1701

TOMB OF ELENDIL

I need to clear it! Who wants to help me either tonight or tomorrow? You should be at least mid-to-high 30’s level wise. It’s a six man instance in Evendim. It’s been pretty difficult to find a pick-up group to run it.

1702

Yeah, sorry about that Hammet - I’ve burned out a bit on LOTRO right now. :-/

1703

This is a LOTRO cliche. There are very, very few folks who want to kill that turtle, and it has been this way for a long, long time. I remember trying to get a PUG up for this (since my then Kins, who were up for just about anything, weren’t up for this) TWO YEARS AGO. Never got it. Turbine needs to just make this soloable like they did with the epics.

1704

Enjoying this but damn plumbrush <sp> is kicking my rear when I try to solo him and and his buddies with my 10th level champion with zero gear / buffs. Ered Luin seems empty. I think I have seen 4 players in the entire week.

1705

Ran this with a PUG with … interesting make-up a few weeks back. All of us were over-levelled but no one had a clue of how to get the turtle’s armor to drop (you need to perform a certain Fellowship Maneuver) and basically, we didn’t have a chance. After four wipes the LM left and then we just got massacred. The two Champs who were “playing for teh lolz” didn’t help much either. One got us all killed after prematurely jumping down near the end boss, which kills the rest of the group.

In other news, I’ve now cleared every single quest but one in Eregion. A great place for hunters and for gathering. Also got the (hidden) Deed “Ridge-Racer” where the view was even better than the title. Which I suppose is a nod to those loveable and popular Cliff-Racers in that other rpg I can’t quite remember the name of.

1706

I always assumed it was a nod to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge_Racer_(series)

1707

I got the hidden “Well Traveled” one in Moria last night by accident. Was quite a trip!

1708

Ask folks in kin chat for gear help. We seem to have quite a few people that craft so I’m sure we can get you set up. Pampraush can indeed be challenging, especially with other goblins around. If you get frustrated, don’t feel like you have to stay in Ered Luin. Try the Shire or Breeland for a change of pace.

1709

I’ll find a way. I’m stubborn like that. I was able to finished all the GA instances at level and it was a real son of a bitch to find a PUG for all three of those.

How is Fornost? That’s my next instance target.

1710

Fornost is hard to find PUGs for and the rewards for completion are too low for the difficulty and the time involved. It’s also a lot of fun, IMO. I think Fornost is where one first encounters Sara Oakheart, although I may be misremembering that.

1711

You are misremembering. You rescue Sara in The Search for Amdir in Bree and you also rescue her during the assault on Rath Teraig in Ered Luin. So elves, dwarves and Men get to meet her in the early levels.

(And I was so damn sure I had figured her out btw. I was positive that she was Saruman, what with her looking for her staff all the time.)

1712

She also makes an appearance in Fornost. Trust me, the old girl gets around.

1713

Ha, I remember correctly.

Spoiler stuff here: http://lotro.allakhazam.com/db/bestiary.html?lotrmob=3364

She is involved in a quest near the beginning of Fornost.

1714

Sure. If you go to Fornost (lvl 30?) before finishing the first chapter of the Epic quest (at lvl 10?), then you do indeed first run into Sara Oakheart in Fornost. I was picking nits, man.

Having said that, I’ve never gotten anyone to accompany me into Fornost. Which is a shame since I’m a sucker for stories of the fall of Arthedain. Maybe I’ll just head on in solo and see what happens.

1715

Couldn’t find anyone to do Tomb of Elendil but Fornost…

1716

(I’ve read posts from early in this thread, but stopped so I wouldn’t get too many spoilers. Sorry if this has already been answered somewhere in page 10-50)

I’m a long-time RPG player (played Ultima III and the original Wizadry on my family’s Apple ][), and finally had the free time to take the plunge and try an MMO. LOTRO’s my first, and I’ve spent the past month working my Hobbit Burglar up to Level 27.

I’ve enjoyed having a chance to tour familiar areas of Middle Earth, and it’s been intriguing learning about crafting, hobbies, fellowship runs in the Barrows, buying my own house, trading in the Auction House… all the new MMO dynamics that haven’t been in my typical SPRPGs.

However, I’m reaching a decision point and need some advice. I’m currently in the Lone Lands, and I can see the Trollshaws in the distance across the Lonely Bridge. I’d love to see Moria, Lorien and other locales, but my motivation is starting to falter.

I was willing to put up with “the grind” in early levels (kill 10 spiders, then kill 12 wargs, then kill 8 ruffians…) in the assumption the quests would get better as my capabilities grew, but it feels like the vast majority of quests are still Kill X and worse, the numbers keep growing (now kill 24 Wights, kill 12 Wargs AND 12 Boars). The combat in LOTRO is pretty dull most of the time, and I find I’m trying to avoid Kill X quests but there aren’t many other options open to gain XP. I just don’t have the stomach to keep spending hours accumulating 10 flawed wings, 12 viscous goo, 18 sword sheaths, 8 finger bones, etc. I don’t recall single-player RPGs being this tedious.

Are the higher levels like this? Do the quests ever get more interesting? Or is it grinding all the way up to 65?

Love the world, hate the grinding. Please tell me the quests get more interesting soon? :>

Chris

1717

I think the thing it took me a while to learn (LOTRO is my first MMO also) is that there is no need to vacuum ALL areas of ALL quests. Simply skip the ones you don’t feel like doing. For instance, if there is no Deed associated with the mob type, or if the Deed is something you don’t care about (i.e Troll slaying gets you Fortitude which you don’t need as a Burglar), just skip it. Boars don’t give Traits, generally, but Wargs are great to slay if you’re a Man as you also get Racial Deeds for those.

There are gazillions of quests in LOTRO and all the areas are huuuuge, there’s no point in completing all the quests and Deeds in all the areas. I decided that I wasn’t interested in aiding the Eglain with my elf Warden so I just did what I had to in Lone-Lands and focused on North Downs, and vice versa with my Hunter. Levelling becomes ultra-slow if you run around doing Green quests, so don’t.

So for starters, I’d recommend that you skip all Green and Turquoise quests in your log, unless they are for the Epic quest and move to North Downs for a bit. Also, from what I hear, Burglars are not the most solo-friendly class and I would recommend either a Guardian or a Hunter should you feel like rolling a new guy for a change of pace. Basically, Guardians never ever die. But an important note is that it is impossible to create a crap character in LOTRO so read a bit in the Burglar fora, maybe there’s some mechanic you haven’t figured out yet.

1718

I think that the quests remain quite grindy… there are some great quests out there, especially on the main quest line, but they are surrounded by many many kill X type ones (or worse, run X Y Z X).

However I definitely agree with the below. Skip quests at will (I tend to always do ones that give rep, but otherwise I am happy to drop). The first time I stopped LOTRO was when I was playing a burglar to L24, which I found very grindy and slow to play. Coming back I started my Warden, and have not looked back.

1719

I agree with this. I know the fetch X items or kill X baddies are a staple of the genre, but sometimes I feel like LOTRO has a few too many of these. Or maybe they just stand out because the main story line can be so well done.

I feel like the Warden is a great solo class to blow through game content. They can teleport around to some places, self heal, get a running speed bonus, do a fair amount of damage, and handle groups if they ever get jumped out in the wild.

1720

Well, I certainly agree about the wonderfulness of Wardens, I just wasn’t sure whether the poster is on a VIP or F2P account. Guardians get HEAVY ARMOUR at level 15 which is all kinds of awesome and they’re a great class to see the world in as it takes a ton of on-level baddies to kill them. Plus, invites to Fellowships seem to be more frequent for them as tanking with a Warden is harder.