Dark Delvings - *Spoiler*

Welcome to the hardest 6 man instance in LOTRO.

Its dark, its creepy, its relatively short but my word its difficult.

All classes could be used and most have a requirement but as you can only take 6, the recommended set up would be:

Guard/Champ - used for tanking and clobbering
Minnie - for healing, obviously
Champ/Warden - for DPS/Off tank
RK/Hunter - for DPS
LM - for DPS and Debuffs and CC
Captain - for DPS and 2nd Healer

Ok, a couple of of things to mention about the instance:

1. You have to move between the big runes that are on the path as when you are next to these, and in the area of light, you will get a debuff to speed and skill inductions. You also could get a debuff from Gurvands scream (Gurvand is the last boss) which results in 20% damage to you for every time you are in the dark when the scream happens. When you die, it resets.

2. If you bump in to any of the blue slimy things that dangle from the ceiling, a group of glow worms will spawn and you will get rooted to the spot for 20 seconds or so. The best thing to do if the worms appear is to run to the areas of light as soon as you can, and fight them there.


Ok, so making your way to the first boss is relatively simple and shouldn't take long. A handful of mobs on the way which can be CC'ed/rooted, etc and picked off at your pleasure. Just fight in the light and watch our for the ranged attacks (you can stand behind the big runes to be out of LoS)

First Boss (The Annoying Boss)

The boss room is circular with a raised platform which you access from the bridge. On either side of this platform are 2 ramps going down to the floor which will come in handy during the fight (or hopefully not if all goes to plan). On the platform are 3 rune stones that are not lit. The boss appears in the middle of these and you should not have to encounter any adds during this (again, all being well).

The most important thing to mention about this boss, and why he is called the annoying boss, is because he does some fairly hefty kicks which will send you to the outer area of the room where you will land on the bottom with a broken leg and possibly, if you hit any dangly things on the way, a few worms for company (you run up the ramps to get back up). If the person with aggro gets kicked off the platform the boss will follow and if he steps off the main platform, he wil reset.

So, to avoid getting kicked off which will prevent him resetting, you should all position yourself with your back to the runes.

When you are ready, move to the first rune in a group - the bridge will retract and the door will close when the boss is activated. Everyone needs to be lined up so they are directly inbetween the boss and the rune. If you are kicked, hopefully you will fly up in to the air and land relatively close to the rune - get back in to formation as quick as possible.

The purpose of the runes are so that you can light them in turn and therefore remove the speed/skill induction debuffs. Each rune will only stay lit for a limited amount of time as the boss will destroy them when he has had enough. As this happens, move together to the next rune (work in clockwise direction) and huddle up in front of it, whilst someone lights it.

Rinse and repeat for the other 2 stones. LM's need to be watching out for the wound damage which can be pretty high so get those healed asap.

Once the 3rd rune has gone out you have to fight in the dark. It is best if everyone stays in the same place to avoid the kick back and just nuke him as much as yoiu can for the last 20k morale.


With him dead, you can proceed to the next boss which is a short walk away, again more runes to stand next to, more mobs to kill but fairly standard stuff.

Second Boss (The Easy Boss)

Ok, so this room is a bit bigger, there ar no platforms to fall off and you don't get kicked so things are looking up already.

The idea of this boss is to fight him in the area of light, next to the rune stones moving from each stone in turn until he is dead. There is one significant add in this room (a 'World Eater') which should be mezzed and left alone until the boss is down - you can kill it if you want but its better to leave it. A number of normal adds appear randomly ('The Darklings') which should be picked off quickly.

When you walk in to the room all of the rune stones are lit and there is nobody home. It is essential that nobody steps in the light until after the boss is activated as this stone then becomes obsolete and will not give off any light during the fight.

So, everyone moves as a group to almost the middle of the room and the tank goes to activate the boss. The LM will be ready to mezz the WE and everyone else will be running to the first rune that is lit. (once the boss is active, all runes go out except 1 - this is the one you head for) Its just a tank and spank until the rune goes out at which point everyone moves to the next lit stone as quickly as possible. Take out any of the smaller adds on the way and leave the WE alone. Keep doing this until the boss is down (it shouldn't take more than 2 mini fights to get this done) and then proceed to take out the WE.

[EDIT: The world eater and the darklings appear randomly but will spawn at different times based on the stone. Both will have different buffs to the boss, ie darklings give boss -90% mellee damage so use ranged attack and opposite for world eater. Also, some overseers may appear too. These are all random so cant predict who, when, where or what]

Watch out for any wound and poison damage as you fight the boss, using your Hunter/LM and pots.


With this boss down, head along the cave and in the direction of the final boss. Kill the mobs as you go, same as before - stay in light to fight, etc and make sure you are in the light when Gurvand scream (you will know this is going to happen when text appears on the screen. At this point you have a few seconds to get in the light before the 2nd message appears which does the debuff)

Final Boss (The Hard Boss)

Ok, this is it.

Again you find yourself in a room with a platform which has a number of arms coming from it. At the end of these arms is the wall and also a rune stone. (If you are doing this in hard mode, dont light the runes as you fail it).

The boss will appear in the middle and throughout the fight will be a number of normal adds that do a sizeable ranged damage. Again, wounds and poison need to be looked after.

The way to set up for this fight should be:

Tank - stands on the platform to the right of the door you come in, at the end of the platform with back to the wall.

Minstrel - stands by the rune stone on the platform out of LoS from the rest of the room and with back to rune stone so they are looking directly at the tank. The minnie is for the main part just healing the tank.

Captain - stands on the same platform but the opposite side of the rune stone to the minstrel and will be healing the rest of the group

DPS - the rest of the group are going to be dps'ing the adds and boss whilst the LM looks after the wounds of the tank


Get to you positions as quickly as possibly as the adds come quickly, with boss following after a few seconds.


Ok, about the boss:

1. If he starts a skill induction whilst looking at the tank, he is going to do a kick. Choose to interrupt this skill or not, but be prepared to fly back against the wall and down again if you dont.

2. If he turns to the rest of the group and starts a skill induction, this needs to be interrupted as its a sizeable AoE.

3. The boss throughout the fight mumbles something about 'Bleeding Ears' and goes in to a defensive stance whereby any damage you do to him is reflected back at you. During this phase, do not hit him at all.


The fight should go something like:

1. Tank and all DPS boss, interrupt inductions (esepcially AoE) except
2. Champ or Warden tanks/kites the adds and
3. Captain keeps off-tank/everyone else healed and if possible DPS the boss
4. When boss goes to 'Bleeding Ears' mode EVERYONE focus on adds
5. Return to boss when he is not in reflect mode


Keep going until the boss is dead.

Have fun, enjoy and don't expext to do this on the first run!

Ok I found a good video of the end battle in HM. Very impressive and some solid tactics. Well worth a look to help us with future DD runs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQpOtvHt22k

Enjoy.