Difficulties and Politics

I have to say that while today I touch on politics in my ramble it has nothing to do with the politics of any country today. Instead, I take a brief look at Dune’s situation as described in chapter 3 of the story.

I also revisit the idea of the difficulty settings in LOTRO and I think I am ready again to venture to the Deadly level of difficulty.

Politics and Protection

Things are starting to move in Dune as we make our way through chapter 3.  Jessica and the Reverend Mother discuss the current political situation and how the three forces of the Emperor, the Great Houses, and the Spacing Guild are conspiring to create chaos in the galaxy.  We also learn about the CHOAM company and how influential they are in the scheme of things.

The biggest piece of information, among tons of details, is the fact that Jessica wants to shield her son from the difficulties ahead. If she had her way, she would protect Paul and not force him to suffer the life that is laid out before him. Of course the Reverend Mother scolds her and suggests that it is the struggle that he will have to go through that will make him who he needs to become.

While this chapter is a bit more of an info dump I still consider it a Must Read.

More Deadly Again

Ok, I did it again.  I jumped up in difficulty level from basic to Deadly 3.  I’m really hoping this doesn’t spell the death of Pangolyn but I’m gonna give it a shot anyway. 

So far, I am feeling good about things though I only bumped up the difficulty once I reached level 6. And I only did it because I was starting to feel confident in my ability to handle the creatures I was fighting even if they were 2 levels above me. The main thing I need to be wary of is if I get ganged up on. I’m not sure how many mobs I can handle at once and I’m going to take things slow.

My plan is to single out new bad guys and pick my battles so I can deal one-on-one with them until I gauge their difficulty. I know that each baddie has their own abilities and I want to make sure that they are not able to cause significant damage to me solo before I run the risk of battling in more than one at a time.

As things progressed, I was able to finish off all the quests in Archet…even the battle with Iornath, the level 9 (3 levels above me) ‘signature’ boss at the end of the Spider-Bane quest.

With that scary battle behind me, I was feeling pretty good about the Deadly difficulty setting and headed off to Combe to see what further adventures awaited me in Middle Earth.

Ramble 4 Badger 6| Difficulties and Politics