What is the Current State of the Game?

[Numtini]

Maybe, but I find the control very squishy as well. It's tolerable because there's so much else in the game I like, but I wouldn't consider it optimal.

[Soln]

Can I get an update from those playing currently?  Population, ease of soloing or pairing? 

I keep hearing about "problems with combat... slow" -- is that the case?  What are the things to avoid then?  Thanks.

[Tarami]

I'm playing, but on the EU realms.

Soloing is good (duoing is great I'd say), it has a few rough spots, mostly in the 30-40 range, but if you can suffer a few pugs it shouldn't be an issue. Usually plenty of alts around (since LotRO doesn't have much of a meaningful endgame.) Levelling is slow, I had 20 days /played to 50 at mid-tempo on my second character. Levelling is really the meat of the game, though.

And yes, combat is... slow. Some describe it as "fighting underwater", but personally I've come to like it, plus you get alot of neat abilities. Avoid lore-master if you can't stand slow, because they are slow in more ways than just combat. Champion and Guardian are good, packs a punch and puches a pack.

However, I could recommend one of you rolling a burglar. Conjunctions are awesome to have in a duo, plus you got good CC and then get two-man stealth (Share the Fun) around level 42.

[Arthur_Parker]

Levelling is slow, I had 20 days /played to 50 at mid-tempo on my second character. Levelling is really the meat of the game, though.

Did they nerf leveling at release or something?  Last time I played was in Beta, I made level 42 or 43 a couple of times, I don't remember it needing that much /played.

I'm considering trying the game again as I upgraded my pc recently and I remember the visuals being excellent.  I'm in the EU as well, what are the server populations like and is there a main euro forum somewhere for LOTRO?  Also did they ditch codemasters?

[Tarami]

I might have taken it slower than "mid-tempo", I really can't recall, but I wasn't in any sort of hurry. I do think my first toon was faster though, because I felt more pressed to get it to the endgame. At work, so can't check, but you might want to slash 5 days from those 20... but anyways - I think the levelling is really enjoyable so it doesn't feel very fair to assess its grindiness just from the time it takes to ding 50.

Also, if you care to wait a few weeks, you'll get the two new classes to choose from, Rune-keeper and Warden, that are coming in the first expansion.

[Yegolev]

I'm not racing to the level cap, not at all, and I'm having a great time.  It's about the story and quests and exploration for me.  I'm not in a hurry so I can't say if it is slow or not, but I think racing to the endgame is a mistake.  There's a huge amount of stuff to do if you are inclined, and more to come in the expansion.  If I wanted to race to cap, I'd play WoW or EQ2 or something else with a crappy world, quests, graphics and lore.

I'm going slow because I have been tracking down every Shire quest and knocking them out... and having fun doing it.  A great example is the Deed I have for drinking local beers, ales and wines which is complimented by quests where I help tavernmasters get things for the upcoming Brewer's Moot.  Yeah, I could spend money to simply buy the drink for the Deed, but it's more fun to do the quest, and I get XP for it.  Entirely possible that this is not for you.

Soloing is fine most of the time since XP comes from quests rather than foozle-whacking, although there are clearly-marked quests where you will want some help.

The graphics are great, in my opinion.

[Arthur_Parker]

I'm not racing to the level cap, not at all, and I'm having a great time.  It's about the story and quests and exploration for me.  I'm not in a hurry so I can't say if it is slow or not, but I think racing to the endgame is a mistake.  There's a huge amount of stuff to do if you are inclined, and more to come in the expansion.  If I wanted to race to cap, I'd play WoW or EQ2 or something else with a crappy world, quests, graphics and lore.

Yeah, I'm only talking about level speed because I fully explored the game in beta up to the 40's.  If they had nerfed leveling that would put me off because I'd be stuck for weeks seeing most of what I've already gone through.

[Tarami]

Yeah, I'm only talking about level speed because I fully explored the game in beta up to the 40's.  If they had nerfed leveling that would put me off because I'd be stuck for weeks seeing most of what I've already gone through.

No worries, it has not been nerfed. I'm probably just an inefficient leveller.

They've added Evendim (25-35) and Tal Bruinen (35-40) since release though, so there's some new content also in the -40 span. At ~40+ you got new areas in Misty Mountains, Angmar has been completely revamped (progression-wise, it's pretty good now) and there's Forochel which is a brand new 38-50 zone.

[Mrbloodworth]

I'm not racing to the level cap, not at all, and I'm having a great time.  It's about the story and quests and exploration for me.  I'm not in a hurry so I can't say if it is slow or not, but I think racing to the endgame is a mistake.  There's a huge amount of stuff to do if you are inclined, and more to come in the expansion.  If I wanted to race to cap, I'd play WoW or EQ2 or something else with a crappy world, quests, graphics and lore.

Yeah, I'm only talking about level speed because I fully explored the game in beta up to the 40's.  If they had nerfed leveling that would put me off because I'd be stuck for weeks seeing most of what I've already gone through.

There have been at least 2 zones, if not more, added since beta, offering an entirely diffrent avenue for leveling, and are well outside the main story line (the book quests).

[Soln]

Thanks.  My wife and loved the Shire -- too bad someone didn't make an all-Hobbit MMO -- so taking quests is Ok.  But I just want to make sure we don't get stuck in a kill-foozle grind and/or are ineffective for long periods. 

So if the leveling curve is flat'ish is the itematization better than launch to get help people be effective?

[Yegolev]

I haven't had any equipment trouble, not to my knowledge anyway.  I find the odd neat weapon/armor and sometimes I can use it but mostly not.  I'm happy about how I can, soon enough, craft a bow that is better than the one I have now but at the same time I'm doing alright with the one I have.  Then again I don't have the loot-peen thing in this game that I had in others.  In any case, I don't feel ineffective at all as a hunter.  I've never been in a fellowship larger than a duo, either.

I'm playing as a loremaster with my wife now; she's a champ.  I still feel pretty useful, but maybe that's because last time I played a LM it was in alpha.

[Tarami]

Itemization is fairly well balanced I think. As in most games, for meleers it's mainly about finding a large mofo of a weapon in order to be effective. There are some, as noted, really nice crafted purple stuff while levelling. For "casters", minstrel and lore-master, itemization isn't as good, but the auto-scaling of spells works well enough I've found.

Also, I think all non-DPS classes got DPS skills and updates with their class patch. Guardians got Overpower stance now, for example, which is +20% damage but no blocking. Minstrels got War-song stance, which shortens cooldowns on some DPS skills and enables a few others. Lore-masters got the lynx as a pet, which is a pretty effective AoE DPSer too.

[Mrbloodworth]

I haven't had any equipment trouble, not to my knowledge anyway.  I find the odd neat weapon/armor and sometimes I can use it but mostly not.  I'm happy about how I can, soon enough, craft a bow that is better than the one I have now but at the same time I'm doing alright with the one I have.  Then again I don't have the loot-peen thing in this game that I had in others.  In any case, I don't feel ineffective at all as a hunter.  I've never been in a fellowship larger than a duo, either.

I'm playing as a loremaster with my wife now; she's a champ.  I still feel pretty useful, but maybe that's because last time I played a LM it was in alpha.

You still in the guild?

[Yegolev]

As far as I know?

My secondary is Uluphant and I'm having a fine time bringing the wife up to speed on MOG gameplay.  She's a one-woman pickup group. Recently we went into the Chetwood at level 7 and she ran right into a named wolf and three brigands because she was reading some text on something and not seeing my fellowship chat of "hey", "run", "RUN".  I walked downstairs and said "Hey, don't do that."  "I died!"  "Uh, yep."

[Mrbloodworth]

As far as I know?

My secondary is Uluphant and I'm having a fine time bringing the wife up to speed on MOG gameplay.  She's a one-woman pickup group. Recently we went into the Chetwood at level 7 and she ran right into a named wolf and three brigands because she was reading some text on something and not seeing my fellowship chat of "hey", "run", "RUN".  I walked downstairs and said "Hey, don't do that."  "I died!"  "Uh, yep."

Yeah, this title is great for initiation of new mmoers. Good to hear your potentially still in the guild, we may be back shortly.

[Nebu]

Maybe it's not too late to give LotRO another go?

[tazelbain]

I sure won't.  Dreadful pve with even worse pvp.  No thanks.

[Nebu]

I sure won't.  Dreadful pve with even worse pvp.  No thanks.

Dreadful is a tad harsh.  I remember my reaction in beta was a hearty MEH.   I just wondered if it had improved.

[Nyght]

You do know they are redoing the combat a bit with MoM. The impression I get it will be less level based and more straight stat based.

I dont think it will change the 'underwater' feel much but the mechanics are apparently changing. I'd say wait and see. Beta reports aren't talking about this aspect much.

[Tarami]

I did a write-up on the new combat system in another thread;

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15000.msg533334#msg533334

I think it explains most of it, even if it's a bit incoherent.

[Tarami]

I sure won't.  Dreadful pve with even worse pvp.  No thanks.

Dreadful is a tad harsh.  I remember my reaction in beta was a hearty MEH.   I just wondered if it had improved.

LotRO has improved alot the past year and a half. Enough to warrant a trial visit I'd say.

[ghost]

I sure won't.  Dreadful pve with even worse pvp.  No thanks.

Dreadful is a tad harsh.  I remember my reaction in beta was a hearty MEH.   I just wondered if it had improved.

LotRO has improved alot the past year and a half. Enough to warrant a trial visit I'd say.

Well, on this recommendation I bought a lifetime membership.......

[tmp]

I dont think it will change the 'underwater' feel much but the mechanics are apparently changing. I'd say wait and see. Beta reports aren't talking about this aspect much.

This is speculation, but the 'underwater feel' might also change at least for one of the newly added classes (the rune-keeper) ... as it's purely skills-based dps/healing class with no auto-attacks that are normally insterted in the combat queue. The testers mentioned much more 'snappy' feel to it, although some mentioned it may be more universal tweaks done to all classes and/or animation system. Interesting either way.

on the speed of levelling, my 2nd fully levelled up character has something like 3 weeks /played at this point, but i'd estimate the actual levelling took maybe half of that time so ~10 days, rest was spent at level cap. And i actually spent quite a bit of time idling or on cosmetic fluff. Would say it's more beneficial to play this game casually, as the "rest xp" you gain while offline speeds up the process considerably, making each mob kill worth twice the regular xp or something similar.

[Cheddar]

Can I get an update from those playing currently?  Population, ease of soloing or pairing? 

I keep hearing about "problems with combat... slow" -- is that the case?  What are the things to avoid then?  Thanks.

Research the classes and think outside the box.  My guardian became a million times fun after I ditched the shield and went with a 2 handed weapon.

[Tarami]

Guardian with Overpower and 2H is

The only class which you want adds with. "Oh shi- wait! This means I get more parry responses. MOAR MOBS!"

[Khaldun]

So I'm wondering about this issue as well now. Moria...well, it kind of interests me just in a pure lore sense.

Where I sort of gave up on LOTRO was when I hit my low 30s and was doing Fornost. Getting even guild groups, let alone PUGs, started to be difficult because people were very spread out in their level ranges but for various reasons it seemed to us that the party levels needed to be tightly packed. Plus Fornost was an enormous borefest in terms of trash-clearing and tedium--I just remember lots of attempts where we all just decided to bag it because it was taking so long to get anywhere or accomplish anything interesting. Plus I thought monster play was an interesting idea but implemented really, really badly, and I didn't see much that made me think either of these things would change.

So has the game gotten better in this respect? If you start a new toon now, are you pretty much doomed to solo levelling for a long haul?

[Cheddar]

So I'm wondering about this issue as well now. Moria...well, it kind of interests me just in a pure lore sense.

Where I sort of gave up on LOTRO was when I hit my low 30s and was doing Fornost. Getting even guild groups, let alone PUGs, started to be difficult because people were very spread out in their level ranges but for various reasons it seemed to us that the party levels needed to be tightly packed. Plus Fornost was an enormous borefest in terms of trash-clearing and tedium--I just remember lots of attempts where we all just decided to bag it because it was taking so long to get anywhere or accomplish anything interesting. Plus I thought monster play was an interesting idea but implemented really, really badly, and I didn't see much that made me think either of these things would change.

So has the game gotten better in this respect? If you start a new toon now, are you pretty much doomed to solo levelling for a long haul?

Focusing on Fornost at level 30 is a mistake.  Its entire design is for catass people. 

If you had explored you would have found 2 other areas chock full of fun.  As far as solo - no.  I have not found any issue finding PUG's.  Normally I duo with a clan member, though.  Its nice not worrying about elite quests :)

[Khaldun]

Oh, I was all over the map at 30. I just had a bad feeling that Fornost was a sign of things to come rather than an isolated mistake. I was also really annoyed with the problems of monster play that clearly arose from a hasty last-minute design.

[Yegolev]

I don't feel like my hunter is underwater and I have plenty of buttons to press when fighting and watching my Focus bar... but I'm not really into the frantic combat right now.  The Loremaster is still blocked by the slow-ass skill cooldowns, speedwise, but I don't have too much trouble killing things.  The trouble is that I end up watching the cooldown timers.  Only level 7 with the LM, though, so I might have more to do after I get more skills.

[Tarami]

I don't feel like my hunter is underwater and I have plenty of buttons to press when fighting and watching my Focus bar... but I'm not really into the frantic combat right now.  The Loremaster is still blocked by the slow-ass skill cooldowns, speedwise, but I don't have too much trouble killing things.  The trouble is that I end up watching the cooldown timers.  Only level 7 with the LM, though, so I might have more to do after I get more skills.

LMs are funny in that sense. Solo, they're pretty slow and remain so up to 50, but in a group it's hectic as hell. Cycling and timing stuns and debuffs is actually both quite challenging and quite interesting. It's a real tide-turner class in groups.

Oh, I was all over the map at 30. I just had a bad feeling that Fornost was a sign of things to come rather than an isolated mistake. I was also really annoyed with the problems of monster play that clearly arose from a hasty last-minute design.

Although PvMP is getting love in MoM:
- General changes to Freeps and Creeps
- Zone changes

There'll be a defence buff in place for the outnumbered side, CTF-like objectives, no item wear from PvPing and lots more tweaks. I can't say exactly what's changed, because I don't PvP myself but it's there to read.

[Stormwaltz]

Oh, I was all over the map at 30. I just had a bad feeling that Fornost was a sign of things to come rather than an isolated mistake.

There are some other areas like it, but I've taken my LM to 49 skipping them all, and with Forochel I'll easily be hitting the level cap without doing even half of Angmar. Actually, the LM has only grouped a handful of times, mostly with just one other player I knew from outside the game. The only thing I feel I've missed is the epics, which can't be completed solo even if you're 18 levels over the quest (or so I discovered last time I went back to where I got stuck in the Lone Lands / Agamaur arc).

[Khaldun]

I think with Fornost--and what I heard about Angmar was what made me think this was only the beginning--what annoyed me most was just the overwhelming amount of trash even before you actually got into the instance and then more inside. It just seemed like a terrible design decision: when you've got people who want to go in your instance, make it easy for them to do that, because getting a group that can go in is hard enough.

[Cheddar]

I think with Fornost--and what I heard about Angmar was what made me think this was only the beginning--what annoyed me most was just the overwhelming amount of trash even before you actually got into the instance and then more inside. It just seemed like a terrible design decision: when you've got people who want to go in your instance, make it easy for them to do that, because getting a group that can go in is hard enough.

Ummm, it is a short run into the instance.  Also, there is a summon horn right there (at the entrance).   

[Khaldun]

I dunno, it's been a long time. I just remember a couple of guild runs where we spent a ton of time killing pointless shit before anything even remotely interesting happened.

[Soln]

Ok resubbed with MM expansion. 

Advice plz.

1) wtf to do (e.g. best deeds, how to get phat lewt, coin)

1.5) most populated server?  (brandywine?)  advice?

2) best duo class (e.g. champion/minstrel or guardian/minstrel, ? wut?)