Khazad Guard Defeats Thunder Lord

The Guard V's Giant

The Guard finally came out for a little play the other day – its been hard for all three of us to get together at the same time lately and organise a regular slot. We had done a bit of the Epic Book and thought we might as well do a few quests in the Mistys whilst we were there. We trio’d the Helegrod Treasury epic quest easily, largely because we all had the Inspired buff on, and Haki stayed in warspeech getting some very nice DPS. Izzy and Anlafski went overpower, and we just ploughed through everything so quick we forgot the screenshots! I like been able to do quests like that in smaller groups, because back in the day it was a right pain finding a group to do those epic fellowship quests. Buoyed up by that success we decided to stay in the Mistys for a while and went off to smack a few giants. We did Thunder in the Mountains, which we thought at first would be pretty easy – it was a level 45 full fellowship but thought a giant boss shouldnt be too bad for two tanks and a healer at level 48. However, we had to fight our way in through a load of giants, and that place is like a maze, and they respawn really quick. We got to the spot ok, but it felt like we had to fight for it – it wasn’t easy, and stuns and perpetual knock backs were the main problem, most of use ended up stunned in mid air at some point or other! Having found the Thunder Lord (who turned out to be a level 47 Elite Master) we realised that he had at least 6 adds with him, all in the same little area, so we were going to have to take them all on. We managed to pull two of them away from the group and deal with them, but the others and the boss had to all be done at once. Izzy tanked the boss and adds, whilst Anlafski nuked and tanked the adds one at a time with Haki in pure healing mode, and often grabbed aggro from that. As with the other giants, the stuns were a problem, but we managed somehow and brought them all down. It felt really good doing that because it was a proper challenge even though we were a few levels higher, and we all came out fine. Haki was a bit disappointed because he’d just got the Rally legendary trait and didn’t get to res anyone. I looked at my deeds and I’ve only ever ressed ten times, and most of those were random people I’d ran past. We didn’t have time for gloating or screenshots, because within a few seconds of getting the boss down, the first two giants in the enclosure had respawned, as had the millions of others we had to down to get in. We democratically decided to just leg it out of there and hand in. Haki dinged 49 on handing in, and Izzy and Anlafski are only a few K away from dinging too. A thoroughly enjoyable evening!

Gilforniel’s Revamp

The new improved Gilforniel

Gilforniel as was

 I have had the character of Gilforniel, my Elf Champ, for about two years now, and she had been sat at level 34 for most of this time. Adam suggested that I was putting off playing her because she had looked the same for so long that I was bypassing her on the loading screen. I thought he was probably right and a makeover was in order. She signed up for the whole works – first I dinged her to 35, and finally got her Kindred with the Scholars Guild. Then she had a complete overhaul of all her equipment – a full set of nice critted bling courtesy of Azbarak, two new critted swords courtesy of Eodraed, a lovely new critted bow courtesy of Cebelia, and a new sexy elf outfit courtesy of Haki. Her old signature colour was gold which I liked, but decided to change it in honour of the makeover. Using her new Kindred status with the Guild, she made a load of red and burgundy dye, and I used a mixture of them on her outfit. Her armour was already nice critted stuff so I left that for now, but Ganin and Elgalandir will make her a nice new critted set between them for when she hits 38, the stuff is much nicer at that level. Not content with that, she then went to the hairdressers and got a new style and some blonde highlights, and a red elven circlet detail. Et Voila! A brand new Elf Maiden! I think Gilly approved of all the changes, she went straight out and joined skirmishes for the first time, and fuelled by this success celebrated by throwing herself into the Spring Festival which started yesterday. She stomped on shrews – getting the Enormous Shrew first try despite there being a whole kin run in there after the same thing. She did all the maze quests in the Horsefields, and got the Sinister Keg (which will be going straight in the Dwarf Kinhouse for a laugh) and got the title “Gilforniel Tinduriel, Amazeling” which I rather liked, and seemed to suit her new image. She did the Bullroarers challenge – up until the last part, she was far too drunk by that stage to balance on the fence, and infiltrated the Inn League for some sabotage on behalf of the newly formed Ale Association. With the rewards of a patch of clover for the garden, the sinister keg, a fighting beermug and 24 spring leaves, she thought it would be a good time to do her level 35 riding quest. That sucessfully completed she is now the proud owner of the new Spring Festival Horse, known as a Blue Roan. She has named it “Giluen” which is butterfly in the Sindarin tongue. And the best bit was she didn’t even need to spend the 4 gold to buy a horse in the first place, only 7 silver to buy a deed of ownership – what a bargain!

Gilly proudly displays her new Festival Horse

Awesome New Annuminas Cloaks!

Eodraed and Azbarak Modelling our new cloaks

Annuminas

This weekend we had a kin run into Annuminas as a few members of our kin share Emma and I’s love of cosmetics, and this place has a few nice ones. The gear is very nice to use for a level 48-50, but for us it was just about the pretty stuff. I had set my eyes on the ‘Cloak of the West Tower’ for my Captain, as he is a thegn from Rohan so a elgant cloak would look good on him dyed a nice Olive colour. Now to get this cloak you need to barter 25 Arnorian armours with the Heavy bartererd in Echad Garthadir and to get the Armours you have to do basically 2 things. Firstly you have to open up Annumnias by Capturing the Controll points- Gwaelband, Clorhir, and Tirband, marked on the map. Thankfully someone had done this for us when we all arrived which made this a little quicker, though at 60+ this is hardly problematic.

When they are marked blue and in your hands, Dunedain NPC’s appear at the capture points with quests which can be run in a nearby instance. Theses are Glingast, Ost Elendil and Haudh Valandil. These quests reward Arnorian Armours, and in addition mobs and bosses in them drop Arnorian Armours and Arnorian Arnour Fragments (50 of which can be bartered for 1 Arnorian Armour). All in all We both managed to get enough Arnorian Armours from All the quests for all three instances to barter ourselves a cloak, and we easily ran all three in a few hours.

I won’t go into detail of the instances themselves as there are plenty out there such as this one which do a much better job than I would. Overall I enjoyed them, and the atmosphere inside the instances was great and the story was good too. I especially enjoyed the Ost Elendil one, who’s basic mechanic is pullling invulnerable armoured spirit warriors into the sunlight by the windows where the sunlight breaks them down into shades that can be killed. Pretty simple, but a nice touch, and graphically I really enjoyed it. I bet these runs were a real challenge at level 50 as endgame, and I will warn you to take disease and fear pots as these still really suck at level 65, even better take a lore master as that disease is horrible.

I’ll probably run a few more of these over the next few weeks if I get the chance, to get the cloak for a couple of my other characters. I was also struck by how good a skirmish would be in this area as it really is beautifull. Aragorn returned to Annuminas after he was crowned king, and dwelt there for a while, so long term some skirmishes in this setting to recapture the city would be interesting.

Finally, I was also musing how well this ‘capture the city to free up the instances’ format would work nicely for Osgiliath, as you really felt like you were in a belaugered city in a constant state of flux, which applies to Osgiliath perfectly too. Until then, we’ll be enjoying our new shinies!

Down Down to Goblin Town

Eggy and Azbo after defeating the Goblin King

This last week we have been quiet with the dwarf group, so we decided to take our main characters Elgalandir and Azbarak and do some of the epic book. We had abandoned volume one at about book 10, so picked it up from there and are now in the middle of Book 13. It has taken us back to places we havent been to for ages, Evendim, Lone Lands, Trollshaws, Goblin Town, Angmar and Forochel, which has been great, and to be honest I wish we did it back when it would have been on level, because I have really enjoyed it. You find yourself getting right into the story again, especially seems as we were just doing the book, so there were no other quests getting in the way. The best part for me was going into Goblin Town. I’d only ventured in there the once when we were a few levels below the mobs in there, and it was great going back and exploring. Obviously we had to see the sights – like Gollums Cave, and we also finished off Bilbo’s Buttons deed, so I now have 10 Honesty. While there it seemed rude not to pay a visit to the Goblin King and kick his ass, and the picture shows us on his throne. Dont worry about Eggy, he looks really scared on the pic, but I was there to look after him. (He has the head of Nornuan in his new house and stood next to it for too long!)

Rediscovered Comedy Gems

Was trawling through the Codies forums and discovered this old post, man I howled laughing re-reading them. Its a proposition for a new bar-man class, with some hilarious skill suggestions. ‘Who’s round is it anyway’ has to be my favorite skill!

Homes for Heroes

O.K Firstly- this was Emmas fault, We had been doing some of Volume 1, book 11 and we’re nearly done and I wanted to go to bed. We have been talking about upgrading from normal to deluxe houses and Emma started looking at nearly midnight last night. Either way, we now both own deluxe dwarf houses- 2 and 4 stinking hole street I think (-; ! It did finally give me room for most my stuff, although I now have some spare wall and thin furniture hooks, so I’ll have to get painting in my burglar tonight, and maybe get Azbarak to make us some nice candle stands.

I was pleased to find out that when you abandon your house- whilst you loose the 1 gold you spent initially (why you can’t sell it I don’t know?) you do get any unused rent paid back, and it sent everything I owned back to the escrow without fail- I was a little concerned something would mess up. I have heard that there is a cooldown on abandoning and purchasing a second house in a day, but certainly not when you abandon one and buy a new one like this. So I’m now comfortably living opposite the vaults in a new neighborhood waiting for homes time to come round so I can go decorate my new house.

Hopefully Emma or I can put some pictures up later; a quick warning- her house is also purple.

From one Snow Pile to Another

Helping Gimli kick some Dourhands

Well the last few outings the dwarfs have had have been in Forochel, but before we do another round for our friends the Lossoth, we thought we’d go and finish off some of Volume 1, book 5 and 6 with the new three man boost and finish off ourlevel 45 class quests to get the legendary skills. Was a lotta fun Helping Gimli, and Haki had a whale of a time dpsing in warspeech with that damage buff on! I got one of mine done and need another major item from CD to finish the second, and the same goes for the other two dwarfs. We think next time may be a good time to go get our legendary items, before we do some more books, and then go finish a bit more of Forochel and Angmar.

It’s a Kinda Midget?

Your bog-standard normal sized Dwarf

Is it me, or is this dwarf a midget dwarf? Go to the Thorins Hall skirmish camp and check him out for yourself- he’s tiny! Even smaller than my hobbits. An in house joke, or accidental scaling problem? Either way I hope he stays, I like him!

Our Miniature Dwarfen Friend

Welcome from the Khazad Guard

Haki and Izbaruk

Welcome!

We have finally got our arses in gear and created ourselves a blog to record some screen shots, and fun stuff we have have done and learned about during our travels in Middle Earth.

Hopefully it will serve as a place for us to record our thoughts, achievements, frustrations, and suprises through playing the game, and any tips we may have found out on the way. You may have to bear with us, its been a bit of a learning curve working out the layout and how a blog as a technology functions (we struggled with getting our heads around pages and posts) and no doubt there will be a few creases to iron out along the way! We have tried to organise our pages as best we can, but we still have loads to learn, and it is still very much a work in progress, so please feel free to let us know what you think and any tips you may have.

If anyone of you wish to link  with us, share info or comment on what we do we’d love to hear from you!