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.
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
LotRO - Ivar down on Tier 2 with Challenge Mode
Monday, 28 March 2011
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.
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
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.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...
Monday, 28 February 2011
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:
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
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?
Monday, 7 February 2011
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.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
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.
Thursday, 3 February 2011
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.
Thursday, 27 January 2011
What if...... Part 1
Disclaimer: I do not work for Turbine nor Codemasters.
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.
So take a short look at Dunland:
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.
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.
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
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.
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.
Monday, 24 January 2011
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...
Friday, 21 January 2011
LotRO - Legendary Items - Minstrel
There are two pools for Legendary Items (LIs for short):
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.
Saturday, 15 January 2011
LotRO - Legendary Items
I just read on CStM, that you can move your LIs from the six slots you got at the moment.
If your main weapon is at slot 5 and you want to move it to slot 2, open your bags and open your Legendary Items panel. Switch the later to slot 5 (the one you want to move your level-up-and-decon LI to and which now holds the weapon you want to move to slot 2).
Find your decon LI in your bags and move it into the slot 5 (click-hold-and-move). Et voila.
Friday, 14 January 2011
LotRO - Mercenary
I was questing in Enedwaith (for the last time, as I had already taken my other eight mains through there) and I saw that a minstrel was being searched for Volume II, Book 5, Chapter 5.
Some quests later, he was offering 1 gold for a minstrel. Half an hour later, the price had gone up to 2 gold, then to 4 gold, then to 8 gold.
8 gold made me switch.
Somehow, I feel a bit bad. OK, 8 gold are probably not that much for a regular player. On all characters, I might have about 120 gold.
I don't mind helping people, but the 2.5.5. are not really fun instances to run. Fights are followed by periods of time where you just stand around. There is no loot which would make it worthwile to run them either.
All of them take about two to three hours to finish.
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Shakira - Give It Up To Me
I have been listening to this song far too long, so my judgement might be impaired. The song is easy listening and don't listen to what they sing, but the video is well done.
LotRO - An Echo of Days Past
This is the last instance in Volume III Book 2 Chapter 15.
Today, I ran it with my Warden, the last of my nine main characters. I always thought, it was a bit an anticlimatic instance, so I tried to explore it a bit. Instead of heading deeper into the mines, I climbed up the stairs.
When I reached the top of the ramps, I saw a hooded man walking in the mines. This is the picture I took. Sadly the quality is bad. I tried to improve it a bit, but it still looks bad. I think it is Gandalf, but why he is here, I don't know, it hardly makes sence. Any ideas?
An other thing. After fighting the bats, you can either attack the Cave-claw Scraper or run past him. If you just run past him, the other monsters don't spawn and the instance is finished faster (as you only need to fight the first few bats.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
LotRO - Small Update
It started with a letter. Bungo Grubb from Oatbarton wrote to Mayor Whitfoot, that a "tall stone block bearing unpleasant symbols" had appeared in his field. My first thought was 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Logging my Minstrel, I rode to Oatbarton and soon found the stone and talked to the people around it. The rock was oozing a green mist and around it, a large part of the field it stood in, was dead.
A new deed popped up too, called Mysterious Relics. This deed showed, that there were more of these relics hidden in Middle Earth. Sadly, there was no information given where to search. So after a short google, I found the other places (no, I am not spoiling it myself here, google it yourself).
I would have liked it better, if some hints had been given, so I would have been able to find them myself (not just by riding through the whole of Middle Earth).
The last quest sends you to the Prancing Pony with the innkeeper promising to help.
There had been a lot of rumours, that the next raid would concern the Gaunt-Lords.
We have alread met Ivar the Blood-hand in the swamps of Garth Agarwen in the Lone-lands, Drugoth the Death-monger who you can meet in Helegrod where he is part of the Dragon-instance, most have killed Thadúr the Ravager who hides in the Great Barrow and porbalby gets a lot of beating these days (thanks to Superior Third Marks), Ferndúr the Virulent who is the one I have seen the least of yet, as he resides in Imlad Bachorth, Angmar, where I hardly have gone to and, last but not least: Gortheron the Doom-caller. We have seen him in one of the quests in Lhe Colvarn in the Lich Bluffs and is probably our next target.
So we got five Gaunt-Lords and five Relics. Each of the relics has his colour. For pictures, please go here.
I would arrange the Gaunt-Lords differently than the OP does, so here is my suggestion:
Oatbarton - green - poison - Thadúr the Ravager
North Downs - red - blood - Ivar the Blood-hand
Forochel - purple - fear - Drugoth the Death-monger
Trollshaws - yellow - disease - Ferndúr the Virulent
Thror's Coomb - no colour (yet?) - Gortheron the Doom-caller
This is of course pure speculation. Some make more sence than others.
Some of the relics have new locations nearby.
In Oatbarton, there is a village to the north-west.
In the North Downs, there is a new settlement called Stoneheight.
Thror's Coomb bunny castle in the south-west could be the hot location for Gortheron, bring ye holy hand grenade.
Trollshows has no new location, but Elrond talks about the place behind the locked door.
In Forochel, I didn't see a new location either, but there easily could be an expanded castle further to the north-east.
I guess, the Enedwaidth stone will start to 'bleed' (or ooze) too and that this will happen, when the new raid-cluster goes life. As in Helegrod, I think that you need to defeat the 'old' Gaunt-Lords (all four of them), before you can fight Gortheron.
Even though I only got a new title, I like the way they are introducing the new raid.
Saturday, 8 January 2011
LotRO - Bambi
I know, Bambi is probably not in Middle Earth. But when you visit the lake in Dûn Corvan (near 71.9 S and 13.5 W) you will find a lot of critters. There are Deers and Squirrels all over the place, but nowhere as dense as here.
Sadly I need some more time, till I can post screenshots. Soon I am going DX11 and then this blog will be a bit more colourful.
Friday, 7 January 2011
LotRO - Lieutenant
In my last Lieutenant fight, I used the 150 Helegrod-Set (Armour of the Aurochs) till the second phase, when the dread gets stronger. This is when I switched to my Barad Guldur Set (I don't have the complete set yet, still missing the shoulders...).
My recommodation is to use the highest radiance you have, at least for the last phase of the fight. This will make you die less and hightens the chance of success.
LotRO - Update
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
LotRO - Update
Since my last update, I have been playing less. Lots of work....
I did some quests in Winterhome as I am trying to get the hidden deed and title "the Openhanded". Not there yet.
I brought my Guardian to the Barad Guldur and managed to tank Durchest and the Twins successful on Hard-Mode. Didn't win a piece though.
On the plus side, I got some days off soon, so I can play more. I want to get some more of the random-drop recepies to get my crafters up to date. Might even continue to do the quests in Enedwaith with my Guardian and Warden.
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Sony 3D bundle
Conclusion
I was suprised, that after entering the code on the sony-site to get GT5, there was no confirmation. I did wait for some days and after having checked my emails, I wrote Sony. Less than 24 hours later, I got a reply, telling me that my registration had worked and that the game would be sent next week.
About a week later, I had mail.
I will review Gran Turismo 5 in a seperate post.
However, even with all the updates needed, I couldn't get the other games that were part of the bundle. Somehow the registration needed, did not go through. As some of the games were part of a small 3D demo, I had the chance to view them and decided, that they weren't worth putting a lot of effort into getting them.
Sadly, at the moment there are very few movies which offer 3D support. The only one I would really want, is Avatar 3D. But as Panasonic has the exclusive rights till 2012 to sell Avatar 3D with their own TVs, this won't be happening any time soon. On ebay the movie sells for around 100 EUR, which is far more than I am willing to spend...
I am pleased with the Sony KDL-46NX710, 46" 3D TV Bundle Promotion PS3. I got a second PS3, which I right now don't need. Nor do I really have a need for the 3D feature. Probably, I would rather go for a non 3D-TV at the moment as prices for 3D-TVs will drop when more movies and games arrive.
Not that I am not happy with the 46NX710. It is a beautiful piece of hardware and I can't say nothing bad about it. But if I were on a tighter budget, I would rather not buy a 3D-TV right now.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
LotRO - Flagit and Gaerdring
Since the latest patch, both Flagit in DN and Gaerdring in the Maze GB have got an update.
Up till now, they were healing when hit during their shield-up phase but damage over time did not heal them. This has changed. Now they even get healed with bleeds and other damage over time, even if those attacks were started before the shield-up-phase.
Ale Association and Inn League Quests in less than one hour
There are several guides, how to do the quests the fastest way. This is what worked best for me. One source was this one.
You should get 4'400 Reputation for both Inn League and Ale Association in UNDER an hour. If you got a hunter, that is. I doubt, other classes can do this.
Before you can start with these quests, you need to do the initial quests for both fractions. One starts in the Prancing Pony (which is in Bree), the other near the Party Tree in the Shire.
What is the reason for doing both? If you only do one, you get to kindred much faster. For each quest you do, you gain 900 Reputation for the delivery fraction and loose 400 Reputation for the other fraction. With eleven quests, you can gain 4'400 for each fraction per day (net).
As an additional reward, you get a badge for ever quest you do for the AA and for the IL. For one such badge, you get three festival tokens, so if you get to kindred on this path, you can get lots and lots of festival marks. I hardly need to grind the festival quests, as this way, I hardly run out of marks at all.
An other thing you should do in advance, is collect the ales needed. Buy a full stack as they are cheap and it is no use, wasting your time:
Prancing Pony (Bree)
* Moor-boar Beer
* Stars of Old
Combe & Wattle Inn (Combe)
* Beakbreaker Ale
Thorin's Hall Inn (Thorin's Hall)
* Bombur's Beard Lager
Limael's Vineyard (Celondim)
* Limael's Vintage
Bird & Baby Inn (Michel Delving)
* Blagrove's Brown
Ivy Bush (Hobbiton)
* Thistlebelly Brew
Golden Perch (Stock)
* Brandy Wine
Forsaken Inn (Lone Lands)
* Swill
* Forsaken Ale
The Last Homely House (Rivendell)
* Dorwinion White
As you can't be on the quest for the same person for both fractions and because you can bring the beverages for the IL quests, you need to get all eleven AA quest at one of the central hubs.
When you hand in the AA, you can talk to the npc again and get the IL quest and directly afterwards hand the quest in. Some npcs like to talk and act, so be patient.
This is how I do it:
Start in the Prancing Pony, get the 11 AA quests.
Get two drinks.
Either map to Bree Homesteads and ride to Forsaken Inn or place map at Forsaken Inn and map there. Get drink
Port to Michel Delving, get drink
Ride Hobbiton, get drink
Ride Bywater, get 2 drinks
Ride Frogmorton, get drink
Ride Brockenborings, get drink, hand in
Ride Oatbarton, hand in
Port West Bree
Ride Thornley, hand in
Port Esteldin
take horse to Othrikar, hand in
Port Aughair, hand in
Port Rivendell, get drink
Swift Hrimbarg, hand in
Swift Rivendell, Swift Gwringis (dismount when Gwringis is loaded)
Ride Echad Candelleth, hand in
Port Thorin, get drink
Ride Refuge, hand in
Ride Thrasi Lodge (or use map), hand in
Post Ost Guruth
Ride Ost Haer, hand in
Port Forochel
Swift Zigilgund, hand in
LotRO - Are you ready to rumble?
Now that most of the instances can be reached by the skirmish-menu, probably much to the relief of Captains, our raids seem to start with much less delay.
What is deplorable is that many people lack the consumables needed.
Highest on the list are tokens. I usually have three stacks of plus five tokens on each of my raiding characters (usually one stack 40 minutes, 30 minutes and 15 minutes). It is always the same group of people who pop tokens before the fight and the same slackers that cry for one after a rez even though you know, they didn't pop one to start with. This gets on my fucking nerves...
Sadly, you can't inspect bags before the raid. Even more sad, that you should be able to do that in a kin.
I understand, that not everyone has a jeweller. But four of the seven vocations have prospector as one of the three professions. I am more than happy to craft tokens for those kinnies, who don't have a jeweller, just bring me the mats. If you are a historian and need tokens, trade some scrolls for tokens.
If you have only a yeoman, you can provide food for the raid. As a woodsman, you can at least do some farming.
Crafting does not take that much time. I usually use a warden to farm scholar- and prospector-nodes (yes, I got more than one warden). The out-of-combat-run-speed-skill does make farming nodes easier. I sometimes even triple-box, running from node to node on two accounts, crafting on my third account (this gets me killed in some places though...)
About one hour work gives enough consumables for one month heavy raiding. Some of my produce I put in the raid-chest or send to officers and friends.
So when it is this easy, why do I complain? Because when someone dies, get rezed and has to beg for a token, this wastes time and risks that he dies again (as due to dread, his health is reduced a lot). As many of the new fights punishes deaths, a further death increases the risk of a wipe.
LotRO - The Lieutenant of Dol Guldur has been nerfed
We had an (in the end) successfull Hard-Mode run on the Lieutenant yesterday. Somehow, I am not sure, if we really deserved it. On the other hand, it was my first attempt on Lore-Master and I still am happy, to be part of a successfull run.
The Lore-Master is the third class I brought to the LT (after Hunter and Minstrel). My role as Lore-Master? Battery for the Minstrel and healing Rune-Keeper as well as a bit of debuffing, corruption removal and pet-keeper.
After two wipes, the third attempt was a success. Even thought the fight has been nerfed A LOT it still needs some skill and coordination. Positioning is still a problem for a lot of people and whenever possible, I try not to stand still in one place. I think most would be overstrained to do the fight like I do, but I do die less than the rest.
I did die on the first attempt. I was kiting the Fellbiest and had to run through two pools. Dread was high already, so I was on half health. I took one damage and resisted the other pool and lost the fixate of the fell-biest. I was running to the group and wanted to use a health-potion, when I got hit by the breath of the Fellbiest. They have nerfed some aspects of the fight, but the breath-attack seems to go further than previously.
Winning one or two more pieces (I have 135 radiance on the Lore-Master) will much reduce the effect of the dread and make me more efficient.
My journey to Winter-Home
The Yule Festival has brought us a new location, Winter-Home. As the name indicates, it is covered in snow. I am not sure, where it lies, lore-wise, but from Michel Delving the horse goes west, up the hill.
There were (and still are) lots of complaints about the quests. So let's look at them, one by one.
Frostbuff Theatre has a daily quest (attend a show) which is fun to do. The theatre is also the best addition to LotRO and the theatre-housing-item is beautiful. There are no further quests, but a lot of titles, some deeds, and even 30 codies- or turbine-points to be earned per character. Not bad for less than two hours work.
You also get a Frostbuff Rotten Fruit and Frostbuff Flower Petals you can use ingame and I just need those (at least the Rotten Fruit) on all of my raiding characters ;)
Outside of the town, there is a field with Snowmen where you can fight snowball-battles. This is an easy and fast way to get Frostbuff coins. I even think, there is no limit to do these quests. So with a friend, you can get almost any amount of coins per day. These quest also seem to count on the quest-counter for the yule-festival.
The earned coins, you can either exchange for Yule-Tokens or give to beggars in a quest. The quest is on a daily counter and there is a hidden deed connected with it (I think you need to repeat the quest ten times to get some coins back and earn the title "the Openhanded".
The other quests are, hm, dubious. With the starving people in the town, I just couldn't bring myself to do the eat-as-much-as-you-can-quest. Nor did I want to rob the rich. Nor did I want to clean the vomit from the tables. Bringing a cask of ale to the drunk is a bit a grey area.
After a certain amount of quests, you get to choose either a nice set of clothes with a bad title or a set of worn out clothers and a good title. Right now, I am not sure, if it really checks if you did good or bad quests. I rather doubt it. So even if you did all the good quests (which are few) you still might be able to choos the nice set with the bad title "the miser". I will test this in the next days and report back.
I bought some snow men and the theatre for the kin-house. I also got some of the Yule-Wall-Decorations, but still need two of the Man-Yule-Wall-Decorations.
Still, I do think, that Winter-Home is a nice addition and I like having the choice not to do some quests, when it doesn't feel right.
Friday, 17 December 2010
LotRO - Skeleton Horse
As I already have suspected, the Skeleton Horse will hit the store from December 17th till January 6th, 2011.
The price is 1'495 points. Up to this moment, I am not sure, if Europeans get the same deal, but it is very probable.
I thought about buying this for my Burglar, but at this price, I don't think so. As it is limited to one character something around 500 points would be ok (which is what I get as a life-timer per month).
Antikythera mechanism built with Lego.
Built in 150 to 100 BC, maybe by Posidonius on Rhodes, it was found on a sunken ship in 1900 near Crete.
The mechanism seems to be an astronomical analog calculator used to predict the positions of the sun, the plantes and the moon. Thirty gears have survived, others have been lost, some suggest, that there might been more than double that amount.
The work in the video was made by Andrew Carol, an Apple software engineer, out of 1'500 Lego pieces.
LotRO - Update
I came home late from work yesterday and didn't do much before the Dol Guldur raid. We had a perfect start, as all were online on time and ready to go. The gauntlet went without us even sweating. I brought my Minstrel and even thought I was the only one, I had not too much to do. I did have two Rune-Keepers on healing-duty.
After only a brief bio break before Durchest we entered and veni - vidi - vici he was dead soon afterwards. With all the debuffs working and an experienced group, this fight is no challenge anymore. I won the chest-piece which brings me up to five pieces (missing on the shoulders) on my Minstrel and my Hunter. On my Rune-Keeper, I have four pieces (missing the shoulders and the trousers) and my Lore-Master has only the chest-piece (which is also the prettiest).
Only compaint here, was that the Lore-Master did not keep me powered up... I sent him several tells during the fight, but he was very stingy.
The way up to the Twins was painless too. No wipes and only few deaths. Cargaraf and Morgaraf were no match and killed fast.
There were two gloves-barter-items dropping, but only one person who needed them. So we left one in the chest...
As the run up to now had been such a walk in the park, we decided to try the rest of the raid, the Lieutenant. As the rest of the raid, the way up went very well.
We killed the Lieutenant of Dol Guldur on the frist try on Hard-Mode but to be honest, if the developers hadn't castrated him, things would have been different.
With the debuffs working, he hits like a little girl. Same goes for the Fell-Biest. Worst of all, the purple eyes who were instant-death before are hitting for less then 2k damage and are no threat anymore.
Lots of people did a bad job on this fight, running to the wrong places at the wrong time, not reacting fast enough, not paying attention. We managed to kill him on Hard-Mode, but the fight was not handled properly.
On the plus side, I got a piece I was trying to get lots of times. And we did all three Hard-Modes on the first try. And everyone was there on time and the first two bosses were done very good. So lets be happy with that and not complain too much about the successful, but ugly Lieutenant Hard-Mode.
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
LotRO - Update
We had a successful Lieutenant Hard-Mode run with three new people and no wipes. LT HM seems to be easier than Durchest or the Twins...
The run yesterday did not take place, as there were not enough sign-ups. I did do some book-quests on my Guardian and I reached the first quest-hub in Enedwaith.
I stationed him there and started doing the book-quests on my Warden. The book-quest involve a lot of traveling. As players have complained about this, Turbine has now changed some of the quest-rewards and has added a quick-travel-map (one-use) to the next quest-giver. For the Warden I have used this instead of some vendor-trash rewards.
Both Warden and Guardian have a very high survivability. On some classes, I had some difficulties if I had pulled too many enemies and did not have any good self-healing skills (Champion) or if the npcs I need to protect, died. With Warden and Guardian, things were much easier, even though it might take more time in some instances.
Update:
I took the Lore-Master through Dol Guldur and killed Durchest and the Twins. Didn't get a part of the set, lousy rolls, but got the best Lore-Master sword. It is called Saelwagol and has the best tactical crit rating of all swords ingame at this moment.
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
LotRO - Update
I bought the first four pieces of Armour of the Aurochs (Helegrod) for my Hunter and as I don't like its look, I use the Far-arrow's Armour (Barad Guldur) as a cosmetic.
With my Champion and my Lore-Master I did some quests in Enedwaith, only the quests in the Hobbit-village Maur Tulhau remain. As that are only about ten, I will be finished soon, probably even tonight.
Usually, I do these quests earlier, but as the starter quest has to be done at night, I missed some opportunities.
Champion seems to be better than my raid-traited Lore-Master. It might be different, if I would retrait my Lore-Master to do some more dps. But I am cheap. There have been some updates with the latest patch, but I haven't had much time to check them.
The new barter-item-vault has freed some needes space in my bags. Much appreciated!
I have bought some new character-slots as they were on sale and I will roll some new characters. Classwise it will be Burgler (L), Warden (M) and Guardian (R). All of these will be Men, or rather Female. This means, I will miss out on the new starter areas for Elves and Dwarfs, but I already saw them in beta.
Why then start some new characters. Yes, I have enough. Two reasons. First I want a second kin to get a second kin house. I am not saying, that I will get one right now as there is no space in the two housing instances I am in. But for a future update, why not?
The vault update is nice. I would have liked to be able to select several items and move them at tht same time into an other chest. And I have to try to get some unity in my system, say all IXP runes in chest 10.
Farming is also in my focus as one of the areas, I didn't do everything yet. I want to get one farmer to make the best pipe-weeds, just for fun of it.
What will I do next? I will try to run more instances to get some more sets. If I can't join a raid, I plan on doing the Enedwaith quests on Guardian and then Warden.
After that, I want to get the reputation done on some characters and try to get more dp. I have signed up for lots of raids, hope to get some armour pieces more.
Sunday, 5 December 2010
LotRO - Update
This might have lead us to fool around a bit too much (we had some deaths at the first two guards), but the raid-leader got us back into shape. The Gauntlet went very well and after a first wipe, we had a good run. I won the chest-piece for my Lore-Master which really looks nice:
As my Lore-Master has green eyes and red hair, I did dye it green. We also managed to do the Twins on hard-mode and as two chest-pieces dropped, this gave the team five armour-pieces.
After the fight, I went to Bree and answered some questions. Most questions are horse- and riding related. "Where can I get a horse" and such.
I try to answer them as best as I can and refer them to either lotrosteeds or this site.
An other interesting questions was how long a ingame-day was in real life. This source says, that the day/night cycle in LotRO is 3:06 long - 1:42 long for "day", and 1:24 long for "night"
Today, there is nothing on the calendar, so I plan to do some quests in Enedwaith with the Lore-Master and the Champion.
Friday, 3 December 2010
Sony 3D bundle
I got the Playstation 3 with the two goggles and the TMR-BR100 3D Transmitter.
On http://www.sony.ch/3Dbundle I entered the code I got for Gran Turismo 5. I used my email-address at the office, which I regret a bit, as the process didn't get any feedback.
I hope that when I go back to work on monday, there will be an email. I thought about registering again, this time with my private email, but the code was invalid. So something was registered on the other side.
Sony 3D Bundle
I got the HDMI-cable in my mail yesterday. Woot. First of four parts.
Even though I was at home yesterday, I missed the post-man who would have delivered the second parcel. Somehow, I fear that if I go and get the one parcel at the post-office this evening, I might have a notice to collect the second parcel at the post-office when I get home.
I am still not sure, what to do with the second PS3. I might sell it but I also just have two of them. Hm, will I continue to play in the PC-room, when I have a 3D TV set in my appartment?
LotRO - Update
I finished the main quests in Enedwaith on Burglar and Captain. If I am not grouping with kinsfolk, I am mostly on my Champion and Lore-Master. I am doing Volume 3, Book 1 and finished the Rift skirmish yesterday.
Since my last post, I got one Symbol of Celebrimbor and have used it to mak a fire-stone for my Rune-Keeper. Haven't done much with it though.
After my last crappy Captain Two-Handed-Sword I had a lot of luck and made him one with four good stats. Sadly, the reforges were bad so that it is rather mediocre (still better than what I got though).
I brought my Guardian for the first time to Dar Narbugud and tanked most of the bosses for the first time. Lucky for me (and the kin), this instance is level 60 (I think) and all went well. I even won a piece of the armour with a 500 on a /roll 500. Nice.
I am never sure, if I should even roll on those instances. I doubt I will ever get a full set. But I think, that most want it more for the cosmetic quality than to actually use it. It isn't even looking that great...
Yesterday we did an other Barad Guldur run for the two bosses. The officers hat a meeting at a short notice, so a Kinnie had to lead the raid. We did have enough sign-ups and most of them even showed-up.
But one person had to go away for ten minutes (he was gone for almost half an hour). An other crashed and didn't come back in (had to switch to Lore-Master). One more had problems with his vent and an other was awol too.
So after half an hour, and lots of switching, we started the fight. I think we did quite well with the gauntlet. Durchest was an other story. We wiped on the first try. I had to retrait my Lore-Master as I hadn't planned on bringing him that night so I partly blame myself for the first wipe (not a big part, I think).
Durchest does hit hard and we only had one Minstrel and two Rune-Keepers in this fight. I'd rather have two Minstrels healing this fight and don't think, that one Minstrel is enough. We had lots of deaths and when the Minstrel went down and there was no-one able to rez him, we wiped.
The fight had lasted very long. The fourty-minutes scrolls and tokens wore off at some point during the fight and I did repop a token to get at least some hope.
How did I do on the second run? I think I did quite well. I gave out a lot of power, mainly to the Minstrel, but also to the Rune-Keepers. Sometimes, I even had enough power to give to the Captains and the Guardian. I think I had the debuffs on most of the time. The skill lasts for 75 seconds and has a 60 seconds cooldown. Whenever I saw it was reaplieable, I did.
I started with debuffing Durchest, "See all Ends", "Command", "Ancient Craft", "Wind-Lore" and "Gust of Wind", then I used "Dispel Corruption" if it was needed followed by handing out power.
Before draining power from Durchest, I moved a bit away of the action to a quit spot, drew power and restarted my debuffing.
I am not sure, if this is the way to do it or if I should have used "Warding Knowledge: Dead" or something else. Might ask in the kin next time.
Radiance could have made it more difficult, as I only have 120 on my Lore-master. I think I should have 135...
LotRO - Ressources
Are you interested in Armour sets of Lord of the Rings Online?
http://lotro.northshield.co.uk/
Darzil has them all. Or at least all I know about.
This:
LotRO - Ressources
An other Link I often use, is the LotRO Horse site:
http://www.lotrosteeds.com/
One picture is the new, 2010 Yule Festival Horse.
It is very pretty and I like it better than the two already in game:
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Youtube: Rent Is Too Damn High Party
You might have seen Jimmy McMillan with his The Rent is 2 Damn High Party on youtube:
Funny or Die has done a remake with Jimmy which is worth watching.
Sadly, I can't post the video here so I have to send you to youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks9DBlH0VRY
Joke
Far away in the tropical waters of the Caribbean, two prawns were swimming around in the sea - one called Justin and the other called Christian.
The prawns were constantly being harassed and threatened by sharks that inhabited the area. Finally one day Justin said to Christian, "I'm fed up with being a prawn, I wish I was a shark, then I wouldn't have any worries about being eaten."
A large mysterious cod appeared and said, "Your wish is granted" and lo and behold, Justin turned into a shark.
Horrified, Christian immediately swam away, afraid of being eaten by his old mate.
Time passed (as it invariably does) and Justin found life as a shark boring and lonely. All his old mates simply swam away whenever he came close to them. Justin didn't realize that his new menacing appearance was the cause of his sad plight.
While swimming alone one day he saw the mysterious cod again and he thought perhaps the mysterious fish could change him back into a prawn.
He approached the cod and begged to be changed back, and, lo and behold, he found himself turned back into a prawn.
With tears of joy in his tiny little eyes Justin swam back to his friends and bought them all a cocktail. (Editor's note: The punch line does not involve a prawn cocktail - it's much worse).
Looking around the gathering at the reef he realized he couldn't see his old pal.
"Where's Christian?" he asked.
"He's at home, still distraught that his best friend changed sides to the enemy & became a shark", came the reply.
Eager to put things right again and end the mutual pain and torture, he set off to Christian's abode. As he opened the coral gate memories came flooding back. He banged on the door and shouted,"It's me, Justin, your old friend, come out and see me again."
Christian replied, "No way man, you'll eat me. You're now a shark, the enemy, and I'll not be tricked into being your dinner."
Justin cried back "No, I'm not. That was the old me. I've changed."
"I've found Cod. I'm a Prawn again, Christian!"
