Episode 29: Horse-hair Banjos

posted this on March 14th, 2010.
Categorized as awards, episode, Episodes, Episodes from 2010, podcast, Skirmishes.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/_XHXG7CDQVE/

albumart_thumb1[1]This week we talk about how slow the LOTRO news is. This is what happens when there is not much to report on.

Goldenstar has been playing FFXIII and hasn’t much to report for LOTRO. She’s a little strange this episode from an overdose of final fantasy.

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The Khazad Guard Blog

posted this on March 14th, 2010.
Categorized as blog, blogger, Europe, General.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/pN2ZSl7HmmI/

A new LOTRO blog has sprung up and I love to see the blogging community for my favorite game grow!

The Khazad Guard was created by Adam and Emma who are European players from the Eldar server. Adam writes and comments quite often on our blog and they decided they had LOTRO discussions of their own to share.

The blog is new and they’re still figuring it out but be sure to add them to your feed readers! I have already included them in the LOTRO Blogger Bundle if you chose to get your news that way.

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QUANTIFYING PUGS

posted this on March 14th, 2010.
Categorized as Barad Guldur, Helegrod, PUGs, raiding.

Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://lotro-chronicles.blogspot.com/2010/03/quantifying-pugs.html

A PUG, or Pick-Up Group, is what you join if you are looking for company on a quest, instance or raid; in other words, a casual assemblage of players of varying degrees of skill and experience for the completion of a specific goal. A group of people who regularly quest together, even if they belong to different kinships, is therefore by definition not a PUG.

Obviously, you’re taking pot-luck in joining or starting a PUG; there are some seriously bad and/or annoying players out there, and you won’t usually know ahead of time. Prior familiarity aside, the only clues to ability will be a player’s kinship (assuming some knowledge of the relative standing of kinships) and a gear inspection (I would turn down anyone anonymous without a second’s thought). This last will at least tell you whether the player has the necessary basic equipment, and will give some idea of previous experience (they’re unlikely to be completely hopeless if they have, say, the DN +20 radiance leggings which drop from the Blind One).

Even if you end up with a competent group, it still won't be as effective as a well-honed kinship group, if only for the reason that members of a random PUG don’t share the crucial experience of having fought together and of knowing each other’s tricks and mannerisms. Inevitably, therefore, PUGs have a mixed reputation at best, and everybody has horror stories of PUGs they’ve joined in which healers thought they were tanks, hunters pulled everything in sight and leaders ran off with the loot…

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The Beginner’s Guide to Raiding Part 1

posted this on March 14th, 2010.
Categorized as Uncategorized.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThroughThePalantr/~3/W40YoZTx-xs/beginners-guide-to-raiding-part-1.html

Radiance Gear
Radiance/Gloom is the gating mechanic used in Lotro. Certain instances will have Gloom and you will be unable to enter them without sufficient Radiance. Currently, Radiance is only obtainable as a stat on certain pieces of barter armour known as Radiance (or Rad) Gear. To barter for this armour you will need Medallions of Moria, Medallions of Lothlorien, or Medallions of Dol Guldur; depending on what armour you are trying to get. The Medallions are obtained in certain instances called Radiance Instances. Rad Instances always have a Daily Challenge Mode Quest which will allow you to gain more Medallions than usual, but in a more difficult manner (e.g. Do not kill certain mobs, time limits, ect.). For each type of Medallion there is a favored instance that is usually the fastest and easiest to run (eg. Grand Stair, Sword Halls), a second favorite that takes longer and has a high number of medallions (eg. Forges) and some instances that are not run because they are very difficult (eg. Dark Delvings). For a casual player who only runs 1-2 rad instances per day (and does the dailies) it will take approximately 2 weeks to assemble a full set of Radiance Gear. Outside of Radiance requiring instances, the Moria Rad gear (top level Moria) is the best barter able Rad Gear in game, surpassed only by drops from some of the Raids. However it does not have enough Radiance for you to run every raid, so you can choose to have a Moria set and a Mirk set for higher radiance raiding, or just go with the Mirkwood gear.

Virtues
Despite what the average raid novice thinks; Radiance gear is not the most grindy part of preparing to raid. Ranking up Virtues is. They are also the one part that you don't need to have finished in order to be a decent raider, particularly if you aren't a tank. But the difference between someone who has finished their Virtues and someone who hasn't is quite noticeable. Now ranking up Virtues can be quite tedious for three reasons: 1) You can only rank up a given virtue once in a single zone 2) Virtues are ranked up with slayer deeds, which get longer at higher levels, or exploration deeds, which can be difficult to finish. 3) Slayer deeds don't tell you what virtue they unlock until you open the advanced one after getting the title. As you can imagine going through all the slayer deeds in Angmar trying to find one that will increase say Determination, can be quite painful. Fortunately there's help in the form of Burgzerg and other sites which tell you which deeds advance which Virtues along with all kinds of other useful information (the link to burgzerg is to the right). The most important thing on burgzerg other than the list of where to grind specific Virtues is the ability to mix and match Virtues to see what bonuses you can get with your five slots. Try it out there, instead of spending the time to grind every single Virtue to 10.

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