Gortheron (Ost Dunhoth) some tactics, contains spoilers!

If you think you are having a deja-vu, you might be right. Sadly blogger.com deleted my old post so the former link doesn't work any more.

After having done the first five bosses, Gortheron is left. We have seen him many times during the instance and even in the quests leading to the instance. Now is the time for payback.

I like, that there is no time wasted with adds. After killing Ivar, the gate opens to the arena which has the shape of a pentagon. As most evildoers, Gortheron likes to talk. A lot.

Which classes are or rather which setup is the best for this fight?

Two Captains, two Minstrels, two Lore-Masters and a Guardian seem to be a necessity. An additional healer, probably a Rune-Keeper does help too. So we got eight. I would bring three Hunters and a Warden (as the warden has the best corruption removal skill of all classes).

The fight starts, when Gortheron moves into the body of a troll and opens one of the walls of the arena. Some monsters from the Shire join the fight. The adds of the first phase consist of two huge boars (Thadur's Boar, about 24 k morale) and three big goblins (Thadur's Thug 11k). When one of these five is killed, it is replaced almost instantly.

The boars have anger, which needs to be removed before they can be CC'ed (so you need to CC them twice in a row). Lore-Masters seem to work best here. We usually damage them till they have about 5 k morale left and leave them CC'ed till the next phase.

The goblins have corruptions which should to be removed as fast as possible. So if your corruption removal skill is off cool-down, use it to make every one's life easier.

Using buffbars is also very helpful. It is easy to install and there is little room for error in this fight. In every phase, players get different buffs which they need to remove with the right pot as soon as possible. In the first phase, this is a green pool which does a huge amount of damage. Actually there are three pools (similar to those in Oatbarton Farms). If you use a pot right away, you won't drop a pool at all which can make all the difference.

When the boars are damaged and controlled, the goblins can be killed. This has two advantages. First, it gives Captains a defeat response which they can use for a group-heal. Secondly Gortheron is building corruptions about every eight seconds which are reduced by killing every add.

Hunters damage Gortheron, others kill goblins and Lore-Masters CC boars. At a certain point, Gortheron switches phases and moves to the second wall and opens it. Now the Hunters switch to the adds, but don't kill them before the new gate is opened and the old gate is closed. Yes respawns do even apear, when the wall is closed again...

New adds come form the North-Downs, two Defilers and three Wargs. Defilers need to be CC'ed and I like to range-dps the Wargs. But don't forget to kill all the adds from the Shire.

Defilers only have about 10 k health so just keep em CC'ed, kill wargs to keep everyone powered and healed up and again, remove corruptions.

In this phase, you get wounds which you need to remove by a pot or it will spread to the players close to you. When this happens, they too get a wound which even can be transferred back to you, when not removed at the right time. This can lead to a wipe, as pots can be off cool-down when needed. But you can move away from the other people to not spread the wound.

In the next phase monsters from the Trollshaws join. They consist of two Virulent Stone-Trolls (24k) and three Virulent Worms. We haven't lasted long enough here to work out our tactics. Last phase, the adds will come from Forochel and consist of Starved Kilpa-Kita sabretooths (which get bloodlust when kited for too long) and some caeryg.

After an other phase-switch one monster of each kind will spawn as well as some skeletons. On Tier 1, the skeletons can be killed and won't respawn, so I'd guess, those are the first targets for dps. But as I haven't done this on Tier 2, I am not sure about this. The rest of the monsters will vanish, as soon as Gorthereon is at his next phase-switch, so killing the adds is not the priority.

Gandalf appears and kicks Gortheron out of his troll-body and (again in Tier 1) the last 35 k are easy (in Tier 1). We were thinking about only doing the other bosses in Tier 1 to get the locks and to have almost a full week for trying to kill Gortheron in Tier 2.

The challenge is connected to the buff Gorthoron has, which increases his damage output. Every eight seconds, his buff tiers up one point to a (shown) max of fifty. Killing a monster reduces the tier by one. When the tier reaches fifty, you get a message. So killing an add in the next eight seconds fails the challenge. Sadly there is no in-game-way to see how many adds you can kill without loosing the challenge...

Again, Ost Dunhoth is a very interesting raid with some nice rewards. I like how the raid and the last fight mirrors to some degree the three- and six-man-instances of the Echoes of the Dead-Update. Gortheron on Tier 2 with the Challenge is a great fight with only minor complaints from my side (the buff-counter being one, the 'need' for buffbars an other).

Amarthlang from Durin's Bane Tier 2

(Sorry, for the repost, blogger.com, crashed so previous links don't work anymore)

It is not that I won nothing, this is what I got for my Burglar:

Frothskold from Ivar Tier 2

Yesterday, we managed to do Ivar again on Tier 2 and he left a shield behind. Needless to say, with these stats, it was a very happy Minstrel.

It is in purple but the lucky Minstrel seemed to like it anyway. To be honest, with those stats, what is not to like?

Echoes of the Dead, a brief review

The last six weeks, I have been enjoying the update Echoes of the Dead. I gave my first impression here so I don’t want to repeat myself.

As usual, in the beginning a lot of people signed up for the new raid and instances. There was even some moaning or bitching about who could go. Now some of the runs had to be cancelled due to too few people online. Tempus fugit. I blame the nice weather and World of Tanks.

Echoes of the Dead is one of the best updates released.

The three-man instances are fun and challenging on Tier 2. Tier 2 favours a certain set-up. Healer, Tank and Damage Dealer or Healer with two DD. Classes like Burglars and Captains are less useful for Tier 2 runs. Of course it can be done, but the other members need to work extra hard. It would have been nice, if the skill-reset we have in Ost Dunhoth were implemented here too...

The two six-man instances are fun and challenging too. No complaints here, with six it is easier to bring a Burglar and Captains.

Ost Dunhoth is almost perfect. The skill reset is great. Fights are short, fun and challenging. After a wipe, no time is wasted. Everything is in a short walking distance, no more running up the tower for five minutes to kill the Lieutenant.

Trash mobs are non-existent, instead we get some small fun fights before the boss. Rewards are good. What I dislike is the amount of medallions needed for the armour. I doubt, that I will get a full set anytime soon...

We managed to do four of the bosses on Tier 2 with the challenge and one more on Tier 2 without the challenge. Getting Gortheron on Tier 2 with the challenge will take some time. We raid a lot in the kin, about six days a week, but we are not a hard-core raiding kin. This means that we have a lot of different people on every raid and some are better raiders than others.

I would also suggest to use Buffbars as it does make fights easier. A kinnie programmed a small add-on which analyzes the combat-log and helps with acoustic warnings and big flashing letters.

I have done the book-quests on all of my main characters, save my Warden.
Ten being best, I give this update 9.5/10. Well done!

Frothmar (Ost Dunhoth, Poison) on Tier 2 and Challenge done!

Frothmar is an other fight I like. And finally, after loads of tries, we managed to get him down.

The twelve people are split up in four groups of three. One of each group stays on the platform most of the time. We used healers for the far two platforms (from the entry) and Hunters for the close two. Setup is two tanks (again, probably Guardians), two Captains, two healers (probably Minstrels). These stay close to the door on the other side of the room.

The rear needs one healer (we used a Rune-Keeper) and a Lore-Master. The rest are dps, Hunters probably are best (high range). They can either stand in the center or to the left and right of the room, between the platforms.

To not fail the challenge, someone has to stay on the platform at any time of the fight. This means, you can't loose a platform, which happens when more than two people stand on a platform, or two people stand on the platform for too long.

Knock-backs seem to be the highest risk to fail the challenge, so those not standing on the platform should stay far away from them as possible (in the center) and the switching should happen after knock-backs.

It is not an extremely difficult fight, but it is very easy to fail it, as it only takes one mistake. So if you have laggy Internet-connection, this might not be the fight for you...

Even though the sentiment in the kin was not to do it again, I would really like to keep doing or at least keep trying it. Again, I don't think this is difficult to do. If you fail, you can reset the fight easily. The fight itself does not take very long. It just takes some practice and a lot of concentration.

Doing this challenge was very rewarding. Not only because I got my second Symbol of the Elder King which I used for a First Age Burglar Dagger.

I had thought long, what I should do with the symbol. I have a First Age Bow for my Hunter which is maxed out. On my Minstrel, Rune-Keeper and Captain, I have lots of ixp-runes. My Minstrel is one of my mains, but we have a lot of Minstrels at the moment. As I usually have been asked to either bring my Hunter, Burglar or Lore-Master, the choice was between the Burglar or the Lore-Master.

If I win a next Symbol, I might go Lore-Master or Minstrel or Captain. As I already have won two symbols and lots of people haven't won one, I am not sure, if I should roll on the next few symbols. An idea would be to roll on them, but if I win one, to pass on it, so that if I won a forth roll, I could get a third symbol.

What is coming next?

After the Echoes of the Dead Update, which I like very much, the first news of the next updates emerge.

Update 3, sadly we don't have a name yet, will offer two 3-man instances and two skirmishes which are scaled up to level 65.

One of the new instances is called "Inn of the Forsaken" and has a pirate theme offering new armor, weapons and pocket items as rewards.

The other one is "The Halls of Night" and is an other haunted Barrow with a focus on traps. Rewards here are new armor, jewelry and cosmetic items.

The skirmishes, will be in Dol Dinen in North Downs and called "Attack at Dawn". The other one is "Icy Crevasse" in, who would have guessed, in Forochel. Both are offense skirmishes.

Source

Isengard will bring the level-cap to 75. Which will make everything we have now be useless. I would have rather gone for a five level step or two five level steps with some months in-between.

There might be a new level of crafting. I had expected this, not sure, what the name of the tier is going to be.

There will be a lot of chapters in the Isengard Epic update, more than thirty. Even though the Epic books usually are just a small part of the actual released content, I like to do them on all my characters.

The 24-man Raid will be about a giant dragon. Not to sure how much I like this. I recognize the restrictions on the lore but still would like to have a more diverse bestiary. Saruman would have been my target for a Raid in Isengard...

PvP will probably get no new zone and opening Monster Play to F2Pers will continue to reduce the value of VIPs and Lifetimers...

We will hear more about Isengard at E3, which will take place on June 7 - 9, 2011.

For the next few months, there seems to be a nice stream of content. Besides the new instances and skirmishes and the new regions, there will be smaller events keeping the players happy.

I have been running a lot of the Ost Dunhoth instances and still want to do some of the three- and six-mans from the latest update. I got two First-Agers (Hunters-Bow and Burglar-Dagger) and am not sure, if I should/am allowed to roll on more coins (would be happy with three more ;).

Durin's Bane (Ost Dunhoth, Fear) on Tier 2 and Challenge done!

Gentlemen, we got him!

After a lot (and I mean a lot) of wipes during several evening, we finally managed to slay Durin's Bane on Tier 2 and complete the Challenge.

To be honest, I had my doubts, that we were able to do it. Luck did play a very minor role, tactics worked and noone made a big mistake. On the first try, I ran off the platform after the first pool. That was embarassing.

In the next runs we managed to work on tactics and after some wipes, the first people announced that they would leave soon. We dropped one Burglar for an additional Minstrel and started the fight.

Soon the first kinnies (including myself) disconnected from ventrilo and we switched to ingame-voice. Things got a bit heated as most of the platform was covered with fire-pools.

The last few ten thousand morale were nerve-wrecking. One of our tanks died seconds before Durin's Bane and one of the two chests spawned on top of him...

I won a high-dps mace for my Burglar (off-hand) and two settings and a rune. We got two coins for the Ost Dunhoth armour, a rather crappy piece of jewelery and a purple armour which I didn't even want as a cosmetic.

Some of these new instances favour certain set-ups.

Two tanks are a must. Either two Wardens or two Guardians. Guardians seem to work better.
Two Minstrels for main healing, two Captains, two Rune-Keepers (do not Fall to Flame).
Two Burglars and one Lore-Master, for debuffs and power.

This leaves one spot open. We used a Champion, Hunter would have been better. Or a third Rune-Keeper.

It will be fun to try other set-ups. When more people get first-agers, this could leave room for changes.

Where are we? We did three wings on Tier 2 with the Challenge and an other wing on Tier 2. The fifth wing seems to be doable, but Gortheron will not be easy. We might even go back to Barad Guldur (yay, more stairs) and to Dar Narbugud. I don't mind running those two instances, especially as the DN set is still quite nice and BG can also be desireable.

I have brought Minstrel, Rune-Keeper, Lore-master, Hunter and Burglar to Durin's Bane. I want to get my Guardian raid-ready. I have not used him a lot but he is fun to play. And tanking is the one thing, I haven't tried much yet.

Mammoths (Ost Dunhoth, Wounds) on Tier 2

Sadly we did not manage to get the Challenge. We did manage to kill one Mammoth in time. Does not seem impossible to do, but will take some more practice.

We learned a lot. For one, when you finish the fight, you can walk back through the corridors and see, that the gates and levers are actually colour-coded. So:

The middle (green) lever opens the right gate,
the right (purple) lever opens the left gate,
the left (orange) lever opens the middle gate,
the middle (blue) lever opens the left gate,
the left (purple) lever opens the right gate and last but not least,
the right (white) lever opens the middle gate.

Even the first gate has the same colour as the gates, which houses the mammoths.

Balancing the dps is a bit of a challenge as you don't want people to have to wait for other groups pulling their levers.

Baleleaf and Dourbark (Ost Dunhoth, Disease) on Tier 2 with Challenge done!

We have been fighting and failing with the Balrog. I have my ideas why, but am not going to share them.

Even though I would have liked to go back to kick Durin's Bane in his softer parts (if he has any), it was decided to do the disease wing next.

I like, how there is no more real trash and that the groups up to the boss are challenging and fun.

Baleleaf and Dourbark are the two bosses and as their name suggests, they are trees. The first phase of the fight is quite short and consists of damaging the trees. This will make your target cover you with sap, which 'marks' you.

Soon three bog-lurker beasts activate. The tank needs to grab them from the tree he was not attacking and bring them over to the tree he was attacking. Two of them can be killed fast, the last one of each group should be killed at the same time.

As soon as all six of them are dead, everyone hits the original target till the trees once again get protected by the bog-lurkers. Tanks need to grab them again at the other tree, but this time, they need to be killed at the same time (all six of them).

So dps them down but not kill them at once (watch your aoe attacks). When the team is ready, kill all of them quickly and attack the tree again.

If you want to get the challenge, you are only allowed to kill twelve of the bog-lurkers, so you need to pump out a lot of damage during the three dps-phases.

We needed some tries, but finally managed to do it. I won the First-Age-Symbol and this is the bow I made. Luckily, I did have enough ixp-runes to get it to level 70 and enough scrolls to max it out.

It is a bit sad, than in about half a year, the bow will be replaced again by a level 70 third age weapon, but that is the way these games work.

Ivar down on Tier 2 with Challenge Mode

After some tries yesterday, we managed to kill Ivar in Ost Dunhoth on Tier 2 with the Challenge Mode. Sadly, we didn't get the second chest, as we had died trying. Even though we got the message that we did the challenge, we did not get the chest.

Game Masters were helpful as ever /sarcasm off and told us, in a polite way, to /sod off

As it is getting late, we only took a brief look at the last boss and wiped fast.

We got one coin for the First Age Item and one coin for the trousers. I won neither.

The fight is actually quite fun. Not too unfair, if you know the mechanics and act accordingly.

I used Buff Bars and I really do recommend using it. It is the first time, I use an add-on and I am sure, that it is a great help for this fight.

Echoes of the Dead, First Impression

Three days in with the new content, it is time to give a first impression.

I managed to finish the book quest on my Minstrel and my Hunter. Volume 3, Book 3, has eleven chapters. All of it is soloable. It does not offer a huge amount to do, but gives some nice loot (ixp rune and lvl 65 second age class item). I loved the instances with Isildur and chapter seven, where you attack different groups whilst storming the hill.

Of the new instances, I ran the Oatbarton one most (on Rune-Keeper, Hunter, Minstrel (twice) and Captain (unsucessfully)). The first boss, a spider, does not offer much resistance. If you switch your attacks to the egg fast enough and or at least kill the hatchlings, this fight is finished soon enough.

Next fight is against a cauldron. One of the most funny fights in LotRO. As it is a bit a dps-race, one of the three (with the highest dps) will constantly attack the cauldron. The others have to /slap hobbits, avoid dropping pools in the wrong spots and probably a bit of dps and healing. With a healing Rune-Keeper, a Warden and a Captain, we just didn't have enough dps.

Last fight is also very nice. Mostly the Tank has to watch his steps, when he does, the fight is fun and easy. Power can run out easily, so use pots as often as possible.

Stoneheight, I only briefly visited so I can't tell you a lot about it.

I also ran the Glaciel Fortress instance with my Minstrel. One thing I learnt, is that you don't have to attack the bears, you can just run by them if you don't stay too long in their vicinity.

The Lost Temple is the one instance, I didn't even step into.

The Ost Dunhoth raid consists of five wings, I have been in the mammoth wing, the tree wing, the Balrog wing and to Gotheron, the end boss. As there were a lot of sign-ups (and I was mostly not on the list), I was on no successful run on tier 2. I did the Balrog on Tier 1, after some failed Tier 2 tries.

There is nothing bad in the new instances and I am sure, we will have some fun in them. I got some usefull loot, a nice cloak from the farm for example. But I am happy, that there is a lot to do again.