I have been following the raid progression thread on the LOTRO forums (here) and it both saddens me, and impresses me, that so few have beaten all bosses at a T2C level. Congrats to Portal of Brandywine (US) and |MI6| of Evernight (EU) for being the first two !!!

I think there are 3 potential scenarios (or a combination of them) as to why we are not seeing more completions;

There are not many end game kins. (sad 😥 ) There are a lot of players AFK as it is summer. (normal 😐 ) The raid is REALLY hard. (impressive 😯 )

I have heard the argument that people do not end game raid because they cannot find T2C groups; and this is a valid point. However, at no point in LOTRO’s history has it ever been easy to find a T2C group when it come to raiding. You are either in an end game kin/alliance or you are on the outside looking in until the novelty wears off; and via game updates/time, the players’ gear/skill gets caught up to, or surpasses, the difficulty level of the raid.

Typical Raid Cycle

Raid Launches

—> Only elite players can beat it at T2C with pre-raid gear

Time Passes

—> Mechanics of the raid are well documented and the raid becomes “easier”.

Minor Updates Released

—> The T2 raid drop rates tweaked; more people get T2 raid gear allowing it to be easier to complete T2C.

—> The T1 raid drop rates tweaked; more people get T1 raid gear allowing them to attempt T2.

—> More leaders are filling groups with people outside of kin/alliance.

Major Update Releases

—> New gear is introduced (usually ranks in between the T1 and T2 of the raid)

—> Difficulty of the raid is sometimes tweaked down

—> Drop rates often get tweaked again making it easier to get “older gear”

Raid Becomes PUGgable

I think we are somewhere between the Minor and Major Update phases (although drop rates have not been tweaked). This is one tough raid, arguably more so than the Smaug, Flight, and BFE cluster from 2012. My hat’s off to Turbine for challenging us.

Congrats to the following kins/groups that have completed Gothmog at a T2C level !!!

Portal – Brandywine [US]

|MI6| – Evernight [EU]

PUG from Gwaihir – Gwaihir [EU-DE]

Avorthalier – Gwaihir [EU-DE]

Unquale & Friends – Sirannon [EU-FR]

Ascension – Arkenstone [US]

The Mellowship – Evernight [EU]

Brothers of Metal – Gwaihir [EU-DE]

The mechanics of the Throne of the Dread Terror are constantly being updated in my guide (here). Check back often.