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.