Month: August 2023

Aside from rolling a River Hobbit — which I now think I’ll save for this fall’s Mariner — my plans to do a full challenge run officially kicked off this week. To recap, my rules for this character’s run are:

• Playing on at least Fearless (+3) difficulty at level on each zone (using the Stone of the Tortoise to arrest leveling until I finish with an area)
• Not using a vast majority of my account unlocked loot (anniversary giftboxes, etc.)
• Rolling on a new server with a blank wardrobe
• Doing full solo completion runs of each zone including reputation
• Participating in festivals, LFF, and guild activities

After some deliberation, I went with a Hunter for my class, as I feel it will fit best into this challenge — especially with the DPS and mobility. Thus, Moonglade the Hobbit’s adventures began on Gladden.

To give you an idea of what I *normally* start with, here is my inventory with a freshly made character. I then spent 10 minutes deleting through most of that save for the boar mount and riding skills.

There were a whole lot of Day One objectives for getting started, including completing the tutorial, setting my difficulty level, getting started with the Farmer’s Faire (since that’s time limited, and I’m going to want to get some stuff from that), finding a kinship, getting my Stone of the Tortoise from the bank, and relocating to the Shire, which will be my starting zone. That’s a lot!

There we go: Level 1 and I’ve selected the fearless difficulty level. I am sweating these early levels a bit, but I hope that the Farmer’s Faire quests will get me through this part. It kind of feels fitting that this first day features gloomy, rainy weather in the Shire. The silly thing is that saving for the Mossward starting area, none of the rest of the game is prepared to have you there at level 1. Quests aren’t usually available, nor are some services (like the VIP vendor).

Next stop, Farmer’s Faire! I can’t take the heat wave quest right now, as the mobs are level 10 and — now with Fearless difficulty — they pretty much one-shot me. But there are plenty of non-combat quests to do to get the daily wrapper.

Getting that first day’s set of 10 quests done was a load off my mind — and it netted me a neat starlight tunic set, which my fashion-starved Hobbit was immensely grateful to wear. But the outing stressed that I really need a few more levels (preferably level 10) to be able to fight, get virtue XP, and get my VIP storefront. So to grinding I went!

…and I nearly died to gnats in the Shire bog. GNATS. I need really low-level stuff, so back to Mossward I went like the sheepish newbie Hunter I am. Even then, it wasn’t easy. The eye of Sauron nuked me once, and fights required a lot of kiting at this level.

But dang it if I didn’t have a big, cheese-eating grin on my face for how much I was enjoying it. For once, this game’s combat felt strategic and challenging. I was kiting, using all my abilities, waiting for health regen, the whole nine yards. It’s kind of the same feeling I get from WoW Classic’s combat, and that’s a good thing. From level 3 to 6, I did nothing but grind on birds. They seemed the least tricky to handle with my limited toolset and poor gear, and I needed to hit 6 to start activating the Shire quests.

Back to the Shire, and I knocked out levels 6 to 8 solely delivering mail (and picking up stable masters). Then I followed my typical pattern: Knock out town by town — Michel Delving and Waymeet — and then do all of the pie running quests just to get them done. Plus, I need them for a deed anyway, so why not.

It was around this time that I rethought a previous strategy, which was to ditch my emerging blue line build for the yellow line. Everyone talks up the Hunter’s blue line for its mobility, but in a challenge run, I am finding that yellow is MUCH better. You get more survival skills and the excellent exploding decoy, which works to draw aggro and do a knockout punch to critters.

Even future legends have to start somewhere…

Stepping out of the dark eaves of Mirkwood, my LOTRO Minstrel blinks at the serene beauty of the Dale-lands. Truly one of the more eye-catching areas of the game… and one of the most sparse in terms of quests. You end up going through this place waaaaayyy too fast, and then get thrust into Iron Hills for a long stretch. That’s a bad call.

I’ll compensate by slowing down to take as many gorgeous photographs as I can. Nothing like sunset on the lake to bring out the sumptuous visuals!

Hey Smaug, what’s  up my dragony dude? Still chillin here? Cool, cool.

I’d forgotten — possibly because I’ve only been through this content a couple times before — that there’s a full-blown murder mystery quest arc that happens in Lake-town. I’m down for that, except that I hate it has you start by scraping up mud because this goofy-hatted captain jerk figures he can order you around. Just once I want a “sucker punch” skill that lets me deck arrogant NPCs.

Gotta imagine that this town is hell on parents trying to raise non-swimming-capable tykes. “Where’s junior?” “Oh he’s playing in the backyard… wait a minute… JUNIOR! JUNIOR!”

I *really* love how this murder mystery arc ends up with you trapped inside of a locked house as people are getting knocked off left and right, slasher movie style. Yes, by all means, let’s split up!

That always works out well!

It was actually quite beneficial to be waylaid in Lake-town for a while, as the questing there kicked me up to level 120. Twenty more to go!

I think it was back in 2018 that I declared that my new legendary server character would be the last one I’d ever take through the game. I really thought that was the case — that I was honestly done with going through LOTRO’s overall journey — but time has proven that to be laughably false. I’ve made several new characters since then and am in the process of planning one of my most ambitious runs ever right now.

Assuming that Update 37 goes live this week with River-hobbits, I’ll finally pull the trigger on this character I’ve been planning in secret for months now. It may seem silly to everyone reading this, but I’ve been incredibly excited about this idea — so much so that I couldn’t wait until Update 38 and the Mariner (which, of course, I’ll have to play as well).

So the overall idea is that I wanted as close to a fresh start and a true challenge that I can get in this game without creating a separate account. I haven’t 100% decided on a class — probably a Hunter but I’m not sure yet — with the new River-hobbit race and send her on a journey that’ll be a lot more engaging and difficult than my normal runs. My self-imposed rules include:

• Rolling on a different server (Gladden) where I’ve deleted everything there, including all wardrobe unlocks and other characters. I don’t want any previously established nest eggs at all. And I want to make my way on a different realm.
• As I said, I’ll be starting over with my wardrobe, so collecting pieces will be a big part of this journey — especially since I’ll also be deleting most all of my account-wide cosmetic unlocks that I typically get with new characters. The only things I’ll be keeping from those unlocks are the mounts and probably the lockbox keys.
• I’ll be setting my difficulty level to Fearless (3), maybe Fearless+1. This’ll make the run more challenging overall and net me a few nice little rewards, such as emotes and more virtue XP.
• Speaking of which, I’ll be doing full zone clears on this character — all quests and non-repeatable solo content, including deeds and meta-deeds.
• And if that’s not enough, whenever a festival or event appears, I’m going to make a concerted effort to participate (especially to get some of those cosmetics I’ll be lacking).
• If I see a group forming to do content that I can participate in at my level, I’ll do what I can to join.
• I’ll do all of Bingo Boffin’s questline, naturally. And all of Volume I of the epic. And maybe even those silly chicken quests.

All in all, it’s going to present me with a character who isn’t going to be racing to the end but slowly, methodically nibbling through all of the content. It’s completionist coupled with a higher difficulty level. I can foresee being in Eriador for a long time, maybe over a year, depending on my playtime. But that’s fine — part of the point here is to divorce myself from my typical routine and be more open to diversions and savoring everything.

I won’t be doing crafting, as I have no desire for it. And I haven’t decided on what kind of housing I want. A small premium house might be prudent in the long run, but a standard hobbit hole could be just as useful without the LP cost. And I might need that LP for other unlocks, like milestones. So we’ll see.

I’m really starting to suspect that Radagast isn’t so much a “wizard” as he is a mildly homeless dude who keeps all his stuff in long-term storage and couch-surfs across Middle-earth. Tell me I’m wrong.

Let me tell you, it’s been hard getting back into my Minstrel this month. Finishing another character was such a heady moment that a crash was destined to happen, and crash I did. Plus, I have my head in the clouds thinking of what I’m going to be doing with my River-hobbit later this month. So my Minstrel, through no fault of her own, is not quite the draw she deserves to be. Plus plus, she’s in Northern Mirkwood, and that’s one of my lesser favorite zones in which to quest.

I may feel different if I can just push out of this place and get into a daily pattern of questing through this one character. I still do love the Minstrel — it’s by far the most lethal killing machine I have in my character arsenal — and she’s fairly far along in the game. I just wish that there was some sort of significant progress milestone that you reach around level 100  or so. Like a fun new mechanic or ability or advanced talent tree. Once you get your build settled in LOTRO and get your LI, it’s pretty much just incremental improvements from there on out.

Soon enough, the 30-odd quests in this zone were complete, and all that remained were a couple of exploration deeds, including the one that has you following the path of Bilbo and the Dwarves. I like the little blue description pop-ups that happen when you trigger these.

With the Curator back in town — for a limited time only! — and my currency almost at the cap, it was time to take a quick shopping trip. I spent almost all of my money on four pieces of this formal riding outfit and a small buckler. It’s not the most exciting outfit I’ve ever worn, but I don’t have a chest piece like this, so it’s worth it for the variety.

I don’t know why my mind always thinks of Northern Mirkwood and the Dale-lands as two separate map zones, but they’re totally not. I feel that’s a bit of a shame, because they’re both very distinct regions that have a lot more potential than what’s crammed in here.

Those little moments that make you fall in love with the game all over again.