What is the Current State of the Game?

[UnwashedMasses]

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?)

For what it's worth...

1.)  Run quests, particularly the epic (book) quests.  Gear is good for the most part, and the quests are actually pretty entertaining for an MMO.  Don't spend money on anything except repairs, a horse, and extended bank space.  I honestly never grinded for experience.  Group quests are fun, but a good PUG is hard to find.  The best deed is probably Valour for the morale benefit.  Always a slayer deed (kill xxx foozles).  After that it depends heavily on class and what stats you want to boost.  You will likely be pushing morale/vitality/might or morale/power/will.  Do the exploration deeds as they are usually easy.

1.5)  Not sure.  I play on Silverlode, activity is adequate, not great.

2.)  I would guess Champ/Minstrel.  I have seen a Champ/LM duo work pretty well.  Guard/Minstrel will never die, but no damage equals painfully long fights.  I enjoy my Burglar character solo, but not sure how effective it would be 2-man.

The current state of the game is quiet.  Moria should restore some activity, but for how long?  Still enjoying it, though.  Turbine's free content additions have been pretty impressive.

[Bandit]

1) Valour/Justice are usually the first to be recommended.  Crafting itself is a bit of a money-sink itself.  It is much more profitable to be an explorer and sell the resources (ore/wood/skins). My explorer was making 10 times the amount of cash than my crafters, and was much better outfitted. Obviously, a diligent auctioneer will make quite a bit more cash than one who sells all to vendors.

2) I always understood that Brandywine was the most active server, but I was on Silverlode (50 Captain) as well.

3) Best duo? Good question - all the classes are pretty solid in LoTRO.  The new classes might alter my decision, but I would agree with champ/minstrel.  Although just from reading Warden/Runekeeper or Champ/Runekeeper might now be the most efficient.

[Jamiko]

I'm on Landroval, it is plenty busy. For a duo, I'd go with hunter/minstrel (I know nothing about the new classes yet). I prefer hunter because of all the instant travel options. Huge time saver in my opinion.

[Yegolev]

I'm on Brandywine with Cheddar.  The population suits me fine, I'm sick of places like the EC Tunnel and The Barrens.  You can find a crowd in Bree-town if you want but I can get some nice quiet time outside the city.  I'm pretty casual in that I don't go looking for the best X or most efficient Y, I just do the quests, deeds and explore.  Only craft when I feel like it.

I'm enjoying the hunter, good solo and duo.  Recently started a guardian and it's nice to be able to take on things that con higher than me.

[Soln]

Cool.  I always thought Brandywine had the most pop.  Is is a West coast or East coast server?

[Cheddar]

Cool.  I always thought Brandywine had the most pop.  Is is a West coast or East coast server?

Dunno.  I tend to play late in the evening (around midnight) or early in the day and there are always plenty of people around.  LotRO definitely has a better playerbase then WoW. 

[Nevermore]

Is there no more free trial?  I was thinking about taking a look-see over the holidays now that the game has been out for a while, but I don't see anything about a trial on the LotRO official page.

[Riggswolfe]

I'm going to play again as soon as they let me resub. I had a founder's account and I can't resub because it tells me there is "
no price plan". From the forums it seems that since I was on that 9.99 pricing and lost it when I canceled their pricing plan database is confused. Customer service should be able to fix it for me. Eventually.

[Soln]

same thing happened to me, twice, both accounts.  Two separate days.  You get a "40001" error right?  CS has to manually enter you.  You can get the $9.99 only if you resub for 3 months. 

I was pissed they don't have PDT times for support.  Have to call by 5pm or nothing.  That's crazy for a net company.

[Riggswolfe]

same thing happened to me, twice, both accounts.  Two separate days.  You get a "40001" error right?  CS has to manually enter you.  You can get the $9.99 only if you resub for 3 months. 

I was pissed they don't have PDT times for support.  Have to call by 5pm or nothing.  That's crazy for a net company.

I'm actually going to do the lifetime I think when the time comes.

Edit: Well. I got through to CS. They gave me one month at $9.99. I see the charge at my bank. But my account says pending cancellation. *sigh* I'm going to call them again and see what's up with that. I've never had to work this hard to give a company money before!

[sigil]

did the lifetime when I was flush with cash. Allows me to have my MMO fix without shelling out for something different. or dealing with resubbing.

[Nebu]

Would one of you returning to the game give a quick reaction summary?  I'd love to hear your reactions to gameplay after being away for a bit.  I'm considering givign LotRO another try, but am hesitant since I had such a luke warm reaction to it in beta. 

In the meantime, I'm playing CoH.... again.

[Arthur_Parker]

Someone already posted this?

Mines of Moria Preview: Awesome Sauce
The expansion to Lord of the Rings Online was worth the wait.
By Sanya Weathers

[Tarami]

I don't think so... but I came here to post a small disclaimer, as it had bugged me before I had played it.

Don't trust the screenshots. Eregion and Moria look nothing like them. In the screens you only see the detail clipping and get annoyed about low-res textures in the distance, but in movement, it's beautiful. Holy hell, it's beautiful. I'm finding spots around Eregion where I just want pop a tent in to move in permanently. It doesn't look only spectacular, like high fantasy often does, it looks convincing. The pointy wizard's hat goes off to the world team at Turbine.

I'm now off to try, at measly level 51, to pay my respects to the last king of Khazad-dûm.

I'm such a nerd. 

[Stormwaltz]

You're not the only nerd.

And I've taken something like 400 screenshots of LotRO since I started playing, trying to capture the feel of being inside it. A few of the best are here.

[Riggswolfe]

Ok. I finally got my account setup. Sheesh. They had to reactivate it twice because apparently it was cancelled twice. Same with my wife's account. Don't ask me how.

My main was only level 40 when I stopped. I'm starting to remember why, I had hit a wall of fellowship quests and was having trouble completing them. I explored a little and joined a crafting guild and looked at cosmetics and stuff. I'm guessing they added more content at around my level for soloers. I just need to find it!

[Mrbloodworth]

Is there no more free trial?  I was thinking about taking a look-see over the holidays now that the game has been out for a while, but I don't see anything about a trial on the LotRO official page.

There may not be while they make it work with the Expansion. Expect it soon however.

[Mrbloodworth]

Ok. I finally got my account setup. Sheesh. They had to reactivate it twice because apparently it was cancelled twice. Same with my wife's account. Don't ask me how.

My main was only level 40 when I stopped. I'm starting to remember why, I had hit a wall of fellowship quests and was having trouble completing them. I explored a little and joined a crafting guild and looked at cosmetics and stuff. I'm guessing they added more content at around my level for soloers. I just need to find it!

Goto the brandywine server.

[Tarami]

Ok. I finally got my account setup. Sheesh. They had to reactivate it twice because apparently it was cancelled twice. Same with my wife's account. Don't ask me how.

My main was only level 40 when I stopped. I'm starting to remember why, I had hit a wall of fellowship quests and was having trouble completing them. I explored a little and joined a crafting guild and looked at cosmetics and stuff. I'm guessing they added more content at around my level for soloers. I just need to find it!

Forochel

[Reg]

Is there anything new and fun for non-level 50s to do?

[Tarami]

Evendim (25-35), Forochel (40+), Tal Bruinen (35+) are new zones, you got quite a bit of fluff like housing and the cosmetic system and if you got Moria, there are also crafting guilds which you can join. Ettenmoors have been rebalanced and reshaped in Moria aswell, so you can always pick up a L60 monster character (without needing Moria I believe). With Moria, you also got two new classes to play, Rune-keeper, which uses a kind of balancing system to DPS and heal, and Warden, single-target DPS/tank which got a combo system for combat.

Fun? I don't know, if you liked the game enough the first go, it hasn't gone to a bad place since, quite the opposite. More soloable and better quest lines.

[Mrbloodworth]

Is there anything new and fun for non-level 50s to do?

2 new classes, many zones have been revamped. MvP also got tweaked.

[Soln]

Would one of you returning to the game give a quick reaction summary?  I'd love to hear your reactions to gameplay after being away for a bit.  

*combat seems faster, to me at least.  Not WoW fast but sufficient
*warden is pure luv.  Solo'd the lvl6 elite in the starting area at lvl4.
*graphics changes -- not sure, but small tweaks by myself and Turbine's changes have made the experience run very well
*quests still great -- funny how they are so memorable, while I couldn't say anything I did in BC zones like Nagrand
*UI changes impressive -- ability to move all UI controls is great, and the changes to the paperdoll and various char info I think is terrific (e.g. different outfits, quest log is better than WoW mod I depended on)
*story book instance progression is still a great way to move people through the world
*housing -- better than DAoC's, not quite SWG (static plots)
*mounts -- haven't got one yet, but all there
*auction -- I made 2 gold in 1 night selling off crafting resources -- amazing, when you remember that silver is the base currency

I'm not in a fellowship yet so can't comment on those controls.  But yeah I'm glad so far I resubbed.

Only complaint:

* no view into servers -- which are East/West coast, populations.  May have to move eventually, but TBD (I'm on Elendimir)

[Nebu]

That's all very promising feedback.  Thanks for taking the time.

Could anyone suggest a few duo combinations that might be worthwhile?  I enjoy playing healers, so the traditional healer/tank may be one option but I'm open to two hybrids as well.  I'm thinking about giving the game a try with an old friend and we want to complete as much of the content as a duo as possible.  If you have any suggestions of crafting, that would be a plus as well.

[Mrbloodworth]

That's all very promising feedback.  Thanks for taking the time.

Could anyone suggest a few duo combinations that might be worthwhile?  I enjoy playing healers, so the traditional healer/tank may be one option but I'm open to two hybrids as well.  I'm thinking about giving the game a try with an old friend and we want to complete as much of the content as a duo as possible.  If you have any suggestions of crafting, that would be a plus as well.

Me and my lady do a Hunter and Burgler combo, works out well. Hunter for all the swift traveling for people like me who are casual. Loremaster is my other class, hes somewhat of a jack of all trades. Healing (limited!), DOT, DPS, and buffs. For a more traditional set up, mistrial and tank. Hunter and loremaster are a good combo also.

Also do not forget, Brandywine server.


I still say the quest log/tracker in this game is the best ever created for a game.

[Ard]

And here I resubscribe yet again, Turbine, why can't I quit you!

[Soln]

Someone already posted this?

Mines of Moria Preview: Awesome Sauce
The expansion to Lord of the Rings Online was worth the wait.
By Sanya Weathers

it is a giant Costco-sized bottle of awesome sauce.

 

[Yegolev]

Duoing... I recently got my wife into this since she cannot get The Sims 2 to run anymore, and she has really taken to it despite the MOG learning curve.  We initially went with Champion/Loremaster, which worked well enough as long as she (Champ) didn't do anything too crazy and I avoided drawing aggro.  I didn't like the LM so much.  These days we seem to be duoing mostly as a pair of hunters and we are doing fine.  I have a guardian that I leveled from zero to nine in about four hours which I like a lot but I haven't paired up yet.

The thing about crafting is that you need to cooperate with other players or your own alts if you want to get the most out of it.  Alternatively, you can just pick something that suits your needs.  My hunter is a woodworker/forester/farmer, so I can use forester/woodworker to make clubs and bows for my own use, and pass staves to my loremaster.  Farming is stupid.  The sets of crafting disciplines you have to take are terribly artificial, and while I can see why they did it that way, I don't much care for it.

I have a lot of love for the Quest interface.

Brandywine.

[Soln]

That's all very promising feedback.  Thanks for taking the time.

Could anyone suggest a few duo combinations that might be worthwhile?  I enjoy playing healers, so the traditional healer/tank may be one option but I'm open to two hybrids as well.  I'm thinking about giving the game a try with an old friend and we want to complete as much of the content as a duo as possible.  If you have any suggestions of crafting, that would be a plus as well.

My wife and I are playing a Guard (her) / Minstrel (me) duo.  Given I thought the Minstrel was a typical cloth wearing healbot but instead has range, buff, dps it's going well.  We just want to level up, but the Rune also has heals and terrific dps so it may be an alternative down the road.  Let us know.

[Tarami]

Agreed, the quest log is awesome and it got even awesomer for Moria. Now it stores any gossip text regarding a quest too. :)

And yes, it runs very, very well considering the level of graphics. It makes WAR look pathetic when it's churning out as large crowds with twice the polygon count. I had 50 or 60 people around me on a Geforce 7800GT and it didn't drop below 15 FPS.

Are you planning on getting Moria with the resub? It's $30 I think for the digital upgrade. Then I could suggest a Rune-keeper as the "healer" of the duo, it will double as healer and DPSer depending on what affinity you have at the moment. Otherwise I could recommend a burglar, it's cool having conjuctions as a duo (go green and you got the healing you need), plus you got pretty good CC. It's definitely an underrated class.

For the tank a champion would suffice, but I find guardians much, much more fun, even as solo toons. It just feels like their attacks have more oomph.

One of you should go tinker (prospector, jeweller, cook), the other might wanna go historian (scholary, weaponsmith, farmer). That way you complement eachother neatly, the tinker farms hard metals for the weaponsmith who in turn can farm for the cook.

[tmp]

Could anyone suggest a few duo combinations that might be worthwhile?  I enjoy playing healers, so the traditional healer/tank may be one option but I'm open to two hybrids as well.  I'm thinking about giving the game a try with an old friend and we want to complete as much of the content as a duo as possible.

Captains make very decent jack of all trades as support character -- they can heal fairly well especially if they pick traits towards that, step in and tank in a pinch, give very nice buffs to their party, can do some damage, come with optional pet, and when all else fails can rezz dead people while in combat. You could probably pair them either with another captain or more dps-oriented character like champion. Or with guardian/warden if you want to keep it more safe.

Replacing captain in such pair with 'traditional' minstrel can work well too, as minstrels have option to switch on their damage mode when healing isn't high priority.

For fun there's also options of running as two burglars -- burglars are very survivable characters (though maybe less so with the expansion combat changes) and the ability to open fellowship maneuvers give them really nice synnergy, where two burglars can pull off together quite more than they could individually.. and individually they already can pull off awful lot.

[Nebu]

Thanks for all the input, especially the crafting tips.  I think Rune/Guard may be the way to go and yes, I'm likely to grab the expansion as well.  The fact that the game has crafting, housing, and mounts will likely break me from CoH, at least for a month or two.  

In the event I'm ever to find a guild to group with, would these classes be useful to larger parties or are they pretty abundant?  Suggestions for duo partners that are also useful in larger parties would be great as well.

[Tarami]

RKs might be a bit overpopulated (it's new after all) but if you bring a guardian you will almost always be in demand, and the RK DPS'es well enough not to be in the way.

[Mrbloodworth]

Thanks for all the input, especially the crafting tips.  I think Rune/Guard may be the way to go and yes, I'm likely to grab the expansion as well.  The fact that the game has crafting, housing, and mounts will likely break me from CoH, at least for a month or two.  

In the event I'm ever to find a guild to group with, would these classes be useful to larger parties or are they pretty abundant?  Suggestions for duo partners that are also useful in larger parties would be great as well.

Brandywine server. We have some f13 members already in a guild.

[Bandit]

Brandywine server. We have some f13 members already in a guild.

What is the level ranges of F13ers now? anyone at 50+?