Shamus Plays: LOTRO, Part 20
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
Great to hear you're enjoying the gameEviljesse said:
I really can't speak for Silverlode, but it is one of the less populated servers. Brandywine is the most populated, and seems to be regarded as a pretty social place though I've never played on it. Elendilmir and Landroval come next, with Elendilmir seeming to favour Euro and Asiatic players and Landroval being the unofficial RP server.
I play on Landroval and find the server fairly social given being in the right place. The Breeland and Bree zone chats are almost always lively (or will be if someone starts up a conversation). The Shire almost always has people talking as well. Moria's pretty lively too. Also due to the RP orientation of the server, most players do seem to respond if you talk to them, /wave, etc. (particularly in The Shire or near the Prancing Pony in Bree).
i enjoyed the read shamus. Tried to figure out how many in my head you have to do of these to complete the game. I stopeed counting at bergillion. Still it was good to read and i will read through all the others at some point (this being my first).
I have played LOTRO myself for the trial period OC and am amazed you have managed to make these sections last so long. I can't really remember but i was well in to the Bree quests by the time my 14 day free trial ran out.
Might even have to start playing this game again thanks to you!
I have played LOTRO myself for the trial period OC and am amazed you have managed to make these sections last so long. I can't really remember but i was well in to the Bree quests by the time my 14 day free trial ran out.
Might even have to start playing this game again thanks to you!
Later on(level 50+), it seems insane how much people are willing to pay you to do the most trivial things. At level 5, people were paying you 90 copper to risk your life, and at the higher levels they'll pay you 30 silver to deliver a message to a person on the other side of the town, of not closer.LordVyreth said:
Really not sure what on earth you're talking about there Lewis. I'm a founder since Beta, and the only changes they've made to instances is the moderately recent change to make all of the volume one epic line soloable if you choose to do so. Oh, and a revamp of the Lone-Lands, changing Garth Agarwen into a cluster of 3-man instances, instead of one large 6-man instance.lewiswhitling said:
Each epic book has always had one or two group instnaces in it, from the get go, usually towards teh end of each book. Up until rivendell, you could usually scrape by without a group, if you were careful, but but Legolas' pavilion of pain was so called because it was the first one that you really couldn't solo at all... that was marked at about 40 or so, I think.
They've sinced added in an inspiration system, that counts how many people you are taking into a group instnace, and distributes a scaling buff to you based on that. If you take siz, the instnace is unchanged, and jsut as it's always been. If you're on your own, you'll be buffed up to be able to handle things, probably. if you've got three people, the buff you get will be proportionally weaker, so that the instance remains a challenge.
the greater majority of the complaints coming from people about how stupidly overpowere dthe inspiration buff is are experiencing that becuase they're going back to do quests they'd let pass, now, when they're already grossly over-levelled... Sure, you may not be able to solo a level 40 group quest with your level 60 character, but if that level 60 gets a buff that multiplies your stats, intended fo a level 40, then they're going to be stupidly godly, compared to the instance.
For the msot part, if you choose to go it solo, and at level, it'll still be a fair challenge, and some classes still struggle in certain circumstances.
In the Later Game, moria and the like, grouping becomes more important, actually... but only if you're intending to go down the raiding line anyway. If you ahve no intention of grouping or raiding, you're not going to feel overtly like you're missing out, becuase all the group and raid content is tucked away moderately neatly, and not rammed down your throat. The quests are there, and they introduce you to the instnaces, and lay out your goals, but they're nested, such that, if you've no intention of doing the group instnaces, there is just one quest per instance cluster that you leave alone, and the rest won't clutter up your screen.
If you want to raid, generally, you'll need to group first, to get some of the things you need for the raid instances, and the instances you'll be grouping in will get you familiar with a few of the simpler mechanics and tricks that you might find in the bigger raids, so it actually all flows together really well.
The focus of late has been on 3-man instnaces, rather than 6-man, and the late mirkwood instances are all designed for 3. The 12-man raid does need you to at least duck into them a few times, though.
If you don't want to group or raid, thre's still a great deal of content to be covered, and the game as a whole remains dramatically solo-friendly, while still catering to a suitable extent to the raid crowd. To date, only ten kinships across all LotRO worlds have actually completed the challenge mode of the level 65 raid... it's still challenging.
The other bone of contention is that, currentlhy, the raid gear has a "Raid-Only" stat on it; this is the measured stat which determines whether you'll be able to function decently in the raid, and for the latest raid, the bar has been raised further... what this means, howeve,r is that raid gear has to have more of that stat on it, which is not actually a contributing stat tot he palyer at all, so much as a counter-actative to allow you to function without decreased skill effect... Gear, in generaly though, has strictures which determine how much stat value can be placed on any one item of any one grade, thus, the more radiance heavy a piece of equipment gets, the weaker its other stats are forced to become.
This means that the raid gear is the absolutely most superior gear _For Raids Only_, and those who don't raid at all aren't going to feel like they're being blown away by something unobtainable and better; it's only better in raid circumstancs... outide of raids, the best crafted sets are equatable, if not better overall.
tl;dr: Game is very friendly to all and any play styles, and has only become moreso over time.
ah.. sorry i was obviously mistaken. I asked a friend why he had stopped playing LOTR and he answered that it was as a result of recent changes made to the dungeon system. I must've mis remembered what he said about the changes specifically.Harla said:
What i meant by "missing out on content" was that in games like WoW, the later game becomes more and more tailored to grouping with other people. I.e. you can get so far soloing, but to have a complete experience of the game you should probably band together with others. I was asking if this would be an issue for him when he came up against content that required groups.StriderShinryu said:
Ah, I see.lewiswhitling said:
Yes, just as in WoW the basic "end game" does revolve around tackling several group based instances. You can not do these solo. There is a variety of solo things you can do at end game outside of these instances such as gaining reputation in various faction groups, building up your Legendary weapon, crafting, etc. but there are no but that's about it. One thing of note is that the group instances are basically outside of the story, and outside of a few moments you can experience the entire Epic story solo so your friend won't miss anything there.
You meat a Hobbit with a quest, stupidity ensues. You meet a ranger with a quest, stupidity ensues.
