wandering through middle earth

Latest Outfit

2012-01-09T14:11:00.001-08:00

After the ugliness that was OD and Draigoch armour, Turbine has returned to the nice-looking raid sets. I think a lot of the Isenguard raid armour looks quite nice. I've yet to get the LM robe as it's the worst piece of the set and I'm working on getting my 5-set bonus for a 35s blinding flash. I'll grind out those seals to get the teal robe as I think it looks a lot better than the purple-set robe. And of course my champ would love the chest and leg armour pieces as well, but she'd need to complete Saruman and grind the seals as well. I'm sure she'll get it at some point.

I've started to incorporate some Isenguard raid pieces and I feel I've come up with a nice non-dress caster outfit! :)

All Black Dye aside from head which I've not dyed.
Head: Hat of Deep Lore
Shoulders: Shoulder Pads of the Iordur (Loremaster Tower of Orthanc teal set)
Chest: Breastplate of the Lady's Power (Champion DN set)
Gloves: Gloves of the Iordur (Loremaster ToO teal set)
Legs: Trousers of the Iordur (Loremaster ToO teal set)
Shoes: Memory of the West Shoes (Loremaster Ost Dunhoth t2 set)

I also have to share this screenie as I think it looks cool. I didn't end up using it for armour pictures as the arm does cover the chest armour.

Postcards from Middle Earth, 17 November

2011-11-17T09:23:00.000-08:00

Autumn Festival

2011-11-08T05:17:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-06-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

"...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!

2011-06-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

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

Back again...

2011-06-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-04-19T10:18:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-04-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

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

Silly, but it gave me a chuckle. :P

DING!! Kindred!

2011-04-04T18:10:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-30T11:10:00.001-07:00

Outside of Sarnur.

A wee bit crowded... and the update

2011-03-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-30T04:44:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-19T12:07:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

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

2011-02-20T03:58:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-20T03:53:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-19T12:33:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-19T12:29:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-14T14:30:00.000-08:00

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

The deeds go ever on and on

2011-02-14T14:18:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-11T11:22:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-09T12:06:00.001-08:00

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

2011-02-05T05:49:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-04T15:36:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

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!!

Scenes from Carn Dum

2011-02-02T10:30:00.000-08:00

A friend needed the final boss deed in Carn Dum and so did I...as well as every other deed in there for my super-uber-personal-meta-deed-challenge(TM). :P So today we headed in for some duoing fun.

We both commented on how Carn Dum Castle is cool looking, but it's still a bit cheesy especially when you consider Dol Guldur. Dol Guldur is proper eerie looking.

I did really love the lighting in the Gurthul boss room and caught a nice shot of my loremaster's lightning storm.

I've been to Mordirith a few times, but never ever have I realised that on the floor, there's the shape of The Great Eye. You have to wonder how stuff like this escapes you sometimes. :P

Mordirith was fun, but not particularly challenging. The only casualty was my poor eagle! Of course afterwards we had to pose for the obligatory Witch King's Seat shot!

I've not even reached advanced on some of my CD deeds. It looks like they're going to take forever. I think I'm far more likely to finish Moria instance deeds before CD and Uru!

The Daily Grind

2011-01-29T11:38:00.000-08:00

So it seems I've turned into one of those crazy people who'd like to get kindred with all factions and also complete every deed in the game. Yes, every! (aside from Ettens... and skirmishes too...not sure :P) I'm not quite sure why I ended up wanting to do this. I do have to say it's a difficult thing for me to achieve as I joined the game a few months before Mirkwood and also changed mains. Until the end of the summer last year, I considered my first character, my hunter Erunaneth, to be my main. But loremaster ended up being far too much fun, both solo and in groups. My hunter nearly had kindred with everything, so redoing quite a bit of the rep was rather painful.

I think why I'm doing this is for something to do on my loremaster, plus I think I'll be pretty proud of myself for completing this uber-meta deed. ;) It is a bit sad that this is really all my LM has left to do. She's just lacking two BG pieces and the Durchest caster bracelet (she recently won the Mistress bracelet woot!), but since those depend on raids, it's something that is out of my control. I love playing her and am proud when I finish deeds or rep, but honestly I wish I did have some more fun stuff to do with her. Endless kill deeds is looking a bit depressing.

As of now, my lm has attained kindred with everything but the Eldgang (a side effect of joining the game late!).

At least we have the Rift skirmish now which slowly builds rep (700 points a day). Though I really can't wait for the revamped Rift instance as I've already been doing loads of skirmishes and still have 40 someodd left before I hit kindred. I'm getting quite sick of the skirmish, though thank goodness it's a quick one. Lothirieth crying out of boredom!:

I also found the Inn League and the Ale Association to be a challenge as well. It was possible to do all the delivery quests in an hour but as the Ale Association quests were timed, I couldn't slack off and go afk for a bit. Those plus the dailies took a fair bit of time and I was struggling to make myself do them after a bit. But I knew I had to persist given the quests are only available during festivals. To my surprise I was able to achieve kindred with both factions in one festival and was rewarded with some fun new mounts. Woot for a good goat in Moria! The Inn League horse is also slightly drunk! :P

As far as the zones and instance deeds go, I've only completed Mirkwood and The Tower of Dol Guldur. Enedwaith is nearly done (damn wood trolls!). I had my doubts as to if I'd ever complete the Moria instance deeds but after a few decent runs in some instances, it should be doable. Although my lm hasn't set foot in Skumfil...so we'll see how it goes. The Carn Dum and Uru deeds look problematic as well. I really wish I would have had my main sorted and been doing these deeds when they first came out and everyone else was doing them!

Ah well, hopefully I'll get there eventually! :)

New dress

2011-01-28T14:21:00.000-08:00

Well, long time no post. Starting a new job which I also have to bike to (haven't done that for years so it's a wee bit tiring :P) will do that unfortunately!

Yesterday I my Loremaster got a letter in the mail from Nora Strawley, thanking me for my kindness in Frostbluff and telling me that the townspeople were doing much better. She said that she'd come into a bit of money and had some things for me to express her thanks. Today I accepted the quest and headed over to Bree to collect my new rewards which were two cosmetics and a title.

I don't quite get the 'Villain' title considering it was good work I was doing. Apparently this comes from completing the hidden deed in the Yule Festival which was to complete the giving coins quest 10 times. I only took pictures of the dress unfortunately. I deleted the robe straight off considering it's manly and I'll never wear it. I didn't think to grab any screenies first. Apologies! The dress is pretty nice and will make for a decent change for a while. I dyed it with Ered Luin Blue I believe...or Evendim...can't remember. :P It's annoyingly but understandably bind on aquire. (cries for the state of her loremaster's bags/vaults)

Is that an egg you're carrying...

2011-01-11T13:40:00.000-08:00

...or are you just happy to see me?

And bah, am getting seriously behind with screenshots. I had wanted to post about all the adventures Elenaneth and Linvala (my rk then my friend's champ) have been having. Must stop being lazy...but a trip and a new job aren't going to help. :P

New Deed

2011-01-11T12:52:00.000-08:00

Today a new deed got released so my Loremaster went to check it out. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't keep reading. ;)

Mysterious relics have appeared throughout Middle Earth. Apparently people bumped into one whilst doing the Thror's Comb quests and once this knowledge became known on the forums, people started scouring Middle Earth to find the rest. Also Turbine released a letter called A Strongly-Worded Letter from Bungo Grubb which would tip off people as to one of the relic's locations. It's a pity I didn't visit that new area in the North Downs just a bit later as I would have found at least one of them on my own! You can start the deed at any of the relics. There is one in Thror's Comb, the North Downs, Oatbarton, Laenan's Cave, and Forochel.

In the North Downs near the new area I posted about:

In some fields east of Oatbarton:

In Laenan's Cave:

Forochel, at the end of the Ironspan:

Thror's Comb:

At the end you have to speak with Barliman Butterbur and are then awarded with a new title.

I found it interesting traveling around and reading what all the npcs had to say about these relics popping up. The speculation is they have to do with new instances/raids coming up. After you inspected each relic, you were given a quest to talk to a npc nearby. I noticed these quests were at the level of the surrounding area, so I wonder what that could mean for the level of the new content. I do hope that all will be available for endgame as lets face it, we desperately need new group content.

People are also speculating that these have to do with the Gaunt Lords. In the Lorebook entry it says:

After Morgoth’s fall, the remaining Gaunt-men went into hiding in the realm that later became Angmar. Their power was greatly diminished, but when the Wizards arrived to lend wisdom to the Free Peoples of Middle-earth, the Witch-king summoned the Gaunt-men to his service. Among them, five gained greater power to match the five Wizards. These five, embodying death, pestilence, famine, war, and purest evil, became known as the Gaunt-lords.

If you pay attention to what the npcs say, you'll see from their talk that each one associates with death, etc. xhii over at roll one hundred has some nice close screenshots of each of the relics and speculating which relic is which. We've run into all these Guant-Lords throughout the game (Ivar, Ferndúr, Drugoth, Thadúr, and Gortheron) so it will be interesting to see if they are being brought back for some new content.

I like the way Turbine has released this, teasing us a bit and making people get out there and do some exploration. Fun times!

Runekeeper action shots

2011-01-07T02:37:00.000-08:00

I've been leveling a Runekeeper with a friend (him on a champ) and have been having a blast. (And it's also created a backlog of screenies of our adventures :P) RK is an epicly fun class. I've noticed my favourite classes tend to be flashy and quick, so RK fits in perfectly. I always had a feeling I'd love this class, so was trying to save it for later as I still don't have a tank, but my friend bugged me enough and with the opportunity to duo level...well I couldn't pass that up.

I have a 65 minstrel who is decently geared, but I really never ever liked healing on her. I just assumed that healing stressed me out and I didn't like doing it at all. That was one thing that was making me put off RK now that I think about it: I didn't want to have to heal. But my friend is a good RK himself, so he's been able to give me tips. And we've been trying plenty of hard stuff so I've gotten lots of practice healing. I've actually found RK healing to be quite enjoyable! I love the hots! I love that I can go from fully attuned dps to healing in a matter of seconds (without the cheat legendary trait mind you :P). Leveling this class is definitely the final nail in the coffin for my poor minstrel. Once my RK is at the level cap, the minstrel will officially be just a crafting mule as RKs totally pwn minstrels in my humble opinion.

RKs also make for some pretty and flashy screenshots!

New area in the North Downs

2011-01-06T14:16:00.000-08:00

A few days a kinnie stumbled upon a bit of new area in the North Downs. I decided to ride and go check it out for myself. So what will it be? A new raid? Instance? or North Downs revamp? All I know is that I want in to take a look around! :P

Sunrise, Sunset

2011-01-06T04:46:00.000-08:00

I've been running into some interesting sunrise/sunset effects, all around Middle Earth. A couple were glitch induced (the first and fourth picture), but created nice effects nonetheless. :) I do find it amazing that after all the time I've played lotro and been around the areas, I still find it to be a beautiful game. :)

I've also not been posting that much and accumulating a huge backlog in screenshots...which was already bad enough. Eeep!

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T05:16:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone has a good one and a fun time tonight!

Finally!...and then some fun

2010-12-16T06:01:00.000-08:00

So some of you might remember the few posts I've made where I had just barely missed out on getting the DN robe for my Loremaster. Well no more! My plight has come to an end! :P Behold pretty robe #2! (though apologies for dx9 graphics...really wish xfire ingame would work with 10!)

So very glad to finally have it! Many many thanks to the group I was in! It was a very fun evening all around. :)

Yule festival finally started up this week and Turbine has done another great job improving the festivals. My LM has been busy in Winter-home and also working on her Inn League and Ale Association rep...though I'm starting to question my dedication on the later tasks as those deliveries are so damned boring.

Fun in the snowball field....oh, it was snowballs not tar I was supposed throw? Right, will try to remember that! *makes mental note* But tar effects can be quite funny!

Playing around

2010-12-13T05:19:00.000-08:00

The latest update removed the armour restrictions for wearing items cosmetically. So it is now possible for light-armour wearers to wear heavy armour. Just for giggles, a friend and I played around with it!

Minstrel and champ:

Heavy armour LMs!

It's fun for some laughs every now and again, but not something I'd seriously keep. :P

Update day!

2010-12-07T09:31:00.001-08:00

The November update finally hit the EU today. It meant lots of new horses, new vault and crafting panel and new LM skills. I was hoping we were going to get the winter festival but that doesn't start until next week. *pouts*

Last night I completed my last rep faction that I need for the World Renowned Horse (the Algraig..they were a pain to get kindred with). So today I logged on and was immediately awarded with two horses! *cheers.

The Elven meta deed horse:

World Renowned Horse:

The only drawback with them is the flags. I don't mind the flags per say, but they don't seem to move naturally with the horse. I'll more than likely keep using my Galahdrim War Steed, especially now that they updated it's hit points (and rightly so!)

I spent a few G on the Rivendell horse as well :P

I decided not to buy the Mathom horse as I just don't think I'll ever use it as cute as it is. I also saw on Casual Stroll to Mordor that there's a new Malledhrim horse, but I wasn't able to find it.

The new Loremaster skills are pretty cool (Frost Lore, Staff Sweep and in-combat pet summoning). I'm not too thrilled with their animations though, especially Frost Lore. First time I cast it, I was reminded of a fairy casting a spell. It's going to look very funny on human male LMs. :D

I noticed it puts some ice stuff on mobs:

We have a raid tonight so it will be interesting to try out the new debuff. Staff Sweep might be helpful on the LT as when your pet flanks you can use it to regain power. We shall see.

Now bring on the festival!

Another productive evening!

2010-12-04T07:37:00.000-08:00

I had another awesome raid night...got my 4th BG piece (though equipping it makes me lose a noticeable chunk of morale :/) and then later was able to persuade two friends to make one last dungeons run for my horse (many, many thanks for all of their help)!

I know some say this horse is ugly, but I really like it and am proud to have it. I love the leaf motif and think it has lovely detail. The only negative is that it only has 150hp which is less than the kindred Grey Company Steed. You'd think the Dol Guldur HM metadeed horse would have more as it's a hell of a lot harder to get.

I'm also well on my way to kindred with the Algraig so should have all rep done in time for the update!

RP Lite

2010-12-01T13:12:00.001-08:00

Joined a couple of kinnies tonight to play music in The Hall of Fire. Personally for me right now, this is enough 'rp'...playing music, a little banter and dancing. It was fun. :)

Groupies!

An elf dancing with a man? What a scandal!!

Finally!

2010-11-29T16:43:00.000-08:00

I finally got to be part of a LT HM kill! \o/ It was great fun and I'm so glad I finally saw it. This is actually my first on level, end-game raid boss kill. I didn't start lotro until about 3 months before Mirkwood came out, so every other raid I've done has been overlevel.

A very kind friend has been helping me work through Dungeons in order to get my metadeed horse (only 2 more elves to go!). Given I'd gotten the LT deed done, I coerced him to go into Dungeons later that night and had more luck. Got my Ernil! *cheers*

All in all it was a very good night! :D

Jam session

2010-11-27T15:02:00.000-08:00

I joined xhii from rollonehundred tonight for a small music session.

She introduced me to the Songbook plugin. (http://www.lotrointerface.com/downloads/info380-0.61.html) It's really awesome! No more /playlist, trying to look at it whilst your chat continues or alt tabbing. Everything is in a nice list for you. All you have to do is select the song you want and hit play.

This little music session kinda awoke my rp tendencies again. I love participating in it, but right now there's just far too much to do ingame! Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze some in here and there. :)

What's that smell?

2010-11-26T04:19:00.000-08:00

Got a new title last night on my LM:

And it came with an epic housing item:

The devs really have taken this boar thing to the extreme! :P

Angmar pretty?

2010-11-25T05:54:00.000-08:00

I wouldn't have ever thought it could be. :P Angmar is definitely my least favourite part of the game. It's downright ugly and has horrible ambient sound. I begrudgingly do the Fem quest line on all my alts as it's decent xp that's much needed at that level, but always leave as soon as I can. I did most of the quests on my first toon and that was enough for me!

I've had to go back to grind out Rangers of Esteldin rep though, but was surprised to catch a part of it that actually looked pleasing to the eye! Well, I think it's mainly the colours. :P At dawn near some orc camps, Angmar can actually look pretty. Nice surprise. :)

Epic BG run

2010-11-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

So last night I joined a Watcher raid with people in kins our kin is allied with, then did a SG race (two groups racing to see who could finish first). It was quite late and someone joked about us having enough people to do BG...converted to a raid and got together 12 people. But funnily enough, we ended up going in. We started the raid at 4:30am my time! ^^ (click for full picture)

We nearly wiped on the guantlet due to someone having pc issues, but managed to stay alive in order to get people rezzed! So on to Durchest we went!

Some of us wanted to do HM, but our leader wisely made us do EM due to lack of radiance...and well because it was damned late. To our suprise we got him down!

Now you'd think we'd stop there right? Because it was like 5:30am. But some of us jokingly ran on...and we continued! \o/ The bits with the sorcerers went surprisingly well. The leader even commented we were doing better than his own kin often does! :P This bit of the raid is always stressful and boring for me. Babysitting a sorcerer!:

And then it was on to the Twins which we also got done in EM. We finally concluded the raid at 7am! :D :P

All in all, it's pretty awesome a pug cleared through the Twins in the wee hours in the morning! :D

Creepy...

2010-11-18T05:12:00.001-08:00

Mass graves in Lotro?

Poor hobbits!

New look!

2010-11-14T19:20:00.000-08:00

I finally joined The Pretty Robe Club! I managed to win the BG chest last night and get my LM a shiny new robe! Love it! Now to go stick it on my hunter or champ as well. :P Wardrobe ftw!

LI rant

2010-11-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

I cannot wait until they redo the LI system and I pray that the devs actually make good changes (though some changes, like changes to the vault don't give me much confidence! P:) I'm getting really sick of the lottery of it all. With symbols freely flowing, tons of 2nd agers are being made and I've seen kinnies go through lots of failtastic LIs whilst a few have gotten lucky. One friend is on his 9th LM book...it might be a keeper but it's still not quite what he wants. Or take me who made a 2nd age staff and it only got two!! legacies on ID, not to mention crap base stats. Failstick:

It seems the only time I do get nice LIs is with ones that are low level and I'm purely using for Moria ixp and relics. I'd love to use this book!:

I want more control over my LIs. I want them to actually feel legendary, to stay with me for a long time whilst I customise them. I'd trade slower leveling/building of LIs for a lot more control. And they could also go ahead and do away with all the crappy pool B legacies no one wants (Inner Flame healing? Srsly?) and stop stacking the odds against us getting the good pool A legacies that we pretty much MUST get on ID. I'm not holding my breath for the system to be made better, but one can always hope.

New Thorog

2010-11-11T05:04:00.000-08:00

My kin went to the new Thorog for the first time this past Tuesday. I think we were all a bit disappointed with it because it turned out to be easy. We wiped once due to a change (one-shotting spirits or something like that), but we downed him the second try. A bit anticlimatic and right now I'm not sure what reason there is to go back to him. :P All in all the revamped instances and Helegrod have been pretty easy. It's only been a week and my LM was able to buy 4 Helegrod pieces. I was expecting a bit more hard work needed, but oh well...it's been a fun week. :)

Action shots!

2010-11-08T03:57:00.000-08:00

Reading whilst fighting! That's some talent!

I have the power!! [/He-Man]

Chillin' in Annuminas:

Caras Galadhon

2010-11-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

This still continues to be one of my most favourite places in the game. The chapters set there in LotR are always a highlight for me and I think the devs did a fantastic job bringing it to life. I especially love being there just as dusk hits and the lights come on. I doubt I'll ever get tired of its beauty.

It occurred to me that we really don't have anymore lovely elfy areas to be added to the game, just the Woodland Relm (home of Thranduil in Mirkwood) and The Grey Havens. I don't expect the Woodland Relm to have the majesty Caras has, but I could be wrong. I also wonder if we'll ever get to see The Grey Havens.

Scenes from Endewaith

2010-11-05T17:36:00.000-07:00

I hadn't expected to be doing anything in Endewaith as my experiences in the Mirkwood launch weren't positive. It was so crowded and far too much competition over mobs. So I figured I'd stay away from Endewaith in hopes it wouldn't be quite so crowded later. But I did start the epic book which of course takes me there and to my surprise, it was actually okay. I don't know if this is due to people being occupied with the revamped instances (which I've thoroughly enjoyed) or the new layering system. I noticed late at night there was still a layer and the region seemed relatively sparse of players.

I had wanted to duo Endewaith as I find exploring a new region to be more fun with another person. I really like duoing with another LM and luckily I just made a new, good friend who happens to play one. *cheers* I've had a great time running around with him. :)

I did ride around Endewaith on the test server because I just couldn't resist taking a peek. At first look, I didn't really like it. It didn't feel like Middle Earth. It felt more like AoC. It's starting to grow on me. A lot of it looks nice except for one area...the graphics are crap for me...not sure why. There's some really nice colour in some areas and certain points of the day:

I'm most in awe with the night sky. They've done a much better job with the clouds and stars. Stars used to show through the clouds for me all the time, but now thicker clouds blot them out as they should!

I've only finished two of the quest hubs and look forward to the rest of the quests and areas!

TMNT

2010-11-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

So last night whilst waiting for Laurelin server to come up (and of course it was the last one!), I rolled some toons on the new Withywindle server for the hell of it. It was an enjoyable time though! Plenty busy and I ran into the funniest group of hobbits.

How awesome is that?? :D Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! They were wearing the new Turtle Shell Backpacks, running around fighting the training dummies, handing out pizza and shouting 'Cowabunga dude!' <3

Later an April showed up, but I never saw a Splint or a Shredder. :P

Patch Day!

2010-11-02T04:39:00.000-07:00

Right now my game is patching and I'm patiently waiting to log on. New content has been a loooong time coming!

For a few months I had been feeling that there wasn't much to do besides endless LI/relic grinding. It's stuff like that where I start to fall short. I want good LIs and good relics, but I have such a hard time forcing myself to work on them. But lately, I've found myself thinking I actually have too much I'd like to do ingame. It's been a welcome change. Though it mainly involves the fluff. :P ...basically working on rep and collecting horses as well as festival stuff and still working on the LI grind in between.

Lotro is introducing new rep and meta deed horses and it's very much spurred people into rep grinding. The one people are working hard towards is the World Renowned meta deed horse which you get for completing kindred with all Eriador factions.

For every faction but Forochel, this would be a relatively quick and easy deed to accomplish. But, unsurprisingly there's now competition for rep items. Every time I've gone to farm rep, there have been others there and some have been quite aggressive about tagging mobs...blatantly grabbing mobs directly in front of you. Maybe once people have new content to explore, the competition will cool a bit!

All in all I'm looking forward to having lots to do! I'm going to hold off Endewaith for a bit as I don't like fighting over mobs and instead will check out the Haunted Burrow, play with the wardrobe and vault and continue to work on rep for my Loremaster.

Hot Potato...

2010-11-01T12:23:00.001-07:00

Lhas from roll100 challenged me to post something to break the laziness. :P So, shiny trees!!

This is the new level up animation as seen in the Eyes and Guard Tavern on the EU Test Server. We were able to do immediate leveling up of toons, so trees were sprouting all over the place

f2p stress test

2010-10-25T03:34:00.000-07:00

The client for the f2p stress test finally became available this morning, so I dutifully started the download. The download speed is less than stellar:

Heh, seriously I'm getting around 250-300kbps which is still slow. :/ Gonna take around 14 hours it seems, plus Pando keeps crashing on me. One has to wonder if the 500 free points is that worth it? :P

Best quest ever!

2010-10-25T00:46:00.000-07:00

Conflagration, the culminating quest of the Goblin Camp quest line in the High Pass of the Misty Mountains is one of the best quests in the game for me, mainly for it's comedic value. Others are cool due to something nerdy stuck in regarding lore, but this one always makes me laugh and entertains me to no end. :P I'll make a cut here to not spoil just in case.

The fiery mixture exploding and catching the dwarf's beard on fire is funny, but I always cannot wait to go tip over the goblin firepots and watch the explosions erupt around the goblin camp. I really wish there was a way to repeat this quest aside from leveling up another alt.

woohoo, look at that goblin fly! :D

Reach for the stars

2010-10-24T09:19:00.000-07:00

I've always like the summoning horn animation. I'm guessing this will become a thing of the past with the new instance join panel we'll be getting whenever we get f2p. I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand, it will be nice not to spend time getting to the instance. On the other, I think I'll miss everyone travelling to the location and entering together. But I suppose we'll all get used to it soon enough.

New shiny!

2010-10-21T15:34:00.001-07:00

Got the latest and greatest LM sword tonight! w00t! I did my first BG raid with my new kin and it was very enjoyable...well...except for that part where I wiped the raid. :/ Meh, it was only my second time dealing with the sorcerers on LM and at least I feel like I learned a lot tonight. Also, it was so refreshing to go clear the first two bosses in HM in one night and have it feel mostly easy, given the raid's been out for nearly 11 months now. Tonight definitely made me feel that I made the right choice to move, which is a nice feeling. :)

Green-eyed monster

2010-10-21T05:03:00.000-07:00

It's getting pretty tough to see all the US lotro blogs raving over the Haunted Cellar. I must say I'm quite jealous. EU folks did get a festival (much to everyone's surprise) but it's only the old festival. The Troves and Trickery quests seemed different though and we got some new consumables, so at least some effort has been made by Codemasters. But the jewel of the festival seems to be the Haunted Cellar which is tied to f2p which the EU doesn't have yet...and who knows when we'll get it. We're supposed to be getting a date announced in the next week. I just hope this announcement won't be f2p coming in a month or so.

So in the meantime, I'll grind some virtues whilst those across the pond have fun in the cellar. At least I found these goblins to have a chat with whilst in Goblin Town...though I'm afraid their conversation bored me so much I had to kill them. :P

Oopsies

2010-10-19T04:26:00.000-07:00

Looks like someone entered the numbers in the wrong field. Though, luckily for them, they'll get their stuff back. I've entered numbers in the wrong field before and sold something for faaaaaaaaaar much less than it's worth.

Dazed and Confused

2010-10-16T08:26:00.001-07:00

(The dazed effect in lotro always reminds me of the halo's in religious art. :P)

Cursed

2010-10-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

I think I'm cursed when it comes to the LM DN robe. I've been lusting after that robe for a very long time...it's just so gorgeous. I should have never passed on it the first time I could have gotten it...because after that, spousal aggro caused me to not complete the Mistress fight the next time I was there and on the top and ready to take it. Tonight I joined a pug BO/Mistress with a few friends. Seems the raid was stacked in favour of some people. On the BO, the leader wins the armour and passes it to someone else. On the Mistress I was the high roller, looks like I was all set to win...but the leader dallied about and at the last minute another person came in a rolled higher than me...then passed it to someone who rolled lower. Needless to say, I was pissed off. :P I've never liked it when people roll for others. I don't like having the odds stacked against me. But this taught me a valuable lesson: don't pug raids! :P

On a happier note, I did my first raid with my new kin. It was a Watcher run. I'm glad I had the opportunity to do something I know really well with them as I'm not wanting to jump straight into BG. Better to ease in a bit I think...and start learning all those new voices on vent!

The road goes ever on and on...

2010-10-13T05:07:00.000-07:00

This week has brought a big change to my lotro life. I decided to leave my kin that I've been in for a little over a year now and move to another. Even though I had been doing less and less with them and finding myself moving on, I found it quite difficult to hit that 'quit' button. I even shed a little tear :P, I think out of not wanting to hurt anyone (as I was an officer as well) and for the good times that had been shared. But I felt it was time for me to move on. I left on good terms and hope that I still run into them. It's daunting joining a new kin, being the noobie and having to learn lots of new names and their myriad of alts, but I received a warm welcome and the atmosphere seems very friendly and fun. So here's to new beginnings!

My loremaster is continuing her journey through the epics. She was asked to go to Forochel and I figured what the heck: I'll ride all the way there from Rivendell! I put on a Guild Wars soundtrack (if only lotro had that calibre of music!!), turned off my UI and enjoyed the watching the scenery change...and of course took lots of screenies along the way! Warning, the rest is screenshot heavy!

I love the autumnal feel of the Trollshaws

The Last Bridge

Weathertop

Northern Bree Fields

Met some crazy folk along the way..

I remember the first time setting foot in Fornost...the area and these shades kinda freaked me out. :P

Evendim

Entering Forochel

Finally there! Now where's my coat?...

5 minutes of fame

2010-10-09T03:50:00.000-07:00

Well not really. :P Anyway, I logged into Google Analytics out of curiousity. I hadn't been posting on this blog for a bit so figured that very few people were even looking. But there was a big spike in visitors on October 1st. I wondered what the heck happened to cause that. I noticed next that the most frequent referring site had become massively.com! :o Upon further investigation, I see that my blog got linked in an article there! woot!

http://www.massively.com/2010/10/01/the-road-to-mordor-entitled/

Heh, an extra reward for attaining that Undying Title! Thanks Syp! :D Though I wouldn't say it made me crazy to get it. It was a nice challenge that took cautious gameplay...which is a bit tough for a warden when you want to grab 4-5 mobs at a time. ;)

Puzzled

2010-10-05T05:04:00.000-07:00

I was running WP last night several times with friends to get the cloak for my LM (guard, burg, lm combo rocks!! Most enjoyable group I've done so far I think) without any luck. Instead, weapons drop. This dagger that drops from the first boss of WP really confuses me. When you look at it, it looks like a slightly better weapon than Amdillang.

My LM would love to use that. One problem: LMs can't use daggers. Lets think about other classes. Runekeepers can't use it. Minstrels will be using an LI. Same for captain. Burgs and hunters could use is as an offhand aside from the fact it's no good for them and there's better stuff out there. So why on earth did the devs make a dagger with these stats? It should have been a sword...or basically put that extra bit of morale on Amdillang.

To end on a positive note, my LM won the BG gloves last night. That would be my first on-level raid peice! (I was 65 when doing watcher and DN). Pity I won't be wearing them outside of BG though. The Watcher set is just too sweet.

Party Poopers

2010-10-05T04:32:00.000-07:00

I don't know if any of you who read here remember Glib Undergarments:

But I ran into him the other day and noticed his last name had been changed. I sent him a tell asking him what happened and unsurprisingly some miserable git reported it. It's a bit sad for me when fun things like this get reported.

On respawns during raids

2010-10-01T17:18:00.001-07:00

Warning, late night rant after several hours of raiding (and am in fact still in said raid)! :P

The BG mechanic of mobs respawning whilst you're in the raid is just bloody stupid and what has turned off a lot of all but the most hardcore, best raiding kins from the raid. It takes so much effort, work, and time to get to the bosses. By the time you get to the boss you don't have much time for several tries at the bosses before all the "trash" respawns (I use the term 'trash' loosely as the mobs/pulls between bosses can be damn hard). I've been doing a run with RRU tonight and we did awesome on the guantlet and did Durchest HM. But the part heading up to the Twins just took a bit too long. We got one try at HM on the twins (got close but not quite damnit). We want to try again...but it's all respawned. Neither minstrel was able to make it back on their own so we did a suicide run and got 8 people back up to the Twins..but missing crucial people. Currently I'm sitting here waiting to see if people can sneak up (and my poor friend Sassy's burg's repair bill is going to be insane. Share the Fun isn't so fun for him I think!). The one-shotting wargs are making running up impossible.

It's all the trash in between bosses that has kept my own kin from running BG very much, especially as that trash isn't forgiving in the least in regards to mistakes. One missed mez generally foreshadows a wipe. Not to mention bugged wargs that you can't see even when they're on your radar!. Whatever dev thought it would be a good idea to reduce the amount of tries you have on a boss..well frankly my feeling at the moment is that they can go to hell. :P

A new title has been bestowed upon you!

2010-10-01T04:56:00.000-07:00

You may now be known as Isoldeth the Undying! w00t! \o/

I'm really enjoying warden so far. I used to think it looked scary hard but once you get into it, it isn't. Though I've been playing it a bit safe since I wanted that title. Time to let loose now!

Well, I'm back.

2010-10-01T04:45:00.000-07:00

Been a little while since I posted. I was on holiday then busy once back. Anyway, I feel like posting some LotR related things I ran into whist in Germany. :P

Hobbits! Well sort of. ;) These were actually good. Reminded me of Nilla Wafers from back home.

Mushrooms! I actually did yell this when I saw this massive one! ^^

Note the name under the cartoon dog. Also the 'I <3 Texas' is amusing given that's where I'm from (and no I don't have a southern twang, listen to country music, wear cowboy hats or have ever owned livestock! I also loathe the Republican Party! :P)

One-hander fishing rod!

2010-09-16T04:26:00.001-07:00

When one goes to Forochel, one must fish a bit...well, at least my friend and I do. He caught a funny screenshot of a bug when I was on my champ. I had unequipped my fishing rod, but for him it looked like I had equipped it as a one-handed weapon. It was attached to my side hip like a weapon would. That actually would be fun...to go whack on a mob with your fishing rod!

Good ol' Boggie and late night fun

2010-09-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

Moar late night fun with my friend Kala! He's soloed Bogbereth on his warden before, but felt like going back as he's not played his warden for a bit and was brushing off the rust. I've come along before to witness the uberness of the warden, but also I can speed up the killing drastically for him once he gets bored. :P I always enjoy this silly messing around. :) Funnily she doesn't aggro when you stand next to her so that provided time for some screenies!

Meh...

2010-09-10T09:02:00.001-07:00

So f2p and any new content is delayed for a week and up to the end of this month. And here's how they're saying they're going to help make up for that:

To help ease the wait for Free to Play we decided to re-run some of your favourite live events. So watch out for trolls hurling rocks at you, brigands attacking you from behind, Margot, chicken of the Shire, clucking for assistance to escort her through the Ettenmoors and much more.

Srsly? A GM troll that causes so much lag some people can't execute skills or a GM chicken that's only in the Ettens? You've got to be kidding me.

Meh, I've been waiting for this to hit to start doing my deeds (and sighing a bit everytime I complete one without trying :P) and had wanted to roll a free account so I could free up a character from a kin (can't lose that kin house!) to join Loth-i-Lonnath for some more regular rp. Now that's all on hold. Not to mention, still no new content!

For something more positive: look at the cute little orcses bedbunk! :D Little touches like these are kewl.

Aaaand I realised today my captain completed enough deep quests to get the Foundations swift travel and innocence before even going to Foundations. Nice! No desire to quest there at all!

Hallelujah!!!!

2010-09-07T13:39:00.000-07:00

" We took Radiance outside, tied it up to some railroad tracks, and...well...I think you saw the end of this in Red Dead Redemption. Look for this in the future - we will be removing Radiance from LOTRO."

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/lord-rings-online-general-discussion-424/425821-end-radiance.html

Lowbie LM

2010-09-06T04:19:00.000-07:00

For kicks I decided to roll a LM on the Snowbourn server in order to check out the atmosphere on other server and also just to see what playing a low level LM is like after you know the class pretty well. I found leveling a LM to be pretty painful until the late 30s, but I wonder if that was just me not having grasped the class or not.

I decided to roll a man for the man heal....if I ever get to that point. :P He looks horrible right now. It's really odd, under 20s on Laurelin can equip outfits cosmetically, but I'm not able to on this alt on Snowbourn. Having to run around in that shirt that looks like it has a corset is somewhat painful right now...not that I'd be able to dress him well anyway. Rolling this character on a new server really hit home how self sufficient I am right now and highlights the importance of friends and kins. I'd be able to kit a lowbie out really well and even slap a pretty Mariner's Hauberk on him. But on this new server, I'm utterly alone and pennyless! It's a bit daunting!

Whilst the mobs around my lvl aren't hard at all, my lvl9 LM does feel lacking in skills. Right now he has two dmg skills: burning embers and staff strike (and of course no SS cd legacy! ugh) They actually pile on the debuffs fairly early. I already have SoPC, Windlore and Firelore, plus the two signs for my pet, the power drain and Beacon of Hope. I know LMs are debuffers, but really, who's going to use all those at such a low level? Especially the power drain. Personally I think it would have been much better to give the damage skills earlier and introduce the debuffs afterwards. At my level I could use Light of the Rising Dawn a hell of a lot more than Wind Lore or a power drain.

It's been fun and interesting so far, but we'll see if that feeling persists as I move out of the starting areas. I have been reminded how pretty Celondim is. A very lovely start to the game. :)

Ding!

2010-08-28T06:45:00.001-07:00

Got rank 5 on my LM last night (really starting to enjoy pvp on freepside). LMs really are crappy for killing blows as you can see. :P

And, got kindred with the Lossoth and got my fluffy pony on my hunter! That was my last rep horse to get for the time being. But now I'm feeling slightly masochistic and want to get kindred on my other alts so they can have access to the crafting recipes up there. My LM would love a tiny polar bear! :D

Duplicates

2010-08-24T04:23:00.001-07:00

Strange...when I scroll down my blog I'm seeing multiples of the same entry. Is it just me or does anyone else see these duplicates?

If they are visible I have no clue how to fix this as when I go to the edit posts tab on my dashboard, it says there's only one of each post. *scratches head*

edit: woot fixed it. Thanks Google! :P

Middle Earth Fashion

2010-08-24T04:05:00.000-07:00

I finally took the time to get some screenshots of my characters' outfits to post in the outfits thread on the CM forums. It should be an easy and quick thing to do, but I didn't just want shots of my characters just standing still. Have to make them interesting after all, so it took a bit of time.

I should have had a new Loremaster outfit right now. I am near the top of the loot list for DN, with only people who have/don't want the DN chest piece. Our kin had a BO/Mistress run on Sunday and I was all set to finally take it and get my pretty robe. But due to spousal aggro I didn't get to try again and someone else got my lovely armour. *sigh*

Loremaster and Hunter. Would looooove the DN chest/legs on my hunter but doubt that will ever happen :P I'm a bit odd, I like good gear but I think a lot of my motivation for raid gear is its cosmetic value! :P

Captain and champ. I'm really in love with the Annuminas heavy armour set. I think it's gorgeous. I had to beg a few kinnies to go back and run an instance before f2p hit so I could use up my Anorian armour pieces to get the boots. With my champ I've gotten lucky with some random drops off mobs. She was only in the 30s when I made these outfits. Lowbies can be hard to make look good and I think I've done alright. Though to be honest, I'm not sure how much I'll deviate from that look as I'm not so fond of the vast majority of heavy armour on females. It's far too bulky for me.

Rivendell Vault

2010-08-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

It suddenly struck me the other day how this vault in Rivendell just doesn't look like it belongs. Wooden crates and bags stacked haphazardly and coins strewn about...all in the well kept and fine house of Elrond. Would it really have been that hard to make it blend in a bit better? It really is plain ugly. Though it's interesting that it took me this long to recognise it. :P

Impromptu Rift v2

2010-08-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

A whole lot a rifting going on lately! This time it was with some Ettens folks. We pretty much blasted through the place, except for on the second boss when Ausy told us to just nuke him and ignore the adds for fun. It was fun alright! And deadly. :P Didn't get the balrog down as it got too late for a second try.

But xhii! Look what your noob kinnie did! :P Death by yellow water ftw.

Free at last!

2010-08-21T03:03:00.000-07:00

It's always such a feeling of relief when you step out the other side of Moria and see trees and sky again! It's funny, with all my alts I've always had a feeling of excitement when entering Moria as honestly it is a pretty epic place. But once you're in and have done the first round of quests or so, that excitement wears off and I find myself already longing to be out. I'm actually pretty glad that I joined the game after Lothlorien was added on. I'm not sure I could have dealt with having to stay in Moria for months and months. I've only finished all the quests on my minstrel as I was leveling with a warden friend and that combination seemed like the perfect opportunity to be able to take on anything and everything without needing any outside help. I'm glad I've seen the entirety of Moria as there is some good stuff in there, but I highly doubt it's an experience I'll repeat again...except maybe on my hunter when I get completionist urges! ^^

Crap, crap, crap!

2010-08-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

These gave me quite the good laugh. One about f2p and the other about hunters vs. rks.

Impromptu Rift

2010-08-17T05:02:00.000-07:00

A few kin mates randomly decided to go the Rift last night. I really cannot wait until they scale this instance. I would love to be able to experience it with all on level people. We went in with 7 people and much laughter and fun ensued! I really love playing my loremaster there. Zurm was very especially fun: antistuns, debuffs, mezzes oh my! We beat Frûz with 5 which was a surprise as our champ ran in the wrong way and triggered the fight before we were ready. 4 of us then went on to see how far we could get but unfortunately Zogtark and his elder drakes proved a bit too much for us. Good fun all around, though too bad I was kept a bit too busy to take any screenshots in combat. Need to be on hunter for that. :P

Beam me up Scotty!

2010-08-14T09:35:00.001-07:00

w00t

2010-08-11T14:46:00.001-07:00

FINALLY got my first Watcher piece on my hunter! Yeah, yeah...loads of people have it, but I'm not in a kin that does loads of raiding. It takes a while to work your way to the top of the list (and you have to pass up other shiny stuff along the way :/). So many thanks to RRU for helping me get it! :D I'm glad I finally joined up with them as raiding has been a very fun. I just wish I could do more.

RP event: Passage to the Havens

2010-08-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

Last week I was by the Hall of Fire questing on my little champ Nenneth when I decided to pop in and hassle a friend who was rping there momentarily. Little did I know I was going to end up staying and meeting some great folks. I'm so glad I did as rp is something I've been wanting to get into. I met the lovely members of Loth-i-Lonnath (Curugirion, Aearandir, Durthand) and had an absolutely lovely time with them. So much so that I stayed up with them and my friend until the server was shutting down. It was so refreshing to find such accepting, inclusive and friendly people and great rp...especially after the fail of an event I'd attended the previous night with mass amounts of OOC spam and just downright non-inclusive people who were too wrapped up in themselves.

Loth-i-Lonnath held an event last night as they were travelling from Imladris back to the Havens and invited others to come along. I of course jumped at the opportunity to meet up with them and even finally sat down and worked up a background for a character...something I've been thinking about doing for a while. Funnily enough I've done this with an alt nowhere near being my main..but it's worked out really well.

All in all the journey was lovely, until the end when a few people decided to hijack the event and try to make the show about them. I found it in extreme poor taste and to be the weak spot of the group (some of the rp was just atrocious...I'm a noob and I can see that!). Hopefully next week will be a bit smoother in that regard.

But yay! I'm very glad to be getting into this and have found such great people. Screenies after the jump!

Leaving Imladris with the Warband escorting us.

Travelling through the Trollshaws:

The wine and music begins!:

Maybe you shouldn't be here...

2010-08-10T08:43:00.001-07:00

I find it quite fun venturing places I really shouldn't go. One fun place is the Vile Maw before you have any radiance. The dread leaves you with so very little morale and the acid dot threatens to kill you! I went in to get the dwarf deed done for some much needed xp, but it seems my captain was too little at 53.

Also, I find the dread effect can make for some stunning pictures. Desaturation ftw:

Angels in lotro?

2010-08-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

Nah, just me rocking Elrond's chair. :D Maybe I was overstepping my bounds, sitting on the same side as Elrond, Gandalf et all whilst they talk to Laerdan, but you know what? That guy has made me go all over Middle Earth and he's about to send me to Forochel. I think I deserve it! :P

Also, looks like Elrond has had some work on his eyes!

Oxymoron

2010-08-07T04:10:00.000-07:00

...because this name did take some thought and effort. I love it! :D I hope no lore police see him. I know of at least one lame player who actively seeks out and reports ooc names.

Promotion

2010-08-02T07:57:00.001-07:00

Never quite expected this to ever happen! I've been promoted to an officer position in my kin. :)

Lotro Instances 2.0

2010-07-29T05:37:00.000-07:00

Dev Diary 2.0 came out today.

I have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand as many have said in the official forum thread, it removes the mystery from the instances. You go in the hopes of a certain piece dropping, then you have to roll high enough to win it. As much as I hate losing as I don't have unending time to play, a kin that really doesn't go out and seriously grind things (especially raids), and a husband that doesn't like my time spent on lotro , I have to admit to liking the suspense of "Is it going to drop?" and "will I roll high enough?". It is more exiciting and also frustrating in the end.

But it's the frustration part that causes me mixed feelings. Because I'm not in some super-uber, let's-get-everyone-in-the-kin-geared-up type kin, I'm missing out on a lot of shiny stuff I'd love to have. And I have a bit of a penchant for shiny stuff. :P I mean, even my little hobbit minstrel who I'm not that keen on playing...I still want her to have the best. :P But I just simply don't have the time or people to play with in order to get all that I want when it comes to drops or raid gear. So part of me thinks it's a good thing that folks like me will be able to work for the shiny stuff. (Although, I bet they will probably take an insane amount of skirmish marks and some special campaign drop from a boss.) But I'm reminded of Sword Halls EM or GS HM. Sure it was really nice to know that with enough work you will get your rad pieces...and not be stuck running DD or 16th hundreds of times in hope of getting your piece. But grinding Bored Halls sure wasn't that fun...though losing loads of rolls isn't fun either.

Really either way can be a complete grind. It's just with drops, there's more suspense and it's less business like. So I can't make up my mind. Suspense is fun, loads of losing isn't, and business-like racking up of marks won't be either...but not having the shiny things you want can leave you forever longing. :P I think really it comes down to working on my own mindset: enjoying the company of those around me and immersing in the game. That's honestly where the most enjoyment lies I think.

SG fun

2010-07-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

So what do you do for fun after completing an SG run? Run around waking up all the bone piles with your warden friend, that's what! \o/

We survived for an amazingly long time as well...even stopped and fought them off. Ah, it was loads of fun and much laughter was had! Pity my screenies aren't the greatest (i can haz biggur monitor plz??)

*curses the evade ruining a good shot*

Wardens make some silly faces!:

We finally stop and let them kill us as running around with a warden doing conviction meant we weren't ever likely to die. I try to get off Bane Flare for the hell of it and am completely unsucessful. :P

Ah good fun!

2010-07-26T01:36:00.001-07:00

Oh, have any of you that have left a comment found it difficult to do so? I know one person has, but when I've check out the comment box, I've had no issues.

lol, ur a n00b!

2010-07-26T01:09:00.000-07:00

Ugh, that's what I felt like last night. :P Which is frustrating as I'm clearly not.

I joined a 6-man skirmish with some RRU members so I could get to know a few of them. (I signed up with them last week in an attempt to be able to do a bit more raiding...though I wonder how much more raiding I'll really be able to do...having a non-gaming husband makes it difficult). When it comes to fellowship maneuvers, they prefer ad hoc round-the-clock ones. They don't go setting a FM and assigning colours. Just go around the FS wheel and add the next colour.

You can start with either colour and go clockwise or anticlockwise. They do this for versatility, as straights are still the strongest and the leader can pick which fm is best for the situation. Seems simple huh?

Well, in theory it looks really simple but I had quite a hard time with it. :/ They have a FM trainer which I've tried out and gotten quick with, but it doesn't simulate other people adding colours extremely fast, multiple of the same colour being added and having to be removed, you having to remove a wrong colour as someone got to it first, nor the issues certain classes can have when they're at range. R and Y generally suck for LM/MNS while conversely, B and G can suck for hunter. I found myself being a bit paranoid about always being close to the mob so as LM, all options would be open. And I think I only joined in one correct FM. :/ Not to mention I got chided for jumping to cancel my fm contribution. Not sure why...guess it's slower to come back with a new contribution.

Soooo...I've signed up for some raids with them. But now I'm a bit uptight about this whole FM thing and seeming like a noob. :/ We'll see how it goes.

Late night fun

2010-07-24T04:31:00.000-07:00

I can pretty much always count on any grouping up with my friend Ben to be quite a lot of fun...and also surprise me as to what we can do. :P He always tends to push me. Last night we wanted some fun so after a SH HM (which now feels easy...funny how we used to think it was omg hard!) I suggest HoM or WW. We decided on WW...but of course Ben has to go make it interesting and wants to take in 3 LMs. I went along with it, feeling sure we wouldn't get very far on the bosses as I've gone in there on minstrel with a warden and champ and had a bit of a hard time healing some of it. But colour me surprised...the three LM run was probably the fastest and smoothest run I've ever done there. :P Just one death from me at the 3 caerogs. I was mostly tanking and the damage was just a wee bit too much for LM healing. Though luckily I died right before we got the second down so the other two LMs took the last one down with ease.

(excuse the blurry screenshot...not sure why it's so bad!)

This has definitely made me more keen to do more all LM stuff! So afterwards my friend Kala and I headed into Carn Dum. We were only going to play with the CD gatekeeper but he wasn't there. It was a bit surprising how far we got all red traited with no mez. We would have made it to Mordy but it got far too late. :P

Hobbit's Bane

2010-07-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

My poor little hobbit nearly always gets dismounted when she rides into Echad Andestel. And she had to be super careful on those arrow running rep quests. Even though I've been dismounted there numerous times, I still haven't learned that I just can't go riding across it like my elves do. :P

pwnd!

2010-07-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

I highly recommend anyone with an LM that has Improved Sticky Gourd to go back and do some of the lower level epic instances. I did Fire and Ice today and it was loads of fun one-shotting groups of mobs. (Plus it was nice to finally get to read the quest dialogue that pops up when someone uses the first obelisk!) Who can resist doing damage like this (and yes I'm sure someone's done more :P)?

You wound the Angmarim Silkspinner with Improved Sticky Gourd for 4,229 points of Fire damage.

You wound the Oathsworn Caller with Improved Sticky Gourd for 5,314 points of Fire damage.

You wound the Oathsworn Caller with Ents go to War for 6,841 points of Fire damage.

Whee! I love loreblasting! *throws more fire*

And another shot showing off my new outfit and the pretty obelisks. :P

Guild Wars2

2010-07-22T04:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, this game looks incredibly pretty. I think I might be tempted into this one when it comes out, especially as you buy the game then get to play without monthly subscription fees.

Normally I'd go straight for the elf-like race, but probably not in this game. I'm not quite so fond of the look of the Sylvari. I don't like the current trend of female characters having hardly any jaw or chin when it comes to fantasy art. Supposedly it's more feminine..or something.

Apparently they're also breaking the need for a healer and also not penalising you for death:

Why should we debuff you, take away experience, or make you run around for five minutes as a ghost instead of letting you actually play the game? We couldn't think of a reason. Well, we did actually think of a reason--it just wasn't a good one. Death penalties make death in-game a more tense experience. It just isn't fun. We want to get you back into the action (fun) as quickly as possible. Defeat is the penalty; we don't have to penalize you a second time.

I think I'm looking forward to this game!