Catching up with Bach

Wow. Turn around and a couple months fly by. Sorry about that. Hopefully everyone that reads this blog has marked the RSS for subscription and comes back to read.

So here's what's been going on with my gaming life . . .

• Super Smash Brothers for the Wii -- Really disappointed no one does random internet games on Super Smash. /shrug.
• Boom Blox for the Wii -- My son is absolutely addicted to this game.
• World of Warcraft -- I, yes, defected and played WoW again for a month. In that month time frame I worked a Rogue up from 1-50 and decided that, no, I don't want to play that game.
• Guild Wars -- Every Sunday night our little band of brothers gets together and works through a mission or a quest or two in Guild Wars.
• Diablo II LOD -- Old schoolin' it with BPaul. Rock on. Rolling me up a necro, bonedaddy.
• LOTRO -- Yes! YES! I came back to LOTRO! Let me tell you that the break was just what I needed to refocus myself. I'm back in the swing of things and loving the new (to me) Forochel area.

Forochel was exactly what the game needed for the upper level soloing game. When I took my break from LOTRO my champion was stalled at level 49. I just didn't have any more solo quests I felt up to doing. Forochel, my friends, Forochel. You just catch a horse ride from esteldin over to tinnudir and then run up north until you get to that freezing cold water.

Stingite dings 50 in Forochel!

Side note . . . that water is cold up there. I mean, in some parts if you get in the water, you're dead in about 10 seconds. You've been warned.

Have fun with what you're doing!

I Found This Hilarious

The April 1st message is here.

My favorite part is "Crush your foes into 6, 12, or 20 pieces."

Here it comes . . . the mines of moria

Well, Turbine announced the new expansion and watch out, here come the Rune-Keepers. Jeepers-Creepers! Just sounds like a great new class name, doesn't it?

"Marvin is so funny in kin chat that he shouldn't be called a Rune-Keeper; he should instead be called a Hilarity-Keeper! LOL"

"Nah, Marvin sucks, he should be called a Rune-Failer. xD"

Hyphenated class names ftw. It's built in kinship chat comedy!

The other new class they announced was The Warden. What a completely unfun name. I can't even think of a good rhyme to go with Warden other than Boredom, and that's not even a good rhyme . . . that's not even half-rhyme . . . just some lame quasi-assonance. I hope the class plays better than the name. sheesh.

If you're looking for details, you're going to have to wait a bit. Turbine has set up the mines of moria website and it looks like at the end of March, beginning of April they'll be having you play little mini-games to unlock secrets and information about the new classes and all the other new goodies . . . unless of course they just announce it was a big April fool's joke on us all.

Level cap is going up to 60 as well kids. Have fun with that.

I'm wondering if they'll increase the number of characters you can have in your account by 2 (ala Guild Wars) because currently you only get 5 slots. There's a gal in my kinship who has all 5 slots filled with level 50 characters, and I don't think she's the only one.

Along with this expansion will come six new books worth of quests under a new "volume," so that should be a lot of fun. Rock on. I wonder if you're going to see Gandalf say "you shall not pass" in one of them. /scratches head. Would be cool.

And now . . . pirate picture!

Nalgron, Burwinn, and Bachelbu modeling the new pirate-barbie look!

Crannog's Challenges and Book 12

So, they recently updated the game again and made some stellar changes in Angmar. I liked this zone to begin with, but now it's 10X more awesome. The quest lines are more logical, the outposts are better, and the level progression across the map just simply makes better sense.

So, I ran both my champ and my minstrel through a series of quests back in good ol' aughaire. The chieftan there (mr. Crannog to you) has a very nice surprise for you at the end of his quest line. I'll let the video below do the rest of the talking.

also introduced with book 12 was THE NEW ULTRA-BARBIE CLOTHING OPTION. So in all their wisdom, the developers added two little clothing slots in your gear, so you can have three outfits to choose for your barbie all while retaining the stats of your "real" gear set. Thank you developers. Now bach can slay the dragon in his party dress. Bless you.

Stunning, just stunning

Sorry no updates in a while

Hello Minstrel Fridge Magnet readers! I just wanted to apologize for the lack of updates. Truth is I've been cavorting with my champion, who dinged 46 today! Give me a few weeks and I should have two max level characters at my disposal, which is awesome. There's going to be a ton more flexibility with that.

So, random reader . . . if you have any requests for information from a seasoned (well kinda) minstrel, please leave it here, and I'll do my best to respond to you in a future post.

Of other character news, Bach became a grandmaster jeweler and my champ is only a few hundred points away from becoming a grandmaster scholar. What does that mean? That means I can craft the best jewelry items in the game and make all kinds of health and power potions for all my raider friends.

Good times.

And now . . . random screenshot time.



I thought this was a great shot of my champ fighting a wolf in the misty mountains. (click to enlarge)

Gollum Encounter in LOTRO

So, I realize that I'm behind the times because this content came out a month or so ago, but it's all new to me. There's a little quest you can undertake in South Trollshaws that pairs you with a hunter named Wistan. You see, this "creature" has been KS'ing the hunters out there, and it's miffing them. To boot, you have this . . . thing . . . sneaking into the local's houses and sniffing at their cribs, so they're a little freaked obviously.

I did this solo instance twice and made screenshots and captured it a bit with Fraps. Gollum has always been my favorite creepy character ever since seeing The Hobbit cartoon.

So, without any more delay . . . I present to you (in all it's ancient stoorish hobbity goodness) my latest Youtube, the Gollum Encounter in LOTRO . . . it's hella good.

Ettenmores for Exp at 40th level

I had hinted on this in an earlier blog entry . . . when you hit 40th you can travel to the Ettenmoors, right? right! It's actually cheeper now that it was as well . . . for the cost of 1 silver, you can buy a trip there.

I recently did this with my little Champion alt who dinged 40. Easy exp my friends. There are at least 4 quests you can do that will net you easy exp and 3 others that could possibly do the same as well.

What you’ll want to do is take the hike like no other quest, the quest to visit Ost, the quest to visit hoarhollow, and the cleansing the hoarwell quest. Before you log in, you may want to visit the AH and pick up 10 hoarhollow ales, 5 historical books of rhudaur, and 10 historical notes of Rhudaur. Why? These may be hard to find, but if you do manage to find them, when you get to Ost, you'll have 3 more quests you can do turn ins for and get exp.

click me to make me bigger!

So, that map shows pretty much the path I took while completing these quests. I'll detail them below

1- You start out here in Coldfells at the Freep main base. Follow the arrows through the back path up to Ost Ringdyr.

2- Here in Ost Ringdyr you can do the turn ins that I mentioned above and complete your first quest. You'll also flag a location for your Hike like no other quest.

3- From Ost you'll want to make your way up to Isendeep Mines to be flagged as visiting that for the Hike like no other quest. As a side note, if you're a miner and this area is controlled by the free people . . . yum . . . mining goodness inside.

4- After making your way back to Ost, head on out and a touch north so you can get flagged for visiting Tirith Rhaw (TR). Just touch the North side and you'll be flagged as far as I can remember.

5- TR is just a quick stop off as you make your way up to the top of the waterfall. Now this is kind of risky. On top of this hill that overlooks the waterfall, you have a good chance that it will be controlled by the Creeps. If you just go barreling through here you'll get smoked and hate me for my advice. What you need to do is approach the hill from the north and make a swoop along the edge. As you do this, you will attract the attention of a giant mosquito looking mob (pass that first one on the hill to the right) and you'll have a series of archers start plucking you with arrows . . . just keep running and fall down the hill to the top of the waterfall. You'll get a message that you should click on the barrel in your inventory. Do this. Now personally I like to then fall down the waterfall. as you fall down the waterfall, press your back arrow so that you hang on the ledge. Wait for the snare from fall damage to go away. Then drop down the rest of the way and swim along the bank and follow the arrow to 6.

6- Manuever your way to the grim lumber camp so you can be flagged for the hike quest.

7- Head on over to Hoarhollow and talk to the mayor to finish a quest.

8- Next, take the long way around and over to Lugazag and get flagged.

9- Take a hop, skip, and a jump over to the bridge to be flagged for visiting Tol Ascarnen. Now all you have to do is make your way back to Coldfells and you're done. Easy exp and a few tokens to boot.

Your milage may reeaaaaally vary . . . this is just how I would do it. :-) Best of luck avoiding the creeps.