or: “How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Brown Bar”
I have this felt need to level exclusively while under rested xp. Otherwise, it feels like I am throwing away free experience points that I could get for doing exactly the same activities.
The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ lets you spend destiny points (earned by leveling, PvMP, and some quests) to refill a bit of your blue (rested xp) bar. I did that fairly frequently in my original push towards 50, as I was playing often enough to keep that bar around its minimum. Leveling in Mines of Moriaâ„¢, that was not an issue, because the blue bar capped while I took several months off, and it is difficult to burn through the whole thing without playing 24/7 (or 28/6).
Logging into Siege of Mirkwoodâ„¢, I did not start with much blue bar. Perhaps I should have stayed logged off for a week before launch. As I emptied it in the first night, I reflexively opened the destiny points window and gave it a couple of shots. Then I realized: this makes no gorram sense. It is not as though I am in a big hurry to reach level 65. Even if I were, paying for a little more blue bar perhaps shaves hours off my leveling time, maybe a night or two of normal play. I have an entire year to gain 5 levels, and I expect to play far more hours at level 65 than getting there. And getting there early just means being slightly stronger when I start on the content I will be repeating for months if I really am that excited about playing.
If I really am that obsessed with playing under rested xp, I have alts. I have a Minstrel nearing the old level cap, and I have a baby Burglar who devastates skirmishes with his archer soldier. The new content will not be less new to me if I see it a week later, and they might have some bugs worked out if I see it a month later.
Viva le leveling whenever I get around to it!
: Zubon