The Windy Road

Last Week Highlights: Resolina starts the Gondor Epic, Fanrel completes quite a few quests in the dungeons of Moria, things slow down for the Fall Festival, and much more.

Week Starting October 23

Moria Monday: Halls of Crafting, The Grand Stair, Forges of Khazad-dûm. I might not have been ready last week (Post: Patience Young Elf) but this time I was ready. Fanrel managed to finish a few quests in Halls of Crafting and a long laundry list of quests in The Grand Stair. This week it was my turn to finish the class quest in The Grand Stair. Although we didn't discuss other games (Post: Moar Dots) this week, we did get a little silly. In fact, I don't know how Forhirvos (aka Oz) managed in being so nimble. Twice he got knocked back and twice he managed to stay alive. That night must have been his night because he also obtained the Small Turtle Shell inside Filikul! I honestly hesitated in rolling because I didn't think it would have been fair gaining yet another one (Post: Search for Decorations). I still rolled of course. I don't think Yualiel (aka Saelios, or Everen in Ventrilo) was doing too well. He died quite a few times inside the instances. I think Jilleth went off chasing butterflies or something. I will admit he does an excellent job explaining instance routes and boss encounters. Gotta' give him props for that.

Oz be nimble. Oz be quick. Oz twice jumped on a candlestick.

Gondor Epic: Although I still don't have the quest packs leading up to Mordor, I figured now is a good time than ever in doing the epic storyline. If anything, it will help me get a clearer picture in how the areas are divided up. Western Gondor is beautiful to look at, Central Gondor has the lore, and Eastern Gondor has the massive conflict to contend with. There is no way I can include everything I encountered but I will give out a few details:

The Session Play Instance: Those Who Are Dead gives you two options. Choosing to side with Aragorn seems to have a better cinematic conclusion over siding with Sauron. I did loot a chest inside Paths of the Dead but the contents did not stay with me when transferring back to my main character.
Book 1 Chapter 6: The Merchant rewards you with Anfalas Scroll of Delving. Book 3 Chapter 7: Osgiliath rewards you with Anfalas Crystal of Remembrance.
Who would have thought to see elves living like dwarves inside the Caves of the Avorrim? I was also surprised to see I had access to The Dead Marshes from inside the cavern. As difficult as it was to run around the area without a horse, the few quests The Dead Marshes offered came with the splendid rewards of seeing a glimpse of Frodo's journey, hints at the beginning of the Dawnless Day, a Essence Reclamation Scroll, and Universal Solvent.

The steed I rode must have been related to Bill the Pony.

Dol Amroth is a very beautiful place to visit. However, I think it would benefit Lothíriel to invest in constructing some kind of elevator. Running between the docks and the Great Hall proved quite exhausting. Way too many stairs.

I think someone here really likes swans.

A large portion of quests from the epic, especially in Central Gondor, rekindles your familiarity of each of the rangers as individuals. I think this helps you remember how far you've come from a long history of events in Eriador.
Running through the various camps as a level 109, especially in Osgiliath, made things way too easy. No one chases after you and it makes looting all the chests that much quicker. Though there are perhaps ten times the number of chests to loot, the items are very menial ranging from herbs to ore.
Mûmakil (the plural version of Mûmak) are very cool to look at in person. My heart started racing when one chased us in Book 3 Chapter 6: Sons of Blackroot. Meeting the rangers there in South Ithilien also allowed me to pick up the Roving Threats quests for Eastern Gondor.

I'm getting this feeling as if I've been running my entire life.

Legendaries: I procrastinated in cleaning up my legendary equipment for long enough. My weapon wasn't doing enough damage, my item didn't have the right legacies, and my bridle was really outdated. This is what I did:

I never really did put too much emphasis on my Legendary Weapon. I knew the equipment from level 106 to 115 would help boost my stats. One day I heard about a warden in world chat who was complaining that he was able to get more damage from a normal weapon in Mordor. He stated that his imbued weapon was doing 250 damage (the amount of damage you would get from a standard level 100 legendary weapon) while one from Mordor would do around 400 damage. That is when I realized that my weapon was only doing around 350 damage. By turning in 90 Fall Festival tokens, I could obtain one Anfalas Star-lit Crystal. Now at 21/24, I stand at 400 DPS. It would be even better to shoot for that final tier of 500 DPS.
My Legendary Item isn't imbued yet. The Gondor epic helped increase it to 60/70 and add an additional legendary slot. The problem is I don't exactly have a spare legacy to slot there. Time of Need and Sure Strike are two good legacies I neglect all the time. Light-type Damage would be helpful for all trait trees, but Shadow's Lament probably will be the most helpful since it generally is the first ability I use in red-line. The Melee Skills Healing legacy will only truely benefit Valiant Strike and will definitely not be added to my item. Another thing to note is I also need to add a title to my item. So after all that, what did I decide on doing? Well, I added relics. I went and created quite a few interesting relics from the Tailor Guild and Relic Forger.
When combating enemies on my war-steed in Central Gondor, I noticed my strikes weren't hitting as hard as I expected. My level 85 second age bridle needed an upgrade. It was time to forge a Legendary Bridle. I scooped up all my ixp runes, legacies, and crafting mats & went to work. The amount of fury bonus contribution went from 4,000 to 20,000. I don't know about you but that is a huge difference in numbers. I replaced a few legacies I never used the skills for and made sure to equip the right kind of relics. I haven't tested the new bridle in battle yet but I have no doubt it will perform spectacularly.

Spreadsheet Friday: In Their Absence. Since reaching level 65, I received three different letters: Pethelen from Rivendell sent me an urgent summons regarding the prologue to the Epic Chain for Volume 3, a map of Dunland with instructions on meeting the rangers, and one that was stained from Barliman Butterbur. Now I know that Resolina did a couple of quests in this chain but ultimately failed in one of the steps inside Ost Dunhoth. However, this time I was going to do things right with Fanrel. The whole gist of the story is the Witch-king summoned five Gaunt-men to his service matching the five Wizards embodying death, pestilence, famine, war, and purest evil. Here is what happened:

Though not actually required for anything, The Mysterious Relics do help in explaining the story a little more. For example, the one in Forochel is right on the border of Angmar implying some connection to the witch-king. The one in North Downs burned down a house. When enquiring the farmer further, you learn about a helmet he sold to a merchant. The one in Trollshaws is perhaps the trickiest of them all. You might be able to find the relic at the end of a very large cave in the heart of the wood-trolls but it is walking up to the mysterious door behind the relic that gives you the quest you seek. I made that mistake already with Resolina. The map really helped me when I got lost from getting lost.

So the pillars... they're there just to hold up the bonfires?

Northcotton Farms inside Oatbarton is the first instance to visit. You save hobbits. That's about it. It is rather humourous that you find some boar meat inside the place. Now you can go and show Parr Chopley you at least found some form of boar in Evendim. Pretty nice with a level 114 in the group. Rinrieith, Bizinga, and Fanrel went in with no problem.

No! Now YOU shall perish for your in... inso... insulin!

Thadúr says Tirith dan Forduath before he dies in Northcotton Farms which basically leads you to Stoneheight. Now this place is rather boring for you go in finding the remains of a peaceful little town now in ruin. You find out Ivar the Blood-hand went in looking for this rumored helmet and left his lackeys to fight you. You find a mysterious tablet that only Elrond, of all people, knows what it says. It talks about a feud between the gaunt-lords but ultimately sends you to the next destination.
Lost Temple is a pretty neat place to visit but also very simple. Your goal is to fight Ferndúr the Virulent. Brave, brave Sir Oziman decided to charge into the next room. Unknown to him, the rest of his support were all too busy chatting to notice him. He made sure to stay behind Elaelin the rest of the way. In the end, you then find another tablet that sends you on your merry way.

Hey dol merry dol - Tom Bombadil

Sâri-surma is a rather neat place but also not one I personally prefer doing beyond the questline. While running through the place, pieces of history unfold as you see Lossoth hunters try to combat the undead wights. The end result are the frozen pieces of human stalagmites (Stalag-might reach the ceiling, Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling) you see before your eyes. There is also a big division between the meat popsicles and their spiritual condition as anyone can tell while venturing through the instance. In the end, you find and kill Drugoth the Death-monger. You find yet another tablet that sends you to Enedwaith.
I might thoroughly enjoy every bit of Ost Dunhoth but it isn't a place I find a lot of people interested in running. The Would Wing has you running away from 3 Mammoth Riders. The raid's first attempt didn't go too well. The quicker you kill the mammoths, the faster waves of mobs spawn in the room. Knowing that, our second attempt went a lot smoother. Fighting through the Fear and Poison Wings were easy enough with such high-level characters in our midst. The Disease Wing proved slightly harder boss mechanics where you fight between a red tree and a white tree. Thankfully we managed to defeat them both in our first attempt (even though we did have one person die from using Area-of-Effect abilities). Then you hear Ivar monologue about how great he is for searching for the helmet and Gortheron about how awesome he is to devise such an awesome plan. Kill them both and you will gain the ultimate reward - not having that quest in your log anymore.

See, even the mammoth riders are telling you to slow down.

Other: There are way too many other things to subcategorize so I'm going to combine them into this one subheading. Here goes:

Fall Festival is winding down. Pretty much all the splash screens on the website and login still state November 1st but the Beacon post states November 5th. Once you get 3 Scraps of an Essence Reclamation Scroll from the dailies, you aren't left any option to get more. Those 3 then can be turned in to the barterer for one scroll. I have run all out of beer and won't be traveling anymore for the Inn League. I'm actually pretty worn down all together for this festival.
I stumbled upon someone who wrote out an enormous 10-year retrospective blog post filled with 170 images. It might be worth checking out. He has screenshots that even I would have liked in my personal collection.
Resolina needed one more deed to finish all deeds in Eriador: No Place for Spoiled Pies. Delivering the pies might have taken an hour but the process of doing the deed took years. My reward? Two Sturdy Steel Keys. I didn't get anything I wanted from opening the chests but I was reimbursed the value of the keys from selling those items on the Auction House.

Nothing scarier than running into a hungry hobbit.

I didn't attempt any Treasure Cache runs and The Battle of Lórien seemed difficult to even begin. Instead, I chose to finish the Beasts Slayer Deed in Urugarth. Now if only I could finish the Angmarim and Hillmen Slayer Deeds in Barad Gúlaran.
Featured Instance: Halls of Night. I directed Pluschbar to the entrance since it was his first time in this instance. In fact, it was his first time doing a box run. I think I ran it three times this week. I guess I've been slacking on doing the featured instances.
Lootboxes: I've sort of made this promise to myself I wouldn't buy any keys on the Auction House. A man on world chat recently admitted to opening 150 lootboxes with only obtaining three Pick-A-Mounts. He gave me two Relic Removal Scrolls and a Scroll of Lesser Craft Acceleration. I have probably opened a total of 100 lootboxes (Post: Lootbox Rewards) and have never even seen one Pick-A-Mount. Ironically, I already own the famous Blue Roan Steed that everyone desires. I do believe it was the one Elaelin chose after opening a random Barrow-ironbound Lootbox while running Fanrel through The Great Barrow. Fanrel didn't have any equipment and was only armed with a level 20 bow I found in a lootbox of my own. Those were good times. Personally I think I would choose the Red Painted Skeleton Horse.
I don't know why I didn't do this sooner but since I created Asanda to be my new banker, why not create a new kinship too. I thought about buying a stately home on the cliffside for 125 mithril coins but I currently only have 95 mithril coins to spend. So instead I'll just wait 3 months before buying a personal kinhouse to decorate. I guess I should mention the name of the kinship: Castle Crashers. I do fear that there is some kinship decay rule that will make it suddenly disappear. I've decided to login that character at least once a month to make sure everything is still in order.

Bonus: October 30th

Moria Monday: Sixteenth Hall, Skûmfil, Dark Delving. There is that joy when you see people excited to run places they have never seen before. I believe it was Blondzilla's first time seeing any of the instances in Moria. I think it was Bizinga's first time in the Sixteenth Hall. I'm quite happy I went down to the Foundations of Stone and picked up all the quests for these three instances. I saw Turondil right there beside me picking up mushrooms in the Sixteenth Hall. Bizinga was there beside me picking up rune-stones in Dark Delving. We had various people pop in-and-out of the instances as we re-ran some of them for quests. That stupid Infected Kergrim-samples quest has you collecting spiny flesh three separate times. Then there was the Void-eater bugging out around the rune-stones. I actually thought I was going to defeat him by shooting arrows from the cliffside but he reset with about 10% health left. Nornúan, the itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot giant turtle didn't drop anything special this time around. When it came to Vile Maw, we decided to do some stretches and charges before encountering the boss. We do have a rather silly group. Fanrel came so close to finishing the deed - 58/60 Arms of the Watcher. There is always next week.

And stretch. And twist. And pull. Come on people! Let's kill those arms!

2017-11-01