LOTRO Mines of Moria

[lupi]

I ended up with an extra preorder code from gamestop, so if anyone that plays this would like a code for the extra title and cosmetic miner helm send me a pm. I believe the codes are good to be entered up to 30 days post launch so you'd still have time to enter it.

 

[Auryg]

I don't suppose you have a buddy code as well? I've been itching to try the game.

 

[lupi]

I still have founder guest passes which are better than regular buddy passes. If anyone wants one just send me a pm with your email account.

 

[natebigdawg]

I sure wish that this game was getting more notice it is currently receiving.

The addition of Legandary items has really been an awesome component that helps set it apart in the MMO Genre. The Mines of Moria are all awesome to explore even though i have only touched the surface. Graphics are amazing and really bring the world to life!

I think that if there is anyone that has been considering getting into a more casual MMO, LOTRO has a great system in place. This was my first MMO to completly dive into and i am very happy with it. Have not bought any other game since this last March.

 

[astrosfan315]

I'm on my last day of a angmar buddy pass. I'm a lvl 15 champion and I am addicted. I love the main quest line so far. I actually feel like I'm accomplishing something, and that there is a goal for the greater good to obtain. That and the graphics/sound are really really good. I'm hooked.

 

[Blindman]

Originally posted by: astrosfan315
I'm on my last day of a angmar buddy pass. I'm a lvl 15 champion and I am addicted. I love the main quest line so far. I actually feel like I'm accomplishing something, and that there is a goal for the greater good to obtain. That and the graphics/sound are really really good. I'm hooked.

Go get the lifetime member... 200 dollar... then you play when you want too.

 

[astrosfan315]

i bought a preorder pack at fry's for $.01 and grabbed moria at Target for $40 with a $10 gift card and signed up for the $9.99 month deal. I'd have to play 20 months to reap the $200 benefit...I'll take my chances 3 months at at time for $29.97..that's easier to swallow. I played WoW a couple years ago and only played it 3 months and didn't care for it. This one is different I really like the quests, and am amazed at how similar the gameplay is to WoW, but the environments remind me more of Guild Wars, which I played but got bored after completing all the main stories for it's core and expansions.

 

[Elcs]

How is LoTRO as an MMORPG?

Im a casual player, hoping to score 1-2 hours a day and prefer solo PvE. I know solo sort of defeats the object of MMO's but I am not wanting to have to form parties or rely on people to get some enjoyment out of he game.

Is there a good crafting structure?

Would it fit in with what I prefer out of my MMO's?

 

[KeithTalent]

I am a founder with the lifetime subscription, but I have not played for several months now. The biggest reason for this is because I am an extremely casual player, as in I was only able to login once a week at best, and I found by the time I was in the 40s I was unable to accomplish barely anything on my own. It would usually take me a while to figure out where I was going, then I would really struggle to get any of the quests done solo. So for my 4 or 5 hours of gameplay, my progress would be negligible.

This does not happen to me in WoW. I have very little trouble logging in for a few hours and knocking out a bunch of quests and killing some bad guys, which is what makes these games fun for me and at least gives me a bit of a feeling of accomplishment.

I also hate that you are not allowed any outside add-ons; I think there is a lot of lost potential there.

KT

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
I am a founder with the lifetime subscription, but I have not played for several months now. The biggest reason for this is because I am an extremely casual player, as in I was only able to login once a week at best, and I found by the time I was in the 40s I was unable to accomplish barely anything on my own. It would usually take me a while to figure out where I was going, then I would really struggle to get any of the quests done solo. So for my 4 or 5 hours of gameplay, my progress would be negligible.

This does not happen to me in WoW. I have very little trouble logging in for a few hours and knocking out a bunch of quests and killing some bad guys, which is what makes these games fun for me and at least gives me a bit of a feeling of accomplishment.

I also hate that you are not allowed any outside add-ons; I think there is a lot of lost potential there.

KT

How long does it take to reach something like level 40?

There is no mention of crafting either. It looms like I can pick up LoTRO for $15 and Mines of Moria for $445 (with 2 extra months subscription) (equivilent prices in the UK)

My previous experience with MMO's has left me badly burned (FFXI US and AoC)... I need something I can sink my teeth into.

One concern I have briefly looking at character classes is the lack of skills or things to do with character development. Is this highly lacking? I cant see a pet class either which would slightly sour my enthusiasm?

Finally, how well does it play? Am I going to be able to get 1920x1080 with eye candy with an X2 6000+, 512mb HD4870 and 4 Gb RAM?

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
I am a founder with the lifetime subscription, but I have not played for several months now. The biggest reason for this is because I am an extremely casual player, as in I was only able to login once a week at best, and I found by the time I was in the 40s I was unable to accomplish barely anything on my own. It would usually take me a while to figure out where I was going, then I would really struggle to get any of the quests done solo. So for my 4 or 5 hours of gameplay, my progress would be negligible.

This does not happen to me in WoW. I have very little trouble logging in for a few hours and knocking out a bunch of quests and killing some bad guys, which is what makes these games fun for me and at least gives me a bit of a feeling of accomplishment.

I also hate that you are not allowed any outside add-ons; I think there is a lot of lost potential there.

KT

How long does it take to reach something like level 40?

There is no mention of crafting either. It looms like I can pick up LoTRO for $15 and Mines of Moria for $445 (with 2 extra months subscription) (equivilent prices in the UK)

My previous experience with MMO's has left me badly burned (FFXI US and AoC)... I need something I can sink my teeth into.

One concern I have briefly looking at character classes is the lack of skills or things to do with character development. Is this highly lacking? I cant see a pet class either which would slightly sour my enthusiasm?

Finally, how well does it play? Am I going to be able to get 1920x1080 with eye candy with an X2 6000+, 512mb HD4870 and 4 Gb RAM?

Eye candy will not be a problem with that rig and that's good, because the game is quite beautiful. Much better looking than AoC IMO.

Crafting is fun. I actually went pretty far with crafting on two of my characters. It's a very nice side activity, though I'm not sure how the economy is for crafted goods these days, but I imagine it is still relatively robust for crit items and things of that ilk.

There were at least 2 pet classes last time I played. My main was a Captain that has a Herald (essentially a human pet) and Lore-masters also have pets. Not sure if either of the new MoM classes have pets.

Very difficult for me to quantify getting to level 40 as I was grouped a lot of the time when I was doing my first character.

I'm pretty sure I can refer you for a free trial if you are interested. Just shoot me a PM with your e-mail address if you want a little taste before you buy.

KT

 

[acheron]

There is crafting. It took me playing semi-casually about 6 months to reach level 40; if you were serious about it you could probably hit it much earlier. Pre-Moria, the Loremaster and Captain classes both had 'pets'; I don't know about the new Moria classes.

I think it would look awesome with your rig, especially if you have Vista (haven't tried it myself but it supposedly looks great with DirectX 10).

I stopped playing several months ago... just wasn't into the whole MMO thing. I'm sure it would be different if I had friends playing it too. Tried joining a couple "kins" (guilds) but that never really worked out for me either. *shrug*

But I'm a huge Tolkien nerd, and the setting and everything was really well done. I was a bit concerned about where they were taking it with the Moria expansion (the new classes seemed a bit "lore-breaking"), but really I was damn impressed. If I were to play any MMO, it would be this one, I just didn't take to the genre long-term.

 

[Nik]

I played LOTRO for the better part of a year. Epic burglars FTMFW. All other classes suck I played the free weekend again in November. The game is just... boring. The graphics are great and the story is obviously awesome -it's cool to run around Weathertop and talk to Elrond (Hubbard) and stuff, but the combat system sucking as hard as it does and the virtual requirement for a group for almost everything beyond level 30 regardless of class is just asinine. I met a few really cool people early on and continued playing the game with them, but they don't play anymore so forget it.

 

[oddyager]

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
I am a founder with the lifetime subscription, but I have not played for several months now. The biggest reason for this is because I am an extremely casual player, as in I was only able to login once a week at best, and I found by the time I was in the 40s I was unable to accomplish barely anything on my own. It would usually take me a while to figure out where I was going, then I would really struggle to get any of the quests done solo. So for my 4 or 5 hours of gameplay, my progress would be negligible.

This does not happen to me in WoW. I have very little trouble logging in for a few hours and knocking out a bunch of quests and killing some bad guys, which is what makes these games fun for me and at least gives me a bit of a feeling of accomplishment.

I also hate that you are not allowed any outside add-ons; I think there is a lot of lost potential there.

KT

How long does it take to reach something like level 40?

There is no mention of crafting either. It looms like I can pick up LoTRO for $15 and Mines of Moria for $445 (with 2 extra months subscription) (equivilent prices in the UK)

My previous experience with MMO's has left me badly burned (FFXI US and AoC)... I need something I can sink my teeth into.

One concern I have briefly looking at character classes is the lack of skills or things to do with character development. Is this highly lacking? I cant see a pet class either which would slightly sour my enthusiasm?

Finally, how well does it play? Am I going to be able to get 1920x1080 with eye candy with an X2 6000+, 512mb HD4870 and 4 Gb RAM?

I played it very casual and I also made it a point to do EVERY quest so it took me half the year to get to 40. I'd imagine you can easily do it in no time. Crafting is a grind no matter what game you play and I didn't find LotRO to be any different to be honest than, say, EQ 1 or 2. You either go out and farm endlessly for materials (huge timesink) or you buy them off of players through auctions.

I thought the classes were well defined and well rounded. There are plenty of skills and abilities that separate each class and make them all unique of one another (not counting the two new ones from Moria). There are two pet classes in the game. The Lore-master summons animals and a Captain summons a herald. Neither of them make suitable tanks though as they are mainly there for support and act like a mini-DoT.

 

[SJP0tato]

Originally posted by: Elcs
How long does it take to reach something like level 40?

There is no mention of crafting either. It looms like I can pick up LoTRO for $15 and Mines of Moria for $445 (with 2 extra months subscription) (equivilent prices in the UK)

My previous experience with MMO's has left me badly burned (FFXI US and AoC)... I need something I can sink my teeth into.

One concern I have briefly looking at character classes is the lack of skills or things to do with character development. Is this highly lacking? I cant see a pet class either which would slightly sour my enthusiasm?

Finally, how well does it play? Am I going to be able to get 1920x1080 with eye candy with an X2 6000+, 512mb HD4870 and 4 Gb RAM?

I have been playing with a friend for about a week, and everyone's comments so far seem spot on. For my 1-week old review:

Playing an average of probably 2-3 hours a day maybe 3-4 days a week my friend & I are both lvl 14-15ish. Mostly just running the dozens and dozens of quests.

On the upside, the quests do seem very well done. You still have to collect 10 bear asses, but they usually have a unique story and event surrounding them so they feel more "fresh" than most mmo quests.

I played FFXI for about a year or so, if I had to compare them I'd say LOTRO is very refined and "slick" feeling compared to the mechanical rusty threshing machine that was/is FFXI.

Character development is something I'm finding a little lacking so far (nothing really "neat"), but I'm only a lvl 15 minstrel so I'm hoping it gets spiced up at later levels.

Your rig looks good, the graphics are very nice.

 

[Elcs]

Thanks to KeithTalent (10 day buddy trial) and some creative thinking on my part, I got my first taste of LoTRO yesterday with the high resolution download pack. Frame rates go from 25-200+ in areas with 30-60 being the norm @ 1920x1080, 4x AA, x8 AF both forced via CCC and most options high/ultra high. Looks very good.

I had some playing experience with a Dwarven Champion and Hobbit Burgular getting them up to levels 8 and 5 respectively. The learning curve is very gentle and picking up things is very easy, I enjoyed the start of the game. My problem now is picking a class I want to play as I am not much of a support player (healing? pah!) and the Burgular, debuffer looks quite complicated in its use plus seems like it could be frail later on solo. Champions.. I have heard are most common, I found them the easy to pick up.

I absolutely love the Traits and Deeds sections. Very very thoughtful and ingenius way of truly making quests improve your character. I got the Advanced Goblin Slayer Deed which gave me Zeal Level 1 if I remember correctly.

I am really enjoying it so I think I might pick it up... Hopefully I can just add the game time onto the trial time and continue with my gruesome twosome.

 

[lupi]

For any pasrt time players that haven't picked up the expansion yet, there is a coupon on the bb reqard zone area to get $20 off the collector edition making it about the same cost as the regular version if interested.

 

[KeithTalent]

Elcs: glad to hear you are enjoying it.

I had played LOTRO since the first closed beta IIRC (might be the second one), and I actually found the Burglar to be the most fun solo class of all the ones I tried. Being able to sneak up on people and also easily get away when you are in trouble made for some good times, plus the ability to initiate Fellowship Maneuvers comes in very handy when you inevitably do start grouping.

To be fair I never played Champion or Guardian, as they never really interested me, so I can't really comment on those classes, but every other class I played to at least level 30 and they were all pretty good at soloing.

All of this talk about the game kind of makes me want to play again.

KT

 

[imported_Section8]

Lvl 23 Loremaster and really like it.

 

[acheron]

I played a Hunter to level 49 -- it was very easy to solo at early and even middle levels, but very tough to solo at the higher levels. Could mow down all regular enemies, but any sort of 'boss' enemy, even a relatively weak one, would rape me.

I played a Minstrel to level 29ish too, and it was a bit harder to solo than the Hunter up to that point, but still not much of a problem.

Played a couple other classes up to around level 15 -- Captain and Burglar. I was having fun with the Captain at the early levels too.

 

[natebigdawg]

Good to see LOTRO getting a little discussion.

I have been playing since march and have loved every bit of it. I even convinced my wife to play and now I have payed for 2 Lifetimes and consider myself happy.

I would definately encourage anyone that is considering buying this to go with the collectors edition with Mines of Moria expansion included. This opens up the two new classes from the get go which I have found the Warden to be a blast. You can consider them a medium tank that can hold there own since they have robust self-healing abilities. They also have a very unique skill system making them more of an advanced class yet very diverse. If anyone really does a lot of solo content like i do, they are perfect for the job.

LOTRO has tons of quests and it is actually quite easy to get to level to 40 doing almost only solo content. The books quests which really set LOTRO appart from others acutally does require grouping at portions but I notice many people doing these quests as of late. I would assume that anyone playing about 10 hours a week could expect to reach level 40 in about 3 months if you work on getting lots of quests done. There is definately no shortage in this area.

 

[Feldenak]

I love the game, been playing since ~Jan-Feb 2008 (Founder & lifetime sub). I'm a pretty casual player now, logging an average of 5-8 hrs/week (love to play more but too busy).

I wouldn't say the game requires you to find a fellowship though it obviously does help and some quests require one. I also don't find it difficult or tedious to find a fellowship but I'm on the server with the highest population (Brandywine). I've soloed most of the levels on my characters (56 hunter, 50 burg, 47 champion, 47 loremaster, 35 captain) and found the difficulty pretty average. Obviously some people find it hard/easier but I think the devs found a good average difficulty.

If you're on Brandywine and need some assistance shoot my main (Feldenak) a mail and I'll see what I can do. I've tolerable crafting levels on my characters and would be willing to help with equipment crafting or even with some of the lower level quests.

KeithTalent, if you're struggling with locations and finding stuff for quests there are a couple of dynamic maps available. The only one I can remember offhand is mehq.org/dynmap

It's currently down for maintenance and may not impress the WoW folks but Turbine is working on their out-of-game content with Character Viewer and Lorebook (the Lorebook might be online right now but the character viewer is down for maintenance).

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
If you're on Brandywine and need some assistance shoot my main (Feldenak) a mail and I'll see what I can do. I've tolerable crafting levels on my characters and would be willing to help with equipment crafting or even with some of the lower level quests.

Thank you for your offer and thanks to everyone who has shared their experiences, it has been most helpful.

As I am from the UK, I am assuming that LoTRO has European servers for us and therefore I would be unable to join up with you. Id love to be able to take my fledgling characters and add my subscriptions to my trial... however I think the trial is on US servers too

 

[Rustican]

LOTRO is a very player friendly and beautiful looking MMO. I've been playing almost a year now and have a life time sub which will soon pay itself off.

Quests:
The game is causal friendly and there are a lot of solo quests. There are quest lines and instances that require 6 man fellowships but they can be bypassed. It is possible to get to lvl 60 doing nothing but solo quests if that is your thing. There are also 12/24 man raids if that is your thing which are awesome but not the main focus of the game.

Classes:
Burgler: debuffer, dps, crowd control
Champion: aoe dps, offtank
Lore Master: crowd control, aoe, debuf removal, pet
Captain: offtank, buffer, pet, support healer
Guardian: main tank, dps
Hunter: single target dps nuker, travel utility powers.
Rune Keeper: dot nuker, healer
Warden: offtank, dps
Minstrel: main healer, support buffer, support dps

Most played classes are Hunters and Champions. (Everyone wants to be a Legolas/Aragorn)
Most challenging classes are LM and Captains. They are a sort of do it all character so juggling around their abilities is a challenge but very rewarding.
Slowest character to level is the Minstrel. Healer class takes longer to kill things but much wanted in groups.

Look me up any time. I play on the Landroval server (unofficial role playing server) Rustican.

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: Rustican

Most challenging classes are LM and Captains. They are a sort of do it all character so juggling around their abilities is a challenge but very rewarding.
Slowest character to level is the Minstrel. Healer class takes longer to kill things but much wanted in groups.

Look me up any time. I play on the Landroval server (unofficial role playing server) Rustican.

I didn't find LM as challenging as a burg. Both are very fun classes though. The only thing challenging about playing a Captain is power consumption.