Valar Guild

February 24, 2019 Sunday Meeting

5:00 P.M. Eastern time (-5 GMT)
Discord: Valar Guild/meeting_place

Back to News
Transcript work by Varda.

Attending (and spoke): (5)
    Discord: Arien,  Ar-Pharazon,  Falco, Gorlim, Varda (presiding)
Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership news
    Happy birthday, Elladan!
Web
Gaming:
    General reports
Tolkien:
    Movie about JRR Tolkien, further news.
    Topic: Tolkien Moment: the end of Meriadoc's sword.
    Discussion: Bits of Silmarillion backstory that slipped into the Lord of the Rings.
After-meeting:
    Tolkien chat continued.
    Flashgaming Reviews by Ar-Pharazon.
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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)

VardaToday at 3:54 PM
Good to see you! We have about five minutes.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 3:56 PM
That'll give me time to do the apothecary fight for my last tokens needed for the toy :smiley:
VardaToday at 4:02 PM
About that time!
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:07 PM
Am I still here? My connection's been a bit iffy for a few days.
VardaToday at 4:07 PM
You are here!
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:07 PM
Good.
FalcoToday at 4:08 PM
Aiya
VardaToday at 4:08 PM
Aiya Falco : )
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:08 PM
Aiya!
ArienVToday at 4:09 PM
Aiya :smiley:
VardaToday at 4:11 PM
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Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Membership:
In Discord, we have Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Falco, and Varda.
The rest of you seem to be lurkinig and we're glad to have you!
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Web:
Thank you to Eonwe for keeping up with the Games Site. We also have our general News page to which any of you are welcome to contribute, give reports if you like. The forum is still there with our handy Shout box among other things.
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Gaming:

World of WarCraft:
This past week's bonus event: Burning Crusade Timewalking.
The PvP Brawl: Southshore vs. Tarren Mill began last Tuesday and runs through Tuesday, February 26th.
Feb 23: The Hatching of the Hippogryphs.
See the recent hotfixes.:
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/22824893/hotfixes-february-20-2019
    World of Warcraft
    Hotfixes: February 20, 2019 - WoW
​    Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to World of Warcraft:Battle For Azeroth.
Any other general WoW news?
I know Eonwe plays there in the US. Arien and Phar play.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:18 PM
Love is in the Air still going, but better hurry up if you want the new stuff.
Got until tuesday!
VardaToday at 4:18 PM
Thanks!

StarCraft 2:
Patch 4.8.3 came out this week.
https://starcraft2.com/en-us/news/22883350
    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.
Folks I know of playing SC 2 together are Fangorn, Eowyn, Faramir, and sometimes our grandson of 5 years old.
ArienVToday at 4:20 PM
yeah a bit roleplaying
VardaToday at 4:20 PM
He and his mom were watching Fellowship of the Ring. : )
ArienVToday at 4:20 PM
and following here of course :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:20 PM
Ah, good to get em started early, Varda :wink:
VardaToday at 4:20 PM
Thanks for your multi-tasking!
You bet! Got him on a LotRO horse when he was two. : )
He loved riding around on it.
Any other SC 2 general news?
And I guess Arien and Phar played SC 2 this past week?
Gorlim! Aiya!
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:22 PM
Yep, war chesting a bit.

GorlimToday at 4:23 PM
Heya !
VardaToday at 4:23 PM
Great to see you!
GorlimToday at 4:23 PM
Just lurking and seeing the reports goby
VardaToday at 4:23 PM
Glad to have you lurking. : )

Overwatch:
A new lore blog is out: SUBJECT: CUERVA STRIKE TEAM - LOG RECOVERED.

ArienVToday at 4:24 PM
i played a bit STO on monday actually :smiley:

VardaToday at 4:24 PM
https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/news/22905586/subject-cuerva-strike-team-log-recovered
    Overwatch
    Overwatch is Blizzard’s team shooter for PC and consoles.
    Choose a hero from a diverse roster of soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities, each with their own unique set of abilities.
    Bend time, defy physics, and unleash an array of extraordinary powers in concert wi...

ArienVToday at 4:24 PM
there is the anniversary event running at the moment
VardaToday at 4:24 PM
Very good! Do we know which anniversary?
ArienVToday at 4:25 PM
8th or ninth but hang on il ll find out :smiley:
VardaToday at 4:25 PM
It's good to see our games staying around, not disappearing in a year.
ArienVToday at 4:28 PM
Ninth anniversary indeed
been a long time around now and they are doing a very good job for a free game :smiley:
ftp
free to play
VardaToday at 4:29 PM
May they see their tenth in great shape.

Diablo 3:
News relayed in the After-meeting.

Lord of the Rings Online:
The Producer's Letter from Severlin came out with a lot of news.
http://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/producer%E2%80%99s-letter-%E2%80%93-february-2019-%E2%80%93-look-ahead
    The Lord of the Rings Online
    Producer’s Letter – February 2019 – A Look Ahead
If you like, I can give the Cliff notes version here.
Falco-(V) called this letter to our attention as very worth reading.

Story: The Black Book of Mordor continues, leading into the next expansion. It goes to the Vale of Anduin where new tales will be brought up during the year, after which it moves back to Mordor in Minas Morgul. We will find Shelob and how she influences the future of Middle-earth. (Apparently Vales is an Update, and Minas Morgul is an expansion.)
.
Challenge: During the new story, difficulty balances are being handled by keeping the same level of difficulty for the landscape and normal instances, but optional challenges include that the instances go all the way up to Tier 4, 5, or even higher with increased rewards. These instances can be played as solo, trio, six, and twelve-man.
.
64-bit: Currently the game is 32-bit, since it began long ago. A 64-bit client is undergoing testing and code being tweaked, so that it might be ready as early as March. This allows use of modern graphics cards reducing loading times and restrictions for environment and textures.
.
Class balance: Next is the update for the Burglar. Rune-keeper and Captain are next. During the year, small tweaks will be given to multiple classes instead of just one at a time, based on player feedback and internal testing. Feedback ability will be seeing improvements.
.
Crafting: Robust update incoming. The system should then be more useful and relevant at higher levels and include fun items, but not required to play through the story.
.
Virtues: The virtue system is being updated to make it more relevant and give Players more choice. Currently, Deeds reward Virtue points directly. Instead, Deeds and possibly other content will give Virtue experience points. Players can choose which Virtue gains the experience point even if the Virtue is not slotted. All Virtues, even if not slotted, will give some benefit. Virtue levels earned from the previous system will remain intact and be converted automatically.
.
Kinships: A kinship should be able to continue advancing and ways to do that are under investigation. These possibilities include rewards for a kin to earn as a group, earning cosmetic rewards for their housing, and sometimes allowing kin leaders to activate buffs that affect the entire kinship costing less for smaller kinships.
.
Grouping: New instance grouping feature, intended to lower the need to call out in LFF. Up to five instances may be listed including desired grouping criteria such as class and level.
.
Legendary Servers: Moria is coming in the near future. Updates will continue all year.
.
That's it. takes a breath
ArienVToday at 4:34 PM
Lots of news
VardaToday at 4:34 PM
Aye.
ArienVToday at 4:34 PM
sounds exciting though :smiley:
VardaToday at 4:34 PM
The upgrade to 64-bit will be very welcome. May take a while to clean up.
Guild mates seen in LotRO this past week:
Landroval:

Aranuir
Arien
Bregalad
Eonwe
Fangorn
Lenwe
Mirabella
Nar
Nimrodel
Varda

Ithil:

Arien
Dis
Falco
Fangorn
Varda

Anor:

Arien
Dis
Fangorn
Varda
(You weren't left out, Arien.)
ArienVToday at 4:36 PM
hehe good :smiley:
VardaToday at 4:37 PM
Any other LotRO news?
ArienVToday at 4:37 PM
not that i am aware of
VardaToday at 4:37 PM
Thank you.
We can invite anyone that needs it to a branch in LotRO. Just shoot me a tell or even call out here.
Any other news, suggestions, comments of any kind before we change over?

ArienVToday at 4:39 PM
Just an addition to membership news
VardaToday at 4:39 PM
Fire away!
ArienVToday at 4:39 PM
It is Elladan's birthday today :smiley:
VardaToday at 4:39 PM
Huzzah! Happy Birthday to Elladan!
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:40 PM
Happy birthday!
VardaToday at 4:40 PM
Feel free to send him a happy birthday tell, as he's lurking now.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:40 PM
A day after my dad :wink:
ArienVToday at 4:40 PM
Happy birthday Elladan :smiley:
VardaToday at 4:40 PM
Good timing. Make two cakes!
On to
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Tolkien!
ArienVToday at 4:42 PM
uh i ve got some interesting info :smiley:
VardaToday at 4:42 PM
Great! What do you have?
ArienVToday at 4:42 PM
There is a Tolkien film coming out in may :smiley:
19 th of May to be exact
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3361792/
    IMDb
    Tolkien (2019)
    Directed by Dome Karukoski. With Lily Collins, Nicholas Hoult, Mimi Keene, Genevieve O'Reilly.
    Tolkien explores the formative years of the orphaned author as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts at school.
According to this article the film concentrates on the years that influenced him most for his writing
That is the war and early post war years
VardaToday at 4:44 PM
Wonderful to have a time out for it. I wonder if they are planning a sequel. ; )
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Tolkien Moment
This one comes from Return of the King, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields"
This Moment  is about what happened to Meriadoc's small sword that helped kill the Witch-king. Also, this is one of the places where the larger legendarium enters the Lord of the Rings.
Quote:
Then he looked for his sword that he had let fall; for even as he struck his blow his arm was numbed, and now he could only use his left hand.
And behold! there lay his weapon, but the blade was smoking like a dry branch that been thrust in a fire; and as he watched it, it writhed and withered and was consumed.
So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse.
But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago  in the North-kingdom when the Dúnedain were young and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorceror king.
No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.
EndQuote.
.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:50 PM
Ooh, neat little detail.
VardaToday at 4:51 PM
A bit of the overall greater story slips in, right there, explaining why the blade worked.
ArienVToday at 4:52 PM
yay for unknown npcs :smiley:
VardaToday at 4:53 PM
hehe
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:53 PM
...Vaguely reminds me of a sequence in a webcomic.
VardaToday at 4:53 PM
Apparently a Dúnedain of Anor.
ArienVToday at 4:54 PM
would invite a nice fan fic as well btw .. maybe the story of how this sword got stolen or tell the story of the one who forged it
VardaToday at 4:54 PM
True.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:54 PM
D&D based, low level paladin takes on a warrior of much greater power with a special axe. Just as the warrior crashes the axe in on the paladin for the final blow, it passes straight to him... and in that moment we get a lot of exposition on the nature of the blade and why it can't harm paladins.
*straight through him
So just when you least expect it, a piece of exposition explaining why it works :wink:
VardaToday at 4:55 PM
Or was it stolen, really? It may have been a part of what was buried with the warrior in the Barrow-downs. Since wights took over the bodies, maybe it could be called stolen that way.
So that's a special axe, aye! No harm to paladins.
Drop it on your foot safely.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 4:56 PM
Indeed!
ArienVToday at 4:56 PM
true
VardaToday at 5:00 PM
Any other comments? Perhaps other places where we see the deeper story show up like that?
If there is nothing else, we have reached the hour.
the gavel jumps into the hand, as a surprise
whonky!
the hand returns the gavel gently to the shelf
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After-meeting!
Free chat.
ArienVToday at 5:06 PM
thanks Varda :smiley:
VardaToday at 5:06 PM
Cheers : )
ArienVToday at 5:07 PM
maybe . remember Tom Bombadil looking through the treasure in the Wight toomb and finds that brooch , just before he gives the daggers to Merry and Pippin?
VardaToday at 5:07 PM
That would definitely be one.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 5:07 PM
I do remember something with the swords in the trolls' lair in The Hobbit.
ArienVToday at 5:07 PM
I think he sais something like "fair was she who wore this on her shoulders"
long ago *
VardaToday at 5:08 PM
Gave a bit of idea of how very long his memory went back. And that's not even all the way back.
One reason he might want to be in isolation. Missing so many that passed on for various reasons.
ArienVToday at 5:09 PM
OH yeah i remember Elrond identifying the two swords#
Glamdring and Orcrist
Glamdring belonged to the King of Gondolin  I believe?
VardaToday at 5:10 PM
Glamdring did belong to King Turgon, aye.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 5:11 PM
Who later became Menelvagor... wait, that doesn't sound right
VardaToday at 5:11 PM
Turgon or one of his lords may have used Orcrist.
ArienVToday at 5:12 PM
Or remember Fangorn remembering the old Elves who used to teach the trees to speak .. "they always wanted to speak to everything*
that looks further back as well
VardaToday at 5:13 PM
Aye, good one.
ArienVToday at 5:14 PM
Or Gandalf coming into the Throne room  of Edoras and pointing out the wall hanging of Eorl the Young
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 5:15 PM
Good to know what he looks like.
ArienVToday at 5:15 PM
Even the old Keeper of the Houses of healing with his various names for the same old weed we know as kings foil :smiley:
ArienVToday at 5:35 PM
oh the last wing in the Battle of Dazar Alor is out for the raid finder on Wednesday
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 5:36 PM
Ah, good luck, we just cleared the raid on normal tonight. The last 3 fights are fun :smiley:
ArienVToday at 5:40 PM
Mekkatorque not too many annoying gadgets? remembering the last few gnome/ goblin fights with horror :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 5:40 PM
Oh yes, but fun...
ArienVToday at 5:40 PM
thinking of the Battle for orgrimmar or Mirmiddon hehe
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 5:40 PM
I wonder how the codes work in lfr. But you'll find out :smile:
ArienVToday at 5:40 PM
oh i am sure
ArienVToday at 5:52 PM
Namarie for now :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 5:52 PM
namarie!
VardaToday at 5:52 PM
Namarie, Arien : )

Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 6:21 PM
"To accommodate both the desire we’ve heard for an extension of Season 16 as well as to give us more time to prepare Season 17 (and Patch 2.6.5), we are moving the Season 16 end date to May 12."
That's from Diablo 3 news.
I.. guess I just got 2 more months to complete my necromancer's journey :smile:
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 6:33 PM
Right. Personal gaming report!
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Flashgaming:
http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/mobius is a weird platformer taking place in a mobius strip. Make your way across the circles, collecting coins and keys and getting to the door. Avoid the spikes!  You can bend the mobius shape to get access to new paths and shortcuts. But it's simpler than it sounds :wink:
    Mobius - OneMoreLevel.com
Only a bit of a demo, not too many levels, but still fun to try out!

http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/line_of_sight is a puzzle game where you have to move towers and obstacles so the towers all have a direct line of sight to another tower. Trickier than it sounds :wink:
Line of Sight - OneMoreLevel.com

https://www.kongregate.com/games/funstorm/siege-knight for the third game! An upgrade defense game where you  have to defend from waves of enemies by using both direct weaponry (and spells) and obstacles along the way, like traps, barricades and soldiers. You can get levels through experience which then gives talent points to use in various talent trees, empowering your abilities and traps as well as unlocking new stuff to use.
    Kongregate
    Siege Knight
    A fun defense and shooting game hybrid. Defeat wave after wave of enemies through strategic trap placement and fast shooting! Level up and spend points to upgr...
Hint: Archers are pretty good :wink:
As are the spike traps!
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Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 6:54 PM
Blizzard gaming:
Diablo 3: My necromancer is level 68 now, and taken down the bosses needed for chapter 2 of the season journey. 2 levels to go and a few crafting objectives to finish the chapter and start the classset. Not as much progress as I'd liked, but apparently I've got until May now instead of March, so I'm not worried anymore :smiley:
Starcraft II: Continuing to work on the war chest, with tier 3 complete. 2 more to go, which should take about 5 more matches.
...And for the next bit I'll have to reboot the pc, looks like a graphic bug with  Heroes of the Storm.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 7:48 PM
Heroes of the Storm: Still level 334, no new levels. Another single-lane brawl, didn't win any, but 3 plays was enough :wink: ...I guess otherwise nothing to report there.
Hearthstone: Slowly starting to push along to the next levels. Did get 2 new legendary cards from the Rumble expansion, Griftah the neutral card, the vendor as we know from Shattrath in WoW, as well as Shirvallah the tiger, the loa for the paladin team. Looks pretty interesting!
Brawl is the second Rastakhan brawl, again with shrines and custom decks, with 3 plays for a free card pack. Go for it before it disappears! Next week the third Rastakhan brawl will be.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 7:52 PM
WoW:
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 7:53 PM
Raid cleared on normal! Had our first try on Jaina Proudmoore on tuesday after defeating the Stormwall Blockade, extended the reset, a bunch of attempts on thursday that got as far down as 9%, and finally defeating it tonight on our first attempt.
We then started working on heroic difficulty, defeating the first boss as we had before, and making out first serious attempts on the second bossfight. Pretty tough!
But at least we've now seen the entirety of the raid, and are starting to get our first pieces of heroic gear rewards as well. Looking good!
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 7:56 PM
Love is in the Air event is almost over, and with it our chances for the love rocket mount and the tokens for the new toy, another holiday-themed hearthstone.
I got the toy tonight, and it looks quite weird when using it, floating just above the ground in a pose like cupid (or Peddlefeet!) about to shoot an arrow. Silly thing, I'll probably go back to the lunar festival hearthstone in a few days instead.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 7:59 PM
Weekly is timewalks, Burning Crusade, first of the new rotation. Patch 8.1.5 should not be far off, with the new Warlords of Draenor timewalks, so that'll be a new addition at the end of this rotation. But in the meantime I'm still doing them for the reward badges, and they're not too bad, though I'm always struggling on my warrior tank.
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 8:00 PM
The mailbox bug I mentioned last week is still there, and others have reported it as well. Apparently it is tied to automatically returning mails displaying as empty if your mailbox is full. But if you open up other mails and let the mail display reset a bit, they will end up back to normal. Advisable to do this to avoid losing mail items!
But to be safe I've started storing the unique stuff on various alts out of the mailbox, buying a lot of bags along the way, and seeing what kind of fun stuff I'd been stuffing down the mailbox over the years :smiley:
Got a whole bunch of new pets! Two from Arathi rares: Scabby the corrupted bear cub, and the Aldrusian Sproutling, a small treant. Also a burning treant from a Darkshore rare, which looks rather silly, and references the burning of Teldrassil.
I've also been getting more pet charms from various sources and was able to buy the Saurolisk hatchling from the Stormsong vendor.
And for the last pet... the pet battle world quests achievements are going great! Got 100% on magical and mechanical families, as well as the achievement requirements for the last family, undead. So now the achievements are gotten, and the little Wicker Wraith pet as the reward!
Still need 4 more fights to really get undead to 100%, but the main reward is here
With that done, or almost done, and D3 no longer as much of a priority, maybe I can slowly get started on other WoW stuff again... but we'll see.
And that's my report for the week!

VardaToday at 8:07 PM
Thank you, Phar
Ar-Pharazon-VToday at 8:35 PM
namarie!
VardaToday at 8:36 PM
Namarie
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