Reported Quest Difficulty Levels and Recommendations

[Ariosto]

I disagree. If you go south of the swamp and come up next to the mountainside you only get pulls of 1-2 and can easily solo it. Charging through the swamp solo is a suicidal mistake. Good for learning to scout and pick your approach.

I've heard this several times, so on my third character (a 38 Minstrel) I tried it, and failed again. No matter how cautious I've been, no matter how close to the cliff I stick, no matter how I drop down from the hill, or clear each spawn one by one, I'm still getting whipped as soon as I get near the lily. Too many mobs with a fast respawn timer and roots and adds. (FWIW, on my previous Guardian and Captain, I also attempted the same strategy-approach from the south, pull one by one, etc.)

I appreciate that there are people that have done this quest without a problem, and maybe I'm just not a very good player, but I still don't believe this quest is correctly listed as it is.

Originally Posted by Beorhtred:
QUEST: Claiming the Jewel
CATEGORY: Forochel (Ironspan)
JOURNAL LEVEL: 49
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 49
ACTUAL ICON: Small Fellowship
REASONS: Dunno about most other classes but as a Captain I couldnt get to the second "gate" by myself. The Ironspan inflicts a few points of Dread, there's a group of 2 or 3 to the left just inside that first gate, plus a couple more to the right and one or two archers on the battlement. For most classes, I'm sure it would take at least one other person to complete this quest just because of the number of Angmarim within fairly close aggro range.

Happened upon a minstrel and it was still a slight challenge, but having that one extra body made the difference.

A Burglar MIGHT be able to solo it by sneaking up to the guy, but I think almost every other class would be hard pressed to do this without at least one other fellow.

On the other hand, I actually soloed this rather easily as a Captain. (IIRC, this is the quest I got to 50 on when I turned in.) I know what you mean about the Ironspan's dread being a problem, but I didn't find the spawns too bad. Perhaps someone had been through and cleared out the Angmarim earlier? I did manage to completely avoid the group on the left you mention, though, just by sticking to the righthand side of the gate.

Anyway, I never found myself fighting more than 2-3 mobs, and was able to avoid some entirely just by running through. It was a long process, but there are areas to rest and heal up, and few patrols. The guy at the end was pretty easy, he only had one add with him.

So there we go, this post has hypocrisy no matter how you look at it!

[RobinThorp]

QUEST: Heritage Restored
CATEGORY: North Downs
JOURNAL LEVEL: 25
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
I've now tried this quest with 3 different classes - burglar, hunter, and lore-master - and not had a problem doing it solo with any of them. I can't quite figure out what supposedly makes this quest so much more difficult from the preceeding quest in the chain in fact and that quest is solo. The only difference is that you must care the skull back to the quest giver in your hands on a timer, so you can't fight anything, but the mobs seem (at least to me) spread apart wide enough that you can easily avoid any. The amount of time given to return the skull allows for even an out-of-the-way circuitous route...one could almost make it though Esteldin and around the far side if need be...so I really can't imagine the problem anyone would have doing this solo.

[JeanCarlo]

I tried (and succeeded) by doing the same thing after failing (and dying) multiple times. You need to clean out the path to the signature, pull, then run back far enough that the two adds return and the signature remains. There's a tree at this location. He's not so bad when you get him alone like this.

However, I don't think that was the intent of the quest designer, so this should be labeled as proposed above. No quest should require a "trick" pull to complete unless you're way under level or doing a fellow quest solo.

I don't think I would have needed that "trick" If I did it at level...

[Meps]

Low level Combe quest to get the blackwood strongbox, around level 6-7. This is impossible to do solo, even thou this is a solo question. There are 4 brigands levels 8-10 that sit right on top of the strongbox.

[Golledhel]

QUEST: Tomb of Elendil
CATEGORY: Fellowship
JOURNAL LEVEL: 40
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 45
ACTUAL ICON: Fellowship..or more
REASONS: The dungeon itself includes lots of lvl 40 mobs and elites in multiple pulls, even elite masters. This is hard, but doable. The end boss requires some kind of strategy and maybe perfect group make-up and skill that few players posess at lvl 40. He is silly hard for a lvl 40 quest with some crazy armor buff that he hardly takes damage, and mini turtles that continously spawn, not to mention he knocksback and does AOE dmg. This is by far the most whacked out quest i've seen. Fix the rewards too plz cuz they are fairly ****, especially considering this is like a 10-12 part quest chain and the final part is stupid hard. Thanks.

I did this one with a fellowship of 5 people. 2 Guardians, 1 Captain, 1 Minstrel, and 1 Hunter. Everyone was around Lv 41. The final boss was the only hard part, and that's because we didn't know what he was like. It just requires strategy instead of mindlessly charging into the fray. I do agree the rewards suck though.

[Teh_Chad]

QUEST: Drawing the Pack
CATEGORY: Lone-Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 25
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Small Fellowship
REASONS: By placing the food on the stone structure, it summons two wargs. One is a non-elite named mob that was 27 for my group. I didn't catch the specs on the other because it died too fast. Many of the party members were below the level of the quest. I was avoiding this quest because it was full fellowship, but I think with luck I could have soloed it.

[JeanCarlo]

QUEST: Drawing the Pack
CATEGORY: Lone-Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 25
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Small Fellowship
REASONS: By placing the food on the stone structure, it summons two wargs. One is a non-elite named mob that was 27 for my group. I didn't catch the specs on the other because it died too fast. Many of the party members were below the level of the quest. I was avoiding this quest because it was full fellowship, but I think with luck I could have soloed it.

Unless they changes this (possible, it's been a long while for me), you're supposed to get 3 or 4 wargs. 1 is a Signature, and the others are normal. The normals have/had a tendency to either bug or take forever to get into the fray. "Normally" they all come at you at the same time.

[Silverlocket]

Unless they changes this (possible, it's been a long while for me), you're supposed to get 3 or 4 wargs. 1 is a Signature, and the others are normal. The normals have/had a tendency to either bug or take forever to get into the fray. "Normally" they all come at you at the same time.

They may have changed it recently. I did it last night on my Champ and only had the Signature show up. The other times I have done it I had all four wolves on me.


SL

[JeanCarlo]

They may have changed it recently. I did it last night on my Champ and only had the Signature show up. The other times I have done it I had all four wolves on me.


SL

My guess would be that it's bugged - especially since the number of adds differ between your experience and Teh_Cad's.

[Gillros]

They may have changed it recently. I did it last night on my Champ and only had the Signature show up. The other times I have done it I had all four wolves on me.


SL

I did that quest a few days ago and my experience was the same as Teh_Chad's. Did it with just one other person (two mins total), so I'd agree with his analysis. Some classes would be able to solo that quest without any problems. I'm sure I could have.

[dhatcher1]

No quest should require a "trick" pull to complete unless you're way under level or doing a fellow quest solo.

Sometimes the whole point of a quest is to teach a creative pulling technique. Also different classes can get away with different tactics. My minstrel just pulled all 3 and AoE nuked until the two adds died then turtled up to slowly finish the boss. No trick pull involved.

[Gillros]

Sometimes the whole point of a quest is to teach a creative pulling technique. Also different classes can get away with different tactics. My minstrel just pulled all 3 and AoE nuked until the two adds died then turtled up to slowly finish the boss. No trick pull involved.

I agree, particularly that some classes will have an easier time than others. That's going to be true of all quests, though. I do think that the quest label should be some indicator of how difficult it is, though. If a quest is labeled small fellow and can be soloed, the player has an entirely different expectation vs the quest that is tagged solo, but may require a small fellow for certain classes.

Your description of causing adds to reset in that particular manner is a creative one--though as I mentioned, I doubt that's what the quest designer had in mind. It feels more like an exploit than a "creative pulling technique".

[mbalmer]

Quest: Searching for Fresh Springs
Listed Level: 13
Listed Icon: Fellowship
Accurate Level: 13
Accurate Icon: Solo

I'm presuming that the reason the Fellowship icon is still on this quest is because the Elite Huorns in the Old Forest used to be aggressive. They no longer are, significantly reducing the difficulty level of this quest. I was able to run in here at level 13 on my loremaster and just run in, grab the water, and run out. Got whacked a few times, but still managed to do it.

---
Quest: Tomb Of Elendil
Listed Level: 40
Listed Icon: Fellowship
Accurate Level: 42-44
Accurate Icon: Fellowship

Tomb Of Elendil is the poster child for "This quest requires you to have one of X type characters in your Fellowship". Because of Nornagol's nature and the way it does things, this quest needs, in GIANT RED LETTERS, something to the tune of "this quest is extremely difficult to complete unless you have a Burglar in your Fellowship". I'm all for steering people towards having certain fellowship makeups, but this takes the cake.

---
Quest: The Darkness Within
Listed Level: 42
Listed Icon: Fellowship
Accurate Level: 42
Accurate Icon: Fellowship

So, yeah, no clear changes - except for this: no quest - and I mean no quest, ever - should require you to completely wipe (or suffer severe losses) because of trial and error on how to figure out how to overcome the last boss. I'm not saying make it completely obvious, but there needs to be a method to help initiate the process for people. It's completely unclear what needs to happen when you enter the instance with him. Remmenaeg is an awesome boss with a completely confusing mechanic on how to actually beat him; there should, perhaps, be a readable quest item that drops giving a hint on what needs to be done to bring down his defenses. Maybe have it drop on Einiora along with the flint?

[thegneech]

Goblin Fire (Misty Mountains)
Current Level: 45 solo
Recommended Level: at least 47 fellowship or 48 small fellowship
Reason: Too many mobs with too fast a respawn

This quest just flat out kicked me up one side of the mountain and down the other. Even as a L50 Champion I could not solo this quest; getting anywhere near the pots requires making your way through areas where groups of 3-4 goblins (including the fire-lobbers) cluster together, wander around, and respawn quickly. Unless you have both a tank and a damage dealer (at least), there's no way to take out the foes quickly enough to actually pick up the pots.

When I can get through Uru without a hiccup but can't deal with a few pesty goblins, there's something definitely wrong.

-The Gneech

[thegneech]

Quest: All quests in Goblin Town.

I think all goblin town quests marked as "solo" should be marked as "small fellowship".

Reason: I dont see how a solo (even level 50) player can get anywhere inside GT and do these quests without other player traffic in the area clearing stuff.

Agreed. I'm sure it can be done, but with no rally points in GT, it's an exercise in frustration trying to sneak your way in again and again.

-TG

[Strongbow]

Eregion Quest: Dunlend's Champion

The quest description on this one is confusing me a bit. Not entirely sure where I picked it up either.

It is marked solo, and the objective is to obtain 1 set of Dunland Orders. In the description it talks about one of the bosses in the School at Tham Mirdain instance, but it does not really tell me where I can find the orders. If it is indeed a drop off of the first boss in the school, then it is definitely not a solo quest. I ran that instance a couple of nights ago, after I had obtained this quest, and the orders did not drop from the Boss. I've also farmed several Dunlendings around Mirobel and have not gotten the drop either.

Looking for hints on this one, as I do not remember this one specifically from beta.

[Gillros]

QUEST: The Second Gear
CATEGORY: Ered Luin
JOURNAL LEVEL: 7
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 9
ACTUAL ICON: Small Fellow
REASONS: The chest for this quest is way up in Odorost behind a large number of mobs, usually in 2 pulls with a couple of 3 pulls. It's best for a 2-3 people as its level is very misleading for a new player (besides, the chest is so far in that it's difficult to find if you aren't familiar where to go). The goblins in this area also spawn very quickly making retreat difficult/impossible. It's certainly more difficult than the other level 7 quests in the area.

Ideally, I would just leave the quest icons as they are and relocate the chest to the front part of the ruins, perhaps just off to the left at the top of the stairs (only 2 pulls in). That way it actually is a level 7 solo quest but would still require some caution for those few pulls.

[Siegfriedpf]

Eregion Quest: Dunlend's Champion

The quest description on this one is confusing me a bit. Not entirely sure where I picked it up either.

It is marked solo, and the objective is to obtain 1 set of Dunland Orders. In the description it talks about one of the bosses in the School at Tham Mirdain instance, but it does not really tell me where I can find the orders. If it is indeed a drop off of the first boss in the school, then it is definitely not a solo quest. I ran that instance a couple of nights ago, after I had obtained this quest, and the orders did not drop from the Boss. I've also farmed several Dunlendings around Mirobel and have not gotten the drop either.

Looking for hints on this one, as I do not remember this one specifically from beta.

I'm pretty sure I picked up a set of Orders off a mob. Clicked them to start the quest, and the first objective (collect orders) immediately ticked off as complete, with my next task being to take them to Mirobel (which I have yet to do).

[lf2536]

don't know if this has been mentioned but,
Quest: Old Odo's Leaf Farm
lvl: 11
icon: full fellowship
actuall lvl: 10
actual icon: small group, though you can solo it if you are quick
reason: by simply clearing all the mobs in advance you can solo this, though if you are a bit slow on this you'll get a bit of respawn, though with the right class this doesn't make any difference, so yeah, small fellowship not full.

[Big_H]

Moria:

Quest: Dark Power Rising
Listed Level: 53
Listed Icon: Solo
Accurate Level: 54-55
Accurate Icon: Small Fellowship

This quest is in no way a level 53 solo quest. The boss mob you need to kill is a level 53 normal, which is fine, but he's in an orc camp full of level 54-56 mobs, mixed with a handful of elites needed for another quest (small fellow - Purging the White Hand). Killing the boss is easy, but getting to him is impossible at 53, except for maybe a Burg.
Even at 56 I had an incredibly hard time with this quest. Every pull is at least 2 (level 54-56) mobs, some are the Moria Keepers so you add 3 (150 morale... easy to AoE) bats to the fight, not to mention the constant patrols, not to mention the reasonably fast respawn, not to mention the elites...
Two deaths, one DF, one Man Heal, and half a stack of level 51 morale pots later and that <insert bad words here> is finally dead. And that's AT level 56! <insert more bad words here>

Either move the boss to a different, level appropriate area, or bump his level to 55 bump the quest level to 55 and make it a small fellow, because any 53 who attempts this solo is in for a surprise.

The *only* good thing this quest has going for it, is the Rez Circle is right around the corner from it

[Big_H]

OK, so pretty much every quest (at least that I've done) that deals with this area (pictured below) needs to be reevaluated, IMO.


Expulsion (level 54 solo)? Please. How is fighting 2-6 level 56 mobs soloable by a level 54? Especially since so many of them are defilers who heal and drain your power.
Add in a "boss" mob (need to kill two) that gives this buff to himself and everyone around him... No way.

[Darkhosis]

All the quests marked SOLO in the Foundations of Stone should be all changed to group or small fellowship.

The area is just ridiculous crawling with signature mobs and mobs like the nameless who's skills can mess you over mighty fast. Not to mention most everything is a 2-3 pull ordeal.

[mouska_spaz]

QUEST: Beneath the Greenfields
CATEGORY: Epic - Vol. 1 Prologue
JOURNAL LEVEL: 12
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 12
ACTUAL ICON: Small Fellowship
REASONS: you have to kill goblins in groups of 3 to get to the door. at level 12, this it a tough thing to accomplish. you will need 2/3 people.

[clavis]

QUEST: Volume 1 Book 14 Chapter 1 (part 3) The Heraldry of Lindon, to find Laerdan's breastplate.
CATEGORY: Epic - Vol. 1 Book 14 Chapter 1
JOURNAL LEVEL: 50
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship (assuming 6)
ACTUAL LEVEL: 60 for each member (70 preferably)
ACTUAL ICON: Raid, 12 people, mixture of level 50 to 60.
REASONS: There is 1 single boss that heals all his adds. All mobs are wights, meaning Lore-master cannot stun. All adds are wights, with zero induction skills. The room is small - the boss can heal each (when they are close enough, and they ARE always close enough). Boss zooms in on minstrel, killing a level 60 minstrel in a few strokes. Guardian does not last without minstrel. The boss reset once stepping outside that small room.

All players need to be able to kill off all the adds in about 3 strokes, before the boss can heal all of them. The boss is about 50k, so it takes a lot of hitting, even without the adds, which consist of about 10 of 2k each, with at least 3 waves (we never lasted longer than that, 5 wipes). Even rooting the adds does not really help because the room is small. All rooted adds are within striking distance of one or another player.

Make it to allow a 12-person raid to do this quest, please.

[Duglaive]

QUEST: Volume 1 Book 14 Chapter 1 (part 3) The Heraldry of Lindon, to find Laerdan's breastplate.
CATEGORY: Epic - Vol. 1 Book 14 Chapter 1
JOURNAL LEVEL: 50
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship (assuming 6)
ACTUAL LEVEL: 60 for each member (70 preferably)
ACTUAL ICON: Raid, 12 people, mixture of level 50 to 60.
REASONS: There is 1 single boss that heals all his adds. All mobs are wights, meaning Lore-master cannot stun. All adds are wights, with zero induction skills. The room is small - the boss can heal each (when they are close enough, and they ARE always close enough). Boss zooms in on minstrel, killing a level 60 minstrel in a few strokes. Guardian does not last without minstrel. The boss reset once stepping outside that small room.

All players need to be able to kill off all the adds in about 3 strokes, before the boss can heal all of them. The boss is about 50k, so it takes a lot of hitting, even without the adds, which consist of about 10 of 2k each, with at least 3 waves (we never lasted longer than that, 5 wipes). Even rooting the adds does not really help because the room is small. All rooted adds are within striking distance of one or another player.

Make it to allow a 12-person raid to do this quest, please.

This can be done by a fellowship of 50s fairly smoothly if you *do not* fight him in the room where you find him. Have your tank get aggro on the boss and move him to one of the previous rooms you were in - preferably the one just across the hallway. This will make healing both the tank and the rest of the fellowship whom are fighting the adds back inside the corridor leading down to the chamber where the boss was much easier.

The boss needs line of sight in order to heal; by keeping them separated you prevent that. As far as cc goes, when the adds are spawned back in the boss chamber, root, bane flare, tar, burg mez, whatever what you can as they come up the corridor. It's advantageous to fight them near the door leading into the central hallway so the healer can keep folks topped off as well as possible while still keeping the adds out of sight of the boss.

This strategy worked well the numerous times I've done the instance. Good luck!

Edit: If you have a lm in the group, have that person place stun immunity on the tank before starting the boss encounter. Makes dragging the boss to another room much, much safer.