It’s been a while since I’ve spent some time in Moria; I mean really spent some time in there. However, recently with the Fellowship walk and my wife putting a hold on her Minstrel until it had completed, I decided that I would pull out my Champion and run through a bit of Moria and really put the Rise of Isengard changes to test (at least as far as the Fury and Ardour lines go). And I have to say I was a bit surprised at what I discovered on my journey.
First off, let me say that in my alt experiment one thing that I should have done, as suggested by a fan, was to stagger out the levels of the characters so that they were all at different level ranges. 
However, I tend to be a fairly linear thinker so I decided to take them all through the same zones at the same time. And for a while it worked well. In fact, I really loved the Lone-lands so much that I enjoyed my time going through that area on all my characters one after the other. But I didn’t really think about my time going through the areas that I didn’t like so much the first time through, especially Moria. That’s not to say that Moria is a bad place to go through; in fact it’s one of the more epic areas in the game and everyone should experience it at least once. Still, I think most people would admit that it has some shortcomings like being hard to navigate at times; in later levels it really sends you running all over the place; and after too much time underground the dark atmosphere can get to you. And once I started hitting level 50 on my characters the thought of running 8 characters through Moria back-to-back (my Guardian has already gone through a while ago) worried me . I mean seriously, how did I not think about this at the start?
But, like most people starting (at least what feels like) a large task I decided that for now if I took one character through Moria and then intermingled it with Goldenstar in Isengard, and keeping my Warden in-line with the Monday Night “Dum” group that I could use that to break up my alts going through that area. So, with a bit of excitement, I grabbed my axes and
plunged forward into the dark and climbed that vast stairway into Khazad-dûm. And you know what? It wasn’t the nightmare I thought it would be. In fact, until I got to the point where I was having to spend 15 minutes running to and fro due to the epic quest line, I was having a lot of fun. I was actually very surprised to find myself in and out of Moria in about a week (keep in mind this is with Derudh’s Stone equipped) . And in that time I was able to level to 58, go through enough of the Epic Storyline to allow passage into Lothlórien, and earn Kindred with the Iron Garrison Guards. I also enjoyed going through the several Instance Plays covering Moria’s past as well. But I can’t even pretend that I did everything that there is to do in Moria. Off-hand I can think of several quest hubs that I didn’t touch, nor did I do any of the dungeons (although I ran through several of the crafting instances, a couple of the Dolven-view instances, and of course the 2.5.5 skirmishes) and many of my deeds remain incomplete.
At this moment I can see myself going two ways. One is hitting 60/65 with my Champion and then going into Moria with my Captain, or possibly moving on to Isengard with my Champion. Admittedly with all the enthusiasm that Ketani has over the Captain, I seem to be compelled to pick that character up and have him plunge into the darkness as well. But, I am also itching to see Mirkwood once again as well. For now I think I will stick with my Champion and get him to 65. Why? Because he’s just too dang fun right now to put down.
October 26, 2011 at 11:12 am
Level 65? You don’t level your Champion to level 75 or is that another project?
October 26, 2011 at 11:19 am
Hehe, well I’d stop at 65 to probably level another character through Moria; then plug along with the champ as need be.
October 26, 2011 at 11:18 am
I picked back up my 56 champ with RoI and next thing I know I forgot all about playing my guard. He’s currently 66 and questing in Mirkwood. So much fun to solo with him. Sidenote: Use a warrior in skirms with a champ. You can kill waves of mobs at a time! Loads of fun!
October 26, 2011 at 11:37 am
Yeah, it will be interesting to see where my Guard goes from here. I really like the guard, but if Champ tanking is more fun we’ll have to see… Although the Champ will take a lot of work to get up to snuff for dungeons and such.
October 26, 2011 at 12:07 pm
I love playing the Champ, right now his only level 11 but it is so much fun leveling him.
October 26, 2011 at 1:18 pm
It only gets better in my opinion.
October 26, 2011 at 12:13 pm
I have not spent much time in Moria since ROI dropped, but the one thing that would make the zone go from unbearable to awesome is to make all of the stables swift travel.
Seriously, all of stables in Lothlorien, Mirkwood and Dunland give swift travel from the get-go, so why not Moria?
October 26, 2011 at 1:19 pm
That really would make things a lot better. They’re no longer deed gated anymore, but there are so few that by the time I was able to use them I was ready to leave Moria. It’s pretty lame to be in the 21st hall and ride all the way back to the Chamber of Crossroads, although it’s a good time for a bio break.
October 26, 2011 at 12:32 pm
How did you manage to get kindred with the Guards despite doing so little? My main went all the way through Moria and doesn’t even have Ally standing, I believe. I’d really like to get to get the Legendary trait from them.
October 26, 2011 at 12:40 pm
I stockpile the rep items (cracked etchings, crystal lamp fragments) from my higher level toons in a vault, and as soon as I start a new toon in Moria, I can get them about halfway through friend without doing any quests.
You can also barter skirms for crystal lamp fragments at the skirmish curiosities(?) vendor.
October 26, 2011 at 1:21 pm
I’m pretty sure they upped the faction rewards at some time, because it wasn’t this easy on my main either. I only had to run a couple of instances and only had to barter for one faction reward.
October 26, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Question: Where is the instance where Durin’s Bane comes out of that cave? I missed it the first time, going through with Narnian.
October 26, 2011 at 1:22 pm
It’s in the 21st hall just west of the stable master.
October 26, 2011 at 2:13 pm
You can get it as early as 45(same time as vol 2 book 1) though infront of walls of moria. Its incredibly slow and boring though, lots of running back and forth.
October 26, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Oh misread that, didn’t realise that you were past that point
October 26, 2011 at 2:33 pm
I think it will also vary depending upon the class you take through Moria. The second time is definitely easier. Plus, you are playing a champ. So lots of mobs in moria, means lots of shing-shing. And champs are in a great spot right now with the latest patches. My burglar alt had an epic time in moria. I could stealth and explore every nook and cranny. Moria for my burg was pure fun.
October 26, 2011 at 7:34 pm
I agree with the burg comment. I took my hunter through first and it was painful. Second time through was a burg and it really was a breeze. Stealth really helps speed things up
October 26, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Orc watch to 21st hall is by far the worst route. I am constantly back and forth between those two despite having both on milestones.
There is still a surprising number of people doing instances in Moria (a lot of high levels doing them to gear their alts). Some instances are hard to get people for though; I’m looking at you 16th Hall and GS Quest mode!
On the whole a great zone and like nothing I’ve seen before in a game. The watcher raid is definilty worth doing for anyone who hasn’t done it before. Good raid mechanics, no trash to clear and very cool to fight such an iconic foe.
October 26, 2011 at 7:15 pm
I love Moria. I’ve taken 8 characters through there, and it’s one of my favorite zones. But then I like Angmar and Mirkwood too, so I must be warped. They did an excellent job of recreating the feel of the place the way I imagined it when I first read the books.
The 21st hall is definitely quieter compared to pre-RoI, and good luck finding people to run quest-level Moria instances.
October 27, 2011 at 9:46 am
/agree Merric
I took a level 46 LM into Moria right before RoI. With the XP stone and a lot of “blue bar” the levels flew by. I also tried to make a point of doing exactly enough quests to unlock the swift travel before moving on to the next area. It was easy to skip annoying/out of the way quests, and the solo-able epic was awesome XP and good-enough gear. I didn’t bother gearing up in Moria gear. I did get a quest group for GS, which was a big boon in XP and rep. I also did the few extra kills to finish almost-done deeds.
I left with a lot of new virtues, and Kindred with the Guards. As I soldiered on toward 65, my kinnies did a quick instance run and I went back to finish my class capstone quest. Honestly, it was a smooth leveling experience for me, on par with Mirkwood.