Lord of the Rings Online

I am returning player I made this decision about 15-16days ago. The Moria expansion had me excited a bit too much where I started to miss the actual game and the $20 price tag for a new account was like a siren in the sea. My first thought was pretty much, "bah going to have go through all the same content again" and it pretty much was until you hit around 40-42 it feels like a whole new game with added quests and a greatly improved Angmar.

To get a general idea of where I am coming from I first quit after the release of Book11, I did all it's content and said bye bye to Lotro and gave up my account. Well now with it set at Book13 there was quite a bit of new content I was surprised.

The housing system is done very well set into instances of different neighbor hoods, you can decorate your house and yard using preset tiles which was kinda disappointing after spending so many years with the SWG freehand housing system but none the less it is done well enough to get some cool looking houses.

The new area of Forochel is very inviting you can start the quests reasonably solo at 42 and the quest lines climbs many quests, interesting as well. Lots of good gear and some cool new locations and frost system that makes you realize you are freezing your ass off in this bitter winter cold and after a while you will feel the crunch when an ice aura mob starts whooping you faster than you seen before.

The new area in Misty Mountains is very cool as well adding many quests that follow the book and you finally get to dwell in Goblin Town where Bilbo's adventures of the ring started. A nice new amount of quests are here as well and Goblin Town is insanely huge with over 7 instances inside it's own instance. Lots to do.

Now the main thing that got caught my breath is the amazingly new life they added to Angmar. It's like a whole new zone from the beginning levels so far most the northern parts are pretty much the same the areas of 47-50 lvl quests. But the beginning quests with the giants and aughaire are well redesigned. I remember Angmar being dark and plain very little art direction, now it's completely remastered. The forests and walk ways have a nice texture of grass/dirt that make you feel you are walking down a mountain valley. The vampire chicks have a new redesigned home, everything is touched up, caves are moved around and objects to new easily access locations and much of the frustration that was with the Angmar quests has been cleared up and redesigned. Many once set as fellowship quests are solo play instances with a whole new story around it. Very cool stuff I'm glad they did it Angmar needed it.

There's fishing now of coarse which if you're sick of everything else for a while it's a breath of fresh air. I've been hearing about "The Rift" for time now on regional chat and found out it is a new raid instance that has the best gear in game for your class beating helegard. I barely hear helegard even advertised anymore so I can't comment on if those go on still or what. I'm nearly reaching raid lvl, 45 minstrel now just a couple levels to go and I'll be able to enjoy the new raid.

If you are thinking of waiting for the expansion and miss the smell of the Lotro gameplay and life. You may want to just pick up again and roll a new character it felt like a whole new experience to me in the later levels.

I was new to LOTRO, been playing less than a month.   I had previously played just about every major US MMO released.   

While LOTRO isn't perfect, its the closest we have in the MMO genre.  

The thought of following the fellowship through Moria and into Mordor with all the experiences along the way is way too exciting to pass up.

Anyone looking the the best game in the MMO gaming world, LOTRO is the answer.   Additionally the community is the most mature and helpful I've ever experienced in an MMO.

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Originally posted by tfox2k1
I was new to LOTRO, been playing less than a month. I had previously played just about every major US MMO released.
While LOTRO isn't perfect, its the closest we have in the MMO genre.
The thought of following the fellowship through Moria and into Mordor with all the experiences along the way is way too exciting to pass up.
Anyone looking the the best game in the MMO gaming world, LOTRO is the answer. Additionally the community is the most mature and helpful I've ever experienced in an MMO.

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I agree with ya 100%

Originally posted by HashBrick

I am returning player I made this decision about 15-16days ago. The Moria expansion had me excited a bit too much where I started to miss the actual game and the $20 price tag for a new account was like a siren in the sea. My first thought was pretty much, "bah going to have go through all the same content again" and it pretty much was until you hit around 40-42 it feels like a whole new game with added quests and a greatly improved Angmar.

To get a general idea of where I am coming from I first quit after the release of Book11, I did all it's content and said bye bye to Lotro and gave up my account. Well now with it set at Book13 there was quite a bit of new content I was surprised.

The housing system is done very well set into instances of different neighbor hoods, you can decorate your house and yard using preset tiles which was kinda disappointing after spending so many years with the SWG freehand housing system but none the less it is done well enough to get some cool looking houses.

The new area of Forochel is very inviting you can start the quests reasonably solo at 42 and the quest lines climbs many quests, interesting as well. Lots of good gear and some cool new locations and frost system that makes you realize you are freezing your ass off in this bitter winter cold and after a while you will feel the crunch when an ice aura mob starts whooping you faster than you seen before.

The new area in Misty Mountains is very cool as well adding many quests that follow the book and you finally get to dwell in Goblin Town where Bilbo's adventures of the ring started. A nice new amount of quests are here as well and Goblin Town is insanely huge with over 7 instances inside it's own instance. Lots to do.

Now the main thing that got caught my breath is the amazingly new life they added to Angmar. It's like a whole new zone from the beginning levels so far most the northern parts are pretty much the same the areas of 47-50 lvl quests. But the beginning quests with the giants and aughaire are well redesigned. I remember Angmar being dark and plain very little art direction, now it's completely remastered. The forests and walk ways have a nice texture of grass/dirt that make you feel you are walking down a mountain valley. The vampire chicks have a new redesigned home, everything is touched up, caves are moved around and objects to new easily access locations and much of the frustration that was with the Angmar quests has been cleared up and redesigned. Many once set as fellowship quests are solo play instances with a whole new story around it. Very cool stuff I'm glad they did it Angmar needed it.

There's fishing now of coarse which if you're sick of everything else for a while it's a breath of fresh air. I've been hearing about "The Rift" for time now on regional chat and found out it is a new raid instance that has the best gear in game for your class beating helegard. I barely hear helegard even advertised anymore so I can't comment on if those go on still or what. I'm nearly reaching raid lvl, 45 minstrel now just a couple levels to go and I'll be able to enjoy the new raid.

If you are thinking of waiting for the expansion and miss the smell of the Lotro gameplay and life. You may want to just pick up again and roll a new character it felt like a whole new experience to me in the later levels.

Very good post! Glad you are back.

I agree with you on everything except the housing. The housing sucks, if only for the hooks system. If they made it freeform, it would be awesome, and much better than EQ2s.

Im currently saving up the 200$ for the lifetime... and hoping that Moria's two new classes with get rid of the stale and boring feeling of all the classes. I like minstrel, and to a lesser extent, ranger, but all the others just scream boring.

i recently took up the offer of the 8.99 (uk pounds) lotr . i d been wanting to try it for a while but had been playing warcraft which had really started to bore me . id say lord of the rings is a lot of fun and well worth checking out . the only thing i would say is that i d prefer more pvp options and the oppertunity to play one of the evil side beyond monster play . its really the only thing it lacks to be honest . perhaps the mines of moria will offer a lot more options for pvp play . personally i dont mind getting ganked it adds a bit of an edge to the gameplay .

outside of warcraft this is the only other mmo i ve found thats really worth playing long term ( aocs ok but the instancing does nt make for an emerisive game world ) .

Once i was a LOTRO fan but only up to level 30some. I find the game boring, none of the features you mention appeal to me. I will not return for a long time - I dont miss it at all.

Glad you enjoy it though, have fun.

Sam.

this forum seens so civilised unlime the other ones . It seems you can disagree and thats that unlike other forums where you start multipart flame wars

needless to say i have just come back to lotr and enjoying it

Originally posted by tfox2k1

The thought of following the fellowship through Moria and into Mordor with all the experiences along the way is way too exciting to pass up.

If you like, I'll be happy to tell you how the story ends.

Glad to hear you're having fun, still the player doesn't have enough direct impact on the game world to suit me.