More of Mirkwood.

I was just thinking in Mirkwood, for some reason, this zone is one of my favourite zones of the game, remind me a bit of lots of games like Dragon age, WoW (Yet, I can't be sure the reason why) and Diablo I (Must be for the haunted town and stuff. The enviroment of Mirkwood is quite sinister, a dark sky over a damp land, were mostly of the time was being attacked by a rain weather that ceased at night, swamps and woods, normal woods (Yet not green and lovely ones, all ruined and creppy) with a huge swamp not so far at south.

It's not that I like creepy places but... wait.. Yes, I do like creepy places, but this one was not because it's creepy, was something else. I need to say that I know almost nothing about Mirkwood and, in my mind, I had this place as a green forest... This change on my own concept was, not only rude and complete, but perfect as well. I guess that I was expecting something and the surprise of finding a entire different thing that also was under a strong siege from both sides, was just nicely perfect.

Not so far from the starting zone, because sadly Mirkwood is quite linear, there's a place with a ghostly town in where all the Malledhrim decided to make a stand and take under custody Mazog, the terrible leader of Moria. This place has several quests near, at north there's a Goblin town that have some serious troubles and also a forgotten elven ruin under the control of the Marroval Ancient evils, which are not only a lot, but deadly than their relatives in other places of Eriador.

The haunted inn is the only "warm" place in this second questing zone.

Marrovals in here got a "tome of strategy" and they know how to use it.
Group encounters and lots of crowd control spells.

Signatures in this place (Mirkwood) is more common than usual.

Those ruins are, in fact, the same ruins from the Skirmish that you can unlock really fast in the book quests that happens in Mirkwood, as you go in the skirmish, this ruins are a lovely ride inside the old architecture while questing is something really close to a mad house, ancient evils in groups and fast respawn will make your day.

South of the Haunted Inn there's a huge swamp, filled with traps, water, will'o'whisp things swamp cats and worms... lots of worms. There's also a zone that will drain your power so fast that you will be extremely useless so, you have to watch your step with caution. Yet, this swamp is a great zone and I like to walk on it from time to time, not only for quests but also for some mats and just fun.

Some things are not what they seem to be...

While others are clrealy what they looks like.

While in Mirkwood, you are forced to join a special guard of the elves to watch and protect Mazog until Dol'guldur or whatever its name is. I think hat the proper name of that guard is something like "The Hidden Guard", elves with special abilities and awesomess power that will help you in the book quest... of course, they are not lots of them, like 5 in total, and I have some sort of crush on this lady...

She is not the leader, yet, she is quite important for many reasons...

While I was on the swamp, and yes, taking back the post to the swamp, I meet a Malledhrim that was decided to make this swamp a better place to live in. Insane quests at hand and some of the based on small fellowship that I did alone without any trouble, well, just being not crazy and avoiding huge pulls. Thanks to some of those quests I reached to lvl 64 on Friday's night and also got 25% of the 64 bar to 65 as well.

Woot! Ding! 64!

Yet, the Malledhrim still had more quests...

No so far from there, near the haunted inn, there's also a spider nest that you have to check it from time to time. Spiders in that nest are as cute as a small puppy, easy to kill, with poisons that are quite a fail, low health and quite dumb, even if the nest have two huge signature creatures, that perhaps I will post later or I already did, they are easy to strike and easier to loot.

Yet...

Those are not the only spiders in Mirkwood... there's a zone, far north that made me died 3 times, filled with undeads and nasty dogs and crebains and spiders and just bad luck, based in a laberynth inside the mountains...

With a huge cave, very far at north...

That is the nest of a nasty spider...

That fight was totally a challenge, I guess that I will never learn the fact that if you have a mother of the brood as target and you dont clean the entire room filled with spiders... They will asist her and they will kill you. Yes, I'm never gonna learn that and that's one of the reasons why I died always at this type of quests or at least go powerless and potionless as well. This wa snot the exception, I go powerless and had only one potion with me, no food and no luck since three small spiders decided to join the battle... I died but right before I died, like less than a second, my dancing swords killed the brood mother and I got the quest, yet not the loot from her, which I really didnt care. The circle of shame is pretty near from the place where you have to deliver the quest.

Mirlwood is a great zone, I'm never gonna grown tired of saying it, sadly, I'm quite far away right now, since I decided to make all the books for no reason, I have been working in Angmar book... and only the Valars knows how bad I hate that Book chain, travelling in Eriador and spending lots of hour lost in some place that I dont know of is not the best way to enjoy the game... I will make a post of it, yet, I think that is gonna be my first negative post. I need to think that with cold mind, with no anger or dread opressing my heart and soul...

So far, I gotta go, good luck my friends! and I'll see you later :P Have a nice hunting!

Mirkwood´s tasks

I know that on friday I was quite a lazy blogger and only posted once, and I have no excuse for that, just only a reason of "Why" i did only one post. I had planned for Saturday a long expected D&D chronicle with Rodrass and Anatre, both players also in Lotro (you might have see them before in other posts) and I wanted to work hard on that and since the office was quite clamed I thought that it was a great day, and the last one, to do it seriously.

But that doesnt mean that I didnt touched lotro this weekend. I did, in fact, it was great since I did lots of things that I would post about during all the day and one of them was epic.. and yes, I was working on the Epic book of angmar which I had left in oblivion, but that was not the epic part, I hated s much those quests and their travelling that at the end of the day (Yesterday) idecided that one character of mine had to pay and had to be deleted... yes, one of my characters got deleted to make a spot to another hunter, a second hunter and this time, I made my frist male toon on Lotro that i have intended to level up a bit more than lvl 15.

But, this is not that post, so let´s go back to Varsallaand the awesome lands of Mirkwood, awesome at least for the places and quests that I´m going to explain right now. As I said before, Mirkwood is basicaly a huge siege, like a skirmish but with no skirmish marks to get and thousand of leaves as rewards. I need to say that I´m starting to get worried about those items rep... It was not funny when, in Lórien, I killed almost a entire campment of orcs and the gave me as reward some branches and leaves... I mean, I´min a wood, if I wanted branches and leaves aI would just have taken them from the trees, and now in mirkwood they gave me leaves as well... one of two: Or the elves dont want to spent their shinnies coins with us (And remember that I´m a elf  from Lórien as well) oooooor... they have, in fact, a currency based on leaves and branches and that´s why they all are rich.

Anyway, my quests were more of the same in what war-quests we can speak...

Destroy more enemies supplies...

Get some of our arrows back... pretty weird to search for arrows in the wood...

Gather some flowers... yes, in the middleof the war, whileiwas looking for
arrows.. i was also looking for flowers.

After those quests, things were ust a bit more... sreious... they saw that I was just more than a simple minstrel and I was asking too much for serious quests, epic quests, with valour and perils... So they wanted me far as possibly so they wont hear my annoying voice once more.

"Would you check please if there´s a Troll in the enemies base camp"

"I knowthat it´s quite useless.. buttake this falg and defend it..  in the enemies outpost..."

This was in between of those quests...
Its looks awesome...

Wait, before going further with my post, Mirkwood is a great place to level up since all the quests are well divided by zones and have lots of zones to quest, each settelment have a specific part only for its quests and they wont sent you to one side of the map to another just for fun. At least not like in Moria.

"there´s a spider problem in the woods.. would you please...?"

And once again, while doing those quests... this statue...

Since I had reached to the point that I found the statue again, in a differetn moel but same base design, I reache o the conclusion that eventually I was gonna confront this "Necromancer" ad that this statue was not a merely decoration of the wood. So far, I haven´t meet him yet, of if i did it was so briefly that I didnt noticed.

"There´s a pile of corpses... woudl you summon the wolf that gatherd them and kill it, please?"

"Do you remember the spider problem? well, it´s not over yet, please.. go..."

I´m not complaining, I´m jst saying that "Finally I got some worth action in Mirkwood, duties that are truly for a full plated warrior with a nasty twohanded sword!" even if I´m not a nasty warrior and not even have something as heavy armor with me. these quests are basically that awesome that you will go and go deeply into Mirkwood without noticing that time is passing fast around you. Aside, Mirkwood´s design is pretty awesome, gloomy and foggy, those woods and swamps are well made it, and they have some great special quests on it that are worthy to complete.. even if they are a trap...

"Oh,by the way, do you know undeads? nice! go, there´s just go and kill some of them"

I´m trying to enjoy Mirkwood as much as I can, I know that I have still Enedwaith to explore but I dont want to burn out the content that I have left in the game so fast, Isengard is getting release soon and I still have lots of things to do before it, like the epic books of Angmar, which I spent all sunday (well, like 5 hours of my sunday) on them and only one bok in Moria´s epic journey.

Gotta go for now friends, I´m gonna upload the pics for the nexts posts for today and get ready to go to work, have a great time and a nice hunting! see you later :)

Skirmish in Mirkwood

Mirkwood is, in fact, a big Skirmish with all this issue of the siege and the fortress of Dol-Guldur and the rest of the others instances and Raids, but its not a anormal Skirmish as you go, capture the flag or defend the place, no, no, it[s like a real skirmish, a battle, a epic battle between the forces of the Free people and the Evil forces.

Obviously, it also has some of those small instance-type places know as "Skirmishes" in where you can gain some some of currency to get better equipment and some other kind of items, such as cosmetics or decorations for your house. As you all know, this type of skirmishes consist in surviving several challenages, some of them, as I said before, is mostly about capturing an important place from some ruins or fortress and defend it, others are about surviving waves and waves of enemies.

So far, I have done one in Mirkwood, this type of Skirmishes can be played as long as you have go further in your book quests to unlock them, like in Moria with the three skirmishes in book 2 I think. About this skirmish, well, what can I say? Skirmish are always fun and this one was also fun but a bit.. anarchy from my side.

The Malledhrim who is not gonna help you in the skirmish
awaits for you in the entrance, so remember to add your soldier to get a bit of help.

This Skirmish is about capturing the flag and protect it from some waves, easy going waves and mostly they dont have many leutenients... or I went lucky that time, I can't be sure. I do recall fighting against 3 leutenients and 1 Random encounter in all the run. in each flag that you have to capture, there's a wounded Malledhrim waiting to be saved from the clutches of evil and t's your work to ensure that they will survive. If they die, it doesnt matter, but it would be nice if you at least try to defend them :)

First flag, the only flag that I did in order...
because was the first one. 

The skirmish is based in the Elven ruins now taken by the Marroval, now under another name, with lots of "e" of their name, but in here, they are not a common type of enemy, in fact, floating lights (Like Will'o'whisp creatures) and fire ballons are the common enemies. With Trolls, some of them.

Watch out with the Random encounters!

I can't be sure if its just because I dont run many Skirmishes but this Random encounter was nasty, not only the fact that he was Elite, but also he had 16k health point with him and it was a nasty melee attacker. But sometimes, for Minstrels that's not a real challenge, we can fear them, make them run slow and we can also run a bit faster. :)

No jokes.. Fire ballons...

Some part of the Skirmish are locked with doors, like the Hobbit town free skirmish, and you need to succedd attacking the other points in order to unlock it and go further in the battle, the instance was really funny, i had a great time and I realize that my Soldier, a warrior, need a bit more of traning as well, he got owned like twice in the battles, and that's not the trouble, the trouble was the FAST that he got owned.

The last enemy, a Random guy... totally random guy.

That loves to talk a lot... but offers a nice fight too :)

One of the important things about the Books are the fact that, if you love skirmishes, you need to run them in order to unlock several. So far I have unlocked 4, 3 in Moria wich are fun and short, except the last one that is quite a pain, in Defense of the 21 Hall.... And one in Mirkwood. And I think that there's another Skirmish to unlock, yet I can't be sure, I'm cleaning all mirkwood piece by piece so the books had to get a small break time.

Well, gotta go back to work, in fact, I need to strat working, I arrived to the office and I'm quite alone in here... Sometimes, moments like this, makes me wonder if today is Saturday... sadly, its not, it's Friday...  Well, good luck my friends and have a great hunting!

Mirkwood...

I guess that I could not expect too much from Lórien is Quest talking, those peaceful woods have few quests that can be repeated, some of them several times in each day, others once per day. And only a certain number of quests are actually about fighting for the defense of the Golden Woods.

Let's be honest, once you are out of Moria, all you want to to kill, burn, steal and destroy the enemies supplies and forces. The stress of Moria is not easily taken while you are inside those mines and when you go out and reach the path to Lórien, a small breath of peace can be feel it, yet, it cant satisfied your inner rage against the orcs and goblins.

Yet, I'm pretty sure that the staff from Turbine felt the same so they decided to create the digital ex-pack "Siege of Mirkwood" in where you actually are at war all the freaking time, no escape, no rest, well, there's some rest but it's sometimes not enough, the respawn its pretty sick and the enemies are everywhere. It's a siege, no doubt of it.

So far, it's a awesome zone, full of risk, several quests of conquering and destroying, normal battles and epic battles and some of the books unlocks also a skirmish, I did one and was pretty cool in fact, its like the hobbit town skirmish about securing the flags and the zones, avoiding the enemies and killing powerful enemies in the road. The quests in here goes since taking control over (and hold it for several minutes) the gates of few Orcish outposts to kill their leader or save some soldiers in battle, disband some enemie's siege machines and Invade a small castle atop of the hills... All of that in the intro aonly :3

Their leaders, in the outposts, can be a bit to powerfull sometimes...

These are actually huge siege machines...

and for reason, all of them, can explode like Evendim's boats....
Must be the same wood...

While you are in the intro you are not allowed to roam totally free in the lands of Mirkwood, in fact, you will not have a horse path, you will have few vendors, some quests and few reputation barterers in the zone, and they will grow in numbers once you are out of the siege.

Trolls in here are serious business... They look nasty.

The siege quest is quite an a worthy adventure, and necessary as well to continue
further in the zone. 

"Go forth my minions! I'm Varsalla, minstrel of Lórien and I will not heal any of you...
I shall sing for MY own victory and my battles... I'm the main
character in my story!"

Once you are out of the siege intro, you will be able to continue with some more quests that will give you not only a nice experience rewards or silver rewards, but also reputation with the Malledhrim and some tokens to use with their traders for few good rewards, purple items and legendary items lvl 60 and above.

Can't be sure of... but they must have died for being that close
from the bonfire...

Mazog is still a main character in this place... Broin is still attached to his plans.

Mirkwood so far is a fun zone to explore, and lastly, to reach to level 65 in some time, maybe on the weekend, the experience reward is a bit insane and the drops of legendary items has been drastic reduce in a 75% or so... been here for like 5 hours and so far I gotten few books and weapons... Not like in moria, that after 30 minutes I had to go back with a backpack full of LI to decons...

Well, I gotta go, still at work and few things to do, but they must have be done eventually, have a great time my friends and see you later or tomorrow! and Remember, I'm still looking forward for some Kins who wants to have a inteview for the blog :)

Good hunting!

A Relic in Nala-dum

Well, this is the instance that I loved most in all Book of Moria, for many too reasons to be honest, one of all is that is located in the Water-works, my favourite place in all Moria, second of all,reminds me to Castlevania the Clock tower zones, seconds, it has some riddles, easiers and somehow dumbs, but they can make you think if you are over confident, and the last battle is just... speechless.

Where should I begin... Well, obviously from the entrance but that´s not really what I meant, I want to describe the place yet I wnt be spoiling anything of the riddles or the battles inthe instance, as usual, this instances are meant to be runned without a guide or walktrought that could help you. If there´s any guide someone on Google.. I´m pretty sure that at least there must be one on the guide secions of Lotro Wiki, but trust me: I you want to enjoy the entire experience complete: Avoid them, no matter how many times you have failed in the instance. I wont deny that I died twice there, just because I wanted to have a shortcut and I missed the floor... in fact, I didnt "Missed" the floor... I just missed the floor that I wanted to reach.

Aaahhh the Waterwork structure... I love it.

To enjoy this zone perfectly, it would be nice to activate all the sounds effects and music of the game, if you are (like me) one of those who only uses some effects while playing. Eventually, at my second try after realize that it was getting just to annoting try to reach one platform, I deactivated the music and enjoyed the instance only with the ounds effects of drops and water and cracking wood.

*Add castlevania theme: Vampire killer*

Riddles, there are not "lots" of them but you will have enough.

The idea of this instance is going all the way down into a almost sunken strcuture that has been taked by the regular kind of creatures that roams in the Waterworks, with a possibly nasty surprise at the end that has no reason but.. yeah, why not?

Like in Lumul-Nar, fights in here are.. somehow low.

Giant flooded lizard: "Say whaaaaat?"

Rocky Lizard: "Whaaaaaaaat? no waaaay?"

Usually only the main pillar is full with riddles, easy riddles of course, the most important thing in here is: avoid heights. They wont forgive you not even if you fall in water.

*More Castlevania theme: Vampire Killer*

One of the reasons why I love this type of architecture
its just looks pretty forgotten and gloomy as well.

the instance is based in two small pillars and one main pillar... enjoy
walking on them :)

Another mysterious relic... also, really important in the plot.

The last fight is against another Ancient Evil that were sleeping in the bottom of the instance, I´m going to say this: Be ready to run and try to strife a lot. you will need that to survive.

Sorry for waking you up my friend, I need you dead to
collect my rewards... 

This is possibly a bug.. so no worries.

This could be the only spoiler that I´m going to say: At the end of the battle, abruptely, and when I mean abruptely means that you didnt had the chance to say "Ha! you are dead" when suddenly you could get this warning window saying that the instance is over and you will be kicked out in like 0 secs.. just ignore it.

Some players are leaving these type of quests for Isengard when it comes out, my advice is: dont do it, you will have a lot of experience to gain in Isengard and these instances are complete worthy of runing them several times. hopefully, in Isengard will get more of these places to explore and have fun, with riddles, that I wish they could be a bit more harder... Like the mirror one but even worst, well, I gotta go! good luck my friends! and have a nice hunting!

A Relic in Lumul-Nar

Still with the instances of the Book of Moria, this time I´m going to review two of my favourite instance-like quests of the game so far. Starting with Lumul-Nar, a ancient cave with some levels maded of wood and some crystal waiting to meet the light of the sun once more. Seems that the Evil Sorcerer, allied with Mazog, had given to the Marrovals some dark relic to protect and serve as well and they, following their master wish, decided to hide it in the last place even possibly.

Loading screen of the instance... 

Do you remember Zelda games? with our hero Link runing inside any type of castle or dungeon in order to get who know what, could bea gem, or a key, or a special weapon or maybe just some info about Ganon or Zelda? Well, this instance made me think again in that game, a lot. the point of this instance is to open your way deep into the marroval´s lair (Which is also a dark cave) using the sunlight and the crystals to reflect it.

Where all begins... just dont jump all the way down.

Finally I see these things working... I thought that they were all broken
or something.

In this instance all you need its patiente and a bit of logic in order to place all the mirrors as they should be so the sunlight can travel all across the cave where the relic is located at. Some disgusting and a bit weird "Doors-wall" will be closed at your path, make sure that they meet the sun as well.

Ta daaaaaaaa!!!

This place is not only big, it´s huge and one step in false can cause you the death without any type of salvation. Just take your time since you can stay in here all the time that you want and look at the mirrors and their directions, not all the mirrors can move, other wont work, so be careful.

Let´s see.. left illuminates right... then it travel west, then north, then
down and then... wait.. what?

A nice... view from the heights...

This place is barely occupied by the Marrovals, honestly, if you kill more than 15 in all the instance, it´s maybe just too much and you got some respawn.the only trouble here are the mirrors and the sunlight that need to touch some fixed zones so tey can do its magic.

Oh well... Im suposed´to jump "inside" that...?

The main platform, after traveling a bit inside the caves.

The Relic its a important object in the plot, which I´m not going to spoil to you right now, maybe in few months or maybe tomorrow, but right now, I wont :) just make sure to destroy and then make sure that all the lights are aiming to the middle...

The relic... which is creepy...

Fixing lights...

Some of the habitants of the Instance, a Marroval who is quite angry at you.

Between this instance and Nala-dum, which is also the other instance like Zelda´s dungeon, I admit that I enjoyed more Nala-dum, the only reason why... it´s because its in the waterworks and I love that place, and the instance reminded me to Castlevania even more. But Lumul-Nar is not a bad place, in fact, offers a bit more of challenge than Nala-dum and it´s a bit longer. and the last boss... Well, gonna admit it, I killed and she killed me as well, I won for like 0.2 seconds... enought time to get the quest complete.

This is what happens when you let the light meet the... whatever that is..

Jump and confron the last enemy of this instance... No spoilers...
Because I haveno screen, the fight was quite fast and painful.

This place is one that I could repeat from time to time just for fun, sadly, it has almost no enemies and that´s just too bad, maybe a bit more of fighting would have been awesome at the end, or maybe at the beginningof the instance.. or in the middle. Honestly, this place has almost no fights on it.

Well, I´m falling asleep so I´m gonna go to sleep, I´m working on my posts one night before I upload them and right now I´m not so sureif its a good idea :s I need to read this article again to see all the creepy things that I was saying >.<

Have a good day my friends! and good luck with the best hunting ever!

((Ok, check it so far and looks decent, I had worst posts :D)