Thread: Notes on Storm on Methedras (*SPOILERS*)

A few notes on Storm on Methedras.

First off, if one doesn't read the quest notes, people will probably wonder why Saeradan is not following them. As a lot of people won't, you'll probably get questions as to why.

Secondly, I really don't see a need for Saeradan along the way at all, really. He makes the fights to easy. I would suggest that he take an "alternate route" (like Candaith does at Weathertop) to, say, fight other baddies or something and meet us at the end when we fight Gwyllion and her "add".

With Saeradan in the fray, the skirmish seems much shorter and too easy to do.

Additionally, the mobs need to be mixed up. They were all grouped together and attacked in the same way as well (ie. three trees walked in a straight line, one practically on top of the other).

And it seemed awfully short. Take three zones, kill boss and their "add". Took me all of about 10 minutes, if that. If I were a premium player, I would probably not buy it or be upset if I did.

May I ask with which class you went into the skirmish?
I did it on my champ and it was relatively smooth. Not easy, but smooth. It would have been easy if I had not pulled entire yards.

Saeradan and Amlaith? helping you is definetly a good thing. Especially for light armour classes. These will have quite some trouble in there. Some of the NPCs are quite bad there.

I just had one major flaw to mention: at the end Gwyllion calls her drake. It spawns on top of her destroyed hut and things get a bit confusing then. Couldn't the drake spawn in the middle of the yard please? For me the drake didn't want to move out of the hut and I did not see any cast-circle (orange) beneath it, because of the destroyed hut.

There are waves and the drake to deal with. I am unsure how some classes can do this without letting the drummer die.

Originally Posted by Hiren

May I ask with which class you went into the skirmish?
I did it on my champ and it was relatively smooth. Not easy, but smooth. It would have been easy if I had not pulled entire yards.

Hunter with an Herbalist.

For myself, I would welcome a nice short skirmish. Most of the ones we already have just feel too long-winded to me, considering the meager rewards I receive as a solo player, even with the bonus.

Have ya done it yet on a raid?

This skirmish is NOT a walk in a park. I managed to die three times, and didn't finish the skirmish either on my first try. Ok, I was playing with a crippled runekeeper (lvl 75 solo) that was created using E&G tavern during U6 testing (because I can't copy my live characters because I play on former EU server ), AND my archer soldier has sthe same bug I had during U6, where all his skills do only 1 damage per hit. That means, I was basically doing it without soldier.

Saeradan and Amlaith help you only with incoming attack waves after you have claimed each flag, so they don't help you claiming those flags in the first place. Also those spirits can put all kinds of nasty debuffs on you...

The last battle was quite fast for me. I watched the drake land, tried to read the quest text at the same time, then two small drakelings appeared. I started fighting those, but I was killed quite fast. I watched my combat log afterwards and it said the big drake's fire breath had damaged me for over 1400 damage, twice, and I was far away from him.

With some other class (or even with my RK on live and working soldier) this should be easier, yes.

By the way, I noticed that killing those mobs does not add for any slayer deeds, except for lieutenant slayer deeds. There is also new mob called "Lhûd" which I have seen only once before, when doing that Grey King quest near the hobbit village in Enedwaith. Now these lhûd hurl stones and some do melee as well.

Originally Posted by Gilean-EU

This skirmish is NOT a walk in a park. I managed to die three times, and didn't finish the skirmish either on my first try. Ok, I was playing with a crippled runekeeper (lvl 75 solo) that was created using E&G tavern during U6 testing (because I can't copy my live characters because I play on former EU server ), AND my archer soldier has sthe same bug I had during U6, where all his skills do only 1 damage per hit. That means, I was basically doing it without soldier.

Did it with my E&G tavern Loremaster and had also a hard time. Didn't die, but had to use the Oh####healing more than once (used buff food, regeneration food, Edhelharn token and both scrolls). I hope it depended on the E&G character and will be better with the live char.

Had groups of up to four mobs, which is annoying when you get debuffs from four Cun Annuns and see your Morale drop down fast.

Originally Posted by Gilean-EU

The last battle was quite fast for me. I watched the drake land, tried to read the quest text at the same time, then two small drakelings appeared. I started fighting those, but I was killed quite fast. I watched my combat log afterwards and it said the big drake's fire breath had damaged me for over 1400 damage, twice, and I was far away from him.

I had four small drakelings, and Amlan was lying on the ground and didn't help with the fight, I don't know if this is WAI? I think the big drake roasted him and he didn't want to get up again


Can someone explain please what the drummer is doing? Maybe I missed the explanation or there is none in the German client (not yet, German client tells us also to fight the big ork and reconquer Great Smials ).

Since the skirmish is free for VIP, I assume that Premium Players and f2p will have to spend TurbinePoints to play it. Did anyone find out how much it will be?

Originally Posted by Gilean-EU

By the way, I noticed that killing those mobs does not add for any slayer deeds, except for lieutenant slayer deeds. There is also new mob called "Lhûd" which I have seen only once before, when doing that Grey King quest near the hobbit village in Enedwaith. Now these lhûd hurl stones and some do melee as well.

It's Lhûd Brenin something, which actually means Grey King.

Had a hard time as a Captain but then half of my stuff is level 65. One thing I noticed and I am not sure if it's supposed to happen is that one encounter consisted of two mobs (regmyl) but the deed has them listed separately which makes one think there were not supposed to come together (I already killed one encounter before that).

Only note I had so far is that the Control Banner after defeating the boss didn't light up, so it was a little bit hard to see how to finish the skirm up.

Originally Posted by Gilean-EU

This skirmish is NOT a walk in a park. I managed to die three times, and didn't finish the skirmish either on my first try. Ok, I was playing with a crippled runekeeper (lvl 75 solo) that was created using E&G tavern during U6 testing (because I can't copy my live characters because I play on former EU server ), AND my archer soldier has sthe same bug I had during U6, where all his skills do only 1 damage per hit. That means, I was basically doing it without soldier.

Saeradan and Amlaith help you only with incoming attack waves after you have claimed each flag, so they don't help you claiming those flags in the first place. Also those spirits can put all kinds of nasty debuffs on you...

The last battle was quite fast for me. I watched the drake land, tried to read the quest text at the same time, then two small drakelings appeared. I started fighting those, but I was killed quite fast. I watched my combat log afterwards and it said the big drake's fire breath had damaged me for over 1400 damage, twice, and I was far away from him.

With some other class (or even with my RK on live and working soldier) this should be easier, yes.

By the way, I noticed that killing those mobs does not add for any slayer deeds, except for lieutenant slayer deeds. There is also new mob called "Lhûd" which I have seen only once before, when doing that Grey King quest near the hobbit village in Enedwaith. Now these lhûd hurl stones and some do melee as well.

Try using an Herbalist.

Originally Posted by Beerminator

Since the skirmish is free for VIP, I assume that Premium Players and f2p will have to spend TurbinePoints to play it. Did anyone find out how much it will be?

The store has been down so we don't know.

It is a bit harder on a 6 man. I have yet to do it on a 12 raid. I don't like that the mobs are a bit closer than most skirmishes so the pull is harder but makes good for critical thinking
Also the encounter comes in the area of the mobs, they are very open with them so the pull makes it harder when you have an almost 25k Balrog, I did enjoy when you defeat it, it blow up into pieces.

does the skirm give rep rewards like other skirms?

grey company perhaps?

Whh's Hunter and my LM, plus his Protector, my Warrior, and my Onyx Lynx tried it cautiously at level 70. No, it wasn't a walk in the park, but none of the good guys died. We're going to try it again many times, gradually raising the level. I suspect we'll be able to do it at 75 once we've practiced a bit. I like it! and I thought I'd never say that about a skirmish. I got to see Saeradan again, avenge Andreg, and kill the nasty old witch; what more could one ask from a battle?

I also didn't realize we were supposed to protect the drummers until the last moment, but when I did I simply killed all the gwiberlings that were attacking them, while the Hunter and both soldiers went after the big one.

Interestingly enough, I didn't see any of the extreme debuffs that others complained of. Perhaps because we were taking it five levels down????

We'll see.

Originally Posted by jhan75

does the skirm give rep rewards like other skirms?

grey company perhaps?

Don't remember getting any. At level 70 it's a little too late to be getting Grey Company rep.

That's not necessarily true -- folks may not have done the full reputation grind in enedwaith for grey company rep. Having another source of grey company reputation would be welcomed.

Dunno really why people are having a hard time with this skirmish. Did it three times in a row with my E&G Tavern Hunter which seems to be doing almost no damage compared to my live hunter. Pulled each group seperately at the beginning, later I just AOE'd my way through it. The drummer is a great healer by the way. Had an archer with me that was partially levelled. Also a star-lit crystal dropped from the chest at the end once.

my thoughts on the skirmish: neat and short. will be running this alot on live, I'm eager to find out what kind of loot the 12man version offers.

Edit: On a side note, did anyone feel as good as I did when they finally got to put an end to the infamous Old Woman Of The Mountain? I sure did!

Originally Posted by twittfounder

That's not necessarily true -- folks may not have done the full reputation grind in enedwaith for grey company rep. Having another source of grey company reputation would be welcomed.

Agreed. It should give grey company rep.

Originally Posted by twittfounder

That's not necessarily true -- folks may not have done the full reputation grind in enedwaith for grey company rep. Having another source of grey company reputation would be welcomed.

Ok, what do you need Grey Company reputation at level 70 for? If you were trying to get World Renowned wouldn't you have already ground it sooner?

I checked for reputation rewards and did not note any. I suspect this is because Storm has a 20-75 level range and Turbine doesn't want to award Grey Company rep to level-20 characters.

I thought the level range was originally announced as 70-75 but the release notes and pre-release ad seem to have been revised to 20-75 (which matches the current build).

Originally Posted by RaleyD

I checked for reputation rewards and did not note any. I suspect this is because Storm has a 20-75 level range and Turbine doesn't want to award Grey Company rep to level-20 characters.

I thought the level range was originally announced as 70-75 but the release notes and pre-release ad seem to have been revised to 20-75 (which matches the current build).

They must have decided that having something as short and sweet as this would benefit people tired of doing Tuckborough and Gondamon more than keeping it locked away in that small 5 level range would benefit people trying to get whatever rep they could have put on it.

One thing I have about that though is that most people that have not been to at least Enedwaith might be slightly confused about what is going on but then again most of the skirmishes take place outside of the normal flow of time as it is so those low level people will have a surprise in store when they get into Dunland, if they do the quest chains.

I think they can use a little nerf on how hard the mobs hit, and the dragon. I have trouble on my mini on this, died about twice or so. Also if turbine can move the mobs so someone like me doesn't pull the entire zone. This happen on my champ, and hunter. My mini has a sage so she took care of it but was hard to keep her up.

Originally Posted by Reniannen

Ok, what do you need Grey Company reputation at level 70 for? If you were trying to get World Renowned wouldn't you have already ground it sooner?

This is like questioning why any skirmish gives reputation for any faction. Why do you need Bree rep running Prancing Pony at level 70, when you've already ground it out in your late 20s? Why do you need Mathom rep when it's arguably the easiest rep in the game to get already? If you're doing a skirmish for some faction, it only makes sense to have rep for that faction rewarded, whether you want it/need it or not. Those who don't have it will be happy to get it, those who already have it won't care. This skirmish should logically reward Grey Company rep, and it seems odd to me that it doesn't. On the other hand, it's odd to me to offer a skirmish as early as level 20 when you don't get the plot line for it until you get to Enedwaith. To me, that's the real question.

Originally Posted by Jenara

This is like questioning why any skirmish gives reputation for any faction.

To help along. When you're running Pony at 70 you're likely already Kindred. Assuming the level 20 start is a bug (I don't really see level 20 going through) then the skirmish can't - strictly speaking - help you along because you're already out of the zone. Not to mention that Methedras is in Dunland (and the skirmish is a continuation of the quest chain in Gravenwood involving Andreg), not in Enedwaith.

I wouldn't be surprised if see more scaling content starting at lower levels as we roll forward into Rohan and onwards. As new players come on, they may be mainly intrigued by playing in the iconic locations of Rohan, Isengard, Gondor, etc. but to start up the game and realize you have to level up to 75, 85, 90, & 100 before even playing the areas you want. Other games often introduce starter areas in newer locations to provide incentives for lower levels to pick up expansion packs and play, but that doesn't really work for LOTRO.

So they probably would have a few choices:

- speed up the leveling process as fast as possible
- provide the options to start at a later level
- provide later game content in a scalable fashion to earlier levels.
- etc.

Of the options, I personally would rather see more skirmishes available at a lower level to get a taste of the future regions/story-lines (i.e. have some Moria/Rohan/Mirkwood skirmishes added with a L20/30->cap) than anything else. Having premium skirmishes (that may be included in an expansion) along the lines of Eriador skirmishes where the setting of the story is the overall Lord of the Rings / Hobbit story vs. the epic/long quest lines.

A group of kinmates ran this skirm as a raid on T1 and T2. Even with just 10 of us, only me and the herbalists healing, the T2 raid was pretty easy. We noticed one new mechanic in T2 that we didn't see in T1 that caused a little excitement and laughts but it wasn't anything that should wipe a raid.

We got 1 crystal in a box on T1 and no crystal in either box on T2. So no improved drop rate between T2 and T1 atleast in our 2 runs. The box drops in T1 were unremarkable, the T2 drop was an earring 92 vit/92 might/300orsocrit x 2.

One data point is not nearly sufficient to determine if there is an increase in the drop rate between tiers 1 and 2 for star-lit crystals. You may have been very lucky on T1 and very unlucky on T2. It may also be that the increase is from 1 in 10 for tier one to 1 in 9 on tier 2. We have no clue yet.

On a separate topic regarding it as a raid skirmish: were there any teals? Are they drawing from the existing "campaign" pools of loot, or is this a new campaign with theoretically knew loots?

Originally Posted by twittfounder

One data point is not nearly sufficient to determine if there is an increase in the drop rate between tiers 1 and 2 for star-lit crystals. You may have been very lucky on T1 and very unlucky on T2. It may also be that the increase is from 1 in 10 for tier one to 1 in 9 on tier 2. We have no clue yet.

I'll point out my initial skirmish crystal came from a t3 solo skirm.; Additionally that sapience says tier affects the drop rate.

It's nice to have incentive to do more difficult skirms.

Tried this out on my BR Captain (which, thanks to a botched transfer, is a shadow of my E self), and found that while the archer lived, the sage died left and right.

Thankfully Seradan offered a safe harbor when I was getting my butt handed to me, but the spirits in packs in the second set of waves really are rough to deal with, especially with a Vile Defender in the mix.

If there was some way to make up the gear difference between BR and E, I might get a better read, but so far, this is looking to be a more challenging T1 than prior (about on par with Icy Crevasse), and not so much a walk in the park, even though it's one of the shortest once you figure out how the waves spawn, and get dealing with them down.

Originally Posted by Ceremony

Have ya done it yet on a raid?

Can't say that I would want to. The areas are too small as it is for the mobs, me, my soldier and three rangers.

I can't imagine having 12 players, 12 soldiers, three rangers and all of the mobs in those small zones. Nobody will be able to see what they are fighting.

Originally Posted by Elderban

Can't say that I would want to. The areas are too small as it is for the mobs, me, my soldier and three rangers.

I can't imagine having 12 players, 12 soldiers, three rangers and all of the mobs in those small zones. Nobody will be able to see what they are fighting.

Didn't stop people from raiding Amon Sul

Originally Posted by Elderban

I can't imagine having 12 players, 12 soldiers, three rangers and all of the mobs in those small zones. Nobody will be able to see what they are fighting.

Don't care, follow the lead assist

BTW, I also felt under the impression that this skirmish was a bit messy. And the broken cabin should disappear, or else, as it masks the inductions of the drake, which can be annoying

Regards,
Skro

Originally Posted by Malachi108

Didn't stop people from raiding Amon Sul

Please, Amon Sûl is defensive, you just stand and fight.

Even if the mobs in this skirmish are toned their combined abilities will get pretty nasty, you have miss chance from Elhudan and the grey Grey kings, ground aoe fear/dread from the Cuthraul and punting from the huorns. That's said it would be fun to watch.

Originally Posted by Reniannen

Ok, what do you need Grey Company reputation at level 70 for? If you were trying to get World Renowned wouldn't you have already ground it sooner?

World reknown. And because lots of players dont bother with such things until level cap. Additionally, it provides a reason to run and acquire this skirmish after you have all the loot (or dont need it with a particular character)

None of the mobs count for slayers after all.

I found it a fun challenge solo on tier 3 as a fairly well geared warden with a pimped out herbalist.

Snurging through the newly introduced loot list with the compendium plugin I found the following amongst others:

Originally Posted by Alphane

I found it a fun challenge solo on tier 3 as a fairly well geared warden with a pimped out herbalist.

Snurging through the newly introduced loot list with the compendium plugin I found the following amongst others:

Standard but nice

heres the full loot table according to compendium:



german translation: macht = might, beweglichkeit = agility, vitalität = vitality, Wille = will, Schicksal = Fate, Kraftregeneration im Kampf = ICPR, Physische/Taktische Beherrschung = Physical/Tactical mastery, Kritischer Treffer = Crit, Kraft/Moral-Höchstwert = Maximum Power/Morale

There also seems to be cosmetics associated with the skirmish, but they don't show up on the cosmetic barterer yet.

Those looks very nice..and I heard you get 4 dragons on the 12man raid.

Yep, two drakes in fellowship and four drakes in a raid (you also get the same number of drummers).