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Giving the trial a shot, a few questions
Howdie,
I've heard some good things about the game and figured I'd at least give the trial a go. I don't really know alot about it, though, so I need to fire off a few questions while it's downloading.
1. Are there roleplaying servers? If there's more than one, would you recommend one over another for a new player? Or should I just flip a coin and go?
2. I like archer characters. From the class descriptions I assume the Hunter is what I want. I see that other classes can use bows/crossbows, but do any others focus on those weapons as their primary weapons, or are they just there for utility?
3. I also like humans. What advantages/disadvantages do humans have over the other races in this game? Just out of curiousity.
Thanks 
Comments
1.Landroval is the Non-official RP server, i guess there isn't no offical...
2. Yeah.. Hunters are the Archer in this game, other classes may use a bow/xbow but only Hunters use it as main weapon
3. i can't answer sorry, but i believe you can find it easily at lotro homepage or some lotro wiki
Not sure about the roleplaying servers, cant remember for sure, i dont think theres really a dedicated RP server, though there are quite a few good RP guilds that create a good community on each of the servers, including things like minstrel guilds who spend lots of time creating an dplaying music in different towns like a band.
Hunter is definitely what you want. The other classes that can us ebows just use them as kind of a backup to be able to hit from range, but Hunter is the only one that actually gets you worthwhile skills for bow use.
You can find all the details during character creation about the races. When choosing, it will give you a list on the right side with the description as well as its traits (bonuses and debuffs). Humans are pretty decent hunters, one of the main things with humans from what i recall is that they dont really have any "bad" effects to their stats, and they do have some increased might, versus all the other races tend to have a good bonus offset by a decrease in some other stats. Also keep in mind that some of the classes cannot be played by some races. for example RuneKeeper i think is limited to only Dwarves and 1 other (i think it may have been humans).
1. landroval is the unofical roleplay server, and one of the most populated. brandywine also has a large population.
2. hunter is what your looking for. champions can use bows, guardians can use crossbows, and there just for pulling. the only other class sort of like the hunter, is the warden, which uses javelins for range, and still has really good melee options. they do have a lot of skills for there javelin.
3. humans have access to the most classes. there one big advantage is their racial healing skill you get later on, which is a life saver. there are a few racial skills that certain races have, that give damage to certain weapon types. elves get bow damage to bows and one handed swords, humans get one and two handed swords, dwarves axes. things like that. over all though, it doesn't make a huge change to what you want to play
1. Not sure about the extent of role playing you're into as it can vary but as far as North American servers, I'd recommend Brandywine as from what I've read and experienced first hand, it's the most populated. I'm sure you can find people with similar interests and playstyles there.
2. The archer character (hunter) happens to be my favorite class. Other classes (not all) can use bows and crossbows but it's simply for pulling mobs, not for primary attacks. For example, the Guardian (tank) can use a bow but merely to make the mob come to him vice him having to go to it.
3. I play a human Hunter. Although the elven Hunter has a slight advantage over the human Hunter, evenutally it will matter very little as the game is very gear dependent. Elves get a racial agility bonus. Agility increases range weapon damage. Also, elves get a racial bow damage bonus. It would sound like you'd want to roll elf for a Hunter but interestingly enough, I believe the Hunter class is the only class that all 4 races (human, elf, dwarf, hobbit) can be.
Good luck in LOTRO, I like it alot.
Greetings, of
Before i answer your questions i must say that sadly IMO this game is a mere shadow what it once was, ever since the first expansion (mines of moria) this game has slowly been going downhill in many ways, it is no longer the game about story and immersion, really all it is now is a WoW-esque game with a Lord of the rings Skin(gear gating, raiding, hardcore/elitist community, generic/repetitive story or quests), we have yet to see what the Warner Brothers acquisition of Turbine will do to this game, but i doubt they can help this game. The vanilla game, without the expansions is still one of the best MMORPGs to date, but really thats all i would play this game for nowadays.
now for your questions
1. In the European client of LoTRO there are Official Roleplaying servers, though for some reason in the US client there is only 'unofficially designated' servers (RP, PVP) - Landroval for RP, European community is much better to the US community as i have played for at least a year in both servers/clients.
2. You are correct, the Hunter is the only class to fully encompass usage of bows/crossbows, some other classes do make use of them, but really only for utility( pulling spawns).
3. Humans are considered superior as they have an arguable advantage over the other races with their racial trait heal that can be used once an hour, while the other races all have something similar, the heal is considered quite a bit more powerful. Mostly, people just choose race by aesthetics/lore or class choices though, Lotro is a game less about gear/ stats (or at least it used to be, after moria, its quite the opposite.) and more about HOW you play.
I hope that is a good summary for your to decide what you want to do.
- gnome chef
I completely disagree. The expansions moved the game forward and improved it alot, many people love moria and now mirkwood. They also added a very interesting new legendary item system that has nothing to do with wow. But ofc there are always the diehards that proclaim everything in the past was better, thats human nature though and has nothing to do with gamedesign.
Also the european community sucks, and codemasters is a bunch of moneygrubbers. I played there for over a year, switched to US and its loads better. The people are more friendly, less elitist, loads of people around even at low levels and you dont get flack for being a warden or RK for example. In the US i actually get to tank on my warden, in europe they rather took guardians, champions or even captains over me because and i quote "they have better armor". And yes that was on one of those great european RP servers. I see more RP on brandywine per day then i saw on that RP server in europe in an entire week.
Humans are not considered superior. It depends alot on class and content your in. For example the human heal is around 3k, sure sounds like a lot but thats only about one hit for a tank, and it doesnt take a genius to see that there are situations where 10 sec of +75% parry or mitigation can mean alot less damage taken(bosses hit for several thousand damage), or that being able to drop all aggro with playing dead of the hobbit can be potentially more useful for a hunter than trying to tank whatever you pulled aggro on.
I play human for my warden, but they dont really add much for a hunter. Here is what humans get:
Passives that are always active
1. Increased morale regeneration infight.
2. Increased fate.
3. Increased Might.
Actives you need to slot
1. +2% to swords
2. +20 willpower
3. Port to bree.
4. +1% Parry/Evade/Block
5. Man heal of 3k.
If you look at that list it does not scream "OP for Hunters, take this!". Infact most of the good stuff is rather unneeded for hunters. Doesnt mean humans are bad hunters, just means there are no compelling advantages to it either. At endgame the heal for most classes is not even a full lifebar, not even half for the tanks. Personally id rather take the playing dead of hobbits or the preemptive +75% parry of elves as a dps class, maybe even the 10 sec of +75% Common, Shadow, and Fire mitigation of dwarfs. All can safe your ass in dicey situations, the heal wont do anything if a boss turns around and oneshots you with his next attack. Tank is different since you cant play dead as a tank(unless your group died before you did, in which case you need to practice more ^^).
There is easy math proving that 10 sec of +75% parry or mitigation can be worth alot more than 3k morale at endgame, those skills pretty much make sure you wont die the next 10 sec, which cant be said of the manheal. Its really situational which is better, solo for example the manheal can be awesome. In the end choose which class you like cosmetically, the differences are minor enough.
P.S.: Thats really typical for Europe btw. They tell you what to play, which class is sooo obvious much better than all the others, which race you should pick and you will get flack from random people for the whole time you play if you dont conform. Worst of all are the nice ones who dont know any better and just repeat the drivel of the elitist trying to help you. I played in europe a year ago, and at that time it was flatly refused that wardens could tank raids, while it was already commonplace in the U.S. Maybe things changed, but just compare the U.S. to the europe forums.