Boss ran before I ever saw him

[Wavicle]

I just got Mission Failed on the mission "Defeat Archon Archon Leery and his guards" from Lorenzo DiCosta.

Yes, the boss's name is incorrect, but that's not what I'm posting about.

 

This is a mission where you have to stop the boss from escaping, thing is he started running BEFORE I ever saw him! The mission failed without me so much as laying eyes on the boss. In fact he started running before I had even OPENED THE DOOR to his room! HE opened the door himself and ran away!

[srmalloy]

Whenever I get this mission, or one of the small number of similar 'stop the boss from escaping' missions set in an office map, I always stop after exiting the elevator on the top floor, move about 20' or so up the corridor (a bit more for melee characters), and watch the chat window for the boss to exclaim how he can't be caught. Five to fifteen seconds later, he'll pop around the corner at a run, and I will start feeding him holds, immobilizes, and knockback to keep him from getting past me. Once he's down, then I can go find out wherever it was that he started his run from and clear that room.

 

The exception to this is the warehouse mission where you have to stop Draco (Family boss) from escaping; the game will often give you a map that has two routes to the back room — or at least looks like it does; this map will have the square room with eight alcoves in the corners (either the two elevated cubicle areas and conveyors all over, or the rows of shelving in the middle of the room). What I've found here is that the 'left' path doesn't actually connect to the back room, but you can't tell that without zooming way in, so Draco will always run down the right path. You just need to clear your way slowly towards the back until you hear him panic and start to run, then plant yourself and wait for him to appear, then burn him down. Same technique as above, just a slightly different application.

[starro]

i agree on following the chat bubbles and sometimes you spend more time watching for the trigger and reading the story goes out the window.  I would lose on missions where that happened too and all I did was show up.

 

If I had my magic wand and could insert game code I would have a glowing circle and call it "STAND HERE FOR KEY EVENT TO LAUNCH" and mission owner would go to that spot to make the event kick off / key dialogue before the villain runs away.  Give or take some provisions to prevent exploit or hanging the mission.  

 

Glad I was not the only one that experienced this