I’m just a smidgen away from level 9; I think most of the others in the group made it to 9 IIRC. Probably just as long as you level to 8 (which should be pretty fast) you should be good to go.
Around 8-9 is right, yeah. MLatin is level 11, but he started the evening there, too. If you are a bit lower, it won’t matter much. You’ll catch up. We caught up to mlatin pretty quickly, without him leveling at all.
That’s a good idea, actually. It would also slow things down a bit and allow us to enjoy the scenery. If others want to power through a bit more, we could create separate groups for that. I think I’d prefer the running back and forth, to really take in and get a feel for the land.
Had a good time in the Shire last night. It has been so long since I have done some of these quests and explored the area that it almost felt like a new experience. The difference between being in a small group versus a full group is pretty dramatic. A full group on the early solo quests is absolutely effortless. I’d like to look for some more challenging quests. It seems like going up to Needlehole or Scary may be in order. Hope to see you all again next Monday night.
That’s what I was thinking, because I think the first instance in that area is in the bog.
I have a question for the East Coast Group.
We specifically avoided picking up the mail delivery quests on last Monday. Are we planning on doing those as a group, or should we do those solo to seem some territory and explore?
I avoided them so that people could get a feel for the game without them a bit, since they drag you far afield. But doing those first thing next time would be a great way to explore the shire and open up the map.
We did the first few mail runs since they open up Waymeet, Needlehole and Tookland, all of which had quests we then picked up and completed. It also opens up the stable routes which is handy later on. If you approach the mail runs as a means to find new quests once you’ve exhausted the ones in your current area they are an excellent tool, especially for new folks.
Also, be sure to pay attention to the Shire Deeds. There is one for discovering all the various “suburbs” of the Shire, and another for discovering all the farms. It’s pretty easy to complete these deeds by doing the mail runs and some of the misc. quests that take you out to each farm, and the reward is a nice chunk of XP and a trait boost.
I decided that I wasn’t loving the Warden class, so Rodenta is no more.
Keep an eye out for Spaceratlas the Elven Minstrel next Monday. I should be leveled up to 9 or so by then.
Heh. Fair enough. And Slainte, thanks for the suggestion.
If there’s really active interest in firing things back up, I wouldn’t mind bringing my Ranger, Thornwise back, if only because I love his name so much. Is the moria expansion mandatory? Is it even worth it?
Ranger isn’t a class. Perhaps you mean Hunter? The Moria expansion includes the original. I believe you can play without it though. You just don’t have access to the new classes and maybe a few other features?
You can play without the Moria expansion. You will simply be capped at 50 and blocked from entering Moria.
We had some kinship members who waited on buying the expansion but kept playing. Instead we chatted with them taunting how awesome Moria was/is. : )
So do we have a plan yet on where to meet up for the coming Monday night and what levels people should try to be at, etc.? Are we going to try to finish off the Shire this time?
I know some of the newer people would like to do the mail runs and really get a feel for the Shire. That sounds fine by me, since I’m not overly familiar with the area myself. We’ll have to see how many people show up, but I don’t think anyone was far away from Michel or Hobbiton or whatever landmark we decide to use. Plus, we are all in a kinship now, right?
Shouldn’t have to match levels too much based on what I saw. I will say that the lowest person we had was lvl 7 and the highest was level 11 (but that was one character-most were 8-9). That should help people who want to join up but didn’t make it last week.
I’d really like to get to Scary and start some of the instances. I believe that’s where the first chain lies. There are also some things in the bog, IIRC.
NO HE’S A RANGER SHUT UP.
So, how awesome is it? I haven’t played Thornwise since the initial QT3 interest in the game, so I don’t really know a damn thing about the expansion. Thus, the original question.
There are about a million new quests, both solo and fellowship, a number of huge inside (cave-like,but with buildings and stuff) areas, two new outside areas, although Lothlorien is rather small right now, weapons that gain experience and level, and will take various items to make them better/more powerful/different, and a set of large and varied fellowship instances that are more interesting IMO than the rest of LotRO. Oh, and some challenging solo instances, too. And goats for fast traveling.
I am fine with doing either mail runs or heading off to scary for some quests there. If you go to scary, I might bring my level 12 minstrel (who I have been playing not for the Monday night group) because he has quests over there.
I havent touched my Captain since last Monday, so he is right where we left off. Playing either char is fine with me, I like them both.
Also, do we want to set up a meeting place for tonight at 7 eastern?
Hmmm…
My playtime will be limited to probably 2-3 hours so I would prefer to focus on stuff that requires a fellowship or is in a chain that culminates in a fellowship quest. Examples include the Needlehole, Scary, and Leaf Farm quests. I would also like to knock out the Epic Prologue. I can always do the mail run or other solo quests on my own during the week if I need more xp to keep up with the 4-hour players.
That said, I will be glad to help out however I can. Russmon is currently parked in Needlehole at level 10.
Thats perfectly fine with me. I did the quest that leads to the fellowship quest at needlehole on my minstrel already, but they dont take long and I would totally be up for that. I havent done any of the quests at scary, other than mail delivery and pie runs.