Valar Guild

December 3, 2017 Sunday Meeting

5pm EST (UTC/GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace

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Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda.

Attending: (4)
    AIM: Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, Varda (presiding)
    Discord: Arien, Eonwe, Varda. (Ar-Pharazon during Before-meeting. Fladrif joined in on Monday.)
    LotRO: Thranduil, Varda

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
Gaming:
    General gaming report by Eonwe.
Tolkien:
    Topic (from Arien and Varda): Who are some of the "friends unlooked for" types in the books? Doesn't have to be LotR. And how were they friends unlooked for?
After-meeting:
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
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Before-meeting
(times for Ar-Pharazon in the Netherlands)

Ar-Pharazon-V (22:20:53):    Discord installed (silly captcha images) and Varda added.
Varda Valar (22:21:13):    Aiya :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:21:16):    Aiya!
Varda Valar (22:21:43):    Sounds as if you're doing just great. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:22:01):    I did say first december meeting.
Varda Valar (22:22:20):    Aye, I remember. And you did. :)
Varda Valar (22:22:39):    Need added to the Valar channel?
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:23:13):    Sure. Is there a way to disable the speech function altogether?
Varda Valar (22:23:17):    I'll be pulling up stuff shortly
Varda Valar (22:23:33):    Just use the text channel and don't enter the voice.
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:24:22):    right, let's see.. disable games, don't need WoW added
Varda Valar (22:24:26):    I"m headed into Discord
Varda Valar (22:24:32):    Why disable games?
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:24:44):    Don't want all that stuff added and combined.
Varda Valar (22:25:31):    Should not be a problem to show your game in Discord. And you can log out of Discord on your personal Settings (looks like a gear).
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:25:37):    shut down hardware acceleration...
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:26:43):    change language to English for easier use...
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:27:03):    Ar-Pharazon-V
Ar-Pharazon-V (22:27:17):    Oh, sorry, wrong window ;)
Varda Valar (22:27:22):    :)
Eonwe Valar (23:01:22):    Heya all :}
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:01:25):    Aiya!
Varda Valar (23:01:30):    Aiya Eonwe :)
Varda Valar (23:01:46):    Phar set up in Discord for when he has to use it. :)
Varda Valar (23:01:59):    Who all is here?
Eonwe Valar (23:02:04):    :}
Varda Valar (23:02:18):    AIM: Eonwe, Phar, Varda
Varda Valar (23:02:29):    LotRO: Thranduil, Varda
Eonwe Valar (23:04:28):    I'm here, of course :}
Varda Valar (23:04:36):    Discord is a nice between game poker. :)
Varda Valar (23:05:06):    Discord: Arien, Varda,
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:05:33):    Arien not in AIM?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:05:44):    Yes she is.
Arien V (23:05:51):    i am here *flashes razy*
Varda Valar (23:05:56):    Aiya Sunshine :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:06:08):    Sunflash *rubs eyes*
Arien V (23:06:18):    aiya Varda :) aiya Eonwe, aiya Phari :)
Varda Valar (23:06:39):    ok, so today Phar and Eonwe want to stay in AIM, right?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:06:44):    Yep.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:06:55):    Maybe next week too, I think we've still got a bit before it goes down.
Varda Valar (23:07:41):    For those reading, in Discord we use text and voice channels Harbor normally, for meetings text channel meeting_place
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Varda Valar (23:08:13):    Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Varda Valar (23:08:16):    Membership:
Varda Valar (23:08:42):    We had a couple of people mention an interest in joining either as Tolkien-only for one, gaming for the other. We'll see what happens there.
Varda Valar (23:09:00):    Any other membership news?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:09:07):    Is there a special status for the latter?
Varda Valar (23:09:44):    I stopped doing -init status after they consistently wouldn't take the test for full member, heh.
Varda Valar (23:10:09):    Just not enough incentive to take the test, I guess.
Varda Valar (23:10:42):    So, no, not any more unless we find a better way to handle it.
Varda Valar (23:11:11):    Suggestions welcome. :) My email is available if a thought strikes.
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Varda Valar (23:11:21):    Web:
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:11:30):    -G letter for Game-only? ;)
Varda Valar (23:11:34):    Nothing currently new for the Tolkien Site, some maybe stuff, but nothing up.
Varda Valar (23:11:44):    Nope. Full Member or nothing for gamers. :)
Varda Valar (23:11:54):    I are so mean.
Varda Valar (23:12:13):    Thanks for the thought.
Eonwe Valar (23:12:35):    It's almost like we have minimum requirements or something!
Varda Valar (23:13:12):    It's not a lot, really. Rigged so anyone in the group has common interests and natural friendship.
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Varda Valar (23:13:31):    Gaming:
Varda Valar (23:13:44):    Eonwe, would you like to do the general Games report?
Eonwe Valar (23:13:54):    Sure.
Varda Valar (23:14:00):    Thanks

Eonwe Valar (23:14:26):    World of Warcraft:
Eonwe Valar (23:15:10):    See what's going on this month in WoW, only Blizzard's calling it Inside Azeroth: December Edition.
This week's bonus event: Pet Battles.
Antorus, the Burning Throne has opened for Normal and Heroic modes. mythic and the first wing of LFR opens Tuesday.
Legion PvP Season 6 has begun.
There were also some hotfixes this week.

Eonwe Valar (23:15:32):    Starcraft 2:
Eonwe Valar (23:15:56):    Check out this week's balance update.

Eonwe Valar (23:16:15):    Heroes of the Storm:
Eonwe Valar (23:16:51):    Some balance updates came out this week for Heroes of the Storm as well.
A couple of blogs are out this week as well: Developer Insights: Double Support Team Compositions and A New Look for Stealth in Heroes of the Storm.

Eonwe Valar (23:17:07):    Overwatch:
Eonwe Valar (23:17:31):    A new patch is up on the PTR.

Eonwe Valar (23:17:44):    Hearthstone:
Eonwe Valar (23:18:15):    Kobolds & Catacombs will launch December 7th. Here's the announcement.
There's a new Hearthside chat up on Spellstones.
Also out: Kobolds & Catacombs - Tale of the Fox Part 3.

Eonwe Valar (23:18:30):    Lord of the Rings Online:
Eonwe Valar (23:18:56):    A new blog is out: Lines of Succession and the Kingdom of Gondor: the Long Wait for the Return of the King.

Eonwe Valar (23:19:42):    That's it for my report.
Varda Valar (23:19:53):    Thank you, Eonwe :)
Eonwe Valar (23:20:07):    MP.
Varda Valar (23:20:30):    Do we have mentions of any fellow Valarites in our gaming this past week? :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:21:25):    Fladrif spotted!
Varda Valar (23:21:40):    Cool. Hearthstone?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:21:44):    Yep.
Varda Valar (23:22:05):    Any chance he might pick up Discord? We won't be able to see him on AIM after this month.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:22:16):    I'll ask next time.
Varda Valar (23:22:52):    Thank you. :)
Varda Valar (23:24:06):    My LotRO list isn
Varda Valar (23:24:30):    t quite ready. Plan to add it into the transcript or put it in here after making it. Sorry.
Varda Valar (23:24:43):    Any others? WoW or other?
Eonwe Valar (23:25:10):    Not in Lothar this week.
Eonwe Valar (23:25:37):    Oromë told me a couple weeks back he has a char on Lothar that he wouldn't mind in the guild, but it's a matter of us crossing paths.
Varda Valar (23:26:37):    Fantastic!
Eonwe Valar (23:26:37):    I also suggested to him joining the bnet group/channels I set up for the guild, and I still extend that same idea to any other guild members in the USAmericas servers.
Varda Valar (23:26:49):    If he has a name, I can put it on my friend list.
Varda Valar (23:27:01):    and he can put Fainan on his friend list.
Varda Valar (23:27:14):    o pardon, Lothar. My bad.
Varda Valar (23:27:30):    Wishful reading. ;)
Eonwe Valar (23:27:34):    At the least, it could give some options for pugging if you need someone for a group.
Arien V (23:28:23):    uhm a new novel is announced for summer 2018 "Before the Storm* and our friend Christie Golden is writing it :)
Eonwe Valar (23:28:39):    Our friend?
Arien V (23:29:06):    well .. weell known wow Author and for us readers yes i d think so
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:29:14):    Was announced around Blizzcon already, actually. But it was postponed this week, I think :)
Varda Valar (23:29:23):    Not someone we know from guild or rl, ok.
Varda Valar (23:29:41):    LotRO kin members on this past week:
Varda Valar (23:29:44):   
Arien
Bregalad
Dis
Eonwe
Fangorn
Frodo
Gorlim
Hurin
Luthien
Melilot
Morwe
Nar
Thranduil
Varda
Arien V (23:29:46):    no unfortunately not although i am told she plays wow :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:30:17):    I think she's my favorite of the Warcraft writers. Lord of the Clans, Rise of the Horde, Arthas, Shattering, Tides of War...
Varda Valar (23:34:56):    Any further business, comments, suggestions?
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Varda Valar (23:35:12):    Tolkien:
Varda Valar (23:35:18):    With Arien's help, we have a topic. :)
Varda Valar (23:35:38):    Who are some of the "friends unlooked for" types in the books? Doesn't have to be LotR.
Varda Valar (23:35:49):    and how were they friends unlooked for?
Eonwe Valar (23:36:03):    Gollum.
Varda Valar (23:36:32):    Definitely an unexpected helper. :)
Eonwe Valar (23:37:03):    Indeed, hehe.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:37:58):    Ents?
Arien V (23:38:22):    Huorns you mnean . under the sheperdship of the ents :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:38:30):    One moment stuck in a forest, the next (for a broad meaning of "moment") ent allies
Varda Valar (23:38:34):    Treebeard was an unexpected help, true.
Varda Valar (23:38:45):    Huorns, very much a surprise
Eonwe Valar (23:39:29):    Grima. Who'd have ever thought he'd help free Middle-Earth from Saruman? He ended up full of Hobbit-arrows afterwards though...
Varda Valar (23:40:10):    He did an enormous service. No telling what other meanness Saruman would have come up with over many years.
Varda Valar (23:40:38):    He could have been bad news for the attempt at the rise of Men, even in his later stage.
Varda Valar (23:42:23):    Faramir?
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:42:34):    True.
Eonwe Valar (23:42:56):    Fara... mir? WHo's that guy? ;}
Varda Valar (23:43:13):    Sam and Frodo were in the wilds, in trouble, and Faramir helped them
Varda Valar (23:43:58):    He also helped Aragorn, as the Ruling Steward being in favor of Aragorn's being High King
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:44:49):    Aragorn himself works as an example.
Varda Valar (23:45:26):    True, taking over when Gandalf couldn' t meet Frodo at the Prancing Pony
Eonwe Valar (23:47:55):    Afk for a moment.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:48:43):    Can't forget ol' Tom Bombadil, even if Peter Jackson did!
Varda Valar (23:51:50):    Tom for sure, and Goldberry too.
Varda Valar (23:52:33):    PJ, just to be fair, was probably taking JRRT's advice, that if they had to cut (in the first movie not PJ's), Tom would be one.
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:53:01):    True :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (23:53:08):    And there was the reference in TT.
Varda Valar (23:55:33):    (Gorlim now in LotRO)
Varda Valar (23:57:16):    Beorn, in the Hobbit, if he hasn't been mentioned yet.
Arien V (23:57:31):    and his animals
Varda Valar (23:57:39):    aye
Arien V (23:57:39):    dont forget them :)
Varda Valar (23:57:45):    Maybe even Radagast?
Arien V (23:58:06):    Radagast for sure
Varda Valar (23:59:17):    Would Beleg count in the Sil?
Monday, December 4, 2017
Arien V (00:00:07):    he did help unsuspectedly by informing the birds about the Ringbearer and made them observant watchers and thus Gandalfs plight got known ... at least bore messages i d think that Galadriel was there communicating in form of a Butterfly was just movie :)
Varda Valar (00:00:39):    Aye, the moth/butterfly was movie only.
Varda Valar (00:01:16):    He wasn't on Saruman's side so he thought it was ok to pass Gandalf's request for info to Gwaihir, who became a ride unexpectedly
Arien V (00:03:07):    indeed
Varda Valar (00:04:55):    Ioreth?
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:05:19):    Erkenbrand?
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:05:42):    Haldir and the Elves - I mean Eomer? :)
Arien V (00:05:59):    she gave the hint towards the Master of the Houses of Heaaling .. the Herbmaster who knew about the Kingsfoil
Varda Valar (00:06:12):    Erkenbrand, gathered up the Rohirrim and brought by Gandalf to aid at Helm's Deep.
Varda Valar (00:08:21):    It's the top of the hour. Shall we call it here?
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:09:25):    I could mention myself, sailing to Mordor, scattering Sauron's armies and bringing a wee bit of freedom to Middle-Earth for a time ;)
Varda Valar (00:09:48):    There you go
Arien V (00:10:03):    before you got an ego trip and tried to claim Valinor for yourself ^^
Varda Valar (00:10:08):    Dragged Sauron out of Middle-earth for a time. Had to be a big help for them.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:10:31):    I'd like to think so!
Varda Valar (00:12:28):    *gavel comes out and jumps into the hand*
Varda Valar (00:12:34):    *thonk!*
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:12:36):    Also an unexpected help?
Varda Valar (00:12:59):    *the gavel hands the hammerpad a glass of water, then bounces back to the shelf*
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Varda Valar (00:13:04):    After-meeting!
Varda Valar (00:13:12):    'Free chat
Arien V (00:13:20):    very creative :)
Varda Valar (00:13:34):    *the gavel takes a bow*
Arien V (00:14:04):    *flashes and gives the gavel and extra glow*
Varda Valar (00:14:14):    :)
Eonwe Valar (00:21:57):    Time for me to go my friends.
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:22:00):    Namarie!
Eonwe Valar (00:22:06):    Take care, good night, sleep well, and have fun :}
Varda Valar (00:22:09):    Namarie and thanks for coming, Eonwe :)
Varda Valar (00:46:33):    Arien is in LotRO too, Mordor. :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (00:47:34):    Sun is in Mordor? No wonder things don't sleep in there.
Varda Valar (00:47:45):    hehe
Arien V (00:47:51):    :)

Ar-Pharazon-V (01:06:41):    Personal gaming report!
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:07:28):    Flashgaming: 3 fun games this week.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:09:11):    https://www.kongregate.com/games/Mentor31/castle-woodwarf is the first! A strategy/defense/upgrade/management game. You got a camp with dwarves. Plant trees, hire tree cutters, gatherers, fishermen, upgrade them, upgrade your base, feed the dragon that defends your hoard until you can upgrade the environment enough to flood the cave.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:10:18):    For a quick finish and therefore high score, minimize your fishing and focus on the rest... but be careful, if you're out of food, you lose! Or you can take your time, see all the things you can get, only worry about the defense waves and finish up when you're good and ready.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:10:41):    I actually completed it twice in a row to make sure I saw all the unlockable stuff, that's how much I enjoyed it :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:14:07):    http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/lets_worm is the second game! You play a worm, and move by folding up and stretching out. Make it through the levels by dodging projectiles and obstacles. Not sure if there's more to it, haven't gotten very far :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:16:52):    http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/big_icy_tower_tiny_square_block is the third! Platformer on a huge scale, make your way through the tower. Supposedly a sequel but I don't know what the original is called.
Varda Valar (01:30:01):    (Namarie!)
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:30:03):    namarie!
Arien V (01:30:12):    namarie :)
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Ar-Pharazon-V (01:37:02):    Blizzard gaming!
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:38:58):    Hearthstone: All classes now well over halfway to next level. Brawl this week is interesting, though I only remembered I hadn't checked it out until tonight :) All minions you summon are sucked up into a singularity at the end of your turn, causing it to grow in attack and health. Can be quite dangerous! But I got it done with a mage freeze deck, always freezing up the opponent's singularity while I could build up on my own :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:41:45):    Diablo 3: making more progress with my seasonal crusader, who's now level 61 and already has a good part of season chapter 2 done. Should be level 70 before the end of the week!
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:45:22):    Heroes of the Storm: Level 233 now. Cause of this is a new hero I got and leveled to 3, because I needed an Overwatch support hero.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:46:19):    So I got Lucio. Odd guy, whose main ability is an aura which he can periodically overload. As a result, best in a group. Which is what I don't like about support heroes, but hey, quests are quests :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:47:17):    This week's brawl was.. bleh. A heroic version of last week's. Only needed to win one, and the reward a rare chest instead of a normal chest, and quite indicative of the difficulty of it.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:47:48):    Tried and failed about 2 hours, and then I gave up. Not worth doing it unless you have a group of friends who know what they're doing, I'd say.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:48:53):    WoW:
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:50:08):    Another new pet from the old raids, faceless minion from Cho'gall. Only 2 more missing for the meta achievement. We also got our first snobold pet (out of achievment), finally, but I lost the roll. I hope we'll see him again, and we're only with 3 people, so I'll get it eventually ;)
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:51:23):    We started Antorus normal difficulty, for the current raid! Got all bosses down except the last 2, Aggramar and Antorus. Story's finally picking up, with some titans freed :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:52:29):    Talon's Vengeance is continuing. Had a few days free between the end of the anniversary and start of the darkmoon faire, to fit in some battlegrounds, and between that and pvp world quests, got a bunch more marks. 251 left to get.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:53:09):    Did not get the hammer I wanted from the anniversary bosses, but I did get the plate belt from Azuregos on the last day so I can skip that boss completely if they come back around next year.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:53:35):    And yes, Darkmoon Faire started! Now over 900 tickets acquired, I should be able to get the zeppelin mount later this week.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:55:11):    Weekly this week was pet battles, not much to say there. For more pet battle stuff, cleaned out Wailing Caverns again, and got my third green-quality pet from the reward bag. 3 of the same is a bit silly, but eh. Just gotta keep hoping for the blue pet! Also got my second-last bottle cap from Deadmines pet dungeon, hope to get the last tomorrow.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:57:01):    Got my final contributions done on the Broken Shore, pretty much done there now except the occasional free key quest and a buff for each building that goes up. And emissaries, of course.
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:59:00):    And finally, continuing on Argus! My raid group is quite insistent that I go unlock the Crucible but I like to take my time with the quests. I did tell them I'd try to add a few afternoons, though, to see if I could get it before tuesday's raid. We'll see how that goes. But for now I've indeed gotten as far as the cutscene with Illidan and Xe'ra, did the leatherworking quests and even a few skinning quests that unlocked, started questing in the Antoran Wastes, and unlocked world quests in the Wastes and Krokuun.
Arien V (01:59:50):    well done :)
Arien V (01:59:56):    and well on the way
Ar-Pharazon-V (01:59:58):    So I've been poking a bunch of those, getting my first fel-spotted egg in the process (here's hoping for mount or pet!) and will be making sure to clear any I encounter that I hadn't done before, or which can give a mount.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:00:20):    New class hall section also unlocked, that'll be my next step. Should be able to start upgrading my champions to 950 at the end of that!
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:00:32):    And yep, I'll just keep on going :)
Arien V (02:01:02):    irts a good story line on Argus and nice work with the cinematics :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:01:26):    Yes, it's fun! Too bad the biggest buff is waaaaay at the end, or I'd be able to take a bit more time with it. Oh well.
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:01:44):    And that's my report for the week :)
Arien V (02:03:08):    congratulations :) and yes its time for bed i fear asmuch as i d love to take Naerband apart with Varda and Fangorn and the rest of the gang .. but i fear time is not on my side here :( and my mind s just getting way too clouded :(#
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:03:13):    Aw. Namarie then!
Arien V (02:03:51):    but i know at least where stuff is and what to expect now .. to find the way round Mordor is .. let's call it interesting :)?
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:03:59):    Can't miss those mountains ;)
Arien V (02:05:06):    uh yeah way too many gorges filled with lava or dragons or ghasts i tell ya ^^ not to mention the odd orc or Troll or Easterling or so ...
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:05:16):    Dragons, in Mordor?
Arien V (02:05:28):    at least in game :)
Arien V (02:05:44):    but woulnt be too surprising to find some there
Arien V (02:06:22):    but yeah Namarie for now and see you next time :)
Ar-Pharazon-V (02:59:47):    Transcript tomorrow!
Ar-Pharazon-V (03:25:38):    namarie
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