DocHoliday posted this on March 11th, 2010.
Categorized as Book 9, epic line, lotro, Minstral, Minstrel, Mirkwood, Raids and End-game, Rift, Skirmishes, video, volume 3, Warden.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/challenging-adventures-in-the-rift-skirmish/
Since there are a few skirmish barter items I want from the Rift, I figured I’d go through a couple of test runs and capture them via Fraps and CStats to do some comparisons. I wanted to not only compare the archer to the sage to see how they rank for DPS but also see how things had changed with the new tier 2 drop rates.
A few notes first concerning my soldiers as they are a bit different, which will skew the numbers a bit unfortunately. My Archer (my Warden’s soldier) is only level 60 with mainly level 54 skills available. And my Minstrel has a 63 Sage with primarily level 56 skills.
I ran it first on my Warden and as the following 2 videos will show I really didn’t have too many issues. I was a bit rusty, but for the most part it was rather smooth.
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DocHoliday posted this on February 16th, 2010.
Categorized as Book 9, End Game, epic line, Equipment, expansion, gear, legendary items, lotro, Minstral, Minstrel, Mirkwood, radiance, Raids and End-game, Skirmishes, video, Warden.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/my-minstrel-and-his-boomstick/
Ok, so it isn’t quite a lore appropriate name for my sage soldier – but I was reminiscing the other day with a couple of folks on Twitter about the movie Army of Darkness. So in following some of the epic one-liners from that movie I decided to give my sage the nickname Boomstick. Now she’s still not quite on level, but I’m pretty happy with her damage. I ended up working on finishing off Book 9 (hit 65 last week) so I had a few skirmishes to run to round out the book. I’m really looking forward to how the sage will grow once I get her on level and an Ultimate skill under her belt. I actually think the scarier thought is how fun a similar sage will be on my warden 
As you’ll see from the following videos – my minstrel does tend to get in a bit of trouble. I also captured a bunch of fights in CStats just to see how my minstrel parsed Tops was 600 for a crit loaded fight with Mazog (9000 damage in 15 seconds!!), but average was mid to high 300s. Which for those of you keeping score, that’s about double my warden And Boomstick is right around 70-90 DPS, which isn’t too shabby considering her level – only 60, with no skill above tier 4 (level 50ish).
I captured a couple of fights, including the encounters and last boss fight for those who are interested. Kufit the troll was a little dicey, but part of that is due to me being a lazy cook and not having any food on me…
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DocHoliday posted this on January 29th, 2010.
Categorized as Book 9, crafting, End Game, epic line, expansion, lotro, Mirkwood, Raid, Raids and End-game, rohan, Skirmishes, volume 3, Warden.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/lotro-volume-3-oath-of-the-rangers/
So yes, I’m a little late on this one but it has been a long week for me. Turbine released the first bit of news on the upcoming new content that continues the epic story. Certainly there’s more info coming but it appears that one of my early predictions is already wrong as it doesn’t look like there’s any new area to explore. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good things in the update but I’m a little worried that this seems a bit light.
By far, the most exciting thing is the Rift (Nurz Ghashu) skirmish that is the first attempt to revive older group/raid content. I’m not only looking forward to getting back in there – but it does sound like an interesting story line as you’re called to help one of the rangers and his daughter from the depths and evils of the area. Although I do find this to be a very similar storyline to Goldir and Amarthiel but we shall see how it plays out. Since they’re doing this via the skirmish system, it does bring a faint glimmer of hope that we may see similar ideas (and raids) in places like Fornost, Garth Agarwen, and Helegrod.
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Tony posted this on January 13th, 2010.
Categorized as Book 9, Patch, Patch 1, siege of mirkwood, Volume 2.
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Full link: http://combo.mmeow.net/2010/01/volume-2-book-9-siege-of-mirkwood-patch-1-preliminary-notes/
Volume 2 Book 9: Siege of Mirkwood, Patch 1 is up on Bullroarer for testing. For some reason it feels as though there’s been a longer gap between the release and Patch 1 than usual, but maybe things are just dragging for me. You can read the full notes on the official forums: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=312145
As usual there are issues floating around that aren’t addressed by this patch, but we’ll have to hope they’re addressed in the future. I know there are several camps of people who are unhappy with some of the current legacy options. Managing that well seems like a nightmare, I don’t envy the people working on it.
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DocHoliday posted this on December 24th, 2009.
Categorized as Book 9, epic line, lotro, Mirkwood, podcast, volume 3, Warden.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/lotrocasts-interview-with-orion/
If you aren’t subscribed to the LOTROCast podcast, I highly recommend it and especially for this episode as they have a very long and in-depth conversation with Orion. Now certainly there are some questions Orion can’t answer but there’s quite a bit of info in there that is VERY exciting. Not all of it is focused on LOTRO but Turbine and his background as well. I won’t spoil my favorite part of the interview – but lets just say it relates to the Volume 3 release.
The other big piece for me is that Orion’s favorite class to play is a Warden!
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DocHoliday posted this on December 17th, 2009.
Categorized as Book 9, epic line, expansion, lore, lotro, Mirkwood, Raids and End-game, Skirmishes, video, Warden.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/book-9-video-spoiler/
Some cool moments in this skirmish, this is just the final battle – I’m just going to post the link and not the embedded video such that I don’t spoil things for those who don’t want it spoiled.
Book 9 Skirmish
Posted in LOTRO, Raids and End-game, Warden Tagged: book 9, epic line, Expansion, Lore, LOTRO, Mirkwood, skirmishes, video, Warden
DocHoliday posted this on December 16th, 2009.
Categorized as Book 9, epic line, lotro, Mirkwood, screenshots, Warden.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/book-9-what-a-journey/
I’m not going to spoil anything for those that haven’t done the new Book 9 of Volume 2 – but if you’re in your 60s, I highly recommend it. By far, this has been my favorite book in all of LOTRO, and there’s enough content in it to span at least 2 books (18 chapters in all) compared to some of the others. The general premise of the book is that you make your way across Mirkwood trying to learn about the threat to Lorien and figure out a way to combat it. You make new friends and fight alongside familiar allies, and I think this helps make this book feel more epic. With all the various dwarves, elves, and others involved you really get the feeling that this task is something worthy of someone who’s defeated the watcher, a balrog, etc.
I ended up running through the book solo, but it didn’t feel like the other solo books since they leveraged the skirmish system. Other solo books all felt quite small in the general impact you had in the over-all story, but with the skirmishes they can provide settings that wouldn’t normally work and battles that you wouldn’t expect to survive alone. There weren’t lots of back and forth conversation quests or other busy work that seems petty at times, everything built up and carried through to the completion of our mission. I also read EVERY quest in the book, and actually I’ve read most of the quest text while out in Mirkwood – I actually care about what’s going on. Maybe I’ve just been grinding too long through Lorien and Moria, but the stories in Mirkwood really have captured my interest. Even though I’ve hit 65, I will travel to all the hubs and make sure to do all the quests.
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DocHoliday posted this on December 14th, 2009.
Categorized as Book 9, epic line, expansion, group, lotro, Minstral, Minstrel, Mirkwood, Raids and End-game, Skirmishes, video, Warden.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/weekend-of-unraveling-mirkwood/
So I didn’t get in as much game time as I had wanted to this weekend. Combination of me being tired and some kin issues took away from my plans to hit 65 and run some of the new instances. I just hit 64 on my Warden and actually dusted off my Minstrel for a bit of instance fun in Moria.
My warden is about half-way through Mirkwood (at least I just started at the middle quest hub according to the geography) and has been running a fair number of skirmishes. I’m really enjoying them and usually run the tier 2’s, but I did attempt a Tier 3 yesterday which was quite tricky. I ended up dying once when I was a little over-zealous and pulled 2 of the areas, which each had a lieutenant. Once I realized that was not a smart thing, it was pretty smooth – certainly much harder and I had to pace myself more but quite doable. Sadly I didn’t Fraps it, as today, I got completely and totally spanked in a tier 3. I don’t think my soldier is good enough to do it as I just can’t keep up with the DPS and heals all on my own. I’m getting hit constantly for 500ish damage and just can’t out-heal that much damage. Normal mobs have ~6K morale (as opposed to the ~4K in Mirkwood for same level), signatures have ~12K and elites have 30K – all about 50% higher then their normal counterparts.
For Mirkwood, I’m mostly enjoying it and really do like the epic storyline so far (I’m only through book 6). However, I am a little frustrated as there’s a TON of repeat quests. And by this I mean – go here and kill 10 mobs, then come back and I’ll send you there to go kill more looking for a certain drop, and finally go back again to kill their leader. Now granted, the areas are all pretty close and I do like the stories so I’m not as upset about this as other areas (north downs) but there are some spots that I think could’ve been combined. I would really like them to tier the quests as you’re doing them – either like deeds, or like the skirmish starting quest worked where we had to collect 10 war orders, and then the quest updated to get the target list. So after you kill 10 mobs, you get a quest pop-up to go find this special drop, and then finally go kill the boss or something like that. Basically weave the story together closer and not force us to always go back to town. Granted, my bags are pretty full so I am in camp quite often, so I may be nit-picking here a bit 
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DocHoliday posted this on December 1st, 2009.
Categorized as Book 9, expansion, gambits, legendary items, lotro, Mirkwood, Skirmishes, video, Warden.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/first-day-in-mirkwood/
So I didn’t get to play as much as I’d like today, but the day is still young. However, I wanted to get out a post and an un-edited video for everyone while it was fresh.
My first few moments in game were a little more hectic then I wanted, but I was able to get some things accomplished on my warden and captain. I got my UI all squared away, which did take a couple of re-loads per toon to get them all squared away but I’m pretty happy with it for now. Hopefully there will be a rush of updates and my previous skin will become available again with all the new Mirkwood stuff. I then took both of them to their respective crafting guilds to get those recipes such that I can craft the items as I go. After that, I pretty much focused on my warden getting her set up with skirmishes and starting on the Book 9 quests. It did take me a bit to get my legendaries squared away, but that was more me trying to figure out what I wanted to spend points in. I still have to wrap up Book 8, but I at least know how that story ends as I have finished it on my captain I’m working to get to at least 9.4 as that will open up the other skirmishes which are quite enjoyable and happen to have the marks needed for the ranger mask.
Overall thoughts:
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DocHoliday posted this on December 1st, 2009.
Categorized as beta, Book 9, End Game, epic line, expansion, gambits, legendary items, lotro, Mirkwood, podcast, Skirmishes, threat, Warden.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/my-guest-podcast-appearance/
So I had a blast chatting with the LOTRO Reporter folks last week, their latest episode (episode 15) is posted on their website. We covered a bunch of different topics but a good bit on Wardens and how I got started with them, Legendary Item legacy pool discussion, beta in general, and also my experiences in Beta. Certainly if you’re not listening to their podcast I definitely recommend it, as they always have lots of good information. Plus it is a good distraction as you wait for the servers to come up for Mirkwood!
Also, they’re the founders of the Cor Pethroni kinship over on Brandywine which is a kin for anyone who wants to hang out with some of the podcasters and bloggers. I’ve got a couple toons over there and it is a fun group to run with.
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