alt="Guide to the Misty Mountains"
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MISTY MOUNTAINS DUNGEONS
AND
INSTANCES

These are the spaces outside of the main region map but
directly connected to it. This does not include instances that are part
of the epic books or other quest chains.

DUNGEONS

These are smaller, public instanced spaces that can be entered
by anyone at anytime, with or without associated quests. Misty
Mountains has but one dungeon, but it is massive and famous.

cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">GOBLIN-TOWN

Location: Northern High Pass

Level Range: 45 - 50

Description: A town of
goblins - more of a city, really
- where Thorin Oakenshield led his party of fearless dwarves while
seeking a passage through the Misty Mountains on the way to the Lonely
Mountain in the east. It is here where Bilbo Baggins, separated from
the party, stumbled across the cave of Gollum and found the One Ring -
an event that would eventually lead to the War of the Ring, the current
setting for the Lord of the Rings Online.

The mobs in Goblin-town drop Goblin-town Tabards, a rep
item for the Elves of Rivendell faction. They also drop
high-numbered book pages for legendary class skills at a higher rate
than other mobs in the Misty Mountains.

Mobs: Goblins, Goblins,
Goblins, Goblins. Also Wargs,
some Orcs, a handful of Trolls and some Salamanders. And more Goblins.


cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">Goblin-town Tunnels 1 alt="Goblin-town Tunnels 1"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95730">

There are two entrances into this first set of tunnels:
one at the Black Crack, and one at the Mountain's Throat.

Three doorways in the north lead to the second "layer"
of tunnels, each at a different level of elevation.

Some doorways are masked by sliding boulders, others are
caves with the shimmering instance portal inside them.

The first of Bilbo's buttons is located near the
Mountain's Throat exit in the southernmost tunnel.


cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">Den of the Northern Army alt="Den of the Northern Army"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95731">

The War Steadings is a bunkhouse for the orc soldiers
living in Goblin-town. It is also the location of two of Bilbo's
buttons, one in a chest and another in a tiny pouch on the ground near
one of the many bosses.


cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">Slave Pens alt="Slave Pens"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95732">

Way down at the bottom of the winding, twisting,
constricted, goblin-filled tunnels are a couple of prisoners that need
rescued. The elf woman, Glorwen, is the subject of the quest chain
starting at Vindurhal. The other elf, Aeglas, is just some dude that
found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.


cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">Goblin-town Tunnels 2 alt="Goblin-town Tunnels 2"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95733">

The Deep-fires, one of the locations for the Goblin-town
exploration deed, is located here. It's a big room in a south-heading
tunnel off the eastern tunnel system.

The entrance to Tundergrot is at the far west in the
lower-level passages. The higher-elevation passages only connect the
large chambers.

The southern doorways all lead to the first set of
tunnels, and the two doorways in the north both lead to the third set.


cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">Thundergrot alt="Thundergrot"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95734">

This charming little pit has a deep central shaft lined
with rickety ramps and scaffolding. Down at the bottom, it branches off
into a number of rooms filled with troll drummers and goblin
band-leaders. There is also a button down here in a debris pile by one
of the trolls.


cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">Goblin-town Tunnels 3 alt="Goblin-town Tunnels 3"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95735">

Eglanur, part of the Goblin-town exploration deed, is
the large-ish central chamber. The tunnel leading to the Goblin King's
Throne Room instance branches off from here to the north.

The north tunnel, at the end of the long tunnel back to
Eglanur, looks like it has a boulder doorway at the west end, but this
doorway doesn't open. The room beyond is the throne room.

Be sure to keep an eye out for Gollum's awesome fan art
on one of the walls in the north tunnel.


cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">Gollum's Cave alt="Gollum's Cave"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95736">

Visiting this cave, it becomes quite easy to see how
Gollum was driven tragically mad over the eons. His home is on a dank,
soggy little island in the middle of the underground lake, with cave
salamanders blocking his escape. You can practically hear the hissing
words, "My Precioussss..." echoing off the dripping walls here.


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INSTANCES

These are private encounters joined via the Instance Join
panel. The Misty Mountains has 5 instances: the 4 wings of Helegrod,
plus the Goblin King's Throne Room.


cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">GOBLIN-TOWN: THRONE ROOM
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 250px; height: 400px; float: left;"
alt="Goblin King's Throne Room"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95729">

"THIS!
IS! GOBLIN-TOWN!"

Level Range: 50


Size:  Fellowship

Description: In the darkest depths of Goblin-town, at
the heart of the goblin kingdom, teeming with the vile breed, lay the
throne room of the Great Goblin. Long have the inhabitants of
Goblin-town been leaderless, but as the Shadow in the East grows,
calling its minions to arms, a new leader has taken the mantle of the
Great Goblin....

And he is a huge fan of "300."

Tips
& Tricks

Pretty straightforward: kill goblins, kill more goblins, kill
even more goblins, watch hilarious spoof, kill warg, kill tough goblin.
This one should be pretty easy for even a modestly-skilled level 50
group, and high-level characters can readily solo it.

Keep an eye out for interruptible healing inductions when
fighting the fat soldiers, or groups with the fat soldiers in them.
Having a Champion or Burglar in the group will help immensely with
this, although every class has an interrupt of some kind now. 

The same goes for Ashurz, the Goblin King: keep his self-heals
interrupted. He will send his pet warg after you first to "test" you,
but the warg is fairly easily dispatched. Ashurz throws out a lot of
wounds, so have your red potions handy.


cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">HELEGROD: DRAKE WING
style="border: 0px solid ; float: left;"
alt="Helegrod Drake Wing"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95737">


Level Range: 50 - 65


Size:  Raid (12)

Description: Helegrod... Once a dwarf-hold in the Misty
Mountains, until the coming of a great dragon. Though the dragon has
long since perished, and the ice of many long winters has engulfed the
ruins, rumours out of the North speak of a terrible shadow returning to
the frozen halls...

Challenge: Destroy all of the Ice-drake hatchlings before killing
Grisgart and his brood.



Sub-quests:

  • Defeat 90 Ice hatchlings
  • Collect 15 drake fangs

Tips
& Tricks

Dragon-slaying at its finest. There are some very challenging
fights in this raid, and it takes a while to complete the wing, so
buckle in and have your raid kit ready to rock.

First off, this is one of the two Helegrod raids groups
regularly run for quick-and-dirty Helegrod marks for the armor set. Run
it at level 55 or so, make sure everyone gets the sub-quest to collect
15 fangs, kill the hatchlings and drakes in the first room, done. If
that's all you want from here, groups are easy to find and even pugs
have a very low failure rate. If you want to run the whole thing, read
on.

Fire mitigation helps in the drake wing. Minstrels may wish to
use Tale of Frost and Flame and keep Ballad of Flame tiered up and
ready to use, and Rune-keepers will likely want to use fire-attuned
buffs (Do Not Fall to Flame, etc). Worms can be mezzed by Burglars, but
don't count on mezzing
the drakes. Some are immune, and some just have very high resists.
Ideal group composition for this (or any) raid is debatable, but you
will probably want the standard 2 healers, 2 tanks, 2 Captains, 4 DPS
and 2 support/CC (Lore-master, Burglar).

When pulling groups, be aware of the location of egg nests.
Stepping close to the egg nests will spawn a swarm of drake hatchlings.
While not terribly powerful by themselves, they can make a mess of a
fight with a large group of worms and/or drakes, and should be dealt
with separately when possible.

You will eventually reach a big gate with a lever puzzle. The
raid will need to divide into 3 groups. Groups 1 & 2 will each
have a tank, DPS and healer and one other guy. Group 3 will be everyone
else.Groups 1 and 2 go to the South and North gates, respectively, and
group 3 stays in the middle with the levers and the big gate. Group 3
pulls the South Gate lever, which will spawn a group of mobs at the
main gate. Burn those down, and Group 1 (South Gate) runs into their
room and clears it. Once the South room and the main gate are cleared,
Group 1 (South) pulls the lever in their room, which opens the North
gate, spawning mobs there and again at the main gate and South gate.
Group 2 runs in and kills their group, other groups clear the mobs,
Group 2 pulls the lever in the North room. This opens the main gate.
Group 3 pulls south lever to open north gate, and north lever to open
south gate. Regroup at the main gate, rez the dead and get ready to
keep on truckin'.

After an adruous haul through some massive
drake-and-worm-filled passageways, you will come to good ol' Grisgart
and his brood. He is on a high stage with stairs on all sides,
surrounded by clutches of drake eggs, and he has 2 worms and 2 drakes
with him. The worms can be CC'ed, but the drakes cannot, and will
require the full-time attention of the group's tanks. Also, Grisgart
will be running around beating on people. The trick of this fight is to
keep the drakes occupied and the worms locked down as much as possible,
and to trigger the eggs and kill all of the hatchlings before killing
Grisgart. Easier said than done - you basically need 4 tanks for this,
2 for the drakes, 1 for Grisgart and 1 off-tank to pick up aggro when
the worms break their CC. Generally, you want the fight to be as calm
and controlled as possible before engaging the hatchlings, because they
will make things rather chaotic. Keep them away from the mezzed worms
so Champions and Hunters can use area-effect attacks without breaking
mezzes, and burn them down as quickly as possible. You don't need to
kill all of the hatchlings before you kill any of Grisgart's brood, but
you do need to take them all out before you kill Grisgart, so you may
wish to work this fight in stages: kill hatchlings, kill worm, kill
hatchlings, kill drake, repeat.


cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">HELEGROD: GIANT WING
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 250px; height: 400px; float: left;"
alt="Helegrod Giant Wing"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95738">


Level Range: 50 - 65


Size: Raid (12)

Description: Giants, snow-beasts, mammoths and other
enormous and horrible things bar your entrance into the deeper parts of
Helegrod. Storvagun, considerably larger than the other giants, rules
this wing with an iron fist.

Challenge: Defeat Storvagun without being caught in the
avalanche.

Sub-quests: 

  • Collect 15 barter-sticks
  • Kill 12 Snow-beasts


Tips
& Tricks

Get ready for frustration. This one is brutal and unforgiving.

It starts off easy enough, with some scraps against giants and
their pet tigers. The tigers are vicious and should be killed first,
before the giants. Keep this in mind for this entire instance: critters
first, then masters.

After the first couple of groups are down, you will be stuck
in combat for a bit as the giants perched on a hilltop spot the group
and begin hurling boulders. Shrug 'em off - they're just giant
boulders, after all - and slaughter your way up the hill and back
around to take them out. Keep an eye on your flanks as you fight the
boulder-flingers - they call in reinforcements.

If the raid has a dedicated crowd-controller, do pay careful
attention to which mobs are mezzed and try not to attack them. If you
are a Champion using area-effect attacks, stand well away from
Lore-master and Burglar targets or they will yell at you.

For the most part, it's pretty straight-up fighting from one
end to the other. The fights aren't easy, but they're not terribly
complex. Bring your A-game and things should go fine.

Storvagun is another story entirely. This is a crazy,
confusing, chaotic fight, and the parameters for failure are not
clearly defined. It starts off simple enough - run in and start kicking
his giant ass. After a bit of playing around, Storvagun will call in
some pets to join the fight. These can be dispatched. Continue fighting
Storvagun, park a good tank on him and get ready for the crap-storm.

After a bit, he will call out a ceaseless tide of Snow-beasts
and cause an avalanche. The borders of the avalanche are not clearly
defined and very difficult to notice during a hectic battle. Generally,
keeping everyone near the center close to the lip of the plateau will
prevent anyone from getting caught in the avalanche, but there are
other factors at play. The infinitely-respawning Snow-beasts, for
example, need to be tanked and preferably kited, and the kiting tank
may accidentally brush up against the invisible boundary, causing a
hard-mode fail.

Before the fight begins, look up at the overhanging plateaus
above the "arena" and do your best to make a mental note of where those
edges are. Those are the areas to avoid. 

Once the stream of snow-beast adds starts, you will need a
good, fast tank to pick them up and keep them from wailing on the
healers and such, kiting them around the outside but avoiding the
invisible avalanche boundary. Guardians are better able to do this than
Wardens - threat generation is instant, shouts can be voiced on the
hoof
and they don't need to build lengthy gambits. Once the snow-beasts are
kited safely away, resume beating on the massive giant until he dies.

cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">HELEGROD: SPIDER WING
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 250px; height: 400px; float: left;"
alt="Helegrod Spider Wing"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95739">


Level Range: 50 - 65


Size:  Raid (12)

Description:  Among the caves of Helegrod dwell
the brood of the spider Zaudru. The Angmarim believe they control the
spiders of Helegrod...they could not be more mistaken. The vile Zaudru
is a force to be reckoned with by any.

Challenge: Once a sufficient number of Grisgart's allies are defeated
an opportunity will arise to burn several of Zaudru's cocoons. Once
burned, the spider will become enraged and enter the battle. She must
fall before the final four white silkspinners are defeated.



Sub-quests:

  • Kill 100 hatchlings
  • Collect 15 venom

Tips
& Tricks

The other main "quick-and-dirty" instance, the spider wing can
be handled by as few as 3 or 4 players (depending on class). The
sub-quest to collect 15 venom is fairly easy with a small group. The
first two groups are pretty simple - 4 big ones, 8 small ones - and the
last 3 venoms have to come from the large room at the end of the first
hallway. Have a ranged puller grab small groups when the big queen
spider is out of aggro range and fight the groups back in the hallway.
Take out the Angmarim first - they heal and summon more spiders, so
keep them interrupted and burn them quickly. 

The boss fight is one of the harder ones in the game, and
players will want the be prepared to face a wipe or two before getting
it down pat. It starts with a few waves of mobs, which need to be
handled before the big spider activates.

Hunters rejoice! You are wanted for this instance, and not
just for your sexy speed, masterful bowmanship and rakish charm. You're
also needed to spam poison removal. During the boss fight, poison means
instant death, so Hunters will need to have a keen eye for debuffs
first and worry about DPS second. This may run somewhat contrary to
your ingrained Hunter-y instincts, but this time it will be your turn
to save everyone from a wipe.

Particularly dangerous poison is indicated by a glaring green
"eye" icon on the debuff bar. If this poison cannot be removed by
potion, Hunter magic or Burglar trick, the victim will need to get far
away from the rest of the raid. If not removed in time, it will burst
and kill people standing near the original victim.

The fight against Zaudru requires 3 tanks - one for Zaudru,
one for the Silkspinner priestesses, and (at least) one for the
infinite-respawn adds that join in the fight. It also requires at least
2 Hunters for poison removal, and at least 2 dedicated healers to keep
everyone alive. 

Thanks
to Arclyte
for the help with this one!

cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
rowspan="1">HELEGROD: DRAGON WING
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 250px; height: 400px; float: left;"
alt="Helegrod Dragon Wing"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95740">


Level Range: 50 - 65


Size:  Raid (24)

Description: The "great dragon" that took over Helegrod
has a name: Thorog. Thorog is not a happy camper, having been raised
from death by the machinations of the agents of Angmar. He is the
undisputed tyrant of Helegrod. Approach with caution.


Tips
& Tricks

To unlock this instance, you first have to beat all three
12-man wings in any order. This fight at level 50 is a challenge for a
full raid of level 65 characters. Some consider this the most difficult
fight in the game, or at least on par with the dreaded Lieutenant in
Barad Guldur. This may be in part to the large size of the group needed
to bring Thorog down - it can be difficult to coordinate just 12 people
for an "ordinary" raid. a 24-man group can just be ungainly.

There are several "killer" factors in this fight. First off is
the Hope wipes - Thorog will occasionally strip away all hope buffs
on anyone standing near him, increasing Dread to dangerous amounts.
When this happens, affected players will need to pop a +5 Hope
Edhelharn token to continue fighting, or will have only a tiny sliver
of their actual morale and will cower in fear every few seconds. If the
affected player cannot pop his own token (e.g. if it's on cooldown, or
if the player was foolish enough not to bring any), someone in his
group must pop one nearby. Bring a stack of Edhelharn tokens, and
Minstrels may want to trait for the Hopeful Heart legendary skill.

Second is the
dreaded Eye debuff, which is fear-based. This works in a similar manner
to the poison eye from the spider wing - if not removed in time, it
will explode and kill anyone standing near the original victim. Take it
off with a top-level purple potion, have a Captain use Muster Courage,
or, if those efforts fail to remove it, run away and die somewhere
where you won't kill everyone around you. Bring a stack of Conhuith
potions.

Thirdly is the big self-heal. At some points in the
fight, Thorog will fly up to a platform and heal himself. This can be
interrupted by a Burglar using Exploit Opening, so a typical strategy
is to keep at least one Burglar parked at the top of this platform for
the whole fight, with interrupting the heals being his sole job. Bring
Bags of Marbles.

And, or course, there are waves of adds to deal with. Bring an
extra Guardian to keep them off the Minstrels.


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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