Title: Fellowship for Vol. 1., Book 4. Chapter 5: Hiding in the Dark
Location: Trollshaws (Elendilmir server)
Link out: Click here (Lore Book entry for Hiding in the Dark chapter)
Description: Kin trying to get at least a small group together to do 1.4.5 in the Trollshaws. Don’t have a specific time just yet; would probably be evening (Eastern U.S. time) Fri. or Sat. I’m experimenting with the blog calendar stuff, and there’s an option to turn the event into a blog post.
Start Date: 2009-07-17
End Date: 2009-07-18

While I often laud LOTRO simply for having an “LFF” channel — you don’t appreciate how useful such a simple feature is until you play MMOs that inexplicably don’t have a chat channel dedicated to people looking to group (Age of Conan and the defunct Tabula Rasa are two examples I’ve experienced) — of course you can’t always find someone who’s going to need the exact quest, instance or book/volume/chapter you need.

My guardian’s stuck on Vol. I, Book 4, Chapter 5: Hiding in the Dark. It’s been amusing and frustrating how often someone is working on a chapter a couple chapters before it, or one or two chapters after it.

I also get a little comically flustered when people say they’ll join me “if I get a team together.” And I’m thinking, “well how do I get a team together when people say they won’t join me … unless I get a team together?” :p

It was entertaining, and maybe a little sad just how many of us lonely hearts were in the LFF channel in the Trollshaws region, finding no other players interested in our quests, instances and chapters. In fact, there were enough of us hawking our quests in the channel tonight to form a big, awesome team. Ironic, no?


After giving up for the night, I traveled on up to Farochel and enjoyed a moonlit ride. And thus I end this futile blog post on a happier note.

I hadn’t played through The Tomb of Elendil instance in quite some time until last night. I was joking with the group about how my memories of the instance are “screaming, and people yelling at each other repatedly,” usually mixed in with a few “team wipes.”



Fortunately, we had a solid group last night, with a few higher level (mid-upper 40s) characters. It also turned out 4 were from a guild, so they seemed to already be used to playing alongside each other. Sometimes the toughest thing in pick-up groups is just knowing how your teammates are going to respond in a given situation. Our group was minstrel, captain, lore-master, burglar and two guardians (including my Geowaru at 39 at the time).

What’s challenging in the Tomb is all the sneaky types that seem to materialize out of nowhere, along with all the “adds” from summoners. Although it got a lot of crazy at times, we only wiped once, and everyone stuck together nicely.

I do like the occasional surprises and unpredictability. I sometimes feel disappointed when veterans have so memorized an instance, it doesn’t have anything fresh to throw on subsequent re-visits. Elendil has just enough surprises to keep your on your toes, imho.

The ending of course is an interesting one, but we had enough players that had done it before to know what to do, and it all worked out happily in the end (see screenshot at right).

I’ve never really gotten into playing “tanks” in MMOs that much, aside from a fun invulnerability/stone melee tanker in City of Heroes.

I did finally get somewhere with my LOTRO guardian Geowaru (now level 39), and I’ve focused on playing her since returning to the game some weeks ago.

It’s a thrill really to finally embrace going toe-to-toe with multiple targets, having other people rely on me to draw aggro, and bullying certain monsters I would’ve had to, well, be clever with playing another character. It isn’t as showy as most other classes, I guess, but I am enjoying it quite a bit now.

There’s a trait I’d love to slot (adds 5% to in- and out-of-combat speed), but I feel like the more shield-focused/blocking traits are what I need to focus on for now.

This is just a test really. Thought I should finally log into MyLotro.com and kick the tires, so to speak. I should’ve checked it out sooner!+