Update 10: New loot, gear, and jewelry and Update 10.1

Battle for Erebor - Laugshat

In continuing from the last few articles on Update 10 new information…

Update 10 new items!

Update 10 brought in 1 new 6-person instance called “Bells of Dale” and 3 new Raids: Battle for Erebor, Flight to the lonely Mountain, and Fires of Smaug. While these are fun, what I liked most about Update 10 was that great loot is spread across nearly every instance in the game!  For a group that knows the instances, many of the instances (even challenges) are able to be finished in very short time (I was in a group that was finishing Sambrog entrance-to-looting in under 6 minutes). That really picks up where some of the skirmishing left off with quick runs (fastest-skirmishes-marks-per-minute).

Concerning new items, Eggolass of lotro-wiki assembled a great checklist of new items available as of Update 10. See the link here (lotro-wiki: Update_10_Item_Checklist).

Great Barrows - Sambrog

The Epic (gold) items are fairly rare. I had the good fortune to acquire Cardolan Rune-keeper’s Leggings from Sambrog in the Great Barrows. I spied on other Runekeepers to show you two other pieces: the Ring of the Honourable Rune-keeper (was dropped in School at Tham Mirdain) and this Hat of the Lonely Mountain (not Epic quality but really great for a healing RK, from Fires of Smaug).

Leggings from GB, Ring from School, Hat from Smaug

I was surprised how many of these teal items in Eggolass's list I have seen just in running typical 3-person and 6-person instances, though I have not seen all 6 Epic gold RK pieces. I am sure there might be an uber RK out there somewhere that has all six Epic RK pieces: hat, gloves, legs, robe, earring, and ring.

Sword Halls

Similar to what was shown in the previous article on RK armor sets (update-10-runekeeper-armor-sets), there are many possibilities for building a good set of gear as lots of the teal pieces are relatively balanced with one another but emphasize different stats. So, it is possible to not run the same instance very often but find a great selection of items.

Fornost - Wraith of Fire

As of April 3rd, Update 10.1 is now in effect.

CSTM is on the case with PDFs and links to the Release Notes. (CSTM: update-10-1-release-notes)

Some details to note…

• Flight to the Lonely Mountain instance works now. It had been disabled since the day after Update 10 released (March 6).

• The previously fiddled with Fate/Power balance has been retinkered, undoubtedly to make power consumption a factor again. I can't tell the difference; power is a non-factor still, and I'm totally ok with that.

• RK: “Scribe New Ending” skill that was changed for Update 10 has been rechanged for 10.1. It has been “strengthened” to bring it on par with other dispel effects.

• Eswe (u10-rohan-rings-complete-hytbold-in-15) has NEW ”healing-focused” rings.

• There were multiple various bug fixes and “improvements”.

Annuminas - Ost Elendil, because I think the purple is pretty

Steeds, Deeds, and Aegthil

All the Steeds!

One of the coolest things I have been working on lately is my Stable of Horses.

LOOK. For your convenience, It has its own tab right at the top of this blog. 

http://www.danania.net/p/all-steeds.html

There are links to pictures of all of the steeds in lotro (or currently, at least 74 of the 89 steeds I have in my stable… and counting, I'm working on it).

You will hear more about it next week also because I am trying to make it an uber Horse site that people actually want to visit! :D Friend Ravanel taught me how to make “Pages” on my blog so that opened up lots of possibilities. And friend Tomeoric taught me some basic html so that I could really sharpen its sleek look.

Give me your feedback and thoughts on it!

Deeds!

With less than 20 days to go and Summer festival about to begin, I made a final press to get through as many deeds as possible. “With a little help from my friends”, a la Beatles, I have been chipping away at it.

Some of the things that got knocked off lately…

Annuminas: Glinghant and Haudh Valandil, 75 Challenge mode. Only Ost Elendil Challenge remains.

Thank you Daweirdo, Morthin, Caramelkr, Rileigh, and Mudflapthefirst!

Fornost: All four wings of it, 75 Challenge mode! I went to Fornost as a young elf, but this was my first adventure back since the revamp. Some of it was surprisingly difficult! I guess that is why it is called “Challenge”.

Thank you Belegnost, Caylia, Nydhogg, Baroon, and Amoniel!

This shot looks way too much like the Moors… watching the horde preparing to roll in on top of us while we just hope for the best.

With the final Fornost boss dead, I can look out over the compound of the enemy knowing it was a job well done.

Dar Narbugud: Getting closer. There are 10 trolls in DN; and the slayer deed requires a killing of 60 trolls. Using a double-slayer-accelerator scroll, that is three full runs through DN (yay math). That isn’t terrible, but with one run down, several deeds were completed already. So basically, 40 trolls (or 20 trolls on double time) stand between me and my Wild Mountain Goat and the title “Saviour of Lothlorien”.

Thank you Riders of Rohan and my friends! This was one of the first times in a long time that I scheduled a raid (so it was meaningful that people showed up, hehe). Yay Nimitar, Macmerkin, Nidw, Macswife, Leirandir, Dandur, Vysion, Aradost, Ubermorgan, Morthin, and Minya!

Gate Crasher: After Nimitar and Dandur lead us through a steam-roll of DN, I arm twisted a few to come kill the two troll guardians of Isengard (finally!). I am now Supergirl, the Gatekeeper! Just as a note… don’t take these trolls lightly; I disregarded their ability lay the smack down and got flattened once (my own fault for bad agro management and running from healer and tank, lol).

Yay for the addition of Jastirria, Minlor, Shorimar, and Taisholae!

Lost Temple: Goodness, for a level 65 instance, the last fight against Ferndur is a doozy. Do not underestimate it. We won, but lost the Challenge mode. See the next picture? The Challenge mode = when you are struck with a nasty disease (yellow eye), you stand near the dead bodies on the ground, the disease explodes in a nasty disease cloud, and the bodies revive and assist the boss. You cannot stay in the cloud or you die. The Challenge is won when every single body is revived and killed. Unfortunately, we didn’t dial back the DPS enough to not kill the boss before we could get all the bodies up and moving. Next time.

Thank you Nimitar, Dirtdiver, Sailanarmo, Nitefox, and Eldjarn!

Hidden Deeds: The only hidden deeds (other than the stupid Golden egg) that I had not done were the Carnivore deed and the Emote deeds. Thank you Lalatheriel for all the meats and Daweirdo for the final stew and emotings. I have finished 13 of 16 emotings.

Carnivore hidden deed: This deed was modified within the past year with the removal of one of the meats from the game, and the Stew of Kings has been substituted.

The 16 emote hidden deeds are: bored, beg, rude, bow, cheer, salute, kiss, scold, laugh, cower, angry, flirt, thank, mock, surrender, confused. Rules: They do not count in instances, they cannot be incremented more than 5 times per day (some are less), they must be done TO you.

Solo! There is not much left that I can actually solo at this point. I soloed Nala-Dum and Lumul-nar to finish the deeds, I made progress on the Eldgang reputation (via Nurz skirmish and a Rift run), and am plodding away at Riddles Beneath the Inn (up to 43 of 83 Riddles).

Saruman: It was not in my scope to beat the Tower of Orthanc T2 before Rohan. That would have definitely cut into my festival time. Lol.

Yay to my Riders of Rohan team that lead us to victory against the Tower of Orthanc T1! Yay team: Vysion, Meledie, Clide, Memendil, Hybridd, Macswife, Dandur, Hahmburglar, Norinrad, Taradanag, and Hendred!

My friend Lothirieth posted something amazing…  A win over Saruman T2; one of the very few in the world. Check her out!

http://wanderingthroughmiddleearth.blogspot.com/2012/08/well-colour-me-surprised.html

I think that is what it looks like when a Giant Eagle smiles…

From Danania to Aegthil:

I got an interesting comment in the previous column from someone named Aegthil. http://www.danania.net/2012/08/steed-of-lore-master-farmers-faire-end.html#comment-form

Taken back a bit, I had not replied to it yet, and the next day, I discovered this post…

http://lotrominstrel.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-am-in-love-with-supergirl.html

The title alone says so much. Go read what Aegthil says.

In the words of Sally Carrera, “I create feelings in others that they themselves don’t understand, and blah, blah, blah, blah…”

Welcome to my home, Aegthil. You do know you have Competition, yes?

Here is the podcast in which Mysterixox expresses her adoration that I am Awesome…

http://lotroacademy.com/?p=962

And here is Goldenstar showing her love…

http://cstm.mymiddleearth.com/2012/05/recommended-reading-danania-net/

Are you ready to Bringiton??

Update 7 Changes, RK changes

When I was younger, Updates would happen and I would be none the wiser. The update would be like a foreign language because I had no reference to understand. I have gotten a bit better at sorting through and figuring out what matters to me.

Now when Update 6 was released, it changed virtues and traits (Update-6-relics-and-virtues) and changed RKs significantly. I totally intend to explain those changes because it was really important and lots of people discuss (complain) about upcoming changes without revisiting the subject with actual data evaluation after they play it. Rest assured, I have data to show the RK changes of U6. J  However, I won’t post-mortem dissect U6 today.

Today, I want to look at Update 7 that is coming down the pike next. The way I read these Updates, I mentally classify changes as words (typos and such), minor fixes that to have things work like intended, and real changes that matter.

The entire release is an interesting read. I picked through it to note some of the most interesting things. If you want to read the entire thing (or are interested in classes other than RKs), CasualstrolltoMordor has a nice PFD right here (Update-7-bullroarer-release-notes).

Because there are too many words on this page and not enough pictures, here is a shot of the Stangard steed. For the low low price of 20 gold Anduin tokens, it can be yours also (Less-math-more-ponies). My next targeted steed is probably the Isengard Warhorse... we shall see how much longer that takes to save up the 99 Orthanc sigil fragments.

Summary of interesting things:

• "Fields of Fornost in North Downs gets a revamp, instance panel, group play level 30 – 75."     *Haven’t been there in ages.

• "Moria gets a revision."     *No new quests or consequence of interest at level 75.

• "Storm on Methedras New Skirmish."     *Will need to add it to skirmish table. (Fastest-skirmishes-marks-per-minute). Hopefully, it will be super and give reasonable marks for its length.

• "Star-lit Crystals for Legendary Items - available as loot from monsters. Up to 3 can be used on LI... displayed as star icons… will upgrade the DPS, tactical healing rating, tactical damage rating or shield use rank of your LIs & will upgrade any ratings based legacies as well as secondary ratings and stats."        *Well jolly that. Without new quests, there is less reason to go wandering looking for mobs and I am not known for “luck loot”; so hopefully, they will show up on AH. We shall see, and I'm sure it will be great. J

• "6th inventory bag will be made available as part of the Riders of Rohan pre-purchase."       * Want it. Must have it. Give it to me, my preciousss…

• "Relic change: Tactical Mastery was added to the Westfold Rune of Power and the Great River Rune of Power."    *See Update-6-relics-and-virtues - previously, it boosted Fate, Physical Mitigation (defense), and Physical Mastery (useful for non-tactical classes) and was inappropriate for a tactical class. I still probably won’t give up the “True Rune of the Two Trees” though.

• "The Jester horse jingle, jangle sound is now playing on the sound effects channel and not all channels."    * <06/01 EDIT: That horse has been located at Spring Festival; see him here @  Danania's Steed of the Jester >.

Photo break... It was a great Anniversary party. Danaszar, in party hat, bids you all Auf  Wiedersehen until the next festival... which might not be that far away since Spring is here and we aren't yet spring festing.

U7 Rune-keeper changes:

The released doc lists 17 changes to RK.

11 of them are just words, typos, and tooltips. They have no bearing on how a RK feels.

5 of them are fixes, mostly minor:

• The effects of Glorious Foreshadowing and Wondrous Foreshadowing will no longer stack

• Essence of Storm no longer increments Winter-storm on a critical hit.

• Winter-storm is no longer expended by an attack that is resisted or misses.

• Adjusted the trait set bonus for Calming Verse to boost movement speed +20% to match the tip.

• Fixed a bug where the Rune-Keeper skill “Ceaseless Argument” was not receiving the appropriate damage increase from the Legacy.

The lack of Calming Verse speed buff was annoying when first spotted with Update 6, but it looks like it is fixed currently even before Update 7 (at least most of the time). These five are not a big deal since they are revising to work “as intended”. Ceaseless Argument legacy is the only other one that is easy to spot as the Legacy will now be able to add +15% damage at maximum.

The last one, about the Riffler?:

• All Riffler of Writs class items should now grant increased Tactical Mastery, a reduction to Writ power cost, and the ability to nullify attunement shift while the Rune-keeper is attuned.

I had to go look up Riffler of Writs at the metalsmith since I don't use that one. So to recap, the new version has Tactical Mastery (all rifflers and chisels do), reduction of Writ power cost (if you are running out of power, we need to figure out why… this riffler probably isn’t the solution), and it has the ability to nullify attunement shift when casting writs. Yep, that is what it is supposed to do. It must also be a fix and not a real change. 

Danadelion sends a copy of all of the level 75 rifflers and chisels available for us to review, with the mention that any decent metalsmith can make these and are relatively inexpensive. So, don't get suckered into overpaying for something so easy to craft and so necessary for your RK-ness.

I will stick with the "Exceptional Superior Calenard Chisel of Lightning". It's simple, effective, and super. There is never a reason to change from it.