Steed of the Hammerhand and Helm's Deep

Supergirl rides the Warsteed of the Hammerhand

I was asked recently what I have been doing to prepare for Helm's Deep. o.o Umm... I move inventory around and... I bought Helm's Deep. :D That's about it. It will be a brave new world when I log on to see it what is new next week.

Let's take a look at what I got with my Helm's Deep purchase. I got a horse and some other stuff. For 60$, I get...

• Helm's Deep adventure, 
• 2 titles, 
• 2000 TP, 
• cosmetic armor set, 
• +ten quest slots (so I'm up to 60 quest slots), 
• a crystal of remembrance, 
• a back slot item that gives +25% XP up to level 85, 
• Horse with matching Warsteed.

Here is a picture of the preorder stuff.

I like the goodies fine enough and am of course, pro horse. The crystal of remembrance will be nice to have. The +25% XP does nothing for me but the lildanas enjoyed having it when craft leveling. I will mention how they are doing with their craft experience later (Crafting-to-mordor-part-2).

Here is a look at the Horsie...

Steed of the Hammerhand:
It is a fine horse Lots of plate and chain metal, carries one sword on the right side and saddle bags on both sides. His halter has a little horse on the top of his head. I got a chuckle out of having a horse with a horse hood ornament. :D It is easier to see the hood ornament in the first picture.

Steed of the Hammerhand

Warsteed of the Hammerhand:
The Default is all there is. None of these pieces can be dyed. You either like it or you don't. :)
It is exactly the same as the steed.

Warsteed of the Hammerhand

I hope you have a great time with Helm's Deep. :)

Rohan: 85 skirmish solider Herbalist

One of my most visited non-Rohan posts on the site is herbalist-is-my-skirmish-friend in which I detailed the traits of my skirmish soldier, the Herbalist. Now at level 85, I brought my Herbalist up to speed. She is a potent soldier!

Also important though is that I once again used the “Scroll of Skirmish Refund” from the lotro store. It costs 295 TP. If I thought ahead I might have even gotten it with a discount coupon (but I think I paid full price because I wanted it right then). This is the other post I want to reflect on for Skirmish Refund best-295-tp-ever.

Why would I use this scroll, and what did I get for my 295 TP this time?

Let’s start with “why”. The cost of leveling a soldier is directly related to your level. Meaning, at level 85, a rank of a soldier costs less than that same rank would be at level 75. As you get the soldier closer to your level, the cost goes up.

And “What”. From the link, the first time the Scroll of Skirmish Refund arrived in the store, I was level 75 and Dr. Quinn was the equivalent of a level 75 Herbalist. I used the Scroll and had a savings of 29,158 marks on the exact same rebuild to level 75.

But, now I am 85, with the herbalist having been built using my level 75 related costs. Now, it should be cheaper to do the same thing at 85. To the test!

I used the reset scroll… and voila! It returned exactly 9,571 Marks, the same number I spent before (see previous link). To get the Herbalist exactly back to the equivalent of level 75 was a cost of 5,884 Marks. In total, it was a savings of 3,687 Marks at the cost of 295 TP.

If you have never used a skirmish reset scroll, you are possibly in for a big refund (hence the 29k marks I received last time). As for me, having used one before at level 75 and only leveling the soldier as a Herbalist, the gain was not as much for a second use. If you have never done it, and you have points in your soldier, I would recommend doing the reset when you reach level 85.

For interest, I leveled Dr. Quinn to equivalent level 86. The cost to get from level 75 to 86 with the traits I chose was 8,529 Marks. Also of interest, one cannot level a soldier to equivalent level 85; the levels come by twos. She could be equivalent level 84 or 86 (and the next up is 88).

She is da bomb! With a morale of 12,907, she can tank it all, heal through the damage and keep going. In all my days of skirmishing, I have only been threatened a couple of times on my first visits to The Icy Crevasse. Needless to say, I always feel secure with my Herbalist. Someday, I will revisit the Fastest Skirmishes post, fastest-skirmishes-marks-per-minute  (though I suspect the relative time results to be similar, but would find a comparison data set to be interesting).

Prep for Riders of Rohan

I recently read a forum article by Deathknyght, http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?477101-Preparing-for-Riders-of-Rohan-End-Game.

It was quite good. The author put a lot of thought into it and knew enough about what to expect from Beta that made his knowledge valuable. For my benefit (and possibly yours), I copied the post by Deathknyght here (Preparing-for-riders-of-rohan (Danania's notes), see top header of this blog) so I could study it and make personal notes to guide me. Cheer’s to this pen-warrior for writing such a thorough take on what he sees.

At the Dana link above, my notes are in Red intermingled with his guide.

Very briefly, here are some of the highest highlights I see in his article melded with a few thoughts of my own:

Active things to do:

1. Crafting: 60,000 reputation worth of scrolls required for the next guild level.
2. Crafting: Use new section “processing”. Leather à shavings à Leather, etc
3. Crafting: Get new recipes, look for level 80 and 85 gear recipes. Guild recipes?
4. Task items: Stockpile. Rohan task board for existing items = Decorative Sword Sheaths, Punctured Shields, Speckled Ears, Marked Furs, Blotchy Skins
5. Relics/Shards: Stockpile. All relic services will be cheaper after the jump so don’t meld/decon/etc yet. Make a new Relic plan (Relics-and-Virtues)
6. Crafted relics: Stockpile. T9 relics are going to be crazy expensive. Get as many crafted relics prepared for shards now as possible.
7. Commendations: Moors cap is 10,000. Hover around there to make new gear bartering easier. Also, comms are supposed to be easier to obtain post-Rohan.
8. Warsteed bridle: Bridles take up a legendary item slot. Store will sell two additional legendary item slots to accommodate extra bridles. Bridles obtained by Tailor-craft, mob drops, and one 2nd Age bridle from the quest line. Probably make some bridles.
9. Resource instances: At 84, look for daily instances in Hytbold.
10. Warbands: Deed completions, and daily quests offer good rewards.
11. Hytbold Dailies: Doing daily Hytbold quests opens up gear and possibilities
12. 85 2nd age symbols: one 2nd age bridle from Epic, 12 person skirmishes, PvP rank 10 (for 7500 comms). Plan to do 12-person skirmishes since that is the only realistic option.
13. Reset scroll: At 85, Buy a skirmish soldier reset scroll to maximize marks (Best 295 TP ever)

Passive things that will happen:

1. Virtues: Cap 16.
2. Warsteed: Progress the epic normally and you will get a warsteed. Three types of warsteeds available: Light, Medium, and Heavy. You can obtain bridles and build all three.
3. Warsteed Cosmetics: Store and quest cosmetics are available.
4. Seals and Marks: Barter for New Empowerment Scrolls to improve level 85 LIs.
5. Keep gear: New level 85 gear is not necessarily better than existing 75 end-game gear. Compare everything before deleting.
6. Trade in Moors gear: 10% discount on new gear for trading in old gear.
7. Remote looting: Have bag space and enable “Always loot all”.
8. Order of Areas: The East Wall, The Wold, Norcrofts, Entwash Vale, Eaves of Fangorn, Sutcrofts.
9. Epic quest loot: Food, pots, Rare (Purple) gear, T8 relic, 85 2nd age bridle, Housing items, Horse cosmetics.

Stuff I glossed over that may peak your interest:

1. Sell level 75 consumables if desired: Cracked Rhi Helvarch Sigils, Greater Scrolls of Empowerment ("GSoEs"), GSo Delving, and Star-lit Crystals not usable above level 75.
2. Gold: You may want some gold for AH buying in Rohan
3. Graphics engine: Graphics got cooler.
4. Mac client: For those who do Macs.
5. 6th bag: Yep, there is one available for sale.
6. Open tapping: Warbands in Rohan are open tapping.
7. PvMP: It is a-changin’. No comments at this time.
8. Music: There is some.

Turbine Point List: Here is a list of things on which I will probably spend TP. I will know when I get there and see it.

• Skirmish soldier reset scroll @ level 85 = 295 TP
• Two additional legendary item slots for bridles = 295 TP each
• Mebbe some warsteed cosmetics and cosmetic slots (because I like options even though I can barely match clothes on myself)

What do you think? Anything special that you are doing to prepare for Rohan?

Steam steed - Noble Grey Steed

Thank you for all the visits! The site rolled past 20,000 visits last night. I’m thrilled as fat caterpillar on a strawberry! 

Now here is a deal I got recently from a site called, http://www.steampowered.com/.

I had never heard of Steam since they hadn’t left any sales fliers on either my house in Thorin’s Hall or the Angels house in Falathlorn, but apparently, Steam is a big gaming site. Who knew?

Personally, I think Merric should get a finder’s fee for directing traffic their way. I found it via the link http://cstm.mymiddleearth.com/2012/06/lotro-is-now-on-steam/. Just sayin’…

Anywho… Short version… Steam’s offer was:  15$ = 1000 TP and a nice steed (and some stuff - Derudh’s Stone for 25% XP and some quest packs: ND, MM, Evendim). (Now 30$, see below. UPDATE 07/13 from Draculetta... back to 15$, "SUMMER SALE! Offer ends July 23rd" ) ...Get it while its steamy!

You had me at steed.

On purchase, a “Mithril edition bonus items” box shows up in your bag. (The horse sticking his nose in my bag in the picture is the Prized Isengard Steed (previously seen at Tonicbars-corral).

Inside the box was the Noble Grey Steed and the Derudh’s stone. The Derudh’s stone is the identical one that came with the RoI expansion, and gives bonus XP til level 65. The 1000 Turbine Points apply automatically.

The Noble Grey Steed is a much nicer looking horse than several that I have paid more for so I am pleased with the purchase. He has some in common with the Isengard steed, but clearly blowing steam out his nose is something unique. 


Gah! Apparently, I got in on the tail end of the sale and the price has reverted to 30$. Check it out here http://store.steampowered.com/app/213174. (UPDATE 07/13: SUMMER SALE! 15$ Offer ends July 23rd)


Would I have bought 1000 TP, a pretty horse, an XP token (I don't need), and quest packs (I don't need) for 30$? Mebbe, mebbe not. If it went on sale at 20$? Very likely. I will periodically check back to the site to see if the price drops again and will put out an immediate note on danania.net if I see a more reasonable price. If you need quest packs or just cant live without a horse blowing steam from his nose, the steam link is just above.

Being a computer noob, I initially had trouble getting my key. My friend Jas pointed out that once the “steam program” is installed on my computer, I was supposed to right click on “lotro” in the steam purchase section to download the game of lotro, which would allow me to get the KEY just like Merric told me in his instructions (see cstm link above). For people with basic skills, I’m sure that was probably obvious. 

Best 295 TP Ever

I had been trying to amass more skirmish marks recently. I even built a spreadsheet for marks/minute, etc to know which skirmishes were the biggest bang for the time. I’ll share that data table in a future post.

However, I stumbled across a post in the Casual Stroll to Mordor site (casualstrolltomordor.com/) discussing something in the Lotro store called a “Scroll of Skirmish Refund”, available for 295 TP. The discussion centered on how many marks one would get back for using the Refund scroll and then re-leveling your skirmish soldier.

Historically, I haven’t skirmished as much as some people. Because I am a quest-hawk, I didn’t enter a skirmish until I was level 65, then I leveled Dr. Quinn, my Herbalist, up equal to me. Then when Rise of Isengard was released, I quested forward to level 75, then leveled Dr. Quinn again up equal to me. Needless to say, my skirmish mark spending was about as optimized as I could have possibly made it, choosing only the traits to build a great Herbalist. However, all of this happened before one of the 4Q11/1Q12 Updates changed how much leveling a soldier should cost.

I was very skeptical, but I gave it a shot and bought a “Scroll of Skirmish Refund”. The refund gave me 38,729 marks, and turned my equivalent level 75 Herbalist back to the beginning. Now, I had to respend the marks and get her back equal to me, and hopefully it would cost less than 38k marks.

Everywhere I go, I bring my herbalist Dr. Quinn. The only place we have ever been defeated while soloing is The Icy Crevasse (prior to the speculated 2012 changes to Icy Crevasse). I think that we typically underestimate it since it is a step more difficult than any other skirmish.  Proportionally, The Icy Crevasse gives the best marks of any solo skirmish. That said, I have never even considered needing another soldier other than the Herbalist. As the enemy, you would have to hit faster than I can hit and Quinn can heal, and that just does not usually happen. For group skirmishing, the herbalist heals the group and is one of the best soldiers for grouping, so there is no need to switch soldier when grouping either.

Ok, back to the mark reset math. So, I got back the previously-thought frugally spent 38,729 marks and was respending them. I could break down the various costs by level, but I will fast forward to the answer. Final cost = 9,571 marks to reset the herbalist as an equivalent 75 (solider level 31).

Bottom line = 29,158 marks for the price of 295 TP. Now that is a very good deal. I highly recommend this purchase if you leveled your soldier to 31 before January-2012. At a rate of 210 marks per skirmish, that was equivalent to 139 skirmishes to accumulate 29k marks, and at 15 minutes per skirmish, that is about 35 hours of skirmishing (math to be accounted in another post about the excitement of skirmishing marks/minute.... UPDATE skirmish marks/minute link is fastest-skirmishes-marks-per-minute).