Midsummer Festival 2022

Myndariel finally joined in the Midsummer Festival celebrations, and it was so worthwhile and enjoyable!

Aragorn and Arwen's wedding

She went through all the quests for the epic quest chain Vol. V. Book 1: A Time of Celebration which tells the story of Aragorn (also known as Elessar) and Arwen's wedding in Minas Tirith. After completing Chapter 7: A Wedding at Midsummer, she earned Gondor's Steed which looks awesome.

Gondor's Steed

There are lots of repeatable quests in the Midsummer Festival version of Minas Tirith, plus additional quests in Bree-land, the Shire and Ered Luin, so players of all levels can take part. The rewards are cheap so it was easy to collect all the mounts and some nice new outfits. If I wanted, I could also earn some cosmetic pets and housing items.

Apart from Gondor's Steed, there are several other mounts available this year:

• Steed of Entwining Blossoms
• Blackroot Steed
  
• Lamedon Steed
• Lebennin Steed
• Lossarnarch Steed

You can check these out on my Mounts Gallery page.

I love the main outfit for this year! The Robe of Entwining Blossoms is very pretty, especially when combined with the accessories, and it dyes well, with a slight colour gradient that adds a nice effect.

Steed of Entwining Blossoms and matching dress

Robe of Entwining Blossoms (left: default, right: dyed rose)

Also shown are the Circlet of Entwining Blossoms (head), Mantle of Entwined Blossoms (shoulders) and Boots of the Entwining Blossoms (feet). Instead of using the matching cloak, I really liked the delicate lace-like Bridal Veil (it can also be dyed various colours). 

There are also bride and groom sets of outfits, but they didn't appeal as much so I didn't collect them. I did buy Galadriel's dress (which is the same as what she wore to the wedding) and Arwen's Dinner Dress (which also has a lovely colour gradient effect).

Galadriel's Dress (left: default, right: dyed gold in honour of Lothlórien)

Arwen's Dinner Dress (default, dyed rust, dyed sky blue, dyed turquoise)

There's still a few more days to enjoy the festival, so now that Myndariel is all set, some of my characters on my Free Account would like new mounts and outfits too.

Tunic of Entwining Blossoms

Mynimuso, my hobbit minstrel, discovered that the dresses don't look so good on hobbits, but the tunics fit nicely.

Scenic Tour: The Wildwood (Bree-land)

The Wildwood was added to Bree-land in Update 29, in March 2021. I was keen to visit this area because I saw you could earn some mounts, and I hoped it would be a nice alternative to questing in Angmar.

Trestlebridge (West Alley)

You start off in a new part of Trestlebridge where the Woodcutter's Brotherhood want to rebuild Trestlebridge. You'll need resources from the Wildwood, but you meet Thornmane who needs your help to restore the balance in the woods; there are many corrupted trees, orcs, bandits and predators to be pruned. 

Thornmane near Cotfast

Trader's Wharf

Eventually you meet the League of the Axe down at Trader's Wharf and they seem to just want to establish their own safe haven in the Wildwood and want your help gathering resources and eliminating threats.

That sums up the story-line and the rest is doing lots of repeatable quests to earn notoriety and complete deeds. The quests don't reward you with equipment so this zone won't help you gear up for Moria. It does give quite a lot of XP and there are tons of Master level resources and recipe drops available. Some of the deeds also give cool titles - my Warden is happy to be a "Scout of the Forest", although she also earned "Warden of the Wildwood".

There are also a number of missions available from the Trestlebridge quest hub. These are short, repeatable quests and after doing 15 missions, I am at about 60/200 Bree-land Wood-marks towards getting one of those mounts I wanted (Wild Trader's Steed). The other mount (Wild Trestlebridge Steed) is from completing all the deeds in the zone, including the Slayer deeds. Looks like I'll be level 50 before I'm finished here.

Overall, I think this is a zone I'd do once and then skip for most characters because it's just not worth it. There's not much story or rewards. It's a laid-back grind-fest, running all over the forest, killing everything you see, over and over again. Not my idea of fun. It reminds me a bit of the Hytbold grind but without the sense of progression. But, maybe if you just want to relax and do something else while you're playing, this might be a good place to do that while earning some gold, XP and LOTRO points. 

Writhenset

PS. If you're just chilling out in the woods, don't go down into the depths of Writhenset - I got lost in the spiderwebs for half an hour and it was not a relaxing time trying to find my way out while being ambushed every few seconds.

Scenic Tour: The Angle of Mitheithel (Trollshaws)

The Angle of Mitheithel is a new sub-zone in The Trollshaws for levels 40-45, added in the "Rangers and Ruins" Update 32 in February 2022. I decided to take my rune-keeper Sharmaen through the zone because she was dreading questing through Angmar and this would be a fresh new experience where she could help out her fellow elves.

Note: the following contains spoilers for the story-line in the Angle of Mitheithel. I definitely recommend you visit the zone and enjoy the quests yourself! 

A lovely lake in Mitheithel

Oh the zone is so beautiful! Full of vibrant valleys and crumbling overgrown ruins, it's a place to stop and admire the view at the top of every hill and around every corner. It's also a great place to find Tier 4 (Artisan) resources and recipes.

Just after entering The Trollshaws via The Last Bridge, a path leads south to an outpost called Gaerond. There Sharmaen found Elladan and some Defenders of the Angle who could use her assistance. They sent her further into the zone to check on some travellers and help them reach their destination safely. 

The ruins of Eitheldir (with some fascinating history!)

 

Along the way she meets Ravaedron, an elf that has come to visit his former home and say farewell to friends before he travels into the West. He tells me about his hobbit friends from more than 1000 years ago who lived in Glynafon, but left due to the threat of war from Saruman's army. Their homes are now ruined mounds.

The ruins of Glynafon

Fernbrake Cot

He recently made some human friends with the Staghorns who live in Fernbrake Cot nearby. When he says goodbye to them and promises he will ensure their safety after he has gone, they get very upset with him. He goes on a mission to make things right and asks for our help.

Tornhad

We make our way to Tornhad, a village of Rangers, to request their protection for the Staghorns, but they are busy preparing to depart themselves: they have heard rumours that Saruman is causing trouble again around Mirkwood. Indeed, we meet some good Dunlendings fleeing Saruman and some bad Dunlendings hunting them.

Cuan-lȗth Refuge for Dunlendings fleeing Saruman

The Rangers ask for help with patrolling the area and collecting herbs for medicines and animal hides for making leather armour and generally making the area safe before they leave. That done, they finally show some sympathy for Ravaedron and promise that some will stay behind to keep protecting the area. Ravaedron is relieved but decides to make a painting as a farewell gift for the Staghorns.

Ravaedron painting Mitheithel in the rain

The painting isn't received well and so he tries again, with more success once he realises what is really important to his friends.

Forgiven

And so, Ravaedron can leave Middle Earth, Elladan can return to Imladris and the Rangers can scout out Mirkwood, knowing that with our help, the Angle of Mitheithel is as safe as can be, for now.

On a final note, I really liked how the quests led you through the zone and introduced some interesting history. Also, by questing you earn enough reputation to reach Kindred and unlock all the items from the Defenders of the Angle quartermaster. As you can see from the picture above, Sharmaen has claimed Emberwing as her companion as they both like fire. Overall, a really well done zone and I look forward to visiting there again with other characters.

Introducing the Brawler: Level 1-20

The brawler is a melee class that was added in Update 30.3 In October 2021. It costs 1000 LOTRO Points to unlock.

All I knew about the brawler class before I tried it was that they use fist weapons and some people on Reddit said they were good at end-game raids. I like trying out all the classes, so here I will record my experience levelling a brawler from level 1 to level 20, talking about skills, specs and anything else that might be useful to know.

Level 1 Woman Brawler

Here's our brand new woman brawler and some information about her:

• Wears heavy armour
• Wields battle-gauntlets
• Primary stat is Might
• Uses Mettle as a resource - some skills build up Mettle and others spend it
• Starting abilities are Low Strike (a melee attack that builds up Mettle and sets up the target to receive a Vulnerable debuff), Dextrous Hook (a melee attack that builds up Mettle and sets up the target to take extra damage) and Overhand Smash (a hard-hitting melee finishing attack that costs Mettle).

In the introduction, I was sent to talk with a few people in the starting area to find out about the current situation, then promptly told to visit the brawler trainer and practice using my skills on a training dummy. As a result, I got some better battle-gauntlets. At level 4, I earned my first new skill: Sinister Cross, a melee attack that builds up Mettle and sets up your character to receive a higher tier of the Innate Strength buff. At level 5 I gained some passive skills, allowing me to use fiddles or bassoons as musical instruments. We get a ranged skill at level 6 called Hurl Object, which involves throwing a mug at your target and also slows their movement speed.

Also at level 6, you can choose one out of two specialisations:

• Blue = The Fulcrum - described as a tanking spec and offers some taunts and increased mitigations as well as a morale-bubble.
• Red = The Maelstrom - the DPS spec which increases damage.
• Yellow = The Fundament  - can't be specialised in, but offers some extra utility (like AOE and group buffs).

I chose Red and gained Shattering Fist (a finisher that decreases target armour) and Pummel (a channelled finishing skill that deals damage every second for 3 seconds). At level 7 you get your first trait point that you can spend on your chosen specialisation. You get a new trait point every odd level.

After completing the introduction, don't forget to check your mail for the adventurer's gift. It contains several useful items and starts a couple of quests, including one that rewards 5 Tokens of Salutations which can be traded with the Barterer for a pocket item that increases run speed plus some health or power potions. The run speed buff can be quite helpful, especially if you don't have a mount.

I did the quests to gain a crafting vocation and chose Armsman so I can be a Weaponsmith and make my own battle-gauntlets. Then I went back to questing and reached level 8 and got the Get Serious skill which gives a +25% damage buff for 6 seconds on a 30 second cooldown. That will be very nice when fighting bosses and elite mobs! 

At level 10 we got a 3-target melee finisher called Backhand Clout. At level 12 we got a single-target melee finisher, Knee Strike, which also slows target movement speed. At level 15 we get another single-target melee finisher, Helm-crusher, which also stuns the target. We also received a quest to visit the Brawler trainer at the Bree Jail. He says Brawlers have a reputation for getting into trouble but he knows someone who could use a Brawler's help to get out of trouble; Derwent Bindweed has been threatened and bullied and needs someone to help him stand up to the thugs so they'll leave him and his family alone.

Rough Fellows shouldn't mess with a Brawler!

Bindweed was very grateful for the assistance and I returned to the Brawler trainer and received some nice battle-gauntlets and the title of "Good Puncher" as a reward.

The next skill became available at level 18. Weather Blows is a buff that reduces damage taken for 15 seconds and provides a large heal. I was in the middle of fighting three level 21 elite mobs in the Southern Barrow-Downs when I hit level 20. I got the Undying title and 4 new skills: Slip Free (removes crowd control - this would have been helpful when Barrow-Bats kept stunning me), Helm's Hammer (a single-target melee attack that removes corruptions), Fulgurant Strike (a single-target melee attack that interrupts spells) and Ignore Pain (removes debuffs such as poison - another skill I really wanted while fighting Noxious Barrow-Wights!).

I headed back to town and visited the Skirmish Camp to see if I could upgrade any gear. Here's how her stats look now at level 20:

Level 20 Woman Brawler

 

I still hadn't tried out Blue spec, so I went back to the Barrow-Downs and did a few more quests in Blue spec. In Blue spec, I had a few new skills: Come at Me (a multi-target taunt), Iron Will (a buff similar to Weather Blows that reduces damage taken more but doesn't give the heal), and Joy of Battle: Heal (a buff that causes your outgoing attacks to also heal you for 15 seconds, on a 3 minute cooldown).

Then I headed to the Training Hall in Bree and tested both Red and Blue specs' DPS with no consumable buffs active over 3 minutes or until I ran out of power, and took a screenshot at the end to eliminate the effects of DoTs that kept going after I stopped attacking. I repeated this three times and recorded the best result below. For Virtues, I had 8 ranks in both Zeal and Confidence. For traits, in the Blue spec I had points in Vitality Increase and Parry Chance, while in the Red spec I had points in Setup Attack Damage and Dextrous Hook Training.

My rotation was basically use my three mettle builders, then use Get Serious if it was off cooldown, then use a mettle spender which was off cooldown, then rinse and repeat.

 

Here are my DPS results (collected with the CombatAnalysis plugin):

Statistics	Blue Spec (Tank)	Red Spec (DPS)
Total Damage	56041	69804
Time	1 min 33.4 sec	1 min 33.8 sec
Avg DPS	599.9	744.4
Min Hit	57	66
Avg Hit	397.5	495.1
Max Hit	2565	3454
Attacks	144	141
Crit Strikes (%)	34 (23.6%)	34 (24.1%)
Power (%)	10/1000 (1%)	8/1000 (0.8%)
Skill Priorities	Low Strike Sinister Cross Dextrous Hook Get Serious Overhand Smash Knee Strike Helm-crusher	Low Strike Sinister Cross Dextrous Hook Get Serious Shattering Fist Overhand Smash Knee Strike

 

In both specs, I ran out of power after about 90 seconds. Brawlers have great burst damage but would need to slow down or get some power regen from somewhere during a long fight. The DPS of both specs is crazy high compared to other classes at level 20 (for example, based on my studies, red spec Hunter with 213 DPS was the next best).

 

General Observations

It felt a lot like playing a burglar without stealth. Both burglar and brawler are melee single target specialists with limited ranged and AOE abilities. Both burglars and brawlers have several target debuffs to use, but brawlers use less damage-over-time abilities.

Most mobs died in 1-3 hits. Some named elites in the Barrow-Downs took 4 hits. Red spec has a skill called Pummel and I tried using it but mobs died before I finished channelling so it wasn't worthwhile. I rarely needed to use Hurl Object on fleeing targets because they were usually affected by Knee-Strike which slows run-speed, so I could finish them off with an auto-attack before they could get away.

 

Definitely need some more healing abilities. I was getting stunned and dazed and poisoned in the Barrow-Downs and was helpless while mobs attacked and my health plummeted and I relied on healing potions to stay alive. Finally getting a cleanse and a crowd-control breaker helps.

It seems that brawlers have a lot of stacking passive buffs to damage. For example, each point of mettle gives an extra +3% melee damage and you can have 9 points (+27% melee damage!). I wouldn't be surprised if those passive buffs get nerfed/reduced in the future to bring DPS more in line with other classes.

Specialisations

There didn't seem to be a lot of difference in play style while questing between red and blue specs. They both use more-or-less the same abilities. For leveling and soloing I would recommend Red because it does more damage and Blue doesn't really offer any benefits until high level. Is Blue good in groups? I don't know - maybe at higher levels when they have more skills and traits? This is definitely a class I want to level up and see what else it has in the toolbox. Also, there seems to be a few interesting traits locked behind the Yellow tree which would be nice to have.

Stats

• Might - your main stat that increases your damage
• Critical Strike - increases your damage
• Evade and Parry - gives bonus Critical Rating and Finesse respectively in the Blue spec, in Red spec, can automatically deal damage on evade and parry
• Mitigations and Resistances - reduces damage taken
• Morale and Vitality - bigger health pool increases survivability

These stats should help make the levelling process a bit easier in the beginning. Look for heavy armour or jewellery with Might and Critical Rating, Morale or Vitality. If a piece of gear has Fate on it, it will also increase your critical strike chance. You might not find much Evade on gear yet, but increasing Agility also increases your Evade chance. The best place to get Mitigations and Resistances at low levels is probably from virtues.

 

Virtues

Before you gained levels of Virtues by completing specific deeds, now you can choose which Virtues to level. Here are my recommendations for Brawlers:

• Zeal - gives might, physical mastery and critical rating plus extra physical mastery
  
• Confidence - gives critical rating, finesse and evade plus extra physical mastery
• Valour - gives physical mastery, finesse and critical rating, plus extra physical mastery
• Innocence - gives physical mitigation, resistance and tactical mitigation, plus extra morale
• Compassion - gives physical mitigation, tactical mitigation and armour, plus extra morale

 

Pros of the Brawler Class

• High single-target DPS
• Unique play-style punching mobs with fists instead of using weapons

Cons of the Brawler Class

• Limited ranged and AOE abilities
• Limited healing abilities

I hope this has been helpful. Feel free to leave any questions or advice for new brawlers in the comments below.

Fifteenth Anniversary

My F2P Rune-keeper Mynaruun got boosted to level 120

If they were trying to get players to come back to LOTRO with the generous rewards for logging in during the 15th Anniversary event, it certainly worked for me. A couple of character boosts, some new mounts, some new content, new legendary system to try out ... I'm a happy camper right now.

On my main account, I boosted to level 120 Kaseya my champion, who was level 52 but already tier 10 for prospecting and weaponsmithing (and could make First Age level 100 legendary weapons in the old system). The first thing she did was make her way to Rivendell to learn more about the new legendary weapon system at the library there. She found that because of new subzones added in Bree-land and the Trollshaws, she doesn't have all the stable-masters unlocked anymore so she will have a bit of sight-seeing to do before she goes beyond Moria. 

I was also able to boost my burglar Vilhildr to level 50 which means she can carry on in Moria where Kaseya left off. I've had some requests for guides on how to play a burglar at higher levels so this is a good opportunity to work towards that.

On my free-to-play account, my rune-keeper Mynaruun was boosted to level 120 and she is loving the Vales of Anduin. The scenery is beautiful and the quests have been really relaxing and enjoyable, like a Beorning taking a siesta after eating a whole honey-cake.  With the gear provided in the Valar package and her new legendary items, she is burning through mobs in no time and having fun too. She might be my favourite character at the moment.

Warden Mynaldamir

I'm also boosting my warden Mynaldamir from level 17 to level 50 so they can visit Moria and beyond. I didn't want them to skip too much content because they will need to earn rep with a lot of factions to unlock the warden travel skills. The furthest I've been with a warden before was level 45 and they stalled grinding through dreary Angmar, so hopefully we'll at least make it home to the Golden Wood (Lothlórien) to visit long-lost kin, but visiting Eryn Lasgalen and seeing how Mirkwood is transforming into the "Wood of Greenleaves" would be even better!

I definitely want to level a hobbit so they can explore the new Yondershire region - I have a cheerful little hobbit minstrel (Mynimuso) who would be perfect for that. Speaking of music, one of the things I was really pleased about in the Vales of Anduin was that there were lots of Ironfold crafting recipes available, especially a huge variety of recipes for housing items and musical instruments. It's great to see crafting getting some attention and I hope there is a good market for housing decorations and instruments on the auction house or in trade chat.

Tyravorth in Mordor

I revisited my Beorning in Mordor. I hate Mordor because they get there so underpowered and questing is so slow and painful that I end up abandoning my toons and/or the game for months. I did a few quests with Tyravorth using her old system legendaries then went to Rivendell and got some new system legendaries, went back and defeating mobs was a breeze in comparison. I still hate Mordor but now I have some hope of getting more of my characters through it.

Lots to do, lots to explore - just the way I like it. Enjoy the anniversary and many thanks to Standing Stone Games for being so generous with the gifts.