Sunday Night Siege 08/14/11

[Andeon]

Last sunday we managed to get two solid groups running, including a Fornost run heroically championed by Hrun - thank you very much Hrun, and I'm glad to hear the battle went well - as for getting lost, I wouldn't worry about it - Fornost is a very, very big place, with all manner of danger to be had - given a few repetitions, you'll be an old hat at finding your way through - I *still* get lost in Carn Dum (although, to be fair, I can still get lost in Thorin's hall homesteads, and i've been living there for nearly 2 years)

as many of our regulars are finding confidence to lead teams, and some of our relatively new members are arriving with considerable experience leading groups in other games, the biggest challenge we still have every sunday, is herding them cats. Chasing down various members, and whatever alts they might have, nailing people down to one particular location or another, and managing to gather enough to fill out a group, has been our largest obstacle (easily taking half an hour to an hour or so to manage)

sadly, I'm at a loss to find a way to streamline this process - every week brings changes in who's available, what level they're at, what needs they might have, how much time they might have, etc etc etc...so, those of us gathering groups (Tinki was a huge help last week - thank you very much Tinki) will just have to resign ourselves to a pre-battle every sunday - the battle vs the elite nemesis of conflicted needs and availabilites...

We've got 3 SNS left this month, and at least one dedicated lowbies night, and 1 dedicated raid night still to manage - ALSO...as weekends are prime real estate for gathering many of my dedicated RP directors, I may wish to hijack one weekend and gather as many RP directors as I can manage for their orientation..I'll try to handle that on a saturday though, just in case...

so, my *tentative* plans for the next 3 sundays...

this weekend - another love your lowbie night - oddly, that includes Great Barrow, Garth Agarwen and Fornost (as CD/Uru are essentially end game for the first run of LOTRO, i'll consider the 45+ range to be effectively high level), but more importantly, this can also easily include...

SKIRMISHES...

several of our regulars have remarked that they'd like to get in on some long overdue skirmish action as well, which can accommodate a much larger range of group sizes and levels

So, I will personally set aside on of my several 20-ish level characters to lead another team into the great barrow - please remember, that SNS is an opportunity to teach good grouping etiquette, strategy and generally become familiar with the instance, and as such, will be somewhat time consuming, as I will be running us through it at a very slow and patient pace

I highly encourage anyone with the time and energy willing to do so, to set up whatever 30ishes they might have for some 3-man or 6-man action in Garth Agarwen (quite nicely arranged to allow smaller groups if we have a limited number of available folks in the proper level range)

and we've already established a couple of successful runs through Fornost, a very challenging, intriguing and far too often overlooked and passed by instance - if we have sufficient numbers of interested folks for that, I highly recommend it

lastly, we have a selection of higher level folks that just cannot seem to get a group for their high-level end-game instances - I've consistently heard a very strong demand for the Echoes of the Dead dungeon chain, as well as mirkwood instances, and we've still got far too many 60+ members that haven't been able to complete their class legendary capstone quests. If we have a sufficient quantity of end-gamers, I highly recommend they take the opportunity to do one of those sections, and I'll make sure we get a sunday devoted to similar.

Sunday AFTER this one (looking ahead a bit) I think I'll devote to Raid Night - and see about Watcher, perhaps a return to the rift, and/or unlocking wings of helegrod, and not to be forgotten, Ost Dunhoth (I think - whatever the most recent 12-man end-game raid is) - we'll see who we can get for what, and what demand overrides the most

last SNS of August I think i'll devote to 6-man instances again, focusing on the high-end instances that just keep getting pushed to the wayside (hello echoes of the dead and Mirkwood), but I'll also see about gathering people for 6-man moria legendary capstone quests as well (moria instances, by the way, are a TON of fun!)

looking forward to seeing people as the week continues, and please, if you've got a pressing need or desire, post it here, as my schedule is meant *primarily* as a means of providing a sense of focus, to get that pre-SNS prep period less hectic than it can be - but i'm more than willing to change focus if there's a sufficiently powerful push in one direction or another, I assure you

in other words, if there are a ton of people that want to do raids this upcoming weekend, and not enough lowbies to really care about love your lowbie night, then I'll run raids instead...and so on and so forth

in the end, the squeaky wheels get the grease, and in order to make the prep period of SNS as painless as possible for myself and my aides, if the masses speak, we will be more than happy to listen to the masses.

[CGriffin]

Andeon wrote:

this weekend - another love your lowbie night - oddly, that includes Great Barrow, Garth Agarwen and Fornost

Might also consider Annuminas? I've not been there since the revamp, but didn't they get a lower level base?

Andeon wrote:

Sunday AFTER this one (looking ahead a bit) I think I'll devote to Raid Night - and see about Watcher, perhaps a return to the rift, and/or unlocking wings of helegrod, and not to be forgotten, Ost Dunhoth (I think - whatever the most recent 12-man end-game raid is) - we'll see who we can get for what, and what demand overrides the most

I've been avoiding OD until I reach that point in the chain, and I'm still stuck at Stoneheight right now... However, there is also Dar Narv... Dar Neth... Dar Never-been-in-there!

[Tamirien]

Tinarian is much appreciative for the Urugarth run last week end. Just one meanie in Carn Dûm to go!

At the end of the run, we also bounced around some ideas about the class quests that lead into Moria. I know Tiniarian mentioned Skûmfil. Alas, she confused the Minstrel task with that of the Guardian. Anyone can do that, right? The guardian line leads to Darkest Delving, as she discovered this week.

Anyway, another of the "capstone" tasks. I figure the main stable of siegers have already been through there. I think some of the fringe crowd could still benefit, though. Besides, not many folks go into those areas these days. They stick to Grand Stair and call it good

[Aldekim]

I hope we also get eomething together for things like the 3 man Sword Halls instance in Mirkwood. I have absolutely no Mirkwood gear and would really like to gather up enough tokens for one or two pieces of that minstrel gear.

[Lennidhren]

You aren't alone, Tinarian - Lennidhren has yet to complete the LM capstone in the Forges of Khazad-Dum, too! I think that's where it is, anyway. She's been neglecting it for a good long while now.

[Andeon]

all right - Its clear to me that we need a dedicated class capstone night - I certainly appreciate the need for mirkwood gear, but getting some of our end-game players those vital capstones could seriously improve their performance

biggest problem with the above means a rather heavily focused high level night - we'll see about managing those runs this weekend and next, and I'll save raid night for the last sunday in August

so, gear your mind up for raids at the end of august, and this weekend and next, if you have an incomplete class capstone quest, step forward, and I'll find you a company

those that don't need a capstone run AND aren't needed to support capstone runs, if you'd be so kind as to turn your eyes to our lower level characters, I'd appreciate the support

good work folks - realize it or not, you're helping me provide the kind of focus this event needs to help pare down the time and effort spent gathering folks every weekend - keep up the feedback, and hopefully we'll get this down to a science...of some kind :)

[Lindorieh]

And I will be on at 8PM, running skirmishes for the lowbies, as always!

Lindorieh

[gaiagil]

Raises her hand in admission also...

RannaDylin wrote:

You aren't alone, Tinarian - Lennidhren has yet to complete the LM capstone in the Forges of Khazad-Dum, too! I think that's where it is, anyway. She's been neglecting it for a good long while now.

We just tried to do this for Gaiagil on Elendilmir. A toughy that will need a full, heavily tanked fellow. We're trying again on Elendilmir next Friday with a new configuration and some new strategies. If you come up with some good ones for getting Ruingal, I'd appreciate the help!

Thanks,
Gaiagil

[Lindorieh]

gaiagil wrote:

Raises her hand in admission also... RannaDylin wrote: You aren't alone, Tinarian - Lennidhren has yet to complete the LM capstone in the Forges of Khazad-Dum, too! I think that's where it is, anyway. She's been neglecting it for a good long while now. We just tried to do this for Gaiagil on Elendilmir. A toughy that will need a full, heavily tanked fellow. We're trying again on Elendilmir next Friday with a new configuration and some new strategies. If you come up with some good ones for getting Ruingal, I'd appreciate the help! Thanks, Gaiagil

Hear, hear! I especially want to hear from the minstrel...how do you handle healing in this instance?

[Andeon]

I want to congratulate EVERYONE on a truly epic Sunday Night Siege...

while bookclub was *still in session*, we had not one, but TWO Carn Dum runs organize and run - I didn't get to hear much from them, as chasing down the sons Finwe and the geography of the 1st age of middle earth was a grueling battle in its own right, but I heard that Helgcham was soundly defeated at least once, and I hope that all our Carn Dum battlers benefited from their evening - and a hearty thank you to all our high level leaders that helped organize the runs!

I also know that a Great Barrows team managed to get together at some point during the evening - I hear you cleared all 3 wings! Again, CONGRATULATIONS!! well fought, and I hope people found profit not only in the success, but in the learning of good grouping tactics and etiquette

I can also vouch for the 6-man team that ventured into the Forges - what I expected to be a cakewalk turned into a grueling marathon of endurance and fortitude on the part of our intrepid warriors - but we PREVAILED! Yes, after defeats by glitch, defeats by mistake, defeats by inexperience, defeats by poor luck, we still prevailed over the entirety of the dungeon, even going so far as to helping Lennidhren complete her long overdue class capstone. Thank you everyone that stayed through that grueling encounter - your help, your patience, and your support are all greatly appreciated, and I hope you may even have learned something from the encounter

so, by my count, we had at least 4 separate groups this Sunday Night Siege - to you all, I hope you had an excellent time, and I hope you enjoyed and learned from your encounter - we do this every sunday, and I hope you'll participate again soon!

[Aldekim]

make that 3 CD runs and a skirmish group ran all three GB skirmishes :)

[Tamoro]

Cleared out Tuckborough skirm with Lindorieh and my lv28 Guardian Tamoreaux.

[Brodoric]

Sunday night was a Blast! Usually Im to tired from work to come onto game and do anything. After we threw everything (including a kitchen sink I *acquired* from someone's hobbithole^^) at the baddies and helped Lenni with her quest, I thought that would be it for the night. But Noooooo! Lenni and Locney decide to drag Me through a Tuckborough skirmish! Whatta night! Was a fun way to celebrate my fortieth and sixth birthday

[CGriffin]

Andeon wrote:

while bookclub was *still in session*, we had not one, but TWO Carn Dum runs organize and run - I didn't get to hear much from them, as chasing down the sons Finwe and the geography of the 1st age of middle earth was a grueling battle in its own right, but I heard that Helgcham was soundly defeated at least once, and I hope that all our Carn Dum battlers benefited from their evening - and a hearty thank you to all our high level leaders that helped organize the runs!

Helgcham indeed fell to our group, or rather the half of our group that remained after we did some skinnydipping... Barashal and Salvakh both graciously contributed their goods to the Band, and Barashal even offered up his gate key! What a nice fellow...

Andeon wrote:

I can also vouch for the 6-man team that ventured into the Forges - what I expected to be a cakewalk turned into a grueling marathon of endurance and fortitude on the part of our intrepid warriors - but we PREVAILED! Yes, after defeats by glitch, defeats by mistake, defeats by inexperience, defeats by poor luck, we still prevailed over the entirety of the dungeon, even going so far as to helping Lennidhren complete her long overdue class capstone. Thank you everyone that stayed through that grueling encounter - your help, your patience, and your support are all greatly appreciated, and I hope you may even have learned something from the encounter

I have to say that was typical of my other ventures into the Forges, but it was a wonderful change to finish it for once! On the plus side, we did enough attempts that I finished two slayer deeds while slugging our way through there...

We discovered while composing the CD groups, that there is a LARGE need for Gorthorog horns amongst the Band (three in our group needed it, one of my alts, one of Cas's alts, and I dunno how many in the other two groups). While it's certainly not as quick as making turtle soup, going straight to Barashal and asking him for his horn is about as straightforward as CD gets. We could do some more of these ventures through the week as soon as things reset to help more folk get traited up.

[Tamirien]

Tinarian was part of the very first Carn Dûm exploration that went into the castle. We would have beaten Mordirith, I'm sure, but our unlucky minstrel disconnected right when Mordirirth made his final assault. Needless to say, without the healer there for that crucial first minute we lost key folks and eventually had to retreat.

Nevertheless, it was a fun venture.

The second run into Carn Dûm, we were chatting while waiting for our team to assemble. We had a discussion about the items and that's where Tinarian discovered that you could get the various items at the skirmish camps. She only needed the Crimson Gorthorog-horn and had ample marks to get it.

Since the group had two wardens (both also after the crimson horn) and only a captain with any healing skills, Tinarian stepped aside for Belindriel (60, now 61, minstrel). Tinki later invited her into the Lonely Mountain Band kinship. Thank you Tinki!

A few dousings in the rancid jello of Carn Dûm convinced Belindriel to use a better light source. Most of the opponents were a breeze for our group, I don't recall all the names ... forgive me, but I'm just lousy at remembering them. We had a 61 Captain, 65 Hunter, 58 Warden, 51 Warden, 53 hunter and 60 Minstrel. Then came the Helchgam episode.

We had already fought at 3 of the pillar bridges and Belindriel was very low on power. We crossed the last bridge when our youngest Warden slipped into the goo. The youngest Hunter fell shortly after to a big critical. The rest of us dealt with the arms and we made good progress, then our captain succumbed. At this point Belindriel had no power and quaffed a potion. Good for 20% power, but that seemed paltry.

Helchgam beat on the remaining few and each sank close to half morale. Belindriel was at 20% morale and less than 5% power when the final bridge spanned to the slimy beast. The front liners charged and by luck, enough time had passed for her to take a second swig. The crisis point had been passed and with due diligence to the blue bar, she managed to boost the remaining few back up to around three fourths morale.

Getting the young unfortunate out of the green goop after the fight proved too difficult and he had to hoof it back to the fellowship. All in all a very tense fight, especially with three of us there who had never even set foot in Carn Dûm before =D