What are you working on?

[Nebu]

Thanks for the input.  I think I'll stick with it.  I like the tank idea and enjoy using the ability sequence.  It keeps me engaged.

[tmp]

The bottom line for me is that if the game isn't fun solo, then it's not for me.  Right now, I spend more time running than doing "fun stuff".  If that doesn't change in another week, I'm out.   Shame really... the world is beautiful, the classes seem interesting, and the story is decent. 

Not sure if it will help much, but apparently they've gone over the early game zones and redid them to improve the flow to address exactly that, the "i do more running than having fun" feeling. Also tweaked the curve for mob morale and such, to increase the levelling speed at early part of the game. The changes are included in Book 7 update, scheduled to go live either in few days or couple weeks, depending which side of the world you live on.

[Nebu]

I'm fine with the rate of leveling.  What is annoying the hell out of me is that even when I plan out my quest routes to minimize running, they invariably send me all over hell for the following steps.  In a pve game, I'm not in any big hurry to level as long as I'm engaged by the world and the story.  Speeding up the levelling also has the problem that, unless you have a rich main, you often outlevel your armor at a crazy fast rate.  Hopefully that won't be a big issue.

[Ingmar]

The fellowship quests didn't start kicking our asses until Lone-Lands. It pretty much seems like we shouldn't bother with them at this point, which makes me sad (QQ), in particular because don't all the Book Whatever, Chapter Whatever quests end in a fellowship quest?

[Cheddar]

Lone Lands is more group oriented, North Downs solo oriented.  Your mileage may vary.

[Zetor]

Yeah, it's annoying how most questlines either turn into fellowship quests or start as such. I play during Euro times on a US server, and sat in LFF during my weekend playtime to try and get some of the 25 [!] fellowship quests from north downs / evendim / book 3 out of the way, but no luck. Are they changing any of this stuff with the patch, or are they sticking to newbie areas?

In other news, I ran Garth Agarwen (full run, though split over two days; most of us don't have more than an hour or two per day) during the weekend with my kinship and we learned several important things:
- Bosses really like summoning adds.
- Going with 2 minstrels and a LM specced for animal mastery (healing traits) with only an underleveled hunter and a burglar for 'pure' DPS is a bad idea.. but that's what we have, so we'll have to live with it and/or respec for future runs, I guess :p
- Having the aoe wound / disease cleansing as a LM is an absolute must (as was pointed out in this thread... we must haves it, preciouss!!), but of course I was capped at 270 tend-the-sick uses before the instance run, so no luck.
- Does anyone use fellowship maneuvers other than 6x blue during boss fights? (unless they have a decisive advantage) I found it a pain for my clothie self to move into melee range for red, especially against mobs with knockbacks, aoe melee attacks and whatnot.
- Oh god, the adds...   
- The instance was REALLY long, reminds me of Maraudon from WOW. Not a bad thing (esp since a large number of areas / bosses are skippable), just unusual after the BC/WOTLK conditioning we all went through.
All in all, it was fun, if a bit quirky, and definitely a nice break from WOW-style buttonmashing... wonder when we'll be high enough level to try Fornost. On a related note, are level 50 dungeons still 'active' after Moria, or do people skip them?


-- Z.

[Riggswolfe]

I just read about the whole dwarf-digging-up-the-balrog session play. I now have a Goal.

That's not even the coolest session play in Moria IMO.


Oh, and I finally finished book 8 last night. We had 2 hunters, 2 champs (including me), a Captain, and a Rune Keeper for the final dungeon instance. We finished it in about 15 minutes and the only death was when one of the hunters walked into some lava because she wasn't paying attention. It was great fun.

[Modern Angel]

Almost all the boss mechanics (almost, not all) boil down to some combination of chain stun and summon adds. Instance scripting is Blizzard's strong suit and Turbine's weak point. Though I found the Library pretty enjoyable so maybe that bodes well moving through Moria.

But you found out why I keep my WoW sub open: instances.

[Mrbloodworth]

Turbine's weak point.

With out getting into a debate, i have to disagree.

[Yegolev]

I'd like to thank Grimst (Bloodworth) and Issa for helping my wife and I finally finish Book 1 Ch 11 on Sunday, also apologies for the RL interruptions and the fact that my wife does not read the chat.

[Tarami]

Almost all the boss mechanics (almost, not all) boil down to some combination of chain stun and summon adds. Instance scripting is Blizzard's strong suit and Turbine's weak point. Though I found the Library pretty enjoyable so maybe that bodes well moving through Moria.

But you found out why I keep my WoW sub open: instances.

Conceptually, the new Moria instances are pretty similar to tBC instances. Short and to the point, mostly. 16th Hall is the longest at 1½ hour, most have a boss within 15 minutes from the start of the instance. I haven't played all of them, but they've felt fresh this far.

An example...

[Jherad]

Does anyone use fellowship maneuvers other than 6x blue during boss fights?

6 blue is popular on the boss fights with the group I hang with, because as you mentioned, getting in to melee range can be a pain. If you can do it though, 5 reds and 1 blue to finish also gives good power to everyone, and really speeds up the fight.

AoE wound/disease removal is *very* nice, but not required in GA. We got through it without - but now that I have it, I won't give it up for anything.

[Ard]

- Does anyone use fellowship maneuvers other than 6x blue during boss fights? (unless they have a decisive advantage) I found it a pain for my clothie self to move into melee range for red, especially against mobs with knockbacks, aoe melee attacks and whatnot.

The wheels (going around in a circle around the buttons, red-green-yellow-blue-red-green, etc) are obscenely powerful, but also extremely hard to pull off unless you're playing with people you've practiced it with.  It's just not going to happen in a pug.  I could have sworn they were about to nerf them hard in the patch today, but I can't find mention of it anywhere in the final patch notes, so maybe they didn't.

[Mrbloodworth]

I use them all the time, issa is a burgler, and she pops them off when we need them, this is while duoing, or puging.

[Soln]

Conjuncts are invaluable to learn.  For those who don't know, they are similar to EQ2's Heroic Opportunities.  Check lotro-wiki for details.  They are serious buffs/heals/DoT's in group combat.  Almost necessary on heroic bosses.

Firstly, don't worry if you miss the first one -- there's a bug that everyone has the first conjunct lag and often misses it.  Hopefully you can get an other.

Secondly, usually before the "readiness check" (a nice simple good LotRO design) we always set the conjunct in a PUG.  The leader can do this by going into their char sheet and selecting the skills tab.  There is an other tab I think for fellowship skills.  All conjuncts are listed under there in a tree widget.  Choose the one you want by the check-box, and watch as the conjuct-list appears on your screen and everyone in your group for a few second.  Toggle the checkbox as many times as you want to spam the choosen conjunct to your team.  This way you can teach the PUG what to do this way before starting.

Thirdly, you get to choose non-combat (non-red) conjuncts after I think a certain group size (3+).  As a healer, I always demand a green or a blue since I don't melee often.  Depending on your group size you can select various combinations instead of the usually "straight" (all one color).  And it helps to have everyone /say what color they will choose before battle. Simpler.

Finally, some conjucts you need to unlock.  See the lotro-wiki for details.  If you can start a conjunct, pick one you don't have and then earn it forever if it's successful.

[Mrbloodworth]

Developer Diary: Conjunctions & Raids

[Ard]

Secondly, usually before the "readiness check" (a nice simple good LotRO design) we always set the conjunct in a PUG.  The leader can do this by going into their char sheet and selecting the skills tab.  There is an other tab I think for fellowship skills.  All conjuncts are listed under there in a tree widget.  Choose the one you want by the check-box, and watch as the conjuct-list appears on your screen and everyone in your group for a few second.  Toggle the checkbox as many times as you want to spam the choosen conjunct to your team.  This way you can teach the PUG what to do this way before starting.

Oh holy crap.  I forgot they added that when I was gone.

[Ingmar]

Maybe what I should do is think about transferring (or just re-rolling) on to the server where you people all are...

[Mrbloodworth]

Maybe what I should do is think about transferring (or just re-rolling) on to the server where you people all are...

Uh, yep. 

[Valmorian]

Maybe what I should do is think about transferring (or just re-rolling) on to the server where you people all are...

Uh, yep. 

Ummm which server was that again?  I have reupped this as well..

[Mrbloodworth]

Brandywine.

[Nebu]

Yay!  Now someone might actually chat in the Kinship channel!

[Valmorian]

Brandywine.

Great!  I have a Guardian on there called Rohanir, and a Minstrel called Valmorian.  I think I tried to find a guild mentioned in this post before (Riders of Middle Earth?) but the only member I could find online had no idea what i was talking about and I didn't feel comfortable requesting to be added.

[Tarami]

Yay!  Now someone might actually chat in the Kinship channel!

And I who thought I was on everyone's ignore list

Kidding

[Mrbloodworth]

Yay!  Now someone might actually chat in the Kinship channel!

What? sometimes you can't get me to shut up...... I just don't play a lot.

[Cheddar]

If you need a kin invite look for Bapho, Arzo, or Marween tonight. 

[Sjofn]

Blargh, if we move to Brandywine, I have to think of new fucking names, because I KNOW all my hobbit names are going to be taken. Curse my need to be IN THEME. 


EDIT: Brandywine has a queue right now!

[Soln]

Blargh, if we move to Brandywine, I have to think of new fucking names, because I KNOW all my hobbit names are going to be taken. Curse my need to be IN THEME. 


EDIT: Brandywine has a queue right now!

hyphenate thy names

[squirrel]

Wow - just logged in quickly to patch and see what XP gain I got. Went from 17.5 to 20.5. Gonna cost some $$ but still cool.

[Modern Angel]

This... this is a patch. This is WoW 2.0 in breadth and depth. One of the top content additions, paid or free, in any MMO I've seen.

[Yegolev]

I expected Brandywine to have a queue after the patch.

I managed to sneak a few minutes with my RK, who went from 19 to 22.  One of my lightning runes now requires 3 red so I can't fire as rapidly as before, however my damage has risen to compensate.  I'm going to have to lern2play again and figure out some new combos, but that's cool.  My healing runes appear unchanged.

I really, really appreciate the coordinate readout.  Finding shards should be somewhat easier if I know I am in the right spot.

[Ingmar]

Man, transfers are kind of expensive. $25 per dude! Not totally sure I want to just reroll though. 

[Mrbloodworth]

This... this is a patch. This is WoW 2.0 in breadth and depth. One of the top content additions, paid or free, in any MMO I've seen.

Next one in 2.5* months, if the hold to the past pace.


*i think that's about right, 3-4 "books" a year...

[Yegolev]

Man, transfers are kind of expensive. $25 per dude! Not totally sure I want to just reroll though. 

It's an excuse to check out the New Ered Luin, also faster leveling.

[EWSpider]

Man, transfers are kind of expensive. $25 per dude! Not totally sure I want to just reroll though. 

That's my problem too.  I'd have to transfer at least 3 toons and if I transfer then my wife will need to transfer and now we're talking 3 more toons.  QQ