March 20, 2011 Sunday Meeting
5pm EST (GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Back to News
Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (6)
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, fladrifv, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, VardaValar1 (presiding).
Before-meeting:
Meeting begins
Membership:
Birthdays this past week
Meriadoc
Web
Gaming:
Mass Effect 2
StarCraft 2, more on tips for the Supernova mission in the After-meeting.
WoW
LotRO
Tolkien:
JRRT liked Nordic themes. One of them was bravery against hopeless
odds. What examples from the books can you think of where he used this
idea?
After-meeting
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Before-meeting:
You have just entered room "valarguildmeetingplace."
karakedi25: Aiya
ArPharazonV: Still no daylight savings here
Eonwe Valar: Hmm. Well, it's meeting time here.
Eonwe Valar: We'll begin shortly.
VardaValar1 has entered the room.
fladrifv: Aiya
ArPharazonV: Aiya Varda :-)
VardaValar1: Aiya :-)
ArPharazonV: and Aiya all!
karakedi25: Aiya newcomers
AriehnV has entered the room.
AriehnV: aiya all
ArPharazonV: Aiya :-)
VardaValar1: Aiya Arien : )
karakedi25: Aiya
ArPharazonV: Well, you're on time, meeting hasn't officially started yet
ArPharazonV: but I thought I'd warn you anyway :-)
AriehnV: ah very kind of you Phara :-)
VardaValar1: Is Eonwe still afk?
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VardaValar1: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
VardaValar1: Membership:
VardaValar1: This last week saw a lot of birthdays. : )
VardaValar1: Aule, Ecthelion, and Celeborn among them.
VardaValar1: On Ventrilo, Celeborn has been given the happy birthday song at least twice now. : )
ArPharazonV: If Valar-music is anything like the Ainulindale, it must've been spectacular.
VardaValar1: Landroval-(V) said he didn't quit the kin or overall guild, just pulled out a few characters. I believe they are now in his wife's kin.
VardaValar1: hehe Phar
AriehnV: congratulations to all the birtday valarites
ArPharazonV: What Arien said!
VardaValar1: Meriadoc-(V) sent
in a video of a historic plane that he helped protect from a storm that
came up during its flight. All of them were very soaked stuffing it
into an already crowded hangar.
VardaValar1: He's hoping to get to go for a ride in it next time it's
in the area, as the pilot said he'd be willing to take him up. :-)
VardaValar1: World War 2 trainer if you'd like to glance at it
VardaValar1: http://www.aircraftowner.com/videos/view/ryan-pt-22-recruit_1766.html
VardaValar1: Welcome back, Eonwe : )
VardaValar1: Any other membership news you folks would like to mention?
VardaValar1: Guess not. : )
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VardaValar1: Web:
VardaValar1: We're messing with it but nothing online to report yet.
VardaValar1: Your additions to the News or Tolkien Site are always welcome. Just toss it in my email. : )
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VardaValar1: Gaming:
VardaValar1: Any non-WoW, non-LotRO happenings?
ArPharazonV: Ah, last night I had an idea for a short story I was gonna
write up today but completely forgot about it since then ;-) Might see
if I'm gonna make it this week, though of course the next day these
things have a way of losing their edge...
VardaValar1: Sauron's been playing a lot of Mass Effect 2.
ArPharazonV: Yeah, Starcraft II, a few customs and, for the first time in 5 months, campaign missions, on normal difficulty.
VardaValar1: Scribble a bit on it and watch it come back to you, Phar. : )
ArPharazonV: I have to admit, I'm slightly less horrible at it after 5
months than I was expecting. Panicked a bit at times, but it always
turned out to be easier than expected.
VardaValar1: Fladrif, have you had any play time?
VardaValar1: hehe Phar
VardaValar1: WoW:
VardaValar1: Eonwe, do you have a report?
Eonwe Valar: Pardon.
Eonwe Valar: Sunday Run:
Eonwe Valar: Attending: Eonwė, Bilbo, Elwing, Sauron, Bofur
Eonwe Valar: Our goal of the night: Get Bilbo to Chromaggus in Blackwing Lair and see how well he can tame him :}
Eonwe Valar: First task, we got Elwing attuned for Blackwing Lair so
she could use the Orb to teleport there (don't know how we missed doing
this before :})
Eonwe Valar: Then, we got back to the fun we had on Friday night. Even
with some new ideas, this bug was beating us, and each new try we found
something else wrong. Finally, we managed a trade of control between
Bofur and Bilbo and managed to destroy all of the eggs, and then
Razorgore himself. Everything after that was easy :}
Eonwe Valar: When we came to Chromaguss, the rest of us stayed outside
the room while Bilbo went in to tame him. Bilbo did so, and on we
marched to Nefarion, who also went down easily :}
Eonwe Valar: At this point, Bofur had to go, but we four were feeling
adventurous. We decided to go into AQ40. After Eonwė's Paladin solo'd
the first boss, we cleared all the way to the Twin Emperors, and
managed to get them down to half health before things started going
badly. In the end, we lost (though we could've kept it up until the
enrage timer if we wanted to), but considering our group composition
was 2 hunters, a warlock, and a Paladin, we did quite well. Eonwe
Valar: Friday Run:
Eonwe Valar: Participants: Members - Eonwė, Elwing, Eowyn, BilboGuild Friends - Schlep
Eonwe Valar: This Friday Eonwe came in late because of that pesky real life thing.
Eonwe Valar: When I did make it in, our first task was to go through
Dire Maul for the final classic dungeon run we needed for guild credit.
Eonwe, Eowyn, and Elwing cleared out East and West, and Bilbo joined us
in time for North.
Eonwe Valar: After that, Schlep joined us and with 5 we decided to try
our luck at a Cataclysm 5-man. Having noone specced as a healer, Eowyn
said she'd give it a try with her Shaman, and I threw in my assistance.
Eonwe Valar: We tried the random dungeon finder, and it gave us Grim Batol.
Eonwe Valar: The groups weren't too bad, and we made it to the first boss, General Umbriss. This was the real fight :}
Eonwe Valar: We died a couple of times, but got him within 20% of death each time.
Eonwe Valar: Finally, we got him, and having achieved victory, it was time to call it a night :}
Eonwe Valar: Ths ends my report.
VardaValar1: Thanks Eonwe
VardaValar1: Sunday WoW run tonight after the meeting.
VardaValar1: A quick surprise news for Eonwe:
VardaValar1: The WoW guild just hit level 7 right before the meeting. :-)
Eonwe Valar: Yay :}
VardaValar1: On to LotRO:
VardaValar1: The big thing is that Update 2 comes out Monday!
VardaValar1: New instance, tons of new stuff. Legendary Item overhaul.
VardaValar1: For some info on those ,Ulmo and Gorlim handed us a couple of urls respectively
VardaValar1: http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Update_2_Legendary_Item_Changes
VardaValar1: and the LI point spender:
VardaValar1: http://lotrotools.mmorsel.com/lispender
ArPharazonV: Any added geography, or famous locations for instances I might know?
VardaValar1: Horses are currently 50% off for those of you who may have been waiting on that.
karakedi25: It's very complicated and will take some getting used to (the Legendary Item change).
VardaValar1: We'll get it figured out. We always do. :-)
karakedi25: No new geographic areas this time, but a lot of enhancements in existing ones.
karakedi25: Including new instances and a new 12-person raid. I've tried it on the test server, and it's very tough.
ArPharazonV: Where is it? :-)
karakedi25: Southernmost Enedwaith, in a place called Ost Dunhoth (made up by the devs)
karakedi25: It's a Dunadan ruin.
ArPharazonV: Ahh. Neat.
VardaValar1: In the last book instance, we started going with the Grey Company on their trek to meet Aragorn.
karakedi25: On the other hand, there is an old 'friend' who appears in part of the raid...
karakedi25: the main boss is purportedly messing with our minds, and so
there's a kind of dream sequence where we fight Durin's Bane.
VardaValar1: Thanks Indis. :-)
VardaValar1: Monday run we completed 2.5.5 Battle of the Deep-way in Moria.
VardaValar1: Then we broke into two three-man runs.
VardaValar1: 2.8.4 Lumul-nar in Moria could only take three so
karakedi25: (for non-LotRO players, 2.5.5 is a massive bottleneck in progress to some important skills)
VardaValar1: the other three did the School.
VardaValar1: Right.
VardaValar1: This was clear the bottle-necks before the update week. :-)
karakedi25: that is, the School in Tham Mirdain (aka Ost-in-Edhil)
VardaValar1: Tuesday was an
unscheduled impulse run in Barad Gularan in Angmar, 6-man instance. We
cleared it for deeds mainly, with quests on the side, and killed the
boss. We grabbed his trophy which is very cool looking: crossed swords,
and put it in the kin house.
VardaValar1: This picture doesn't do it justice but gives an idea:
VardaValar1: http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Item:Udunion%27s_Swords_%28Trophy%29
Eonwe Valar: Does look cool.
VardaValar1: Wednesday was
another bottleneck run planned, but some weren't ready to hit it yet as
there were quests between and rl interference, so we went wild on marks
runs:
VardaValar1: two Helegrod wings to clear drakes in one and spiders in another,
VardaValar1: Annuminas Glinghant for darkwater ghosts,
VardaValar1: and then broke up into two three-mans for the School and
the Library runs. One three man group had to break up before their
second run, but we all picked up Superior Thirds for good armor.
VardaValar1: Friday the two
had conquered real life and we did the quest in 2.6.8 rescuing an elf
in Moria and defeating Ancient Evils. This 6-man quest will no longer
be available, only a three-man, after Monday, so we were in a hurry to
get it.
VardaValar1: It also gave most of those running their capstone legendary trait, very desirable.
karakedi25: It went VERY smoothly! It had been a stumbling block before.
VardaValar1: Indis' loremaster was great to have along, clearing disease and giving power. Thanks.
VardaValar1: We've gotten better, Indis. : )
karakedi25: That's for sure!
karakedi25: It's been a pleasure to see how well the Valar are doing in these instances.
VardaValar1: You've been pretty busy, but a number of us have been
working together as three-mans or four mans and getting better at
teamwork.
VardaValar1: Does anyone else have any comments, suggestions, or other news before we switch to Tolkien?
karakedi25: Heh, I've been working on teamwork too, in my own way.
VardaValar1: Outside our group, yes. Grats on your many achievements with the raiding kins. : )
karakedi25: Thanks
karakedi25: It all makes me better for our kin runs.
VardaValar1: Is there any further business?
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VardaValar1: Does anyone have a topic that they wanted to bring up for the Tolkien chat tonight? Perhaps related to your stories or gaming? Or a Tolkien moment you'd like to quote that we can talk about?
VardaValar1: If not, you get mine. : )
VardaValar1: JRRT liked Nordic themes.
One of them was bravery against hopeless odds. What examples from the
books can you think of where he used this idea?
karakedi25: Helms Deep is an obvious one. Fall of Gondolin.
karakedi25: To some degree, the whole war of the Noldor against Morgoth.
VardaValar1: Frodo trying to take the One Ring to Mt. Doom, quite sure that he would not survive.
ArPharazonV: Beren and Luthien entering Morgoth's fortress. Sam and Frodo entering Mordor ;-)
ArPharazonV: Bit similar, in a way, except that the first 2 were trying
to retrieve something, and the other 2 trying to destroy it.
VardaValar1: Boromir protecting Merry and Pippin alone against a horde of orcs.
VardaValar1: Fingon fighting the werewolf to protect Beren in their prison.
VardaValar1: argh
VardaValar1: Finrod :-)
VardaValar1: Aragorn taking his forces against the Black Gate to take attention away from Frodo and Sam.
VardaValar1: Gandalf going into Moria.
VardaValar1: At least Gandalf had hope, not sure that counts. : )
AriehnV: i wonder whether he thought he might be allowed back ..
AriehnV: after he fell
ArPharazonV: Good point, Varda. But holding alone against the Balrog on
the bridge, or continuing his fight after they fell from the bridge,
could be a better example.
VardaValar1: Aye
AriehnV: Aragorn taking the lead after Gandalf fell and continuing the
road to Lothlorien , even through despair and deep grief and millions
of orcs after there were small odds
karakedi25: The rearguard fights of the elves, knowing that their time in Middle-earth was past no matter what happened.
ArPharazonV: Bard the archer, standing and aiming against Smaug with
his one arrow, even though Lake-town was at the point of being
destroyed.
VardaValar1: Hurin and his small band of Men protecting Turgon and his forces so they could escape back to Gondolin.
ArPharazonV: I'm not sure if Fingolfin challenging Morgoth was more bravery than insanity :-)
VardaValar1: Just one arrow between Bard and everything he knew.
VardaValar1: Good one, Phar.
Eonwe Valar: It was despair, perhaps with a tinge of desparation.
VardaValar1: Legolas shooting the fell beast with the Nazgul on it in the pitch dark of night.
VardaValar1: Gimli helping the humans who fled to the Glittering Caves of Helm's Deep when they were spit up.
VardaValar1: Pippin fighting the troll that was trying to kill Beregond.
VardaValar1: Merry trying to cheer up Pippin when it was Merry that was hurt and they were being carried off by orcs.
Eonwe Valar: Barliman Butterbur when he told Gandalf the Hobbits went with Strider? :}
VardaValar1: Beregond protecting Faramir.
VardaValar1: lol - good point.
VardaValar1: We seem to have gone quiet. Shall we bang the gavel here? : )
VardaValar1: *tinggggg*
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After-meeting:
VardaValar1: Have to love silver gavels. : )
Eonwe Valar: I'm low on examples unfortunately ;}
Eonwe Valar: hehe :}
VardaValar1: Great sound.
ArPharazonV: How can it be so subtle and yet so loud at the same time? :-)
VardaValar1: *rubs ears* Good question. Valar manufacture, likely.
VardaValar1: The WoW Lothar branch will be running after this meeting. Bilbo and Elwing say hi from WoW. : )
VardaValar1: I'll be joining you, Eonwe.
Eonwe Valar: Sounds good :}
ArPharazonV: Was thinking of continuing Starcraft II, the Supernova mission...
I'm not looking forward to it. From the moment I heard there was a
level with a big wall of fire slowly destroying the map behind you I
already started panicking.
Eonwe Valar: It was fun.
VardaValar1: Where's that fire hose?
ArPharazonV: Any advice, beyond the "make a group of banshees, hide it
in the corner with a flying building, and take artefact after Protoss
base is destroyed" cheapo tactic? :-)
Eonwe Valar: Hmm,
ArPharazonV: As I'm in normal mode, I'm going to try getting the normal
achievement done the first go as well. Not lose a unit to the wall of
fire. Sounds easy enough, if it's close I can always sacrifice them to
the Protoss :-)
Eonwe Valar: hehe
Eonwe Valar: Well, staying ahead of the fire shouldn't be that bad.
ArPharazonV: That slow, eh?
Eonwe Valar: If you're used to Terrans, you have plenty of time. If you're used to SC2, you're still good.
ArPharazonV: Well, haven't really played in a good while, as I've been
doing custom games with totally different mechanics most of the time.
Eonwe Valar: Milk the resource nodes for all they're worth and keep an eye out for expansions and you should be fine.
ArPharazonV: Hmhm.
Eonwe Valar: I feel like there's something special to be done on that map too though...
ArPharazonV: Couple of relics to pick up, and an artefact to be retrieved.
ArPharazonV: No feat. Think I got all the single-player feats now.
Eonwe Valar: Ok.
ArPharazonV: The hard achievement is to kill 75 units with cloaked banshees. But I'm on normal.
VardaValar1: See you in WoW. :-)
ArPharazonV: Namarie :-)
Eonwe Valar: See you there :}
VardaValar1 has left the room.
karakedi25: namarie all
karakedi25 has left the room.
AriehnV: Namarie all
AriehnV has left the room.
AriehnV has entered the room.
AriehnV has left the room.
fladrifv has left the room.
ArPharazonV: Saving and sending transcript
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