Ruingalad the unkillable :P

[ShinryuLOTR]

The weird thing is that it said "Ruingalad died" instead of "Your mighty blow defeated the Ruingalad". I hope nobody took that last chunk of morale away for me(it did have like 2k Morale left when it died...)

It seems Ruing has some sort of self destruct attack that he does when low on HP, thus he ends up killing himself as opposed to you killing him. That could be the source of the confusing messages.

I can't say for sure as I haven't been able to take him down myself in the couple of times I've had him spawn.

[Mithrandir3]

How is that an exploit? Soldiers not affected by Auras is WAI.

Is there an official answer on this from a dev?

I don't understand how soldiers not being affected by auras and reflects can be WAI. For example, the devs have stated that your soldiers have an AI that will not attack lieutennants if it is detrimental to your soldier. So when there's an Echo of Death around, those reflect damage 50% of the time. Notice how your soldier never attacks them. But the only reason your soldier will refuse to attack one is if it expects to take reflective damage from the EoD.

Ergo, Soldiers are probably meant to receive reflective damage, or else they would automatically attack EoD's. There's no other reason why they would ignore them.



Regardless, until I see a dev response saying it's ok I'm not going to risk losing my lifetime account over what seems like an exploit to me.

[LavenderFire]

Regardless, until I see a dev response saying it's ok I'm not going to risk losing my lifetime account over what seems like an exploit to me.

Just replying to this as I remember running into it recently. This is taken from jwbarry (link provided below):

I've seen some comments on here about needing a command to make your soldiers move so they don't stand inside of AoE's and get killed. Well, here's a fun tidbit of back end knowledge. Things like the Priestess of Flame's giant plots of burning land, don't actually effect soldiers or defending NPCs. They did at one time, and we had a solution implemented in our dev branch to get them to run out of them, but then they'd aggro on the mob, and try to run back in, and do this weird awful looking ping pong in and out, it wasn't pretty. All the while, they aren't doing any DPS or running any skill plays. While it may look a little silly, we decided for gameplay it was better to just have them ignore the fire and keep swinging away. Bosses doing big AoEs are different, they will still hit, but you want your soldier hanging out swinging right back for those so that makes sense. If you see a location where a mob drops down a damaging area and it if affecting soldiers and NPCs, please /bug it.

http://forums.lotro.com/showpost.php...63&postcount=6

[Ames]

So thats a no to hunters taking him out?

[dorkchops]

While all encounters have a chance to show up equally on all group sizes, not all encounters are designed to be as equally challenging for all group sizes. I expect ruingalad is one that is much friendlier on 3, 6, 12 than solo.

So then why not tone him down a bit for a solo encounter?

When the end boss is 100x easier to kill then the optional something is broken.
And really whats up with all these 18k+ mobs running around in a tier1 solo??

[Apocalypse32100]

So then why not tone him down a bit for a solo encounter?

When the end boss is 100x easier to kill then the optional something is broken.
And really whats up with all these 18k+ mobs running around in a tier1 solo??

It is to make it so the deed titles aren't completely worthless. Also, I would expect optional bosses to be harder than anything required. The encounters are not supposed to be freebies.

That said, Ruingalad is a pain on classes that can't self-heal well.

[atteSmythe]

Is there an official answer on this from a dev?

Yes, though I can't recall if it was in this forum or the BR forum just before launch.

I don't understand how soldiers not being affected by auras and reflects can be WAI. For example, the devs have stated that your soldiers have an AI that will not attack lieutennants if it is detrimental to your soldier.

Reflects definitely hit your soldier - I distinctly remember mine having the reflected fire dot from Ruingalad. Auras don't affect your soldier because you have so little control over them. Not fair/fun to have them run over to you and die, or stand next to the wrong mob while attacking a different one, when you have no way of telling them to move or stay put.

So thats a no to hunters taking him out?

Not on-level. I ran it under level (60-61), threw a trap down, let my soldier tank until she died, then used liberal applications of crowd control and slows while relying on BA dot to kill him.

[jwbarry]

For solo he's being adjusted. He's keeping the fire aura DoT but losing the damage reflection. 3-man and above will remain unchanged. This is for a future patch/book.

[cicdle]

For solo he's being adjusted. He's keeping the fire aura DoT but losing the damage reflection. 3-man and above will remain unchanged. This is for a future patch/book.

Awesome, thanks!

[Doronlas]

So thats a no to hunters taking him out?

Not in a solo skirmish. He ate me for lunch I think he likes BBQ'd elf.

For solo he's being adjusted. He's keeping the fire aura DoT but losing the damage reflection. 3-man and above will remain unchanged. This is for a future patch/book.

thanks!

[gildhur]

For solo he's being adjusted. He's keeping the fire aura DoT but losing the damage reflection. 3-man and above will remain unchanged. This is for a future patch/book.

What about the dead normals in Ringwraith's Lair? They have the same reflect along with tons of other special skills that make for extraordinarily difficult waves even without LTs.

[elvyen]

Yes he has a final defeat skill that hits for around 1500. I've been hit with that everytime I've killed him, so you do need to allow for that before making the killling blow.

Yeah this attack is the stuff of nightmares. So there I am, a cocky LM breezing through the skirmishes, and then, 2 separate times, I run into him.

Both times I knock him dead, but on the last death blow, he lets loose something called "Final Flare".
First fight- 2900dmg. I die as he dies.

The next day I do the skirmish again. Oh hi Ruingalad. Ill get you this time. On the death blow, Final Flare!! 1850dmg. I die as he does.

...ouch

Is there something Im missing here, as in is there a way to prevent this skill from firing? (other than not killing him hehe)

all that being said, please dont change it! Its exciting having something to be afraid of

[forusrname]

What about the dead normals in Ringwraith's Lair? They have the same reflect along with tons of other special skills that make for extraordinarily difficult waves even without LTs.

What is this, the walking suits of armor mobs? If so, that is simply negated by using a bel weapon or not fire dps as a RK/LM. Hardest for a LM. I do not like this idea -- it punishes the weak (dont yet have bel damage type) and is easier for the strong. It should be the reverse (bad things if using bel). And LM dps is almost all fire, so its really a bit unfair for them too, maybe it should be a low chance to do something on any tatical damage instead.

Or did you mean the reflect ghost LT who is bugged (your soldiers will NOT fight these guys) ? Reminds me, need to bug that for JW.

[gildhur]

What is this, the walking suits of armor mobs? If so, that is simply negated by using a bel weapon or not fire dps as a RK/LM. Hardest for a LM. I do not like this idea -- it punishes the weak (dont yet have bel damage type) and is easier for the strong. It should be the reverse (bad things if using bel). And LM dps is almost all fire, so its really a bit unfair for them too, maybe it should be a low chance to do something on any tatical damage instead.

Or did you mean the reflect ghost LT who is bugged (your soldiers will NOT fight these guys) ? Reminds me, need to bug that for JW.

The dead armour mobs. They do more damage to me than most LTs. They're all non-common damage plus they reflect back 25% of anything you do that's not Beleriand. I think that's a little rough for a normal mob in a solo skirmish. You shouldn't be expected to carry multiple weapons for a single skirmish.

[forusrname]

The dead armour mobs. They do more damage to me than most LTs. They're all non-common damage plus they reflect back 25% of anything you do that's not Beleriand. I think that's a little rough for a normal mob in a solo skirmish. You shouldn't be expected to carry multiple weapons for a single skirmish.

Yes, I agree. I poked a suggestion about these guys in the big thread for JW. I dont think of them as undead, but I guess they are.

I think the idea is that by the time you are here, you should have bel damage on your primary item, but that does not help tatical classes at all (esp rk). Which again is wrong, it makes a hard mob easier for the better geared players (if you buy that bel is the best thing to get, which I agree with) and harder for a less geared player (using west or dwarf or common?).

It should either be a bel reflect or a common reflect. Bel if you want it harder for the better players, common if you want to punish people for being too far behind the content level of the encounter (if there is such a thing?).

[Tom-Dragon]

For solo he's being adjusted. He's keeping the fire aura DoT but losing the damage reflection. 3-man and above will remain unchanged. This is for a future patch/book.

The reflection being too strong should have been obvious guys. As soon as I saw that guy, I ran. The only way I beat him was by kiting him around while re-applying a DoT for 30 mins. Is it too much to ask that the devs who design monsters use their brains a little bit? Come on...100% damage reflection as fire WITH constant attacks and an aura DoT? Think a little here plz...

[jwbarry]

What about the dead normals in Ringwraith's Lair? They have the same reflect along with tons of other special skills that make for extraordinarily difficult waves even without LTs.

First I've heard of there being an issue with those guys...

[shel27]

yeah, he has wiped me on my mini once, but my warden takes him down no prob... it's a fun fight on a warden

[gildhur]

First I've heard of there being an issue with those guys...

They're seriously painful, especially since they usually come in pairs. Combine them with a particularly nasty LT and it's an almost certain wipe. When a single normal can get my Champion to 1/2 and two can force me to use cooldowns, something is wrong.

[Taralom]

I actually killed Ruingalad on my hunter with a pretty decent herbalist, all the consumables I could use, Improved Press Onward, and died immediately thereafter.

[Hobbit-at-heart]

yeah, finnally got him on my burg, breaking out every cooldown including marble, caltrops and ready and able...my soldier and i both survived...that final flare thing or whatever its called missed or something, and i escaped w/ 600ish morale and my bannerguard w/ 2k

[Duredhel]

Managed him on my hunter after finally getting him to spawn after 20 or so runs since crashing 'n burning the first time (pulled him along with the counter-attack. doh!). I waited too long to grab aggro back from my bannerguard and she bit it pretty darn quick. I'm think the tactical defense trait might be a good one to use for tanking soldiers. Probably dump the melee offense trait since bannerguards have abysmal dps anyways.

I was simply able to kite him around the center courtyard using Bard's Arrow, SB, then QS to hobble him up to make my get away and kite some more. Without any healing, I did have to use a pot and IPO, but I escaped the final blast as he was crawling at this point and out of range. Ended with about 3k morale and nearly all my power, sans a live soldier. Ain't kiting grand.

[dorkchops]

First I've heard of there being an issue with those guys...

those guys are perfect they reflect damage but they dont have 18k hp and go down pretty quick with little in the way of damage dealt even on tier2

[Solien]

I killed Ruingalad, as a 65 guard, with a warrior around rank 15, on a T1 65 skirmish. I burned pledge, heart, and one pot. No deep breath, no man heal. I was disappointed to win so handily after reading this thread.

Am I missing something? What's the big deal?

In all honesty, it sounds like you got a bugged encounter. I haven't seen this guy solo since beta (when he really was impossible solo), so I'll run this skirmish until I get a crack at him to see for myself, but nearly everyone else in this thread is talking about blowing all of their cooldowns, yet somehow you used Heart and one pot? Unless there's something about your build that's making you impervious to fire damage, my guess is you simply weren't taking the damage that others have due to a bug.

[RusselDog]

@ Solien; Im flumoxxed myself about the difficulties people have with Ruingalad, as i've previously mentioned. I've comfortably solo'd him, without death, on multiple occasions (I lost my herbalist once, and that was the first time I met him, when I stupidly lit the torches while the counterattack was approaching). I just don't get what people are having difficulties with, because he's always been quite manageable for me.

That said, he IS harder than most optionals I've come across, just not to the epic proportions that people here seem to to be stating.