Thursday, November 5, 2009

LotRO: The Road Goes Ever On

I bought the Mines of Moria expansion for $10 yesterday, and I started downloading the most recent client so I can maybe/possibly get into the game this weekend.  I say maybe because I need $30 for a 3-month subscription so I can get Siege of Mirkwood for free.  That's $10 a month, and I'm pretty sure I'd actually be playing it for that long in my spare time, but I need to make sure I have the $30 to toss toward it first.  Stupid first half of each month always has that niggle mortgage payment to deal with, hence my hesitation.

But I'm really quite stoked to get back in, as you can see over at ITG! I've got a level 38 Champion to use, but I also really want to play a Warden.  Apparently they've revamped the elf and human starting areas, so I'll probably start off with that before acclimating myself with my old Champion again.  That's a feat I'm not sure I can accomplish really.  It's been since August of 2007 that I last played the Champion.  How long is too long to go back to a character?  Will I have any clue what I'm doing?  How much has the class changed, and how will I know where I need to go to quest?  I guess I'll find out.

I hear the entire leveling curve from 1-40 has been decreased, much like what WoW did with 1-60, in order to help new players and alts catch up to the end-game content.  So I'm sure even if I did have to or decide to play a new character it wouldn't be long before I was out of the early stuff and into the Lone-Lands and Evendim where I last remember playing. 

I'll be posting a sort of re-review of the game over ITG! once I've had some decent time to get reacquainted with LotRO and all that's chaned in the two years I've been absent.

4 comments:

Thallian said...

I dunno how long is too long but the areas may have changed but I can tell you straight up champions haven't changed too much. If anything they've got a few new tricks up their sleeves but that's about it. The new starting areas.. have been WoWified. All quests hubs are easy to reach and loaded with more quests to kill ten varmints and collect ten boar haunches than you can shake a fish stick at. There are some clever new twists to the "new player experience" that they added which make it much easier on people who jsut want to enjoy levelling up also. I have mixed feelings about it cuz I miss the old quests some but many of them are still there, usually the best ones. The Old Forest and Barrow Downs quests received quite a revamp as well as Ered Luin.

Brendon said...

I am suprised that you are playing LOTRO again. If anything I would have thought you would have gone back to WoW. I did not play LOTRO for long but from what you have told me it was quite boring, even in the later levels. I hope you have fun with it now.

Bildo said...

The game itself was never boring, but the lack of solo-able content certainly was. If it weren't for the developer walkthrough I just did, I probably wouldn't be returning. But Siege of Mirkwood looks to be a really nice addition to the game. Enough that I'd like to check it out for a while, maybe finally level cap a character in another game besides WoW.

But yep, WoW's on my radar too. I never did level my Hunter up through Northrend.

Lars said...

I like the new QoL improvements in LOTRO like the quest trackers. And I love the epic storyline. (Though not enough to get sucked away from EQ2.)