- Note that unlike most Mission quests, there is no NPC to activate. You start immediately into battle after a pause, and remain in a combat state until you close each gate. You will automatically reenter a combat state as you approach a gate.
- The goblins spawn at each gate, as you approach it: a maximum of 2 at the first gate, 3 at the second, and 3 at the third. (One or more goblins in the third group typically fall into the trench before you reach their gate, due to pathing/line-of-sight issues). Killing a goblin causes another from the same group to spawn in its place, approximately 15 seconds later. Therefore, characters with low DPS may find it difficult to clear enough goblins so that a gate can be closed without the character being attacked; enemy attacks frequently interrupt the closing operation. If the character has high avoidance (block/parry/evade), e.g from an ability like Guardian's Pledge, it may be possible to close the gate, even with 1 or more goblins attacking. The first gate can be closed before the goblins attack, with quick use of the "select" and "use" functions (<delete> and "u" are the default keybindings, respectively), executed immediately after zoning in. The second gate will therefore usually present the biggest challenge. Use Crowd Control abilities; pull the goblins to the instance start and use rooting, snaring and/or in-combat speedup abilities (e.g. Call of the Second Age, Rush, Sprint) or the Combat Run Speed Boost consumable, to reach the gate before they can catch up, and close it; use combat-removal abilities (e.g. Hide in Plain Sight, Still As Death, Hobbit-silence), closing the gate while the goblins reset, and/or try to defeat the entire group of goblins within a few seconds of each other, so that closing the gate (which only takes about 2 or 3 seconds) can be performed uninterrupted, before any of the goblins respawn. When the gate closes, any goblins associated with that gate, instantly despawn.
- FALLING. When falling to a lower level, the message is "On the lower level you are swarmed by goblins, and fail to rescue Bilbo in time!". But that isn't really how the quest fails. Any mobs -- goblins or Guardian of the Jails -- that were active on the upper level, at the time of the fall, and any that respawn there to replace them, will jump down and engage you. But certainly no "swarm" appears, and even if you avoid defeat from the few goblins that attack you, approximately 15 seconds after the fall, the quest will fail and you will exit the instance.
- DEFEAT. Progress will be retained on any gates that have already been closed. If defeated at the first gate, when returning, and depending on how far the player has progressed, the goblins may not walk up the ramp to engage you (bug?), therefore you can close the gate in peace. For the second and third gates, not only will the goblins re-engage on return, but due to the time it takes to get back to the gate, any goblins that were defeated prior to your defeat, will likely have respawned and will join in the fight.
- After completing your objectives, there is a limited time (2 minutes) before you will be automatically ejected from the instance. You need to find and open the "Mission Reward" chest before this happens. Defeating more enemies does not reset the timer!
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