I never noticed the "clunky" combat either. Perhaps its because I just came from FFXI, where the combat system is the complete opposite of button mashing. It's also been a long time since I played WoW.

WHAT??? what "clunky" combat?? LOTRO combat is fast, furious, smooth and fun....I've never experienced this "clunkiness" before.

If you compared the combat style with WOW, I may agreed with you but definitely not EQ2. EQ2 sux in every aspects imo. 

I think WOW's combat become superior because of various skills make it better. Turbine's combat engine still the same since Acheron's Call. If you used to play other games then you will found it is difficult to play LOTRO. And that is true.

I think some of this feeling about combat has to do with the way auto-attack and hotbar based attack interact.  Especially if you use a slow weapon

Try playing a Warden with a spear (fast weapon), Wardens were specifically coded to have a different auto-attack interaction.  This also means that if you are not careful you can cut into your auto attack damage since Warden Gambits will override the AA swings.

Basically LOTRO is a game that does enforce timing and changes in timing.  You do not precisely control every thing.  Auto attack really is on auto (and is signficnat amount of damage).

I personally dislike the way WoW works.  Not because it feels bad, but because its full of crap.  Its auto-attack is fake.  I would prefer they just did it the way CoH does.  If you want super responisve combat then make a CoH type system which has no auto attack. 

Athough I do have to say the LOTRO is slightly off in its timing as I do have to wait about half a second after I stop miving to cast a spell or else it tells me I can't even though I am not moving.

What some people call clunky, I find to be more rhythmic. Having almost predominantly played a captain throughout the lifetime of LOTRO, I've found a rhythm with that class's combat. The timing and queuing of skills contributes to that rhythm. LOTRO's combat is more tactical, requiring thinking through the skill progression both in terms of what skills you want to use, but also when to hit the button. This does make it feel slower, but in actuality the combat isn't any slower than a skill that immediately fires. For most people, this is probably a problem. In general, we're a culture that prefers instant gratification, especially amongst the younger generations. In the game, we feel less empowered by skills that don't immediately respond. If you play LOTRO, you have to get used to the rhythm of the combat. If you do, you'll be fine. If it's not your cup of tea, well, I guess that's just the way it is. There's enough games out there to satisfy everybody methinks.

Originally posted by Jaxom92

What some people call clunky, I find to be more rhythmic. Having almost predominantly played a captain throughout the lifetime of LOTRO, I've found a rhythm with that class's combat. The timing and queuing of skills contributes to that rhythm. LOTRO's combat is more tactical, requiring thinking through the skill progression both in terms of what skills you want to use, but also when to hit the button. This does make it feel slower, but in actuality the combat isn't any slower than a skill that immediately fires. For most people, this is probably a problem. In general, we're a culture that prefers instant gratification, especially amongst the younger generations. In the game, we feel less empowered by skills that don't immediately respond. If you play LOTRO, you have to get used to the rhythm of the combat. If you do, you'll be fine. If it's not your cup of tea, well, I guess that's just the way it is. There's enough games out there to satisfy everybody methinks.

 

OH BOY, I knew it wasn't going to be long before the beloved cliche "Instant gratification" popped up.

I don't see anything rhythmic about the combat, of course I couldn't stomach this game passed the starting area. I think I started a champion and a rogue Burgler. Each class started with several abilities. I hit the skills, the skills would fire off much later, and they'd make a barely noticeable difference. I'm sorry, but when I hit a button; I'd like for the ability to fire off, oh, and have it actually make a difference. I guess that makes an instant gratification BABY!1

Oh, Im sure the skills make a difference later, once you get to the GAME part of the GAME, unfortunately; the crappy combat is a turn off for a lot of people. Hell, Warhammer has more responsive combat; and that's pretty damn pathetic.

Originally posted by Anthony3187

Just seems like the people who voted for Lotro are severely overlooking how awful the combat in the game is.

Who says anyone's overlooking anything? Your view of the combat is your own opinion.

Maybe people just have a different taste in combat than you do and enjoy what you don't?

I will never understand these short-sighted comments from people who think that anyone who doesn't see things the way they do must be "missing" or "overlooking" something, or are just "blind fanboys" or any other number of rationalizations for what boils down to a simple difference of opinion.

Is it so hard to accept that other people simply have different likes and dislikes?

I'm probably going to be playing age of conan over this. At least it has nice combat.

And that right there goes back to the opinion aspect. There are many people who consider AoC's combat to be nothing more than playing "simon says". That's *their* opinion.

Would that make it reasonable for someone to say "it just seems to me that Anthony3187 is severely overlooking AoC's horrible combat system"?

I hope you'd agree it wouldn't.

Originally posted by BesCirga

I am one of those of actually like the combat in lotro. The thing you are talking about is, in lotro, if you push a certain skill in middle of an auto attack (or another skill), the avatar will finish the auto attack and then execute the set skill. This is has nothing to do with the combat system being non-responsive, because if you push the skill it will immediately go in queue, but rather an attempt to create an combat with a natural flow, and not a combat where you break off attack-swings in middle of the air.

In essence; the combat system works just like its intended to.

Originally posted by Jackdog

I really like LoTROs combat myself. I like having to think about what I am doing and what I want to do next not just spamming buttons like in some games. I just finished playing a couple of hours of AoC and restarted on a new server and my low level PoM felt like I was riding a bike with training wheels so I would not bum my head. Didn't help that all I was doing was spamming my one damage spell over and over for 5 levels and could not find a weapon I could use other than the starter "broken bottle'

*facepalm*

You do realize you can buy a better weapon from a vendor if you aren't getting an upgrade from monster kills.

Anyway...this is useful information. I've had my eye on LotRO for a while and I'm just waiting for the free trial to come back.

Originally posted by Capn23

Originally posted by Jackdog

I really like LoTROs combat myself. I like having to think about what I am doing and what I want to do next not just spamming buttons like in some games. I just finished playing a couple of hours of AoC and restarted on a new server and my low level PoM felt like I was riding a bike with training wheels so I would not bum my head. Didn't help that all I was doing was spamming my one damage spell over and over for 5 levels and could not find a weapon I could use other than the starter "broken bottle'

 

*facepalm*

 

You do realize you can buy a better weapon from a vendor if you aren't getting an upgrade from monster kills.

 

Anyway...this is useful information. I've had my eye on LotRO for a while and I'm just waiting for the free trial to come back.

If you want a free trial just PM me your email.

Originally posted by Anthony3187

 There, I said it. At least when I try to heal on EQ2 my heal cast starts immediately. In Lotro, I have to wait for that invisible server tick to start my cast to heal somebody.

That's not a server tick, its induction time, and there are traits (and equipment) to reduce it.

I think the problem lies with the auto attack system-no matter what,if you fire off a skill before the auto attack animation,it wont begin until its finished. Try fighting from range as a loremaster and the skills will have minimal delay,but once the enemy gets up close the auto attack will kick in.

I like the combat in LoTRO, but there is nothing very new to it. It feels like the same system that I was using 11 years ago in EQ. It really comes down to auto-attack. I dislike auto-attack. CoX doesn't use any form of auto-attack and the system is a lot smoother because of it. In fact every game that has a combat system that I really enjoy does not use auto-attack. Its archaic and clunky.

Turn off auto-attack if you want your skills to fire when you press them. If you have auto-attack on you have to wait until you auto-attack is over before your next move can happen. Also, the speed of your weapon helps in how fast you can do things.

I think in all honesty it's what you're looking for in a game. If you want to slam a button and have it happen immediately WoW/AoC are games for you.

If you want a game where you start loading up your next skill (that yellow box around the skill tells you its the next one to be cast) with a more stratigic feel to every move LoTRO is your game.

Both WoW/AoC and LoTRO have a long term stratic feel to fights, ie you want to win, but I think it's almost the difference between playing FPS and RP games. RP games don't result in insta-kills.

I won't lie - I found it slow in the beginning having come from WoW - but after getting to see the benefits of having a "queuing" combat system (more akin to SWG) grew on me. Now I love being able to load up a skill before it's cast, and feel more incontrol of what's going to happen next.

TL;DR:  Dunno - It just feels less reactionary to and more precise and strategic to me. Not being able to button mash can be a hard transition for some people.

Liked the combat in FFXI, WoW, AoC, and WAR. I just can't bring myself to like it in LoTRO which sucks because the game world is gorgeous.

Originally posted by Skeeterxi

Liked the combat in FFXI, WoW, AoC, and WAR. I just can't bring myself to like it in LoTRO which sucks because the game world is gorgeous.

I'm surprised you mention FFXI in this statement. In my opinion, the combat in LOTRO feels very similar to the combat in FFXI, although there are of course differences.

Originally posted by ParkCarsHere

Originally posted by Skeeterxi

Liked the combat in FFXI, WoW, AoC, and WAR. I just can't bring myself to like it in LoTRO which sucks because the game world is gorgeous.

I'm surprised you mention FFXI in this statement. In my opinion, the combat in LOTRO feels very similar to the combat in FFXI, although there are of course differences.

Prob because FFXI was my first mmo, I was hooked for like 4 years until I tried other games. I think most people hold a special spot for their first mmo.