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the plain truth about lotro from 2nd to live beta to todays date
starwarsnut
Member UncommonPosts: 230
Looking to buy lotro well heres the facts from beta to current date. This is not my "Opinion" as most have stated
Graphics 10 (One thing lotro does have is awesome graphics)
servers 6 (Lag is up and down depending on area your in. PVP zone has the worst lag)
Gm's 5 ( Gm's response time are decent. THey tend to close more tickets then they respond to now a days )
Character creation 8 ( not bad could use some refinement )
Grinding 1 ( Need to grind your character. Then grind armor. Then grind your weapon up)
Shadows of angmar (1-50) original launch
Shadows of angmar was the most fun and best memories I have of lotro.Launch was solid and good
raids.
rift of nazgursh introduced (Balrog fight 24 man raid)
This to date is still the best raid as far as im concerned. It was fun and u could get the raid pieces in a deent amount of time. Was good times then
Pvp
Free peoples= You human/dwarf/hobbit/elf classes
Monster players= Orcs/reavers/spiders/wargs
Free peoples pvp= the free peoples have to get to lvl cap and get gear to come out the moors.
Free peoples rank= Means nothing theres no difference between a rank 0-15 freep pvp person
Monster players pvp= Monster players star out at lvl cap (no leveling)
monster player rank= Means new skills traits
Stars/rating (pvp)
This is for epeens mostly and people thinking thier good. It doesnt do anything positive but make people on both sides worry over stars and not enjoy the game due to people targeting them. Turbine then removed the stars putting them on forums only.
Rank farming
People desperate to rank buying dual accounts and bringing thier freep/creep depending on which toon needs the rank and killing thier own other toon to give rank to thier main toon that needs the rank.
Boxing
Not so much of an issue outside the moors (pvp) zone. In pvp zone its complete garbage for both sides and like most companies turbine has no ethics on this issue.
Mines of moria (50-60)
Mines of moria was decent introduced trait lines and first age weapons (first age weapons highest dps weapons)
Legendary weapons introduced grind your weapon and break/deconstruct crappy ones for runes/relics u can put on weapons. You could not choose what legacies to put on weapons yet I.E crit chance multiplier etc it was luck of the draw to get a weapon with everything u want on it.
Watcher raid introduced
Was decent had to get full moria gear set to do the raids though. Moria armor sets introduced acid resist needed for most the raids.
Pvmp Free peoples were insanely over powered at launch.
Blackarrow (Monster player version of hunter/archer class) got a ridiculous fire dot that made the majority of creep monster players play a ba class to do nothing but spam a fire dot with next to no cooldown.
Suposed new pvp map never made into moria.
Siege of mirkwood (LVL 60-65)
Huge letdown rushed out to fast. You dont even get to see all of mirkwood only small portion of it. Was the same as other other 2 expansions not much to say really but personally i expected lot more
Dol guldur raids
Well these werent available at first to most due to the gating of armor and radiance introduced. Dol guldur was decent raids but overall just rehashed mobs and no witch king raid or even an appearance by the witch king (not a lore whore so i dont know if were supose to see the witch king or not accurate to lore?)
Turbine sold to wb
WB bought out turbine and the first thing to be introduced was the turbine store. With the store came a "buy now" attitude so if you didnt feel like doing content for certain items you can just go and "buy now" that item. You cant buy armor or things like that just pots weapon scrolls
The turbine team claimed the store doesnt offer advantage just convience. Well that is a flat out lie how so you ask? Well if some doesnt have money to buy turbine points and has to grind weapons/scrolls/relics compared to someone who does thats an advantage. They sell morale pots that are on a different timer then regular morale pots that u can buy from the store. So if your in a fight especially the moors (moors=pvp zone) and you have store bought pots u can use those when your other pots are down and the other person who cant buy those pots is screwed giving the person who has the store pots advantage. Theres more examples i can give to but i should point out that u get 500 turbine points a month which is meh considering what items cost.
"Buy now"
I am currently a subscribed member and when i go to log in im spammed with loading screens to buy items and the store is constanly there in your face if your doing deeds they make the "buy now" icon big on the deed section and more so other places.The store is now selling more and more things that you used to have to earn in game. The monster players (pvp) will be getting a store soon where they can buy there quest items that most creeps had to earn the hard way.
F2P (free to play)
Most f2p people are lvl 50 not all but most commonly f2p people are. I feel bad for the f2p people they are really screwed over. I cant suggest subscribing either to lol. I will say that f2p people are ridiculously screwed in every aspect.I would not suggest f2p to anyone.You have to buy/spend points to get traits opened up and you have to buy stable acces to go places charged up the butt. As you can see on here the f2p people are upset that im saying this. If you like f2p that fine but in the long run your going to pay 3 times as much as a sub thats the whole point of f2p to make u sub.
PVMP (player vs monster player)
Pvp has always been a mess and continues to be a mess.Turbine refuses to do much to the moors (moors=pvp zone)
Balance will never happen untill turbine makes monster players clones of thier freep side class.
So far this has been what the devs have been doing to try to make balance
1.Make one side overpowered each book/updates causing more problems then it fixes
2. Making creep side classes dot machines and huge morale pools (the majority of creep players do nothing but spam dots)
3. introducing more pve into a pvp zone. For creeps benefits more then free peoples
4. Wasted development time by creating a tree with a bird next to it in the moors.This dev shold be fired lol
Bugs exploits
Raid loot chests still bug out. Gm response is to re do the raid.
There has been a 4 year ongoing bug with the warleader class (monster player pvp class thats a tank/buff class) This bug makes warleaders invincible unable to take any damage. This bug has been around for 4 years and still no fix to current date.
Stealth has been broken for a very long time. They claimed they fixed it but you can still be tracked/followed by spider hatchlings (spider hatchlings=spider pet)
Rez point exploits people are still able to go into rez zones and kill (Rez areas have 1 shots that are supose to kill you if u get close. I wont describe the exploit in detail
Cj exploit one book had a cj exploit created by a dev causing cj's to be removed from the moors. CJ= conjunction a skill in which a wheel pops up offering a choice of a heal or damage or a dot or power depending on what the group chose you can get interesting mix of things.
Server lines were finally addressed when rift was close to launch and a lvl 5 in bree complained of rollbacks for some reason lol. Be it almost 6 months later
They have fixed a lot of bugs in fairness though.
Misc
Skill lock pretty bad still
Lag is god aweful for most. Turbines solutions is to turn down your graphics settings and turn cloaks off. Good thing you bought that high end graphics card to see it all.
Legendary item update
You can now have the legacies you want some what that is. You have to get your legendary weapon to lvl 30 and decon it and it will give you the legacy you want.Or you can just "buy it now" in the store
Rise of isengard
Since its not released yet i cant say much but from what i heard im not terribly impressed.
Dragon raid
Seen a drawing of it not much else.
F2p (free to play) will have access to the moors (moors=pvp zone) This will be bad unless they raise the cap lvl to come out to the moors to least 70. Right now a level 40 can go to the moors a lvl 65 pvp zone atm. So most f2p people are lvl 50 if this is allowed into the moors and creeps are lvl 75 thats going to be pure fail on turbines part.
Boxers
Since the moors will be f2p and f2p people are going to be given a free reaver a person who boxes can make endless f2p accounts and box anywhere from 6 to 38 toons if he wants. Turbine doesnt care about boxing and ethics so the skys the limit there.
Infamy/renown for quests
You will now get renown/infamy for quests in the moors (pvp) zone. Normally the only way you would get this infamy/renown is from doing pvp.
New pvp zone put on the shelf once again.
Overall the lotro that most vets have loved is long gone. Its all about catering to "buy now" people and the game has been dumbed way down like most mmo's down the road tend to do. A good example is the moria epic quest line 2.5.5 this book line used to take 6 or more people to complete they are all soloable now and a skirmish. I remember having 6 people and it took us at least a couple of tries to finish the whole book and now the book the instance parts anyways can be done solo in 10 minutes or less.
Comments
Are F2P characters actually stuck at 50, or do you just mean essentially due to a lack of content?
Agree with many of your points.
The Rift, in particular, was good times for all. Turbine is an odd one. I have interacted with some completely awesome developers from Turbine but the management was awful and there is no way I will touch the F2P version.
You can go higher then lvl 50 on f2p if u buy moria/mirkwood and so on.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/book-spotlights/904-november-2010-update
November update:
1) Level cap for all characters is 65
2) Entire Epic for everyone
3) Legendary item system is available to everyone.
4) Moria, Lothlorien and Mirkwood landscape access is available to everyone.
- When I said no one is telling you to grind I didn't mean it wasn't required or that the offical word was you don't have to. I'm saying no one is telling you you have to. I'm sure there are others like me that don't care to make level cap in a day or week or month. For those that just want to enjoy the journey, there's no reason to grind. We just do the quests and enjoy ourselves.
As far as traits or weapons or legacies. I'm getting along just fine without them.
I'm sure for those that want to pvp like you do, their required, but for us average Joe Blow's - nope.
- Raids and Pvp lag is something I don't know a thing about so if you say you lag than I'm sure you do but even in Bree on my server, no lag and I'm on the top graphics level.
For the average player things aren't as bad as you paint them.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Just to be fair to Turbine, The way their FTP modle works atm you CAN get to max level get all the best gear and see everything without spending a dime IF you are willing to put in the work doing deeds. You can earn Turbine points from doing meta quests ingame on ftp characters and you CAN buy all the zones and expansions from the store for turbine points. If I remeber correctly the only peice of gameplay that cannot be bought in the store is Monsterplay.
meh, I'm a life-timer. I've played since beta (don't remember which one but it wasn't open) and I am still having fun. Not the greatest game in the world, but I still come back every week. I'm pretty casual, though, so maybe all the stuff you posted doesn't bother me as much.
It's a proven historical fact that beer saved humankind.
yeah theoretically u can get to 65 doing it that way but lol man it will take you twice as long and i mean a loooong time. To each his own i guess. If your having fun thats all that matters.
Plain truth my ass. This OP is more opinion, misinformation, and straight up lies than anything.
About the only real and viable worth that post had is in relation to the bugs mentioned because while they aren't gamebreaking it is ridiculous how long those have been allowed to be around.
...and the overall general sentiment towards Mirkwood is that it was a disappointment. Some hated it and there are some that liked it but you would be hardpressed not to recognize that least from a general perspective the majority appeared to be pretty disappointed with that expansion.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
When I played multi-boxing was not an issue. Has that changed in LOTRO?
(Yes, a personal pet peeve. I hate it in EVE, EQ/EQ2, and any game I encounter it in. 1 client to a pc guys... lol.)
It is the same as always. It isn't against the ToS so they're around as they have always been. Just not a lot of it that occurs in this game.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
OP is abit odd and inconsistent in that he first complains about a star system which is apparently only epeen and serves no real purpose and the terrible grinds and then goes on to complain that cosmetic stuff which used to require unlocking (both epeen and grinding here) are now available in the store.... uhm ye?
You can get to 65 by purely playing for free. In all honesty its quite the hassle, but in fairness when signing up for a free game did you really think you would get the same treatment as the ppl who are actually paying a monthly sub? Is this bizarro?
Also there are many complaints about PvP and I just have to say that while they may be valid, did you really pick Lotro for your PvP pleasures? If so, please reveal some of the thinking behind such a choice.
I honestly cant help but think this is somehow another masked attempt at bashing f2p, which is probably one of the best things to happen for this game.
How are F2P people "screwed". .. free to level 50 is pretty good. If you want to play you can buy packs, expansions etc. Or. . they can quit without having spent money OR. . they could sub.
I think when the message you sent started with the fact that you hate turbine you are going to lose a lot of people. From the perspective of someone coming back after not really playing since beta. . the game is great - oh and I can play it free now and just buy what I want when I want.
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!
The amusing part is that isn't even correct. F2P players can now level to 65 just like a subber can. They also have access to all of the epic quests.
Although to be fair he did retract that initial statement in a later post.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Ah I didn't see that. The statement that F2Pers have it rought when it is 'free' I always find odd. Also when a post has the subject that includes 'the plain truth' and then is based mostly on opinion.
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!
lol at the last 3 posts. Dont take my word for it or theres go see for your self. Like i said your screwing yourself by just doing the epic lines to go to 65.If you want to do it that way go for it but lolz youll be at mordor by the time your 65. Ive played lotro longer then most people on this thread. Those who have played the game as long as i have the "vets" are the ones that know the real lotro and agree. If you want to listen to 3 month old players be my guest everyone has an opinion.
I stand by the f2p people are screwed your going to spend 3 times the money you would on f2p then you would buying things. Thats the whole point of f2p which is really (pay to play)
The reoccuring theme seems to be f2p sucks, cant say I'm surprised
lol at your not reading the last 3 posts. I am playing it. . I am seeing for myself. I have bought content. F2P doesn't mean that you absolutely can not pay for anything if you want. . spend $15 every 2 months. . every 3 months. . every 6. The point of F2P is that the choice of spending money is yours. If you can not afford $10 here and there than yes it would be more difficult. The quest packs are also often on sale up to %50 off. You just need one here and there.
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!
Just because you're getting called out on comments and remarks you've made that are bullshit doesn't mean someone isn't a long term player of the game. Your rationale doesn't even make any sense. Big surprise there.
Not that it should matter but I've been playing the game since launch. Try not to make things up next time and treat your opinion as the "plain truth" and maybe you'll get responses more to your apparent liking.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
/shrug
That's the thing. There isn't any truth in it ouside of it being your opinion but they are free to find out for themselves.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Every single game I know that has gone from P2P to F2P is a game that was going down. This applies to Lotro too. I was raid leader in a very active guild when I left, a bit before the F2P change, and I used to talk to many other guild leaders, and they all agreed on one thing: getting guild events going was getting harder and harder becouse players were cancelling subscriptions like crazy.
Turbine went F2P on DDO becouse it failed big time, but they did not do the same with Lotro then. They did it later, when the game started failing too.
Now the game has lots more players. Good for those who joined later and those who didn't leave. But you can't deny that new content is coming out way way slower than it used to be when lvl cap was 50. Wth, most of the dungeons you are running now at the new level cap are just rescaled old lvl 50 instances, that says it all.