[LOTR] Starting out

[Gwen Rockpounder]

The zones are huge, the first map you see when you click the link a few posts back contains the human starting area plus the 10-20 or so content. Whilst I doubt the total area of land exceeds what was in vanilla wow (however feel free someone to jump in and correct me) there's certainly more than your reply would seem to indicate. All imho but I suspect that opening map could be cut up into 7-8 or so Everquest "sized" zones.

I haven't played since 6-8 weeks after launch, what's the housing like? A fun distraction with bits and bobs to collect like EQ2's or just something chucked out to tick off a producers list on his clipboard?

[spentmotiff]

Originally Posted by Gwen Rockpounder

I haven't played since 6-8 weeks after launch, what's the housing like? A fun distraction with bits and bobs to collect like EQ2's or just something chucked out to tick off a producers list on his clipboard?

I've never been one for housing, but housing in LOTRO is addicting as hell. Certain mobs in the game drop items that can be turned in for trophies (including raid and group bosses.) Being able to display some of your kills in your house is pretty damn cool, so much so that I traveled around until I got all of the trophies.

They also have items that can be used for effect, from little things like candles that can be lit to Kegs that can be used to get drunk (and with the latest Festival event, a keg item that gets you drunk so you pass out and are teleported to a random spot in the game.)

Also, people mentioned that the game is only for playing small stretches of time, but I find that I can sink many hours in and never feel burnt from it. Granted, I lucked out and found a great Kin (which helps tremendously) but I think they did a pretty good job coming up with things to do in LOTRO.

[Lost Ranger]

Yeah I dont have a hard time at all finding stuff to do every day for fairly long stretches of time. Keep in mind that the content they had available has been updated since beta some of you heh. It is not as hardcore as EQ or WoW by any means but the casual part is not as obvious now as it was at release imo. If you want a hardcore 5+ days a week raiding experience though I would stick with one of the other MMOs.

Dont let the number of zones turn you off. These zones are massive with a shit load of content to do in each. Running on foot from one side of the world to another would take a very long time heh. I would say land mass is fairly close to vanilla WoW. It is bigger then outland for sure. It can be bad for some I guess if you like to see a zone change every couple levels. I was in the lone lands from 15 to 27 I think but it didnt feel like the time was dragging. The quests were pretty fun and the Red Maid/Weathertop instances were pretty neat.

Edit: EQ2 seriously needs to take a look at the LoTR conjunction system and completely scrap their current heroic opp system. HOs in EQ2 are "ok" at best and I only used them in a macro to get just a little more dps out of my swashy. There is no real reason to use them while grouping though because they are not really that good. You dont -need- them in LoTR either but I find when you do get a 3+ combo off the fight turns in your favor big time. I have not seen what happens if you do one of the 6 button combos yet but I hear its pretty much over if your group does it... You can summon Oathbreakers? Hot.

[splorge]

Originally Posted by Duppin

This cannot be emphasized enough, if you're considering playing this game.

LOTRO is an excellent game to sit down and play for an hour or two at a time, a couple of times a week.

If you are going to play substantially more than that, look somewhere else, or else you'll just find it tedious. It just doesn't stand up well to heavy play.

This is quite true. Definitely not a hardcore gamer game, but i think it works for lotro. most of tolkien fans are a bit older than the average bnet kiddie, and have more stable jobs and cant raid hardcore. the average age for my kinship in lotro is 38, and we have a bunch in their 40s and 50s. the average play time is something like 5 hours a week. lotro doesnt target the hardcore gamer demographic because the game would flop if they did. Turbine recognized that blizzard had a quality game with critical mass for hardcore gamers and instead chose to appeal to a totally different segment. They gave up the chance to be a multi million subscriber mmo for the safety of a smaller more stable population. Such is life in a post WoW mmo world.

as an aside, it takes a normal player between 5-7 days played to get to level 50. i did it with 6 days played, and it took me around 2 months.

[splorge]

Originally Posted by Lost Ranger

Edit: EQ2 seriously needs to take a look at the LoTR conjunction system and completely scrap their current heroic opp system. HOs in EQ2 are "ok" at best and I only used them in a macro to get just a little more dps out of my swashy. There is no real reason to use them while grouping though because they are not really that good. You dont -need- them in LoTR either but I find when you do get a 3+ combo off the fight turns in your favor big time. I have not seen what happens if you do one of the 6 button combos yet but I hear its pretty much over if your group does it... You can summon Oathbreakers? Hot.

i have mixed feelings over lotro conjunctions. its essentially a cross between the game simon and poker.

it basically works like this:

the most powerful moves occur when you do colors in various sequences, so there is a timing element involved when everyone hits their button.

the results of the moves can vary from damage, DOT, heals, power regen, lowering mob AC (this is critical in some boss fights), or a combination effect that is multiplied depending on what sequence is used.

the strategy comes into play in that to add to a sequence, you must be within a certain range of the mob to contribute and hit your button. for tanks and meleers, thats fine, but for minstrels/loremasters/hunters/ they need to approach the mob and make a decision whether or not to contribute.

voice chat is very handy in determining when to initiate the move. if a minstrel is healing, or a loremaster mezzing, they may not get their in time to hit their button (the window lasts for 5 seconds or something) then the entire conjunction would fail. if this is the case, the group will choose a less powerful but safer conjunction that would trigger (solid colors or only 2 combo colors).

all in all, i feel its a so so feature. meh. does make the fights a lot easier though, but they arent that hard to begin with.

[TwiNCannoN]

Burglars are awesome, probably the one class in this game that is fun/unique after coming from WoW, also don't worry about starting race because as soon as you get out of the tutorial you can head to the stables and hitch a ride to any major city for free.

[Snugglebear]

I hope they've fixed this, but in regards to conjunctions, you can't do them after a stun attack (any 'stun' attack tends to give the mob a 5-10 second immunity buff, like priest shields in WoW) and Loremasters have a bunch of attacks that just cause random stuns. This is why I hated grouping with a Loremaster as a Burglar. I really hope they fixed that!

The 4-6 person conjunctions are great. I especially liked the ones where you summon ghosts that protect you for a period of time. You could assign the healer the ghost part and let him get a free tank for a little while! Unfortunately there were some problems due to the 'queue' combat system, where hunters/loremasters/minstrels who have abilities on long timers (aimed shots/powerful attacks/heals) could not participate in the conjunction. Which sucks if they are at the beginning of the conjunction order, because they have to press the buttons in order, and if they don't, it holds up the entire group and prevents us from doing the proper conjunction. Really infuriating there.

Hopefully a lot of these nuisance bugs have been dealt with, and Turbine hasn't just been dealing with housing and other lame crap.

And the zones really are big. The music is exceptional. Going to Rivendell for the first time was great. You'll be hooked completing all the 'achievements' if you like that sort of thing. You might have to scout out every ancient ruin in Bree, kill 50 wolves in the Shire, etc. A real completionist's paradise.

Oh, and I think hunters are loved because they are huge DPS and great utility. They have speed running, a home teleport, and lots of other interesting abilities. I can see why lots of people would be drawn to that. As opposed to the Captain, which is the only class with a summon skill (which they get at a painfully late stage in the game!) Captains get harassed all the time for a summon I imagine. :P

[spentmotiff]

Played around with the Kin this weekend and we ran through the Carn Durn and Goblin Town instances. They are huge.

Carn Durn is a private group instance and the damn thing is so big they give you a day "raid timer" on it so you can split the times going there.

Goblin Town is a public dungeon and also seems equally large.

Both were very cool with Goblin Town being more casual and Carn Durn having some very challenging encounters. I had no idea that there were group-content dungeons like this in the end game. Very cool.

Oh and I gotta say, after playing WoW for 2+ years, it's fun to have a huge public dungeon again, a la EQ. Both Goblin Town and the Delving are setup this way and it's a nice change of pace from the private instances I'm been doing.

[Draegan]

I should resub to check some things out next weekend if I get bored. Then again I don't have a high level character, and the lack of meaningful equipment would piss me off before I get there.

[spentmotiff]

Originally Posted by Draegan

I should resub to check some things out next weekend if I get bored. Then again I don't have a high level character, and the lack of meaningful equipment would piss me off before I get there.

There are 3 class sets right now in-game with one more coming the next patch. There is a Rift Set (for the 12 man Rift runs,) a "Helegrond" set (drops mostly in Helegrond but also is a chance for a random drop in other places) and then the Entermoors set (from Rank and from running the Delving, the PvP dungeon.)

I'm not sure how it was at release, but the gear seems to be getting better.

[Draegan]

At release all the gear was pointless. The difference in my gear from level 15 and level 35 was almost nothing. There really wasn't a difference between poorly geared and well geared.

I also remember the fact that there was a ton of money sinks in this game.

[Draegan]

I'm bored at work, whats good place to go to check out stuff about classes and all the nifty changes over last year?

[spentmotiff]

Originally Posted by Draegan

I'm bored at work, whats good place to go to check out stuff about classes and all the nifty changes over last year?

Best place is actually the LOTRO web site and the Lorebook. For classes at least they have a pretty good rundown. It's Wiki format so somewhat incomplete in places but it ain't too shabby...

[Draegan]

I was already checking that out. Cool. Was wondering how crappy loremasters still are.

[Lost Ranger]

Originally Posted by Draegan

I was already checking that out. Cool. Was wondering how crappy loremasters still are.

I just cant get into the loremaster. They sound cool on paper with the whole staff + sword thing but I was only able to reach 15ish before I was bored to tears. It is not a dps thing because I found at the early game loremasters kill really fast if you dont try and play them like a pet class. I had the raven as a DoT and fire debuffer then just tanked/dpsed the shit myself. I don't know any 50 LMs personally so I cant really comment on the class at end game.

I normally roll with Guardian, Hunter, Mins, Captain(me), burglar, champion, and so far nothing has really given us a problem at all. I find the captain to be the most enjoyable so far because after a few years of WoW it is nice to play a real pally style class and not get stuck in heal bot mode. I still heal alot but I get to do other things which is really fun.

Oh.. and yeah the summon horn thing is a real pain in the ass