The Other Fellowship Of The Ring made some welcome progress this week, managing to finally deal with our old nemesis from a few weeks back, Nazgul #7, or possibly #5 - they all look the same to me. Vol 1, Book 5, Chapter 8 was probably the most difficult encounter so far and took two goes in the end, with the increasingly common early 'Recon Wipe' damping our initial spirits a bit.

Clearly a bit of SERIOUS BUSINESS, we ended up pulling out all the stops for the ultimately successful run and it involved a large number of consumables; shield spikes for me, a full packed lunch all round (Cream of Barley Soup, followed by Superior Lembas. I was going to do a Raspberry Pavlova for dessert, but couldn't get the meringue to rise properly in time,) and of course, after pretty much everyone on Twitter's advice, a big stack of Brilliant Edhelharn Tokens to offset the game-breaking fear effect the bugger emanates. What do you know, if you do it as intended, it works! Also of great use was the crazy purple disco lights our Loremaster can do (Remember, IT'S NOT MAGIC!), which apparently undead can't stand (being more into heavy metal than disco), and maneuvering the fight next to one of the giant blue obelisks in the big final room, along the walls, which are good for increased hope.

Still, a tough fight that could have gone either way and in typical fashion, he has little set pieces he does at various points in his health bar, pulling in adds, stunning people lots, massively self-healing now and then for kicks, etc, and he seems to have a 25% reflection shield which our Hunter in particular found rather entertaining. I managed to do my usual tanking technique for bosses, which entails getting my rotund hobbit self wedged between the boss and a wall or pillar - the obelisk in this case - preventing me from being hoofed out of the area and then just shouting into its face a lot, banging on my shield like a large flat and out of tune cowbell, and delivering the occasional spirited jump-kick in whatever reproductive organs an undead fallen King of Men may have once had. The wall is important because although Nobody Tosses a Dwarf, Everyone Hoofs a Hobbit!

For for reasons of contractual and narrative coherence, we didn't actually kill the Nazgul, but we did end up beating him down so hard that he won't now come back until well into The Two Towers. Huzzah!

Then on to the easiest and most underwhelming Book to date, Vol 1, Book 6, which we started, and then finished, in about half an hour. Consisting almost entirely of fed-ex solo-quests, there is practically nothing to say of it, other than that it is in Angmar, and is mostly about obtaining the correct solution to the Insta-Kill Statue Problems I may have ranted about previous. Quite a disappointment actually, when compared against Books 4 and 5, both rollicking group-driven mini adventures in their own right.

Lord of the Rings Online really does like its players to Do Things In The Correct Order and is possibly one of the most gated games I've ever played, barring Guild Wars: Factions. It's just as well that I'm am immensely enjoying the route through the game that we are on, because it seems as if that route is the only one allowed.

Still, progress is progress, and now its on to Book 7! Just as soon as we're all high enough level to start the thing. More gates!