An Elf, a Dwarf and a Hobbit deliver flowers

Dwarf Guardian Floskoldir, Elf Hunter Seregorion and Hobbit Minstrel Herengard deliver flowers for Bingo Boffin.


The swimming lessons didn't go as well.

Hobbits Protecting the Shire

Apelbob and Apelpip were joined by fellow hobbit Herengard and after a visit to a goblin camp were proud to wear the official title of The Flaming Halflings kinship.

Grimbergar reaches Minas Tirith and L103

Grimbergar has been helping Aragorn with the Haradrim and witnesses the King of the Dead's oath fulfilled.












 
He makes his way to the rangers in Osgiliath searching in vain for Faramir, where he has suffered from the attentions of Trolls, met the enormous Mumaks and an old adversary, grazed Grond and gets his first look at Minas Tirith.

He has to confess to resorting to using Mithril Coins to travel to the last 2 lost rangers.







 
This stirred memories of encounters with Golodir and Mordirith 




 



It doesn't look good for Minas Tirith.

Letter Home - Green Dragon and Black Rider

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

Apelpip and I have had a busy time in the Shire. We rode from Bree over the Brandywine Bridge and stayed at the Green Dragon Inn where we had a great time drinking, dancing and listening to stories by the fire.

























Its not been all fun though when we heard rumours of a black rider in Budgeford. During our investigations we had to fight a pack of wolves and Apelbob came off badly after being too brave but he is OK now. We uncovered a nasty trick by a Followhide and the Budgeford pigs were quite upset, not respectable behaviour!

As well as adventuring we have been learning our crafts. Apelpip has been collecting copper and making himself some great armour. Apelbob has collected wood and made some useful weapons and is intending to get skilled enough to make musical instruments to improve his minstrel playing. In Brokenborings we learnt some hobbit history finding the lamp put here by the Hobbits who travelled from the west. Big brother Apelred has made Apelbob some fine clothes so fighting wolves should be a lot easier now.

Letter Home - Black Riders

 Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

We are both doing OK and getting six meals a day but didn't think danger would come to the Shire. We met some nice hobbits on a evening walk then the next thing this really scary Black Rider came asking for a Baggins. We managed to get away with the help of 2 rangers but one was injured.

We made it to Archet where we learned some basic skills but we couldn't save the ranger called Amdir who went off with some evil creatures.

Thankfully after that we are back in the peaceful Eastfarthing helping local hobbits. We learned how to ride and headed out to the Big People in Bree to buy our first ponies. We are so happy to be riding Ruby and Emerald.

  

 Hope you and the apples are doing well and look out for Black Riders.

Love Apelpip and Apelbob

1 Cape Road

When on his long break Grimbergar did not keep up the rent on his house in the Shire and had all his things thrown out. The new housing is rent free for VIPs and he has 2 years worth of Turbine Points to spend so he took a visit to the Cape of Belfalas. A couple of new neighbourhoods had all the properties available so he could take a long look round and take his pick. He chose 1 Cape Road for the view and convenient services next door.

Here are a load of screenshots after redecorating. Really love the views.

The Adventures of the Appletun brothers

The Appletun's have tended the orchards of Bramley farm in the Southfarthing of The Shire for generations. You may not know them but you have probably tasted their apples as they make the famous Stars of Old Cider available in the Prancing Pony.

Florandir blessing the apples that make Stars of Old Cider

Tragedy struck the family when Apeldo and Rose were killed by goblins when delivering cider to an inn in the Lone Lands. Deliveries stopped and the inn went downhill.

Broken delivery wagon near the Forsaken Inn

 Apeldo and Rose left 5 young hobbits, Apelred, Apeljack, Apelard, Apelbob and Apelpip who vowed to avenge their parents deaths. The youngsters were brought up by their grandparents Apelic and Blossom until they were old enough to leave home. Apelred and Apeljack have already left the farm on adventures whereas Apelard has agreed to stay on the farm to help their grandparents tend the apples, make the cider and try to appear at least a little respectable.

Now Apelbob and Apelpip are old enough to start on their own adventures, and have promised to write home to their grandparents to tell them of their adventures and show they are safe.

Guardian Apelpip and Minstrel Apelbob at Browne's Folly

You will be able to read their letters home here.

Apelpip is being played by my son and Apelbob is me. We will be adventuring together and hope to finish the story in 4 years before Warner Brothers decides not to renew the LOTR licence.

Grimbergar retakes Pelargir (eventually)

Army of the dead turn up after we have protected the flank in Pelargir

It took Grimbergar a number of attempts to remember how to run a Big Battle but he got there in the end and made it to level 101. The guides advised him to do things he hasn't got the experience for yet so he needed to run the Big Battles a few times anyway so failed attempts were not a total loss.

He has imbued his 3 legendary items and got them up to level 102 with Heritage XP Runes. Looking forward to these levelling up as he does.

Grimbergar makes L100 and tries to fathom Captain rotation legacies and imbuing

Grimbergar has reached L100 in Central Gondor and considers the future of his Legendary items. Being uber casual the idea that an imbued item will grow with you is perfect but it makes the choices extra critical so lots of research has been going on (he is an Historian after all!)

Being a solo Captain who runs Red mainly, switching to Yellow for big pulls he only needs OK items so asked his friends Ieshac and Sofor to craft some 2nd age L100 items and crossed his fingers - here are the results.

Only the Rallying Cry Heal is a good result

The power cost reduction is not what I wanted but the Rallying Cry Heal is nice. Target legacies for this compromise Emblem are,
MAJOR
Healing Critical Magnitude
Rallying Cry Healing
Sure Strike Damage
Vocal Skills Healing

MINOR
Devastating Blow and Pressing Attack Damage
Light-type Damage
Shadow's Lament Damage

Max Moral & Crit are great Vitality is OK

The 2 hander will be his Red Line weapon. Max Morale and Crit are perfect, I can live with Vitality instead of Might. Target Legacies

MAJOR
Cutting Attack Damage
Grave Wound Damage
Melee Skills Critical Damage
Captain Area-effect Healing

MINOR
Battle-readied Damage Buff
Bleed Damage
Inspire Damage

NO Blade of Elendil Damage here! See rotation info later.

Keeping Grave Wound and AOE Healing

My 1 hander will be for Yellow sword and board big pulls (5 plus mobs) maximising survivability with these legacies.

MAJOR
Battle-hardened Outgoing Healing Buff
Captain Area-effect Healing
Grave Wound Damage
Melee Skills Critical Damage


MINOR
Battle-hardened Incoming Damage Reduction
Defensive Strike Armour Buff
Shield/Song/Blade-brother Critical Defence

Red Rotation

Based on the following analysis Blade of Elendil is off the menu.
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?536113-LtC-Captain-Critical-Strike-Mechanics


The rotation Grimbergar will be attempting is as follows
Prep
Archer pet out with Blade Brother active
Archer to attack a ranged mob to initiate fight
Select Nearest Mob (Backspace)
Telling Mark
Standard of War
Time of Need

Rotation
Routing Cry (for Penetrating Cry -15% attack duration & stun)
Battle Shout
Sure Strike
Devastating Blow/Pressing Attack
Cutting Attack
Inspire
Shadows Lament
Grave Wound

Back after a long break

After the worlds consolidation Grimberg has been forced to change his name to Grimbergar.

He has returned to Middle Earth adventuring after a long break making it to level 99 on the quest trail to Dol Amroth.

Unfinished Business with Dargnakh

Grimberg had not been able to defeat Dargnakh when on level so now he was massively over-levelled he went back to give the big troll a seeing to.

Grimberg L95 Legendaries

Grimberg made L95 just at the end of the Epic Quest line and asked his friend to craft some legendary weapons for him. Here are the results.

Grimberg is enjoying the Leader of Men line with the revamped Class Traits below. This is designed to act as a support to the tank so does not include the force taunt for Grave Wound. Grimberg can boost both his own and the tanks survivability. He also likes the partial B/P/E triggering defeat events so he can get his Routing Cry stun into action.

Update 13 – Grimberg defeat shocker

After update 13 I did my usual casual stroll up to + level mobs with my L85 legendary items, and was defeated! I actually had to think through the fight and use all my skills, this took a few attempts as I had forgotten how to play. I compensated for the reduced defence by going sword and board.

After that a bit of session play as Treebeard squishing 6 orcs at a time then redecorating Isengard was fun.

Epic Battles get Grimberg to L94

Grimberg does the Epic Quest big battles to get to L94. He bought 40 points to get Engineer Rank 1 so there was something he could do during the battles but won’t be grinding out any more.

Grimberg Level 90

Grimberg reaches Fangorn forest just after reaching level 90 and talks to the Ent Blackthorn.

Member of the Privy Council

Grimberg has the dubious duty of checking privys, and finds an orc that gets the full benefit of his DPS traits.

Lovely Scenery

Grimberg stops adventuring for a minute to admire the lovely Rohan scenery

Helms Deep Captain Builds

Grimberg went through the full gamut of emotions after seeing the class changes in Helms deep but is coming round to the new setup. Certainly some flexibility has gone but changing traits while adventuring means a better chance to adapt to circumstances like instance wipes. He must admit to logging on pre HD just to give his last non-fellowship buff with a wistful sigh. He wont miss having to keep a buff stick and standing around every 30 mins rebuffing everyone!
Here are Grimbergs initial builds inspired by Furtims Post. He gets a 2nd slot for lifetime member and bought a third so can go fully down each line.
DPS build is Grimberg’s solo build and is pure DPS, Already had a 5k+ devastating blow :). Grimberg is a Shadows Lament fan so this will be his standard build.

Healing build is untried as yet.

Tanking Build includes some red line for DPS to generate more threat & get Telling Mark. Expecting this to be useful when doing a threat swap with the tank using Threatening Shout to bump up the tanks threat level now we have the new threat system.

Grimberg is back

After a long break from adventuring and a brief trip to Wildermore, Grimberg has returned to adventuring with the lure of some Epic stories he might actually recognise!
So he has made his way to the legendary city of Edoras and gazed in wonder at the great hall of Meduseld.
But these are troubled times for his beloved Rohan. Grimberg will help hold back the tide of the White Hand to the bitter end.

Steak for dinner

 The Flaming Halflings went war band hunting and fancying some Auroch steak for dinner took down the mighty beast Fearrhorn, yummy!