Saruman T2 complete!

My raiding alliance Innocent downed Saruman T2!  It was another server first as well.  It feels really good to have finally done this, especially since morale had been getting low.  I say We pulled it together, had some pep talks, and finally downed the old guy!  We had 3 deaths in the last phase so no challenge mode.  I still don't know how we're gonna get challenge mode done, but at one time T2 seemed pretty impossible, yet we've done it now.  So Saruman CM and Fire and Frost CM is all Innocent have remaining, plus going for the clear-in-one-go title. Congrats all!

Success!

After a fair few nights, lining up for a lot of tries at Shadow Challenge Mode,

many times purposefully wiping in order to preserve the challenge,

Innocent finally prevailed and conquered the challenge mode with a few seconds to spare!

For the first time I actually remembered to get a screenshot of the deed completion popping up on my screen. :P  We don't have a video unfortunately due to our camera man not raiding with us that night.  It was such a relief to finally get this done.  I was starting to feel like we were banging our heads on the wall.  It's quite the stressful fight for an LM as well.  Also your pet won't stay on the boss even when you take it off assist.  It makes me feel dumb when I notice my bear is sat in the middle of the room doing nothing!  The last thing I want to be paying attention to is if my pet is attacking the boss or not!  Anyway, Innocent is now 3/5 for the challenge modes, which is basically all that is possible until Turbine fixes the Fire and Frost and Saruman fights.

I also received my 3rd(!) first ager.  It's sorta weird to have what feels like so many to me as never before have I been lucky enough to receive a 1st age token while it's still currently the best in the game.  I decided to make my rk a new fire stone.  I lucked out with my legacies, but the base stats were a fair bit of a let down.  I don't get why the devs do this.  You can see the difference between my new stone and my 2nd ager.  It's going to be hard to give those passives up, but on the whole, the 1st ager is definitely better.  But seriously:  what rk wants agility or parry rating?  or how about might on an LM staff?  Why even bother having these useless things ingame, especially when it deflates players a bit after the elation of getting a new weapon?  Ah well, I'm certainly enjoying the higher dps and menacing tanks even more. ;)

We're running around in what??

 Hilarious quote from a poster named mrfigglesworth on the official forums:

And please never make "AHHH I have to press the space bar while dodging exploding puddles of orc pee" a requirement of challenge mode. Ever. Again.

Did I mention I think acid t2 challenge is a stupid, stupid challenge idea? 

Now Acid wing will never be the same. :P  I'll always think I'm running around in orc pee....

I definitely agree about the challenge.  It is one of the stupidest ideas ever.

Acid T2 CM

Big congratulations to my raid alliance, Innocent, for completing challenge mode of the Acid Wing in the Tower of Orthanc.  I didn't sign up last night as I was pretty tired and knew I wouldn't have the patience for that wing.  (I really don't like it and I find the challenge so silly.)  Though on our site one of the leaders was kind enough to mention the suggestions and tips I gave in alliance chat, as I was able to watch everything on my boyfriend's screen. :D  Thanks Essy! :D *hugs*

I was present for our first T2 completion and we're quite proud of the fact that we don't burg stack.  I'm also continually amazed by the champ who main tanks a lot of the bosses for us.  This fight is always particularly hard for him given people really need to go all out on aggro.  I dunno how he does it!  Anyway, everyone worked hard and coordinated well and finally got it. Grats again all. :)

The video! 

Falling apart

Lotro has returned to nice looking raid armour after the mehness of Ost Dunhoth armour.  There are some exceptions here and there but it was the first time I felt no need to win armour on multiple toons mostly because it looked pretty.  Of course stats are nice too. ;)  I quite like most of the Isenguard armour though I wish it would have had more variation between the classes like the Dar Narbugud or Barad Guldur armour did.  I've earned 5 pieces on loremaster and champ now, but I discovered a somewhat disturbing bug when my champ finally donned all of her armour.  It's literally turning her into pieces! :/

When I display the chest armour a large gash appears under her jaw:

Then when I display the trousers, a gap appears on her waist:

This is one of those things that once you see it, you can't unsee it. :P  It's a pity as I was really looking forward to wearing this armour.

In regards to other things falling apart, the past weeks have been a bit tumultuous in Lotro for my boyfriend and I.  We've found ourselves in a new kin.  Whilst we didn't want to leave our old kin, we're grateful to be in our new one and surrounded by kind and fun people (who we were already raiding with anyway as our former kin went kaput in regards to raiding).  I suppose not a lot is different for us as the kin was so dead and we were doing the majority of our grouping up with people outside of kin. But it's not easy to chat with some former kinnies anymore which is sad as I know we'll slowly lose touch without the ease of kin chat. But, to reference a quote I read a little while ago: "Destruction breeds creation. If something falls apart, that leaves room for a new beginning."  So this is my mindset.  :)  Instead of dwelling in anger and frustration, I'll focus on the new friends I've made and the fun we've had, like completing the server 1st kill of Shadow Wing t2 a few weeks ago! woot!

Latest Outfit

After the ugliness that was OD and Draigoch armour, Turbine has returned to the nice-looking raid sets. I think a lot of the Isenguard raid armour looks quite nice. I've yet to get the LM robe as it's the worst piece of the set and I'm working on getting my 5-set bonus for a 35s blinding flash. I'll grind out those seals to get the teal robe as I think it looks a lot better than the purple-set robe. And of course my champ would love the chest and leg armour pieces as well, but she'd need to complete Saruman and grind the seals as well. I'm sure she'll get it at some point.

I've started to incorporate some Isenguard raid pieces and I feel I've come up with a nice non-dress caster outfit! :)

All Black Dye aside from head which I've not dyed.
Head: Hat of Deep Lore
Shoulders: Shoulder Pads of the Iordur (Loremaster Tower of Orthanc teal set)
Chest: Breastplate of the Lady's Power (Champion DN set)
Gloves: Gloves of the Iordur (Loremaster ToO teal set)
Legs: Trousers of the Iordur (Loremaster ToO teal set)
Shoes: Memory of the West Shoes (Loremaster Ost Dunhoth t2 set)

I also have to share this screenie as I think it looks cool. I didn't end up using it for armour pictures as the arm does cover the chest armour.

One of these things is not like the others

Two well dressed elven ladies, then well, um... a man with an interesting choice in fashion. The LM Helegrod hat is always a great source of laughter and amusement. :P

Also funny capture of the birds. Looks like they're having a fight!

I got to see a bit of the new raid last night. It was fun, but the fear wing boss is pretty damn hard. :P The Endless Stair was really feeling endless last night with all the running up it we kept having to do. ^^

Not so cannon

Spoilers ahead! You've been warned!

So I saw a video of the new raid's boss (final boss I believe). (and meh can't figure out how to embed a youtube video, sorry :P)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FBcyt8RvFw

It looks pretty darned awesome. But the thing is... Durin's Bane is supposed to be dead already. :P And Gandalf was the one who took care of it. Anyone who's been to Zirakzigil can see the corpse laying there, yet some how it's back for us to fight? Riiight. Though some of the dialoge is asking if we can stand against that which smote the wizard, which obviously didn't happen. So perhaps there's some trickery going on there.

Oh well. At least it looks badass enough that hopefully I can get over my purist tendencies. :P

New shiny cosmetics

I finally got two more raid pieces I've been lusting after for so long. Maybe it was was a waste of points...but I couldn't help it. I wanted them and had the points so I bid. :P

First was the awesome Minstrel shoulders! This was a pure cosmetic bid as I'm not really going to play my minstrel most likely. :P

Next was the Mistress armour for champ. *swoooooooons* My champ already looked hot, but now she's even hotter. This was a semi-cosmetic bid. I'd actually like to have a few DN pieces for my champ (since BG ones are definitely out of the question!) I now need the gloves to finish the look...plus they have some decent stats imho.

Heleyawn

I joined another kin Helegrod run since I had one deed left in each wing and to help out as there are a few that want to go. I have to say I just really don't enjoy that raid whatsoever. Traiting all red and aoeing to my heart's content is fun for about 5-10min...but then it just gets boring and drags on. I was talking to a friend today and he says it's because the mechanics are outdated. That basically back in the old days of Lotro, raiding was a boss and adds. But now we're used to fears, eyes, aggro swapping, kiting...basically more complex fights. So this makes the older raids seem like mindless killing. I have to say, that seems about right. :P It makes me wonder if I'll find the revamped Rift raid boring whenever it comes out. We'll see.

At least throwing sticky gourd on Zadru was entertaining. It was maaaaasive. BOOM! *causes everyone massive lag* :P

Da Watcha

I finally got the opportunity to heal a Watcher! I'd always been apprehensive about doing so as I've always felt I've been a sub-par minstrel and healing on minstrel stressed me out. But the raid went really well! Maybe it's all the rk healing I've been doing lately. I do have to say it's nice to see someone's health bar immediately go up instead of slowly working its way up when on RK. But I still find rk healing to be more fun. But, look at those full green bars in my group! :P (and I wasn't having power issues either!)

Unfortunately I forgot to put master looter on and there was an incident with the armour coins...so no bidding on those pretty shoulders. I hope to go back soon as I wants them precious!!

Finally!...and then some fun

So some of you might remember the few posts I've made where I had just barely missed out on getting the DN robe for my Loremaster. Well no more! My plight has come to an end! :P Behold pretty robe #2! (though apologies for dx9 graphics...really wish xfire ingame would work with 10!)

So very glad to finally have it! Many many thanks to the group I was in! It was a very fun evening all around. :)

Yule festival finally started up this week and Turbine has done another great job improving the festivals. My LM has been busy in Winter-home and also working on her Inn League and Ale Association rep...though I'm starting to question my dedication on the later tasks as those deliveries are so damned boring.

Fun in the snowball field....oh, it was snowballs not tar I was supposed throw? Right, will try to remember that! *makes mental note* But tar effects can be quite funny!

Finally!

I finally got to be part of a LT HM kill! \o/ It was great fun and I'm so glad I finally saw it. This is actually my first on level, end-game raid boss kill. I didn't start lotro until about 3 months before Mirkwood came out, so every other raid I've done has been overlevel.

A very kind friend has been helping me work through Dungeons in order to get my metadeed horse (only 2 more elves to go!). Given I'd gotten the LT deed done, I coerced him to go into Dungeons later that night and had more luck. Got my Ernil! *cheers*

All in all it was a very good night! :D

Epic BG run

So last night I joined a Watcher raid with people in kins our kin is allied with, then did a SG race (two groups racing to see who could finish first). It was quite late and someone joked about us having enough people to do BG...converted to a raid and got together 12 people. But funnily enough, we ended up going in. We started the raid at 4:30am my time! ^^ (click for full picture)

We nearly wiped on the guantlet due to someone having pc issues, but managed to stay alive in order to get people rezzed! So on to Durchest we went!

Some of us wanted to do HM, but our leader wisely made us do EM due to lack of radiance...and well because it was damned late. To our suprise we got him down!

Now you'd think we'd stop there right? Because it was like 5:30am. But some of us jokingly ran on...and we continued! \o/ The bits with the sorcerers went surprisingly well. The leader even commented we were doing better than his own kin often does! :P This bit of the raid is always stressful and boring for me. Babysitting a sorcerer!:

And then it was on to the Twins which we also got done in EM. We finally concluded the raid at 7am! :D :P


All in all, it's pretty awesome a pug cleared through the Twins in the wee hours in the morning! :D

New look!

I finally joined The Pretty Robe Club! I managed to win the BG chest last night and get my LM a shiny new robe! Love it! Now to go stick it on my hunter or champ as well. :P Wardrobe ftw!

Action shots!

Reading whilst fighting! That's some talent!

I have the power!! [/He-Man]

Chillin' in Annuminas:

New shiny!

Got the latest and greatest LM sword tonight! w00t! I did my first BG raid with my new kin and it was very enjoyable...well...except for that part where I wiped the raid. :/ Meh, it was only my second time dealing with the sorcerers on LM and at least I feel like I learned a lot tonight. Also, it was so refreshing to go clear the first two bosses in HM in one night and have it feel mostly easy, given the raid's been out for nearly 11 months now. Tonight definitely made me feel that I made the right choice to move, which is a nice feeling. :)

Cursed

I think I'm cursed when it comes to the LM DN robe. I've been lusting after that robe for a very long time...it's just so gorgeous. I should have never passed on it the first time I could have gotten it...because after that, spousal aggro caused me to not complete the Mistress fight the next time I was there and on the top and ready to take it. Tonight I joined a pug BO/Mistress with a few friends. Seems the raid was stacked in favour of some people. On the BO, the leader wins the armour and passes it to someone else. On the Mistress I was the high roller, looks like I was all set to win...but the leader dallied about and at the last minute another person came in a rolled higher than me...then passed it to someone who rolled lower. Needless to say, I was pissed off. :P I've never liked it when people roll for others. I don't like having the odds stacked against me. But this taught me a valuable lesson: don't pug raids! :P

On a happier note, I did my first raid with my new kin. It was a Watcher run. I'm glad I had the opportunity to do something I know really well with them as I'm not wanting to jump straight into BG. Better to ease in a bit I think...and start learning all those new voices on vent!

On respawns during raids

Warning, late night rant after several hours of raiding (and am in fact still in said raid)! :P

The BG mechanic of mobs respawning whilst you're in the raid is just bloody stupid and what has turned off a lot of all but the most hardcore, best raiding kins from the raid. It takes so much effort, work, and time to get to the bosses. By the time you get to the boss you don't have much time for several tries at the bosses before all the "trash" respawns (I use the term 'trash' loosely as the mobs/pulls between bosses can be damn hard). I've been doing a run with RRU tonight and we did awesome on the guantlet and did Durchest HM. But the part heading up to the Twins just took a bit too long. We got one try at HM on the twins (got close but not quite damnit). We want to try again...but it's all respawned. Neither minstrel was able to make it back on their own so we did a suicide run and got 8 people back up to the Twins..but missing crucial people. Currently I'm sitting here waiting to see if people can sneak up (and my poor friend Sassy's burg's repair bill is going to be insane. Share the Fun isn't so fun for him I think!). The one-shotting wargs are making running up impossible.

It's all the trash in between bosses that has kept my own kin from running BG very much, especially as that trash isn't forgiving in the least in regards to mistakes. One missed mez generally foreshadows a wipe. Not to mention bugged wargs that you can't see even when they're on your radar!. Whatever dev thought it would be a good idea to reduce the amount of tries you have on a boss..well frankly my feeling at the moment is that they can go to hell. :P

Middle Earth Fashion

I finally took the time to get some screenshots of my characters' outfits to post in the outfits thread on the CM forums. It should be an easy and quick thing to do, but I didn't just want shots of my characters just standing still. Have to make them interesting after all, so it took a bit of time.

I should have had a new Loremaster outfit right now. I am near the top of the loot list for DN, with only people who have/don't want the DN chest piece. Our kin had a BO/Mistress run on Sunday and I was all set to finally take it and get my pretty robe. But due to spousal aggro I didn't get to try again and someone else got my lovely armour. *sigh*

Loremaster and Hunter. Would looooove the DN chest/legs on my hunter but doubt that will ever happen :P I'm a bit odd, I like good gear but I think a lot of my motivation for raid gear is its cosmetic value! :P

Captain and champ. I'm really in love with the Annuminas heavy armour set. I think it's gorgeous. I had to beg a few kinnies to go back and run an instance before f2p hit so I could use up my Anorian armour pieces to get the boots. With my champ I've gotten lucky with some random drops off mobs. She was only in the 30s when I made these outfits. Lowbies can be hard to make look good and I think I've done alright. Though to be honest, I'm not sure how much I'll deviate from that look as I'm not so fond of the vast majority of heavy armour on females. It's far too bulky for me.