Thread: Soloing in limlight gorge

Hi, I've seen various comments about captains soloing trees and spiders and I wonder what it takes to do that in terms of gear, build and skills? I tried both LtC and HoH but failed miserably. Got a spider to 80% before I had to run away so I'm obviously either undergeared or underskilled or (most likely) both. I'm a casual player so gear is mostly quest rewards, a couple rep items and a few crafted theodred metalsmith items (arelmon on snowbourn).

I've googled and youtube'd but couldn't find anything useful so far. All input greatly appreciated

Originally Posted by Arelmon

Hi, I've seen various comments about captains soloing trees and spiders and I wonder what it takes to do that in terms of gear, build and skills? I tried both LtC and HoH but failed miserably. Got a spider to 80% before I had to run away so I'm obviously either undergeared or underskilled or (most likely) both. I'm a casual player so gear is mostly quest rewards, a couple rep items and a few crafted theodred metalsmith items (arelmon on snowbourn).

I've googled and youtube'd but couldn't find anything useful so far. All input greatly appreciated

Draigoch armour with the +5% revealing mark really helps. Try Ltc with muster courage self heal, and maybe your herald of hope with their heal. Realistically some sort of raid armour set would really help.

Originally Posted by Arelmon

Hi, I've seen various comments about captains soloing trees and spiders and I wonder what it takes to do that in terms of gear, build and skills? I tried both LtC and HoH but failed miserably. Got a spider to 80% before I had to run away so I'm obviously either undergeared or underskilled or (most likely) both. I'm a casual player so gear is mostly quest rewards, a couple rep items and a few crafted theodred metalsmith items (arelmon on snowbourn).

I've googled and youtube'd but couldn't find anything useful so far. All input greatly appreciated

I do this a lot as a HoH Captain, and was doing it before I had raid gear also. So it's not nessassary to have the very best gear. Crafted gear and rep stuff should be enough.

If you were on Nimrodel I'd give you a demonstration on how to do it, but you're not looks like so nvm. Because this can be useful as sometimes it's hard to find groups for those quests and gold coins are nice to have.

But generally here is my advice to you. First, make sure you have the best offense and defense you can reasonably get. This includes relics such as those new Settings of Endings and Gems of Hope. They can make a real difference. And try to build up your fate and ICMR as much as you can. I know a lot of Captains on this forum continuously rant about how much it sucks, but it doesn't for HoH Captains. Combining a good amount of ICMR + revealing mark will help you outlast your opponent as long as you make sure your offense and defenses are on par. Also eating some food that boosts your in-combat morale/power regen can help as well. And as a previous poster pointed out, the Muster Courage legacy can provide a boost as well.

Good luck.

Thank you both for replying. Knowing that it can be done without raid gear is encouraging. I'll get on with grinding rep and items

Oh and thanks for your offer to show me; Lotro still rules as the most helpful and friendly MMO ever in my book

Cheers!

Id say.

Go LtC (add atl. rally cry power, return muster heal if you want/needs more self heal)
3 pieces of Perseverance (moors) helps out
add
3 pieces of Dagor (or Draig pieces)
Go get high crit rating
I like hight might also
Forget morale, high crit n big damage is better, high crit also equals more RC equals full health
Use your herald, he heals and can be blade bro
Revealing mark if you want some extra morale back

Originally Posted by Arelmon

Thank you both for replying. Knowing that it can be done without raid gear is encouraging. I'll get on with grinding rep and items

Oh and thanks for your offer to show me; Lotro still rules as the most helpful and friendly MMO ever in my book

Cheers!

Np Arelmon

And keep in mind if you ever want to, you can make a temporary new character on Nimrodel and I'll summon you to LimeLIght Gorge and give you a demonstration anytime you want

When I did it, I went with LoM for the blocking. It might be possible to do with LtC as well, and certainly using LoM is really slow. The main things, build-wise, would be to use a Herald rather than a Standard or the Archer, so you get the extra heal as well as a -Brother target, Strength From Within for the Muster Courage HoT, and Revealing Mark.

Also very important would be gear. Stack morale up to at least 10k, which can easily be done with crafted gear from Stangard and skirm raid jewelry. If you don't have that big a morale pool, you're in danger of getting taken down faster than you can heal up.

Originally Posted by Jeremi

Np Arelmon

And keep in mind if you ever want to, you can make a temporary new character on Nimrodel and I'll summon you to LimeLIght Gorge and give you a demonstration anytime you want

His temporary character would have to be of a level appropriate for the zone to be summoned. Even if you took a level 10 out there, everything in the zone would be making a beeline for the lowbie. After running a level 20 to Galtrev, believe me, I know how far they come to get a tasty treat.

Nice sentiment...game mechanics won't allow it to work.

Originally Posted by Lupini

His temporary character would have to be of a level appropriate for the zone to be summoned. Even if you took a level 10 out there, everything in the zone would be making a beeline for the lowbie. After running a level 20 to Galtrev, believe me, I know how far they come to get a tasty treat.

Nice sentiment...game mechanics won't allow it to work.

So basically you are saying after I summon him the whole zone is going to come after him? lol

Either way it's worth a shot. I doubt he'll care too much if his trash character gets killed anyways - and he seems pretty serious about wanting to try it. But ty for the heads up.

Originally Posted by Jeremi

So basically you are saying after I summon him the whole zone is going to come after him? lol

Either way it's worth a shot. I doubt he'll care too much if his trash character gets killed anyways - and he seems pretty serious about wanting to try it. But ty for the heads up.

You cannot summon a character that is so far below a quest area that they cannot take the quests. You'll get a message telling you they are too low. That mechanic has been in the game for some time now.

Additionally, yes. The aggro radius just keeps moving out the more you are under-leveled. I ran my level 20 to Galtrev for funnzies (same as running a level 15 to Rivendell), and stuff aggros at an increasing range. Enedwaith wasn't too bad--if I got inside a "town" I could get out of combat. Once I crossed into Dunland, things would come from across the zone. If I was in Galtrev, but outside a building, mobs would come running to Galtrev, drop aggro when they hit the border, return to their spawn and then aggro again. You don't have to be LOS. Makes it tough for anyone trying to get mobs in the area. Only way to not have something aggro was to go in a building (instance).

Even if you could get a lowbie to the zone, soloing a tree won't be the issue. Fighting everything in the zone because it's triggered aggro on your fellowship with the low-level bait, who is now dead and can't see around the defeat message window...now that would be worth video recording. >;-}

Originally Posted by Lupini

You cannot summon a character that is so far below a quest area that they cannot take the quests. You'll get a message telling you they are too low. That mechanic has been in the game for some time now.

Additionally, yes. The aggro radius just keeps moving out the more you are under-leveled. I ran my level 20 to Galtrev for funnzies (same as running a level 15 to Rivendell), and stuff aggros at an increasing range. Enedwaith wasn't too bad--if I got inside a "town" I could get out of combat. Once I crossed into Dunland, things would come from across the zone. If I was in Galtrev, but outside a building, mobs would come running to Galtrev, drop aggro when they hit the border, return to their spawn and then aggro again. You don't have to be LOS. Makes it tough for anyone trying to get mobs in the area. Only way to not have something aggro was to go in a building (instance).

Even if you could get a lowbie to the zone, soloing a tree won't be the issue. Fighting everything in the zone because it's triggered aggro on your fellowship with the low-level bait, who is now dead and can't see around the defeat message window...now that would be worth video recording. >;-}

lol I see...

Well that sucks cause he seemed to really be wanting to take me up on my offer. Oh well.

Thanks for saving us a lot of wasted time and death

A captain running high might and LoM is probably the easiest way to solo trees, spiders, trolls in limlight. I usually go 5 yellow, 2 Red, 2400 might, and use revealing mark just to be safe. I have seen wardens and guards solo trees, but a high might cappy in LoM with a two hander is probably the most efficient way to kill trees for any class. Only issue I run into is I suck up a lot of power and go through a lot of power pots.

Give LoM a try and you can even take a bio and might survive during that time

By the way it is not that slow to use this technique. Your morale can be about 8K and you will be fine with all the blocks and healing from revealing mark.

Originally Posted by discodanman45

A captain running high might and LoM is probably the easiest way to solo trees, spiders, trolls in limlight. I usually go 5 yellow, 2 Red, 2400 might, and use revealing mark just to be safe. I have seen wardens and guards solo trees, but a high might cappy in LoM with a two hander is probably the most efficient way to kill trees for any class. Only issue I run into is I suck up a lot of power and go through a lot of power pots.

Give LoM a try and you can even take a bio and might survive during that time

By the way it is not that slow to use this technique. Your morale can be about 8K and you will be fine with all the blocks and healing from revealing mark.

Going to stick up for Hands of Healing Captains here.

So just want to point out I solo trees with ease as a HoH Captain and I don't have any where near 2k might. Don't have to use any Power Potions either, though occasionaly I do use a health pot if I get unlucky with crits. So I"d argue it can be pretty "easy" as a HoH Captain as well.

I go revealing mark + 5 capped red and a bladebro hope herald and do just fine. Without the draigoch set.

I did it HOH with blade brother'd herald when first getting rep. Also tried LOM, which I found slow.

I now find trees at least reasonable with LtC with no herald and just revealing mark, strength from within, and rallying cry for heals (ran one last night to confirm that). But that is rather gear dependent -- I do that with a first age weapon, 3 dagor, 3 perseverance. No cooldowns or pots were needed (or food for that matter), but that does depend on getting enough Rallying Cries (with 25% crit, you get your share).

I'd suggest you experiment some. Trees are not trivial, don't get the idea that they are easy. They take some work and some gear to beat them, though once you get it down you can do it consistently. While learning, treat them like a raid -- use pots, food, scrolls, tokens, etc to get an edge. Don't hesitate to use cooldowns. Make sure all hots you have available (strength from with, VS if HOH, inspire) are always ticking, and revealing mark up. I find if I don't crit early in the fight, using TON (with swap emblem to mitigate cost) to get a RC is a good deal as well. The Martyr set bubble is also very nice for difficult solo tasks, and isn't bad even though when harvesting trees you presumably don't yet have the rep to make it a teal set.

Thanks all for the great feedback, this has been truly helpful and also very inspiring. I made a few gear comparisons to some of you and I see that my stats are really low (+800 migth, +600 vit and low phys/tact mitigtations). This is simply perfect since I don't enjoy easy mode one bit. There must be a good reason to grind gear and those pesky mobs in the gorge are perfect for that purpose

I'll most likely try all builds just for the fun of it (more gear grind i suppose but that's ok).

HoH, LoM, hybrid, and LtC are just tools in the toolbox.

Good captains know how and when to move between them =)

-Trait HoH and use an improved Herald of Hope.
-Muster Courage, Valiant Strike, Herald Heals, and Blade-brother inspire for power and morale return
-can switch to Song-Brother if you really need some power, then switch back
-Draig armor augmented Revealing Mark
-Rallying Cry whenever it comes up
-Always have Defensive Strike's armor buff on you
-remember to pot your poison when fighting spiders or else you'll get stunned

Originally Posted by Almagnus1

HoH, LoM, hybrid, and LtC are just tools in the toolbox.

Good captains know how and when to move between them =)

Nope. Good Captains play what ever they want to play. This is a video game and I pay cash every month to play it - so I'll be damned if I'm going to play a trait-line I do not wish to play just to make some stranger on the internet happy.

And it makes NO sense at all to change traitlines other than the one you want to play when the traitline you're playing is working out just fine for you. Sorry. And doing so deffinitely doesn't make you a so-called "good" captain either - and Captains who choose not to do this aren't any less "good" because of it as well.

Thought I'd comment, since I know this was passively aimed at me.

Originally Posted by GeorgeBaggy

-Trait HoH and use an improved Herald of Hope.
-Muster Courage, Valiant Strike, Herald Heals, and Blade-brother inspire for power and morale return
-can switch to Song-Brother if you really need some power, then switch back
-Draig armor augmented Revealing Mark
-Rallying Cry whenever it comes up
-Always have Defensive Strike's armor buff on you
-remember to pot your poison when fighting spiders or else you'll get stunned

Yes, poison pots help when fighting spiders. Wound pots can help when you fight trees also.

Originally Posted by Arelmon

Thanks all for the great feedback, this has been truly helpful and also very inspiring. I made a few gear comparisons to some of you and I see that my stats are really low (+800 migth, +600 vit and low phys/tact mitigtations). This is simply perfect since I don't enjoy easy mode one bit. There must be a good reason to grind gear and those pesky mobs in the gorge are perfect for that purpose

I'll most likely try all builds just for the fun of it (more gear grind i suppose but that's ok).

I'm guessing it is close to impossible with your current gear. Low might causes low DPS and low outgoing healing. Combine with low mitigations likely won't work regardless of traiting/tactics. You don't need 2K+ might by any means, but you probably should be shooting for the 1500s or so. The top end crafted jewelery is good, as are the rep jewelery sets in Stangard (you can upgrade to teals once you get the Limlight gorge rep). Pretty nice jewelry pieces drop in Roots (even T1), and you can save up eggs there for teal upgrades to the barter jewelry. Draigoch armor is a very good start. It has nice stats, and the 3 and 5 piece bonuses are solid for hard soloing as well as suitable for groups of any size.

Just want to stress, for the record - that me and other posters on this thread are not exagerating when we say we can kill the trees in limelight "easily". It's true while you are gearing up they can be a challenge, but once you are decked out in good gear and relics they are rather simple.

Just for the sake of this thread I went out and soloed one to make sure because it's been awhile since my tree-grinding dadys for coins and sometimes my memory isn't the greatest. It never dropped me below 5k, I didn't have to use any pots - nor any cool-downs. It was deffinitely "easy" just as me and some others have said.

They may not be "braindead' simple, and you can't kill them by just mashing one button over and over or anything. But they are very soloable and any dedicated Captain will be able to solo them with ease after investing some time and effort into their class. This is a very attainable goal.

I've tried trees and I can solo them but I only killed one just to see if I could.

The first time I tried I got it to 10k then died so I retraited and it was pretty easy but that was with 4x dagor, 2x draigoch, over 2.2k might and 30k physical.

If the OP can get them down it'll be much more of an achievement than me doing it.

No one has mentioned this, so I'll throw this in. Because revealing mark is such a significant source of our self healing against the spiders and trees, when I get a defeat response from a dev blow crit I will often choose war cry for the -15% attack speed over a rally cry, as long as my current health is over 4K. The additional damage I do makes the fight go faster and usually gives me more healing than a rally cry would.

As far as setup goes, I use 5R/2B (including strength from within) and herald of hope w. blade brother.

If you get unlucky with defeat response crits, remember you have several emergency skills:
-lend morale from the herald
-man heal
-martyr bubble (once you get 3 purple pieces)
-last stand
-make haste to run away, reset the fight, and try again.

I prefer LtC with 3 pieces of Perseverance, 3 pieces of Dagor and high crit build, it´s a breeze unless you´re really unlucky with the crits.

My tip is, if you trait oathbreaker, don´t use it right away, wait until you get an unlucky streak without crits and start to get to about 50% morale, then use it for some increased healing of your revealing mark.

I've been quite fine happy bursting through spiders and huorns healing myself through the Revealing Mark reflections, but have anyone had any success on soloing the trolls?

To be honest I've postponed taking a stab at it myself - mostly from my Captain having no need for killing them anymore - but I'd be curious to hear of any experiences.

Originally Posted by Hirion_of_Dale

I've been quite fine happy bursting through spiders and huorns healing myself through the Revealing Mark reflections, but have anyone had any success on soloing the trolls?

To be honest I've postponed taking a stab at it myself - mostly from my Captain having no need for killing them anymore - but I'd be curious to hear of any experiences.

Trolls are possible but significantly harder. The problem is that they get something called 'momentum' the longer they are in combat. I believe it caps out (not sure on that), but the faster you kill them the better.

I use;
Herald of Hope (for the heal)
Ltc 5R/2B
3 pieces Tognir / 3 pieces perseverence
Martyrs bubble
Revealing mark
Defensive strike legacy
Lot's of mitigation virtues/relics/runes

The Martyrs bubble is REALLY nice. It's like having an extra 5k morale.

Originally Posted by Hirion_of_Dale

I've been quite fine happy bursting through spiders and huorns healing myself through the Revealing Mark reflections, but have anyone had any success on soloing the trolls?

To be honest I've postponed taking a stab at it myself - mostly from my Captain having no need for killing them anymore - but I'd be curious to hear of any experiences.

I've been too chicken to try soloing trolls. I always just summon my solider for those lol

They hit hard and build extra melee offense over time - so my guess would be as the fight wears on their offense will become too deadly to manage. Plus since they don't drop rep items and the quest that corresponds with them doesn't give any gold coins - I don't really think soloing them would be worth the effort or risks.

But just for the sake of this thread I might go get my butt kicked by one and see how close I come since I've never actually tried it.

#Updated

OK I tried a troll... and as I expected the results were not pretty. Let's just say it ended with me running for dear life

Possibly a Captain geared and built with soloing in mind would fare better - or perhaps a LoM Captain with high mitigation and using a herald to place HoTs on himself would have better luck. In any case, not worth it in my opinion. The pain is far too great to justfy the non-exisitent rewards lol

Originally Posted by Jeremi

...OK I tried a troll... and as I expected the results were not pretty. Let's just say it ended with me running for dear life

Possibly a Captain geared and built with soloing in mind would fare better...

Updates this, killed troll right now.
5 LtC, 2HoH
Warbanner (herald would probably make it easier)
Might (2311) + Crit build (9k)
Morale (8,6k)
Revealing mark


Yes it is a hard fight, was no easy win probably could have gone the trolls way if less crits.
But i did it and yes it feels good, cappy DPS ftw.

Originally Posted by CaptainSweden

Updates this, killed troll right now.
5 LtC, 2HoH
Warbanner (herald would probably make it easier)
Might (2311) + Crit build (9k)
Morale (8,6k)
Revealing mark


Yes it is a hard fight, was no easy win probably could have gone the trolls way if less crits.
But i did it and yes it feels good, cappy DPS ftw.

Very nice Sweden. I am impressed ^^

Originally Posted by scottybene

Trolls are possible but significantly harder. The problem is that they get something called 'momentum' the longer they are in combat. I believe it caps out (not sure on that), but the faster you kill them the better.

I use;
Herald of Hope (for the heal)
Ltc 5R/2B
3 pieces Tognir / 3 pieces perseverence
Martyrs bubble
Revealing mark
Defensive strike legacy
Lot's of mitigation virtues/relics/runes

The Martyrs bubble is REALLY nice. It's like having an extra 5k morale.

This is the first I have heard of Martyrs Bubble... is it specific to the instance, from jewelry, item, store item? If anyone can answer this it would be great. Thank you

Originally Posted by aadaboy19

This is the first I have heard of Martyrs Bubble... is it specific to the instance, from jewelry, item, store item? If anyone can answer this it would be great. Thank you

It comes from the Great River questing, with Rep for the pieces. Need eggs out of RoF to turn pieces from purple to teal.

You need to see the rep vendor in Stanguard. See this thread for the pieces you can barter for. http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...Rep-Other-Gear

The martys set is amazing for survivability (you need all 3 pieces to enable the bubble).

My favorite setup for this is 5 LtC + capstone, 2 HoH, IDOME and oathbreakers
Using oathbreaker archer, bladebrother on him. Tried the hope herald too, but all he seemed to do was make the fight take longer. Figured if I can kill it just as easily but a lot faster with the archer I might as well use that. But whatever you do don't use a standard. The passive bonuses from a standard are insignificant compared to the bonuses bladebrother gives you.
I usually start with telling mark, sometimes I switch to revealing mark halfway if I have been unlucky with the crits.
My gear was 3 dagor, 3 draigoch (in the meantime I killed Saruman so I have 5 dagor now, but I hadn't when I was still doing this regulary)

Originally Posted by Jeremi

Nope. Good Captains play what ever they want to play. This is a video game and I pay cash every month to play it - so I'll be damned if I'm going to play a trait-line I do not wish to play just to make some stranger on the internet happy.

And it makes NO sense at all to change traitlines other than the one you want to play when the traitline you're playing is working out just fine for you. Sorry. And doing so deffinitely doesn't make you a so-called "good" captain either - and Captains who choose not to do this aren't any less "good" because of it as well.

Thought I'd comment, since I know this was passively aimed at me.

I do think that's exactly what he meant...

Originally Posted by Galahadur

I do think that's exactly what he meant...

No Galahadur, that is deffinitely NOT what he meant.

i was able to solo trees and spiders in llg dailies.
5 Draigoch armour and 1 ToO along w/ scrolls, hope, and food. probly don't even need all that.
It really not that hard esp if you get crit off and gets a rc.

Originally Posted by EzRedLn

i was able to solo trees and spiders in llg dailies.
5 Draigoch armour and 1 ToO along w/ scrolls, hope, and food. probly don't even need all that.
It really not that hard esp if you get crit off and gets a rc.

Yeah it's not that difficult.

I'm not much of a soloer, and even I can do it pretty easily.

Now the Trolls, that's a different matter lol

Nothing really to add, just something funny I ran into. I was soloing trees earlier and the loot pool on one was a Cloak of Finesse and a Great Club of the Hunter. Next to it I found a corpse with a Hunters Bow of the Third Age, 5 Birch Branches, and a Westfold Potion of Focus Recipe. Just cracked me up