Yargblog is currently suspended until they fix the poorly coded blog post editor. I have lost way too many posts to this piece of junk to bother with wasting my time trying to get them to a point where it will actually post them.

I hope to come back with them soon!

Mike

There has been a lot of drama lately about PvMP in The Lord of the Rings: Online. Whether it is dealing with the damage balance issues, keep flipping, lack of numbers, or the dreaded STAB Shuffle (or as I sometimes prefer to call it the TA Tango), there has definitely been a general rise in the blood pressure of people on both sides.

The balance issues have been discussed ad nauseam. I mean pretty much everyone has concurred at this point that Hunter DPS is excessive in the Ettens and while the survivability argument is often used, I see hunters survive stuff CONSTANTLY that a creep cannot so I suspect that either damage will get a nerf or survivability will get a nerf for hunters. I am leaning towards damage myself. I am fine with hunters doing good damage, but I think they should do about as much as a damage traited Blackarrow. They might not like it, but BAs do a good amount of damage and it is fair damage.

The other general issues are relatively minor in my opinion except for the one of EC. Keep flipping is equivalent upon both sides (using the currently approved system of logging off a guy in the flag room and capping the flag) and frankly I could care less if peoples feelings are bruised if I flip Lugz because imnsho both sides should have a rez circle. Numbers are there some nights as well. Not as many as premoria on average, but some nights we do just fine. So, overall I would say these two issues are not the problem.

Elf Camp fighting IS the problem. Why is it a problem some people might ask? Well the core of the issue is not a lack of infamy. Even though infamy does not flow as freely as say during a keep defense, there is some infamy gain at STAB as much as I am loath to admit it. That is the only thing some people are interested in and while that is admirable, it is not in their best interest. Why? The reason why infamy alone is not enough is tied to the four pillars of creepside play. Infamy/Rank is one pillar to be sure, but there are also the pillars of Maps, Destiny Points, and Experience.

Maps and Destiny Points
These two pillars of creep power are inextricably tied. The more quests you do the more destiny points you get and the closer you get to our only counter to freep horses: maps. The maps are self-explanatory in their usefulness. You can cut off running freeps, you can quickly get to locations where groups have reported action, and you can quickly defend almost any location on the map. Grinding 50 quests at each keep, however, gives you massive amounts of destiny. Destiny is the fuel on which creeps run. Yeah infamy unlocks new skills, but they are of no use unless you can purchase them. Add to all of this the new DP buffs that creeps were given to purchase in the expansion and there are even more reasons to have plenty of DP to spare. The STAB Shuffle does not give you this DP. You can not suffice on only 2k from an every couple hours if you are even lucky enough to tag him. Also, you do not advance your maps for various keeps and you are short on cash from not questing continuously (which means fewer potions).

Experience
The lack of experience of these new creeps is apparent if you ever group with one. I have even seen old creeps fall into bad habits because of the mindless grind that is EC fighting. (This has been working both ways though: freeps are getting less skilled as well, but they have much more room for error.)

When you break away from EC you have to learn about the different environments in the Ettens as well as the location of very important things. Also, having to keep on your toes and recommence your active scanning helps to make you much better prepared for actual fights when they happen. Finally, if you are away from EC you are pulling freeps and creeps away from there as well which is good since the situation is very much balanced in their favor there.

In the end, the death of EC is only something that can be hoped for. As long as one creep and one freep decide that they are going to simply ignore wisdom and head there for their fights there will be more that join them. Right now, our best hope is for those of us with long time experience to completely boycott it and try to pull people away one at a time, give them protips, and set them on a better path.

It is what I did last night and what I will be doing from here on out. So watch out all you freep solo patrollers. When I am out there I will have a whole group coming for you!

Michael

Greetings and salutations friends! I hope your weekend revelries went well and that you are refreshed for what I imagine for many of you is the first day back to work in awhile.

What I did…
Friday was an eventful day. I was putzing around as usual when Arromir (aka Hissyfit) put out a call for the epic quest 1.13.10. I was on 1.13.8 so I told him that I was in if he needed me. I was quickly ushered into a group on Thradin and with a few others. We marched through the quests and into book 14. On through book 14 we ventured as we delved into the madness of Laerdan and Narmaleth. We had an enjoyable time in our group and after seeing Mordrambor’s betrayal we continued into book 15. By this time, however, it was quite late and so we called it a night to be continued the next day.

Saturday, I logged in after my weekly DnD game and waited for Arromir. Early in the afternoon, all of our group from book 15 had logged in and we were just waiting for him. A few hours later, just as I was about to make the call for all of us to head out without him he shows up and we force feed him the INSANE amount of running he has to do in prep for the end of book 15. (Seriously, book 15 is the last book and by FAR the worst in terms of mindless running around quests.) Finally, we are ready for a truly epic adventure and start chapter 12.

We battle through some Ghash-Hai orcs and fiery Grims when we encounter Mordambor. WIPE! Reset, lets try this again. We head back in and get to the fight (after getting a strong strategy from the Interwebz) and as I charge forth to be the one that gets Narmaleth’s favour I find the ONE chink in the floor and fall into the lava. We are still out of combat so I think there might be time for our Runekeeper to rez me but nope. So I just say forget it and release to ride back into the instance. Arromir goes down and I show. We do some good damage to him this whole time and as he is going down I wind up once again getting oneshot by him (darn you Narmaleth and your blessing lag!). Anyway, after we finish that fight we cakewalk through the rest of the fighting. Everything finished, we take our nice picture of all of us on our Grey horses and call it a day.

A special thanks to Ceryni, Aedon, Arromir, Lorthian, Skwisklok, Irkav, Maedir, and all the others that joined us for the various quests. Could not have done it without you!

Sunday, I logged in and since I had been neglecting things I went out to the moors. I have made a commitment to not going within bowshot of EC and so I was hoping that I could find enough people with whom I could do patrols and catch solo or small groups of freeps. I was surprised by the response. Maybe it was because it was Sunday, but I quickly filled most of a group and it seemed that this was also going to be a welcome wagon because quite a few of the members did not even have their Grams map!

Off we went on the DG > Lugz > TA > LC (Via the old TR hotspot point to not break the ban upon EC) > TR > Grothum (where we find a solo champ trying to get mad food sack lootz) > Grams patrol route. After this we lose a couple guys and get a couple more who still need some map scouting so we decide to take an outpost and then head to the map points they need. We head to the Steps of Gram outpost and our only melee (a rank 0 warg) cannot cut it even with two healers on him and so we rez him and then put that on the burner to do later as we head to HH for quest items. In HH we head to the brittleleaf seed field and proceed to get our hobbit nom on. We are there for about ten minutes when a LM shows up. We are all off to the side of the field among the houses and he is coming at us from the mayor. We have one blackarrow plinking away at our fight and he is standing out in the open. The LM mezzes him and charges forward only to finally realize that we are there on the other side of the houses. NOM NOM NOM. He was worth a lot too.

We head up to the trees to get ourselves some leafcull heartwood and then pop north and get as close to EC as we will the entire night when we pick up Rockwither’s horn. We loop back south to LC and then head over to TR so a guy can scout it. South of TR we see a Guardian coming towards us. I am telling the wargs to get sprint ready because he is still on his horse, but he stops and dismounts right in front of six creeps (3 of which are healers!). Yeah, one freep blood and pee puddle later we are on the way to Grothum. Back to Grams we finally have a fellowship with all of their maps and so I convert to a raid and invite Darkrain and Xeloarrow. We get reports of Sadaf and another burg at the slugs so we head on out to find Sadaf and some bait. We take the bait and Sadaf gets back behind us after burning his HIPS and takes out one of our guys (that I had just rezzed from the initial contact). Anyway, we take an outpost and at this point I leave for dinner and get chatted up by a friend before the TV draws me in for the night.

Well, it was fun out there and I hope you all enjoyed your weekend adventures! I will see you later and I will also try to post up a blog about some issues I have been seeing in game that I would like to address.

Peace!

Michael

Well all, since my.lotro gives us quite a few features that I hadn’t really explored when I started Yargblog I thought I would take some time this afternoon to better organize my archive here.

I have added the following categories:

• Yargblog
• Tales of Nommage (PvP)
• Tales of Adventure (PvE)
• The Tao of Yargax
• (Dis)Content Impressions
• Mikeblog (IRL)

Yargblog is just that. My report of what I have done in game since the last Yargblog.

Tales of Nommage is the category of blogs that deal with PvP experiences new and old as well as some (but not many) PvP discussions.

Tales of Adventure is the category of blogs for days I am not out in the Ettenmoors and spend my time cybering in Bree while seeing how upset I can make Leekae in glff by hitting on Gilly.

The Tao of Yargax has been something I have been working on personally for quite some time. This is basically the category that I will use to discuss my thoughts on strategy at its core, but also on general PvP discussion.

(Dis)Content Impressions is the category for any times I pontificate on my impressions of some content item such as a class (or changes to said class), a new area, or some other such collection of 1s and 0s.

Mikeblog is a category I will use for any personal updates and announcements.

Well, there you go. Sorry for the disorganized start, but hopefully you will enjoy the results!

Michael

Hello all and welcome to the first real Yargblog of 2009.  Yesterday’s post was quickly eaten by the evil that is my.lotro’s blogging contractor and so I’ll have double duty on things to cover today.

What I did…
Since last we spoke, I have played quite a bit.  Tuesday the 30^th, I got off of work grabbed some supplies at the store (gots ta have da beer!) and dove right into playing. 

My first thing on the menu was to get to 20 with my Runekeeper.  I saw Basterni was on his warden and so we hit the Lonelands in style and I hit 20 with the Undying title!  Huzzah!  I stuck around for a bit to think about hitting 21, but instead decided to head creepside for awhile.  Oh look… people at EC… *snore*

Anyway, Wednesday I woke up late (mm…days off) and puttered around in game for awhile doing various quests and deeds.  Hit 21 on the RK and equipped all his shiney new gear and then quickly lost interest in playing him.  I was out in the moors for a bit and it was getting late so I was thinking of going out to a bar or somesuch for the new year when lo and behold Gmork and Ryan of all people log in.  I know my plans are set for the night so I join up and off we go.  I’m four bourbon and cokes and about eight beers into the night so I’m ready to roll.  Gmork was a few ahead of me it seemed so let’s just say it was fun.

A few times I got rather frustrated with things (although Ryan not knowing what the hell he was doing anymore didn’t help :p), but it allowed me to realize one of the resolutions I needed to have for the new year (more on that below).  Anyway, we had a rotating cast of support characters, but overall we had ourselves some fun I think.

Yesterday (Happy Frickin New Year!), I was bored all day long L.  Nobody seemed to want to group and the moors was STAB Shuffle or nothing.  I thought I might try working maps, but with no partner as a spider or defiler it’s not happening.  Freepside was just as bland.  Besides Thradin (who I’m bored with at the moment), my other toons I’m messing around with are in their 20’s which is my most hated portion of the game.  The Lone Lands and North downs are just not interesting enough for me to want to grind in them and since my typical approach is to do low level quests first I wind up doing a LOT of running in order to do them all.  Meh.

My Resolutions…
I have a couple resolutions that can be related to the game and I hope you all wish me the best with them!  I know a lot of people almost instantly abandon their resolutions, but if I have people who will constructively keep me on the wagon things will work just fine.

My first resolution is to give up.  I’m not giving up on the game of course.  You’ll see me out there quite a bit, but I’m giving up on those people who can’t seem to get with the program.  Those of you who refuse to accept anything I do or say as genuine?  You don’t really matter in the grand scheme and never did, but I still discussed things with you because I figured you could have something valuable to contribute.  Sorry, you’re on your own.  I will simply let you quail in your disbelief since I realize that you’re just making a fool of yourself and so that will console me.  What does this mean?  Less forum drama from me.  I mean since last year I’ve really cut back even further and now we’ll progress to the next level.

Also, I’m giving up when it comes to caring about balance, dying, etc.  I’ll still demand the best out of my groupmates, but it is my hope to start being more positive in the Ettens and simply laughing it off when I wind up getting dropped in three seconds (as a tank class).  I’ll call it the Warginator approach.  I’m not going to go out and try to start fighting against ridiculous odds, but hopefully things will go a bit smoother.

 My second resolution is to curse less.  Yeah… heh… that will happen. /sarcasm off

 Anyway, there they are.  Wish me luck and feel free to keep me on my toes.  Hopefully we’ll get a few people together to do some fun stuff this weekend.

 Have fun out there…

Happy New Year Beehatches!!!

So this is going to be a short Yargblog since I am not at work and therefore I’m cutting into gaming time by typing away here.

EDIT: Yeah…so really short… the entry program ate my post.

Hello all and welcome to the second edition of Yargblog.  I’m going to be making some changes to the structure of things here this afternoon so please bear with me.  As always, if you have suggestions feel free to PM me.

Yesterday’s blog was a little long so I’ll try to make this one snappy and just post a separate blog if there is anything I forgot rather than adding it to the pile here.  My RK thoughts though were admittedly something a bit more involved than a simple accounting so a shorter blog shouldn’t be a problem.

What I did…

Last night I logged in when I got home from work in order to simply check something on Yargax and was immediately shanghaied by Warginator and Speedie and told to head to Grothum for a “duel”.  Intrigued I went along the way out there and found the both of them fighting Sadaf.  “Bad Idea” were the first words that entered my head.  I was proven right when Speedie quickly dropped and it was apparently my turn.  My initial words rang like a trumpet in my ear, but I still dropped my banner, ate some food, and tore in on him before he had a chance to stealth on me.  The fight went well at first.  I got stunned off the bat, but I just potted out and kept tearing into him.  While startling twist was on cooldown the fight was relatively even.  I was doing okay, but then startling twist came back up and it was over.

This is a situation that is a great example of how much things have changed in the expansion.  I’ve fought many burgs before the expansion and while the good ones could give me a run for my money, in a duel where we fought by my banner and he never hit stealth, there was usually not much of a problem.  This was completely different.  Three things I think are responsible:

• Removal of “stun rotation” – This one was a needed change, but it really does make burgs and wargs SUBSTANTIALLY stronger.  A burg ten times more than a warg because they can lock you down for almost 20 seconds and have their way with you from behind.  Start squealing like pigs creeps…
• Nerf to stun pots – Creep stun pots used to be on a much shorter cooldown.  As a result a creep could typically pot out of the stun before it went on for too long or at least force the burg to rush through their cycle to the knockdown which would at least make the stun shorter.
• Mitigation, Avoidance and Resistance destruction – I’m not even going to put this in the same category as a nerf.  A nerf is typically something that can be managed or worked around.  What happened to creeps when it comes to their defensive capabilities goes so far beyond that.  Warleaders as a “tank” class yet without a single ability to mitigate the massive additional damage now present in the Ettens is greatly disappointing.

In the end I congratulate Sadaf on his win, but I told him in game when I came on later that I was sorry I couldn’t have fought him before MoM when I was actually a challenge.

After that I bounced around between my various toons for a bit.  I had to take a breather when the freeps were pushing LC though because I had died for about the tenth time in an hour and a half and the lack of maps on my defiler was quite frustrating.  I came back after a bio and grabbing a snack and LC was already flipped!  We fought them at TR for awhile, but the almost two raids of freeps were not coordinating and so while one portion of a raid stayed downstairs to farm creeps, the other raid of freeps wiped out on the tyrant downstairs… coordination fail!

After that wipe all the freeps seemed to disappear so we flipped a hotspot or two and since there was still nothing big going on I logged in my Runekeeper to do a couple deeds.  Khazor, my kin leader, was out there though and so I had fun giving him sass about his uber pwnage.  Later though a kinmate came on from creepside and lured me back out one last time as my blackarrow.  Another kinmate joined us and we went out hunting Khazorz!  Constant fervour champs = squish against three coordinated blackarrows.

Overall it was an ok night I guess even though I was not very effective in most cases.  It was good to be out there with friends even if I was yelling a few of the times.  Hope you all forgive me

Well folks… that’s all for now.  Until tomorrow and I’ll see you in game!

Michael

Hello!

This is my first blog and I’m hoping to post more in the near future.  First off it might keep me from getting bored to death in the down time at work and secondly it will keep people posted one what I’m doing either in game or not in game.  I also hope that it will start some discussion, but the people that typically make for the best discussions probably aren’t that interested in reading my blog, but who knows.  Maybe Yellowbraids will come here someday, completely take something I say out of context, assume my motives, and then go off the deep end as I laugh to myself about how mentally unstable he is.

So… that said…TO THE BLOG!!

What did I do???

This past weekend I sat down and dove full bore into my Runekeeper.  At first I wasn’t sure I would like it.  When it hit beta I wasn’t thrilled with the mechanic idea and I went in and played one at autolevel 50 and autolevel 20.  Obviously I was not able to get a good feel for the class not having worked up the levels on my own.  I found myself able to do things, but I had no appreciation for them in regards to their leveling process nor how to use them in a basic functional sense.  Saturday and Sunday I took him from level 8 to level 18 and the class is fun and interesting I’ve found.  There are things I don’t like and things I do, but overall I give them a thumbs up.

I started out solo for a few quests until I got to about level 10.  About that time I picked up the quests in Ered Luin that send you to Orodost (the goblin camp you go thru to get to Sarnur).  About that time I met up with Frostbite another level 10 RK.  Things just got easier from there.  I’ve done most everything in a group and I’m still undefeated (which is funny because my champ, guard, and minstrel all three were defeated before 20 and missed the title).  There were only two hairy spots though.  The level 15 solo instance can be a little rough (bring power pots) and book 1.11 is still rough so make sure you have people who know what they are doing!

Solo I think things would be fine if slower.  I love the methodical nature of the class really.  Scribe’s Spark, Chilling Rhetoric, get range, Fiery Ridicule, blast blast blast.  For tough fights drop the stone and then put the prelude on yourself and you’ll do three pulls with no problem.  In the end I think I just got lucky to have a group through the low levels, though.  I can definitely sense a very low frustration threshold for RKs if you have to solo all the time.

My breakdown: Runekeepers…

Things I like:

• Kiting – Kiting you get a few good skills that promote a good kiting session.  Chilling Rhetoric and Shocking Hands with the occasional stun from Shocking Words all allow you to get some range and some breathing space.  You can still burn through power, but just have your power food and your pots ready for big fights and you’ll do quite well.  Add to all this that prelude to hope can be done on the run and staying up is easier. 
• ZZZAP! – The animations and sounds for the RK are great.  A lot of people get annoyed by the “glorified bugzapper” aspect of the RK, but overall I am a big fan. 
• Dual roles – Runekeepers do a great job of filling dual roles in a party.  Need DPS support before the big fight?  RK can fill the need.  Need a single target healer?  RK has got your back.  When the shit really hit the fan in the 1.11 Barrow instance I was in at level 18, the other RK in the group who was at full DPS was able to switch to healing and save my kiester. 
• Dwarf CC/debuff – I know they are not a CC class and that while their debuffs are good they have very few, but as a member of an all dwarf kinship I think this class could really open us up to more things for later raiding. 
• You have to be good – I love the fact that the class makes you a better player.  I mean there is a certain level where you have to take over yourself to be truly skillful, but at the base level I can see how this class could help an average player practice some advanced skills.  Kiting for example… you can win the fight without kiting, but the tools are all there to allow for it.

Things I don’t like:

• Slow ramping – This is mainly an issue if I am trying to quickly grind kills so just take that into account ;)  Getting to three attunement in any direction is a pain.  Once you get there you can ramp up quickly, but with only two non-induction skills for battle and only one for healing it can get a little annoying.  In a fight that matters I typically lead with chilling/fiery which puts me one away from 3 attunement anyway. 
• Quick loss of attunement – The rate attunement is lost out of combat is disheartening.  With so many instance fights having only a second or two of downtime between combats you would think they would have had attunement drop a bit slower.  Instead, if you are out of combat for two seconds you’ve lost almost all attunement when you get back in (unless you had a LOT).  Paired with the slow rev getting attunement below 3 is I hope there is a stance or some change where attunement can ramp down at maybe a 1/1second ratio.
• Equipment dependent – This is not a problem for me, but I’ve encountered a few RKs that were having serious problems.  The reason?  Their gear was horrible.  You HAVE to keep your gear up to date.  Mitigations and stats need to be high or else things get bad very fast.  This could change at higher levels, but at level 10 and level 16 you definitely need to get a full crafted set.

Life update…

There’s not a lot to report life wise.  For those of you who haven’t seen me, I started my new job at the beginning of December.  It has been a good start so far.  I’m learning the ropes and getting along well with my coworkers.  The only downside is that I have to be out the door around 6:30 each morning so I can’t pull as many late nighters as I used to ;).

I’m able to get home and get right on though and get some play in.  I’m still not heading creepside though because it just doesn’t have what it used to.  I’m not talking about balance although that plays into it.  It is just a downer.  Most folks aren’t in a good mood and it’s hard to stay in a good mood even if you come on and people are up because you keep getting destroyed.  I miss my creepside friends though.  I can still chat with them freepside, but freepside isn’t really conducive to sitting in a raid all the time and chatting away.  People have to do fellowship quests, solo instances, their own thing, etc.  I am meeting new folks and having fun in GLFF messing with Leekae.

My family is well.  Mom and dad are currently in Florida and my brother and sister-in-law are off for their winter break at school.  This last week I had a very busy one as I’m sure everyone else did as well.  It was a small Christmas, but it was nice to see my family and especially my incorrigible niece.  Also, as of midnight mass on Christmas, we finally finished all the music we’d been working on for months so my other hobby (the choir) should get a little more interesting with the new music.

Well… that’s about that.  Hope you enjoyed the read and be sure to check back for more entries!

Michael