This Month in Titles (September 2011)

A new title has been bestowed upon you. You may now be known as Elahedor Taterlord (Since August 18, 2011):

Marshal of Tham Mírdain
Complete the slayer deeds in The School, Library, and Ring-Forge of Tham Mírdain.

Hastener of FateComplete the Epilogue to Volume 2

Swift Executioner
Defeat Angaidh and Sidhág within 10 seconds of each other in the Lost Temple

Blind Leaper
Jump into the pits in 5 places in Moria

Slayer of the Shadows
Defeat Frost-Tail and Ergoth in The Hall of Mirrors

Seeker of the Fallen
Find 4 implements of fallen dwarves in Skûmfil

Scourge of the Gwiber
Defeat 255 Gwiber in Enedwaith

Troll-Breaker
Defeat 80 Trolls in Moria.

Exterminator
Complete all deeds in the Sixteenth Hall

Foe of the Highpeak
Defeat 60 Wargs in the Grand Stair

The Steady
Defeat 30 Trolls in the Grand Stair

Master of the Anvil
Complete all deeds in the Halls of Crafting

Custodian of the Forgotten Treasury
Defeat 60 enemies in the Forgotten Treasury

Curator of the Forgotten Treasury
Complete all deeds in the Forgotten Treasury

The Brilliant
Defeat 60 Glow Worms in Dark Delving

Protector of Annúminas
Defeat the five bosses in Glinghant, Haudh Valandil, and Ost Elendil
+1 Innocence.

Warden of Annúminas
Complete the advanced tier of the slayer deeds in Evendim/Annúminas

Web-Shredder
Defeat 60 spiders in Skûmfil

Purifier of Skûmfil
Complete all deed in Skûmfil

Skirmisher
Defeat 80 Orc-Skirmishers in Fil Gashan

Fighter
Defeat 80 Orc-Fighters in Fil Gashan

Inflitrator
Find 4 orchish item in Fil Gashan

Bane of Fil Gashan
Complete all the deeds in Fil Gashan

Braver of Heights
Complete all the deeds in Grand Stairs.

The Odiferous
Complete the quest Miraculous Growth - Repeatable 10 times.
Also receive the Fine Boar-Droppings Housing Item.

Cold-Blooded
Defeat 120 lizards in Nalâ-Dûm.

Banisher of Darkness
Defeat Spit-Tail and Caerlûg in Nalâ-Dûm

The Beloved
Receive 100 kisses from other players (5 per day)

The Helpful
Receive 100 thanks from other players (5 per day)

The Naughty
Receive 100 scoldings from other players (5 per day)

The Ridiculed
Receive 100 mockings from other players (5 per day)

Watery Delver
Complete all the deeds inside the Great Barrows - Water Wing

The Alluring
Receive 100 flirts from other players (5 per day)

The Befuddling
Receive 100 confused emotes from other players (5 per day)

The Dull
Receive 100 bored emotes from other players (5 per day)

The Harassed
Receive 100 beg emotes from other players (5 per day)

The Infuriating
Receive 100 angry emotes from other players (5 per day)

The Intimidating
Receive 40 cower emotes from other players (2 per day)

The Victorious
Receive 40 surrender emotes from other players (2 per day)

Known to the Dunlendings
Obtain acquaintance reputation with the Dunlendings in Dunland

Friend to the Dunlendings
Obtain friend repuation with the Dunlendings in Dunland

Ally of the Dunlendings
Obtain ally reputation with the Dunlendings in Dunland

Westfold Forester
Complete level 1 proficiency in the Westfold forester crafting tier

Kin of the Dunlendings
Obtain kindred reputation with the Dunlendings in Dunland

Westfold Master Forester
Complete level 2 proficiency in the Westfold forester crafting tier

Westfold Woodworker
Complete level 1 proficiency in the Westfold woodworker crafting tier

Westfold Farmer
Complete level 1 proficiency in the Westfold farmer crafting tier

Westfold Master Farmer
Complete level 2 proficiency in the Westfold farmer crafting tier

Known to Théodred's Riders
Obtain Acquaintance reputation with Théodred's Riders in Dunland

Friend to Théodred's Riders
Obtain Friend reputation with the Théodred's Riders faction

Ally of Théodred's Riders
Obtain Ally repuation with Théodred's Riders

Explorer of Dunland
Discover all locations in all zones in Dunland, Gap of Rohan, and Isengard
+1 Empathy

The Wanderer
Find Floid and Dewit in 7 places throughout Middle Earth.

Gatecrasher
Defeat the Trolls at the entrance to Isengard.

Kindred to Théodred's Riders
Obtain Kindred reputation with the Théodred's Riders faction

The Insulted
Receive 200 flirts from other players (6 per day)

I also completed the following deeds:

Mercenaries of the White Hand (Advanced)
Defeat 120 Dunlendings in Tham Mírdain
Reward: +1 Determination

Orcs of the Sixteenth Hall (Advanced)
Defeat 120 orcs in the Sixteenth Hall
+1 Wisdom

Halls of Crafting Ranged Orc-Slayer (Advanced)
Defeat 100 Ranged Orcs in the Halls of Crafting

Troll-Slayer (Advanced)
Defeat 160 Trolls in Moria.
+1 Confidence.

The Corpse-Beasts of Skûmfil (Advanced)
Defeat 80 Kergrim in Skûmfil
+1 Justice

Great Barrow - The Gate to Sambrog
Defeat Thadúr the Ravager in the Water-Wing, and Gaerdring and Gaerthel in the Maze of the Great Barrows

The Blighted Ones
Defeat 120 spiders in Skûmfil
+1 Mercy

Strength of the Enemy (Advanced)
Defeat 160 Orc-Fighters in Fil Gashan
+1 Justice

Eyes of the Enemy (Advanced)
Defeat 160 Orc-Skirmishers in Fil Gashan
+1 Empathy

Beasts of the Grand Stairs (Advanced)
Defeat 120 Wargs in the Grand Stairs.
+1 Empathy

Brutes of the Grand Stairs (Advanced)
Defeat 60 Trolls in The Grand Stairs
+1 Compassion

Sword Salute
Receive 100 /Salute Emotes.
Emote: /Swordsalute

Glow-Worm Slayer (Advanced)
Defeat 120 glow-worms in Dark Delving
+1 Wisdom

Namless-Slayer (Advanced)
Defeat 120 nameless in Dark Delving
+1 Patience

The Ten Guards
Defeat Durchest after defeating 10 of his guards
+1 Gold Star Emblem

Orcs of the Forge (Advanced)
Defeat 80 orcs in the Forges of Khazad-Dûm
+1 Zeal

Raising Spirits
Defeat Nightmare in the Halls of Night without defeating any tortured spirits.
+5 Hall of Night Marks

Champion of the Halls of Night
Complete the deeds in the Halls of Night.
Emote: Dream.

Exploring Trum Dreng
Discover 6 locations in Trum Dreng in Dunland
+1 Idealism

Exploring the Bonevales
Discover 5 locations in the Bonevales in Dunland
+1 Innocence

Quests in the Bonevales
Complete 34 quests in the Bonevales
+1 Zeal

Quests in Pren Gwydh
Complete 30 quests in Pren Gwydh in Dunland
+1 Determination

Exploring Pren Gwydh
Discover 6 locations in Pren Gwydh in Dunland
+1 Compassion

Dunlending-Slayer
Defeat 100 Dunlendings in Dunland

Beast-Slayer
Defeat 100 Beasts in Dunland

Exploring Starkmoor
Discover 6 locations in Starkmoors in Dunland
+1 Charity

Exploring the Dunbog
Discover 6 locations in The Dunbog in Dunland
+1 Honour

Goblin-Slayer
Defeat 100 Goblins in Dunland

Tracking an Old Goat
Complete Andreg's six quests in Gravenwood
+1 Honour

Exploring Carreglyn
Disover 7 locations in Carreglyn in Dunland
+1 Zeal

Craban-Slayer
Defeat 80 Craban in Dunland

Exploring the Gravenwood
Discover 7 locations in the Gravenwood
+1 Discipline

Quests in the Gravenwood
Complete 27 quests in the Gravenwood
+1 Honour

Dulending-Slayer (Advanced)
Defeat 275 Dunlendings in Dunland
+1 Fidelity

Exploring the Isendale
Discover 4 locations in the Isendale
+1 Mercy

Orc-Slayer
Defeat 150 Orcs in Dunland

Quests in the Isendale
Complete 34 quests in Isendale
+1 Disciple

Beast-Slayer (Advanced)
Defeat 250 wild beasts in Dunland
+1 Loyalty

Exploring the Heathfells
Discover 7 locations in the Heathfells in the Gap of Dunland
+1 Fortitude

Exploring Nan Curunir
Discover 6 locations in Nan Curunir
+1 Empathy

Quests in Carreglyn
Complete 26 quests in Carreglyn
+1 Innocence

Orc-Slayer (Advanced)
Defeat 200 Orcs in Dunland
+1 Idealism

Quests in the Heathfells
Complete 30 quests in Heathfells in Dunland
+1 Fortitude

Draigoch's Lair -- Discovery
Discover the entrance to Draigoch's Lair

Warg-Slayer
Defeat 100 Wargs in Dunland

Goblin-Slayer (Advanced)
Defeat 200 Goblins in Dunland
+1 Charity

Juggler
Receive 200 /laugh emotes (6 per day)
Emote: /juggle

I also gained Ally to the Eldgang. Still a long road to kindred.

The Fate of Taskli

I'm sad to report that Taskli is being retired for the time being. I rolled the toon, as his name suggests, to run Tasks, which were designed to help free-to-play players obtain faction reputation and experience in zones that they have not purchased. When I started the experiment, I thought it'd be interesting to see just how robust the system is.

In the original F2P design, only volume 1 of the epic story was "free", along with quests in The Shire, Ered Luin, and Bree-land. The epic story spans the first 50 levels of the game, and Tasks were designed to complement these levels. Early in 2011, all epic volumes were opened for F2P, and Lone-Lands was added as a free zone. However, the Tasks system was not redesigned, nor were additional Task boards added in post-50 levels. My main toon was already well beyond the top Task level before the system was even created, and thus was locked out. The deeds give some interest cosmetics and titles.

The first Tasks becomes available at level 8, and each Task is available for 8 levels, generally until the associated MoB becomes gray to your toon. By default, players are allowed to complete 5 Tasks per day. Up to 5 additional Task slots can be purchased, so that the player can complete 10 Tasks a day. At each of the century marks (100, 200, 300, etc), the player earns a title and opens up an additional Task slot. Ultimately, the player can complete 15 Tasks a day. Each Task returns 300 points of reputation for the local faction and a varying amount of XP (based on your level and the level of the Task). The last Task is available at level 50, but Tasks can be accept and turned in for a few levels more (again, until the associated MoB turns grey).

Now, however, high-level Tasks have been made available in most major settlements and encampments in Dunland. The system works the same: Accept a task, gather the items, and turn those items into the Taskmaster. Unlike in other zones, where an existing NPC was converted into a Taskmaster, there are two specific Taskmaster NPCs in Dunland. One is in Galtrev (Dunland), and the other is in Forthbrond (Gap of Rohan). Tasks can be accepted from any board, but they can only be turned into these two NPCs. Because a Task is considered an active quest, I generally don't accept a Task until I have enough items to complete it, and then I immediately turn the Task in.

 

Since I can now get the titles and deeds on my main, Taskli has become a bit redundant. I'll keep him around and might work on leveling him up one day. Thus far, my main toon is level 74.5 and has completed 70 tasks (I've unlocked all the extra Task slots).

In 5 days, I had leveled Taskli to level 16, completed his Rune-Keeper class quest, moved from Gondamon to Bree-Land, and completed a number of slayer and class deeds. It was fairly quick progress, and I enjoyed running the toon.

Apologies and Impressions

First off, I'd like to apologize for not keeping up with posts. I really don't have an excuse other than laziness; although I have rejoined an alliance and been running raids more often. I was also wrapping up deeds and quests in preparation for Rise of Isengard.

And speaking of Rise of Isengard, I ended up parking my main character, Elahedor, in Esteldín. I chose to do so because 1) there wouldn't be quite so many people crowding around the Vault, Bard, and Trainers, as there would be in Enedwaith and Twenty-First Hall; 2) The Woodworkers Guild is headquartered there, and I wouldn't have to wait to get to Galtrev in Dunland to turn in Reputation items; 3) I have enough Milestone and Return to skills to port to the locations I needed to get to. It worked out well for me.

Now, after running through the new zone for the last week, I can share my impressions and observations of the region.

The Negatives

First off, the patching process was rather painful. There were reports of people unable to connect to the patch server for 6 hours and more. It appears that Turbine didn't adequately plan for the number of players that would attempt to update as soon as possible on Monday. Maybe they forget about the European players, or thought that changing the time would spread out the population over a couple of days, but whatever the case, it was unacceptable. At the very least, there should have been an alternate process in place to offload the extra numbers.

I was one of the lucky ones: it took only about 45 minutes for my client to connect. I waiting until later in the day (during my lunch break from work), and then left the patch to run while I returned to work. By the time I was home from work, the client was updated.

I've also experience several crashes since the update. The client crashed something like a half-dozen times on Monday night, and 3-4 times Tuesday night. Mostly, it appears that I'm crashing at a specific point: just when I defeat an enemy. Since Wednesday, crashes seemed to occur randomly.

There is also a lot of lag, which is to be expected given the sheer number of people questing in zones. The population density is also causing an issue with completing quests, because there are enough MoBs to go around. Another problem has been moving between layers, which occurs randomly. There are reports that people will move towards a node of ore or wood, initiate a fight, or perform some other action only to jump into another layer and miss the node, MoBs, or action. Each time you jump layers, you get a loading screen, and the sheer number of loading screens appearing is quite annoying.

In fact, this last issue has happened to me quite often: I was fighting wights on the Enedwaith-Dunland border, and frequently would defeat a MoB (at range), but when I moved in to loot the corpse, I'd jump into another layer. I also had this issue last night at the lumber camp outside Galtrev. When I moved into the Pend Gwyndh zone, I moved into was in a sparsely populated layer. There were more than enough MoBs for everyone. When i moved into the Galtrev zone, I jumped layers into a much more densely populated layer with fewer MoBs. Galtrev itself seems to not be layered, so the game frequently lags and moves into reduced awareness mode.

Most of these issues will clear up with time, as the population spreads throughout the new regions and returns to running raids and instances.

One of my major complaints with the expansion is that it simply feels incomplete and unpolished in many ways. There aren't any major new systems, except for a new series of Legendary Items. Tasks have been added to the new zone, so that now people level 65 and up can complete those deeds. There are few new skills, and no new Traits or class deeds. All the class skills are mostly "improved" versions of older ones. Simply put, nothing much has changed.

Also, I simply cannot fathom introducing a location as iconic as Isengard and not including any instances there. I know that there will be instances released later this year, but there is no guarantee that they will be located in Isengard. There are already people at level 75 (yes, two days in - they basically took time off specifically for the release). What are they doing?

The only instance released at this point is the Draigoch raid, and, from what I understand, that raid not really even related to Isengard.

The much-vaunted changes to gear and jewelry isn't looking very promising to me. All the stuff I've been offered for quest rewards has been a downgrade (I'm wearing the Moria Gear, augmented with a few pieces of the Lothlorien set, as well as a mix of the crafted Greenwood jewelry and loot from Dol Guldor). Most of it gives a boost to raw morale and raw power; the stuff I'm being offered has amazing vitality and amazing will, but it is not near enough. I'm dropping 100-150 morale per item. It also seems mostly geared to minstrels, offering outgoing healing over DPS. 

Lore-Masters face a tough choice in Rise of Isengard: Durability or Damage, and there's no good choice. I finally choose damage, but find that I'm burning through more morale pots and regenerative food than ever before - and that I've had to add Wisdom of the Council into my rotation more often (thank goodness for the reduced cooldown on this skill).

Since the Ost Dunhoth cluster was released, the devs seem to be making Lore-Masters into a healing class, and this expansion is carrying this process even further. Outgoing healing is great, but if I'm soloing in the landscape, I have nothing to heal but myself. If I need healing with landscape MoBs, then I'm doing it wrong (or I've aggroed way too many things at once).

Finally, there are several minor bugs that just been frustrating.

The first is that many of the deeds are based on completing a specific number of quests in sub-zones, but the number of quests has been miscounted. This is true in both Trum Dreng, where the deed requires 37 quests, but, there are only 36 available, and the Starkmoors, where the deed requires 30, but only 26 quests are available (there are, however 4 additional quests in The Culling Pit, which is an arena for combat and requires a fellowship to complete.

The second is that certain quests are completing for everyone who is close by when someone else completes it. Mostly, this effect happens on the "big bad wolf" at the end of a quest chain. I'll summon the boss, but he'll either aggro on someone else or be tapped by someone else - someone I'm not in a fellowship with. When they kill him, I'll get credit for the quest (but, of course, not the XP for the kill).

Obviously, most of these issues are technical in nature and will be addressed as time goes on. There's always some things that have to be shaken out in the wash.

 The Positives

So far, I've quested in Dunland and the Gap of Rohan. My main toon is level 73.

I took the south-east path into Dunland from Lhanuch, through the Mournshawns and Northern Pass, and into Trum Dreng. I then worked my way through The Bonevales, and eventually got funneled into the standard quest line: Pryn Gwydh, the Starkmoors & Dungbog, Carreglyn, Gravenwood, and on into the Gap of Isengard. For the most part, the quests chains have been well thought out, and flow nicely from one area into another. 

However, there were a couple of times, mostly in Galtrev, where I felt that I hit a wall. A quest chain would end, with no indication of who to see next, and I'd have to circle around the city looking for quest rings. This is the only place that, when I left, I felt like I might have missed a quest. Similarly, in Dunbog, I felt like the quests didn't vector out very well. It works out in the end, but I would have liked to have had more direction than just running around blindly.

I never felt like I'm leveling too fast, at least in Dunland. There felt like there was plenty to do. Since I've hit the Gap, though, things are starting to slow down, and it appears there's not enough to get all the way to level 75 (many players have reported getting about half way to 75 before the quests run out). I've been doing tasks, so that helps - and I still have a lot of slayer deeds to complete.

The phasing technology that has been implemented in this release has really been amazing. NPCs move, cities and landscapes change, and things feel much more dynamic and responsive to your actions. Coming into the Northern Pass, I encountered Braigiar the Ranger. He directed me to help an inhabitant of the region. After the chain ended, The Ranger had moved into the local village along with the person I helped. At one point, you help a local clan in an uprising against their overseers, and actually drive them out. Once you complete that quest chain, the overseers no longer appear in the city at all

While Galtrev appears to be a vibrant city - stocked with tons and tons of NPCs, Tûr Morva (in Tâl Methedras) will absolutely blow you away with the sophistication of the structures and beauty of the vistas. This zone is instanced, so it's not accessible after a certain point.

The look of the outfits and cosmetics are another great point. As I quested through Trum Dreng, I picked up all the pieces to the Learned Stag set. While I didn't like the stats on the set, I loved the look. I ended up dying it in various shades and equipping the rust version of the hat, robe, & shoes, and the black version of the shoulders and bracers. Yes, bracers - there are no proper gloves; the lack of gloves appears to be the newest trend. I also like the look of forest green and Evendim blue versions of this set. Yes, I actually replaced the Flame-Touched Hauberk & Flames of the Deep cape, at least for awhile. Some of the other pieces I've picked up since then have also been impression.

In many ways, passing into Dunland is like starting a completely different game. Lower level players might not feel this way, but everything from crafting to understanding stats and building your character has been a huge departure from what has happened to date in the game.