A trip into Sarnur and Haudh Iarchith

A few days ago I wrote about my first trip into Sarnur, the new reputation dungeon in Ered Luin, and decided to write a little post about my most recent adventures. I’ve spent a good deal of time these past few days adventuring and learning about the various reputation dungeons added in Book 10. As I mentioned in my previous entry and in the our most recent podcast, by killing enemies in these dungeons and areas you gain tokens and reputation to advance your way into the good graces of these factions.

At first I thought Sarnur was a fairly simple and straight forward place with level 43-46 non elites and the occasional elite troll if you venture far enough. I was wrong! If you adventure deeper into the frozen depths of Sanur you will uncover that below the surface, or “top layer” since none of this place is really on the surface, there is a vast network of pathways to explore! Full of elite frost trolls, bears, and yeti’s coupled with the lightning fast respawn rate there’s no room for error or slow groups in here. I’ve only adventured a few minutes in but I’ve seen enough to know that this place is potentially enormous. While grinding for Dourhand Crests on the mobs that I could solo, I observed a group forming to slay what they called a “frost dragon”. Right now this is unconfirmed and I may have totally misunderstood but there might actually be a cavern deep below with a dragon! I’ll try to find a fellowship this week so that I can snap a few screenshots of this beast and perhaps learn of more monsters that lurk below.

After learning so much about Sarnur and having a great deal of success not only with faction drops but with other loot drops as well, I decided to head into the Barrow Downs in search of the reputation dungeon Haudh Iarchith. It did not take much searching to find that the entrance to this forsaken place is just below the spawn of Malin (NPC for the Finding Malin quest). Upon entering I had the immediate feeling that this place, from what I could see, was not quite as breathtaking compared to Sarnur. It looks very similar to what you might remember from the Great Barrows and other crypt-like places in LOTRO. As you enter you walk through a small passageway and into this large room with 4 passages. One path you just came through and 3 more each leading deep into Haudh Iarchith. I decided to take the left path because looking into the center I saw nothing but elites (An adventure for another day). Going down the left tunnel with my Herald at my side I was immediately jumped by four spiders that were level 42 or 43 and green con to me. I was able to make quick work of these spiders and continue into the spider-web-infested passage. Since I hate spiders I was glad to see a few headless zombies walking around that were also not much work for a level 50. Killing these undead yielded a drop of Barrow-Treasure which was labeled “Reputation Item”. Killing about 10 undead gave me 6 rep items, so the drop rate is not bad at all. Each type of monster also unlocked a deed for a slayer title and the advanced version gave an upgrade to traits.

After adventuring quite deep into these tunnels I was left with an unimpressed feeling. Haudh Iarchith is just not as neat looking or rewarding as Sarnur. Not only was the scenery boring but the loot was a tier lower (given that this instance is obviously meant to be low 40’s instead of higher up). I admit that perhaps if I was to bring a group back and adventure deep into the undead area there might be something more aesthetically pleasing to behold and perhaps boss mobs like those found in Sarnur. I’m not going to give up just yet on Haudh Iarchith but instead put it off until I have finished with the others.

Something worth mentioning briefly in this post is the rewards for Thorin’s Hall reputation (Sarnur). They really are nothing to get too excited over in terms of gear, but the big payoff is the Anvil weaponsmithing recipe! Once obtained a player can craft these and use them anywhere. Using the anvil will “drop it” and allow for players to use the anvil and repair as if they were at a vendor. If you played World of Warcraft think “repair bot”. These will definitely pay off in those long trips to Carn Dum or Helegrod. Members of my Kinship already tell me that they are a godsend. Also note that the Anvil recipe can be obtained from the Men of Bree Faction (Haudh Iarchith) as well.

As my characters get closer and closer to maxing their reputations I hope that I can give you all more valuable information on this new reputation system so that you can choose which faction to work on without the guesswork.