Level Up… With Festival Quests!

I was playing with my girlfriend tonight. We started off by playing the through day 1 of the Yule Festival, her on her level 45 Hunter, me on my level 85 Captain. Afterwards, she we joined up on our dynamic duo, her Hunter and my Burglar, both level 45. We’ve been playing with these two together (and almost exclusively together), so I was rather surprised when her Hunter had gained over a quarter of a level on me!

Later on I took my Burglar through Winter-home, and I was quite surprised to find that all Yule Festival quests are on-level quests (for level 45 characters, they will be level  45, for level 20 characters, they will be 20, etc.)! Previously, all festival quests were level 10, period. If you were well over that level, you did not get experience. The full Dev Diary for this year’s Yule Festival can be found here.

I think this is an excellent change, especially considering the number of Yule Festival quests that have to be done to get the best rewards. I don’t feel as guilty now playing through the Yule Festival dailies knowing that in the process, I’m actually helping them level up as well. What are your thoughts?

The Path to 85 (My Thoughts on Rohan)

I started playing LOTRO again in early November. Last night (well, technically at about 3:00 AM this morning), my captain Carolinn hit level 85. Most of the time I’ve spent playing LOTRO, however, I’ve spent on my burglar, Daag, and a few other characters, leveling and playing with my girlfriend (who I introduced to LOTRO). In other words, if I had devoted more time to my captain, I could easily have hit level cap much sooner.

One thing I’m glad about is that I did not hit a wall and run out of quests in this expansion. I didn’t feel as though I had to go out of my way and make an extra effort to do tasks, repeatable quests, and skirmishes to get there, either. That’s definitely an improvement, because I ran into that with Rise of Isengard.

However, one thing I heard before purchasing this expansion was that Rohan was going to be much bigger than Moria. In sheer landscape, it probably is, however since you have a super-speedy War-Steed which you can ride in a straight line without have to worry about falling into chasms of the abyss, Rohan did not seem as large as Moria to me. I probably could have completed finished the ten levels within about 2 weeks. The first time I played through Moria, it took me much, much longer than that (probably about a month).

As far as content goes, I was somewhat disappointed about the lack of new raids and instances, although I know they are coming soon and will be free for anyone who already purchased Rohan. I spent a lot of time at level 75 getting Carolinn the best gear I could get, and the only equipment I’ve found so far that’s actually better than my level 75 gear is the Hytbold set.

To get the Hytbold set, you have to restore the city of Hytbold to its former glory, all by doing repeatable daily quests which grant you tokens. Unfortunately, those quests pay out 5 tokens each, and it takes at least 300 or so tokens to repair the necessary buildings and barter for a full set of armour (and that’s if you build ONLY what you have to build to get a specific set of armour). You can only do 5 quests a day, meaning you are basically given a stipend of 25 tokens per day to restore the city. That’s going to take a pretty long time.

However, one thing I like about this idea (besides the technological side of it) is that once your five daily quests are done, which takes maybe 20-30 minutes, you have the rest of the day to go back and work on deeds, reputation, crafting, or alts (whereas with Isengard, as soon as a raid or instance finished, I’d be already looking for another one).

I greatly enjoyed mounted combat. However, I’ve already devoted an entire blog post to it, so I’m not really going to talk about it a whole lot more in this one.

I also liked some of the mechanics of this expansion. Open tapping is fantastic, and remote looting is super awesome as well. I do wish they’d make some modifications to captains’ buff skills for open tapping though (allowing me to heal players I’m not grouped with and buff them as well). I can see where that would get unnecessarily complicated, though, so I’m just going to leave it be.

Overall, I think Rohan was an excellent expansion, and probably their second best to date (although I’ll have to reevaluate that when the instances get released). I still think Moria was Turbine’s best. If you are getting close to level 75 and you haven’t purchased Rohan yet, I would definitely recommend doing so.

Per Character vs. Account-Level Pricing

I will admit, I would definitely consider myself an altoholic. I have about 35 different characters spread between 5 different servers. Do I play them all regularly? No. Do I occasionally get bored and create another alt, only to level him up for a while, then leave him to sit and gather dust? Absolutely.

However, one thing that has always annoyed me about the LOTRO store is the inability to purchase certain items as an account-wide purchase. Instead, I have to go in and buy it on every single character I want it on, assuming they get to a high enough level to make use of it.

Therefore, I would like to propose that every item in the LOTRO store, with the exception of items that are already account-level (such as shared storage, etc.) be purchasable in both a per-character and account-wide option. There are several items that I would buy if they had an account-wide option, but not without one. I realize that an account-wide purchase option would of course be at an increased cost over the per-character option, but I would REALLY like the option to be there.

Personally, I think a fair price for an account-wide purchase would be about 3-5 times as much as the per-character price, depending on the item. Some items, such as the 95 TP Riding Skill, could be priced higher than that; I would probably pay 1000 TP for an account-wide Riding Skill purchase. Items limited to a particular race or class should be lower (2-3 times the cost of a per-character unlock) because they can only be used on certain characters. Cosmetics could remain on a per-character basis, as for all intents and purposes they are already account-wide with the use of wardrobe space. This also would not apply to things like LI Legacies, Rune packs, dyes (EXCEPT FOR THE WAR-STEED ONES), and other “short-cut” items.

I think this would be a positive, income-generating change for Turbine, and for the player base as well. The more options I have in ways to spend my monthly stipend of Turbine points, the better. Not to mention, if this change was made, I’d be very, very tempted (read: “I would undoubtedly give in to my temptation”) to buy a large amount of Turbine points on top of my monthly VIP stipend so that I could unlock a lot of account-level stuff right away.

What are everyone else’s thoughts on the matter?

Mounted Combat

With the release of the Riders of Rohan expansion, we were given mounted combat. The expansion focuses heavily on it, so whether you like it or not, you will be doing a great deal of it. I didn’t think I would like it, and it definitely took some getting used to, but now I find I fight on my War-steed whenever possible.

On a cosmetic note, I love the fact that you can customize how your War-steed looks, but I wish you could steal pieces from ALL your standard mounts, not just your store-bought ones. I also wish Turbine gave us just a few more color options for free.

Getting used to the War-steed controls after playing for years with standard mount controls was probably the biggest hardship with mounted combat. Unlike a standard mount, which is controlled just like your character on foot, the War-steed speeds up, slows down, and turns based on momentum. I’ve found that while that isn’t really a problem on the open fields of Rohan, I still prefer to use a standard mount within towns.

As your War-steed levels up, you are able to increase its speed, agility, and turn speed, which makes it a lot easier to control. Due to these upgrades, your War-steed will almost definitely end up being faster than your standard mount, and therefore is much more useful for hauling long distances from town to town.

As for combat, I’ve played on both a captain and a hunter so far. My mounted combat tactics usually involve running around in a circle and firing back at enemies (arrows with a hunter and shouts with the captain). The damage I can do on a War-steed is well above what I can do on foot, and you also take less damage because as long as you keep moving, the foes usually can’t catch you to deliver more than a single blow here and there.

When I first started playing around with mounted combat, I would simply run up to an enemy, stand in place, and hack at it. I would strongly recommend against this. The biggest strength of your War-steed is its ability to stay on the move constantly; it turns you into the ultimate kiting machine. Staying on the move will allow you to bring down enemies you couldn’t possibly bring down on foot.

Mounted combat isn’t perfect, however. I wish that some of my buffs on toggle skills (such as IDOME on my captain) would carry over, as long as I had it activated before mounting up. Also, unless you zoom the camera way out, it becomes very difficult to see what you’re doing, and I’ve found that while running around I tend to accidentally pull other enemies on a regular basis (maybe I just suck, though).

What are your thoughts on mounted combat and War-steeds? Good or bad?

Power Leveling Guide (1-20)

Power level refers to leveling as quickly as possible. Although I don’t recommend it for new players (do yourself a favor and take the time to stop and smell the virtual roses), I do it regularly. I am, and always will be an altoholic., therefore I have played though the first 20 levels or so of LOTRO many, many times. I don’t feel the need to stop and smell the roses in the early levels anymore, because quite frankly, I’m pretty sure they still smell the same as the last fifty times.

Since I recently started playing LOTRO again, I have power leveled 3 characters to level 20 or higher (for various reasons). It generally takes me about six hours of continuous play to get there using this method. It could probably be shortened to five hours if I didn’t take the time to craft or gather any crafting-related resources.

This guide should work for all races and classes, although there may be a little variance in the amount of time it takes based on that factor.

Playing through the intro should get you to level 6 or so. As you’re playing through, don’t take too much time to explore, do deeds, or kill extra enemies other than what’s required by your current quests (quest EXP is where it’s at).

After the intro, start on the Epic Prologue, and do some of the quests around those areas. At level 8, you will unlock the capability to unlock the riding skill (if you want to purchase it from the LOTRO store). At that point, you will have a red gift-box in your inventory (make sure you check your mail) that will turn into a 24-hour horse-whistle. Make sure you use this, it’s much faster than running around everywhere on foot.

Try to avoid working on any less than 2 quests at a time in any given area. Once you hit level 10 or so, speak to a stable-master and fast travel to the West Bree Gate. From Bree, head to Combe and do all the Chetwood quests. That should get you to at least level 12. After Combe, it’s on to Staddle to do the quests there. Make sure you accept the Midgewater Marsh quests and the Widow Foghorn quests. After completing the quests in the Midgewater Marsh, head back to Staddle and turn everything in.

Now, head to the Prancing Pony in Bree, and talk to Strider to get Epic Volume I, Book 1. Do a couple instances in the Epic Quest line, and eventually Strider will give you a quest to go all the way to the western edge of the Bree-Lands and talk to Lenglinn (30.1S, 61.3W). Once you’re over there, head into Buckland and accept the quests from the trio at the north gate and from the group at the entrance to the Old Forest. Once those are completed, you should be around level 16.  After talking with Lenglinn again, he’ll send you back to Strider. Mount up and head back towards Bree, but make sure you make a pit-stop at Adso’s Camp to pick up a few more easy quests. After doing these, continue back to Strider to pick up Epic Volume I, Book 1, Chapter 8, which will send you to Tom Bombadil.

Go west out of Bree and take a left on the road that goes south into the Barrow-Downs. There will be a corpse at the entrance that you can pick up a quest from. Follow the quest to a quest hub in the Northern Barrow-Downs. Before doing any of these quests, head past them and back into the Old Forest to knock out a couple more Epic quests. Once you are on Volume I, Book 1, Chapter 10, head back and start working on all the Barrow-Downs quests. Don’t forget the quest from the Wandering Shade near the Dead Spire (32.1S, 55.1W)!

After doing these, you will be sent into the Southern Barrow-Downs by a group of quests from the guides at Dead Man’s Perch. I always do the bounty quests and the quests from the “Find Malin” questline, but I skip the others because they’re a pain and they take too long. After doing the bounty quests three times, you should be level 20. If not, head back to Adso’s camp and do a couple more miscellaneous quests to finish up the remainder.

If you follow this guide, the whole process should take around 6 hours. Keep in mind that the horse-whistle is only good for 24 hours of real-life time, so if you split this up over multiple days it’s going to take longer unless you spend the TP for the riding skill and get a horse for 500 silver. And then it will still take you longer because you have to detour to Hengstacer Farm. Best of luck always!

Cosmetic Ideas

Today, I’m going to take a minute to share a couple cosmetic ideas with you. Hopefully you’ll enjoy them (and my thoughts on them). Feel free to use them!

This is Eorrick, one of my Wardens. Given that Wardens use special shields and often carry a spear, I decided to go for a Spartan-esque look with him.

• Head: Helm of Rohan (Crimson)
• Shoulders: None
• Back: Plain Cloak (Crimson)
• Upper Body: Hauberk of the Mirrormere (Crimson)
• Lower Body: None
• Feet: Cutleaf’s Boots

One thing that I think a lot of people don’t realize is that sometimes, less is more. I did nothing with the shoulders here because I couldn’t find anything I liked, and I realized that I like the look without shoulder-armour better anyway. To entirely remove a piece of equipment cosmetically, go into your character window, go to the cosmetic tab, and uncheck the eye next to the piece of equipment you want to remove.

Next is Eloc, my Guardian. Since he is a Guardian, I wanted thick, sturdy armour, and lots of it. I decided to go with a gold theme, because I liked how it matched up with the cloak I used.

• Head: Copper-Inlaid Helmet
• Shoulders: Dunlending’s Shoulderpad of Battle
• Back: Heavy Fur Dunlending Cloak
• Upper Body: Hall-General’s Breastplate
• Hands: Gloves of the Impossible Shot
• Lower Body: Leg-Guards of the Killing Blow (Black)
• Feet: Boots of the Eorlingas

It’s important to note that I DO have wardrobe space, and as such am able to create this outfit. Some of the equipment in this outfit is class-restricted (Hunter & Captain). However, because I have wardrobe space, I can equip it cosmetically anyway.

Caane is my second (although created first) Captain. I played him as an RP character for a while, but have recently had the chance to shake the dust off of him because my girlfriend’s Hunter is about the same level. I was originally planning on a more armour-clad look, but then I saw the hat sitting in my wardrobe and decided to go for the fourth musketeer.

• Head: Fancy Plumed Hat (Crimson)
• Shoulders: Dunlending’s Shoulderpad of Battle
• Back: Golden Summer Tree Cloak (Crimson)
• Upper Body: Trapper’s Leather Jacket (Crimson)
• Hands: Gloves of the Impossible Shot (Crimson)
• Lower Body: Isbur-Socas (Crimson)
• Feet: Greaves of the Dragonslayer (Crimson)

I <3 the blend of gold and crimson on this outfit. I also woud like to point out that some items can be used in multiple ways, especially with a fresh coat of dye (the gloves, for example, were dyed a different color and used on my Guardian above).

The last character I’m going to talk about it Carolinn, my main and my primary Captain. One of her outfits you’ve seen in screenshots before, and the other is new.

• Head: None
• Shoulders: Thick Elven Shoulderguards (Black)
• Back: Torahammas’ Cloak (Black)
• Upper Body: Thick Elven Soldier’s Armour (Black)
• Hands: Thick Elven Soldier’s Gloves (Black)
• Lower Body: Barrow-Warrior’s Leggings (Black)
• Feet: Barrow-Warrior’s Boots (Black)

A couple things I want to point out here. First of all, I hate the way that the chest-piece looks in it’s default color. However, I like it a great deal after it has been dyed. Don’t write off a piece of equipment without checking how it looks dyed in the cosmetic window (CTRL + Left Click) first. Also, don’t write off a piece of equipment just because it’s a lower-level or uncommon (yellow) item. The Barrow-Warrior’s set is, in my opinion, one of the coolest looking sets of armour around, and the rest of this Elven armour in this outfit is uncommon rarity. Don’t vendor trash or discard equipment without looking at it for cosmetic value first.

Lastly, we’ll look at Carolinn’s other outfit.

• Head: Hillman’s Cracked Leather Helm
• Shoulders: Shoulders of the Brazen Call
• Back: Cloak of the Raven
• Upper Body: Breastplate of the Brazen Call
• Hands: Spearman’s Singed Leather Gauntlets
• Lower Body: Leggings of the Brazen Call
• Feet: Hillman’s Cracked Leather Boots

What I’d like to mention about this one is that it doesn’t hurt to go for a set to use cosmetically. The “Brazen Call” set actually looks pretty cool. However, it doesn’t hurt to experiment and combine two sets either. The head, hands, and feet from this item are all random drop items from Dunland. When used in combination with “Brazen Call” Captain’s Moria set, I like the result a lot more than using the set alone.

Well, that’s it. Hope you enjoyed it!

Guess Who’s Back… Again

It’s been a very long time since I’ve done anything with this site. I took a fairly long absence from LOTRO due to technical difficulties with my computer, and have only recently started playing again. Since I’ve been gone, many things have happened. Several festivals have come and gone, the Riders of Rohan expansion has been released, and Turbine has put forth a Mac client,  to name but a few.

As for me, I moved into a new house in June, and started dating a wonderful girl. Recently she expressed an interest in video games, and we played through LOTR: War in the North together. We had a blast, by the way. War in the North rekindled my interest in Middle Earth, and since I had not noticed any problems with my computer lately, I tried playing LOTRO again.

Since my girlfriend had suddenly taken a liking to co-op games, I thought LOTRO would be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, she has a 2009 Macbook Pro, and I didn’t want to deal with all the headaches of trying to get it running on her computer. I was reading through Casual Stroll to Mordor, and lo and behold, I saw an article about a Mac client!

I figured it was worth a try. I took a day off of work, and spent the day downloading the almost 20 GB client onto her Macbook. It didn’t work. I did some reading in the Mac client forums, and found that she had a version of Mac OS X that was too old. So I decided to pay fr an upgrade to Mountain Lion for her. After spending the majority of the day patching, downloading, installing, and upgrading, I finally got LOTRO running an hour or two before she got done with work.The Mac client has worked very well, overall, since then.

As for my laptop, it worked for a while until my computer began overheating (which is what caused my absence in the first place). I decided to try a creative solution. Since I play on a laptop, I decided to hook up my laptop to my flat-screen TV with a VGA cable, using the TV as a super-sized monitor. I then put the laptop on a chair, and put a fan next to it blowing directly at it (see picture). I did have to go out an invest in a wireless keyboard and mouse, but I was able to pick one up for pretty cheap.

It worked like a charm. My laptop hasn’t overheated since, and I get to hear the LOTRO soundtrack through decent speakers instead of my wimpy little laptop ones.

So now, we play LOTRO sitting next to each other on my couch, me on the large TV and her on her Mac. She has already fallen in love with Turbine’s take on Tolkien’s world, and after a visit to my family’s house for Thanksgiving, my sister will be playing again too, it seems.

And so, after rediscovering my love of LOTRO, I have once again started blogging about it. Cheers!

RoI Giveaway First Place (Lalia, a Girl in Red)

After much anticipatory buildup, I figure it is time to reveal the first-place winning entry in our Rise Of Isengard giveaway. Written by David, I hope you enjoy “Lalia, a Girl in Red”

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Lalia, that girl in the red

Somehow got it into her head

To journey to the Barrow-Down

That girl, with her pretty red gown

When she arrived she trembled at the sight

For behold!  A great cruel barrow-wight!

She fled and lost her cloak

And she thought twas a cruel joke!

She lost her way in the vast field

And to fear, she did yield

Soon a noble hero did try to save her

He fought the wight, and gained her favour

Then did a great wight arise

And the hero did look at it’s eyes

And with a shout the hero fell

Those eyes, brought him to Hell

Lalia jumped and ran for her life

She escaped, and lives as a serving wife

Now that hero, for pain never sleeps a wink

And in that torturous place, does he often think

“Lalia, Lalia, of the crimson dress!

My feelings for you I wish I could express!

Alas alas!  I cannot!

So hear my final thought!

Damn the chat filter!

Damn the chat filter!

RoI Giveaway Second Place (A Letter to Elrond)

Andared took second place in the RoI guest writer competition with this letter to Elrond. Enjoy!

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Just as Elrond stooped to pick up a book which had fallen off one of the shelves in his library, the doors swung open and an Elf messenger hurried down the steps, and after a quick bow, the Elf revealed a scroll with an elaborate wax seal and held it out to Elrond.

“News from General Lainedhel, in the Ettenmoors, my lord.”

“Thank you,” Elrond said, with a dismissive wave of the hand.

After the messenger left, Elrond broke the seal and unraveled the scroll to divulge its contents.

Greetings, Lord Elrond,

I write to you concerning matters which have recently unfolded in the Ettenmoors.  Four nights ago, an Orc stumbled upon one of our scouting parties as he sought to make his way over the pass in the mountains, heading south towards the Trollshaws. This was nothing out of the ordinary, as our scouts have encountered many Orcs in previous situations similar to this one.  However, this Orc bore with him a strange message in black speech, which I have thus translated, and reads as follows:

“Greetings, man of many colors. This is Tyrant Akulhun, leader of the forces of Angmar. Over the past weeks the Elf dogs combined with help from the Longbeards, little folk, and Man-flesh have gained considerable victories over my forces.  These maggots tend to be more useful for making walls than fighting, but we won’t be able to assault Rivendell if we don’t have any Orcs surviving their first fight.  After inspecting a few of my soldiers, and watching them train, I notice several defective spots in their armor. These maggots seem to be weaker and less able to mitigate attacks than they were before.  I need new armor for these scum before the Elf dogs assault Gramsfoot itself, and quickly! With the new furnaces you’ve…acquired, you should be able to craft us better armor than what we make do with here.  Get those maggots to work, and quickly!

Angmar-Ur!”

It seems that the “Man of many colors” that the Uruk mentions in this letter is Saruman, our newfound enemy in the South.  I also regret to inform you that while we did manage to stop this messenger, it appears another one somehow managed to slip through our watch, because two days later, we received word from the Rangers that the forges of Isengard blazed anew and the shouts of Orcs felling trees could be heard from their furthest camps.  How they plan on shipping the armor to the forces of Angmar at Gramsfoot is a mystery to me.  But for such a large army, it will take many days, regardless of what route of delivery they should choose.  In the meantime, I seek your council on what I should have my armies do in light of these words.  Would you have me attack, and storm Gramsfoot in an effort to eradicate the forces of Angmar before help can be received, or would you have me hold back my forces, and keep an eye on the borders, to stop the shipments from ever arriving?

My own inclinations tell me to attack and wipe out the threat to Rivendell once and for all.  But, if such an attack were to fail, the route to Imladris would be left dangerously unguarded.  Open to a counter-assault from the forces of Angmar.  Because such a decision could determine the fate not only of my own fighting force, but that of Rivendell itself, I feel it is my duty to allow you to make the judgment on what must be done.

Please respond as quickly as possible so I may arrange my forces accordingly. And may the grace of the Valar be upon you, and us all.

 

~General Lainedhel

RoI Giveaway Winners (Honorable Mention: Guide to Warg Packs)

Alrighty, submission deadline for the RoI giveaway has ended, and I have picked the winners!

The winners are as follows:

• First Place: David, with the poem “Lalia, That Girl In Red”
• Second Place: Andared, with a letter to Elrond
• Third Place: Pounceclaw of Landroval, with a guide to Warg Packs

I will post all three, spread out throughout this week. David and Andared, check your emails and you should see the code for your bright and shiny new RoI expansion!

First off, we will post the runner-up, third place submission from Pounceclaw of Landroval.

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The main advantage of the warg pack is the stealth and tracks. Most warg packs avoid the main figh and kill small groups and stragglers. The best is to allow the leader or alloted warg to pounce (5 sec stun/knockout) while the rest of the group uses bloody maul (DoT from stealth). Most groups then split before any more freeps show up, if caught they mainly use Disappear and Flee. The main goal is to stay alive and get quick kills.

Many groups require the members to have improved stealth equipped, it gives you better stealth and +55% run speed while stealthed. A huge point is no matter who is attacking you, stay on the leader’s target. When you pick your own targets you should try to pick healers and hunters (other squishies are okay, too) but if you hit a burg never stun them because it will give them a huge evade buff.

If a freep attempts to flee use sprint then tendon shred (skill given at rank 3) and let other creeps catch up. Warg packs are in my opinion highly fun, depending on your leader, voice chat is highly reccomended so you can hear orders and give advice. Oh, you’ll hear a lot about “nomming hobbits.”

Good luck to you and see you in the Moors!

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I will post the other two winners’ submissions later this week.