Well it’s been a while since I updated you all on my LOTRO progress. For a while there I had slipped in and out of active characters and was evening considering a permanent break from the game. Then I decided to give the game one final try and I went hardcore head first into the Monster Play aspect of the game for a solid 2-3 weeks. I gained nearly rank 4 and found myself actually good at something in LOTRO for once. I earned a name for myself and I found that the strategies in Monster Play were similar to those used in Dark Age of Camelot. But then the harsh reality of being against unbalanced players and having to deal with the randomly created monsters that would pop in and trash talk (obviously made by Free People characters) just got too much to handle.
Luckily for me while Monster Playing I made two great friends. Goretruum and Arke were the only two I really became good friends with in Monster Play, so naturally we always grouped with each other for quests and such. Over time they began to share the same dissatisfaction with Monster Play and we all decided it was time to roll up characters and take them to 50 so that we could experience pvp from the other side. I made the announcement in this blog entry here that I had made a Captain and named him Graev (hehe I stole your name Graev!). Since then I haven’t really been updating you all on much of anything in LOTRO and to be honest I can’t think of why.
Graev the captain, Bartlebe(Goretruum) the Minstrel, and Beoarke(Arke) the Hunter are now on the home stretch. My character Graev has obtained level 45 as of last night and the others are right there with me at around 44-45. We have worked together over the past 25 days to quest, grind, dungeon crawl, and work together to reach our goal of PVMP in the Ettenmoors as Freeps. I am really excited that this will be my first LOTRO character to 50 and doubly excited about getting back into the pvp scene full time. The trip to 45 so far has been fairly easy but at time difficult. I’ll give a full accounting of each area we quested in and share my thoughts about the trip from 1-50 with you all when the time comes.
Right now we are parked in Angmar working on our last two questing outposts that will hopefully carry us the rest of the way. Along with questing the grind for Epic Traits is just about over. I finished up my combat res trait and the vulnerability debuff and currently just need that last darn page that is refusing to drop off the Ongburz Orcs of Ongbishuk in East Angmar.
Well that’s all for now in the world of Middle-Earth! I hope to be posting here again that I have reached 50.
How do you like LOTRO? I only have time to play one MMO, but how would you compare it to EQ2? I have always been turned off to the limited number of classes.
The classes are limited and I agree that therein lies LOTRO’s greatest weakness. People look at it and feel there isn’t enough diversity. But in keeping it small Turbine has done something very nice – they’ve balanced the classes. It’s rare to find true balance in a MMORPG. It feels like there is always some class better at something than it should be. In LOTRO you always feel there’s balance.
The game itself is really really really entertaining. It’s very casual friendly and allows for any play style to advance in the game at a fun and comfortable speed. If you want you can hit the end in 2 weeks or 4 or 20. It doesn’t matter what you do because it’s fun no matter what.
The game is still in it’s 4th month I think. Although newer still it has already released a fun raid dungeon with semi-easy-to-obtain loot. It’s not like a World of Warcraft Raid where you spend 6 hours a night every night of the week. You can spend 2-3 hours a few nights a week and finish the whole thing.
It’s really fun and really polished. Compared to EQ2 I can only say it feels different and more like a packaged experience. EQ2 seems a little more open to me where you set your own path. LOTRO has a predefined path for you because you are following the storyline. I feel like I am part of the story instead of just another face in the crowd.
Can’t go wrong giving it a try!
Here here!
/cheers