Valar Guild

June 17, 2018 Sunday Meeting

5pm EDT (UTC/GMT - 5)
Discord: Valar Guild/meeting_place

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Transcript work by Varda.

Attending: (8)
    Discord: Anarion, Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Gorlim, Pallando, Varda (presiding)
    LotRO: Dis, Orome, Varda

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
    Tolkien Site / Art:
       Three new paintings posted this week from the Bohemian Weasel-(T)
Gaming:
    General gaming report
Tolkien:
    Topic: Arien's report on her visit to the Tolkien exhibit at Oxford.
After-meeting:
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon
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Before-meeting
(times are in Central from Varda, so add one hour for Eastern)

Varda - Last Sunday at 3:57 PM
Aiya :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 3:57 PM
Aiya!
Varda - Last Sunday at 3:57 PM
You are not alone. :  )
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 3:57 PM
I am not!
Varda - Last Sunday at 3:59 PM
Now checking for LotRO buddies.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:01 PM
Arien offline for 3 days now, I think she went to that Tolkien expo?
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:05 PM
Aye, believe that's right
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Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Membership:
Happy Father's Day!
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:09 PM
To you too!
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:09 PM
That's a day that is pulling a bunch of us out of normal schedules, a happy way.
Bilbo and his lady were just here, took off with Sauron to the movies. Be back later after the meeting.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:10 PM
We.. actually don't do anything with it, but a week or two ago I did buy my dad a watch we picked out :smiley:
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:10 PM
ohh, very nice!
Bilbo and crew brought a couple of cake thingys. : ) I made scratch brownies and whipped topping, plus Fangorn's favorite waffles and peach syrup. Sauron brought some nifty tools to Fangorn and helped shop for goodies.
Bilbo and Fangorn were our fathers for today. : )
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:11 PM
hmmm, waffles
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:12 PM
And a shirt for Bilbo: "Real men have twins". (edited)
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:12 PM
Heh.
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:12 PM
That was the logo on the tee-shirt. : )
editing, sorry for real name there.
Sure nice they let us do that. : )
A little privacy in this public place, kind of.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:13 PM
Oh, wow, you can edit stuff in here.
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:13 PM
Nice, huh!
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:13 PM
I should do that more often with my typos.
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:13 PM
Go ahead and try it. Just you and me here. Kind of cool.
I'll pester some more people.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:14 PM
I'm sure my spelling doesn't need it.(edited)
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:14 PM
chuckles
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:14 PM
there we go :smile:
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:15 PM
That worked nicely. Fast too
Hello from Dis and Orome in LotRO. Dis just left LotRO to look up some stuff, I think.
She's back. : )
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Web:
We have new art this week, three paintings from the Bohemian Weasel-(T).
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:19 PM
Aiya to both!
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:20 PM
[Kinship] Beorome: <waves>

This one was posted Tuesday so you may have seen it:
http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/BohemianWeasel/characters/Legolas/2018%20legolas%20sketch.jpg

Two posted today:
Legolas' dad:
http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/BohemianWeasel/characters/Thranduil/TheElvenkinginWinter.jpg

and Isildur, ancestor for Aragorn that had the Precious:
http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/BohemianWeasel/characters/Isildur/it-is-precious-to-me.jpg

Nob said hi. He works Sundays.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:24 PM
Hi!
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:26 PM
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Gaming:
Eonwe put up general news for us.

World of WarCraft:
From his Tuesday post:
This week's bonus event: pet battles.
PvP Brawl: Southshore vs Tarren Mill runs through next Tuesday June 19th.
and Sunday post for WoW:
"Before the Storm" is out. If you're interested in the book, check out the blog Before the Storm: Seven Ways the Novel Sets the Stage for Battle for Azeroth.
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/21788098/before-the-storm-seven-ways-the-novel-sets-the-stage-for-battle-for-azeroth
World of Warcraft
Before the Storm: Seven Ways the Novel Sets the Stage for Battle for Azeroth - WoW
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:28 PM
Yus! It arrived for me this week, I'm in chapter 3 or so. Gonna need to put some more time in it if I want to finish it before 8.0 :smiley:
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:28 PM
Going to have to hurry this up and give you some game time!
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:28 PM
The book, that is.
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:28 PM
Check out the Live Q&A.
Nice.
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/21859233/watch-the-live-q-a-vod-with-ion-hazzikostas-here
World of Warcraft
Watch the Live Q&A VoD with Ion Hazzikostas Here! - WoW
There's a Dev Watercooler out on Classic Servers.
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/21881587/dev-watercooler-world-of-warcraft-classic
World of Warcraft
Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic - WoW
You can also check out the Battle for Azeroth title music.
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/21881585/battle-for-azeroth-preview-before-the-storm-main-title-music
World of Warcraft
Battle for Azeroth Preview: “Before the Storm” Main Title Music - WoW

Lord of the Rings Online:
Update 22.2.2 is out.
Pallando-Valar - Last Sunday at 4:31 PM
Aiya
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:31 PM
Aiya Pallando! :smiley:
Update 22.2.2 hotfix comes out and here are the release notes. Downtime expected is 8 a.m. to noon Eastern. (Update 22.2 was June 7.)
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:31 PM
Hrrm, been listening to that title music for some time. It's grown on me a lot. Part of it reminds me of Total Annihilation.
Aiya!
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:31 PM
LotRO:
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?664794-Update-22-2-2-Release-Notes
Update 22.2.2 Release Notes
Here are the Release Notes for Update 22.2.2, released on Wednesday, June 13th.
 
Pallando, will you be able to give us an update on what's happening on
Eve Online?
Pallando-Valar - Last Sunday at 4:33 PM
Sure: Drama about the CSM (goons  stuffed it due to drama), drama about Star Citizen stealing a ship concept from Eve (cause they can't afford real artists since their money goes to Chris' vacations and houses and vacation houses), and drama about the new lackluster event.
oh also my alliance lost some space assets that we only really had cause pride and when I start playing again I plan on lauching a campaign to take them back..
cause pride
that's it
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:34 PM
heh
Sounds like a soap opera. : )
Good fortune in getting the assets back!
Pallando-Valar - Last Sunday at 4:35 PM
Eve alliance politics is a soap opera for nerds, it is true
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:35 PM
hehe
Pallando-Valar - Last Sunday at 4:35 PM
and the metagame politics (ie, CSM, ingame events) is of course only worse..
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:35 PM
Natch
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:36 PM
Soaps in spaaaace(edited)
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:36 PM
Slippery subject

Diablo 3:
Season 14 is on!

oh, and back to LotRO. Today is the last day of the anniversary encore, if you want to grab anything last minute, gang.

StarCraft 2:
Check out Developer Update 4.
https://starcraft.com/en-us/articles/21861719
StarCraft: Remastered upgrades the essential sci-fi strategy experience—the entire original game and its award-winning expansion, StarCraft: Brood War—from beginning to end.

Heroes of the Storm:
Blizzard is increasing its abusive chat penalties. Check out the details here.
https://heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/blog/21849058/stepping-up-abusive-chat-penalties-2018-6-11/
Heroes of the Storm
Stepping-Up Abusive Chat Penalties
In the next few days, we’re going to change the ways we penalize repeat abusive chat offenders by increasing the severity of the actions we take against their accounts.

Hearthstone:
Taverns of Time has begun.
https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/21866648/taverns-of-time-is-here
Taverns of Time is Here!
It turns out that Toki was tracking the right timeline, because the Taverns of Time event has begun!

That's all for Eonwe's report.
And a bit extra.
Any other games you'd like to mention?
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:40 PM
Hmmmm...

well, the puzzle game Pixelo finally got out its level pack for the daily puzzles of 2017, so I've got more puzzles to do :wink:

Varda - Last Sunday at 4:41 PM
We have people on playing various games such as Guild Wars 2, Ashes of the Singularity, Continuing Record of Agarest War, and LotRO right now.
Keep you busy, Phar. : )

Ok, folks we've seen online this past week. Helping keep their names as active on our Membership. : )
LotRO:
Bregalad
Dis
Eonwe
Fangorn
Gorlim (edited)
Luthien
Melkor
Nar
Orome
Varda
StarCraft 2:

Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:42 PM
http://www.kongregate.com/games/tamaii/pixelo for those interested in hundreds and hundreds of nonograms/picross/whatever you want to call it puzzles.
Kongregate
Pixelo
※If it can#39t load game and if you are using Window 8 and IE. There is flash player issue.
- change your browser.
- try, update your window system.

StarCraft 2:
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:42 PM
Fangorn, Eowyn, Faramir
Gorlim reminds me to list him on LotRO. He's been on a bunch!
Gorlim is chatting on Discord. : )
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:44 PM
But not here? :smiley:
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:45 PM
Feel free to join in there too in Harbor voice. Aye.
No transcript for voice though.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:45 PM
Ah, voice chat.
Gorlim - Last Sunday at 4:45 PM
Im on reading Meeting but talking in Harbor..
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:45 PM
: )
About to switch to Tolkien. Promised Fangorn to keep it short and give him some Father's Day time.
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Tolkien!
Today being Father's Day, do we find any importance attached to ancestors in Tolkien's tales?
ArienV - Last Sunday at 4:47 PM
Aiya per mobile app :relaxed:
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:47 PM
Arien! Aiya traveling lady! How
's the exhibit?
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:47 PM
Aiya Arien!
ArienV - Last Sunday at 4:48 PM
It was great and aiya Valarites :blush:
very interesting drawings paintings and original concepts
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:49 PM
Original concepts? Anything allowed to mention?
ArienV - Last Sunday at 4:50 PM
also personal memorabilia from his military time
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:51 PM
Ears of his victims... wrong military? :smiley:
ArienV - Last Sunday at 4:52 PM
I mean original scripts of his works like letters from Father Christmas Varda
or postcards from FC Nd original maps of middle earth :relaxed:
with his annotations and college exercise books he scribbled on
Pallando-Valar - Last Sunday at 4:55 PM
ooh, is this the exhibit in oxford?
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:55 PM
That sounds amazing. Does it include his first opening of The Hobbit on the back of an examination thing or whatever it was?
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:55 PM
Fantastic. : )
ArienV - Last Sunday at 4:57 PM
And the memorabilia like his tornister and water flask or a compass he used Phari :money_mouth:
Varda - Last Sunday at 4:57 PM
Sorry, but what is a tornister?
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 4:57 PM
Ah, that makes more sense :smiley:
ArienV - Last Sunday at 4:58 PM
And a recreation of his study room and tobacco pipes and pouches of course
ArienV - Last Sunday at 5:00 PM
a little food pouch or rucksack like thing for personal things Varda
Varda - Last Sunday at 5:00 PM
Thanks! Very intereting.
interesting
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 5:00 PM
Like a box of seeds and a vial of light?
Varda - Last Sunday at 5:00 PM
: :smiley:
ArienV - Last Sunday at 5:01 PM
:grinning: like that aye
Got also a book companion to the exhibition in which there are pictures of these things and more :blush:
also Beren and Luthien and a new copy of To It
TLotr
Varda - Last Sunday at 5:04 PM
Oh nice!
ArienV - Last Sunday at 5:05 PM
Took pics of Brill windmill and the "Miniature Shire " next to it :relaxed:
Varda - Last Sunday at 5:06 PM
Will we get to see them sometime? Might go in the Tolkien Site?
ArienV - Last Sunday at 5:07 PM
sure I will send them to you when I'm back home :relaxed:
Varda - Last Sunday at 5:07 PM
Huzzah!
ArienV - Last Sunday at 5:08 PM
Carry on please just wanted to pop in :relaxed:
Varda - Last Sunday at 5:08 PM
That was very interesting! Thank you.  : )
And that's the end of my hour .  : )
Feel free to carry on during After-meeting.
hammers toss each other in the air. One lands on the hammerpad
toink
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After-meeting!
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 5:09 PM
Well, it works as a Tolkien topic even if it wasn't what you had planned :smiley:
Varda - Last Sunday at 5:09 PM
It was better!
Love this place and people. : )

ArienV - Last Sunday at 5:10 PM
yeah heading to  sleep too it has been a very long if very interesting days for us :slight_smile:
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 5:10 PM
Namarie!
Varda - Last Sunday at 5:10 PM
Nighty night! Namarie
ArienV - Last Sunday at 5:11 PM
Namarie for now:slight_smile:

Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 6:14 PM
Personal gaming! Let's find some flashgames.
http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/shadowbright/ is the first! A puzzle platformer where you also carry light sources around, and most platforms only exist when they're visible in the light. Use this to make them appear or disappear when needed.
Controls can be a bit unresponsive though, so might take a few more tries than needed.
http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/chess-challenges/ is the second game! A series of challenges of a few different difficulties, go for checkmate in a maximum of 1, 2 or 3 moves. Some are actually quite hard!
https://www.kongregate.com/games/esthetix/faradays-flaw is the third game, a point-and-click game by the same makers and style as a bunch of games I used to give here in the past. It's been a bit quiet from that series, but now there's this one at least, and it's a bit bigger than previous ones as well, with multiple locations to travel.
Kongregate
Faraday's Flaw
It’s good ol’ 1993 in Portal City, Gus just want to have a normal day: Deliver some pizzas and slack off for the rest of the day. Things get complicated when h...

Blizzard gaming:
Hearthstone:
A few bugs now, occasionally I won't get a daily quest for a day, and it doesn't catch up the following day. Might be related to the event, which has some new quests with both gold and dust rewards. Quite fun and profitable, when you do receive them :smiley:
Tavern brawl is a hunter/deathknight mirror match where both players have a death knight Rexxar and a deck full of random zombeasts (and some spells), with a 0-mana costing hero power to craft another random zombeast. Randomness abound, of course :smiley:
Heroes of the Storm:
level 279 now, so 3 levels gotten. 2 of those are for Morales, my new starcraft support hero, which I keep getting quests for. Getting quite used to it, but it can be quite an intense hero in group fights, throwing around shields and choosing which heroes to channel your healing on while trying to knock enemy heroes within range. But when it goes right, it can be a lot of fun :smiley:
Brawl this week is a punisher arena, with groups of random heroes fighting each other in a small battleground while also killing the other team's punisher. Got my third level from there, as randomly chosen hero Hanzo got to level 2.
Also, the event has started, with several warcraft and/or teamplay related quests, but I managed to recruit some WoW friends into doing a couple of games with me every day. Aside from the quest, there's also extra xp for playing with friends during this event. So that's going nicely; now halfway through the third quest. Should finish the chain during the following week.
Diablo 3:
Started the new season with my rebirthed crusader, starting at master difficulty which can be quite tricky as you level fast, and the enemies with you, but your gear lags behind.
She's level 23 now, with a rift and 5 bounties complete, and making good progress to completing season journey chapter 1.
WoW:
Raiding still going strong, we cleared the entire Antorus raid on heroic difficulty in about 5 hours over 2 nights this week. Did not get any upgrade pieces, but was able to get one of my few missing transmogs, and managed to max out my feral trinket from the final boss. Next up will be the... restoration trinket, I think was the third one I got.
Anarion - Last Sunday at 6:54 PM
Dang, those chess challengs are kinda difficult
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 6:54 PM
Yep. I've only gotten halfway through myself :stuck_out_tongue:
Used to be part of a chessclub which had exams etc just like those, but after 15 years I'm a bit out of practice :wink:
I wonder if Fladrif might do well in them.
Let's see, what else, so many things I'm still trying to get but having no luck with... the old raids for a pet and mount, 1 mythic Vault a week and 1 heroic Vault a day for recipe, I'm now checking Blistermaw and Skreeg regularly to have a chance at their mounts, still working on several paragons...
oh, but pets are going well!
Got all the different wild pets from Argus in rare quality, after a bit of work. It was pretty easy in 2 of the 3 zones since there were only a few different pets around, which means they also show up as each other's secondaries. The third zone had rather a lot more, though, but I was pretty lucky in finding rare pets as secondaries.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 7:00 PM
I also worked on the weekly pet pvp battle quest, this time with a team of mechanical pets, and finished the achievement for winning 10 fights with all mecha pets. That's 2 families down, 8 to go :smiley:
So, just chugging along, occasionally completing a project when I have time. Next week I'll start working on the many different Argus treasure chests to get that achievement, and with it the meta achievement for paragon of argus. That'll be one of the last big projects for this expansion, with the rest being things I'm already farming, some achievements which are still progressing naturally (though I can speed them up), and a few random things that I'll spend time on but which does not really hold much of a priority to complete. I might even give my official horde moonkin another poke :smiley:

Oh, and I'll finish by saying that yes, my Before  the Storm novel arrived, but the comic volume I was expecting later this week did not. Looking at the webshop, it appears to have been steadily postponed and is currently sitting at the start of July. We'll see how that goes; if it's anything like the previous Sunwell book it'll end up finally being cancelled and me having to re-order it.
Varda - Last Sunday at 7:09 PM
ugh. Good luck
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 7:09 PM
But from what I can see here the next batch of republishings is already on its way, with the second and third books of the Sunwell trilogy being expected in september.
Thanks :smiley: And that's my report for the week!

Varda - Last Sunday at 7:10 PM
Thanks, Phar. Have a great rest of the week!
Ar-Pharazon-V - Last Sunday at 7:11 PM
You as well!
namarie!
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