LotRO

Exploring the Lone Lands

stargrace December 17, 2009 4Comments

The Lone Lands recently went through a revamp in the Lord of the Rings Online, and I was pretty excited about it seeing as I was just coming up to that zone. My little Minstrel was sitting at 19, and I had completely forgotten how to play.  Never a better time to start!

By the time all was said and done, I was sitting half way through level 21, and had also picked up new songs and skills, as well as a bunch of new gear. The most exciting part (for me) was that I finally get to make use of my appearance slots. I had saved up my plumed hat from a low level quest specifically for this moment.

My minstrel has been paired up with a guardian for most of her adventures, which has been a pretty good combination. Of course they’ve also made multiple changes to the game as of late, so things are a lot easier then they once were. Thanks to the rest experience we both had saved up the two levels pretty much flew by. On the other hand, there’s also 65 levels in game now, and since we’re only sitting at level 21, it’s still a long way off.

There are Yule Festival events in game right now too, when I logged in I managed to get a title for it, even though we haven’t made our way to the actual events yet. Those will come tomorrow, maybe. I haven’t the faintest idea of what’s actually going on in game, but I’m excited to find out.

I play as Lysthia (though I do have three crafting alts) on the Landroval server – I’m in Casualties of War if you’re looking to say hello. I’ve got a three month subscription as part of the Mirkwood promotion that I picked up, so hopefully I’ll be able to find the time to actually play. So far this is the furthest I’ve ever gotten in LotRO, and I’m excited about leveling up more. Being able to actually use my mount that I have would sure be nice.

Book One, Chapter Five

stargrace October 14, 2009 2Comments

Lord of the Rings Online has a promotion coming starting the 15th of October and lasting until the 21st where all closed accounts are being re-opened, and there are some special deals you can take advantage of as far as pricing and the new digital expansion. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in middle earth the past few days, exploring with a friend who has never played before.

Our little hobbits inched their way to level 14, and continued working on our epic quest line. Book one chapter five is where we’re sitting at, and we did a little crafting yesterday as well. It was nice to make items that we could use. We didn’t do a lot of side quests, so money is getting pretty tight. After I purchased my three new skills for 17s each I was down to 5s and couldn’t even afford to repair. I know if I spend a little time farming or working on side quests the coin would be easier to gain.

We also got lucky and managed to find ourselves a few pieces of amazing gear as loot from random encounters, I won myself a cloth hat (purple, whatever rank that is – rare I think?) that looks almost exactly like a witch hat (or a wizard 101 hat if you talk with Toargo who mentioned it yesterday) and Toargo (a guardian) won himself a very nice earring. We also managed to gear ourselves out a bit with some fancy gear from quest rewards, new weapons were made by Toargo but those were quickly replaced with quested items.

The game is much like I remembered it, a lot of questing, and a LOT of running around. We spent far more time traveling yesterday then anything else. It’s fun to play with friends, and even more fun to be playing with someone who has never experienced the game before on any level. It helps make things fresh and new although the highest I’ve ever gotten in game is level 17 so I certainly haven’t experienced all that much myself yet either and I’m looking forward to more.

Wednesday! Thankfully this is a short week and it’s going by quite fast. I hope everyone has been enjoying the week thus far. Happy gaming!

Who you calling shorty?!

stargrace October 12, 2009 1Comment

I love gaming. I never seem to have enough time to play everything I want (especially when I’m restricted by work) but I do try to get a few hours in here and there when I can. I’ve been debating picking up the $200 life time subscription to Lord of the Rings Online, I enjoy the game a great deal and I don’t think it’s going anywhere. Would I play it enough to justify $200? I think over time, yes. Short term maybe not but a life time is a long time especially if you look at how much money I’ve spent on my EQ and EQ2 subscriptions over the last 7 years. It’s something I’m still thinking about in any case. While I think about it, I have the account active for a month at least and a friend who had wanted to try the game out decided to pick it up too. As we all know games are wonderful but the one thing that makes them even better is having friends to play with and if not to play with then at least to talk to. I don’t always want to group up, but I do always enjoy a good conversation.

So it was that I found myself with little hobbit Lysthia, a minstrel, exploring around open fields and taking in the comments from someone who has never played the game before. Their main comments were about how beautiful the game was, and how it would take a little getting used to in order to maneuver around.  The game is very similar in play style to EQ2 (so far at least) so they shouldn’t have too much trouble as that was their game of choice for the past few years.

Today is turkey day here in Canada, so a happy thanksgiving to you all! I’m going to enjoy the day by gaming, gaming, and more gaming – with a little laundry tossed in there just so I feel productive. I hope everyone else has an amazing day, and I’m looking forward to doing more exploring in Norrath, Telon, Wizard City, and Middle Earth. Now, does someone have a few extra hours they can lend me?

Late Summer Festivities

stargrace August 19, 2009 0Comment

Lord of the Rings Online is free to play (for those who have inactive accounts) from the week of August 18th to the 24th (or so my email told me yesterday morning). I decided to patch it up and take a peek, as one of the (many) games I love to play but simply don’t have enough time to warrant paying monthly for only two or three sessions. Plus it’s very similar to games that I’m already playing and paying for monthly. Anyhow!

I patched, logged in, and received in game mail telling me that there was a summer festival going on, and I should rush right there and take advantage of it. Which of course I did. I forgot how to actually get anywhere in game, so I decided to walk. It was a long walk. I did some harvesting along the way (and completely forgot what tier I was on, or what any of it was used for) and checked through my quest journal to see if I recognized anything at all about my level 17 rune keeper any more. Which I didn’t. It’s been a little while.

I did make it to the festival, picked up all of the quests in the area, one involving a whole lot of drinking. Wobbled around the dance area, found lost objects for one of the hobbit, and then decided to call it an evening.

I enjoy the free weeks that Turbine constantly throws my way, even though none of them have enticed me to re-subscribe to the game. It’s nice to be able to dive in for a short while without a cost – if I had of thought about it at the time I’d have signed up for the lifetime membership way back at release. Ah well. There’s still just not enough time to play everything I want.