Cari is joined by Branick of LOTRO Academy this week, and thought it was episode 213. Her other co-hosts were unavailable or maybe she locked them in a basement. Who knows? We talked about taking Hobbits to Isengard, livestream news, and concerts.

Branick-

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  did a little dance, made a little love, got down tonight

  
  
  
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  hopefully made Cari laugh

  
  
  

Cari

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  Yule Festival

  
  
  
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  Instances Finder Instances to use up the rest of my VIP bonus

  
  
  

News

From Sapience’s Livestream on 1/3/2014

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• USA and EU characters will never be able to transfer servers. When Turbine took the servers back from Codemasters, the standards that Turbine set were not followed. If they transferred your characters, they could end up on someone elses account and you would never get them back.
  
• Northern Mirkwood is not on roadmap for this year.
  
• The team has read all the suggestions for housing revamps. ALL.
  
• Horseshoe hint: Everyone needs some luck with a snowball fight.
  
• The horseshoe keeps being changed and added to as developers add more things to it.
  
• First Agers: Soonâ„¢
  
• Lotteries: the last power loss took out the hardware that runs the lotteries.
  
• No plans to merge servers
  
• LUA: The creator of the LUA plugin system is still with the company. It is a pet project and he updates it as a hobby.
  
• Rift may never be updated. Many love the Rift and it may never be updated because they would have to change a lot of things in it that they feel players would not like. Such as break it up into sections and update raid mechanics. So the love for the Rift is preventing the Rift form being scaled.
  
• Some instances will be scaled this year, but he doesn’t know what ones.
  
• There are a lot of talks about PVMP that can’t be talked about.
  
• There is talk on adding larger group sizes in some of the epic battles.
  
• Cosmetics for weapons and shields are impossible and can not be done.
  
• Inventory discussion is going on right now. Possible crafted quest items to cut down on storage. “Did not talk about this much. Could this mean crafted task stuff?â€
  
• Creeps being let loose in the main world has been brought up a lot. The answer that always follows is *oh hell no*
  

Sapience has made 29 hunters on 29 servers

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7064215#post7064215

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?537901-Take-the-Hobbits-to-Isengard

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  http://www.twitch.tv/turbine_sapience

  
  
  
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  He has a challenge of taking a level 10 hunter to Isengard.

  
  
  

Here’s how it works

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• The day before the challenge, I’ll announce the server chosen at random and the time the challenge starts.
  
• The challenge starts at the milestone outside The Prancing Pony in Bree.
  
• Each server is allowed two tries during the live stream. If my Hobbit is defeated he’ll reset to the milestone outside the Prancing Pony and you’ll need to start again. After the second defeat occurs, the challenge is over and the group has failed.
  

Important details

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• My Hobbit will be on foot. No mounts.
  
• Because a level 10 Hobbit isn’t much of a fighter past certain areas, my Hobbit will /follow one person the group designates. Make sure it’s someone who knows the way!
  
• GM’s will be notified prior to each event. So anyone with plans to grief, harass, or otherwise make trouble during the event should be aware the GMs are on call and watching the stream. So even if I miss it, they probably won’t. The idea here is to have FUN!
  
• Every server will get a chance to try and get the Hobbits to Isengard. Time will be the ranking method. The fastest time gets the top slot.
  
• An official leaderboard thread will be created and all official times and success/failure information will be posted there.
  

Yule Contest Winners Announced

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7064210#post7064210

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• For all players a free Cloak of the Dove
  
• Coupon: YULE13
  
• 1 redemption per account. Coupon expires January 31 at 10AM eastern time. So make sure you use it before then!
  

January’s Steed

http://cstm.mymiddleearth.com/2014/01/lotro-snow-beast-steed-available-in-january/

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  The Steed of the Snow Beast

  
  
  

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Live in Middle Earth

http://layanor.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/lotro-did-you-know-goldilocks-location/

Winterstock

http://lotroartists.com/servers/us/landroval/winterstock-2014/

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• January 17-20
  
• 4 Days 18 Bands
  
• No Contest Just Music
  
• Winterstock will be held on the frozen pond next to the Silver Deep Mine at Thorin’s Gate. Please remember to mark your calendars! And you might want to pack some warmer clothing, too.
  
• All you need is a level 6-7 character. Travel to Thorin’s gate via stable from Bree (Breeland), Celondim (Ered Luin) or Michel Delving (The Shire).
  

10 Ton Hammer Alternate Soundtracks

http://www.tentonhammer.com/alt-soundtrack/hair-metal-healers?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_reader=feedly

Letter from Kazren:

Here are my predictions:

New character class; I don’t know what name they’ll choose, but a class that resembles an Illusionist, heavy on mes and stun work when in groups, magical damage attacks when solo.

Areas to be updated/changed : North Downs, Trollshaws, Travel, Housing

Now, I would like to discuss 12-man instances/skraids.  We did a tier

2 12-man with 5 people.  What is happeneing?  Have you or Cari or Layanor noticed this?  Is this because the characters are ‘over powered,†or because the devs, when they created the level 95 instances and skirms didn’t adjust them?  Or are the people I run with just incredible?

One last thing: The epic battles start of almost impossible to do well in, especially solo.  But I specialize in engineering and I have friends who specialize in that and officer and by the time you get to rank 3 you can do amazing things, which only get more incredible as you get to rank 4 and 5.  We get platinum on everything now, so for those who tried it and didn’t like it, they should hang in there.

Kazren

From Layanor (Yes we are overpowered right now and the game is not adjusted. We do not know if they will adjust all the raids, but we do know that PVMP will be adjusted first. Then possibly the raids. Take advantage of it and get those Survival Barrow Downs scraid deeds done. Layanor has spoken.)

Hopes for LOTRO 2014

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Cari  Twitter: @thecarimac

Layanor  Twitter: @Layanor

Branick – branick@lotroacademy.com