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

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.

Ding 46 in half a bub and screenshot time!

I'm just a little nick of experience away from dinging 46. This is exciting because that means the pvp world has just opened up for me. You see monster players come in to the pvp world automatically as level 50. Being level 46 means that I can now hit them. Hooray! It also means that there are a whole slew of quests in the ettenmoores just waiting for me to help me level up to 50.

So this has been an interesting few days since my last post. There has been a big push in the kinship to complete book 5 of the epic quests and this has led to some amazing battles. Well scripted ones too. Close your eyes if you don't want to see a screenshot of a Nazgul awakening this giant, dead dragon.

"arise, spirits, and awaken this great beast back to our world"

Here's a good one of our fellowship hanging out with Glimly before a nasty fight in book 5.

love it when Glimly talks tough.

Dinging 45 was pretty cool as this is when you can start raiding if you want to. This is just a quick screenshot for anyone that may be wondering where Sigrun is for opening up all the Helegrod raids. Look for the red arrow.

Do you see it? Sigrun, right below the bitter stairway and to the west.

And just to round out this screenshot extravaganza I've got going today . . . here's one of a random named (shataz) in the misty mountains.

Gratz Shyadarin on the kill. :-)

And last but not least, the ego-stroking closeup of me and Jello. We were hanging out last night in gloomy ol' Imlad and I snapped this closeup. Our barbies sure have nice clothes these days.

:-)

Jello and Bach, the duo of rock on Windfola. ;-)

conversation with Frodo and Sam

So the developers were kind enough to, throughout the game, give you some alone time with the characters from the book after you complete some quests, etc. In this particular instance, Galdalf sent me to help cheer up Frodo. Frodo asked me to just chill and take a walk with him, which I did. Usually these mini-instances, where it's just you and a character from the game, go horribly awry, and you're attacked by something . . . but not this time. I kept looking around nervously for what was going to jump out at me . . . nothing. /shrug. Easy exp in Rivendale y'all.

I decided while jumpily following frodo to just have the conversation the developers are begging you to have. It's a completely cheesy experience. I guess for the fans that loved the books more than I did, this would be a really neat and intimate gaming experience. And I got that twinge, but it just didn't really unfold that way:

LOOK! I SQUIRREL! . . . typo's ftw.

Ding 21 and Great Barrows

So I hit the magical 21st level and I'm ALL PSYCHED because now I can finally use the Herald's hammer trait. It's pretty cool . . . 'nough said. Being that I'm past 20th now, life is good for a minstrel. I have the rez spell. I have a couple of incredibly efficient heals. I'm wanted to play wac-a-mole with people's health bars. yes, life is good.

So a fellow Kinmate (Ramiel) . . . or guildy . . . however you want to say it . . . was asking for help from a minstrel in the Greater Barrows instance. Now I had been seeing people mention this instance and my interest was piqued, so I decided to give her a go.

I should have probably not gone since the wife was starting to put the children to bed, but I felt I deserved it after tilling the flower beds, mowing the lawn, and after putting in a hardcore 4 days in a row of Kari working nights while I watched the kids. As it turns out, a dad's work is never done . . . and I caught a little wife agro, but this wasn't too bad.

Anyway, this went rather well. I was the lowest level toon in the house at 21. We had a level 27, a level 25, a few level 23s, and me. This instance was everything you'd expect for an instance . . . a couple neat events, mostly elite mobs with a good amount of hitpoints, some swarms of regular mobs, and a couple bosses. We were after the main boss at the end, which you need a key to get to. Since 3 people already had their keys, we didn't complete the key quest for those that needed it (i.e., me). Time constraints . . . and this was cool with me.

We get the end boss down to 1-2k hitpoints (out of 15k-ish) and wipe on him. He does a nasty mana drain and has adds as part of his script, and everybody pretty much ran out of energy and was losing life like crazy. This apparently is normal and he's just tough. Well, we all retreat back to our bind point at the beginning of the instance and start running through the instance to give it a second shot; however, the same door we had opened before was now perma-locked and stopping our bloodthirsty rally to go beat on him again. This apparently was a surprise, a bug, working as intended, or someone accidentally closed the door from the inside. If I get any insights to that, I'll be sure to post them. Killing the end boss is a quest as well . . . I just didn't have it yet. I think you have to complete the key to get the quest to kill him.

It was good fun, and I'm definitely up for more instance runs like that.