I’ve been having a blast in the Lord of the Rings Online these past few days, things are a LOT smoother then I remember. I started off three days ago at level 19, barely remembering my way around Middle Earth, and now I’m sitting at level 25, and still exploring through the lone lands. There is a bonus to experience while the Yule festival is going on, but even without that, the experience is flowing nicely. One thing I love about questing in the Lord of the Rings Online is that the quests actually flow together. You don’t finish all of the quests at one hub and wonder where you’re supposed to be next, each quest leads to the next area, and you’ve got a clear path on where you’ll find encounters your level. I find that in WoW I’m all over the place, without the faintest idea of where I should be for my level without looking up some sort of guide. Now, this could also be seen as a bad thing, after all maybe that’s too much ‘hand holding’ in a game, but if I don’t WANT to follow the quest path, I don’t have to. I can wander off and explore, or go harvesting, or craft. There’s other things for me to do.
The quests themselves are a little lack luster, your typical kill X number of bears/boars/spiders/orcs/goblins and return them to an npc, broken up by periods of instancing. Rewards have been good enough to keep myself and Hampooj (Guardian pictured beside my Minstrel above) geared without feeling as though we’re going to die any second. Although we have died, plenty.
This is the furthest I’ve ever gotten in the game, and I’m having a lot of fun this time around. I’m not sure exactly why, nothing has changed since other times I’ve played, but as long as I’m enjoying myself I suppose it doesn’t matter. I guess one factor is that I’m exploring places I’ve never been before (in game at least) and while the quests may feel the same as every other MMO out there, I love looking at new sights.
Tomorrow I plan on spending most of my time in EQ2, as I am preparing for my Troubador to finish her mythical. That will make my 3rd completed mythical (Illusionist and Mystic already have theirs) and I’m excited. I just need leviathan and my Veeshan’s Peek kill to complete it, which should be easy enough. Of course she’s well behind in achievements so who knows if I’ll ever manage to hit 200 on little Goudia, it’s not something I’m actively working towards at this point in time.
I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend no matter where you find yourself. Only one week until Christmas! I can’t believe it’s snuck up on us so fast this year.
Happy Gaming!
They (“Orion”) revampe the lone lands and Agamaur, the second dungeon, so everything is a little bit different, its not just your imagination. They also revamped Bree and Ered Luin and in the next book update will revamp the North Downs.
Good luck with Druushk :)