Middle-earth Feedback: Garth Agarwen

[Saffron]

Tour the ruins of an ancient Rhudaurian fortress, now known as Garth Agarwen and learn what happened to this once-beautiful land of streams and rivers.

Read about Garth Agarwen, then post your comments below!

[Judiah]

Garth Agarwen, Fortress of the Blood Maiden. I like

[LawLessOne]

I have always found Garth Agarwen to be beautiful. Unfortunately it is so packed with Elite monsters that it is difficult to stop and take in the scenery.

[TadPrime]

Originally Posted by LawLessOne

I have always found Garth Agarwen to be beautiful. Unfortunately it is so packed with Elite monsters that it is difficult to stop and take in the scenery.

Beautiful??? Sorry LawLessOne I just can't agree with you there. Among my kinship we refer to GA as "that red-tinged hellhole" and avoid it as much as possible.

[Forjo]

Just a couple of comments on the "Middle Earth: xxx" posts.

1. Love them! Keep them coming.
2. Please distinguish which are taken from the books and which are extrapolated by the design team. I liked reading at the end of each article about the origin of whatever was being announced, be it directly from the lore or from the creative minds at Turbine.

-Forjo

[oldmanwhoplays]

I have now been to GA only three times, and I am looking forward to my next adventure there. While I agree that with so many elites it is hard to tour the area like I do Weathertop or the Old Forest, I do find that the feel and the look of GA produces an excitement that I enjoy. At once, I know it for an ancient place, and similarly I know it for a dangerous place. So this is, in my opinion, well done. Frankly, the red theme of the location is not a down-side for me and my fellows. We know it, and we love putting a group together and hunting there. So kudo's team on a great job.

[Bajin]

I'd like to make two comments about Garth Argarwen that I have heard several others in my kinship make as well. I hope this comes across as constructive feedback and not a whine.

First off, the difficulty of the instance is not an issue. I ran it with a well balanced 6 man Fellowship of level 30s and we had a lot of fun while we were fighting. My comments are concerned strictly with design mechanics. We were about 30 minutes into the instance when one person out of the blue said they had to log off. I was leader and able to replace them within a few minutes. The problem is the replacement player could not make it to the entrance of the instance without us coming back outside to clear the numerous outdoor elite mobs blocking their path. The physical location of the instance plus the number of elite mobs between the entrance and the outpost in the Red Pass make adding replacement players a hassle.

The second issue are respawns. Once the replacement player finally got inside the instance we were doing just fine. Unfortunately, as we were getting close to the Red Maid, someone messed up and attacked the wrong mobs so we ended up with a double pull. The minstrel went down fast, the entire party wiped and reappeared back at the entrance. Unfortunately we had been inside the instance long enough that respawns were occuring. To get back to the spot where we wiped, we would have to clear the trash mobs that had respawned. At that point a couple of people decided it was a good time to quit since they didn't want to have to deal with clearing trash mobs all over again. The Fellowship fell apart and the GA instance run ended in failure.

I'm all for there being some consequence to dying and have no problems with having to pay repair costs and dealing with Dread for a few minutes when I die. Why should we have to deal with respawns on top of that? I have had several kinmates tell me that running GA is an extreme hassle and they don't ever want to go back there again because of the issues I just described. My favorite aspect of gameplay in any MMO are instance runs. I enjoy beating the PVE content that the developers created to challenge me. Design decisions that negatively affect that detract from the fun of playing the game IMO.

[DATmadild]

I too like GA but like said before to get a group to get in and then need a replacement or two, It take time to go help them to the instance. I don't recall any other instances that have as many elite mobs in the way.....

The drops in GA are not that great IMHO. I have doe it 2-3 times and would love to go in and clean up my quests.

If you go in with a fellowship that don't know the meaning of stay close you are in for a big suprise.

[Halasturdus]

GA is one of my least-favorite instances in the game. But at the same time, it has my favorite boss battles of any instance in the game.

Fighting Ivan and the Red Maid were wonderfully fun fights. They were tough, but not impossible. The storyline surrounding them was neat and simply the way they fought and the way the encounters unfolded was very well done and a ton of fun. Definitely my favorite boss encounters of any in the whole game.

The rest of the instance, however, was not as good. Yes, I know everything is supposed to be red due to the story line, but to me it was "too" red. Others may disagree and that's fine, but to me all the "redness" lessened my enjoyment of the scenery. Getting to the instance and to the bosses was a bit on the hassle side. Like someone else said, we wiped once and by then had to deal with all the respawns. It took a very long time to get to the bosses - who, like I said, were fantastic encounters.

In the end, I did have fun because the boss fights were so great. However, I would not want to do this instance again.

[Hazdingo]

This area, qand the adjacent fortress full of guant men, has to be two of the creepiest places in middle earth outside of Angmar itself. They make you appreciate the park-like Shire lands which is a vacation resort by comparison.

Well done Devs!

I hope Moria leaves me feeling similarly once it comes along.

P.S. I am surprised I have not seen any instances with traps in them, cave ins, floods, or even simple poisoned arrows would add a new dimension, just a thought.

[lledrae]

Originally Posted by LawLessOne

I have always found Garth Agarwen to be beautiful. Unfortunately it is so packed with Elite monsters that it is difficult to stop and take in the scenery.

It is an instance. You're not confusing it with Agamaur are you ?

I liked GA but found it tedius due to the need to keep doing the same stuff over and over and over again.

Single drop keys to provide access to the next stage is terrible and the inability to start at various points gets a bit tedius too.

[Garidel]

If only it were not for the blasted rubbled stairs leading up to the two brothers...I spent about 20 minutes trying to force my Captain to leap up there while being taunted by the jeers of my fellowship with repeated cries of "you need a rope?"

The Red Miad punting me up onto the top of one of the pillars around her pool was pretty keen...:-)

On the off side...I have died more in there than the whole rest of ME combined!

[11b]

Originally Posted by Garidel

If only it were not for the blasted rubbled stairs leading up to the two brothers...I spent about 20 minutes trying to force my Captain to leap up there while being taunted by the jeers of my fellowship with repeated cries of "you need a rope?"

i agree, GA is fun, but wow that rubble stairs is a pain in the butt, especially for the jumping impaired!!! FIX THE STAIRS PLEASE! lol

[Anori]

Originally Posted by 11b

i agree, GA is fun, but wow that rubble stairs is a pain in the butt, especially for the jumping impaired!!! FIX THE STAIRS PLEASE! lol

i dont think you are suppose to jump over those steps. I believe they designed it so you have to run pass the tree area.

[Eothain]

Geographical question:

Agamaur is the name of the Red Swamp itself. Garth Agarwen is the name of the fortress, which is inside Agamaur. So what exactly is Haragmar?

Thanks.