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 :)

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!

Spring Shrews, Shrews, Shrews!

Hello hello! I know… you came looking for Ingolemo… but I have to get something off my queue.

Shrews!

Shrews... Shrews... Shrews... Exciting word, yes?

The Spring festival ended two weeks ago and I haven’t written a Spring festival wrap-up post! I will obsess over it if I don’t get it written. I was trying to think which festival I like most, and decided that I like all of them. I love the Haunted Burrow, and the Shrews & flowers, and summer fishing, and even Frostbluff (though the idea of stealing from people makes me sad, so I normally just eat too much food instead).

Spring festival holds a special place for me, because I arrived in Middle Earth during the 2010 Spring festival. As an elf, I started my adventure in Celondim, and I recall seeing the big orange message throughout Ered Luin concerning “Stomp-a-shrew in Duillond”. It took a bit to find Duillond and understand that a festival was going on, but I was hooked.

I’ve said it before, but it still rings true that festival is a great way to break from the routine and meet new people as well as celebrate with people you know. Spring festival was no exception as I got the honor of meeting a few people like Tomeroric, Cessy, and Llynthe.


Here is the most noble Tomeoric. He caught up with me in Duillond and said he actually recognized me from this blog! It is common to ask a fan for his picture and autograph, right? He graciously obliged for this photo.

I had to chase Cessy down into Moria, having missed taking her picture in Duillond with the shrews or flowers. (Note to self, remember to charge the camera each time I go out.) Cessy shows that she can work a Supergirl pose! Own it, girl! Watch out boys, Cessy is Fearless!

And, Llynthe! I was saying hello to people I pass on the street when I came across Llynthe. I was thinking... "she looks so familiar. did we do Foundry? no. Roots? no. Moors? no. Some older content? no." Llynthe is the famous writer of http://thehobbitsinthestories.wordpress.com/.

It is a bit mind-numbing during the Spring festival, but I liked the collecting flowers quest! It is peaceful to roam the countryside collecting flowers, lol! The rewards for collecting flowers were… really lame, hehe. Of course, the only good thing to come out of it was the Steed of the Jester (Jester), which is just a matter of luck, and I got enough Huge flowers that all the hobbit quads could have one. If I was the boss, I might change this quest to reward spring leaves or marks. Even I, who really enjoyed it, couldn’t imagine collecting even one more flower after about 4 hours of it during festival.

Danadalyn (with Cave-claw Masked Steed) paid a visit to the Hobbit golfing statue in Brockenborings. On the "Bullroarer’s Challenge", it takes a bit of patience, steely determination, and nerve to “just go for it”, but the lildanas all got the fence walking done and spring deed completed. That is a fun one. J

"When I grow up, I want to be just like Danaszar!" 
Indeed. Me too little hobbit quest guy. Me too.

Love the festival maze. The only downside is that one can only do it about 4 times a day for collecting barter leaves. I think Danaclaus was more interested talking to the Wandering Elves than actually mazing.

 It is a good place to run crazy, have a few Dire Beers, scold some naughty tween hobbits… Good times.

Symbelmyne Spring horses for all. It suited Danaish quite well as she prepared for a ride across the countryside.

My love/hate part of the festival is the "consumables for deed". If you use 300 of a certain consumable, you will be allowed to do that specific action as a skill. For example, this spring's consumables were the Doom-shrooms and D.R.A.G.O.N. I totally love setting a goal and achieving it, especially with these consumables.

What I Hate though... I deal with the fact that the consumables take many festival tokens (ex. spring leaves), typically about 180 tokens per 300 consumables. However, the really bad part, which is on my top 5 least favorite things in lotro... is that the consumable has a 5 minute Cooldown. With some of the ones in the past (youll-yule-festival), they were on the same CD timer. Fortunately, the spring ones were not, but we still must wait 5 minutes between uses. At best, that is about 25 hours of throwing tricks at other people. AND... they do not advance while in a raid, and they do not work in the Ettenmoors. 

So, you have to be (1) somewhere with people, (2) not in the moors, (3) not in a raid, (4) be willing to continue to throw obnoxious things at people as often as the CD timer expires. I need to make buttons for "/thank you for helping me with my deed" and "sorry I had to hit you. again. with a doom-shroom". My goal is to finish the 300 by the start of summer festival, so I can get more things to throw and wait on long CDs.

Here is one of my victims getting a face full of of exploding shroom and dragon fire.

Alas, spring festival only happens during the spring (or in lotro’s case… early summer). I will see you again next year Mr. Shrew.

Finally, here is Danaszar in her Anniversary hat, Yule robe, riding a Dusk steed, in front of the Angel’s Draigoch statue (draigoch-statue-lil-danas-moving-day). It doesn’t have anything to do with Spring festival, but it was a nice picture and I told her I would post it.

I’m already excited for Summer festival! It must be coming up soon-ish!