Postcards from Middle Earth, 17 November



Autumn Festival

Well long time, no post. My life has been going through some pretty huge changes that left me little energy for blogging. I obtained British citizenship but have ended up moving to Amsterdam.

Anyway, I wasn't playing Lotro as much until the release of RoI as it seemed I need a break. I was playing Rift more. I really enjoyed the look of it and the classes, but in the end the game didn't grab me I think because the story was so incredibly generic fantasy. There just didn't seem to be much of a story. I might go back to the game now and again, but for now I've cancelled my sub since Lotro has been enjoyable again.

A lot has been going on in Lotro again but I thought I'd post about the latest festival. The main thing that happened for me is that I finally got lucky and got the skeleton horse. :) I won't use it outside of the Autumn festival time most likely, but during it I found it quite cute. I also enjoyed the quest text, as it explains why hobbits would paint up horses.



I also got the newest festival horse as I'm a horse collector. I'll never ever use it though. I suppose in a way it's nice, but the Halloween theme isn't quite for me. A kinnie joked about the moon being over the horse's rear end... that the horse is always mooning people. :P


Any of you who have read this blog know I'm big on getting deeds done as well. :P Festivals always bring those. So there is always a lot of grinding to get the consumable deeds done.

The fall festival has quite a few consumables. I will only end up completing three. It bugs me that I have to wait until next year to get them all done. I didn't grind all the quests every day as I just couldn't face it. I calculated you needed over 1200 tokens just to get the consumables. This doesn't count the tokens needed for the horse, let alone if you wanted to get anything else (luckily I didn't as the dress and cloak were the same theme as the new horse). You normally got around 50ish tokens a day so really, it does not seem possible to get everything done. It's a bit frustrating to have to wait until next year. Also, I feel slightly guilty using these on random strangers all the time. Some aren't bad like the bugs or coveritol, but the black silk gloves that slap people could be seen as rude. I try to target people on horses as the effect doesn't show or afk people in order to cause the least amount of annoyance. I've only had one person show disdain, but generally people pretend to cry or laugh it off. I always apologise then cheer for their good nature.

I very much like that Turbine has given us the opportunity to get consumables as permanent skills, but I wish they'd execute it a bit better. I'd rather still have to pay the same amount of tokens, but just automatically get the skill. Or make the consumables more expensive and require you to use fewer. Given there's a thread that's currently 43 pages long about this, it's definitely a source of annoyance for some people....hence me targeting mounted or afk people now! Though anyone who was hanging around outside the Haunted Burrow was fair game!

It's a dangerous business...

"...going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."

During the downtime due to the server migration from Codemasters to Turbine, I redownloaded the Rift client and gave the game another shot. I wasn't in the mood for single player games and Rift was running a week-long free trial, so I thought, what the hell, why not? I'd played Rift a bit when it was in Beta and I really hadn't liked it at the time. The skills were fairly cool, but I couldn't make the graphics nice, the story didn't interest me at all...it just seemed like generic fantasy crap.

But for some reason, this next try at it was different. I dunno why. :P I'm sure being able to make the game look pretty really helped. ;) I still think the story is quite meh and to be honest, I'm really not reading the quests all that closely. :P But I am having a great time exploring a new world. :) I think that's what really does it with a game for me: awesome surroundings.

I had started a mage on the Guardian side and I very much prefer the scenery of Silverwood and the kinds of mobs there. Though the whole religious thing isn't me at all. :P


Any kinnies that have been playing have chose the Defiant side, so I begrudgingly moved over and started a mage there. Whilst the whole atheist thing is much more appealing, I don't like style of the Defiants as much nor like the amount of undead mobs there are around. But it's okay. Whilst I'm sure I could eventually make friends on another server, right now I just wanted to settle down with friends and have fun. Plus, it's no big deal if I look like a complete uber nub around them. :D :P

There's still plenty of pretty stuff to be seen on the Defiant side. Some revolving thing in the main city:

I was near a border so ventured into a new area. I didn't go very far as the mobs were a fair bit above my level it seemed.

When I first wandered into Stonefield(?), I was really blown away by the scenery. What an incredible first view!! The area reminds me somewhat of Wales. I'm really looking forward to venturing into this area. :)


This is the one thing Rift has over Lotro: new scenery. As much as I love Lotro, I always know what's coming next. So having a new world to explore has been really fun. :)

Heeey, batter batter batter!

Found a baseball bat when questing on my guardian. Well, technically it's a club, but I found it amusing. ;)

Back again...

Long time, no write. Lots going on in life that has left me with not a lot of extra energy, so some things slip. I've still been playing Lotro (escapism, woo!) though not as much. It's been nearly two years of playing quite a lot, so it's not surprising I've been feeling like cutting down a bit. I'm not quite in the mood to level up yet another character to 65 (even though the little bit I've done on guardian has been fun), all my LM has to do is deeds and I was able to quickly uber up my champ with the new stuff that came out with the update. I've started to play Rift as well and it's been highly enjoyable exploring a new world. I don't think it's as good as Lotro, but something new and different and having a bit of a break helps me enjoy Lotro when I come back to it.

So, the last time I wrote, I was ranting about the Anniversary GrindFest. Well, the collector in me won out. *sighs and rolls eyes* I got the Stevie Wonder horse. And all the maps. But! People were able to work together to get the maps so I only ground out a few on my own. I got reeeeeeeeeeally sick of running those damned horse races on several toons. :P

A fellow kinnie and me with Stevie Wonder horses:


Since my last entry, the European servers have been transferred over to Turbine. No more Codemasters for us. Latency has gone up but for the most part, I don't think it's been affecting my game. I have had some periods with lots of loss, but I think that was random internet troubles and nothing to do with connecting to the game. On the final day, people gathered in Bree before the plug was pulled.


We also are now getting American adverts. Whenever I see this, for a split second, I think I'm back home. :P

The migration went smoothly and quickly for most people and it took no longer than what Turbine said, so all in all, things are as normal. We've also had the new expansion date released, so now the latest raid gear and first agers seem like something to not bother with anymore. :P Whilst new content is always really appreciated, our kin still has quite a bit of work left on the OD raid. It's looking like we won't get that done, and most certainly not all the deeds which is going to disappoint the few deed completionist we have in kin.

lolz

Great post by RedNeckRonin at the CM forums:

Do you honestly think the majority of players derive any satisfaction from having to complete old content (same old horse race every festival) even more times (three times now, instead of just one) for a horse that looks like Stevie Wonder designed it?


lmaorofl. :P

And just found out there's a deed associated with the housing maps...to collect them all. I don't see how that's going to be physically possible at 20 tokens each. I have to work, eat, and sleep you know. *rolls eyes*

Seriously Turbine?

The new horse is so ugly! :P

I'm a horse collector, but I'm seriously thinking about skipping this one because of the amount of grinding it's going to take to get a horse I'll never, ever use. It costs 30 anniversary tokens and 3 race tokens. The only way to get said tokens is to do the beer fight or run the races once a day. That's it. :/ They've got some new housing items which look like they'll be cool (but are also far too expensive). Those I'd actually want. But having to do 30 beer fights for that horse? Meh. They really need to have some alternative activities for earning the coins. Otherwise it seems the beer fights run every 10 minutes. Say I wanted to get one of the housing items that cost 20 tokens. That's several hours worth of grinding, which just isn't going to happen. A major grind isn't the nicest way to celebrate LOTRO's 4th anniversary, though I suppose it's keeping with the spirit of the current game. :/

A little enebriated

I needed to clear some room out of my bags whilst questing in Moria (yes, there. It's for deeds. I avoided the place like the plague when leveling so still have quest deeds there...not to mention kill deeds.) I had some ale from the Bullroarer's Challenge, so drank it to free up a bag slot. Drunk fighting ftw.

The drunk effect gave the Flaming Deeps a wierd green glow. Was interesting. ^^

Duuude...

My captain spotted a ghostie with a funny name this evening:

Silly, but it gave me a chuckle. :P

DING!! Kindred!

After many, many, many Rift skirmishes, I finally achieved kindred status with the Eldgang! *cheers* :D

This was the one blight on my kindred list. Very happy I got it done. Skirmish marks are good, but I can use a break from that skirmish now. :P

Postcards from Middle Earth, 30th of March


Outside of Sarnur.

A wee bit crowded... and the update

A shot of the crafting hall in the 21st on update day of people puzzling over the new LIs. :D

I'm mostly okay with the new system. I was finally able to make the perfect staff, perfect dps book and perfect raid book. That part took minimal effort given ixp is very easy to get in the new instances. There was one bit that really made me grumble though. I extracted t6 legacies and replaced t6 legacies, but I got a t2 legacy instead. So I had to buy 8 empowerment scrolls which cost me around 14k in marks. I've calculated that my new raid book is going to need 15 empowerment scrolls. The bill for that comes to 29250 marks. :o I suppose this is what I had wanted though: more control over my weapons with the tradeoff being it takes longer to work on them. Though given we'll be replacing these weapons with first agers and then when we're level 70 we'll start the whole process all over again, I still feel it's a bit too much work being put into weapons that will be thrown away. I'm still waiting for those legendary weapons that will grow with us...

The relics are easier to get now, but I'll still be having to buy the relic removal scrolls from the store as the best combination for me is old and new relics. I really do wish they would have kept the old ones. Alts that never got high tiers or that are leveling up will never have the opportunity to get them.

All in all it's been mostly a good update. The instances have been plenty challenging though my only gripe is that they are overly long, especially the spider boss in the Farm and the final fight of the Temple. I found the new book to be highly enjoyable, especially the session play. It was fantastic. All in all, I'm not sure this update is going to hold people for very long. I know people in my kin have been going quite hard at the instances. At least the raid will keep us busy for quite a while. :)

One of these things is not like the others


Two well dressed elven ladies, then well, um... a man with an interesting choice in fashion. The LM Helegrod hat is always a great source of laughter and amusement. :P

Also funny capture of the birds. Looks like they're having a fight!

I got to see a bit of the new raid last night. It was fun, but the fear wing boss is pretty damn hard. :P The Endless Stair was really feeling endless last night with all the running up it we kept having to do. ^^

Not so cannon

Spoilers ahead! You've been warned!

So I saw a video of the new raid's boss (final boss I believe). (and meh can't figure out how to embed a youtube video, sorry :P)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FBcyt8RvFw

It looks pretty darned awesome. But the thing is... Durin's Bane is supposed to be dead already. :P And Gandalf was the one who took care of it. Anyone who's been to Zirakzigil can see the corpse laying there, yet some how it's back for us to fight? Riiight. Though some of the dialoge is asking if we can stand against that which smote the wizard, which obviously didn't happen. So perhaps there's some trickery going on there.

Oh well. At least it looks badass enough that hopefully I can get over my purist tendencies. :P

Distractions

Long time no post. I suppose that's a side effect of a job you really don't like and sucks all your energy out of you. :P Also I've not been playing lotro all that much recently. I've still been logging in to do my daily Rift skirmish...only 12 more to go! I think I've found myself burned out on solo lotro. I suppose a break is good though. It helps you to enjoy the game even more again when you return to it. I'm looking forward to the new content though it's going to suck that I'll be working! ^^

So lately my main diversion has been Titan Quest. A good friend suggested we play it so we have been. I've been leveling up a Pyromancer. Oh the surprise! I'm playing a caster who throws around aoe fire! :D Here she is with her Core Dweller pet. I named him Bert. He's awesome!

I've been enjoying actually having to aim my attacks as well as being able to dodge mobs' attacks. It's always annoyed me in lotro when you can't dodge wight puke. :/ It's pretty important that I do dodge attacks or otherwise I go SQUISH! very quickly! Also Titan Quest is actually quite nice looking and my class's skills are super flashy. I have one that can one shot a whole group of mobs. Good times!

I wasn't much of a gamer before lotro, so this is my first experience with spending points in different skills and stats. You can choose your masteries and which skills you want to level up. Much different than hitting a level and buying a skill from a trainer.

With Titan Quest, the only issue this creates is that in order to maximise your damage you really need to focus all your points into certain skills. So you're left with not that many skills. I am missing being able to use multiple skills. But all in all, it's been fun. :)

Also I've been *very* slowly playing through Assassin's Creed 2. It's a super pretty game...as well as the main character. :P It has great atmosphere and I'm enjoying it... except for when I accidentally go leaping off buildings... which I do *a lot*. :P

I do highly recommend the game though. Awesome scenery and music, a great storyline, cool combat and getting to run around a hot Italian guy. What's not to like? :D

Funny and Confusing

I was questing in the Silvertine Lodes on my RK and got this hilarious poison. I love this sort of stuff. For some reason it reminds me of the movie Aliens...I guess from that Alien that pops out of the people's bodies. :P My favourite debuff has to be the one the toads give you in the Water Works though. :P

Then for the confusing. This staff dropped in SG the other day:

What's the point? Who is going to use that? You'd have to be awfully dumb to do so. There's so many drops in this game that just don't make sense. Why waste time on them? I've never gotten that.

Postcards from Middle Earth, 20th of February

I was out killing harvest flies in the Shire (yes I r a l33t loreblaster!!1 *flexes*), and got to enjoy this view of the Shire near Stock. :)

Pandering for votes

Two kinnies of mine got nominated in the Lotro Community Awards. My good friend Spyx was nominated as best guide-writer for his awesome LM guide. Then xhii (Saelinen) was nominated for best creative work and best all-time thread.

If you think they've done a good job and can spare a vote, please do!

Deadly Embrace

I was hanging out with some former kinnies and did SG with them. Two of them got most unlucky on a Goro knockback. They died up in the air together. :P What was strange is the dirt and stone like stuff was pulsating out of their feet whilst they were dead. It was a most entertaining death though. :D

Lothirieth

It's Lothirieth, beautifully drawn by the very talented xhii. I love it! <3 :D

The deeds go ever on and on

More deed completion. ;) I'm actually surprised at how doable these are.

With quite a lot of help from my friend Kalantir, I finished Urugarth (those CD deeds are still looking scary though...):

Getting ready to slay some orcs:

Then xhii and I spent a little time farming the last boss of HoM on our LMs. Was quite fun! I highly recommend turning your back to the drop, perform the snow wizard emote, and fall backwards into the boss room. It looks like you're bungee jumping! :P Unfortunately I never caught a good screenshot of it. Lm's and kitties ready to keel!:

And got my goat!

For a goat it's very pretty! Though I have to wonder why Lothlorien elves would even go near goats. ;) But I love the rectangular lamp and the beautiful fabric! <3

Next goal is the Moria instances. I'm actually fairly close. Just a couple more runs in 16th, Forges and FG...and then more than a few in Skumfil. :/ I'll get there though!

New shiny cosmetics

I finally got two more raid pieces I've been lusting after for so long. Maybe it was was a waste of points...but I couldn't help it. I wanted them and had the points so I bid. :P

First was the awesome Minstrel shoulders! This was a pure cosmetic bid as I'm not really going to play my minstrel most likely. :P

Next was the Mistress armour for champ. *swoooooooons* My champ already looked hot, but now she's even hotter. This was a semi-cosmetic bid. I'd actually like to have a few DN pieces for my champ (since BG ones are definitely out of the question!) I now need the gloves to finish the look...plus they have some decent stats imho.

Heleyawn

I joined another kin Helegrod run since I had one deed left in each wing and to help out as there are a few that want to go. I have to say I just really don't enjoy that raid whatsoever. Traiting all red and aoeing to my heart's content is fun for about 5-10min...but then it just gets boring and drags on. I was talking to a friend today and he says it's because the mechanics are outdated. That basically back in the old days of Lotro, raiding was a boss and adds. But now we're used to fears, eyes, aggro swapping, kiting...basically more complex fights. So this makes the older raids seem like mindless killing. I have to say, that seems about right. :P It makes me wonder if I'll find the revamped Rift raid boring whenever it comes out. We'll see.

At least throwing sticky gourd on Zadru was entertaining. It was maaaaasive. BOOM! *causes everyone massive lag* :P

Bullroarer Patch notes

One thing immediately stood out for me and made me go w.t.f!?!

* You no longer have the option to unslot your relics during a reforge and you cannot get them back even when deconstructing a max level LI.

Excuse me?? So I grind, do skirmishes and whatnot to play the relic combination lottery. I finally get the relic I want and I slot it into the best random LI I got through the LI lottery. But when I find a better one, I can't put my best relics in it? Ffs! As a fellow kinnie said, they just don't get it. How is this improving the LI system? They also write:
* Legacy replacement scrolls will be awarded when deconstructing a Legendary Item of at least level 30. The legacy replacement scroll is selected from any legacy currently on the Legendary Item. Legacies that have been removed from the game are not available to be selected.
* Major legacies (previously called Pool A legacies) can only be used to replace another Major Legacy.

So no replacing those crappy pool B legacies.

And this also doesn't help with the fact that every few levels we have to throw away the LI and start all over again. This coupled with not getting the relics back? Big fail!!

Oh and also:
* The Snow Wizard and Warm Hands emotes can no longer be performed while moving.

Meh. :P I've had loads of fun messing around with that emote...moving, combining it with others. They better not fix groundroll and danceman3!

Postcards from Middle Earth, 5th of February

Whilst kill deeds can be boring (sickle-fly slayer, ugh! :P), at least the views around you aren't. :) Taken in the Midgewater Marshes looking towards the Lone Lands:

And of course I couldn't resist trying to get a good shot of my LM in that lovely light. ;) :P

Mas Deedage

To my surprise, I finished the Barad Guluran deeds! A kinnie and I found a great pug. We all stuck together until everyone in the group finished all their deeds. Luckily we all seemed to be around the same numbers. But many thanks to Milolle, Turulnya, Bailinor and my kinnie Eriondin for a most enjoyable pug. :)

Finally opened the advance Carn Dum deeds.... *sigh* :P

Da Watcha

I finally got the opportunity to heal a Watcher! I'd always been apprehensive about doing so as I've always felt I've been a sub-par minstrel and healing on minstrel stressed me out. But the raid went really well! Maybe it's all the rk healing I've been doing lately. I do have to say it's nice to see someone's health bar immediately go up instead of slowly working its way up when on RK. But I still find rk healing to be more fun. But, look at those full green bars in my group! :P (and I wasn't having power issues either!)

Unfortunately I forgot to put master looter on and there was an incident with the armour coins...so no bidding on those pretty shoulders. I hope to go back soon as I wants them precious!!