Sunday, January 4, 2026
5:00pm Eastern Time
Discord: Valar Guild/meeting_place
[4:01 PM]Sunday, January 4, 2026 4:01 PMSandalf13: Aiya!
[4:02 PM]Sunday, January 4, 2026 4:02 PMAr-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
[4:03 PM]Sunday, January 4, 2026 4:03 PMArien Valar: A quick aiya from me !
[4:03 PM]Sunday, January 4, 2026 4:03 PMVarda: Aiya :)
[4:03 PM]Sunday, January 4, 2026 4:03 PMVarda: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
[4:03 PM]Varda: Membership:
[4:04 PM]Arien Valar: I havd an early start tommorroe
[4:04 PM]Varda: Aiya to Sandalf, Ar-Pharazon, and Arien!
[4:04 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Christmas holiday over, eh?
[4:04 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
[4:04 PM]Varda: Take off whenever needed! We want you able to make money and keep gaming! 😉
[4:04 PM]Sandalf13: Well, is it the start to a new year...we all have to work sometime
[4:04 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Internet costs money!
[4:05 PM]Arien Valar: Am in my cosy sunbark 🙂
[4:06 PM]Varda: : )
[4:06 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I do have my pc in the bedroom but I can't quite reach it from the bed.
[4:06 PM]Varda: Fangorn is busy clobbering masses of monsters in StarCraft 2 but hopes to say hi in a bit. : )
[4:06 PM]Varda: That might aid in sleeping!
[4:07 PM]Sandalf13: My holiday gift to myself was a branc new laptop, that has all the keys working. It is fast enough to play games on, or so said the salesman.
[Image
[4:07 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Nice!
[4:08 PM]Arien Valar: Hence on typo- friendly mobile 🙃
[4:08 PM]Treebeard: Hello 🙂
[4:08 PM]Sandalf13: Aiya Fangorn!
[4:09 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!
[4:09 PM]Arien Valar: Aiya!
[4:09 PM]Varda: Aiya Fangorn : )
[4:09 PM]Varda: That is great, Sandalf!
[4:10 PM]Varda: I found myself taping an index card over the black square not-a-mouse in front on my previous laptop, but seem to be able to easily reach over it on this one. Any problem with yours?
[4:11 PM]Sandalf13: Not yet.
[4:11 PM]Arien Valar: Namarie from me !
[4:11 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!
[4:12 PM]Varda: (also, Happy New Year!)
[4:12 PM]Sandalf13: Namarie Arien! I hope your New YEar is healthy, happy, and prosperous, as well as good to your gaming.
[4:12 PM]Varda: Namarie sun captain!
[(Note: added in for the transcript as it didn't make it into the meeting: Some new pages are up for 2026 to keep content current and more will be updated. The fancier versions are intended for later in the year.)
[4:14 PM]Varda: Gaming:
[4:14 PM]Varda: Eonwe's Games Site is up with the first of the year news. : )
[4:15 PM]Varda: Eonwe seems afk at the moment, so I'm asking Pallando if he has Eve news first.
[4:16 PM]Varda: He may be in a space battle at this moment and come in after a bit.
[4:16 PM]Varda: World of Warcraft:
[4:16 PM]Varda: The Darkmoon Faire is going this week.
[4:17 PM]Varda: This week's bonus events: War Within Dungeons and Cataclysm Timewalking (Turbulent Timeways IV).
[4:17 PM]Varda: This week's PvP Brawl: Gravity Lapse.
[4:18 PM]Varda: StarCraft 2:
[4:18 PM]Varda: StarCraft 2 gamers this past week: Anarion, Eowyn, Fangorn, Varda; Faramir.
[4:18 PM]Varda: Lord of the Rings Online::
[4:18 PM]Varda: White dye Code thru Jan 8 is SNOWYDAYS
[4:19 PM]Varda: Lord of the Rings Online gamers in kin this past week:
Peregrin branch (main):
Glamdring branch:
Meriadoc branch:
Angmar temporary branch:
Mordor temporary branch:
[4:19 PM]Varda: Any other gaming news that anyone would like to mention?
[4:20 PM]Varda: Feel free to advertise the games you love and played during this past week, if it's the type another gamer can join in.
[4:20 PM]Varda: On to
[4:20 PM]Varda: Tolkien!
[4:21 PM]Varda: Pallando says he expects to have Hobbiton pictures (New Zealand) for us this coming week!
[4:22 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Poor hobbits. Ever since that movie, their town has become a tourist trap.
[4:22 PM]Varda: heh
[4:23 PM]Varda: Pallando was healthy for the trip but picked up a bug on the way back, currently under the weather.
[4:23 PM]Varda: Another topic:
[4:23 PM]Varda: January third was JRR Tolkien's birthday, when we hoist a toast in-game and/or in real life and type or say "The Professor!".
[4:23 PM]Varda: This was started by the Tolkien Society and picked up by Tolkien fans everywhere.
[4:23 PM]Varda: We used /toast and /drink in Lord of the Rings on the third. : )
[4:23 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: The Professor! 🍾
[4:24 PM]Varda: The Professor! /toast
[4:24 PM]Sandalf13: A belated (byut repeated) toast "To the Professor."
[4:24 PM]Sandalf13: I quaffed by drink at home.
[4:24 PM]Varda: The more the merrier!
[4:25 PM]Varda: In another topic:
[4:25 PM]Varda: Note that when Smeagol/Gollum refers to Sauron or Shelob, he uses capitalization, such as He and She. Why?
[4:25 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Thin line between reverence and fear.
[4:26 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Refearance.
[4:26 PM]Sandalf13: Perhaps he sees them as all-powerful entities, totally worthy of his reduced state. He can no longer see the power in "good" entities, so regards those of a more evil bent as his "masters."
[4:30 PM]Varda: Any other comments?
[4:31 PM]Varda: Ok, guess we shall enjoy a short meeting today! We can go game, let Sandalf wrestle his new computer!
[4:31 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Considering the capitalization is in text only, is it really Gollum referring to them as such, or Bilbo/Frodo/whoever wrote the book? 🙂
[4:32 PM]Varda: It is Gollum, in his words.
[4:32 PM]Varda: That was a good thought.
[4:32 PM]Varda: Frodo probably understood him better than anyone else.
[4:33 PM]Sandalf13: I suspect that Tolkien was allowing his characters to speak for themselves, in print.
[4:35 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: You can't really pronounce a capital letter though, can you? Something with emphasis perhaps...
[4:37 PM]Varda: Sometimes one can "hear" capitals in speech as an added emphasis, agreed! But good point.
[4:42 PM]Varda: Thank you for joining in. : )
[4:42 PM]Varda: the gavel rouses from the shelf and clompfs over to the hammerpad
[4:42 PM]Varda: tap
[4:43 PM]Varda: the hammerpad jumps up in startlement, making a thonnk!
[4:43 PM]Sandalf13: The gavel must be recovering from too much holiday cheer, if it is rousing itself from some rest on the shelf...
[4:43 PM]Varda: After-meeting!
[4:43 PM]Varda: All that eggnog!
[4:43 PM]Sandalf13: With tequila or vodka?
[4:43 PM]Sandalf13: Or rum?
[4:45 PM]Varda: non-alcoholic, believing itself safe, and over-indulges!
[4:46 PM]Sandalf13: That may be worse...
[4:47 PM]Varda: hehe
[4:48 PM]Sandalf13: I hope that The Gavel has signed up for a year of physical fitness at Planet Fitness, or the like. It always amazes me how, on the first few days of the year, such a place is packed to the gills, but within a few weeks returns to its normal level of attendance.
[4:50 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Gotta work off the holiday food!
[4:50 PM]Sandalf13: I hope you ate well over the holidays....
[4:50 PM]Varda: gavel goes off to pogo practice
[4:50 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Oh, certainly. Lots of goodies.
[4:51 PM]Sandalf13: Go go gavel!
[4:51 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Go go pogo!
[4:51 PM]Treebeard: I have been eating well even after the holidays...left overs are good too 🙂 4:51 PM]Sandalf13: Yes indeedy do....
[4:52 PM]Varda: : )
[4:52 PM]Sandalf13: Still have fresh cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving...thankfully, it is so acid that it keeps for weeks and weeks and weeks and....
[4:52 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Hah.
[4:54 PM]Sandalf13: Well...the gavel has inspired me. I need to get off my duff and go to Planet Fitness for a 30 minute run on the treadmill. I too, must work off too many holiday goodies for too many days. Too too, as they say, or in Middle-earth, Namarie! (for now - will check in later.)
[4:54 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Good luck 🙂
[4:55 PM]Treebeard: Namarie
[4:56 PM]Varda: Namarie! gavel waves merrily
[8:04 PM]Sandalf13: I'm back, just like the Terminator.
[9:39 PM]Varda: Welcome back!
[1:16 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Personal gaming report:
[1:34 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: For (non)flashgaming, finally a few smaller games this week 🙂 The Journey Home is an interactive fiction, part of a short series, but playable on its own. You play an adventurer on her way home, but finding a few problems along the way. There's also a bit of platforming and combat involved, but nothing too difficult.
[1:34 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: So enjoy, or if you like, play its predecessor first, and enjoy both!
[1:35 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Blizzard gaming: 1:40 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Hearthstone:
[Level 88 on the reward track. Should reach 100 in a week or two.
[1:41 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Either it's going faster than usual, or they're late with the mini-set announcement, let alone the announcement for the next expansion. We do know a mini-set is planned at least, with a showdown against Moruzond, but no date has been given, or any other info since the 2025 roadmap, as far as I know.
[1:44 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Got enough gold for a new hero skin, with only Finley and Metzen (Winter Veil reference) available to me at this time, for paladin, at 1000 gold.
[1:44 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Apparently, when you own all the skins available, the shop tab for them isn't even visible. I guess that'll make it easier to check if anything new pops up!
[1:46 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: There's a Happy New Year quest event going on, for 2 weeks with 2 weekly quests. Results are a few packs, as well as random unowned hero skins. Not the first time they've done this, and it's nice for the collection when they don't make something new 🙂
[1:47 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: They're all co-op quests as well, which means that both you and the opponent contribute to the quest. Usually that just means higher numbers needed though.
[1:50 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: First weekly quest was 500 cards played, next one is 1500 mana spent. Both are quite generic, and will work with any cards, though the first one gave extra points to rager minions and the second one gives extra points to "event cards". I thought these were a special card type, but some looking into it tells me it's just cards that are not part of a set but were rewarded from these quest events. Good thing I've done them all so far 🙂
[1:51 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I still feel like all these developments surrounding events and missing skins and generic quests could very well be leading up to a maintenance mode, but no such announcement has been made yet, so we might get more content after all!
[1:52 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Brawl is A New Year Bash. Possibly one of the least liked brawls, since it requires cooperation with your opponent to take down party crasher minions and smash the boss pinata before either of you dies.
[1:53 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Still, some improvements seem to have been made, so it actually feels more doable, and worth doing for the 5 wins quest over battlegrounds instead.
[1:53 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Damaging the pinata can give beneficial cards now, like healing each hero or destroying random party crashers, and the pinata's abilities are minimal as well. So even if you were scared off of the brawl by previous years, give it a shot!
[1:55 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Warcraft Rumble:
[No new collection level. No new levels on anything! Been a quiet week.
[1:56 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: The Winter Veil event is over now, and I did get enough tickets to complete the entire reward track, which is good. The login reward track is also in its last few days.
[1:57 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Siege of Stormwind is back, and I got a bit more valor from it to upgrade some slots in my main blackrock deck, should be useful for future sigil campaigning.
[1:57 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Speaking of, finally took another shot at it, and defeated Rivendare with alliance. 4 more families until Plaguelands is done 🙂
[1:59 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: No quality upgrades! A few more stars here and there, and some experience spread around, but no levels. With all the event challenges to spend, spend, spend being over with, I've decided to save up some gold again instead so I have enough for higher quality offers, and am back up to 3000 gold. So maybe next week we'll see some upgrades. Maybe not! Still, every star helps, as does every experience point.
[2:00 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Maybe not directly, but it makes progress towards each next level 🙂
[2:01 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: WoW:
[2:01 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Slow week. New Year's Eve stuff where I wasn't even home, and the rest of the week I've been a bit ill and sleeping a lot.
[2:03 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Did get around to visiting the tree with all my characters, even though only one is really needed since even the gifts achievement has become warbound rather than individual, but I still like the idea of all of my team/army/clan of Cals visiting and getting their presents.
[2:04 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And from the gifts, we have two toys, a snowball to roll around on and a snowman costume, as well as a Tiny Snow Buddy pet!
[2:05 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I feel like I've wrapped up delves now. Don't need crests and valorstones anymore, and took down this season's nemesis Ky'veza at ? difficulty with about 4-5 tries. I thought it was a fun fight, dodging stuff and learning the patterns, but everything's "don't blink or you'll die" kinds of fast in the ?? difficulty and I'm not sure if it's worth the headache.
[2:06 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: In any case it got me an achievement as well as Hal'hadar's Phasebound Visor as a helm appearance.
[2:07 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I also started the brawler's guild, since I don't know if it'll go away with the prepatch. Best to just get it over with. Starting with 1 rank a day, maybe more if the queues are short.
[2:08 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: But for legion remix, I basically only got to play for a day or 2. Calyaxa's done her first Mythic Emerald Nightmare raid now, finally getting the headpiece to reach the maximum of 779 ilevel, and reaching 80 unbound. I hope next week will be more productive, since we won't have much time left!
[2:10 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And that's my report for the week!
[2:10 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie 🙂