1st Age LIs, Rohan healing rings, fans!

1st Age Legendary Items for level 85: Update 10 brought symbols for crafting 1st Age LIs for level 85. The symbols drop in Erebor Raids at level 85. When U10 released (03/06), the symbols would drop in T1 Erebor Raids. Turbine, deciding that was no good, pulled the plug on 1st agers in T1 for update U10.02 (03/20) and now they only drop in T2 Raids. While I gave it a shot, I was 0 for 44 T1 raid wins on receiving 1st Age symbols during the 2-week period. Sigh, rotten luck.

There are 3 ways to get 1st Age LIs:

• Random rare drop in T2 Erebor raids (and T2 challenge),
• Barter for it with Seals at the Skirmish vendor named “Legendary Items”,
• Buy it from the AH since it is not bound. Right now, they are occasionally listed on Arkenstone at ≈ 1000g, yowsa.

So, your options are T2 Raid persistence & luck, earning the seals to barter via many of the 3-person, 6-person, or raid instances and skirmishes, or having a fat barter wallet and fluid AH market. Instances earn 2 – 10 seals per run. As mentioned in the previous article, having a few people around to group with, you can pick your favorite instances and make a fun time of it earning lots of various loot and seals in a short time.

Occasionally, I am able to have time to Raid and my kinship gathers for a Raid once or twice a week, so Random rare drop is not out of the question… I’m just not holding my breath hoping for a lucky roll in a T2 raid win. I’m actually very thankful that we are allowed to barter such an item. In olden days, random luck was often the only option to get nice things. I consider the barter option a huge step forward for the game.

There are 3 different Barter prices at the skirmish vendor for a 1st Age symbol:

• Win on all three T1 Erebor Raids (Defense of Erebor T1 deed), then barter for 488 Seals.
• Win on all three T2 Erebor Raids (Defense of Erebor T2 deed), then barter for 427 Seals.
• With on all three T2 Challenges (Defense of Erebor Challenge), then barter for 366 Seals.

At this time, I do not know anyone who has won all three T2 Raids at level 85 or the Challenges though I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone show up with a post on youtube one day in the not too distant future. There are a couple of videos out there showing The Fires of Smaug T2 Challenge now. The T2 Lonely Mountain feels impossible, lol.

Here is what my “The Road to Erebor” deed looks like right now. It is worth a horse to complete the Meta-deed… so, it is on my list. Granted, it is on my “long-term” list, kinda like Tower of Orthanc and Dol Guldur level 85 T2 Challenge, both of which have horses that I need to acquire. Someday… someday…

Eswe’s new healing rings.

In the previous post for Update 10.1, I mentioned that Eswe had a couple of new Healer Rings (u10-rohan-rings-complete-hytbold-in-15)  so I wanted to show what they look like for comparison. Clearly, one is for Minstrels and RKs and the other one is for Captains. The RK ring takes the same Sage upgrade path explained in the post on Rohan Rings. 

Supergirl SuperFans!

I really am excited when people tell me that they are fans of the site! I hope I come across politely. Sometimes I am carrying on up to a dozen conversations at once so hopefully I say thank you and am cordial if we meet. :D

Here are two people I met this week:

Parnassica is leader of her kin and had kind words to say about the site. Thank you! Forgive me that I am not the best at taking pictures of hobbits… I often just get the tops of hobbit heads.

Arkandon was playing the part of “bird in a tree” when I flew out to Ost Guruth. I am amazed that people figure out how to climb up trees and on buildings. I am sure he will do great at “Ridge Racer” in Eregion when he gets there. ;)

Goldenstar and Merric talked about danania.net on a recent podcast (CSTM: episode190) and Tomrica transcribed it for me. It is quite the great situation when the lead in is that I am fans of my fans. Really though, I am of all my fans, just not all of them run a Mecca-site like CSTM, lol! Tsk, tsk… I’m going to have to remind Goldenstar what my name is… mebbe I will put it in my blog title and website name… oh wait… :D

Here is the transcription from that section of the podcast:

(in reference to the new store horse, steed-of-dagorlad and CSTM: steed-of-dagorlad-available-through-april)

G = Goldenstar & M = Merric

G: If she didn't tell me it was the sea blue color, I would have been like, oh ok... where's the color?  Oh and I should say that the color screenshots I got from Danica.  She is a blogger who sent me it.. and you can find it at... oh wait, it's not Danica...

M: It's Dan-an-eee-ah... it's the Super-Girl of Lorien.

G: It's the Super-Girl!  I always just call her Super-Girl!  D-a-n-a-n-i-a.net is her blog.  So she was nice enough to send me screenshots of what it looks like dyed.

M: Yea... she's a biiiiiiig horse fan.  She's awesome.

G: Yea... yup.

M: She's a great blogger, if you are not following her, you need to follow her.

G: She's super nice, she was like, "Do you need a picture? Here you go..."

M: Yea.. if you are not following her, you need to - it's at D-a-n-a-n-i-a.net

My Note: I don’t know how to write in phonetics, but it is… Daaah-naaah-nEE-aaaah :)

Fall Festival’s end & a new Beginning

Aahh. It’s nice to feel the cool fall air this time of year. I took a spin out past the moon and back to the Shire just in time for Fall festival to be into full festivities.

I had an interesting dilemma at Fall festival this year. Since there were no new quests or adventures, I spent little time at the festival. The thing is that the lildanas and I hardly left the festival the past two years. We would try for the Painted Skeleton Horse every day, and fail every day.

In celebrating so much last year, we amassed so many tokens that we didn’t even need to show up this year and could have taken home all the goodies. We tried and failed to get the horse for about a week this year, then shut it down and prepared for Rohan instead. In fact, a nice low-key festival was exactly what we needed. We did get to meet a few people at festival though and took home all the things. Here are some of the pictures of our time at festival.

If you are still at festival, here is a list of all the things that can be bartered; pictures are in this post down below. (fall-festival-goodies)

We had lots of pictures from Fall festival 2011 also @ (fun-fall-festival-friends!).

Some people I saw at Fall Festival

We remembered the Haunted Burrow so well from last year, we could run through it with our eyes closed. Danaszar gives a tour of the Haunted Burrow to new friend Shouriel.

Nidia discusses fall activities with Danaszar and schemes to play a trick on me.

Aaahhh! Bucket-headed Nidia gives me a good fright.

Haljesor dresses up for Halloween… or mebbe that is his regular attire. You can guess the inspiration for the outfit, yes?

I change into my Batgirl outfit that I wore last year, and mount my Painted Skeleton Horse (this is one of the very few places I let the store trump more grind since I don’t like random fail... I did buy the Steed last year).

Arkandon practices his “BOO” though I am impervious to it. Nerves of steel…

Cherryful shows that she is indeed the pinkest captain in the land.

The famous Mysterixox (http://mysterixox.wordpress.com/) dresses to match the Green Painted Skeleton Horse.

Asciel is ready to party. Fall festival at the Shire? Galtrev? It doesn’t matter; the party moves with her Hoopty-hoopty-hoop.

Audrelier rides the world-renown Eriador Horse, ready to scare hobbits at the Haunted Burrow.

Images from the Haunted Burrow

One new thing for me at this Fall festival was the addition of an Ale Association quest. Since this past Summer festival was my first time spent with them, this was my first view of the AA interacting with the Haunted Burrow. I spent some time playing tricks on the silly hobbits in the Burrow for the AA; then I went back to console them as part of the normal quest set. Here is one of the “ghosts” I sent after a scared hobbit.

Danaszar wonders who the man in the portrait might be? Do you know who he is? He must be someone famous since he is a picture of a human in a hobbit house.

Danadalyn plays the “potion game”. It is kinda funny; I never bothered to read the clues to tell me which potion to take to keep us safe. I read the clues now and they seem obvious and easy to solve, but in the moment, I just pick up a bottle and swig it… mebbe good, mebbe bad. The order of drinks is… White, Blue, Orange, Blue.

Goodies from the Festival

I mentioned the barter prices for the goodies in a previous post. Here are some pictures of them.

Here is the Beer Stein. Ok, the beer stein is in my right hand, and my other drink is in my left hand. Two fisted FTW.

I explain Newton’s laws of motion as it applies to my Basket of Apples. The centripetal force due to the rotational rate at which I twirl my basket is greater than the force of gravity applied to the apples.

Danaish practices as a hand model, showing off the lovely Fall Gourd she got at festival.

The next item up is a giant Pretzel… because everyone needs one of those.

Danaszar takes some items back to the Home of Angels. Here is the Autumnal Apple Tree she planted out front. For a tree, it is one of my favorites (we also like the Yule-tree). If you watch the tree, you will see the leaves fall from the tree.

We don't favor mounting dead animals on the wall. I am told that the ones from festival are made of faux fur and discarded feathers though. The crabans do look real. Here is a Craban perched on Stein.

And, here is a Craban drinking from Stein.

This one is a Lathbear with Stein. So strange; I don’t recall ever seeing a Lathbear before. I had to google “Lathbear” and one of the answers I saw is that a Lathbear comes from the Rohan region. I foresee Lathbears in my future. It is kinda ugly… nothing like a Pooh bear (my favorite bear).

She managed to get a picture of the Table with Sausage and Pretzels before the hobbit quadruplets tested whether or not the food was wax or edible. I didn’t get the answer… wax or not, there was a reason I sent Danaszar to deliver the item versus letting Chief Move Coordinator DanaOnar handle the table.

The farmers got Black Mushroom Pots from the festival. One of the quests from Summer festival is to “plant seed” there on the Hill; it is a quest only for farmers. This item is the fruit of the effort, gathered in the Fall festival.

Clothes from Festival

In preparation of Rohan, the five lildana crafting team took the opportunity to advance from level 21 to level 25, which allowed them all to get new gear and more importantly… new Crafting Tools. With their new excellence, they got new clothes.

Danaclaus made a rare decision to ask for one of the clothing pieces. Here is the Harvest-Brew Cloak dyed Ered Luin blue. The hooded cloak is identical except… it has a hood.

Danaszar took the Harvest-Brew short-sleeved Tunic & Trousers and dyed it gold. It is matched with the Harvest-Brew Circlet (I really like that one) and a shoulder piece called the Worn Ranger’s Wrap (probably from Isengard, also dyed gold, I can go look it up if someone really needs to know).

Danadelion took the Harvest-Brew Dress and dyed it red. The long lines of the gown really elongate her already long waist. She matched it with an Elegant Festival Cap (which came from the Yule festival, dyed red). The elegance is a stark change to her normal wild-haired self.

Danadalyn liked the Harvest-Brew long-sleeved Tunic & Trousers, dyed Dark Green, which seemed to match the Harvest-Brew Hat quite well.

Danaish, not to be left out of the chance for new clothes, choose a new bold red top. It is a simple drop item, the Westernesse Jacket of Fate (probably from the Dunland area).

Waiting…

And, we wait. Not much longer, and then it will be time to ride to Rohan. Here are a few of my final shots before mounting up.

Here is a picture in which I join the ranks as a Malledhrim soldier. Sorry boys, olive green is not my color. I will just “blend in”. Can you tell which soldier I am?

Nimitar, HalJordan and I join up to win in the Forsaken Inn. The Forsaken Inn is one of those “special” places where you are forced to have three specific-ish types of characters to be able to finish the challenge and certain deeds.

I went back in the Inn again and again and again by myself (etc) to try to solve all 83 riddles for the Riddle Deed. (inn-riddles) I am so close, but it will have to wait until another time. At 78 riddles done, I am sick of seeing the Inn. Umin mocks me with an “Excellent Work!” comment as I yell a challenge at the door after the several hundredth riddle.

With the help of Nimitarion, Sailanarmo, Byrane, Pengladia, and Golechi, the Lost Temple Challenge was finally won. That is a crazy instance for a level 65 and it is tougher to win the challenge than most level 75s. Yay team! Ferndur the Virulent throws more disease my way, but our plan is sound and shall win the day! I was last seen in Lost Temple failing to beat the Challenge @ steeds-deeds-and-aegthil.

Not often do I get “up-close-and-personal” with creeps in the Moors. You may remember the surreal moment when I “met” Baglun and Ijust (ettenmoors-75-rk-armor-audacity). Here was another. This next shot came from Mathilanakh, through the eyes of the stalker. I was minding my own business, thinning the goblin population in Grothum. A lightning bolt just split one wide open. Little do I realize, I am being watched… O.o The “hidden” image in the middle of the screen is my predator. What a surreal creepy image knowing that I am being hunted. lol!

Fortunately for me, Mathilanakh did not want to kill me at this time. I pulled out my dowsing stone and tried to pacify her wargy urges to bite me. Geez, look at those teeth. Nice doggy… No bitey... Please I hope I have a wargy-treat in my bag…

Time to fly. When next I write, I will be flying toward Rohan! Woohoo!

Treasure Hunt, Bilbo’s Birthday, and CSTM

What a weekend I had! Since it was a change of “normal” pace from deeding away, it didn’t feel like I was as eventful, but looking back at all that happened I had so much fun! The festivals have been rolling in and next up is Fall festival starting now, so exciting!

Today, I will talk about the excitement of the treasure Hunt, Frodo and Bilbo’s Birthday, and visiting the CSTM Live Event.

Treasure Hunt:

Let’s start with the Treasure Hunt. I had written a different post about steeds which I will delay until next weekish. In that post, I mentioned my disillusionment about “random” drop steeds, preferring that they be bartered, even if the cost is outrageous. Then, Treasure Hunt is released, and yay, a bartered goat! Sure, it cost 1000 tokens, but if you really wanted it, the 1000 token mark was very achievable.

The lildanas and I went nuts at the previous treasure hunt in February, 2012. I think it only lasted a day, but we made the most of it. We had gotten everything there was to get, except all the steeds. True, we did take 8 home. I only got one though, the Treasure Laden Goat so I am in it to win it this time. Delion was still silently bragging about having won all three steeds during that February event (Less-math-more-ponies).

Dig, dig, dig. Just keep digging, just keep digging… la la la la la la la la….

Yay for Huge caches! I think we won a steed about 1 out of less than 10 huge caches. I do like that the event restarts almost immediately after the previous one ends. It really keeps things moving!

Wins! Of course, all the steeds show up here on danania.net on the page All the Steeds.

Cave claw masked horse for the win!

Time to take him out flying.

Treasure Laden horse… win! (I still don’t like random winning. However, like most of the “random” wins for me, so much of it is about persistence. You do not even want to know how many hours I treasure hunted between last event and this event. OMG. Thankfully, I really really enjoy the Treasure Hunt.)

Treasure Laden goat! Ok, I had the goat last time, but he was feeling left out of the show. Hey, I think someone is following us… Aegthil is that you?? They’re always after me lucky charms…

The goat is a bit wide for me, so I threaded my leg through the saddle edge. Some might see this as a design flaw, but I am sure that is the way it is intended.

Threanody reports for duty to take over digging. Good luck hobbit! (I ride the Dunedain War-horse in this shot.)

Nimitar doesn’t miss a beat or a festival. If it is there to do, he will be there. He and Danaish wait patiently to be granted more picks to try their luck. (Nimitar rides the Nimble Black Goat).

So many people showed up at the Treasure Hunt! With the lack of things actually going wrong (see Farmer’s Faire and Summer dwarf races), I think this is a success!

Ytanya is excited about her “prospects”. Surely, there is a steed token in there for her?

Danaszar meets a Domesticated Green-back Cave-claw. It is so cute you could just /hug it. If you hug them all, you get a lovely title and complete the deed. Yay deeds!

Of course, the lildanas have their own pet cave-claw at the Angels house. (draigoch-statue-lil-danas-moving-day) We opted not to get another one right now just in case they might fight and leave the yard a mess. Turns out, the neighbors wouldn’t mind so much. We took a walk around and discovered that 76% of our neighbors were deadbeats that were locked out of their own homes, including all of the other kinhouses (one of which has gone into foreclosure and is up for sale). Go on, roam the neighborhood Trained cave-claw!

Finally, the star of the show has arrived. Here is the Harvest Brew Goat, the barter goat of the Treasure Hunt. Ok, this goat only has +62% speed, but it just might be the cutest goat I own (don’t tell the other goats). He is in the top ten goats for sure. Lol! I love the theme, and the stine on a stick out in front of it is a neat touch.

Emotes!

The Treasure Hunt emotes are some of my favorite! There are 6 available during the event, and thankfully they are at least Bound to Account. It would have been great had the Steeds also been Bound to Account, but they are in fact, Bound on Acquire. The 6 are: rich, counterfeit, inspectgem, pan, dowse, coinflip. Thankfully, I got them last time, so I had less things to think about while hunting for my steeds.

I am /rich! No doubt about that. Rich in friends. A sappier Supergirl would say these gold coins are just representation of blessings falling on me. (Aim your /heave over there…)

I check to make sure that the coins in my steed's pack are not /counterfeit (lilhobbits, don't put things in your mouth without washing them, that is a good way to get germy... that, and visiting the Foundation of Stone, very germy place.. Bring sanitizer).

You are getting sleepy…  /dowse. You are now under my control…

Oh Arkandon, don’t you know that these jedi mind tricks don’t work on Supergirl? I am not the droid you are looking for.

Yes, yes… I spy a diamond in the rough. Let me /inspectgem that for you.

Frodo and Bilbo’s Birthday

After Goldenstar, Frodo and Bilbo are two of the most famous hobbits in Middle Earth. If Frodo ran a site like CSTM (http://cstm.mymiddleearth.com/), he would be better known, but I digress.

Since it was Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday, I flew out to Rivendell to wish them well. Frodo snookered me into assisting him deliver a present to Bilbo, who was only like 100 meters away in Elrond’s house. For fun, I will lay out how the conversation went.

Meltera met me there so that we could celebrate birthdays together. Mebbe the Bagginses will have cake. Or pie. I like pie. And chocolate. Dark chocolate. Fudgey dark chocolate. with pie. Mmm... Where were we? Oh, yes.. let's go wish happy birthdays.

Hello Frodo! Happy Birthday! I would have come yesterday, but I had to dig up Treasure Laden steeds; you know how it is.

Frodo replies with asking me to visit Bilbo.

Mae Govannen, and Happy Birthday to you, Bilbo. Here is a present from Frodo.

Bilbo replies by asking me to deliver a present to Frodo. You know, he is standing in the next room? Oh fine, I will deliver it.

Hello again Frodo. Here is a present from Bilbo.

You want me to go tell him thank you… for you? You know, he is just across the hall? Le sigh…

Hiya Bilbo. Frodo says thanks. You are welcome. You have a present for me on your birthday? Hobbits are interestingly odd people. J You should walk across the hall and see Frodo some time. He has a neat ring that he wears on a chain around his neck.

Bilbo gave me the choice of receiving a toy flute or a toy dulcimer. They play a tune that lasts a couple of seconds and… that is it. It has a 30 minute CD. It is the thought that counts, right? J

CSTM Live Event

I got to enjoy the CSTM Live Event on Saturday! It turns out that CSTM was recording their weekly show but added on a streaming video while they were doing it. I usually fly across the spatial abyss into Landroval once a week or so to check fan mail and visit whoever happens to be around (thank you so much to all you who leave messages there J) and found my friends Tomrica and Goldenstar both in Bywater. It was great timing since CSTM was in the middle of their show.

As I headed to Bywater, there was quite a crowd and I found Tomrica waiting for me at the back. The poor thing won’t be able to see with all these trees standing in the way. I got a chuckle out of just how many hobbits there are around here. Yeah… I don’t make it to the Shire enough. Hobbits, hobbits everywhere.

It was a great gathering. It seems that if you get enough of the Lonely Mountain Band together, it is like a bring-your-own-party. I got to meet several lovely hobbits, including the hobbit-gnome Anthemisi and her dancing friend Carica.

Tomrica and Goldenstar pose for photos and autographs at the Green Dragon. These last two shots were taken by Tomrica, who is a most excellent photographer.

The Lonely Mountain Band hobbits ride a team of goats collected from the Treasure Hunt. Tomrica is out front, followed by (L-R) Galspi, Elyita, Carica, & Anthemisi.

How can you not smile seeing a line of hobbits riding goats?? That is so cute. Lol!