So I haven’t been writing since a while. After a few posts I figured I should advertise for an audiance, but never really got around to it.

But hey, here’s a picture I made logging in after a server reset. I loaded into the Twenty-first hall and as the screen appears, who fades in before me? My close fellow, dear Neryssa the Naughty.

The rest of the Twenty-first hall was empty, so we did what every sane, normal person would do.

We ran around naked, /slapping NPC’s.

‘‘

This sunday was absolutely mad. I started raiding the Ettenmoors around 2 in the afternoon and although I tried to pull myself away several times, I kept returning to the action and finally ended around 12 hours later. The action was slow to start but gradually evolved in the chaotic mayham I’ve grown to love the Ettenmoors for.

Joining Kalib’s raid at first, we struggled with the creeps as they turtled in Tol Ascaran. We did the infamous STAB shuffle for a while and tried to bring the fight elsewhere, without success. Kalib passed the button to Erikthered’s level 40 burglar but for the rest of the day, during which the fighting was slow-paced and lacked much bite.

This changed during the evening. I ended up with the lead button after Erik left and Kalib was too spend to lead. Of course, Leo having the button inevitably means the Call to Arms going out. We had lost numbers duo to fatigue and boredom and without having any keeps of ourselves, us 5 brave raiders stood off easily double our numbers at Elf Camp. We had some prolonged skirmishing there against a group that could have charged Elf Camp at any time of their choosing, which they eventually managed to do after sustaining several losses. They were too disorganised to roll us efficiently however and after 5 of us jumped down a ramp, only a number of them followed as the rest of them danced around with Kalib and the NPC’s inside… Resulting in a slaughter. With a loremaster, a warden, hunter and guardian we slaughtered half a dozen of them, then ran off with our hides in tact. Pure brilliance. 

After this the pace changed. Hunters and a minstrel joined our ranks and although still outnumbered, we brought the fight to the creeps. Taking the outpost south of Lumber Camp to announce we were out in strength, we quickly headed to Lumber Camp. Having pulled the tyrant we waited for the creeps to show up… And when they came in force, made a fighting retreat to the outpost we took. We made several kills, lost two hunters but hadn’t lost our minstrel. After this we made a sweep through Coldfells, then returned to take another attempt at the tyrant. A few creeps showed up but they didn’t come as one and the hunters were able to range them down as they came while we burned down the tyrants in the interval. After a number of kills and two deaths on our side (duo to Tyrant AoE), we took Lumber Camp.

This is when the real action began. We moved back to Elf Camp to once again fight a force that outnumbered us, mostly blackarrows with a number of healers, two signature spiders and a warg pack.

At first we simply focussed on the wargs while having a shoot-out in front of EC. We kept traps up around our minstrel, hunter and loremaster and ganked the gankers. After a while they grew tired of this and without our rearline being harassed, we could start to push up and have melees chase down targets. Although still outnumbered, the wargs were leaving us alone and we gradually pushed the creeps onto the bridge and beyond, taking the bridge as a trophy. We knew we were not able to hold it for long but just wanted to give the creeps a slap in the face.

Once the creeps formed back up we were indeed not able to keep the bridge and we abandoned it, having sustained heavy losses. We repeated the shuffle and ended up in control of the bridge again, after which I decided it was time to play a little trick on the creeps. We moved back to EC, jumped off a ramp, found the wargpack ganking two freeps and rolled them, swung towards the waterside, crossed it and approached STAB from the North. The creeps at this time had taken it but had fallen into disarray. So we steamed through them, and took the bridge right back for a third time!

Many of us had had enough at this point, including me, and I passed the button to Croner. I stayed for a bit, helping the raid take an outpost as a simple soldier, and then left, several thousand renown richer than I started with. 

Although outnumbered, we fought two seperate forces of creeps that had forsoke to coordinate. Everyone in our raid played their roles well and we were able to emphasise on their lack of coordination and their fault. Come book 7, the manouvering we did will be allot more difficult for an outnumbered force, as creeps will continue to damage us with their DoTs after having hit us just once or twice. I’m just glad we had this stand-off before book 7, when the pendulum will swing back to creep side!

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Valentine, a wonderful tradition of appriciation and love, celebrated across the world. What better day than to slaughter some creeps?

My actual recollection of the day is vague. I remember being waylaid by Aeons. I had my keen blade line slotted and was able to defeat him. Halfway through the fight two bears joined the fight, which were promptly led away by two other wargs, proving once again that where there is one warg, there are more. Usually I choose not to fight wargs for this very reason, they will either run away or call in their friends when in trouble. But by keeping my morale low and timing my self heals Arons stayed long enough for my bleeds to do the work.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful and ended up looking for duels. Friday had been better, fighting against the odds and being outnumbered and lacking healing during most of our raid. We were still pushing the fights though and ended up in a staring contest at a red Lumber Camp. After a short while all the creeps suddenly left and we quickly moved to engage the tyrant. I had a feeling they would be moving for blue Lugazag, a keep that hardly interests me now it can be logflipped. Instead we decided to focus our efforts on Lumber Camp, which together with Isendeep will make an assault on Tol Ascaren allot easier as both strongholds affect the respawn rate there.

After a campfire pull (so we could retreat to LC should creeps arrive again) it didn’t take long to kill the tyrant. Reports from Lugazag  mentioned only a few creeps were fighting there, hinting most had probably logged. We promptly decided to invest Tol Ascaren, to draw creeps into a fight on the stairs or otherwise punish them for failing to fight us by taking Tol Ascaren. We did not have Isendeep at this point and it was a bit tricky to engage the tyrant, as his aids had a tremendous respawn rate. Fortunately Wondrme was right on top of this and after distracting the left side of the Tyrant I had  the chance to engage the tyrant.

Tol Ascaren was quickly conquered after only a few creeps scambled to it’s defence. With no more fighting to have, the raid started to fall apart. A few stayed to help me put up the Tol Ascaren hornblower and after this, I left myself.

Sunday was best, when I led a 4-hour long defence of Tol Ascaren with the Call to Arms (signifying we were outnumbered by at least 2 to 1) lasting all the while. It started with a fellowship of just 4 catching a near full raid of creeps engaging the Captain General, and ended with pushing the creeps to Orc Camp after which we could take Lumber Camp. In the first action, four of us hid behind the walls on the ledges at the Captain General. When the captain general was engaged we stormed out in two pairs to frustrate and defeat the healers, first me and a champion and then the hunter and minstrel. The red raid had a large number of blue and green rings who panicked when we showed up and after we ousted the creeps from Tol Ascaren our fellowship grew into a small raid. It took a while for the raid to form up inside Tol Ascaren, with the creep raid camping the bridge and south and east entrances to Tol Ascaren for easy kills. But when we finally did form up inside and forced to creeps to assault us directly, we were ready for them. We slaughtered them inside the courtyard, were slaughtered ourselves attempting to take the south bridge, regrouped and slaughtered them again at the courtyard, were slaughtered once again trying to take the South bridge (I had to promise to a minstrel not try and do that tactic again that day), after which the creep raid moved to assault from the west bridge. The fighting stagnated there, as creeps were unable to push in very far and we were unable to push out with our much smaller numbers. Calling out in glff did not help our cause, as every time I did the creep raid seemed to grow larger! Instead I had a kinmate advertise in the Moria LFF channel, which seemed to work. After our numbers increased we fought much more aggresively, pushing the creep raid all the way back to Orc Camp. Once again the fighting stagnated. My last act in the raid was the taking of Lumber Camp in an attempt to draw the creeps out of Orc Camp, as that would have been more favourable. As we took Lumber Camp we heard reports of creeps investing Tol Ascaren with a troll. I had loved to stay for that but I unfortunately I had to log at that point.

It was the second time since Moria I had a raid larger than 2 fellowships. I’m used to fighting in smaller raids and the dynamics of leading a large raid are very different from what I am practised at. Regardless we had a proper functioning raid, that could keep tight and focus fire. A number of us were still a bit too eager and went and did their own thing, which made it unneccesarily tough for the minstrels to their job, but overall the participation was great. Props to the minstrels, who did an excellent job of keeping us alive for long enough to get some kills! Hopefully the amount of healers we had on sunday will be mimicked this weekend.

There has been a great amount of distress over two things: the current state of the guardian, and the free peoples in the Ettenmoors on gladden. Read the forums and you will soon come to the conclusion that guardians are underpowered and the free peoples in the Ettenmoors are clueless. Thus for a while now I’ve been considering to start this blog about the art of the guardian and leading in Moria and the Ettenmoors, and why I do not consider myself a clueless underpowered nubcake.

My main and only level 60 is a guardian. He is my only endgame character and I leveled him to 50 long before book 11 (when guardians recieved their solo mode, the overpower skills). I actually stopped playing around the time book 11 was released, and didn’t return until some months before Moria came out. Since Moria opened I´ve been playing franticly, ignoring most crafting and focussing instead on the fellowship quests, and dueling and raiding in the Ettenmoors.

My main motivation to actually start this blog? Pure arrogance, really. I feel important enough in my little sphere of the Gladden community to warrant my own blog. This is not just about ego stroking though! As lead and guardian I´m very dependent on fellowship and raids tactics and by sharing my experiences here, I hope to benefit the great people I fellow with in my kin, kin alliance and the Ettenmoors.

So there you have it.