Ah, Mirkwood; vast forest inhabited by elves, orcs, spiders, and crazy adventurers. Previously it was the occasional holiday vacation spot of Hobbits and Dwarves, but now it has been besieged by the invading forces of the Free People who seek to root out the forces of evil from Dol Guldur. But as someone who went through Mirkwood right after its release how does the area hold up? Is it still the fun playland I once remember, or will it send me running to Enedwaith or even deeper south into Isengard?
The answer? To tell the truth I’m undecided. Mirkwood sure does have its charms which include plenty of action, an in-depth story , and the immersion of feeling like you’re in a confrontation (at least later in the book). But there are down sides too. There are still a lot of landscape quests that are in the spirit of “Kill Ten Rats”. (Not that there is any game out there that I know of that totally avoids these kinds of quests, but sometimes enough is enough. At some point killing bats and spiders becomes old and your blade thirsts for the taste of orc blood!) But thankfully there aren’t many of those quests in Mirkwood outside one certain area and most pertain to the story that Turbine weaves so well.
Arrival
When first stepping into Mirkwood you actually are entering an instanced version of the Mirk-eaves where you are just beginning to storm the area. When Goldenstar and I originally entered this area after the initial release we were actually overwhelmed by the orc population. It seemed that we were constantly being overrun by spawning orcs and dying repeatedly. However, I have to say that this time around I had no problems as a Champion. In fact, it was 100 times easier than I previously remember. After completing the introduction story and moving into the actual landscape I still found that the adventuring here had a good flow. It was interesting to delve back into the story of an invading force scouting the land and I really felt that I was being generally guided on my way to 65.
Moving Onward
However, it was after I moved onto the next area at The Haunted Inn that I began to have some doubts. My main complaint was how I was continuously being sent back and forth between the Haunted Inn and Dannenglor. I understand that there were some compelling stories being told, but at the same time 3-4 trips back and forth start to make for an angry Dwarf. Nevertheless I can’t argue with the experience or state that I was bored as the story and content kept me fairly entertained. Eventually I moved from The Haunted Inn with my spirits in-tact on to Estolad Mernael in Drownholt and found myself longing to move on almost instantly.
My issue with Estolad Mernael is not that it is the basic “go here, kill something, come back” quests, but that it is surrounded by a large number of stealthing predators who always seem to knock my off my mount without fail. It really makes for some difficult travelling situations and inevitably I became so frustrated that I gave up and ran back and forth to my quest destinations in most cases. Mercifully this area does not have a large amount of quests and I was able to move onto Ost Galadh and back into the main storyline of Mirkwood; the Epic Story.
In the Middle of Things
Ost Galadh is the central hub of Mirkwood and I was happy to be in a location with a Vault and crafting area once again. And after finishing the menial “Kill Ten Rats (Bats)” quests I found myself adventuring north into the Scuttledells and enjoying myself once again. The story was picking up, the Epic Story was moving along and I was happy. I didn’t even mind the break from orcs and enjoyed squashing some big, nasty spiders along the way. All too soon though I was moving beyond Ost Galadh into the East to Thangúlhad and into the front lines of the conflict.
Now as strange as it may be I ended up loving Thangúlhad quite a bit. Although there are a lot of orcs and other nefarious minions of Dol Guldur walking around, it is nevertheless a lot of fun. I mean this is what are in Mirkwood for isn’t it? And I enjoyed every minute of it. My only complaint in this area is actually related to the Epic Storyline. For me it seemed that there were some long stretches of inaction in the story and then suddenly there are some back-to-back skirmishes that ended up wearing me out a bit. Now it’s not that I have anything against the skirmishes in general, it was just that they seemed to suddenly sprout up all at once. And yes, I know it makes sense from a story perspective; you don’t break down someone’s gates and then yell “Hey, I’m tired, but I’ll be back tomorrow, OK?” But from a gameplay perspective it was several long instances that had to be completed in a row. To be fair though, if I wasn’t in a hurry to get to Isengard I probably wouldn’t have minded as much, so take that into account.
Conclusion
In the end, I did enjoy my time in Mirkwood. It was definitely a different experience than being in Moria and made for a good disconnect. But it definitely didn’t have the same impact on me that Moria did either. And although Turbine might be tired of hearing it, Moria just has this epic quality about it that seems to make a lasting impression while Mirkwood’s impression leaves me merely satiated for the time being. Regardless, I still plan to make it a stop on most of my characters’ journeys, but it will be interesting to see as time goes on if Mirkwood remains a steady stop on most people’s leveling journey.
November 10, 2011 at 10:08 am
Mirkwood is one of my favourite zones. I think the epic story really takes off and there’s not all of the “Hey, I need to take a 10 minute ride on the slow goat to get from the 21st Hall to the Orc Watch and then come back” trips. There are also a lot of good raids and instances associated with Mirkwood that make an area I don’t want to skip or rush through (cough . . . Forochel . . .cough).
November 10, 2011 at 10:22 am
I agree that there are no horrible 10 minute rides and the escort quests weren’t nearly as awful as I remembered them being. I just thought it could have been a bit more streamlined. But I am very nitpicky sometimes too.
November 10, 2011 at 10:57 am
I like Mirkwood, it just feels different from the other areas in the game. My experience with it felt fairly streamlined, but perhaps going back to it now after experiencing areas that are even more streamlined would pain a different picture. I’ve not been to it in a couple of months.
I don’t necessarily mind “kill x 10 times” quests, but what I do mind is Turbine’s over-reliance on the same models and monsters in every single area of the game. Another gray wolf? Another black spider? Mirkwood at least has black cats instead of just white ones.
And eventually you just start wondering how the hell there are wolves and birds in these areas that are literally 10 times stronger than earlier in the game.
I get that they’re probably limited in species of monsters due to the books to some degree, but at least make some new models. A wolf in a new area could have a significantly new skin or appear to be furrier or something> beyond sometimes being slightly larger. It just gets boring to fight these same creatures over and over.
I think this makes these areas feel a lot more samey than they need to. RoI has basically two new things — avancs and swamp gas. That’s majorly disappointing for a new expansion, at least to me. Boars and wolves and bears… zzz.
November 10, 2011 at 10:59 am
I’ve not checked, but do any of the instances and such in that area scale now? I never got to do the really big ones there and I imagine no one wants to bother if they don’t scale to 75…
November 10, 2011 at 12:07 pm
I don’t think that they do…. Yet. But from my understanding they have the ability to be scaled higher.
November 10, 2011 at 1:45 pm
I’ve been doing the epic story skirmishes, they scale to 75.
November 10, 2011 at 3:46 pm
The skirmishes do, but the Classic Instances related to Mirkwood do not. Of course, those were painful enough the first time around, so…
November 10, 2011 at 3:50 pm
ah, sorry that’s what I meant. Thanks Bry for clarifying. Yes, the skirmishes scale (the all do), but the instances such as Warg Pens, Dungeons, etc. do not. So all the 3-man, 6-man, and 12-man content from Mirkwood still caps at 65; but I would believe that they will be scaled in the future as the level cap gets higher.
November 10, 2011 at 1:12 pm
I just finished up going through Mirkwood on my Warden. One thing I noticed which was a nice bonus is that the level 65 mobs around Thangulhad now drop the Westfold crafting scroll cases and the wargs drop Large Hides.
I really enjoyed Mirkwood, although I did skip the Drownholt area after hearing horror stories about it. Luckily I was able to get enough rep from the other quest hubs to get Kindred with the Malledhrim.
November 10, 2011 at 2:39 pm
My kinship’s opinion for Mirkwood and Moria is divided: there are those that love Mirkwood and hate eternally Moria, and there’s me! I enjoy Moria so much that I even come back many times just to hang around, kill some orcs and collect reputation (going for the first group). The first time I went through the exit to Lorien, I must admit that I felt dissapointed to see the sun..:-(. Mirkwood has a lot of quests and a ton of skirmish playing time but I never get used to this dark foggy environment.
November 10, 2011 at 3:18 pm
I could have sworn they had reduced the constant spawns of orcs in at least the entrance bit to the Mirk-eaves in the RoI patch, but I could be mistaken. Level will certainly make a big difference in being able to actually hit them and survive. Or perhaps it’s just a post-RoI champ thing…*shrugs*
I have run a couple of characters through Mirkwood, and always cringe right before starting the Scuttledells section. No matter what, I’ll find myself getting lost, and inevitably run into plenty of the trapdoor spiders. It’s not a pretty place, I tell ya!
November 10, 2011 at 3:23 pm
I am pretty sure that it’s a reduced amount of spawns. I certainly remembered it as being way less populated.
And yeah, I admit to having gotten lost in the Scuttledells a couple of times as well
November 10, 2011 at 3:58 pm
I really love the haunted inn area, and I think the accompanying quest storyline is one of my favourites in the whole game
November 10, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Im in the hate moria, love mirkwood camp. I don’t particularly like the scenery or the look of mirkwood but to me It has always felt like as soon as I finish the intro instance i can blink and go from 60-65 just like that, don’t get me wrong I like the story involved with the area aswell but my favorite part is how well it’s designed for good quick xp.
November 11, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Mirkwood is my favorite place to quest in the game. That and the new revamped evindim. There are a ton of quests and it flows very well. The epic story line is great also.
November 13, 2011 at 5:21 pm
I love mirkwood, from the scenery to the epic quest, the constant stream of questing and xp and all the stuff that I feel is typical of the game.
There are only a few gripes I have:
1. Taur Morvith is completely devoid of quests. There are camps that feel like quests were intended but they’re simply not there. There’s this strange gap in the levels of quests just jumping from 63 to 65, so I think that’s where that went. Doesn’t detract from the whole experience but it’s strange.
2. Bog Crawlers. They’re the most irritating thing ever. I don’t know exactly how they’re supposed to be as powerful as they are, but they were the only thing that I feared in the area by far.
I wish that I was afraid of spiders or something, because, well, it’s mirkwood. But even trapper spiders didn’t actually trap you or in any way make you fear them, because they just unstealthed behind you and quickly got killed. Could be a lot better.
3. There aren’t any elves that are actually natives of mirkwood to be seen. True, the whole thing is an expedition of the Golden Host against Dol Guldur, but surely there would be a single elf of Thranduil’s realm to be seen? I hope that at some point northern mirkwood will be seen, and it seems implied as intended by the deeds calling the region ‘southern mirkwood’.
Overall, these issues are far from major. I came back after a long absence to find that level 60 wasn’t max level any more, and thoroughly enjoyed my experience of levels 60-66 in Mirkwood, more than I expected.