Thursday, December 18, 2008

The library at Tham Mirdain

So Last night was instance night for the "Hand of Smack" (That's my kin) and after I helped my brother get his first legendary and I my first on rumples, we needed to level it but the kin needed my help with 8.1 so I helped them and took an epic pic of us on the bridge into Angmar. Then two other kinmates, Reiszor and Thrali wanted to run the new three man instances so I went with them down to the library and let me say this, I think I prefer three man more than 6 ;). There is no margin for error though, but there's a great margin for personal excellence. If you are freaking awesome it really shows in a three man, whereas in a 6 or 12 or 24 man.. you start to get drowned out ina sea of endless stats until you feel like a cog in a wheel. But on a three man team, its just you and your buds trying to survive, and they have done some interesting things with the bosses. The first boss we downed the first time. He's an orc with a bad temper who says funny stuff as you're coming in. He wasn't so hard, except you have to react to the stuff he says cuz hes gonna hit you different moves. This keeps it from being totally tank and spank, but its still pretty easy. The loots were lots of exp tokens for weapons (I can see this place being a popular farm location) and some purple pants.

Second boss: We died four or five times and the only reason we lived was because he didnt stun me for ten seconds the final time.

The second boss is a neat looking orc captain with 6 pale folk minions. The thing is, he send them in in waves of three before he bothers to get involved himself. The other thing is, the waves coem faster than its humanly possible to kill them, unless you are a 60 champ, so you end up with 4 or 3 of them and the boss in no time flat. Its a dps race on that hand, but then there's the fact that they each apply a deadly poison to people which does 500 damage a second and only hunters can remove poison, of which we had none, so the minstrel (me) was doing a healing race, which quickly gets me covered in sharp teethed little pale folk. If he stuns the minstrel you're pretty much toast because that poison is unforgiving. I recommend using the quick heal, even though its inefficient, cuz the pale folk don't like it when you heal and they interrupt the longer one. Once the pale folk are down, don't drop your guard cuz he will still stun/sunder armor/and do other crazy stuff. One heck of a boss.
His chest had a very nice medium armor hat for me to use at lvl 52, when I get there, and a bunch of these other treasure thingies that I think are for using to enhance legendaries.

Third boss: This guy's room you pas through a few times and its filled with crows, and its scary cuz you know that many crows could kill anyone. Fortunately, he only throws them at you in groups of 4... (Only 4 :P) along with himself. Occasionally he does a kind of dust in the eyes thing and some other dirty tricks, (He's an uruk-hai, he never went to fighting ettiquette school) And then he calls in more and more birds. We had a champ so we usually got the birds dead before the next wave, they are not as hardy as pale folk. He is an easy tank n spank once you live through the bird waves. There are four I think. Keeping your own tank alive though before that, and the healer, is no joke. I can see this guy being done with a captain healing though since there are adds to kill. Lots of versatility and I have to reacquaint myself with my legendary moves and cool downs and song of the hopeful heart. All in all a lot of fun. I will include screen shots I've been collecting next post.

8 comments:

Anton said...

Hey Thallian, why don't you post the screenshot(s)?

Thallian said...

well, this is a secret.. but I actually work, unlike some people who play games for a living (jk)

Thallian said...

I don't have them on my work computer that's the real reason.

Anton said...

Playing games is hard work! Especially if you play WoW!

mbp said...

I cleared out the library in a Champion/ Hunter /Burglar group and it was great. Your point about each individual feeling essential in a 3 man is spot on. I felt special because my Champion aoe skills made a visible difference. Out burglar was the hero of the day at that second boss. When the minstrel and I got stunned for ages the burglar escaped (perhaps its a line of sight thing). Using all his slippery burglar skills he tanked the boss solo until we recovered.

I got stuck into Moria before doing the school but your post has tempted me to go back although at level 56 I am probably a bit high for it.

Anton said...

I play a healer in WoW, so I always feel important :) But I see how 3-man does make people feel more special, that's a very good point I hadn't thought of before! Secret of Mana, one of my top 3 favorite games of all time is 3 player. Maybe developers need to look into making more 3-player stuff in the future.

Thallian said...

Wow mbp, you cleared a dungeon with no healer.. that's amazing, did you use conjunctions to heal or something? Regardless, that burglar friend of yours needs a raise.

mbp said...

Oops Typo. The group was Champion/Minstrel/Burglar

Sorry for the confusion.