Oh look, more of the same old same old. More of the same boring mechanics; more quest hubs and endless instances that scale to any level.

Living world my rear-end, they continue to ignore any of the housing / crafting changes or any other system that would make the game feel like a 'living world' and not just a ridiculously casual (but pretty) adventure game.

Their art department remains good...which is about the only thing I still like about the game.

Originally posted by ericbelser

Oh look, more of the same old same old. More of the same boring mechanics; more quest hubs and endless instances that scale to any level.

Living world my rear-end, they continue to ignore any of the housing / crafting changes or any other system that would make the game feel like a 'living world' and not just a ridiculously casual (but pretty) adventure game.

Their art department remains good...which is about the only thing I still like about the game.

Housing I give you, it needs a revamp.  But crafting has been changed and is fun and the new system of mounted combat makes, at least for me, the world feel more alive.  My horse and fighting is very physics oriented, lending a very immersive experience to it all.  LOVE the quest hub hopping in Rohan because it feels very organic now and less go here come back 20 times, now it's go here and you complete it while your out there and oh, here's another few quests while your out there that auto complete when you finish them, hells yes.  this lets me focus on the storyline of each quest and the main storyline.  To each their own I guess.  

I hadn't played for quite a while (381 days according to the kin log).  I've been playing on Crickhollow since Freemium, but my highest level characters are on Nimrodel.  So I'm still in Lothlorien and earlier on Crick.  I own up to xpac before this one although I didn't play it long.

Things I've noticed so far:

- There are a ton more store buttons and shortcuts.  At least it feels that way compared to my other sub free games.  Nothing I mind in the store although a lot of it seems spendy for character only benefits like mounts.

- There is a lot of the game that I can play through what I've purchased.

- There don't seem to be a lot of skirmishes available to my character, even for purchase, compared to when I left off.  Maybe I need to unlock more to have them be visible.  I just expected a few more available on the list.

- The classes feel a lot different.  Even the hunter feels different.  My lore-master the least so, and my minstrel the most. I can't even play my minstrel.  I don't know if I'll ever sort out that mess.  I stopped playing right after minstrel changes went out and I don't quite get them yet.

- The existing parts of the game feel about the same if not a little less deadly.  That's okay though because I can still push it and enjoy an overland challenge.  I don't play that much and haven't explored too much so this may be more or less true depending.  It seems mostly true at least for older areas.

- The legendary system has changed a bit, again a little before I stopped playing, and I'm not sure how to best approach it.  That's mostly true for runics and how to grow them.  Breaking down legendaries has been slow.  I'm thinking there has to be a better approach.

- There's some wallet changes.

I would wait to spend money until you need to.