Dúnedain

Highlights: Fanrel treks through Enedwaith as Resolina plays Sauron-Says

January 14th - 21st

Enedwaith Features

Enedwaith came out way back in July 2010, about four months after the Mirkwood expansion. Obviously something was happening to the company for it wasn't but a few months later in November 2010 when it went Free-To-Play and I started playing the game. You can tell they were trying to change things up with this quest pack:

Instances weren't specifically tied to the region. You can check my "Windy Road" post for more details on the In Their Absence instances and quests.
People needed to go to each instance and discover their entrance before using the Instance Finder.
Following suite with Lothlorien and Mirkwood, Enedwaith does not have any task boards. All reputation must be obtained through repeatable quests. There are no reputation items. You cannot craft reputation items either. (You will come out around Ally standing after doing all the standard quests)
There is a plethora of repeatable quests. 7 quests with Algraig, 5 quests with Grey Company, 8 Small Fellowship quests from Nár's Peak, and 3 quests at Maur Tulhau (Hobbits).
Some enemies only come out at night. As interesting as a concept this is, it is a nightmare when you are in a hurry to complete some quests. The only other place that I know of that does this is The Great River and it is for a hidden deed.

It's dark! I can finally do my quests!

Characters now phase in depending on your previous actions. For example, saving a ranger in the field will now have that character appear at the camp.
Looted items now offer quests. For some reason this was very hard for players to grasp, me included. As you progress in one quest, there is a chance of looting an item that offers another quest. The issue is you must click on the Quest Item notification and accept the quest. Only then will you be able to progress to the next area. Since then, Lord of the Rings Online have tried to auto-bestow quests.
Ground items offer quests. Generally a quest will have you seek something on the ground. Enedwaith introduces patrol points where quest items in yellow text are lootable on the ground as you move through a questline. These items do not bloom and are not mentioned in the initial quest log.
Enedwaith is the first zone you must do every quest in order within a section. There is no skipping out on a quest because you don't like it. This becomes the norm from now on.
There are plenty of reputation rewards to choose from. You can trade with Algraig or The Grey Company for horses, housing decorations, or even a few emotes.

There are a couple of Hidden Deeds:

Master of Stairs: There isn't much data regarding this deed. It requires you to take five round trips to Nár's Peak and back. As a hunter, you must cross the log bridge and then use your camp site ability. The deed tracks the location transitions from each location from bottom to top and back. It is assumed to only be valid to a minimum of level 60.
The Odiferous: You must complete Miraculous Growth ten times. Yes, you must pick up 10 boar droppings and 10 marigolds on 10 separate days to get Fine Boar-droppings and The Odiferous Title.
Fisher-king: You must find the Fishing Hole at [63.2 S, 23.9 W] near the Stoors of Maur Tulhau.

Enedwaith Opinion

I never liked this zone. I barely remember the instances. Level 65 was still the cap and I had the toughest time just with the group content. I ran Northcotton Farms so many times. It was the easiest of them all. I recall a lot of people losing track of the very complicated quest chain. I also remember getting a bit confused when the quests just sort of ended, without any sort of proper conclusion. There was also an issue with running back-and-forth between the Algraig and the Grey Company without a stable point.

So when I went through again with Fanrel, I didn't waste time. Knowing what I did with Resolina (Hatric skipped the whole region), my thought process was pretty simple:

Kill. Kill. Find. Kill. Kill. The huge tunnel of doom wolves. Meat. Evil. Meat. Is it night-time yet? No. Only dusk. Yay, hobbits! Pick flowers. Why is it so hard to find stags in this area? Kill. Finished quest deed. Moon up! Evil. Meat. More Evil. Move on...

They must be in league with the haunted deer.

You get the idea. But I will admit that there were a lot of little things I was quite pleased with. If you are a weaponsmith, you have the option to complete a quest in repairing the item yourself. You can visit Hall of the Huntsman after completing Shards of Light from the active portal or the hidden entrance. Trees are bent over and spring upward to reveal the path. There is also a boat that you can use to manuever the river around Mournshaws. Though Draigoch's Lair is physically located in Enedwaith, the quests and the raid are part of Isengard.

Epic Volume III: Allies of the King, Books 1-3 (And Prologue)

This will get a bit extensive for they packed quite a bit in the epic story. The Prologue Instance: Messages from Lórien is a must have for anyone who is starting the epic. It isn't too hard to miss for the same guy offers both the prologue and the first book. More details on those rangers below.

Book 1, Chapter 4 offers you an option to tell Halros To Say in the Shire Or Go with Aragorn. This option doesn't seem too important at first. However, there is a critical point in the Battle of Pelennor Fields where Halros will sacrifice himself to save Horn. Otherwise Horn dies. Volume IV, Book 6, Chapter 8 Instance: On a Field of Red conversation changes quite extensively depending on whether or not Halros is on the battlefield.
Book 1, Chapter 7 instance Lothrandir of the Frozen Wastes introduces you to Gun Ain. You may not remember this girl. She first appeared as Avair in The Rite of Clúcath. This was a level 43 quest in Angmar. She was one of the two warriors that Domongart, chieftain of the Trév Duvárdain, chose to challenge you to the death. Remember that quest? I sure don't. She explains she lost her name (everything she represented) and was cast out. She was too prideful to accept the mercy of her enemies. Though this is all explained through narration, it becomes very important by the end of the epic series.

Call her name, please!

Book 1, Chapter 8 forces you to do the Skirmish: Rescue in Nûrz Ghâshu with Corunir in search for Golodir. Like quite a few other skirmishes, this one was new for its time. However, not many people like to run this skirmish in a group setting because progression requires proper Fellowship Manuevers. In the end despite Elrond's concerns, Golodir does end up going with you (and it is a good thing he does as seen in the Battle of Pelennor Fields).

Let's wait Corunir. I want to see where this goes.

Book 2, Chapter 4 Riding South offers the infamous Erebrandir's Horseshoe as a quest reward. It does the following:
- Starting with the quest "Turtle Soup" in Sig Mandrake's Shop, you find out about a conspiracy against the turtles in Bree. The instance "Infiltrators' Surprise" at the very end of the quest chain shows turtles running amock. If you are wearing the horseshoe before completing the quest, you will see Jon Sandheaver, a Hobbit in a skeleton costume, proclaiming his fondness for turtles by the entrance.
- Wearing the horseshoe during the snowball fight in Frostbluff (during Yule Festival) grants a short immunity to the impairment effects of snowballs with the buff labeled "You know Snow Fu".
- Wearing the horseshoe during Bingo's instance: The Perfect Recipe will have the lady from the Haunted Inn in Mirkwood, Adolinda, appear among the guests.
- Wearing the horseshoe during Instance: An Echo of Days Past will let you see the mysterious visage across the room as you reach for the lever. More details listed below.

Book 2, Chapter 7 Bewildering Ruins takes you through Minas Elendúr and Delotham. There is a deed for visiting every room that rewards you The Thorough.
Book 2, Chapter 15 An Echo of Days Past instance has sparked a lot of interest with Lord of the Rings theorists. Either Halros or Lothrandir will assist you depending on your earlier decision. If you climb to the upper levels behind where you entered the cave of The Old Father, you will see a mysterious visage wandering about. This same figure can be seen again if wearing Erebrandir's Horseshoe. Nár states a lot of things that aren't really explained. Near the end of the instance, he says: "I know your road, son of Elrond. That way lies death... Treachery! Treachery and deceit! You who walk the Paths of the Dead, beware!"

Book 3, Chapter 2 has you enter a session play. The area where The Stone of Erech is shown can be visited again in Western Gondor.

Book 3, Chapter 6 has you killing Dunlendings for Wadu's death. Only a few are required to update the quest. No matter how many you kill, the result is completely random. You will either get:
- 'What? I cannot believe my ears! You have slain more than I? I was overeager to return here to hear your tally, <name>, I confess it. It is no matter. We did this for Wadu, and now his cowardly foes have paid a price for their ambush.
- 'My count is higher, but not by a great deal. You did very well! It does not matter who is the victor, for we have done this in memory of my son. Let his enemies rue the day they slew him from ambush, and caused us to notice the stink of them.

Book 3, Chapter 7 rewards you with Gondorian Candelabrum. I touched on the details of this and the one from Dol Amroth in my Home post.
Book 3, Chapter 9 rewards you with Gondorian Knight and Stars Tapestry.
Book 3, Chapter 10 Despite your best wishes, Candaith does indeed die in the Instance: Echoes of the Dead. His plan to fool the enemy with the ring forged in Book 2, Chapter 8 failed. You have the option of obtaining his scale leggings, sturdy leather gauntlets, or mantle. His last memory is shown through the following cinematic and your dream in Book 6.

Grey Company: Ranger Count

Are you keeping up with who all is with you? The first book touches on nine rangers:

Radanir: Expert on herb-lore.
Candaith (level 22-25 in Lonelands): scholar on the lore and heritage of the Dúnedain.
Saeradan (level 15-22 in Bree): Held in High Regard by the People of Bree
Halros (level 12, Hobbit Prologue): Keeps watch over the Shire
Halbarad (level 30, Esteldin) : Ranger that carries the banner Arwen crafted.
Calenglad (levels 32 - 40): Watches over Annuminas
Lothrandir (level 47, Forochel): Familiar with the People in the Southern Lands
Corunir (level 42, Angmar): "Less bold than the others, but have some sense".
Golodir (level 50, Angmar): Originally left behind to grieve over the death of his daughter Lorniel but chooses to go anyway.

Who didn't make it through Enedwaith? Who fell at The Forsaken Road?

Rangers Hodhon, Calithil, Linnor, and Himeldir aren't mentioned until Book 10 during the Wildermore Interlude: One More Journey. They are indeed lost.
Candaith as mentioned above.

Monday Madness: Isengard

Elaelin has spent years trying to complete the Fire and Ice challenge. The intended method of completing this challenge was to perform a sort of dance around the bosses as everyone enacted on their roles without fault. It reminds me of the Heigan's Safety Dance, a tactic used against a World of Warcraft boss where you must run between 4 interlocking sections as acid shoots up from the ground. I still think Isengard's challenge was way more difficult. Instead of trying to stun a grim, pull it by a boss, and killing it every rage tick, we finally reached a level where we could try killing the boss within the first 30 seconds. We had many issues at the start: pulling the boss took too long, someone dying, hesitation in the group's abilities. Then we finally heard Elaelin's scream of joy as the first boss went down without a fret. However, we did not have enough grims to defeat the second boss without rage. So we had to do it again with the first boss facing everyone.

Time to celebrate good times!

I was so excited when we completed the challenge, I thought I was going to grab hold of my keyboard and smash the monitor. Resolina might have helped push overall damage but it was everyone's contribution that helped accomplish this goal. The other 3 bosses went down just as fast as the first giant. Even Bugot went down so fast that we didn't even have to bother moving him around. That was the moment the Throne of Isengard Housing Decoration dropped. A very cute 'woohoo' was heard coming from Yualiel as he won it. It currently resides on the right side inside the kinhouse. Though, it is much tinier than the real thing.

But by the end of the raid, we were getting tired. Saruman's challenge proved difficult for our sleepy heads. There was some complications with activating one of the rings and Yualiel was losing his focus on calling out the color sequences. That is when we decided to wait another day.

...Tuesday Madness: Instead of Creep Night, we tried our hand at Saruman's, uh, hand. We tried many, many times. Slowly we learned how to combat the deadly ailments, watch for the bugged non-existant purple aura, avoid the poison pools, and heal through the damage. I too learned to use the frost ring responsibly on a dying teammate. Through sheer will and determination, we did manage to complete the challenge and obtain the Orthanc Model. That too currently resides outside the kinhouse. There's some pictures down below of the real Orthanc for comparison.

Mordor Week: I have a very weak memory of what we specifically did every other day of the week. I know we hunted down scourges for the weekly quest. We chased down Hidden Threats (I still need 2). We did some treasure hunting for the hidden caches in three zones. We did a couple of Court of Seregost and Naerband runs. Still don't know exactly where that page #4 is in that instance. Smelly found it in the fire pit somewhere. We helped quite a few people try to figure out what they needed in Tales of Gorgoroth. Otherwise, I felt it was rather uneventful. Well, except for the hobbit that got stuck in the northern gate of Bree.

I can't see his head. Should I be concerned?

2018-01-28