LOTRO: Loving the Epic Story (most of the time)

A few days ago I finally finished the epic quest line in The Lord of the Rings Online in its entirety. Having also read some developer comments about where the epic story will be going I gave the subject a bit of retrospective introspection, or if you prefer, I thought back on where we had begun and where we had (for the moment) finished off and gave the whole subject a bit of thought.

I'm sure every player remembers their first little foray into the epic story: playing through a short, class specific game tutorial which introduces storyline elements which are picked up in the game introductions and played out through the various books of epic quests, most of which are tied up in Volume I.

Once we played through the introduction and landed in the game world proper we started playing through the epic quest, which took us throughout the "zone" in which we started the game, Ered Luin for elves and dwarves, The Shire for Hobbits and East Bree-Land for men. All paths led us to Bree and our first encounter with Strider at the Prancing Pony. In those days the epic quests were fun, relatively simple and simply added to the story. A bit of running around, we may have thought, especially if it was your first toon and you didn't have a horse yet. Ah...those were the days...

Eventually we moved our way through the storyline, we saw the extent of the spreading darkness in the Western lands of Middle-earth, the growing influence of Angmar, and...well, right about there the epic story started to drag on. Not that the story wasn't still great or well crafted, it was, it's just that travelling all over Tolkien's green earth got a little bit tedious after a while; especially for those who aren't rolling a hunter!

Overall, Vol. I had a great story but was done in by the repetitious travelling. Some of the later epic content has dealt with the same problem by providing instant travel to the next point in the quest, which is a great idea and wastes much less time while holding the story together.

Volume II started, rather infamously now, with us performing such epic feats as delivering sandwiches to dwarven workmen, but moved on to have us fighting the watcher in the water, multitudes of orcs and various agents of Angmar. Towards the end we started spending more time travelling from Lothlorien to Moria and back again, but to a less degree than that experienced in Vol I. Again, we had great story, saw the world around us, and fought the Shadow with our allies among the free peoples.

Volume III took us a long time. Let me rephrase that...Volume III took us a loooong time!
Yes Vol. I was longer, but it also shifted in it's focus a lot more. It really wasn't so much a single coherent story as it was a string of stories that flowed into each other. Vol. II was much more coherent and focused and Vol. III seemed to be a bit more so again. Vol. I took us from Ered Luin to Eregion and covered roughly 50 levels. Vol. III took us from Enedwaith to Western Rohan and involved the most interaction with the Lord of the Rings story.

It also provided continuity through our three travelling companions, who mysteriously always managed to get ahead of us to wait at the next objective. It also managed to avoid pointless travel, instead allowing us to quest through a region as we followed the epic quest chain. Even more impressive was the ability to play through without relying on fellowships and group play. Overall, one would have to concede that it was a very well done epic quest story arc.

As we wait to see where things will go from here, aided by hints given to us by Turbine staff executives and developers, I am hopeful that not only will the story be worthy of the epithet "epic" but also that the progress made towards making the game more enjoyable to play will continue to progress. This year we are expecting to see the Paths of the Dead, Dol Amroth and more and certainly players are excited to see those places.

I guess what I want to close off with is this: You've come a long way Turbine, keep up the good work.

LOTRO: Pets coming to Middle-earth?

Alright, so pets were possibly already here, but with the exception of lore masters no one else really noticed.

So if you read today's release notes regarding patch 13.1, you probably read something about pets becoming available to LOTRO players in game.

Is this a good thing?
Short answer: maybe.
Long answer: This will definitely add a new "cuteness" factor to LOTRO as well as providing a new hobby for players, along side things like fishing and steed collecting. High end players who have done it all can do it all again in the hopes of earning or finding a new pet, and we can expect to see at least some people with a Pokemon "Gotta catch 'em all" mentality for whom collecting pets will be something a bit too much more than a hobby to be healthy.
New cosmetic options, which is what this sounds like, are almost always welcomed by players as new ways to make your toons stand out from everyone else's. However, Turbine devs obviously expect this to present  potential hazard to graphics cards the world over. You can turn the option to view other's pets off to save you PC, but then the game really doesn't gain anything new, does it?

Is this a bad thing?
Short answer: Maybe.
Long answer: I don't know yet.
Much will depend on how Turbine develops the system going forward. This could be a new fully functioning aspect of the game that's completely free, but I doubt it. I'm anticipating store exclusive pets, unlockable pet slots, and possibly even the need for F2P and premium players ti unlock the ability to equip or store pets (similar to the wardrobe function).

It all boils down...
...to what Turbine does with the pet system. It could be a really cool new addition to the game's cosmetics or it could be another way to nickel and dime players for minor content. I sincerely hope it's the former, but it's hard to tell these days. I'm hoping that we see something that doesn't just copy the pet system of other games but genuinely adds something to the game, even if it's just flavour.
And if any game devs should happen to read this: I beg you...I plead with you...please please please....keep it tasteful. This is Tolkien's Middle-earth, not Pokemon.

LOTRO Back to Basics 102: Picking a Class - The Captain

Currently the game's only racially exclusive class, (at least until the beornings get here) playable only by men, the captain is a jack of all trades. Able to summon allies, heralds and use banners to inspire themselves and their fellowship, they are valiant in combat. Able to heal and resurrect allies in or out of combat makes them valuable as healers. Captains can heal, fight, crowd control, buff and tank, making them valuable in any situation. 

They are one of the two current "pet" classes (class that is able to summon a NPC pet or helper).

Captains are rated as "moderate" difficulty to play, but are probably not too difficult for most beginners to enjoy.

Solo Play

Captains can summon heralds who fight next to you as well as providing a buff to damage, morale and healing or power regeneration. Alternately they can plant a banner to provide stronger buffs, but the banner won't fight for you. 

Captains can become "Battle ready" a state that allows them access to certain skills; as well as gaining defeat responses which allow them certain abilities when an enemy is defeated. While they can heal others very well, their ability to heal themselves is somewhat limited, but with heavy armour and a herald (with a healing ability) captains are highly survivable if played well. 

Group Play

No other class performs as well in a group as a captain. 

Their buffs are always welcome, raising stats, damage, and more, and with heralds or banners providing even more buffs. They are, hands down, the best buffing class in game.

They can put out reasonable DPS but are also able to quickly switch to a healing role in a pinch. 

Against groups of mobs their enemy defeat skills will be a great boon to a fellowship or raid, increasing the groups attack speed or stunning multiple mobs or providing a small heal to the fellowship. 

They are also able to use skills to draw the focus of mobs, becoming decent off tanks, or even covering main tank if the main tank has been killed. 

With the variety of abilities at their command, captains should be a welcome part of most groups. 

Drawbacks

Since captains have such variety, this means that they don't do most things as well as other classes. They can tank, but not as well as a warden, guardian or (properly traited) champion. They can heal but not as well as a minstrel or rune keeper. And they certainly don't DPS like a hunter, rune keeper or champion

They also suffer from a shortage of ranged attacks. This is pretty much limited to "battle shout". 

Overall

The captain is a personal favourite class of mine, especially for group play. The versatility provides both challenges and rewards that are truly unique to the class. While soloing, the captain may be the best of the heavy armour classes, since he has (typically) better defence and healing than a champion and better DPS than a guardian. 

If you want to excel at a single role, the captain is probably not for you, but when you'r ready for something different, or if you want to lead your herald (or fellowship) into the fray, the captain is the way to go.

LOTRO Store Post-Update 13...Seriously?

So I decided to check out the "New to the Store" link that came with my weekly LOTRO email. Here's my reactions...

The first thing that showed up was inventory slots. We knew this was coming; a revamp of how inventory works and how to expand it beyond 6 basic bags. Definitely something that has been wanted by many for a long time. Good on you Turbine.

Next up: Third Age Treasure Trove. This one caught my attention since I had no idea what it was, so I checked the description box. Apparently you can buy the box, which comes with 3 third age legendary items or weapons, pick one to keep and the others are discarded. I assume that this is for people who can't find 3A items (?). Personally this has never really been a problem for me, but hey, if someone's willing to pay for it...

The fourth item (I'll deal with the third last) is tier 9 relics, no big surprise there and they are certainly useful. We've seen these in store for a long time in almost every tier. No biggie.

It was the third item in particular that caught my attention: "Promotion Points +10".
My first thought - "Doesn't this defeat the point?"
I was under the impression that the way to scale up your promotions was through running the epic battles and excelling at them, but maybe I was wrong and it was to allow Turbine to shill upgrades for TP.

Why Does This Bother Me?
Turbine sells a lot of things through the store, and as a rule I'm OK with it. So why does this rankle me?
Let's take a quick look at the stuff you can buy from the store:
Content: including quest packs, skirmishes, additional character slots, etc. This is all stuff to give you more playing experience, basically more game.
Stuff: housing, steeds, cosmetics, LIs, this is basically stuff you can acquire in game, but with a different currency system. There may be some store exclusives but none of this stuff is going to dramatically alter game play in a way that you could not get in game.
Stuff enhancements: Things that make your stuff better, again typically things you can find or buy in game but without the hassle of trying to find the right one.

So what makes this different?
This is a store purchase that makes your character better. Yes we had stat tomes already but they were a store exclusive. This was a system which would seemingly require a lot of work to master but which now has been cheapened.
A few years ago I started playing another free MMO (I won't say which one right here but it might be a rant topic later). The game was entirely dominated by people who payed to enhance their characters and those who didn't could't begin to compete (which in a game with PVP is a pretty big deal). As a result the experience was spoiled and the game cheapened.

Turbine hasn't gone that far, but it diminishes the work of those who work hard to earn promotions when some kid with daddy's credit card can max his promotion points.

I'm all for Turbine making money, after all it's what keeps the game going, but this one feels like a cheap sell out.

Just saying Turbine.