LOTRO: A Tale of Two Fishes…

There’s a daily fishing limit in LOTRO, who knew? It seems you can only advance a maximum of ten points a day and as fishing is one of the things The Boy likes to do with me I’ve been fishing a lot lately – indeed, it seems that as soon as I spot a stream, river or even puddle I’m casting off and collecting a tiny fish for tea

I’ve been fishing in Bree…

…The Shire…

…in front of ruins…

…in front of Old Man Willow…

…in the morning.,..

…in the daytime…

…in the evening…

…at night…

…with ones that took a bite…

…to the ones that got away…

…in good weather…

…and bad…

…in pleasant places…

…and foul…

I think it’s fair to say that I’m a fishing convert in LOTRO and I’m working my way up to a proficiency of 200 so I can have a Big Mouthed Bass stuffed and mounted for my wall

If you’d like to know more about fishing in LOTRO, try this cracking little site here

 

LOTRO: Podcasts I Like – Part The Two

Some more podcasts for you here – I don’t know, since finding LOTRO I’ve become quite the podcast listener and spend far too much time in a morning downloading them to my phone via Google Listen so I can play them as I drive to and from work. I’ve made my Google Reader Listen section public so you can see what I’m listening to should you so wish – in the meantime add these feeds to your own reader/podcast thingy and enjoy

• Sally Forth in LOTRO – A brilliant podcast from knowledgeable old hand Doc Holiday. Whilst aimed at experienced players there is plenty in each one for a LOTRO noob like me and I never felt lost. Also the audio quality is excellent and he has a great radio voice so it makes listening a breeze not a chore.
• One True Cast – A funny podcast from my fellow countrymen. I like this a lot, especially as they laugh and swear throughout – Brits FTW , but I’ll be damned if I can find a podcast feed – just add their blog feed to your reader and lookout for podcasts is my advice: http://www.questhard.com/

You’ll notice another feed in my reader list – Through the Palantir. I’ll be honest and say that I *don’t* listen to these. I tried with a couple but these guys are serious, SERIOUS gamers and as a noob I had a really hard time understanding what they were referring to. If you are a die-hard RPG MMO fan and level 65 LOTRO veteran who knows your stats & character sheets inside out you’ll find a lot here, but noobs will be lost. Also be warned that their audio quality is best described as variable and I found that in a car on the motorway I had to crank the phone’s media player volume to the top to hear them and after 10 minutes of ear-bud torture I had a right fucker of a headache

 

Charity event over at InWorldz for Japan

My old mate Jonny is part of an Inworldz team organising a charity event to help with disaster relief in Japan and from 1st June they are running a whole month of events they’d love you to come and support.

They have a page up where you can find out more (including details on legitimacy, etc.) and contact the organisers – head over here first and then to Inworldz to take part

 

LOTRO: Ranhold’s Progress – A Tale of Two Barrow-Downs, Part The South…

In the last instalment our hero was looking for a way out of the Barrow-Downs. He wanted to feel the sun on his face, taste clean water and smell the good, honest smell of non-rotting-dead people. Unfortunately what he got was a trip into the southern half of the Downs where even more wights, crawlers, barghasts and rats waited for him, only this time apparently on steroids and all thinking poor old Ranhold had been putting it about he’d shagged their mums.

Seriously, if you think the North Downs are hard then you are in for a painful surprise when you head south my friend…

…and wonder just what you’ve got yourself into!

The Barrow-Wights are tougher, especially the noxious ones – these take some killing and roar a poisonous cloud over you (no doubt made up from their rotting intestines, the filthy swine!), but even the normal ones seem to be pumped up and pissed off! Still, Ranhold has a useful way of showing them the error of their ways…

The bears at the southern edge of the Barrows where the area borders The Old Forest are a sorry looking lot, all sickly and mangy and stinking to high heaven. But they are tough, make no mistake. Tough and pissed off!

And then there are the trees. The walking – nay – running trees! The trees that chase you as you run away. Pissed off trees. Great, huge pissed off trees that run after you. Next time you are out in that thing called nature, punch a tree really hard and see how much it hurts – then imagine that if that tree punched you right back with everything its got because it’s pissed off with you – that’s what waits for you in the Barrows…

After you’ve done running from trees, climb up past the tombs and through the free-standing dolmens…

…until you see the ruins of the once mighty fortress of Ost Gothad…

…and enter if you are brave enough, but be warned – everything you meet is pissed off and blames you.

p.s. Look out for the camp of elves in the north western corner – you can seek a little refuge here but do not attempt to enter the Great Barrow, which they will tell you about, on your own unless you are wondering what it would be like to die at the hands, swords, feet and teeth of wights & bloody HUGE worms. This is a public safety announcement.

p.p.s. To be on the safe side, just assume that unless it’s an elf camper then it’s pissed off at you and wants to turn you inside out. Avoid, kill or run – just don’t hang about to ask questions or go fishing (only an idiot would do that!)

 

The Great Barrow: Wins, Wipes & A Whole Heap ‘o’ Fun!

Ranhold has been back to the Barrows, only this time he’s brought some friends along for the ride.

The Great Barrow is an instance quest, a repeatable dungeon bash located in the Southern Barrow-Downs for six people – and trust me, you will need six good people if you are going to attempt it because it is hard, fast and mean. The first time I ventured in our team had a minstrel as our healer, but the leader did not spell out our roles and the healer fancied a bash at the barrow-wights and giant grave worms himself. Biiiiig mistake because he quickly died and we followed him. I told him to stay back and designated myself as his guardian which worked out better. Any bad guys that made a beeline for him(1) I got stuck into until I pulled their aggro on to me. He then healed me as I went all rotary dicer on their foul, undead arses and he could get back to healing the rest of the group who were being tossed around like rag dolls by the worms. It was fun

The second time was a little easier but I’m not sure why. Maybe the level of the instance was set lower or maybe the players were a better mix of types and experience, or maybe we just caught some luck, I don’t know but we managed to kick the crapola out of everything without dying once which left me with a lovely warm feeling that lasted all the way until I joined another group a few minutes later and went through it again. This time it was a much different story and I think it’s fair to say that that future visitors to the Great Barrow will be picking up pieces of us for some time to come.

To be fair we did alright until the end room with the boss (the second boss for those in the know) and that’s when it all fell apart.Or rather we did, with the help of his ruddy great halberd blade! I think the reasons were two-fold: 1) the level of the instance was set at 27 and our team level spread was 41 down to 16, and 2) we only had one healer and nothing he could do could keep up with the rate that the lower level guys were falling. We tried it a few times without success before I had to log and my lasting memory is of being alone with the boss in a room full of ‘dead’ team-mates as I desperately unleashed my finest sching-sching upon him only to see it do nada to his health bar. Nothing. Not a jot. I stood there hacking five kinds of crap out of this guy and he just sucked it up like I was spooning him ice-cream until he got bored and killed me. That is a humbling sight, let me tell you.

I’m going to go back with some more guys and find that boss guys and regain my honour. And my kidneys. The bastard.

Here’s a taste of what you can expect in the Great Barrow from a random search on YT:

p.s. One thing I wasn’t expecting, or rather the lack of something I was expecting, is that no one was using voice! I just assumed everyone used voice in a raid but no one in the ones I’ve been in so far has. Very odd.

(1) I wasn’t sure how ‘aggro’ and threat really worked until I played the Great Barrow. I’d read about them, about how the game calculated your threat level to each bad guy and had that bad guy act accordingly meaning if you became too threatening (doing too much damage or using taunts, etc.) they’d shift their focus to you, but if I’m honest I think I imagined it was all bullshit and they’d just hit anyone near. Wrong. Very, very wrong. These fuckers are smart. They react in real time to not just what you are doing, but what everyone in your team is doing and if you think that whoever is hitting them hardest is going to be their main concern, you are dead wrong. They go after the healers. You can see them peel off a fight and head for the poor sod stood at the back trying to keep everyone alive with his magic or music and if these guys die, so do you. Quickly. So my role as a Champion is to intercept and punch these bastards so hard that they have to take notice of me and try to kill me instead – this means the squishie little healer can keep me alive as I keep him alive. It’s fast, desperate work, but bloody good fun when it goes well. God I love being and Champion in this game!:-D

 

*Sching Sching* The Sound of Death & “Christ! I just punched a giant spider to death!”

Ranhold is a Champion in LOTRO and let me tell you, being a Champ is a whole heap of fun! The primary combat style of the Champ is to wade in and slice the living shit out of everything in his (or her – think P think C kids!) way as hard and as fast as possible. This already sounds like fun to me, but little did I know just how much fun the designers had made it because when you manage to get the correct flow of power and combat moves the Champion becomes pure poetry in motion, a blur of blades that hit the bad guys in front so fast and hard that sometimes, just sometimes, they never even get chance to hit you back. They just fall at your feet with their extremities landing in wet puddles around them. And all you can hear, the only sound you become aware of when you get this complicated dance of keys, stats & animations to flow like honey, is the *sching sching* of his swords slicing & dicing the orc damn fool enough to stand in front of this beautiful killing machine.

And for an added bonus I received a new skill called Upper Cut – I can’t remember when or why, but I remember thinking “I’ll never use that!” and burying it away in my inventory. Until I found it again and read what it did – a quick punch that can stun the enemy for a second or two allowing you to re-group, heal or just whack the shit out of them in peace. That’s good enough to use it almost all the time, but I also found out, by accident, that if you time it just right and hold off to the very last moments of a fight you can punch your enemy clean in to the next world So far I have punched to death the following things: giant spiders, huge turtles, fully grown bears, goblins, orcs, brigands and a crow.

Pass me some raw meat and a wench of dubious provenance, I’m feeling all studdly all of a sudden!

 

LOTRO: Ranhold’s Progress – A Tale of Two Barrow-Downs, Part The North…

Whilst Gorfrik has been pounding on the Dourhands, Ranhold has been mired down in the Barrow-Downs – and it ain’t been pretty…

At first, I loved the Barrow-Downs (I still do – they are amazingly atmospheric places – I’m just not sure poor Ranhold is as keen as me) but as time wore on I began to lose my sense of purpose and direction in a long line-up of kill & collect quests, tasks and deeds until I began to wish for some light & open space again and I began to yearn to restart the Epic Story Line I’d paused to do all the quests I could in Bree-Land.

But more of that in the future – for now let me take you back to the Barrows. After my initial visit with Lirwen where we blasted through several of the Northern Barrow-Down barrows at breakneck speed, I was determined to return and have a good look around a little more and explore them all. And wow are they impressive! So much work has gone into them it’s almost impossible for me to list the things I love here – the rolling mist, the eerie landscape & even eerier sound-scape, the individual design touches on the barrows – all these things go to helping you lose yourself in one of the scariest places I’ve played in for a while.

For those who don’t know, the Barrow-Downs are the old burial grounds of the once noble, now vanished kingdom of Arnor – the kings and warriors were laid to rest in earthen tombs very much in the style of Celtic kings in England and northern Europe, only in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth the Witch King of Angmar sent undead barrow-wights to haunt them and they became a place of terror for all. There are two Barrow-Down areas, North & South, with several explorable barrows chock full of nasties such as wights, spirits, troll-type things, spiders, wolves and bats with some barrows containing ‘boss beasts’ that are tougher than the rest. Ranhold made short work of the spider boss but got his arse torn off twice by the wolf beast who is one tough bastard and no frigging mistake!(1)

Anyhoo, I was very lucky that my kin mate Arabelith came to help me at one point (although play was stopped by kid-not-sleeping as is often the case at the moment… kids are brilliant at ruining all manner of late night fun, little sods) because without her I would have given up long before I reached the Southern Barrow-Down area, but more of than in my next post

In the meantime let me run down what Ranhol did over the period he was exploring the Northern Barrow-Downs

1. Tried all the Barrows (the only one he can’t do on his own is the wolfy-boss one – be warned, go in a group!)
2. Did all the quests given to him by the silly buggers sheltering in the areas at the west and east of the area. Why they don’t just call it a day and bugger off home is beyond me!
3. Collected all the stuff to complete lots of daily tasks in Bree and enough relics to trade for reputation with the Hunters in Bree.
4. Helped the Wandering Shade, a dead warrior who spoke in naught but riddles which is probably why he was killed, and his similarly annoying friend in Bree.
5. Killed a barn load of everything that was stupid enough to wander near him, or he was stupid enough to wander near.

So there is Ranhold’s whistle stop tour of the Northern Barrow-Downs – I’m sure he’ll update you on the Southern ones soon. In the meantime beware of Wandering Shades – they speak in riddles and you can’t punch them to make them stop!

Ranhold – European Snowbourn server.
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(1) Top tip – the Barrows-Downs can be quiet busy at times and if you are struggling to clear a Barrow but aren’t in a Fellowship or have friends who can come and help you, then you can kite. Kite? What is this madness Burro? Easy! Follow someone else in, preferably a group, and they will slaughter the creatures as they go and you just follow the bodies – a very handy, if cowardly, way of completing the “Collect 10 Things” from a barrow you are under-powered to enter. Hey! I may be a coward, but I just needed 5 more cave moss and I kept dying! Ah screw you, I can kite and still look at myself in the mirror *sobs*

 

LOTRO: Come and see the violence inherent in the system

Spotted in Bree. Bloody peasants.

 

LOTRO: Gorfrik kicks some serious Dourhand butt!

Whilst Ranhold has been shaking like a leaf in the Barrows and getting himself killed in the Tuckborough skirmishes, Gorfrik has been beavering away up at Thorin’s Gate trying to stop the evil Dourhands’ plan to raise their dead king Skorgrim from the grave and impose his corrupt rule over Erid Luin – and what a time of it he had! After rescuing his party from the poison they’d received from drinking from a polluted river (1) he joined a raid on the resurrection ceremony:

Once in the (HUGE) hall it was a mad dash to try and stop the unholy rites being performed – of course the bastard Dourhands were there to stop us which meant we were obliged to split their skulls for them…

…so we could get up to the black alter and put an end to the madness taking place – but alas, we were too late and their evil ju-ju too strong! As we all reeled in shock, Skorgrim was possessed by an evil spirit and rose to live again!

After that Skorgrim & Ivar escaped and the remaining Dourhands, led by the traitor Gormr, attacked us. Naturally we beat seven colours of shite out of them – it’s the Dwarven way

After that there was just the small matter of escaping the halls as they collapsed around us, but for small fellas we can run like buggery when we need to and soon we were outside in the icy mountain air, once more masters of Thorin’s Gate. Let the rebuilding begin…

Gorfrik on European [EN] Snowbourn.
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(1) The dumb schmucks (2)

(2) As a kid I once drank from a river. I had projectile vomiting for a week and lost so much weight I was almost see-through. My excuse is that I was a kid – these dwarves are old!

 

Good Lord! Someone’s stolen my house!

Well now! I know I’ve been out-of-world for as while, but this is just rude!