Lord of the Rings Online
36 entries. 19,267 words.
2013-10
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Book 3, Chapter 5, Part II of III.
2013-10-25.
When I logged back into LotRO for the first time in a long time, I remembered one of the main reasons I stopped playing:
On the outside looking in...
It was Book 3, Chapter 5, Part II of III. I’ve probably been stuck on that quest for well over a year. It says you can do it solo, but I was facerolled every time.
Lies! The Elf-stone's inspiration is no help at all.
- MMORPG
2013-11
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LotRO Mithril Coins Rule.
2013-11-11.
I know that the Mithril Coins are just a way to force people to buy from the shop, but I still cheerfully bought a big bagful of them. Being able to zip back to quest givers is an incredible time-saver. Way more worth real money than, say, a fancy cape or horse or whatever. (Actually, I had a trove of Turbine Points sitting around so I didn’t need to spend any (more) real money.
- MMORPG
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MMO Pinball.
2013-11-13.
Just so you know, I have been a veritable pinball of MMO playing lately.
First FFXIV leveling an Archer/Bard to level 30. Then WoW leveling a Mage from around 17 to 50, and leveling some other characters. Then GW2 to check out the Tower of Nightmares. Then LoTRO leveling my hobbit Hunter from 38 to 45. Then Rift to check out the Song of Dreams patch. Even a little bit of Neverwinter and TERA and (gasp) Aion thrown in there between.
- MMORPG
- Progression Report
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LotRO Helm's Deep Skill Trees.
2013-11-23.
After a patching process that seemed to take hours (possibly because I was playing another game while I waited), I spent a couple of minutes in LotRO to see the class changes in Helm’s Deep. (I am only 45 so I am nowhere near seeing the content of Helm’s Deep.)
It looks like all they did was integrate industry-standard “skill trees” into the game, so you have to choose one of three specializations for your character.
- MMORPG
2013-12
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LoTRO Status Report, 45 Hunter.
2013-12-03.
When I last left LotRO (Lord of the Rings Online) a couple of years ago, my highest level character was only a level 38 Hunter. I stopped playing largely because of this one Epic quest that kept defeating me, and nothing will drive me away from a game faster than a required quest that keeps killing me and/or requires a group. I discussed that quest in another post. When I came back this time, I got past that quest, so progression could resume.
- MMORPG
2014-02
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LotRO – Left Angmar For Eregion.
2014-02-03.
Due to a heat pump failure, my normal schedule of writing scintillating posts (ha!) was totally borked. But lucky for you, I found some posts that I have previously rejected as being totally lame and irrelevant, pulled from the dregs of the barrel of mediocrity.
My LoTRO Hunter reached level 48. Normally a level like “48” doesn’t seem like that much of an achievement, but in LoTRO I feel like it takes an eternity* to level, so each new number is a major milestone.
- MMORPG
2016-07
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Egad Turbine.
2016-07-08.
Turbine is refocusing on free-to-play mobile games??
For the last couple of months I’ve been trying to force myself (unsuccessfully) to play LotRO with the sole intention of leveling my 51 Hobbit Hunter (my only character over level 20-something) through Mines of Moria and the rest of the story content I keep hearing so much about. I’ve been trying to do this because I-like I’m sure a lot of other LotRO players-worry that Turbine isn’t going to renew their Tolkien license in 2017 and the game is going to shutter.
- MMORPG
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Moving Old PC, Building New PC.
2016-07-29.
I drove back to the old house after work Wednesday to pick up some things to improve my camping experience in the new house, and while I was there I unplugged my PC and a monitor and threw it into the car. (Not literally. But close, because it’s still frickin’ hot as hell, and after less than a half hour of moving around in the old house, sweat was pouring off of me in rivers and I felt like I could barely stand up from the weight of all the humidity pressing down on me.
- Status
2016-08
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Dipping Back Into LotRO.
2016-08-01.
Between trips to the old house and trying to figure out what kind of blinds to put in the windows of the new house, I finally sat down (ie. collapsed in a blob) and spent a few hours playing LotRO over the weekend.
I’m continuing my overall quest to see all of the game before LotRO closes down*. The character I’ve chosen for this task is my Hobbit Hunter, my highest level character at level 52.
- MMORPG
- Status
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LotRO – Back to Angmar and Evendim.
2016-08-10.
In my continuing quest to see all of LotRO before it (possibly) shuts down, my Hunter reached level 53 over the weekend. You wouldn’t think gaining a single level would be cause for celebration, but in LotRO it kind of is.
I don’t know if I’ve ever written this, but I feel like LotRO is one of the last of the “old school” generation of MMORPGs. By which I mean the generation of MMORPGs where the world is actually massive (ie.
- MMORPG
- Status
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LotRO Volume I, Book 10, or A Lot Of Running.
2016-08-19.
I’m continuing to make slow progress on seeing the rest of LotRO*. Since I was on a roll, I’m continuing with the Volume I Book 10 epic story over in Evendim (rather than returning to Moria).
I’m glad that I went and subscribed to the game, because I noticed that I was missing out on rest experience. Hopefully that will speed up the leveling curve a little bit. (But I still finished all of Book 10 without reaching level 54.
- MMORPG
- Status
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LotRO Volume 1, Book 11: The Search for Narchuil.
2016-08-31.
For the one or two folks out there looking for non-Legion posts, over the weekend I completed another book in LotRO: Volume 1, Book 11.
(Spoilers ahead if for some reason I’m not the last person in the world to do these quests from c. 2007.)
LotRO is a great game to play in the morning with your coffee when you don’t have anything pressing to do for a few hours.
- MMORPG
- Status
- Stories
2016-12
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LotRO, DDO, Turbine, Standing Stone Games.
2016-12-20.
Did I get all the keywords in there?
Random LotRO image from my hard drive
I’m sure you’ve heard that LotRO and DDO will be leaving Turbine for a studio called Standing Stone Games. The fate of Asheron’s Call is uncertain, but I tend to agree with Wilhelm that we won’t be seeing it much longer, which is a major bummer to me personally since it was the first MMORPG to make a real impact on me, and I think its character development system (skill-based) has yet to be matched.
- MMORPG
2017-01
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LotRO Volume 1, Book 12 – Rescuing Laerdan.
2017-01-08.
Turns out this was the only screenshot I took. As part of my continuing efforts to catch up in LotRO, I played through another Book in the Epic Story. In the last book, we were looking for a ring called Narchuil, which is pronounced quite differently from the way it looks, according to not-Ian McKellen Gandalf in the voiceovers. (It’s something like “Nar-wheel.”)
(Per usual for my LotRO posts, I will not be attempting to add the diacritics to all the weird Elvish words.
- MMORPG
- Status
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LotRO Volume 1, Book 13 – Snowpocalypse.
2017-01-12.
I completed a second Book in LotRO over the snowy weekend.
Last time we rescued Laerdan and found half of that elusive ring Narchuil. After Laerdan stormed out of the council meeting, Elrond asked me to talk to him. Laerdan believed the rest of the ring could be found in the (presumably dead) hands of a captain whose ship sank somewhere in the north. He asked me to meet a dwarf friend of his in Forochel, because he wanted to stay and patch things up with the Elves.
- MMORPG
- Status
2017-03
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LotRO Volume 1, Book 14 – The Sloggiest Journey.
2017-03-06.
Another post rescued from my drafts…
Book 14 begins with Laerdan preparing for a journey south. He asked me to collect a bunch of gear for him that he left strewn around Eriador, because the hero’s journey always involves fetching stuff. It was a lengthy, boring scavenger hunt.
When I returned to Rivendell, Laerdan was gone. In a note, he said he sent me away so I wouldn’t interfere. I spent all that time collecting his gear for nothing.
- MMORPG
- Status
2017-07
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LotRO – Mordor Is Here Too Soon.
2017-07-20.
Standing Stone Games started taking orders for the Mordor expansion in LotRO, which is “expected” to release July 31. $40 for the no-frills version.* The moment is finally here. The moment I’ve been dreading for so long: The moment when everyone else will get to experience the MMORPG cultural event of the decade, while I sit on the sidelines, peering longingly through the cracks in the fence, trying to catch a glimpse of the prize at the end of the rainbow.
- MMORPG
2017-08
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LotRO – The Road To Mordor, A Tweetstorm.
2017-08-05.
I haven’t yet bought the Mordor expansion (I probably will, despite the hype-destroying trailer), but it dawned on me that LotRO is one of those rare MMORPGs where you can actually explore the world without having to unlock zones by completing quests. So I decided that I wanted to run my 95 Runekeeper as close to Mordor as I could get. I made it all the way to the Black Gate.
- MMORPG
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LotRO – Mordor Expansion Thoughts.
2017-08-07.
I did indeed buy the $40 edition of the Mordor Expansion, and boosted a Hobbit Minstrel from level 24 to level 105 so I could actually play said expansion. (Folks on Twitter seemed to think Minstrel was a good solo class to play.)
Once again the gear you are given looks awful, like a suit of white underwear. I guess they really want people who use level boosts to look like total newbies compared to the people have been playing all along, which I suppose isn’t entirely inappropriate.
- MMORPG
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LotRO – Mordor to Moria.
2017-08-09.
I was having some fun in the Mordor expansion, bopping up to the Black Gate, talking to Gandalf … pardon me, Mithrandir … meeting those four “adventurers” with different personalities. It seemed like they were setting up those four folks as characters we might see again throughout Mordor, following their adventures so to speak, and it seemed like a good story idea. They all had their different reasons for going into Mordor, and it was the hook I needed to get interested in the zone.
- MMORPG
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LotRO – Hunter Level 58!.
2017-08-14.
I just wanted to announce that my Hunter made it to level 58 in Moria. Gaining another level in LotRO (when you’re not subscribed or anything) is a major accomplishment.
I am not really sure what is going on with the epic story here. I am on Volume II, Book 4, Chapter 3 as of this writing. The dwarves are just sort of rooting around looking for chambers and relics and books and stuff.
- MMORPG
- Progression Report
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Random Friday Tidbits.
2017-08-18.
Another brief post just to post something today.
GW2. I did in fact retry Chapter 16, “Hearts and Minds,” and beat it after two more attempts Thursday night, which took another hour. If you leave the instance for any reason, by the way, you have to start all over. So take my advice: Don’t rage quit if you die to the last boss. :) I’ll probably start Living Story Season 3 this weekend although I’m kind of burned out on GW2 already.
- MMORPG
- Musings
- Progression Report
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LotRO – Level 59 and Khazad-dûm.
2017-08-19.
My Hunter reached level 59 and the famous Bridge of Khazad-dûm yesterday-what’s left of the bridge, at least. I was following the side quest of a dwarf Svanr who was on some kind of pilgrimage to see all of the Mines of Moria, and we got to the Bridge. Then my character took his first steps back outside in seemingly forever. It’s surely been over a year of real time since before my Hunter entered Moria.
- MMORPG
- Progression Report
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Dimrill Dale and Eclipse Jealosy.
2017-08-20.
One thing that happens when you make a conscious effort to post every day is that half of your blog posts turn into diary entries. “Dear diary: Here’s what I did today. Well, yesterday.”
Yesterday I completed the Moria Epic Story and officially returned to the world under the sky in Dimrill Dale, attaining level 60 in the process. I got to revisit the Watcher in the Water deep in the bowels of Moria.
- MMORPG
- Musings
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Getting Lost In MMOs.
2017-08-23.
A recent MassivelyOP Daily Grind asked the question: “Do you like being lost in MMOs?”
My answer is generally no, I never want to my progress to be impeded by not knowing where to go. But it depends on the situation and/or the game. Here are two recent examples:
When I think about my experience playing through the remainder of the GW2 Heart of Thorns story, I was lost a lot in the Maguuma Jungle, and it was aggravating.
- MMORPG
- Responses
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Comfort MMORPGs.
2017-08-25.
Here’s another post based on a MassivelyOP’s Daily Grind:
What’s Your Comfort MMO?
I find this to be a somewhat odd question, because I generally like to have a constantly-changing game experience, as opposed to an experience that is always the same. I am the kind of person who likes to learn and try new things all the time (within the boundaries of crippling anxieties, of course). This is why I try out most new MMORPGs if I can.
- MMORPG
- Responses
2017-11
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Catching Up – CCP, Gazillion, etc..
2017-11-17.
Literally my only screenshot from Marvel Heroes. I mentioned that there was nothing to blog about. Then I started catching up on all the things I’ve missed in the MMO landscape over the last month or so.
CCP VR Layoffs. Apparently CCP decided they didn’t want to be a pioneer in VR after all. Presumably this means they’ll need to figure out how to increase revenue from EVE, a fourteen-year-old game that new players run screaming from.
- MMORPG
2018-04
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Weeklies – ESO, SWL.
2018-04-20.
Yikes, April is almost over already.
I finished Secret World Legends’ Red Sun, Black Sand and left Egypt behind. I’m taking a break for a while.
This past weekend I decided to try to play through the Morrowind content in ESO. It took four tries, but I finally got past the first meeting with Vivec and into the rest of the story. (I had a hard time finding a character I wanted to play.
- MMORPG
- Roundup
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Weeklies – Oligarchgate (The One About Daybreak).
2018-04-27.
Not much gaming to report this week. I’m on a Secret World Legends break. I’ve mainly been dabbling in Elder Scrolls Online (trying to record the Orsinium storyline; much like with Morrowind, I messed up and have to restart it).
Since @Sypster has been talking up Dungeons & Dragons Online for a while, I thought I would check it out again myself. I’ve played DDO before, and enjoyed it, but I haven’t had it installed in years (computer forensic evidence suggests since 2015).
- MMORPG
- Roundup
2018-06
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Week End – Steam Flood.
2018-06-09.
News and observations from the past week.
I keep thinking I should write real posts about stuff, but I’m having a hard time finding anything that interests me enough to write more than a few sentences.
Dark Souls Remastered. It bugs me but also amuses me that the featured image I put in these posts doesn't match the title. In The News Star Wars Galaxies creator Raph Koster to release postmortem book on MMORPGs.
- MMORPG
- Steam
2018-09
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New Lord of the Rings MMO.
2018-09-10.
A random Lord of the Rings Online screenshot Even packed full of news as it was, I still neglected to mention in my Saturday post that Athlon is planning to make a new Lord of the Rings Prequel MMO.
That is the extent of what we know so far. We can speculate that it will probably be released on console and PC, that it will probably be free-to-play, and that it will probably not even remotely resemble the kind of traditional MMORPG that we actually want to play.
- MMO
- MMORPG
- Pre-Release
2018-11
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LotRO Legendary Server Malaise.
2018-11-10.
Lord of the Rings Online opened their Legendary Server the other day. It’s another of what has become known in the industry as a “progression” server, although I feel like they’re stretching that definition in this case. (Then again, nobody has ever defined what a “progression” server is, except Daybreak. Or maybe it started with SOE, I don’t remember.) In this case “progression” seems to mean a new server with a level cap of 50 and nothing else, which to me is the bare minimum of effort.
- MMORPG
2018-12
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Games Played – November 2018.
2018-12-01.
This should be a hoot. Because I didn’t play any games in November. As I mentioned last time, I spent November recovering from back pain and avoided the PC computer chair like the plague while I worked on rebuilding my upper back muscles with torturous stretches and exercises.
Lord of the Rings Online, 1 hour. I played my level 62 hobbit Hunter in Mines of Moria for an hour. I did not advance any levels in the allegedly super fast leveling curve that everyone says LotRO has.
- MMORPG
- Roundup
2019-09
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LotRO Quest Font Size – This Changes Everything.
2019-09-27.
I learned something yesterday that isn’t getting the attention that it deserves, so I thought I’d write a blog post about it. Are you sitting down? This is really amazing, so make sure you’re sitting down.
You can now change the quest text font size in Lord of the Rings Online.
I searched my MMO News feeds to find the all-caps headlines shouting this from the rooftops, but I didn’t find any.
- MMORPG
2019-10
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Only Five Games In A Year.
2019-10-31.
Naithin poked some of us on the Blaugust Discord to chime in on this: If you could only play five games in a year, what would they be?
It turns out this would not be a terribly big sacrifice for me. I don’t play a lot of games in a year to start with. I’ve already done some research for my 2019 year-end post, and the number of new games that I’ve purchased and started in 2019 is extremely small.
- Musings
- Responses
2020-10
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Baffling War of Three Peaks Kerfuffle.
2020-10-20.
People on Twitter seem to be freaking out about paying $20 for some new thing in Lord of the Rings Online. I am baffled.
I don’t currently play LotRO, but I’ve always wanted to finish the Epic Story before they shut down the game. It’s just that it’s an Epic Chore to do so. But I’ve made peace with the fact that I’ll probably never finish the whole thing before the game ends.
- MMORPG