Bones of The Dead

Quest Guide to the Great Barrows

By Darkgolem
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The Great Barrows is a massive, haunted crypt found among the festering
evil of the Barrow-downs.  Found in the Southern Barrow-downs,
this pit is filled with wights, and fell creatures corrupted by the
spirits sent to the Barrow-downs by the Witch-king of Angmar long ago.



There are 5 quests which involve entering the instance of the Great
Barrows.  Some of these build upon previous quests, others are
separate but can be completed while completing the major Great Barrows
quests.

Getting Ready

If you wish to do all the Great Barrows quests, the first step is for
this is to reach about level 21.  Your going to want to be at
least level 21 before starting any of them, and you will need a
fellowship of at least all level 21, and probably higher, to complete
the beginning quests of the Great Barrow.



The second task you will have to prepare for the Great Barrows quests
is to do the “Foray Into the Barrow-downs” quest (found at the
Scholar’s Perch in Bree-Town) and “Calming the Wake” (Bree-Town
Hall).  You will need to continue doing the “Scholar’s Perch”
quests until you have done “Ruins of Cardolan”, which unlocks the
Collecting History quest.  When these quests are completed you
will have all the quests unlocked you need for the Great Barrows. 
You should at this point have Purging the Dead, Collecting History and
Ancient Story of Evil. href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album12&id=Barror_Downs_Map&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Map of the Great Barrow"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album12/Barror_Downs_Map.jpg"
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Adventuring in the Barrows

When in the Great Barrows, there are standard, common sense strategies
you should be using.  In these quests, these strategies become
critical for success.



1.  Fellowship makeup:  Your fellowship should have someone
who can heal, someone who can control crowds, someone who can tank, and
2 damage dealers.  It would not be remiss to have someone who can
buff, such as a captain or a damage mitigator such as a minstrel. 
All members of your fellowship should be at least level 21 for Purging
the Dead, Collecting History and Ancient Story of Evil, and frankly,
you should try for higher levels such as level 23 if you can.



2.  Duties:  When in combat, your tank should draw aggression
first, and lead when traveling.  Before a combat starts, the tank
should give time for other classes to prepare (hunters to lay down
traps, etc).  The tank should draw aggression, all damage dealers
should target the tank and use the F key to target whoever the tanker
is fighting.  Crowd control should mezz others.  Any adds
(and there will be plenty) should be dealt with by the damage dealers
if they are attacking anyone besides the tanker.  Don’t let your
support or less durable classes get killed by adds.



3.  Don’ts:  Don’t use aoe’s if they draw agg.  Don’t
“peak”.  Only the tanker should lead.  Don’t start combats
until you are sure everyone has prepared.  Don’t rush into areas,
always try to pull small groups at a time.



4.  Pulling:  You won’t always be able to choose your pull in
the Great Barrows, but always try to pull at range and as few opponents
as necessary.  There are many, many elites, and there are large
groups of multiple weaker opponents, and both of these scenarios can
cause a fellowship wipe in short order unless you are organized.



href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album12&id=Gaedring&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Gaedring"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album12/Gaedring.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;" align="right">5. 
Remember who the most dangerous opponents are:  Wight Elite
Archers are very deadly at range, less so in melee.  It’s wise,
when you have the choice, to draw these opponents' aggression, then
move
back around a corner (forcing them to run up to you).  Wight
Callers are dangerous in melee, so try to mezz all but them, then gang
up on the caller, and so on.  Experience will be your best teacher
here.



6.  Remember respawns:  There are rare respawns in the
Barrows.  When you die, if you find that there are respawns
between your fellowship and yourself, then you and your fellowship have
to decide what to do.  Either you can try to get to your
fellowship from the entrance of the instance (where you appear) or your
fellowship can continue until all your fellowships' members die (while
you wait at the entrance).  There are not enough respawns to be a
major problem for a full fellowship.

Layout of The Great Barrows

The Great Barrow can be best divided into 4 sections.



The Entrance



The entrance of the great barrows consists of several winding
stairways, a couple chambers, leading eventually to a room I refer to
as “The Crossroads”.  The entrance is full of mainly non wight
creatures, massive elite tomb spiders, Barrow worms (which come in
swarms) and similar.  At a couple points, these worms will attack,
and then another group will appear behind you, so damage dealers should
be prepared to defend your support classes.  The Crossroads room
is self evident.  You have the choice of a stairway on the left or
the right.  The left stairway has some archers at the top of the
stairs, the right has a Barrow caller and some other wights.  The
left leads to the Maze, the right leads to the Great Hall.



The Maze



The Maze is found by taking a left at the Crossroads mentioned
above.  The Maze has many twisting passages, several side
chambers, has a large room, and leads eventually to Gaedring’s Room (an
elite wight lord).



The Great Hall



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src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album12/Thadur_the_Ravager.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;" align="left">The
Great hall is found by taking a right at the Crossroads.  This way
leads to an an open area, with groups of wights and so on found at
various parts of the chamber.  Near the rear of the Great Hall you
can find the chamber of another elite wight lord, Thadur the Ravager. style="font-weight: bold;">



The
Rear Halls



The rear halls can be reached by traveling through the Great Hall
mentioned above.  At the end of the Rear Hall you find the lord of
the wights here in the Great Barrow, Samborg.  There is are some
enemies here on the way, but if you have gone through the Maze and
Great Hall, you will be familiar with the enemies you face, with the
exception of Fell Spirits.  Fell Spirits are wights which have two
dangerous abilities.  They can become immaterial, and they can
stun opponents.  Other than they, they are no tougher than most
elite opponents.

Individual Quests

Purging the Dead



Purging the Dead is probably the easiest of the Great Barrows
quests of the 5 available.  Your goal is to defeat at total of 15
wights.  In the process of doing the Ancient Story of Evil and
Collecting History quests, you almost certainly will complete this
quest, and then some.  However, if you specifically wish to
complete this quest, once you reach the crossroads, simply head left to
the maze, and you will find many of these wights here.



Collecting History



Collecting History involves collecting several chalices from the
Great Barrow.  You can find these in all the niches and side
hallways found in the Great Barrow.  The biggest problem with this
quest is how many are needed.  A full fellowship will need 60
chalices total.  To get this many chalices, a fellowship will need
to travel fairly extensively into the Barrows.  It’s a good idea
to “keep an eye on the ball” when gathering these, making sure combat
is over and safe before one collects this ball.  There seems to be
a lot of ninja-looting of these chalices by over-eager fellowship
members.  The niches in the Maze has some of these chalices, as do
most of the main rooms other than the “boss” rooms in the Great Barrow.



Story of Ancient Evil



Story of Ancient Evil involves getting two different halves of a
key from bosses in the Great Barrow.  The bosses are not easy, but
an organized, well made up party can defeat them.  Bring some food
to eat before entering the boss fights, and perhaps some of the tougher
fights.



One of the bosses is Geadring.  Traveling through the Maze, you
will run across Gaedring’s room at the end.  There are two wight
lords here at the bottom of a landing of stairs.  As soon as
Gaedring is spoken to, one wight lord at a time will attack, and from
tombs laid out around the room, creeping arms, barrow worms, and normal
wights will continue to spawn.  Everyone should fight in the
bottom of the stairs.  The tanker should keep the Wight Lords
occupied, and any damage dealers should first kill any adds, and damage
Gaedring when no adds are around.  The key here is to take care of
the adds first, so that support members of your fellowship are not
overwhelmed.  After both wight lords are dead, simply take the key
and your done.  Head back to the Crossroads and head to the Great
Hall.



The Great Hall is dangerous.  Clear out enemies bit by bit until
you the hall is clear, and you will find a water filled room at the end
of a hall occupied by Thadur the Ravager.  All href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album12&id=Fell_Spirit&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Fell Spirit"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album12/Fell_Spirit.jpg"
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members of your Fellowship must enter this room, or else the room will
reset.  Simply spread out, have the tanker keep Thadur
occupied.  Three times, Thadur will summon allies, who are
dangerous wights.  You must concentrate on the wights who add when
Thadur summons them, first those who are on your support characters,
then those on the damage dealers, and finally those on your tank. 
Then go back to Thadur.  The amount of wights double each time
(I.e. he summons 2, then 4, then 8 and so on).  As long as you
deal with the adds as soon as they appear, and get them off your
“squishie” fellowship members first, you should be fine.  Make
sure to eat food before these combats, and if you wish, some of the
other tougher combats if you can.  After the combat, simply
collect they key from Thadur the Ravager’s body.



After you have both keys head back to town, turn in the key halves (you
will have a quick quest to get the key put together, and then Evil’s
Final Chapter will be available), and return to the Great Barrow. 
If you wish to avoid fighting too much, you can simply have members of
your fellowship stay in the barrow to “keep it open” until you get back
into the instance.  Also remember that after you have Evil’s Final
Chapter available, Heading West, the fifth and last Great Barrow’s
quest is available at Adso’s Camp.



Heading West



Heading West is available after you have completed Story of
Ancient Evil and advanced to being able to receive Evil’s Final Chapter
(I.E. put together the key).  You must pass to the Rear Halls to
be able to reach the Fell Spirits that Heading West requires to be
destroyed.  I strongly advice getting Evil’s Final Chapter so that
you don’t have to do this quest twice, since you must fight Fell
Spirits to get to the final wight lord of Evil’s Final Chapter. 
As you reach these opponents, simply avoid pulling to many at once, and
you will be fine.  You will easily recognize them, they are white
and semi-transparent. href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album12&id=Samborg&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Samborg"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album12/Samborg.jpg"
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Evil’s Final Chapter



This quest is easy enough, for an accomplished fellowship. 
You should have a fellowship of about 24th level doing this
quest.  You should be familiar with the Great Barrows at this
point.  Simply fight your way to the Rear Halls through the Great
Hall, and you then fight your way through Fell Spirits until you
finally reach the end boss, Samborg.

Once you start fighting with Samborg, like all the other fights with
bosses in the Great Barrows, you should have the tanker keeping Samborg
occupied, and concentrate on the Fell Spirits (and others) that join
the combat, saving the squishies, then the damage dealers, and finally
the tank, and so on, concentrating on Samborg when not otherwise doing
this.    Remember to eat food.



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