LOTRO to relaunch as free to play?

Games
3241

One of my peak gaming experiences was meeting some fellow adventurers on the road and joining their small guild, and the more experienced ones taking us a few of us new joiners to see Rivendell, going up the hill, through the ravine and just seeing it in the valley, more or less like I’d pictured it from the book. Deeply immersive with the (for the time pretty good) visuals and the excellent music - the sense of “being there” in Middle Earth was great, as it had been throughout the game up to that point.

Sadly, I lost my original character when they did a server consolidation (or was it the f2p?) thing, and I missed all the info to do the transfer. When I tried to start a new character after the f2p transition, it just wasn’t the same with the intrusive cash shop stuff. I wonder if that guild still exists.

For all that it’s not my cup of tea any more, it’s a great MMO that I had a lot of fun with.

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Hint. You can buy the mount for 40 tokens, but turns out, if you complete all the quests you’ll get one for free (I found out after buying it).

There is a LOT of quests related to this event. Gonna take a while to get through it all.

3243

I tired to do one quest and couldn’t figure it out. I had to pat some dogs and dance in a bar. Hellllllp?

3244

Hmm… I started that one and am really enjoying it. Remember Frodo’s journey and you will get the beats to it.

Unfortunately I hope you are high level, as the last two stages leap far ahead (Amon Hen and the Dead Marshes). Turns out I have been charging along a quest I will have no way of completing at L39. I realize that it is a bit silly to be fooling around at that level 10 years into the game, but it is equally a bit annoying to find you can’t complete the anniversary quests because they all assume you are end game.

3245

Ohhh, I’m only level 31. Might have to skip for the time being. Thanks!

3246

I’ll be in the same boat, only level 53 right now. The solution would probably be to have max level friends or kinship folks summon you into their group at the appropriate location. Then you could complete whatever actions are needed, and if it takes you into dangerous territory, they’d be there to keep you alive.

3247

Yeah… indeed I think the recommendation is a top level hunter, who can port you close, then get you through the experience. Not sure the QT3 guild has one of those active currently.

Still, Talnadir (my hunter) can help get you up to the last two stages should you wish!

3248

You can skip the scavenger hunts (those with the end-game locations) and still get the mount and other stuff if you want it. You can just do the other repeatable festival quests for anniversary tokens and turn them in. I’m not into repeating quests like shooting off fireworks and riding horse obstacle courses.

3249

I got into a raid for the level 90+ stuff, asked in /LFF if someone were there, and luckily a captain came and summoned a whole bunch of people so we had 12 people in a raid killing the ghosts and getting the quests done, then the captain went to one of the other spots and summoned us there as well, so it was a good ‘day of work’. Managed to record most of it, even though OBS decided to “blank out” during loading, it turns out the Graphics renderer is ‘reset’ when you go into the PVP zone and that freaked out OBS so had to restart to get it working again.

Anyway, Time for “Year 2” + “Year 1” scavenger hunts now, missing a lot of named mobs to kill and traveling, and picking up ‘rememeberances’ from each of the Travel locations. Going to have to make a offline list and google the locations as I have no idea where they are, and finding them in game would take ages.

Recommendation for in game stuff though; Go to LotroInterface.com and grab COMPENDIUM and MOORMAP.
Type /Plugins manager to … manage them.

Yesterday I bought a house… and then regretted it, since I could’ve spent a little bit more and gotten a Deluxe one, no way to ‘cancel’ the trade or even sell back the house to the market I think… :(

I really wish they would fix the engine when it comes to Warsteeds, was riding through Osgilliath (Awesome!) towards Minas Tirith! (Even more Awesome!) and it would lag constantly, the group member who rode with me had the same experience, so even if he most likely did not play from a ramdisk, he had the same shitty performance as I did :)
(https://www.twitch.tv/videos/136964293 at 55m or thereabouts for Osgiliath - Minas ridethrough and lagfest. Later on I buy a house and walk a dog… )

Just rewatching the horrible twitch quality, coupled with the lag when riding warsteed is enough to make me want to stop playing… I blame it on the 32-bit engine until I’m told otherwise :P

Edit:
The 10 year anniversary fireworks is so great. Made a short clip after we fought a huge spider, figured it looked like a nice place to shoot up some fireworks inside the cave.
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjdN108YzHM&t=10460

Wish they would re-release LOTRO with a new engine, it would be so much better.

3250

Had forgotten about my alts, but most of them had a bunch of crafting materials from Skirmishes, so now I must remember to play them every day just to spend the tokens, so I can read the recipes which in turn will mean that I can free up bank slots for more recipes. Win/Win.

Seems like most of my characters have year 7, 8, 9 and now 10 year anniversary boxes unopened. One day I guess I will have to plan a fireworks display in Bree to get rid of them. Met someone in the Shire doing just that now.

Had a little playthrough on my Hunter, it must be the best solo class in the game, at least when it comes to traveling.

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Yeah, so far the Hunter has been my fave as well, followed by the minstrel.

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Finished all the year 1 and 2 stuff, except the instances, since two of them are bugged apparently, and the other ones I have no idea where to find…

Preparing to Log out at my new house, posing with the loot from raid I managed to join. The loot bugged with a quest, so I could re-enter and get loot from 3 of the bosses again. Wiped when I tried to solo the -spoiler- though, but got a nice video of the fight.

image.jpg1904×1041 1000 KB

Edit; If you never seen Rift before, its begins at around 7h28m20s (yikes) into this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxJy8QlZ99g – Since we outlevel it by quite a bit, there’s just zerging + the occasional getting lost.

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Thanks for that BTW… I had just been to the festival tree, and had totally missed all the Bree based stuff. I want the mount!

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Bree invitation hunt is every 2-3 hours I think? And the Thorins Hall Inn Hall-fight is about every few minutes which nets you 2 tokens for invivation, and 1-3 tokens for the hall fight.

It is 40 tokens for the mount I believe.

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Yup, 40 tokens for the 10th Anniversary horse (which looks awesome) and another 20 tokens if you want the 10th Anniversary Goat mount as well (who also looks awesome and will be handy when I get to Moria). They’ve also brought back several of the previous Anniversary Mounts, all of which look pretty cool, and each costs 70 tokens.

Quickest way to make tokens I’ve found is the Thorin’s Hall Beer Fight. Play on Expert (which just means you have to grab the Glorious Beer in addition to whacking 8 other competitors) and you’ll get 3 tokens per fight, and the fights repeat every 5 minutes or so, so it adds up fast. The secret to grabbing the Glorious Beer that I’ve had success with seems to be to wait for it to appear at one of the side tables, not the center. When you get bashed, you can steer yourself a bit in the air, so I try to angle so that I come down next to a side table, and hope the Glorious Beer appears there at about the same time. So far I am 4 for 4 on expert attempts.

The scavenger hunt quests are cool, but they really shouldn’t have put high level content into the Year One and Year Two quest lines. It would be a lot more fun if players 50ish level and under could complete at least the first two quests on their own, then Years Three through Ten could move to higher level content. As is, at level 53 I can’t complete any of the quests without begging for high level assistance in the LFF channel. That’s lame.

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Yea, seems like a mistake how the Year1-2 stuff has been laid out, but I guess they wanted to have one year per character storyline as well as the other stuff.

The biggest annoyance however seems to be the instance thing, not to mention it being bugged, it also requires you to do even more traveling to find whatever reflecting pool contains the quest.

And… I guess, if you’ve never done the quest that unlocks the reflecting pool… you’re gonna have to do some or a lot of content to get to that part.

Some of the quests will also disappear once the event ends? So, that would suck as well, if you’re very close to finishing it.

Looked through my deeds the other day… damn, there are so many unfinished ones in my journal.

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Thanks to the Thorin’s Hall Beer Game I am now the proud owner of a 10th Anniversary Steed. I was surprised to discover it’s a 68% Speed mount as opposed to the standard 62%. You wouldn’t think a 6% boost makes a difference, but oh man, it so does. The only thing I’m not thrilled with is how it moves, with all that chunky armor it looks awkward during the riding animation, not as smooth as most of my reputation and festival mounts. I assume the horse armor you can also buy for it does NOT change the appearance, but simply adds armor/HP value to the mount for when you engage in mounted combat?

Saving up for the Goat next (as I’m 53 and entering Moria once the festival ends). Surprised that one is only 20 tokens. Should be easy to grab with an evening of beer bashing. =) After that I may save up the 70 tokens needed for one of the mounts I missed that are available now. Steed of Odogil (from the 7th Anniversary) looks amazing with it’s black coat and tack…

Yeah, I seem to have been bitten by the mount bug.

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Hey Slainte… how many tokens was that Dragon Mount? I’ve collected 40 so far, having completed all of Year 1 and most of Year 2 (should finish up the last few instances tonight if my wife finds something else to occupy herself).

When I saw it, I was initially all “oooooohhh I need that mount!” and then after seeing so many people riding it around, I’m not sure it’s so special anymore.

3259

Dragon mount is 40.

Goat is 20.

The rest are 70.

Cosmetics: unknown, probably 5-20-range.

3260

40 Tokens for the 10th Anniversary Mount with it’s chunky Dragon Armor.

And yeah, everyone and their uncle is riding one, and likely will continue to do so, because it’s pretty much the easiest 68% speed mount you can get.

Most mounts are 62% speed. This includes all of the standard purchasable mounts, all of the Kindred reputation mounts and the majority of the festival mounts. The 68% speed mounts available are:

  • Steed of the Unflagging Dragon - 10th Anniversary - 40 Tokens
  • Lossoth Steed & Steed of the Dusk Watch - 5th Anniversary mounts only available now as a rare find when ripping open Envelopes as part of the Anniversary celebrations each year.
  • Steed of the Jester - Spring Festival 2012 mount now available through LOTRO Store for 995 TP.
  • Steed of the Moth - Spring Festival 2017
  • Treasure Laden Steed/Goat and Cave-Claw Masked Horse - Only available as rare finds in Treasure Hunt events.
  • Marrow Painted Steed - Rare drop when opening Lootboxes
  • Steed of Michel Delving - 1500 Tokens during the Bounder’s Bounty event.
  • The People’s Courser - Rank 12 (Third Marshall) Ettemoors reward
  • Noble Grey Steed - Part of the LOTRO Steam Starter Pack
  • Meta Deed Mounts - Given as rewards for completing difficult sets of deeds
  • Store Exclusive Mount Bundles - Purchased in the LOTRO Store for 1995 TP each
  • Class Themed Steeds - Purchased in the LOTRO Store for 1995 TP each

So without spending TP, working for weeks on meta deeds or getting lucky on a lootbox, Treasure Hunt or Envelope drop, the easiest way to nab a 68% speed mount is the 10th Anniversary Festival.

Of course, anyone willing to shell out the 2995 TP for the Journeyman Riding Trait can have ALL their mounts boosted to 78% speed instantly.

Learn all about the dozens of mounts available in LOTRO here. Gotta catch 'em all! ;-)