Learning to complete all of these quests on Platinum is very important since all of your Big Battle promotion points come entirely from earning medals on these quests and the main defense quest.
For the maps, color coordination is:
Green - Side Quest Objective Area
Red - Rohirrim Soldiers (note: positions are not exactly as appears in game)
Orange - Rohirrim Commanders
Blue - Rohirrim Banners (Flags)
Purple - Siege Weapons
Helm’s Dike
Protect the Horses - 1
Basics
Behind the wall on ground level there’s a small stable with horses. Orcs will attack from behind attempting to kill the horses. If a horse hits 0 HP, it runs away and you lose merit. Probably one of the easiest side quests to complete. Just stay in the battle and fight off the orc waves.
Tips
- Don’t panic if something gets attacked. Horses are pretty hardy. Focus on killing individual targets as fast as possible
- Pre-load haste/damage buffs on soldiers as you see a wave coming in
A Stone Obstruction - 2
Basics
Takes place on the main wall of the Dike. Once the quest begins archers will appear along the wall and once commanded will shoot down the Dunlendings bringing stones to block up the river. Each archer will shoot for about 15 seconds and then must be re-tagged. Your archers on the West side wall will also come under attack and need to be protected. Probably one of the harder quests for the instance, just because of the archer rotation and the quest bugs.
Tips
- For Rank 1 Engineers setting up barricades on the western approach can help slow down the waves enough that they won't always overwhelm your soldiers
- Setup a rotation to hit your archers and keep them firing
- Jump back and forth between your archer rotation and clearing out attacking mobs
- Orcs coming from the west will often bug out your defenders if they pass the line, the enemy buildup can lead to a serious overload that will destroy all your defenders on the left and cause you to lose
- Keep reinforcing the left side commander as much as possible with DPS and buffs
Guarding the Watch-Tower - 3
Basics
On the western side of the wall there’s a 3-story watchtower near a group of main defenders. Additional orcs and Dunlendings will attack through the main wave and attempt to destroy the tower. This quest can get a bit buggy and overwhelm your defensive line on the west side if too many orcs get behind your soldiers.
Tips
- Stay near the tower, attempting to pre-empt the wave will probably cause you to miss tower attackers in the mix
The Statue of Helm Hammerhand - 4
Basics
On the eastern side of the wall (in between the two main defender points) there’s a statue inset on the wall. Pretty much operates the same as the Tower attack with a few extra trolls. You need to protect the statue until you’ve killed 5 trolls
Tips
- Same as the Tower, stay near the statue so you can hit them as they come in and burn them down as fast as possible.
- Focus the trolls as soon as possible
- Hitting mobs early (before they clear the first soldier line) will often mess up their pathing causing them to get stuck. This is especially advantageous for the trolls
- The last wave tends to have 2 trolls, this can cause some serious damage to the tower as you try to burn their HP. Try to hit them early to enrage them and/or CC one troll away from the tower.
- Keep the closest main line commander or the Helm's Statue Commander buffed
Flames at the Gate - 5
Basics
In the center section of the wall, archers will appear on the battlements. You need to keep the archers resupplied with arrows and bring down the flame tank hitting the main gate. Probably one of the most difficult as the archers are on the top of the wall and repairing/dousing the door is on the ground level. Also a reasonably hard quest to complete perfectly.
Tips
- Very easy if you've got a decent rank in Engineer. Set up a small catapult overlooking the gate from the bit of the dike that juts out to the North (towards the ballista) before you start the fight with Gamling. you can heavy shell + 2x crank to do damage directly.
- Resupply the archers in sequence continuously, try to do this as much as possible without losing the door
- About 1/3 of the way through, finish your resupply sequence then jump down to the door to check it’s HP. Douse/repair quickly then jump back up to the archers
- Rinse and repeat as necessary
- Duos should have no problems with one man on the wall with arrows and the other on the ground extinguishing the door
Powder at the Gate - 6
Basics
Behind the wall on the ground level (same as with the horses) orcs and goblins will come from behind to try and blow up the door with explosives. You just need to fight the waves as they come to prevent them from getting to the door. Not quite as bad as Flames solo, but can be difficult if you get a bad round.
Tips
- You can go pretty far down the road to engage mobs as they spawn, do it, you get way more DPS time
- Focus ONLY on the mobs that will get to the door (pretty much anything carrying powder casks)
- If you’re a low level engineer (or any level officer/vanguard) only try to disarm tiny/small (maybe medium) powder casks. Trying to do the big ones will usually take too much time and cause you to get overwhelmed.
- If you’re doing a duo it’s worthwhile to have 1 member try to disarm any cask (although with 2, none should make it to the door)
- High level engineers with faster disarm should try to pick up everything, big casks to a lot of damage
