Archive
Gearing up in Isengard or “Yay math!”
Ah, gearing up. The constant fight for the “best” items for your class, level, and playstyle. With a new level cap and stat changes, the old gear is worthless and the new gear is just out of reach.
Draigoch armor set
Rise of Isengard shipped with one new armor set per class. The first four pieces (boots, gloves, chest, and legs) are available by bartering Superior Fourth Marks. The last two pieces (shoulders and helm) only drop from the Draigoch raid, thus this armor set is known as the “Draigoch set” or the “Dragon set.” I just hope they don’t shorten it like they did with the “Hele set” (Helegrod). I don’t want to be walking around in the “Drag set”…
"Dragon" is way cooler...
Superior 4th Marks, or “S4Ms” as they are seen in chat, are granted upon completion of Challenge modes of any 3- or 6-man Classic instance and 12-man Skirmishes, sans Icy Crevasse and Attack At Dawn, and they are also found in chests at the end of those instances. Challenge modes grant 3 Superior 4th Marks apiece. Read more…
O, The Lives I Have Taken…
It all started with ore…
I am afraid that’s how a lot of my stories start. Even in real life.
Not really, I kid.
But seriously, this story did start with ore. You see, this all started on September 20th, when I was getting ready for Isengard with my Captain. Specifically, I had decided that I needed to finish off mastery of Tier 5 and Tier 6 of Prospecting, so I would be ready for all of the Skarn that is coming in Isengard (Skarn is the new Tier of ore, just fyi).
Since I needed a bunch of Tier 5 ore, I decided to go to Eregion to make a large loop prospecting Ancient Silver and Ancient Iron, roughly centered on Echad Eregion.
Then I had the (then) brilliant thought, “Hey I should look and see if there are any deeds that I need to complete in Eregion while I am at it. I might as well kill things as I go.” Read more…
Virtues in Isengard, pt. 2
After receiving some really good questions from Lucian about my last post on the Virtues in Isengard, I decided to write some of my responses and some more thoughts on them.
Clarification about Beta Disclaimer of former post
When I said that there might be changes before the Expansion hits the live servers, I meant was that the Virtues I saw in the Beta might not be in the exact same form (like the exact same numbers) when Rise of Isengard goes live. They may increase or decrease values after testing. This often happens in Beta, and I wanted to be sure you wouldn’t get mad at me if you saw that Zeal gave a lesser amount of Morale in Live than I said originally.
Explanation of a few facets of the new Virtues
The Virtues in Isengard will be significantly different than the ones that are currently live. Read more…
Hunters in Isengard Dev Diary
Zombie Columbus released a Dev Diary today with the official changes for the Hunter in Rise of Isengard.
First off, I want to say to the Hunter community: don’t panic. The Hunter is my main, so I tried it in the Beta, and they are actually quite good. The biggest concern is the removal of Strong Draw from the game, but it is hardly missed with the changes. Just keep that in mind.
Stances
The first thing ZC wanted to address with the Hunter changes were the traitlines being tied to stances. Mainly, he wanted to have Hunters able to switch stances mid-fight and not feel that they were wasting a trait they had slotted. Traits like Graceful Draw that buffed only one stance were removed from the game and the bonuses were distributed into the stance itself or throughout other traits in a more general way. Read more…
Rise of Isengard photo-journal and tips
My Captain, Ardaheru, hit 75 Monday night! I was 8th in Southern Cross to do it. It was a very interesting experience, and I wanted to share with you some screenshots and advice for a smooth experience.
Fun Moments
- I found that wargs in Dunland are very well behaved.
- My first glimpse of Saruman was a “jump-up-and-down-with-joy moment.” Somehow, I missed this quest in the Beta, which I am glad about, because I got experience it for the first time “for real.”
Saruman is a cheapskate though!
- Here is the quest I was referring to in this post about humor and engagement in the Epic story in Dunland.
"There are very few desirable tasks when it comes to preparing for war"
- When we come across the Riders of Rohan for the first time: another “jump-up-and-down-with-joy moment.” Théoden’s son!!!!! Read more…
The Fanatical Swordsman 