Illonna
A Hunter of the Elvish Persuasion
Preliminary Notes - Update 9 Against the Shadow
Well the first public Beta of Update 9 has hit the Bullroarer Public Test Server for all to test out. I stopped over there last night to give it a run. Fortunately, the five characters I imported from Live to Bullroarer for the Rohan test were still there. While not up-to-date (not finished all of Rohan as on live) Illonna was 85 and had the Hytbold Huntsman armour. Here are my first impressions
Instance Cluster (Part I - three Small Fellowship Instances)
All were run at Level 20 Solo, while I did try Seat of the Great Goblin at first at 50 but got had difficulty with the Troll Grudom to make it through.
Iorbar's Peak
Nice terrain, running up the mountain in a corkscrew type pattern fighting Giants, Dourhands. Bears, Goats, Mammoths, and Sabre-cats. Two named Bosses Guthfinn and Helf (final). There are about 50 or so landscape mobs. Instance requires you to kill the bosses and check out something on an 'alter' (?).
Seat of the Great Goblin
Somewhat reminisent of the current current The Great Goblin's Den and other areas in Goblin-Town. You make your way up a tunnel defeating Goblins of many types, Wargs, Bats and Boggart's. Most are along the main... More
by Illonna on 2012-11-28 01:58:58
Colonel, I'm going up ahead to scout the Great River for hostiles
**** WORK IN PROGRESS ****
Update 6
Quests
Overview
There is a entire new Epic quest chain (Volume III Book 6: Mists of Anduin) that starts in Grimbold's Camp and proceeds into Enedwaith and Lothlórien before taking you into The Great River area (5 quests out of and 13 quests in The Great River areas). I will discuss this further below. Otherwise there are also about 178 new quests in seven areas broken down as follows (areas in italics I have been through and finished or just about finished the quests). I will discuss each area seperately.
Thinglad - 26 quests involving the Elvish Settlement of Haldrith, its environs and their interactions with the Rohirrim. Orcs, Wargs and other beasts (Bears, Wolves, Bucks).
Eorlsmead - 30 quests involving the Rohirrim settlement of Stangard and its environs. Hounds, Worms, political intrique and more.
Wailing Hills - 25 quests near the gateway to Limlight Gorge and a freaking big statue. Orcs, more Orcs, some spiders, even more Orcs, and a couple of really majestic friends.
Limlight Gorge - 19 quests (I have a solo quest left to do), three are dailies. This area has Small Fellowhip quests with a three quest... More
by Illonna on 2012-03-02 07:35:05
HIC SVNT DRACONE (Here be Dragon)
*** Still under construction ***
Draigoch Raid
After a few false starts this has become pretty much second nature at Tier 2 Challange Mode. Let me start off with one of the reasons people run this Raid - Loot. On second thought before you can do the Raid and get the loot you need to do the clearing quests.
Discovery of Draigoch's Lair
Once you reach level 75 you need to pick up the quest 'There is Gold in the Hills' from Ariene who is just outside the South gate in Galtrev. She will send you off to see Frithgeit at Zudrugund at Nár's Peak that will end up with a series of two more quests (Map to the Treasure, A Cave in the Hills) with Frithgeir and Nár, where the end result is you will have discovered Draigoch's Lair and will be eligible to run the raid. OK, now back to the ...
Loot
We really have been running this in Tier 2 Challange Mode all the time which generally means once a week because of locks. When you complete this the first time you will have completed four deeds and a quest, which will reward you with a Worn Symbol of Celebrimbor, a Scroll of Greater Empowerment, a Fused Deep Relic (Tier 7), an Ornate Heritage Rune of Knowledge (167K IXP), a small... More
by Illonna on 2012-02-23 01:12:49
Woot I'm a 75!! ....Now what?
When I joined Nesh at the end of November 2011 I was one of less than a handful of 75 level characters. I perused through the members list on the LOTRO Community website today and we now have 135 characters at endgame (75), with another 37 at the 70 - 74 level. That is a lot of hard work accomplished in the almost three months. Nesh now has a very large pool of players that can attempt end game content.
Do all of them want to? Who knows but I guess many do.
Can all those that wish to, do it successfully? Perhaps not at first.
I think the best way to descibe the situation some may face is with some insight from Ippamir, one of Nesh's best level capped Rune-keepers who has run many a Raid:
"Lotro is a funny game in that solo play is SOOOO different from group play. People have to unlearn bad patterns they used while solo (when it just didn't matter) and learn new methods of doing things as a group. In many ways it is unfair as lotro has confused players with this division. Players don't wind up with the necessary skills for grouping in the end game which frustrates the group (and to the self aware) even the player himself."
I know in my case I joined as a 75 but had never grouped in... More
by Illonna on 2012-02-22 01:57:06
Giants and Spiders and Drakes, Oh My!
Over the past two Saturdays we have gone off to do Helegrod Raids - Spider and Drake Wings on 2/4 and Giant and Spider Wings on 2/11. We ran the first week at level 50 and the second at 58 so that some of the level 50 somethings Kin could join. They were all fun and we stumbled around a bit as many hadn't run them or if they had in the past it was a while ago and couldn't remember all the details. It all worked out in the end.
On the second week we were going to do the final Raid - Thorog after the Giant Wing but a few people didn't have all the other wings completed so we ran Spider again. Picked that because though we completed the Deed and other quests on the first week it seemed that the 'Zahdru and her Brood' Quest would not complete. We figured we'd try it again for those that didn't have the Wing credit and to get rid of that Quest - it didn't this time either so the Raid leader filed a bug. We'll see how that turns out.
Spider Wing
Straightfoward up to the Zaudru fight. We went about 'summoning' and knocking off the little ones. People got to 100 killed but the quest mentioned above wouldn't clear after Zaudru was taken out. From what I see in some quides they... More
by Illonna on 2012-02-13 12:35:05