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.