Author: Zubon

Because Book Seven reminded me and so I have this in one place for future reference: the epic quest line for The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Volume One: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢ is weak because the players are observers, not protagonists.

You start by following the Fellowship, and that works well. You fight alongside them. Once you accept that you will not get to be Legolas, this is the next best thing, and this is what you paid for.

Then you enter the main storyline, and you are helping the real protagonists complete their story in Angmar. While you are sent to fetch a horse, gather scrap metal, and buy honey (all real quests in the epic line), they get the killing blows on the bosses. Almost every Book ends with the PCs paralyzed, watching NPCs act out the conclusion. This starts in Book One, where Tom Bombadill is a kill-stealing jerk, and continues through to Book Fifteen, where you do not even have camera control at the end.

They are also weak on gameplay, because someone decided that it is not an Epic quest chain unless there is more than an hour of travel. But that is symptomatic of what you are doing: running errands for the real heroes.

The Books in the game at retail release were lighter on background but they had better gameplay. The ones added later were killing time until the expansion, it seems, and they killed a lot of time. It is a neat story, but it is just that: a story, not a game.

: Zubon

Since returning to The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢, I have noticed a lack of something: gold spam. I have not seen a single instance of it. Even spending time in Bree-town, formerly ground zero, now just zero. No broadcast spam, no tells, no mails, nothing. Refreshing!

: Zubon

A big prize is that you can now barter for Second Age legendary items. You do not get to pick what kind, but with a little more than a week’s worth of farming (or a few days plus all the early quests), you can get a random Second Age for your class. Or a low value IXP relic. Or a single rune. You’ll see a Turbine response on one of those threads: he’ll look into it, no promises.

: Zubon

I have some other negative things about Book Seven, like the weakness of the epic book itself, but I’m sleepy and I can grouse another time.

With the Book 7 level bump, my Minstrel hit level 45. 45 is a turning point in The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢, because it marks the beginning of the late game. You can start all the level 50 content, and there is a lot of it because the game lived at that level cap for a year of updates.

At 45, you can productively visit Angmar, Annuminas, Eregion, Forochel, Goblin Town, Haudh Iarchath, Sarnur, Tal Bruinen, and other random spots that I am not recalling, to say nothing of working on your epic books. That list should probably start “Angmar, Angmar, Angmar, Angmar,” because there is a lot to do there as you approach and pass the old level cap: Barad Gularan, Carn Dum, the Rift, Urugarth, and all those quest chains in Himbar, Imlad Balchorth, Maenad, and Malenhad.

You also have the second half of Volume One and the opening of Volume Two. The only things keeping you from being level 55 before entering Moria are your impatience and the difficulty of finding groups for some older content.

: Zubon

The Shire is one of my three favorite zones in The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Volume One: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢. It has the best Middle-earth atmosphere, and it captures a place in a way I have never seen in an MMO. Hobbits level by delivering mail, carrying pies, keeping vermin away from the crops, and rescuing chickens. The edges of the zone show its connection to the rest of Middle-earth: dwarf raiders, human brigands, and some goblin dens. The core of the zone, however, is light and fluffy, with bright colors, peaceful villages, and few aggressive monsters.

The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Volume Two: Mines of Moriaâ„¢ Book Seven: Leaves of Lorien (no â„¢ yet) brings us Lothlorien, the Shire with a different accent and palette. And killer elf archers, but gain some reputation to walk by them. In Lothlorien, you will find quests to pick berries, check on saplings, and clean the river. The colors are bright, but not WoW bright. Instead of taverns and farms, you can spend time on flets, tree houses that have a great view of the woods below. And yes, you can carry a package of arrows across the zone as if it were a pie or mailbag.

After Moria, it can be nice to be somewhere with a sky. Where there are trees instead of corrupting fungus. Where you can walk without having enemies attack you every ten meters. Lothlorien is where the Fellowship rested.

The Shire remains a better zone. It is more complete and has more content, instead of relying on repeatable quests and grinds for barter items and reputation. But there is something perfect about the peaceful woods filled with elves who do not want you there, as there is in the rolling hills filled with hobbits that want to join them for dinner.

: Zubon

Which is to say that I agree with Ravious.

Unfortunately, the virtues of the Sixteenth Hall contribute to its problems. It is long, relatively unrewarding, and had the largest penalty for minor mistakes, but it is just as necessary to hit 6/6 radiance as the other Moria end-game instances.

A very good group can finish the Sixteenth Hall in 45 minutes, using “unintended gameplay” that is being removed today. A normal group takes 60 to 90 minutes. So each of the three wings takes 15 to 30 minutes, depending on your group. Except for the last stretch, each features one hell room, one other hard pull, and a series of standard encounters with high hit point enemies. That last stretch is a few big bugs that can be avoided, then a half-dozen queen bugs (with workers) that must all be cleared. The boss fights are not difficult, just lengthy (high hit points) with a lot of disease being tossed around.

The rewards are the worst of the six instances. Continue reading 16th Frustration

While the Sixteenth Hall may be the last Moria instance that I reached, it is the central one in their story. It is the lengthy but straightforward, and its three parts lead you through the instance progression. (This is fairly spoiler-ish, so I’ll insert a break now. RSS readers: note.) Continue reading 16th Fulcrum

The rental goats in Moria are absurd. Not their appearance, not how they get drunk and stuck on things: their use of mechanics is nonsensical. This is a standard thing in games: you get used to a mechanic in one case, then still accept it even when the context that made it coherent is gone.

In this case, the mechanic is “you cannot be attacked on rental mounts.” This makes sense as gameplay: that would suck, especially as you have no control at that point. In the early days of Dark Age of Camelot, there were horse routes that would kill people, because they took hills very sharply, and you were not flagged as immune to falling damage. Yeah. Anyway, throughout Shadows of Angmarâ„¢, you use the rental horses along roads. There are few to no enemies on the roads, and you can buy blowing by the occasional orc or bear on your Fast Horse. There are a few horse routes through dangerous areas, but they all use the fast travel mechanic: you teleport from one stable to the next, not seeing the monsters you must have dodged along the way. Immersion is preserved!

All that goes out the window in Moria. Except that Moria lacks windows. The goats ride directly through large camps of monsters, who ignore you because … because you’re on a goat. Right, orcs fear goats, or goats and their cargo are invisible to bats’ sonar, or…

You are standing there in Moria, starting a risky solo fight, and a rental goat silently zooms in and runs you over. It looks like some double-stacked warg rider just added to your fight, so panic! panic! Wait, no, it is another goat that somehow is immune to everything. But if you ride your own, identical goat, they are all over you.

Can I buy one of those invisible, invulnerable goats? How do they tell them apart?

: Zubon