ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I've played quite a few characters now, and decided to run a Dwarven Berzerker. Probably my best character. I cleared practically everything except the "base". I was level 26, had 98% immunity to stuns, 18 all resist, almost 60 strength, a two hander that did 50-70 damage, Nice resists all around, virtual immunity to status effects except confusion.

I get to the last floor of dreadfall, and what do I see out of the corner of my eye? A level 33 ghoul. Then I notice that everything on this floor is level 33. I go down a hallway and get bumrushed by 3 invisible ghost things that go through walls, teleport away, they follow. Burn all cooldowns, their number increases to SEVEN! Try teleport again, stone walking, still fail.

k, go in with some massive armor to take that group out that was now isolated. Still very good resists and saves. Bump into the master, he's level 36.

So in short, after killing everything the game had offered me up to that point, I was only level 26, while EVERYTHING on the final floor magically decided to be level 33, and the boss level 36. I used every evasion, move speed boost, two teleports, (had boots), and I just couldn't get away because of the deadliness of all the mobs.

What did I do wrong? How do I handle an entire floor of monsters seven levels above me when I can't level anymore? I just felt like I couldn't win at that point, that nothing up until then, all that prep, mattered at all.

Stuff on the top floor of Dreadfell should be about 9 levels stronger than stuff on the bottom, so that part's probably WAD. As for the invisible ghost things, it sounds like you've just had your first encounter with the Dreadmaster, a horrible invisible monster that summons other horrible invisible monsters that all curse you with massive cooldowns. They may be rare, but they can be so brutal that experienced players keep some way of dealing with them prepared, just in case.

In your case, what you needed was some way of fighting invisible (or, rather, perma-stealthed) foes. Weapon attacks have a (1-in-3?) chance of missing outright against them. The Perfect Strike talent can ignore this restriction, as can two artifacts: The Withering Orbs and the Spectral Blade (and the Unerring Scalpel, but that's no help to a Berserker). Otherwise, you need a pretty decent see stealth score to stand a chance against Dreadmasters, which might not fit very well into your build.

Of course, non-weapon attacks work on Dreads just fine, but you don't have a lot of options there as a Berserker.

Thank you for the info. I had the withering orbs necklace, and used it too. My first experience with the dreadlords though, so I died unprepared. Looking back at the master fight, I believe I got a little unlucky with some of my teleports, and the geometry of the room wasn't that great. I'm glad to know its normal that the enemies will be that much higher.

I guess a combination of bad luck and inexperience with that enemy type got me. I do enjoy the risk of death nature as it forces you to really focus on defense and gets you away from the glass cannon mindset, but I just did so well that game and got crushed so utterly. Oh well, back to it with a different class.

Dreadmasters are pretty horrible depending on class and on how quickly you notice them. I generally go into dreadfall around level 20, because I find things easier then.

You can always get more experience.
It is also very important to know when to walk (run) away.