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.

Leveling Alts

I decided that it was time to give a little love to my alts. As I previously posted, I have 9 different characters, one for each available class in the game. Most were created simply to be crafting mules, but it has become obvious that I need to level certain ones to take advantage of additional crafting features. Nonetheless, they have languished in their beginning stages.

So, I set a goal: get all of my alts to at least level 15 and complete their first class deeds. Yes, I managed to do it, though it cost some sleep as I worked on the last one in the wee hours of Monday morning.

As things stand now:

• My Lore-Master Elahedor is level 65 (no change).
• My Guardian Pentalidor is level 43 (no change).
• My Captain Cuthalred is level 17 (no change).
• My Rune-Keeper Tarvebor is level 16. He started the week at level 13.
• My Minstrel Paldered is level 16. He started the week at level 11.
• My Burglar Finavorn is level 16. He started the week at level 13.
• My Champion Mizosi is level 15. He started the week at level 11.
• My Hunter Tehelan is level 15. He started the week at level 11.
• My Warden Pineslander is level 15 (no change).

I started with Tehelan, my Dwarf Hunter, on Saturday. He leveled in Ered Luin, mostly around Gondamon.

This is probably the most popular class in the game - it's supposed to be a strong DPS class. Unfortunately, I wasn't all that impressed. I had much the same problem I have on my Lore-Master: The bulk of the damage is supposed to be done at range, but the enemies tend to want to be in melee combat, so they inevitable run up to you, interrupt inductions, and make life difficult. Unlike the Lore-Master, I found the Hunter's melee skills to be lacking.

The Hunter class quest requires you to enter the Old Forest and slay a wolf named Yellowfang. The wolf is guarded by several others, but I had little trouble with the quest.

Next, I moved to Mizosi, my Dwarf Champion. I didn't follow any one path with him - he leveled a bit around Gondamon and a bit around The Shire.

It took me a bit of time to get used to the combat style, but I have to say I found myself really enjoying the class. It was kind of refreshing just to run up to a MoB and slap it in the face a few times. There were few frills, but solid DPS. I got a bit over-confident, and took on a quest that was meant to be done in group. I achieved the objectives of the quest, but a bad respawn left me without the Undying title on the toon. I'm impressed enough that I might start leveling him on out.

The Champion class quest requires you to travel around Bree-Land and slay 3 named enemy leaders. I had no issues at all with this quest, even if the last one did leap out of a corner before I was quite ready.

I found it awkward to level these guys to 15. The gear that can be crafted at this range is either level 14 or level 16, and I was usually a goodly way towards level 16 by the time I got around to the class quest. Thus, I decided that I take the remaining toons to level 16 so that they can be properly geared out for the class deed.

I started working on Paldered, my Hobbit Minstrel, on Saturday, and dinged him over to level 12 before deciding to call it a night. That's where I picked up Sunday. He leveled exclusively in The Shire.

Leveling the mini was slow work. I was repeatedly frustrated with the toon. Later, I'd find that I apparently had not visited a Trainer since around level 8, so my skill set was severely lacking. And, of course, suddenly equipping a lot of traits after having played 4 hours and falling into rhythm was really disruptive. Of course, that's totally my fault, not the game's, but it did sour my feelings towards the class.

The Minstrel class quest requires you to recover a "very important" item that some brigands have stolen from Leland Underhill. He takes you inside a brigand outpost. As you infiltrate the outpost, you encounter several brigands - but you don't slay any of them: you defeat them to the point that they cower. And the stolen item...well, we'll have lunch and discuss it one day. Overall, it was a fun little quest, but one I really didn't think was worthy of a Class quest.

Next, I began working on Finavorn, my Human Burglar. Being sure not to repeat the Mini mistake, I first visited a class trainer and made sure my skills were up to date, and then we took off to Combe and Staddle.

At first, leveling was slow as I worked out the skill rotation. I didn't really feel like I was doing much damage and fights were going on a bit too long, requiring me to fall back on Morale pots quite a bit. Once I obtained a second weapon and replaced my main hand with one that was more up-to-date, I began to see a huge improvement in DPS. It also took a bit to get used to the "Tricks" system, and how they trigger additional abilities. Though I didn't use it often, I also liked the crowd-control ability, though so far the class is more restricted on CC than the Lore-Master.

The Burglar class quest takes you to Bamfurlong, Farmer Maggot's homestead. A gang of brigands has infiltrated the farm with the intention of stealing mushrooms. Your mission is to defeat the guys (and slip out with a few mushrooms for your hobbit trainer, of course). There were never more than 2 brigands in a group, and the crowd-control ability removed that advantage. It was another fun, quick instance.

Finally, I began working on Tarvebor, my Elf Rune-Keeper. He leveled around Gondamon.

Now, I have to admit that my very first toon - created during the two-week trial period that existed long before LotRO went Free-To-Play - was a Rune-Keeper. My experience wasn't very good (in fact, I'm surprised I continued playing). The toon was created on the Windfola server. At the time, I assumed that characters were universal, and you were dumped on a server based on load. I didn't realize that each server is, in fact, it's own unique environment.

After completing my subscription, I had to download a different client. When all was said and done, my toon was gone. I re-rolled it, choosing a Lore-Master by mistake. Months later, when the lottos began, I started seeing references to the original toon. At first, I thought it was a glitch in the system, but then I finally realized what happened: when the new client was installed, it had apparently wiped away whatever file tells it on which server I had last played, and I was directed to the server with the smallest load at that moment. That server just happened to be Vilya. My original RK still existed, at level 20, on Windfola. By then, of course, I was well into life as a Lore-Master.

In the end, I simply deleted that toon. I really didn't like playing a Rune-Keeper. I was constantly dying or running away from fights (I never even finished the level 15 class quest on that toon). I felt the lack of a weapon was a detriment (again, because you simply can't keep MoBs from getting into melee range). One of the banes of my existence is the quest "To Avert a War", in which you and Langlas infiltrate the Dourhand encampment to rescue Avorthal. I have failed this quest too many times to count; I almost inevitably die at the third campfire. Looking back, I think my perceptions of the class are biased: after all, I did get the original RK to level 20, and, although I remember that the Wargs and boars around the Forsaken Inn killed me quite a bit, I did subscribe to the game and was upset that the toon was erased.

I re-rolled an RK on Vilya mostly because I had the spot and needed more storage for shared crafting materials. In fact, when I began this process, I was surprised the toon was even as high a level as he was, considering he's only been standing near the Vault-Keeper in Celondim. I bit the bullet and dived in.

Like with Finavorn, I first visited my class trainer and made sure he was up-to-date with his skills and then headed to the first quest. Things were going okay, but I was determined not to be impressed. Then, while killing spiders in the eastern reaches of the zone, I had a moment and something finally clicked. Many of the RK skills build over time, but it's not just a matter of applying the skill and letting it build; the skill has to be applied multiple times: each time through, the damage dealt (or healing given) is greater than the previous one. I suddenly found myself blowing through spiders without issue. Often, the creatures either didn't reach me at all or were almost dead by the time they were in melee range. With my new found wisdom, I ventured into the instance to rescue Avorthas again. Sure enough, I breezed through it without an issue. Maybe this class isn't so bad.

The Rune-Keeper class quest requires you to go to Weathertop, place runes on some stones, and wait for lightening to strike them. And, of course, you have to defend yourself from incursions by Orcs. I never finished this quest on my original RK, but this time through, it was a breeze.

The result of this experiment is that I'm almost certainly going to begin working on my Champion. I'm also seriously considering giving my Rune-Keeper a chance. The Hunter and Burg didn't impress me enough to prioritize leveling them, and the mini is just not doing anything for me.

Hint-A-Week: Entering a New Settlement/Quest Hub

Here are a few recommendations for what to do when you enter a settlement/quest hub for the first time:

1. Talk to the Stable-Master (or, in Evendim, the Boat-Master) in order to unlock the travel routes to the location.

2. Look for your class trainer (and later, your class legendary items vendors).

3. Look for the crafting area or areas.

4. Talk to the vendors for the local faction. You might find you're already eligible for the intro quests for the reputation tokens (or even have enough reputation to purchase items).

5. Test doors for interior locations.

6. Wander around and listen to the vignettes. The blurbs often gives you an idea of the type of quests you're going to be doing, or can just be plain interesting or entertaining.

7. Check out the available quests to determine if there are any that takes you back to a previous area. You might want to finish these quests first, because they might lead you on a quest chain in that previous area.

8. Review the Task Board, if available, to determine what items you should save as you move through the quests. Personally, I never accept a task until I'm ready to turn in the item.

Now you can start gathering available quests and work through the content!

Hint-a-Week: Color Coding

The color of the MoB name will give you immediate information about whether you should attempt to take it on.

• Purple: Eight or more level above you. In general, don't touch these guys. Most will defeat you with one blow, though some classes can comfortably handle a MoB that's four or five levels above them.
• Red: Six to Seven levels above you. You'll definitely have trouble with these guys, but you can defeat them with enough time and effort.
• Orange: Four to Five levels above you. You'll have some trouble with these guys, but you can defeat them.
• Yellow: Two to Three level above you. These guys will be a bit troublesome, but defeating them should not take a great deal of effort.
• White: On-level or 1 level above you. You should be able to deal with these MoBs. BTW, when another player's name is white, that player is role-playing.
• Dark Blue: One to two levels below you. You could have some issues, but defeating these guys should be fairly easy.
• Light Blue: Three to Four levels below you. You should be able to defeat these guys handily.
• Green: Five to Six levels below you. You should not have to put out much effort at all to defeat these guys.
• Gray: Seven or more levels below you. You should not aggro these guys, and they should be quite easily defeated.
  

Those classes with a pet (Lore-Master, Rune-Keeper, and Captain) should be aware that their pet is typically 2 levels below them (Lore-Master can trait to increase the pet's level by one). Therefore, even though a MoB appears gray to you, it might be green/light blue to your pet, who will then aggro that MoB.

Moreover, never assume that defeating even grey MoBs is guaranteed. The more MoBs you aggro at once, the more difficult the fight will be.

In general, the higher the MoB level, the more XP you'll gain from defeating it. You won't get much XP (or any) for killing gray MoBs. Also, most Class deeds won't advance from using skills against gray, although racial deeds do.

One other thing that comes into play is the MoB rating, which is a means to add even more shading to the levels. The ratings are:

• Swarm.
• Normal.
• Signature.
• Elite.
• Elite Master.
• Nemesis.
• Arch-Nemesis.

As the rating get harder, the MoB gets tougher, with more morale, harder hits, better armour, etc. In general, you should be able to deal with on-level swarm, normal, and signature MoBs; any MoB with a rating higher than signature typically requires a fellowship. Even level-capped players could run into difficulty with gray Arch-Nemesis MoBs.

There are also Rare Elites and Rare Elite Masters. As the name says, these MoBs spawn rarely. Most of them are named, and people refer to them as "shard-droppers" or "flake-droppers", because they typically drop a shard (ruby, saphire, or beryl) or a mithril flake. Shards and flakes are used in crafting.

Evendim 2.0

In Update 2: Echoes of the Dead, Evendim was revamp and reorganized. I ran a few quests in this area on my Lore-Master, Elahedor, ages ago. I spent way too much time in the North Downs, attempting to complete every quest there; thus, I missed a lot of other zones.

However, the good thing about LoTRO is that you can go back to lower-level zones and complete the quests there. Unfortunately, you don't get any experience, although you will get all the other rewards. I ran the quests there mostly to get kindred with the Wardens and purchase the reputation horse.

While I was running these quests, Turbine formally moved Oatbarton and Dwalling into the Evendim Zone (previously, they were part of The Shire). Both were minor quest hubs. The major quests hubs in Evendim were Tinnidur, Ost Forod, and Annuminas, with other minor hubs at Tal Ruinen, The Eavespires, and Men Erain. Annuminas, however, was designed as an end-game area for the original Shadows of Angmar expansion; thus, players had to return to the zone long after completing the area.

After Update 2, Oatbarton, Dwalling, Tinnidur, Ost Forod, Tal Ruinen, and The Eavespires remained mostly unchanged. A new quest hub was created at the High King's Crossing Bridge, a group of NPCs were placed on Rantost, and more NPCs were added to Men Erain.

I ran my Guardian, Pentalidor, through this area. He was approximately level 29.5 when I started.

One of the major changes is that you receive bronze and silver anorian coins as quest rewards. These coins can be bartered for a pretty decent armour set (tailored to your class). However, I found that by the time I leveled enough to purchase a piece in the set, the crafted items were much better, even with the bonus for the set. The only piece you can't get with the coins is the helm, which are earned from others quest within Annuminas.

Oatbarton
You start the zone in Oatbarton at around level 30. Previously, there wasn't much going on here: there were a only a couple of quest chains. In Update 2, North Cotton Farm was added to the game; NCF exists in two version: a public version and an instanced version. You won't be able to do the instanced version until level 65. The public version offers a series of on-level quests, most of which involves helping to prepare for a festival.

Dwalling
After completing the quests in Oatbarton, you'll move on to Dwalling, were things are a bit more serious. The town has been taken over by brigands, and goblins have encamped nearby. The poor the denizens of Dwalling have either run away or moved into a house on the outskirts of the town. Most of the quests involve dealing with the brigands and the goblins. Ultimately, you'll deal with the chief brigand and move on from Dwalling.

High King's Crossing
The next stop is the High King's Crossing bridge. Most of the quests here deal with the creatures and brigands roaming the Barandalf (the banks of the Brandywine). Most of these quests were previously granted in Tinnidur, and required a lot of back-and-forth travel. Be careful to not travel too far west, though; the quests and MoBs along The Way of Kings are intended for higher levels.

Tinnidur
After dealing with the brigands and beasts in the Barandalf, you'll move on to Tinnidur, the main hub in the zone. Most of the quests in this area involve dealing with even more brigands and beasts in the Parth Aduial region, but you'll also quest out to Rantost, an island of brigands, as well as Tal Ruinen, the island of the salamanders. There's also a side-quest to a single Warden encamped along the eastern road, near the gates to the North Downs.

A boat route has been added between Tinnidur and the island of Rantost, making travel much easier. Also, a group of three Wardens now are available. The Rantost chain ends with an instance in which you help deal with the brigand's counterattack after the Wardens have invaded the island and pushed out the brigands. This instance was previously a fellowship quest, but it now a solo quest. It's very similar to the Siege of Gondamon skirmish.

One of the main annoyances in the game is quest chains, which involve a lot of back-and-forth travel between the quest-giver and the place where the quest takes place. Quite often, you have to fight your way to the location, fight your way through the location, and fight your way back out. Multiple times.

To alleviate this issue, one NPC, Orchalwe, gives you a journal. Reading the journal initiates the first quest in the chain, and each time you complete a link, you re-read the journal to pick up the next link. When you finish the chain, you return to Orchalwe and pick up your reward. Orchalwe makes a return appearance in Annuminas.

You'll have to return to Tinnidur several times to advance your reputation, pick up additional quests, and visit your class trainer. Once you've completed the primary quests in the zone, you'll move on to Ost Forod.

Ost Forod
Ost Forod is populated by a group of unfriendly folk - they are almost brigand-like, though they don't attack. You'll be greeted by insults every time you enter the city. Again, most of the quests offered here are dealing with creatures and brigands; however, you'll now also have to deal with goblins.

One of the first things you'll notice in Ost Forod is a series of Wanted Posters. If you so choose, read the poster, speak with the indicated NPC and go defeat the creature.

Almost nothing has changed in Ost Forod.

Tal Ruinen
The island of the salamanders is pretty much the same, though a boat keeper has been added.


The Eavespires
Once you complete Ost Forod, you'll return to Tinnidur and pick up a quest taking you to The Eavespires, where you'll get your first glimpse of an Ent. Most of the quests in this area revolve around Guaradians, the evil wolf-men who have come out of Forochel. You'll also deal with giants, bears, and wood trolls.

The Ent, Longbough, will eventually give you a quest to deal with a corrupted tree, Heart-Rot, and an evil huorn, Twisted Heart. This instance previously required a fellowship, but it is now soloable. The mechanics of the boss fight were not very clear, but you'll be lead into a cavern, fighting Twisted Heart and the roots of Heart-Rot. Once you defeat the roots, you have to run back up to the surface and fight the tree (let Longbough tank the huorn) until it goes dormant; run back down to help with more roots. Rinse and repeat until the Heart-Rot and Twisted Heart are defeated.

Once you complete the quests in The Eavespires, you'll be asked to return to Tinnidur and report in.

At this point, you'll be asked to go see the Blue Maid, an female elf who lives in a cave. She'll test your loyalty with a few quests before she feels you show her the respect she deserves. At that point, she will open the Tomb of Elendil. This instance requires a fellowship. The quests in this chain still require a lot of travel. You have to go to The Eavespires, Ost Forod, and Rantost. The quest directions aren't very clear (I had to rely on the quest tracker on the map). I think some of this could be streamlined a bit, with the statue pieces that you collect placed either on Tal Ruinen or spread along the western shores of the lake - or even in the Guaradian camps.

Previously, the Tomb of Eledndil quest acted essentially as the end game for the landscape portion of the zone, but now you'll be moving toward Annuminas.

Men Erain
The first stop on your way into Annuminas is Men Erain, an island near the High King's Crossing bridge. Most of the quests here involve the brigands encamped among the tombs of the Numenorian Kings and on the slopes above the tombs. A lot of work has been done in this area, and many of the tombs can now be entered as part of quests.

Annuminas
Finally, you'll move into Annuminas, whose level has been dropped to around 40 (Pentalidor is now level 42, and most of the MoBs are dark blue, indicated that they are one level below him).

A really neat quest-granting mechanic has been added here. Instead of dealing with NPCs, you'll get a quest to help Orchalwe with two main quests. You'll also be given a "smoke signal", which allows you to call Orchalwe to your side; he'll aid in your fights, heal you, and - as you move around the city - give you quests. Once you complete the task, you can basic turn right around to complete it and obtain the rewards.

Conclusion
Overall, the zone is much more linear as you move from one hub to the other, and the quests are fun and interesting.

The quests in the Lighthouse, given in High King's Crossing, are quite challenging, mostly because of the density of MoBs and because there are a couple of signatures pathing around the ruins. However, I didn't find many of the other quests as challenging. It took me a few minutes to figure out the mechanics of the Twisted Heart instance, but when I did, it wasn't particularly challenging. Longbough is quite tough, and there's little danger of him being defeated.

On the other hand, I found Annuminas to be extremely frustrating. Basically, only the level of the MoBs were lowered, but the density hasn't changed. As a result, you are frequently fighting 3 - 5 guys at a time. Many still cast fear on you, which hits your survivability. Also, you have no control over Orchalwe at all. I was fighting a group in the courtyard area, and one of the archers moved away so that he could use his bow. Unfortunately, he positioned himself right next to another group. Orchalwe decided to attack him, and, of course, aggroed that group. Similarly, in the upper reaches of the city, I was attacked by an archer and a swordsman near an area where troll pathed, but I had no way to call Orchalwe to me and avoid aggroing the troll.

After much frustration, I finally decided to leave the city for awhile. Later, I took Elahedor in for a look. It appears that the gates to the bridge are now permanently open (before, each of the control points had to be in friendly hands before the gate opened). However, there are four guards at the gate, and a Seeress paths through the group. On the other end, there are multiple trolls pathing around, along with multiple groups of 3-5 Angaram. There's no doubt in my mind that the city is not truly soloable.

To be truly solable, the city still needs some tweaks. Some of the groups should be thinned out a bit, and the pathers should be moved or made static. There's still a 18K elite MoB in Tirband (one of the leaders), and he pretty much requires a fellowship to take down. Also, the MoBs respawn quite quickly - in the courtyard, where Valtair hangs out and where you have to put a banner on a monument for Orchalwe, you literally have to fight your way in, through, and out of the area. Also, be careful to clear the first level of all three groups of Angaram and Trolls. It seems like aggroing Valtair will aggro everything in the area (either than, or Orchalwe aggroed these groups).

By the way, Siridan (another leader) is still missing in action, and his camp doesn't seem to flip back to his control. This is a known issue; a GM can spawn Siridan in his alternate camp if need be. He's in the lower level, Gwaelband.

On the positive side, leveling in the area is quite fast. I took Pentalidor from level 29.5 to 42 in just a few days. I'm not sure the devs considered Tasks in the leveling plan, so I probably leveled quite a bit faster than intended.

Overall, with the exception of Annuminas, I rather enjoyed my time in the zone.

A View From The Top

My Guardian, Pentalidor, is currently questing in Evendim, which has been revamped with the Echoes of the Dead update. As part of the revamp, an encampment and quest hub has been added at High King's Crossing, the bridge over the Brandywine and one of my favorite sights in the game.



One of the quests offered here is to climb a rope to the top of the bridge. I jumped at the chance. Here's the view from the King's Crown.


I've always loved the architecture in Evendim, and this makes me appreciate it even more.

Feeling Racy: My Week in Lotro

From Wednesday, February 9, 2011 - Wednesday, February 16, 2011....

On Wednesday, I went back to Evendim and completed the advanced Kergrim slayer deed and topped out my Zeal virtue. I then ran to Eregion to complete the hidden "Ridge-Racer" deed. Here I am staring off into the distance from the ridge.


I then joined a group running Carn Dûm, because someone wanted to get the slime for a class deed. This group continued into Thursday morning, and we ran 11 of the bosses, but then most had to drop group. We planned to rejoin the fight on Thursday evening.

Thursday, no one from the Carn Dûm group was on, so I went to the Misty Mountains to finish some slayer deeds. A group was running them, and I joined it. We completed a number of the slayer deeds there, but killing giants is a bit tiring, so we disbanded. I returned to Moria and completed the Nameless slayer deed in the Shadowed Refuge.

On Friday, I continued the slayer deeds in Shadowed Refuge. At this point, the Carn Dûm instance had reset, so I couldn't complete the last few bosses there. Instead, I ran the Sixteenth Hall for the first time.

On Saturday, I joined a group running Urugarth in Angmar (the group included several people from the Carn Dûm group). We completed the run, and I joined a raid in Helegrod. Once done there, I discovered that the level for the "Executioner of the Wicked" deed in Haudh Iarchith had been drastically reduced, so I completed it (and picked up a deed I thought I had already done). I then ran to Mirkwood to do a couple of quests there. I even managed to complete the 2.5.5 Battle of the Way of Smiths (helping a group, we tried all three, but I've completed the defense of the 21st hall, and we failed miserably at the Battle of Deep Way).

On Sunday, I began working on Book 1 of Volume 3 (I have yet to complete Volume 2). I completed through the Rescue in Nûrz Gâshu, but failed at it due to a technical mistake (called a side-instance that turned out to be a major dragon; I couldn't handle the lieutenants and that boss at the same time, and I was too tired to care).

On Monday, I logged in on my Guardian because I need to gather some ore for my other alts (I have 9 alts, 7 of which covers the spectrum of Vocations). I'm finding I love the Guardian class, so I continued on with him on Tuesday, running enough quests and slaying enough beasts to level him up to 25. At this point, he running Esteldín quests and slaying beasts in the North Downs.

Tonight, I decided to forego logging in. Seems like that is becoming a trend on Wednesday.