Lord of the Rings Online

[Quillan]

Was it with The Rift or with Annuminas that Lotro introduced that? I can't remember right now.

Con, I don't if it's still this way, but there was a section between the Blue Mountains and The Shire that didn't exist when the game went live. You basically hit a loading zone and came out on the west edge of The Shire. The rest of the way you went manually. I made the trip to Rivendell the first time at level 24, running through hostile territory with monsters up to about level 35-37. It was a tense journey, but quite spectacular views once I got there. And it took probably 45 minutes to make that trip. It's faster once you get horses, and if you were at least level 40 I think you could use the insta-travel services to get from one of the main towns to Rivendell.

I stopped playing shortly after the release of The Rift. Did some of the content down in there, but never finished it. We were up to the Balrog when I quit playing.

[DrSpike]

I'd doubt it. I switched from WoW to LOTRO primarily for this reason.

Mind you, I was playing WoW before all you trend-sapping kids started playing it...

IIRC you quit WoW before the first expansion (as did I). It was the first expansion (which came out ages ago) that introduced the barter system, and it became even more common with the second expansion.

[Asher]

I quit well, well before the first expansion and played it starting in the beta.

And yes, Quillan, Annuminas was the first time it was wide-spread.

[Felch]

It's been a busy week, but I'm working on a human lore-master (level 8) at the moment. Level progression is a hell of a lot faster than CoH/V was, and I definitely prefer the setting to that of WoW. I'm liking this game a lot.

[Asher]

What server are you on?

Be warned that the level progression does slow as the game wears on. L1-10 are turbo mode.

Also, they did recently adjust the leveling curve so the lower levels go faster.

[Felch]

I'm on Brandywine, like you. I want to find what class I'm happiest with before committing too much time and energy. I got to level 10 in only a few hours, and it's nice to see what sort of things a class can do without bogging down.

[Asher]

Cool. Add me to your friends list, I'm Ashgar mostly...but also Sharelm and Mashgar sometimes.

I can hook you up with nice pimpsticks.

JM is playing as a Loremaster also. I think he's up to 15.

[Asher]

For a brief overview of the class types:

Champion: heavy armor, DPS, AOE, off-tank
Guardian: heavy armor, tank
Captain: heavy armor, heavy buffer/support/leader, decent damage, has a pet (a man-slave!)

Warden: medium armor, tank (due to nice self-healing), very versatile and solo-friendly...also pretty good dps
Hunter: medium armor, Ranged DPS/nuker
Burglar: medium armor, high DPS, debuffs, bleeds, and is the only class that can intentionally & immediately trigger powerful "fellowship manuevers"

Minstrel: light or medium armor (depending on traits), healer, party buffs
Rune-keeper: light armor, very versatile -- can do DPS or healing on a per-battle basis (the more spells they use from each school, the more powerful they get in that battle...so you should pick one per battle). Is a "heavy magic" class
Lore-master: light armor, crowd-control, debuffs, has pets to choose from which makes it decent for soloing. Is a "light magic" class.

This has a nice table comparing the classes: http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Class

Warden and Rune-keeper are only available if you have the Mines of Moria expansion.

[Asher]

You also unlock more abilities/functionality in the game as you level higher. I think L20 you get access to the cosmetic system, which lets you outfit 2 "outfits" that are different from your equipment. You can then use "cosmetic items" and easily switch between equipment, outfiit1, and outfit2. You can also mix and match...for example, if you got a new cape and you don't like how it looks, you can make outfit2 only show a cape you do like the look of, and the rest will be your equipment. Outfit2 is my "cold-weather" outfit, all it does is give me a nice bear-fur cape and winter coat that looks nice in the snowy zones...'cause I'm a geek like that. Outfit1 is my casual/roleplaying clothes...I use that when doing things like Summerfest activities which are not combat-oriented.

L15 you can buy your first house, but you won't be able to afford it. Then you can get access to another chest or two (depending on the size of the house) in addition to the banks, and lots of spots to place trophies of beasts/bosses you've beat and other furniture and stuff.

If you belong to a Kinship (JM joined the kinship I'm in, I can invite you also if you'd like...we're very casual and friendly) you can also start with a teleport to kinship house. Our kinship house is huge and in the Shire. Lots of cool stuff there. Including the Sinister Keg...which JM drank from. It teleports you to random areas of the world (for example, Angmar...)...without your pants. And adds a severe drunken effect for a few minutes.

[Felch]

Felxyt is up to 15 now. I spent a while tonight prowling the marshes with a champion a couple levels beneath me. I've noticed that exploring on your own is unnecessary, because every time I do, I wind up backtracking for quests. I even had to tour Bree again after having done it already. Still, it's easy xp, and it gives you a good opportunity to explore every corner of the map. So far I've been aiming to maximize my traits. It seems like I'm limited to 1/5 or so daily with the class traits. It's a pretty cool system.

My experience with MMOs is limited (level 14 in CoH, level 10 in WoW), but this seems like a really cool game so far. Aesthetically it's like WoW for grown ups. The pacing is good. The story is LotR, so it's got tons of cool stuff to draw from.

[Felch]

Forgot to say, yeah, the kinship would be cool. I get the feeling that parties are going to become a lot more important pretty soon.

[Asher]

Maximizing those traits take a long time. I've been max level on my main for quite some time, still haven't gotten some. Though the ones I don't have are not too important to me (they're Legendary traits for trait-sets I don't use, like the off-tank spec Champion trait tree...).

The Virtues can take forever to get maxed. I'm very close now, it's actually what I've been doing lately -- completing deeds to get my Virtues maxed.

I've got a few more levels of them to do.

[Asher]

Forgot to say, yeah, the kinship would be cool. I get the feeling that parties are going to become a lot more important pretty soon.

I just logged in now (was playing the DDO trial tonight), looks like I just missed you. Will send you an invite next time I see you online, I added you to the friends list.

[Asher]

This is a great thread also: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=273817

Traces the journey of the Fellowship through LOTRO's Mines of Moria. Has maps and screenshots and excerpts from the books.

[Felch]

I love how quickly you can crank through the first dozen levels and get a chance to try out new classes.

I played around with a Captain last night, I like how much less squishy he is than the Loremaster. Also, having done most of the early quests, I wasted a lot less time running around looking for where to go next. After lunch, I've got the evening bracketed for this.

Can Felxyt invite Captain Cangaroo or how does that work?