The Ranger (Part 1)

Highlights: Resolina ventures into South Ithilien and Osgiliath

November 29th - December 3rd

Spreadsheet Friday: Roots of Fangorn, Tower of Orthanc. Bizinga still needed the challenge deed Resolina needed a few months ago. Tower of Orthanc, on the other hand, proved rather difficult. There are a lot riding (pun) on these deeds for you get the Tower of Orthanc housing decoration and Isengard steed with glowing comparison for completing the raid in T2. However, I still have yet to figure out the strategy involved with some of the encounters. Fire & Ice (first boss) involves some complex no-rage under 30 second tick while Bukot (shadow boss) has some crazy purple cloud/black cloud combo thing going on. I was quite surprised going in the first couple times and still wasn't prepared to tank the raid. I guess it was cool to at the very least get T2 completed for the lightning zone. I did win a Broken Cloak Clasp but it really doesn't do me any good without at least crafitng a cloak first with some Draigoch's Scales first. Then again, I wouldn't be prepared to run that raid again either with Fanrel. She is just entering Enedwaith.

Sunday Giveaway: There is a player named Propose that I am very familiar with all those years ago. His name is written on a ton of things on the Auction House and for some reason decided to giveaway pets, items, and gold. I didn't win anything important - just a fox and snake. I guess it was still cool in getting something for free.

Eastern Gondor: I found the quest pack broken up in the most unusual way. In my "White Rider" series, you may recall my final run-through in Pelargir and Upper Lebennin. Things change once you take a ride on that boat to South Ithilien. You enter a grassy area filled with open space and barely anything to explore at all but a few ruins and camps. It was still fun. Here are some highlights:

Bâr Húrin might be a secluded spot for the Rangers to hideout in but the area is quite large to your typical camp.
You are entering an area of skilled warriors. You will not find refugees begging for your help. You will have to earn the respect of the rangers by humbling yourself in average day chores that nevertheless are very important to them.
There are various bounties posted for the obscure hunter. You will get lost trying to find them in this massive landscape.
While visiting the town, be sure to grab the three Roving Threat quests for one of them is bound to be inside Osgiliath.
Pelargir and Harlond might be your first initial shocks of the massive army the enemy holds but walking up those hills gives you a better vantage point of what really is happening before Minas Tirith.
Faramir's Lookout is a lot further north than you may realize. As secluded as it might be, there is a stable there that will help better access to Osgiliath.

Osgiliath: The movie might show you spots inside this great city but moving around in it is an entirely different experience. I might have felt powerful for helping the little guy through Gondor but nothing made me feel more helpless than coming into this city. Here are some points:

I really wanted to meet Faramir in the city but I knew that wasn't going to happen. The timeline just didn't fit. The enemy has already settled down and engaged the Pelennor Fields. Instead, they did a very awesome job of keeping everyone in the dark to what really happened to Faramir. The writing in Lord of the Rings Online portrays Faramir as a daring leader willing to do everything in his power to save his people. Even the Nazgul seemed to show a little bit of fear to the man. It was much more enjoyable than what was seen in the movies.
The vantage point from Faramir's Lookout really shows how much of the city is now controlled by the enemy.
I did enjoy exploring the different districts of Osgiliath but I felt rather shortened into knowing more about the city before the siege. I know there were some background with Bormir reclaiming the city before Faramir lost control of it but I would have liked to know if people ever came back into the city and tried to rebuild and fortify it. I couldn't really tell if there was any sort of remnants of the city being abandoned. It looked like the city was forever made a battle zone.
I became very emotional from doing the quests in this area. Learning about how the rangers were tortured and toyed around with had me fighting down orcs and half-trolls before I even got a quest to do so. I felt like that no matter what I did, I couldn't change the enemy's river of allies marching towards the great white city of Minas Tirith.
Then I became very upset when I found people burning books... books of all things! I was getting flashbacks of me charging through the Library of Tham Mirdain.
I really enjoyed how the quests helped explain the mechanics of the siege - building rafts, reinforcing bridges, and how much the Nazgul were involved.
Ranger's Camp in the Culverts was really hard to find the first time around. You can't just walk through the middle of the city. There is this preset pathway you must take before making it to the secret hideout. It kind of reminds me of the little place the Moria dwarves setup in The Water-works. It gets rather tedious going to this location without being able to swift travel via stable.

Osgiliath Instances: I really felt like this needed to be in its own category. When you are doing the quests for the first time, you get this adrenaline rush while chasing down this mysterious figure. A part of you knows there is a small chance that it might really be Faramir. A bigger, more curious part of you gnaws away all sorts of logic and reason. You start asking questions like is it a ranger undergoing some sort of experiment? Is it some friend you discovered on your way through Gondor? Is it really a spider that transformed herself into a human? Who knows? Anyways, here are some of the things I encountered:

The Sunken Labyrinth is pretty fun the first time around. It reminds me a ton of The Water Wheels: Nalâ-dûm but without the annoyance of coordinating levers. There are some really nice spots to sit back and look at. It was rather hard to keep remembering that the whole place resided below the city of Osgiliath. I'd also like to add that Dagrom, the Troll abomination, scared me so bad that I nearly fell onto the floor with my mouse swiveling the camera to the ceiling. There was this brief moment I looked away from the monitor when he came around the corner. He is huge!
The Ruined City is a very forgettable instance. I understand it is currently this week's featured instance but the whole thing feels rather out of place when you've been practically doing everything in a more public setting. I guess it was kind of cool seeing the conclusion to the mysterious figure story arc.
The Dome of Stars is a very evil instance that I think a lot of people would like to avoid ever visiting. The instance is simple enough and more of the actual building can be explored in Osgiliath itself. The problem is for it being a 6-man instance, the final boss has a very unfair tactic of sending kamikaze spirits that take away a preset 80% of your health. My 90,000 health meant nothing. At least we were able to finish the quest by killing just the Nazgul before dying to its friends.

Joke: When zombies broke down the door, Hodor changed his name to Gondor. (I'd also accept Mordor)

2017-12-12