Thursday, 17 September 2009

ENTERING THE NECROMANCER'S CASTLE

The Siege of Mirkwood, we have been given to understand by Turbine’s carefully calculated press releases, will culminate in a multi-boss 12-man raid on the fortress of Dol Guldur. This is something all LOTRO raiders have been waiting for, hoping passionately that in terms of variety, interest and replayability, it will turn out to be a Rift of Nurz-gashu, Mk II. This is particularly so in view of the fact that the latest and much-heralded multi-boss raid, Dar Narbugud in the depths of Moria, is just a tiny bit disappointing.

The million-dollar question is just how severely it will be gated – in other words, what the minimum radiance level will be in order to avoid cowering. The maximum possible would be +120 radiance, representing in effect a full set of Dar Narbugud tier 2 armour, each piece of which is worth +20 radiance (as, of course, are also the tier 1 helm and shoulders which drop from the Watcher) – but I don’t for a moment think the developers will set it that high.

At the moment, minimum radiance for the Vile Maw is +50, and for Dar Narbugud +70 (which means you can enter with +65, as it rounds up). My guess is be that you will need +85 radiance (down from +90 thanks to rounding up) for Dol Guldur, making a neat progression of +50, +70, +90 for the three 12-man raids. Currently, this could be achieved with one tier 2 item, all three tier 1.5 items and two tier 1 items - but the expansion will also offer other, new opportunities to build up radiance. It looks as though radiance, like death and taxes, will be with us for a while yet…

3 comments:

Westnovote said...

It's been pointed out elsewhere, but I doubt that we will be expected to have to use level 60 armour for a level 65 instance. We might have to collect brand new armour pieces from the new 3 and 6 man Mirkwood instances, thereby rendering our Moria radiance pieces obsolete.
Yummy.

unwize said...

90 or 100 is my guess, with the new 3-mans and 6-man offering alternative +15 pieces, perhaps.

Kairos said...

I doubt that we will be expected to have to use level 60 armour for a level 65 instance.

I'm not too certain about that. Except for their lack of radiance, for those who had them, the Rift armour sets performed brilliantly up to l.55 and even a bit beyond. My guess would be that the Mirkwood expansion will offer some new ways of gaining radiance (probably, as unwize suggests, with some alternative +15 pieces), but that the next major armour set after DN will be the one we get from Dol Guldur.