Because Men are Special, essentially. They are the chosen of Eru to inherit the earth. Elves know this. Hobbits…don’t even merit a footnote.
Your example is not relevant. In Middle Earth, races have racial characteristics - innate, character, as it were - and leadership is not one that is present in hobbits. They are humble folk. That’s sortof the POINT of hobbits. They’re not the sort who stand up and say “Forward! Charge! To glory!” It’s just not in them. That’s why they make good ringbearers.
Men are the future of Middle Earth. Hobbits are doomed to cease to exist as a race.
Huh? This has nothing to do with pets.
I like that. I’ll get right on it.
This is actually completely wrong. Almost nothing to do with legendaries requires instances or group content of any sort. There are ways to advance your legendary items faster by doing group content, but absolutely everything you need to deal with legendary items is also found outside of group content.
The only exception to these are level 60 first age items (which are now essentially worthless) and level 65 2nd age items, which you can easily do without, and which you won’t see for ages even if you -are- into doing group content.
So don’t let any misconceptions about legendary items being linked to grouping hold you back - they’re just misconceptions.
You see, this is the advantage of my NOT being a reasonably devoted endgame player. My level 60 Halberd was nothing super special - it had a couple of legacies that were ‘good enough’ and whatever random stuff had showed up on reforges. When I discovered that the BASE DPS on a level 65 2hander was the same as the MAXED DPS on my level 60 Halberd, I was like “Hm. Well, Guess I just need to find something with Pressing Attack Targets and Telling Mark damage, and I’m golden.” which is what I did.
Captains are actually kinda fortunate like that, because really, most the Legacies on their weapons aren’t really very crucial. There’s only ONE “must have” and the rest is mostly “nice, but not really that much nicer than the other options”. On the other hand, they lose on Emblems, where they have 1 “mustmustmustmust have”, then like 4 “really really SHOULD” haves, of which 3 are in Pool A. Ugh. =/
:dubious: So the Hobbits are going to be completely ignored, like they never existed. Will the tales make Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin into Dwarves, because they are so short?
I agree, Hobbits are humble folks in general, better able to handle being something like ringbearer. But not all Hobbits are like that. What do you think would have happened if Lotho Sackville-Baggins had received the ring? Just because most Hobbits are one way, it does not mean all are.
And seriously, if you stand by that argument for not allowing Hobbit Captains, then the only class that should be open to Hobbits is Burglar, and that only because it is in the books. You really think a Man or Dwarf would stand there and let the Hobbit tank the mobs as a Guardian? And a berserker Hobbit? Really? Based on what?
And don’t be so sure that Hobbits have ceased to exist, since in the Prologue it says:
Sure it does. If you really think none of the the other races will take the Hobbits seriously as leaders, make their “followers” Hobbits. If you are referring to other PCs, who cares if they will “follow” Hobbits? Leadership in Fellowships is not based on the classes of the characters.
I don’t doubt I am wrong about how to get and improve Legendaries. But that is because I know almost nothing about the end game and instances. I just know that most of the instances available in the world like the GB or GA require groups (although I am going to take another stab at soloing GB when my tank hits 50. :D) and it sounds like you get things for improving Legendaries from instances.
But that is not the only reason I am going slow on them. A big reason is, while I have a main, I tend to switch back and forth between my alts quite a bit.
No one said we couldn’t write about 'em. But again. Men are the future, as it were.
I don’t think Lotho had any delusions of leadership. He was just greedy. The seed of glory seeking and leadership doesn’t appear in hobbits.
Bullroarer Took, obviously. But there aren’t any berserker hobbits. They can’t BE champions. The classes open to Hobbits are:
Guardian: Okay, this one’s a bit of a reach, but it was given to them before the Warden existed.
Minstrel: Who, I ask you, is better at raising people’s spirits with a song than Hobbits?
Hunter: Hobbits sent archers to the aid of the king in the fall of Arnor, or so they claim. Plus, bows, slings and the like are definitely suited to the hobbit temperament
Burglar: Uhm, duh
Warden: Light skirmishy sort of warriors, not too encumbered, etc. If hobbits were going to war, I’d say they’d be more likely to go like this than in a bunch of armor.
This discussion is about lore. Game mechanics don’t enter.
Also, Herald pets are customizable by the armament equipped, so you can’t just lock them down.
No, that was sortof my point. The only thing you get from instances is these little blue objects that give your legendary item XP. XP is just XP and can come from anywhere that…gives XP. And instances are far from the only place to get the heritage runes that give extra XP.
I am not sure I see it as much of an advantage. I like fine tuning gear, and I also like being equipped well enough to do all of the game’s content. Playing with 100+ radiance is a different experience.
True enough. Though most captains I play with have a buffing stick as well.
My main is a Loremaster, and unless you are somewhat brain damaged, the legacies are non-negotiable. If you don’t at least have + tactical skills damage, + fire skills crit multiplier, and -X improved staff strike cooldown, then in my opinion you are packing dead wood. My 2A 60 has everything and more; even though the dps and base tac crit rating are much lower than a 65, I actually do more damage with it. I got incredibly lucky on my book, a 1A 60. It will be a cold day in hell before I give that up.
I agree with you but I do not think you are right on the details.
Groups are not required to level legendaries. But if you do group, you have access to frequent drops of not only large xp runes but also settings and barter items redeemable for first ages and legendary augmentation scrolls. Doing instances is extremely useful to work on your legendaries, but it is by no means required.
Meh. Only if you go to those events. And besides, that has nothing to do with what I’m saying. Let me put it this way: Since I hadn’t put in hundreds of hours in the search for the perfect LI, I didn’t lose any time upgrading to Mirkwood.
I do, but there was no reason to upgrade it. All a buffing stick needs is a couple of legacies that are the same whether the item is 59 or 65.
There’s not really any reason to use a barter item to get a first age at this point. If you’re going to play the LI lottery now, you should be playing it at 65, not sinking tons of time and item XP into a level 60 item. It’s true that the item augmentation scrolls can be gotten from group content, but most people seem to be arguing that it’s less work to grind scrolls of empowerment in skirmishes than it is in group content, so no big bonus there either - though apparently you do need to do group content for scrolls of delving… unless those are sellable in the auction house?
So really, when you get down to it, all doing group content gets you is: Shots at the Symbol of celebrimbor, which I already mentioned, and which is only relevant if you care about having the best of the best (Bear with me here - I know it’s hard for a lot of endgame players to understand that a lot of other players just don’t care that they don’t have the best gear.), delving scrolls, and… item XP runes. Which are nice, don’t get me wrong, but XP is XP. When I run out of interesting quests to do for item XP, I’ll probably just put the game on the shelf until there are more. Not that Turbine seems to be having any trouble staying ahead of me.
Well yeah. I really don’t want this to turn into the inevitable theological debate between raiders and non-raiders. But given what I enjoy, I would not benefit from the trade-off you describe. I’m sure it’s great that you didn’t spend any time having to upgrade, but on the other hand, do you have the gear to do the DG 12-man or DN? If you don’t enjoy those sorts of things, then it’s definitely worth it. But I do, so I do not share your view that not having to spend time optimizing is a net benefit. That’s all. In fact, I enjoy it.
Obviously. You just implied that you had only one weapon. As long as it has the right legacies and the right tiers, all is well. One of the captains I play with uses a dagger. It is somewhat humorous to see.
I do not quite agree, especially for some classes. First, acquiring barter items for first ages is pitifully easy. The turtle takes less than five minutes to kill, and now, everyone gets a first age coin. First age barter coins also fall regularly from DN and DG bosses. They are trivial to acquire even incidentally.
This is great for toons who are not actually at level 65 or, perhaps better still, for class items that have no DPS. And as far as sinking xp runes go, what else are you going to do with your Moria runes? They are worthless for 61+ items, and other than abusing the max level decon mechanic to harvest relics, there is really no better use for them. Spending ten minutes doing bounties with a hunter is enough to powerlevel a 60 in no time.
This is debatable. You need to invest a pretty hefty number of skirmish marks in your soldier already to maintain a sufficient marks/hour rate to keep up with a well-geared and coordinated Sword Halls group. Moreover, you actually get drops when you do instances instead of skirmishes. I usually end up with 100-200k in Mirkwood runes, several settings, and other miscellaneous stuff after an hour in SG. I love skirmishes as much as the next guy, but I had to spend hours skirmishing and ranking up my soldier (now a rank 20 archer) to keep pace with the group I play with. People don’t usually take this prior investment into account when they estimate how many hours it takes to get a scroll. I think this is exacerbated for classes with less DPS.
The content of the above paragraph suggests that perhaps you care more about rewards than I do. Group content gets you the fun of doing challenging fights, joking around with people you have gotten to know well, and experiencing well-designed and immersive content. Obviously you can get some or all of the above playing solo or light instances, but as someone who has experienced both, I can say that they are definitely not the same. There is a time and place for both.
For what it’s worth, I can’t remember the last time I actually did an item XP that wasn’t one of the instance dailies. I don’t love the solo repeatable quests, so I typically do not do them. One of the best things about LOTRO is its flexibility and appeal to people who enjoy a variety of game experiences.
I’m not interested in that. I’m merely pointing out that there are advantages to NOT being a min-maxing raider. I’m not actually suggesting that you CHANGE. You do what you want. It just happens that this time, the way things went played out in favor of my style. /shrug/
I only have one weapon that I -upgraded-, which is what we were talking about. I also carry a buff stick, but since all that’s required for that is that it have the right legacies (and not even at decent tiers, since it’s fairly cheap to max them out), there was no real reason to bring it to the discussion.
Sure, if you’re in a raiding guild or in the habit of joining (urg) pickup raids, then I guess this is trivial. All you need to do is repeat this same event 4 times with your 11 closest friends or random strangers.
I’m not entirely convinced that levelling a 1st age item you’re not going to use to then…uh… not use it is any better than doing the same thing with a 3rd age. Except for the fact that the 1st age will, theoretically, give you back a mirkwood rune on decon at 60… but 1st age items require a ton more XP to level than third ages, so…
Dunno. How fast can you farm 75 DG medallions? I’ve never tried. I’m not at that point yet.
Sure. But once you’ve done SH enough to farm 150 medallions or something, how many drops are you getting that you can actually still use? And again - this doesn’t really have anything to do with Legendary Items. If you want to do instances for gear, great, if you don’t, great, but you can deal with your LIs just fine either way.
You’re treading on ground I don’t really know anything about here, so I’m going to defer to you. I’m just pointing out that I see people complaining about the medallion cost for the Empowerment scrolls compared to the Skirmish Mark cost and not the reverse.
Dunno. I play a “less DPS” class and I don’t really feel the pain. My soldier (a warrior) isn’t really particularly mighty, but I still blow through tier 1 skirmishes quite rapidly. Tier2s don’t really seem worth the added effort for the whopping 7% extra marks. I do them when I want a challenge, and about 30% of the time end up with less marks for more time because I get defeated somewhere along the way. But that doesn’t mean I can’t easily fund scrolls through skirmishes.
I actually don’t really care about rewards very much at all. I’m merely trying to have a discussion about what you “need to do” to participate in the LI system - which is what Lok was mentioning. Whether or not I - or you - enjoy running instances for the fun value or not has NOTHING to do with whether they are a “need” for the LI system. Period. You are expanding this discussion outside the scope of what I am talking about, so my comments are leading you astray because you are taking them out of context.
Just to be perfectly clear, what I actually said is that you are correct that you do not need to group but are incorrect on many of the details, especially with respect to the benefits of grouping. This is not surprising, since as you say, you don’t even do the non-radiance gated endgame groups. I supplied some of the extra details to provide context if anyone is seriously evaluating the merits or lack thereof of endgame grouping.
Your point was that it is not “worth the investment”. If you raid, there is practically no investment. If you don’t raid, getting these medallions is just not possible.
…except you still can find very good stuff that you can use. I still use my lvl 60 first age book. I do not care that it has a slightly lower max healing rating. It has all of the right legacies at all the right tiers. Given the direction that legacies on legendaries has gone, I am not terribly likely to find a better 65 third age right now.
Rather fast. The dungeons and the warg pens are more of a pain in the ass, but we can farm SG in under an hour. I don’t love the idea of grinding Sword Halls twenty times, but it is easy enough to do if my life depended on it. Now I have extremely limited playing time, so I have to give that sort of thing a pass.
The most useful things you get out of SH are cash, relics, and xp runes. Demand for all of these things is infinite. You are welcome to get all of your relics from deconning partially leveled LIs, but as you surely know, it takes a heck of a lot to tier them up. I can pick up 2 or 3 T4s from maybe 15 minutes of work in SH, and that’s on easy mode.
[quoteYou’re treading on ground I don’t really know anything about here, so I’m going to defer to you. I’m just pointing out that I see people complaining about the medallion cost for the Empowerment scrolls compared to the Skirmish Mark cost and not the reverse.[/quote]
Does your knowledge of this come from the boards? It is an understatement to say that opinion there often represents the least common denominator.
I suppose it depends on your expectations and on what sort of pace you find painful. I also do not play a DPS class, and a light armor wearer to boot. I do not do less than T2 and I do run T3 when I am feeling my oats. I would find taking in less than maybe 350-400 marks per hour to be somewhat painful. The 7% doesn’t seem like very much, but it adds up quite a lot over the long term. It sounds like you might be willing to devote more time to buying scrolls than I am given the lack of other benefits to skirmishing.
This is not a fair characterization. Here is what I actually did say:
This was in response to your claim that:
This is simply wrong. You proceeded to pick apart my remarks and sidetrack the discussion on the benefits or lack thereof of leveling first ages and whatever. I disagree with you on many of those specifics, but at least on those topics, there is plenty of room for reasonable disagreement and preferences that proceed from playstyle. Naturally there is no right way to do things. But you did make a sweeping pronouncement about content that you have never actually played. Whether your opinion is motivated by things you read on the boards, rationalization for your playstyle, or some other factor I can only speculate. I think you are absolutely correct in many of the things you are saying upthread; I do wonder why you seem to be attached to this piece of misinformation.
You are correct; I should have been more specific (“The only legendary-related things you get… etc”) and overgeneralized based on my experiences with Moria instances, which basically only give little blue pills and a few low level sealed relics.
Relics and potentially, scrolls, are also provided by instances, but can also easily be acquired via other routes.
I haven’t gotten around to doing any of the endgame instances yet, simply because I like to do things in order; I am slowly consuming the Mirkwood content because frankly, I have a low tolerance for repeating things unless they are very short (for whatever reason, people on my server are MAD for the Grand Stairs Moria instance, presumably because it’s a fast way to get Moria medallions for basic rad gear, but I wince everytime someone in my kin suggests it, because after doing it half a dozen times or so, it’s really pretty bland - especially since most groups only do the ‘daily’ quest and therefore don’t even kill half the bosses.). I can tolerate skirmishes because I can swap through them and, frankly, they’re really fast.
I am therefore, concerned that if I blow through all the other stuff, I’ll be stuck running Sword Halls and whatever else repeatedly, which would make me very sad.
I’m just not following you here. If you were a new player, going through this content now, why would you play the LI lottery with 1st age books? Yes, it’s possible you could get a good one, but wouldn’t you be better off not sinking the time and effort in there and instead sinking it into trying to find a level a good level 65 3A book, which would be superior?
I understand that, for people who already had them, the idea of trying to upgrade from a 1A that they spent ages getting JUST THE RIGHT Legacies on, but given the choice of spending a really long time trying to get just the right legacies on a 1st Age 60 vs a 3rd age 65, it would seem faster and easier to do the latter, especially since the reward is better in the end?
Touche, but it’s usually a pretty good indicator of what people find annoying.
I’m confused. I’m getting in the high 200s of skirmish marks for a SINGLE skirmish at 65, after I redeem my guardsman’s and campaign marks, and according to my stats on MyLoTRO, I can blow through Strike Against Dannenglor or Stand at Amon Sul in 20 minutes, sometimes less. That makes your “less than 400” seem really, REALLY low, since I could do two skirmishes in 45 minutes and have ~450. Have you tried seeing how your returns are if you just blow through tier1s instead of T2? It’s great and all to say “the 7% really adds up” only it doesn’t if it takes you 15% longer to do the skirmish.
I dunno. I’ve only ever bought one scroll so far. I haven’t even finished levelling my weapon to 60. I’m pretty relaxed about this stuff. I’m sure I’d feel otherwise about it if I’d already farmed 6 scrolls worth of skirmish marks, but I haven’t.
I’ll get right on it.
But there aren’t any berserker hobbits. They can’t BE champions. The classes open to Hobbits are: