Helm's Deeper, Faster, Harder, More.

[luckton]

Looks like the fail didn't hit them that hard.  HD is launching today, patcher is updated and patching up.

[Modern Angel]

There doesn't seem to be the massive, roiling forum meltdown I was expecting. Partly because the class changes seem mostly good.

I dunno. The trees are kind of boring for the most part and the decision to make things out of your spec tree both count toward your unlocks AND cost two for one is really weird but I feel effective. Most of all, I don't have a massive screen of button bloat staring at me.

I'm positive the generalist classes like LM and Captain are feeling the pinch, since being able to do a bit of everything was kind of the focus in the original design, but a quick tour of my Warden, Hunter, Champion, and Burglar all feel good to me. Warden surprised me; I was expecting a disaster but I just soloed an Elite level Warband with no serious issues, which is precisely where I was before. I don't have any more buttons, really, than I did before, either.

So I'm digging it. I think some tweaks are in order but the system, as a whole, feels sane to me compared to the monstrosity the combat system had become.

[Nyght]

Yes, there seems to be a fair level of acceptance given the scale of the change. Not surprisingly, the old timers (like me!) seem to be the most negative.

That said, I think they have cranked up the DPS on everyone so they feel pretty powerful, at least on the landscape. While this certainly helps with the initial acceptance, it remains to be seen if (more) people will begin to complain about the challenge level on the landscape and if this stays in place longer term.

They have gated the landscape quests behind the first book of the epic, which is ok I guess. This part of the epic felt more like reading a book then playing a game to me. You run around and click on a few things and listen to speeches. It didn't feel terribly interactive. Now I am on to the expected 'help village X' phase.

I just want to add that combat was never really my thing, so I don't feel I can critique it well. I look forward to hearing other's impressions.

[Ginaz]

I rolled a new LM yesterday and while I don't know how it was before it was pretty fun and the dps seemed high.  Even my pet bear hit like a truck.  I haven't tried my 39 champ yet so I'll have to see how it is tonight. 

Combat has always been the weakest part of the game so if this makes it better and more fun, then it's worth pissing off a few long time players.  It's not like this is anywhere near what happened with swg and the nge.

[Tannhauser]

Yesterday I got the game up to date before I left for work.  When I got home I was greeted by a two hour download.    OK fine, the servers being blasted etc.  I get on and try out my Hunter.  Disappointed that it's been WoW'ed with the spec trees.  But I pick one and it seems to work well.  Too bad my cappie now has to SPEC to heal.  Thanks for nothing Turbine.  Caps and LM's seem to have been changed from a versatile support to another generic hero.  Combat's slightly better I admit.  My Hunter was owning faces.

 Oh and I'm currently 20 minutes into another patch. 

[Modern Angel]

Yeah, Captains and LMs are the ones that I think have solid standing to freak out. But it's done now.

On the plus side, I hear both have really solid DPS, so it should be a smooth run leveling one.

[Tannhauser]

Specced as Animal Master on my LM.  Got the Lesser Giant Eagle.  Completely broken.  At level 39 fighting 36-38 mobs, the eagle was two-shotting targets.  Crazy.  At least my LM was very very fragile to make up for it.  He does have a couple of skills to help him escape though.

My captain isn't quite as insane.  Specced him to be a healer.  At level 50 he's very durable and I was fighting three and four mobs with not too much trouble.  My shout lost its stun but picked up two great melee attack skills that do great damage.  The herald pets are good but still annoying. 

Turbine is still in love with cool down skills.  They have cut down their cooldowns, but again, you put a skill with a 5 minute cool down I won't use it.  You give me a melee skill that only does 10% more damage AND has a 1.5 minute cool down?  I won't use it.  With the bathtub full of skills why should I bother with it?  Sure, there are some long cool down skills that are great but I don't understand all of these skills with 1 minute or more cool downs.  Ain't nobody got time for that.

[Soln]

Did they ever improve the Instance Finder?  Is it a real LFG tool now? 

IRC you would just join and hope someone would show up.  It was a tool only useful if you already organized a group *outside* the tool.  So, GLFF and being in a kin.

[rattran]

The instance launch thing seems to work pretty well, and levelling is damn fast now. I decided to break out my ancient level 20 Minstrel, who died to flies and got abandoned. After a long evening of play, he's level 41, and that's just from doing the Epic and a few right-near-epic quests. It's fun to play a toon that has a few attacks and explodes things after playing a warden. I see why there are so many Minis now at max level.

Seems odd to rush stuff to the endgame, when all the endgame is now is scaled instances and kinda meh BigBattles.

[Nyght]

Welp, I am nearing the cap on my Huntard so I will throw a few comments up about Helms Deep...

Landscape is really well done. More varied then RoR and lots of nice little details. Also, some of it is relatively sparse on mobs, which I like because it seems more realistic to me.

The quests, while following the style of village to village progression, seem better to me then either RoI or RoR quests. There is a lot less mindless slaughter and more trivial preparation stuff (everyone is supposed to be headed out of town to HD). People that like a lot of combat will not like this I am sure. My only complaint with the quests is they are too tightly sequenced and tied to the rails. You are often required to complete all the quest in certain sequence or issues of phasing come into play and can give you headaches.

As noted here and elsewhere, leveling is fast and easy as nearly every class has a dps spec, is a bit OP, and can blow through the levels very quickly. I estimate about 20 hours of play to get to 95, the Big Battles, and the end game. Seems a bit light for a true expansion.

I find my will to level alts pretty well nonexistent. Perhaps after six years I have just seen all the quests too many times.

[Soln]

I estimate about 20 hours of play to get to 95, the Big Battles, and the end game.

Solo or with the usual GLFF crew?  My ongoing experience with LotRO is that you eventually run out of quests in an area and were stuck to skirmishes to fast level.  And while instances were great/meh, you still needed available kinnies or PUGs. 

[Nyght]

That was solo questing on the landscape.

I have no experience with leveling rates below 85 since the change.

[Draegan]

I haven't played this game in aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages.

What's the rundown on this game these days? (Assuming anyone is reading and doesn't mind helping me be lazy.)

[rattran]

Levelling is fast as shit, the landscape mobs aren't much of a threat to any class. Grinding away at Big Battles and scaled instances is the current end game. Rumor is that mobs are getting a significant DPS increase in the next patch. Playing on and off for the last few days, my minstrel is now level 68, and climbing rapidly.

[schpain]

free level 50's!

Quick everyone, fill up your spare character slots!

so fantastic, i hate 1-50.

[rattran]

Free level 50's, for 4995 Turbine Points (about 60USD)

[Ingmar]

And that's PER CHARACTER.

[rattran]

Plus, 1-50 can be done in about 12-16 hours of play. Apparently less if you skirmish/instance to 50.

[Yegolev]

I still like the early parts.

[Tannhauser]

I do too.  I'm back playing my Mini and Hunter.  Had Turbine Points accumulated so I bought The Great River quests, anxious to try that out.  My Mini is in Dunland and I'm...having a good time?  I saw Saruman!  He's a cock. 

Maybe it's because I just saw the Hobbit 2, maybe it's the  new skill revamp, maybe it's that I only quest and ignore all other game aspects, but I'm having a good time.  Same with STO, I guess I'm learning to take what the game gives and not play it if I don't like that.