Thursday, March 3, 2011

Classic Instance: Tham Mírdain

Mae Govannen!

This will be the first of many posts from our kinship detailing our adventures and experiences. We decided to go for the Classic Instances of Tham Mírdain (The Library at Tham Mírdain and The School at Tham Mírdain), since recently a number of our officers finally reached level 50+, thus enabling us to gather in small fellowships very easily.

Tham Mírdain has excellent rewards, including nice Deeds for those willing to run it repeatedly. Before anything is said, one group cannot complete these instances without a healer. I warned you.

The first time we ran through The Library at Tham Mírdain, we had myself (Moramarth, L55 Minstrel), Viniboy (L54 Hunter) and Leoraposo (L53 Champion), setting the instance to Level 50. We had to be careful because the place is filled with pale-folk mobs, which can be very annoying, always walking side-by-side with larger and more dangerous orcs. Taking those out carefully using Vini's traps and Leo's ability to stunning horn wasn't a big problem. Even though Leoraposo is a Champion, he was able to provide satisfactory tanking, specially with the smaller mobs.

Main Yard at The Library at Tham Mírdain - watch out for crebain!

One good strategy is always using fellowship marks to highlight which enemies to target or not. We used a system where I marked the elite mob in a cluster with a "skull", so that the other players were be aware that this guy I would use my Fear skill to keep him out, followed by a stun attempt upon his return. That allowed the Tank and DPS to focus on killing the smaller mobs and then taking down the elite very fast.

After the first corridor we went to the main yard, where some crebain would give us a hard time wouldn't they be handled group by group. In the main yard there are three groups of crebain and also more orcs with pale-folk mobs.

After that, we went all the way to the 3 orc bosses. One sits alone waiting for you in one of the upper rooms next to the main yard and he is a pain to beat because he regenerates. It's hard labour, but not really difficult, though my healing skills went like crazy towards Leoraposo.

The second boss... That bastard. He waits for you with two clusters of 3 pale-folk and will send one cluster at a time after you once you enter the room. Problem is that you have to kill these mobs really, really fast, otherwise you'll find yourselft being beaten and interrupted by mobs while trying to defend from a big bad orc with stunning ability. And then it's bye bye. We tried to kill this boss two times before actually progressing.

Can you see a Hobbit Hunter in this screenshot?

The last boss isn't hard to beat as the previous. He's just a big, bad regenerating orc, like the first boss. So all you have to do is gather your strength and take him down. The second time we tried the instance we had Buzanovsky (L53 Guardian) instead of Leoraposo. The third time we did this same instance I've set it to Level 53 and went with Beccalorien (L61 Lore-Master), Moramarth (L55 Minstrel) and Leoraposo (L53 Champion). We were very successful, even though we tried that 2nd boss three times before managing to defeat him. I hate that guy.

And then came The School at Tham Mírdain. We went there with Moramarth (L55 Minstrel), Viniboy (L54 Hunter) and Buzanovsky (L53 Guardian), setting the instance to Level 50. Can't say we had a hard time, the mobs of uruk-hai and hillmen were very easy to take out and the boss at the main yard was nothing but a "medium-sized" bigger hillmen with 3 or 4 mobs next to him. Fairly easy.

Second boss was a real test to Buza's tanking skills. One larger uruk-hai boss with two elite mobs. We feared for the worse, specially when one of those elite mobs managed to kill me. Our luck was that Vini is quite elusive and a very good Hunter, and Buza has more morale and vitality than a college student on spring break. I was able to revive, hurry back in position and starting healing them again.

Next, the door opens for the school atrium, where a large number of mobs, including some elite, wait for you. Taking those out carefully in small clusters is important, so that you face the final uruk boss alone. And that was easy, yay for us!

(L to R): Beccalorien, Moramarth & Leoraposo in the celebration dance!

Lessons Learned:

(1) Always go for it with a Healer (Minstrel or Rune-Keeper) watching you full-time;

(2) Preferably go for it with a Tank (Guardian or Warden);

(3) If Tank is not available, is requires a very cunning Champion or Captain;

(4) Keep a good stash of stats-food and regen-food;

(5) Keep your Hope Tokens (a.k.a. "Lanterns", in Leo's slang) ready.

The last two are more like general advice for classic instances. Our kinship is planning on trying different formations to provide lots of fun for everyone trying these instances, so stay tuned for updates!


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