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sassassin posted:30-40 for me was pretty good (mostly Evendim), 40-(almost)45 hasn't been too bad (mostly Trollshaws). Gained a lot of levels recently getting stuck into combat area like Annuminas, looking down and oh I've filled half the bar already. You're not the only one that feels that way about Eregion. "It's just a some fields and ditches and orcs" perfectly sums up how I've always felt about it as well. It does have some lore stuff in it though. My rundown: Evendim: Everyone agrees about this one. It's the zone that Turbine got right. Great quest flow, gorgeous atmosphere, and grants you Kindred reputation status just for passing through. Buy it. Enjoy it. North Downs: In need of a rework by Turbine. Most of it's ok, but the area know as Dol Dinen needs a serious revamp. Dol Dinen is almost a great loving spot(its a giant army encampment full of orcs, trolls and wargs), except it requires a Fellowship(for overland content), almost everything's elite, and the quest structure sends you to kill the guys further back first and THEN gives you the quest to kill the guys you fought through to get to the guys in back. There's also a series of Troll quests in Southern ND that should be avoided at all costs. You can have more fun leveling in other zones. Trollshaws: The second most atmospheric zone in the game, after Lothlorien. The only thing truly, objectively bad about it is the lack of swift travel options. It's possible to follow its quest chain, but you have to make a conscious effort to do so instead of having your hand held to the next quest hub for you as most zones do. Some of the quests involving elite spiders and trolls are meant for a fellowship, which is a point against it. Overall, the zone isn't THAT bad, but it does need some work. Angmar: Don't listen to anyone telling you to skip Angmar. It's a dark, dismal place which turns some people off, but most of it is absolutely fine to quest through. The complaints are with some parts in the northeast around Gath Forthnir where you have to fight elites. This was the original endgame area, and hasn't been fixed to reflect that there are now 4 expansions on top of it. It includes the original endgame raids of Carn Dum, Urugarth, and The Rift. You want to run those. Misty Mountains: Probably the zone that gets mentioned the least. Everyone just kinda forgets that it exists. It's a pain in the rear end to travel through all of its mountain passes full of mobs just to get anywhere. Northern and eastern MM is a little more open, and unsurprisingly, more fun to level in. The zone culminates with Goblin Town(from The Hobbit). If you're at all here for the lore, you'll want to go there find all of Bilbo's buttons and see Gollum's cave. MM is also home to LotRO's other original end game raid: Helegrod, which is now 3 separate instances. Forochel: I honestly don't get why this zone is so popular. It's Hoth in Middle Earth. Not only is this the most out-of-the-way zone in the entire game, but everything in it is massively spread out and it takes forever to get anywhere. And it's all white. You will get lost there, even after you've been there a few times. The only swift travel option is to the main town which is in the far northeastern corner of the zone. If you need to go anywhere else, you'll have to ride as far as 7.5km around a giant ice bay through a white, snowy wasteland that you WILL get lost in. It has nothing to do with with anything in the lore. I say skip it, but I do want to understand why people keep recommending it. Eregion: There's nothing wrong with its quest hubs or anything like that, which accounts for why people always recommend it. Things are spaced out a little too much for my liking, but maybe that's just me. Overall, it's just a very generic zone. There's nothing glaring bad about it, but there's nothing about it that really stands out as great either. You could do worse. Brave New World fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Jan 21, 2013 |
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Jan 21, 2013 16:20
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DataSage posted:Oh good Lord, it looks like I'm getting back into this! I've played this game off and on with goons, but all my serious high level characters are on other servers... We are a hardcore RP guild so you must pick the race and class that most closely matches your otherkin spirit.
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Jan 21, 2013 16:36
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Brave New World posted:Angmar: Don't listen to anyone telling you to skip Angmar. It's a dark, dismal place which turns some people off, but most of it is absolutely fine to quest through. The complaints are with some parts in the northeast around Gath Forthnir where you have to fight elites. This was the original endgame area, and hasn't been fixed to reflect that there are now 4 expansions on top of it. Explains why I was convinced I was lost yesterday while running into 50 elites on a 46 quest. Except I actually was lost and wandered into a giant spider nest more than once.
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Jan 21, 2013 16:41
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Brave New World posted:Evendim: Everyone agrees about this one. It's the zone that Turbine got right. Great quest flow, gorgeous atmosphere, and grants you Kindred reputation status just for passing through. Buy it. Enjoy it. I've been to these two, so I thought I'd comment on them too. Evendim: I'm currently in the middle of it. Most of the quest hubs are done pretty well, although there is still a bit of back-tracking (like the tomb-robber infested ruins across the river), and a few quest chains that hurt the flow (like the treasure one, although that's fun so far, not done with yet). I think the flow also breaks down a bit when you're at the ranger camp, as it sends you to salamander island that everyone says is miserable (I've yet to do that quest just because of it's reputation on that chain), and it also sends you to Ost Forod (with multiple breadcrumbs), so you end up doing both hubs at once and things get a bit annoying. But yeah, so far, pretty sweet zone, not too bad. North Downs: uuuuggghhh. This zone definitely needs serious re-work in light of what modern quest flow is like. At times the zone is great. I like a lot of the areas, there's some cool quests, Halbarad is in it, etc. But the quest flow is a bit jumpy, then there's some chains that constantly send you from the east to the west to the east and back again, and just all over in general. Plus there's just a TON of 6-man quests that'll kill your quest chains, and it turns out those continue on for a while too. Alot of them have cool areas and backstory too, so it's a real shame that they're not re-tuned to be solo. Out of the zones I've done so far, I've found this one the most frustrating, plus it just never ends as I started there my early 20s and I still have quests reaching into the 40s from there. It's not one I'd recommend anyone buy. I'm just doing it because I'm stupid about quests.
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Jan 21, 2013 17:12
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xZAOx posted:Out of the zones I've done so far, I've found this one [North down] the most frustrating, plus it just never ends as I started there my early 20s and I still have quests reaching into the 40s from there. Yeah Turbine havent gotten around to do a complete revamp of that zone yet. In the beginning when there was no expansion, North was all we had (along with Trollshaw and Misty Mountain) to get you up in level to enter Angmar. I guess they could revamp it east-west with west being an alternative to lone-land to get you to 30 and the east being group content for 30-40. As far as guild raiding goes, yesterday we've run a few Barad Guldur (Durchest) farming. Was just a matter of asking who was interested, grouping up and filling in the missing position with pubbies from glff... Went very smooth.
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Jan 21, 2013 17:51
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Twisted Perspective posted:Speaking of having fun in Agamar I've got a Champion quest that's long overdue but I can't find a way into Urugarth. Can anyone help me out? How the gently caress do you get there? You get a key to the gates during the epic story.
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Jan 21, 2013 18:10
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Captain Backslap posted:You get a key to the gates during the epic story. Ah. Thank you. I've been as far as tha gates solo but they were locked. At least I know where to go.
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Jan 21, 2013 18:33
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Fuzz posted:Ehh... The only things left are Mirkwood/Dalelands/Lonely Mountain, Gondor, and Mordor... I mean, you could do the Iron and Grey Mountains, Rhun,, and Harad, but yeah... who cares? Eriador is huge compared to the rest of the provinces... look at the map: They've also said that LOTRO won't end with the content that gets us up to the end of Return of the King. I'm hopeful that means that they'll someday add Rhun and Harad. Realistically they'll probably keep going if by the time they've put out Mordor, the game is still a cash-cow for them and not losing money. xZAOx posted:I feel lost - are you saying there's another way to get guild rep than making the patterns and consuming them? I've only been in the crafting guild for a few days. No. Weaponsmith emblems (at least in the earlier tiers) require certain types of ore to craft them that's a pain in the butt to get. It's stuff like elf-steel and westernesse steel ingots.
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Jan 21, 2013 19:00
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It was lonely on Dwarrowdelf.  Time to fulfill my deepest desires to be a woman! In as Katariana, champion!
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Jan 21, 2013 19:01
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HelloSailorSign posted:It was lonely on Dwarrowdelf. I asked if people were on Dwarrowdelf. Where were you?  I'd reroll on Silverlode but I'm still enjoying my main too much and I just got made officer in my mostly-not-annoying kin.
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Jan 21, 2013 19:47
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Rarity posted:I asked if people were on Dwarrowdelf. Where were you? Oh snap. I joined some kin called "E Pluribus Unum" I've got a 44 Captain, 28 hunter, and a couple others there. If you see Kaelros, that's me!
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Jan 21, 2013 20:20
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HelloSailorSign posted:If you see Kaelros, that's me! Cool! In the most stunning display of originality ever, I'm Raritysa XD
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Jan 21, 2013 20:31
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ruffz posted:They've also said that LOTRO won't end with the content that gets us up to the end of Return of the King. I'm hopeful that means that they'll someday add Rhun and Harad. Realistically they'll probably keep going if by the time they've put out Mordor, the game is still a cash-cow for them and not losing money.
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Jan 21, 2013 20:32
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sassassin posted:Rode through Eregion yesterday to mine and pick up stables, and it seems really dull. Talked to a few quest givers and nothing much grabbed me so I might end up skipping it and save my points for something else down the line. You're fine at 47/48 to head into Moria. Get your legendary and go.
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Jan 21, 2013 21:28
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Brave New World posted:
Forochel is loving gorgeous  Plus you can knock over ice skaters.I think the whiteness of Forochel is actually sort of a nice change after all the rolling green hills and picturesque valleys of most of the rest of the zones. It's a nice way to make Middle Earth feel like an actual place with multiple climate zones and cultures.
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Jan 21, 2013 22:00
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Somebody on the LOTRO forum guessed that the spring update zone will be the area right in the middle of Limlight Gorge / Eaves of Fangorn / Norcrofts / The Wold. No idea what that area would even be called. The guy said that since Great River came out, a new bridge in the south area of Wailing Hills appeared that's halfway constructed, and it leads to that area. Also the last couple expansions have been announced in late January, so hopefully soon we'll get announcements about both the spring update and fall expansion.
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Jan 21, 2013 23:04
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Captain Backslap posted:The only problem I have with discussions about long term plans for this game is that it's basically all at the whims of the group in charge of Lord of the Rings IP. At least when it comes to taking things Turbine says in the long term seriously. They could pull the rug out from under Turbine for lovely reasons, unless Turbine has been able to lock in some long term agreements, which is a problem with all licensed IP. They have the rights to anything that is mentioned in the Lord of the Rings books, that includes the appendix.
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Jan 21, 2013 23:52
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That's pretty obvious and easy to figure out from the content so far, but doesn't address what I said in any fashion. Unless you are implying the license doesn't have to get renewed and that it lasts as long as Turbine wants it. My post was about license duration and how a licensed product's continued existence depends almost entirely on the whim of the IP owners. Basically what I'm getting at is that Turbine saying things like "Oh we won't stop at the end of the trilogy if this is still going." is so long term it practically meaningless information for reasons already mentioned by other posters as well as the reason I indicate. Captain Candiru fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Jan 22, 2013 00:32
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Except at this point the IP holder loses nothing by selling the MMO rights to Turbine so their only concern is protecting the brand (which Turbine handles very well). As long they're happy with that then LOTRO is basically an excuse for them to get free money
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Jan 22, 2013 00:44
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That's true right up until the point where another company comes along and says, "Hey, if you grant us the license to make an MMO, you'll make even more money." I'm not sure how likely that is to happen now that MMOs are not the money-printing cash cows that people seemed to think they were for so long (unless you're Blizzard), but it's entirely possible.
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Jan 22, 2013 00:50
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My point wasn't even about likelyhoods, but simply pointing out a factor that applies to this particular MMO that doesn't apply to other MMOs (with two noteworthy exceptions: MMOs based on Warhammer or Star Wars), with respect to long term expectations. Captain Candiru fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Jan 22, 2013 00:59
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From what I'm to understand, Turbine has the rights to LotR through 2017. At that point it is up for renewal with Saul Zaetz Co, the current owner of the Tolkien IP. At this point, I'm actually more worried about whether Warner Bros will still have the stomach to keep running an MMO company by then.
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Jan 22, 2013 01:28
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If it ever come to that I can already say That it will have been a good ten years 
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Jan 22, 2013 02:09
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ruffz posted:That's weird because I remember someone from Turbine saying they wanted to eventually have the entirety of middle-earth represented in the game. They probably realized that with the rate at which they're releasing new areas of the world, it would take them another 10 years to get it all in. Hopefully it's just that they plan to add those zones, but not as a kneejerk reaction to the movie. I forget if it was there when RoI came out, but North Mirkwood does seem a bit more detailed and with a greyed-out icon, so having something show up there could be interesting. Not entirely sure what though, unless they plan to have the siege even heavier up there. It'd fit with the recap Gandalf(?) gives at the end of RotK when he mentions the fight in Erebor and what happened to Dain&Barding. JFC posted:They have the rights to anything that is mentioned in the Lord of the Rings books, that includes the appendix. There's a lot of pacifying/rebuilding that takes place. Including things like reclaiming the Morgul Vale. I'd be surprised if for expansions we don't see an expansion around the Dale and Lonely Mountain with North Mirkwood as an add on like Lothlorien was. Brave New World posted:From what I'm to understand, Turbine has the rights to LotR through 2017. At that point it is up for renewal with Saul Zaetz Co, the current owner of the Tolkien IP. Unless LotRO is losing money they'll keep running it. They have nothing to gain by essentially saying "yeah we don't want this extra X million in revenue, also we want the PR hit for firing a bunch of people from this venture that was making us money."
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Jan 22, 2013 03:12
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Evil Fluffy posted:Unless LotRO is losing money they'll keep running it. They have nothing to gain by essentially saying "yeah we don't want this extra X million in revenue, also we want the PR hit for firing a bunch of people from this venture that was making us money." This is a dumb derail at this point, though.
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Jan 22, 2013 04:12
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Brave New World posted:You're not the only one that feels that way about Eregion. "It's just a some fields and ditches and orcs" perfectly sums up how I've always felt about it as well. It does have some lore stuff in it though. This was super helpful and should be added to the OP, I think. I was trying to calculate exactly what poo poo I would need to have access to all the "good" stuff, and now that you've given this detailed rundown, that actually saves me quite a bit of money in the long run. I could probably axe Misty Mountains off that too, but gently caress if I don't love me some lore. Hell, I'm tempted to grab the expanded Lone Lands quests, because I'm actually really enjoying that area thus far. The fact that I'm maining a Hunter and I just got the Return to Campsite power probably helps... I can bounce between Candach's camp and the Milestones to turn poo poo in stupidly fast, plus horse and faster runspeed and virtually zero downtime as I murderate everything with arrows. tl;dr: Thanks for the summary. Hunters are loving awesome. EDIT: Just to be certain, since it's hard to get any of this info when not logged into the actual game... North Downs, Forochel, and Eregion don't have any instances or raids or skirmishes associated with them, do they? Fuzz fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Jan 22, 2013 06:08
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ND has Fornost, Forochel has the Icy Crevasse (?)
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Jan 22, 2013 06:19
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Woodchip posted:ND has Fornost, Forochel has the Icy Crevasse (?) Are either of those worth half a poo poo? Are they Instances or what? And most importantly, does anyone actually go to them, or do most people not even bother?
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Jan 22, 2013 06:34
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Evil Fluffy posted:Hopefully it's just that they plan to add those zones, but not as a kneejerk reaction to the movie. The greyed-out icon for North Mirkwood (as well as Gladden Fields, Fangorn, West Rohan, Dagorlad, Wilderland, Rhun and Mordor) appeared with update 9 if I remember correctly. I'm very far from a LoTR lore buff, so I don't know where North Mirkwood would fit in when it comes to the story. One would assume that all of those greyed out areas are planned to be released at some point. This is making me want to finally sit down and take the time to read through all of the books.
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Jan 22, 2013 08:36
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Nipponophile posted:That's true right up until the point where another company comes along and says, "Hey, if you grant us the license to make an MMO, you'll make even more money." Turbine's owned by Warner which has made a point of collecting everyone with Tolkien IP licenses into their company portfolio. I don't think the people at Zaentz want to gently caress with a business relationship like that.
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Jan 22, 2013 08:45
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xZAOx posted:
No, you grind patterns to get to grand master. If you're already tier 8 in your craft and have all ... 16? of the patterns, it takes 3 weeks of making all of them whenever they're up to hit grand master. Currently doing that grind on 5 tradeskill alts. Well, 3 now, my cooks hit grand master yesterday, I guess.
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Jan 22, 2013 09:31
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ruffz posted:The greyed-out icon for North Mirkwood (as well as Gladden Fields, Fangorn, West Rohan, Dagorlad, Wilderland, Rhun and Mordor) appeared with update 9 if I remember correctly. I'm very far from a LoTR lore buff, so I don't know where North Mirkwood would fit in when it comes to the story. One would assume that all of those greyed out areas are planned to be released at some point. This is making me want to finally sit down and take the time to read through all of the books. LoTRO isn't just a LoTR movie, it tells a story of the things that are going on in the world while the fellowship is off doing their thing. I don't think it would be compelling if it strictly stuck only to the areas where the fellowship traveled, with you winding around and around their tale. Sure, you can do that if you want - most of the places they've been pre-MT are in the game, but there's a lot of peripheral stuff going on that's pretty interesting. Think of LoTR like a vet telling a story about the battle he was involved in that was the deciding stroke in the war. Obviously, as important as that battle was, it wasn't the entire war, and it was only made possible because of a series of other battles that were just as important as the big one, if only because it ENABLED the big one to happen. So Goony McGoontown and his merry band of men stopping the spider queen in North Mirkwood from opening a McDonalds in Bree and making Men fat and lazy could easily be one of those peripheral battles that is extremely important, but maybe not quite as glorious as ... carrying a ring into a volcano?
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Jan 22, 2013 09:39
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Captain Backslap posted:The only problem I have with discussions about long term plans for this game is that it's basically all at the whims of the group in charge of Lord of the Rings IP. At least when it comes to taking things Turbine says in the long term seriously. They could pull the rug out from under Turbine for lovely reasons, unless Turbine has been able to lock in some long term agreements, which is a problem with all licensed IP. Or Yellowstone could explode and we could all die tomorrow. The game is fun now. Play now. Worry about later ... later. Be a grasshopper, not an ant. I think. I never did understand that fable, but I'll worry about it tomorrow.
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Jan 22, 2013 09:42
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dug fin posted:LoTRO isn't just a LoTR movie, it tells a story of the things that are going on in the world while the fellowship is off doing their thing. I don't think it would be compelling if it strictly stuck only to the areas where the fellowship traveled, with you winding around and around their tale. Sure, you can do that if you want - most of the places they've been pre-MT are in the game, but there's a lot of peripheral stuff going on that's pretty interesting. I'm just waiting for the inevitable instance where you and your Fellowship ride in as part of the cavalry during the Battle of Minas Tirith. God, they better make it happen.
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Jan 22, 2013 09:55
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For those wondering about classes: Burgler - DPS, being sneaky, enabling other people to hit colored buttons, but not the colored buttons that the group leader wants them to hit. This is somehow going to be your fault. You get to pick pockets though, which is awesome. Sometimes you get an item that will make you 56 copper richer. Captain - Decent healer, Decent offtank, Mediocre DPS, you can do a little bit of everything. You're really only a group class and soloing is slower than ... something that's really, really slow. Also you have a large penis and women find your charms irresistible. Champion - Melee AoE DPS, everyone will tell you you will make a good offtank, but secretly they do it so you die in two hits, because watching you die makes them laugh. You will spend your entire time being yelled at by group leaders about corruptions and making them go away. Guardian - I've heard they can tank, but I'm pretty sure they're just pre-puberty Wardens. Hunter - Great DPS, but mostly for people who like browsing FYAD and eating Cheetos while playing. When people yell at you for pulling aggro off the tank, realize that they're commending you for your amazing DPS. Lore Master - You can DPS and heal too I guess, but really you can AFK unless you need to cast stun protect or a crowd control spell. Always claim to be traited for crowd controls because wiping groups is funny. Also you get a pet that excels at wiping groups (which is funny). Just remember to hotkey "/ra Did anyone see where my eagle went?". Minstrel - The class for band geeks. You play music and heal people with it. You can damage bad guys, but self delusion will make you think they die a lot faster than they actually do. Resist the urge to tell people how amazing you are at making things dead, they will laugh at you. Rune Keepers - I guess they drop rocks on the ground and poop lightning. I have no idea. They do good AoE ranged dps, I guess. If you play one goons will whine that you're breaking their immersion ... but goons will always find something to whine about, so just ignore them. Wardens - They can probably be the best tanks, but only if you have Aspergers, so they're the perfect goon class. You have to be able to stifle your spastic impulses for the ten seconds it takes to input whatever Konami code you're trying to input at the time, or instead of healing yourself, you'll turn into a Tanuki and hit someone with a sledgehammer ... I have no idea.
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Jan 22, 2013 10:08
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Guys did you know that Mirkwood is great? Why does no one ever talk about how great Mirkwood is? Maybe this is a weird opinion? I dunno, I think a haunted inn and  music and tons of creepy ruins is really cool. Plus ghosts! And graveyards! And weird rear end swamp hallucinations!
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Jan 22, 2013 10:37
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Evil Fluffy posted:Unless LotRO is losing money they'll keep running it. They have nothing to gain by essentially saying "yeah we don't want this extra X million in revenue, also we want the PR hit for firing a bunch of people from this venture that was making us money." The counterpoint to this would be City of Heroes shutting down. It was a much older game than Lotro sure, but I'm pretty sure it was also still fairly profitable for NCSoft and there was little reason to shut it down. I don't want to start a derail (since I didn't even play CoH), but the rationale is similar.
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Jan 22, 2013 12:41
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dug fin posted:Wardens - Konami code Tanuki sledgehammers Do any of you know of an up-to-date guide to rotations? I'm rather hard pressed trying to keep everything up, and I'm not even level 40 yet. (I know that a lot of konami codes aren't available to me yet, but having a general idea what I should try to imprint into my monkey brain would be nice)
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Jan 22, 2013 14:07
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Random question that I think I already know the answer to: I'm VIP now and have 7 character slots. Once I go back to Premium, do I drop back down to 5 character slots? What happens to two of my characters, do they get locked out or something? Do I get to choose which ones get locked, or does the game just pick the last two alphabetically or the two lowest level or something? (Important because two of my highest-level characters are also on the second character select screen, at the bottom of the list).
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Jan 22, 2013 14:53
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Yes, and you get to choose.
Lars fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Jan 22, 2013 15:16
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