Valar Guild

November 25, 2018 Sunday Meeting

5pm Eastern
Discord: Valar Guild/meeting_place

Back to News
Transcript work by
Varda.

Attending (and spoke): (7)
    Discord: Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Celebrian, Elladan (After-meeting), Falco (After-meeting), Pallando (After-meeting), Varda (presiding)

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership news:
Web:
Gaming:
    General report.
Tolkien:
    Topic: Diction shifts.
After-meeting:
    YouTube music "Lament for Lorien" suggested by Arien.
    LotRO talk.
    Eve talk
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon.
top

Before-meeting
(times are in Central from Varda's Discord, so add one hour for Eastern. Example: 4pm Central in the transcript is 5pm Eastern)

VardaLast Sunday at 3:46 PM
Happy Thanksgiving (belatedly).
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 3:46 PM
Aiya!
And happy turkey day to you people across the pond.
CelebrianLast Sunday at 3:46 PM
Aiya and same to you all.
VardaLast Sunday at 3:46 PM
Thanks for getting me to look in the screenshots. Arwen's painting for Eve, lots of good things. Nice memories, Elrond. : )
Aiya Phar and Celebrian. : )
Turkey for all!
CelebrianLast Sunday at 3:47 PM
Elrond prob wont be here. he is working on a project and away from his computer.
VardaLast Sunday at 3:48 PM
Good thing he has you here to say hi for him! Good luck on the project, Elrond!
VardaLast Sunday at 4:00 PM
It's that time!
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:01 PM
Arien poked.
ArienVLast Sunday at 4:02 PM
Aiya all :smiley:
VardaLast Sunday at 4:02 PM
Aiya Arien : )
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:02 PM
Aiya!
CelebrianLast Sunday at 4:02 PM
Aiya!
VardaLast Sunday at 4:03 PM
top

Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
A star shines on the hour of our meeting.

Membership:
We have Arien, Phar, Celebrian, and me actively in the Discord chat. Fangorn says hi from LotRO Anor server.
We now pass around lots of turkey leftovers, with pie! Enjoy.
Happy Thanksgiving. : )
top

Web:
ArienVLast Sunday at 4:05 PM
Happy thanksgiving :smiley:
VardaLast Sunday at 4:05 PM
Nothing new on the Tolkien Site, Games site has been active.
top

Gaming:

World of WarCraft
Everyone here but me plays WoW, right?
Feel free to add in more general that gets missed in our news. : )
Pilgrim's Bounty begins Nov 19 and runs through November 26th.
You still have a day!
This week's bonus event: Arena Skirmishes.
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:07 PM
Yes, making good use of that bonus 10% rep :stuck_out_tongue:
VardaLast Sunday at 4:07 PM
Nice. : )
A new preview is out for 8.1.
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/22770322/preview-set-sail-for-two-new-islands
    World of Warcraft
    Preview: Set Sail for Two New Islands - WoW
    In Tides of Vengeance, we’re adding two new islands to Island Expeditions. Weigh anchor and prepare to set sail for more adventure.

Diablo 3:
Patch 2.6.4 is now on the PTR.
https://us.diablo3.com/en/blog/22753282/patch-264-ptr-preview-11-19-2018
    Diablo III
    Patch 2.6.4 PTR Preview
    Season 16 is rapidly approaching, and we’ve got a bundle of class set and quality of life changes that are bound to make the Season of Grandeur truly grand.

StarCraft 2:
Patch 4.7.1 is out.
https://starcraft2.com/en-us/news/22771167
    StarCraft II
    StarCraft II Official Game Site
    Wage war across the galaxy with three unique and powerful races. StarCraft II is a real-time strategy game from Blizzard Entertainment for the PC and Mac.
Fangorn, Eowyn, Eowyn's young'un play SC2 together. Phar plays. Anyone else this past week?

ArienVLast Sunday at 4:10 PM
uh still stuck on the Grand Rift torment IV on diablo .. i am trying other classes now but i got to level them and gear them of course ^^
there is still a bit time to make that or
VardaLast Sunday at 4:11 PM
Zug zug. Work work.
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:11 PM
should be a few weeks left
I'm thinking about making my first necromancer for next season, while keeping my so far constantly rebirthed crusader for goblin hunts instead.
VardaLast Sunday at 4:12 PM
heh
Crusader rezzed by Necromancer, that's what's happening!
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:12 PM
Necromancer rises, Crusader gets the easy job :wink:
VardaLast Sunday at 4:12 PM
If you seem a bit thin, that might be the case.

Lord of the Rings Online:
The LotRO game worlds were brought down Tuesday for a restart starting at 8:00 A.M. Eastern (-5 GMT).
Think that's been helping vs lag, doing that regularly.
Plus it lets them slip in little fixes and frills etc.
LotRO Beacon issue # 87 came out early on Wednesday to let the guys off on Thanksgiving.
https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/lotro-beacon-issue-87
    The Lord of the Rings Online
    The LOTRO Beacon: Issue 87
Has  a nice link to Dadi's site for the Steel Keep guide, now in our lotro-links channel.
http://dadislotroguides.com/thikil-gundu-the-steel-keep-6-man/
    Dadislotroguides
    Thikil-Gundu, The Steel Keep (6 Man)
More commonly known as Thikil-gundu.
The biggest thing going on for us, though, is the new legendary servers. We have kin branches on both Anor and Ithil. Be sure to use the Valar channel to help catch someone on.
Anor has much less trouble with the long lines to get in (now), but still has a lot of flipping to other layers as they get crowded, startling.
Ithil does not have that problem, fewer people.
This does split us up a bit, as you can tell from the player lists for the week:
Landroval server (9):
Ancalagon
Bregalad
Celebrian
Eonwe
Fangorn
Meriadoc
Mirabella
Nar
Varda

Anor server (5):
Celebrian
Dis
Fangorn
Varda
Walda

Ithil server (3):
Dis
Falco
Varda
Some just need help bringing their characters in. Something we can help with at meetings if all else fails.
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:19 PM
Hmm, I wonder who the most common name there is...
ArienVLast Sunday at 4:19 PM
Arien  on both ^^ Frali Ihil and Lirianor on Anor :smiley:
VardaLast Sunday at 4:19 PM
Do you need help joining the kin?
ArienVLast Sunday at 4:20 PM
yeah i joined the valar channel but there wasnt anyone when i looked
VardaLast Sunday at 4:20 PM
I can pull it up during this meeting, when you're ready. Just let me know which server you're needing at the time. Toss a tell. I know you're in WoW at the minute, but when you have time.
Fangorn is currently on Anor and can invite. I can pull up Ithil.

Any other general gaming news or needs? Other general news, suggestions, gripes? : )  Offers to add to the Tolkien Site or reviews on the Games Site? :wink:
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:24 PM
I suppose there's all the black friday stuff for blizzard games? Some of it is still available, I think.
Seems to be all merchandise, though, was hoping for a certain in-game pet.
Maybe it'll show up on the christmas sale though :wink:
VardaLast Sunday at 4:25 PM
Yes, Phar. You're right. I think it's in pretty much all of our games. That's a good reminder. LotRO has it.

Ok, Fangorn is on Anor as Fanghorn, added you to the friend list. Dis just came on there too.
I'm in Ithil on Fainan, added Frali to the friend list. We're ready for you but may need a poke. : )

Those were all good comments. Any others we want to make? Maybe Eve or other news?
I know stuff has been happening in Eve. : )  Feel free to bring up the fun during After-meeting.
For now...
top

Tolkien!
I was just admiring the way JRRT handles dialogue, as in how the style changes for different characters. Hobbit is very different from Gondorian, for instance.
The highly educated types that also have some thought for others tend to move the level of their dialogue up and down according to whom they are talking to. It's not "talking down" but speaking the lingo.
It is more of how JRRT notices language in the way it's used.
He is famous for his ability to construct fitting languages, but this is another special way of seeing it.
Who is a character we know that is good with switching his speech patterns according to whom is being spoken with?
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:34 PM
Gandalf comes to mind.
VardaLast Sunday at 4:34 PM
Perfect example.
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:34 PM
Though the difference I've noticed is more in tone than in words. Maybe I should look closer :wink:
VardaLast Sunday at 4:35 PM
Aye, as in look at the books. It's very strong there, but the change is gradual.
At first he is speaking with hobbits, later with kings.
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:36 PM
Indeed.
VardaLast Sunday at 4:36 PM
He stops saying things like "Bless my beard!" and goes on to other expressions and ways of making sentences, word choice.
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:36 PM
Can't see him holding his "good morning" conversation with Denethor.
VardaLast Sunday at 4:36 PM
Right! : )
He found the hobbits restful. The language shows this as it is more direct and even humourous.
He went to the Shire for a vacation from the devious lot outside, was the inference, and all the high-level demands.
Who was a character whose way of speaking didn't change all the way through, no matter who was the other being spoken with?
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:38 PM
Hmm. Denethor? :smiley:
VardaLast Sunday at 4:38 PM
hah, good point!
Hobbit or Maia, still got hit with the same snark and high language diction.
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:39 PM
Direct, paranoid and condescending whether it's to a hobbit, a wizard, or his own men.
Right.
VardaLast Sunday at 4:39 PM
Not always so direct, but aye!
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:39 PM
In his own ways.
VardaLast Sunday at 4:40 PM
How about Sam?
Polar opposite in some ways, but both were consistent no matter who they spoke with.
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:40 PM
Ah yes. Stuck to his own choice of words, but with respect to everyone he meets.
Except Gollum, I guess.
VardaLast Sunday at 4:41 PM
That was more angry, but not a change. Still direct in showing his feelings.
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:41 PM
Indeed.
VardaLast Sunday at 4:42 PM
How about Gollum's way of speaking?
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:43 PM
2 ways of speaking, at least :wink:
VardaLast Sunday at 4:43 PM
hehe
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:43 PM
Afraid and with what goes for his version of respect, when in danger or talking to Frodo. Sneaky, vague, dangerous when on his own or talking to someone else.
I must admit, though, this is more memory of the movie than the books...
VardaLast Sunday at 4:45 PM
An obsequious tone with corresponding word choice for Slinker, a cunning and vicious speech when planning as Stinker.
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:45 PM
Also I'm not as good with descriptive words as Tolkien :wink:
Or you, apparently.
VardaLast Sunday at 4:46 PM
The movie did pretty well with Gollum, except for the final part when it was really Frodo being Gollum's unintended puppet master. I had really hoped for a voice-over there. : )
Me either. We will try to get by!
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:47 PM
(right, time to refresh my harvest reputation buff and get back to another hour of world quests :wink: )
VardaLast Sunday at 4:47 PM
Gimli had another way of speaking when he waxed rhapsodic about the Glittering Caves. : )
Sounds good.
the hammer hops out onto the table making metallic tinging noises on the way
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:48 PM
Oh, we can continue.
I've been doing WQs all meeting, can talk as I go.
VardaLast Sunday at 4:48 PM
the hammerpad tilts to help it catch correctly
a wooden Thunnnnk!
top

After-meeting!
I'm still here too, even if in Ithil farming. : )

ArienVLast Sunday at 4:49 PM
thank you i ve got a lovely song for yhou :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:49 PM
:smiley:
VardaLast Sunday at 4:49 PM
Sing away!
ArienVLast Sunday at 4:50 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTrE6JT7txE
    YouTube
    Big Cat
    Wuthering Heights - Lament For Lorien
its slightly mettally and epic but its really nice and really Tolkien :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:53 PM
Fairest of the mall...
VardaLast Sunday at 4:54 PM
Epic is Tolkien, for sure.
ArienVLast Sunday at 4:54 PM
chuckles .. fairest of the shopping streets :)?
VardaLast Sunday at 4:55 PM
Great play on sound of the words : )
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 4:55 PM
one shop has to be the fairest!
ArienVLast Sunday at 4:55 PM
a mall is a street with lots of shopes gg
VardaLast Sunday at 4:55 PM
Yes

Fangorn says Arien is now kinned in Anor. : ) [LotRO]
FalcoLast Sunday at 5:22 PM
Aiya Kin
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 5:22 PM
Aiya!
VardaLast Sunday at 5:22 PM
Aiya Falco : )
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 5:23 PM
Kin is a character in a webcomic I read, so that was kinda weird
VardaLast Sunday at 5:23 PM
Non-LotRO players just say guild, so that's part of the confusion. And aye, kin is a fine word, very family-feeling.  : )
Did you need an invite in Ithil, Falco? I'm there at the moment.
Seems as if most of the gang stuck with Anor, even if it does keep flipping layers. The line to enter isn't so bad now.
oh ,there you are!
FalcoLast Sunday at 5:27 PM
lol
ArienVLast Sunday at 5:36 PM
Falco are u on ithil at the mo :)?
FalcoLast Sunday at 5:36 PM
Yes
along with Varda
ArienVLast Sunday at 5:36 PM
cool
VardaLast Sunday at 5:36 PM
Aye, we are
ArienVLast Sunday at 5:39 PM
right i chose the High Elf s name on Anor .. Lirianor .. because it roughly translates as Sunsinger
I think anywy ^^
which is sort of a hint towards my name
VardaLast Sunday at 5:40 PM
Pretty
As the steerer of the sun and one that helped sing Arda into existence, pretty good.
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 5:40 PM
Now you'll need to name your elf on Ithil "Liriithil".
VardaLast Sunday at 5:41 PM
We need Tilion to get back here. : )
ArienVLast Sunday at 5:41 PM
hehe  would be nice
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 5:45 PM
There, now all 3 kul tiran factions are over 10k reputation out of 21k to exalted.
Should be on schedule to finish it before the patch

Pallando-ValarLast Sunday at 6:03 PM [Eve Online]
Hi. Sorry. Fleet.
VardaLast Sunday at 6:04 PM
Stay alive,  Pallando : )
Pallando-ValarLast Sunday at 6:05 PM
That would have been good advice yesterday.
Today I followed it
VardaLast Sunday at 6:05 PM
heh
More of a well-wishing
Pallando-ValarLast Sunday at 6:06 PM
Abbreviated report: we had two fights yesterday that we lost, but we won the strategic objective and made our enemies drop their war, so #winning
We kinda took a couple on the chin, but we made it.
VardaLast Sunday at 6:06 PM
Lost two battles, won the war?
Pallando-ValarLast Sunday at 6:07 PM
Pretty much.
More fights with a different enemy today. It's been a busy few months.
ArienVLast Sunday at 6:16 PM
good luck!

it s getting bed time for me tho
VardaLast Sunday at 6:16 PM
Glad you could make it into both LotRO kins just now! Have a good night.
ArienVLast Sunday at 6:17 PM
thank you ! you too when you get to it and enjoy the evening/night/morning

Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 6:43 PM
Right, was a bit busy with other stuff... but I'll start gaming report while I'm going through my last 3 WQs for the day.

Flashgaming... bit slim choices this week, but I've got 3 rather weird games for you.
http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/scattered is the first game. A sort of dementia awareness game, where you have to stay sane as long as possible by defending against dementia voids, while collecting.. clouds? brains? something like that, to keep your sanity up. It's rather difficult, though there might be a strategy to it that I've not found.
    Scattered - OneMoreLevel.com
In any case, stay sane as long as possible.

http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/i_am_jeff_bezos is the second game, a sort of interactive novel type. You wake up in the body of the top guy of Amazon, and have to spend all his money. Multiple endings possible. Some swearing is involved, though, so be warned.
    I Am Jeff Bezos - OneMoreLevel.com

https://www.kongregate.com/games/Vashgard/idle-machine-learning is the third game. An idle game involving machine learning, whereby you send cars along a race track, making random decisions, and learning from the cars that make the greatest progress.
    Play Idle Machine Learning on Kongregate
    Kongregate free online game Idle Machine Learning - The first (I think) game based on machine learning algorithms!   
    Let your computer learn to dri.... Play Idle Machine Learning
Earn money along the way, upgrade the cars to make it easier/faster, and proceed along the different race tracks. Ninth track might be impossible to complete (even the creator doesn't know, apparently) but the rest can all be beaten.
It does not appear to save, though, so make sure to go a far as you want in one sitting.
top

Hah, just found the Winnie the Pooh reference in Stormsong. I knew it was around here somewhere, but had not found it yet.
Anyway, blizzard gaming will follow after I'm done with WoW

Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 7:10 PM
Blizzard gaming:
Diablo 3:
With the new season upcoming, I've indeed decided on trying out a necromancer for the first time.
Going to try a life/blood-based build, especially considering what the classset is supposed to be according to the past rotation. Not sure if I'll like it, but it'll be interesting thematically, especially with what's going on in Uldir in WoW
Apparently there are also some wings that match the set, which require a number of necromancer achievements, which I'll be giving a go during the season.
This includes some achievements in story-mode, which is why I'll probably start off going through the story first before going for bounties and rifts. It'll be slower, but should be interesting at least.

ElladanLast Sunday at 7:18 PM
Aiya!
Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 7:18 PM
Aiya!
VardaLast Sunday at 7:18 PM
Aiya Elladan
ElladanLast Sunday at 7:21 PM
Sundays are tough for me to make it. I have a prior commitment on Sundays, and don't get home until late
My apologies
VardaLast Sunday at 7:21 PM
After-meeeting is just fine
We used to run much later, would have still been going

Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 7:22 PM
Hearthstone:
Continuing to put xp on all my classes, slowly crawling to 57. A few them are a third along the way already, a few others have barely started. They'll catch up. Brawl this week is a cloning brawl: choose a class, get a random deck, each minion you play spawns a 1/1 stat copy. Makes for some interesting plays. Faced a warrior who made some bad battlecry choices, as well as putting down a tower which cannot attack, but does random damage when it's damaged. And then proceeded not to put taunt on them or damage them, which meant they were just taking up 2 slots on the board without doing anything. Good news for me!
Still, fun to do.
Heroes of the Storm:
2 levels gotten, to 316. One from my latest hero Kerrigan, and one from Kharazim which I'd used on a couple of attempts at the brawl. Which was indeed the heroic version of last week's. I tried a few matches with Valla and with Kharazim which had served me well in the normal mode, but in heroic mode the healing was not enough, and the one good attempt where we went through the entire thing smoothly, we ended up getting massacred by the final boss. Which reminded me why I don't like the heroic version  Still, gave it a few shots, and that's as good as it's going to be from me. It really is better with a coordinated group. No rare lootchest for me this week, but at least it was a good try.
WoW:
Killed heroic G'huun for the second time, getting the achievement for what remained of our entire active roster of players. So that's good news. Had a bit of trouble the following reset, though, with not enough dispellers present. I found out I need some new bracers from Zul, though, and he's the boss we're currently struggling against, so I hope we'll still kill him this week  Other than that, my gear is probably as good as it's going to be, as I suspected last week as well. The bracers themselves are a stat upgrade, anyway, not an ilevel. So perhaps not as important; though a bit of math showed me that it might swing around the reorigination array buff for my tankspec from haste to mastery. Which would be a good thing indeed.
Weekly this week is arena skirmishes. Where I'm being a lot more successful than I was in the previous expansion, with just under half the matches ending in victory. I spread it out over 3 days, and it didn't take up too much of my time.
Anniversary event still ongoing. I finished logging all my alts for the achievement, including the alts on different servers which I generally only log into for the anniversary event, and which for the rest of the year I tend to completely forget they exist.
Still fighting the green dragons with my 3 higher level characters. Not had much luck this week, though, getting mostly gold. I do think I got something new for the warrior, but forgot what it was. Shoulders maybe?
A few more days to go, hopefully I'll get the staff or the mace. Would be a nice way to end it.
Continuing my world quests, which are also taking up a big chunk of my time. Got a bunch more pet charms for them, and decided to start spending them, getting 2 pets (a greatwing macaw, and a mechanical prairie dog) as well as a new toy, the imaginary gun, which makes your pet play dead for a few seconds. 20 minute cooldown though, seems a bit much for its small effect.
Next item on the list will take 500 charms though, so time to keep saving
Still getting world quests I haven't done yet, though it continues to thin out. Among them a quest in Freehold where you fly around bombarding people with a parrot, where I got an achievement for hitting 4 specific items spread around the piratey town.
I've been using anniversary rep and harvest's bounty rep for them, and next week we'll be getting the world quest reputation bonus week, as well as the darkmoon faire with another reputation bonus. Doing some math and hoping for some luck with commendations, I've come to the conclusion that it is still well within my ability to get the 3 Kul Tiras factions to exalted, getting me the 100 exalted achievement (with title and mount) before the patch. So that's my newest priority. I set up a bit of an estimate for how much rep I'll want to have at various times to be on schedule, and right now one of the factions is well ahead, while the others need to get less than 1000 rep by wednesday; and considering both are likely up as emissaries soon, I don't think that'll be a problem. So it's promising.
Between all this, I still haven't had much time for story questing, nor do I expect I will have time for it before the patch comes. I did, however, clear out a couple of quest in Drustvar, involving an attack on a horde mining operation. So that's something, at least.
And I think that's my report for the week!

Ar-Pharazon-VLast Sunday at 7:53 PM
namarie!
VardaLast Sunday at 10:48 PM
Namarie : )
top