Author: Ravious

To be clear, I hate the name of this post, but it kind of wrote itself.  Can’t argue with that.  The new lair raid for Volume 2, Book 7 is unlocked on many, if not all, the servers now in Lord of the Rings Online, and the gate crashed open the wrong way, on many accounts.

First, the design.  I think that the monster turtle in Filikul was supposed to be designed as a kind of tank-swap.  The raid boss, Nornuan, hits with an unremovable DoT on the player it is attacking.  The trick is to not let this DoT stack because every time it does it does more damage over time and the duration refreshes.  By having multiple tanks the DoT will not get to the point where the damage cannot be healed through.  There is also a “time limit” DoT that the raid boss applies to all the players.  This latter also-unremovable DoT keeps stacking until it cannot be outhealed and the raid wipes.  It seems like an okay base design, but the raid is basically a DPS fest.  A raid full of hunters and champions, with maybe a token healer, is all that is needed.  Without massive DPS, the party will just wipe from the “time limit” DoT.

Second, the bugs.  The loot from this raid is pretty nice.  There are First Age weapons, radiance gear coins, and a pretty nice trophy.  If working, the short raid can be done once per week.  The raid lock was not working properly, and the raid went on ultra-farm mode with people burning through the turtle every 5-10 minutes.  Saturday night became the night of First Age fun.  Turbine locked the raid on Sunday pending a bug fix.

Finally, is the sinking feeling that this raid was hurriedly designed and not really tested.  The classes that were less desired, are still less desired, and the current “gods” of Middle Earth, the hunters, the champions. and now the runekeepers, are all the more desired in group play.  It is very unfortunate that Turbine is going this direction for their high-level dungeons.  All the tricks and shticks of the utility classes are being ignored, and even the holy trinity has had two of its corners sanded down.  Lore-masters, I feel your pain.

–Ravious
cowabunga

Last night I spent most of my time in Caras Galadhon, the city center of Lothlorien in Lord of the Rings Online. The city is built on huge flets, which are basically large platforms built above the ground on white trees that put the Redwoods to shame. There are two ways to get up the flets: a spiral staircase following the trunk of the three or ladders that port players up. Once on a flet there are no railings, no invisible walls, no last minute Prince of Persia ledge grabs between you and the ground far below. During my time played last night, I am pretty comfortable in saying that I had never spent a larger percentage of time being wounded from falling injuries.

Continue reading City of Falling Injuries

Book 7 is now out for Lord of the Rings Online, and word is that the content is… well, not what we are used to. Lothlorien is a haven. Some of the most powerful elves reside there, and even with orcs spilling out of Moria, it would have been hard for Turbine to justify orcs roaming through much of the golden woods. And, I am okay with that.

The quests in Lothlorien are therefore puff-pieces. The quests are about the lore of the woods, and the history of the elves. For that reason, the gameplay is going to be largely fed-ex. People that burn through quests, find the glowy object, find the package delivery, etc. are going to enjoy the update a lot less.

Lothlorien’s region, for better or worse, is a “relaxing” place. The region was not made for the hardcore that blow through all of Book 7 by this weekend. Still, the update does lack proper balance. It was originally planned that Book 7 was going to have a more 3-mans, a 6-man dungeon, and a 12-man 6 boss dungeon raid ala Rift, but they were pushed back until Book 8. So now the relaxing content of Lothlorien is only offset by the new 12-man lair raid and the Battle of Lorien instances… both of which, I believe, are currently locked pending player quests.

I am excited about exploring the new content, and I still have plenty to do in Moria. Yet, I can’t help but believe that between now and Book 8 active players are going to drop off a bit. We might get luck and Book 8 might be sooner than we think.

–Ravious
legend became myth

I had a chance to talk with Jeffrey Steefel, the executive producer for Lord of the Rings Online, and I decided that it would be great to discuss some of the lore aspects of the MMO.  Since I had recently completed most of the Mines of Moria quests, I figured talking about the lore of the black pit would be a good way to go.

Continue reading Interview with Turbine’s Jeffrey Steefel

I seem to be getting a lot of money in Lord of the Rings Online lately.  I think it is mostly that I have few things to spend it on, and between slayer deeds, black dye profiteering, and hard mode runs, I am racking it in more than ever.  Which leads me to the ultimate buyable (not auctionable) item in Moria… the Nimble Redhorn-Goat.

This caprine pile of fur and pockets weighs in at a decent 6 gold and some change.  For many players this is a drop in the bucket.  For casual players, like me, this will take most everything.  But, this is not the issue because the money will come back and the elves in Lothlorien abhor cash in order to use twig and berries to barter.

The problem is I can’t use my horse in Moria (decrees Tolkien), but I can use a goat in Moria and under the sky.  If it were merely an unlockable skill, which Zubon discussed earlier, there would be no discussion.  But, with a bag full of status potions, legendary items, traveling rations, maps, hope tokens, and random crafting materials, it feels like it is a decision.

I suppose I have plenty of options.  Hoof it (colloquially) in Moria and use my horse elsewhere.  Hoof it (literally) in Moria and carry my horse too.  Stuff one of the hoofers into the bank vault.  Retire my dapple gray.  Etc.

The big things against buying a goat is that the travel system in Moria is very good and the mobs are packed tightly in the narrow stone halls.  Buying the beast feels a little superfluous.  Sure, it might be nice to dodge past fungus-filled trolls or cross the 300 m back to the quest hub, but I have gotten so used to 35-45 silver rides where I high five a warg-rider on my way to the depths that the control might shake things up a little too much.  Plus, goat eyes were not meant for this world.

–Ravious
seventeen dollars and a good watch

I’ve been in Moria for too long.  Far too long.  I forgot that the light shifted from night to day.  When I ported back to Bree it was raining, and I wanted to run inside the nearest hole until the foreign precipitation stopped.

Moria is beautiful and expertly crafted, but I subconsciously missed the real world landscapes and skies.  Scientists should be doing psychological studies on the affect of environments on player depression and guild drama rather than doing heuristics on terabytes of numbers.

I think Lorien is going to breath fresh air into everyone’s psyches… those of us that aren’t coal miners.

–Ravious
no coolness in me at all