Why don't I like Lord of the Rings Online?

The Game Room
21

This tells me I never, ever want to try WoW. I have been playing a lot of LOTRO lately (Yay for Lifetime subscriptions), taking a break from City of Heroes, and the numbers on stuff and the way they interact is way too involved for me. I read some of the threads on the forums about virtues, combat, and threat control (My main is a Guardian.) and a lot of it makes no sense to me. (Don’t use your skills as fast as possible, rely on the auto-attack? And before the recent changes to combat, I really wanted weapons with slow weapon speed? And a weapon’s DPS doesn’t matter? :confused: With the changes, the little I did understand is outdated and I can’t bring myself to try and figure it out again.) At this point, I pretty much just compare the price on 2 weapons or armor and take the more expensive one. :stuck_out_tongue:

Now for non-technical and casual, City of Heroes is a much better example. If I want to attack someone, I have to use a power, high DPS is good as are fast attacks, and defenses and damage resistance are based on percentages. And a team made up of anything can kick ass.

So if WoW is more technical than LOTRO, I will give it a pass. Forever. :smiley:

Oh for the Virtue deeds, I have found that doing all of the quests and deeds in Ered Luin, the Shire, and Bree give you a real solid basis for most of them. By the time I finished all of the quests in the Barrow Downs, I had also finished the slayer deeds for the various things in the area. The only thing my lower level alts are missing are the evil trees and the Flowers in the Old Forest.

22

It’s actually SUPER EASY now. You want the weapon with the highest DPS. (And maybe stats, if you care about stats on your weapon.) ALL WEAPONS are IDENTICAL in terms of speed/damage between types. So it doesn’t matter anymore if the weapon is an axe or a dagger, because they’ll attack at the same speed and do the same damage.

The latter pretty much holds true in LotRO too. And for that matter, so does the former, for the most part. Except for the part about fast attacks - all attacks are the same speed now, pretty much. (okay, 2H weapons are slower, but whatever)

Defenses USED to be percents in LotrO and they still sortof are if you mouse over them. Don’t try to get me to explain why they went to a ‘rating’ system - I don’t like it either.

Pretty much. There are only a couple of virtues that you can’t get to very high levels by either doing newbie quests or just general exploring/questing. Sure, you CAN grind 450 wargs for Determination +1 (actually, only 300. the first 150 are for a title. :P) but generally, there are better ways to get the virtue if you’re willing to be patient. Yeah, if you’re a compulsive min/maxer, you’ll be grinding a lot, but the game isn’t designed to suit compulsive min/maxers. It’s designed to suit casual people who will be more like “ooh. I got another point of Innocence for that explore deed! yay!” than the “Gotta kill 200 more wargs for Determination 7!” types.

23

Well,something about the combat that actually makes sense and is easy to follow. That is certainly different. :slight_smile:

But do I still want to allow the auto-attack to fire? This just doesn’t make sense to me, the idea that the auto-attack does better damage and I should only use the skills that make make my character unique once in a while. And I will refrain from asking about whether my human champion should dual wield swords or go with a great sword, since I saw a 20 page thread on the forums about it and at the end, the participants still didn’t have a clue. :rolleyes:

Then there are the Legendary Items, which my main is just starting to get into at level 48. They seem to be fairly complicated, but I am hoping to pick that up as I work on acquiring them. And my level 30 champion is ready for them. He has won the last 2 lotteries, so now he has like 8 sealed gems, items, and whatever for doing stuff with them. As long as I can figure out how to use them before he gets that high. :smiley:

I do have one major complaint about the game. Why can’t I make a Hobbit Captain? You can make a Hobbit Guardian or Warden, but no Captain. Of the 4 major Hobbits in the books, 2 of them are Captains.

24

This is another thing they changed. You no longer have to wait for auto attacks. Or, if you prefer, you can no longer avoid auto attacks. As best as I can tell, auto attack damage happens automatically, no matter whether you’re using another skill or not… so use your skills as rapidly as your power pool/cooldowns/needs allow - you’ll get the damage from your auto attacks regardless.

Short answer: Use whatever you think is more fun. There’s not enough difference for it to matter. Or use whatever you have better weapons of. If you get a totally mega cool two handed axe, go on and use that. If you’ve got a couple of really nice one handers, go and use them instead. Or maybe you find the swing rate of two handers a bit sluggish and like the flow of the extra attacks from dual wield. It really doesn’t make enough difference for any to criticise you on it.

That’s sortof hilarious. And uh… I can give you my “short” rundown of Legendary Items if you want, but the “short” is in quotes for a reason.

There’s a difference between the title “captain” and the class. You don’t actually really see Merry and Pippin ever LEADING anyone, except at the very end where they just sortof act as catalysts for something that’s been underway for a while anyway.

Another thing that’s interesting, I think is that you’ll note that overall, the main characters of the books don’t fit into ANY of the character classes. Yeah, Legolas is sortof a hunter, and Gimli is sortof a guardian, and Gandalf is kinda vaguely sortof a Loremaster, but not really. There’s no “ranger” class. The game pretends Boromir is a captain, but really in the books he’s more like a champion…but he uses a shield! The simple gist is… the classes in LotRO are what “ordinary folks” can be. The characters from the books are Special.

25

Even if Merry and Pippin were more than titular Captains, they were very different from other hobbits by that point. They’d drunk the ent-draughts and were much taller and stronger than ordinary hobbits.

I did continue playing (started a dwarf) and got to the “real” game quests (as opposed to the intro quests). I do like the game, but it’s not going on my regular rotation. I’m keeping it on my hard drive, though, because I probably will return to it someday (probably the next time I burn out on WoW…I like it a hell of a lot more than I like CoH/V, Everquest, or Guild Wars (my previous fallbacks)).

26

Wait. You mean you were judging the game before you even got out of the tutorial areas? o.o

That’s not -quite- judging the book by the cover, but it’s pretty much judging by the table of contents.

How were you even travelling between quest hubs if that was the case? I’m confused. o.o

27

I wasn’t judging, as such…even when I started this thread I was planning on playing more before I made a final decision on whether to buy a sub. Those were my initial impressions on a character played for a couple of hours…I hadn’t connected with the game yet.

After playing a different character for longer and getting out more into Ered Luin, I had a better impression.

After I started this, I had more or less come to the conclusion that a lot of it was just the differences between WoW (which I’ve been playing on and off (mostly on) almost since the game went commercial) and LOTRO. Once I got more used to it, I enjoyed it more. Also, discovered the stables, which cut a lot of time and tedium out of the traveling.

28

Gee, that actually makes sense. What kind of Devs do they have over there, making things simpler for the players? :smiley:

That was what I decided. The people that knew what they were doing couldn’t come to a consensus, so I figured to just use what I wanted. But that last sentence makes me wonder if you have really played any MMOs. Someone can (and usually will) criticize you on almost anything. :wink:

That is not the scary part. I started doing the lotteries in December. I have 1 CREEP and 5 characters on Silverlode, plus 1 old one on Firefoot. One alt won a Stroke of Midnight lottery on New Year’s Eve, so she has some stuff for LIs, plus some other high level stuff. She is at level 26 right now. Then another alt won the Welcome Wagon lottery on 1/8 and 1/11. Then the character on Firefoot I don’t play won the Welcome Wagon lottery on 1/15 and 1/23 ( I have stopped entering him into the lottery now). And finally, my level 30 Champion won the Hevensday and Valentine’s Day lotteries on 2/12 and 2/15. The only one that has not doubled up when winning was the one on New Year’s Eve. But I am definitely signing her up for it again at the end of the year. :smiley:

I have read the lorebook and wiki about Legendary Items. I think it will be easier to follow when I actually have an item to be doing things to, instead of just reading.

Merry and Pippin were definitely leaders during the Scouring of the Shire. And if you maintain they were not, then some other hobbits must have been doing the real leading. Either way, hobbits do have leadership abilities that are in the original books. There were no Humans, Elves, or Dwarfs helping them organize or drive out Sharkey’s men. Hobbits did it themselves, including the planning and execution of the ambush.

You were doing stuff without the stables? :eek: Talk about making things drag. My warden and hunter are starting to reach the levels where they get their travel powers and I am finding the stable system to be limiting. Doing the quests in the starter areas would be really boring.

29

Which starting area did you go? The starting areas recently went through a revamp and everything was placed much, much closer to each other, but still curious to know which one you find tedious.

30

That’s still fine, for there are wargs everywhere in Angmar; just kill those you come across.

Now, looking for the bog-lurkers in the Lone Lands? Good luck.

31

Oh come on. You don’t have to nitpick like that. You -were- judging. It might not have been your final judgement, but even getting to the point of coming out to a forum and asking “Why don’t I like this game?” is a judgement. I’m not criticizing you, I’m just saying. o.o

32

Definitely, those suck big time. Wandering around in GA is about the only option. And I don’t like GA. (I think because I died too many times trying the instances in a duo.)

33

Coming up with a plan like “let’s gather our forces and wait for them to come get us” does not make you a captain, or indeed, much of a leader. And being a leader does not make you a captain.

You are clearly conflating in your mind the idea that “captain” = “anyone who leads anyone else in battle” in which case you need to add Gandalf, Elrond, Thorin Oakenshield, Aragorn, Gamling the Old, and a whole bunch of people to your list.

Also, as noted, Merry and Pippin were by no stretch normal hobbits by that point. My earlier assessment of what the classes mean stands. If ordinary hobbits could have been Captains, then they wouldn’t have need M&P to come back and get them moving.

34

Are you saying that the Captains in the game are not supposed to represent leaders in warfare and combat? They fight and they keep up the morale of the rest of their group. How much they have to do with strategy or tactics will vary with the players obviously, but in the books, there are people like the Thain:

Then at the start of Chapter 9:

I don’t recall either the Thain or Fatty drinking anything from the Ents. Obviously not all of the hobbits were waiting around to be roused.

As for “wait for them to come get us”, that isn’t exactly how the Battle of Bywater goes. They set up a planned ambush, that succeeded in its objectives. 70 dead Men, with 12 captured against 19 dead Hobbits and 30 wounded is pretty good considering the difference in size and strength between the two races. If the Hobbits had just met them out in the open with no plan, there would have been a lot more dead.

And historically, there is the Greenfields, which is even referenced in the Prologue in the Shire, when Bandobras Took defeated goblins (orcs) in the Northfarthing.

No leadership in combat or warfare was not a common trait among hobbits, but then there were not many chances to have it come out if a particular hobbit did have the ability. But it was there, and it could easily be put into the game.

35

I just think that Merry and Pippin are atypical. The Hobbits, generally, are not used to battles. Not being a captain doesn’t mean they lack in any other organizational skills (say, organizing a birthday party?), but lack of organizational skills in war. Of course, the Hobbits have their share of battle, but I guess it is a ‘generally’ speaking, they do see less battle than Gondor or Rohan. It’s something really strange and foreign to them (the last battle they have fought was years and years ago)

36

Next question: Would any member of any OTHER RACE take a hobbit leader seriously? Remember. These aren’t “Yeah, he’s the mayor(Thain!), so we follow what he says.” situations here. These are people with the natural charisma to get elves and dwarves and all free folk to stand up and take notice. Not just other hobbits.

Hobbits leading other hobbits in battle should not be considered qualification to do much of anything. :stuck_out_tongue:

37

This is absolutely true. Once you start getting a grasp on the range of legacies you like, it becomes relatively straightforward. You’ll start burning through them in no time.

I am a little down on legendaries right now, myself. I spent weeks running Sammath Gul, finally won a Symbol of Celebrimbor, and my crafted second age was utter trash. There is no justice.

What server are you crazy kids on? Meneldor here.

38

Yeah, I fear that the whole Symbol of Celebrimbor thing is a bit of a mess, and I haven’t even gotten there yet. I only finally kicked to the curb my level 60 weapon about a week ago when I got lucky and got some decent legacies on a level 65 Great Hammer (of all things) that I bought on the auction house. Still using a level 60 2nd age emblem.

I play on Windfola and Arkenstone.

39

It is indeed. I don’t exactly expect good gear to be handed to me, but this was quite insane. At least when I run the other endgame instances, when I win something, I actually win something. Well more than twenty hours of play, five legendary fragments, and over a million points of banked Mirkwood runes yielded a few low tier relics when I deconned the thing an hour after I found it.

I am a reasonably devoted endgame player and have still not replaced my level 60 legendaries. I just haven’t found anything remotely comparable on either the AH or in the game. I am tempted to buy a symbol (80/100g on Meneldor), but I just have no stomach for another PoS.

40

“Why should I follow that Man over there, just because he can lead other Men in battle? I am an Elf, one of the oldest beings in creation, and have fought in countless battles under Elven leadership. He can’t possibly tell me anything about battles.”

You can write the same kind of paragraph by every race, regarding all of the others. It is like saying today that nobody who is a civilian can have any ability at military matters, because they aren’t in the military. In reality, a great many civilians will have military abilities, ranging from dismal to genius, but it doesn’t show because they have not been exposed to the training or lifestyle.

Hobbits are the same way. They aren’t exposed to warfare, so they don’t have a lot of great captains. But when exposed to it, they will have the same range of abilities as Man (especially since they are an offshoot of Man.)

If you really think a Man, Dwarf, or Elf would not follow a Hobbit willingly, make their pets Hobbits. And start complaining to Turbine about the Soldiers in Skirmishes. They default to Men and have to be changed to other Races by the player. By your argument, any Hobbit characters should only have Hobbits as Soldiers. :smiley:

One reason I am not in a big hurry for getting into Legendaries is the recent thread the Devs opened on the forum about what changes people would like to see in them. I have a feeling I will just figure stuff out and it will get changed around completely. :stuck_out_tongue:

The characters I am playing are all on Silverlode. There is a SDMB kinship there, The Third Gry, but aside from myself and a character named Dwaim (I don’t know their name here on the board) none of the other members have signed on in many months. So we have a level 10 Kinship with basically 2 active players and no kinship house. :smiley:

And on preview, I am reminded of another reason I have not been really pursuing Legendaries. It seems like most of the stuff for doing them is found in raids and instances that require grouping. I am not much for teaming up. I have done it on occasion, but I don’t know the FMs and am not experienced at tactics on teams, and frankly, I enjoy playing by myself casually.