Max Level in LotRO

My hobbit burglar is now at the level cap and my typical day as a hobbit in Middle-earth usually contains the following:

- Kill several different kinds of mobs to fill out my trait selections. Right now I’m working on half-orcs and craban in Eregion, the area outside the Mines of Moria. It’s nice seeing the sky again after so long in the darkness. Most of the mobs are grey and not really a challenge, so I’ll pull groups at a time. I’ve also been exploring while I’m at it.

- Solo instance runs. There are several NPCs in various locations that will let players run a solo instance in exchange for a gem of some sort (like an infused garnet). The solo instance completion reward is usually a scroll which will grant a buff to a legendary item (LI) weapon. For example, I often take a scroll which grants a damage increase to orcs and goblins. It also makes my legendary weapon glow blue when there are orcs around. Like Sting! The solo instances are pretty neat, usually generate a decent amount of cash and often result in getting another LI turn-in token.

- If I get items which I can turn in for legendary items, I’ll get a couple and equip them. If they’re useful, they may become a new item for me. If not, I’ll get them a level or two to increase the number of artifacts they’ll drop when I deconstruct them. This aspect of the LI system I find a little silly. It’s like obtaining Narsil and then turning it over to a forge master to turn into spare parts. Ideally, I’ll get my junk weapons to level and then run the solo instance (see above) to get them a couple levels.

- After my routines above, I’ll do whatever comes to mind. I’ve gone on instance runs with kinship mates, gone fishing in Lothlorien, worked on rep with my crafting guild (the cook’s guild for my burglar), or played an alt.

Overall, I’m having fun. It’s nice to have the leveling pressure off me and to just be able to wander on a whim. I suspect as more of my kinship gets geared up for raiding the Watcher, I’ll start joining them for their gear runs. Until then though, I’m content just fiddling around with whatever comes my way.

 

The Dungeon of Separation Anxiety

I finally hit 60 with my hobbit burglar the other day. First thing I did was train up and the second thing I did was get to the bank to equip the new level 60 burglar gloves a kinship mate sent me. Since then, I’ve been milling around the game a bit seeing what other 60s have been up to.

Turbine’s LotRO: Shadows of Angmar (SoA) contained raid instances. One of the great things about the old content was that it was not particularly gear-intensive. Purple gear (excellent quality – the equivalent of WoW’s blue gear), good trait selections and perhaps some scroll or food buffs would be sufficient for most roles in a raid. You probably wouldn’t want to be the main tank in purple gear, but being DPS or crowd-control would be fine.

Raiding in the Mines of Moria expansion is a bit different. There are several instances (four to six of them, I’m not sure the total count) where players can run in either “easy” mode – where they can complete quests, get deeds, and get some alright gear – or “hard” mode where players can follow certain criteria to complete the instance. Hard mode may include timing (down the second boss ten minutes after downing the first), special skills (not being detected by any guards) or only killing certain mobs. The point of running instances on “hard mode” is to get a special gear drop at the end of the run.

 

Play style

I’ve been thinking about play styles a lot lately.  When my kinship was getting ready to get into the Mines of Moria expansion in LotRO, we had a thread running on our boards about how people were going to tackle the content and make the transition between 50 and 60.  Many argued for the “take it slow” approach.  The slow levelers intended to stop and smell the roses, read all the quest text, take in the sights, etc.

My main, a hobbit burglar, is now finally 59 – one level from the max level of 60.  I’ve been all over the area outside the mines and even sneaked my way through to the content on the other side.  I’ve done a lot of quests and am enjoying my time.  I don’t feel that I’ve rushed through anything.  The person who started the “let’s take it easy” thread has been 60 for a while now on his main and is closing in on 60 on a number of alts.

 

On the Road Again: Travel in MMOs

Ysharros at Stylish Corpse has an interesting discussion going about travel in MMOs.  She differentiates between meaningful travel (as in “I am exploring the area so travel is part of the fun”) and meaningless travel (as in “I just need to get to the next bloody town, already”).

Travel options are important in any MMO.  Run speed, fast travel, mapping / hearthstones, etc., all effect how big the world feels and can contribute to either the fun or the tedium players experience in games.  If travel is a pain, players may be less likely to want to go out of their way to explore.  If travel is too easy or too immersion-breaking, the world feels tiny or trivial.

Of any MMO I’ve played, I like LotRO’s travel options the best, that is: I like the range of possibilities the best.  I still have issues with some of the offerings.  Player mounts are too weak and take too little damage before players get knocked off of them.  In some places, stealthed mobs on the roads make mounting up a waste of time.  Durable reputation mounts are an improvement, but not by much.  I like the swift travel and regular travel horses.  They function like eagles and wyvrns in WoW but you can hop off them whenever you choose.  There are also hunter ports and various types of summons available.  Overall, the list is impressive.  The one thing I’d really like is a player sprint ability available at level one so we could get our lowbies around faster.

 

Long Weekend Gaming Extravaganza

My company has mandated that employees take up some more of their Paid Time Off this year, so the past couple of weekends have been three day weekends for me. As it’s winter here in the Northeast US, I’ve stayed inside and mostly watched TV, read or played video games.

I am now addicted to House MD. I recently caught the House marathon over New Year’s and started watching the show. It’s funny: I had no interest in the show for the past four years but all of a sudden I started watching it. *shrug*

I’ve been re-reading The Hobbit  as well as The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit has to be one of my all-time favorite books. Bilbo is a wonderful hero because, in his world, he’s not really supposed to be one. I like tales of knights or warriors as much as anyone, but unlikely heroes appeal to me.

LotRO continues to give me my MMO fix. My hobbit burglar is now closing in on 59. A little over a level and he’ll be 60. My kinship has begun creating regular instance runs to get the armor required for the final Watcher battle. While I’ve enjoyed much of Moria, this weekend, I spent a lot of time either crafting or in Lothlorien questing or fishing. It’s good to see the stars and sky again after the long dark of Moria. I’m looking forward to the Lothlorien expansion (I believe it will be in the first free expansion for MoM).

Like MBP, I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers returning to LotRO or picking it up for the first time. It’s a game I’ve enjoyed quite a bit during my time there and I’ve hopeful that at least a couple more LotRO regulars will develop. On the other hand, I’m a realist and I’m sure many will head off for newer games once they pop up. LotRO is an acquired taste, I think. As I’ve stated before, there are certain types of players I’ve noticed in LotRO (lots of Lore fans, casual socializers, etc). People who value other attributes in their gaming (hardcore PvP, rapid advancement, etc) or who don’t place a lot of value in just being in Middle-earth may not enjoy LotRO.

I’ve been playing LotRO a lot but also wanted to mess around with some other games as well. I did some more time in WoW including re-re-rerolling a Death Knight. LOL! What can I say, their starting area rocks. After that though, I cancelled my account. WoW remains one of the best MMOs for new MMO players, but no amount of nostalgia will bring the game experience back to what it was for me back in the day. I just can’t seem to make it past the Burning Crusade stuff and the questing Horde-side in the new continent just didn’t do it for me.

Just for giggles, I loaded up Oblivion again. What an awesome game that is. It’s a sandbox game where players can either do all the quests, none of the quests or anything in between. My first character there was a noble knight and I’d take pains to do all the quests and work through the content. My second character is a lot more fun to me. As soon as I was out of the starting area, I stole a horse. From that moment on, I’ve been flitting between questing and fleeing the authorities. If it’s not nailed down, I’ll steal it. I have a personal house in the main city which I use to house stolen goods until I can safely transport them to my fence. One thing I’d love to see is an Oblivion-style MMO. The ability to level via using skills (just sneaking and walking around grants skill points to level up) is excellent alternative to quest-based or grind-based leveling seen in many MMOs.

And that’s what’s going on.

 

Mines of Moria Instances 2

15.12
This past weekend I got to run a couple more of the instances in the new content.  The first instance I ran on Friday night was the one for book 15.12.  This instance is a huge pain.  One thing I’d like to see is the Epic Book quests available to all players.  I know when I enter a raid instance (Helegrod, The Rift, etc.) that it’s going to be tough going.  I expect the possibility of dying a lot especially if we’re learning an encounter.  The Book quests, imho, shouldn’t be as difficult or as dependent on classes or builds; they are a chance for all players to participate in the storyline and to help out the Fellowship in some way.  So I get irritated when I see Epic Book instances like the one in 15.12.  It’s hard.  Really hard.  The first group I was in wiped four times on the first boss and we had to reset several times along the way as key players died.  For all the good stuff I saw in other instances with regard to class freedom, it all went to hell in 15.12.  You must have a guardian and a minstrel – no other combination for healing or tanking seems to work.  For the remaining classes, players need to balance things out between crowd control and DPS.  Champion tanks in 15.12 are too squishy and are a waste of DPS.  Loremasters should be conserving their power to drain power from mobs or crowd control, not healing or DPSing.  Anything besides an “all-x” conjunction is unreliable due to targeting and the spread of the group.  Groups in my kinship have passed through this awful instance but class balance seems to be the key.

Why do I get so peeved about class balance?  Because players should be able to play the classes they like.  Someone shouldn’t be penalized for wanting to play something besides a minstrel (healer) or guardian (tank).  (And the reverse is true as well: players shouldn’t be penalized for wanting to play a minstrel or guardian.)  I’m tired of games where people take those roles out of a “sense of duty.”  It’s a game.  Play the class you want to play not one you feel you have to play.  I accept the fact that raids require certain classes and certain builds.  Most raiders accept that as well.  I’d prefer that the Book instances were more along the lines of the other instances in game and less like mini-raid instances.  As I saw in WoW, a raid-worthy instance with fewer players puts a greater emphasis on the performance of each player.  A disconnect of a single player in the Rift sucks but chances are the group can still win.  One dead player in 15.12 means a reset or a delay issue as they try to get caught back up to the group and the NPC escort who won’t stop except to fight.

 

SSL Error

In a brilliant maneuver no doubt designed to limit the load on their servers, Turbine has let their SSL certificate expire.  There is a thread about the issue on the official forums.  There is also a dev post.  The problem will create SSL errors on the LotRO client and won’t allow users to log into the game.

The fix is to move the date on your PC clock back to 1/1/2009.

This fix will, however, cause issues with any daily quests.

Edit: The issue has been resolved.  Turbine states that they did reup the certificate but for some reason, the original request didn’t take.  A new certificate has been set up and the game should work correctly now.

 

Mines of Moria Instances

My hobbit burglar is now fifty-six.  I’ve been doing a lot of social things in LotRO (Yulemas Festival stuff and crafting) and haven’t had a lot of time for questing lately.  When I have been in the mines, it’s been to help out some kinship mates with an instance run or two.

When LotRO went live, it had a number of instances to run including the Great Barrows or Garth Agarwen (GA).  Both instances took hours to complete at-level.  Several of my friends were complaining about the length of time for them -  a couple refused to ever go to GA again after a three-hour marathon in the place.  I’m happy to report that Turbine seems to have gotten the message.

One of the new instances is called the Forgotten Treasury.  It’s two rooms.  The first room is large and has a series of dwarf statues in it.  When players get close enough, the boss inside the room “locks” the vault by turning the statues to face away from the center of the room.  The effect is pretty neat because the statues hold mirrors to reflect light and as they turn the room darkens.  Players proceed around an upper ring and kill the mini-bosses guarding the statues around.  Once the bosses are clear, the players turn wheels to move the statues back to the unlocked position.  The wheels need to be turned in the opposite order in which the statues turned at the beginning.  Failing to turn a wheel at the correct time results in people getting acid dropped on them.  The acid doesn’t cause much damage; it’s more annoying than anything.

If the players manage to get past the first room, they can kill the boss in the second room.  There are chests in the second room which have some really nice loot in them.  When players go back to the first room, there are two more bosses that show up: twin trolls.

The instance is very short and a lot of fun; it’s alternately tank-and-spank and puzzle game.  For a more detailed review, see MBP’s post about the Forgotten Treasury.

The second instance I ran was actually a level fifty-eight instance: Fil Gashan.  At fifty-five, I was mostly just along for the ride.  One of the main mechanics here was to disguise oneself as an orc!  The disguises would not work on all the orcs but they would enable the players to disable alarms before the orcs could sound them.  In another part, and this was a lot of fun, the players all in their disguises, walk into a cafeteria of orcs.  They proceed to the back of the room and wait.  At some point, the boss says “back to work!” and all the orcs present walk out.  Then the boss sees the players standing there, says “hey, you’re not orcs” and the boss fight begins.  The interesting thing about this group: no minstrels (healers) or guardians (tanks).  We had two burglars pulling healing conjunctions, a tanking champion and a captain.  We also had a lore master on crowd-control.  Turbine’s group dynamics are great and I’m loving the fact that while each class is useful, none are essential.

Turbine’s instances are getting better and better.  Here’s to hoping the trend continues well into the future.

In other LotRO news:
- I finally managed to get a non-tater / non-coal drop from the Winter Festival.  I got a gift box furniture item (an item which looks like an unopened present).

- I was on another Forgotten Treasury run when I could pick up some glowing piles of treasure and a gem from one of the orcs.  The items got me a Treasure Hunter title which is great for my hobbit burglar.

- I attended two Yulemas / Christmas parties in game.  One was via a mystery invite from someone on my server.  It was a lot of fun!  We had dancing and music (via LotRO’s player music system).  We also had a riddle contest which I always enjoy.  Two notable riddles (answers to be posted in a comment):

The first man makes it. The second man buys it.  The third mans uses it but doesn’t even know it.

I start all eternity and am the end of time and space.  I am the beginning of every end and the end of every place.

The second party was one I organized for my kinship.  I also set up a band.  Another member transposed some Christmas favorites which we played via ABC files including: Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, O Holy Night, and Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.  We also did a secret Santa / gift exchange as well.  Now all we need is a Middle-earth Behind the Music to track the meteoric rise and subsequent fall from grace of our tiny band.

 

The Grinch that Stole Yulemas

This past weekend I partook in the Yulemas festival.  Like festivals past, there are events and dancing.  There’s a horse race one can go to.  There are also little mini-quests people can do for tokens.  Players can turn in those tokens for gift boxes.  The problem is: it’s five tokens for a single gift box and each area only has two quests.  So players will have to travel to the Shire, Breeland, Thorin’s Hall and Duillond to get enough for a single turn-in.

But wait, it gets worse.

All the work to get a single turn-in only gets you one gift box.  There’s no telling what’s in it.  Once you open the box, you’ll get your “gift.”  And the real kicker: drop rates for anything besides taters or coal are EXTREMELY low.  With the quests on a six-hour cool down (and after getting three pieces of coal and a tater), I decided it wasn’t worth doing any more.

What a disappointment.  I like the idea that during a Festival, I’ll get something for my character.  It doesn’t have to be much, just something for my house or some potions.  And it’s not like the rewards are epic either; they’re things like snowglobes, backpacks and the like.  I don’t see where grinding some quests for the possibilty of getting a cosmetic item is fun.  Ahh well.

I still like the expansion, but the latest festival leaves a lot to be desired.

 

LotRO: The Mines of Moria

I’ve been playing both WoW’s recent expansion (Wrath of the Lich King) as well as LotRO’s Mines of Moria expansion.  Mines of Moria has me totally hooked.  I log into WoW once-in-a-while to play my hunter or death knight, but for the most part, I’ve been working through LotRO’s expansion.

The basic premise of the expansion is that the Fellowship has passed through the mines already and you’re following close behind them.  Also following the Fellowship, the dwarves have managed to get into the mines and have established several footholds.  Most of the area, however, is still under goblin control and still dangerous.