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[LOTRO]Barrovian Society returns from the dead to fulfil its oath.
lowlylowlycook
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
This thread is to tempt people into giving LOTRO a try.
The PA kinship "The Barrovian Society" is back in action. See the third post in the MMO subforum thread.
For more info and eye candy check out our main thread in the MMO subforum thread.
LOTRO is a casual friendly, solo friendly MMO. It has built in voice chat and DX10 graphics. It is set during the
LOTR books/movies so you can visit places like the Shire or Weathertop.
LOTRO is in some ways a standard MMO not so different from WoW, however their are a few things that make it different.
Some of these are:
Quests: Leveling in LOTRO is mostly done through quests, some for solo player others for groups and others set in some of the
very large instance that are in the game. In addition there are story line quests organized as "chapters" and "books". Each
large patch adds a book and indeed are named after the book they add.
Traits: Traits are the way you customize your character. They might raise your stats, make a skill more powerful, or add an
entire new ability. While you get slots for these traits opened up as you level, you have to earn the traits themselves by doing
deeds.
Deeds: Deeds are rewards for various actions in the game. Some involve doing a certain number of quests in a region. Some
involve using a skill a set number of times. Some involve killing a certain number of a type of enemy. Some you get for
crafting. As a reward you might get a Trait, or get a title that you can put after your name. You have to respect someone called
DeathBringer: Pie Eating Champion.
Hope and despair: In keeping with the books and movies LOTRO has an emphasis on hope and despair.
Get too much despair from dying, evil locations or overwhelming enemies and you start to lose moral and power. Get more
and you can't use the mini-map since it has been replaced by the lidless eye. Still more and you will be useless, cowering
in a corner. Hope can counteract these effects.
Fellowship Maneuvers: If someone in your party, called a fellowship in LOTRO, can "break through the defenses" of one of your
enemies, you get a golden opportunity to crush your foes, heal your fellowship or both. But taking advantage of that opportunity
involves coordination and timing among your fellowship.
Music: It's possible to make your own music in LOTRO. You can do this either with macros, playing live or apparently even with
your midi keyboard. Check out a video here:
Dragon Warrior Overworld Theme
Monster Play: LOTRO has a unique PvP system. While everyone's main characters are on the same side and can only duel each other,
at level 10 you unlock the ability to start a Monster Character that starts at lv 50. These can be used to fight for objectives
in special Player vs. Monster Player (PvMP) zones.
Player Housing: You can purchase houses in special, instanced neighborhoods. There are 3 sizes: Small, Large and Kinship. The
last of these are special houses for guilds to buy. All of these houses can be decorated and can be used to store items.
Classes:
Guardians are the tanks of Middle-Earth. In addition to wearing the heaviest armor and carying the biggest shields, they can
carve a whistle, which, when given to a comrade can summon them to that comrads side later. Useful if that giant shield you have
to lug around.
Champions are the melee damage specialists, dishing out death to all stupid enough to stand anywhere near them.
If necessary, they can grab a shield and do a decent job of tanking.
Captains are the masters of buffing and avoiding wipes. Eventually they can, for a short time, absorb the entire party's damage
and avoid dying in the process. They are also the secondary healers in the game.
Hunters are the ranged damage dealers. In addition to shooting things full of arrows, their knowledge of the wilds of Middle-
Earth let them move themselves and their party quickly from zone to zone.
Minstrels are the main healers. Their songs restore the morale of their friends. When this morale runs out players are forced to
retreat, so be nice to your minstrel friends. They can also sing more offensive songs that reduce their opponents morale.
Lore Masters are the main crowd control class, using their knowledge of the enemy to render opponents inoperative. They also have
the ability to do damage at range and also the ability to steal power from the enemy and pass it on to teammates. This is very
useful in longer fights.
Burglars are steathly backstabers. They can use trickery to break though the defenses of the enemy, leaving them open to
Fellowship Maneuvers. This makes them a very valuable addition to any group.
Races
Somehow these seem familiar. They must have ripped off like every fantasy RPG ever.
Human / Elf
Dwarf / Hobbit
Raids:
LOTRO doesn't have the same focus on items that WoW has and there is not ladder of raid instances to climb but it does have 2
raids so far. One for 24 players and set against a resurected dragon in the Misty Mountains. The other, against a Balrog deep
in a place called the Rift.
Pricing and free trials:
The game can be bought for $20 at most retailers but some have had luck finding promo codes to drop that to even $10. The monthly
fee is normally $15 but see below for other options.
You can get a free trial from here. However if you get a referal from someone that signed up before the game went live, you get
to share their "founder's" pricing of $10 per month. There are several people that still have such invites to pass out so ask in
our MMO subforum thread.
Joining with your fellow degenerates, I mean PAers:
First you should head over to our main thread. Most PAers play on the Landroval server and we have a private chat channel so we
can all talk regardless of the fact we are in various kinships.
Lately there has a surge of interest in the game among PAers in the MMO forum so there are a lot of new player and
old players returning. Now would be a great time to join in the fun since there are many lower level characters you
could form groups with.
This thread is to tempt people into giving LOTRO a try.
The PA kinship "The Barrovian Society" is back in action. See the third post in the MMO subforum thread.
For more info and eye candy check out our main thread in the MMO subforum thread.
LOTRO is a casual friendly, solo friendly MMO. It has built in voice chat and DX10 graphics. It is set during the
LOTR books/movies so you can visit places like the Shire or Weathertop.
LOTRO is in some ways a standard MMO not so different from WoW, however their are a few things that make it different.
Some of these are:
Quests: Leveling in LOTRO is mostly done through quests, some for solo player others for groups and others set in some of the
very large instance that are in the game. In addition there are story line quests organized as "chapters" and "books". Each
large patch adds a book and indeed are named after the book they add.
Traits: Traits are the way you customize your character. They might raise your stats, make a skill more powerful, or add an
entire new ability. While you get slots for these traits opened up as you level, you have to earn the traits themselves by doing
deeds.
Deeds: Deeds are rewards for various actions in the game. Some involve doing a certain number of quests in a region. Some
involve using a skill a set number of times. Some involve killing a certain number of a type of enemy. Some you get for
crafting. As a reward you might get a Trait, or get a title that you can put after your name. You have to respect someone called
DeathBringer: Pie Eating Champion.
Hope and despair: In keeping with the books and movies LOTRO has an emphasis on hope and despair.
Get too much despair from dying, evil locations or overwhelming enemies and you start to lose moral and power. Get more
and you can't use the mini-map since it has been replaced by the lidless eye. Still more and you will be useless, cowering
in a corner. Hope can counteract these effects.
Fellowship Maneuvers: If someone in your party, called a fellowship in LOTRO, can "break through the defenses" of one of your
enemies, you get a golden opportunity to crush your foes, heal your fellowship or both. But taking advantage of that opportunity
involves coordination and timing among your fellowship.
Music: It's possible to make your own music in LOTRO. You can do this either with macros, playing live or apparently even with
your midi keyboard. Check out a video here:
Dragon Warrior Overworld Theme
Monster Play: LOTRO has a unique PvP system. While everyone's main characters are on the same side and can only duel each other,
at level 10 you unlock the ability to start a Monster Character that starts at lv 50. These can be used to fight for objectives
in special Player vs. Monster Player (PvMP) zones.
Player Housing: You can purchase houses in special, instanced neighborhoods. There are 3 sizes: Small, Large and Kinship. The
last of these are special houses for guilds to buy. All of these houses can be decorated and can be used to store items.
Classes:
Guardians are the tanks of Middle-Earth. In addition to wearing the heaviest armor and carying the biggest shields, they can
carve a whistle, which, when given to a comrade can summon them to that comrads side later. Useful if that giant shield you have
to lug around.
Champions are the melee damage specialists, dishing out death to all stupid enough to stand anywhere near them.
If necessary, they can grab a shield and do a decent job of tanking.
Captains are the masters of buffing and avoiding wipes. Eventually they can, for a short time, absorb the entire party's damage
and avoid dying in the process. They are also the secondary healers in the game.
Hunters are the ranged damage dealers. In addition to shooting things full of arrows, their knowledge of the wilds of Middle-
Earth let them move themselves and their party quickly from zone to zone.
Minstrels are the main healers. Their songs restore the morale of their friends. When this morale runs out players are forced to
retreat, so be nice to your minstrel friends. They can also sing more offensive songs that reduce their opponents morale.
Lore Masters are the main crowd control class, using their knowledge of the enemy to render opponents inoperative. They also have
the ability to do damage at range and also the ability to steal power from the enemy and pass it on to teammates. This is very
useful in longer fights.
Burglars are steathly backstabers. They can use trickery to break though the defenses of the enemy, leaving them open to
Fellowship Maneuvers. This makes them a very valuable addition to any group.
Races
Somehow these seem familiar. They must have ripped off like every fantasy RPG ever.
Human / Elf
Dwarf / Hobbit
Raids:
LOTRO doesn't have the same focus on items that WoW has and there is not ladder of raid instances to climb but it does have 2
raids so far. One for 24 players and set against a resurected dragon in the Misty Mountains. The other, against a Balrog deep
in a place called the Rift.
Pricing and free trials:
The game can be bought for $20 at most retailers but some have had luck finding promo codes to drop that to even $10. The monthly
fee is normally $15 but see below for other options.
You can get a free trial from here. However if you get a referal from someone that signed up before the game went live, you get
to share their "founder's" pricing of $10 per month. There are several people that still have such invites to pass out so ask in
our MMO subforum thread.
Joining with your fellow degenerates, I mean PAers:
First you should head over to our main thread. Most PAers play on the Landroval server and we have a private chat channel so we
can all talk regardless of the fact we are in various kinships.
Lately there has a surge of interest in the game among PAers in the MMO forum so there are a lot of new player and
old players returning. Now would be a great time to join in the fun since there are many lower level characters you
could form groups with.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
lowlylowlycook on
0
Posts
I think I've tried the free trial about 3 times and played about 2 hours each time only to then be bored and quit. What would you say is the most exciting race/class to play at the start to get me hooked?
Also what about crafting?
I thought LOTRO was good. I would get back into LOTRO as I am currently in a MMO mood, but unfortunately I just re-up'd my WoW account. I had totally forgotten about LOTRO, if I had remembered it I would have signed up for that.
This thread is 4 days to late for me.
Personally I'd say Champions are good for just beating things to death. You can control what you want to do next more that Captains and Guardians which are more reactive. If you want to get into combat then it is easiest to not roll a Hobbit since the shire is not exactly a dangerous area.
As for crafting and such there is much more info on things like that in the MMO subforum post.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Guardians are fun. Sure, I'm a tank class, but I still do fairly decent damage. More than enough to solo plenty of stuff if my leveling buddy isn't online.
Images come to me from a possible future!
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
1. The limited class / race combinations.
I know we can't all be Gandalf and Aragorn, but I have little desire to grind my way through 50 levels as a "Lore-Master" or a "Minstrel". Honestly I don't really remember either of these classes playing any role in the books, so I have no idea why they are so much more in line with lore than just letting everyone be wizards and priests. I remember a throwaway line about "minor loremasters" at some point. Where is the Minstrel in the fellowship?
I've played support classes before, LoTROs just seem particularly lame. It also makes me cry a little that I can't be evil, but I'm willing to deal with that (and PvMP doesn't count).
I'm playing a Dwarf Guardian, and I kind of like him, but it's more that I think the other classes are lame than I really wanted to play yet another tank.
2. The craptastic interface.
I'm spoiled and I want my auctioneer and some sort of decent map. The map system in LoTRO is worse than pretty much anything else on the market. I read a dev post somewhere that said that auctioneer was basically impossible in the current interface, so hopefully they come up with something on their end.
/end rant
There's also no real end game, but I figure that's primarily due to the age of the game. They have to give people something to do at 50 or they'll never keep subscriptions up.
It's a fun game, and the quests are really story driven for the most part, which is cool. I'd at least play the trial.
Check out my band, click the banner.
It had a lot of potential though.
Yeah but if i buy the digital download? Because i dont think the box is 20 dollars in store. Infact i saw it not long ago in EBgames for 40 and contemplated picking it up, but i dont want to spend that much.
Check out my band, click the banner.
This is such a hilarious statement for those of us that recognize exactly what WoW cloned from earlier generations. :P WoW may be the biggest kid on the block, but it's not really anything new. Unless "WoW clone" means being friendly for casual players.
Personally, I find LotRO incredibly refreshing after having played WoW for three years and suffering from horrible raid burnout and the same shit all over again each week.
LotRO is the first MMO where I've gone "oh hey, what's over that hill?" and just explored the environment. Can't really do that in WoW without being mauled by wildlife.
Lots of people raid and do PvPM now, since there are a lot more lv 50 characters to team up with.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
For example, Good races could be:
Man of Gondor
Man of Rohan
Dunedain (Numenorean, like Aragorn)
Half-Elf (like Elrond)
Elf of Mirkwood
Elf of Lothlorien
Hobbit
Dwarf
maybe Ent
Evil Races:
Troll
Half-Orc (Like Saruman's)
Orc (Like Sauron's)
Easterling
Haradrim
As far as classes, there simply could have been more options, or they could have been innovative and not gone with the traditional class system.
The developers of this game must be dumb bastards.
And what would really differentiate a dozen different breeds of Man? Starting attributes? That wouldn't really matter much 50 levels later.
Um, actually a lot of those good races are in the game. When you pick to be a human, you have to select which kind of human you want to be, whether of Gondor or Rohan etc. Same for the elves, you pick elf, and then select whether you want to be an elf of mirkwood, lothlorien, etc. Hobbits and dwarves are in the game, and those you can specialize too, depending on which mountain you want to be from as a dwarf or where you want to be from as a Hobbit. So, in that respect the game has more good race options than youve asked for. It all changes the look and color options for your character e.g. if you pick a human from rohan, you have a lot more blond hair color choices.
No, you cant be an Ent, but did you seriously expect to be?
As for evil races, it was a wise decision to exclude. IF they were in the game, there'd have to be pvp. IF there was more pvp, it would have to be balanced...constantly. Instead they can focus on increasing the fun of pve. The point here is to not become WoW.
Course, I learned all this through the beta, so some things may have changed and can be commented on by regular players.
Actually I agree a bit about the classes. Not so much that it should be skilled based or have 50 classes to try to balance or whatever. Just that I miss the suburb flexibility of my Druid.
One problem is LOTR races were not designed with gaming in mind. Elves are more dexterous, smarter, harder to kill, and live longer than humans. Likewise with Noldo over wood elves, Numenorean over normal humans.
Also you can play as an Orc, a Spider or a Warg. There is also something called ranger vs. troll play but I don't even know what that is. I presume you can play as a troll though.
The real point is that not all MMOs are for every type of player. If you want PvP and especially Realm vs. Realm fights to be the focus of your gameplay, then by all means wait for Warhammer online. There is a whole thread devoted to that wait here.
Not having to worry about PvP balance to worry about makes Turbines job of making the PvE work right easier. There are trade offs to everything.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I think he means that he wants to be able to bring in info from outside websites about how much an item "normally" goes for. LOTRO doesn't really allow those kind of mods.
Also one of my biggest pet peeves is the huge instances like Fornost or Angmar in which you don't get a map. You are stuck with the map of the whole region. Of course some places that you do get a map are not much better. I'm looking at you Goblin Town.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I take it you never played Asheron's Call. In terms of exploration, LOTRO has nothing on AC. Though LOTRO's deed system is a nice way to give incentive to explore, and would have been glorious in AC or if they would make a real AC sequel that AC2 wasn't.
As far as LOTRO goes, I'd play it if my computer could play anything right now. Stupid dead video card, I need to build a new PC at this point. I've even got a copy of LOTRO sitting here that I won at Turbine's booth at PAX(And was one winner too late to win a GeForce 8800...) but it will have to wait, though I had considered just waiting till the first inevitable expansion and picking that up.
It's been a long time for me but I'm 99% sure this is the way it works. Also head in to our main, MMO subforum thread thread and ask about getting a discount on the game or getting a discount on the monthly fee.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
The game looked fantastic, but the actual gameplay was not exciting at all. It was awesome to stroll around with a huge grizzly bear while shooting fireballs at the undead, but it was not nearly as awesome as I hoped it could be. It was slow, rather unresponsive and I never got the feeling that *I* was setting skeletons on fire.
tangent on the believability of Loremasters in Middle-Earth:
Yeah, I was kinda spoiling it because I don't think many people care about this stuff. :P
THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINEâ„¢: MINES OF MORIAâ„¢ UNVEILED AT CONNECT 08
Volume II of the 2007 PC Game of the Year Expected to Arrive at Retail This Fall
BIRMINGHAM, UK - March 14, 2008 - Turbine, Inc. and Codemasters Online today unveiled Volume II of The Lord of the Rings OnlineTM, the first retail expansion for the award-winning massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG). Announced in Birmingham, the childhood home of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings OnlineTM: Mines of MoriaTM will expand the online world of Middle-earth to let players explore the ancient underground cities of the dwarves, battle epic characters in the depths, face off with the Watcher, be a part of the fateful release of Durin's Bane and more! The Lord of the Rings Online expects to open Volume II of its epic story in the fall of 2008 with an increased level cap, two new classes and the introduction of a unique item advancement system.
"The Mines of Moria is one of the most epic settings in all of fantasy fiction," said Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. "No one delivers more quality content than Turbine and with our journey into Moria, we will raise the bar even higher. We are adding vast amounts of content, debuting massive new environments and unveiling numerous unique feature sets, like item advancement, which will create entirely new dimensions of compelling game play and social interaction which are unique to The Lord of the Rings Online experience."
NEW FEATURES:
* Speak Friend, and Enter - Moria, called Khazad-dûm by the dwarves, was their capital and the grandest of cities. This enormous underground cavern in north-western Middle-earth, comprises an immense network of tunnels, chambers, mines and huge halls that run beneath and ultimately through the Misty Mountains. For the first time, players of The Lord of the Rings Online will enter this ancient city which has served as the foundation for the modern-day dungeon-crawling adventures to battle the hordes of goblins and the Nameless of the Deep and journey through hundreds of new quests within six new kinds of stunning environments.
* The Epic Continues! - The Mines of Moria represents the beginning of Volume II of The Lord of the Rings Online. Players can experience six new books as part of this update and participate in the release of Durin's Bane, battle the Watcher, aid Galadriel and more!
* Increased Level Cap - Players will be able advance their characters up to level 60, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests. The crafting system will also expand, giving players the ability to craft even more powerful items.
* Discover Two New Classes - The Rune-keeper and the Warden, the first new classes to be introduced since the launch of the game, allow players to build exciting and powerful new characters in The Lord of the Rings Online in diverse new ways.
* Forge Legendary Items - The Mines of Moria will introduce Turbine's new item advancement system to The Lord of the Rings Online. Players will be able to forge weapons and class-related equipment and evolve them to build a legacy the likes of Bilbo's Sting and Gandalf's Glamdring. These legendary weapons will level-up along with the player, allowing customization by advancing the item's virtues, adding runic legacies, modifying its titles and forming fables.
To celebrate this exciting news, Turbine and Codemasters also announced today that they will kick off a major promotion that invites everyone to unlock the Mines of Moria by visiting http://www.unlocktheminesofmoria.com. Visitors can learn more about Mines of Moria and play special mini-games that will be periodically released over the coming months. Certain players who participate can complete special deeds through game play and other means to unlock exclusive previews, assets and special in-game items that may help them when they delve into Mines of Moria this fall. The Unlock the Mines of Moria promotion is scheduled to begin at the end of this month.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
For those reading this thread and still on the fence, LOTRO is a slower paced, more deliberate and story-based MMO than WoW. As a 3 year WoW vet, I was taken by it completely. So completely that I shelled out the money for a lifetime subscription so I could play at my own pace. I recommend it wholeheartedly to players who:
- value story and atmosphere
- enjoy solo play
- revel in exploration
- are fans of the books (note: not just the movies)
As previously mentioned, it differs from WoW in:
- it is NOT a raiding game
- it is not as complicated mechanic-wise
- it does not rely on equipment to the same degree (many crafted items are far more powerful than drops)
- PVP is drastically different
As someone who spent three years in WoW and never made it past level 51, LOTRO is perfect for me. Deeds allow for progression in between levels (more frequent dings!) and I don't need to set aside 2-3 hours to make it through some of the primary areas in the game - instances are shorter, often tied directly to the story, and usually have scripted events that drive the narrative. It's worth trying out to see if you like it, and you can't beat the pricing if you take a couple moments to get a founder to help you.
Likewise. I just canceled my WoW account after three years due to massive raid burnout.
This game is just so charming. I mean, grow your own blueberries and make blueberry muffins out of them?
Right now I'm playing on EU servers with a buddy, but I'm still considering getting on the US servers to play with you Yankistanis.
What EU server do you play on Echo?
It's things like that that really make the game shine. I still keep WoW active, but my LOTRO:WoW playtime ratio is probably 4:1. One of my defining moments from the game was waiting outside the Forsaken Inn to get a fellowship together to retake Weathertop (a great instance, btw). While waiting for the crew to get together, a few folks started playing instruments together while the rest of us just /smoke. The mood and atmosphere is palpable.
The one real negative I can think of for LOTRO is that I never got into the combat and that can be important. You never get a sense of really damaging your opponent, there is no “Omph” to where you hit them, even when using skills it all felt like I wasn't really doing anything different than a normal attack. This is one aspect of the game that does need to be improved.
One of my kinmates gave me pipeweed in which the smoke takes the shape of a boat. It's awesome.
Eldar. I'm either Karzim the guardian, Haldemar the captain or Shaila the minstrel.
Last night I completed a series of quests that culminated in me trying to run on top of a fence in the Shire and jump from fencepost to fencepost while drunk, all because some Hobbit wanted me to honor his forefather, who brewed great beer. When I was done, I got a keg that goes in my house, that I can drink beer from. Drink too much from this Hobbit beer-keg and you pass out and wake up in an entirely different part of Middle-Earth, with no idea how you got there.
Forgot to mention that I did so while dressed a pirate.