Bears And Honey
Highlights: Resolina enters the Vales
The Vales of Anduin really hasn't been out too long. Introduced Update 24 June 4, 2019, the region expands the content at level 120. Like Legacy of the Necromancer at level 115, it is highly recommended entering the zone with a good chunk of level 120 gear (seeing that the stats double from 115 to 120). The area is filled with stories ranging from the travels of Bilbo Baggins through Beorninghús, the internal conflict between the goblins and hobgoblins inside Goblin-town, the fall of Isildur, the controversial lore behind the Gauredain and Ungoledain, Arwen's terrible past, Radagast's cottage, and the legend of Old Mad Ubb. At least that is most of what I could remember from venturing through the zone. The only drawback is it takes about 20-seconds for everything to load including quests, deeds, and characters.
"I have slain goblins today, can you say the same?" No, but I don't see you slaying any dragons either.
Questing was very pleasant for Resolina Purveyor of Odd Things riding upon her Steed of the Dusk-watch. There were some nice Hobbit-style questing within Beorninghús. For some reason I kept thinking my beorning guide was Smellybear. I once saw a level 117 following me around as he struggled to defeat even the simpliest of enemies. I love the fact that an eagle icon appears as a travel option on the minimap. I also liked how the drakes flew around before landing like they did near Eaworth in Rohan. The addition of a stump appearing within the private instance was a nice touch for all those times you simply used /sit at all those dinner tables. I had wished they would have allowed us to carry the lodge music to our houses. Oh well. Thorin Gate's Greenhouse and Aldberg's Crafting Hall are also a couple of others I would have liked to own too. The quest The Green Sadness didn't have quest rings over the people you conversed with when it came time to offer words of encouragement but they weren't too difficult to find afterwards.
"Heal him with your heals!" - Elaelin
Deeds are as plentiful as it was in Ered Mithrin. There is one hidden deed Jumped at the Chance where you leap onto the center pillar from the eastern side of the broken bridge close to Vegbar. There is a deed for completing all of Radagast's quests one go-around except for "Tender of Beasts" (I'll talk about later). Completing the meta deed will reward you a Tome of the Honey Bee. Lost Lore of the Vales: Tauralindalë can be pretty straight-forward. I just wish the words would have been vocalized. However, Lost Lore of the Vales: Old Mad Ubb could be a little tricky with Page 1 west of Sharkey's Slough (go to 0.7N, 60.6W and not 0.7S, 60.6W). This will complete The Lost Lore of Rhovanion that rewards you a Rhovanion Lost Lore Bookcase.
I have seen my fair share of horrors to know where this is going.
Radagast dailies can become very complicated as the developers tried to change everything you know of basic Lord of the Rings Online mechanics. The first thing to note is the fact that there is no skill or guide to port you to Radagast. Instead, you will be rewarded with a Map to Rhosgobel that is not consumed when used. If you ever lose it, you can trade one precious Rhosgobel Oak Leaf for another one. A Gift from Radagast will give you 5 Radagast's Taming Treats everyday just by merely talking to the guy. The other 6 quests will give you one treat. The Daily Egg and Radagast Garden are done within the area. The two fishing quests - Cleaning the Anduin & Cleaning the Tributaries - will ask you to go to areas close to the Gladden Fields (highlighted by quest focus) until you receive the buff "Fishing - This area could use some cleansing". You can fish as much as you want, with or without the quest, to get as many tradeable items as you want to turn in. Just know the quests will only accept one of each item per day. The other two quests - Calming the Farm & Calming the Wilds - will highlight sections of the map where you must /calm upset animals. Good news is there are two of every animal on the map. Bad news is their name tends to be oddly missing when you come close to some of them. If you are on the spot and the critter isn't showing, turn off and on Floating Names (I've bound mine to the 'N' key). If you are having a hard time finding the cat in Hultvis, search the purple bushes next to Malvi. Though I have heard they have fixed it so the cat will always be in the road from now on. Doing every one of these quests will net you 2 Rhosgobel Oak Leaves.
Radagast Critter Run is a way for me to describe the 90-minute run (on average) doing all 6 Befriending Critter quests for Radagast. You will need all 6 quests and 30 Radagast Taming Treats beforehand. There are a lot of different ways to accomplish this goal. One quick Google search brought up this navigtation guide someone made on the forums. A few will hide in stumps that you will have to attack first. Some will move very slow or extremely fast over large distances. Make sure your treat is removed. There are times you may think you completed the quest while catching up to a pet but the treat did not get counted. The swan in Haerlog does not tend to show a quest circle above its head (you can still feed it). The Bantam in Rushgore might disappear completely. Just come back at a later time if it bugs out. You will gain 5 Rhosgobel Oak Leaves each (a total of 30). Whistle of the Lone-lands (summons all his pets) costs 10, Bird-friend title costs 20, and the lovely wooden butterfly Rhosgobel Frame costs 40. Each pet costs 20 Rhosgobel Oak Leaves and may look very similar to some of the pets you might already own. The only one I found interesting is the Tome of the Night Squirrel. I have found these pet tomes on the Auction House for 750g each.
Tender of Beasts is one deed that you will obtain from Radagast that isn't part of any meta deed. That is because it requires a whopping 60 for the primary and 120 for its advanced setting. All for 5/10 Rhosgobel Oak Leaves and the title "Tender of Beasts". The unusual part of this deed is that its points come from the number of Knowledge of Taming items in your bag. They are actually tradeable deed points. So don't throw them away! You might find some ridiculously priced on the Auction House. So if you want to take your hunter to do these quests and barter pets for your main character, you can also give away your deed points as well.
"Hey I'm Radagast. I love me animals and making people run all over the place for me."
Hultvis dailies have been improved upon since Ered Mithrin to include public instances. This means you can tag along in a fellowship for a mass exodus in all directions or tap on enemies as strangers do the work for you. Note that the instances will have one extra item to click on incase you happen to miss a specific sheep or bone near the entrance. The difference here is the Gulmark currency seems to be a little more sparse. Unlike trading 20 Marks of the Longbeard for 500 embers, you can trade 75 Gulmarks for 500 embers. These both reset on Sunday now. The private instance weeklies reset on Thursday. So make sure you take a second glance at that Quartermaster (Wilderfolk Rewards) found at multiple locations throughout the Vales of Anduin. Be aware that Shathur-munzu dailies gives Beorning tokens that can be traded with Ragnild (Protector of the Vales) while Avabárg dailies gives Woodman tokens that can be traded with Audvak (Protector of the Vales). Doing both chain of quests for 2 days a week (reset Thursday) will net you 750 embers. You must complete Quests of Wilderfolk deed to gain access to the quests. I realize the quest rings will still show up without the npcs in front of Hultvis even though you haven't fulfilled the requirements, and Hithril doesn't really do anything as a 3rd Protector of the Vales until you complete the Quests of Gladdenmere deed. She will then offer the new Kidzul-Kalah public instance area in Update 24.2. Oh, and the stairs down below the instance is the farthest east on the map. You are welcome.
Rewards are actually pretty awesome. Crown of the Great Goblin, Tome of the Little Spotted Pig, House Music Boxes, and cloaks are just a few unique items. What really should interest you are the Legendary Relics. There are teal settings and gems that provide 971 primary stat (over the Mordor 405). The purple runes are about 10% better than the ones from Skarhald. As a warning, the runes will list in the tooltip whether they can be equipped on a weapon or class item. While you are at it, you should fill that crafted slot with a relic with one made with 5 Dwarrowmarks. Decorative crafting recipes is also a big hit. Every vocation has a set of new decorations. I've found the tailoring armor sets to be quite interesting (if they ever bug out of place, alt tab your client). I would skip out on the Scholar's Scroll of Beorn's Guard Recipe since it requires a Rime of Anvil to craft. Although the Cooking's Special Honey-Roll Recipe (that gives +5% damage and outgoing healing) pretty doable as it requires Drops of Vale Honey. After you use up your Beorning Tokens on all the armor you want, you can trade 9 Beorning Tokens for a single Drop of Vale Honey. And there is no bounding or level requirement on the recipe.
"What a nice little pig."
Ember Rewards can be kind of scarce. Rowan Raspberry currently offers a handful of seasonal rewards for Figments of Splendour. I've included a Badger House inside the kinhouse if you wanted to check it out before handing in 7,500 Figments of Splendour. The Tome of the Big Carpenter Bee is actually pretty nice for a small sum of 2,500 Figments of Splendour. Besides that, Adventurer's Quartermaster can offer you a T3 Empowered Essence from a Fabulous Coffer of Adventurer's Essences for a whopping 4,500 embers. Armour and Jewelry doesn't really give you anything better that is currently offered from the daily barterers. Though I have found that the teal Coffers of Adventurer's Weaponry for 3,500 embers to be very promising (A hunter's one-handed mace provided me with: 1524 dps, 1958 agility, 1463 vitality, 18271 physical mastery, 8459 finesse from the agility box). The Coffers are sensitive to your level. I have been personally converting all my ember to Figments of Splendour as I await the arrival of the Curator (hopefully at the Farmer's Faire 8/21 - 9/10) Speaking of schedules, this Thursday will provide +10% Embers/Motes in Lootboxes. I guess I won't be getting any bonuses through quests or disenchanting now huh.
Update 24.2 introduces a new addition alongside new captain changes. Although not part of the Black Book of Mordor, there is an Interlude that guides you up to the new spirits roaming the Gladden Fields. The new Slayer of the Dead is really easy to accomplish with it only being 40/80. Once you find the very difficult path just south of Gilvamyr, you will stumble across a Dock-Keeper. He only takes you to the other side of the lake once you find the other dock. The southern shore is doable alone but the Wandering Lostlights turn into spectral knights when provoked like they do in Annuminas. The entire northern portion of the lake is covered with fellowship quests. There is no 6-man instance as of right now. I hope it comes soon because that splash screen makes me eager to get at it! At least some people are happy with the developers giving T4 essences alongside their T4 and T5 instances. While you can go to Eregion through Gladdenmere and back, I wouldn't try going over that cliff. There is a huge drop-off point and no way going back up the mountain from that side.
Captain Changes: Resolina is quite happy now that everything seems to be more balanced. IDOME has been buffed to 513 from 393. Grave Wound, Valiant Strike, Battle-shout all moved from 20 to 15 seconds. Muster Courage and Kick from 20 to 10 seconds. Criticals now reach over 70,000 damage. About six elven archers have been added, but I'm not quite ready give up my Fred. Besides, he can actually hold his own against a squad of orcs without dying. His health alone must have doubled up to 80,000. The only major change I still have to get used to is Revealing Mark changing from 15% Returned Damage to 4% Max Morale 5second pulses within 15meters. Check here for other changes.
Other News: Our kinship has been having issues with several raids ever since the changes in statistics. Fanrel managed to do 13 slayer deeds and another 16 slayer deeds with 2 Tomes of Slayer Deed. Fanrel continues to unlock the rest of her trait points slowly through Gondor. Fanrel also won Isengard's Mini Throne. Resolina passed through Throne of the Dread Terror within 3 hours and passed on a Gondor Ship to Rinri. Oz's Fantastic Friday Flea Market idea is still continuing on all this month. Weatherstock Wayfarer title came in the mail. Surprised to see that the redeem code counted for all characters on the account.
2019-08-06