Apels Axe hits L70

Apelred got his legendary axe to level 70 and decided to give it some yuletide gifts from the lotro store. He has recently switched to 5B 2R, so he stripped Power Restored by Deep Concentration and also extracted Agile Rejoinder Heal Chance from a couple of his other legendaries and upped their tier to get the setup as seen in the LI points spender tool. This should see him through to L75.

Squishy hunter tries 5 blue

Apelred is finding burning down single targets is going very well but multiple mobs is causing some problems with a few defeats. He has been looking to try a different solo setup (currently 4 blue 3 red) to improve his chances against multiple mobs . Choice was between Trapper (CC) and Huntsman (Kiting) lines, after reading a post comment recommending Improved Fleetness for kiting he opted to try Huntsman. So he is going 5 blue Strong Draw  Resolute Aim  Swift Recovery Deadly Precision and adding Deep Concentration  for the power heal,  and 2 red Swift Mercy (following the focus build theme) and Critical Eye. (Tried Barbed Hindrance for a while but never opened with it and felt the Low Cut slow was enough for kiting).
Huntsman capstone Improved Fleetness (30 sec duration 30 sec cooldown) replaces Rain of Thorns (3 min cooldown) and joins Press Onward and Bard's Arrow. Combined with Low Cut this should enable some useful kiting to reduce the amount of melee damage taken when Apel gets in a tight spot. Its a real shame Combat Traps still leaves you vulnerable to interruption reducing its value.


Analysis of Induction Decreases with 5 Blue (5B), Fast Draw (FD), Needful Haste (NH) & Improved Fleetness (IF) running. Fast Draw doesnt seem worth it with 5 blue as Swift Bow only gets a 0.1 second reduction.
Barbed Arrow 1.5 to 0.8 (5B -0.3, FD -0.1, NH -0.25, IF -0.1)
Swift Bow 2.0 to 0.9 (5B -0.4, FD -0.1, NH -0.5, IF -0.1)
Quick Shot 1.0 to 0.7 (5B -0.2, IF -0.1)

Apelred finds using Improved Fleetness is like banking 6 focus and then withdrawing one every 5 seconds, combined with Precision Stance focus flows very nicely.

Apel is experimenting with an Improved Fleetness shot rotation inspired by a post by Marithil.

For tougher opponents this includes stacking Improved Fleetness, Needful Haste, Burn Hot and Improved Focus and getting off as many Blood Arrows and Improved Penetrating Shots as focus allows. This gets him between 375 to 450 DPS against slightly lower level signature Dun Bulls.

For trash mobs opening with Improved Focus, Improved Fleetness, Improved Focus, Blood Arrow, 2X Improved Penetrating Shot, Barbed Arrow, Swift Bow, Merciful Shot is working well.

L70 for Apel

Apelred makes level 70 while questing around Avardin and returns to Galtrev to get his travel skill, taxi anyone?

Haunted Inn Tier 2 Tricky

Zeshac, Colzarak & Apelred attempted the Haunted Inn on Tier 2. We investigated the new areas and found the final page of the journal. We had to rez after a couple of defeats and made it through to the final boss encounter. The bone piles proved a bit too much for us so a change of strategy is required for our next attempt.

Apelred the hero next door

Apelred reaches level 68 by playing a fireman. The post title is based on the theme tune for Fireman Sam one of my little hobbits favorite DVDs.

Apel has since reached Galtrev and is working for the White Hand, not sure I approve!

Blog gets a new look

After 200 posts I thought it was time for a new look and an increase in width to 1080 now widescreen is so common. I rather impulsively applied a new template, hope you like it. I will work on a improved title screen.

UPDATE - Improved title screen & backgound now installed. The title screen features from left to right:-
Loremaster Florandir, Hunter Apelred, Captain Grimberg, Orthanc Tower

Mighty Grimberg, Agile Apel

After his first trip to Dunland Grimberg has increased his Might by a huge amount to 695, he was on 402 at level 65. This is at the cost of Will & Fate and some ICPR so he is anticipating power problems along with the big increase in damage and healing.

Apelred followed Grimberg and managed to break the 700 mark with agility but his will is woeful, might need some rebalancing!

Grimberg ready for Dunland with a 2 hander

As expected Captain Grimberg managed to complete the Forsaken Road more easily than Hunter Apelred as his rallying cry heal after crits kept morale well topped up, some heals were over 4k with inspiration! The Oathbreakers were never defeated so he got no 'on defeat' skills. He has completed the epic quest line in Enedwaith so is ready for Dunland.

He has been experimenting with 'sword & board' to see how it goes. He did get more survivability but DPS was noticably reduced so it is back to a 2 hander. Here is a post with some good analysis and discussion about this topic.

Lottery Winner

Being a former Euro server bod I have never had the chance to enter the Turbine Lottery until now. I entered all 7 of my toons and won twice. The rewards were well worth having - 50 blueberry muffins & 2 pieces of nice level 15 jewellery for the lower level toon, 30 Westfold Athelas & Celebrant Salves and a 251k IXP rune for Apel who is level 67. A very pleasant surprise.

Grimberg L67

Grimberg ventures into the Bewlidering Ruins in search of the wandering jeweller Funi Gem Cutter and makes L67.

200th Post

A milestone for Apelred and friends, the 200th post of their adventures, prompts a review of the adventures so far.
The blog was started in Sept 2008 as a diary when Apel was level 34, in recognition that he was uber casual and would like to look back on his slow progress. The first notable post was Apel getting his pony, a major achievement back then. Apel quickly realised pictures made posts more interesting and to date has taken over 3500 screen shots. Initially slideshows of edited pics were created but the unexpected arrival of a baby hobbit limited blogging time so a simpler approach was adopted. Here is one of Apels favorites pics showing the Rift.

Which leads on to thankyous to all his friends in the Flaming Halflings and Reconnected and many other adventurers on Eldar who have made Apelreds adventures so enjoyable. And thankyou to all the readers and especially to Sandsons Organic Chickens and On Distant Shores for comments, they are very encouraging. The most popular post by far is Filgogan Caves as Apel managed to create a handy map which has had over 1000 reads.

Fun adventures included Yule be Sorry and A Trap for the Creature, Apel enjoys the fun 'fluff'. Best group experiences were Revenge on Mordirith, Tomb of Elendil, The Rift and Dar Narbugud.

Apelred is a Hunter and Explorer and this proved the ideal combination for a first MMO toon. Fellow adventurers Captain Grimberg and Loremaster Florandir are also questing with the hope that they can join Apel at the level caps as the adventure unfolds. This gives a heavy, medium and light armour wearer for a variety of experience and crafting.

On the crafting front friends have Supreme level for Prospector, Forester, Tailoring, Scholar, Woodworking, Metalworking, Jewellery, & Cooking. Weaponsmithing is coming along, Farming is just too boring. There is a lot of satisfaction in using your own crafted items.





In three and a half years Apelred has ventured into strange new lands, Eregion, Moria, Lothlorien, Mirkwood, Enedwaith and soon to Dunland. How many posts will be made before he sees the Cracks of Doom he wonders?

L70 Bow

Apelred has done what he wanted to see of Enedwaith after completing the Huntsman challenges and has managed to get a legendary to level 70 for the first time. Apel used the LI Spender Tool to figure out which legacies to tier up to get the most out of the points. Here is the plan for points allocation. He is now waiting for Grimberg to catch up so they can venture into Dunland.

Apelred L67

Apelred makes level 67 & Friend to the Aldraig by completing the Mincham series of quests in the Lich Bluffs - he only has the Mournshaws to go before resting while Grimberg does Vol 3 in Enedwaith. Then they will both set off to Dunland, one taking the high road and the other the low road.

Hunter struggles to solo Forsaken Road

Apelred struggles to complete Vol. III, Book 3, Chapter 10: Echoes of the Dead as it involves keeping Candaith alive during fights with 2, 3, 4 & then 4 elite masters. Hunters have no heals and few AOE or tanking skills so this kind of quest is really difficult to solo, he managed it on the second attempt by rotating round the oathbreakers getting their aggro and fearing whenever Bards Arrow was up. Then after all that Candaith goes and gets himself killed! To escape Apel just legged it and managed to talk to the quest giver just in time with about 12 oathbreakers in tow.

I expect this will be a breeze when Captain Grimberg tries it soon.

L66 for Apel

Apelred is back in action making level 66 after witnessing some quality cursing and attending the Council of Brehur in Enedwaith. Apel has been saving these quests until they added to his XP! Strangely after making level 66 he was advised how useful using a map could be - well I never, he thought!

Watchful Goblin

Apelred ventured into the haunted burrow, got spooked, then got this painting as a reward, ever feel like something is watching you?

Vol 2 Book 9 Dol Guldur

Grimberg completes the epic quest line in Mirkwood & sees Zigilburk entombed but not after it sees off that annoying Mazog. Here are some screenshots in Picasa.

Grimberg is trying a tank & spank setup using a shield & one handed sword and his Oathbreaker Archer. He has 5 Red (Lead the Charge) to get the pet buffs & oathbreaker pet, and Strength From Within for the self heal 600 morale every 30 seconds (down to 20 with emblem legacy). He has chosen Resistance (9.8%) and Mitigation (53.4% common) gear to reduce damage taken. Lets see how it goes.

Skumfil Spiders

Apelred comes out of retirement to join 4 other Flaming Halflings in an attempt to defeat the Skumfil Spiders but after many tries they only get to phase 2 of the final boss. All those spider kills were good for rep & deeds! Here are some screenshots on Picasa.

Supreme Master Scholar & L66

Grimberg is a Friend to the Malledhrim so can purchase the 'steeped' version of the potion recipes and making a set of these potions gave him the experience to call himself a Supreme Master Scholar. This position allows him to create a crafted relic for his L65 legendary two handed hammer Drambor, so off he went on a trip to Rivendell to the Scholars Guild. About 3 gold lighter he came away with lots of new recipes and a crafted relic. Nice to see he can craft a pocket item at L75.


Adventuring deeper into Mirkwood with the Hidden Guard brought Grimberg face to face with 3 Ring Wraiths, wisely he ran away and survived to make level 66.

Valandil's Tomb

The Flaming Halflings fight their way through to face Valandil but fail the last fight. We will regroup, get some Westerness damage and try again.

Forges

Forges The Flaming Halflings venture into the Forges to help Aeshac get his Lore Master class quest. Clip on the small pic to view the screenshots in Picasa.

Isengard arrives

Took my turn in the patching queue last night and got up and running. Trying to get the hang of the Cappy changes.

L65 only just

Grimberg just manages to make Level 65 1 day before the lauch of Isengard!

Supreme Master Metalsmith

Folflorin makes some crests ready for the new Isengard Guild crafting level and a 3rd age level 65 Emblem for Grimberg which was enough to get him to Supreme Master Metalsmith.

Skirmish to L64

Grimberg still might make level 65 by Isengard having just made level 64 by completing his daily AFK skirmish Stand On Amon Sul (AFK because I set the skirmish off and then go for a shower leaving my pet & skirmish soldier to it, getting back in time for the Cargul fight at the end. I normally do these at -5 levels.)

This level 64 skill will help with the AFK skirmishes.

Back to Moria for Skumfil (spoke too soon)

4 brave Flaming Halflings help Colvedui the champion with his class quest in Skumfil and then venture even deeper into the tunnels.
The first week we did the right side, the second week we did the left side for Tormay's Minstrel quest (boy there were a lot of corpse claws).
Click on the pic to view the album in Picasa.

Captain of great worth and bravery

Those Elves are a good judge of character! Grimberg helps the Hidden Guard shepherd Mazog on the treacherous journey through Mirkwood.