# Opinions on WoW vs. LOTRO **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 29, 2009, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710 "2009-04-29T06:19:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/1 "2009-04-29T06:19:35Z")
I’m the guy with the level 63 mage still getting his ass kicked. I’ve been thinking, if i’m gonna suck at this type game,and if i’m gonna pay 19.95 per month to suck, I may prefer to see the Mines of Moria or the Shire as my character dies, instead of some land I have never read all the books about. Is the lord of the rings game any good? ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/2 "2009-04-29T06:37:03Z")
Yes. It kicks ass. Here is my review of it for a thread a while ago > [@](#): > > First of all, most of the sword and sorcery genre is derivative of Tolkein, so why not just use the original Although they did only license the Lord of the Rings material, not the Silmarillion so some die hard fans do miss the extra depth that would provide. > > It is a fairly adult crowd, particularly on my server(Silverlode). They aimed for a niche of players and I think they hit it pretty well. There were a few of the PowerG@m4r type around at the beginning, but they blew through the whole thing in a couple months, did the big bad guy(a dragon at the time). There was nothing left for them to do, and they were done with the game and moved on, leaving a more casual friendly crowd. They are trying to keep a base of players as they slowly and carefully create the whole Lord of the rings realm, which is a schedule for 2014 or so I have heard. So far we are just up to Rivendell, with Moria and Lorien comming in a big expansion in Nov. > > They have done a failry good job of class balancing without twinking or super powering. For example there was a time after the beginning where Guardians(Tankiest Tanks) were feeling left out, and unneeded. Champs and Captains(hybrid tanks) were able to tank things fine, and with their extra abilities they were prefered. Rather than a bunch of class adjustments they started tuning the newer areas so that a real tank was enough of a help over a hybrid tank, that there was demand again. They have done a good job of giving each class valuable skills unique abilities that aresometimes required, without leaving anybody out or getting to arbitrary about forcing it. > > There is a PVP element but it isn’t huge. I’d say about 70% of the people never go PVP, 20% do sometimes, and 10% are primarily PVP, but I might be a bit skewed based on my kin. > It is a few zones where people take their normal hero characters and fight other toons that are evil(orc, spiders) that only exist in the PVP(or freep vs creep) zones. They pretty much flat out said that they arn’t making PVP a priority, because its not thier vision. > > Along with levels there are deeds. Deeds are accomplishments such as visting certain places, or killing x number of mob. Each has ranks, and depending on class you usually focus on the deeds to rank in the stats you are going to need. It can get pretty grindy to be honest. But a level 50 with no deeds done, is seriously weaker than a fully deeded 50 of the same class. > > The carfting system takes a good bit of time, but most everybody who plays gets into it, even though there really isn’t much money to be made these days. The best stuff is about equal between top-crafted crits, and raid gear, and zone sets(these take a bit of repetition in high end zones to get, but not as much time per session as a true raid, just more sessions. Crafting is more about a sence of accomplishment and having fun, rather than making stuff no one else can. Gathering mats for crafting the high levels is a huge grind however. > > It is a lot of fun, though I am taking a break to try Warhammer before Moria comes out, but when it does I am back there full time. Like I said it is purposly designed to be paced for adults and casuals to have fun for a long time. And the graphics are great, and lag hasn’t been a problem for me for months, while Warhammer has horrible bad nastly unplayable lag on my same system. > > Mostly they have done, in my opinion, a great job of making the Player actions and plot seem relevant to the activity of the Lord of the Rings story, without stepping on existing things, like throwing someone into the fellowship as unexplained badass. That was my biggest worry before it came out. Tolkein was kind enough to leave open ended things around the main story that the players can have fun doing. Since then there has been a major expansion, Mines of Moria, and a content update that includes lothlorien. There are two new classes, Rune-Master which can switch between DPS and healing, but cannot switch quickly. and Warden which is a bit of tank and a bit of DPS. The new legendary weapons are pretty cool(they start at level 50 so you wont get into them quickly) but I think there are a couple mis-steps with them. They are a weapon that gains experience along with you, and have sets of legacies and runes, so not everyone is carrying identicle stuff. Unfortunately they put way too much into random generation and most of them suck, so you have to look through a lot. Which is my second disappointment with them. I was hoping it would be a “This weapon was granted to me after crafting by finest smiths in the land and we will become more attuned to each other through our adventures, I will carry it and treasure it until the day I die, when it will be passed down my lineage until the end of time!” deal. 😉 Instead you basically end up going through hundreds of legendary weapons (feels like the Wal-Mart bargin bin) until you find one that doesn’t suck. But Moria is beautiful, and Lothlorien too. if you have any more questions I’ll try my best. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/3 "2009-04-29T13:27:15Z")
Having played both i prefer WoW, but its mostly a matter of taste and not because its a better game. Basically its the same game, you kill monsters do quests and level up then collect gear, just a different packaging. I’ve been playing MMOs for over ten years and if there is one thing ive learned is that they are all basically the same exact game and what makes one more enjoyable over the others are the people you play with. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/4 "2009-04-29T13:53:12Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to The Game Room. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/5 "2009-04-29T15:26:50Z")
try Runes of Magic, it is free, and a nice little game run by a bunch of germans. Oddly enough, it is rather fun, and you can level up very fast. It is great for when all the other games are doing their weekly or daily updates=) ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/6 "2009-04-29T18:47:49Z")
It depends on what you’re after. If you like Middle-Earth and you like solid writing behind the game, LOTRO is it. If you enjoy lots of pop culture references and don’t care if the back story is gibberish, then WoW is the way to go. LOTRO is my addiction of choice, and has been since the open beta. The community went downhill a bit when the _Mines of Moria_ expansion came out, but it’s still generally less rude than WoW’s. You also have to make some lore allowances for technological/game-play decisions – it shouldn’t be possible to walk from Hobbiton to Bree in ten minutes, for instance, but overall they did a very solid job of staying true to Tolkien’s writings. RR ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/7 "2009-04-29T19:06:36Z")
I have both and I like both but for different reasons. They are basically the same game. I like LOTRO for the story and interacting with the famous NPC’s, Gandalf etc. The scenery is beautiful. There is almost always a rainbow in the sky in the Shire. I love the Shire and I level all my lowbies there. The deed system is sort of like WoWs achievments but they actually benefit you instead of just a title or bragging rights. They can add to your stats or reduce cooldown times, I think, I haven’t played in awhile, but they actually do make you toon better and stronger. The community is WAY more mature and friendly. It is also solo friendly. I solo’d a hunter all the way to 50 which was the max level before the expansion. I do have the expansion installed but since WoW’s expansion came out first I got that and have been playing that since it came out. So I have no experience with the new content or the legendary weapons. Also I have to mention why I love hunters. They have quick travel points, basically teleportation, between major cities and it saves a lot of time since you don’t have to run or ride from place to place. I like WoW because it is goofy and fun. I’m at 80 now and I have engineering maxed out and every once in awhile I still like to make an exploding sheep just for giggles. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/8 "2009-04-29T20:10:59Z")
I like LotRO -tons- better. Yes, it’s fundamentally the same sort of game, but the formula feels much more refined, the world is a whole lot more coherent, and the quests and stories just seem to grab me better. And yes, as mentioned, the community as a whole seems more adult. I think that if you liked WoW but are getting frustrated with it, that LotRO is a -very- good game to try. It’s enough like WoW that you won’t have a bit of trouble adapting, but the feel is sufficiently different that it’s…well, different. Also, they’re doing a ten day free trial right now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Redwing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@Redwing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redwing)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/9 "2009-04-29T20:23:47Z")
What’s the end game like? I don’t mind leveling a couple of time, but there isn’t much point for me if the challenges and rewards stop at max level. Also, how customizable is your look? I played City of Heroes for a while and I miss being able to really tweak how I looked. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/10 "2009-04-29T21:02:42Z")
LoTRO has seperated out the “Fellowship of the Ring” quests from the other (more generic) kinds. The Fellowship of the Ring (as defined as Frodo and company) are referenced in chains of quests called “Books”. In Book One, you’re helping, in some way, to disrupt the Ring Wraith’s plans of turning an NPC ranger into a wraith, and indirectly enabling the Hobbits to slip away from Bree unnoticed by The Nine. In Book Four, you help (at the request of Elrond and Legolas, IIRC) track down a missing Ring Wraith. These Bookss are not solo friendly in some spots, especially if you wish to do them at the level-appropriate time. I’m a little dissappointed about that. You can still level to the level cap without completeing any of the “books”, however. You just miss out on a lot of background lore. Character customisation is OK, with about as many options as WoW, I think. They have a nice feature where you can choose to purchase and display “costume” items, instead of some of the yukky looking gear you’re wearing for the stats. You can also “turn off” helms and cloaks (and boots, for you hobbitses). (WoW started doing some of this after LoTRO. I think they stole a good idea. 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/11 "2009-04-30T14:48:45Z")
> [@Redwing](#): > > What’s the end game like? I don’t mind leveling a couple of time, but there isn’t much point for me if the challenges and rewards stop at max level. What do you consider “endgame”? Are you looking to raid? If so, you should probably go elsewhere. If you’re just looking for content to do for better gear and stuff, then you might enjoy it, but I’m so far from being an endgame player that I really don’t have much to offer in regards to that. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/12 "2009-04-30T16:32:09Z")
> [@RiverRunner](#): > > It depends on what you’re after. If you like Middle-Earth and you like solid writing behind the game, LOTRO is it. If you enjoy lots of pop culture references and don’t care if the back story is gibberish, then WoW is the way to go. How is the backstory for WoW gibberish? Admittedly it’s nowhere near as detailed or thought out as LotR and there has been a few retcons but as far as fantasy goes it’s about as coherent as anything else. I’m just curious. For me Titans running around fixing worlds makes as much sense as Valar singing the world into existence. ---
**Author:** ![Redwing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@Redwing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redwing)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/13 "2009-04-30T18:39:47Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > What do you consider “endgame”? Are you looking to raid? If so, you should probably go elsewhere. If you’re just looking for content to do for better gear and stuff, then you might enjoy it, but I’m so far from being an endgame player that I really don’t have much to offer in regards to that. ☹ I enjoy end game raiding, I find the social interaction it requires refreshing; at the level I play at, most of the kids get weeded out, and the e-peen types don’t stick around very long. There’s certainly enough lore within the LotR to build that kind of content for serveral expansions. I was hoping that it would be balanced at the end game around groups the size of current WoW raids (25 people), without the need to try to also balance it around three person PvP groups. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/14 "2009-04-30T18:57:17Z")
> [@Redwing](#): > > ☹ I enjoy end game raiding, I find the social interaction it requires refreshing; at the level I play at, most of the kids get weeded out, and the e-peen types don’t stick around very long. > > There’s certainly enough lore within the LotR to build that kind of content for serveral expansions. I was hoping that it would be balanced at the end game around groups the size of current WoW raids (25 people), without the need to try to also balance it around three person PvP groups. Honestly, I couldn’t say what there is any isn’t. I -hate- raiding with a passion and I feel that, taken to its logical conclusion, it inevitably breaks games, so I’m thoroughly disinterested in whether it exists in endgame LotRO or not. You might be better served asking on their message forums about what sort of challenges await an endgame player. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/15 "2009-04-30T19:08:55Z")
Yes, there are raids in LotRO. I have only done one run, pre-Moria expansion. Unfortunately, I am not experienced enough to offer much in comparing the differences in the nuances between the WoW and LoTRO approach to raids. I second **Airk** ’s suggestion in seeing if you can get more out of the forums at Turbine. ([forums.lotro.com](http://forums.lotro.com)) ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/16 "2009-04-30T19:10:17Z")
One thing, however, is that it is my understanding that LoTRO may not be as “gear oriented” as WoW. It is to some extent, just not as much. ---
**Author:** ![MindWanderer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@MindWanderer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindWanderer)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/17 "2009-04-30T19:54:23Z")
I got tired of COH lately (disappointed a bit by the Mission Architect being filled with crap) and I’d read about the Lothlorien patch and I thought that was cool so I decided to try Lord of the Rings online. I made an Elven Hunter and had tons of fun at first, doing the storyline quests especially, but it has become a bit more dull now, because I am in a huge gap in levels between Book 1 and Book 2. Basically I finished Book 1 at around level 15, and Book 2’s first quest is at level 26. So I am in a boring part of just going around and doing all these quests in Lone-Lands that are pretty much just Kill-X and not as inspired as the Erid Luin questlines in my opinion. I’m up to 21 now, so we’ll see how the Radagast stuff goes when I get to 26, but I wish they hadn’t had such a big gap in the story. I’ve tried two other characters now as well, a hobbit minstrel (fun and different), and a human champion (didn’t like the attack animations, something seemed off about them to me). I’m not particularly excited about LOTRO at the moment, but I will probably just stick with it for a while to see how it is at higher levels. WoW seems to have more alternatives in terms of zones that you can quest in at a given level, but LOTRO has some nice quality of life features like beginning with a full set of bags, and houses sound neat if I could ever accumulate enough money to buy one. I also really like whoever is doing the voiceover narrations for instances, they are pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/18 "2009-04-30T20:06:09Z")
I actually had the opposite feeling about zones and levelling in WoW and LotRO; In WoW, I always felt like there were 1-2 zones I could go to, and I’d always end up doing pretty much the same set of quests while levelling up. (Probably a result of all content effectively being cut in half by the Horde/Alliance split). In LotRO it seems like everytime I wander into a new zone I get deluged by a huge pile of new quests and I feel like there’s no possible way I can finish them all before I outgrow them. The content is a little bit uneven where some areas are more interesting than others, I found there were plenty of fairly compelling stories that had nothing to do with the “book” quests. You shouldn’t feel 'chained to those. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/19 "2009-05-01T19:14:13Z")
Did Turbine ever figure out a way to fix PvP in LOTRO? I started the game in closed beta and had a fair amount of fun and then disocvered the PvM game a few months after launch. I was instantly hooked and my guild would mock me whenever I logged in for hitting the red pool right away (“Hi/Bye Joph!”) The the PvM game grew increasingly unbalanced between mudflation of the PC types, nerfing monster types, PC’s spying via 3rd party voice programs, etc. Finally I just said “Screw it” and gave up the PvM game but, by then, the PvE game didn’t seem as much fun as fighting of bands of Freeps at the bridge. So I quit LoTRO all together. This was right before the big update with the playable trolls/rangers and all that but I didn’t hear anyone saying that it was really “better”, just screwed up in new and different ways. ---
**Author:** ![MindWanderer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@MindWanderer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindWanderer)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710/20 "2009-05-01T19:20:02Z")
I don’t know how it would be with a fully developed monster, but I do know when I decided to try out monsters, I got utterly owned many times in a row, and that was with a group of others. My attacks barely scratched the Players and I died the second someone decided to attack me. I thought the PvMP idea was cool but it was utterly lopsided in practice and so no fun. I tried a Reaver at first but could never get close enough so then I tried a black arrow and still I just got pummeled so fast. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinions-on-wow-vs-lotro/494710.md?page=2)