Movie Review: Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch is a 2011 movie about...

To be honest, this movie has no story worth telling.

This doesn't mean, that watching this movie is a complete waste of time, but I did fast-forward a lot. The good, sometime even great scenes is when Babydoll (Emily Browning) with her co-prostitutes fight to get four items needed to escape their prison. These brief fights range from ok to great, sadly they are only a small part of the two hours.

I would not reccomend buying this movie and if you watch it, don't be afraid to use fast-forward a lot.

For the two great fight-scenes, I give this movie a 2/10.

Trouble with GMs, Follow-up

Concerning the problems we encountered with Draigoch and the bad attitude the GM had, we asked for a senior GM. As I was not part of that conversation, and I didn’t get any screenshots, this is just hearsay.

But what I got from two sources, is that the senior GM was very polite and apologetic. They thanked for the bug-report and seem to be aware of the problem. On the other hand, the existing tools available for the GMs seem to be far less powerful than in other games. Such tools were in development.

Personally, I doubt these statements. I have seen GMs one-shooting players and mobs. I have seen GMs spawning chests and handing out loot as well as handing out loot from one player to an other even though the loot was bound on the first player. I don’t doubt reports of other players, that they have been thrown in the air and fell down for thirty seconds before hitting the ground and with that killing the player.

Anyway, even though there was no palpable result, at least the better attitude seems to have satisfied the kinnies.

The problem with Draigoch seems to be related to fellowship movements, which, when happening before he flies off from the ground in the third phase, seem to bug him out. This does not happen in the first two phases, so it should be something quite easy to fix. Not sure if I want to run the instance in the current status though...

We did return to Barad Guldur and had a quick run through the tower. We wiped once at the twins, as not everyone knew where to place the pools. Even though the raid-leader told em twice... I don’t think not being on vent is an excuse. If you don’t know what to do, it is your responsibility to tell the raid-leader, not the other way round.

Tonight is skirmish-night and I hope I’ll be able to get two more characters to level 75.

LotRO - Isengard

It has been some time, over four months actually, since I last posted. Even thought I have been away from here, I haven’t been away from LotRO. I did spend some more time in World of Tanks, but haven't touched that game for some weeks.

There have been a lot of posts regarding Isengard, so much I will write here, you might have heard somewhere else.

What have I done in the expansion? First I have leveled my Hunter, Minstrel and Captain to level 75. Triple-boxing has been a less positive experience with Rise of Isengard, as the amount of client-crashes has exploded. These crashes mostly happen in high-traffic areas, say Galtrev, or when moving from one part of the world to an other (say, entering the vault in Galtrev or an instance on three characters at the same time.

Even thought I had taken some days off, I didn’t hit level-cap as fast as I had planned. I did like most regions of the expansion and the Epic Book, the parts I didn’t like were Dunbog and the Pit of Iron, the latter mostly because of the buggy tracks and the missing map.

My favorite parts were in the Epic Story as well as the Gap of Rohan quests.

After getting three characters to level-cap, I started gearing my Hunter and my Minstrel. I did some twelve-man skirmishes and some of the upgraded three- and six-mans. I really like them and they seem to be a bit easier than they have been before. I am looking forward to triple-boxing the school and library again.
I started leveling my next two characters, Burglar and Rune-Keeper. They are at level 69ish and Champion and Lore-Master will be next.

Hunter seems to play more or less the same as before the update. Minstrel and Captain have changed a lot. I didn’t spend a lot of time on my Captain but like the changes for my Minstrel a lot.
We also visited Draigoch, the big, bad (?) dragon. The raid well done. I sadly was always too late for the first few 'failed' attempts but was lucky enough to bring my Hunter to the first Tier 2 and Challenge run. I even won the coin for the head-piece.

Draigoch fights in his pit which has three levels. A small part of the raid does the tanking on the upper level, whilst the rest fights the paws on the lower and central levels. After ‚killing’ the paws, Draigoch falls to the ground whilst the raid hits his body. Fellowship movements are important, as a specific series of twelve FMs weakens the paws. After a bit, the dragon wakes up again and this repeats over and over again. Withe the FMs weakening the paws, less time is needed to ‚kill’ these and the phase to attack the body will start sooner.

There are three phases, as I have only been on the dps team, and the first and second phase seem to be different mainly for the tanking team. I also think that a Rune-Keeper is a better healer for the tanking team as a Minstrel should be in line-of-sight with the boss to play ballads, which is not recommended with Draigoch.

The third team is quite easy if you have lots of ranged dps. Even though melee dps get a better buff than the ranged dps, the Hunters and Lore-Masters don’t suffer from the distributed attacks of the paws.

After a long time, the fight takes about 90 minutes, he was finally dead. I was very happy to be on an other server-first. Four chests spawn. Most sought after were the scales, three of which are needed to craft an epic cloak. Three scales dropped on the first run, four on the second. Then we had two coins fort he set on the first run and three on the second run and on the first run, we got an Worn Symbol of Celebrimbor. Some teal items (jewelery and amour) and some runes and settings completed the loot.

With three accounts, I spent around US$ 150.00 for the Rise of Isengard expansion. Money well spent? Yes, I think so. Even with the buggy Pit of Iron and the failure to have enough quests to get to level-cap without having to do repeatables and tasks, I like the expansion.

LotRO - Update mostly Isengard

Almost two weeks since my last post. Lets start with Isengard. I had expected to get some news from E3, but there was nothing really new.

We have known since months, that that Isengard would be next and that the level cap would be raised. I had thought about it being raised to 70, but 75 it is. I doubt this is an improvement as a ten-level difference will make the level 65 equipment obsolete. I still use equipment with level 60, but nothing at level 55.

A raise of the virtue cap was also on the horizon and has now been confirmed. Again, I had hoped for some new virtues instead of a raise, but again, my hopes were not fulfilled.

Then we get a new crafting tier. This could also be expected, with a raise of ten levels. I just hope, that they will stop naming them and just say Tier I, Tier II, etc.

The three zones were also announced months ago and due to the lore will be similar to what we have seen. Getting 400 quests sounds like a lot, but Enedwaith had about 120, Moria about 250, Eregion about 75 and the Book 140.

As Enedwaith was released later, the size of the update will be about the size of Moria and Eregion and Volume 2. Decent, but not overwhelming.

With Moria, we got Legendary Items and two new classes and with Siege of Mirkwood, we at least got Skirmishes. With Isengard, we get nothing new? This is hugely disappointing!

I hope they will add something, but right now, I am not willing to spend money on that expansion. I did think about pre-ordering the expansion and I haven't ruled it out completely. On the other hand, I have three accounts, so I will have to pay three times as much as others...

What I like are the horses and the cosmetics. The Bonus-XP pocket item till level 65 is neat too. But again, when Isengard fails to capture my interest, I might go for the TP version.

I have been playing less of Lord of the Rings as I have used to. I only went to the Inn of the Forsaken once (and failed after being in there for a long time) and haven't been in the Halls of Night at all.

On one hand, I blame World of Tanks. On the other hand, we had some bad runs in Ost Dunhoth. We did have some great ones too, but...

We lost a raid-leader and officer. Hm, to be honest, I don't know if he will come back or if he is gone for good. I fear the later as he told me once, that he nearly left the game because I had criticized him once.
Last time I saw him, the main raid-leader told him to concentrate (and not talk about World of Tanks during the raid) and he wasn't seen again. We also lost other people, some for similar reasons, other because they were raiding at different hours.

Now we have not enough experienced and good raiders and the replacements often aren't as well equipped or don't know how to play their characters well enough. After all, Ost Dunhoth is not an easy raid and probably not meant for casual players, at least not when you try to do Tier 2 runs with the challenge.
This means, we fail more and this leads to the atmosphere not being what it should be. Bad atmosphere leads to less raid attendance and so we go in a downward spiral.

We either need to get some great raiders from other kins or do some Barad Guldur and other runs for getting everyone to the necessary skill levels for Ost Dunhoth. Master classes have started again, which is positive.

LotRO: Proposition for new zone: The Tower Hills

Since I have started to play Lord of the Rings Online, I hated the gap between Ered Luin and the Shire. The Westmarch is the zone filling this void.

I don’t understand, why this zone hasn't been done earlier, as it has a lot of potential.

Who lives in the Westmarch and which places does it cover?

The southern border are the Tower Hills. Elostirion is the tallest tower on the Tower Hills and once held the Palantir of the Northern Kingdom. Even though the Palantir has been long removed, the towers still might hold some secrets to be uncovered by some adventurers.

Near the main tower, is the future site of Untertowers, a village founded after the coming wars. I want this place to be special. A place where the grass is greener than in the other fields and where there are more flowers. A place where the eldest daughter of Sam Gamgee would want to live. There will be no settlements of Hobbits, but one or two could wander the wild.

To the west, we find the Gulf of Lûne with the Elven settlement of Mithlond, the Grey Havens. From here to the north we can either travel by boat to Celondim or by foot to Ered Luin through the now unblocked pass near Rath Teraig.

The zone has the shape of the letter J, the south-western part being Mithlond. I wouldn't make the zone so big, that it reaches Forochel to the north. On the parchment map on the LotRO site, there is a small forest on the eastern side of the river Lhûn the river being the western border.

Finally, we would be able to explore the castle we have seen from the Wardspire.

Besides the Grey Haven, I would not add a major settlement. There are some ruins, like the towers and the castle I mentioned before. But in general, there would be an empty place with some bandits and wildlife.

Quest hubs would be Mithlond, where we could try to convince elves not to leave Middle Earth and to fight Sauron. Other quests could evolve around two feuding families, one farming and one nomad shepherds who are in conflict over land.

Of course there could also be a Romeo and Juliet story ongoing where the player could either help the farmers the shepherds or the young in love.

Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On stranger Tides

I have looking forward to this for a long time and am disappointed.

Even the movie is said to been shot in 3D, the quality of the effects is mediocre. For most of the time, 3D is not relevant and does not add to the immersion in the movie. I would recommend, not to watch this movie in 3D.

Jack Sparrow, sorry Captain Jack Sparrow (Johny Depp), is searching for the Fountain of Youth. Why is not quite sure. He meets Angelina (Penelope Cruz) an old love interest and daughter of Blackbeard (Ian McShane). Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) completes the main cast.

I liked the Barbossa of the first movies and understood why he behaved in the way portrayed. In this movie, he wants to kill Blackbeard because he lost a leg in a fight with him. This would have been in concordance with his former character.

But I doubt the Barbossa of the first movies would have used a poisoned blade.

Why Angelina is ready to give her life for her father is never made clear. One could argue, that she wants to save his soul with her sacrifice. Blackbeard accepts her death, which is in his character, but why didn't he kill the boy as that sacrifice would have given him many more years to live?

Jack seems to be clueless, even more than usual. It seems that he has been to the Fountain of Youth but didn't know the ritual. At the same time, I don’t think he really wanted eternity for himself.

Then we have the little love story between the mermaid Syrena and a priest which does not bring much to the movie. And some Spaniards who stay unnamed and uninteresting.

Gibbs returns, but others are deeply missed. I am not talking about Keira Kneightly or Orlanda Bloom. Their story has been brought to an conclusion. I miss Pintel and Ragetti (Lee Arenberg and Mackenzie Crook) and Cotton (David Baillie). The crew played a major part in the first three installments and they are missed a lot.

Captain Teague (Keith Richards) has a brief appearance and this scene is one of the best in the movie.

So, what did we get? Sword fight? There are two fights, but nothing impressive. Nothing comes anyway near the first fight between Jack and Will Turner in the forge, the fight on the water-wheel or the final fight between Jack and Davie Jones.

But sure we get naval battle? Nope. The Spanish and Barbossa meet at sea, but (probably for budget reasons) they decide not to fight. Blackbeard has a beautiful ship, but we never see him using it to attack an other.

Locations? Locations are ok. Some are beautiful, some are ok and some just look too much like sets (Fountain of Youth).

Memorable lines? Nope.

Verdict: When I left the theatre, I gave the movie a rating of 6/10 (ten being best) but now, a few days later, I change the rating to 4/10.

Something I found on the net.

LotRO: Proposition for new zone: Umbar

Unlike my Mirkwood, Heart of the Forest, proposition, Umbar does not border the world we have visited.

This does not seem to be a huge problem, as Ered Luin is not connected to the rest of Eriador and an other gap exists between the eastern exit of Moria and the Mirrormere.

But still, why wander a far and not stay closer to the book?

Scenery! Most of Middle Earth has European climate. If not for Forochel, all would be different shades of green. Given this restriction due to the lore, Turbine has done a good job. They incorporated the seasons, Shire being spring, Eregion autumn, North Downs summer and Forochel winter.

But if we wanted something new, a bit exotic, we have to travel further.

The south would offer deserts and jungles, we could even penetrate the underbelly of Mordor. This would offer some visually very distinct choises. Not only the landscape would be very different from what we have seen, the architecture and clothing of the Harad would offer new choices.

How get there? By shanghaiing of course! The journey starts with a quest or two including some beers as a reward. When you drink that ale, you fall in a deep sleep and awake on a ship. This brings you to its harbour, a small town a bit north of Umbar.

This town would be instanced, meaning that you could not leave it, until you have done a certain amount of quests (like the Mirkwood- and Moria-Starter Instances). Outside, you would be able to travel by the usual means.

It would also offer new monsters to fight, instead of spiders there would be scorpions, instead of boars antelopes and so forth. Even the bosses in the instances could have a Ali Baba / Oriental / Persian theme.

LotRO: Proposition for new zone: Mirkwood, Heart of the Forest

We had a glimpse of Mirkwood with the Siege of Mirkwood expansion. But even though I liked to quest there, the Mirkwood in game is not what is described in „The Hobbit“.

It is not completely braking the lore of the books, as it can be argued, that the presence of the Lieutenant and his rabble have reduced the power of the forest somewhat. So what do we know?

Beorn speaks about a river which is „black and strong“ and „crosses the path. He warns „neither drink of, nor bath in“ it as it as it „carries enchantment and a great drowsiness and forgetfulness“. Perfect bounder border of a zone!

„By the afternoon they had reached the eaves of Mirkwood, and were resting almost beneath the great overhanging boughs of its outer trees. Their trunks were huge and gnarled, their branches twisted, their leaves were dark and long. Ivy grew on them and trailed along the ground.“

There seem to be few things alive in the heart of the forest. Bilbo describes some black squirrels, some moths that come to the fire at night, the elves and the spiders. I doubt that the elves would wander that far south, so I would not add them to this zone.

I do want this zone to be distinct from any other zone. Lets see how: There will be no horse-routes, no camps to fast-travel, no milestones and no quest-hubs with pesky elves or humans. There will be no killing of mobs, at least not anywhere near the scale of the other zones.

The spiders are different from other spiders we met. They talk! Besides Mirkwood which is some kind of entity, spiders are the only intelligent denizens of the forest.

When we can’t kill a lot of monsters, what is there to do? Exploring, recovering, surviving and some very selective killing is my proposition.

The adventure into Mirkwood starts with a letter where Fuirgam in Emyn Lûm asks for your aid. Probably after some minor quests, he sends you to Echad Sirion where you can take the boat to Gladden Fields. I will write more about the zone Gladden Fields in a later post.

For now we only need to know that there is a small settlement with some preliminary quests into Mirkwood, heart of the forest.

The first quest is to rescue a young woodworker whose return from the forest is overdue. Mirkwood is an instance. I want it to be different every time you enter. Lhaid Ogo, the instance in Volume 3, Book 3, Chapter 4, is a hint in the right direction, but of course far too small.

Some big trees, which can be climbed are always at the same place and work as a marker and a resting-place. But the paths to those trees will change every time you enter.

The first time you enter, a countdown starts. If you are on your own and don’t use any special skills or reach on of the trees, you have three minutes to explore the forest. If the time expires before you are out of the forest or at a safe place, you fall in a endless sleep and are automatically rescued by some npcs. After some minutes of dread, you can retry again.

When you find the first tree, ten seconds are added to your counter (as you have learned to cope better with the dread of the forest). Each tree gives this reward only a certain amount of times and the closer the tree is to the Gladden Fields, the fewer time you get this bonus.

The three trees closest to Gladden Fields give this reward three times, so if you have found each of these trees for three times, you get three more minutes before you fall to the forest (three times ten seconds per tree is thirty seconds per tree, is ninety seconds for all three trees plus a bonus of ninety seconds for deed completion).

The next three trees are further in. A second counter starts. To reach the second line of trees, you get an other three minutes. The same rules as with the first trees apply. So for every new found tree, you get an other ten seconds, again with all the bonuses for the second trees, you get an other six minutes to reach them.

What changes is that if you travel on your own, you have only half the time. While it is not impossible to reach the second trees on your own, it will not happen a lot. So bring a friend or two to reach the second set of trees. But remember, the chain breaks at the weakest link. So if one member of your band of three has never been into the forest, you only have three minutes to reach the first trees.

The third set of trees need a full fellowship to get to. If you have completed the deed (reach all the trees of the different lines three times) you get after entering Mirkwood the option to travel to the central of those trees. This only applies, if everyone in your group (if grouped up) has finished that deed.

What kind of loot is there? The further in, the better it is. The borders of the forest mostly have been cleared over the years, but deep inside, there still can be hidden treasures.

Remember, the shadow of Sauron corrupted the forest and there might still be caves and homes the Sindarin Elves left when they fled the shadows. In such caves or ruins, there is room for some classical instances.

I did mention skills. Some skills, like the Irresistible Melody or the Call to Greatness does add some time to the counter. The Minstrel and the Captain have the most skills to help the group. Food and beer also help to raise the spirit and stay longer inside Mirkwood. And smoking pipe-weed has some relaxing effects as well.

Back to the spiders. I don’t see the spiders as purely evil. Living in such an unpleasant environment has some negative effect on ones character. Remember, „when they roasted it, it proved horrible to taste, and they shot no more squirrels.“ So befriending a spider could be beneficial too. Spiders seem not to have that much interest in gold and treasure and might be willing to trade some for raw meat or livestock.

It is also very possible, that the spiders are in conflict with the evil dwelling in the elven ruins and caves as well as with scouts from Dol Guldur. Again, I don’t want this to be just an other zone with some quest-hubs, but this doesn't mean that there are no quests to be found.

Making this zone instanced will make the loneliness believable when you don’t see other people doing their quests all the time.

LotRO - Gortheron (Ost Dunhoth) some tactics, contains spoilers!

After having done the first five bosses, Gortheron is left. We have seen him many times during the instance and even in the quests leading to the instance. Now is the time for payback.

I like, that there is no time wasted with adds. After killing Ivar, the gate opens to the arena which has the shape of a pentagon. As most evildoers, Gortheron likes to talk. A lot.

Which classes are or rather which setup is the best for this fight?

Two Captains, two Minstrels, two Lore-Masters and a Guardian seem to be a necessity. An additional healer, probably a Rune-Keeper does help too. So we got eight. I would bring three Hunters and a Warden (as the warden has the best corruption removal skill of all classes).

The fight starts, when Gortheron moves into the body of a troll and opens one of the walls of the arena. Some monsters from the Shire join the fight. The adds of the first phase consist of two huge boars (Thadur's Boar, about 24 k morale) and three big goblins (Thadur's Thug 11k). When one of these five is killed, it is replaced almost instantly.

The boars have anger, which needs to be removed before they can be CC'ed (so you need to CC them twice in a row). Lore-Masters seem to work best here. We usually damage them till they have about 5 k morale left and leave them CC'ed till the next phase.

The goblins have corruptions which should to be removed as fast as possible. So if your corruption removal skill is off cool-down, use it to make every one's life easier.

Using buffbars is also very helpful. It is easy to install and there is little room for error in this fight. In every phase, players get different buffs which they need to remove with the right pot as soon as possible. In the first phase, this is a green pool which does a huge amount of damage. Actually there are three pools (similar to those in Oatbarton Farms). If you use a pot right away, you won't drop a pool at all which can make all the difference.

When the boars are damaged and controlled, the goblins can be killed. This has two advantages. First, it gives Captains a defeat response which they can use for a group-heal. Secondly Gortheron is building corruptions about every eight seconds which are reduced by killing every add.

Hunters damage Gortheron, others kill goblins and Lore-Masters CC boars. At a certain point, Gortheron switches phases and moves to the second wall and opens it. Now the Hunters switch to the adds, but don't kill them before the new gate is opened and the old gate is closed. Yes respawns do even apear, when the wall is closed again...

New adds come form the North-Downs, two Defilers and three Wargs. Defilers need to be CC'ed and I like to range-dps the Wargs. But don't forget to kill all the adds from the Shire.

Defilers only have about 10 k health so just keep em CC'ed, kill wargs to keep everyone powered and healed up and again, remove corruptions.

In this phase, you get wounds which you need to remove by a pot or it will spread to the players close to you. When this happens, they too get a wound which even can be transferred back to you, when not removed at the right time. This can lead to a wipe, as pots can be off cool-down when needed. But you can move away from the other people to not spread the wound.

In the next phase monsters from the Trollshaws join. They consist of two Virulent Stone-Trolls (24k) and three Virulent Worms. We haven't lasted long enough here to work out our tactics. Last phase, the adds will come from Forochel and consist of Starved Kilpa-Kita sabretooths (which get bloodlust when kited for too long) and some caeryg.

After an other phase-switch one monster of each kind will spawn as well as some skeletons. On Tier 1, the skeletons can be killed and won't respawn, so I'd guess, those are the first targets for dps. But as I haven't done this on Tier 2, I am not sure about this. The rest of the monsters will vanish, as soon as Gorthereon is at his next phase-switch, so killing the adds is not the priority.

Gandalf appears and kicks Gortheron out of his troll-body and (again in Tier 1) the last 35 k are easy (in Tier 1). We were thinking about only doing the other bosses in Tier 1 to get the locks and to have almost a full week for trying to kill Gortheron in Tier 2.

The challenge is connected to the buff Gorthoron has, which increases his damage output. Every eight seconds, his buff tiers up one point to a (shown) max of fifty. Killing a monster reduces the tier by one. When the tier reaches fifty, you get a message. So killing an add in the next eight seconds fails the challenge. Sadly there is no in-game-way to see how many adds you can kill without loosing the challenge...

Again, Ost Dunhoth is a very interesting raid with some nice rewards. I like how the raid and the last fight mirrors to some degree the three- and six-man-instances of the Echoes of the Dead-Update. Gortheron on Tier 2 with the Challenge is a great fight with only minor complaints from my side (the buff-counter being one, the 'need' for buffbars an other).

LotRO - Amarthlang from Durin's Bane Tier 2

It is not that I won nothing, this is what I got for my Burglar:

 

LotRO - Frothskold from Ivar Tier 2

Yesterday, we managed to do Ivar again on Tier 2 and he left a shield behind. Needless to say, with these stats, it was a very happy Minstrel.

It is in purple but the lucky Minstrel seemed to like it anyway. To be honest, with those stats, what is not to like?

LotRO: Echoes of the Dead, a brief review

The last six weeks, I have been enjoying the update Echoes of the Dead. I gave my first impression here so I don’t want to repeat myself.

As usual, in the beginning a lot of people signed up for the new raid and instances. There was even some moaning or bitching about who could go. Now some of the runs had to be cancelled due to too few people online. Tempus fugit. I blame the nice weather and World of Tanks.

Echoes of the Dead is one of the best updates released.

The three-man instances are fun and challenging on Tier 2. Tier 2 favours a certain set-up. Healer, Tank and Damage Dealer or Healer with two DD. Classes like Burglars and Captains are less useful for Tier 2 runs. Of course it can be done, but the other members need to work extra hard. It would have been nice, if the skill-reset we have in Ost Dunhoth were implemented here too...

The two six-man instances are fun and challenging too. No complaints here, with six it is easier to bring a Burglar and Captains.

Ost Dunhoth is almost perfect. The skill reset is great. Fights are short, fun and challenging. After a wipe, no time is wasted. Everything is in a short walking distance, no more running up the tower for five minutes to kill the Lieutenant.

Trash mobs are non-existent, instead we get some small fun fights before the boss. Rewards are good. What I dislike is the amount of medallions needed for the armour. I doubt, that I will get a full set anytime soon...

We managed to do four of the bosses on Tier 2 with the challenge and one more on Tier 2 without the challenge. Getting Gortheron on Tier 2 with the challenge will take some time. We raid a lot in the kin, about six days a week, but we are not a hard-core raiding kin. This means that we have a lot of different people on every raid and some are better raiders than others.

I would also suggest to use Buffbars as it does make fights easier. A kinnie programmed a small add-on which analyzes the combat-log and helps with acoustic warnings and big flashing letters.

I have done the book-quests on all of my main characters, save my Warden.
Ten being best, I give this update 9.5/10. Well done!

Update

Three months have past since my last update (not post, updates are a more general post). I use these posts to reflect what has happened since.

Then I had tried my first attempts at multi-boxing the school and library for Superior Third Marks. The weeks following that update-post, I have successfully run school and library loads of times while using thee accounts (triple-boxing with Captain (main) Hunter and Minstrel).

I stopped doing those runs, when I ran out of Legendary Fragments which are needed for crafting Legendary Items. I did spend about 200 gold, almost everything I had, on the Auction Hall to buy them (at about 3 gold a piece). So before the Echoes of the Dead update, I was broke.

The plan was to get at least two level 65 2nd Age Items for every of my main character. To make things a bit more challenging, I wanted them to have four Pool A legacies.

Sadly, I run out of cash, before I could achieve this. I did manage to get about 14 of them which is not too bad.

Since then, I was able to sell quite a few Legendary Items, some even have four Pool A legacies which are not producible anymore since the update and fetch quite some money on the Auction Hall.

At least at the moment, I have enough cash again, I even donated some gold to the poor tanks in our kin.
I've been in a lot of Ost Dunhoth raids. I missed the first few, but have been in almost every one since. We go to OD about six time per week.

Right now, we are working on our tactics on Gortheron, something I will write more about in a future post.
I have won two Symbols of the Elder King for a level 65 First Age Legendary Item. One I used for my Hunter to get him a bow, the second one I used for my Burglar. The bow is maxed out. The dagger for my Burglar is still missing the "Trick Range"-Legacy. I have been trying to get it for some time, but have run out of Item Experience Runes.

So I am running the Enedwaith repeatable quests on my Burglar to get ixp. The barter items and reputation are a welcome addition. I miss some skirmish marks to get the complete Epic Helegrod set for my Burglar. Taking him to the moors will be a priority.

I didn't have time to work on my Warden, I have started do some runs on my Guardian. I wish, my Captain had more to do during fights...

About my blog, my first post was on November 3rd 2010. My main blog is http://funfactfiction.blogspot.com/ and contains all of the LotRO post as well as some others.

Out of the 200 post there, 70 are LotRO related. I also have some games-, book- and movie-reviews as well as some other fun topics. Political comments can also be found there.

Most hits got a post about some 3D pictures of sexual positions.  This is after all the Internet. And are we really surprised, that I got most hits for that site from Pakistan and India?

I also run two other blogs, one about sex on the Internet and one about politics.

Back to this site. Thanks to http://combo.mmeow.net/ I have 2'500 page views, 1'300 of them in April 2011. Thanks a lot! There is a lot of interest about Ost Dunhoth and I will share some thoughts and tactics.
More than half of my visitors are from the USA followed by UK, Germany and Canada. 40 percent use FireFox, 30 percent Internet Explorer, 15 percent Chrome. 85 percent use Windows, 5 percent Mac, 3 percent iPhone and 2 percent Linux.

I would like to get more comments or feedback. Any idea how?

LotRO: Frothmar (Ost Dunhoth, Poison) on Tier 2 and Challenge done!

Frothmar is an other fight I like. And finally, after loads of tries, we managed to get him down.

The twelve people are split up in four groups of three. One of each group stays on the platform most of the time. We used healers for the far two platforms (from the entry) and Hunters for the close two. Setup is two tanks (again, probably Guardians), two Captains, two healers (probably Minstrels). These stay close to the door on the other side of the room.

The rear needs one healer (we used a Rune-Keeper) and a Lore-Master. The rest are dps, Hunters probably are best (high range). They can either stand in the center or to the left and right of the room, between the platforms.

To not fail the challenge, someone has to stay on the platform at any time of the fight. This means, you can't loose a platform, which happens when more than two people stand on a platform, or two people stand on the platform for too long.

Knock-backs seem to be the highest risk to fail the challenge, so those not standing on the platform should stay far away from them as possible (in the center) and the switching should happen after knock-backs.

It is not an extremely difficult fight, but it is very easy to fail it, as it only takes one mistake. So if you have laggy Internet-connection, this might not be the fight for you...

Even though the sentiment in the kin was not to do it again, I would really like to keep doing or at least keep trying it. Again, I don't think this is difficult to do. If you fail, you can reset the fight easily. The fight itself does not take very long. It just takes some practice and a lot of concentration.

Doing this challenge was very rewarding. Not only because I got my second Symbol of the Elder King which I used for a First Age Burglar Dagger.

I had thought long, what I should do with the symbol. I have a First Age Bow for my Hunter which is maxed out. On my Minstrel, Rune-Keeper and Captain, I have lots of ixp-runes. My Minstrel is one of my mains, but we have a lot of Minstrels at the moment. As I usually have been asked to either bring my Hunter, Burglar or Lore-Master, the choice was between the Burglar or the Lore-Master.

If I win a next Symbol, I might go Lore-Master or Minstrel or Captain. As I already have won two symbols and lots of people haven't won one, I am not sure, if I should roll on the next few symbols. An idea would be to roll on them, but if I win one, to pass on it, so that if I won a forth roll, I could get a third symbol.

LotRO: What is coming next?

After the Echoes of the Dead Update, which I like very much, the first news of the next updates emerge.

Update 3, sadly we don't have a name yet, will offer two 3-man instances and two skirmishes which are scaled up to level 65.

One of the new instances is called "Inn of the Forsaken" and has a pirate theme offering new armor, weapons and pocket items as rewards.

The other one is "The Halls of Night" and is an other haunted Barrow with a focus on traps. Rewards here are new armor, jewelry and cosmetic items.

The skirmishes, will be in Dol Dinen in North Downs and called "Attack at Dawn". The other one is "Icy Crevasse" in, who would have guessed, in Forochel. Both are offense skirmishes.

Source

Isengard will bring the level-cap to 75. Which will make everything we have now be useless. I would have rather gone for a five level step or two five level steps with some months in-between.

There might be a new level of crafting. I had expected this, not sure, what the name of the tier is going to be.

There will be a lot of chapters in the Isengard Epic update, more than thirty. Even though the Epic books usually are just a small part of the actual released content, I like to do them on all my characters.

The 24-man Raid will be about a giant dragon. Not to sure how much I like this. I recognize the restrictions on the lore but still would like to have a more diverse bestiary. Saruman would have been my target for a Raid in Isengard...

PvP will probably get no new zone and opening Monster Play to F2Pers will continue to reduce the value of VIPs and Lifetimers...

We will hear more about Isengard at E3, which will take place on June 7 - 9, 2011.

For the next few months, there seems to be a nice stream of content. Besides the new instances and skirmishes and the new regions, there will be smaller events keeping the players happy.

I have been running a lot of the Ost Dunhoth instances and still want to do some of the three- and six-mans from the latest update. I got two First-Agers (Hunters-Bow and Burglar-Dagger) and am not sure, if I should/am allowed to roll on more coins (would be happy with three more ;).

LotRO: 4th Anniversary Review

Again, we on the old side of the pond got the worse deal. Turbine listened to the complains of the players about the huge grind for the tokens and added them in the lotteries which Codemasters is not able/willing to offer.

I wanted to have the maps, so I knew I had to grind 160 tokens (8*20). As I didn't wan to waste too much time, I tripple-boxed the bar-fight. Of course, this works only during the night, as there is less competition.

So this Easter weekend, I had little sleep, at least at night. Which was a pity, as the weather was fine. But at least I got the maps and as they are tradable, this will get me closer to the deed Cartographile.

CStM has discovered, that the other maps seem to be available during the next four festivals. There even seem to be maps of the other regions of Middle-Earth and one of the whole of Middle-Earth. So finishing this deed, will take more than a year. Back to the festival.

In Europe, the only way to get tokens was the races and the beer-fight. The races are fun, even though I have done them so many times, that I can almost do them blindfolded. Sadly, they can only be done once a day, so maximal two tokens from them.

So even if you do the races every day, you will not get enough tokens to get the horse and you have to join the bar-fight. The dreaded bar-fight.

The first few times, it can be fun. But after an hour or so, I just wanted to get my tokens. So getting the beer but being hit out of the arena and dropping it wasn't fun the first time, and it became more and more annoying the next few times.

So instead of wasting my time, I started doing the fight at around midnight and kept fighting till the sun went up. With the three accounts, I at least got three tokens per run, which made the grind a bit more bearable. I even got the horse, even though I don't like the design very much. The toy windmill is very nice, the large one still is missing its blades, but they should be added with the next update.

What I didn't get yet, are the cosmetics. The cloak is OK, especially when it is dyed, the dresses, I could do without. I am still not sure, if I am going to try to get them.

There was some discussion going on in kin, if deliberate kicking people out of the arena is griefing. I was in the minority saying yes. It might be fun, to do it once or twice, but after a bit, you just want to get your tokens and go to bed. During the night, there was an understanding to be friendly to each other as everyone could get a token each round. During the day, things were a bit more chaotic and heated.

Last but not least, the verdict. Even though some of the rewards are nice, the toy windmill and the windmill being the best, the grind is enough to make you sick. The race and the bar-fight are not new to the game, the maps are nice, but not much work to do, the cosmetics are ok, if you are an elf but the huge grind overshadows the rewards. Ten being best, I would give this festival a 3/10.

LotRO: Durin's Bane (Ost Dunhoth, Fear) on Tier 2 and Challenge done!

Gentlemen, we got him!

After a lot (and I mean a lot) of wipes during several evening, we finally managed to slay Durin's Bane on Tier 2 and complete the Challenge.

To be honest, I had my doubts, that we were able to do it. Luck did play a very minor role, tactics worked and noone f*cked up. On the first try, I ran off the platform after the first pool. That was embarassing.

In the next runs we managed to work on tactics and after some wipes, the first people announced that they would leave soon. We dropped one Burglar for an additional Minstrel and started the fight.

Soon the first kinnies (including myself) disconnected from ventrilo and we switched to ingame-voice. Things got a bit heated as most of the platform was covered with fire-pools.

The last few ten thousand morale were nerve-wrecking. One of our tanks died seconds before Durin's Bane and one of the two chests spawned on top of him...

I won a high-dps mace for my Burglar (off-hand) and two settings and a rune. We got two coins for the Ost Dunhoth armour, a rather crappy piece of jewelery and a purple armour which I didn't even want as a cosmetic.

Some of these new instances favour certain set-ups.

Two tanks are a must. Either two Wardens or two Guardians. Guardians seem to work better.
Two Minstrels for main healing, two Captains, two Rune-Keepers (do not Fall to Flame).
Two Burglars and one Lore-Master, for debuffs and power.

This leaves one spot open. We used a Champion, Hunter would have been better. Or a third Rune-Keeper.

It will be fun to try other set-ups. When more people get first-agers, this could leave room for changes.

Where are we? We did three wings on Tier 2 with the Challenge and an other wing on Tier 2. The fifth wing seems to be doable, but Gortheron will not be easy. We might even go back to Barad Guldur (yay, more stairs) and to Dar Narbugud. I don't mind running those two instances, especially as the DN set is still quite nice and BG can also be desireable.

I have brought Minstrel, Rune-Keeper, Lore-master, Hunter and Burglar to Durin's Bane. I want to get my Guardian raid-ready. I have not used him a lot but he is fun to play. And tanking is the one thing, I haven't tried much yet.

Youtube, funny video

I haven't laughed that much since a long time:

LotRO - Mammoths (Ost Dunhoth, Wounds) on Tier 2

Sadly we did not manage to get the Challenge. We did manage to kill one Mammoth in time. Does not seem impossible to do, but will take some more practice.

We learned a lot. For one, when you finish the fight, you can walk back through the corridors and see, that the gates and levers are actually colour-coded. So:

The middle (green) lever opens the right gate,
the right (purple) lever opens the left gate,
the left (orange) lever opens the middle gate,
the middle (blue) lever opens the left gate,
the left (purple) lever opens the right gate and last but not least,
the right (white) lever opens the middle gate.

Even the first gate has the same colour as the gates, which houses the mammoths.

Balancing the dps is a bit of a challenge as you don't want people to have to wait for other groups pulling their levers.

And this is my 200th post, yay!

LotRO: Baleleaf and Dourbark (Ost Dunhoth, Disease) on Tier 2 with Challenge done!

We have been fighting and failing with the Balrog. I have my ideas why, but am not going to share them.

Even though I would have liked to go back to kick Durin's Bane in his softer parts (if he has any), it was decided to do the disease wing next.

I like, how there is no more real trash and that the groups up to the boss are challenging and fun.

Baleleaf and Dourbark are the two bosses and as their name suggests, they are trees. The first phase of the fight is quite short and consists of damaging the trees. This will make your target cover you with sap, which 'marks' you.

Soon three bog-lurker beasts activate. The tank needs to grab them from the tree he was not attacking and bring them over to the tree he was attacking. Two of them can be killed fast, the last one of each group should be killed at the same time.

As soon as all six of them are dead, everyone hits the original target till the trees once again get protected by the bog-lurkers. Tanks need to grab them again at the other tree, but this time, they need to be killed at the same time (all six of them).

So dps them down but not kill them at once (watch your aoe attacks). When the team is ready, kill all of them quickly and attack the tree again.

If you want to get the challenge, you are only allowed to kill twelve of the bog-lurkers, so you need to pump out a lot of damage during the three dps-phases.

We needed some tries, but finally managed to do it. I won the First-Age-Symbol and this is the bow I made. Luckily, I did have enough ixp-runes to get it to level 70 and enough scrolls to max it out.

It is a bit sad, than in about half a year, the bow will be replaced again by a level 70 third age weapon, but that is the way these games work.

LotRO - Ivar down on Tier 2 with Challenge Mode

After some tries yesterday, we managed to kill Ivar in Ost Dunhoth on Tier 2 with the Challenge Mode. Sadly, we didn't get the second chest, as we had died trying. Even though we got the message that we did the challenge, we did not get the chest.

Game Masters were helpful as ever /sarcasm off and told us, in a polite way, to /sod off

As it is getting late, we only took a brief look at the last boss and wiped fast.

We got one coin for the First Age Item and one coin for the trousers. I won neither.

The fight is actually quite fun. Not too unfair, if you know the mechanics and act accordingly.

I used Buff Bars and I really do recommend using it. It is the first time, I use an add-on and I am sure, that it is a great help for this fight.

LotRO: Echoes of the Dead, First Impression

Three days in with the new content, it is time to give a first impression.

I managed to finish the book quest on my Minstrel and my Hunter. Volume 3, Book 3, has eleven chapters. All of it is soloable. It does not offer a huge amount to do, but gives some nice loot (ixp rune and lvl 65 second age class item). I loved the instances with Isildur and chapter seven, where you attack different groups whilst storming the hill.

Of the new instances, I ran the Oatbarton one most (on Rune-Keeper, Hunter, Minstrel (twice) and Captain (unsucessfully)). The first boss, a spider, does not offer much resistance. If you switch your attacks to the egg fast enough and or at least kill the hatchlings, this fight is finished soon enough.

Next fight is against a cauldron. One of the most funny fights in LotRO. As it is a bit a dps-race, one of the three (with the highest dps) will constantly attack the cauldron. The others have to /slap hobbits, avoid dropping pools in the wrong spots and probably a bit of dps and healing. With a healing Rune-Keeper, a Warden and a Captain, we just didn't have enough dps.

Last fight is also very nice. Mostly the Tank has to watch his steps, when he does, the fight is fun and easy. Power can run out easily, so use pots as often as possible.

Stoneheight, I only briefly visited so I can't tell you a lot about it.

I also ran the Glaciel Fortress instance with my Minstrel. One thing I learnt, is that you don't have to attack the bears, you can just run by them if you don't stay too long in their vicinity.

The Lost Temple is the one instance, I didn't even step into.

The Ost Dunhoth raid consists of five wings, I have been in the mammoth wing, the tree wing, the Balrog wing and to Gotheron, the end boss. As there were a lot of sign-ups (and I was mostly not on the list), I was on no successful run on tier 2. I did the Balrog on Tier 1, after some failed Tier 2 tries.

There is nothing bad in the new instances and I am sure, we will have some fun in them. I got some usefull loot, a nice cloak from the farm for example. But I am happy, that there is a lot to do again.

Lord of the Rings Extended Edition on Blu-ray

Got an email from Amazon.com, that there will be a "Limited Extended Version" of Lord of the Rings on Blu Ray.

Source:  amazon.com

As I already own the DVD extended version and the quality is good enough for me and there are no additional perks with this new release, I am not sure, if I am going to buy it.

Saldly, there is no release date...

LotRO: Lieutenant Six Man Hard Mode Attempt

Yes, attempt, in short, we failed.

We did have a successful Lieutenant Six Man Easy Mode Run some weeks ago. Now we tried a Hard Mode (yes, it has been done successfully by others before).

As group setup, we used two Hunters, two Rune-Keepers and a Captain and a Guardian.

In hindsight, I might switch the Captain for a Warden. But maybe this is because I hardly play Captain ;). All tha other groups I saw, have used a Captain, some have added a Burglar or a Lore-Master.

I joined on Hunter

We had locks for BG I and II so we staret with the first guards. We got killed by them on the first try, but then, things went smoothly. Even when, stupid me, pulled a second of those annoying light. Luckily, the first light was on 15k, so it didn't take that long.

Our tank died on the wights, which we usually take as a good sign (he almost dies in every raid we go, doesn't matter if he is on Guardian or Lore-Master).

The first attemt at the Lieutenant went quite well, we managed to stationary tank him most of the time but the first death caused a wipe. Second try was bad. The third try went better but the forth and last try was nowhere near a success.

We had problems with corruption removal. I used Improved Dazing Blow, but it is slow (or at least feels like it) and I had more fails then success. I rather like the ranged skills of the Lore-Master and such.

Even though we did not succeed on this run, we learnt a lot and I am sure, that a next (and hopefully successful) run will take place soon.

Movie Review: Quantum of Solace

Already two years old, the DVD has been lying around for some time.



I grew up with the Bond movies and they have played an important role. But since Daniel Craig is James Bond, I have lost the love and admiration for that character. It might be, that he will develop his character to the former/future lovable Bond, but I somehow doubt it.

So why do we (or rather I) like James Bond?

First his character. As stated before, since Daniel Craig is James Bond, he is an ass. Why should I like him or identify with him? No idea.

Secondly, beautiful women. Olga Kurylenko stars as Camille Montes and does a good job. She is both beautiful and likeable. Gemma Arterton plays Strawberry Fields. She is also beautiful, but act like a caricature.

Then locations. We have Siena and Bregenz in Europe, Haiti (acutally Panama, but who cares), Bolivia (yep, Panama again) and some more. Nothing too bad nor too good here. Think, this was an OK part of the movie.

Villains. Nope, nothing here. Mathieu Amalric plays the counterpart of James Bond, but falls flat. He is neither threatening nor are any of his thugs anything special. I am not sure, if this is a mistake of the writers or if Mathieu Amalric is a bad actor. But surley, he will be one of the fastes forgotten James Bond villains.

Gadgets. Nope, an other fail. Nothing to see here...

Story. Hm, bad corporations want to make money. Boooring! US backs dictators. Boooring! James Bond wants to revenge killed girlfriend but goes down on ever skirt. Not realistic.

Chases. They exist, but will be forgotten soon.

One of the few highlights, was when Bond finds Strawberry covered in oil. That was a James-Bond-Moment! And Judi Dench is the perfect M.

Rotten Tomatoes gives the movie 62 or 64 percent. I would give it a 4.5 out of ten.

Movie Review: Push

After having seen a trailer on youtube.com I found the DVD for about five USD in a retail store.

The movie did not get a theatrical release, which is understandable.

It takes place in an alternative reality, where some people have extraordinary abilities. Some can move objects, others can plant memories into other people mind, some can see the future and so on.

Governments try to weaponise or at least control them.

The movie mostly takes place in Hong Kong and the setting is one of the strong points of the movie. It made me want to visit HK...

Camilla Belle reminds me a lot of Selma Blair and delivers a solid performance. Same can be said of Dakota Fanning. But they aren't enough to give this movie a favourable review.

Mainly because the story and the characters are that bad. Some action scenes, espeacially fights, are well done but the story, especially the end of the movie is just not worth your time.

It is a pity. There is certainly potential in the plot, but still, out of ten, I would give it 3.5.

So if you want to give it a try:

LotRO: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

It has been two weeks since my last post and a lot has happened since.

The Good

I have been doing a lot of runs in the School and Library in Eregion and if I have enough time, I get ten Supreme Third Marks per day. This has become quite easy and I can’t remember having a wipe these last two weeks.

Some of the S3Ms I have used to complete my sets, with the rest, I have been crafting lots of level 65 Second Agers (hoping to get more than three legacies on identification).

If I understand the patchnotes, it makes sence not to decon Legendary Items at the moment. If I did decon them now, I would miss out on the Legendary Replacement Scrolls and the new shards. But on the other side, I have only some Legendary Fragments left, which I need to make more Second Agers. Seems the Auction House is the way to go...

We have been running Barad Guldur lots of times. BG I and II are on farm. The Lieutenant on the other side, can still be a bitch. In most cases, it is not that much his fault, than a mistake of a kinnie or sometimes a technical issue. Luckily my internet connection is solid and I never had a disconnect during a boss-fight (once while fighting the trash-mobs). The tactics how to kill the Lieutenant are clear and we have recovered many times, even with several Morfears.

The Ugly

But we seem to have one or more players, that have a high risk of causing wipes. I still think, that 150 radiance should be required to do that fight in the hard-mode. But some still join the fight with some 15-radiance-pieces even thought the 25-radiance-pieces are easy to get. If you are a hunter, there is no reason not to have the full Epic-Helegrod-set (when I fight the LT, I use the Epic-Helegrod-set for the first phase of the fight and when the LT dismounts, I switch to the BG-set), as the set-bonus is great. The same person has no morale-pots and in the three attempts yesterday, he got killed first two times...
The Bad

When I speak out, I get reprimanded... The same person expresses suprise, when other people join instances, when they are locked to win an armour piece.

The Good

I got twenty pieces on five characters. On three further toons, I have done one or more successful runs without winning a piece. My Champion is the only character I have, which has not yet successfully done BG. Hunter and Minstrel are my mains and they both have five pieces (both missing the shoulders). My Rune-Keeper has the first four pieces. Burglar and Lore-Master have three of the four first pieces.

We have a rule, that each player can only win one coin fort he Barad Guldur set a week.

Probably, I have the most BG-parts in our kin, I would be on the same level than the next one I know of, but I won two pieces on my last run (I had won one on Durcheset but noone did need the second gloves that dropped, so I got two pieces). Do I feel bad that I probably have the most? No. I do think that I have put a lot of effort in all my characters and that I know how to do the fight on every position needed. With this, I can support my kin, and I am not feeling that I am leeching from other players.

Some officers don’t roll for coins they lead themselves or only roll on their mains. I did pass on rolling for the other four characters, but might start to roll on them too, if I have BG I and II parts on all the other characters. The longer we do this instance, the more often, we will get coins, noone can use...

Yesterday, I brought my Captain to the LT, which was his first time up the tower. We had an almost perfect first try which ended with a wipe when the LT had less than 10k morale. Second fight was one to rather not remember. But the third one was successful.

And behold, in the end, after killing the Lieutenant over twenty times, we got the Unwelcome Mat for the kin-house. Yay, never thought it would drop at all...

Besides BG and the three-mans, I have been running some other instances, but mostly just to help other people or have a fun time.

The Merry

We did have a social night with a movie-quiz followed by karaoke and some Dwarven Wrestling. We were asked to roll a level 10 Dwarven Champion and were handed standard axes. Then we sparred for a Legendary Belt. It was a fun night.

I also like going to the Ettenmoors with a Kin-Raid. I hardly join PvP without some kinnies but it can be addicting. The most important reason that I don’t go into the moors more often is lag. I rather spend my time pawning some noobs in TF2.

An other event I am looking forward too, is the Kin-Meet in Amsterdam. It will be the first one I am able to join and Kin-Meets seem to involve a lot of drinking.

Since many weeks, I have been making plans for a social-night in Middle Earth. It still needs a bit of work but I am really looking forward to that.

The Updates

I’ve been scouting the forums less than in recent updates. On one hand, I would like to see the new instances, on the other hand, I still want to be able to explore them myself, when the update goes live.

I couldn’t keep myself from reading the developers diaries. Most of the changes I like. Minstrel and Hunter are my mains and Burglar is my fourth character (third would be my Rune-Keeper) and what I have seen in the diaries is positive.

The Burglar updates were not overwhelming. I would have hoped, that Burglars got a bit more love, but at least, we didn’t get nerfed.

With the Character Panel update, they did a great job. Having two more outfit-slots is very nice. I am not a big fan of the stats part, but that is not extremely important to me.

Radiance Removal was an other topic. I like the idea of Radiance, probably one of the few people who do. The fault was to connect Radiance with equipment / armour. If we had gotten Radiance through deeds, say slaying the Watcher gives you a one-time Radiance gain, so does ever other Raid-boss. Some Raids could be gated by Radiance, so that you would have to have done several Raids successfully to do some of the new content.

I can’t talk much about the Monster Play diary.

The Legendary Item changes are welcome too. I am not too sure, how they will affect game-play. Grinding will still be a major part of the game if you want to have the perfect equipment and I don’t mind the amount of grind in LotRO.

Conclusions

I am still enjoying the game and our kin and am really looking forward to the new content. I love having a new raid and some other instances. From what I have heard, they are going to keep us interested and challenged for the months to come.

The Question

How important is loot? We had some discussions about the importance of loot versus the fun of playing in a friendly group. There was a similiar discussion a few months ago, about succeeding in raids.

I am a bit emotional and I like loot and I like to do raids successfully. So when things went wrong (we wiped and wiped and wiped) I could express my emotions. I think I have managed to keep it down these last weeks and when things go wrong, I just turn off my mike.

Back to the point. There seems to be no easy and fair way to distribute loot. DKP seems to be the fairest option, but it is a lot of work. Other options are easier, but not fairer (even though fairness is no universal standard). Should those only missing one part of a set have priority or a better chance?

LotRO: Multiboxing School and Library, Update

After the first run, I made changes. I swapped Captain to the main screen and used Hunter and Minstrel on the two other screens. What a huge difference that made. I hardly died on the last run and could do them both in less than two hours. It didn't even take me much longer, than it would have taken with a PUG.

This is a great way for me to grind some Superior Third Marks. I am not really looking forward to doing them on my own, but as most of my kinnies don't run them anymore, this offers a good alternative.

As my Hunter and my Captain have the full Helegrod-Set already, I traded the S3Ms for two Symbol of Celebrimbor. I made myself a Captain Emblem and a Guardian Great Axe. Welcome to the lottery ;)

Piztor in the Library and the three guards at the door in the School are the only worthy opponents.

I am still going for the Epic-Helegrod set for my Minstrel, as the + 5 percent healing is nice. Which ones I will do next, I don't know. Probably Champion and Rune-Keeper.

Salt

It has been some time, since I did a movie review and this one will contain spoilers.

Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt who works for the CIA. She is a Russian sleeper agent who was planted in the US as a child. Her boss travels to the USA and tells her employees, that Evelyn Salt is going to kill the Russian president in a few days.

He then manages to kill two guards and run away. The CIA then tries to detain Salt but she manages to break free. She tries to contact her husband, but finds their appartment empty.

She then goes to New York and kills the Russian president. Then she meets with Orlov, her boss, and watches her husband get killed by Orlov. Next she goes to Washington and saves the PotUS (President of the United States, that is).

Is this the worst movie I have ever seen? No, but very close. It has a 6/10 rating from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes (only a 3.5 rating from viewers though). Imdb.com give it a 6.5/10. Have they seen the same movie???

Why did I hate it? Because it is highly unrealistic even thought it tries to be realistic. I like X-Men, The Fifth Element and other unrealistic movies, but at least they never claim to be authentic.

The amount of mistakes, goofs and continuity and factual errors is mindboggling.

I also missed the exotic locations and sfx. Angela Jolie is not the right actor for this role, I like her in Tomb Raider and Troy. And how did she fall in love with that guy? Just an other point, I could not believe.

Mulit-boxing The Library at Tham Mirdain

After the School run, I tried the Library. The ground floor did not pose any challenge. Neither did Unudhu, the boss nearer the entrance. I wiped about three times on Piztor and I ran Fellowship's Heart on the last run.

I had been using my Hunter on my main screen. I might switch to using the Captain on the main screen as he uses more skills than the Hunter or Minstrel.

Chieftain Gûrsh was no match for the happy three. Would have been much faster, if my Hunter had not accidently shot him and pulled aggro...

Conclusion. I am not ready for Duo-boxing either instance. But if noone is online, why not run them myself. I will try to get more practice and report my findings.

Duo-boxing The School at Tham Mirdain

I have been thinking about this for some time and am now trying it. My group consists of my Hunter (as my main) and a Cappy on second account. I also have my Minstrel with me, but am not planning on using him

The School has been much easier (up to now) than my last attempt at the Library. There are two ways of doing this instance. One way is only clearing one side and disbanding after rescuing the books, the other one is to do the whole instance. I will try the later.

The first groups I managed to do without any problems. Power runs low sometims and I miss decent interrupts.

After less than five minutes, the ground floor is cleared. Llygad is still standing in the middle with his allies, but I ll try to do the next boss, the group of three at the door, first.

OK, three wipes and nowhere near a success.

I then switched to Llygad and killing him was easy.

After yet anonther wipe, I had a successful attemp and killed the guards at the door. My Cappy died though and I used my Minstrel to heal me through it. At least it is possible and with some practice it will hopefully become easier and easier.

The next part was a bit more difficult than I had expected.

I had planned of using the Hunter to kite the mobs, which was stupid. Cappy are better suited for that role. Next time...

Now for the last fight. I am almost been fighting for an hour, with some short breaks. This leaves room for lots improvements...

The fight against Târsh was quite quick. Cappy healing was not enough, so I used my minstrel too. Cappy died in midfight, but Minstel and Hunter had no problems.

Egypt - Sandmonkey

Sandmonkey is a blogger in Egypt. He has probably been arrested by pro-Mubarak thugs. Following is his last post (as his account has been suspended):

I don't know how to start writing this. I have been battling fatigue for not sleeping properly for the past 10 days, moving from one's friend house to another friend's house, almost never spending a night in my home, facing a very well funded and well organized ruthless regime that views me as nothing but an annoying bug that its time to squash will come. The situation here is bleak to say the least.

It didn't start out that way. On Tuesday Jan 25 it all started peacefully, and against all odds, we succeeded to gather hundreds of thousands and get them into Tahrir Square, despite being attacked by Anti-Riot Police who are using sticks, tear gas and rubber bullets against us. We managed to break all of their barricades and situated ourselves in Tahrir. The government responded by shutting down all cell communication in Tahrir square, a move which purpose was understood later when after midnight they went in with all of their might and attacked the protesters and evacuated the Square. The next day we were back at it again, and the day after. Then came Friday and we braved their communication blackout, their thugs, their tear gas and their bullets and we retook the square. We have been fighting to keep it ever since.

That night the government announced a military curfew, which kept getting shorter by the day, until it became from 8 am to 3 pm. People couldn't go to work, gas was running out quickly and so were essential goods and money, since the banks were not allowed to operate and people were not able to collect their salary. The internet continued to be blocked, which affected all businesses in Egypt and will cause an economic meltdown the moment they allow the banks to operate again. We were being collectively punished for daring to say that we deserve democracy and rights, and to keep it up, they withdrew the police, and then sent them out dressed as civilians to terrorize our neighborhoods. I was shot at twice that day, one of which with a semi-automatic by a dude in a car that we the people took joy in pummeling. The government announced that all prisons were breached, and that the prisoners somehow managed to get weapons and do nothing but randomly attack people. One day we had organized thugs in uniforms firing at us and the next day they disappeared and were replaced by organized thugs without uniforms firing at us. Somehow the people never made the connection.

Despite it all, we braved it. We believed we are doing what's right and were encouraged by all those around us who couldn't believe what was happening to their country. What he did galvanized the people, and on Tuesday, despite shutting down all major roads leading into Cairo, we managed to get over 2 million protesters in Cairo alone and 3 million all over Egypt to come out and demand Mubarak's departure. Those are people who stood up to the regime's ruthlessness and anger and declared that they were free, and were refusing to live in the Mubarak dictatorship for one more day. That night, he showed up on TV, and gave a very emotional speech about how he intends to step down at the end of his term and how he wants to die in Egypt, the country he loved and served. To me, and to everyone else at the protests this wasn't nearly enough, for we wanted him gone now. Others started asking that we give him a chance, and that change takes time and other such poppycock. Hell, some people and family members cried when they saw his speech. People felt sorry for him for failing to be our dictator for the rest of his life and inheriting us to his Son. It was an amalgam of Stockholm syndrome coupled with slave mentality in a malevolent combination that we never saw before. And the Regime capitalized on it today.

Today, they brought back the internet, and started having people calling on TV and writing on facebook on how they support Mubarak and his call for stability and peacefull change in 8 months. They hung on to the words of the newly appointed government would never harm the protesters, whom they believe to be good patriotic youth who have a few bad apples amongst them. We started getting calls asking people to stop protesting because "we got what we wanted" and "we need the country to start working again". People were complaining that they miss their lives. That they miss going out at night, and ordering Home Delivery. That they need us to stop so they can resume whatever existence they had before all of this. All was forgiven, the past week never happened and it's time for Unity under Mubarak's rule right now.

To all of those people I say: NEVER! I am sorry that your lives and businesses are disrupted, but this wasn't caused by the Protesters. The Protesters aren't the ones who shut down the internet that has paralyzed your businesses and banks: The government did. The Protesters weren't the ones who initiated the military curfew that limited your movement and allowed goods to disappear off market shelves and gas to disappear: The government did. The Protesters weren't the ones who ordered the police to withdraw and claimed the prisons were breached and unleashed thugs that terrorized your neighborhoods: The government did. The same government that you wish to give a second chance to, as if 30 years of dictatorship and utter failure in every sector of government wasn't enough for you. The Slaves were ready to forgive their master, and blame his cruelty on those who dared to defy him in order to ensure a better Egypt for all of its citizens and their children. After all, he gave us his word, and it's not like he ever broke his promises for reform before or anything.

Then Mubarak made his move and showed them what useful idiots they all were.

You watched on TV as "Pro-Mubarak Protesters" – thugs who were paid money by NDP members by admission of High NDP officials- started attacking the peaceful unarmed protesters in Tahrir square. They attacked them with sticks, threw stones at them, brought in men riding horses and camels- in what must be the most surreal scene ever shown on TV- and carrying whips to beat up the protesters. And then the Bullets started getting fired and Molotov cocktails started getting thrown at the Anti-Mubarak Protesters as the Army standing idly by, allowing it all to happen and not doing anything about it. Dozens were killed, hundreds injured, and there was no help sent by ambulances. The Police never showed up to stop those attacking because the ones who were captured by the Anti-mubarak people had police ID's on them. They were the police and they were there to shoot and kill people and even tried to set the Egyptian Museum on Fire. The Aim was clear: Use the clashes as pretext to ban such demonstrations under pretexts of concern for public safety and order, and to prevent disunity amongst the people of Egypt. But their plans ultimately failed, by those resilient brave souls who wouldn't give up the ground they freed of Egypt, no matter how many live bullets or firebombs were hurled at them. They know, like we all do, that this regime no longer cares to put on a moderate mask. That they have shown their true nature. That Mubarak will never step down, and that he would rather burn Egypt to the ground than even contemplate that possibility.

In the meantime, State-owned and affiliated TV channels were showing coverage of Peaceful Mubarak Protests all over Egypt and showing recorded footage of Tahrir Square protest from the night before and claiming it's the situation there at the moment. Hundreds of calls by public figures and actors started calling the channels saying that they are with Mubarak, and that he is our Father and we should support him on the road to democracy. A veiled girl with a blurred face went on Mehwer TV claiming to have received funding by Americans to go to the US and took courses on how to bring down the Egyptian government through protests which were taught by Jews. She claimed that AlJazeera is lying, and that the only people in Tahrir square now were Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. State TV started issuing statements on how the people arrested Israelis all over Cairo engaged in creating mayhem and causing chaos. For those of you who are counting this is an American-Israeli-Qatari-Muslim Brotherhood-Iranian-Hamas conspiracy. Imagine that. And MANY PEOPLE BOUGHT IT. I recall telling a friend of mine that the only good thing about what happened today was that it made clear to us who were the idiots amongst our friends. Now we know.

Now, just in case this isn't clear: This protest is not one made or sustained by the Muslim Brotherhood, it's one that had people from all social classes and religious background in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood only showed up on Tuesday, and even then they were not the majority of people there by a long shot. We tolerated them there since we won't say no to fellow Egyptians who wanted to stand with us, but neither the Muslims Brotherhood not any of the Opposition leaders have the ability to turn out one tenth of the numbers of Protesters that were in Tahrir on Tuesday. This is a revolution without leaders. Three Million individuals choosing hope instead of fear and braving death on hourly basis to keep their dream of freedom alive. Imagine that.

The End is near. I have no illusions about this regime or its leader, and how he will pluck us and hunt us down one by one till we are over and done with and 8 months from now will pay people to stage fake protests urging him not to leave power, and he will stay "because he has to acquiesce to the voice of the people". This is a losing battle and they have all the weapons, but we will continue fighting until we can't. I am heading to Tahrir right now with supplies for the hundreds injured, knowing that today the attacks will intensify, because they can't allow us to stay there come Friday, which is supposed to be the game changer. We are bringing everybody out, and we will refuse to be anything else than peaceful. If you are in Egypt, I am calling on all of you to head down to Tahrir today and Friday. It is imperative to show them that the battle for the soul of Egypt isn't over and done with. I am calling you to bring your friends, to bring medical supplies, to go and see what Mubarak's gurantees look like in real life. Egypt needs you. Be Heroes.

What if...... Part 1

Disclaimer: I do not work for Turbine nor Codemasters.

In this series, I would like to speculate about the future of Lord of the Rings Online. dotfive has a good post on the US-forums.

So, there will be a new raid and instance-cluster (probably with a mixture of 3-, 6- and 12-mans, not sure about a 24-man raid) in the next weeks or months as well as a new raid and some instances in the Anniversary Update (which would be April 24th 2011).

The Rise of Isengard will be released in Fall 2011. He adds, that there will be three more regions for PvE and one PvP area, indicating, that this will happen in Fall 2011.

In this post I wrote about the new locations which have appeared near the stones/relics. Those could very well be where the next instances and raids will take place. The ruins in the south of Enedwaith, near the white rabbit, could be the raid-cluster for the Anniversary Update.

This would mean, that there is no new landmass till Fall 2011. Dunland, Gap of Rohan and Isengard would arrive at the same time, which would make sence, if the level-cap is going to be raised to 70, as there would need to be lots of content for those five levels.

Concerning the new zone for PvP, my guess would be the east of Isengard, with the Fangorn to the north (as a border, not a part of it). If I remember correctly, there was an statement, that the PvE would never be reachable by monster players. So there will be some kind of zoning dividing PvP from PvE.

Will the Ettnemoors be closed? Probably not, so how will they bring MPs to Isengard? Turbine has managed to suprise us in the past, so lets see what they deliver.

Monster Play will be F2P. You could be able to play a bit for free, but if you wanted to be a 'blue' or a 'red' dot (which are higer ranks than the beginning 'green' ranks), you would have to buy those perks. Would not be that difficult to implement.

So take a short look at Dunland:

Dunland, at least from the climate point of view, is no too different from Enedwaith. It should have about the same size, probably also a longer north-south than east-west.

On this map, we have all three parts. Dunland, probalby the same size as Enedwaith with Methedras in the East.

source: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/i/isengard.html

The Gap of Rohan would cover the River Isen and the peaks of the White Mountains in the south. We could even get Helms Deep with the Gap of Rohan. This is nothing more than me speculating.

Iseangard would still be big enough with Orthanc and, again speculation, Entwood.

We could meet up again with part of the Fellowship, getting pipeweed for Pippin or taking a peek into his Palantir.

If I remember correctly, when we arrive at Isengard, the Orthanc will have already fallen and the Ents are watching that Saruman does no harm. I would guess, that we would raid Orthanc as he might have still some loot hidden (yay, more climbing of towers....).

We could also have Raids in the caves behind Helm Deep and Skirmishes in Helms Deep and Session Play in Helm Deep and Orthanc.

Back to PvP. If we get mounted combat, the PvP area could be quite huge. My favourite zone for this would be the northern fields of Rohan with borders to Fangorn to the north, the Anduin in the east, Isengard to the west and Helms Deep and Edoras in the south.

The Rohirrim would be the best fraction for the new PvP area, as it could offer some nice horses for the mounted combat.

Of course, this is a lot of speculation. Neverless, this area has a lot of possibilities to offer, mightier than killing boars for food or searching for hobbit boots (not that it was not fun to do it once or twice).

P.S.: Link added according to Adam's link in comment-section http://thekhazadguard.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/dunland-and-isengard/

A brief introduction

As my LotRO-blog has quite a few more readers since I joined http://combo.mmeow.net/, I would like to introduce myself.

Almost fourty years ago, I was born in Basel, Switzerland. I have two sisters and am the only son of my parents.

After a few years, we moved to London, where my father worked. There I was introduced to the world of the fantastic and Narnia is one of the first books I remember. Soon thereafter I read The Hobbit and some years later Lord of the Rings.
My father worked for IBM and I grew up with computers. I enjoyed the Kings Quest series and the Infocom games which soon led me to Middle Earth Role Playing Game among others.

I never tried World of Warcraft as I did not like the graphics but some months after its release, I started with Lord of the Rings Online on an English speaking EU-server. Even though German is my first language, English is the language I watch movies, read books and play games in.

I still remember the day, when I was questing in the Lone Lands and grouped up with a Lore Master who then invited me to the kin he was in. After the ‚dreaded’ interview, I became a recruit in the greatest kin ever and am a member since.

We use vent a lot and we have some great characters and players from all over Europe. Most are based in the UK but our Skandinavian fraction is strong (Viking Power), our Polnish player knows everything about the game, our Greeks are the most fun and we have some great raid leaders.

Back to myself.

Soon after starting playing Lord of the Rings Online, I got a second account and shortly afterwards, a third account. All are Lifetimers. I also have three computers, three 24 inch monitors and yes, I need a bigger desk.

Most of the time, I just run one computer, when I craft or farm, I use two or three computers. Three computers are great for power-leveling.

I have one main of each class at level 65. I also have some crafters at level 65, as some recepies demand reputation with certain fractions. In total, I have 30 characters. 16 of them are in two kins of my own (so I can have two kin-houses of my own) the rest are in ‚my’ main kin.

Which is my main? I don’t know, to be honest. Either the Minstrel or the Hunter. I feel quite proficient on my Rune-Keeper and Champion, a bit less on my Lore-Master and Burglar. Captain and Guardian I do need to get more practice and this is also true for my Warden.

I really like the Warden, so don’t be offended, that I put him last. I will play him a lot more, in the future.

Even though I have some Creeps, I hardly play them. I sometimes go freeping, but usually just with some Kinnies.

Besides LotRO and Computer games, I am also interested in politics and am running two politic-related blogs. I also have an adult-oriented blog but I keep these blogs seperate from LotRO.

LotRO - Links

One of my most visited sites (besides http://combo.mmeow.net/ of course) is HdRO - Der Widerstand.

Yes, it is on German. But there are some English captions and there are lots of pictures and maps.

I especially like the part for the Housing. This page shows the diffent wall decorations and this one helps you finding the right floor. On the main page, right at the bottom, you can listen to all the ingame-juke-boxes for your house.

Darzil does a great job with his site, but HdRO - Der Widerstand has a similiar site worth checking out.

Where HdRO - Der Widerstand has no competition, is the quest descriptions. Check out this page for example, which shows all the locations and people involved in that specific quest.

Having the picture of the mob (with its morale, power and level) as well as the item starting the quest can help a lot.

Not sure, where to hand in? Voila, the map as well as a picture of the man where you can hand the quest in as well as all the details about the reward, prerequisite and follow-up quests, what could you wish for more???

OK, I know, for it to be in English.

LotRO - Update

These last weeks, I have done quite a lot of runs for Supreme Third Marks (S3M) even joined some PUGs.

I am in an active and fun kin, so I usually do not join and PUGs. But as the in-kin-demand for S3M-runs has calmed down these last weeks, I have started to run some of them wit PUGs. PUG is short for Pick Up Group which usually have a higher risk of failure as the communication is worse.

Doing runs in a kin is more fun. You know the strength and weakness of your kinnies. Communication is better due to Ventrillo being used. Last but not least, the chances of getting an awful player or person is far less. In one run, we had a champion which didn't even have the Glory-skill (for tanking) nor a shield. He didn't even know, how to use potions and what they were for. I have no idea, how he got to level 65...

Besides the S3M-runs, I have been doing the repeatable quests in Enedwaith to get to kindred, even though I somehow guess, that the next raid will give reputation. I have been hunting a lot of Legendary Items, even low level ones, and have been deconstructing a lot of them at level 2+ to get more relics.

I also joined on a very nice Sammath Gûl run. Two Symbols of Celebrimbor dropped, I didn't win one though. I got one through a pugged Shool-run and made my Warden a nice DPS spear.

Last weekend, I tried to trio-box the Library, but failed. I used the Hunter-Guardian-Rune-Keeper combination. I will try the Champion-Minstrel-combo or the Hunter-Captain-combo next weekend. My attempts at soloing the Library on my Warden also failed. The School will be the next target.

Even thought I haven't played the Warden a lot, I like the potential this class has. I also did a lot of runs with my Captain and the results have been great. There is no class, I don't like to play. Sadly, I don't have as much time as I would need, to be able to play them all well they could be played...

LotRO - Legendary Items - Minstrel

There are two pools for Legendary Items (LIs for short):

Class Item Pool A 

Target Ballad Resist Rating 

Healing and Motivation Skills Morale Healing 

Raise the Spirit Healing 

Bolster Courage Healing 

Inspire Fellows Healing 

Ballad of War Magnitude 

Healing Skills Power Cost 

Class Item Pool B 

Target Song Resist Rating 

Chord of Salvation Cooldown 

Echoes of Battle Resistance Rating Debuff 

Cry of the Chorus Cooldown 

Song of the Dead Cooldown 

Ballad of Unshakable Will Fear Resistance 

Ballad of Flame Fire Defence 

Weapon Pool A   

Triumphant Spirit Cooldown 

Call to War Skills Resistance Chance 

Piercing Cry Damage 

Call of Oromë Damage 

Soliloquy of Spirit HoT Pulses 

Rally! Cooldown 

Healing Threat 

Weapon Pool B

Call of the Second Age Targets 

Call to Fate Critical Multiplier 

Recovery time Still as Death 

Tier 1 Ballad Damage 

Tier 2 Ballad Damage 

Target Resist Cry of Valar 

Cure Fear Cooldown 

So what does this mean? The Minstrel Class Item is the Songbook. I usually use my characters in raids and as Minstrel, Healing is our main job. 

Minstrel Songbook Pool



•Healing and Motivation Skills Morale Healing
This legacy is the most important one, as it affects all healing skills.

•Bolster Courage Healing
BC is our main healing skill, which makes this legacy the second most important.

•Inspire Fellows Healing
A group-healing skill (with a small buffing) which costs a lot of power. For short fights and when a Lore-Master is around, I have started using this skill. Watcher and Turtle come in mind.

•Healing Skills Power Cost
Maxed out, this skill reduces power consumption by 10 percent. Certainly nice to have.

•Ballad of War Magnitude
Champions will love you for this skill, as it gives maximal 10 percent melee offence.

•Chord of Salvation Cooldown
Reducing the cooldown for an nice, instant, power-costly single-target-heal.

•Cry of the Chorus Cooldown
Even less important, but better than what follows.

•Raise the Spirit Healing
Don't know, when I last used this skill.
•Song of the Dead Cooldown
With the Barad Guldur instance and probalby more undead in the next big raid, this might come in handy. But nothing I would really look out for.

•Target Ballad Resist Rating
•Target Song Resist Rating
I don't seem to get too many resists.

•Ballad of Flame Fire Defence
•Echoes of Battle Resistance Rating Debuff
•Ballad of Unshakable Will Fear Resistance
Don't seem to make that much of a difference.

Main Hand Weapon

•Rally! Cooldown
Reduces the cooldown for rally from 30 minutes to 24 minutes. This might seem to be not worth it, but I would recommend to get this one maxed, even if it is only on a rezing-weapon (i.e. a weapon only used for this skill. I often put the weapon on the quick-bar, above the Rally! icon and swich, when I need it.

•Recovery time Still as Death
Same as above. If possible, get one weapon with these two skills. This legacy reduces the cooldown from ten to four minutes. Nice! Saves a walk up the Tower of Barad Guldur.

•Healing Threat
In most fights, threat has been less of an issue lately. But it is always a good thing to lay low, so go for this one, if possible.

•Triumphant Spirit Cooldown
I like this legacy, even though it costs a lot of power and adds aggro. A lot of aggro. Not a skill I consider to be a must-have.

•Call of Oromë Damage
•Piercing Cry Damage
Two important attacks made 20 or 30 percent stronger? Must have on your war-speach-weapon, not that important, on your raiding-weapon.

•Call to War Skills Resistance Chance
•Call to Fate Critical Multiplier
•Call of the Second Age Targets
•Tier 1 Ballad Damage
•Tier 2 Ballad Damage
•Target Resist Cry of Valar
As I said, I usually heal or team up. These skills are important for your war-speach-weapon, but less (or not) on your raiding-weapon.

•Cure Fear Cooldown
A 3m range and a long cool-down makes this skill useless in most circumstances.

•Soliloquy of Spirit Heal Over Time Pulses
Can't remember, when I used this one.