f13.net

Vol III: Allies of the King
Book 1: Oath of the Rangers

EDIT: Now with dev diary. (http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/601-oath-of-the-rangers)

More skirmishes (mostly 12-mans that are worthless to me), crafting to 65.

Vol III: Raids of the King
Book 1: So You Want To Be Popular Enough To Play Our Game

:oh_i_see:

look at the leaderboards to see how often there are 12 man Skirmish Raids.  Adding 4 new ones (?) and not changing the system to duo is a fail to me.

reforged Second Age weapons, same zones, 1 new normal skirmish for 1 new Epic Chapter and *4* new 12 main skirmish raids.  Wow disappointing.  How often do people field 12 man anythings in this game. 

very sad   :heartbreak:

Ok reading is hard

these are 4 existing skirmishes that they are just adding 12 raids to.  Wow even less new work.

This should have more of Orion's Book I solo revamp, though.

they didn't include that in the press release so I'm assuming it's not in


not really new content or anything to trumpet about.  I mean, the revamped Bree Lands quests are the same quests just moved from Adso's to Buckland mostly.  So yeah.  PreMades FTW.

Man, I want them to find their compass bearings again...

Yeah, this seems terribly thin. I'm usually pretty tolerant with Turbine's fluctuating output, but this seems like a new low. A really low low.

The email I just got says I will be able to solo all of Volume I.

I'm not really concerned, its a free update, and it adds some stuff. There is already expanded zones in game we can't reach yet, so assume its being worked on.

agreed, mostly

with the launch of Bk3 one would have thought there would have had a bit more... fanfare?  heft?

Seems all of book one now has the solo option.

^ THIS ^

It'll be worth it for that alone, but it does seem a bit light. Since I won't see Mirkwood for likely another month or two, it won't affect me.

I think they are still doing localization and tweaks for the Asia launch.

This “"Solo the entire Volume I epic story line – newly revised and re-balanced!" was sadly unnecessary if they just had better LFG tools.

I don't think more solo content helps an MMO, but I very much understand why people have wished for it.

I don't think that would have helped people like me, who've been burned by too many Greater Internet Dickwads in PUGs to want to try them ever again.

I know I have said this a lot, but I really just want to pay them to make a huge world for me and my wife to adventure in.  I can do without the Dickwads.

You're fucking kidding me.  Which LFG tool is going to quadruple the population of Trollshaws, herd all the cats to actually get a full fellowship together in less than an hour, and then turn everyone in the group into a polite, mature human being?  Is that tool going to be on its own tab?

Nothing has improved my LOTRO playing experience more in the last year than the soloification efforts.  Lone Lands is great now, and I'm looking forward to actually completing Book 4 once so I can actually see Book 5.

While I heartily agree, sidereal, I think they could put in a jump-in-from-anywhere mechanic like what you see with skirmishes.  Hopefully if they get enough positive feedback on the cheap travel, they might decide to stop using travel as a money sink in favor of ease of play.  If any game needs free travel, it's fucking Lord of the Runs.  Let my fellowship fast-travel to someplace near the leader when doing a quest, what's it going to hurt?

Agreed.  I wish they would make the whole goddamn thing soloable. 

Travel is only a money sink until level ~20 or so, after that it's just an annoying timesink. More fast horses would help zones that lack them, like MM and Trollshaws. Elrond should just pony up and buy a stable for Gloin, it's clear the tightfisted dwarf isn't going to put in one himself.

More stables, more fast horses, stop penalizing poor noobs.

This.

to be clear: I have no patience with shitty PUGs or long runs either.   I'm entirely sympathetic and no magic LFG tool will solve anything.  But I don't think making everything solo is the full answer.  It's one kind of answer.  But TBH I don't get how pushing everyone to the cap faster will help much.  And let's be honest -- it's not that great of an end game at the moment.  There's a lot more fun in some of the lower instances and zones.

regardless, looking over my kin's site, GLFF on Elendilmir and the official forums, looks like most posters aren't impressed with the news.  Objectively, it looks like a weak way to start a whole new Epic Bk.  But Turbine has surprised me well in the past, so here's hoping.

The fact that the endgame stinks is a reason, in my mind, to make the levels below cap all the more pleasant.  It is clear, though, that many people just want to level as fast as possible because of either conditioning or competition or feeling they are missing out.  Stupid levels.

I bought the lifetime long ago for LOTRO.  I have one toon at level 32 and have not felt rushed to get to "end game" at all.  I log on, do a couple of quests maybe and run around and explore some and that's good enough for me.  The end game grind is the same for all MMOs.  Basically they put you on a perpetual gear treadmill to make up for the lack of reasonably new content.  LOTR seems to be avoiding that somewhat with all the new content, but it is all high level content.  I would love to see some content added to spice up the earlier levels.  WOW suffered from this a great deal, I think.  They basically forgot everything they had done prior to level 80.  In reality, they might as well just shut those portions of the game down.  I mean, who does Stratholme for anything but disenchanting mats anymore?

Book 1 soloable is win.

Maybe I'll log back in and get out of that ice zone now.

If the end-game content "goal" gets moved by a new expansion, it's ok (better than ok) to make the no-longer-endgame content solo-friendly.