Welcome to LOTRO Epic A Day, where I guide you on an epic journey through Middle-Earth, one day at a time. Each Book of the Epic quest is separated into its own Day, with Side-Days for leveling up to the next book. Gather up your belongings and hit the road, a new Day awaits!
Moria’s deepest, darkest region is found within the Foundations of Stone. A maze of tunnels and crowds of strange, sickening monsters plague this area. While there are many quests to be found in the upper 50’s, this is not a recommended area for leveling. By the time you reach the Foundations you have likely been outside Moria and seen the sunshine of Lothlórien, where you can easily quest in the Dimril Dale at this stage of the game. However, there are still deeds to complete for TP and virtues within the Foundations, and if you enjoy hunting mutated Globsnaga orcs and trolls then the experience might make questing here worth your while.
Foundations of Stone Quest Hubs
The Shadowed Refuge (Rec 58-60): The Dwarves have build a reasonably sized encampment among the glowing fungi on an upper level walkway at the Shadowed Refuge (13.1 S, 101.2 W), hoping to have a forward base against the corruption and filth coming from Moria’s depths. There are vendors, quests, relic and forge-masters, and a Stable-master. You can also barter Moria Medallions here for class-set armors. Elves from Lothlórien have been stationed in Gwathrendath, a nearby cave at one end of the upper pathway (12.9 S, 100.7 W), which you will visit for Book 6of the Epic Quest.
Skûmfil (Rec 58): Skûmfil is a level 58 classic instance that you can enter in the Foundations of Stone or through the Instance Join Panel. At the world entrance (13.3 S, 100.4) you can obtain fellowship quests to complete within the instance.
Dark Delvings (Rec 58): The Dark Delvings are the location of another classic instance found in the Foundations (15.8 S, 97.2). There is also another campsite here to obtain fellowship quests for the instance.
November 2, 2011 at 8:39 am
also, the foundations of stone are home to one of the best-designed mob in middle earth, the nameless
November 2, 2011 at 9:23 am
I actually enjoyed questing in the foundations when my minstral was there (I know, I am strange
). I had to go into the zone quite deeply anyway because of the minstrel class quest, and went all the way down past the dark delvings entry where there is another quest giver (just a few steps down the slope beyond the instance entrance) handing out quests for the level 60 raid dar narbugud (which is located right next to the dark delvings). There are some interesting landmarks in the zone, like the foot of the endless stairs and a piece that broke off the bridge between first and second hall when Gandalf fought the balrog.
November 2, 2011 at 11:05 am
Yeah, there are a few sights to see (especially the stairs and broken bridge). I only don’t recommend the area because there’s no need to level here when you can (Lothlorien should be easy enough at these levels), unless you personally really enjoy the area. There are some mobs here that are a bit tougher than standard world enemies that make leveling a bit more challenging, in my opinion.
November 2, 2011 at 1:55 pm
You are right that Lothlorien is a good alternative, it’s just that I stubbornly refused to leave Moria as long as I had not finished the epic story through book 5, and I took a long time doing the skrimishes at the end of that book
. Still, I enjoyed the foundations because they were an interesting challenge, and I practiced spotting and removing corruptions on the nameless since they had corruptions on them most of the time.
November 2, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Seeing as I’m highly arachnophobic and annoyed at cities which have an impossible to find entrance, I have and only intend to have stepped foot in here once, for the epic story
November 3, 2011 at 1:59 am
After the fourth or fifth char you will be able to find that entrance with closed eyes
November 3, 2011 at 2:47 pm
The Hunter’s Campsite Campfire traveling skill sure was handy for this zone.