# Lord of the Rings Online **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 20, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522 "2009-10-20T19:32:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/21 "2009-10-29T05:25:46Z")
Just wanted to duck in and say “hey”. **LOTR** was the _first_ MMORPG I tried to play, but I had a real bad experience with it, in that I downloaded a very “hungry” virus which caused me to have to have my hard drive “cleaned” (? Is that a word y’all can understand? Anyway, I had to have everything restored and it cost me a hundred bucks). I have a real love for LOTR (the films, the books), but one episode was enough to turn me away. Yes, I’m on WoW, and having a great time with a _lot_ of help from my friends! 🙂 I just wanted to say that I enjoyed my short stay on **LOTR** , but once bitten twice shy, if that’s okay to say? If my wife would allow it (and she won’t - ya oughta see my ankles after 4-5 hours! :0) I would play 24-7! I LOVE it in my fantasy world, but don’t worry - I am a realist too, and _no way_ would I do that to my wife, son and grandkids! Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![Words\_on\_the\_Interweb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b19c9b/32.png) [@Words\_on\_the\_Interweb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Words_on_the_Interweb)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/22 "2009-10-29T05:45:28Z")
Overall, I like LotRO a lot, the game is really visually well-done aside from some graphic glitches, fun to play, and a realistic-feeling game world that encourages RP, which is rare for an MMO. Unfortunately, I always get to the same place with it - nearing level cap, 3 of us filling tank, healer, and a dps roles, cannot find people to fill out the group and wind up stuck on our cool story arc quests.\* Without the story arcs, the game is generic MMO filler quests with so-so rewards. Add in the grindy nature of deeds and tradeskills, and I get frustrated and quit, usually about 5-10 levels short of cap. Maybe post-Mirkwood, when I’m bored with WoW, Dragon’s Age, and whatever else may be around at the time, I’ll try again on a different, more populated server. I’d really love to play the game, it just hasn’t been able to hold me - WoW may be just as grindy in many ways, but at least there are people to group with, and worst case, we can log on our own high level characters to help our lower level characters with elite/instance quests. \*ETA: prior to that point, we can usually out-level the quests and be able to 3-man them… but that close to cap, we can no longer hope to out-level the quests enough to effectively 3-man. It isn’t any fun skipping around the story that much (for me), even if we could. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/23 "2009-10-29T13:56:35Z")
> [@Apocalypso](#): > > Anarchy Online is pretty cool in that aspect, you can be level 220 (max), ai level 30 (max), and have all research xp finished, and still not be close to done with your char. I think the characters that I did “max out” in that game, I spent more time on them after 220 than I did before. This is mostly because getting end game gear requires a lot of time, money (in game), and luck. But the difference between someone who just hit 220 and someone who’s “end game” is pretty big. This isn’t what I was talking about. You can always gear up. Every game has this. Heck, EQ has a system where once you hit max level you do “alternate advancement” to earn literally thousands of points, but it doesn’t keep it from being hollow, because really, at this point, you’re done doing the new things you’re going to do. > [@](#): > > Anyhow, I’m a little bit further along with my Dwarf Guardian now. He’s 25, and finishing up the Bree-lands area now, and preparing to move on to the Lone Lands. I made 3 other characters to craft with, carefully choosing my professions for maximum coverage. In addition to my Guardian’s Metalsmithing, I also have Forester, Woodsman, Jeweler, Scholar, and Weaponsmith covered. Also farmer and cook, which don’t seem as useful right now but might be later. Cook is really useful. Farmer… farmer I don’t know about, but having a good supply of all three types of food is really handy. > [@](#): > > The Forester is the most useful right now, with his ability to process hides into leather that my Metalsmith can use to make armor. But I’ve crafted some useful jewelry and Weapons too. The nice thing is I can just mail recipes and supplies my Guardian finds to them, so I can raise their crafting abilities without leveling them. This will eventually break down; After expert crafting you start having to complete comparatively significant quests to get to the next rank. It’s still not hard, and imminently soloable by a character of appropriate level to actually use higher level tradeskill products, but it’s no longer the “jog on over to Bree and talk to this guy in the craft hall and he’ll give you Journeyman proficiency” sort of quest that can be done by a character of any level. > [@](#): > > There’s so much stuff to do. I finished all the slaying and exploration deeds in the first and second areas, and upgraded my weapon skills (by using them 80 million times each). I noticed when I first went to Bree that a lot of the quests here were lower levels, but I found higher ones on the outskirts. I mostly explored north and west of Bree, including the Barrow Downs and the Old Forest. You talk to Tom Bobadil and Strider, but you don’t really interact with them that much, which is a bit disappointing. Oh, you’ll see Aragorn a few more times yet… 😉 > [@](#): > > I finally figured out that the best way to do things is try to take side quests that are blue or above, then when they start to get too low, wrap things up and take the storyline quests to move to the next area. I have tons of traits now, having done all the deeds in the first two areas, so I’m going to have to figure out which would be best to use. The one virtue that everyone traits is Valor, especially since you can get several ranks of it fairly early on. Otherwise, I’d look into Virtues that raise your armor, vitality, or morale. I don’t have the faintest idea what the class traits are for guardians though, so you’re on your own. > [@](#): > > Also, I’ve been playing the hunter I made for one of my crafting professions. I really like the way bows feel in this game. You can stand quite some distance away from an enemy, under cover (mostly), and thwip! thwip! bring a lot of enemies down before they even close on you. Weaker enemies and birds are usually just insta-kill. It’s more tactical than just wading in like I can with the Guardian, you have to pick most fights to try and minimize the number of enemies you fight at once. Melee combat is tough, hunters are pretty weak there. I usually just keep attempting bow shots until I can get one off. Even at close range, they still do more dmg than melee. I like this char a lot, and will probably alternate between him and the guardian. What’s kind of cool is I can do stuff with the one that I missed with the other, focus on different areas of Bree, for instance. Hunters are the equivalent of many games “wizards” in that they do a lot of damage at a distance, but tend to get beat up in hand to hand. They also, oddly, eventually get “teleport” skills (“Guide to” abilities.). Everyone and their nephew has a hunter, it seems, and they’re so-so fellowship members. Going through different areas is definitely part of the joy of doing alts. While there aren’t quite as many areas as other games, there seems to be more to do in each “zone” in LotRO. > [@](#): > > I really like the in game auction, I’ve gotten a good portion of my gear there, mostly crafted stuff made and then auctioned by other players. I made a really nice set of armor and sold it for close to 200 silver, then realized I could make that much in one trip out of town, and I should have saved that emerald shard to make something I’d use. I’ve only gotten 3 shards so far, they seem quite rare. Shards are very rare. Though there are some limited-repeatable quests you can do in the Barrow Downs and Northern Bree Fields which will get you a total of 6 sapphire ones. I haven’t gotten into the minigames or festival aspect of the game, mostly been killing and crafting. I also haven’t done that much teaming, although I did do a couple Great Barrow runs that were fun. And you need teams for most of the dungeons, it seems like. I’m mostly soloing for now. I found a horse ranch in the upper part of Bree-lands, I think I’ll be able to afford a horse in a couple levels. Not sure what the restrictions are, if any, with horses, but I definitely plan on getting one as soon as I can. Riding on “rails” from town to town is fun by itself, being able to free roam on a horse should be pretty cool. [/QUOTE] **Quasimodem** I really don’t understand what you’re saying. What does getting a virus have to do with playing LotRO? Even if your whole hard drive was wiped out, any progress you had is stored server side anyway, so you haven’t lost anything. And the game certainly wasn’t responsible for you getting the virus, so I’m really not sure what your point is. **Words on the Interweb** - I’m really surprised to hear you have problems finding additional Fellows to do story quests. ESPECIALLY if you already have a tank and a healer. People always seem willing to work on those when I ask, and I only have useless fringe classes that mean sometimes people get hung up on “No no, we need a minstrel”. Losers. 😛 Er, anyway, have you TRIED asking in the LFF channel in the area where you get the quest? I find that just turning on the “LFF for quest” button in the LFF tool doesn’t get you anywhere, but actually saying something like “Guardian/Minstrel/Blah seek more for X.Y.Z (Quest name)!” is likely to fill your group in a hurry. Because odds are, there are a billion soloers kicking around who are all in need of getting that book done too. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/24 "2009-10-30T02:32:49Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > **Quasimodem** I really don’t understand what you’re saying. What does getting a virus have to do with playing LotRO? Even if your whole hard drive was wiped out, any progress you had is stored server side anyway, so you haven’t lost anything. And the game certainly wasn’t responsible for you getting the virus, so I’m really not sure what your point is. Thanks, **Airk** , First, you’re going to have to bear with me a bit, because of the short-term memory loss, okay?🙂 Maybe I don’t remember correctly, or maybe I overreacted at the time, but for some _reason_ I couldn’t get my toon to _move_ on **LOTRO**. He was just frozen where he was, standing or sitting on a bench, and this was _after_ I had paid for my first month, not during a trial period. **Before** I downloaded **LOTRO** , I played the trial version of **WoW** , with no problems regarding toon motion. This was _before_ I bought my present gaming computer, however, and I was playing on a Dell 3000, so maybe _that_ was a factor? The IBuy is much faster, but I couldn’t understand why **WoW** was fine when **LOTRO** wasn’t? Again, I apologize if I didn’t make sense in my post. I am not as computer-savvy as the rest of you, and I admit, maybe the problem was with the Dell, and **LOTRO** was innocent. I don’t know, **Airk**.😕 Like I said, my memory’s for shit these days, but I do remember the frustration of my toon not being able to move, and attributed it to a (for want of a better word at the time) _virus_ in the game. I said before, I _love_ LOTR and had it not been for that bad experience, maybe I would be in Middle Earth now, I don’t know. Thing is, I have “bonded” with my toon **Wolkenlaufre** (“Wolkie”) and our mount **Silka** and even though I’m no longer the “brightest bulb in the pack” (I’m levelling _verrrry_ slowly, and with a _lot_ of help from my friends), I am enjoying **WoW** , and no offense to **LOTRO** is meant. Thanks for taking the time to answer me!🙂 Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/25 "2009-10-30T07:37:12Z")
LOTRO is my first (and probably last) MMO - the only other thing that registers on my radar is KOTOR, but that would only be out like…I don’t know. I tried a bit of Eve, but something about it just put me off. I guess I was expecting more Freelancer. The beginning levels of LOTRO is fun, even before the revamp for the beginning levels. I know that everyone would have different gameplay experience, but here’s mine. Spoilers abound, of course. First, I love how the lore are incorporated. Find kingsweed for the hurt ranger. Suddenly chancing upon a Arnor ruin in the middle of Bree. Hearing mention of Sharkey. But suddenly everything comes to a halt when your character reaches max level. I have a 60 LM and have done most of the books, and there is only group contents left. And the part of level 30 to 50 is the hardest, slowest going bit of the game. There game becomes un-Tolkenish for a while as it takes place in Angmar and there are less original material to identify with. But by the Valar, there is a plot twist. Yes, there is a plot twist in the storyline quests, but sadly after that good once, the rest is ‘new evil overlord has arise’ and so on. There is one good one in Moria, but the rest are pretty bland. Just more excuse to go here and kill more. I suppose this might be a problem with quest-raid-instance type of game. I would gladly welcome some open-ended, sandbox content in the game. Mirkwood is adding repeatable content. Moria has repeatable content, just that they’re _boring_ (a nigh unwinnable Battle of Lorien and solo crafting instances). So here’s hoping that Mirkwood would be better. However, LOTRO at the beginning has one of the best newbie experience ever. It’s the end-game that needs some work. Maybe when it comes to Rohan (there are already hints of that) or Gondor the game could become more open-ended. Right now I am just repeating raids which I find fun while waiting for the lower levels experience to be refined (it gets a bit draggy from level 18 to 20+, where you only have 2 areas to quest in). I also miss open-ended dungeons like Goblin Town. But all in all, this is a good WoW sub which is less intense. Right now I am just waiting for Mirkwood to come out. Sorry for all the ranting ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/26 "2009-10-30T15:54:00Z")
No worries, Quasi; You just hadn’t mentioned that the “virus” or whatever you had interfered directly and specifically with your ability to play LotRO. The “inability to move your character” thing actually sounds a lot like what the game does when you’re having connectivity issues. It’s kinda weird. Anyway, I mostly agree with CrazyChop’s analysis - well, up until the discussion of the endgame, which I haven’t reached (My highest character just hit 51 last night, while rescuing captives in Goblin Town.). It looks like the devs are aware of some of your issues though, and are trying to fix them a bit in Mirkwood. I’m not sure I entirely agree that the 30-50 game was lacking in lore though. Sure, you’re not romping with the Fellowship, but I was actually reasonably fascinated by the stories they expanded upon in Garth Agarwain and the North Downs. I haven’t even had a chance to really run through the Evendim content, though the bits I’ve seen seem a little more generic. Not sure about the whole “reforge Narsil” content that’s supposed to fit into the story up there though. ---
**Author:** ![Words\_on\_the\_Interweb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b19c9b/32.png) [@Words\_on\_the\_Interweb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Words_on_the_Interweb)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/27 "2009-10-30T16:24:21Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > **Words on the Interweb** - I’m really surprised to hear you have problems finding additional Fellows to do story quests. ESPECIALLY if you already have a tank and a healer. People always seem willing to work on those when I ask, and I only have useless fringe classes that mean sometimes people get hung up on “No no, we need a minstrel”. Losers. 😛 Er, anyway, have you TRIED asking in the LFF channel in the area where you get the quest? I find that just turning on the “LFF for quest” button in the LFF tool doesn’t get you anywhere, but actually saying something like “Guardian/Minstrel/Blah seek more for X.Y.Z (Quest name)!” is likely to fill your group in a hurry. Because odds are, there are a billion soloers kicking around who are all in need of getting that book done too. Bad server is bad… there usually aren’t more than a handful of other people in zones like Angmar and Forochel. The best we ever saw for grouping past level ~35 was one night in Trollshaws, there was another group LFM for escorting that idiot Legolas (that really is one of the more frustrating of the story arc instances, with the way he runs ahead). Of course, they had 4, and we had 3, so… yeah, that wasn’t going to work. Trying to do Elendil’s Tomb, we couldn’t get any response in LFF chat; same with a couple group quests in Angmar and Trollshaws. Like I said, maybe the problem is the server (I’ve even seen people comment on how dead the AH is on the server)… despite a house, a level 40-something, 10+ gold, and a host of alts with high tradeskills & guild factions, I would start over on another server if I played the game again. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/28 "2009-10-30T16:32:41Z")
Out of curiousity, what server _was_ it? ---
**Author:** ![Words\_on\_the\_Interweb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b19c9b/32.png) [@Words\_on\_the\_Interweb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Words_on_the_Interweb)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/29 "2009-10-30T18:05:43Z")
Windfola… now go ahead, tell me that’s your server and you’ve found it to be great. 😛 I don’t know if it’s changed in the ~6 months since I stopped playing last, or if PST is just not a good timezone for playing there, but our experience was a dearth of other players in the mid-high level range, pre-level cap. I wish there were a reliable way to gauge server population and activity, or that Turbine would modify pre-level cap content to be soloable, or at least doable with 3 level-appropriate players. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/30 "2009-10-30T20:04:14Z")
Hah. That _is_ the server my captain is on. 😛 I am not making this up! It’s also marked as a “Good server for new players” right now, which, I believe, is TurbineSpeak for “needs more folks” but I’ve been in numerous perfectly good pickup groups (We actually did the aforemention “Legolas runs ahead of the party” mission the other night with a full group of 6.) It’s probably not quite as busy as Arkenstone, where my Champion is, but I haven’t had any complaints. I don’t agree that pre-level cap stuff should be soloable. They already did this to just about everything pre-20, and honestly, I don’t think it improved anything at all. ---
**Author:** ![Words\_on\_the\_Interweb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b19c9b/32.png) [@Words\_on\_the\_Interweb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Words_on_the_Interweb)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/31 "2009-10-30T22:07:07Z")
Windfola was a recommended server when we started playing as well, but we never had the kind of luck you’re describing in finding other players to group with. Even looking for guilds, there didn’t seem to be any that were doing well - those posting recruitment advertisements on the realm forum generally had maybe half a dozen people online when we were playing. If not soloable, at least making the content doable by a small group (3 players) would resolve my primary issue with LotRO: without 5 other people, you don’t get to do the cool storyline quests/instances, and it’s just another generic MMO that looks a little nicer than most. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522/32 "2009-10-31T00:01:44Z")
I just pick the first server that came up on the list - Elendimir, and had a blast. Perhaps you should get a server move. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lord-of-the-rings-online/514522.md?page=1)