We’re on a mission, to find the quickest one

With the upcoming Delving system introducing new missions and mostly more challenging missions. There was the question, what would be the easiest way to delve into these challenges. Further adventures chapter 1 and 7 don’t have any combat so would probably the best option, but would the delving system be enabled on these? If so, that would only be 2 missions per day.

And with that i’ve decided to expand on the Mission cheat sheet for Anna Kurfu made by Vroomie back in 2021.

Ever since AK. The numbers of repeatable missions has nearly doubled to 153 (Pre-Before the shadows. And running them all on average takes about 7,5 hours to complete (excluding wait times).

All runs done by me were done on 1 character. A 140 hunter, above par gear/raid T1 capable. With mostly single target and a few aoe skills if groups got really large to simulate an average class.

• Run alone (full 150 mission duo speed test cancelled after Delving info released
• Timer started 10 seconds after loading
• Timer stopped when mission completed
  • Run back to entrance if needed
  • Left instance when box was too far away
• 30% out of combat runspeed boost
• Enemies killed if needed, roughly counted +/- 1 to 5 on large quantities
• Object clicked such as destroy, capture flags, chest opened etc

Delving challenges on older missions

The expected challenge and difficulty increases were expected in harder hitting mobs, more morale, more mobs, limited time available or debuffs such as poisions, powerdrain etc. Hence the extra info gathered on how many mobs there were and how many objectives you needed to click on.

For example a quick mission such as Svalfang might be impossible to do at challenge 10. While a puzzle mission with a timer might be lot easier if you know all the riddles and tests.

However on the Q&A with Severlin and Orion it was made clear that the challenges wern’t going to be active on older missions at the release of Before the Shadow. The rest of the article will focus on expanding the Mission cheat sheet and comparing gathered info.

Overview of mission info and timers

For a full view of all gathered information view the following excel sheet. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J7JaU3W4AknmscqVjEBHjCkdQjEgzNkmQtxX1p50Rds/edit?usp=sharing

General results

• Nearly all Anna Kurfu belong to the quickest 50 missions
  • Average 122 seconds
  • Range from 25 to 325 seconds
  • 50 out of 80 mission below average
• Gundabad missions belong to the longest mission
  • Average 275 seconds (more then double of AK)
  • Range from 90 to 615 seconds
  • 23 out of 37 missions below average (only 3 below 122 average of AK)
• Further adventures Bilbo 8 out 10 missions shorter then 210 seconds
  • Average 190 seconds
  • Range 75 to 460
  • Only 1 bad mission, fairly average on 9 quests
• Erebor missions are all shorter then 4 minutes with above average killing and clicking
  • Average 152 second
  • Range 80 to 255
  • No real bad mission in here. But more mobs to kill then Bilbo.
• Thestlebridge has a large spread with Svalfang being 50 seconds. But 7/10 missions longer then 4 minutes
  • Average 264
  • Range 50 to 500
  • Nearly all missions require a lot of killing and clicking and take longer then Bilbo and Erebor.
• Further adventure Elrond or Elladan and Elrohir teleport you all over Middle-Earth. The first 2 are decent, but the last 2 kill any good will.
  • Average 278
  • Range 180 to 435
  • Always available with a better story, but can’t pick the shortest 2 due to teleports

How you rate the missions depends on how you run them. AK and gundabad rotate on an 8 day schedule and some days are better or worse then others. While all other missions are available all the time.

Nearly all Anna-kurfu are preferred above Gundabad. And nearly all Anna-kurfu above the others, but there are only 6 easy missions available per day. Incase you need more you’ll have to move around. And Anna-kurfu is infamous for it’s long hand-in time. Making you prefer some other sets.

Erebor is the preferred non-rotation set of missions, with Bilbo on a close second place (skip chapter 9 and 10). After that you can pick up some AK and some thestlebridge. If you really want to continue finish off Thestlebridge and pick up some Gundabad ones.

Detailed results

You might not have a certain set of missions, or you’re curious to what missions are better in 1 set of them. Left picture will show them rated compared to all mission available, right picture will show them rated among each other.

For Anna-kurfu i’ll refer you to the above mission cheat sheet. My results are comparable to his. And for Gundabad i’ll discuss them in sets of daily combinations only. Since only 10 out 40 are decent in completion time compared to the rest.

The largest downside to Anna-Kurfu is the wait time to be allowed to hand-in the missions once done. On a larger server like Evernight it can often take longer to wait then to run them. Making way for the other missions to be preferable.

Shorter is quicker. And once you run 45 a week (on multiple characters) it really starts to add up quickly. However from a reddit poll i’ve run it seems that 3 minutes is still accepted by a lot of players to be quick enough. 4 minutes start wear thin and 5 minutes is too long (atleast thats where i capped the poll). Personally at the 3 minute mark i prefer to leave them and do more shorter ones on a different char if needed.

• Dark green quests are 0-120 seconds to complete. Equal to the better AK missions.
• Light green quests are 120-180. Good enough
• White quests are the average cap i set.
• Pinkish quests are 180-210. Depending on the amount of mobs and objectives these can be fun and or fine.
• Mid-red is 210-240. Usually don’t run these.
• Red is any run beyond 4 minutes.

While there wasn’t a connection on “mobs to kill” and “objectives to click” beside more takes longer that i found. Depending on your class or if you’re with 2 some missions might fall in a lower category for you. Especially Thestlebridge has a few where if you have massive aoe or can split up across 2 areas. You can turn up the speed to 11 on them.

• Quick – Quickest or easiest to complete missions
• Medium – Medium length or with some tactic these can give you a few extra quick ones.
• Bad – Beyond 1st times. Mostly just skip these for any farming.

Bilbo

Once you run them once. You can pick and choose which ones you do then.
Q – Chapter 1, 7, 8 and 5 are quick. With chapter 1 and 7 not requiriring any combat.
M – Chapter 6 and 4 have quite a few mobs. So with 2 these get a vote aswell.
B – Chapter 10 has a ton of waiting, with chapter has a lot of killing and running

Elrond

As mentioned earlier. These missions teleport you around Middle-Earth. On top these and nearly all quite long and are more difficult then others. Fun, but not my vote for farming

Erebor

All quests are a mix of killing and clicking. As such these are well-suited for duo runs.
Q – Nearly all quests are quick
M – Claws and Defilers have long inductions and signature mobs. Securing has you running from point to point and killing extra spawns making this one a tad longer.

Thestlebridge

Some of the most mobs in all missions and a ton of objectives make these pretty bad solo. With duo these become bearable.
Q – Run up and kill the wolfs + Svalfang
M – Assault and Locked down
B – The rest

Gundabad

Original, varied, long and arduous are what comes to mind on these. Usually mission 30-35 on my farmlist, but there are several deeps and ton of virtue xp tied to them. The Gundabad meta deed requires these aswell to be run and they give allegiance rep.

Gundabad set #1

Q – Unwelcome guests and Beyond the reach are the two better ones.
M – The rest are 4-5 minutes
B – A lost Expedition will make you pull your hair out to find that 1 objective you missed.

Gundabad set #2

Q – Reforge and Breeder are great for targeted dps.
M – The rest are 4-5 minutes
B – Frosty reception has a lot of drakes, a long way up the hill and a long way down.

Gundabad set #3

Q – Sorc and Storm
M – The rest are 4-5 minutes
Q – A reasonable day for Gundabad

Gundabad set #4

Q – Servant, Siege if you got a runspeed class (easily bugged on ranged though)
M – Siege (see Q)
Q – Captive wings is unbearable on anything but aoe classes. Frost is junk in general. And Trap requires the use of Wiki. I never run this beyond the 1st. First time is good though.

Gundabad set #5

Q – Stomping is very fast. Hall of ice same, but a few more clicks.
M – Lost vault is a nice puzzle missions. The rest are 4-5 minutes
Q – Dreadspire has signatures, enemies, clicks and a lot of running up and down.

Gundabad set #6

Q – Culling is quick
M – Longer then medium warrants
Q – Long, a ton of mobs or clicks. On average the worst day.