Epic Battle: Defence of Minas Tirith

Defence of Minas Tirith
Level:	10 or higher
Size:	Solo/Duo, Small Fellowship(3)
Cluster:	War for Gondor
Region:	Old Anórien
Area:	Minas Tirith

The Defence of Minas Tirith is an Epic Battle introduced in Update 17.

This is a scaled instance, designed for solo/duo or small fellowship (3 players) from level 10 and higher. All players are scaled to level 100.
It is available in the Instance Finder and the Road to Battle panel.
Estimated completion time is between 30-45 minutes.

Quests

Quests can only be completed once per day and can be run solo/duo or in a small fellowship [100] Epic Battle: Defence of Minas Tirith

Possible side objectives for the Defence of Minas Tirith.

• [100] Awash with Flames
• [100] Beasts of Harad
• [100] Despair in the Streets
• [100] Rain of Death
• [100] Epic Foe: Ahârtal, Hand of the First Blade
• [100] Epic Foe: Raghathai, Faramir's Bane

Creatures

These mobs are encountered within:
Click [+] to expand a list of creatures.

The Defence of Minas Tirith Mobs

Instance Overview

The instance wont progress until you talk with Mithrandir ^{[60.8N, 17.8W]}, or after five minutes from the time you enter, whichever comes first. Gandalf is standing near you as you enter the instance. After a short discussion follow him up the wall and help defend the wall. Waves of orcs will breach the wall and every so often a siege tower will roll up that you must destroy. Avoid removing grappling hooks or ladders, as this has been rumoured to increase the chance that the instance will freeze partway through and force you to reset. To destroy the siege towers, first destroy the 3 anchor hooks that tether the tower to the outwalls. Next climb aboard the tower and set 3 charges, quickly climbing off.

Side quests will occur every so often. Several of the side quests will take you off the wall and help civilians or soldiers at the ground level, put out fires, clean up the dead or kill infiltrators. A couple side quests involve epic enemies on the wall.

Walkthrough and Notes

Much of this is excerpted from an excellent guide by Dadi, of Arkenstone (https://dadislotroguides.com/big-battles-defence-of-minas-tirith-123-man/) and from a Reddit post by LordZorthan (https://www.reddit.com/r/lotro/comments/7j6skv/how_tough_is_defense_of_minas_tirith_solo/). Kudos to you two! All the editor did was combine, reorganize, and paraphrase. Brankoz (talk)

Note these walkthroughs are primarily focused on solo battles except as noted. Duo and 3-man teams should not have a hard time identifying when and how to split up activities.

SETUP

• Don't talk to Mithrandir at the beginning; use the five minutes to get set up for best chance at platinum, as you need all the Stars of Merit you can get for the easiest way to max out the primary relic on your imbued LI. By the same token, always try to get platinum on both side quests.

• Set the Captains on the North side to Two-handed weapons and target priority Warriors (if your Officer rank is high enough to let you). The Captain at the far end of the wall cannot be changed to 2H, but you can set target priority to Warriors. Now head up the stairs in the middle toward the catapult. On the landing there will be a Captain. Set him to Two-handed weapons and target priority Warriors (if you can).

• You can either go to the South side and set up the two captains there the same way as above, or you can leave them until the North side is complete. (A rank 6 officer / engineer can get all Captains changed over and prepare the catapult with time to spare before the Epic Battle even begins.)

• Either way, once ready, continue to the top of the middle stairs and upgrade the Catapult’s Damage (if you have sufficient Engineer rank). Do not upgrade the distance or armour.

FIRST BATTLE

• Ladders and Grappling Hooks - Leave them alone. It makes the quest take much longer, and sometimes can bug the instance and essentially cause you to fail.

• Catapult - Load triple or spreadshot and use Leech Powder if you have the Engineer rank, until the first side quest pops up. See walkthroughs of side quests below.

• Siege Towers - These are lower priority than side quests but can affect the overall rating as you must destroy both of them to get platinum (no time limit though) and there are mobs that spawn from the towers. The longer the tower is in place, the more mobs assault the soldiers, barricades, and armaments.

Each Siege-tower is wheeled up to the wall by the enemies below. Once it “docks” to the wall there will be 3 Tower Grapnels that you must target and “kill.” Once these are down one person runs on to the Siege-tower (there is a plank) and ignite 3 Powder Kegs. Once lit, run off the Siege-tower.

Once off the siege tower, repair spiked barricades and heal soldiers (in that order), either via the Captain or with your own healing skills, then head back up to the catapult to prepare for the second wave.

SECOND BATTLE

• Catapult - Fire as before until you can't kill anything else, at which time head down and help / heal soldiers and repair barricades, or until the second side quest pops up, at which time you should immediately focus on the side quest.

• Siege Tower - Destroy as before, only after you have completed the second side quest. Once destroyed, repair as many barricades as possible in the time remaining, if any, before two giant trolls spawn.

• Two Trolls (Rakothas and Shemator)

• They spawn at the far end of the South Wall. Each troll has 555,571 morale and they hit hard.

• You must not let them destroy the barricades or kill the soldiers to get platinum.

• Target Rakothas first as he heads straight for the barricade and starts damaging it. You want to get aggro.

• Once you get aggro, drag him toward the second Captain (closer to the tower). This will get the soldiers attacking him too. Use Damage on the Captain.

• If at any point your morale is dropping and you fear death, run to the tower and get inside. The troll will remain aggroed on you, but not be able to hit you. Likewise, you cannot hit the troll. However, the soldiers can damage him.

• Once Rakothas is down, switch to Shemator. DO NOT kill both trolls until the timer for the second side quest has finished.

• As soon as the trolls are dead the Epic Battle is over.

SIDE QUESTS - FIRST BATTLE

• Beasts of Harad

• Head up to the Catapult. Load a Spreadshot, crank 3 times, aim in between the 2 Mumakil that are away from the wall. Fire. It should kill both. There is a 3rd Mumakil against the wall; you cannot kill it.

• Head down inside the tower. Place a trip-wire just in front, and in between, the front two injured soldiers if you can. DPS the Southron as they come through the window. When your timer is up, place a bear trap if you have it. You can heal the injured soldiers and food-stores with healing skills.

• You may be able to head to the North Wall in between the waves of Southron and destroy the Tower Grapnels of the Siege-tower.

• Platinum:

• Kill 2 Mumakil
• Defend the food stores
• Defend the injured soldiers
• Kill the Southron soldiers (5 waves of two (solo/duo) or three (3-man) elite level attackers each wave. In 3-man larger groups on non-elite attackers can also spawn)

• Epic Foe - Raghatai, Faramir's Bane

• He spawns at the far end of the wall (northwest).

• Use the nearby Captain and use the Damage command.

• Platinum:

• Defeat this boss in under 30 seconds

• Awash With Flames

• It is recommended to use Officer stance.

• Head down below the wall using the Coiled Rope.

• Click on a Civilian, then click on 2 Debris.

• Click on a Civilian (once cooldown timer has ended), then click on 2 more Debris.

• Click on a Civilian, then click on a Debris.

• Click on the last civilians, then click on the last two Debris.
• Platinum:

• Complete in under 5 minutes 30 seconds
• Douse 6 Flaming Debris
• Rescue 4 (solo/duo) or 5 (3-man) Civilians

• Despair In The Streets

• It is recommended to use Officer stance.

• Head down to the lower level via the Coiled Rope.

• Click on a soldier to rally them.

• Click on Rubble (can be selected using your Delete key).

• Click on a soldier to rally them.

• Click on Rubble (can be selected using your Delete key).

• Click on 8 more soldiers before time runs out.

• DUO: Both people head down to the lower level via the Coiled Rope. Each person click on a soldier, and each on a rubble pile. One person stays below to click on the remaining soldiers (the person with the most points in to their Officer build) and the other heads up to the wall to deal with the Siege-tower.

• Platinum:

• Complete in under 6 minutes
• 11 Terrified soldiers rallied
• Free 2 civilians trapped by rubble

SIDE QUESTS - SECOND BATTLE

• Epic Foe: Ahartal, Hand of the First Blade

• He spawns at the near end of the wall (southeast).

• Use the nearby Captain and use the Damage command.

• Platinum:

• Defeat this boss in under 30 seconds.

• Rain of Death

• It is recommended to use Officer stance.

• Immediately head down below the wall using the Coiled Rope.

• Click on a Gondorian, then click on 3 heads.

• Click on a Gondorian, then click on 3 heads.

• Click on a Gondorian, then click on 3 heads.

• Click on the last Gondorian.

• Click on the remaining 11 heads.

• Get back up to the wall and click on the 5 heads up there.

• DUO - One person stays on the wall to click the 5 heads there, then may proceed down to help with remaining heads.

• 3-MAN - Same as duo but third person deals with the Siege-tower, then may proceed down to help with remaining heads

• Platinum:

• Complete in under 4 minutes

• 20 Heads cleared from the streets

• 5 Heads cleared from the wall

• 4 Gondorians rallied

Rewards

All Epic Battles pull from the same rewards pool see Main article: Epic Battle Rewards
Rewards are based on the Medals achieved during the instance. There are four medals; Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum. Higher medals offer better rewards. Most Epic Battles will have a main objective and several side objectives. Each objective completed will give a medal. Players will receive at least 2 medals per instance (2 pool of rewards) but can earn far more. Larger size Epic Battles have more objectives and reward more medals.

There are five rewards given for each Medal:

• Epic Battle Promotion Points for first time Medals or when a higher level Medal is awarded for an objective already complete
• Epic Battle Reward Points to fill the rewards bar for a Jewellery Reward
•  Mark,  Medallion and  Star of Merit for bartering
• Reward boxes (one for each objective you complete) that include more Jewellery, Marks, Medallions, Stars of Merit, Universal Solvent, Stat Tomes, Supreme Essence, Symbols for crafting Legendary Weapons, Steeds and many more items.

Metals	Side quest	Main quest
Gold, Silver and Bronze	Quartermaster's Reward	Gifts of Minas Tirith
Platinum (Rewards Incomparable and Epic)	Quartermaster's Fine Armaments	Treasures of Minas Tirith

Requirements for platinum in Defence of Minas Tirith are:

– 44 Soldiers of Gondor Survived

– 20 Supplies and armaments defended

– 8 Siege equipment and barricades in tact

– 2 Siege-towers destroyed

– Platinum on all side quests (2)

Lore

After crushing the Gondorian forces at Osgiliath, the Morgul-host advances quickly across the Pelennor Fields, making for the capital of Gondor - Minas Tirith, the White City, and the seat of power of steward Denethor. Siege machines have been constructed in the ruins of Osgiliath, and Orcs, Haradrim and Easterlings alike now march towards the black outer walls of the great stronghold of Men, under the command of the Black Commander of Mordor - the Witch-king of Angmar. The Nazgûl fly above on their fell steeds and seek to strike terror into the hearts of the defenders, for fear is one of the Enemy's greatest weapons.

But hope is all but lost in Minas Tirith. Previously to the fall of Osgiliath, reinforcements from the southern fiefdoms arrived in the city, lead by Imrahil of Dol Amroth and the lords of the South, amongst them Forlong the Fat of Lossarnach, Duinhir of Blackroot Vale, Golasgil of Anfalas, and Hirluin the Fair of Pinnath Gelin. The White Rider, Mithrandir, rallies the defenders and inspires them to stay strong against the dark tide of Mordor, keeping their spirits high. Aid has also been requested from the Rohirrim, who will surely ride to their allies aid.

Now the enemy assaults the walls, and the soldiers of Gondor must prepare to stand fast and hold their ground, if the White City is to last the night that now darkens the skies above Pelennor Fields...