Isengard trailer up, due 9/27

[Modern Angel]

Yeah, I should clarify. I'll drop low level relics in leveling weapons. But I don't worry about any of the higher level stuff until cap.

[Fraeg]

well while waiting for the freeps to lvl I have farmed about 20 golds, 250ish dull stones etc. on my defiler and warg.

My r8 defiler just went from   to   , my r9 warg got some love, but at this point the defiler is a lot more interesting to play.

Not sure how many of you spend much time in the moors, but it will be interesting to see how the ROI shakeup will change things.

[Modern Angel]

A few dudes were on the forums saying the noob creeps were hilariously bad.

[Soln]

Zero knowledge about the Moors.  Played only a few times.  Seemed to be the usual PvP Min/Maxer crowd.  How are you making coin?  What's supposedly new/changed?

[March]

Logged in to check some of the class changes and was surprised to find that I have to buy content/quests from the original box.

I bought both the original box and the Moria expansion (and have subbed on/off for years)... confused as to why I need to buy quests in North Downs; feels like I am being forced to buy something I already bought.  I can well understand having to buy content for expansions that I didn't purchase... but this seems not quite right.  Oh well, back on the shelf.

[Rokal]

Well, the detail you are forgetting is that you had to pay a subscription to access North Downs (or anything else in the game) when you played before. You can still pay for a "VIP Subscription" if you want access to all of the quests, otherwise you can buy quest packs for zones individually. For what it's worth, you still have Moria access.

[Tannhauser]

You're better off not in North Downs, it hasn't been updated. Go to Lone Lands, it has been and it's great.  I wish it was easier to tell what zones I own.  I own all of Trollshaws up to Isengard but not sure about zones lower than that. 

[Modern Angel]

Lone Lands is open to everyone now, too.

[Yegolev]

I didn't know we had a PvM guy in here.  Maybe a separate thread is in order.  I can't seem to figure out how do do anything with my spider except die or follow a raid group around and then die.

[Modern Angel]

I don't really do much PvM at all, actually. It was just a topic I saw touched on as the rush of free noobs into the system made for easy pickings for Freeps even five levels lower.

[Yegolev]

Fraeg reached R8, so someone is wasting time on the moors.

[Fraeg]

A few dudes were on the forums saying the noob creeps were hilariously bad.

A lot of F2P questing for maps/etc. rank zero reavers going up against geared level 70+ Freeps who have played the moors for years.  Keep in mind that the r0 reavers have about 4 skills max.  The people bragging about killing brand spanking new to the moors r0 reavers are about on par with people who brag about hunting cows in a cow pasture. That said there are some F2P people who have paid to unlock other classes and are making an honest effort to *learn the ropes*.  PVM has not fully recovered from the ROI changes, people still gearing up their freeps, so too early to tell what long term impact the F2P reavers will have. 

Zero knowledge about the Moors.  Played only a few times.  Seemed to be the usual PvP Min/Maxer crowd.  How are you making coin?  What's supposedly new/changed?

Keep in mind the only thing you need money for in the Moors is stun/root/power/healing/fear/etc. potions.  Thats it.  Post-ROI quest turn ins give you infamy and money as well as destiny points.  The $$ drop rate on mobs was upped significantly.  The one dungeon in the moors The Delving of Fsomethingororther is a pretty standard place to farm for cash among other things.  My defiler has about 37 gold on him atm, which might be nothing for freepside play but is a lot of money for a monster player to have.  As for gameplay changes, they dropped the number of NPCs at bridges and some of the keeps.  The 900 pound gorilla in the room being that now Creep players can use Turbine Points to buy higher ranked skills.   So you literally see r0 players with r15 skills. 

However, that is counterbalenced by field promotions that you gain with each rank. With each rank a creep gains a bonus increasing your Health, Power, Damage, and Finesse.  So a r0 who spends oodles of Turbine Points to buy every single possible thing ($90ish IIRC) will have a hotbar full of snazy skills, but will still get crushed due to their lack of battlefield promotions.  The flipside to that is a mid-rank toon who really wants that certain endgame uber skill can now just go buy it. IMO too early to see how *Pay 2 Win* will shake out in the end.  I will say this, I had a stash of about 5,000 turbine points which I used to buy some skills for the warg and defiler, and then pimp out my mid ranked BA. 

I didn't know we had a PvM guy in here.  Maybe a separate thread is in order.  I can't seem to figure out how do do anything with my spider except die or follow a raid group around and then die.

My 2cp is that the spider is probably not the easiest thing to start out with.  I have a r4 spider and still really don't know what they are doing.  A high ranked spider has a lot of very cool tools at their disposal but the don't tend to be the straightforward *ugh me smash with mighty blow* type skills.  A BA or a Warg are probably the easiest classes to start out. Keep in mind (at least pre-ROI) you are cannon fodder until you rank 5 or so. 

Fraeg reached R8, so someone is wasting time on the moors.

r9 Warg, r8 Defiler  with a 26 mini, 17 warden and 7 burg.   I have the HD client installed and with everything maxed the PVE side gameplay is beautiful.  I haven't played Rift or Aeon(?), or any other newish MMOS, but LOTRO is by far the best looking I have ever played.  Toodling around on a friends lvl 50 RK looking at the epic questlines and the legendary weapons I can appreciate that they are doing some pretty cool things, and on paper skirmishes sound pretty cool.  That said it is 2011 and I am still being asked to Kill Ten Rats.  It was old on my human monk in the Qeynos Sewers however many years ago, and it is even older today (well duh  ) .  I log on my mini do a quest or three  then think *ho hum, i would rather be pvping*  /shrug

I don't know if any mmo has ever achieved *great pvp* and that is a huge can of worms to be even dancing around.  With that said, PVM in LOTRO is about the closest I have felt to what I felt in earlyish DAOC.  There is large scale combat, there is small group vs group stuff, there is 1v1 stuff... and there is you and your two buddies getting steamrolled by 24 mounted freeps all dismounting at the same time and blowing you up in seconds  .  When I feel like finding 1v1s I know the places to avoid, and the places to go looking for freeps looking for 1v1s and generally can find it. 

With all that said, I will definately be checking out Guild Wars II

hope that answered a couple questions.

[Cheddar]

That said it is 2011 and I am still being asked to Kill Ten Rats. 

One of the Isengard quests is literally titled "kill ten rats."  Goal is exactly how it sounds.

This amused me.

[Tannhauser]

I shouldn't have played the beta, now that's it's live I haven't logged in in almost a week. 

[Modern Angel]

I was surprised at just how engaging the new Epic stuff was. And I don't want to spoil it but there is some AWESOME shit in your early 70s involving Isengard. It tapers off but they sort of always do, since it's ongoing.