Thread: Hunter soloing The Gates of Carn Dûm

I got to the instance The Gates of Carn Dûm (epic questline vol 1, book 5, ch 8 ) on my hunter, and I just have to ask if there is any way to do this solo with this class? There are too many enemies to handle, and the NPC (Lorniel or whatever she's called) is dying all the time. I've been reading some stuff here and there about the instance, but I feel that I need some tips directed especially to my class. I know that CC should be essential, but I need some tips on how to use the CC skills in a good way... I also know that I should kill the horn-blowers before they summon the Angmarim (so that the NPC doesn't run on to the trolls without waiting for her remaining ~200 morale to catch up... so annoying), but even with Rain of Thorns they have time to summon before I've killed them.
I'm lvl 50 btw.

Thanks

You need to use an interrupt skill on the horn blowers i don't believe rain of thorns has an interrupt component. You should have melee stun and bard's arrow? fear skill.

when i played with my hunter I interrupted their skills with blindside and and bard arrow, and killed the other one asap, then when she waited for me to open the gate I killed every enemy before I opened the gate, when you move to the courtyard you aways attack her target or anything that is attacking her, the hard part is when you fight Mordirith, you should pop a hope token if you have one and when you close to die use press foward if you have it

You need to get aggro before she does, or leave her with only one enemy, otherwise she will get killed pretty quick. When she is running to a group of mobs try shooting them before they all aggro on her, use split shot, rain of arrows and and thorns to get their attention on you. A LI with +1 target for AoE would be nice to get split shot to hit 3 targets. For the summoners, you can use the melee interrupt on one of them, dazzling blow on the other and if you have bard's arrow you can fear the third or dps him down.

I got past this when I was lvl 48 but got wrecked on Mordirith, so I already warn you, it's going to be tough. It's a good idea to go with press onward to heal yourself if things go bad. Be lvl 52+ is also a good idea.

If it feels like an alternative to you, simply leave it be.

Most of vol1 is a pain with horribly obvious treachery, oceans of travel-time, gawdawfully poorly written chat (thouest areth ye olde aaaaaaargh! written with a merely tenuous grasp of old english, as opposed to the rather elegant way Tolkien uses it) and odd cut-scenes to mourn some character you never bonded with and never got to know and and ---

*cough*

Anyway, you can safely pop over and do the vol2 Walls of Moria for start legendaries without even touching vol1. I realize many want to do all of the epics for completion but other than some ports, outdated instances (I think, not done all of the epics start to finish since 2010) and a few skirms unlocked, there's little to be had unless you're totally f2p.

You can always opt to gather a party for it (I think).

(OK so I shouldn't nag about engRish when I'm not too good at it myself.)

she is very willing to kill herself. Do as a group, have a level 65+ team up or wait until you are 65. As the post above says it is a really bad line after this quest (this is good to get the key to carn dum though).

Originally Posted by Macroscian

Most of vol1 is a pain with horribly obvious treachery, oceans of travel-time, gawdawfully poorly written chat (thouest areth ye olde aaaaaaargh! written with a merely tenuous grasp of old english, as opposed to the rather elegant way Tolkien uses it) and odd cut-scenes to mourn some character you never bonded with and never got to know and and ---

*cough*

Amen, brother.

Thanks everyone for great help! Sounds like I should try again a few times, but if I get tired of it I won't miss something by not doing the rest of the questline. I thought about skipping it at first, but I wanted to do the questline in Evendim... Though, if it is so bad it might not be worth it. I can always try again at higher lvl if I want to get the rewards anyway...
But before I give up I shall try with the tips. One thing I have to ask though is about the Press Onword skill; it is only usable out of combat if I haven't traited 4 Huntmaster traits, right? So to use it when fighting Mordrith I have to equip those traits?

Originally Posted by LotrVella

Thanks everyone for great help! Sounds like I should try again a few times, but if I get tired of it I won't miss something by not doing the rest of the questline. I thought about skipping it at first, but I wanted to do the questline in Evendim... Though, if it is so bad it might not be worth it. I can always try again at higher lvl if I want to get the rewards anyway...
But before I give up I shall try with the tips. One thing I have to ask though is about the Press Onword skill; it is only usable out of combat if I haven't traited 4 Huntmaster traits, right? So to use it when fighting Mordrith I have to equip those traits?

No Press Forward is a trait that you gain when you buy the books from the trainer and complete the deed that it gives

And that quest aint that hard, i did at lvl 46 without a LI

Originally Posted by Hluodowig

No Press Forward is a trait that you gain when you buy the books from the trainer and complete the deed that it gives

Yeah, but it isn't able to use in combat just as it is...?

EDIT: Never mind, apparently it is usable in combat... it's just that I read somewhere that you needed 4 Huntsman traits equipped to do so, but I guess it wasn't right.

I solo'd this earlier level 50. To be honest because you're soloing Push onward isn't totally necessary because your inspiration bonus should cover it.
My advise is to just drag all the agro, set up for maximum DPS, bards arrow if you have it to shake off one enemy. Just keep an eye on her, use your pen shot and focus skills to keep the agro. Try to kill the Priests first because their adds are annoying. Shouldn't be too hard.

Good luck

Ok, thank you

Personally I'ed encourage anyone to wait a few levels before (if) you want to finish this quests, since it's really painful in early lvl 50's

As for press onward ... Really not worth slotting at all. Why? Well let me tell you a little story then:

Mordirith: Haha, look at you! Now you're down to a measly 700 morale
Me: But I got Press Onwards, Mordi
Mordirith: Press what now?
Me: Check this out *starts casting*
Mordirith: W-What are you doing?
Me: My new hammer elite trait will heal my morale AND power
Mordirith: So what's with the fancy dance then ..
Me: *sigh* It does take 4 secs to cast and can be interrupted. Now, if you don't mind just let me stand there and don't use any attacks or skill or you'll cancel my skill.
Mordirith: Oh, you got to be kidding me ..
Me: *ding*
Mordirith: You done yet ... ?
Me: Awesome! I got 2k morale and power back!
Mordirith: Ah ... You do realise that you've waisted a traitslot for a 5 min cooldown skill with the longest induction in the whole game right?
Me: But *now* I can ...
Mordirith: WRONG! *Oneshot*

Originally Posted by Macroscian

Most of vol1 is a pain with horribly obvious treachery, oceans of travel-time, gawdawfully poorly written chat (thouest areth ye olde aaaaaaargh! written with a merely tenuous grasp of old english, as opposed to the rather elegant way Tolkien uses it) and odd cut-scenes to mourn some character you never bonded with and never got to know and and ---

Every time a new character starts the epic questchain, there should be a box poping up with Macroscian's quote written in BIG red letters

When you go around to open the gate for her from the other side, kill ALL the mobs BEFORE you open it and allow her to continue. This may be hard solo but w/ CC I found it can be done. Just take it slow and wait for your cd's on traps(having crafted traps helps so more can be used as they are on seperate cd from skill traps), Bards Arrow, Distracting Shot, etc. Then once the mobs are killed you can open the gate for her and finish the quest.

Originally Posted by DennyHoffmann

You need to get aggro before she does [...] When she is running to a group of mobs try shooting them before they all aggro on her, use [the AoE, Luke!!] [...] LI with +1 target for AoE would be nice [...]

Originally Posted by Hluodowig

[...] when she waited for me to open the gate I killed every enemy before I opened the gate [...]

Originally Posted by Ellovir

[...] Push onward isn't totally necessary because your inspiration bonus should cover it. [...] just drag all the agro, set up for maximum DPS, bards arrow if you have it to shake off one enemy. [...] Try to kill the Priests first because their adds are annoying.

These are all good tips. Don't forget to use consumables, consider your traits, and strategize using what you know about the instance.

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Consumables: Crit foods (cooked regen and agility trail foods), battle/warding scrolls, breachfinder bowchants, fire oil. Focus pots if you have them. Fear pots (Angmarim really like their fear effects). Hope tokens will help too, but they're most useful for the final fight so you might wait to pop one.

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Traits: For the strategy below, I would use a 3b-2r set: this gives you a +10% crit multiplier from the redline, and +1 split shot target, -10% inductions, and 2s movement before focus loss from the blueline.
- Rapid Recovery (lower melee cooldowns)
- Deadly Precision (extra focus from crits)
- Arrow Storm (AoE cooldown reset on crit)
- Hail of Arrows (AoE crit rating)
- Critical Eye (ranged crit rating) or True Shot (Pen Shot mit avoidance)

Of these, I consider Rapid Recovery and Hail of Arrows as must-haves. You could swap out Deadly Precision and/or Arrow Storm for Swift Recovery and/or Resolute Aim, but only if you're already used to using Intent Concentration and Needful Haste (I wasn't at that level).

Use True Shot if you don't have Critical Eye, or substitute Swift & True or Barbed Fury or make it a blue (like IC or NH) to make 4b-1r. Avoid Fast Draw (go 4b-1r instead if you want induction reduction) and Swift Mercy (save your focus for AoE skills instead of big single-target shots).

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Basic Strategy: Inspired Greatness really does make this a breeze, but you are the tank here. As a hunter you aren't used to running in and hitting everything first, but that's exactly what you need to do here. Stay in front of the NPC: Run up to a group of mobs before she can get there, hit them with Low Cut when they're grouped up in your melee range. Move around a little so the mobs are facing you and the NPC is behind them. If the NPC gets ahead of you, use your ranged AoE to grab the mobs' attention and bring them back to you. Be prepared to switch targets often while your AoE skills are cooling down. If a mob turns on the NPC, target it and smack it with whatever you have until it turns back to you.

Watch for new mobs coming into the fight, and pop AoE skills when they do to help get their attention on you. (Move to them and pop Low Cut if you need to; you won't even need to change targets.) As others mentioned, you can interrupt the palefolk hornblowers and priestesses summoning adds, but all your interrupts are single-target so it's a good bet you won't get them all in time. Don't sweat it. Just position yourself near the NPC so any adds that go after her are within range of your AoE, and once you have aggro, move away from the NPC a little so she's attacking the mobs from behind.

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Skills: Use all your AoE skills: Split Shot, Rain of Arrows, Rain of Thorns, and don't forget Low Cut. Avoid using your long-induction skills -- open fights with ranged AoE or melee skills instead of single-target induction skills like Swift Bow (while protecting the NPC, skip Heartseeker completely). Use Precision stance for the automatic focus generation, spam Quick Shot and Blindside if you need more focus, and spend your focus on AoE instead of single-target skills (I'd skip Blood Arrow, and only use Penetrating Shot to bleed off extra focus -- save the last 3 focus points for your next Rain of Arrows).

Your mainstay skills should be Low Cut, Quick Shot, Pen Shot, and Rain of Arrows; you can probably spam those 4 skills all the way to Mordirith and be effective. Throw in a Split Shot when you can, but if you're in melee and traited RR you might as well just hit Low Cut again instead: more targets, less cooldown, no induction. Go ahead and use Rain of Thorns whenever you can, but don't worry about breaking the root if you follow it up with a Low Cut or Rain of Arrows. Your job here is tank+dps, not CC.



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Scripting: Knowing the scripting of an instance helps a lot. For the final group of trash before Mordirith, you get 3 waves of mobs: first are Hillmen, second are Priestesses, and last is the Giant.

If you run in as soon as the gate opens, you can rush toward the pillar, aggro the Hillmen nearby, then drag them off to the left and out of the NPC's aggro range. (This would be one time NOT to use Rain of Thorns; you want the mobs to move with you out of the NPC's path.) The NPC is going to run straight to the far side of the pillar before turning toward the ramp. Priestesses don't enter combat until the Hillmen are dead, so if you and the Hillmen are far enough from the NPC's path, she won't even enter combat. When the Priestesses engage, they will come after you, and the NPC will stay out of the battle entirely.

Oh ... and if possible ... avoid AoE once the Giant enters the fray. He's going after Priestesses and will only attack you when they're dead (or if you hit him first).

To all trying this step of Vol 1. Dont do it to early in lvls. You might get to the last boss but he has 36k hp's and if your only got about 14000 yourself bolstered, just forget seeing him go under 20k

(Yea I had 14000hp and got him to 23k. Guardians are tough but not that tough.)

I soloed it as a hunter at around level 51. Basically I got through it by using AOE skills, using cooked food and +vitality trail food, using CC when possible, and basically tanking the rest of it, as much as a hunter can tank. The most important thing is that you are a lot more survivable than Lorniel (a lot more intelligent too; god she's annoying!) so as long as you can grab the aggro and thwack the bad guys, you should be OK.

she is the only npc I have seen in an instance who is such a hinderance. Though I really find the whole take 2 steps back then go forward ai annoying. Part of me found the ending quite satisfying. To me its one of those there are a dozen rangers here lets all go rescue him, otherwise please stay here I really don't need your help. Alas that would not fit the story. I recommend doing this way over level its much easier. Its not like you really need the gear from the epic anyway.