Guide for Annuminas Runs

Having decided I would rather like a set of the light armour available from handing in the battered fragments to the rangers on Annuminas it seems the best thing to do is start running the instances with you lot.

I'll edit and update this thread as necessary but here are a few notes for the Colair instance to start things off(East from the camp)

The Team

This is a fairly forgiving instance. ideally you should at the very least have:

A Minstrel
A Lore Master
A Tank: Captain, Guardian or Champion

A Captain is very useful indeed and while it is probably possible without a lore-master they really do help a lot.

Everyone should have food and potions (salves and athelas).

Getting There
0. There is now a swift travel to Ost Forod from West Bree, saves a lot of time.

1. To get there run east out the camp then once through the gate hug the left wall until you find a gap in the wall you can jump through, this avoids most of the mobs.

2. There should be three quests to pick up at the free-people's camp outside the instance.

3. If the camp is not cleared the following tactic works quite well (though needs improvement):

a) Things can be stunned and feared but not distracted.
b) Have the tank clobber and attack Uru, have the minstrel fear the brawler and everyone else should focus on killing the marksmen before anything else.
c) If you have a lore master they can stun the brawler once he has been feared.
d) Only once the marksmen are dead should everyone pile on Uru, she will summon spiders so use interrupt skills whenever appropriate.
e) The brawler should be kept stunned and away from the action, if needs be AOE the two of them... make sure spiders are kept away from cloth wearers.

Room 1

1. Once inside have somebody stun the sorcerer then DPS her companions to death as quickly as possible, then kill her.

2. The door to the next room will now open.

Note: Sorcerers summon lots of wraiths so its a good idea to have the champions and guardians use clobber or similar to disrupt casting.

Room 2 - Terrace 1

1. Take your time and kill everything in the room.

2. Note the levers that the limfaren bounces between, your fellow must pull them both at the same time.

3. Pulling the leavers opens the gates in the SW and SE corners of the room.

4. Listen to whatever system the leader of the fellow wishes to use to synchronise the pulling of levers, if everyone tries to offer their version it will confuse things (grins). I recommend having the leader count to 3 and everyone pulling their lever when 3 is said, eventually you have to pull 6 levers at once so it should be the same person each time.

Note: If you pull the wrong levers or pull them out of sync then a random spawn of wraiths will appear.

5. Okay once the levers are pulled everyone runs to the SW corner (up the stairs) and kills the sorcerer there, ignore the ghosts.

6. Once she is dead everyone needs to run to the east of where they are now to kill the other sorcerer, again ignore the ghosts until she is dead.

Note: You can have a lore-master stun the sorcerer on the other side to minimise the ghosts. It may be possible exploit the endless easy ghosts to earn more battered Anorian armour.

Room 3 - Terrace 2

1. Gather on the east hand side of the room, have the lore master ready the ward of the dead and position your healers as far away from the group as possible.

2. Have the tank or champion pull the lever in the middle of the room, this will start the first of many waves of wraiths.

3. Kill them all, the loremaster should focus on keeping the healer powered, the ward of the dead down and any stragglers stunned.

4. Once the waves stop its back down to the first room for the second lever puzzle (This time 3 people are needed).

Room 4 - Terrace 3

1. Gather in the same spot in the third room, have the tank wander upstairs to room four and pull one type of wraith... ideally only one type should come at a time.

2. Some of the wraiths have an aura effect that silences and drains power, your lore masters, hunters and most importantly minstrels should stand well back of the killing ground.

3. Again ward of the dead is very useful.

4. Take your time and once all of the wraiths are dead head up into the next room and kill the trees one at a time.

5. In this room you will find the body with the map at the side of the right hand stairs.

6. At this point you should use your bottle to purify the waters on every terrace. (three of them in total).

Room 5 - Final Terrace/Boss Room

The following method only works if you have a burglar who can enrage Negol and pull him using HiPS

1. The lever puzzle requires all 6 people in the fellow to pull a lever at the same time, be prepared to fight wraiths if things do not go to plan.

This last terrace is Neagol, he is not too hard to beat providing you follow the following instructions:

2. Use food.

3. Everyone should stand by the fence just to the right of the SE door to the room, if you move any further forward into the room neagol will summon his minions making this a very difficult if not impossible fight.

4. Have the tank run out and trigger the fight, then run back to the fence as fast as possible.

5. Neagol will eventually enter the melee, until then used ranged attacks only. Every time he slips below the floor he moves closer... do not be tempted to run out and pull him closer.

6. When necessary the loremaster should place the ward of the dead, everyone should melee Neagol, use everything you have.

7. Remember to set master looter!

Neagol drops a very nice teal staff for loremasters and the broken pauldrons that are used in the armour bartering, both of these items are bind on acquire.

This means that if you do not wish to make the suit of armour yourself then do not roll on the broken pauldrons

The real tactic if you want to kill the boss properly is to have a champion and others keep interrupting him so he cannot spawn the minions, however until they make changes we will continue with the method above

The new tactic

All conjunctions should be green.

One guardian and a champion run out to meet Negol in the water then pull him a little closer to the bridge, during this time the champion should clobber constantly.

On the right hand side of the bridge there is a small crater, ideally a lore-master, hunter and other DPS should stand here and kill all the adds which spawn. Hunters can hit Negol in any downtime but it is important they use endurance stance as if they pull away from the guardian things can go pretty bad. The lore-master will be responsible for healing this group as much as possible.

Anti-stun the minstrel if possible.
Always have the pink ward on the crater fellow.

Throughout the fight the Minstrel stands in the middle of the bridge where they can heal both parties, hunters must drag ghosts away from the minstrel as fast as possible, if needs be the crater camp champion can run out and drag the spirits away from her. If the minstrel gets silenced things do not go well.

No matter the classes of your fellow they will follow these basic principles, simply put the guardian group (I recommend 2) beats up Negol, the crater group draws aggro, kills the adds and protects the minstrel from afar (and stays out of the water), the minstrel runs out of the room to reset of things are going badl... err heals.

End of New Method

Okay that's my guide for the first instance, I may polish it and correct some of the more obvious grammatical errors later. I now have the pauldrons so anyone joining me in a run will have a good chance at getting them (grins).

Feel free to amend or append anything you feel is needed.

If anyone knows where the other two instances are in annuminas or has any experience in them please post any advice here.

Ive looked into the other two instances:

OST ELENDIL

Ost Elendil was the seat of power in the former kingdom of Arnor. It contains the throne room from whence the kings of old would rule their once-grand empire.

The entrance is located on the fortified island of Tyl Annun overlooking Annuminas from the north.

In order to access the instance, the Free Peoples must control the camps of Gwaelband and Tirband. Controlling these points will open the gates that lead over the bridge connecting to Tyl Annun. From Tirband, proceed north-west until reaching the bridge, then head on over it. The instance entrance to Ost Elendil is straight ahead, on the left upon coming up several flights of stairs.

Ost Elendil is a short but very difficult instance, and can be completed within an hour if there are no fellowship wipes.

STRATEGY

From the entrance hall, proceed to clear one or two pulls of Angmarim until reaching the main hall just beyond. At the end of the hall, Guloth awaits along with six Elder Morelendil Guard adds. The guards will not attack players who walk by, but walking up the stairs towards Guloth activates the first boss encounter. Before engaging Guloth, the south-west chamber must be cleared. All six chambers adjacent to the main hall contain Tormented Spirit mobs.

Players will notice a Counterweight hanging from the ceiling at the back of each room. Activating one will open the window behind it, and a briliant light shines through the south-facing ones. This light is known as The Light That Burns, because it instantly defeats any Morelendil Guard and Elder Morelendil Guard that move into it, transforming them into Tormented Spirit mobs. These spirits have a Shadow Shroud buff, making them very difficult to defeat. This can be counteracted by drawing them into Exposing Light, located in the center of the main hall in front of the stairs leading up to Guloth. Note that The Light That Burns only lasts for a set duration of time after the window is opened, so it will have to be re-opened after a little while to refresh the light.

After Guloth and his guards are defeated, head up the stairs and down the passage into the throne room. As with the main hall, the south windows of the throne room can be opened to let The Light That Burns shine inside. On the opposite side of the room, the light shines through stained glass windows in two different locations onto the ground. This is where Exposing Light is present. Sitting on the throne at the far end of the room is Balhest, the second and final boss. The fight is considerably difficult, requiring a lot of coordination amongst the members of the fellowship.

Once Balhest is defeated, the day is won and our heroes can finally get some rest. Don't forget to take a nice screenshot in front of the throne!

Two bosses - Guloth (52), Balhest (52)

Haudh Valandil

Haudh Valandil is full of nasty fear and disease effects and the water drains power. It is full of Kergrim, cave claws, and flashing Limrafns that will summon 3 elites or 1 master elite if they get too close to anyone in the group. The Limrafns can be mezzed by minstrels or sapped, can be feared, and can be stunned. It's best to get at maximum range and then lay into them and either fear or mez them if they get too close.

The instance requires a full group of 6. Lore-Masters equipped with their AoE disease and wound cleansing skill are especially useful as are Burglars and Champions. Having a Captain positioned outside of the instance is especially useful when recovering from wipes, the doorway to the instance is a safe place to log out.

The instance is set up with a circular passageway which surrounds 6 central rooms, 3 on the west side and 3 on the east side. Each room contains one or two levers which opens up the next room, moving counterclockwise around the circle. Start the instance by moving down the stairs, killing the 2 patrolling Kergrims and then the two Limrafns. There is a master elite mob that patrols the circle, so keep an eye out for him.

Room 1: NW room - Pull the outside monsters back to the entrance stairs and kill them. Move inside and kill the mobs in there. 5 or so master elite cave claws will pop up out of the ground as you approach the lever. Kill them and pull the lever and move on to the next room.

Room 2: W room - Clear the outside and inside and pull the levers.

Room 3: SW room - This room has some issues with monsters resetting infinitely. Rush into the room, move as far away from the door as possible and kill of as much as you can and have people that need the relics get them and then have someone pull the lever. Some of the monsters will respawn infinitely, so ignore these until everyone is finished. Then, move outside of the room and kill off the monsters that follow.

Room 4: SE room - This room is extremely difficult. The easiest way to deal with this room is to clear go north from Room 3 and around to the east and clear everything back down the south side to Room 4. Clear the outside and inside and collect relics. Pulling the lever will pull a very large number of Limrafns and cave claws. Have everyone but a burgler or guardian go back to the NE corner of the map. The burger should pull the lever and then use HIPS and walk back out of the room. Several Limrafns will follow the burgler out but will not aggro. Have the group clear these off and continue to Room 5. If no burgler is available, have the guardian pull the lever, click on the dodge/parry/block buff and run out of the room to the north side of Room 5's step where they should wait and die. Have a minstrel resurrect him and continue on to Room 5. Alternatively, if you wish to fight to clear the room, move everyone in the group into the room as far away from the door as possible and pull the lever.

Room 5: E room - Clear the outside and inside and pull the levers.

Room 6: NE room - Clear the outside and inside and pull the lever. Five or so elites will run into the room. Kill them.

Once all the levers are pulled, a gate will open in the southern part of the instance. From Room 6, move to the NW corner of the map, then south. You will encounter a number of Limrafns that can be pulled singly or in groups of 2. Kill them off and enter the southern gate.

Climb the stairs and you will come upon find Shingrinder and his pet cave crawlers at the other side of a bridge, Shingrinder has a very powerful double knock back effect so there is only one viable tactic available:

1. There is a gateway on the nearside of the bridge with a brazier by each column.
2. Everyone except the minstrel should jump onto one of these two braziers and fight with their back to the column.
3. If you are knocked off during the fight you have at most 3 seconds to get back into position or you will be killed by second knock-back.
4. The minstrel should stand in the middle just a little down from the top of the ramp, facing forward at all times. Check they can heal everyone before starting.
5. Pull Shingrinder to the braziers with a ranged attack so you have time to get back in place.
6. Kill pets first but make sure to get as much Aggro as possible, this is not a situation where you can jump down to help the healer if you lose it.
7. Kill Kill Kill.
(If someone runs through the door the encounter resets).

After Shingrinder dies, you will face Dolvaethor. Until you approach him, he will send a single burning Limrafn down the bridge towards the group. Approaching Dolvaethor will activate an event in which he begins to rapidly summon an increasing number of burning Limrafns. Just run over to the other side of the bridge and the Limrafns will stop spawning, you can then kill those that have appeared at your leisure.

(Alternatively have the guardian run to the other side to stop them while the ranged attacked pick them off one by one.)

Note: The next encounter is probably the hardest part, you need to kill the all the normal Wight's then the two fiery Morthindil guards before they can summon help. Throw tar on the floor, stun, riddle, blind, trap or whatever other tricks you have to kill them or stop them reaching the stairs. If you have a captain it would be a reasonable tactic to escort them outside to summon the fallen then expect to wipe a couple of times while clearing this area. Once you clear the area you will have some more Firey Limfaren to take care of.


As you follow Dolvaethor back, you will encounter 2 elite Arnorian Wights and 2 Fiery Morelendil Guard. The Fiery Morelendil Guards will be non-aggro (green) until all of the wights are defeated. If you approach the wights or hit them will a bow shot, they will run down the stairs to their left and right and activate the 7 hidden wights on each side and will return to face you with all 14. The best approach to this encounter is to have a minstrel mez one and sap, root, sneak to, or rush the 2nd and kill it before it has a chance to run down the steps and activate it's friends. Once these 2 wights are dead, you can clear out the side rooms one wight at a time. Once the last wight dies, the two Fiery Morelendil Guards will activate and engage. They seem to have random aggro, so they will move from person to person.

Once the 2 Morelendil guards are dead, you can approach Dolvaethor and the resurrected corpse of Valandil. This is a challenging fight and one that requires significant coordination. Everyone should have morale potions ready for emergency heals and have eaten food before engaging. A hope token is also a must. Valandil attacks with melee attacks and an occasional shadow damage attack and has a Greater Protection Buff which makes him resistant to most damage types other than Westernesse and Light damage. Dolvaethor is mainly a caster and has several AoE fire attacks as well as a channeling fire attack towards one member of the group. The channeling attack is an especially devastating effect and can kill a group member in several seconds unless interrupted or removed. The channeling attack may be a wound effect (unconfirmed). Dolvaethor will fall on his knees and turn to face the channel-target.

It is best to split the group up into 3 or more smaller groups and array in a way where each group far enough away from the others to avoid Dolvaethor's AoE attack against one of the other groups. Group one should be a Guardian who will pull Valandil off to the side where To the King is used as often as possible to try to get off all green CJs. Group two should be the rest of the melee attackers (Captains, Champions, and Burglars, 2nd Guardians). They should focus on slowing and interrupting Dolvaethor's spells, especially his channeling attack where he falls to his knees. A combination of all yellow CJs and all green CJs works well against Dolvaethor. Groups 3+ should be the ranged attackers and Minstrels and can spread apart as long as they stay within healing range of the minstrel. Focus on burning Dolvaethor down and on dealing with his channelling attack. Once he's down, everyone should focus on Valandil.

Alternative Tactic:

1. Have guardian drag Valandil near top right.
2. Minstrel hides bottom right.
3. Loremaster hides near minstrel to act as battery and secondary (especially when wound attacks take place).
4. Everyone else on Dolaethor, using healing potions whenever he uses the flame attack on you.
5. Hope for the best.
6. Kill Valandil.

7 If things go bad have one of the REZ capable party members run out of the room so it can be reset (This will not always work).

It looks tricky but Im sure we can manage this, having a captain outside the instance does seem like a good idea, does anyone have a captain as an alt?

You should be abl to add images to the gallery here - the plugin is a bit iffy though so not sure if it works for everyone.

I wouldn't mind getting a bit more aquainted with the Annuminas Instances so if there's a run let me know.

Annuminas (lvl 50) instances are fairly challenging, I would advice visiting Goblin Town, Urugarth and Carn Dum first to learn the basic tasks of your class. At this point you must drop the soloing tactics, been part of fellowship and raid is more demanding, but also very rewarding.

Actually we have had lately much end game threads, and it could be a good idea to open new area for these. I honestly think that Lotro contains two parts:

1. Leveling to 50. At this point character mostly soloes and enjoys the feeling of advancing.
2. End game. At this point player must think, will he level another alt, or see what does the end game offer. To have succesful end game, player must set some own goals: Items, ranks, adventures to certain places, Rp:ing, joining fellowships and raids for challenging adventures. Best thing for me in the end game, is that I dont need hurry onwards anymore. Earlier if friend of mine got 3-5 levels ahead, I couldnt have much fun him with anymore (you do 5 points damage and your spells are resisted. Try to play underleveled Guardian to maximise the pain). At 50s we all are in same line, and those who want to use more time, can have marginally better gear.

-some fixes for Aletheas tactical guide:
The boss in first Annuminas instance is Nenglon
The two last strategy guides are copies from somewhere;) Please lets give the honour to the person who earns it
The Annuminas armour sets are Ceremonial at best, the Stats are quite weak for lvl 50 set. So, please pass on the Arnorian fragments unless you decide to make set one day (I have decided to make one for Bregowine one day)

The map to be put up is stolen too (though amended by myself), I take no credit for the second two guides and cannot remember where I took them from... they seem reasonable but I am sure we will have to make our own notes as we go.

Remember to send all bits of Aronian armour you dont need to Alethea if you dont want the suit yourself

(As Barowine says the suits are really just for looks, however recipes do drop on these runs and there is at least one teal item in every completed run -edit actually the chance is very slim, maybe 1/6 or less...).

I will probably try to organise an official run for this Wed? how does 8pm sound?

I'll mail the map to someone to post, it asks for a forum password when I try to host but does not accept mine.

Actually the teals dont drop 100%. I have downed Nenglon twice, and dont remember it dropping that staff on firts try (I can be wrong though). I am interested to visit the two later instances... but lets take man/ woman with bigger shield this time too.

Okay then some more notes on Ost Elendil from this evenings attempt.

How to get to Ost Elendil

:Assumes all 3 control points have been taken already.

To get there head NW from Tirband (which is N of Clohir) to the bridge, its a fast spawn so anything you need to clear needs to be dealt with quickly. On the bridge itself there are several patrols of Large elite trolls with 20k health, they are fairly easy to take down as a fellow providing you stun/mez one while you fight the other.

At the point where the bridge seems to packed with Anghrim you only need to pull the first mob, after that you can jump over the east side of the bridge by the wooden lamppost/structure, it is important to do this as a fellow. Kill anything that runs to you at this point then run north back onto the footpath and keep running until you reach the cliff, here turn right and right again, fight here.

This is a good place to drop off a spare captain to summon the fellow if they wipe, if anyone has a captain as an Alt who would be willing to help out with this please let me know. (Its easy enough to summon another captain with the captain there to summon the captains main should they wish to be on the raid).

The instance itself is back round the corner and on your right.

The entire instance consists of two main rooms and can easily be completed in an hour providing there are no wipes.

What to do inside Ost Elendil

Entryway
1. Wait till the sourceress has walked away from the four archers.
2. Stun as many archers as possible
3. Drag the others to the doorway and kill them as fast as possible.
4. Drag remaining archers to doorway and kill as fast as possible.
5. Wait until sourceress enters hall then everyone kill her, ignore ghosts and have champion clobber whenever she raises a hand.
6. Head up the stairs

First Hall

Definitions: Guard:= Wraith in Armour Ghost:= Normal Wraith.

1. Two sourceresses patrol this room, wait at the top of the stairs for them to appear then stun one and kill the other.

Note: The Sourceress drops the blooded runes, since you need six for the quest it might be advisable to wander back out and reform the fellow and repeat upto this stage so everyone can complete this quest (it drops for everyone on every kill so you only need to do this once).

2. Have everyone stand on the blue carpet at the top of the stairs/infront of the statue.
3. Note the shining on the floor? This removes the buffs from the ghosts making them vulnerable.
4. Have one party member (not the minstrel) lure some of the ghosts from the SW room to the carpet.
5. Kill the ghosts and repeat until room is empty, make sure they are on the carpet or you will not be able to kill them,
6. There are 6 rooms in this hall to be cleared of ghosts, the guards and boss on the stairs will ignore you so long as you do not step on the stairs.
7. Steps 4-6 until all rooms are empty. Note: It may be possible to only clear the SW room but the ghosts drop battered armour and are needed for one of the tirband quests.
8. In each room there is a counterweight in front of the window, use them to open the window and take note of the light on the floor, the light will "kill" the guard and release a ghost which must be dragged onto the carpet before it can be killed.
9. Have all the fellow stand on the carpet again.
10. Use a hope potion (may be optional).
11. Have a guardian or champion start the encounter by walking upto the stairs.
12. The boss and a guard will become active.
13. Have the champions or guardian drag them onto the light in the SW room then onto the carpet with the fellow as soon as the guard has been killed.
14. Everyone should focus on killing the ghost then on killing the boss.
15. More guards will come, the guardian should take their aggro and drag them into light of the sw room as fast as possible.
16. The boss (Guloth) will die quickly, when this happens just wait for the guards to appear one by one and deal with them as quickly as possible.
17. Once the room is clear rest up for the next challenge (do not use hope or food yet).

Final room

Okay the final room has U shaped walkway, do not step off it until you are ready to start the encounter.
All Green or All Blue Conjunctions are very useful here.

Stage 1

1. Walk up and down the walkway on each side opening the windows with the counterweights.
2. Those on your left are used to kill the guards.
3. Those on your right are used to disable the buffs on the ghosts.
4. There are a total of 18 guards to kill before the boss and they will come in waves of 3-4, as soon as the last guard is dead the next wave will spawn. This means you should keep one guard out of the light until all the other guards (and their ghosts) have been killed.
5. Loremasters cannot stun the undead however minstrels and burglars can. (Minstrels have a 30 second stun which should be enough so long as it is not broken).
6. Have the fellow stand under the middle ghost busting window (on the right).
7. Have one person run upto the stairs to start the encounter then run back to fellow.
8. Stun/trap one guard then have the guardian drag them off to the window on the opposite side.
9. Once they turn into ghosts drag them back.
10. The minstrel may need to run about a bit to heal the guardian, aggro is a problem here since heals will not reach the other side of the room.

Experiment Note: A hunter trapping one ghost may allow the fellow to heal up and aggro to calm down between rounds. How do traps work?

Stage 2

11. Okay once the last guard dies (not the last ghost) the middle sorceress will become active, have the LM stun her.
12. Destroy last ghost then Recover Health and power.
13. Have Guardian/Champion try to drag her over to the shield. (light on the right hand side of the room).
14. At 3/4 health the other two will activate, have the lore master stun them. If LM can only stun one and there is no way to stun the other have the champion concentrate on clobbering her while everyone else focuses on the first.
15. Once the first goes down everyone moves to the second while the third is kepts stunned.
16. If power is low keep third stunned and recover as best as possible.
17. Kill the last sorceress, clobbering to minimise ghosts (use AOE if you want).

Stage 3

18. Loremaster activates fire ward (if anyone has fire proofing potions use them now).
19. Drag the boss into the Yellow light, (from any window on the left hand side of the room).
20. Have the minstrel stand a way off (close enough to heal and not be hit by AOE).
21. Have the champion clobber as often as possible.
22. Everyone else pummel the boss, he should go down fast.

23. Give Alethea the broken leggings... err I mean everyone who wants to make the star suit should roll on the leggings =)
24. Repeat for anyone else, it is a short instance afterall

Notes

Definately one for a balanced fellow:

Essentials:
1xMinstrel - A fair few prolonged battles so a good powerstore will help (a LM should try to top them up when possible).
1xLore Master - The ward of the dead is very useful as are the power-recovery and stuns and fire warding.
1xGuardian - Good aggro management and a lot of health for tanking.
1xChampion - Clobbering

Buy a few fear potions for when things get bad.
Celebrant and Athelas (power and health potions).
Lembas too.
2 x Hope (At least +4).

If you have the ability to cure wounds or fear make sure it is slotted.

I can think of reasons why all of the following should be essential but ultimately you have to work with what you have.
Bonus
1xCaptain - (extra heals and health would be a boon as would the in combat rez and summoning)
1xHunter - Traps and DPS
1xBurglar - All Green Conjunctions are a real boon in the end phase, with a good fellow R Y B G Y R will get rid of wounds and fear.
1xLoreM - Extra stuns.

(Ideally you need a fellow of 7 people but Im not sure who you could leave behind (grins))

Extra bonus
1xCaptain Alt - To be parked outside in the safe spot so if things go bad we can get the whole fellow back in the blink of an eye.

Things to find out:

Is it possible to leave the instance while in combat? No, but leaving fellow and leaving instance throws you at Ranger Camp (aka away)
What tricks do people have for dealing with the undead? Hit them hard -Baro;)

Bumb, great Annuminas info here.

((about teal drops, I saw one when I run those intances 5 times altogether during weekend. So no easy guaranteed drops))