Back to Tûr Morva – no good deed goes unpunished

August 6th, 2012

Having lent hands and legs all over Dunland it’s time to return to Tâl Methedras and inform Lheu Brenin of your deeds and the overall situation. Except it won’t go the way it’s planned.

When you first went to Tûr Morva it was to gain the favour and support of the Falcon-clan residing therein. You and the Rangers had to do some menial work and then you were sent to scout and help throughout Dunland and bring back some news. So now you’re back. Lheu is happy to see you and right off the bat he has a new task for you. There is still the Emissary of Isengard in the jail and someone should question him. On your way to the cell you’ll meet with Lothrandir (that’s the Ranger from Forochel in case you forgot) when you get to the cell you’ll find that the Emissary is dead. „And so are you“, say the guards that were escorting you. Fortunately and as always you prove to be a better fighter and kill the guards. But you are captured nonetheless. While Lheu assures you that he likes the Rangers he cannot stand against Saruman having learned that almost all of Dunland has been taken over. And you are taken to Isengard.

This was a very interesting twist in the story and while the execution isn’t flawless I really liked it. You and Lothrandir arrive to Isengard and are handed over to the Uruks that Saruman have been breeding. One in particular, Morflak, has been assigned to “take care” of you. You are taken down into the Pits where you are handed to another Uruk, Fâsh, who is overseeing the underground areas. And you are also given your personal Uruk Overseer (it’s a pet, technically) who gives you orders and “rewards”. If you didn’t like working for the Dunlendings you are not going to like working for the Uruks. Carrying barrels of weapons, cleaning slop in the kitchen over and over and killing rats (that quest is called “Kill Ten Rats”).

Now a bit to the aforementioned execution (of the captivity that is). The Pits of Isengard are basically just another quest hub, you complete quests, gain XP and so on. And while you are imprisoned you are still keeping all your gear and can even leave (though only by mapping out and returing via an item called the Reminder of Captivity). This I guess is what most people didn’t like, on the other hand stripping you of all your equipment might have been even worse. For me personally doing all those quests was enough to made me feel like a prisoner and slave. Not to be a totally worthless experience you’ll end up with a nice and shiny ragged prisoner’s outfit (with a large White Hand painted on the back). From time to time you’ll also encounter an Uruk who doesn’t particulalrly like you and attacks you (and your Overseer won’t help you), if you kill the Uruk you will get a speed buff (to Flee the Scene) that helps running around the Pits, it stacks with other buffs so if you’re a Warden you’ll run really, really fast.

Of course our story cannot end in the Pits. While doing the slave work a task takes us to the dungeons where Baldgar, a man from Rohan, is imprisoned but since you are guarded you cannot speak with him, yet. And you got better things to do anyway – you are being taken into the Tower for questioning. The Uruks don’t dare to go deep inside though and so you can do a bit of exploring before meeting with Saruman. It looks great inside. Anyway, questioning: Saruman wants you to stop whatever foolish things you have been pursuing until now, join him in his glorious mission and tell him everything about the Ring (not that you can, I don’t think our characters have ever been told about it). Saruman’s voice is compelling but you are able to resist it. And here comes another surprise – Gun Ain enters the scene, having fled Forochel she somehow joined Saruman (hers were the foot tracks you have found at Tâl Methedras) and is now really happy to have found you and Lothrandir, though she cannot hurt either of you yet. Since the questioning didn’t go as planned you are sent back to the Uruks but having proven yourself you are now going to serve directly under Morflak (though still being overseen by his lackey) and on the surface where the Sun occasionally shines. Even the work gets better – you are to remind some Uruks that who is the boss (Morflak is) which means killing them and killing Uruks is always fun. Then there is picking some food and helping with the construction of siege weapons to which is dedicated a large part of the surface. After that it’s back underground, but this time while bringing “food” to the dungeons you are able to speak with Baldgar, he points out there is another prisoner in the cell next to him, Acca, former servant of Saruman, who claims to know some secrets about Isengard.

But first Acca tells you his story – which happens to be a session play as Grima Wormtongue: you find yourself in Isengard while it still was a garden and trees were growing everywhere. First you witness a meeting between Saruman and Radagast and then it skips ahead to the arrival of Gandalf and his capture. Acca felt sorry for Gandalf and brought him some extra food. You (i.e. Grima) witnessed this and while Acca asked you not to tell you can guess what happened. Grima went straight to Saruman and Acca ended up in prison. Obviously he’s not happy with that. He tells you about a secret a way from the Ring of Isengard and Baldgar provides another part of the plan to escape. Saruman has been experimenting with explosives and since Uruks aren’t good on keeping stuff in order you can snatch some leftovers from around. The explosives are to be put under a great siege weapon to create a distraction. Next thing is to obtain keys from the jailor and then it’s up to the surface. Unfortunately you cannot rescue Lothrandir as he is likely kept in the Tower. On the surface, having nowhere to go anyway Acca volunteers to set off the explosives. Nothing seems to happen though. When you go investigating you’ll find angry Morflak standing over Acca’s body. All is not lost however and while you are keeping the Uruk occupied Baldgar goes to finish Acca’s task. And then it all fades to black.

You wake up in Gravenwood which is as far as Baldgar was able to carry you. While you made it out of Isengard this was the end for him. You leave his body and make it back to the Rohirrim camp where some of the Rangers were able to escape from Tûr Morva. Saeradan is glad to see you alive and briefs you on the situation. Not many have escaped, Radanir had returned but Braigiar fell while the two of them were fighting their way out. (Braigiar was one of Golodir’s company, you could have met him in Gabilshathûr, the Dwarven city in Angmar). After you recover from inprisonment it is time to return to Tûr Morva for the third time and exact some well deserved revenge. You are joined by Théodred and a few of his men, the Ranger Radanir and Seren, old Dunlending woman who has been expelled from the Falcon-clan. Before striking the village directly some preparations need to be made. Some of the Rohirrim went scouting and didn’t return so they need to be found, one of them went to the western shore of the lake – you know, to the place where you put all those traps. Ouch. The other you find lying on the ground near the village, poisoned. There’s also some provision stealing and Dunlending killing. And also recovering Braigiar’s body – once you find him Théodred appears and carries him out of the village himself. After you’ve done all the work there is one last task – defeat the champions of the village, the ones you yourself helped train. Of course you didn’t teach them all the tricks. Finally it is time to raid the village and rescue the prisoners. Freeing is successful, killing Lheu Brenin not so much. The Dunlendings still outnumber you and if you’d killed him you wouldn’t have made it out alive. And you cannot pursue them either as the tunnels beneath the village go far and deep and the Dunlendings know them better than you.

And so ends one of the best and the longest of Epic Books which started in Enedwaith and took you through Dunland. After that a new one starts: the Rangers do once again part ways with you, they are very thankful for all you have done but they’ll send you to help Théodred while they try to make the way south. As a reward you will get a full Ranger outfit (either the standard white/green or the Grey Company pieces). Even though you say farewell you will meet two of the Rangers again in the Gap of Rohan. Nonetheless it is time to leave Dunland behind and enter the Gap of Rohan.

Next time: Heathfells

Gravenwood – or how to run out of Tasks

June 6th, 2012

Alright, RoR launch has been announced (September 5th) and I will make sure I am done with Dunland and hopefully Great River before it arrives.

Where we left – we were leaving the Warg-Riders’ camp and entering a forested area. This is Gravenwood, the last area of Dunland located in its southwestern corner. It was given that name likely because there are some trees with engravings on them though as far as I can tell there are only two of those in the entire forest. But they’re massive and kinda important so what do I know?

As you approach the forest you will spot a little camp – there you will find the Ranger Amlan whom you hand in some leftover quests from Carreglyn. In case you don’t remeber Amlan is a friend of Saeradan and before the Grey Company was mustered he used to hang out behind the entrance to the Prancing Pony leaning on a barrel. He qives the quest to slay Svalfang, the Giant that’s living near the Shire. Later on you meet him at Echad Saeradan in Enedwaith. As you might remember in Enedwaith they were dealing with Gwyllion but she escaped and the Rangers were apparently tracking her since. In Gravenwood they’ve regained her trail and also met a small group of Rohirrim led by none other than Théodred. Saeradan is with them and you are asked to meet with him but not before properly scouting the forest ahead.

You are given a whistle with which you can summon your own personal Ranger call your friend Andreg, another friend of Saeradan (he hangs around the Old Greenway Fort quite some distance north from Bree). What follows has been the bane of many a player and I am not sure if it has been solved yet to the mutual satisfaction of all. Basically you are given one quest – scout the forest. However, at certain spots Andreg will give you other quests that are completable more or less in the vicinity of that spot. Those quest are tied to a deed but if you complete the objective of the first quest you cannot advance the deed anymore (this should be fixed now). Having done Orchalwë’s Mission in Annúminas I knew what I was in for and so I’ve spent time running around the forest trying to find the trigger spots which wasn’t all that hard (and if other people are running around you can see the quest rings of their own Andregs). The quests consist of killing the local fauna like Crebain, War Hounds – I think that’s the name, they look like Cun Annun but are more furry and come in black and brown. And finally you can also kill some Orcs (granted, there were some in Starkmoor but here there is a forest full of them). You will also need to dispose of some Orc-traps and collect samples of a weird ooze that’s spreading on the forest floor. Having done this twice the most difficult part was actually doing the main quest – scouting the forest. There is a small spot in the forest you will have to find to complete this. After you discover it you should also look a bit around to find a signature hound, if you kill him he will drop a quest-starting item that you’ll take to Saeradan. His camp is more or less north of the spot.

Here you finally meet some Rohirrim along with their prince. Saeradan and Théodred are both somewhat disturbed by the forest and send you to do a bit more scouting, now you will get to see the two graven trees – the Mustering Tree and the Tree of Tribute. They hold some significance to the Dunlendings and that’s why they put some engravings on them. The Mustering tree is where their forces once mustered (suprisingly) to attack the forces of Rohan and Gondor and the Tree of Tribute is where a Dunlending hero once made a last stand to hold off the enemy forces. Not sure if those two events are supposed to be linked. Anyway, at one of the trees you will find some disturbed earth and after digging around you’ll awaken a Cuthraul of whom you will quickly dispose. Back at the camp you’re asked (for the last time, I promise) to help around as much as you can before returning to Tûr Morva which is a short distance north of the camp.

You are now sent to a darker area of the forest called the Slade of Shadows where Andreg went after parting his ways with you. The Slade of Shadows is infested with some familiar creatures from around Gwyllion’s base in Enedwaith – Cuthraul, Druggavar and Elhudan. Andreg has of course nothing better to ask of you than to kill some of those. Here I have to give props to the developer who made the Druggavar killing quest – it’s called “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep”. Not to be just a midless exterminator you’ll do a bit of investigating: in the center of the Slade stands a huge cauldron (later you’ll learn it has been saved from Dol Guldur as the White Council drove the Necromancer therefrom). Near the cauldron are some small altars marked with symbols (ox, stag, Druggavar). After you return to Andreg with your findings you will enter an instance with him. When Searadan sent you here he also gave you some tokens which bear the same marks as the altars andyou will place them on the altars, what can go wrong? Quite a lot actually. After a while Gwyllion approaches along with two other hags (they call themselves the Tribunal of Shadows). They will start a summoning ritual and a few undead will come in. You will attack them with Andreg and disrupt the ritual. The cauldron explodes but unfortunately this doesn’t go well for Andreg, he is mortally injured. With his dying words he will tell you to collect the symbols and return back to Saeradan. That marks a second death of a named Ranger of the Grey Company. On top of that Gwyllion escaped. (The other witches may or may not escape if you manage to kill them but it doesn’t affect the quest)

Saeradan is sad to hear the news and doesn’t have any more quests for you. You will now help the Rohirrim completing another circuit of sorts. Léofward (he is the only other named NPC in the camp so I guess he’s Théodred’s second-in-command or something) will send you to speak with three of his scouts: Thurbald, Elfrith and Cuthric. Thurbald is north of the camp and will send you to raid a Dragon-clan camp, Cuthric is west of Thurbald and he will send you to raid a Ox-clan camp and finally Elfrith, south east of Cuthric, will send you to raid an Orc camp. After you make the run and return to Léofward he realizes that angering the Dunlendings might not have been the brightest of ideas. They are about the attack and so the Rohirrim prepare for a last stand and you are invited (Théodred is not). This is another bane of players. The fight takes place at the Mustering Tree, after you speak with Léofward a timer starts ticking (I think it’s around 8 minutes) and enemies come pouring in. The Rohirrim are hardy folk but their AI is pretty useless, they do not seem to understand the concept of coordinated strikes (they split very often) and sometimes they seem to refuse to fight at all. They are not required to survive but the enemies are usually signatures and not every class can take the beating. My Warden didn’t have a problem but my Captain, after several attemps of trying to keep the dimwits alive, gave up and chose the coward’s way of finishing this mess. You see in the instance there is a slope out of the range of all enemies and here you can safely wait for the timer and then leave the instance. Outside of the instance you’ll find Léofward -úwho managed to survive somehow) and he gives you the last quest. A Boar-clan scout contacted him with information about Gwyllion, you will speak with the scout near Tâl Methedras and she will tell you that Gwyllion is hiding at Methedras but she doesn’t know a way up there. You return with the news to Saeradan and Léofward who informs you that they will soon need to leave this place and sends you to Isendale. This concludes almost all there is to do in Dunland, you should now return to Tûr Morva.

This wasn’t a bad zone and I kinda like forests but now I’d like explain the title of this post. The tasks in the Rise of Isengard areas are split in two – below and above level 70. However they are not split evenly when it comes to the zones. When my Captain went through Dunland he reached level 70 somewhere in Gravenwood, my Warden did it in Carreglyn. When you reach level 70 you can no longer complete the tasks in Dunland, however your enemies won’t actually drop the higher-level task items for another level or two. So while there is a taskboard at the Rohirrim camp in Gravenwood you cannot find the taks items on any of the mobs in there. Even later in Isendale half of the enemies are still of lower level so no usable task items drop from them either. That’s kind of a big hindrance if you’re planning to finish tasks daily.

Next time: Prisoner of Isengard and Storm on Methedras.

Carreglyn – The Ox-clan Circuit

April 1st, 2012

So you’ve wreaked (wroken?) havoc at Wulf’s Cleft and witnessed the defeat of the Avanc-lûth but now is time to move on.

Outside and above Wulf’s Cleft you meet with Gwîn – probably the sole survivor of the battle save for you. You part your ways and he lends you a horse to travel to Barnavon, the village of the Ox-clan in Carreglyn. As far as naming goes Carreglyn means Stone Valley (and there are rocks everywhere), Barnavon on the other hand I’m not sure about – barn means judgement or doom and avon would be river, except there isn’t one, only a small lake and a puddle.

Anyway, as I said Carreglyn is really rocky and that’s about its only quality. There are hostile Dunlendings, oxen and a Warg-rider scout every now and then – good thing about those is that they are really varied, white wargs, black wargs, striped wargs, it’s a technology Turbine seems to be really taking advantage of as of late. And there are also bugan. When you first arrive at Barnavon you’ll learn that the village is divided into Lower and Upper Barnavon. Upper Barnavon is inhabited by the Uch-lûth and as opposed to the Algraig in Enedwaith these are hostile. They are also sort of oppressing the Lower Barnavon where the remnants of the Boar-clan live. Outside the gate you’ll meet Gwilum a member of the Ox-clan who isn’t happy about what’s going on and is willing to help you if you help him first (he has already heard of your quest-completing provess). Lower Barnavon used to be patroled by hostile guards that would attack you in the most inconvenient moment like talking to an NPC but unfortunately they were removed in a later patch. In Lower Barnavon you will also find Nona who sends you to recover some bribing gold from the inhabitants of Upper Barnavon (Saruman pays well). After the deed is done you’ll be given a necklace and for a while you’ll leave Nona to her business since after helping as much as you can you are to meet with Amlan of the Grey Company.

But back to Gwilum: you’ll be given one quest that introduces a sort of circular design of zone-completion (hence the name of the post). You’re sent to travel around Carreglyn to find some clues as to why there are so many Warg-riders around lately. You’ll “circumnavigate” around the sort of central hill with a watch-tower on top and at each spot that you’ll scout more quests will pop. First you go to a puddle-sized lake called Avanc Lhun (the Avanc lake). You won’t find anything warg-rider-related but a shiny chain will catch your eye. You pull the chain and a big Avanc will come out of the lake. You’ll quickly dispatch it and continue along the road. Then you will come to the Barnavon Mine which is the only “hub” beside Barnavon where men of the Boar-clan have been sent to work. As you arrive you’ll notice the men are scared – the mine has been invested by the bugan, the hobbit-looking goblins from Enedwaith, you can tell they are not hobbits as some of them seem to be genuinely doing some work. You are sent into the mine for various tasks including gathering broken tools, mining ore, finding lost miners and of course killing the bugan. Unfortunately the miner seeking isn’t as fun as it may sound. The missing miners are deep within the mine and to rescue them you have to escort them to the exit one by one while the bugan keep respawning (and if someone else grabs a lost miner you’ll have to wait a while before you can rescue him). “Fortunately” some of those miners are dead and you don’t have to rescue them. Still, avoiding the bugan isn’t really an option and the mine will really make you hate them, on the plus side you’ll end up with many task items. Once you’re finally outside you need to gather some herbs to cure the wounded miners. The herbs grow around Hen Turrau, Ancient Towers, an old Gondorian watchtower that you can’t look down from either. This is also the third point to scout, once again no warg-riders but you’ll notice a heap of crates at the base of the tower. You will also notice a dead ox lying nearby, it is supposed to give you the idea that maybe the inhabitants of Barnavon would like some meat. You slay some cows, gather some herbs and return to the mine. You are thanked by the lead miner for you work and asked to talk with the wives of the miners back in Barnavon.

Continuing from the mine you’ll make a turn around the hill and at the northern point of the road you’ll turn north and come to a lake with a large shrine of the Ox-spirit. This is the final point to scout. You’ll notice a plaque describing some kind of ritual concerning the Ox-spirit but it requires a special sigil. Look around until you find a warg-rider, kill him and recover the sigil, he may also drop a piece of carved treebark, the sign that the Warg-riders are in league with the Dunlendings. Back at the shrine you will perform the ritual and Munfaeril, one of the servants of the Huntsman from Enedwaith, will appear. She is displeased with what’s going on in Barnavon and asks you to remind the leader, Madin Brenin, how to behave. The leader doesn’t believe you the least and you have no choice but to kill him and almost kill his son before he banishes you from Barnavon (or at least the upper part thereof). Back in the lower part you’ll meet with Gwilum and return a good amount quests, you’ll then talk with the relatives of the miners and call some more miners to the mine so that the clan doesn’t suffer the wrath of their overseer.

For the final part of your adventures in Barnavon you’ll return to Upper Barnavon to kill some of the high-ranked officials, free some hostages (no escorting this time), gather some food and burn some supplies, the usual stuff. Upon returning and distributing the food you are ready to leave. Gwilum gives you some final tasks concerning the Warg-riders – kill goblins, kill Wargs, gather orders, kill the leader of the Warg-riders. You will find the goblin camp in the northern part of Carreglyn. These quests will auto-complete and after you finish them all you will have to find Amlan who is nearby at the borders of the Gravenwood forest.

Carreglyn is probably the dullest of the areas. There are enough quests but basically you complete them in one big run around the area and it feels short. The fact that there is nothing to look at apart from rocks and hills doesn’t help either. But some area always has to be the worst I guess. Next time – Gravenwood, the last area in Dunland.

Back from the dead

March 30th, 2012

Well, you’ve probably noticed I’m not making any updates. Two reasons for that – one, I got exams from mid-January to mid-February. Two – my old laptop died and went to silicon heaven. I did not lose any data or anything but I wasn’t able to access those either. The data being primarily LotRo screesnhots. Well, now everything is fine – I got a new laptop, and I shall try to continue from where I left off. The next post will be about Barnavon and it should be out during the weekend.

Me and my new outfit

Dunbog – the zoo of Dunland

November 28th, 2011

Don’t you love swamps? Well I can’t I say I’d particularly like them but they seem to be the least used biome which I think makes me glad to see them once in a while. Last one we had was Drownholt in Mirkwood and that was after a rather long drought, there isn’t one in Enedwaith and obviously neither in Lothlórien or Moria (though the Black Pool in front of the Western Gate might count).

Dunbog is one such swamp, located in the southwestern corner of Dunland and somewhat isolated from the rest. The scenery isn’t that interesting (it is a bog after all) but the area is home to very diverse animals some of which we haven’t seen for a while. There are frogs – those small ones that come in groups not those elefant-sized LSD-infused Moria creatures, there are blinding swarms of flies – well, blinding clouds of swamp gas that can move – and there are gredbyg. And that’s just the “small” animals, after those there are turtles, slugs (I think we haven’t seen those since Carn Dûm) and our new favourite – avanc (and these do Acid damage instead of Shadow). Interestingly there are no evil Dunlendings though given the environment one has to wonder how the good ones prevent being eaten. And also there are no Neekerbreekers.

We arrive here searching for the lost boy Mabon but the story-line completely vanishes once we start speaking to people. (Don’t worry though the story of Mabon and even his father Andras will get resolved). We also came here looking for Nona but she doesn’t find swamps all that interesting and leaves us behind while she travels further east into Carreglyn. The isolated area of Dunbog is home to even more isolated Avanc-lûth, clan of the Avanc and as I said before they are the good guys despite worshiping a good-for-nothing reptile with massive jaws. They live in a village called Lhan Rhos (Moor Village) built upon piers in the middle of the bog. The first quests deal with killing all the various animals and fetching various herbs and body parts from the aforementioned animals. From the interesting quests I’d pick one that introduces a somewhat new mechanic you might see further down the road.

On your way through the area you might encounter one particular Dunlending named Gwin. You’ll find him sitting resting in the middle of a pile of about a dozen dead avanc which he keeps casually slaying (by turning his ordinary fighting skill into extraordinary fighting skills, it’s that simple!). Unfortunately he broke his sword and we need to get him a new one. The blacksmith in the village is however aware of his avanc-slaying habit and doesn’t really want to make him a new sword since he broke quite a few already. Gwin being left with his two bare hands accepts the challenge. Later on were tasked to slay Bloodmaw the mother of all avanc in the area (who resides in some old ruins nearby). Since Gwin is in kind of your debt you may summon him to aid you in this quest. Now to the new-ish mechanic, Gwin emanates an aura that increases your in-combat regeneration (and that’s it but the aura is stackable and you will see many similar auras especially on enemies near Isengard).

There is also another set of quests where you are helping the Turch-lûth, the Boar clan. Technically the Boar clan has been eradicated some time ago but those of the Dunlendings who openly resist Saruman have decided to take their colors as a sign of their revolt and renew the clan. Anyway, there is one enemy in the Dunbog I haven’t mentioned yet – rats. Okay, two enemies. There are Abominations. These are Orcs and Trolls (and Dunlendings) that have been experimented upon by Saruman – presumably as he was trying to find the Uruk-hai “gene” or something. The Abominations live in Lhan Colvarn (Village of the Condemned) in the north of Dunbog where there even some trees. Lhan Colvarn used to be Lhan Rhos but then Saruman came returning the Abominations to the village he took people from and the Avanc-lûth were forced to relocate. After killing and investigating inside the village you will find yourself in an instance with three of the Turch-lûth (each giving a different aura) with the intent of Ending the Nightmare. At the end of the instance you can actually choose the ending – you can either slay the leader (a troll named Knotfist) or leave the Abominations alone since they are/were people too. And you will either get a nice cloak depicting you and an abomination or the same but bloody and torn (I went for the clean one but my Warden sure won’t show any mercy to those creatures).

After that you are to gather people outside of Lhan Rhos to an assembly. You need to find scouts and hunters whom you’ve probably already met and also protectors of the Glade. You see there is place called the Pristine Glade which is similar to Imlad Gelair or Gwindethrond (the Blue lady’s cave in Evendim), a nice shiny hidden place. In the middle of it there is a huge tree and around are smaller tress, waterfalls and maybe even rainbows (my graphics don’t run that high for me to know), things don’t go that well though since Saruman’s half-orcs have found a way in and are attacking scouts at the borders (I think the scouts are at least Defenders and they take down any enemy in a few blows, which makes me think the Glade isn’t in much danger). During the Assembly it is mentioned what you did or didn’t do with the Abominations but the final result is that the Avanc-lûth will go to war.

There is one last thing to do and that is a trip to Durgors, a fishing village of the Boar clan near a river – the same river that flows from Thrór’s Coomb in Enedwaith along the northern border of Nan Laeglin and then turns south through Gloomglens into Dunland and the same river that flows near the Wulf’s Cleft encampment. Seeing the village one might think the newfound members of the Boar-clan movement are taking things a little too far, one lady in particular is seen giving bath to a boar but who am I to judge. You’ll need to gather some driftwood to make oars but then you’re ready to undertake the famous raid at Wulf’s Cleft – The Tusks of the Boar (unfortunately the boat-travel is still done through a loading screen).

The instance is quite fun though for the most part quite easy. At the start you will select four soldiers to accompany you (again, auras) and then you’ll go through a burning camp burning stuff that isn’t on fire yet while other parties battle their own way through. The enemies you encounter are I think even Swarm so they go down rather quickly. I was quite impressed by the feel of combat being all around though. At the end however the raid and the Avanc-lûth are destined to fall and you will bravely retreat on a horse. The horse will actually take you almost through the entire camp while they are fights still going on. Once outside you will meet with Gwin who will thank you for seeing them through it and thus ends your questing in Dunbog (I was level 69 and a half at the end).

Well, almost ends. Once you’re level 75 (or a few levels below) you can partake in a repeatable instance that takes part in Dunbog (currently it just gives reputation but with Update 5 it will reward you with some nice looking legendary scrolls). This is a fishing instance and introduces even more animals into the area. You are accompanied by Franis who is an excellent guide but no warrior so he won’t help you kill a thing. The quests consist of simply killing everything around a particular pool then fishing in it (which is supposed to make you find some old relic) and then fighting a bigger version of the animals you just killed (which will drop the relic, apparently they are delicious). There are avanc, slugs, turtles and then elhudan and bog-guardians. It wasn’t bad although of course you must know how to fish, which even if you forgot to do on your way here isn’t such a problem since there is a hobby master in pretty much every village in Dunland. I have to say I really liked Dunbog, the area is swampy, the quests are simple and all but the story flows nice and the last quest makes a really good ending. The Dunlending are even trying to raise environmental awareness: “To hunt turtles we must protect turtles. Fetch me some turtle eggs!”

Next stop: Carreglyn

Tâl Methedras and Starkmoor – detour to an auction

November 11th, 2011

So, there was this con and also I had to prepare for an exam, so much for the delay. In unrelated news I dinged 75 the day before yesterday just as I entered the Ring of Isengard (for the last time probably).

Anyway I promised a post so here goes, the first area is short in terms of content so I’ve decided to put it together with the next one.

Tâl Methedras

This area is situated below Misty Mountains far to the east of Galtrev (you’ll be crossing some higher level territory on your way there), it’s also the only area the name of which is Sindarin and save for the Rangers one of the very few things that have a Sindarin name in the entire region (the next one is Dol Baran in the Gap and I can’t remember anything else), the name means Foot of the Last peak since it stands on the slopes of the same mountain that is towering above Isengard – Methedras, the last peak of the Misty Mountains. The area is quite small, instanced (in the sense of the Mirkwood landing area) and devoted entirely to the progression of the Epic book. It consists mostly of the village of Tûr Morva -partially built on some old Gondorian ruins, a small lake and a farther shore thereof.

Tûr Morva (Marsh tower) is home to the Hebog-lûth, the Falcon clan and the Rangers are hoping this clan will make good allies. We and the Grey Company do however need to prove ourselves before the Dunlendings. At every corner of the village you’ll see a Ranger helping or at least talking to the Dunlendings – Halbarad is carrying buckets of water, Braigiar is cutting down wood, Golodir is tending to an orchard and Radanir is working with the oxen (and their manure), he is not pleased. You’ll also see Elrond’s sons but they are just standing around. There are tasks for us as well – gather some wood, fight some Dunlendings (to test their prowess and to teach them how we roll in the North), treat some skins, etc. There is one nice quest that is different for every race – if you’re a Hobbit, a Dwarf or an Elf you will speak with some Dunlendings who more or less want to learn about you. If you’re a Man you will bring news of Anirin to his mother and wife who were worried about him (Anirin is the Dunlending you’ve rescued from Lhaid Ogo in the previous book, he came from this very village). As a reward you’ll get a book which is a clickable item that gives a buff: mine is called “For Honour, Duty and Love” and gives +20 Will and +2% incoming healing (it basically offsets racial passive traits and enhances other stuff). The buff lasts fro an hour and the item has twelve-hour cooldown.

Some of the quests send you across the lake and this is where all the animals are hiding, you’ll see oxen and toads (both passive) and also a new type of mob – avanc, a big lizard based on some Welsh legends and looking nothing like the reptiles we’ve seen so far. They can stun, bruise (+50% incoming damage for a few seconds) and “embed a tooth” into you (DoT). They also have some impressive jaws and this is why you’re catching them, apparently the jaws make for good traps. The toads I mentioned earlier produce some strong venom and you are asked to gather some of it. When you return to the NPC he immediately licks it to test it: “That’s what we needed … oh boy, I’m feeling weak … go … find a healer”. If it were a Hobbit I would understand but he’s a Dunlending and he should know better not lick things, well, at least we know the venom will work. Once you make traps from the avanc-jaws you are sent back to set them up – something has been creeping around the shore. I was expecting that I’ll stick around to catch whatever was there but not this time, you set the traps and return to the NPC without any follow up quest to be given (though there will be a follow-up later). You’ll also get a stack of five avanc-jaw traps that are usable by any class (I still got mine).

After helping the village here and there you’ll check on a prisoner – an emissary from Isengard – you don’t get much from him except that you should not trust the clan. Then you’re sent back into Dunland to check on other clans and come back later with the news. Onward to Starkmoor.

Starkmoor

This area lies a little southwest from Dunland and as far as animals go there is nothing new in here (oxen, wolves and wargs), it is a land of herders and traders. If you’re returning from Tûr Morva you’ll make a stop in Galtrev and you’ll be asked to find Wadu’s ghost near Galtrev – it’s Nona of course, she’ll tell you to meet her in Starkmoor later. On your way to Starkmoor you’ll discover a wrecked cart and its owner, Andras. Your first quests are to recover what has been dragged away by the Draig-lûth. Their camp is right below the tall Gondorian tower that you can see from almost everywhere (and that you cannot climb). After that you are to check on Andras’ little son, Mabon, near his homestead. At the homestead you will also find Nona, who has you checking on the homestead itself before traveling further south and leaving you behind to once again “help as much you can”. Andras wanted to sell some goods in an auction to pay his debts but what you recovered is not enough so he sent you to fetch other stuff, you’ll go to get some carrots, hides and so on. This a similar chain to the one in Annúminas – you are given a ledger with the things that needed to be gathered, you read it and are given a quest, once you complete the objectives the quest finishes and you need to read the ledger again to get the next quest, no need to run to any NPC. After the goods are gathered (and the homestead defended from Dunlendings – thanks to the intervention of some members of the Boar clan) you will travel south to the trading post of Avardin where Andras should be waiting.

Avardin (I wasn’t able to find a suitable translation) is a rather large village with an open-air auction hall in the middle. Andras wants to attend the auction and sell his goods but he needs other people to attend too but no one seems to be willing. Turns out the people in Avardin have lost many of their goods as well (and/or have “sold” those to the war effort) and you need to go and get what you can. One merchant misses tags from his cattle that’s been dragged away by wargs (apparently in Dunland you can only own as many sheep as you have tags for), another wants to “avenge” his cattle (by slaying those wargs), another wants to make a necklace from the warg leader’s tooth and the last wants some stones to build walls around grazing grounds or something. After you help them you can attend the auction, and this is where it got interesting – Saruman showed up – and I have to say the Wizard has an interesting approach to auctions: “I bid four!”, “The White Hand bids five!”, “I bid six”, “The White Hand bids five!”, “I bid eight” … “Sold to the fine Wizard for five”. Andras of course objects to this treatment and later to the entirety of Saruman’s business in Dunland. He is invited to go to Isengard to see for himself how Saruman makes Dunland prosper and he is not seen since. Now that he’s gone and the auction didn’t go as planned Mabon inherited his father’s debt. But even the corrupt auctioneer is not happy, he sends you to go after the caravan that is carrying Saruman’s goods and retrieve some of it. After you do that he’ll send you to cause some damage in the south so that the warriors would need to buy new weapons and armour from the auctioneer. This is the first time you’ll get a glimpse on Wulf’s Cleft, a huge Dunlending encampment where warriors from Dunland have been gathered as they prepare for the war with Rohan. However you won’t go inside (snd what you’ll see is just an animation). After you return to Avardin you’ll find the auctioneer lying dead on his spot with a banner of the White hand above him (thanks, phasing to phasing technology), I guess Saruman found out. Also Mabon is missing and you’re sent to the area of Dunbog to find him (because apparently there is a monster living in the swamp that catches little children). In the middle of it all there is also an interesting quest where you need to gather some horses that have scattered after a recent storm. You’ll actually find horses standing around the area and you’ll need to mount them and ride them to Avardin (now I wonder if you can actually ride them away).

The last interesting thing is a large circular structure west of Avardin called the Culling Pit. In here a full fellowship is tasked to battle to the death with four different and increasingly difficult opponents – first is a bunch of Dunlendings, then three drakes (Ice, Fire, Acid), then a Giant (with a complimentary polar bear) and finally three Shak-hai, Saruman’s elite force (he’ll show up again for this occassion). I did those quests a little later when I was at level 71, our tank was level 75 and it kinda felt boring, we had one or two deaths (LM being one-shotted) but otherwise the tank had no problem and it was just about killing the enemies, I did get a nice piece of jewelry though.

Overall the area isn’t bad but quest-wise it’s kinda short because you aren’t running all over the place like you do in Pren Gwyth but the story of Dunland is getting more interesting. Next stop: Dunbog.

Pren Gwyth – the Old boar’s new home

October 18th, 2011

Pren Gwyth (Wild Wood in Dunlendish) is where the two player groups who were separated by Bonevales and Trum Dreng meet again. This is the northern part of a great plain that forms most of Dunland and a political centre of sorts, the city of Galtrev lies here.

If you come from the Bonevales (and maybe even Trum Dreng) the first thing you’ll see is a tall Gondorian tower pretty much in the centre of Dunland, it’s visible from almost anywhere. Technically it’s in the Starkmoor but there’s not much to be told about it anyway. As I mentioned in the previous post there is a watchtower in Bonevales so I was almost certain this is a watchtower as well – technically it is, but as far as I can tell you cannot climb it up though there are Dunlendings encamped under it so I didn’t spend much time looking for a ladder. I do wish there was one.

Pren Gwyth looks more like the regular Enedwaith landscape and mobs around are more varied than in the Bonevales. We got wolves, wargs and goblins (there’s even a training camp for wargs with stables and all), crebain and of course evil Dunlendings. And what would be a zone without everyone’s favourite animals – boars.

In the middle of Pren Gwyth, slightly off the road, is the city of Galtrev (which more or less translates to Home). It is the biggest town since Caras Galadhon and it has everything you need and more – there are farming fields, skirmish camp, crafting hall, another crafting hall with craft guild representatives, a task-board, a barber (no new hairdos though), supposedly a sparring arena (with many Dunlendings around to cheer you up) and a playground for children. Yes, children, after four years Turbine finally invented children NPCs (the little Hobbits in Shire don’t count) and you can find plenty of them in every (friendly) settlement in Dunland. Being the main hub and thus having many players running around Galtrev has been soon renamed to Lagtrev and yes it feels like the Twenty-first Hall in a rainy day. The story in here is quite interesting and takes advantage of the phasing tech. When you first arrive in Galtrev you’ll meet a half-orc standing in the gate – the city has been taken over by the White Hand they were supposed to make an alliance with the people but it didn’t went well. Able men have been called south and those who remain are making weapons, supplies and other things to help with the war efforts. However the half-orcs are quite welcoming to visitors (as much as a half-orc can be) and will gladly let you in providing you lend them a hand. Lending a hand means figuring out why the work goes so slowly and consequently making it go faster, being compassionate we work sort of undercover and help the people with their tasks so they don’t get flogged (funnily enough the half-orcs will later assume that’s what we did to speed up the work and asks us for our special technique). You help craft spears, find lost hinges, deliver wood that has not been delivered since the wagon got ambushed and about 20 quests later you will retake Galtrev and the half-orcs will disappear (or phase out). Working “with” the bad guys was an interesting experience although there could have been some improvements. Even though the city has been suffering under half-orcs’ whips all the vendors were behaving like nothing was going on. It would add much to realism if there were no vendors until you liberate the city though it would require shortening the quests a bit (it took me two or three hours to do all the quests). Apart from certain parts of the city being seemingly unaffected by the political situation there is one thing that really bugs me: there is a Rohirrim reputation vendor standing inside the city (and neither he nor his Dunlending colleague offer any rep horses but that’s not the main issue). I understand that it’s convenient to have rep vendors in your main hub but the as much as the Dunlendings are our friends they hate the strawheads with a passion. Not to mention that even the half-orcs wouldn’t let him remain there. And you won’t need to speak with him for another four or five levels since you first arrive to Galtrev and by the time you will probably will be questing in the Gap of Rohan already. He would be much safer there.

Anyway, after you free the city there are still quests to do but let me sum up the Epics first. Coming into Pren Gwyth you’re required to find Halbarad, if you keep to the road and reach Galtrev from the south you won’t miss him but if you do it like me, take the short route and try to get to Galtrev from the north you may spend some time looking him up. The Epic line doesn’t get much more interesting just yet, Halbarad sends you to find someone in Galtrev willing to speak to you. After some searching you find and old woman named Caitrin, of the Falcon-clan. She tells you that if you want to learn about what’s going on you should visit the upper part of the village – there are people there that will teach you. Sure they will, teach you what’s the best place to put a sword through a person. After you return to that old hag she is surprised to see you alive but decides that you could be an asset, so she has you performing some minor sabotages and then you’re once again left with “Help the people of Pren Gwyth as much as you can and then travel to Tâl Methedras, home of the Falcon-clan”. And that’s just chapter 6 of the book.

So the city is freed and as I said there’s still stuff to do, mainly ensuring that the people are safe and well-fed. There are two quest arcs that I particularly liked (well, one, the other I liked simply for it’s existence). Let me start with a boar’s tale: Long time ago near the village of Archet in Bree-land there lived a boar called the Old Bloodtusk who claimed the lives of many a new adventurer, he was present in the intro instance every new player has to go through and his task was to test the skills of players – level 5 signature, if you could defeat him you were ready for the big world (there was also an Aurochs in Ered Luin for the same purpose). More than a year ago Turbine changed the intro instances and Old Bloodtusk went missing. Songs were sung in his memory and forums were mourning him. Now why am I talking about him – in Pren Gwyth there is a place called Bloodtusk’s den, it does indeed belong to long lost Old Bloodtusk who is said to have come here all the way from Archet (as the exploration deed will tell you). Now you won’t find Old Bloodtusk himself but pretty much every pig around Pren Gwyth is probably of his lineage. The quest arc itself (“Mean, Old Pigs in Pren Gwyth”, “Meaner, Older Pigs”, “Mean, Old Big Bloodtusk”) is just a boar-slaying chore – like we could live without those – but I’m glad Turbine remembered our favourite boar. The Big Bloodtusk at the end is the current patriarch of the family and the biggest boar you’ve ever seen, and as far as mammals are concerned there aren’t many larger than him.

The second quest arc is one of the funniest I’ve ever done – it starts in Galtrev with a boy who lost his shiny ball. As you’re looking around the town you discover that the ball has been taken by a craban (now why might that be?). After tracking down the craban, or rather following the general direction in which it has flown, you came upon a hut surrounded by many tamed crebain. Their tamer is called Rook, he’s from Bree-land and in his own words an apprentice of Saruman, and here’s what I remember from the dialog, more or less:
“Of course I have the palantír, but I won’t give to you, it’s a dangerous tool”. Rook wants to become a Wizard and there are several things he needs – he already has the palantír but he also needs a Ring of Power. So you gather some metal and make him a ring:
“A Ring of Power, wonderful, you were wise to give it to me.” Now he also needs a many-coloured cloak, he already has a cloak he just needs something to make it many-coloured. Seeing as there are plenty crebain around you go and kill them gathering their black feathers which have some fancy optical properties:
“Marvelous! Look at how it changes colors, looks almost like the feathers of my crows. But listen my friend, my flock of crebain seems to have shrunk I wonder what caused it. Go and gather some eggs from the wild crebain around”. And so you do:
“Now I am a true Wizard, Rook the Many Hued, soon I will take over Dunland and then the whole Middle-earth! And we will start with you!”. Unfortunately that’s where it stopped being funny and I had to kill the loony wizard. I recovered the “palantír” and returned it to the boy. When I finished the quest deed I still got one quest left to do, I wonder if they added one here and subtracted one from Trum Dreng. I should also mention that I gained another level.

Next stop: Tûr Morva and Starkmoor

Bonevales – the land of rainbows and unicorns

October 14th, 2011

Except it isn’t. It borders on the Lich Bluffs and it’s full of the Dead, they even have a place called the Bone Quarry (though I don’t think they actually go there to gather bones). Bonevales is one of two areas you can choose to go through into Dunland and this one follows the Old Road (which begs the question why did someone put a cemetery around or put a road through a cemetery but hey, the Dúnedain built a fortress in the Barrow Downs). If you don’t like the Dead then I think you’re safe to take the road through Trum Dreng and so far there haven’t been any other Dead on the road to Isengard.

If you’re following the Epics your “guide” through this area will be Prestadír which was a bit surprising to me. If you don’t remember we first meet Prestadír in the Haunted Inn in Mirkwood. Later on after the Grey Company is summoned Prestadír (along with his Mirkwood mates Idhrenfair and Himeinior) is encamped in Gloomglens in Enedwaith, which is north of Trum Dreng and has no dead around. There is however a Ranger in the Lich Bluffs who is kind of an expert on the Dead and has us running all around the tombs – Mincham. One would think that if we’re heading into yet another dead-infested area Mincham (or someone he works with) will take us through, not so. During the questing I’ve met another Ranger – Naeglanc and as far as I can tell he is an entirely new character. Again it’s kinda weird since Turbine has to thin the numbers of the Grey Company down to thirty before they meet with Aragorn and adding a new character seems counter-productive but I haven’t done the whole book yet, maybe they start dying fast (not that I’m looking forward to that, I felt sorry for Candaith).

If you’ve been to Mirkwood Bonevales kinda remind me of Scuttledells, except here we have the Dead and some Dunlendings instead of spiders. It feels maze-ish which is no problem for me but I guess the fact that PoIs don’t show up on maps (for some reason) only adds to the trouble of other people.

The story in here is quite interesting, unlike the Lich Bluffs where the dead have been allegedly walking for a while in the Bonevales there are a recent occurrence. This is the deal: the Bonevales are an ancient burial ground and a home to a clan of Dunlendings called Dievlig, the Accursed, who have been banished here long ago for some evil deeds. Now the leader (or brenin if you will) of the Dievlig allied himself with an evil spirit (who I think is one of Oathbreakers) and began raising the dead from their graves, he even tried to sacrifice his own daughter to help with the process. Since I was around I did of course put an end to it all, granted I did not kill the evil spirit – the Wild Huntsman showed up at the end and dealt with him. As I mentioned in the previous post I like the way the questing flows. You start at A who sends you do kill some dead but you don’t return to A to tell him that deed is done, instead you go meet up with B who is scouting ahead and continue from there (and thanks to the phasing tech you may not meet B until you need to). It helps create the sense of something actually going on and NPCs moving around instead of having a hub full of lazy NPCs who can’t be bothered with doing anything. As far as the Epic story is concerned not much is going on in Bonevales, I think there are only two chapters and both tell you “Help the people around as much as you can and then travel further south to meet with me again” on the other hand I happened to rescue yet another Ranger, the aforementioned Naeglanc.

One thing you’ll notice in each area is a pair of deeds, one for exploration and one for completing all (or almost all) quests. Each of those has a meta-deed associated with it (that is for completing all the exploration and quest deeds across Dunland). Bonevales was so far the only area where the number of quests needed was the exact number of all the quests in the area – in the other areas I have finished the deed while still having stuff to do, except for Starkmoor were I’m missing several Fellowship quests and Trum Dreng doesn’t have enough quests for the deed (that is a known bug). I did all of the Bonevales in one go and and earned a level just I was handing in the last quest. Felt great.

Overall the area looks nice (unless you really don’t like the Dead) and a hidden Ranger camp is really well hidden unless you approach it from the right direction. What surprised me was a watchtower I found somewhere in the middle of it. It looks like an overgrown silo and has a ladder on the side; it’s not tied to any quest (that I know of). You can climb it up and have a look around. I haven’t seen anything like it in the other areas I have visited so far. Unfortunately it was dark and I haven’t made any screenshots from the top. Since there are plenty ancient structures around there are also plenty of Scholar nodes – and I mean many, the banded coffers must be the most common resource in Dunland or at least in the Bonevales. Or maybe people weren’t bothered with gathering, I saw plenty people around yet I don’t remember anyone actually picking up stuff. Even the skarn nodes that I fully expected people to race to were being passed by. Well, at least there were more left for me.

Next stop: Pren Gwydh

They are taking the Hob… the Captain to Dunland

October 12th, 2011

So, Isengard is here and I got to play it for a while. When I say a while I mean about 3 days since I’ve been in the Lands of no Internet. Nevertheless my captain is already 68. He is the only class I’ve taken to Dunland so far (and only character I’ve played since RoI) so let’s have a look on what he saw. Although I could probably cover every change RoI brought in one post I decided not to. I will make shorter posts about every area I’ve visited.

Still, this would be a really short post so I add my general impressions about RoI.

Launch

Despite the launch being a day early and people having already been patching by the time I got home I was among the unfortunate ones and spent 6 hours trying to connect to the server. When I finally did the patching process went smoothly and I got in fairly easily. Then my computer froze I didn’t have the will to log in again.

Gameplay

Stats were changed an all that but I didn’t really feel much different, not yet anyway. Yes I’m close to having 1000 points of Might (something I could’ve never hope to achieve pre-RoI) but I don’t really do significantly more damage and I’m not traited for it. Class traits changed as well so I had to do some swapping, the biggest difference for me (in Leader of Man) is that Routing Cry is no longer tied to on-defeat response and now causes Forced attack. There is another trait that gives Routing Cry a stun so I’m kinda wondering how would those two things play together.

Gameplay in general isn’t bad and even though the areas were somewhat overcrowded the mobs kept respawning fast and I didn’t have to wait to kill the number required for the quests. I am running into another issue though – my bags are full. I usually have a bag or so empty and the other four are full of stuff I don’t wish to part with. Now my issue isn’t that I would need to keep all the drops, there are only two kinds of ore and one gem (my captain is a Jeweller) the issue is that all the quests reward these superb looking armour pieces that I’d really like to keep but I can’t, my Wardrobe (90 slots) is full as well. Fortunately my Warden seems to have a lot free space so by the time I’ll be taking her through Dunland I would be able to keep all the stuff. Right now I’m only picking pieces for a new outfit and discarding the rest (with much sadness).

The quests flow rather smoothly and in such a manner that you aren’t bound to one central hub that you keep visiting over and over again. Usually an NPC in a hub sends you to some tasks and then talk to another NPC somewhere near the area where your quests take place and the NPC will take it from there. Epic quests have also an interesting approach, usually you help a Ranger with some tasks and he then continued further south. You’re left to help the Dunlendings in the area as much as you can (or see fit) before meeting with that Ranger (or another one) further down the road. The quests also reward a hefty chunk of XP (about a 10k per quest) so I made a whole level on the first day which was around 30 quests. I heard rumours there aren’t enough quests to actually reach 75 by questing but we shall see.

Crafting

I haven’t crafted much yet as the quest rewards are quite good but I was surprised with how many recipes a Jeweller actually starts. In the previous tiers I would usually get a full basic set (earring, bracelet, necklace, ring) then I could get some advanced sets from drops. In the new Westfold tier I’m starting out with a recipe for Polished Green Garnet and a necklace, just a necklace. The other stuff should come from drops but – as Murphy’s law would have it – I’m only getting drops for other professions.

Apart from the inventory issue I haven’t encountered any bad thing and I’m looking forward to the rest of Dunland as well as Nan Curunír and of course the Gap of Rohan. I don’t think I will be disappointed.

Impressions of Beta

August 28th, 2011

Let me just start with saying that I did not get into the Isengard Beta. Not yet. And from what I’ve heard we Europeans don’t have access to character copy (I assume that is a part of the whole myLotro-not-working thing). Anyway let’s have a look on what’s coming. Spoilers may follow though none of them will be story-related, I myself am avoiding anything related to the epic books.

The Visuals

As rare as it is to happen the blue moon does occur and so do LotRo’s video diaries. And we also got to see some screenshots – have a look at those in this post on CStM. If you notice the Globsnaga near the end of the video don’t worry, the actual Abominations (apparently Saruman’s guinea pigs) are supposed to look a bit different. Apart from the official video there is also one that is fan-made and you can see it here. It all looks very good, I’m especially looking forward to see the heath-covered hills. I can’t guess the size of the regions but I’ve been told there are substantially huge.

Another thing I’m usually looking forward to in an update/expansion is something nice to wear and with Isengard it looks like I am in for a treat. There are some new armor skins available as quest rewards and we’re also getting some nice looking armor sets from the new dragon raid. Although I may not get my hands on the latter (I have not even been to Ost Dunhoth yet) the quest rewards will certainly make it to my Wardrobe. Speaking of the Wardrobe I’ve heard that they’re looking into allowing a light armor class to put a heavy armor piece in the wardrobe, that will save me some item transfers.

To have look on the new armor and many screens of other things visit this thread.

The Content

There will be some quests including an Epic book and we will see Saruman. One thing is making a “return” and that is tasks though they might only be available in the new area (no Moria or Mirkwood). That’s about all I know though there is one thing I can talk about – the new raid. It is the only instance that is coming with Isengard which leaves many people in despair although there are plans for an instance cluster to be released later this year. I don’t particularly mind since I only start looking for instances once I’m nearing the level cap and for that I’m taking my time. We’ve known about the raid for some time and there have even been some screenshots released (and I still don’t like the tusks on that dragon). Now with the NDA lifted there are some videos of the raid (the videos are relatively safe to watch since the folks didn’t make it all the way through). The raid, which I assume will become known as The Smaug Experience, is a simple lair inhabited by huge dragon end even bigger pile of gold. Looks similar to Watcher who also had several stages during the fight and on the plus side there will be no tentacles. Expect fire though, much fire. You might also want to check a little overview of the raid at CStM.

Factions and Reputation

Two new factions are coming – Men of Dunland and Riders of Théodred. Yes we are getting a glimpse of what will the Riders of Rohan look like once we (hopefully) get into Rohan. The reputation gathering will presumably be the same as we’ve seen in Enedwaith. The bad news – at least at the moment – is that there do not seem to be any horses, house decorations or similar stuff available for barter with either of those factions, let’s hope they add some.

But players won’t be gathering reputation only for those two factions – with new area comes new crafting tier and also a new tier of reputation for your chosen guild. From Kindred we are getting to Master and we need 45k worth of reputation points to reach that.

The Crafting

As I’ve mentioned a new crafting tier is coming, this one will be called Westfold which I think is a neat solution for avoiding the path of increasingly cooler sounding titles – where’d you go from Supreme anyway? Uber? Again I don’t know details but I know this: for prospectors there will be a new ore – skarn (thank you LotRo for teaching me yet another word). This ore comes in two variants, low- and high-grade skarn but they both come from a single type of node. You’ll no longer drown in Tin when you’re only looking for Copper. The ore is also supposed to make alloys with low tier ores like Khazâd-Iron and Ancient Iron.

Many new recipes are coming that will require you to be Master of the Guild and Kindred with the Men of Dunland or Riders of Théodred. Among those recipes are (finally) craftable pocket items available for scholars. There might also be some recipes that will require components from the new raid.

The Monsterplay

This is one area that the beta makes me angry about. Let’s skim through the positives though: the log-in screen for Monsterplay is changed to resemble that of Free Peoples and apparently you’ll get bonuses that will scale with rank. Free players will also be allowed to enter Ettenmoors though only as creeps and only the Reaver class will be available.

The big issue is the store – they’ve decided to sell skills in there. Now I do not think that gating skills behind ranks is the right way to go – it makes a new creep pretty much useless for the first five or six ranks, but selling them in the store isn’t much of a good thing either. The bigger issue with the store is that there are certain types of consumables that make it really easy to not die (unless you’re facing a zerg). There are certain potions that remove various combat states and debuffs that are far more potent than what is currently available from NPCs. I’m afraid this will make any kind of crowd-control and debuffing pretty useless. I don’t play much in the Ettenmoors as of late because when I do there don’t seem to be Freeps around but if they don’t change the current situation in Beta I may very well stop going there at all. PvMP is the one place where the store items can offer a real advantage and that should not happen. I still need to see the whole picture though, there might have been some changes to vendors and the store-bought consumables might not be as good as they seem to be now.

 The Rest

There is more stuff coming but most of it is related to combat (stat and class changes) and while it looks good on paper I don’t want to talk about it before I experience it first-hand.

All in all, the area looks good, the quests are supposedly good too, there will be tasks in Dunland, the Captain and Warden look like they’ll be even better but PvMP looks to have a potential for a very huge uprising. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I have pre-ordered Rise of Isengard in the week they’ve announced it so now I can only wait. It should only be a month.