Book 7: Leaves of Lórien will go live in North America on Tuesday March 17!

[Morfiend]

They also said that while some levels you would need more total exp to level than before, but they have adjusted the quest exp for those level ranges, so even though you need more, it should still be faster to level.

[sidereal]

Whoa, wtf was up with that old 41-42 jump?  That must have sucked.

[Yegolev]

That chart needs more notation or I'm just bad at reading them.  It gives the wrong impression.

Whoa, wtf was up with that old 41-42 jump?  That must have sucked.

I have always wondered how these things get put into games in the first place.  Post-EQ, that is.

The important thing is that my weaver should no longer be a gimp.  I'll test this out soon, I hope.  Earning DP before Moria was still not easy for me, though, so probably I suck a lot.

[Mrbloodworth]

Whoa, wtf was up with that old 41-42 jump?  That must have sucked.

Yep, and i just did that the other day.

[Soln]

good impressions:
*went from end of 46 to 48 and 3 bulbs
*got owned by oranges shortly after dinging -- new self-rez works! 
*unhappy to find some zones (Misty Mtns) now green and grey to me, but so be it.  Angmar now solo'able
*mobs do seem easier -- was wringing my hands about making this too WoW:tBC
*didn't try new lowbie quests.  Some wags claiming it's just "MOAR BOAR" but whatever
*people like Lorien -- matches lore, like the pace/approach.  Seems a big setup for more complicated Gondor rep someone was claiming.
*graphics seem better somehow, load times are faster

Things that make me sad:

1) new crafting quests only available in Moria.  Doesn't make sense, or they mislead us -- never said this would be only 50+ I thought.  I figured it would be like the Crafting Consignment NPC's, which you can access at any Level/CraftingTier. Sad.

2) the fucking UI.  Jesus H Schild Christ.

They nearly tripled the size of the Vitals windows for your toon and Opponents.  The argument was so you can now see better all the buffs and de-buffs.  Unfortunately, this is unsizable in height.  You can only globally resize a window in LotRO, so to shrink something it gets tinytinytinytiny... 

The UI as a healer in this game is really getting me down.  And this is a stupid change.  Yeah, it means changing my setup so the game is still playable, but that's not a good excuse.  As a healer it really sucks to have fixed windows for anything.  With Tanking or DPS you can always hotkey and /follow to a mob or other player, but as a healer you necessarily have to jump around in-game and in the UI. And fat-finger syndrom creates more risk than point and click.

Other than that, things are good.

[Jamiko]

Whoa, wtf was up with that old 41-42 jump?  That must have sucked.

I was kind of "stuck" at 40. Logged in to get bumped to 42. Don't think I don't enjoy the boost over that wall.

[Mrbloodworth]

Things that make me sad:

1) new crafting quests only available in Moria.  Doesn't make sense, or they mislead us -- never said this would be only 50+ I thought.  I figured it would be like the Crafting Consignment NPC's, which you can access at any Level/CraftingTier. Sad.

They did, rumors of it being added to lover levels abound. And the UI stuff i still do not understand, but we have has this conversation.

[Jamiko]

1) new crafting quests only available in Moria.  Doesn't make sense, or they mislead us -- never said this would be only 50+ I thought.  I figured it would be like the Crafting Consignment NPC's, which you can access at any Level/CraftingTier. Sad.

They mentioned it in the developer diary

and in the comments after:

Q: The first thing I though of was why so high level? Although I'm sure there were lots of things taken into acount. It would be nice to have these for the various tradeskill levels.

A: It would definitely have been nice to hit all the tiers with these - but I only had 4 weeks, not 24.  Perhaps for a future update.

[Soln]

They did, rumors of it being added to lover levels abound. And the UI stuff i still do not understand, but we have has this conversation.

yup -- play a healer as a main and it will become apparent IMO.  Otherwise, agreed -- it's just personal taste.

[Ingmar]

My understanding with the crafting quests was it was done to alleviate the farming pressure on high level mats. For low levels there doesn't seem to be any shortage of nodes to harvest.

[Arthur_Parker]

*people like Lorien -- matches lore, like the pace/approach.  Seems a big setup for more complicated Gondor rep someone was claiming.

Is there a rough time-line for what expansions they have planned?  I take it they are eventually going to end up in Mordor?  I keep meaning to start playing this again.

[Riggswolfe]

*people like Lorien -- matches lore, like the pace/approach.  Seems a big setup for more complicated Gondor rep someone was claiming.

Is there a rough time-line for what expansions they have planned?  I take it they are eventually going to end up in Mordor?  I keep meaning to start playing this again.

Look at it this way. The game is roughly two years old and has now finished the Fellowship of the Rings. So, if it keeps up at this pace, expect Mordor sometime in 2012-2013.

[Soln]

with The Hobbit movies coming soon'ish the forum speculation is that likely they will have Mirkwood and the Lonely Mtn area up way before Gondor/Mordor.  People seem to think/wish that Rohan will be the next expansion with mounted combat.  No idear.

[Yegolev]

Next expansion needs the UI revamp.  Enough people are bitching about it, and now minis will yell louder, according to Soln's comment.  Me, previous game was EVE and before that WoW before the first year ended, so I'm not what you would call up-to-date on a modern UI.  I do, however, remember the WoW UI was much more customizable even back then.

Other than that, I'm not terribly concerned about what regions are implemented next.  I'd like crafting "fixed" but I seem to be in the minority here.

[Stormwaltz]

Is there a rough time-line for what expansions they have planned?  I take it they are eventually going to end up in Mordor?  I keep meaning to start playing this again.

Here's a player estimate.

There is a new "Ambient light" slider now.

I saw that, but mine's set in the "off" position, and it's still brighter in Moria. I played with it a bit, and it seems to work like a worldbuilding/admin command we had in AC1 - it makes all surfaces equally "luminous" (i.e. unaffected by the "actual" ambient light). Shadowing and fogging appear unaffected.

[Arthur_Parker]

That estimate is very interesting.

linky

Update: Joystiq picked up this post and added a good additional point I forgot about: Warner Bros. is a major equity holder in Turbine, developer of "Lord of the Rings Online,"  and published the most recent expansion "Mines of Moria." That means it has the "LOTR" console and MMO videogame rights all wrapped up internally. How precious.

Any news on this LOTRO coming to a console rumour?

[Stormwaltz]

Any news on this LOTRO coming to a console rumour?

I think this is the most information available. I'd qualify it as still rumor.

[Soln]

So post-patch it seems the Minstrel is still not an easy and thus quick solo'able class, which is fine I guess.  /shrug   

However, a PUG group through Fornost last night, with the quick take-down of 3 bosses and trash, did demonstrate that groups in this game rock long, hard and deep. I have never seen the kind of power unique classes can bring to group combat in an MMO like this.  Honestly.

A full squad with a Minstrel (heals), 2 x Captains (group buffs), Champion (DPS), Loremaster (CC, minor heals), and a Rune Keeper (DPS or Heals) just tore through 3 bosses and the rest of the content.  While the content was grey to me (bosses were green) the rest of the group were at the suggested levels or -1 or -2 below.  The net affect of our buffs to the group and heals was extraordinary.  This patch increased some of the Minstrel's buffs power and duration, but it must have for others as well.  Usually in WoW or EQ2 you would see one tank and the rest of the team supporting, and likewise for anything like heals -- everything is exclusive.  With the ability of the Cpt or the Champ tanking or the RK nuking or healing it was amazing the overlap.  We still could've wiped, and we did have 2-3 individual deaths.  But 2-3 deaths over nearly 2 hrs of play is pretty damn good. 

/boggle   

So yeah.  My guild did the Rift (Balrog) last night and was similarly happy. 

[Mrbloodworth]

So yeah.  My guild did the Rift (Balrog) last night and was similarly happy. 

Pics?

[Tannhauser]

So post-patch it seems the Minstrel is still not an easy and thus quick solo'able class, which is fine I guess.  /shrug   

No, it's still a bit of a challenge to solo as a Minstrel.  That's what I did last night.  But the godawful suck is gone, my ballads fire quickly and with three AoE's the second mob is 2/3 down when I finish the first one.  Having a hard time finding groups in Moria (Arkenstone); maybe everyone has done Forgotten Treasury and all now at the lvl 60 instances.

Moria is challenging PvE for a solo Minstrel but it's an improvement.

[Tarami]

So post-patch it seems the Minstrel is still not an easy and thus quick solo'able class, which is fine I guess.  /shrug   

However, a PUG group through Fornost last night, with the quick take-down of 3 bosses and trash, did demonstrate that groups in this game rock long, hard and deep. I have never seen the kind of power unique classes can bring to group combat in an MMO like this.  Honestly.

A full squad with a Minstrel (heals), 2 x Captains (group buffs), Champion (DPS), Loremaster (CC, minor heals), and a Rune Keeper (DPS or Heals) just tore through 3 bosses and the rest of the content.  While the content was grey to me (bosses were green) the rest of the group were at the suggested levels or -1 or -2 below.  The net affect of our buffs to the group and heals was extraordinary.  This patch increased some of the Minstrel's buffs power and duration, but it must have for others as well.  Usually in WoW or EQ2 you would see one tank and the rest of the team supporting, and likewise for anything like heals -- everything is exclusive.  With the ability of the Cpt or the Champ tanking or the RK nuking or healing it was amazing the overlap.  We still could've wiped, and we did have 2-3 individual deaths.  But 2-3 deaths over nearly 2 hrs of play is pretty damn good. 

/boggle   

So yeah.  My guild did the Rift (Balrog) last night and was similarly happy. 

I think the extensive hybridness of LotRO's classes is what I find so appealing about them. Everyone has something specific to do, but when shit really hits the fan, it's not up to that one member, typically the healer or the tank, of the group to fix it - it's really up to everyone to launch every bit of healing/aggro dropping/debuffing or whatever that they have. Everyone can do something to help out.