LotRO Free Weekend, March 26-31

[Yegolev]

Yeah, I know I'm late but... whatever.

To help celebrate our latest free update for LOTRO we'd like to welcome back all of our former subscribers for an extended weekend of free gameplay from March 26-31, 2009. In addition, there is a +25% bonus experience boost on mob kills* for everyone playing on those days!
...
* The bonus XP stacks with rest XP as well!

Some of you have been on the fence about resubbing.  This will be a painless way to see if they fixed what drove you out (note: the UI hasn't been fixed).  Also you get to do Spring Festival stuff, like the new hedge maze north of Bree.  Most of the f13 kids are on Brandywine, but check the LotRO forum in the Graveyard for a semicurrent roster and other antics.

[Phred]

Yeah, I know I'm late but... whatever.

To help celebrate our latest free update for LOTRO we'd like to welcome back all of our former subscribers for an extended weekend of free gameplay from March 26-31, 2009. In addition, there is a +25% bonus experience boost on mob kills* for everyone playing on those days!
...
* The bonus XP stacks with rest XP as well!

Iirc the mob kill exp in LOTR was pretty pathetic, even with a rested bonus. Does +25% really make a noticable difference?

[Tarami]

Iirc the mob kill exp in LOTR was pretty pathetic, even with a rested bonus. Does +25% really make a noticable difference?

I would say 30-40% of every level comes from kill XP. It's not the primary source, but it's not insignificant.

Look at it this way; You get a quarter of every level rested for free.

[tmp]

Iirc the mob kill exp in LOTR was pretty pathetic, even with a rested bonus. Does +25% really make a noticable difference?

At medium level the xp reward from completing a quest is equal to xp gained from killing just 9-10 mobs of equal level (with the rest bonus)  So killing mobs can be quite viable way to level actually, even more so with changes to the mob hp which made them die relatively faster.

[Phred]

Iirc the mob kill exp in LOTR was pretty pathetic, even with a rested bonus. Does +25% really make a noticable difference?

At medium level the xp reward from completing a quest is equal to xp gained from killing just 9-10 mobs of equal level (with the rest bonus)  So killing mobs can be quite viable way to level actually, even more so with changes to the mob hp which made them die relatively faster.

That's pleasant to hear. I remember leveling my guardian on rested exp grinding mobs from 48-50 after I'd run out of quests I could solo and it was horribly painful even with rested.

[Tarami]

That's pleasant to hear. I remember leveling my guardian on rested exp grinding mobs from 48-50 after I'd run out of quests I could solo and it was horribly painful even with rested.

40 - 50 is so fucking packed with quests nowadays it's ridiculous. Angmar was revamped with more (and better) quests and Eregion and Forochel are spanking new zones targeted at exactly those levels. You'll hit 50 with a full quest log if you go around vacuuming the quests. Oh, and there are new quests up to 40, of course.

[Phred]

That's pleasant to hear. I remember leveling my guardian on rested exp grinding mobs from 48-50 after I'd run out of quests I could solo and it was horribly painful even with rested.

40 - 50 is so fucking packed with quests nowadays it's ridiculous. Angmar was revamped with more (and better) quests and Eregion and Forochel are spanking new zones targeted at exactly those levels. You'll hit 50 with a full quest log if you go around vacuuming the quests. Oh, and there are new quests up to 40, of course.

Did they fix the orcs that dropped huge cash in Angmar too finally? I guess they had converted them from signature mobs to regular but forgot to fix their drop tables and each one dropped a huge amount of silver (I want to say a gold each but I really don't remember all that well)

[Tannhauser]

If not, my Captain needs to get over there.

[Tarami]

Yeah, they fixed nerfed Burzum Pushdug and Nan Gurth. No soup for you.

[Phred]

Yeah, they fixed nerfed Burzum Pushdug and Nan Gurth. No soup for you.

Good thing. On the server I was on it was already wall to wall  gold farmers there and I hit 50 quite early after release.

[Yegolev]

Well, Phred, they just revamped the elf and dwarf starting areas and quest lines (New Player Experience, they call it), so you could always roll up a new character if you don't want to jump right into Moria and the legendary weapon stuff.  They reduced total XP required to reach 60, so you will possibly be lv51-52 when you get your next XP gain.  If it was me, I'd start a new one.

[tazelbain]

Between the new quest way points UI and the new xp curve, this playing was a more pleasant than in January. I just might actually sub after I am done with Rune Factory Frontier.  This is quite the stess test for their servers.

[Yegolev]

This is quite the stess test for their servers.

Yeah, it is getting harder for me to ask people to play with us on Brandywine when it's the one with the queue problem.  It's good to have a decent population but crappy when you have to wait 15-20 minutes during peak.

[Signe]

I want to play on Brandywine but the queues are discouraging for someone like me who has the attention span of a gnat.

[Yegolev]

The problem you have is that we are requiring you to play with us.

[Soln]

queues no better post DC move yesterday?  Still had a wait on Elendilmir but everything in-game was fine.

[rattran]

There was a 5 minute queue at midnight last night on Brandywine. Not too bad.

[Yegolev]

I did not think they were moving the LotRO servers since there was no outage for it.

[Reg]

They left the free play thing going an extra day but now seem to have cleverly decided to deactivate all of the old accounts just as they took the account servers down so that anyone wanting to resubscribe wouldn't be able to. Not that this should be interpreted as criticism mind you. I'm sure they had an incredibly good reason for it.

[Modern Angel]

They left the free play thing going an extra day but now seem to have cleverly decided to deactivate all of the old accounts just as they took the account servers down so that anyone wanting to resubscribe wouldn't be able to. Not that this should be interpreted as criticism mind you. I'm sure they had an incredibly good reason for it.

Haha, you're cute. You're really fucking sore that you got shouted down for criticizing something over in the LOTRO forums and now you're going all passive-aggressive. Go outside, fatty.

[tazelbain]

They what?  Why the fuck would you have a free weekend and not let people resub?

[Modern Angel]

They fucked up their servers royally. They've been a little clownshoes the past week or so with this sort of thing.

[Mrbloodworth]

They what?  Why the fuck would you have a free weekend and not let people resub?

Link...

[Tarami]

To be honest, they're testing even my patience.

[Reg]

Passive aggressive? I was shooting for sarcasm but whatever works...

[Mrbloodworth]

We're pleased to announce that Welcome Back Weekend for former subscribers has been extended through Monday, April 6th! This includes the +25% bonus experience on mob kills for everyone. Have fun this weekend!

[tazelbain]

The stress test continues!