[CC] 99 instances – Annuminas and Helegrod

Two ancient fortress cities once clamored by dwarves and man, laden with treasures and splendor now deserted after adversity struck both. Helegrod was taken over by the great dragon Thorog whereas the war and losses against Sauron made Annuminas fall into decline.  Released in Book 9 and 10 with a scaled update during the days of Mirkwood both annuminas and Helegrod are still part of the expanding instance line in lotro.

Retaken by the rangers in Evendim the ancient spirits, angmarim and Carguls still remained in the 3 instances of Annuminas. Where the dwarves retook Helegrod, but their losses and sorrow was so great they left the ancient fortress to be retaken by giants, spiders and drakes.

History of both instances
Both instance and raid cluster follows the same story as most scaled instances we’ve discussed before such as the Great barrows or Fornost. Starting of at a fixed level and if needed cut into a few smaller raids to make them fit in an evening when Mirkwood got launched. Overtime each of the instances was featured in their rotations and otherwise not run that often (except Thorog of course)

Both instances will see a revival with the new legendary server as people settle at level 50 instead of moving onto Moria. As both will have their time in the light when the Angmar instances are done by that time.

Annuminas – group content in landscape and instances
Tombs of old kings of Arnor are aplenty in the old capital of Arnor. Annuminas is the little city state in the southern reaches of Evendim. All three instances take place in a seperate part of Annuminas . Glinghant, Ost elendil and Haudh valandil are all 6-mans that each have their own little flavour and taste that start at around level 40. Ever since Mirkwood they got the scaling treatment and can now be run up to level 120.  

While Fornost and Garth Agarwen have landscape quest leading into them. Annuminasses group content takes place all around the landscape area. Each instance themselves have one of 4 random quests in addition to a challenge on tier 1.

Glinghant
The gardens of babylon are not as splendorous as millennia ago. But at least these survived. Evil has turned the water into spirits and corrupted the trees to their side. The three terraces will form the boss fights where a mixture of mobs will try to defeat your party.

Either you try to survive the continuous onslaught for 5 minutes or you defeat the final boss in a one on one fight. Afterwards quickly dispatching any adds to grab an extra chest. Pretty quick for the most part, but the timed fight can be tedious.

Haudh valendil
A fight for classes, damage types and that one group member that hasn’t been there before. Full of little niche effects that a newer player won’t know about if he wasn’t around in Shadows of Angmar times.  Lights that evade and summon adds, bosses that reflect fire damage, mobs that you can evade or final bosses that have very high mitigation to nearly all but one weapon damage type.

A relic of old that is usually run the least. Taking the longest, but can be done quite quickly if everyone knows where to go and what to do. How much you like this one varies the most in all of annuminas.

Ost elendil
The capital instance in the capital of Arnor in the throne room of old. One of 2 most often sat in chairs for screenshots within instances. But beside that an instance that feels like a journey on the first go. Figuring out the tactics and what every little part does. No timed fights or wide open areas, but tight rooms and interesting tactics. Each group will have their best way to clear the staging ground. And somehow that top left room is ingrained into most players.

Quick, lore-rich engaging challenge and not too punishing on the unaware as Valendil. one of the older instances that could be ripe for a tier 2 or 3 upgrade if they decide to do these.

Helegrod – retaking an epic (line) area
The second raid released to lotro focuses on an ancient dwarven fortress that was taken over by a giant dragon. These guys really need some dragon repellent back in the day. Enemies have taken a hold of its wings, but these times it wasn’t just evil. It were the previous inhabitants of the Misty mountains. The promise of treasure and gauntlord Drugoth reviving said dragon Thorog got the free people to spur into action

Spider-wing and drake-wing
Enclosed train rides in a dark and cold cavern these two wings are an atmospheric endeavor where your group needs to stick together. Spider and drakelings are just 1 misstep away. Angmarim, ancient lever systems and cobwebs will block the path towards the bosses at the end of the winding paths.

Zaudru and its angmarim account manager will converse while you are battered by silk-spinners and other silkspinners. Same with the drakes and worms. Either dispatch them or burn their cocoons and kill Grisgart first followed by the entire envoy to get the challenge chest and deed.

All in all both wings are nicely average. And their shine has dulled a little overtime. But they remain a solid instance when your group decides to go for it.

Giant and Dragon wing
A well done landscape raid feels more benign than a dark dreadful cave or fortress. Yet it’s hard to fit a Giant and giant dragon inside a building. As such you fight your way up the slopes of the Misty mountains facing all the frosty wildlife out there. Sabercats, mammoths and snow-beasts come in wave after wave as you’re pummeled by giants at the top.

The angmarim account manager is having a bad day convincing the giants to join their side as his brothers. Guesse drakes and spiders are more evilly aligned then giants. After reaching top you see the poor guy being send off in a direct flight to Angmar. Turns out, Storvâgûn also doesn’t like your group. One of the classic, get boss down to x %, adds. Get boss down to x % follows while trying to evade his attacks and stay alive.

In the dragon wing the premise is the same as you fight an endless wave of spawns until you shut off the spawning alarm bells. Making sure every drummer is dead you’re faced with the revamped and revived annihilator of Durin.

Revamp and power creep of players
This is one of the revamps that took out a lot of the spice of a final boss fight in a raid. While Thorog is mechanically sound. The toning down of the adds that spawn and the power creep of players since then has demoted Thorog down to a dragon sized pinata filled with marks, medallions and seals. The latest lotro wide revamp has upped the difficulty that it’s not a children’s party anymore and Thorog now requires a good mix of classes again for a successful run. But as the dwarves rescinded their claims to Helegrod so has the instance itself been abandoned for now. Till SSG makes the final updates to the balance and treasures inside this ancient dwarven fortress

Helegrod and annuminas ups and downs
Both are mechanically interesting instances with a short run time. For period of times they were the highlights of the instance scene. From a time level 40 was an obstacle to get over and the raidsets were the best around, to one of the best sources fourth grade marks and marks. They found their spot in the bright lights again with the legendary server again, but too easy to really fill in the big shoes that they were given at this time.

Excellent instances that just need a bit of work to go back up to a score of 8 or 9 from the 6’s they are now.