Stephenfry, in his ‘Hell’s Dwarves’ outfit
As someone who’s recently returned to LOTRO after a 3 month hiatus, it’s been interesting to see my first impressions of the game again. And on the whole, they’re pretty good. From a COMPLETELY UNBIASED perspective. Ish.
My name is Stephenfry/Lapis/Bobbyo/Hildifast/whatever you want to call me, and I’m a level 75 (dwarf!) huntard residing on the Imladris server, and I have been playing since the advent of free to play.
On my return to the game, I’ve created a new character, and have also been playing my hunter a bit, playing through the Great River region, running instances and re-learning the class, and the game.
The first thing I noticed is that the graphics on this game, when turned up high (which I can do, and my PC really isn’t that great) are excellent. The character/clothing detail is good and the world, especially in areas such as the Shire, Lorien and the Great River, is very nice to just walk around and explore. It has its flaws (some of the detailing, and the foliage), but I think it’s one of the best looking MMOs out there. And I know its just a matter of opinion, but I prefer its style to the more cartoonish games, such as WoW. During my break from the game, I’ve been playing games such as Skyrim, and the fact that it doesn’t look that shabby speaks volumes. Here’s a fancy screenshot of Evendim to prove it:
Isn’t it nice?
My second impression, which happened as soon as I logged into my main, level capped character, was that there is a huge amount to learn. Over time, during the long levelling process, you build up a repetoire of skills, and your skill rotation changes. And having to re-learn all of that takes a lot of patience. I’m a hunter, so you might be thinking that it’s easy for me. It’s just mashing a few buttons right, not caring about anything other than Pew Pewing. Well, you’re probably right. But then, I tried a solo skirmish (Tuckborough) yesterday on tier 1 and died 6 times. 6 TIMES. And this is because I had lost the fluency and fluidity of all my skills. You spend 100s of hours levelling, and over that time you are given new skills at a relatively slow rate. Its manageable at least. You learn what each skill does, and when it’s useful in a battle. You build up your skill rotation, adding and removing skills here and there, and it starts to become fluid. And I forgot all that.
This is what happens if you forget how to play. In this example, I forgot that it isn’t possible to solo Draigoch.
Thirdly, a lot changes in just two updates.
Here’s what I missed:
- The Great River region, and a new epic chapter
- A new skirmish
- Skirmish soldiers on landscape
- Instance finder with full capability
- Fornost Updates
- Moria Revamp
- New maps
- Anniversary Festival
- Spring Festival
- Class Changes
- UI changes (new items in inventory marked, for example)
- Oh, and there’s something called Rohan announced. I’ve heard it’s kind of a big thing.
That’s quite a long list, in not a very long time. And even minor UI changes are enough to make me go o.O
But those two updates have been two of the best, the Great River region really is excellent, and beautiful, if a bit of a rep grind.
My final point (for this part at least, I’ll probably remember some stuff I forgot to put in here) is a shout out to Imladris! Yay, best, most underpopulated server ever! And thank you to my kinship, the Forbidden Few. Imladris’s no.1! They’ve all been very (re)welcoming to me. There’s a word for rewelcoming. Please help.
Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!
Hildifast
edit: I now realise that my failings were also due to the fact that, due to updates, all the points I had spent on my LIs had reset. So it’s not really my fault, except I did fail to notice. Derp.
June 22, 2012 at 10:47 am
Great post. I have some characters on Imladris and it’s a nice peaceful server. It’s refreshing to read pieces like this after pages and pages of bellyaching in the forums. You’d think a game as hated as this wouldn’t be so successful!
June 22, 2012 at 11:07 am
Thanks. Imladris is a nice server, although I’ve had kinmates transfer servers, simply because raiding etc. is so terrible here. But if you’re not hell bent on getting the best gear and raiding every day, then its generally a nice place to be.
Honestly, I don’t understand most of the hate for Turbine. They made a great game, with 3 good expansions, constantly supply us with good updates, and have announced what’s looking like the best expansion yet. Personally, I think the ‘hate’ should be directed at Warner Bros, not Turbine. Although they have made some pretty bad decisions (armour in the store and the like.) Also, I think CSTM should be (and it largely is) pro-Turbine. Leave the haters for Massively.
June 25, 2012 at 9:02 pm
I totally agree.
I’ve only played LOTRO for two years or so and I’ve always played on Imladris. I’ve always loved the server and think its really nice. I love LOTRO aswell and i think it is a lovely lookijg game with a great attention to detail and the lore of lord of the rings.
And I’m casual f2p player so in that two years I’ve only reached level 39 on my main and still in the late teens with my two others.
I’m an officer in the Guard Of The Citadel RP Kin and I’ve always had a lot of respect for the Forbidden Few.
And to be honest I hate all the complaining on the forums, to me it’s a great game and yes there could be some good thing that could be added, but all the new stuff is really awesome…
But anyway, great post mate and welcome back. I hope to see you arround some time.
-Winterwolf Wolfheart, lvl 39, Elven Hunter.
June 22, 2012 at 1:46 pm
i have played several games for a longer period of time and forums will always be full of complaining. some justified but more than half is always more than ridiculous.
people/players that are satisfied dont come to the forums a lot they are busy having fun in the game. it goes for basically everything in life when you work with customers. you rarely get positive feedback.
June 22, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Good point
I guess I’ve never made a forum thread about how good LotRO is…
June 22, 2012 at 11:06 am
Ach, that LI-point-resetting thing gets me every time. What’s worse is when my minstrel goes for weeks with everything unequipped for RP purposes, and then goes into battle. After five or ten minutes I suddenly remember I can use a sword. And a shield. Oh yeah.
It’s very pleasant to hear your impressions.
June 22, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Welcome back to Middle Earth.
By the way, it would be interesting, to tell us how long did it take you to get back on track to the level you were before leaving.
June 22, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Thanks. It took about a day to get to a reasonable level, but I think some of things that before I would do automatically, I have to think about now. So it got pretty good pretty quickly, helped by the fact that I had a while just to run around, killing low level things and deed grinding. And I finally found a use for the training dummies! It’s good, but not fluent.
However, skill use is just one thing. One example of something else I’m rusty on is in chat, say, when people say “LFM 2/3 PoI T2″ it takes me a while to realise they need 1 person to complete their group for a tier 2 run of the Pits of Isengard, when previously it would be immediate
June 23, 2012 at 5:20 am
Thanks for your answer!
June 22, 2012 at 2:05 pm
Nice write-up Stephenfry!
I get a /giggle whenever someone suggests that there “isn’t enough to do” or that “content comes too quickly”. hehe There is enough that I feel and enjoy accomplishing stuff and there is always more stuff to be enjoyed.
…and Rohan is coming faster than I can catch a fish and complete deeds.
Enjoy the ride!
June 22, 2012 at 2:36 pm
Thanks
Those are my thoughts exactly. The world of Middle-earth is a huge area. If you’re an altoholic, like me, then you have a lot of variation of things you can do on the way to 75. And leveling one of each class, is 9 characters to max level. Thats 9 totally different experiences. And by then, I assume Rohan would have been released. If you hate levelling alts, then theres still a lot to do at the level cap. I don’t know anyone with max fishing level, for example
June 23, 2012 at 9:54 am
I have run around for hours with a new legendary still equipped in my main slot instead off to the side to just gain exp… lol! thinking that the area had gotten a bit harder for some reason.
I also am more inclined to realistic games than the cartoony and LoTR has some beautiful regions and areas, its the main reason why I still play, plus the whole lore thang.
welcome back and cheers!
June 24, 2012 at 6:50 am
Hello there!
I agree with all of it said above, LOTRO landscapes, wheather and areas are just beautiful, even the Forochel fog bug!
Here is Evendim as seen from my PC (i got the High resolution LOTRO if it matters):
http://imgur.com/U8a6d
June 24, 2012 at 10:45 am
Thanks! That’s a very nice screenshot
June 25, 2012 at 6:10 am
Here’s another one of mine, if you’re interested. This one’s of Annuminas http://imgur.com/FrfCI
June 24, 2012 at 8:50 am
Thanks for the article! I just came back to Lotro from a 5-month hiatus, and have been experiencing similar problems.(I didn’t have quite as much amnesia. I remembered my rotations, but had forgotten all the situational and longer CD skills.)
Only been back a few days and hadn’t noticed the LI point reset, big thanks for that catch!
June 24, 2012 at 9:56 am
Stunning picture,
I still seem to gravitate to the ‘horrid’ regions… like Moria and Mirkwood. They are so absolutely immersive in their graphics, it feels wet, dank, evil and disgusting. YeY! on the flip side.. Eregion is breathtaking… all that grass swaying in the breeze with the cloud shadows flitting overhead….
June 24, 2012 at 10:49 am
Thanks. Being a dwarf, I love Moria (at least, I do now I’ve done it. Not so much at the time
)and Mirkwood has always been one of my favourite areas. I have a nice picture of mirkwood here: http://i.imgur.com/SUBUEs.jpg
June 24, 2012 at 10:50 am
http://imgur.com/SUBUE. the other’s 90x90px (i.e. tiny)