Word is that each account only needs to go through the race-based missions once per race, meaning that if you create an Elf alt on the same account you won’t need to do the Elf content again.
Well, it is still beta.
Try Silverfall. 
That is correct. The intro section is skippable.
Better yet… don’t. It’s just not very good. Not bad, but not good. Plus, most of the tech/magic abilties are functionally identical.
I saw that the tutorial is skippable, but doesn’t every elf end up in Celodim (sp?), hobbit in the Shire, human in Archet, and dwarf in Thorin’s Place? I’ve already been through all the introductory quests for each race (despite not having played a hobbit) at least once. This may not be a problem once the level cap is lifted, and I’ve got 4 characters to play with all new missions, but I’m tired of the introductory missions.
Probably has to do with the lore. Anyway, is there really anything keeping a dwarf from going to Bree?
Maybe to you but it is classless. 
Besides the cost of using the stable (don’t know how much off the top of my head), there is the long-ass run that you have to take through each of the starting areas! Stable might be cheap, but for some areas you have to ‘find’ the stable (not just the area) before you can ride there.
I’ve started venturing into the Lone Lands and finding my first orcs to flay. Thus far, I find it difficult in any of the 4 classes I’ve played to fight more than one opponent at a time, unless they are light blue or below. I don’t know if that is due to design or due to personal incompetence. Makes solo exploring difficult, especially when one are fighting a yellow or orange and a new one spawns right there.
It seems like half the populace has taken up farming, to build up silver and gold before go-live, but it might be scaled back today. It’s amazing how players will line up to do boring time-sinks if they think they’ll gain some negligible ‘advantage’ by doing so. I prefer hunting for light and medium hides, and woods (although I have farmed as it is one of my professions). I’ve got a tailor, armourer, woodworker, and scholar, and the only way to advance them is by collecting and processing raw material (also the only way to find new recipes).
My wife and I have been playing in the beta, with somewhat mixed reviews. Our main previous MMO experience is with CoH, so this review is relative to that.
On the plus side, the world is beautiful. They did a lovely job with the scenery and artwork. So far I’ve only seen the Shire and parts of the area around Bree, but I’ve been quite impressed with the feel and size of the world. I could easily spend months just walking around and looking at the scenery. True, this is relative to the bland and small cities of CoH - I haven’t played WoW or other modern MMORPGs to see how they stack up.
Granted the Shire does look a lot like hobbit-themed suburbs, but that’s what the shire should look like.
The gameplay itself, on the other hand, is unremarkable and unoriginal. The combat system is simply awful - confusing to watch, boring to look at, impossible to control during lag, and highly repetitive. I think one of the reasons I preferred to start in the Shire is that the majority of the missions there are non-combat.
The missions themselves are the usual that you find in any MMO - delivery missions, kill monsters, escort missions, finding objects. Nothing original there. Some of the story arcs are fun, but I’m not seeing much replay value.
Character customization is limited. You can choose your race and class. You have a limited ability to pick your face and body shape, and details such as hair and eye color. Your appearance in game will be largely determined by your equipment, and with a limited selection of gear there’s not much variety there. You can dye your clothing and armor different colors, if you can find or make dye.
Your actual combat abilities appear to be completely determined by your class and level. No unique combat styles here. Your level 10 Hunter is going to fight almost exactly the same as every other level 10 Hunter in the world. This is another reason I’ve been avoiding combat and instead focusing on exploration and story arc missions, which there are a lot of.
The crafting system is interesting, but there doesn’t seem to be much point to it - nearly everything you can craft can be purchased far more cheaply from vendors. The one exception was farming. Once you had raised your farming skills to a certain level it was possible to earn unlimited money by sitting in a field and farming all day. This has been changed with a patch today however, making farming as much of a losing proposition as all of the other craft skills.
My captain is able to take on a yellow and an orange at the same time and usually make it through alive, if badly beaten. Taking on multiple blues is pretty easy and I’ve managed to beat down entire swarms of 5-6 light blue mobs a couple times. I’m wearing pretty average (yellow/white) gear as well since I didn’t see the point in getting all purple-level gear that’ll be obsolete by lvl 17 anyway.
We have a guy in the kinship who plays a Guardian and who is constantly going on about his stuff and what he’s been killing. I suppose it’s easier when you can wear heavy armor at level 15. I can’t speak for the rest of the classes but, from the reports I’ve seen, captains are pretty average in the raw combat department so I don’t think it’s a matter of them being grossly overpowered. I saw it more as a testament to how easy the combat is since, back in Everquest, two yellow con mobs attacking a non-twinked lvl 15 newbie would result in the newbie being turned into a fine pink mist.
May I offer an alternative?
I have gotten totally hooked on The Saga of Ryzom .
Part of it depends on what I’m facing. Orange sickleflies fall much easier than orange wights. The flies don’t do the same amount of damage and have less hit points. However, the wights have better treasure. One of my 4 is a guardian, and I find him most at risk solo in the Barrow Downs (especially when those stupid rats or bugs sneak up behind you, or an archer spawns while your pounding the warrior). When I’m out collecting medium hides, I have few issues. Last night I had my guardian collect a bunch of light blue neeker-beekers and boars to test area attacks. Barely made it through. My hunter, however, had significant difficulties with 3 light blue goblins, and only a timely save kept me from a hefty repair bill.
Yes, every characters starts in a certain area based on race. That makes sense to me though, unless the world grows enough to have a couple starting areas for different races.
True enough. I was referring specifically to the half-orcs up in Northern Downs/Lone Lands.
I’m all for the weaker birds, bats and bugs though. I was farming light blue Dourbeard dwarves last night for a trait and I was happier fighting three dwarfs and a bird than to just fight three dwarfs. That bird was practically a free heal since it dropped easily and let me use one of my post-combat only abilities.
Kill dwarf, AOE yell attack, kill dwarf, use haste, kill bird (still at 30% from the AOE), heal, kill last dwarf.
What bothers me the most about LOTR Online isn’t the unoriginal and repetitive gameplay or uninteresting and confusing combat system. Those can certainly be complained about, but those problems are mainly just a case of Turbine copying what everyone else is doing. My main problem with the game is actually that the overall tone and goals of your character and what the game encourages you to do are completely opposed to the messages of the books.
The book trilogy put a lot of emphasis on respect for nature. Killing was to be avoided whenever possible. Showing mercy, even to enemies who would have killed you, was emphasized as a good thing. Fighting was not the only or best way to deal with most situations. Some of the greatest deeds were accomplished without any bloodshed. Greed was emphasized as a bad thing.
In LOTR Online, the player is encouraged to kill everything that they can, and rewarded for doing so. Need some money or XP? Go kill wolves and wild boars for hours. Bandits threatening the Shire? Kill them all. No, you can’t negotiate with them or scare them off. Nor can you defeat some of them, then offer the remainder the chance to surrender. The only way the situation can end is with every one of them dead by your hand. Dourhand dwarves doing something suspicious? Obviously the answer is to kill some of them and see if they’re carrying orders. Don’t bother trying to ask them, or follow them around, or sneak through their stuff while they’re asleep. No, merciless slaughter is your first and only option.
I realize that this is standard MMORPG gameplay. But when I meet Radgast the Brown and he sends me on a quest to kill animals, I have to wonder if someone’s missing the point of the books.
No, no, not kill. You reduce their morale to zero. See, no one dies in this game. This just give up. 
Like you, I play CoH. It has many of the same issues, that are far too common to any MMORPG. There, a hero of reknown can stand in the middle of a large group of thugs, and they won’t move. They won’t attack, they won’t run - they don’t care. That’s like Superman appearing at a mugging and the mugger doesn’t stop.