero in the blink of en eye.

[Smeagolheart]

yeah I ran into him in the cave near delphi

[Justice]

Me too...I eventually widdled him down, but yeah he hits mega-hard! And he kept summoning those shadowstalkers lol. Difficulty-wise he was just below Alastor for Act I imo.

[LEGACY]

Shadowmaw was the first enemy like this I encountered. At that time I thought it must be a bug, just like you did. Wrong level or placed in the wrong area or something. But nope.
I've ran into many more enemies like this since. I was level 12 when i ran into Shadowmaw, I ran into many more enemies like him that were many levels above me, up to 17 levels above me. And I'm not rushing at all, I may even be above the average level for the area I'm in as I'm stopping sometimes to run a boss several times for some extra loot.

So, no. It's not a bug. This new anniversary version added several Hero monsters that are just as tough, if not tougher than actual bosses.

I've even ran into a named obelisk ghost spawner. A huge version of the obelisk that normally spawns 4 ghost skeletons. But now it was spawning unlimited lightning ghosts.

It's fun, I like it. They are totally optional. They aren't always there either. It added some much needed difficulty to normal. And some more content for epic and legendary.

[Jet Uppercut]

I had a hilarious encounter earlier today with a lv20-something flaming Hero Skeleton that shot out fire novas. It was buffed by a Skelly Captain or Guardian I can't remember. Had 1.2k HP and 40% fire resist, Phantom Striked him for all but a sliver of his HP and got hit for my entire health bar in one go. Won't be rushing into those guys again.

[Sirius]

Yes.

I also assume it's not a bug. It's a feature.
Makes things interesting. Plus, maybe, give a reason to come back later.
Edit: Or sweat and chuck potions and do it the hard way of course.

[Skeleton Mage]

I don't grind but I follow one simple rule:
If it moves I'm going to kill it.

With my current character any trash mob that wonders close gets melted by trance of wrath and if I want it dead now distort reality will say hello for me.

The only thing that I need to pay any real attention to are hero's and bosses - mostly because they have more health and may have some unexpected tricks - or unexpected lag spikes.

[Wattouat]

Do damage>reset aggro> do damage> reset aggro.... with pots at will, ezpz

[hedgewitch]

Killed me twice yesterday--glad to hear it wasn't all my juggernaut's fault I was virtually one-shotted (ie fire immunity) cuz nothing I did phased him--finally bashed him to death on the third rebirth, chugging potions like crazy. I agree with the poster above--painful as it is, I do like the idea that sometimes you may meet something you can't handle--life is like that, and it adds to the challenge, imo.

[Vio]

The thing is that you only meet it when you feel adventurous and go explore some dark cave off the main path.

[Lukavia]

Killed him...lvl 12 with 70 pots lol :)

[Skeleton Mage]

Fighting it now and I see what you mean.
It hits hard, has a flame surge attack, some sort of aura & can summon shadow creatures.
keeps you on your toes at least.
...and killed it at level 12 with two deaths, the only deaths on this character so far.
A hunter, 0 points into str & dex and yellow & white gear.
Pics or it didn't happen ? I got screenshots.

[IRWorm]

Yup. I ran into him yesterday. Attack and reset aggro by running away and coming back wasn't getting me anywhere (having a level 13 sage with some fairly good gear). So I ran, ported, and bought a scroll of ice nova to slow him down and get some damage done. Came back and Shadowmaw laughed at my ice nova. Ported away again and bought storm witches. This time they wittled away at him while I ran around like a sage with my head cut off, dropping a storm of my own now and then. It took a while but that did the trick. No deaths.

[Skeleton Mage]

It could be killed at level one wth a bow or staff and a serious amount of patience using hit & run.