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How is the grouping in this game?
Huaua
Member Posts: 1
As a long time MMORPG player, I'm thinking about taking a dive into this game. From what I've seen it's full of fun to be had, and gives off resemblance to FFXI's storyline-based gameplay, something I'm very nostalgic about. One thing I do not really know anything about yet however, would be LOTRO's group play. Is it anything like WoW's (this would be a negative for me)? Or is it more like FFXI's (a positive, I tend to feel grouping is a very important part of MMORPG's, hence the multiplayer portion). Perhaps it is like neither of these types of grouping systems, and has its own?
Would I need more than 2-3 people? How do the raids work? Is it fun to group with others? How does one find a group? These are just a couple of the questions I have so far, and any answers are well appreciated!
Cheers 
Comments
I guess grouping is pretty similar to WoW but there are alot more group-content while leveling. The problem is to get groups for it but if you are in a good kin or have some friends to play with its much better. 2-3 people is really the ideal way of playing LotrO and there is alot of small-group quests and instances.
Groups are found through the chat channel LFF, there is a groupfinding tool but nobody use it. (sadly)
They are focusing on 12-man raids now, but there is not alot of raiding content-
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
LotRO can be solo'd all the way to max level. However, you will miss a TON of content if you do that.
After the newbie zones, every single zone in the game has a large amount of content that requires small groups of two or three, and also a large amount that requires larger groups. For example, the Lone Lands has two areas wtih nothing but elite mobs and a large number of quests going in there. As you get higher in level, even more group content starts to show up.
This is a strong contrast with WoW, which only requires grouping if you want to do a dungeon. My feeling is that Turbine has it just about perfect. By catering to both kinds of players, they increase the potential market share of the game. That in turn benefits both types of players because they have more revenues to devote toward expanding content.
Almost non-existent....sure there are many group quests early on thrown into the mix, but as you near the end of the game the solo ones seem to trump them and take over. There are the standard fare of group-instance-grinding for sets of gear and 2 raids from SoA which can be done with 6-12 players now instead of 24, but other than that its mostly all solo.
Unfortunately LOTRO's future is headed into the realm of all solo except for the instances which will be home to sets of gear. Bk7 and all the quests in Lothlorien except 1 were entirely solo and Pre-MoM; crafting gear was important and substantial, and now its worthless and there is no point of it even being there anymore! Farming & Scholar are still good...others are blah!
...oh and I have tested this, but you can skip every group quest in the game, and still get to lvl 60 with tons of content and solo quests left over, and not miss a beat of the story. Though as said above you will miss alot of fun quests and better gear, but if ya find a sugar-momma or two....players can make ya some crit gear that trumps damn near every drop or tier of quest rewards until 60 when the new set-gear comes into play!
Well, personally, I found leveling to be extremely slow skipping the group quests (I've played for 9 months now and am only level 43, and that thanks to the tweaked xp curve in book 7 otherwise I think I'd still be 39). Indeed, that's why they changed the xp curve, it was so slow to level up the old way...
Not that I wanted to skip the group quests, it's just extremely hard to find groups for them in this game, for a variety of reasons.
If you have existing friends though to play the game with, probably will work out well.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
I've been playing for 5 months, and I've done a LOT of the group content and never had a problem getting a group. I have a good kin but they are so far ahead of me I'm forced to PUG fellowship quets. I find that if you actively search for or *gasp* create a group yourself that you'll almost always find people. Up to this point most of the people have been reasonable, helpful, and friendly.
Not only does it have a good mix of group content, it has one of the most robust quest trackers in MMO's. Why do i bring this up when your asking about grouping. Because the quest log, and tracker will show you were other group members are in quest lines, and who has what quest...at a glance. No need to type and ask. Its brilliant.
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