Danadelion and the GM

Danadelion got the opportunity to meet a Game Master during the Summer festival. It is always a bit intimidating, it is like talking to the police. I know I didn’t do anything wrong, but they have badges, and uniforms, and guns, and jails. What if he is an evil GM??? O.o

Turns out, he was nothing of the sort. Here is how it went down… told from Delion’s perspective.

"  I had patiently waited for my turn to go to festival. Danania had gone, then Danaszar, then Danaish, and now I was up 4th. The path was clear. I had gone to Summer festival last year, and had already been watching what was happening this year for two days, just waiting. I went to the Party Tree and got my one token from Opal Goodbody to start the festival, did the food fetch-it quest there around the Hill, and the other Hill fetch-it quest, and then over to Bywater to do the fishing gear fetch-it quest around the pond.

Next, I completed “To the Fishing Hole” there in Bywater by talking to Neddie Grubb and pick up the quest to Stock the Pond… wait… where is the next quest, for Stocking the Pond???

Hey! I am old enough to fish! I am higher than both that goodie child Danaish and that laid back elf Danaszar! Why am I not allowed to Restock the Pond? It’s because I’m a Champion, isn’t it? No respect! /fervour builds../ I know the quest must be here. I did get the “To the Fishing Hole”, it is done. Mebbe both Neddie and I know that he wants me to go to Thorin’s Hall and catch Amberjacks. Ride there... Nada. The Quartermaster just stares at me like he has no idea that Amberjacks might be in Thorin’s Hall. Sigh. Mebbe it is an error in festival communication; something involving the phase of the moon and keg-dwarves on strike. It is time to call on a higher power, he-who-shall-not-be-named.

I nervously wait, practicing my ability to dodge if the higher power shows up and decides to smite me for angering the wrath of the great and powerful Oz. A few minutes later, +Jalwis+ contacts me with a very pleasant, Howdy! How very hospitable; Danania, raised in the suthun’ flets, would have been impressed.

After I explained the situation, he asks me to pause, blink out, click my heels three times and see if everything was back to normal. While hopeful, I found that just closing my eyes didn’t help. He explained that the most likely cause is often missing a pre-requisite. I explained that I had done everything the other danas did, exactly as they had done them, the next quest was supposed to be here but it just isn’t. I don’t know what else it could be since I did exactly the same thing.

I fidgeted anxiously some more and rode my steed in circles. Jalwis asked me to stop fidgeting and come stand next to Neddie. Mebbe putting me next to the “accused” would help. So, I stood there, fishing pole in hand, eager to go. Jalwis started off again with “obviously you have the fishing prerequisite”.

I stand there. Stunned. I have a pole. Danaszar crafted it for me. OMG. Fishing Prerequisite. The entire fishing prerequisite is talking to that Hobby Master right next to me and telling him “Yes, I would like to fish”.

Somehow I had been to this many festivals, carrying a pole for years and had never fished. It turns out that last Summer, I bet on hobbit races and earned enough to barter for my festival horse. The next best option for fishing was Farmer’s Faire, but I was picking mushrooms out of a field and earned enough tokens for a horse and never fished. So, in fact, I had NEVER learned to fish.

I sheepishly apologized to Jalwis and thanked him for being so polite and helpful with thinking through the troubleshooting (not mentioning being thankful that he didn’t smite me). He asked if there was anything else I needed? Which there wasn’t (except for the dwarves to get off strike and get back to keg racing, but realized that wasn’t his jurisdiction).

I thanked him one final time and told him he was welcome to drop in at danania.net anytime! Bold. Yeah… I’m smooth like that. Lol. The next message I got from him was the form message “session closed, go and sin no more, live long and prosper, end of line” ...whatever that text was to tell me to stop writing him.

So, from all of the Danas, Jalwis thank you for making Middle Earth a better place! Readers, If you know Jalwis, feel free to pass this link along as I feel confident that someone might know him. J

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. 

Deeds, Deeds, Deeds!

In preparation for Rohan, I have been working to complete all of the deeds in my deed log. I will undoubtedly fall short as some are excessively difficult raids, and some are impossible due to being off-season. Working against me is the fact that Farmer's Faire starts TODAY (07/26), and Summer Festival will follow shortly thereafter! Meaning, there are probably less than 10 days of non-festival time until Rohan! Here are a few of the lower-lying deed fruit that I have been working…

Fishing!

Fishing is simple to do; all you need is a pole and some water. I am already “Lady of Streams” (my fishing skill is maxed out), but I had never caught a Green Sturgeon (8/9 sturgeon) or a Redband Trout (8/9 trout). The darters, trout, and sturgeon are found in certain areas: the darters in low level areas (like the Shire), the trout in mid-low level areas (like Evendim), and the sturgeon in slightly higher areas (like Moria and beyond).

Here were my results for fish hunting in North-downs one afternoon. I stopped once I finally got the Redband Trout. For 375 catches,

17% trout

13% trophy fish (including one 50-lb salmon)

14% cook fish (only Catfish and Perch at low-mid water holes)

56% trash fish (mostly barbel, rudd, smelt)

For the sturgeon, it was as easy as standing around. I dropped the line in the pond in Galtrev. Presumably, there is an underground river flowing through the area to support so many fish. For 206 catches,

14% sturgeon

13% trophy fish (including three 50-lb salmon)

31% cook fish (only Carp, Largemouth Bass, Golden Mullet, and Flounder)

42% trash (mostly pike, dirty skulls)

The Angels kinhouse is overrun with 50-lb salmon now. Undoubtedly, we will need to take some stuffed fish down to hang some maps, or art, or something that didn't come from the taxidermist.

Skirmishing!

I had to wrap my head around that one, just how many skirmishes needed to be accomplished. Because of my skirmish time data project a while back (fastest-skirmishes-marks-per-minute), I was fairly close to finishing all of the skirmish encounters, so I tore the last ones apart and found the remaining encounters. Easy peasy. Now I am quite intimidating with the new emote “bringiton”. (Finish all encounters in the 18 skirmishes, not the Survival, and you get the emote and the special title).

If ever you get lost on how to figure out an encounter, go to http://cstm.mymiddleearth.com/ and type pineleaf primer in the search bar. My friend Pineleaf wrote brilliant guides to the skirmish encounters. When guides are that good, there need only be one version.

Here was one encounter, of the last handful of encounters, that came to be checked off my deed list. Welcome Fikluk! He is in the Strike against Dannenglor, one of my favorite skirmishes because it is one of the fastest. I think DrQuinn looks a bit caught off-guard... like she didn't notice the large troll stomping toward us.

Naladum and Lumulnar

These level 60 3-person instances are not hard to do as a stout level 75 RK. However, Naladum cannot be completed solo; its mechanism is setup to where you have to be in two places at once so it is literally impossible. (Edit 07/30: I stand corrected... Daweirdo tells me that he, as a Guardian using sprint, was able to get through the 2-person gate, effectively being in two places at once. For us slower people, it is still not an option.) There are 17 or 18 lizards before the 2-person gate so the lizard-slaying deed is very doable. Lumulnar is also ok and has merravals, but I’ve never progressed it to the last boss while solo; I usually get bored turning mirrors in the final area. I actually used GLFF last night for the first time to "globally find a fellowship"; cheers to Tinyelvis and Des who I met last night to whack Lumulnar, again.

However, if you are solo AND want to do these instances but cannot bulldoze over the 3-person aspect, there is a way to launch it “solo”. Visit Broin in The Peaceful Path, in top level (north Moria map, west of Jazargund); he has repeatable quests for the solo version.

Moors!

Oh my. Moors would need a separate post. Lol. Whenever I run out of things to do or just need to blow something apart or just seek something different, I go to the Moors. I have progressed to Rank 8 recently and this past week I got my 6th piece of armor to be at maximum Audacity of 7. There is a noticeable difference, and I will go into that another post.

Isengard

Oh, Isengard is also worthy of more ink time, but I went with friends and knocked off Saruman... so, pictures shall follow, though I was preoccupied with not dying and didn't get that many. My schedule doesn’t lend itself to match the raid timing of those around me, so I take great pride in completing raids. I make a point to be on top of my game and "bring-it" every time I go out.

For grins, we also knocked off the T2 lightning wing. The rest of the T2 Isengard wings will remain on my deed list. It might take years, but someday, someday…

Eldgang

What a strange reputation to try to acquire. The Eldgang do not offer a steed. As far as I can tell, there is no benefit at all to being kindred with the Eldgang. But, there it is in my deed list, so it must be done. The only two ways to gain standing with the Eldgang is by running the Rift instance (level 50 Raid) and by running the Rescue in Nurz Ghashu skirmish. I have finished Rift raid probably 6-10 times, and fortunately, Nurz is one of my favorite skirmishes. Only another few dozen skirmishes will get me to kindred, where I can get… satisfaction of having the box checked, since apparently, that is all there is.

Methedras
And I updated the skirmish speed/marks data table with Methedras. (fastest-skirmishes-marks-per-minute).  Joy. :) 

Welcome Friday

Ahhh. Welcome Friday. You are one of my top seven favorite days of the week. I believe most of the other days would like to be you.

I am settling into Update 6. Some of the modified RK skills/traits are buggy, but overall, I do like the changes. I’ll get to it eventually. Right now, I am reflecting on Tuesday’s compendium of Relic information (relics-and-virtues) and looking through some of my pictures, so I will share a few with you.

Jousting. Elf on a steed with a long spear? (Steed of the Guardian shown here)

Haha. Yeah, you guessed it. Just anxious to go fishing.

ABBA has nothing on me...  "...you can jive... having the time of your life, see that girl, watch that scene, diggin the fisher-queen!"

A shot of Asciel meditating in the Galtrev crafting hall. That is still one of my favorite rooms. Got your crafting facilities, your vault, the AH right next door, the forge master right outside. Very nice. Could use better lighting.

Geez, loremasters. Your giant polar bear looks hungry Tarandan. Good thing I went fishing and have extras so I don't become bear food.

Assmunahi at Rivendell. Very fancy dress for visiting Elrond... I saw nothing, I know nothing...

Close-up! Hahaha. The name is missing but that is Berda Free, doing some crafting in Galtrev.

Terrentius, hanging out in Galtrev, looking ferocious in 50 pounds of metal.

This cave is one of my favorite for practicing my skills when outnumbered. RKs are notoriously one of the worst classes for handling groups. One-on-one?... yeah, an RK will end you faster than you can bat your eyelashes, but when outnumbered, the term "glass cannon" couldn't be truer. 6 wargs, Update 5 (prior to some of the effective boosts), I would go there and fight this one over and over until I lost. I could usually hang in there for 3-6 rounds of respawn before they got the better of me. Do or die, for an RK, the fight lasts less than a minute to kill 6 wargs or be eaten alive. This place is where I racked up lots of Large hides and completed the warg-slaying deed. Location is just SW of the tower of orthanc gate.

Tsynn Dyrr hanging out in Galtrev incognito.

Catching up on the words on the wind with my sis Sansanor.

Hiya Engrand. Can one ever know enough good tanks? I think not. 

Have I seen you somewhere before? I love how you do your hair Cherrybaby. Almost like looking in a mirror...

Preparing for a night out on the Moors. I will have to go see if I can figure out which steed this is. So many I lose track. As advised in the comments, this is the Steed of the Runekeeper! You would think I might remember that...

It is going to be a rough night for the creeps in the Moors as Macswife (aka MW) the War-mini prepares to lay waste to the forces of evil and raise the spirits of the free people.

Beware of elves who want to play hide and seek with you. Leanansidhe shows that I am not the only elf that can fly and is a master of the unexpected. But as a dancer, I bet she is very "light on her feet".