Worth farming Trails of the Wild/Ring for better runes before going for trophy?

[Sylvanticore]

Greetings all, with the servers shutting down I panicked and started this game up again after 2 years only to realise the trophy that is disappearing is one I had already, however decided to continue with the game to complete it and then get the nemesis forge done before the option to have followers move to Shadow of War is gone, completed all of the trophies from the base game and the dlc other than the Trials of trophies.

 

Is it worth just following a guide right away and going for it or would it be best to grind some runes before hand to make it a little easier for me?

 

Thank you in advance.

[pot1414]

I believe farming for runes in this game is a waste of time.Even without any runes it is easy enough.The trials lose their difficulty if you abuse save scumming.

[gafpiratehook]

4 hours ago, Sylvanticore said:

however decided to continue with the game to complete it and then get the nemesis forge done before the option to have followers move to Shadow of War is gone

 

Sorry for quoting you without an answer (I have to even start the game) but can you explain this? Is there something that can make life easier in War done in Mordor? Can you please explain what to do in Mordor before 31/dec/2020 to improve War's run?

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited December 17, 2020 by gafpiratehook

[Kolm]

I never farmed for runes.

 

On the vanilla version I had a set of epic runes from the start, I don't know where they came from (pre-order, season pass, ...?) but they were useful.

Especially the ones for immunity against poison, +25% damage on bow headshots and +20%(?) damage for execution moves on captains/warchiefs.

It made captain and warchief fights a lot easier. If they were vulnerable to ranged then a few headshots would already take most of their health. If they were invulnerable to ranged it was time to build a combo and do execution moves on them!

 

When I started the test I also had those epic runes available but I had to slot them in again to work.

 

In the GOTY those epic runes were also available from the start. So I really have no idea where they came from but it were the only ones I cared about.

I didn't even bother picking the runes up in the test because you're often still in a fight when the captain/warchief dies and the game will rather grab on someone 3 meters away than pick-up the rune you're right next to. The usual problem with multiple actions for 1 button depending on context.

Other runes I found and slotted were usually something to give back elf shot or health but I only bothered with that in the main game and in the test I left it for what it was. Waste of precious time  

Edited December 18, 2020 by Kolm

[Sylvanticore]

Thanks for the replies so farm,

 

Small update I was able to do the Trial of the Ring within two tries and trying the Wild one now.

[Kolm]

49 minutes ago, Sylvanticore said:

Thanks for the replies so farm,

 

Small update I was able to do the Trial of the Ring within two tries and trying the Wild one now.

Use back-up save to make your life easier

 

Test of the wild I used this technique twice with success:
1. From the starting tower there's a graug bait underneath a small bridge.
Grab the graug and make a quick run to all forts paying attention to captain the whole time! (Press L1 and if a captain is near, you'll see the R3 prompt)
Kill all those captains by grabbing with the graug => instant kill and monster kill!
On the GOTY edition I killed 10 captains that way in 9min40

 

2. After the run, make a back-up of your save. By selecting continue in the trials menu, you'll continue your current trial were you left off.

 

3. Use worms to find the warchief specified in the guide here on PSNP. If you don't discover him first try, just continue collecting intel until you find his location.

 

4. If you didn't discover that warchief first try, reload your backup from 2. Collect intel from a worm but this time select the location where the warchief was before you reloaded your backup.
This reloading and immediately selecting the right one can save anywhere from 2-8min on your time.
Because you didn't restart the challenge from scratch, the location of the warchief will be the same after reloading the back-up. Those locations only reset if you start the trial again from scratch.

 

5. Go brand that warchief and continue like in the guide: Dominate your warchief, riot the next one, make a backup of your save, do the riot and kill the warchief, grab your branded warchief before he leaves and riot him again, make a backup and so on.

Most riots are near a graug bait, use that bait and 1 hit bite all captains first before you 1 hit bite the warchief to end the riot.
Always kill your graug for points when you no longer need it.
Once you sent your branded warchief to the next riot, he'll disappear and you should dispatch all branded enemies he brought with him for extra points.

 

If your branded warchief dies or the fight takes way too long (2min+) then reload your backup and try again.

 

6. Once the other 4 warchiefs are done, riot the leftover captains instead.

 

7. After riotting the final captain (or warchief if you were able to kill all captains before that). You can dispatch your warchief and end the trial. Just make sure you have 11.000 points before you dispatch him. You'll get about 2000 points for dispatching and finishing the trial in time. Shadow mount + kill animals for points if you need more.

 

 

[Sylvanticore]

Thank you for the post this is gonna sound a little silly, how do I make a back up save?

[JJovani]

20 minutes ago, Sylvanticore said:

Thank you for the post this is gonna sound a little silly, how do I make a back up save?

 

If you have Ps+ you can upload your save to the cloud or if you don't have Ps+ you can put your save on a USB Device and use later

[Sylvanticore]

9 minutes ago, JJovani said:

 

If you have Ps+ you can upload your save to the cloud or if you don't have Ps+ you can put your save on a USB Device and use later

Thank you! I do have PS+ so will give this a shot

[Kolm]

22 hours ago, TolmanianDevil said:

From my personal experience, back up saves etc make this more cumbersome than is really needed.

 

Farming for runes, making saves etc are all unnecessary parts to this.  I completed both editions of the game reasonably swiftly and trouble free just by doing what came naturally, using what runes dropped throughout and doing both challenges last so I had appropriate runes to go by.

If you're unlucky in a few fights that they guy escapes or your guy dies, then you won't make the time and would have to do the whole thing over again. That's when it's good to have a backup and try the fight again.

I was glad I had backups when I played the test of the ring yesterday. Somehow I always ran into huge shield guys first that don't let you jump over them and stun them. Normal stun didn't work either and they had a one hit that brought you from full health to nearly dying. Those guys should be eaten with a graug to not waste too much time on it. The easier ones are quicker to brand.

The tests should be done last anyway because they give runes and progress from the base game or story DLC as a starting point the first time you do the test.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Kolm

[Sylvanticore]

 

Finally did it! I used methods that people suggested and I thought I had lost this run due to a death. Lucky for me that death caused a warchief to get 5 body guards next to where a Graug bait was and got all 5 of them done with ease, sadly the warchief people told me to use died however was able to get the crossbow WC on my side and he defeated the other WC with ease.

 

Thank you all for the tips! Now my most rarest trophy!

[Kolm]

On 20-12-2020 at 9:06 PM, Sylvanticore said:

 

 

Finally did it! I used methods that people suggested and I thought I had lost this run due to a death. Lucky for me that death caused a warchief to get 5 body guards next to where a Graug bait was and got all 5 of them done with ease, sadly the warchief people told me to use died however was able to get the crossbow WC on my side and he defeated the other WC with ease.

 

Thank you all for the tips! Now my most rarest trophy!

 

Congratulations!  

[JJovani]

On 20/12/2020 at 5:06 PM, Sylvanticore said:

 

 

Finally did it! I used methods that people suggested and I thought I had lost this run due to a death. Lucky for me that death caused a warchief to get 5 body guards next to where a Graug bait was and got all 5 of them done with ease, sadly the warchief people told me to use died however was able to get the crossbow WC on my side and he defeated the other WC with ease.

 

Thank you all for the tips! Now my most rarest trophy!

 

Can you tell me the way you did?

 

I got the test of the ring trophy and it was super easy but the test of the wild is super hard for me, i don't know which of the warchiefs i brand or i kill

Edited December 25, 2020 by JJovani

[Sylvanticore]

The best thing I can do is give you this link, it's what helped me with the run.

 

https://www.trueachievements.com/a200902/the-hunt-is-my-mistress-achievement

[ShianKiri]

12 minutes ago, JJovani said:

 

Can you tell me the way you did?

 

I got the test of the ring trophy and it was super easy but the test of the wild is super hard for me, i don't know which of the warchiefs i brand or i kill

 

I did the Test of the Wild twice. Once on the base game after having done it more recently on the Game of the Year Edition.

The main differences between the two is based on what you bought when you played each game. GOTY gives you a bunch of epic runes which does kinda make Test of the Wild a little easier, but the big thing to know is that whether you succeed or fail is entirely based on RNG.

 

What I mean by "RNG" is simply how fast you run into certain War Chiefs and whether certain Captains/War Chiefs will 1-shot you off the bat.

 

In the guide, it suggests that you Brand the the Rider (I forget their names). He is by far the easiest one to take down simply because his strengths and weaknesses really don't matter and once you're about to kill him, the game will "RNG" you two conditions:

1. He won't surrender so you have to manually brand him.

2. He will surrender, which you will then issue a Command to attack another War Chief to create a RIOT.

Make sure you kill his bodyguards beforehand because the game will not give them to you for free as Branded Captains (I'm not sure how the guide assumes you have them as bodyguards or any bodyguards in general because you certainly don't. I haven't seen it after 15-20 attempts), so you're better off getting some Captain kills.

 

When RIOT happens, you're going to want to get the Archer. He will start off with 4 Bodyguards every single time. The problem with this guy is that he can 1-shot you.

If you get the Rider and the Archer back to back and you manage to get 1 Branded War Chief (Rider), 1 Killed War Chief (Archer) and 5-6 Captain Kills (Bodyguards for both of them) with around 30 minutes left on the clock (meaning roughly 10 minutes have elapsed), you're in pretty good shape. The best scenario, which will give you the most flexibility is if you accomplish this within 5 minutes, meaning 35 minutes left on the clock.

 

--

 

Why does what I say sound a little different from the guide?

The guide doesn't actually tell you how to deal with some of these bullshit War Chiefs and the Archer is the primary culprit because his attack is 3-4+ Fire Arrow shots that can kill you, your War Chief, or a Graug with no problem. If you encounter him late in your play, he can pretty much turn a good run in to a failed run.

 

--

 

So what do you do from here with 1 Branded War Chief, 1 Killed War Chief and 5-6 Captain Kills with 30-35 minutes left? Upload your save.

When ever a Riot occurs, there are certain locations that will ALWAYS happen. Some of these locations include:

1. Far West next to Forge

2. Far West a little North of Forge

3. South cliffside

4. South Tower

5. North Ruin

 

Far West next to Forge is the worst one.

South Tower is also the next worst one.

 

You want Far West a little North of Forge, South cliffside or North Ruin because these locations have a Graug Bait nearby. South cliffside is a bit harder to spot, but it's hanging underneath a building a little past the bridge. You can see it when the RIOT starts. The other 2 are easier to spot.

 

Any time a RIOT starts, you want to get that Graug to spawn so you can eat the captain for 10 Captains killed by Monster or to kill the War Chief immediately. I highly recommend going for the 10 Captains killed by Monster first.

 

After the RIOT ends, Dominate your Branded War Chief and create another RIOT. Rinse and repeat until you get what you need. Once all Captains and War Chiefs are dead, simply press "Down" on your D-Pad to kill your War Chief and all of his followers.

 

For 12000 Points, any time you get a Graug, hold R2 and press O to kill it. You get a little over 100 points every time. Any time you create a RIOT, if that RIOT appears next to where you just were AND you have baited a Graug, DO NOT go to the RIOT immediately, spawn at the nearest Forge to reset the Bait.

 

--

 

Some bad things that can happen in a run:
- You got 1-shot by something stupid. It happens.

- You have 5 Captains left and you still need 5 Captains killed by Monster. This is where your success will depend on your RNG. If you get any of the bad spawns (South tower, Far West near Forge), you might as well call you run a wash and either start over or reset.

- You get the Archer as one of the last War Chiefs. He has multiple bodyguards and he has the tendency to not only kill your War Chief in 1 to 2 hits, he can kill his own Captains and himself and your Graug. So my recommendation as I had mentioned above is to get him second after the Rider. If he spawns near a Graug bait, you should try to eat as many Captains as possible. If you don't have the skill or the ability to get 2-3 Captain kills with your Graug, I recommend just murdering his Captains and then him.

- DO NOT KILL WAR CHIEF BEFORE BODYGUARDS. Any nearby Captain will automatically promote into War Chief, denying you a Captain kill which will then necessitate you dying to a regular Uruk to promote that guy into a Captain. This has a cascading affect in that other Captains can potentially kill other Captains.

[Darkwaxer]

I'm going through my preparation ready to start this trophy and was watching this video 

 

 

After he gets the recommended WC the next two WCs he kills don't seem to count as war chiefs.. both I think have their heads bitten off, is that before he didn't kill them himself?

 

Edit: he didn't kill all the bodyguards so they were promoted denying him the war chief kill, must've missed that in the guide. Just got the trophy.. abused the save system, 35 mins. Hardest trophy done! 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Darkwaxer
Answering my own question.

[Darkwaxer]

On 25/12/2020 at 6:56 PM, JJovani said:

 

Can you tell me the way you did?

 

I got the test of the ring trophy and it was super easy but the test of the wild is super hard for me, i don't know which of the warchiefs i brand or i kill

What method did you use for test of the ring? I can't get a graug to spawn after hours of trying. I haven't played the dlc but I wouldn't have thought that would've affected it. (Playing GOTY edition)

[Sylvanticore]

5 hours ago, Darkwaxer said:

What method did you use for test of the ring? I can't get a graug to spawn after hours of trying. I haven't played the dlc but I wouldn't have thought that would've affected it. (Playing GOTY edition)

Test of the Ring is a lot easier than Test of the Wild, you shouldn't require a graug. Personally for me I got it done on my third attempt after a little trial and error.