I’ve been playing on the LotRO test server, Bullroarer, lately and since Book 7 is going live next Tuesday I thought I’d post a few screenshots in case anyone is interested in a preview. They are mostly of the big Elf city in the sky in Lothlorien and the River Anduin with a few in the surrounding forest. I will probably add more pics this weekend.
The link goes to a page of thumbnails you can click for the full-size image.
Next Tuesday? Bugger - this is the first book release for a long while where I won’t be able to immediately enjoy the content. Still level 54. Damn you social life!
Now I guess I can move from joylessly grinding radiance instances to enjoying the content for a week and then spending the next three months joylessly grinding influence.
You give the Monday nighters so much to look forward to! :P
My screen saver rotates LOTR shots I took in the couple of months I played. I wish I could just hike around taking more shots and seeing the scenery without having to do the grindy stuff.
Nah, you can grind repeatable reputation quests for barter items for three months. ;)
There’s also the Battle of Lorien (six-man instance), which apparently features teams of NPCs you place strategically to shore up the defenses before the orcs attack. And a new 12-man raidette in Moria, and the new solo instances to acquire crafting items.
A few more screenshots added - the Big Elf City from the outside, various landscapes, some oddly named wildlife, a map of Lothlorien, hanging with the elves on a flet overlooking the Aduin.
Book 7 has quite a few class changes coming as well. Hunters are losing about 15%+ of their current dps, the captain ability In Harm’s Way now only absorbs 50% rather than 100% of fellie dmg, etc. Not exactly looking forward to the book since my main toon is a hunter.
I was wrong, my hunter lost 20% of his dps. This is easily the worst update Turbine has made to the game since its launch, and it’s not just me and not just because of the dps nerfing to hunters. I’d heard they couldn’t keep testers on the test servers because they were so disgusted with the changes, and what I’m hearing in the game isn’t much better. Seriously considering quitting the game now.
Some part of me feels like MMORPG’s are the best games in the world stretched out to take an unbearable amount of time to win. I would love to have a game with this much detail, art and style as a single player game with a reasonable play time (Im crossing my fingers for Dragon Age).
Minstrels are incredibly 100% more fun to solo with in moria, same with RK’s.
Any class relying on weapon damage got hurt, and hunters even more. Because they got MAJORLY upgraded, too much so, when Moria launched.
Sour grapes and all.
My 60 minstrel damn near matches my hunters dps output now while in war speech, which is pretty bad class design IMO. Turbine also claimed that PVE would be easier and it’s simply not. Mobs still evade/block/parry/resist as much as before B7.
Wildly undulating changes like this to the most popular classes in the game (hunters and champs) isn’t very smart. It radically changes its feel during gameplay and makes the player gimped after 100s of hours of work. Not that Turbine has ever had a clue about rewarding players properly.
Loving it so far, even with a hunter. Actually feeling challenged now; before my hunter was simply an overpowered beast. I had to blow a potion last night for the first time in a long time, which was actually kind of nice.
I haven’t seen Lorien yet, still making my way through a lot of Moria content. My lowbie champ seems to be dealing a lot more damage than I expected he would, too btw.
Baloney. the Champion Nerf was needed. They were indestructible. In harms way and last stand were completely abused.
That would be a captain who has those abilities. And my level 50 captain wielding a halberd with 31 dps has auto-attacks that do roughly the same dmg as my 60 hunter with a 3rd age level 60 bow sporting a 44.9 dps. Go figure.
Your minstrel can keep that up for 40 seconds before going OOP; hunters have sustainable DPS. I saw wildly fewer resists on my minstrel, even fighting 2 level higher mobs (at 58). My 60 captain kills at an identical rate as before (10seconds/mob usually), while the minstrel finally can kill a mob in under 30 seconds, and often in only 20 seconds.
Man, hunters are so bitter.
Because this isn’t the first time Turbine has swung the pendulum on the class.
My hunter does not have sustainable dps. Every hunter I know is complaining about OOP issues since you have to cycle your induction bow abilities so much more to kill mobs than before.
This is why lore-masters transfer power to you hunters during those long battles. Or should, anyway.
Inter-dependent classes FTW.
I didn’t realize the game looked so dated.
Or any other class, in any MMO ever.
Your hunter needs to adapt. Even my burglar has 800 ICPR. Switch to precision or endurance for once. Drop some agility (for that 1% crits) for more will/fate. ADAPT.