Shamus Plays: LOTRO, Part 23

[StriderShinryu]

Yes, Sara is hated by pretty much everyone who has ever played LOTRO.. and for very good reason.

As I've said before though, thankfully as the game progresses they use escort quests far less often and in many cases the escorts themselves are actually dumb but reasonably powerful/useful allies.

 

[ThySensFan]

Awesome as usual! Keep it up! To be honest, in three years of playing I've never actually done this quest. I've heard of it a lot but its the first time I actually see Sara there. That's what happens when you constantly roll Hobbit alts

 

[Hellgato]

Ha! Sara Oakheart Yes you will notice some weird things about her he he he.

 

[Vitor Goncalves]

And I thought world of warcraft quest chains were lame and ridiculouly. Escort quests are definitely the worse. You can get two types of clients. The one like Sara, taking ages just to move one foot, so slow that in many cases you get the same mobs respawning before you move away enough. And the second type, the leroy type, where your client keeps rushing despite you already having aggro ten groups and makes you fail the quest over and over and over.

 

[Vitor Goncalves]

Yeah, there are far more than three escort quests in WoW, JT. People just tend not to DO them because they're escort quests.

I mean hell, you didn't even list probably the most notorious WoW escort quests, those involving the mecha-chicken developed out of Booty Bay. The turtle you have to walk from one end of Tanaris to the other isn't particularly fun, either. It'd probably be a safe estimate to say there's an escort quest in at least one of every five enemy camp type areas you find, if you look for it. They're thankfully easy to overlook/ignore, though, most of the time.

I don't recall this particular escort quest being all that difficult, really, either on my warden, champion or burglar, but those are all close combat classes. I can see how a minstrel might have a hard time with it (unless you can heal Sara?). Her GA escort could be a serious pain, though (if I hadn't been doing it at 65...>.>).

Jailbreak, the old alliance onyxia attunement, that escort quest would make me want to rape rabbits and eat them alive afterwards. Long and not only the bugger decides to get out the longest way you can imagine, but keeps rushing and aggroing everything around. I tried it like 1 million times.

So far there are according to WoWwiki 73 escort quests. That makes Blizzard far more sadistic then Turbine. There should be an achievement, escorting All-star, and the reward could be a walking stick.

 

[lluewhyn]

Well, I haven't figured out the Ered Luin or GA quests yet, but in the main quests in which you escort her, she is actively thwarting you. In this bandit quest, she is basically distracting you from interfering with Amdir. Later, in Fornost, she encourages you to rescue a bunch of elves who all run to their deaths at the hands of orcs which spawn behind you.

From the game standpoint, all of these quests are to introduce you to this character so her face/heel* turn later will be more memorable.


*Spoiler*
I guess that gives her a face/heel/face turn?

 

[lluewhyn]

And yet part of me wants to praise whatever evil genius at Turbine thought her up. Making a nemesis that the players actually come to truly hate is not an easy task.

Yeah, but the part where she(or Mordirith) ALWAYS gets to someplace just *right* before you do gets old.

 

[vivadelkitty]

Ah...good old Amarthiel. I loved the end of Book XIV.

 

[Billion Backs]

See, at least in World of Warcraft, escort quests are far and few. Not counting the Caverns of Time instances (which following the the escort model number two), I've found three: one that involves a troll [http://www.wowhead.com/quest=2742] that tells you a secret [http://www.wowhead.com/quest=2782], a tauren that does something unheard of in escort quest (RUNS!) [http://www.wowhead.com/quest=9752] and a priest who heals you and [http://www.wowhead.com/quest=13481] who will smite enemies while escorting you! [http://www.wowhead.com/quest=13482]

Nah, there are actually quite a few escort quests in WoW. I remember plenty of them, everywhere.

And they were generally as bad as most escort quests go... Slow escortee, who attracts plenty of aggro from anyone around and has paper-thing armor and health of a bed-ridden cancer patient.

More on topic, I've played LOTRO back when it just came out, and I don't remember this escort quest being all that annoying. It was incredibly easy, at least back then. Although, yeah, the granny's pretty slow. But at least she doesn't get killed too fast.

I guess I just have a lot of patience in MMOs because I usually listen to music or educational podcasts while playing so it doesn't bother me if I waste a couple of minutes doing essentially nothing.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Don't you just love that? When Escort quest NPCs run off after being guided simply so they can respawn in the same area for the next idiot to pick them up and walk them through the same path. It makes sense sometimes, but why do they all need to walk at a snail's pace? I've escorted Goblins, Dwarfs, Gnomes, Tauren, Humans and even Trolls, but they never think it would be a good idea to run to the exit?

 

[Eviljesse]

I hated the the one in the barrows. The one where the NPC is going on and on about her "prince" and she just can't leave without her cape. Also, she can't remember where the exit is even though she is standing on top of a hill and you can see for miles around. She also walks at a complete snails pace untill near the end when she sprints stright into 3 wights that spawn from thin air just to eat her face off. I found her far more annoying than Sara, but thus far my only encounter with her was in the bandit cave.

 

[maxben]

See, at least in World of Warcraft, escort quests are far and few. Not counting the Caverns of Time instances (which following the the escort model number two), I've found three: one that involves a troll [http://www.wowhead.com/quest=2742] that tells you a secret [http://www.wowhead.com/quest=2782], a tauren that does something unheard of in escort quest (RUNS!) [http://www.wowhead.com/quest=9752] and a priest who heals you and [http://www.wowhead.com/quest=13481] who will smite enemies while escorting you! [http://www.wowhead.com/quest=13482]

There are actually like 70-73 escort quests in WoW of variable retardness.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Category:Escort_quests

 

[nondescript]

I'm surprised no one mentioned how very rude it was to let you walk all the way into the bowels of a bandit cave AND THEN TURN THEM ALL HOSTILE ON YOU. What's the deal? "This is our new recruit. Give her the 'special' hazing ritual."

 

[Berithil]

Just wait for the escort quest in book 9. It will earn her your internal wrath

Wait, really? That's one of the easiest quests in the game. You just stand way back and let her do everything. Hell, getting to the quest to start it is more difficult than the quest itself.

I was just kidding. I know it's incredibly easy. Although I was slightly irritated after all those times I helped her, she just goes through the instance without any help.

 

[likalaruku]

I liked the conversation on page 4 the most. XD

I hate ambush escort quests....

 

[Wumpus]

The made up back and forth between Lulzy and Skunkwood is the best dialogue exchange I've seen you write. Absolutely hilarious.

 

[lluewhyn]

I hated the the one in the barrows. The one where the NPC is going on and on about her "prince" and she just can't leave without her cape. Also, she can't remember where the exit is even though she is standing on top of a hill and you can see for miles around. She also walks at a complete snails pace untill near the end when she sprints stright into 3 wights that spawn from thin air just to eat her face off. I found her far more annoying than Sara, but thus far my only encounter with her was in the bandit cave.

That is the Lalia questline. Most people don't even bother with it anymore because the rewards are good, but the quest is annoying. Sara Oakheart quests are frustrating for different reasons, but one of them is the fact that you are supposed to "protect" her. It should be impossible for her to be defeated, and they should have set the questline up so she just tagged along, and you never even have to deal with her morale.

 

[RvLeshrac]

I hated the the one in the barrows. The one where the NPC is going on and on about her "prince" and she just can't leave without her cape. Also, she can't remember where the exit is even though she is standing on top of a hill and you can see for miles around. She also walks at a complete snails pace untill near the end when she sprints stright into 3 wights that spawn from thin air just to eat her face off. I found her far more annoying than Sara, but thus far my only encounter with her was in the bandit cave.

That is the Lalia questline. Most people don't even bother with it anymore because the rewards are good, but the quest is annoying. Sara Oakheart quests are frustrating for different reasons, but one of them is the fact that you are supposed to "protect" her. It should be impossible for her to be defeated, and they should have set the questline up so she just tagged along, and you never even have to deal with her morale.

My Warden just solo'd Lalia, and finished three other quests at the same time.

----

In other news, Escort targets move slowly to give them (and you) a chance to recover between fights. Assuming you're doing them on-level, when they're more challenging.

 

[duchaked]

ook it's decided. I'm totally gonna play as a Ranger. I mean, human...hunter lol