LOTRO Academy: After School is our monthly live show where we talk about what each of us have been up to during the month and answer questions from the live chat. Thanks for listening.
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LOTRO Academy: After School is recorded live on the last Friday of the month and posted the following Wednesday. Join us at The Players Alliance mixlr at 7:30 PM Central Time on the last Friday of the month to listen live and participate in the Q&A. Or show up early for the pre-show banter.
We are now using listener submitted screenshots for the episode coverart! Send your LOTRO screenshots to podcast at lotroacademy.com to enter. The coverart image will be chosen by the live audience during the broadcast.
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Love the cover art, I had to leave live broadcast before I could vote, but would have picked this….can’t go wrong with Lego’s!!!
Thank you announcing how long “Stump Pineleaf” would last. It was much easier to skip 20 minutes than going ahead 30 seconds at a time to see if it was over yet!
I agree as well, I can’t stand this part of the “live” show.. It’s great to know how long to skip ahead!
Hey Gang,
I am a little surprised that no one has chimed in to give some guidance to Pineleaf’s helpless adventures on Helm’s Dike. I am certainly no expert, but I believe that I can give some advice that could be of help. Helm’s Dike is a unique Big Battle in that it is the only one I know of where you can and should do preparatory work before speaking to the NPC (in this case Gamling) to start the action. In this case, the crucial element is to set-up barricades in the culverts that flank the main gate (right and left) where the orcs spawn their attack waves. If you take two or even three barricades and place them in the center of the Culverts (Optimally turn them lengthwise in a chain so they take longer to navigate), right where the rohirrim soliders would engage the mobs, you can slow the orc advances (and attacks) enough that you can keep those posts from getting overwhelmed during the side quests. Being of high enough rank to “upgrade” the barricades to do more damage as the mobs come through helps a great deal, but is not required for success. Pineleaf is right in that if you don’t do that on the left side, the post will get overrun and all of your archers (and usually Gamlign) will be killed when that sidequest spawns. Aside from the barricades, you can also lay traps there where the orcs would turn the corner and/or buff the soldiers by talking to their Captain which helps, but I would not do it at the expense of resupplying the archers arrows which is the primary objective to get thru the quest.
Other side quest in this BB also rely heavily on strategically placde barricades for success (protecting Helm Hammerhand statue as well as protecting the horses and the culvert) and for the attack on the gate in 6 man mode, it’s required to place a catapult on the wall on top of the gate to destroy the battering ram prior to that quest starting as well.
I would also recommend joining a 6 man group doing this BB if one is invited to in World chat, so you can watch how the leader sets up the defenses before firsthand and just ‘pitch in’ on whatever he is doing. It should only take one iteration of that to get the swing of it and be able to complete it yourself going forward.
Hope this helps Pineleaf successfully complete (if not enjoy) Helm’s Dike.
Cheers, Braag of Vilya
LightTheBeacons.com
The problem with this solution, Braag, is that you can’t do anything with barricades and traps until you have enough points in the Engineer tree to reach Rank 1, which is 20 points! Since the only way to get points is to successfully complete the battles themselves and encounters within them, it can be difficult to do without some assistance.
Point taken, but T1 is really easy to reach, even if you loathe them. Not sure but I am guessing maybe having 2-3 completed will get you there. Maybe you need to be lucky and not get that side quest on your first HD run as part of the epic line if youve never done any others before?? Anyway, the strat will help you once you do get there!
Just listened to the episode, and Pineleaf kinda stumped me…
I was hoping that on the “Who’s Michael Jackson” question, he would begin with the Michael Jackson that doesn’t sing, doesn’t dance, but dedicated his life to hunting beers…
In a sense a lot more lore appropriate…