What I'm wondering is whether the world in LoTRO is open-ended or split up into walled-off zones like in WoW, Guild Wars, WAR etc?

Also, when you reach level 60 what do players typically do? I understand there are few raids; what about 5-mans (or their equivalent)? Is crafting a big thing in this game? Are there different "tiers" of gear or are stats not that important? Does gold have much value or are there few 'money sinks'?

Hey,

First off lotro does split their regions, like wow they have higher level mobs in different areas so you are forced to level up to experience that content. In all honesty though its not hard to level at all. Apart from the higher level mobs the world is seamless and you can enter any zone at any time but beware you may get slaughtered if you go into the really high level areas. To enter the mines them self you need to be level 48+ as you need to do a quest to actually gain access to the mines.

What do players do at cap level, there are many things to do like in all MMO's. You can craft, but to be honest they have kinda stuffed it up with the expansion, who knows where it will go from where its at at the moment. Its not completely bodged but not as good as it's former days.

There is also the lotro version of pvp which is called PVMP. Its sort of like DAOC style of keep raiding. There is one area dedicated to PVMP where you can play as Freeps (your main character) or Creeps (once you reach level 10 on your main character you can create a level 60 monster). Depending on the time zone and what server you are on the pvp action is usually pretty fun. Most nights is 24man raid vs 24man raid which can get very interesting at times as some nights its more like 60 vs 30.

As for raids there are raids and instances and plenty of them. At the moment in game you have your choice of Solo instance, 3 man instances, 6 man instances or the 12 man raids and one 24 man raid. Most of the instance content is at end game which you need to be 54+ to do but there is a fair bit in the early game but it is a bit tougher to find a group for. Off the top of my head there are currently (including low and high level instances)

15: 6man instances

5: 3man instances

6: solo instance

2: 12man raids

1: 24 man raid.

Now with all that said turbine has also promised that with the release of their next big update coming very soon the addition of two more 12 man raids a new instance cluster of 4 - 6 six man instances a whole new set of 3 man instances lots of new solo instances a new region many bug fixes and enhancements.

As for money sinks there are not that many money sinks but saying that its not exactly extremely easy to accumulate large quantities of cash.

Hope you get a little bit of info out of what I have said.

Hope to see you around Middle Earth :)

Originally posted by Dotora

 

Hope you get a little bit of info out of what I have said.

 

Hope to see you around Middle Earth :)

Thanks, that was a very informative post.

Originally posted by Dotora

Now with all that said turbine has also promised that with the release of their next big update coming very soon the addition of two more 12 man raids a new instance cluster of 4 - 6 six man instances a whole new set of 3 man instances lots of new solo instances a new region many bug fixes and enhancements.

 

Are they introducing another damn instance cluster? Sad News, Very Sad News!