Minas Morgul primer V1.0

Main hub for your Minas Morgul expansion questions. Last update 20th of March

Content

  • Walkthrough links
  • Questing
  • Gearing up before Minas Morgul
  • Activities after 130
  • Weekly and dailies for Reclamation of Minas Ithil
  • Instance overview
  • Loot overview
  • Crafting guild
  • Bullet point information

Instance guide links

NameLink – Guide quality
Harrowing of Minas MorgulLotrowiki – General tactic
ShadowroostLotrowiki – General tactic
Filth-wellLotrowiki – General tactic
Deep-BarrowLotrowiki – General tactic
Black loreLotrowikiVideo playthrough
Bosses switch every week
House of lamentationLotrowikiVideo guide
Fallen kingsLotrowikiVideo playthrough
ShelobLotrowikiText boss 1
Video Tier 1 playthrough

Where to start Minas Morgul

The region will start at Gandalf in Beorns House in the Vales of the Anduin. You’re not required to have done the Black book chapters 1 to 10. And will be guided to a 45-60 minute interlude around the Vales

Two regions questguide

After you’ve done the interlude you be able to transport to a Second age Mordor for the region – Mordor Besieged (level 120-122). After this region you’ll be guided to the Morgul vale area middle and eastern part Rath Duath (123-124) where you’ll also discover 3 of the entrances to the new 3-mans.

When done here the Black book will guide you into Minas Morgul, but it’s best to first do the Cirith Ungol (Morgul north) area (125). Afterward you’ll venture into the city of Minas Morgul which works like Minas Tirith where you’ll fight you’re way 1 tier at a time. With the fellbeast roost southeast for the 4th instance entrance (126-128).

Finishing of the Black book and Epligue (if you finished chapter 1-10 before) there is a little quest hub in Morgul South that leads to House of lamentation. By this time you’ll have finished the quest deed required for the daily quests you’ll be close to 130.

Gear before entering Minas Morgul or avoiding the graveyard

Every class has their update and can dish out a decent chunk of damage. That said if you don’t have some form of level 120 gear you might find yourself at a graveyard. The mobs are a bit easier then Vales, but quite numerous.

If you have done the previous quest packs you shouldn’t have much trouble in the Mordor Besieged area, but if you haven’t you can check out https://lotroplayers.com/2019/08/19/help-im-120-a-guide-to-gearing-and-dailies-at-levelcap/ for full details. Without these areas there will be no easy or quick fix to jump straight in.

Any of these armours will be replaced with the first quest rewards so don’t put too much time into these options.

Questing done

Once you’ve reached level 130 and/or finished the quest deeds the time to upgrade your gear starts. Depending on how far you want to go in higher difficulties or the raid offcourse. You can go a few ways at this time

  • Finish of the questlines with the Reclamation of Minas Morgul (daily reputation quests inside instances)
  • Craft your gear (Reclamation or crafter with said rep needed) using ithilharn shards or crafting component boxes
  • Barter gear with Reclamation barterers
  • Run duo or full size Minas Morgul instances for increasingly better gear.
  • Barter gear with Embers

All above options will require you to run either the instances with or without daily quests. Or through alterior means like gold or lootboxes.

Dailies in Minas Morgul

Once you’ve done all the quest deeds in Minas Morgul you will have access to 13 dailies in specific instances and 3 dailies (Level 130) in any instance. There will be items in the instance to interact with and award reputation items for the Reclamation of Minas Ithil.

These can be used to get recipes or used for reputation (these unlock story quests like the Mordor allegiances).

Reclamation of Minas Ithil

For a full breakdown of what you unlock at each reputation tier visit the wiki. But at each “Trial” you will unlock a new story quest. At the 70.000 reputation you will get an extra quest to exchange 100 quest tokens for 500 embers. And at several point you unlock the normal or elite crafting recipes.

Weekly quests and tips

There are currently 4 weeklies available that give ember rewards these reset on thursdays. Each weekly rewards 500 embers, 1 ithil shard, 70 sigils and 3000 virtue experience unless otherwise stated.

  1. Complete any 10 dailies
    1. These can be done on any difficulty up to 8 levels below yours
    2. 3-man level 122 solo or duo (ashable loot)
    3. 6-man level 122 duo (no loot)
  2. Complete 4 instances
    1. Any instance (can even be repeated)
    2. Harrow/roost *2 for quickest run
    3. Harrow/Roost/Lamentation/Black lore for quickest instance + quest weekly
  3. Kill 8 roving threats
    1. Do a round of Nazgul (with or without Witch king) 9/8 kills
    2. Roaving threats in Minas Morgul itself count
  4. Exchange 100 sigils for 500 embers at the White company barterer
Locations of the 9 Nazgul

Instances overview

Currently there are 4 small fellowship, 3 fellowship and 1 raid to run within the Minas Morgul expansion. All beside Harrowing will require you to discover the entrance to be able to run these.

NameAcronymSizeLootDaily
HarrowingHarrow1,2,32 or 3 man2
ShadowroostRoost1,2,32 or 3 man1
Filth-wellFilth1,2,32 or 3 man3
Deep-BarrowBarrow1,2,32 or 3 man2
Black loreBL1-2,66 man2
House of lam.Lamentation1-2,66 man3
Fallen kingsFallen/Kings66 man0

Harrow and Roost are considered the easiest instances, Barrow is in the middle with Filth being hardly run for dailies or loot. BL is shorter then Lamentation, but with bosses that vary every week. While Fallen kings is 1 boss fight. All 6-mans have fallen out of favour with the raid dropping similar loot.

Loot overview

Either by crafting, bartering or instance drops you can get jewelry or armour. At this time any scaled, big battle or non-Minas morgul instance gear is usually harder to get or worse then lowest gear in the expansion.

Crafted sourceItem levelQualityNeeded
Reclamation407Purple3 ithilharn shards
Reclamation411Purple5 ithilharn shards
Guild – normal412Teal10 crafting box
Guild – elite420Teal 12 crafting box

The higher the difficulty the better then chance to get a better quality gear in general. You can get a purple on tier 1 (bonus) and on tier 5 (you’d want a teal). All item levels can roll with an extra 5 levels randomly.

Instance sourceItem levelQualityEssence slot
Reclamation408Yellow0
Tier 1 (122)402Yellow0
Tier 1 (130)408Yellow0
Tier 2410Purple0/1
Tier 3414Purple0/1
Tier 4418Teal1/2
Tier 5419Teal1/2
Raid tier 1426Teal1/2
Ember 2000410 ?Purple0/1
Ember 3500417Teal1/2

For essences there are 5 different levels at the moment, but in general you will only use 3 different ones. Tier 1, 2 or 4.

EssencesTierSourceMaterials
Flickering1DropFree
Sofly moonlit2Crafted1 Shard + 1 solvent
Moonlit3Crafted2 Shard +2 solvents
Warmy moonlit4Crafted1 Shard + 3 solvents
Trigger4.5Crafted*1See note
Skirmish5Event*2See note

*1 – A critted Tier 4 becomes a Mystery box. Which when opened has a 12-14% chance to become a trigger essence (bonus effects)

*2 – Limited events can award a tier 5 essence such as Ill Omens or Thrang

Crafting guild (access and materials)

If you’ve a crafter that has already gotten westermet guild reputation you can use Minas Morgul recipes for easy 200k rep for easy access to teal item level 412/414 gear.

These can be gotten from the Minas Morgul camp or your local Guild leader. For the recipes themselves check the Improved recipe vendor.

Gear and jewelry require a Ithilad crafting material to craft these items. These come from instance drops or ashing instance gear (25% chance for 1 box)

If your vocation allows it. You can also visit a master of apprentice in a major hub to get access to a 2nd guild. The 200k easy rep will only work on the latest tier.

Bullet point information

  • Newly added, complete any 10 task hand-in to complete a quest that gives a 100% crit item
  • Reclamation reputation can be boosted with accelerators
    • White company not recommended to use them on

Minas Morgul primer

Current version – last updated 17 nov with U25.0.2 info
The Minas Morgul primer updates marked. Answering questions and giving an overview on the Minas Morgul expansion. 

  • Quest guide (first maps)
  • Quest rewards (summary upcoming)
  • Instance gear 
    • Item level T1, T2, T3
    • Ithilad Crafting materials
  • Crafting guild
    • details on how and where
    • Reclamation materials
  • Deeds, lost lore pages, links to maps and resources etc

Where to start Minas Morgul

The region will start at Gandalf in Beorns House in the Vales of the Anduin. You’re not required to have done the Black book chapters 1 to 10. And will be guided to a 45-60 minute interlude around the Vales

Two regions questguide

After you’ve done the interlude you be able to transport to a Second age Mordor for the region – Mordor Besieged (level 120-122). After this region you’ll be guided to the Morgul vale area middle and eastern part Rath Duath (123-124) where you’ll also discover 3 of the entrances to the new 3-mans.

When done here the Black book will guide you into Minas Morgul, but it’s best to first do the Cirith Ungol (Morgul north) area (125). Afterward you’ll venture into the city of Minas Morgul which works like Minas Tirith where you’ll fight you’re way 1 tier at a time. With the fellbeast roost southeast for the 4th instance entrance (126-128).

Finishing of the Black book and Epligue (if you finished chapter 1-10 before) there is a little quest hub in Morgul South that leads to future content (6-mans). By this time you’ll have finished the quest deed required for the daily quests. Usually you’ll be level 129 by then.

Gearing before entering Minas Morgul or avoiding the graveyard

Every class has their update and can dish out a decent chunk of damage. That said if you don’t have some form of level 120 gear you might find yourself at a graveyard. The mobs are a bit easier then Vales, but quite numerous.

If you have done the previous quest packs you shouldn’t have much trouble in the Mordor Besieged area, but if you haven’t you can check out https://lotroplayers.com/2019/08/19/help-im-120-a-guide-to-gearing-and-dailies-at-levelcap/ for full details. Without these areas there will be no easy or quick fix to jump straight in.

Any of these armours will be replaced with the first quest rewards so don’t put too much time into these options.

  • Kindred with Skarhald or the Vales (on any character)
    • Each areas quest tokens get you pretty decent gear
  • Vale daily tokens
    • If you have done the dailies these give better gear then Kindred barterers
  • Crafting (3 dwarrowshards per item)
    • Not an option for most due to high cost and recipes
  • Epic battles
    • Currently sort of bugged, but scalable to level 120
  • Motes and embers of enchantment
    • Embers will be used to barter level 130 gear
    • There are currently no 120 gears available for motes

Gear in Minas Morgul (but they are yellow edition)

You’ll quickly lose you’re fine pants for raggidy yellows, but they are superior then all. Besides raid gear or gold armour from Tier 4 and 5’s the quest rewards will be better. The increased stats and armour will make up for losing those essence slots.

Landscape won’t drop any Minas Morgul pieces, but the occasional bind on equip will. These are capped at item level 395 (quest gear is 400+). Compare them, but usually they will not be that good.

Level 130 and beyond

Once you’ve completed the landscape quests you can continue with a few extra questlines or start to gather your journey on some better gear. Below are the different sources and ways to find these

Level 130 – Essences

There is 1 tier of level 130 essence. They drop from mobs (randomly) and can be bartered for 1500 embers (bound). There is no crafting available, but you won’t need that many at the moment (3-6).

Level 130 – Quest tokens and reputation

There is currently no gear available from either a quest token or reputation barterer

Level 130 – Crafting (auto-bestowed, Guild and Reclamation reputation)

Minas Morgul has a new crafting tier and guild recipes. These can be sorted in 3 sections.

  • Auto-bestowed recipes for consumables, class items. These all require normal crafting materials.
  • Guild recipes (see guild rep below). Ithilad Crafting material 10* Gotten by disenchanting gear +/- 25 % or loot
  • Reclamation reputation. Craftable level 130 gear requires daily access. Requires 3 ithilian shards per item.

Level 130 – instance gear

After questing has given you a decent set of item level 400-405 gear in which you have a few essence slots. The easiest way to gear up atm is through instances.

  • Tier 1 – Yellow item level 408
  • Tier 2 – Yellow item level 410
  • Tier 3 – Purple item level 412

Scaled instances

All loot (Greater … of …) that can be gotten from previous instances will be purple or teal. But won’t have any essence slots and have a maximum of itemlevel 390. While on par with the earlier quest gear it lacks the flexibility for healers or tanks.

4-slot essence gear from Previous areas

Before these 4-slot armour pieces and jewelry from the Pelennor or Osgiligath would be the best if you had the means to fill them. But these have been rendered unusable by level 130’s.

Glimmerdeep and consorts

The update 23/24 instances will give the same loot scaled to 130. The guaranteed 1-slot teals are quite good. A lower item level them Minas Morgul, but of a higher quality for now.

Minas Morgul instances

All 3-man instances give 1 gear-piece per boss and can shared. These can be run in duo or 3-man groups for yellows with item level 405. Higher tiers are available as of 13 november, but at the time of writing not run yet. 

Shadowroost and Harrowing are quick and easy, with Deep-barrows a bit more longer, tricky due to traps and larger groups. Filth-well is rather long and the hardest bosses of the 3-mans. 

Crafting guild (access and materials)

If you’ve a crafter that has already gotten westermet guild reputation you can use Minas Morgul recipes for easy 200k rep for easy access to teal item level 412/414 gear.

These can be gotten from the Minas Morgul camp or your local Guild leader. For the recipes themselves check the Improved recipe vendor.

Gear and jewelry require a Ithilad crafting material to craft these items. But for class and weapons they don’t. The best offhand you can get atm.

If your vocation allows it. You can also visit a master of apprentice in a major hub to get access to a 2nd guild. The 200k easy rep will only work on the latest tier.

  • All items Purple item level 407 (recipe from Reclamation barter) requires 3 ithilian shards
  • Teal item level 412 offhand or class items (standard materials)
  • Teal item level 412 (414 on crit) requires 10* Ithilian crafting materials (boxes tradable, but materials are bound)

Dailies in Minas Morgul

Once you’ve done all the quest deeds in Minas Morgul you will have access to 8 dailies in specific 3-mans (no level requirement) and 2 dailies (Level 130) in any instance. These will be items in the instance to interact with and award reputation items for the Reclamation of Minas Morgul.

These can be used to get recipes or used for reputation (these unlock story quests like the Mordor allegiances). No gear idea, cause all used for rep.

Tips and trick for dailies

  • The instances can all be run in solo, duo or trio. Solo will allow the dailies to be done, but won’t give gear.
  • Both dailies and instances have daily locks.
  • Only interested in dailies? These can be run as low as level 122.
  • Filth well has 3 dailies, Harrowing and Deep-barrow 2 and Roost only has 1.

Weekly and ember rewards

There are currently 3 weeklies available that give ember rewards these reset on thursdays

  1. Complete 10 dailies (500 embers)
  2. Run all 4 instances once (not sure if solo counts) (500 embers)
  3. Kill Nazgul in Mordor besieged (untested) (500 embers)

Deeds

Mordor Besieged deeds

Lost lore pages, Rare mordor chests, Discovery, Nine Nazgul (RT’s) and 3 stages of slayer deeds. For all easy references Bearded Minstrel has made an excellent map for these

https://twitter.com/beardedminstrel

Minas Morgul deeds

For all deeds for now it’s easiest to view either the Bullroarer overview, Dynsmap Morgul outside, Dynsmap Minas Morgul or Dynsmap Torech Ungol

Issues and holes

  • Currently no 120 gear available for motes to kick start Minas Morgul.
  • Level 130 loot from Glimmerdeep that previously gave embers at 120 turn into motes.
  • Pelagrir and other big battles loot bugged, open boxes outside of BB
  • Missing gear options such as heavy gear with outgoing healing (bear/captain)



Minas Morgul launches + pointers

The Minas Morgul expansion has been confirmed to launch on the 5th of November with a downtime that (currently) ends at 19:00 Cet.  For full details you can read the patchnotes here.

Login priorities

Any Valar and Carry-all will only be available on the first server you log in to! Be careful with the legendary server or alt-servers.

Black book or Mordor or starting Minas Morgul

The expansion starts with chapter 11 of the Black book. You don’t have to complete the previous 10 chapters if you want to jump straight in. Though you will have to complete the interlude you can get from the Beorning house in the Vales (takes about 45-60 min).

Gameplay changes

  • Runekeeper has gotten their general revamp and specific skills and abbilities
  • Warden damage has been updated and defensive buffs have been lengthened
  • Outgoing healing and critical magnitude has been changed.

Gear changes and updates

  • Embers are still capped and topped off at 10.000 on launch
  • Previous ember-giving quests will now give motes (as well as 120 gear)
  • “Older armour set with > slots = max level 120 (No 4-slot Osgi armour etc)

Pvmp

At launch creeps are a mess. Nothing to sugarcoat. Vastin has already stated he has been working on an update to it. But you can look pretty with cosmetic outfits.

Instances and tiers

  • At launch Minas Morgul will only be available on tier 1
  • At launch U23/U24 will only be available on tier 1 and 2
  • Upcoming patch (first week will release higher tiers)
  • Scion for T4 and T5 are disabled for U23/U24 instance for the “introductory part” of Minas Morgul
  •  *T 4 and T5 were available during beta. Perhaps only the gold loot is disabled.

Mischelanious

  • Black book gives 2 addition traitpoints. Max spendable points is now up to 94.
  • New UI Settings option “Induction Bar Display.”
  • A new Housing Item called the “Training Dummy Stand” is now available for Barter from the Curator when the Curator is available.
  • Virtues can now be earned up to rank 65.
  • The Hobbit Gifts system has received a significant update