LotRO

[hepcat]

As one of the people who died repeatedly (Ahem) in the Great Barrow tonight, that's pretty cool. I like that they're thinking along those lines.

let's consider last night a "scouting mission". if anyone's on tonight or tomorrow night, i'll try to get another group going. i just felt bad for everyone's repair bills.

think i may start a minstrel as an alt for both crafting and for those times when we can't find a healer to group with.

[YellowKing]

I probably won't be on tonight; the in-laws are taking me and the wife out for an anniversary dinner. I'm up for it the rest of the week though.

I didn't expect a huge success last night; the group as a whole was still a little too low in level, and fighting elites like that you've just got to have a healer (probably two).

[Meghan]

A Scouting Mission! That's what we were all right. It was fun seeing you all in game. We'll give them a good thrashing next time!

[Eightball]

There is an absolutally *massive* instance for level 40+ characters up in the north forest past Trestlebridge. Six man groups are pretty well required, and you could be up in there for hours. By the time of wipe, I had cleared 3 of the 4 areas in there. (And gotten 2 keys to allow me to jump forward in the area)

Fornost? The doors would bug out in beta in that place, and we'd be stuck inside whatever area we entered...fun fun. Glad to hear they fixed that, though.

Yup, that's the place. And last time I was there near end beta, it worked great.

The only problem with that place, which I hope is fixed by now, is that the quests were labeled for level 38-ish characters, but you actually needed a team full of 42+ characters.

No kidding. Doing green quests in there...lol. Tough place.

Great Barrows....WORMS!

[Jason]

Haha, Dust in the Wind:

[Peacedog]

Great Barrows....WORMS!

I am embarrased to say I got taken down by a worm swarm. I can handle being killed by a trio of sig wight archers, or a pod of sig spiders.

!@#!@ worms. Tehre were at least 12, probably more. Sadly, had I spammed my AoE (champ, mind) I'd probably have lived through the right (I wasn't spamming AoE because heretofr we'd been generally taking on groups of signature mobs, and when they decide to contentrate on me they quickly expose my soft, yet delicious, interior. I let the guardians stick to tanking and pour on the wild strikes).

I shall have my revenge.

[Meghan]

Like many of us, I'm hauling around sacks full of purple bits & pieces of the various creatures I've killed. I'm feeling a bit of a ghoul in fact, looking at my collection of eyeballs, tails, heads and flopplie-dopplies.

Here is a useful website that shows which scrap of what critter is used by which crafting profession. The filter by profession is especially helpful.
http://www.axiomfiles.com/Files/138938/mastery.html

it's a work in progress, I believe, but a good start.

[Roguetad]

think i may start a minstrel as an alt for both crafting and for those times when we can't find a healer to group with.

The combat animations for minstrels are hilarious. I tried a minstrel this weekend, and I felt like Antonio Banderas in Desperado killing baddies from 30 yards out with my lute. My guy could whip out his lute in the blink of an eye, strum a few chords of death, and then pop it back into his backpack and start stabbing people with his sword before they could blink. My favorite was dueling with brigand archers at range. They were armed with your standard wooden longbow, while I was armed with my lute of death (lod). While the arrows were flying, my minstrel was strumming discord and death with cued up lute attacks. And wtf I can heal good guys with my guitar? That's awesome.

I'm still trying to figure out what class/character I want to play. I like watching champions in action, and was really impressed with the class, but they're a little too button spammy for me. Guardians seem to have slower combat pacing that feels better to me. It could all be in my head, but it just doesn't seem as spammy as a champ, even when the reactive chains trigger.

[hepcat]

Like many of us, I'm hauling around sacks full of purple bits & pieces of the various creatures I've killed. I'm feeling a bit of a ghoul in fact, looking at my collection of eyeballs, tails, heads and flopplie-dopplies.

Here is a useful website that shows which scrap of what critter is used by which crafting profession. The filter by profession is especially helpful.
http://www.axiomfiles.com/Files/138938/mastery.html

it's a work in progress, I believe, but a good start.

and of course, looking over that list, i realize i've sold every single item i could've used later on for my weaponsmith.

[Jason]

While the arrows were flying, my minstrel was strumming discord and death with cued up lute attacks. And wtf I can heal good guys with my guitar?

It's not about hit points and death, but about "morale" and demoralizing them. Or something. Playing discordantly can demoralize them while boosting your own and others morale.

I wonder if monsters and players must alternately take turns putting their fingers in their ears so they get the right effect.

Sure looks like they die when you're done with them, though.

[Sparhawk]

That dust in the wind was the WORST version of the song I've ever heard. The game can't keep up with fast notes at all which is a real let down.

Hopefully in the June mini-expansion we'll see improved response times.

[KePoW]

While the arrows were flying, my minstrel was strumming discord and death with cued up lute attacks. And wtf I can heal good guys with my guitar?

It's not about hit points and death, but about "morale" and demoralizing them. Or something. Playing discordantly can demoralize them while boosting your own and others morale.

I wonder if monsters and players must alternately take turns putting their fingers in their ears so they get the right effect.

Sure looks like they die when you're done with them, though.

LOL...funny stuff =P

[Butterknife]

think i may start a minstrel as an alt for both crafting and for those times when we can't find a healer to group with.

The combat animations for minstrels are hilarious. I tried a minstrel this weekend, and I felt like Antonio Banderas in Desperado killing baddies from 30 yards out with my lute. My guy could whip out his lute in the blink of an eye, strum a few chords of death, and then pop it back into his backpack and start stabbing people with his sword before they could blink. My favorite was dueling with brigand archers at range. They were armed with your standard wooden longbow, while I was armed with my lute of death (lod). While the arrows were flying, my minstrel was strumming discord and death with cued up lute attacks. And wtf I can heal good guys with my guitar? That's awesome.

I'm still trying to figure out what class/character I want to play. I like watching champions in action, and was really impressed with the class, but they're a little too button spammy for me. Guardians seem to have slower combat pacing that feels better to me. It could all be in my head, but it just doesn't seem as spammy as a champ, even when the reactive chains trigger.

This attracts me to the minstrel class more than anything else. I just love the humor involved in killing things with - song!

You know you must really stink when the bad guys drop dead after you strum a few chords ...

I can't remember a game with combat that funny since Earthbound.

[koanicriddle]

I initially had zero interest in this game... then I read this and the other LOTRO threads, and now I'm off to buy the game. Dammit

[Meghan]

the subject of Fellowship Moves came up while I was playing tonight and I just wanted to mention that I saw a really great explanation and list of available moves at a Lotro wiki:

http://www.lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Fel ... _Maneuvers

Also this thread here at the official forums have lots of useful info. Groups who play together regularly can produce some nifty coordinated effects if they take the time to plan well.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php? ... post351682

[YellowKing]

I'll cross-post this in our multiplayer thread:

I've registered our guild name at www.guildportal.com and created a (very very very basic) placeholder webpage. Here's the link, but there's nothing much on it at the moment:

http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?G ... ID=1483927

Here's the deal:

For free, we can get a basic web page which is ad-supported but has limits on numbers of replies to forum topics and limited support for custom graphics.

For $30, we unlock everything, no ads, ability to do custom graphics and no forum limits. $30 pays for 6 months.

For $45, we get all of the above plus a domain name (Ex: eotw.guildportal.com versus www.guildportal.com/238974927483279873?)

I'm willing to chip in $15 on this, provided nobody has any better alternatives. All it would take is a handful of us to donate $5 or so and we could get the full package.

I checked out another free hosting site, guildwizard.com, but it was having a lot of technical issues just to get a guild registered so I didn't deem it to be very reliable.

If we go this route, I'd also be happy to take volunteers who are good with HTML to assist with site design. The tools are fairly easy to use, but there are some areas where a more thorough knowledge of HTML than what I have would be useful.

In addition, once we get a page up, we're going to start shaping things up in terms of guild organization. While the idea of 30 officers is great for this first few weeks while we get everybody recruited, it's not a realistic guild structure. I need folks to start thinking about our charter, rules for recruiting, officer roles, etc. Don't be scared off by this - we're not losing the casual focus or atmosphere of the guild; we're just giving it some structure so that it can last and grow, and so that we can better organize events and things and ultimately have more fun down the road.

[Peacedog]

So who here can make improved crafting tools, and what is needed to make them?

[Hemlock Bones]

think i may start a minstrel as an alt for both crafting and for those times when we can't find a healer to group with.

The combat animations for minstrels are hilarious. I tried a minstrel this weekend, and I felt like Antonio Banderas in Desperado killing baddies from 30 yards out with my lute. My guy could whip out his lute in the blink of an eye, strum a few chords of death, and then pop it back into his backpack and start stabbing people with his sword before they could blink. My favorite was dueling with brigand archers at range. They were armed with your standard wooden longbow, while I was armed with my lute of death (lod). While the arrows were flying, my minstrel was strumming discord and death with cued up lute attacks. And wtf I can heal good guys with my guitar? That's awesome.

I'm still trying to figure out what class/character I want to play. I like watching champions in action, and was really impressed with the class, but they're a little too button spammy for me. Guardians seem to have slower combat pacing that feels better to me. It could all be in my head, but it just doesn't seem as spammy as a champ, even when the reactive chains trigger.

This attracts me to the minstrel class more than anything else. I just love the humor involved in killing things with - song!

You know you must really stink when the bad guys drop dead after you strum a few chords ...

I can't remember a game with combat that funny since Earthbound.

Killing them softly with my song
Killing them softly with my song
saving party lives with my words
Killing them softly.... with my song.

[Sparhawk]

the subject of Fellowship Moves came up while I was playing tonight and I just wanted to mention that I saw a really great explanation and list of available moves at a Lotro wiki:

http://www.lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Fel ... _Maneuvers

Also this thread here at the official forums have lots of useful info. Groups who play together regularly can produce some nifty coordinated effects if they take the time to plan well.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php? ... post351682

Ah, so it looks like Burglers can start them up.

"Roll The Drums" as 6th level conjunction sounds freaking awesome.

[hepcat]

Yeah, i was just reading over those conjunctions. I really need to spend some time mastering them, though. it appears they are crucial for taking on some of the master elites and arch nemesis boss mobs.

another thing to keep in mind, i use exploit opening wiith my burglar quite a bit when grouping to start a conjunction, however it doesn't always trigger, as I've painfully discovered.

[igbe]

I'll cross-post this in our multiplayer thread:

I've registered our guild name at www.guildportal.com and created a (very very very basic) placeholder webpage. Here's the link, but there's nothing much on it at the moment:

http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?G ... ID=1483927

Here's the deal:

For free, we can get a basic web page which is ad-supported but has limits on numbers of replies to forum topics and limited support for custom graphics.

For $30, we unlock everything, no ads, ability to do custom graphics and no forum limits. $30 pays for 6 months.

For $45, we get all of the above plus a domain name (Ex: eotw.guildportal.com versus www.guildportal.com/238974927483279873?)

I'm willing to chip in $15 on this, provided nobody has any better alternatives. All it would take is a handful of us to donate $5 or so and we could get the full package.

I checked out another free hosting site, guildwizard.com, but it was having a lot of technical issues just to get a guild registered so I didn't deem it to be very reliable.

If we go this route, I'd also be happy to take volunteers who are good with HTML to assist with site design. The tools are fairly easy to use, but there are some areas where a more thorough knowledge of HTML than what I have would be useful.

In addition, once we get a page up, we're going to start shaping things up in terms of guild organization. While the idea of 30 officers is great for this first few weeks while we get everybody recruited, it's not a realistic guild structure. I need folks to start thinking about our charter, rules for recruiting, officer roles, etc. Don't be scared off by this - we're not losing the casual focus or atmosphere of the guild; we're just giving it some structure so that it can last and grow, and so that we can better organize events and things and ultimately have more fun down the road.

I will give the guild hosting for free with domain if wanted and you guys can install and do whatever you want to it.

Igbe

[Texian]

My thoughts on some of the recent topics above.

1. YK: a guild site sounds like a really great idea. I can't contribute financially or do advanced HTML, but, otherwise, you have my supoort for it's implementation. I intend to be active in the guild and will whatever else I can to help you get it more organized. Just send me an assignment or task. I've certainly got the time to help out.

2. Crafting: I think the metalsmith is able to make improved tools. One of the things we need to do in the guild is get a list together of the professions for each player and find out who is serious about crafting. The adventurers could then funnel the raw materials they collect to the appropriate crafters.

I, for one, really like the crafting system and it's potential. Right now, the main reason I hunt and do quests is to get more of the raw materials for crafting. ATM I have an Explorer (Tailor, Forrester, Prospector), Jeweler (Jewelery, Prospecting, Cooking) and an Armsman (Weaponsmith, Woodworker, Prospector).

If all guild members send an in-game email to GORWIN with their character name and professions listed, I will start compiling a spreadsheet for the guild. Please include whether you are a serious or casual crafter.

3. The conjunction stuff sounds really cool. The more we play this game, the more there is to discover about it. I hope we can master the combat art of 'conjuncting'. I read Meaghan's link and want to know more aqbout it, too.

4. One final thought. Take some time to be a Tourist. Last night experienced the most wonderful tour I've ever had in an online game. I walked from the Forsaken Inn to Rivendell. I was totally awed by the depth of scenery in this game especailly when I reached the Rivendell Valley and saw it spread out below me in awesome splendor. The most amazing thing is that there were zero pauses to load for the entire trip. A totally seamless journey. It was awesome.

For the return trip, I took a horse back and just sat back and enjoyed the views.

Don't be afraid of high level monsters attacking mercilessly either. The game designers obviously programmed the AI not to attack players below a certain level. On the way there, I encountered (ran past within agro range) many level 35+ baddies (trolls, wolves and sickle flies) who gave me a sniff or slight nudge but never attacked and gave up the pursuit quickly. Just don't challenge them or stop to play tag.

People on the official forums have questioned whether or not JRR Tolkien would like this game. Frankly, I think he would have loved it and the fact that people can experience his fantasy creation firsthand.

I think LOTRO is easily the most beautiful game - online or single-player - ever created. The designers have done a universal class job with the whole package and should be game of the year in all the polls.

[YellowKing]

Guys, please check out the Multiplayer forum. We now have a guild page set up (Jason has generously established the site for the first month).

Thanks for the offer on web hosting igbe, but we wanted something we could set up very easily and get going quickly without having to do a lot of HTML. I think this site will allow us to do that.

http://eotw.mmoguildsites.net/

[Texian]

FYI

EDIT: Patching done. Login available now.

LOTRO is down today until 1:00pm EDT for patching.

Patch notes:

Patch Notes: May 3, 2007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following changes will be made in the patch on May 3, 2007:
* Guardians can now play some musical instruments at level 5.
* Fixed a bug with "Mischievous Glee" (Burglar) and "Sign of Power: Wizardry" (Lore-master) that was causing some enemies to assist the player in combat.
* The sky-diving NPC in Bree has been grounded, and will stop dropping from the sky now.
* In the “Shield Brothers” quest, players will no longer have to worry if the wight slave is killed by someone else. Using the barrow door again will cause the wight to re-appear so they can complete the quest.
Bosses in instances are no longer scared of the players! They are immune to fear and will not be sent running like little scared hobbitses!
* Players can now destroy any and all of their Pre-order items if they so wish. This includes, but is not limited to, the Ring of Agility. Be warned, however, that once you've destroyed the item, that character can never get it back!
* Removed uncommon & rare loot drops from Tarburz the Wood Troll.
Fixed a problem where some players were unable to enter any private instances.
* The problem with Undying titles not being granted to players has been identified and fixed. We’re still looking into whether we can retroactively grant the titles to those who didn’t receive them because they were fellow’d up in an instance with another player who died. This may not be possible, but we’ll try!
* Fixed pathing issues with the Rhavameldir encounter in Fornost and the Lagmas encounter in Urugarth.
* The Auction UI will now properly enable Kinship Only options when an online player’s Kinship reaches the appropriate Lifespan Rank (6).
* Fixed the following bugs on machines running Windows XP. A Windows Vista fix is still being investigated:
Players will no longer see their Overall Graphics Quality as "Custom" when they log in if they had originally set it to Low, Med, High, Very High, etc.
Fixed a bug which caused certain Graphics Options to reset to 0 every time the game was started.

[hepcat]

4. One final thought. Take some time to be a Tourist. Last night experienced the most wonderful tour I've ever had in an online game. I walked from the Forsaken Inn to Rivendell. I was totally awed by the depth of scenery in this game especailly when I reached the Rivendell Valley and saw it spread out below me in awesome splendor. The most amazing thing is that there were zero pauses to load for the entire trip. A totally seamless journey. It was awesome.

Monday night I did the first annual "Man Burglar 10K" and ran from the forsaken inn to Thorin's Gate (the furthest westward I could go, apparently). As I ran through The Shire (bare chested because it was funnier, for some reason), I could imagine all the little Hobbits cheering me on with, "RUN FORREST, RUN!"

[naednek]

Had a fun time grouping with Debris, PD and Meghan. I haven't grouped with the guild before, so it was a much better experience, until we all died at the end . Those thorns kept stabbing me and I couldn't cast any healing spells. Hope to group with you guys again in the near future.

[Butterknife]

The Auction UI will now properly enable Kinship Only options when an online player’s Kinship reaches the appropriate Lifespan Rank (6).

Too bad they didn't fix the auction filters so that they actually work.

[Salaminizer]

"Removed uncommon & rare loot drops from Tarburz the Wood Troll."

I assume some people were farming the crap out of this guy? Any idea what we will miss out on?

[bg816am]

Meant to post a few days ago...but yeah, LOTRO just keeps sucking me in (at destroying my free time) I'm just amazed at how much this is like WOW, that Blizzard isn't doing anything about it. I just "out-WOW's" WOW in just about every way, I'm probably going to give monster play a try tonite, been meaning too, but I keep falling for the "just one more quest syndrome".

My only concern is for someone like me, I like to try a few different characters, and different starting areas, but it looks like there are only 2 beginner areas (one for the elves and dwarves, one for hobbits and humans), that I really don't want to keep doing the same beginner quests over and over to try new characters...but that's really minor. I've having so much fun with my Dwarven Champion, I'm not even thinking of rolling another character.

[coopasonic]

My only concern is for someone like me, I like to try a few different characters, and different starting areas, but it looks like there are only 2 beginner areas (one for the elves and dwarves, one for hobbits and humans), that I really don't want to keep doing the same beginner quests over and over to try new characters...but that's really minor. I've having so much fun with my Dwarven Champion, I'm not even thinking of rolling another character.

The humans and hobbits have the same very beginning area but once you leave the starting area one goes to combe/bree-land and the other goes to the shire. Also elves and dwarves split for a bit with elves gonig way south to celondim and dwarves northwest to thorin's gate. the areas come together again in a few and in the end (~15-16th level) everyone goes to Bree and then the path is pretty much the same for everyone.

[KePoW]

Meant to post a few days ago...but yeah, LOTRO just keeps sucking me in (at destroying my free time) I'm just amazed at how much this is like WOW, that Blizzard isn't doing anything about it. I just "out-WOW's" WOW in just about every way

I wouldn't go that far, that's a total exaggeration

however, I will say that LoTRO is incredibly polished for a retail release MMO...most new ones these days are in a crap state when they first come out. having never even seen the beta, LoTRO is way better than I thought it would be and I'm having a lot of fun with it

[khomotso]

Installing right now.

[IceBear]

Yeah, I have it too - what server is everyone on?

[SlapBone]

Yeah, I have it too - what server is everyone on?

Landroval

[Cota]

Alright. Let me be the voice of dissent here. For what it's worth, I wasn't in the beta, and have about a week under my belt. I have a level 17 Hobbit Burglar Yeoman, and a level 10 Man Hunter (:P) Explorer. I also just came from playing Vanguard. Cancelled my account a day or two before picking this up.

First of all, the graphics aren't doing anything for me. It's a little too cartoony for my personal taste. WoW was this way for me also, but I did appreciate the graphics for the sake of art in WoW. Here, not so much. I am impressed with the landscapes, but the character, equipment, and monster models aren't that good in my opinion. The animations don't impress me either. In fact, I think they are pretty poor. Coming straight from Vanguard, I'm left feeling I didn't appreciate Vanguard's superior animations enough.

The sound is generally ok. The music though is pretty awesome, in some places.

Now, the combat just stinks, in my opinion. It's mushy, sluggish, unresponsive, sloppy, loose, and leaves too much room for error. It's like playing a kids game or something. There's little to no feedback during a fight. Compared to Vanguard, where I think every attack and spell had a distinct animation, and you could really tell when you landed a critical hit. Reminds me alot of WoW. Technique doesn't count for much, just mash on the keyboard and move on to the next target. Vanguard and EQ2 (as I remember it, it's been awhile) both had nice crisp, technical combat. In a group, a single bad mistake could spell disaster in those two games. So far in LOTRO, I've had people repeatedly break my mez, not assist anyone, or go AFK and you still win. I'm not sure it really matters how you use your skills or tactics in combat. You can't lose. The combat in LOTRO is probably my biggest disappointment.

Speaking of AFK. THERE'S NO AFK BUTTON OR FUNCTION!? What the heck? You type /afk and you end up emoting you're afk.

Speaking of emotes. There's what, six emotes in LOTRO? Come on! There's /laugh. /wave. /sit. Speaking of sit, THERE'S NO HOT KEY FOR SIT!? I have to type /sit every time I want to sit!? What the heck. Anyways, back to emotes. Actually, that's the only three I can think of. Oh, /afk. That's four. Ok, so there's four emotes. And all of their animations stink too.

At least they made it easy to customize and add those four emotes to a quickslot. Heh. Just kidding. HOW ON EARTH TO YOU PUT A CUSTOM EMOTE ON A QUICKSLOT!? Vanguard made it sooo simple. They even made every icon in the game available for use with your custom quickslots. Of course, they made it almost impossible to browse them, but they were there, and you didn't have to take a class to learn how to make them.

The trade skills don't impress me much either. Their not bad really, just a little simple for my personal tastes. I like the idea of farming and cooking, which my hobbit does both. Though farming I think needs so balancing tweeks, but what ever. The idea is cool, especially for a hobbit. I'm glad you don't have to do work orders in order to level. I HATED that in Vanguard. I want to earn experience by making the items I intend to make in the first place. LOTRO does that thankfully.

Ok, enough of the negatives.

As I said above, I do really like the landscapes. I've been over just about every inch of the Shire and I love it. I LOVE the Shire. It's so hobbity. So peaceful and serene and fun and innocent. They really did a great job of realizing the Shire I think. It's rather too small though. I mean, I think it takes all of 6 minutes to run across the breadth of it. No town is more than 30 seconds away from the next, usually far less. Is the whole world or Middle Earth this way? I don't know. I have only just left the Shire in the last day or two. I couldn't say. Even so, the Shire is awesome.

The music that I've heard so far is top notch. It really adds to the atmosphere around the Shire and in it's inns and taverns.

Character building is a mixed bag so far. I miss the working up of individual skills, like daggers or longswords, like in Vanguard. In LOTRO as long as you can use the weapon, it seems like you are adept in it. My hobbit burglar is equally skilled in swords, daggers and maces, even though he's never touch a mace. What I've seen so far, leads me to believe they have created some great classes though. The Burglar has a very interesting set of skills. Far beyond the typical "DPS" builds of other games. WoW is king in innovative class design I think, but LOTRO looks like it has done well in it's own. The trait system is really a most interesting aspect. You can really customize some of your attributes and skills this way.

The Quests in LOTRO are one of it's strong suits I think. I generally liked the quality of the quests in WoW. Generally hated them in Vanguard. You know, you can break just about any quest down to similar basic components. Travel here. Kill something. Talk to someone. Do something. Return. All quests in all MMORPG's are like this to some extent. What's important, I think, is the writing behind them. LOTRO has some superbly written quests. In the Shire, it's all about hobbit stuff.

One last thing. Burglaring! I love pickpocketing in LOTRO. My very first pickpocket was a (yellow) magic necklace that I could use. I've since burgled two purple items. One of which was perfectly suited for me.

Anyways, to sum up. I don't think this game is going to make it passed the free month for me. Most because of the cartoonish appearance and cartoonish combat. I like a more serious approach to my MMORPG. Personal taste of course.

Oh, and one last negative I forgot. There's no C.O.D. mail system. I have to meet to someone in person to sell or buy an item from them that's not on the auction house. Either that, or trust a stranger to mail me the money or item separately.

Edit: As Yellowking pointed out to me below, there are actually alot of emotes. I never knew about them. I retract what I said about the emotes, I was clearly wrong.

-Cota

[YellowKing]

Speaking of emotes. There's what, six emotes in LOTRO? Come on! There's /laugh. /wave. /sit. Speaking of sit, THERE'S NO HOT KEY FOR SIT!? I have to type /sit every time I want to sit!? What the heck. Anyways, back to emotes. Actually, that's the only three I can think of. Oh, /afk. That's four. Ok, so there's four emotes. And all of their animations stink too.

There are actually closer to 40. All you have to do is click on the chat bubble icon and you'll get a full list. There are even some hilarious ones to change your facial expressions that are done much better than EQ2's moods.

As far as the graphics, I can't argue that they're not somewhat cartoony. But I think they fit in well with traditional Tolkien artwork.

I don't agree about the combat. I thought that when I first played, but after playing quite a bit I've begun to understand the underlying mechanics a little more. Combat in groups at higher levels is not as foolproof as it is at Level 10 or even 17.

I do have some nitpicks, mainly with UI issues. But I'm sure little inconveniences (such as inability to tab fields in the auction house, etc.) will be fixed over time.

[ChrisGrenard]

Speaking of emotes. There's what, six emotes in LOTRO? Come on! There's /laugh. /wave. /sit. Speaking of sit, THERE'S NO HOT KEY FOR SIT!? I have to type /sit every time I want to sit!? What the heck. Anyways, back to emotes. Actually, that's the only three I can think of. Oh, /afk. That's four. Ok, so there's four emotes. And all of their animations stink too.

Forgive me, but it is indeed apparent that you have spent very little time for the game. The way to create buttons for emotes is really rather easy if you'd bother to look it up.

[Muddyboots]

Hi All. Really starting to like this game. My only complaint so far is lag. Anybody else having slowdown the longer a play session lasts. My game will slow down to the point of being unplayable. I log off, and when I log back on, it is playable again. For awhile.

[Cota]

Speaking of emotes. There's what, six emotes in LOTRO? Come on! There's /laugh. /wave. /sit. Speaking of sit, THERE'S NO HOT KEY FOR SIT!? I have to type /sit every time I want to sit!? What the heck. Anyways, back to emotes. Actually, that's the only three I can think of. Oh, /afk. That's four. Ok, so there's four emotes. And all of their animations stink too.

There are actually closer to 40. All you have to do is click on the chat bubble icon and you'll get a full list. There are even some hilarious ones to change your facial expressions that are done much better than EQ2's moods.

I stand corrected. There are a slew of emotes I did not know about. I had never used that bubble. I was wrong, I'll add a note to my post that says this.

-Cota

[Eightball]

So far in LOTRO, I've had people repeatedly break my mez, not assist anyone, or go AFK and you still win. I'm not sure it really matters how you use your skills or tactics in combat. You can't lose.

I've said this multiple times. The game is incredibly easy up to 20, easy from 20-30, then gets much more difficult post 30.

You're a hero. You're supposed to be nigh invincible to the average monster trash you fight outside. That's why you find it easy. But play with an elite your same level, or head into the Great Barrows (even though it's still easy comparatively to the later instances).

The difficulty ramps up substantively in the instances. When you hit 20 or so, go do the Weathertop instance. You'll understand then.