Strayed Captain

So I decided to play LotRo only to find out that today’s the Maintenance Day in Europe. Fortunately now I can avoid those by playing on Landroval. And what do you know November update is live in there, so after a while of patching I got in.

First thing I noticed are the advanced skirmish deeds for killing 50 Lieutenants. They required the Mirkwood expansion before but since that is now free (bar the quests and deeds) and 30 levels away I have access to them. As far as Hunters are concerned there isn’t anything new, and having now checked the release notes there really isn’t apart from a quest that comes around level 50 and a class consumable.

Next thing which is only cosmetic (as is most of the update) – the vendor interaction panels look different, there are now icons assocciated with the actions instead of simple bullet points.

Unfortunately this update also means more Store buttons in places they have not invaded before like the character panel, or the new crafting panel. Or the quest log, which brings us to another part of this update – Tasks.

Tasks basically equal turning vendor trash in for XP and reputation (and I don’t think there is a piece of vendor trash that doesn’t have a Task associated with it which means I am now afraid to throw away anything). Faradwen is currently in North Downs so I only scouted around there, unfortunately she is also level 33 and thus ineligible for most of the Tasks except for Othrikar and Esteldín (although there is a task bulletin at every other quest hub – Trestlebridge, Meluinen and even Amon Raith). Yes, unfortunately Tasks have max level restrictions, and another thing is that you can only complete 5 tasks a day (unless you sell your soul and buy a reset or cap increase). Now there are also some rewards, the first one is a special gift box with unknown content and a title (Up-and-Comer) for completing 100 tasks (and I suspect also a +1 cap increase). That’s twenty days at least, oh well. Next deeds should be at 200, 300 and so on. I did 2 for Othrikar (there only are 2 in there, requiring the beaks and feathers of the hawks that are quite abundant in the area) and 3 for Esteldín (skins, ears and leather from various beasts) that got me 300 reputation with the Rangers each.

There is now also a barter wallet – currently only storing the various skirmish marks though it has it’s own search bar (like you couldn’t find a mark among only 10 different pieces) and newly yet again upgraded vault, but I’m going to appreciate those two much more when the update arrives in Europe (which won’t be sooner than next week).

Buttons! Buttons everywhere!

I mentioned the crafting panel – the good thing is that you no longer need to go through various tabs to see everything, on the other hand it covers almost my whole screen but of course the option to hide it when crafting is still there.

Last thing: while I haven’t seen the Ered Luin revamp, the new Dourhands have been given adjustments all over Middle-earth, so I got to see those new models in North Downs. They do look good though I am not sure where in the North Downs did they get so dirty.

All in all not a bad update, looking forward to have it on Laurelin.

It’s LotRo launch day. The launch of F2P in Europe anyway. After nearly 2 months we’re finally getting it!

My plan was to start this blog prior to F2P launch which I did of course but due to the delays I haven’t had much to write about. I started a character on Landroval while taking a break from Laurelin, now that we’re back to business I’ll try to find a way to keep playing on both sides of the Pond.

Anyway today will be a busy day, while I don’t expect the patch servers to come up for a few more hours, which is good since I got some TV shows to catch up on, there will be much work to do. First thing I’m going to do is to shout a big thank you to Codemasters. After that there will be much respending of LI points and Skirmish Marks across several characters. Finally Wardrobe – my main vault chest (oh and the new vault comes as well) is full of cloaks, helmets and other stuff. After upgrading and filling up the wardrobe as much as possible I plan to head to Celondim, craft a few Copper Necklaces (necklaces seems to be neglected as a quest rewards) and hand them out to new players I happen to meet while spending the evening on advice channel. If that wasn’t enough the Haunted Burrow will be opened for business and I have to stop by as well. So those would be the short-term plans. The long-ish-term plans include getting some new armor from Helegrod, looking forward to raiding in there as I have only been there once about 3 months ago and that was only the drake hatchery and Thorog. Another thing I need to get preferably before the November update hits us is Kindred reputation with several factions so I can receive the shiny new horses, especially the horse of Elf-lords look really good. And one last thing – I need to get the Travellers Hood from the Store.

So that would be it, looking forward to a shinier Middle-earth.

So Faradwen has dinged 20, my.lotro still won’t acknowledge her existence but I can live without that. (And without an avatar and enabled BBCODE in my signature, and EU access to Lorebook, …)

Since she’s an Elf and I deliberately took a different route than my beta captain (Old Forest and Adso’s Camp) I am only Acquaintance with Bree. But with Andrath, Northern Bree-fields and Barrow-Downs quests still intact I expect it to change dramatically.

The Hunter quest on level 15 was quite interesting, though I don’t like the helm – don’t get me wrong I like wearing animal remains on my head (deer helmet in UO was just epic) but this one doesn’t look as horrifying as a bear should so I am sporting the Circlet of Men instead. Still the Warden quest is better but such is the way of the Warden. On a side note I was really looking forward to laughing evilly at the brigands who desperately want to run away from me but I kill them way too quickly, they turn around and fall dead, no running involved, no satisfaction.

So far the only F2P limitation I really feel is having only 3 bags, they fill quite fast especially with the stuff that comes out of the Gifts and of course I am reluctant to get rid of anything that may prove useful later.  I am now sitting at about 160 TP having completed almost every deed in Ered Luin. Half of the Bree-land and Shire still lay ahead of me; then I plan to buy North Downs but that’s a distant future. So far deed grinding isn’t as hard as I thought it would be (I’m only dreading Sickle-fly and Neeker-breeker slayer) however hunter class deeds require quite a high number of shots to perform (Penetrating Shot 1000 times anyone?). I know it can all be done in 10 days but I only concentrate on finishing class deeds when they are about 75% done.

Skirmishes – as I wrote before at this level they are really easy, so just for fun I got an Archer. Although he sometimes doesn’t feel like shooting – and like every graduate of the Skirmish University he cannot find his trail – in combination with Hunter we simply obliterate the enemies. I have even deliberately pulled the Tuckborough courtyard and we barely got scratched. Siege of Gondamon was equally easy, the only trouble I came across was the Daywalker Berserker who pummeled one of the guards before his shield went down and I couldn’t do anything with it. And for the first time I got no trouble with Blood-rooks. If the drake at the end wasn’t scripted to became hostile after landing I’m sure we wouldn’t allowed him to land at all. I spent almost all of my marks on weapons, armour and jewelry. In the end a difference of 20 Agility isn’t really that much but I feel better. /flex

Last but not least I’ve heard the Mariners have wrecked their ship again, I might check that out, after all you never know when an eye-patch may come handy.