Echoes

A very warm welcome my friend!

Week has been busy for many. There was some kind of huge uproar in Thorin’s Hall, Seems like people ended up with many a black eye and some harsh comments on the event. Bad words were spilled, but I was too busy collecting maps. Also, Lufere seems to have moved a little more than usual, since his correspondence is getting bigger. Just listen:

   “My dear friend!

   Long has been the travelling, and I have decided to pay a visit to the place the hobbits call the Old Forest. It is a terrible place to be in, since I have never seen trees as those there. Angry as they are, they brought me down in short time, making me not worthy of counting as one of the few undefeated.

   Thus I decided to join a local festivity of a kinship called Dawning Eclipse, where I got to relax over my defeat. Music was played, oh so wonderful! Then the dresses and robes that were presented! It was all in all a beautiful reunion of people I hope to see in future travels even more.”

Having a good time at Dawning Eclipse’s party: Lufere and his wife

Camwen dancing to the music.

   Peace seems to have sifted a bit into Eriador, which makes me tranquil and alos eager for even more tea. Want to join me? Well, then if you have to leave, I won’t stop you, but remember that if you return, I’ll always have some tea ready.

 Until then, fare well.

Mourning the loss: looking at the rain after a defeat.

[Updates. There is nothing more exciting that waiting for new content to arrive. I am one of those players who got hooked the day Free to Play came out, so I practically only lived through the last two updates. But still, being this my favorite game and best MMO I have played, I loved the way Turbine always brought up the new content and the overhauls. Now, I am doing a short article this week, in which I’ll take a short pro/con look of the last update and why I am looking up for the next one.

   All in all Echoes of the death was, for me, a pretty well done Update. It had many changes that I felt was good that they changed. Even though I never got to play the five new instances and I have only one of the revamped classes, I was able to take a look a bit on the newer legendary system and the new skirmishes. I think it was well done, pretty much. I already spoke of the skirmishes in a previous post, so you’ll know some of the points. To remember the updates, you may read the list of changes in, as always, CSTM.

Pros:

• New skirmishes. A total of three, all based around the Siege of Gondamon style of gameplay. A few nice surprises in there, already known to those who played them as a instance that was part of the story arc. Even though with reserves, it’s nice to know that there are not only new skirmishes, but also for all to play! Yes, even the F2P guys. Enjoy!
• Legacy extractions. Legendary Items quit being totally random and now you are able to fashion one as you like. Yay!
• New cosmetic slots. Yes, you have to buy them, but those who don’t use the system won’t care anyways, and those who do won’t mind spending a bit on them. It is an extra to buy if needed and it will (hopefully) keep the game floating)
• Class revamps. To be honest, it is always nice to see how the classes are balanced to be more useful. I was already tired of the Runekeeper tyranny in healing, and the new revamp brought a bit of usefulness to my (not so) beloved Qwerqsar. Hope to keep using him soon!
• Volume II soloable. And it was a blast.

Cons:

• New skimishes. They are cool, but they don’t feel balanced at all. It seems like there are still some patches to make to have a very interesting skirmish ahead. It’s not a fail, but a heads-up to Turbine.
• No real revamp to PvMP. I know it’s not the main focus of the game. I don’t play it much either, since I started with Update 2, but to be honest, I feel like the creeps side lacks many options, specially cosmetic ones and equipment ones. Now, it would be cool to see more deep monsters and a wider variety participating in battle.
• Boring instances of Volume II. Even though I love the new soloable capability of Volume II, I can’t stand instances like Water Temple. It was long a boring, not only because of the size of the place, but also because of the huge number of trash mobs and no interesting fights. I would have loved to see a few less mobs, since the only two interesting fights were against the two insect queens and against the Watcher. I recommend using groups for that instance, or you’ll bore yourself to death.
• Anniversary event. ‘nuff said.

Winners of the Dawning Eclipse fashion contest.

   Now, when I heard of the new Update 3 coming so soon, I was wondering why we needed it so close to Rise of Isengard. But as I read through the patchnotes, I noticed that it had just a small content update and no huge changes and revamps except for some in PvMP. This is surely mainly to the fact that the real changes will come in fall, with the new expansion, which makes me more eager to be ready for my first steps towards Isengard!

Pros:

• New user interface option in titles screen and in auction house navigation. Maybe the best new change that will hopefully make the navigation a bit more intuitive. I have already so many titles on Nimreidhreth that I don’t even know what I have in hand to rename him in the future!
• New dungeons. Content for mid-level characters. Why not?
• New skirmishes. And best of all, with new ideas. Listening to Pineleaf’s interview on CSTM didn’t make the matter better, for he give s quick look on those skirmishes (he’s the expert in that) and he said some pretty neat stuff about the new skirmishes. Oh man, I can’t wait to see them!

Cons:

• Still no PvMP revamp. I know they are up to Isengard, so they better be good guys! No pressure from me though! Hehe…

   All in all it seems like Turbine is preparing for the next two huge events: taking over the European servers AND the new expansion. But as far as I have read, Rise of Isengard will be just great. I really hope so, you haven’t let me down yet, Turbine! Until then…

   All Hail!]

Killing the masses

A very warm welcome my friend!

Sit down to get some tea. Seems like you have been busy slaying many a goblin. You are, after all, splattered by this foul blood. Thinning the lines of the enemy is, after all, a central activity for us. Lufere just sent me a little mail on it. Seems like the man took a trip to the lands of Ered Luin, near the Blue Mountain, where he has been taking a hunt for wolves and dreadful giant spiders. This pleases the Valar much in the quest to restore peace in Middle Earth and giving this age an end and starting a new one. Just look at what he says:

   “Many miles I have travelled. I finally got to see the halls of the dwarves. It was incredible. The main receiving hall had a huge statue of one of their lords, looking towards a small light entrance that seems to work as a window, above the gate. Behind the statue a busy life ensues, that reminds me of my homelands in Gondor. It’s like a city, just with smaller and sturdier people. When I got to see the forges I was just impressed by the size of their melting ovens and fires.

Killing wolfs by moonlight.

   But I wasn’t there for sightseeing, so I immediately took off to hunt down a goblin camp more to the south, trying to find some clue for their ever-growing presence…”

   By the way, Nimreidhreth seems to have walked off somewhere far beyond Moria, into the dark woods, I haven’t heard much about him. But I can see, form this tattered letter, that it came from a war ridden zone. Look at this dark orcish arrowhead!

   Well, I guess you still have some goblins to get, so I won’t hinder you anymore. We should share another tea!

 Until then, fare well.

Mirk Eaves… one step before the Wood.

[Grinding. At some point all of us have to get to it. Be it for the reputation with a faction, be it for some traits and abilities, be it even for the Turbine Points you need to get finally that last questpack! I myself will be busy with grinding this week again. I am not precisely looking forward to it, but now that my main has reached level 60, I have to find a way to get the last TPs to get Mirkwood. But then again, grinding wouldn’t be soooo bad if it wasn’t for a detail I almost dread from time to time: the availability of the mobs for the slayer deeds.

   It happened to me a lot when I was grinding for Moria: every time I was in a zone with two or more types of mobs, of which I needed only one kind, the one I needed to get down was not there. This has three reasons: a) many are grinding the same mob (sometimes they are quest objectives too); b) a higher leveled character (like mine) just invaded the zone; c) the random spawn generator.

   Problem a) and b) are pretty close together. The mobs are, after all, hunted down for an almost too obvious reason. If you get a quest that says “kill 10 wolves” and a deed that asks you to kill 100 wolves, the people will tend to merge on the zones and hunt the poor animals. Then there is always this big leveled guy who just runs through the area and one-hit kills all and runs on. So chances are that you will be a bit screwed and will have to wait for them to respawn.

   A good solution to this is to try to ally. If you are all at the same level as the mob, having four guys accelerates the gain. Just make in the fellowship two teams of two to gang up on two wolves. The long time killing the mob will more than halve, since you may be fresher to immediately fight the next mob as soon as you and your friend kill one – in the mean time the other team already killed another mob and is moving on to the next. At least it helps until the monster is totally wiped out and you are forced to wait for it to respawn again.

   As for the high leveled player, well, ally with him too if possible. But also, if you are the high leveled character, you should consider that there are many low leveled ones that need the quest/deed. Maybe you should just send a quick question on who need the specific mob. I really think it is better to help out, so the quality of the game rises not by the content, but by the (already good) community.

   As for problem c), I feel that there are some people who are not familiar on how, in some areas, the respawn rules are. Just about two days ago I read a post on the forum on which the rules were hinted at, and I think the poster knew how it works, but for many it is just something they haven’t thought about, even while grinding.

   It turns out that in some places two or mobs share space, if you kill one of those won’t assure that the respawn will be the same. This means, that there is usually a chance the same reappears or that another of the area may appear on the same spot. But if that happens, this means the orcs you are looking for will still be present, isn’t it? Yes and no.

   Let’s say we have an area with 100 mobs, one half (50) is orcs, the other goblins. Your deed is to kill 200 orcs. “Sweet”, you might think, “four runs and I am through”. Wrong! Now, lets suppose the respawn chance of both mobs is 50%. You kill the first bunch of orcs and then they re-appear (note that your deed is now on 50/200). But since it is a 50% chance for orcs and a 50% chance for goblins, by normal statistics (it’s a mind experiment, since the numbers may change a bit) you have now a respawn of 25 orcs and 25 goblins; sum these to the already existing 50 goblins and you have 75 goblins and 25 orcs. You go in again and get the orcs (suppose the goblins don’t attack you at all, you are now high above their level) and get the bar up to 75/200. The mobs reappear and (supposing the randomizer is good to you) you have now 13 orcs and 87 goblins. The area that seemed so full of orcs suddenly seems to have almost none, just those pesky and useless goblins.

   As you see, attacking one type of monster usually means that the one you are looking for is slowly decaying and the useless one is becoming abundant. It is thus a rule that you might start to run out of your mobs. So much for only doing it in four quick runs, my friend. Of course, there seems to be a system implemented that, as soon as a mob is too long on the field, it gets re-rolled, but that includes a long waiting time.

   I usually try to kill two of the needed and then one of the useless. This would ensure a faster regeneration of the mob I need, although it often gets ruined when another, not knowing this rule, just sweeps off the monster I needed to deed. So it is good to know the rule to make the slayer deed at least a bit faster, since most of us get bored of it pretty soon.

   But definitely, the main tip should still be to make in group. It makes the deeding go faster and more fun, since the companion can always be there to make a joke. Just don’t forget to get the other kind of mob too, even if you don’t need it, since it might help to keep things rolling in the zone you are.

   Well, I hope this helped this time. For more help on many other stuff related to LOTRO, I just found by recommendation a site called mmorsel, dedicated to the game. It has good beginners and not-so-beginners guides, as well as some interesting tools, of which I have yet to test some. It will definitely become part of me link section.   ;)

   See you then all next week, and as always…

   All Hail!]