Strayed Captain

While here in EU we’re (again) waiting for the patch to arrive, Update 2 is alive and kicking over the Pond. So I logged on Landroval and proceeded to Tinnudir as I was questing there before the update anyway. Spoilers ahead!

What’s New?

The first thing you’ll see if you arrive by Hunter or Warden travel is a Vault, yes they now have a vault in Evendim, although its security is questionable at best – the Tinnudir Keep would surely serve a little better. Another thing new in Tinnudir is a crafting area next to the Keep but as far I could see there weren’t any superior facilities in there.

Quests

There are many new quest and the pace of them is pretty quick. I’ve started a new mission in Tinnudir at a new Ranger whose name is Orchalwë. He sent me to investigate some of the ruins – though he calls them estates – around Parth Aduial or as he called it the Fields of Twilight. What’s especially good about the first quest I received was that Orchalwë gave me his journal to guide me – I have proceeded to the first ruin and after finishing the task I got the rewards immediately. Then I read the journal and another quest was bestowed upon me. On to another ruin, finish another quest and read the journal again. No need to run to Orchalwë after each finished quest. Orchalwë further serves as kind of a Quest-General, he will send you on a series of quest into the ruins, then into Ost Forod and then into Eavespires where I stopped yesterday. Apart from Orchalwë’s quests I’ve also paid visit to the Colossus as I’ve heard that you can actually climb on it. Well, you can, you need to accept a quest from Sardan (something about a ballista) and following the chain after 3 quests you will be able to get on top of the Old King’s Crown. Amazing view from up there, even during the night.

The quests flow pretty quickly mainly because there is now a quest in pretty much every place. On top of that each quest rewards some reputation (it’s about 900-1200 per quest) and killing goblins and Tomb-robbers now gives reputation upon kill. You will also get some barter coins which fortunately are barterable between themselves (that is one silver coin is 5 bronze coins and you can barter silver for bronze and bronze for silver). In two days (5-6 hours of playing by my estimate) I’ve gone from level 36 to 38 which isn’t much but I’ve also gone from Acquaintance to Ally, which is just crazy. I’ve also gotten some parts of a new hunter set. There are new sets for each class (featuring some rehashed designs) which can be acquired – at least partially – through questing and several parts are available for barter at the Ranger Cannuion. Definitely check the rep vendors at Tinnudir keep they got tons of new stuff.

Certain places are now more covered with quests than before: Ost Heryn (where you might or might not have been dealing with an Elite Oathbreaker) now has 3 quests inside. Nan Orngon east of Ost Forod where I’ve never been before has 4 quests. The entire Thief-taker’s bane chain has been redone. It doesn’t start on Tinnudir but rather in Ost Forod. You are sent on Rantost to contact some spies among the Tomb-robbers and after you finish several quests for them you can proceed to the Thief-taker’s Bane instance. It’s now solo and actually a little too easy, I’m quite certain you can finish it without even helping the rangers. In Eavespires there is now about twice as much Gauredain and they’ve spread to Even-rills. The Dol Haerdir encampment is larger and getting to the riddle marker now does not require going through the whole camp though you’ll still do the whole round for other quests. And that’s just the beginning, unfortunately I have already been questing in Evendim before the revamp and so I can’t really take advantage of all the new quests. But I always liked the area and I’ll be definitely bringing any new alts through. I’m hoping we’ll see other areas being revamped as well, it certainly won’t hurt.

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.

So I rolled an Elven Huntress – Faradwen (which basically means ‘huntress’, simplicity FTW). She’s level 10, I am once again enjoying quests in Ered Luin and I’ve earned my first 5 Turbine points, yay!

But the whole hunter thingy will probably take some getting used to. When I play a melee class (say champion) the usual fight looks like this: *thrust*, *slash*, *swing*, *hack*, *slash*,  … you get the picture. And the situation with hunter? No matter the skills it’s *pew*, *pew*, *pew*, *pew* and occasional *slash*. Granted it’s more like *aaaaaaim* *pew*, *aaaim* *pew*, *aaaim* *pew*,*PEW* (cookie if you can name the skills). I understand that when it comes to animation there really is little to no possible variety with firing arrows and I play with sound turned off and thus have no idea what sound (if any) do Hunters make. Not to mention that I am currently in the possession of about 6 ranged skills so maybe it gets better later.

Back in UO I actually played an Archer and it was fine, UO doesn’t have skills so I was happy auto-pew-pewing from a distance, running a bit away once the slow-moving Ettin, Troll or Earth Elemental reached me, picking arrows from the ground along the way and then start shooting again, slowly taking him down, it was fun. Not that Hunter in LotRO is hard to play it’s just the combat feels rather monotonous. Granted I haven’t really tried moving around more-so when I’m being encouraged to stay in place to remain focused. When in melee the skills have quite a cooldown and, well, I keep forgetting to use my bow in melee range (it’s just unnatural!). I guess I’d need to group a bit, I actually had quite a fun in Skrogrím’s Tomb, peeling Dwarves and goblins off Dwalin. I am also really looking forward to fight brigands in Bree – no more chasing after them if they decide to run away because I’m not worth the trouble.

In the meantime – US forums, lorebook and everything has been compressed into one huge and (currently) really buggy yet somewhat visually appealing site and the European release of Enedwaith and F2P has been postponed – we can only hope for soon™.