Lotro Instances 2.0

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

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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)?

Read more »

Guild Wars2

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!

Best. Bio. evar!

Oh man, this made me laugh for quite a while today:

"Know as the orange mountain.

Lived from eons in Vanimar she decided join the raid of the Last Alliance.

The battle went fine till the pet of the lore master Gandalf free the daze of Sauron who killed Elendil cause the noob Gil Galad tried to keep the aggro in op and died too.

Finally [name removed] orange decided spam fh and set war speech. She had luck and devaste sauron with a piercing cry.

Unfortunatelly couldn't roll for the ring who had ninja looted by Isildur."

Cold Moon

I just really love Forochel. I think it's probably my favourite spot in the game. The ambient sound is lovely and the views never fail to impress no matter what the time of day. At first it looks barren, but when you look closer the landscape is rich with colour. I think I'm going to be a bit sad when I've achieved kindred status with the Lossoth. I'll have no good reason to put on The Elder Scrolls music and ride around Forochel taking loads of screenies. :P More Forochel love to come later.

First!

Woo, new blog and first post! \o/ Hopefully now I'll finally have a place to post all my screenshots and talk about lotro a bit...with other rl stuff thrown in I expect. ;)