Location:

Eastern edge of Anduin Vale zone.

Strategy:

Best to have at least 1 cleric and 2-3 warriors. Start at max southern edge of the forest, Sanc primary buffer, and go east until you find mobs. When you encounter a group of trees, there will ussually also be some roots. The roots do very little damage, so unless you are unsure of your groups ability to handle Mirkwood do roots last. Now, in all of Mirkwood there is ONE gnarled tree. When you attack any other tree, it comes to help them. Gnarled tree bashes and hits VERY hard, MUCH harder than any other trees in Mirkwood, so its VERY important that as soon as gnarled tree comes, all casters nuke it, all non-buffing warriors disengage and hit gnarled. Once gnarled is dead, Mirkwood is much safer place to xp in until zone repop. Gnarled should come on the first group of mobs, if not the second. Once first group of trees is dead, proceed to clear the forest going 3e, 1n, 3w, 1n, 3e.. OR 10n, 1w, 10s, etc whichever you prefer.

Now, any time you move in the forest there are 2 places that someone can fall. One person (maybe more than one at a time, but ussually not whole group) can fall down to Grey spider. If this happens, they should flee/go north, and open exit and wait for group to come clear mobs above. Second place you can fall is more dangerous. Whole group (individual members can save) can fall to Ebon Wraith… if this happens buffer must quickly rescue casters, while someone opens exit (delayed). Blind/bash dis both men and wraith also if you can. Don't nuke Ebon Wraith, it has an awesome sanc. If group must flee, there is a high chance that Ebon Wraith will teleport away before you can heal up to try again, so make your best effort to kill it the first round. It is rumoured that you only fall down to Ebon Wraith at night, so be more careful then, but I have not confirmed this myself.

The forest is divided into two sections, with a “safe” strip between them (Where Ushurg is) - look at the arda map if you don't know what a mean. Clear the southern section first, the groups of trees here are larger and more dangerous, but the forest is much less random here. Nearly all the large packs are along the far eastern edge, but there are a few that aren't. Now the northern section is very random, contains Eblees himself, but has very few large groups of mobs. Before trying to find Eblees, have all casters refresh defensive spells (Armour/shield) as they will not be able to do so once you reach Eblees. Walk around (I tend to go north/west) killing mobs as you proceed, until you find Eblees himself, then quickly go south and wait for the rest of your group to catch up. Any mobs in the general vicinity that you failed to kill will come to help Eblees when you attack him, so try to not skip too many but its ok if you miss a few. Once whole group has arrived safely 1s of Eblees, have warrior tank, blind and bash dis everything, and if there are very many mobs, nuke/kill roots first. Eblees himself is not very strong, 2-3 warriors and a cleric kill it quite easily unless tons of trees come (Such as if zone just repopped). If you somehow find that you are not going to be able to manage to kill him, you can walk out of Eblees area at dawn (There will be a message that says the trees seem less dense or something to let you know its time). Once Eblees is dead, go south, east, and on the ground there will be ALOT of random equipment. Pick up anything valuable. Typical loot includes items such as Bejewelled Shield, BSB, BHSB, some gems, etc - as well as the equipment of any players who died to Eblees recently. When done, go w n and a few west to leave the forest.

A few general notes:

The roots in Mirkwood are not so bad as the roots in other places, you will nearly always be able to escape them before you die, unless perhaps you are armourless caster in plain cloth against many trees…

Elf warrior is the best to buff Mirkwood, since they are eff vs. wood - same goes for Willow/Fangorn/Old Forest too obviously. Sanced elf def warrior is a very good tank here.

Followers who don't have any (or very poor) track will get randomed more often. Follower with 100% track will almost never get randoms in southern mirkwood, but it may still happen around Eblees area even with high track. If you only have 1 warrior who has no track, make him lead if he can.

Level:

SMOB group of fairly well geared legend players, preferably including at least 1 cleric and 2-3 warriors.

Loot:

Random, can be nearly anything. Sometimes you just get junk like water skins and backpacks, sometimes you get several legend items like Bejewelled shield etc.

Mobs unique to the zone:

• A darkly gnarled tree
• A dark oak
• A thick tangle of dark vines
• A black tangle of roots
• Eblees
  • An animated tree-horror
• Ebon wraith
  • A shadowed man