LOTRO : Grand Stair HM Strategy

So the other night in Lord of the Rings Online I managed two firsts in one go:

• I completed a Moria instance (Grand Stair) in Hard mode!
• I won the roll and gained my first Radiance armour piece!

By the end of the night we had managed two runs through the Grand Stair so I thought I would blog the strategy we used while it is still fresh in my mind.

So we had myself the Champ, a Minstrel, a Burglar, an LM, a Guardian and a Hunter. This is probably not the most ideal group, but this is what we had.

So to succeed in Hard mode to get a chance of winning a radiance piece the first part is to get from the first boss (which is right at the start of the instance) to triggering the second boss (turn right at the crossroads) within ten minutes.

As you get near the second boss you will nearly be out of time, so usually one of the group has to run forward past the mobs to trigger the second boss. This will result in large numbers of mobs running back to the main group likely resulting in a wipe.

But the wipe does not matter - the most important thing is to trigger the second boss within ten minutes. Once you have done that (wiped or not) you can relax and make your way through the instance to the final boss Igash.

Chase me around your throne Igash!

When you get to the final boss area clear all the mobs first. You then have to face Igash the Fanatic, who has three servants. Two archers who will respawn as they are killed and a Devoted.

Hard mode dictates that you have to kill Igash without killing the Devoted servant.

We tried a few different things with our group racking up our repair bills and eventually came across a strategy that works and it definitely works as we tried it twice.

So the minstrel stands near the cart not too far away from the throne so he can keep everyone healed. The loremaster needs to keep the minstrel powered up but also help in the fight where he can.

So it was decided that the guardian should keep the two archers at bay keeping their aggro and killing their respawns.

Now the boss has a deadly AoE but he needs a line of sight to his victim to use it, so someone has to kite the boss around his throne in circles trying to keep the aggro. If you keep the throne between your line of sight with Igash he cannot do his AoE.

This role was between the hunter (lots of threat) and me the champ as we could not keep the aggro all to ourselves. Hopefully the hunter will keep the aggro for the most part leaving the champ to hit the boss as hard as he can as Igash runs past. If the champ gets the aggro then he kites the boss in circles around the throne until the hunter can regain it. Repeat this which takes a while until Igash is dead.

The devoted should be ignored at all costs, if he dies then Hard mode is over. The burglar should try and start fellowship attacks for power and morale and stabbing the boss as he runs past.

This strategy definitely works, we did the whole instance in 45 minutes on our second run and beat the boss in one go.

Good luck!