Strayed Captain

We got transfered! And I got to check out the Icy Crevasse on my mains.

As I expected with a Captain (level 65) this wasn’t as bad as with my hunter. I’m running the Leader of Man trait line which provides group-wide Shield-brother effects and so I can keep myself alive better provided my soldier doesn’t die but more about that later. The Winds of Forochel (damage buff) certainly helped and I felt like Moria again – I even scored a 1.5k Devastating, something I haven’t seen for a while. The last fight is easy, Captain is pretty much an anti-sorceror class (not that Guinokh does many magic tricks to begin with) and the only trouble I can see there is the wider range of the mammoth’s melee attacks (he can reach you across the steam vent and still have the damage buff). Even when I ended up fighting both of them it was easy to handle provided they both stayed on the steam vents. I also took my Warden through (level 65 as well). Obviously that was easier – I mean I am a Warden, slightly undergeared Warden but still. Basically the only problem are the grims – they switch targets and they don’t like to stay in one place, it can get messy when a soldier tries to follow their erratic behaviour.

Trouble came yesterday as two friends and I went in – me on a level 49 RK, another RK on level 53 and a Minstrel on level 60 and the skirmish itself set to level 50. We experienced two defeats on the way to the bosses but it wasn’t that hard. The bosses were another story. In a 3-man setup Guinokh lays down 3 pools (one under each person) which wouldn’t be that bad but every time Guinokh enters fight a counter-attack comes. So you got the sorcerer to take care of plus the lieutenant with his entourage and little space to stand on. It went nasty and after the Minstrel switching for his level 65 Hunter and no difference therefrom we gave up. (And then we did Attack at Dawn and showed them what for). Of course our setup wasn’t the best and we probably need to train a little on easier skirmishes.

Anyway, now that I have properly checked it out I kinda like it not mention I need to finish all the encounters anyway (we needs those titles preciouss) so I’ll be running it quite often. On the other hand there are the rewards. I’d really like to get some of them for my Warden but they are pretty price-y: 4k Skirmish Marks, some Odothuilan Marks (campaign-specific) and finally Veteran Third Marks – only available from fellowship and raid skirmishes (or an expensive mark upgrade). Not likely I’m going to see those any time soon.

The final paragraph shall be dedicated to the soldiers. If devs plan on doing more skirmishes like those two (with emphasis on spatial awareness) they better upgrade the soldier management system. In the Icy Crevasse its often important to retreat and run to the steam vent or stay on it from the beginning. What do trusty soldiers do? They pick an enemy and run towards it thus ensuring the incoming enemies will stop to poke them to death before turning towards me. Yes I can actually face another direction forcing the soldier to look the other way but at the last control point in the Icy Crevasse this isn’t possible – I have to aggro the counter-attack and run back to the steam vent. I’d be really happy if it was possible to make the soldier stay on a spot until I tell him otherwise – he wouldn’t run where he’s not supposed to and I could also make him stand in the damage buff and not on the steam vent. But maybe I should just be grateful that I have only one NPC to worry about.

Once again I installed Bullroarer. This time I could even copy some characters over and so I did export my huntress, she’s 41 but at least something (if they don’t decide to open E&G), after we get annexed by our new Turbine overlords I will be able to play with my mains over there.

I found Bullroarer quite empty but I guess it’s no wonder taking into consideration the small size of Update 3. Anyway, let’s have a look on what’s there:

Skirmishes

When last time I was on Bullroarer it was during the F2P beta and at that time players were given 5000 Turbine Points to spend on stuff, I was happy to find that I got over 3000 left and proceeded to buy the two new skirmishes. Eagerly I tried Attack at Dawn and boy did I get my ass handed to me.

Attack at Dawn

This skirmish takes place in Dol Dínen,  starting near the fenced area in the south, and it is an offensive skirmish. Being F2P I only got access to Tuckborough and Gondamon on my huntress, quite likely my other characters will like it better but I find it quite hard. Compared to Tuckborough there are two major differences – there are no friendly NPCs to help you with counter-attacks and no matter what all the enemies that hold a control point will pull at once, even if they wander off. Such a “wave” consist of 4 regular mobs – here in Dol Dínen it’s mainly wargs, goblins and trolls – both normal and swarm and a Lieutenant (there always is one). With no option to split the group you have to deal with them at once and that’s where my problems started, I died right at the first control point. Sure I can set a trap but that takes care of one mob, the other four will still be hitting me which is not really good for my inductions. It might be due to the fact that Tuckborough is deliberately made easier and/or that I’m slightly under-geared.

Attack at Dawn features an interesting mechanic (which again I will probably enjoy more on my other characters) – after taking the first two control points you enter a courtyard which is being bombarded by catapults. When the thrown stones hit the ground they do quite some damage but what’s nice about it is that it doesn’t care whether you’re a friend or foe and hits everyone equally. On the same time it also breaks CC. Five seconds or so before the stone hits you’ll see a shiny circle on the ground so it isn’t difficult to avoid. Don’t think you can wait till it eradicates the enemies though, their out-of-combat regeneration is pretty high. After passing through the courtyard (and several more deaths) I reached the leader’s tent and disabled the catapults that stood by it. After that came Blood-rook and four wargs in a counter-attack and I really had no way of staying through it and being a bit depressed about my performance I left the skirmish. I retook it later on level 35 which was bearable so I know what does the boss fight look like. Graug – an Orc who looks like one of the Ghâsh-hai (the fire Orcs from Moria and Rift) welcomes you in his tent and sets on fire you as well as the entrance to the tent so you can’t leave (the tent itself is apparently fire-proof). There is also a multitude of little goblin sappers standing on ramps inside the tent and from time to time one of them will attempt to make a run for it and you have to kill it, they’re swarm so it shouldn’t be a problem. Graug will also do a little bombardment of his own but it should be easy to avoid, at least for a solo player, I dread to see a 12-man raid all inside that tent. All in all it looks like a good challenging skirmish, which I really struggle with on my Hunter though I won’t be buying in on my F2P account anyway (unless they make some super sale). Apart from the difficulty issues there’s the thing that pretty much all the mobs have the Moria skins (pale goblins, green, scaly, iron-clad trolls etc.) but I hope they change it, it’s only a beta after all.

Icy Crevasse

(Well here’s a word I never heard before) A skirmish set in Forochel (yay!) and I can say the same things about it as I did with Attack at Dawn, offensive and really hard. And also with a new mechanic – the Winds of Forochel – the mighty winds of that region (somehow) increase your run speed and all your offensive capabilities and every time you take a control point the tier goes up (you end up at +20% run speed and +50% to all damage). At certain places there are also several cracks in the ice with steam coming through, standing on top of them will give you bonus (50%) to your incoming and outgoing healing but it gets rid of the Winds. As with the catapultage, these winds also affect your opponents. Ouch. The usual Forochel fauna can be found here – Gauredain (inluding those with pet wolves), sabre-cats, Angmarim (though in “summer-attire”), ice-grims, Dourhand Dwarves etc. I’ve even “encountered” a mammoth, a bear and an ice-worm.

The skirmish itself takes place in the canyon between Kauppa-kohta and Pynti-peldot and as such is quite linear. Sometimes I managed to split the pull at the control points and so I only died during counter attacks. The final fight consists of two elites (yes, two) but they don’t always fight at the same time. There is a mammoth-riding Gauradan and an Angmarim sorcerer, the mammoth starts the fight then retreats (at about 2/3 morale) and the sorcerer joins the fight only to retreat later, the second time around the sorcerer doesn’t retreat and calls the mammoth so you end up fighting both. The sorcerer will also put down “puddles” that heal him when he hits you (doesn’t work the other way around though). I got really close to finishing it, by unleashing every powerful attack I could so the enemy would retreat fast enough (you are still in-combat during those transitions but they take a while) but I still got defeated at the end. Oh and why is there a sorcerer at the end you might ask – well you probably wouldn’t as enemy sorcerers are commonplace but anyway – he wants to command wind and rain (snow) and froze over the lake of Evendim so an army could march on Tinnudir. A bold plan and I guess many players would maybe like to let him do it, travel across the lake would become easier.

For a more detailed look on the skirmishes and related changes in Update 3 I recommend Pineleaf’s Preview at CStM.

Instances

Well, I would really like to say something about those, being level 41 I thought I would be able to try them more or less on level but Bullroarer really seems empty these days, the first day I logged on there were only 2 other players on the whole server (plus some anonymous ones I’d presume). If I catch a group I’d really like to have a peak inside but so far I got to spend time looking at the rewards – and some of them are really good especially those for level 65 characters which rival the items that are currently deemed the best. There are also some housing decorations to be had from one of the instances (a throne and a tomb) but I’ll have to wait a while to see those.

Despite the small size I say there are things to look forward to. This will also be the last update that US players will have before we do, although the reason won’t be a delay on Codemasters’ side but a delay caused by all our “earthly possessions” being copied over to Turbine’s servers.

So Faradwen has dinged 20, my.lotro still won’t acknowledge her existence but I can live without that. (And without an avatar and enabled BBCODE in my signature, and EU access to Lorebook, …)

Since she’s an Elf and I deliberately took a different route than my beta captain (Old Forest and Adso’s Camp) I am only Acquaintance with Bree. But with Andrath, Northern Bree-fields and Barrow-Downs quests still intact I expect it to change dramatically.

The Hunter quest on level 15 was quite interesting, though I don’t like the helm – don’t get me wrong I like wearing animal remains on my head (deer helmet in UO was just epic) but this one doesn’t look as horrifying as a bear should so I am sporting the Circlet of Men instead. Still the Warden quest is better but such is the way of the Warden. On a side note I was really looking forward to laughing evilly at the brigands who desperately want to run away from me but I kill them way too quickly, they turn around and fall dead, no running involved, no satisfaction.

So far the only F2P limitation I really feel is having only 3 bags, they fill quite fast especially with the stuff that comes out of the Gifts and of course I am reluctant to get rid of anything that may prove useful later.  I am now sitting at about 160 TP having completed almost every deed in Ered Luin. Half of the Bree-land and Shire still lay ahead of me; then I plan to buy North Downs but that’s a distant future. So far deed grinding isn’t as hard as I thought it would be (I’m only dreading Sickle-fly and Neeker-breeker slayer) however hunter class deeds require quite a high number of shots to perform (Penetrating Shot 1000 times anyone?). I know it can all be done in 10 days but I only concentrate on finishing class deeds when they are about 75% done.

Skirmishes – as I wrote before at this level they are really easy, so just for fun I got an Archer. Although he sometimes doesn’t feel like shooting – and like every graduate of the Skirmish University he cannot find his trail – in combination with Hunter we simply obliterate the enemies. I have even deliberately pulled the Tuckborough courtyard and we barely got scratched. Siege of Gondamon was equally easy, the only trouble I came across was the Daywalker Berserker who pummeled one of the guards before his shield went down and I couldn’t do anything with it. And for the first time I got no trouble with Blood-rooks. If the drake at the end wasn’t scripted to became hostile after landing I’m sure we wouldn’t allowed him to land at all. I spent almost all of my marks on weapons, armour and jewelry. In the end a difference of 20 Agility isn’t really that much but I feel better. /flex

Last but not least I’ve heard the Mariners have wrecked their ship again, I might check that out, after all you never know when an eye-patch may come handy.

I was about to do a Lorebook guide of sorts but I still can’t get my head around that one. Instead have a look at my investigative skills

I was looking at the housing items listed in Lorebook and trying to think of a way to recategorize them (so you can get a list of all the paintings and such) and then I found something. I know people do complain about the fact that Lorebook is often not up-to-date (i.e. it doesn’t contain the things it should) but did you know it is also ahead of the current state of the game?

First a little introduction. Lorebook is being updated by a bot called Admin (the link is not broken, it just really leads to a non-existent page). This Admin does, from time to time, flood the Lorebook with huge amount of updates – I’d be interested to know how he manages to do that because the Lorebook isn’t really fast to load . Luckily for us, what happens in Lorebook gets logged in Lorebook – while on the Admin’s user page go to Toolbox -> User Contributions and you’ll see.

Now what have I found – I was skimming through one of the Item categories and Item:Crow’s Cage caught my eye. A skirmish decoration! From Breaching the Gate! So I thought hey, maybe there’s more. And there is, I’ve looked into what our fellow Admin was doing around that time (17:10, December 10th, 2009 – given the date I suppose someone else has found this before I did but I don’t recall seeing it) and apparently rewards were planned for each of the skirmishes. Here they are, ordered by skirmish – hover should do since some of the pages won’t load anyway:

Here’s the link to Admin’s Contribution page from that time, the decorations start with Thorin’s Bust. I hope we will see those, preferably soon, the Bonfire is a definite must have. On the other hand I have no room for any additional decorations.

And icing on the cake? If you’ve been to Enedwaith in Beta or read the dev diary, you may know about the two reputation factions in there – Algraig and the Grey Company. Well their barter items despite being described as Malledhrim items (Algraig gold and silver token, Grey Company gold and silver token) are in Lorebook since March 4th, 2010. That’s before we even knew about Enedwaith.

It is not my intention to say that the developers are a bunch of slackers who can’t release things in time. However if you want to poke them about this (by, say, starting a forum thread) go ahead.

It is different. I have a level 21 Captain on Bullroarer and I am already Friend with Bree which gives me a nice discount on horses in that area (not that I’m using it atm.). With Ally I will have a discount on all the vendor items and I assume something equally nice awaits me at Kindred.

Bree Reputation

One of the reasons my reputation is that high is the fact that Haudh Iarchith^[1] has been revamped. It has been brought to level 20 and split, the solo part (spiders, kergrim and fat wights/darkwater) now consist of a three separate dungeons – well the kergrim dungeon is a single room with 5-6 (providing Marrow is home) mobs – accessible through various mounds in the Northern Barrow Downs (all are named and visible on the new map), haven’t been too far South but I assume it’s similar there. All mobs inside happily drop Barrow-Downs Treasure and Trinkets of Cardolan along with Mathoms and Well-kept Mathoms (I assume Mathom House reputation will be brought down as well). I haven’t seen any of the elusive Shard-droppers in there though.

Bree Rep vendors offer some helmets and cloaks but they require level 30, it’s safe to assume you will be Kindred for some time when you reach it.

Skirmishes

Skirmishes now start at level 20 and you no longer need to gather any sheets of paper from humanoid monsters. Just speak to Skirmish Captain, go through the tutorial and you’re ready. However if you are a Free Player you will have free access only to 2 skirmishes: Siege of Gondamon and Trouble in Tuckborough, you can read more about skirmishes and F2P in an article over at Casual Stroll to Mordor. Lowering the requirements also means creating some new armour sets, weapons and jewelry and a new “rank” – Recruit.

To me bringing it to level 20 is maybe too much, at this level you are still in the kind of situation where mobs die after a few seconds – well, certainly not my case, I’m a captain but other classes would probably agree. The fights overall seems too easy but it’s not that skirmishes are hard overall. Nonetheless I finished the tutorial and picked up an Archer. I went ahead and bought a helmet and a nice greatsword with Westernesse damage. The next day I decided to try Trouble in Tuckborough:

So there I am trying to liberate the town of Tuckborough, first mob – Venomous Blood-Arrow – 400 morale, I put him to my Archer’s attention and start running towards the lieutenant, I think I was able to score on hit before he fell. I should probably mention that my Archer is effectively at level 24 and does 100 damage with his auto-attack, I do barely half as much and my herald does 10 providing the weather is nice. Lieutenants at this level really pose little threat, I’d be interested to see how group skirmishes go though and 12-man raid at level 20? Well that might certainly be interesting. Anyway, Encounters were a little more “challenging” as they got about 1200 morale. Got Fíkthrokh who wasn’t really hard though he certainly seemed to be and Old Fright who pummeled my archer in four or five hits (did I mention I cannot hold aggro over my soldier?), luckily for the rest of us (my herald and me) he managed to get the bear to about half morale and we finished him. At the final courtyard my herald kinda rushed ahead and pulled half of the mobs there though we dispatched them quickly. At last we met Filzof – 600 morale. I know fights aren’t about the morale of mobs and there are other things that affect difficulty but at this level it still is about overcoming one single obstacle and that’s the mob’s morale. He barely had the time to say his monologue. All in all, 21 minutes, but that’s because I wasn’t really aiming for the time. One thing to mention, my herald has bigger pathing issues than my soldier.

Now the rewards, I got 64 Marks, one Veteran Recruit (I sense a big oxymoron) bounty and four normal Recruit bounties and in the chest I’ve found 8 silver, yay! And of course I got two Eruilan and then two Recruit Marks (barter ration 1:5).

The final count of one Trouble in Tuckborough is:

• 124 Skirmish Marks
• 54 silver
• close to 4k XP (one level is about 20k)

I have of course sold and bartered everything. At this point – unless you absolutely positively must have that one piece of cosmetics – Eruilan marks have no use other than barter (25 marks each). You probably want to have a different soldier appearance but that particular trait isn’t available before level 30. As the rewards go one yellow piece of heavy armor costs 15 SM and a purple one (veteran) costs 30 with no special (First, Second, etc.) mark needed. But of course it’s skirmish armour, you’ll probably find better stuff at your local crafting center. Archer being 4 levels above me doesn’t need upgrading and I cannot wear personal traits yet. I suppose after a few skirmishes I would be swimming in Skirmish Marks as the lieutenant slayer deeds will yield a big chunk of them. On the other hand, the new rewards from Great Barrow will cost a little more than the classic skirmish stuff and players might not have that many SM to spare.

Overall I like the changes, at least Free players are probably going to spend quite some time in Bree-land. And the reputation would certainly come handy, I never understood why (even in SoA days) would players gather reputation at later levels when they no longer need it. After you’ve left Bree for Lone-lands or North Downs you weren’t likely to be coming back.

1. ^[1] Sindarin for Mound of Bloodfog ↩