from:
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=241061
author: Reillan
quote->
Thought I'd write up a brief description of how to activate each of the hard modes, so that it's in one convenient location. If anyone sees any corrections I need to make, please let me know. Also, since I don't remember all the names, I'll be coming back to fill those in.
Forges of Khazad-Dum:
Defeat the last boss within 30 minutes of defeating the first boss (There are some who say this is actually 40 minutes, and some who say you only have to get him to the third stage, where the flame jets turn on. However, if you get him to that stage and then don't defeat him, you will lose hard mode.)
Grand Stairs:
Fight Nardur the Shield within 10 minutes of starting the first boss (you only have to start the battle with him in that time. If he resets, you're fine). During the final battle, you must keep the Devoted alive. (It may also be true that you can't fight any other bosses until after defeating the final boss - some say defeating certain other bosses will cause hard mode to cancel).
Fil Gashan:
Kill no more than 2 Sentries.
16th Hall:
In the fight with The Lost One, do not kill any of the bugs in the room (you may safely kill them after the Lost One is dead).
Dark Delving:
Do not go into the light at any point during the last fight (you may safely go into the light, and should do so, prior to entering the final room).
Skumfil:
After defeating Skumfil on easy mode and obtaining the key, restart the instance and drop down into the first crevice you come to in the instance. The key will unlock a door there. Hard mode simply requires beating the boss within this locked room.
I'll also add brief explanations of each of the boss fights (but not how to beat them):
Forges: 3 boss fights. In the first, he will randomly say a person's name. If that person is still in Line of Sight when he's done, he'll instantly kill them. Additionally, fire will appear on the floor, adds will come in, and trolls move around the edge that if you get too close to, you freeze for a moment. Once you defeat this boss, you must hurry. Exit via the left exit on the north side, run along that thin rail, freezing at every troll, until you come to a point where it turns in and goes down to the 2nd boss. In this fight, you have to close the 6 entrances around the middle platform before you can even fight the boss. To do so, you have to grab an oil pot off the ground and run to an open gate. You can only destroy open gates this way. When gates open, they release various mobs (sometimes archers, 2 trolls) and you have to take out the orc adds (but not necessarily the troll adds). In this fight as well, unattackable trolls move along the rails and freeze anything that touches them. Finally, exit this level and head down to the base of the forges. When you fight the main boss, he has two trolls with him. Once the trolls are down and the boss is hurt a bit, a 2nd wave of trolls will appear. After this wave is down, two jets of flame appear behind where you started the fight, and you must try to avoid these while fighting the boss. Additionally, he will summon two more trolls during this fight *and* he also has the name-calling ability where if he can LoS you, he does about 3k damage to you.
Grand Stairs: You have 3 boss fights. In the first, you wait for a bit of dialog and then cross a bridge and fight the boss. The only difficult part about him is that he'll put a wound on everyone that ticks for a lot of damage. Run to the right, taking your first usable right (previous right-turns are dead-ends), and turn right again at the next two points to head back north, fighting Wargs along the way. At the top of a set of steps is Nardur and several other mobs. You can have one person run in way ahead of the rest and die in order to stop the 10-minute timer, if necessary. Nardur has a knockback ability that can throw you off the ledge (resulting in your instant death). After defeating Nardur, head back to the beginning and take a new path opened to the north. At the north end of this path, you'll find the final boss battle. Here, you'll get 2 archers, a Devoted, and the boss. For Hard Mode, you have to keep the Devoted alive. Fortunately, he doesn't do a lot of damage. The archers will respawn if they are defeated, and they have a range induction attack that hits for a ton. The boss also hits for a ton and has an ability to greatly reduce your armour (which he'll say "Looks like I found a break in your armour" before using). Finally, he has an extremely long-range AoE attack.
Fil Gashan: This instance requires finding costumes in chests. Unfortunately, I don't know the locations of all of these. As long as you move quickly while costumed, you can keep from getting your costume broken and thus pick up as many as you need. The first boss fight is in the lunch room. Move into the room and wait, and all the mobs will move out of it. Then a chef will come in with several adds. If I remember correctly, they may have a poison DoT. After defeating the chef, when you move into the next area, your costumes will be useless and you have to find new ones. Yay. Run to the first level at the top of the steps and head down the hall. On the right, if you can avoid the sentry, you can enter a room with a boss with two elite mobs. The boss has 3 modes - in the first, he's no big deal. In the second, he suddenly becomes immune to melee. In the third, his two elite mobs join in and the doors open (meaning you can get aggro from outside). The two additional mobs have the ability to start a "warband maneuver" that shares damage across all three. Additionally, the boss will occasionally charge his target with an impaling attack. Back to the steps, going up to the third floor, sneak past everything and enter the final room. Here, the big boss is extremely annoying. He only does damage himself, but his two assistant mobs do fire damage and respawn when killed. There are waterfalls on both sides of the room that will cure this fire damage, but the water does damage over time as long as you stand in it. In stage one, the archer mob will lay down traps that you have to lead the boss into. In stage two, the second mob starts attacking. When you kill this mob, it explodes, putting an effect that greatly lowers fire resistance on all surrounding people and does fire damage (including the main boss, if he's there. Hint, hint). The boss is heavily resistant to everything, normally.
16th Hall: This instance is is full of many very difficult pulls, so play it careful. The first boss has tons of other enemies in his room, but once these are gone, you can fight the boss without adds. He has two healing mobs that you must fight with him - their only job is to heal the boss. The boss himself occasionally starts coughing, and when he does, a yellow pool will appear around his feet. If you're in the pool when it does, you get a disease that ticks for a lot of damage. Stepping out of this pool removes the disease effect. After fighting him, head on to the 2nd boss, turning left when you reach an archway to the right with additional mobs in it. Eventually, you'll reach a crossroads where going left and right are possible, but not going straight - not yet. Clear both rooms to the left and right, and activate wheels found in them to open the middle gate. This will lead down to the 2nd boss. In this fight, there are mushrooms on the ground that if you touch, they will explode for damage. The boss has a knockback ability that could cause you to fly into these mushrooms. Additionally, there are mob adds that only have 200 morale each, but if they get close to you, they will explode and put a disease DoT on everyone around. Finally, head on through the bug zones (only worry about elite mobs and the queens here - everything else respawns until the queen is dead) and eventually you'll be led straight into the fight with the last boss - "The Lost One." In this fight, you must not kill *any* of the bugs on the ground. They will aggro, and while they don't do a ton of damage alone, they will interrupt abilities and there are many of them, so your minstrel could end up with 20 bugs eating him down very quickly. Additionally, mushrooms appear around the room, and within a long range of them, you take damage over time and walk much slower. They can be killed, however. Finally, the boss has 3 orcs that spawn periodically. These orcs do a ton of damage to anything that sticks around long enough to find out.
Dark Delving: This instance is all about staying in the light, until the last fight. While in the dark, you have much lower speed and damage. Additionally, you will periodically get a message about the last mob speaking throughout the caves, and when you do, you need to be in the light, or you get a significant debuff. There are silver things hanging down from the ceiling - if you get close to them, they'll drop 3 worms. This is good if you need to grind out a lot of worms, but bad if you're fighting a boss. The first boss has 3 pillars that can be lit up, providing sources of light if you need it to avoid the lower speed and damage. He also has a punt ability that can send you flying off the ledge, into bugs waiting below. The second boss is the one most people complain about - he also has light pillars, and these pillars will light up at random throughout the fight. He periodically spawns 1 of 4 groups of adds - bugs that are easy to take down, a world eater that looks big and scary, but isn't, and two groups of regular mobs that can be very scary - one group of three where 2 are melee and one is ranged, and the ranged one will attack your healer most likely, or a group of two that have a nasty induction ability (I forget what it does, because I never let them get it off). The boss also has a nasty induction ability - an AoE attack that deals something like 6000 damage, and a self-heal. In the last fight, to maintain hard mode, you have to fight the boss while completely in the dark. As his health gets lower, he starts hitting for more, eventually doing nearly 6000 damage with regular hits. He also has a nasty induction ability, but again, I never let him get it off. There are adds in the middle of the platform, but I don't know what they are, as I've never had to fight them. That should tell you something, too.
Skumfil: What can I say? The boss is a spider that has a very small area of acid he puts down immediately underneath him most of the time. The acid is very, very high damage. Additionally, spiders respawn constantly and run into the group, attacking usually the minstrel. The boss disappears from time to time, and when he comes back, he comes back with a wave of adds. If you can master handling the adds and the acid, though, he's a pushover.
<-end of quote
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