Well sadly Monster Play on Meneldor is going down very quickly. Back when I was active in the monster community my friends and I would participate in battles that were so overwhelmingly lopsided in favor of the creeps. We, the creeps, would have the freeps pushed back into their main base (GV) for hours upon hours at a time and seeing a keep taken by the freeps happened perhaps twice in 3 weeks. But now things are changing if not changed for good. The freeps own the keeps 90% of the time and if the creeps do, for some reason, take a keep it’s retaken within 20 minutes.
It seems the creeps are being pushed to suicide runs. Yep it’s sad I know but it’s true. Last night and again this night we were faced with creeps charging right into the middle of the freep army and just standing there letting themselves be killed. It seems to be only the “big names” doing it though because the “green circles” (or newbies) are still trying to fight. The jaded veterans have all but given up completely. But who is to blame?
In my opinion the blame rests on the shoulders of Turbine right now. Why? Simply because 2 months is too long to wait for a fix on broken gameplay. I’ve been on both sides of the fence here so I can say with certainty that the creeps are underpowered and lacking utility. Playing my Captain has made it painstakingly obvious that even at 47 out in the Ettenmoors I am more powerful than any one creep alone.  So what can Turbine do to fix the problem? Turbine needs to quickly address the underpowered aspects of the creeps. They simply need to be stronger or have more utility. Then to bring back all the veterans to the field we need to see some revolutionary changes to how the pvp game is played. There needs to be more to keep taking and more options for players. Siege weapons are on the way in the form of boiling cauldrons being pourable on attackers but that’s not enough!
Hopefully Turbine gets the message being put out on their forums. Monsters aren’t happy and that makes the Free people players unhappy. We need a happy pvp scene for LOTRO to retain a healthy portion of it’s players. Sadly what was once being advertised as a “little mini-game” is now a major focus of the “end-game”(hate that term) for LOTRO.
I’ll stick it out until Pirates of the Burning Sea but I need to see some big changes if Turbine is going to keep me longer.
You have to remember that PvP was an after thought or so it seemed to me. I followed LOTRO for years, checking the site like I’m sure you did, for every bit of information. One day the dreaded word PvP poked its ugly head and the Lore folks following the game went nuts. I think some folks just talked trash about PvP, just to see the Lore followers go insane in the forums. I know some folks were booted from the site because things were so heated. So when the term Monster Play appeared it made the Lore folks feel better. I am sure some folks purchased the game just to see what Monster Play was about. Those folks went back to playing their other game having found Monster play was lacking something. The Lore followers won out. I don’t see them fixing monster play anytime soon only because it was an after thought from the start.
Yeah 🙁 I remember it being an absolute after though from the beginning. Players, on my server at least, have made it the “end-game” though. Few guilds run Helegrod and CD/URU are done only in PUG’s. At any given prime time you’ll find 80-90% of the level 50’s all pvping.
It has me worried that pvp has become more than an afterthought to the players and will remain merely that to the devs. The patch coming in August will provide a few tweaks for monster play that SHOULD make it somewhat better. I’m just crossing me fingers.
Hmmm…
I play a Rank 1 Warg on Firefoot from time to time and its definitely disheartening to see myself chain-mezzed and simply obliterated by Freeps on a nightly basis.
I will say this though, I have had some great times in there. If you have 15 creeps vs 10 freeps, tactics can pay of and you can push them back. Warg Groups, BlackArrow squads of Rank 1+ are formidable, but still can never stand toe/toe with a freep. I understand that it is supposed to be this way, but sometimes fun must trump lore.
I would like to see more starting abilities and something done about coin for Monsters, I almost never have cash for buying food or drink. I would also think a boost in actual players would make this more fun. Something along the lines of cross server play would be great for a boost in players (ala WoW).
Also, I hate being out of contact with my Freep guild when playing as a Freep. Whats the worse I could do, call more people to come play with us?
Warg groups are the single most powerful thing in monster play. A solid warg group will turn the tide completely for the monsters and give them the edge in any battle. However that’s where the buck stops for monsters. I’d like to see more useful strategies and tactics come into play. It’s sad that right now the biggest strat is root’em and zerg’em for the Freeps and warg’em for the monsters.
Well I obviously haven’t been on lately but reading this makes me frown. I am not surprised this sort of thing is happening in the least. The longer the game is out, the more level 50’s there will be and that means the more freeps in the Ettenmoors there will be dominating the Ettenmoors.
I really hope they can do something to save themselves. If they don’t start adding things that can keep people fixed for long periods of time, large groups of people, once they’re done with all the quest, are going to just quit.
🙁
Since Beoarke has been MIA for the past 3 days (I think he might have bailed early for his vacation) I have been doing a lot of pvp. I am now almost half way to rank 5 and have been duoing with Astaldo for about 4-5 hours a day. While it’s fun it still feels lacking in some way. I do feel completely overpowered at level 48 which makes me all fuzzy inside given our previous history on the losing end… but it’s leaving me dissatisfied at the end of the day.
OH well! I am sure it will be fixed up in August. Hopefully it’s not too late.
WELL..MYSELF I HAPPEN TO LOVE THE CHALLENGE OF PVP AGAINST THE FREEPS AND SO FAR EACH NIGHT I AM ACTIVE IN PVP..WITH A GROUP..WE HAVE BEEN WINNING AND WINNING BIG! IT REALLY COMES DOWN TO TACTICS..FOR US CREEPS..TOE TO TOE? YES..U CAN..U MUST GET IN THEIR MINDS…MAKE THEM SCARED TO CHARGE..AND THEY WILL RUN IF YOU CHARGE AT THEM. DONE IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN. FREEPS CAN BE BEATEN! HELD TA AGAINST 12 FREEPS WITH ONLY 3 CREEPS AND MYSELF…LOVED IT..WAS AN AWESOME BATTLE AND EVEN BETTER OUTCOME!
THANKS FOR THE EAR…NOW PASS THE KETCUP..ELF EARS ARE DRY!