LOTRO to relaunch as free to play?

Calelari · 2011-02-28T13:34:38.000Z

Talorc:

I love the locations tied to specific events in the books. Apparently the arguing trolls from The Hobbit exist in game somewhere, but I have not seen them.

(except the old forest - hated that zone! There is a reason Bombadil got cut from the movie)

The Old Forest was nerfed and nerfed hard. It’s no longer deadly and has a map.

Talorc · 2011-03-01T04:36:05.000Z

Calelari:

The Old Forest was nerfed and nerfed hard. It’s no longer deadly and has a map.

Nothing can erase the pain, we will remember always. I think I have been in there post nerf catching up on book 1 quests, it only took a few minutes to get out instead of 10+ mins of being lost.

DrDel · 2011-03-01T04:56:46.000Z

i am leveling my second toon who is a lvl 21 warden… currently doing lonelands – already did lonelands and all of bree to death as well as the barrow downs with my rpevious character

is there anywhere new I can go to level second character? wanting some new content

NatCox · 2011-03-01T06:31:50.000Z

DrDel:

i am leveling my second toon who is a lvl 21 warden… currently doing lonelands – already did lonelands and all of bree to death as well as the barrow downs with my rpevious character

is there anywhere new I can go to level second character? wanting some new content

I think the other option for that level is North Downs, but you have to pay for the quest pack or get a lot of NPCs with quests you can’t take…

BTW, The Tuesday sale for Turbine is the Riding skill 50% off today (48 TP)

Rightbug · 2011-03-01T07:54:39.000Z

Yes, I will second The North Downs. If you’re not a VIP hopefully you have points to drop on the quest pack which is well worth it. I had intended to make a brief stop there with my Hunter before heading over to the Lone Lands but my Hunter has now hit 28 and there’s still a lot to do in the zone so I’ve almost out-leveled the Lone Lands before I’ve even begun. (My Champion is focusing on the Lone Lands so I’ll get to experience both.)

Rightbug · 2011-03-01T08:10:54.000Z

Speaking of purchases, I’m looking for some advice.

My human Champion has saved up a bunch of gold and I was thinking of buying a house. I’m a little worried that I won’t get much use of of it though. On the one hand, the extra storage would be nice and from a vanity point of view, it would be nice to have a place of my own to show off my dead animals and the like. On the other hand, most of the housing areas are kind of far away from anything so it seems like traveling there might be more of a pain than it’s worth.

What are other people’s experiences with non-kinship houses? Some of things I was wondering about:

– I’m assuming my other characters cannot port there so the home port only benefits the character that buys the house?

– How far in advance can you pay the maintenance fees? Bills stress me out enough in the real world. I don’t want to have to worry about constantly remembering to pay my house maintenance or not being able to take a month break from the game if I wanted to.

Then, if I do decide to get one, there the question of which homestead to buy in.

– Because he’s a human, I really want to get a house in the human homesteads. I like the look and feel of those houses. But they are really way out in the middle of nowhere.

– The Dwarf homesteads are apparently very convenient to a horse route to the superior forges of Thorin’s Hall but the houses are ugly as all get out.

– The Shire Houses are fairly close to Michael Delving and I love the look for a Hobbit but my human would be a little out of place in a Hobbit hole. There’s also not a lot to draw you back to The Shire once you get past level 16 or so aside from Michael Delving itself.

arctangent · 2011-03-01T08:44:52.000Z

Rightbug:

Speaking of purchases, I’m looking for some advice.

My human Champion has saved up a bunch of gold and I was thinking of buying a house. I’m a little worried that I won’t get much use of of it though. On the one hand, the extra storage would be nice and from a vanity point of view, it would be nice to have a place of my own to show off my dead animals and the like. On the other hand, most of the housing areas are kind of far away from anything so it seems like traveling there might be more of a pain than it’s worth.

What are other people’s experiences with non-kinship houses? Some of things I was wondering about:

– I’m assuming my other characters cannot port there so the home port only benefits the character that buys the house?

– How far in advance can you pay the maintenance fees? Bills stress me out enough in the real world. I don’t want to have to worry about constantly remembering to pay my house maintenance or not being able to take a month break from the game if I wanted to.

Then, if I do decide to get one, there the question of which homestead to buy in.

– Because he’s a human, I really want to get a house in the human homesteads. I like the look and feel of those houses. But they are really way out in the middle of nowhere.

– The Dwarf homesteads are apparently very convenient to a horse route to the superior forges of Thorin’s Hall but the houses are ugly as all get out.

– The Shire Houses are fairly close to Michael Delving and I love the look for a Hobbit but my human would be a little out of place in a Hobbit hole. There’s also not a lot to draw you back to The Shire once you get past level 16 or so aside from Michael Delving itself.

Your other characters on the same server can port to your house and have the same permissions as the character that bought it.

I believe you can pay 6 weeks in advance.

Which homestead you buy in is a personal decision you have to make :)

Marcin · 2011-03-01T09:10:10.000Z

Yeah, and if you buy a chest all of your characters can access it too. Extra shared bank!

Once you get a mount, the Breelands households are really not too far out of the way, and Bree remains useful for quite some time. However, the dwarven homesteads are literally next door to Thorin’s Hall and not just forges but the full assortment of crafting. And personally, I dig the aesthetics - I just haven’t bothered to make the move and it feels out of the way, even if I mainly just port and port back.

… I should go back and pay my bill. I kinda petered out on the game after trying to power 4 alts to 20 (only halfway successful); that may have been a mistake. Of course, I like them all (captain hunter warden minstrel), how do I pick what to play?

Istari6 · 2011-03-01T10:44:16.000Z

Using the advice here, passed on a number of “Kill X” quests and focused on those that were more interesting. I’ve now leveled my Burg up to 31, and have finished most of Lone Lands content except for the Garth Agawer Fellowship quests. Also have picked off most of the North Downs quests, and am deciding where to focus next.

At L31, is it too early to begin pushing into the Trollshaws? I’d love to keep moving east and see Rivendell.

OTOH, I’m only now coming into a realm where I can do quests on the Fields of Fornost and I have some open quests that are sending me to Oatburton and Evendim/Annuminas (even though these latter quests are tagged L34/35 and so probably out of my league at the moment!)

What do other folks do in the L31-34 gap before you’re really ready to go plunge into Evendim/Annuminas?

Chris

Rightbug · 2011-03-01T10:53:35.000Z

arctangent:

Your other characters on the same server can port to your house and have the same permissions as the character that bought it.

Sweet! That makes my decision easy.

Marcin:

However, the dwarven homesteads are literally next door to Thorin’s Hall and not just forges but the full assortment of crafting.

I think my human will buy a large house outside of Bree and then I’ll get small houses outside Thorin’s Hall and Michael Delving with my Dwarf and Hobbit respectively.

Thanks all!

Mirriam · 2011-03-01T11:19:32.000Z

Rightbug:

I think my human will buy a large house outside of Bree and then I’ll get small houses outside Thorin’s Hall and Michael Delving with my Dwarf and Hobbit respectively.

Thanks all!

You can only have 1 house per account, once you buy a house on one character all your alts move in with him ;)

Be aware of the fact that you have to pay rent every week, even when you are not playing. I came back after a long break and had to pay several gold to even be able to acces my house, I had been locked out. I ended up abondoning my old house and buying a smaller house instead.
Arrears in rent build up to the amount of gold you paid for your house, so for a casual gamer the smaller house might be better in this regard since you won’t have to pay more then one gold to unlock the house.
You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you’ll play this game enough in the long term to cough up the rent every week for the 7 gold deluxe houses.

And another word of advice: be wary of buying furniture on the AH. Every homestead sells different furniture, so shop around at the various homesteads first. Only if it mentions that an item is crafted it can be worth to buy it on the AH. But putting furniture from the elven and dwarven homesteads up on the AH for rediculous amount seems to be common practice, at least on my server.

scharmers · 2011-03-01T11:25:12.000Z

Istari6:

What do other folks do in the L31-34 gap before you’re really ready to go plunge into Evendim/Annuminas?

Chris

You’re either grinding ND (and doing those ‘kill x’ quests you skipped), or, if you’re a VIP player, skirmishing for big XP and still grinding ND, just a little less. You can also nibble around the edges of Everswim, since there are lots of mobs there that are low-30s.

AlanSmithee · 2011-03-01T12:24:08.000Z

Rightbug:

Sweet! That makes my decision easy.
I think my human will buy a large house outside of Bree and then I’ll get small houses outside Thorin’s Hall and Michael Delving with my Dwarf and Hobbit respectively.

Thanks all!

You can only have one house per account, so the decision is no longer easy. I would urge you to go the hobbit house route. It’s much closer to get to a horse route than the others, and that’ll be the main reason that you use it.
Also, the shire race track is just outside the estate and you’ll be going there often every time there is a festival. The man house and elf house estates are too far away from anything to be useful.

Rightbug · 2011-03-01T13:09:03.000Z

Doh! I’m officially back on the fence. Thanks for clarifying guys.

Eightball · 2011-03-01T13:14:32.000Z

Peter Frazier:

You can only have one house per account, so the decision is no longer easy. I would urge you to go the hobbit house route. It’s much closer to get to a horse route than the others, and that’ll be the main reason that you use it.
Also, the shire race track is just outside the estate and you’ll be going there often every time there is a festival. The man house and elf house estates are too far away from anything to be useful.

The dwarf houses are closest to a stable point. That is the primary reason I bought my underground hovel…

Rightbug · 2011-03-01T13:22:45.000Z

I suppose I will buy a small house in The Shire and see how I like it. At that price I can always upgrade/move.

Thanks again for the advice!

roguefrog · 2011-03-01T13:40:04.000Z

Istari6:

At L31, is it too early to begin pushing into the Trollshaws? I’d love to keep moving east and see Rivendell.

OTOH, I’m only now coming into a realm where I can do quests on the Fields of Fornost and I have some open quests that are sending me to Oatburton and Evendim/Annuminas (even though these latter quests are tagged L34/35 and so probably out of my league at the moment!)

What do other folks do in the L31-34 gap before you’re really ready to go plunge into Evendim/Annuminas?

Chris

Too early for Trollshaws. There are some mid to late 30’s quests there but most of the content is for level 40.

I see two main options for you:

Late North Downs Quests
Contains lots of Fellowship quests in the orc army camp. Fortunately last time I did these there were a ton of people running around and we all grouped up.

Evendim Quests
They start at the low 30-mid 30’s. Completing all of these will get you up to the high 30’s/40.

Go back to Trollshaws at 40. Or do Fornost…a 2+ hour instance.

scharmers · 2011-03-01T13:49:16.000Z

…or (lest I forget) run back to Rivendell (should be fun in your low-30s, consider it a challenge), and talk to Aragon to start the Elendil quest arc (30 quests, you can start in your low-30s and it will take you all around Evendim)

Istari6 · 2011-03-01T14:08:21.000Z

Awesome. Exactly what I needed.

I snuck through the Evendim/Annuminas area as a mid-20s Burg just to see the sights from the relative safety of the main road. It’s a beautiful area, would welcome spending time exploring those ruins and seeing more of Lake Evendim. Good to know that I can press ahead to Rivendell and get some additional quests that will send me back in that direction anyway.

Thanks for the quick replies.

Chris

scharmers · 2011-03-01T15:54:46.000Z

welcome spending time … seeing more of Lake Evendim

I hate Everswim…and the boat that got added in an update only helps a little.