Sunday, June 29, 2025
5:00pm Eastern Time
Discord: Valar Guild/meeting_place
Attending: Arien, Ar-Pharazon (After-meeting), Eonwe (After-meeting), Varda (presiding). Sandalf July 4.
Topic: Frodo sees Sam and the One Ring
[4:00 PM]Varda: Aiya!
[4:00 PM]Varda: @Bounder @Guild-friend Aiya! Valar Guild meeting time! Come say hi!
[4:02 PM]Varda: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
[4:02 PM]Varda: Membership News:
[4:03 PM]Varda: Good luck to Gimli, currently in the hospital, who has been sending us Middle-earth memes in Harbor.
[4:03 PM]Varda: Web News:
[4:04 PM]Varda: Some of the pages are updating. The News now is just for 2025, with 2024 moved to the News Archives.
[4:04 PM]Varda: Other things are going on too, but not complete yet.
[4:04 PM]Varda: Gaming:
[4:05 PM]Varda: Arien and I are in LotRO, Eowyn and Fangorn are in StarCraft 2
[4:08 PM]Varda: From Pallando on EVE Online news:
[4:08 PM]Varda: ""4:06 PM]Debes: Nothing of particular note today.""
[4:08 PM]Varda: From Eonwe on other gaming news:
[4:08 PM]Varda: World of Warcraft:
[4:09 PM]Varda: This week's bonus events: War Within (Mythic) Dungeons and Mists of Pandaria Timewalking (Turbulent Timeways III).
[4:09 PM]Varda: This week's PvP Brawl: Packed House.
[4:09 PM]Varda: Don't "forsake" (kek) what's coming in July's Trading Post.
[4:09 PM]Varda: (kek means LoL in the language of the Horde)
[4:10 PM]Varda: We're two days away from a Diablo-type Goblin Invasion. With this invasion, there's going to be buffs to the drop rates of alot of stuff, so read the linked announcement to find out and don't miss it!
[4:10 PM]Varda: Check out all these Mists of Pandaria Classic blogs:
[4:11 PM]Varda: Break Through the Mists of Pandaria Classic on July 21
[4:11 PM]Varda: Mists of Pandaria Classic: Travel Through Time in the Burdens of Shaohao
[4:12 PM]Varda: Mists of Pandaria Classic: A Profession Primer
[4:12 PM]Arien Valar: Any pre patch coming to that?
[4:12 PM]Varda: Journey Through the Wandering Isle and Take on the Way of the Monk
[4:12 PM]Varda: I don't know.
[4:13 PM]Varda: And aiya, Sunshine. : )
[4:13 PM]Varda: Mists of Pandaria Classic: Enter the Mogu’shan Vaults Raid July 31!
[4:13 PM]Varda: Check out WoW Weekly for anything not mentioned above.
[4:14 PM]Varda: Check out this week's hotfixes.
[4:14 PM]Varda: Hearthstone:
[4:14 PM]Varda: So apparently Hearthstone now has Interactive Pets. See info about the first one, King Krush.
[4:15 PM]Varda: Diablo 4:
[4:15 PM]Varda: There's a new tale: "Apotheosis".
[4:16 PM]Varda: Beginning July 1st: Season 9: Purge the Sins of the Horadrim.
[4:16 PM]Varda: Check out the upcoming patch notes.
[4:17 PM]Varda: Diablo Immortal:
[4:17 PM]Varda: A new class is coming July 3rd: The Druid.
[4:17 PM]Varda: Check out the recent bug fixes.
[4:17 PM]Varda: Overwatch 2:
[4:18 PM]Varda: This week's Weekly Recall: Flashpoint Map Reworks.
[4:18 PM]Varda: New event coming July 1st through July 14th: Overwatch 2 x G.I. Joe.
[4:19 PM]Varda: Lord of the Rings Online:
[4:19 PM]Varda: Midsummer Festival is still underway. Check out the new area in the Shield Isles called Furtherholm.
[4:19 PM]Varda: Black Steel Key through July 3 Code: CLICK2UNLOCK
[4:19 PM]Varda: Our Mordor EU-temporary kinship has moved to Meriadoc EU-RP, a stable location. Kinhouse up and partly decorated. I should say the kinhouse is down because it's a huge hobbit burrow.
[4:20 PM]Varda: The 64-bit to 64-bit transfer ability schedule is at this link.
[4:20 PM]Varda: Mordor EU and Angmar US servers are not on that list; expect free transfers when the Veil of Nine event is over.
[4:20 PM]Varda: Lord of the Rings kinship folks showing up this past week:
Peregrin branch (US RP-encouraged. Our main.):
update thisGlamdring branch (US normal. Our secondary.):
Treebeard branch (temp VIP slow-level; US and EU):
(Kinship has moved to Meriadoc EU RP. We were present to "haul boxes into the U-Hauls".)
Angmar branch (temp US VIP "Veil of the Nine event"):
Mordor branch (temp EU VIP "Veil of the Nine event"):
[4:21 PM]Varda: Any other gaming news? Membership news?
[4:22 PM]Arien Valar: Well we ll be staying at home during our holidays
[4:22 PM]Arien Valar: good thing is that i ll be here then next Sunday :)}
[4:23 PM]Varda: That sounds as if you have some more time with your home.
[4:23 PM]Varda: And yay for seeing you next Sunday!
[4:23 PM]Arien Valar: aye we think we need the time for packing up things and save the money
[4:24 PM]Arien Valar: but it is a shame as we were both looking forward to some days in Cornwall
[4:25 PM]Varda: Ouch. Maybe later when things settle down.
[4:25 PM]Arien Valar: aye
[4:26 PM]Varda: Ready for Tolkien?
[4:27 PM]Arien Valar: yeah as long as i can keep my thoughts together hehe , i am dead tired since i had an early start
[4:27 PM]Varda: ahh. I can give us mostly a Tolkien Moment then.
[4:28 PM]Varda: The Return of the King, "The Tower of Cirith Ungol"
[4:28 PM]Varda: Ellipses used to shorten the quote.
[4:28 PM]Varda: (You may thank me later or fuss at me for cutting good stuff.)
[4:28 PM]Varda: Note a spot in here that is used after a fashion in a talk about the Ring between Bilbo and Frodo.
[4:28 PM]Varda: In Mordor, Sam has just made it past the orcs in the Tower all the way to Frodo.
[4:29 PM]Varda: Sam has had the Ring only a very short time, not even wearing it much
[4:29 PM]Varda: Even his offers of help might have a slight taint. Yet this is the only time a Ringbearer voluntarily gives it over to another's hand.
[4:29 PM]Varda: Quote:
["They've taken everything, Sam," said Frodo. "Everything I had. Do you understand? Everything!... The quest has failed...
["No, not everything, Mr. Frodo. And I've kept it safe. It's round my neck now, and a terrible burden it is, too." Sam fumbled for the Ring and its chain. "But I suppose you must take it back."
[Now it had come to it, Sam felt reluctant to give up the Ring and burden his master with it again.
["You've got it?" gasped Frodo. "You've got it here? Sam, you're a marvel!"
[Then quickly and strangely his tone changed.
["Give it to me!" he cried, standing up, holding out a trembling hand. "Give it to me at once! You can't have it!"
["All right, Mr. Frodo," said Sam, rather startled. "Here it is!"
[Slowly he drew the Ring out and passed the chain over his head.
["But you're in the land of Mordor now, sir; and when you get out, you'll see the Fiery Mountain and all. You'll find the Ring very dangerous now, and very hard to bear. If it's too hard a job, I could share it with you, maybe?"
["No, no!" cried Frodo, snatching the Ring and chain from Sam's hands. "No you won't, you thief!" He panted, staring at Sam with with eyes wide with fear and enmity.
[Then suddenly, clasping the Ring in one clenched fist, he stood aghast.
[4:31 PM]Varda: A mist seemed to clear from his eyes, and he passed a hand over his aching brow.
[The hideous vision had seemed so real to him, half bemused as he was still with pain and fear.
[Sam had changed before his very eyes into an orc again, leering and pawing at his treasure, a foul little creature with greedy eyes and slobbering mouth.
[Varda: But now the vision had passed. There was Sam kneeling before him, his face wrung with pain, as if he had been stabbed in the heart; tears welled from his eyes.
[Varda: "O Sam!" cried Frodo. "What have I said? What have I done? Forgive me! After all you have done. It is the horrible power of the Ring..."
[Varda: "That's all right, Mr. Frodo," said Sam, rubbing his sleeve across his eyes. "I understand. But I can still help, can't I? I've got to get you out of here..."
[4:32 PM]Varda: End Quote
[4:33 PM]Arien Valar: You know it reminds me of the meeting between Bilbo and Frodo in Rivendell
[4:33 PM]Arien Valar: when Bilbo asks to see the ring for a moment
[4:34 PM]Varda: That's right. : )
[4:34 PM]Varda: It is very deliberate by JRRT.
[4:35 PM]Varda: Frodo has been beaten down by the orcs in the Tower, and is at a very low point. Otherwise I doubt if he would have acted quite like that.
[4:35 PM]Varda: Bilbo was beaten down by a very long time of wearing the Ring.
[4:35 PM]Varda: Sam dodged a bullet there, even if he was not happy about it.
[4:37 PM]Arien Valar: And well dodged .. who knows what the ring would have done to Sam in the end
[4:37 PM]Varda: He was no Frodo, or he would have been chosen. But he was the perfect helper!
[4:38 PM]Varda: Between them, they did a huge save there of what could have been a complete disaster as Frodo had feared had happened.
[4:38 PM]Arien Valar: Indeed
[4:43 PM]Varda: We are going to call the meeting here, let Arien grab some sleep.
[4:44 PM]Varda: the gavel clonks the surprised hammerpad
[4:44 PM]Varda: clonnnnk!
Thus ends this week's meeting. Come back and see us next week!
[4:44 PM]Varda: After-meeting:
[4:44 PM]Arien Valar: Namarie for now
[4:45 PM]Varda: Namarie!
[5:05 PM]Eönwë Valar: Heya all. Sorry I missed the meeting.
[5:06 PM]Eönwë Valar: For Arien: The MOP Classic Prepatch will begin July 1st.
[6:09 PM]Varda: Thanks, Eonwe. : )
[6:10 PM]Varda: We used your gaming notes! You were kind of there.
[7:59 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya, reading up. So I'm looking at that Hearthstone article about the interactive pet... seems cute enough, but might get annoying after a while But that probably doesn't matter for me anyway, since it's a very rare drop from this Darkmoon Faire Treasures business, and every pull apart from the first pull every Faire costs real money.
[7:59 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: So chances of me getting a pet out of it are slim!
[7:59 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: But it's fun for people looking to spend money to collect things
[8:00 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: In fact, if you want to be sure of getting the pet, it'll cost you 158 dollars to complete the entire pool
[8:05 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Oh right, Mists pre-patch... that comes with a...mount, I think, for retail, if you get through the Wandering Isle in the prepatch?
[June 30, 2025
[12:37 AM]Eönwë Valar: I don't have a char in Classic, (or at least not one I remember or got anywhere near actually playing) so no chance I'm blasting through all that stuff to try and get to max level for a mount.
[2:11 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: No, no, it's the Wandering Isle. The pandaren starting zone.
[2:12 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Y'know, start at level 1, do small storyline, choose faction.
[2:12 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And boom, mount for retail!
[2:13 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Personal gaming report:
[2:13 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: For (non)flashgaming, here's Kongregate - Babel Tower
[2:14 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: An idle/incremental game that came up this week, though I've personally been playing it for a while now.
[2:16 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Your goal is to build up the tower of Babel, going up to the sky and into space. For this you need to harvest resources, stone and wood, convert them into bricks and planks, and send them to the top of your tower.
[@Ar-Pharazon-V
[No, no, it's the Wandering Isle. The pandaren starting zone.
[2:16 AM]Eönwë Valar: Ah.
[2:17 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: You can also sell the materials you build up, to buy upgrades for all of this, making it faster and more productive. Which is a good thing, because each level of the tower is slower and more expensive!
[2:17 AM]Eönwë Valar: Well, shows how often I've made a Pandaren.
[2:17 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Well, I've only made one as well - technically two, but she's a DK - and I still remember the place
[2:19 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Anyway, each floor also gives you new stuff to play with and upgrade, to make things more convenient, or faster, or more profitable. And if you really slow down, you can prestige, getting gold bricks for every floor you've completed, which will give you massive multipliers for your future runs!
[2:21 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Bit grindy, but you can leave it running in the background while occasionally checking. And if you log out and come back later, you'll have built up a certain amount of time to really speed up time. I check in once a day and get about half an hour of speed-up for that, which is actually pretty useful!
[2:21 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Blizzard gaming:
[2:30 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Hearthstone: Level 128 on the reward track now, getting me enough gold to buy a new class skin. I chose Treason Tamsin, giving off a Mata Hari vibe. Not sure how famous the dancer turned spy is across the Atlantic, but being Dutch, I had to choose it
[2:36 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: The second week of the expansion-announcement quest event is going, where the main quest is to spend 400 mana total, with locations and Un'goro cards (including the original Un'goro expansion from years ago) counting double, so made a deck for that. Was fun revisiting the old set.
[2:37 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And the brawl is Battle of Tol Barad: Build a deck, and when you play a minion, you get a free spell of equal value.
[2:38 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I made a mage deck with full spell damage minions, so any spells I got would hurt more. It didn't always work - there's more types of spells than just damage, and other people had some really interesting combination decks - but it worked often enough, and when it did, usually to great effect
[2:42 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Warcraft Rumble: No new collection level. Not even a level for any mini, I think. But went on steadily. I got more gold through replaying dungeon level 23 - which just gets easier as your minis level - which I spent on stars and star-deals, so at least my minis got something to progress, even though they need lots more.
[2:44 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Also completed the pvp reward track for this current season, freeing up some time to spend on the Heroic Sigil Campaign, where I finally defeated Gish the Unmoving with the beast family, getting my 146th sigil. Haven't tried the next boss yet, but I might have to see which specific leaders I will need, so I can throw valor at them, as Molten Core should open up again in a few days to farm it.
[2:46 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: But alas, no quality upgrades this week! No rare or epic deals to straight up jump a level, and most of my minis are still plenty of stars away.
[2:46 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: WoW:
[2:48 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Raiding continuing, with my group bringing down heroic Gallywix, though I couldn't be there that specific day. I'm sure I'll get him as well eventually, though that might have to mean a rotation of the boss schedule. Still, killed some more bosses on farm, got some more stuff and currency, and upgraded ilevels all over the place. Almost done with that. Spent some dinars on a tank trinket as well, to make that even better as well.
[2:49 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Weekly quests are dungeoning of all kinds: mythic dungeons, for which I'm doing more Theater of Pain, and timewalks for the second week of the timeways event. Almost done with both.
[2:50 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: For midsummer, I've been killing Ahune, getting me one of the two new weapon appearances from him, the fire staff/polearm. The ice one remains.
[2:52 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Also continued delving, upgrading the belt and getting 2 new abilities from overcharged delves as I went through them for my role achievements, Spark Burst and Charged Touch. Don't have the one that's best for me yet, but it'll do for now. Yes, I know they come from specific delves, I just haven't gone into the right one yet
[2:54 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Speaking of the role achievements, finished the tanky one, and started the healer one. Very much doable at my gear level and with Brann at 80. Built a quick restoration spec with talents for my single player heals - I had no idea they removed Healing Touch years ago! - which kept Brann alive easily, even without healing trinkets or weapon.
[2:55 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I do need to use my cooldowns more, though
[2:56 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Did the new weekly for Dastardly Duos, another "just win a game" quest, unlocking the albino turtle mount, Tyrannotort.
[2:57 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Also happened to get the achievement for 8 different bosses, unlocking the last appearances from the vendor as well.
[2:58 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I think that's all the cosmetic rewards got, not sure if I'll get anything for the next 2 weeks. Not sure if they even come with new quests.
[3:00 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Bought some new stuff from the shop as well, the Blazing Heroic pack, giving me cosmetics for both Classic and Retail. Focusing on the Retail rewards, that's a new pet, Lil Wrathion, and a new mount, Runebound Firelord. Riding Ragnaros around is... interesting.
[3:00 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I guess it combos well with the Lil Ragnaros pet
[3:02 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I also completed the trading post for June - well, I think I completed it weeks earlier but forgot to visit the post itself - and while there was nothing new I was particularly interested in, that allowed me to buy the mount I'd frozen from last month, the Spring Harvesthog! Giant hedgehog as a mount, very cute
[3:05 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And finally, bought more Warcraft books! The Voices Within collection, and the final book in the Exploring Azeroth series, Islands and Isles, for the areas from Legion, Battle for Azeroth and Dragon Isles.
[3:07 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And looking forward to the future... July about to start... and there's so many events going on at the same time in July. More timewalks and other weeklies, a few more days of Midsummer, (overcharged) delves, visions and a few more weeks of dastardly duos, the treasure goblin event, the collection buff event for which I made a list of missing dungeon and raid mounts up to BfA, which came up to 20... and the pandaria pre-patch for another mount.
[3:08 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: This is crazy But we'll see what we can do!
[3:09 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And that's my report for the week!
[3:09 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie :)
[July 3, 2025
[3:09 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie
[July 3, 2025
[11:35 PM]Eönwë Valar: For anyone who might just be writing a character that uses daggers/knives: YouTube - "How many of those things have you got?"
[July 4, 2025
[5:45 AM]Eönwë Valar: Got Inarius' charger now.
[5:46 AM]Eönwë Valar: Not really sure if there's anything else besides the currency to buy the transmogs in it for me now.
[5:48 AM]Eönwë Valar: Well, I guess the 36-slot bag would've been one if they weren't both soulbound and unique.
[6:18 AM]Eönwë Valar: It's rather appropos that the biggest concentration of these treasure goblins would appear in Undermine, but from a practical standpoint, it's probably also the only way they could convince people to want to go there, lol.
[7:33 AM]Eönwë Valar: Oh yeah, Dragon Soul still worked on the single-lockout system, not the lockout by difficulty. Darn.
[12:15 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I think someone got a new cloak from the treasure goblins as well, not sure if there's anything else.
[12:15 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-gb/character/eu/argent-dawn/caldros/ knives! World of Warcraft - Caldros - Character - WoW Caldros (Argent Dawn) ❮The High Guard❯ - 61 Gnome Assassination Rogue, 253 ilvl
[8:13 PM]Eönwë Valar: Interesting. The Blood Vindicator's Attire (Red Judgement), and presumably the other sets too, are labelling in the appearances tab as "WoW's 20th Anniversary".
[8:14 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Heh, guess they're all part of the same celebration still
[8:15 PM]Sandalf13: Happy July 4th!
[8:16 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: You too!
[9:50 PM]Eönwë Valar: Happy Independence Day to those of us in the USA.
[10:42 PM]Eönwë Valar: Oh Lol.
[10:43 PM]Eönwë Valar: Of course my timewalking cache would give me a Best-in-Slots (with no bonus stats), because I already have it. July 5, 2025
[7:24 AM]Arien Valar: card: Bearilliant Beasts 37/60 Scandinavian Dragons "were greedy beasts, going gaga for glittering gold"
[7:26 AM]Arien Valar: Now, where have I see that one before? * scratch*
