Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

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Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby kellidir » Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:39 pm

So the plan was to have a dabble since I don't have to pay a subscription fee. That plan has sort of extended to increasing my credit card debt by £19.99 for a copy of the expansion.

So anyway ... heres my first thoughts...

New Class "Warden":

This is a new shield and spear specialist who wears medium armour and plays the role of the tank. Half an hour of game play shows just how much this is influenced by the fighting style of the Spartans in 300. I find myself shouting at my monitor ... THIS IS MIDDLE-EARTH! HWOAH! HWOAH! HWOAH! and then promptly making my new character charge into battle.

This class comes with a new Gambit system. Each melee special charges your gambit meter with one of three tokens ... a spear, a shield or a fist. once you have some items in your gabit meter, you can perform a Gambit. Depending on the chain of items, you can perform different gambits.

2 Shields grants a 20s block bonus
2 Spears is a heavier damage attack
Spear + Shield makes you kick your enemy with a chance to stun

You start off with 2 slots in your gambit meter and as you level you gain up to 5 slots and all different combinations of damage, heal over times, defence buffs and debuffs.

New Class "Rune Keeper": Not tried this yet ... but it seems to be a Nuker/Healer

Epic Weapons:

Awesome, you can get legendary weapons, these weapons have levels, every weapon level grants +10 points to upgrade your weapon. These points are then spent on one of 5 main stats the sword has. for example, my minstrel sword currently has:

DPS Rank 3: 26.1
Piercing Cry Rank 2: +2% Damage for Piercing Cry
Ballads Rank 2: +2% Damage for all Ballads
Call to War Rank 1: -207 to enemy resistance for Call to War
Call to Oreme Rank 1: +1% Damage for Call to Oreme

You can also add a "Setting", a "Gem" and a "Rune" to your weapon to improve it's statistics:
I have fitted:

Bronze Setting of Deftness: +10 Agility, +10 Might
Amethyst Gem of Determined Fate: +10 Fate, +60 In Combat Power Regen

You can also apply scrolls which give the sword a title and change it's damage type as well.

Book 1 grants you loads of things to start tailoring your new epic weapon

It's pretty good having the ability to tailor a weapon how you want it to be. Currently my sword is Level 7 of a possible 30 levels.

Social Stuff:

The game has introduced it's first hobby ... Fishing ... over time they plan to bring in more hobbys for you and friends to play with while hanging around socially. It's fairly evident now that LOTRO is also looking after the roleplayers just as much as the gamers. Which is a very positive thing.

Quest Log:

This has been completely revamped, it's now very easy to filter quests by multiple categories of Solo, Group, Raid ... whether it's instanced or epic. it also now shows very clearly if your group mates have the quest, or if they're on an earlier or later stage in the quest line. This is really useful for group organisation.

Story Lines:

I've completed the prologue and I'm on chapter 11 of Book 1 and i've done a session play of "The Fall of Moria". They are as good as ever, if not stronger with story writing. I won't say more because it's great and you don't want spoilers ... if you do ... ask me in msn.

Combat:

They've had a revamp here during our absence, including new combat states, new criticals etc. They make things a little more interesting and overall it flows well. As a Warden, I'm finding this exciting again.

More to come as I explore...
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby Sayvara » Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:27 pm

Lovely review Kelli! Glad to read it. :)

Is there a trial for MoM?

/S
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby kellidir » Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:37 pm

I have buddy keys ... 2 of them, granting 14 days of LOTRO goodness.

However that won't get you to MoM as thats 50+ content, but it will let you sample whats different.
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby Haelewulf » Wed Nov 26, 2008 12:28 am

I found the Moria update to have improved combat in terms of realism (partial blocks, parries and evades are finally in, for instance), I've also become damned squishy. The fact is that the legendary weapons you acquire in the low 50's aren't a patch on the level 47 crafted stuff you'll have already... and that doesn't change for a while. Having said that, once you've gotten to grips with your mortality again, and packed a few levels on that weapon, things do become great fun. The ability to rename your weapon on a reforge (properly, this time, not as an afterthought crafting-style) adds a certain something as well.

I hit 51 yesterday, since I've been uncharacteristically pacing myself... but I think I'll acquire a one-handed legendary weapon and start grinding again.

Moria itself is beautifully done, thus far... haven't seen tons of it, since I have Eregion to clear out yet, but what I HAVE seen is lovely. Can't wait to get to Lothlórien...

Oh, and we now get no more than 9 levels' bonus in combat. No more Wulfy destroying 50 level 20 mobs at once, unfortunately. It'd be as though I was fighting 50 level 42 mobs, each with a couple hundred health instead of a couple thousand.

Such is life.
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby Adjanah » Wed Nov 26, 2008 10:59 am

Glad to hear of the improvements! Any news on improving the housing system /social clothes / other neat stuff for RP'ers? New hairdos, all that jazz?
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby Haelewulf » Wed Nov 26, 2008 8:22 pm

There are indeed a few new hair do's, although nothing groundbreaking. Having just come back to LotRO from CoX, I must again concede that LotRO will never have quite the same draw for character creators... but still, it's a sign that the devs do care about their RP base. A rather nice change is that now, the costume slots are unlocked as soon as ANY of your characters hit level 20... so creating alts for RP no longer requires you to grind them to 20 in order to make them look good.

As always, new emotes have been added too... and my personal favourite, a walking animation for horses! At last...
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby Adjanah » Wed Nov 26, 2008 9:36 pm

Now those *are* actually good news. :) Glad to hear it - a little more incentive, should thoughts of LotRO build. ^^
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby Lirandel » Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:32 pm

I am going to poke Lotro once a week, but being deep into taking over the Burlok server in Warhammer online and crushing the order peeps completely with our alliances and what not - and all that thingamajing, my focus remains there at the moment.

I will however find a day of the week I will tha poke Lotro. More to follow when I find that day.

I still need Lira to get to lvl 50 heheh >< 4 moar lvls to go!
"Boots to asses... Or Imps out the airlock." -Antora Kel - Trooper Vanguard
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby kellidir » Sat Nov 29, 2008 9:50 pm

make sure to poke me as Elyscia then matey
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby Archibold » Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:25 pm

I am buying MoM expanison in few days.

But first let me ask you all this : You have been playing for over a month. Do you still think MoM is worth purchasing and coming back ?

I am on tight budget , so ... you understand :)
"Reality is the part that refuses to go away when I stop believing in it." -- Phillip K. Dick
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby kellidir » Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:31 pm

I'm still enjoyiing the game over with my new class. I've barely tapped the moria expansion so i'd say yes.
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby Adjanah » Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:20 pm

I decided to close down my account again, folks. Not nearly enough play-time available to justify having a subscription, and my old beefs with LotRO turned out to be just valid now as they were when I quit last time. They polished up some bits and bobs, but not enough to gain my interest.

Have a blast in there for me, and meetcha somewhere else at another time. ^^
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby Archibold » Sat Jan 03, 2009 12:17 am

Oh, thats a real shame Adj. :(

Did you even make it inside of the mines ?
"Reality is the part that refuses to go away when I stop believing in it." -- Phillip K. Dick
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby kellidir » Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:11 am

I don't think she did. You have to play through the Epic Volumn 2 to get into it. it really builds the expansion into a story. I just chased off the watcher of the lake and gained entry to moria myself. now I'm on Book 2.
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Re: Mines of Moria - First Thoughts

Postby Archibold » Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:24 pm

Well, I dont know.

I played ... well all MMOs out there. WOW,DDO,WAR,AOC,COX,EQ2,Vanguard,EVE,TR,L2,GW...and LOTRO

They are not all exactly the same. But mostly they are what is now called "DIKU" (named after MUD type).

And they all (DIKU ones) more or less suffer from same shortcomings.

WOW is , and truth must be said ... probably the best realized one. It is closely followed by LOTRO.

WOW takes LOTRO easily in gameplay department. It takes more light arcadish approach.

But LOTRO takes WOW at old school RPG quest feeling. At least for me , it somehow reminds me of classics like Baldurs Gate. Even pure D&D feeling.This is probably why i played it the most of all other MMOs.

Its not that i didnt have my complaints.

Mostly they are the following:

1. Mob placement - It was logical in lower level areas. But Angmar or Misty mountains are just horrible.
It is one mob every 5 meters evenly spaced. Even mixed. This is not only totally illogical but also highly annoying.... If Moria features the same thing. I will be very disapointed

2. Prerequisite group quests - I never managed to finish most of the books. When you finally have the group.
one did the first part , second didnt, third needs fifth part and did first to many times.... Its very hard to find a group and do that quests like this.... Is this solved in any way? I hope


So thats my take so far
"Reality is the part that refuses to go away when I stop believing in it." -- Phillip K. Dick
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