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Such a charming game....In the end, its not for me
delete5230
Member EpicPosts: 7,081
For weeks now, I've been studying Lord of the Rings Online. Been playing it on and off for several days now. In the past I've played it with when I traveled. I had it on my cheap laptop because it could handle it on a lower end computers. Somehow I always seem to find it boring. But I always felt I haven't given it a fair shake.......This time was different, I really wanted to like it. I really wanted to get involved and find that community that everyone talks about. I had a vision this time to seek out other adventurers and do a little team work. It's what I like mmos for.
Really get involved!!
Well, this is what I found and I'll be honest.
First I'll start with my intentions. I'll play for free and get a good feel for the game. If things work out to level 20 I'll buy the Expansion Quad pack to get my Ruin Keeper (love healers) that I so desperately want to play. The Expansion Pack along with my class should get me far in the game, and at the same time I'll become a paid VIP member and never buy anything from the store..... By this you know I'm serious.
Anyway, on with LOTRO, I decided to create a Champion (melee class). I have to say, none of the available classes intrigued me. It's all good, I'll get my Ruin Keeper eventually.
Starting out in the Human area starter zone, I have to say the graphics could be the best I've ever played in an mmo with everything maxed out. The world is so beautiful and this would be really hard to dispute by anyone who had played the game recently....Holy Cow, really amazing !
Textures, lighting, draw distance and even character's, maybe not so much with animation but I don't care about that.
Because this is big on my list, I would like to talk about abilities. This is very disappointing, sure melee classes in most mmos are often slow out of the gate, but this Champion class could win a prize for boring. I have to agree with a YouTube reviewer on the Captain class I watched the other day. He says all abilities are the same. Well, same here, there all the same....This is how I set my action bar. You have abilities to build fervour and others that use fervour. At level 17 I had many, so I put my add fervour on one side and use fervour on the other side and simply spammed abilities, giving no thought what's so ever.....No need too, there basically just stabs !
Fighting, Let me start by saying nothing is important if the game is too easy. Weapons, Armor, Classes, Abilities, Trait points, no need for healers or tanks all this stuff and more is worthless if your health bar never goes down. I'll say it had gotten harder since I played two years ago, but its almost impossible to die. I would even go as far to say, I could open UI boxes and study things as mobs are beating on me. It truly is that easy !...At level 17, I easily took down a level 24 Goblin with at least 1/4th health left. To make matters worst, I decided to spend my Trait points on an AOE build and if I get mobbed by 5 or 6, they all go down together.
Let me say I actually love this game. The world is so peaceful, cities are alive with NPC's and the population at times are amazingly healthy. The game has Soooo much going for it, with so much to do. People are helpful in both world chat and my guild.
So Will I continue ?........ I would have to say no, sadly.......It's too easy....This should be an off-line game. NO REASION to group other than maybe end game. I do see max level players advertising, but to play to level 105 would be insane if you are in it for an mmo.
Would I recommend ?....... Yes, absolutely if your a solo player and like stress free games with others around you. It's just not an mmo !
Really get involved!!
Well, this is what I found and I'll be honest.
First I'll start with my intentions. I'll play for free and get a good feel for the game. If things work out to level 20 I'll buy the Expansion Quad pack to get my Ruin Keeper (love healers) that I so desperately want to play. The Expansion Pack along with my class should get me far in the game, and at the same time I'll become a paid VIP member and never buy anything from the store..... By this you know I'm serious.
Anyway, on with LOTRO, I decided to create a Champion (melee class). I have to say, none of the available classes intrigued me. It's all good, I'll get my Ruin Keeper eventually.
Starting out in the Human area starter zone, I have to say the graphics could be the best I've ever played in an mmo with everything maxed out. The world is so beautiful and this would be really hard to dispute by anyone who had played the game recently....Holy Cow, really amazing !
Textures, lighting, draw distance and even character's, maybe not so much with animation but I don't care about that.
Because this is big on my list, I would like to talk about abilities. This is very disappointing, sure melee classes in most mmos are often slow out of the gate, but this Champion class could win a prize for boring. I have to agree with a YouTube reviewer on the Captain class I watched the other day. He says all abilities are the same. Well, same here, there all the same....This is how I set my action bar. You have abilities to build fervour and others that use fervour. At level 17 I had many, so I put my add fervour on one side and use fervour on the other side and simply spammed abilities, giving no thought what's so ever.....No need too, there basically just stabs !
Fighting, Let me start by saying nothing is important if the game is too easy. Weapons, Armor, Classes, Abilities, Trait points, no need for healers or tanks all this stuff and more is worthless if your health bar never goes down. I'll say it had gotten harder since I played two years ago, but its almost impossible to die. I would even go as far to say, I could open UI boxes and study things as mobs are beating on me. It truly is that easy !...At level 17, I easily took down a level 24 Goblin with at least 1/4th health left. To make matters worst, I decided to spend my Trait points on an AOE build and if I get mobbed by 5 or 6, they all go down together.
Let me say I actually love this game. The world is so peaceful, cities are alive with NPC's and the population at times are amazingly healthy. The game has Soooo much going for it, with so much to do. People are helpful in both world chat and my guild.
So Will I continue ?........ I would have to say no, sadly.......It's too easy....This should be an off-line game. NO REASION to group other than maybe end game. I do see max level players advertising, but to play to level 105 would be insane if you are in it for an mmo.
Would I recommend ?....... Yes, absolutely if your a solo player and like stress free games with others around you. It's just not an mmo !
Post edited by delete5230 on
Comments
I'm happy to hear you found the community friendly and helpful. The combat may seem slow, it is a quite old-fashioned game, even if the gfx is top notch
In a slight defense on the difficulty, you've picked Champ, and also went with the AoE... which is the most popular "farming alt" class, and also the advised newcomer class - and for a reason. Champ has the second best defense among classes (easily can take the tank's role if no tank present in the group), and beyond this high defense Champ has one of the best offenses overall, and when it's about large packs of mob, the best one. I'm not saying the low levels are not easy (because they are), just saying you picked the EZ-mode class beyond that
Also for the no reason of group part: first 20 levels are pretty much a tutorial, introducing the mechanics one by one. Not sure if you stopped at 17 or went further, but at around 20 you reach Great Barrows, the first 6-man instance (obviously a nice reason for grouping up, unless you can solo it maybe 20 more levels later
Around 24 you reach Weathertop, which was the first forced-grouping story instance - true, you can solo it now with the IG buff, but it's a great reason for group still.
Beyond that in almost every zone you can find group-encouraged or group-required areas, instances, etc. So, if you like to play in groups, there are plenty of opportunities for that during the journey to the level cap. Not to mention the difficulty is keep rising towards the end, like in most games.
If you prefer healers, check the Mini, after the updates it has now a damage close to the Champ, but much less defense (so you need to kite and maybe even self-heal a bit - though maybe not on the lower levels
(But if not, that's fine too, a short visit in Middle-earth is still better than no visit at all
You gave me some encouragement to continue. Add to the fact the world is extremely charming. For an older game and so much to do, I really think if it were released today no one would tell the difference other than some people bitching for more animation....And this was never on my priority list.
Also don't forget its open world and very little zoning. LOTRO and World of Warcraft are the only games that you naturally bleed into a different theme. Vanguard was also one for that, but it had its problems.
I may try a Minstrel for healing ( love healers ) but the thought of playing music to fight/heal never gave me a realistic feeling, but hay others love it, maybe I would too.....This way I could hold off on the Expansion Quad pack a bit longer and just VIP for a month and see how things go
Unfortunately instances are not in their former glory, they launched as the norm back then, large areas with a run from 40-60 minutes to 2-3 hours or even more. Over the years they've been "sliced up" into more convenient chunks of 15-30 minutes (the instance is the same, just walled into smaller zones and have multiple entry points). After that they've added the Instance Finder, so you don't even need to travel at the doors, just simply teleport into the instance and then back to your location.
(on a sidenote, that's also a mechanic which is opening up for you at level 20, can join PUGs through it for the different group contents. One more reason to reach 20
A list of instances, order by access levels: http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/World_Instance#World_instances_by_Level
(those with xx - 105 at the description can be scaled to the player's level)
And there are the story instances too, the raids, and the Big battles
Minstrel, you can think about the music part as simply an animation
And if all fails (can happen, especially in Angmar, mobs there love to mute you, which can be harmless for some classes, but for obvious reasons switches off the mini almost completely), you also have your weapon, and can even wield a small shield to hide behind, for some protection. But of course with your sword you deal much less damage (and heal), than with your music.
Speaking of music, as a Minstrel you can play all the instruments, so you can join a band (for roleplay or concerts), and you can teach others to play the instruments which is a very sought-after skill of the minstrel (too bad teaching has a very long cooldown)
That the champ is the easiest class is not reaally a good argument though, it just tells him that the class balance is far from good.
I have to admit it was a long time ago since I played LOTRO myself, I thought it was rather amusing at launch but I moved back to EQ2 a while after, partly because more of my friends played it and partly because I thought EQ2 was more challenging at the time (my personal opinion at the time and both games have changed a lot since).
My advice to OP is that you keep going a bit longer until you tried the first group dungeon. Since it at least have kept you playing so far a little more don't hurt and most MMOs have zero challenging combat until lvl 20-35 today. If you don't enjoy the group dynamic in the dungeon it is time to cut your losses but it certainly is worth trying since the group mechanics is what makes a MMO really fun or not.
Doing as some players and hit max level without really enjoying it is of course a waste of time but since you sounds like someone who like grouping you should at least try it before quitting.
Now everything up to level 65/70 is a solo grind and above it you can still go solo if you want to. This is the main reason for me not to be overly excited anymore about LotRo. And even though I do have a lifetime subscription, I'm not really active anymore (and have over 14K TP on stock by now I think).
Gottta say though that LotRo does have one of the best story telling around. Alone for that I do logon and play a bit with my hobbit warden from time to time...
Of course on the longer run, say about level 50 (the first level cap) things gets more balanced, and drawbacks are popping their heads (for champs the lack of ranged, and the relative weakness against solo bosses) as all the classes start to focus on their main roles.
Still, it's a great newcomer class, because it's more forgiving than the others (guard is maybe even better, but delete said champ is slow... and compared to the guard, the champ is a racehorse
For the "why the first levels are easy" I agree with Reizla
I think it's simply the time... as games grew old, the early part gets easier and turning into more like a tutorial, since there's a lot more to do later, and also the level cap is higher. Back then, with only 50 levels, the first 20 level was a real challenge - it still has a residue in the deed Undying, back then it was a real achievement, nowadays it's almost a challenge to not earn it
(actually, on a second thought maybe it's not a good advice to go into GB as level 17, you can loose your Undying title there...)
As for Weathertop, I too mentioned it above, a very fun mission, and still can do in the old way, with a group. I'd suggest to do so, it is more fun. Still, I also welcomed the change which gave the option for soloing it - not because of I like to solo, nor it's tough to find on-level group for it. I just simply don't like anything forced, so while I love the group content in LotRO, I believe none of those should be forced grouping, because having options is always better. Just an opinion, may not be the correct one...
So very much starter territory. And you should get to level 20 without any serious difficulty. And remember that in part the intent of the game was to both mimic the books and to tell a story.
If you start in The Shire though and hang a right into The Old Forest it can be a shock below level 20 (if you know your way around different story). Its when the danger ramped up in the books. And then you get the various barrows.
As others have said though it has changed and adapted. And a charm. Its not for everyone though.