What do you say to a huge dragon who has a lot of gold and invites you into his lair so he can “share” it with you? Well, I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
So, I was one of the fortunate ones who was able enough to get into the closed beta as well as a Draigoch run; and let me tell you this is a heck of a dragon and an interesting instance. I think that it is going to be fun for quite a number of groups, but it has a bit of a different twist when it comes to the fight. There is also a lot of speech that goes on during the entire encounter including several monologues that I believe most players will enjoy.
**HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD**
When you enter the lair you’ll be happy to know that there is nothing in your way. There are no additional mobs to encounter on the way. However, you will find that there is a winding path down to the dragon that unfortunately for you Draigoch is monitoring. He moves his head from side to side and peers though gaps between the walls. Should he happen to see a player walking between the gaps he will exclaim that he sees you and will almost immediately spew flame through the gaps; roasting any players that still might be within them. However, players can avoid being seen as his gaze is so bright that light issues forward from his eyes illuminating what gap he is peering through. So basically it boils down to watching what gaps are illuminated and moving forward down the path when you can. It’s a bit difficult at first, but you get used to it.
Eventually you will reach a safe spot where the raid can safely gather until everyone is ready to start. I won’t tell you how you actually start the raid, because that is fun in itself and something everyone should enjoy for the first time.
After here it gets a bit sketchy because my raid group was entirely new to the raid and we were not very successful. But what I can say is this: The dragon is huge, very huge; and he’s ultra protective of his horde. You will need to combat different parts of his body, become familiar with the layout of his internal lair, and watch out for falling rocks during the fight!
Overall this raid is going to require a lot of coordination and a lot of moving, but I also think it’s going to be quite a bit of fun. It’s got me thinking about starting up a raid group myself once people in our kinship and alliance start hitting 75.
August 26, 2011 at 11:47 am
NEED VIDEO!!!:) so beatufil!
August 26, 2011 at 12:00 pm
I’ll see if we can swing that some time.
August 26, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Yeah Wednesdays testing of the raid was probably the most fun 3 hours I have ever had in LOTRO. I don’t think anybody was able to defeat him before the testing ended early in the morning. My raid killed 2 of his feet. I love how he talks to you during the fight.
August 26, 2011 at 12:16 pm
Is the raid definitely a 24 person requirement? I remember healing rumors the HM was to do it with 12.
August 26, 2011 at 1:26 pm
12M T2 HM.
August 26, 2011 at 1:38 pm
I believe Bill is correct. Tier 2 is 12 people only. I think my group had a problem initially because the person set it to T2 (no idea why) and we had people who couldn’t get in so we had to reform.
August 26, 2011 at 2:09 pm
That is some really good news IMO. Finding 24 people was going to be an immense challenge.
August 26, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Has the NDA been lifted?
August 26, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Yes
August 26, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Sounds like fun, I may even turn on my in-game sound for this one
August 26, 2011 at 8:14 pm
At least on Wednesday the stuff Draigoch says is not put into General chat so if you don’t, you won’t hear anything.
August 26, 2011 at 12:31 pm
I looked at the two top screens and just scrolled past your spoilers. Already looks cooler than I expected.
August 26, 2011 at 12:33 pm
HOLY COW! Errr… dragon… That’s incredibly *@%$ing awesome. I was skeptical at first image, but now… Yeah. Yeeeeah… awesome.
August 26, 2011 at 12:35 pm
I almost think if they shared your shots instead of that big official one, there might have been less complaints about his in-game appearance haha
August 26, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Thanks Tony! Oh, and just an example for scale. On the third picture, I believe that red dot by his face was the tank’s shield.
August 26, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Haha, man, that drives his size home.
August 26, 2011 at 12:40 pm
I missed out on the raid this week. Hopefully they’ll put it up again soon so I can check it out.
August 26, 2011 at 1:17 pm
I finished the quest line that unlocked his lair entrance, so I peeped in out of curiosity. He started speaking to me in a huge ancient deep bellowing voice. Then I saw the spotlight of his glare poke thru. I felt like an escaped prisoner in Stalag 17 or something.. anyway he cooked me for about 13K of flame damage.
It actually scared me a bit. That’s a first for me in this game.
August 26, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Yeah, he’s got a really booming voice. You got to hear his first monologue (I only know of two, but there could well be more). He has another when the raid starts, which is pretty cool as well.
August 26, 2011 at 2:36 pm
I think if we offer him a few hundred frozen pie-cakes and a couple hundred gallons- he may calm down.
August 26, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Meant to say a couple hundred gallons of ale.
August 26, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Lemme guess, to start the raid you have to try to burgle something à la The Hobbit. Good or bad, every time I see this dragon, and now his lair, I immediately flash on the animated Hobbit movie.
August 26, 2011 at 7:02 pm
The voice-over is absolutely AMAZING!! I’ve been trying to describe it to people but I can’t do it justice so I was hoping somebody had captured a video or audio.
August 26, 2011 at 9:17 pm
There is a video of the raid, but you can’t hear the voice over very well as the volume is low.
August 26, 2011 at 10:37 pm
Where might I find said video?
August 26, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Check the Ride of Isengard forums or search youtube for LOTRO dragon raid, you’ll see it. It’s in 2 parts
August 27, 2011 at 10:51 am
Oh wow! It looks like this is going to be really neat! So for those of you who have seen this, (and I’m sorry if Merric and Goldenstar have already touched on this) is he in an underground cavern kind of thing; or does he have his own mountain maybe like Smaug did in The Hobbit? Just curious : )
August 27, 2011 at 2:00 pm
I don’t want to give too much away, but you find a cave that you enter to get to his lair
August 29, 2011 at 1:47 pm
I was also in the closed beta and ran a 12 man Draigoth raid. I say “ran” advisedly, because we only had 6 people and spent most of our time stumbling, fumbling, and dying! However, I got some good screenshots that made Belle look very tiny indeed.