Lord of the rings online

Stormsong was the only active. Nobody needed help – probably everyone is self sufficient to nuke anything – su I just ranted. Soon we were talking about friendly Nazgul who offered aid to anyone in need – including their quest to warn Frodo about dangers that awaits him and also offer some protection. No, Nazgul are not greedy – just do avoid Cargul. These are shame for good name of Mordor: always drunk, unreliable, always in out-fashioned robes. Then talked turned to Mordor and how Her Ladyship Lhaereth, the Shield Maiden and Healer of Mordor rules this land, being loved by all and caring about her homeland. Yet, even she has ordered one kind of creatures to be tortured for eternity: gold scammers (or Glod-daemons, as I call them). They are to become test subjects for all plagues and diseases, with their pain increasing each day and no death for neariest 50 years. Such is the price when you try to not pay taxes for Mordor… Of course, we talked about child of Sauron: if only he had one! One that united wisdom of Sauron and beauty of Lhaereth, one that could unite all races and kingdoms of Middle Earth into one state of love, tolerance, peace…

Talks escalated, talking about Sauron and Morgoth, about eventual return of Lord Sauron etc. We disputed, laughed, joked – everything was going just perfect. One player even mentioned “we have our own Mouth of Sauron”, another added – “Let’s hope with less dental problems”. World can be really refreshing from time to time, not just global silence.

Kinship seems to be returning from hiatus. I do hope for real activity as soon as possible.

And so the day has ended – one with friendly Nazgul, Sauron the Wise and nice beauty Lhaereth..

Lord of the rings online

Stormsong was probably the only active. Standing in Bree vault, taking Hobbit presents, chating. World chat is just empty. Little talks, except for occasional gold-scammers, very few jokes. Only once did I witness some light trolling about “oldest Potato-kin, accepting only quality potatoes”. Of course, it escalated into some relieving joking.

Almost nobody needs help with quests. And my Beorning… well, I must mobilize my will to kill some 100 herd animals, around 120 trolls, around 130 wargs and some 100 birds. All in the name of finishing Rohan deeds.

Kinship is almost unactive, probably due to vacations/Covid. But there are too little Kinship ads in /World too. In short, Lotro is well asleep now.

And so my days in Lotro are…idle at best.

Lord of the rings online

Zantipe continues his grind in Westemnet. Goblin slayer – one boring, yet ideologically correct deed. Beornings hate Goblins, so my toon had enough time to dream in /World chat about it. Slayer accelerator? No, thanks, do not need some. Yes, it is a shame this joy lasts for too little (since later would have to hunt Wolves, Crabain, Half-orcs…). Once I wrote about kicking goblin’s head – someone read it as “licking” and here moderate trolling-joking began. One of our most known players told that “Zan[tipe] is know for his love of goblins”. Yes, 50-shades-of-something type. Kick, skin alive etc.

If seriously – Goblin slayer goes to its end and I have other things to kill.

I do like talks about Zantipe hating goblins. He is Beorning, so – naturally hates. Now, just let me go into green inviting fields of Vales. And there – there would be no lack of Goblins to kill, mounted or on foot. Goblins, beware!

And so my adventures continues. Westemnet slayer deeds should be done, then – would have to go to boring pre-Mordor content.

Lord of the rings online

Looks like one of SSG team talked about Lotro monetization. He tells that nobody is happy with it, but that they feel trapped, because it is the way it has been for lots of years.

My dear developers, there are enough simple solutions. Make all content free for VIPs, including expansions. Make more privileges for VIPs (currently only mobile mail and quick travel are relevant). Make content prices realistic (180$ for Mordor, to get goat and few cosmetics???). Release all content -both for cash and LP – at the same time, without “we spit on Lotro points” period. Remove trash boxes and their keys. Do sell fancy-shiny cosmetics, like some new house exterior (example: basic exterior – free; Dwarf exterior – 5$, Elf exterior – 10$ etc).

Main idea: sell players what they desire – good impressions. That means reducing grind, getting rid off “Legendary items”, removing Anfalas grind. And stories – yes, please, return to time when we had stories, like Nona and Horn! Like even that poor Ent and his bird. Satisfied player, my dear developers, is player who may wish to pay. Grumpy player won’t pay. Simple, dear SSG – just try to live life of f2p players. Ask if you would be willing to pay for grumpy worthless Wastes, just because it is empty region before Mordor.

So much about SSG and the moneys. My Stormsong talked in World chat and managed to aid one player with Fornost. Alas, onlyhalf of it, player disconnected. I waited and waited, nuked all monsters before main one, waited again…to no result.

Logged off. A pity, I was willing to help. Maybe today I will be more lucky.

And so the day has ended, with thoughts on monetization and aiding others.

Lord of the rings online

We hardly need to imagine fires in Barad Dur: temperature in Europe sometimes reaches +40 Celsius. Hard to work, getting home exhausted from heat – so very little will to play.

Zantipe does nothing these days. I need to finish slayer deeds in Rohan, no matter what it costs, but do it when air conditions are normal.

Stormsong just chatted. We had some refreshing jokes about “Peanut daemons” and how dangerous-mysterious they were. Then, my lectures about Warg-philosophers. Yes, ones that have very complicated dictionary: some 10.000 words for concept of “truth”, some million phrases for concept of “Serving for community’s good”. Being war-like monks, Wargs do follow strict warrior code: always fight one-to-one; if there is no honour in fight, there is no fight at all. And of course, famous Warg University of Proofreading. Does it accept non-Wargs? Of course, as long as you know philosophy and Warg language well. In case one gets not accepted – well, one may petition Ministry of Warg Education in Dol Guldur.

We went far and wide, joking about wargs, proofreading, acceptance into that University…untill it got derailed with talks about one kin ads. There were few mistakes, they copy-pasted blocks of text, somebody mentioned proofreading, then kin officers fired back…good mood was ruined.

I do wait for normal weather, not microwave/desert type. So much to do on my Beorning, before I move to boring pre-Mordor content. So much to find out (like legacies of Beorn LIs).

Just give us normal weather, oh all Gods in both sides of Middle Earth…

Lord of the rings online

Zantipe ran all quests she could, all in my beloved Rohan. Defense of town, where local Guard captain conspires, Tane’s advisor becomes evil too, Dunlendings are both good and bad…and me inside all this turmoil. Some people looked bad only to become good, some good turned out to be really bad.

Of course, in order to get support I had to go to another town, do some quests there, then rush to another…only to finally kill traitors.

Quests brought me to tragic story of Marton. Local refugees, lack of leadership, last act of un-wisdom (“let us retake our town!”)… lot of corpses. I understand it may be difficult to persuade people: leave your homes, retreat to safety, for when we win, homes can be rebuilt. Local woman tried her best, I opted for “Will of people”, but people were divided. Yes, one faction left, was slaughtered and the leader of them – that person went after buried riches.

Another town saw some “honourable” Uruk begging to be released, promising on his honour to retreat. Rohirrim believed, witnessed attack and lost four good men.

I enjoyed these quests, these stories, twists in plot. Other regions lack anything of these, while Rohan is still about stories. But now, quests in Rohan are done. I am left with slayer deeds. While Orcs and Dunlendings are done, others are to be finished.

While questing, my toon got to level 100. Finally, almost adult and an option to use top-level legendary weapons. Naktieskarys crafted two great axes, today Zantipe would craft Beorning’s carving. Later, would have to find out which legacies to use on Legendary axe – a task not so easy, because almost no help from /World.

However, so far I am still in Rohan, still enjoying it. Later, would be forced to move into grumpy Paths of the Dead – and to boring pre-Mordor content.

Lord of the rings online

Zantipe quested in Stoke. One run, another run – and some good folk fall one after another. At the end, only two advisors left, yet we celebrate victory: Goblins and Dunlendings are routed. Out of sudden, Frithild dies – poisoned. Ordlac is a new ruler, surprisingly cheerful and some suspicious actions take place.

Cheerfull ceremony. Then old nurse “out of grief felt from second floor and died”. House of former ruler protected by new guards. And this poison in wine… All this ends with strange amulet, found at Brigands. An amulet our ruler used to have.

It was a treachery. I had to speak to [former] Thane of Tornsburry, gather a group of soldiers and retake Stoke. Killing humans, who were just following orders. Then – killing Dudsig, one of former advisors…and confronting Ordlac. He was killed too. After so many deaths, Stoke was finally free – yet with many losses. And poor naive traitors: “White Hand has promised us Rohan”. They may promise whatever you want to hear, from Shire to Gondor – they would never deliver.

Stormsong experienced strange discussion. It began with “Star wars meet Lord of the rings”, like – “Sauron versus Vader, who wins?”. We talked, joked…then I started jokes about Minstrels of Mordor. Only to receive angry reaction that we should keep our posts about white supremacy, xenophoby, racism etc. – in private. We never talked about any racism or xenophoby. Some players just do not know what humour is…and that Saruman the White does not mean racism.

Right now I must figure out how to get quests in other regions. And do absolutely all quests/deeds in Rohan. After that – alas, Gondor, boring uninteresting Gondor.

Lord of the rings online

Zantipe was relatively lazy. Fought some monsters, smashed some Goblins, then some animals and that’s all.

Stormsong saw kinnie asking for some aid in Gondor. Well, starter region, kinnie is lvl.106 – I can come, nothing hard here.

Well, nothing hard in starter region of Gondor. Except Tarlag’s Crown where monsters are everywhere, strong and bloodthirsty. My kinnie was instantly killed by archers – and that’s despite he was a mighty Beorning!

So my Minstrel demonstrated what Minstrel is capable of. Range-nuking anything that exists, just to ensure kinnie’s safety. We ran to do some quests, then – back to NPC, evil NPC gave more quests, then we had to run to other exit of camp only to return back.

For me these runs were really refreshing. I was able to protect kinnie, nuke anything – so that kinnie said “It’s a teritory for 6 players or 1 Mini”. Finally, some kind words about Minstrel class!

To my joy – we finished all these quests. I got some nice loot to use on Zantipe and had real fun. Group of enemies – few nukes – group is dead. In worst case – remains of group run to me, only to be dissected one by one.

My remaining activity is still in Rohan. Must finish everything here, get to level 100, craft first age weapons…and start this huge demotivating grind. Anfalas crystals are just easiest part – scroll grind is terrible and will stay untill Lotro ends. Developes have no thought of easying life of players.

But meanwhile – I am effective as Minstrel, my Beorning has good time with questing – life is just nice in Lotro.