Rohan: Scenes from Rohan, part 1

I enjoy lotro and everything in it, but I have really enjoyed Rohan! While quite a few of my posts since October were Rohan related, I hesitated to reveal too many scenes directly as to not give away the great stories. I will still refrain from saying too much but wanted to share some pictures. (For those who only come to look at the pictures, this post is definitely one for you… though you might not have even read the previous line to know that.)

I started toward Rohan back on rohan-begins. Actually, concurrent to my cursory look around the East Wall from the south of Rohan, I went home to Lorien. I had a nice chat with two of my favorite Runekeepers, Galadriel and Celeborn.

They will stay here in Lorien and protect the borders from obvious Orcs. We have now opened the borders up and outsiders will now not be shot on site. I did not approve, but I am not specifically in charge of the Golden Wood. One of my Lorien friends, Anglamel, promised to look after my flet while I was away.

Galadriel gives me one last blessing in the garden and then I am back underway to Rohan.

This time I decided to take the scenic route by boat.

Another elf named Corudan escorted Horn and Nona and I and we decided to scope out the north of Rohan first at The Wold. Horn and Nona are like oil and water. We sat around telling fireside stories before I ventured toward Langhold. They hardly believed my tale involving Amarthiel, some guys named Mord, and a little old lady. It was such an amazing story!

We scouted camps in the East Wall.

Nona went on ahead, I take one last look, then double back toward the Wold. I will see them again... right?

While things are progressing here in the Wold, I introduce myself to some higher ups that I meet. There are lots of Thanes and Reeves around. I visit Langhold first. It looks like a fine place, and it will probably be around for a long time.

Time to defend the town. Thane Utred sends his wife Cillan and the kids toward the south. Heburga, his daughter, is ready to help us take down some enemies. Utred is not moved enough to let her help. 

Cillan carries a sword, just in case, en route to leave town. I am Supergirl; I refuse a pointy weapon… that’s why I have these! (holds up punchy fists) …and this (rotates palm to reveal an etched RK stone.)

The fight turns badly. Those who are able, leave. Dala threatens to fight me if I stay in Langhold alone. We run. I never noticed before how high I bounce when I am running; I think I will stick to flying. I hope this turns out ok for all involved.

Tune in next time for Part 2…

Faire hobbits don’t get drunk

Yay for Farmer’s Faire! I have been really enjoying myself in the new Farmer’s Faire and have been racking up the goodies. If you want a good festival guide, let me direct you over to CSTM (http://cstm.mymiddleearth.com/2012/07/lotro-farmers-faire-guide-2012/).

For me though, I noticed that I pulled in enough tokens in the first 3 days to buy everything there is at the Faire. So, this post is “things I learned at the Faire”, aka Faire on Easy-Mode. If you want to swim in tokens like Scrooge McDuck, here are some pro-tips.

Deeds: There are several deeds; just do the quests in and around Bywater and you will get most of them started. The hardest ones will be the egg collecting. I’ll go there in a moment. Daweirdo and I compare egg notes and discuss deed strategy. The Shire reputation pony watches the festivities in the background.

The quests for feeding the Fat Mayor, Restocking the Faire, and Helping the Overworked vendor are so simple that I won’t bother to explain it here. For the restocking the faire, good to know info, DO use the “speed boost pie” you were given as often as the Cooldown expires. You will be on foot for the quest and the item gives you a +68% speed, so you are moving as fast as the fastest horse. Here I am flying across the Shire at Supergirl speed (because flying trumps running fast).

Proof that I cook. Sometimes. When a quest is on the line.

Tickets: UPDATE 08/06/12: Update 7.3 released today. "Festival Tickets are also now barter wallet items." Well, lovely. That is one way to support ticket sales in the Store; kill your competition. I'm not a big fan of that change. The tickets are NOT Bound. Gather all your alts and mail the tickets to whomever you want to be flooded with tickets. Gather the 3 daily tickets per alt, and walk over to the mailbox there in Bywater. This event is the first time in history that I have had all lildanas in one area… get tickets, mail them, repeat. Here, Danaarodel takes time out of her busy schedule of “sitting around Thorin’s Hall sorting extra clothes that don’t fit in the wardrobe” to go camp in Bywater for two weeks. She enjoys the atmosphere, working down her Anniversary firework supply.

Fishing: For these two quests: “Big fish, little fish”, and “Fishy, very fishy”, if you don’t move after the quest ends, win or lose, you can stay there and fish for barter fish, seemingly indefinitely. Those extra fish, especially Big fish, can barter all the tokens you might want. Note 2 Big fish barter for 3 tokens; gather several dozen of those Big fish and you will start rolling in tokens. (Two ways I have broken out of barter fish mode: walk away from water, and drop Fellowship.)

Note that “Fishy, very fishy” is on a 24 hour timer where every other daily festival quest is on a daily timer resetting at lotro midnight. There is some discrepancy about the CD timers if pass versus fail so I wouldn’t be shocked if the “Big fish, little fish” has a wonky timer also. “Fishy, very fishy” quest is one of the two hardest things to accomplish at the Faire (finding a golden egg being the other one), because you have to be very lucky and pull out dozens of fish before you pull out a bad one. On the bright side, all those fish barter for tokens, so it is still a win for you. Brettawyn looks on, preparing to pull a large net of fish. 

Mushrooms… shrooms: This event is super easy; it is almost a guaranteed win. You just have to get into the right frame of mind. Firstly, Priority #1 is to avoid the dogs. I play it like I play Pacman. No matter what, avoid the dogs.

How to avoid the dogs? Use the minimap. The dogs show up as “eyes”. Don’t even watch where you are walking, just use the minimap.

But Dana, I need to find Mushrooms. The DEL key and /follow are your friends. Hit DEL, then /follow, and you will walk to the nearest targeted mushroom. Keep your eyes on the dogs on the minimap, click on the mushroom at your feet. Take control of walking and change course if the /follow takes you in the path of a dog. Repeat.

The contest always lasts 3 minutes. I average 18 mushrooms per contest and it only took 8 to win. With the bonus 10 tokens for winning, this contest nets about 38 tokens per run, and is nearly an instant win every time. Of course, if anyone else is playing in the field; I take my 8 mushrooms and leave, wishing them luck. I don't know if the mushroom spawn rate is dependent on the number of players; there always seems to be shrooms-aplenty, but I want everyone to win.

The mushrooms have lots of fun effects. Beware the Nazgul! (Not really, he has no power here, the dogs are in charge.) Here I am tiny, and looking up at a Nazgul (stacked shroomy effects).

The Tiny effect actually works really well to help you; Green-spotted mushrooms make you little. You are harder to spot when you are little. Still, don’t taunt the dogs, you are not invisible. Here I am looking up at my hobbit friend Dazy… nothing quite like being knee-high to a hobbit to give you a different perspective to the world. (Dazy is riding the Symbelmyn Spring horse of 2012.)

On the flip side, the Giant effect makes for a more challenging run; Red-spotted mushrooms make you giant. The effect lasts a minute, so you can shake it off. The game is still the same; avoid the pacman ghosts (dogs). Reaching down to get mushrooms is a bit tougher for a giant. Change your angle to see the mushrooms at your feet. Friend Sparowen gapes at me as I storm out of the field, giant-size and full of mushroomy goodness. Sparowen rides the Farmer's Faire steed of 2012.

Chickens and eggs: Some good things to know.

Again, the DEL key and /follow are your friends. Hit the DEL key to target eggs, then /follow (shortcut button) to go directly to the egg. Even if you can’t see the eggs through the chickens, you can hunt eggs and win just fine. Use your horse if you feel too slow; it takes some persistence to mount up and down, but it might work well for you if you feel slow.

Colored eggs are fairly common. Spotted eggs are less common. Striped eggs are rare. If you find a striped egg, it might be worth a lot on AH. I have never seen a golden egg, after running the event well over a hundred times and spectating nearly as many (though friend Morthin says he has in fact seen one golden egg). "

Pictures or it didn't happen." ... on the lotro forum (http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?471024-Farmer-s-Faire-Egg-Scramble), Koonmaster posted a picture of the Golden egg. It is BOUND, awards 50 tokens plus 10 additional tokens for completing the deed "collect the golden egg". There do not seem to be any locks for it (no requirements to find other eggs first); it seems to be just random with a very low drop rate. Koonmaster credited for posting this Golden egg picture at the previous link.

It is an educated guess that the more people entered, the better the odds for a good egg selection. Update 08/03 - Wrong: It is a hunch that it might take a packed game to have a chance at a golden egg, but that is just my guess. It might be just completely random with a really really low drop rate. This Spectator next to me hasn’t seen a golden egg this year, and he has been there almost as long as I have. J To date, I can confirm two winners of Golden Eggs in Arkenstone. On interviewing them, there seems to be no correlation; it is random location, random group size, random everything. I have entered or watched enough egg hunts that, at this time, I have seen approximately 7000 eggs and none of them Golden. I can only guess that the drop rate is 1:10,000 or worse (mebbe 1:300 - 1:600 egg hunts).

Note: I can neither confirm nor deny that I in fact stepped on a chicken. Ate a rotten egg? Yeah, I did that a bunch to help clear the board so others could target good eggs and win (and hopefully help with the respawn rate by weeding out the bad eggs), but I try not to step on the chickens. If you are having trouble finding enough white eggs, team up with someone. I am certain more eggs spawn for greater numbers of participants, so if you need to, just trade off who will get the 5 white eggs and win the round. Float like a butterfly, peck like a chicken!

Bounder Rounds- Drunk hobbits: What I have learned, is that Faire hobbits do not get drunk… at least not in Arkenstone. I am told that if anyone accuses a sober hobbit of being drunk, the “drunkenness” gets reset. What I have actually seen though is not one single hobbit drunk, ever. And making it easier to tell if it gets "reset", if they are falsely accused, they say something, like “How Rude”. After collecting dialog over several hour periods, 7pm, 12am, 4am, 10am… I conclude that the quest is broken (there were not that many people in Bywater to screw it up at 4am). Hobbits just don’t get drunk. (Feel free to prove me wrong with a screenshot taken in Arkenstone, because hopefully, it will get fixed eventually.) Oh sure, they are more lively than this picture, but drunk?... not so much. UPDATE 08/06/12: Update 7.3 came into effect today. "Drunken Hobbits should no longer slink home to sleep it off and should be easier to locate and admonish for not going home to sleep it off". I'm glad to see the powers acknowledge the problem and have issued a hotfixed!

HOWEVER, I talked to my fellow Lorien elves about the plight of non-alcoholic hobbits, and the elves were more than happy to fill in as drunkards for the Faire, but you still have to get to them at the Vineyard of Lorien and they only agreed to drink at night. They do give credit toward the quest and deed. (Here I ride the Reveller's steed; how fitting.)

Farmer’s Faire Steed: When I saw the Farmer’s Faire steed across the away, and he looked at me with those big brown eyes, I knew he would be taking me home tonight. Ooh, baby. (That might be the mushrooms talking… who said that?)

Yes, Mr. Hengstacer horse guy, I’ll take him. 120 faire tokens, 2 race tokens, some silver coins. Not a problem. I hit a jackpot of mushrooms earlier and tokens are no longer relevant.

To buy the steed and one of everything offered in the festival, it only takes 1190 tokens. Trust me, it is easier than you think to rack up more tokens than you can use in a very short time, and as I write this column, we still have two weeks! Undoubtedly, I will take time out from egg hunting to let the lildanas all get their steeds. 

It is well...

Today is my birthday.

There are so many beautiful images in Middle Earth. Today, I wanted to share two memorable tranquil moments and part of a poem with you. 

When I first saw the peacefulness of the Great River, south of Lorien, it reminded me of a poem, "It is Well", by Horatio Spafford written in 1873.

“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.”

This second shot is from the Pristine Glade in Dunland. The picture doesn't do it justice; the rolling heather and serenity of the glade is worth a visit.

Wherever you are, I wish you peace on this Good Friday.

Old Halls of Crafting, New Galtrev horses, New IF

Old Halls of Crafting quest item from Lorien 


Three weeks from now will mark my second anniversary adventuring in Middle Earth. It has been a great ride, and even in that relatively short time, there have been numerous changes. When I arrived in Ered Luin and began my training, Mirkwood was calling for assistance. I was not in on that call. It would be a long time before I saw my Lorien home and on into Mirkwood.

One thing for certain, I am very thorough. I don’t leave an area until I finish all of the quests and deeds. Well, correct that, I have left some group quests in my log and held onto them until finding a group (often pug) to join and go finish some fellowships and raids. Needless to say, my “journey to end-game” took longer than some. By the time I got there though, there was never a question of my knowing my class or if my virtues were high enough.

Taking a while on the journey meant that some of those group quests just linger around. I have been holding a quest item, Rune-stone of Lorien, in my bag for nearly a year. It is an item to be used within the Halls of Crafting, a level 60 fellowship instance, which is still a place no RK should go alone.

A callout on a leisurely Saturday afternoon got one taker who would join me in the Halls of Crafting. Fortunately, it was a Guardian, Dodussrond. After 30 minutes or so, it was clear that a Guardian can go where no RK should go alone and soon enough the Halls of Crafting was saved by two level 75s. He was the heroic immovable force; I was the token dps.

Haldir was pleased and mentioned Galadriel by name as having spoken well of me. Glee! I was also certainly pleased as I finally got the item out of my bag and got the quest done.

Now Haldir wanted me to go see Celeborn. Of course, I will go see him; I expect Galadriel will be with him. Along with Luthien, Galadriel is one of my RK idols. It was once written that after Celeborn’s forces took Dol Guldur, Galadriel threw down its walls and laid bare its pits, and the forest was cleansed. I gather from the legendary stories that Galadriel soloed much of that. She is a very inspiring Runekeeper. Of course, Luthien is very exciting in the descriptions of how “she fought with her voice and her words, and yet caused real wounds in her enemies and healed her allies.” Their legends are things to which I aspire. Someday mebbe.

Oh Celeborn… another item for my bag??? As a “good job” for doing the previous work, he wants me to bring “the phial of light” into Dar Narbugud. I don’t think Dodussrond is going to take me dueting to Dar Narbugud. Looks like I will probably have to assemble a team. For now, I took the phial and convenient “lost” it. Celeborn had a whole basket of them behind him, so I kept notes that Celeborn will probably give me another one if I ask nicely some day in the future when said team is assembled.

I will just visit my friend the Moose of Lorien. He looks happy to see me.

New Horses in Galtrev

With that excursion over, it is time to go see what is new in Galtrev. Oh look, a call to go to the Great River. And to send me on my way, the Dunlending and Theodred’s Riders offer me some horses. Here is a picture of both of them respectively. These horses can now be obtained from the barter vendor in Galtrev, just south of the milestone, when you reach kindred. The Dunlending is a dusty grey, and the Theodred is a white-cream with ginger hair. I am happy to have them both.

New IF


In followup to Tuesday's look at the Instance Finder (fastest-skirmishes-marks-per-minute), the Update 6 IF is even easier to use. The "Simple" tab is exactly the same as the previous version of IF. The "Advanced" tab allows you to choose which of the instances you will allow it to randomly select for you. The "Specific" tab replaces what used to be the "Instance Join" button. It allows you to  choose exactly where you want to go in any instance of any size and level you access. 


The "Advanced" tab has many possibilities and will be great if you are flexible about where to go. Allowing it more options for destination will allow you the bonuses of "+50% all currency earnings" and "+5% morale and power". In the picture below, you can see that by selecting 13 of 17 skirmishes allowed, I have access to those max bonuses. For any less than 13/17, some lesser bonuses were applied (+40%, +30%, etc ... the bonus is based on percentage of skirmishes allowed).


You will also notice in the picture that I deselected my least favorite 4 defensive skirmishes that take the longest with poorest marks/minute. Your choices may vary. Watch the bottom part of the finder about what the bonus is for the set  you have chosen and go enjoy!