Monday 28 February 2011

Lieutenant Six Man Hard Mode Attempt

Yes, attempt, in short, we failed.

We did have a successful Lieutenant Six Man Easy Mode Run some weeks ago. Now we tried a Hard Mode (yes, it has been done successfully by others before).

As group setup, we used two Hunters, two Rune-Keepers and a Captain and a Guardian.

In hindsight, I might switch the Captain for a Warden. But maybe this is because I hardly play Captain ;). All tha other groups I saw, have used a Captain, some have added a Burglar or a Lore-Master.

I joined on Hunter

We had locks for BG I and II so we staret with the first guards. We got killed by them on the first try, but then, things went smoothly. Even when, stupid me, pulled a second of those annoying light. Luckily, the first light was on 15k, so it didn't take that long.

Our tank died on the wights, which we usually take as a good sign (he almost dies in every raid we go, doesn't matter if he is on Guardian or Lore-Master).

The first attemt at the Lieutenant went quite well, we managed to stationary tank him most of the time but the first death caused a wipe. Second try was bad. The third try went better but the forth and last try was nowhere near a success.

We had problems with corruption removal. I used Improved Dazing Blow, but it is slow (or at least feels like it) and I had more fails then success. I rather like the ranged skills of the Lore-Master and such.

Even though we did not succeed on this run, we learnt a lot and I am sure, that a next (and hopefully successful) run will take place soon.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

It has been two weeks since my last post and a lot has happened since.

The Good

I have been doing a lot of runs in the School and Library in Eregion and if I have enough time, I get ten Supreme Third Marks per day. This has become quite easy and I can’t remember having a wipe these last two weeks.

Some of the S3Ms I have used to complete my sets, with the rest, I have been crafting lots of level 65 Second Agers (hoping to get more than three legacies on identification).

If I understand the patchnotes, it makes sence not to decon Legendary Items at the moment. If I did decon them now, I would miss out on the Legendary Replacement Scrolls and the new shards. But on the other side, I have only some Legendary Fragments left, which I need to make more Second Agers. Seems the Auction House is the way to go...

We have been running Barad Guldur lots of times. BG I and II are on farm. The Lieutenant on the other side, can still be a bitch. In most cases, it is not that much his fault, than a mistake of a kinnie or sometimes a technical issue. Luckily my internet connection is solid and I never had a disconnect during a boss-fight (once while fighting the trash-mobs). The tactics how to kill the Lieutenant are clear and we have recovered many times, even with several Morfears.

The Ugly

But we seem to have one or more players, that have a high risk of causing wipes. I still think, that 150 radiance should be required to do that fight in the hard-mode. But some still join the fight with some 15-radiance-pieces even thought the 25-radiance-pieces are easy to get. If you are a hunter, there is no reason not to have the full Epic-Helegrod-set (when I fight the LT, I use the Epic-Helegrod-set for the first phase of the fight and when the LT dismounts, I switch to the BG-set), as the set-bonus is great. The same person has no morale-pots and in the three attempts yesterday, he got killed first two times...

The Bad

When I speak out, I get reprimanded... The same person expresses suprise, when other people join instances, when they are locked to win an armour piece.

The Good

I got twenty pieces on five characters. On three further toons, I have done one or more successful runs without winning a piece. My Champion is the only character I have, which has not yet successfully done BG. Hunter and Minstrel are my mains and they both have five pieces (both missing the shoulders). My Rune-Keeper has the first four pieces. Burglar and Lore-Master have three of the four first pieces.

We have a rule, that each player can only win one coin fort he Barad Guldur set a week.

Probably, I have the most BG-parts in our kin, I would be on the same level than the next one I know of, but I won two pieces on my last run (I had won one on Durcheset but noone did need the second gloves that dropped, so I got two pieces). Do I feel bad that I probably have the most? No. I do think that I have put a lot of effort in all my characters and that I know how to do the fight on every position needed. With this, I can support my kin, and I am not feeling that I am leeching from other players.

Some officers don’t roll for coins they lead themselves or only roll on their mains. I did pass on rolling for the other four characters, but might start to roll on them too, if I have BG I and II parts on all the other characters. The longer we do this instance, the more often, we will get coins, noone can use...

Yesterday, I brought my Captain to the LT, which was his first time up the tower. We had an almost perfect first try which ended with a wipe when the LT had less than 10k morale. Second fight was one to rather not remember. But the third one was successful.

And behold, in the end, after killing the Lieutenant over twenty times, we got the Unwelcome Mat for the kin-house. Yay, never thought it would drop at all...

Besides BG and the three-mans, I have been running some other instances, but mostly just to help other people or have a fun time.

The Merry

We did have a social night with a movie-quiz followed by karaoke and some Dwarven Wrestling. We were asked to roll a level 10 Dwarven Champion and were handed standard axes. Then we sparred for a Legendary Belt. It was a fun night.

I also like going to the Ettenmoors with a Kin-Raid. I hardly join PvP without some kinnies but it can be addicting. The most important reason that I don’t go into the moors more often is lag. I rather spend my time pawning some noobs in TF2.

An other event I am looking forward too, is the Kin-Meet in Amsterdam. It will be the first one I am able to join and Kin-Meets seem to involve a lot of drinking.

Since many weeks, I have been making plans for a social-night in Middle Earth. It still needs a bit of work but I am really looking forward to that.

The Updates

I’ve been scouting the forums less than in recent updates. On one hand, I would like to see the new instances, on the other hand, I still want to be able to explore them myself, when the update goes live.

I couldn’t keep myself from reading the developers diaries. Most of the changes I like. Minstrel and Hunter are my mains and Burglar is my fourth character (third would be my Rune-Keeper) and what I have seen in the diaries is positive.

The Burglar updates were not overwhelming. I would have hoped, that Burglars got a bit more love, but at least, we didn’t get nerfed.

With the Character Panel update, they did a great job. Having two more outfit-slots is very nice. I am not a big fan of the stats part, but that is not extremely important to me.

Radiance Removal was an other topic. I like the idea of Radiance, probably one of the few people who do. The fault was to connect Radiance with equipment / armour. If we had gotten Radiance through deeds, say slaying the Watcher gives you a one-time Radiance gain, so does ever other Raid-boss. Some Raids could be gated by Radiance, so that you would have to have done several Raids successfully to do some of the new content.

I can’t talk much about the Monster Play diary.

The Legendary Item changes are welcome too. I am not too sure, how they will affect game-play. Grinding will still be a major part of the game if you want to have the perfect equipment and I don’t mind the amount of grind in LotRO.

Conclusions

I am still enjoying the game and our kin and am really looking forward to the new content. I love having a new raid and some other instances. From what I have heard, they are going to keep us interested and challenged for the months to come.

The Question

How important is loot? We had some discussions about the importance of loot versus the fun of playing in a friendly group. There was a similiar discussion a few months ago, about succeeding in raids.

I am a bit emotional and I like loot and I like to do raids successfully. So when things went wrong (we wiped and wiped and wiped) I could express my emotions. I think I have managed to keep it down these last weeks and when things go wrong, I just turn off my mike.

Back to the point. There seems to be no easy and fair way to distribute loot. DKP seems to be the fairest option, but it is a lot of work. Other options are easier, but not fairer (even though fairness is no universal standard). Should those only missing one part of a set have priority or a better chance?

Monday 7 February 2011

Multiboxing School and Library, Update

After the first run, I made changes. I swapped Captain to the main screen and used Hunter and Minstrel on the two other screens. What a huge difference that made. I hardly died on the last run and could do them both in less than two hours. It didn't even take me much longer, than it would have taken with a PUG.

This is a great way for me to grind some Superior Third Marks. I am not really looking forward to doing them on my own, but as most of my kinnies don't run them anymore, this offers a good alternative.

As my Hunter and my Captain have the full Helegrod-Set already, I traded the S3Ms for two Symbol of Celebrimbor. I made myself a Captain Emblem and a Guardian Great Axe. Welcome to the lottery ;)

Piztor in the Library and the three guards at the door in the School are the only worthy opponents.

I am still going for the Epic-Helegrod set for my Minstrel, as the + 5 percent healing is nice. Which ones I will do next, I don't know. Probably Champion and Rune-Keeper.

Saturday 5 February 2011

Multi-boxing The Library at Tham Mirdain

After the School run, I tried the Library. The ground floor did not pose any challenge. Neither did Unudhu, the boss nearer the entrance. I wiped about three times on Piztor and I ran Fellowship's Heart on the last run.

I had been using my Hunter on my main screen. I might switch to using the Captain on the main screen as he uses more skills than the Hunter or Minstrel.

Chieftain Gûrsh was no match for the happy three. Would have been much faster, if my Hunter had not accidently shot him and pulled aggro...

Conclusion. I am not ready for Duo-boxing either instance. But if noone is online, why not run them myself. I will try to get more practice and report my findings.

Duo-boxing The School at Tham Mirdain

I have been thinking about this for some time and am now trying it. My group consists of my Hunter (as my main) and a Cappy on second account. I also have my Minstrel with me, but am not planning on using him

The School has been much easier (up to now) than my last attempt at the Library. There are two ways of doing this instance. One way is only clearing one side and disbanding after rescuing the books, the other one is to do the whole instance. I will try the later.

The first groups I managed to do without any problems. Power runs low sometims and I miss decent interrupts.

After less than five minutes, the ground floor is cleared. Llygad is still standing in the middle with his allies, but I ll try to do the next boss, the group of three at the door, first.

OK, three wipes and nowhere near a success.


I then switched to Llygad and killing him was easy.


After yet anonther wipe, I had a successful attemp and killed the guards at the door. My Cappy died though and I used my Minstrel to heal me through it. At least it is possible and with some practice it will hopefully become easier and easier.


The next part was a bit more difficult than I had expected.


I had planned of using the Hunter to kite the mobs, which was stupid. Cappy are better suited for that role. Next time...


Now for the last fight. I am almost been fighting for an hour, with some short breaks. This leaves room for lots improvements...


The fight against Târsh was quite quick. Cappy healing was not enough, so I used my minstrel too. Cappy died in midfight, but Minstel and Hunter had no problems.