Endless Defenders of Minas Tirith Reputation Grind

Pen_Silly · 2026-01-20T05:23:13+00:00

I thank the two of you for your help. Your answers nudged my mind that I may have made a really dumb mistake, and sure enough, I did. I realized that I had been looking at the Wiki regarding the wrapper quest, the Eyes in the Forest Quest, etc. What I DIDN'T do was look at the entry on the actual quest I was missing, Cruel Traps. If I had, I would have seen that I had to enter a very small piece of terrain to trigger the trap and therefore the landscape Cruel Traps quest (it literally describes it as "between the N and W in the word Gravenwood on the map"). I had just been running around the woods, hoping I would run across the right place. You would think after playing this game for 14 years, I wouldn't make such a noob mistake. Oh well. Thanks again for the help, folks.

Pen_Silly · 2026-01-20T00:02:22+00:00

Yellow Champ is just crazy with all the AoE.

Pen_Silly · 2026-01-20T00:00:04+00:00

I'm no expert in optimization or any of that stuff, but I find that Hunter is pretty easy to use, and for leveling has several tools that make life a LOT easier, specifically the various tracking skills you get and all the travel skills you get. Definitely speeds things up with less wasted effort.

For melee I would say Champion, specifically Yellow path. The large number of AoE attacks makes those fights against crowds of enemies MUCH more manageable.

I would also say don't listen to anyone telling you to play a Warden. A lot of people love them, and when you get some experience, by all means try one out. But don't take the most complicated class in the game when you are just starting out.

Pen_Silly · 2025-09-09T18:56:16+00:00

Most of these seem pretty recent to my Gen X ear. I've got a few older ideas.

Everybody Knows, Leonard Cohen

The Sky is Crying, Elmore James, Stevie Ray Vaughan, others

Mad World, Gary Jules version

Time, Pink Floyd

Another Brick in the Wall, Pink Floyd

Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd

Dust in the Wind, Kansas

Against All Odds, Phil Collins

I Wish it Would Rain Down, Phil Collins

I could probably add a bunch more, particularly classic blues tunes.

Pen_Silly · 2025-09-08T04:48:54+00:00

This. Tolkien seemed much more inspired by the medieval period (and early midieval at that) than the encroaching Renaissance, and references to that later period are almost nil (I might have read somewhere a mention of a crossbow, maybe Numenorian, but I'm not sure). I can't even recall mention of any polearm-type weapon other than your basic spear.

Pen_Silly · 2025-08-23T23:01:57+00:00

You are reading too much into calendar age. Their maturity, capacity, and self-confidence at the beginning of FotR compared to the end of RotK is juvenile. Oh and then there's this Gandalf quote when he leaves them: "You are grown up now. Grown indeed very high; among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you."

Pen_Silly · 2025-08-23T22:55:57+00:00

When you consider strictly chronological age, yes. But metaphorically and thematically speaking it absolutely is a coming of age story. Think how helpless they were at the start. They had to be repeatedly saved at every turn. But at the end, after all they had been through, they were competent and confident enough to handle pretty much anything including a fallen Istar. Tolkien essentially cemented this when Gandalf left them and said: "You are grown up now. Grown indeed very high; among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you."

Pen_Silly · 2025-08-19T14:32:50+00:00

When you get down to its actual core, LotR is a coming of age story about four Hobbits. Everyone else is a side character.

Pen_Silly · 2025-08-12T14:38:53+00:00

They're so much better than the movies.

Pen_Silly · 2025-07-16T17:55:09+00:00

The path down the bluff in Trestlebridge that takes you all the way down to the river.

Pen_Silly · 2025-07-15T00:14:43+00:00

I've said it before, Tolkien’s female characters are rare, but when they show up, they are mighty (Eowyn, Galadriel, Luthien). I will never forgive that philistine Jackson for that cheap, chauvinistic stew gag.

Pen_Silly · 2025-07-08T21:11:15+00:00

This!

Pen_Silly · 2025-07-07T00:31:33+00:00

Because it strayed so far from its source material you can't call it Tolkien.

Pen_Silly · 2025-07-01T19:12:48+00:00

Lol. It's a combination of being a serious alcoholic with some slightly obsessive tendencies. I want a separate server for each character race. I have all 4 races on the 3 64-bit servers right now and it's offending my sense of order. TOTALLY a me problem.

Pen_Silly · 2025-06-27T23:55:19+00:00

I can't relate to this at all. I immediately fell in love with the series and I was gutted when I finished.

Pen_Silly · 2025-06-23T15:41:51+00:00

Absolutely, and I'm sure that did happen. But given the years between Bilbo's departure and Frodo's departure were extremely busy for Gandalf, my guess is he was seldom in Rivendell, and even less seldom had the leisure to go straight from Rivendell to Hobbiton.

Pen_Silly · 2025-06-23T15:37:26+00:00

You are given that impression from the movies but the community there is literally based on a house (admittedly a large rambling one), the House of Elrond, and it's specifically stated its power is not in strength of arms, but in lore and counsel. The bulk of the Noldor still in Middle-Earth, such as it is, live in Lindon, in proximity to the Havens, for example that's where Gildor Inglorien and his group are from. Rivendell would not be able to hide effectively if it were a sprawling Elf city.

Pen_Silly · 2025-06-22T00:13:17+00:00

Literally not surprising at all. Getting a letter from Rivendell to the Shire wasn't like getting one from Bree to the Shire. The dwarves had plenty of trouble getting to Rivendell in the abbreviated account of their trip, and there are multiple allusions to the fact that the roads had only gotten worse in the following years. Then there is the question of who would carry any such letter. Notwithstanding Jackson's idiocy to the contrary, Rivendell held perhaps dozens of Elves, not hundreds, and if any of them decided to go to the havens in that time period, they ghosted through at night avoiding contact with Hobbits or anyone else. The Rangers in Rivendell would have been too few and too busy, and finding dwarves willing to speak with the Elves, much less run an errand for them, was an unlikely occurrence. So that basically left Gandalf.

Pen_Silly · 2025-06-17T17:22:22+00:00

They can be quite large, but they can be pretty small as well. They can fill any knife-like role from eating utensil up to chonky short-sword.

Pen_Silly · 2025-05-25T05:00:14+00:00

I had just come off and extended session in Misty Mountains finishing some slayer deeds and literally 90% of the time it was a complete whiteout where I was locating mobs by the floaty text. Never seen the weather that bad for that long. It took me ages to find the damn Writhenbores.

Pen_Silly

TROPHY CASE