Helm's Dike: A Stone Obstruction - complete failure

[Umpbear]

I'm not new to Epic Battles at all, so this is not about my set-up or lack of points or anything like that.

I ran a solo Helm's Dike just now and my first SQ was A Stone Obstruction; basically run back and forth between the 3 archers telling them to fire on the Dunlendings attempting to dam up the stream. I've done this many times w/o a problem.

Only this time, those archers didn't even scratch the Dunlendings, after about 2 minutes maybe, the quest failed with a result of 0/15 Dunlendings killed. Zero, not one.

I know some people use catapults in their set-up to assist with stopping the Dunlendings, but those archers have never had an issue killing them before as long as you kept them alive, and gave them orders to fire in a timely manner (back and forth on my mount in rotation, just like always) - none of my archers died or were even threatened really, my barricade placement and officer orders saw to that.

0/15?

Something needs to be looked into here - I know EB's had some balancing issues that were thankfully addressed, but this SQ seems to have been missed.

Either those particular Dunlendings are wearing steel plate in addition to carrying those heavy rocks - or the archers tasked to fire upon them are using nerf-gun suction cup arrows that have no capacity for dealing damage whatsoever.

Platted the other 2 SQ's for an overall result of Gold.

[Guhrasoh]

See here: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...o-Epic-Battles seems Vastin doesn't care.

[Umpbear]

Yeah I posted in that one too - the majority of issues seems to have been addressed - but some are still lingering it seems - I would hope Vastin cares enough to look into this - he seems to for the most part.

Thanks for the bump though!

Vastin, can you comment on this issue?

[tryasphalt8106]

I'm still failing quickly in March 2020. Not 1 stone carrier is killed. And have never seen the stone carriers.

[SophieTheEnchantress]

Yeah. A different tactic is now needed for A Stone Obstruction.

During setup, place a catapult on the walkway over the main gate. Upgrade it for Armor, Damage, and Speed but not Distance. Load it with a Heavy Shell and the second powder type. Crank it to maximum distance. Turn it so the shell will land in the stream.

On the spot where you enter, standing on the walkway, looking out towards the battlefield, there is a tower on your left. This is the same tower that gets attacked during Protect the Watchtower. There is a lane right next to that watchtower. Near the commander who is closest to the watchtower, place two upgraded barricades on the path from that commander to the watchtower.

When the quest starts, drop a bear trap or trip trap in the barricades described above and run to the catapult on the walkway. Looking from the walkway directly out at the battlefield, Dunlanding Stone Carriers will now be seen walking around the prominence to your left towards the stream. They come in twos and later threes. As they enter the area of effect circle of your catapult, kill them. Reload, crank, and repeat until all stone carriers are dead.

The above method will usually result in a Platinum Medal. Sometimes, an attacker will get past the barricades and attack the archer closest to the watchtower. I have not figured out a good way to prevent that but occasionally taking a peak at the watchtower and pulling any enemy you find should do the trick. Take care not to miss any stone carriers!

After the quest concludes, reload the catapult with a heavy shell, add armor rend powder, crank to maximum distance, and turn it to fire upon the walkway leading to the gate. Now the catapult is ready for killing the vile war machine.

Good luck!

I will come back later and add a (really bad) picture but right now I need to skirmish.

[Sorcsia]

Good luck!

I will come back later and add a (really bad) picture but right now I need to skirmish.

Necro. Apologies, but hopefully I may get a "you need to focus on this when doing that."

Thank you for this. I have never once seen any of the stone carriers, but I am at 46 points so unable to get a catapult yet. I fail this no matter what I do. I will try to get up to R.3 although getting more points solo is very difficult. I fail Glittering Caves almost always since I cannot win any of the side battles there. Guardians have a hard time in Rohan; their steeds are difficult and the epic battles are ruled by ranged types.

[SophieTheEnchantress]

Necro. Apologies, but hopefully I may get a "you need to focus on this when doing that."

Thank you for this. I have never once seen any of the stone carriers, but I am at 46 points so unable to get a catapult yet. I fail this no matter what I do. I will try to get up to R.3 although getting more points solo is very difficult. I fail Glittering Caves almost always since I cannot win any of the side battles there. Guardians have a hard time in Rohan; their steeds are difficult and the epic battles are ruled by ranged types.

Hello, Sorcsia.

The stone carriers are very hard to see, especially with draw distance set to a low value. If you stand on the rampart over the stream, looking towards the enemy, to the left, you will see then walking towards the stream.

For the Glittering Caves, please see this post. It may help.