Legendary Weapons, Level 48, and Moria

I must say after about a month of playing Lord of the Rings Online that I’m quite impressed. Now, about a month into the game and have 48 levels to show for it. I was introduced to a book of the epic storyline quests a couple nights ago. Apparently, this was to get my first legendary weapon (I had no clue what it was but sure sounded cool). These quests took place just outside of the infamous Moria and boy were some of the graphic detail awesome! There was the eerie Black Pool, a scene with Balrog, and the creepy Watcher in the water with nasty tentacles.

These legendary weapons are pieces of equipment that gain experience from killing creatures. You get your standard experience from the slaughtering but your item also gains experience. My first legendary bow has a maximum level of 30. Along with the stats and stat boosts that get better with leveling the weapon, it also gains points to apply, increasing stats even further.

It was like I was leveling my character all over again (in a good way). I found my will to get back out there quest a little and grinding due to my new level gaining, evil shredding bow.

Personally, I didn’t read the LOTR books, I saw the movies. I regret not reading the books. Every Tolkien fan or just people who read the books love this game even more. Seeing the descriptive words in the books recreated into an awesome MMORPG is something you must do if you’ve read the books but haven’t played this game yet. I’ve asked around and some of the parts of the game are really accurate. If you like a great storyline, play LOTRO, I think it’s better than the movies.

LOTRO, Crafting, and New Friends

It was an all day event yesterday, grinding for that level and showing some determination to advance my tailor profession. My microphone wasn't working last night so I could only type to my new friends. I got it working now though, so we should have some good times in the near future.

Death Penalties

No, this isn’t a controversial topic; it’s the topic in MMORPG’s. How are you penalized when you die? Do you lose experience, your items, or something more feared? In my opinion, it’s important to have a balance. If there is nothing to lose when you die, you lose something vital to every game and life itself. This thing I speak of is of course, excitement. If you aren’t getting close to death every now and again, things might get a little mundane. On the flip side, if you lose a ton of experience or some rare items you are carrying after a death then it won’t take many deaths to lose motivation to continue.

6-man Quest, Levels 40-65

Luckily I recorded some voice notes from last night. I went back and listened to them and you can tell it was 4 AM, I sounded beat. Then I go on rambling about some crafting. Here is the somewhat refined video version.

Update on LOTRO Adventures

My First Guild in LOTRO

Upon meeting a couple random questers yesterday, I noticed a semi-common guild name (or kinship as they call it in Lord of the Rings Online) below one of the two guys’ names. After we got the job done and were back in town, I asked if they were recruiting and stated I was looking for a Kinship. I figured I knew enough about the game by now and it’s time to spread my roots. He told me no officers were online at the moment but he would pass my name along. This is what I see in my mailbox when I logged on the next day.

Subject: Western lights kinship

Hello!

I've been passed your name from a kinmate of mine (savingrace) who said you might be interested in joining our kinship. (If you're getting this by mistake I apologize) He said you were a good person and would be a fine addition to the kin.
If you are interested feel free to contact me on any of my characters (meowstien, noamchomsky, kikiayon). Similarly, you can send me a reply mail with times (and your time zone) in which you are most likely to be logged on so we can meet up to add you in or answer any questions you might have.

Take care!

~Meow / Noam / Kikiayon

What a nice fellow, I think this guild is for me.

"Misadventure"

“You have been incapacitated by misadventure”. This is the message I see after jumping from a cliff. Is that what they call my legs folding under me, fragmented bones, and bruised organs? This really made my day. I’ve fallen off edges many times, pretty high up too. It’s usually faster to jump from a ledge than to follow the path down. The most that has happened to me up until shortly after getting level 36 was being slowed down for 60 seconds. My character was an organ donor but I don’t think they can salvage much now.