The first area that really caught my attention in a big way was the Old Forest.  You see, up until I had been in the Old Forest I felt like I had a pretty good feel for the environments that the game provided.  I noticed nice big areas with realistic space between mobs, easy to navigate around and easy to stay out of danger if you paid attention to what you were doing.

The Old Forest shattered this assessment.

To begin with, I’m not very good with directions.  I can easily get lost at times.  I wasn’t having any trouble so far in the game but as soon as I entered the Old Forest I was completely lost.  All of the sudden it was very dangerous.  There was no place to rest and enemies were all around.  How do I get out of here?

Then it happened.  A huge tree started chasing after me.  I tried to engage it at first but I just could not handle it.  So, I ran.  How do I get out of here?  I finally escaped.  I would eventually have to go back.

The Old Forest is an excellent area that I really think gives the feel for what is described in the book.  I have since gone back at a higher level and the area still intriques me (and I still don’t like going into it).  I’ve noticed some of the techniques that the area designers used to make it hard to see how to get out and I think it’s great.

I really hope there are more areas like the Old Forest that are just as interesting and capture the feel of the books as well as this area.

That’s 7 Classes, 7 Vocations, 7 Undying titles.

At first when I pursued this I just went at it willy nilly.  After my Hunter died a few times I figured out I needed a stategy.  I came up with a few rules (that I list below) in order to get the best out of doing this.

My first strategy was just to play whatever character I felt like at the time.  After a while I decided to keep them as close together as I could and leveled them each to the next undefeated title (5, 10, 14, 17, 20).  This proved to be a mistake.  If one died then I had to play that class a lot to get him caught up.  At this point I was also running out of inventory space to keep all the crafting drops I was gathering and when a class died it just made the inventory problem worse since I had to mail everything in the inventory, delete the character, re-create the character and then mail the stuff back.  I was also losing a lot of money on mailing stuff.  Although I never worked out the rules I noticed that some stuff that I mailed cost several silver instead of the default 50 copper.  My first strategy wasn’t working out too well.

In case you don’t think of it here is another problem that can occur.  If you create a character and work on his crafting ability and then he is defeated then you will lose the receipies and materials that he used.  So, you can’t or you don’t want to level up his crafting until he reaches 20 undefeated.

Here are the general rules I ended up with that worked.  Note that I didn’t use these rules until I had two or three classes completed so at the start you may have to play some games with dummy characters to use their inventory as temporary holds until you get your first couple of characters completed.

1) Level one class at a time all the way to 20.
2) If he dies, sell all unbound equipment, mail all crafting mats, potions, money and useable items to a holder.
3) Re-create the character and start over.
4) Once you have a couple or three of characters completed mail all their receipes and mats to them.  Chose a second vocation that they will hold the mats for and mail those to them also.
5) Always complete the tutorial and introduction.  They provide initial armour and experience to make it easier later.
6) Whenever you can afford one, get a house to exchange mats.  This will save money in the mail (but take more time because it takes longer to log in/out than to mail).
7) When you die immediately delete the character (after doing rule 2 above).  Don’t think about it, don’t wonder if you should, just do it.  It makes the pain easier.

With every character you get completed there is a sense (for me at least) of accomplishment (and frustration when one of your chars dies while trying).

That’s 7 classes, 7 Vocations and 7 Undying titles.

I wish I had journaled every character creation and death on this journey but I didn’t discover the blogs until I was almost finished.  I also wasn’t sure I would succeed and I certainly didn’t want to journal a failure due to utter frustration.  I don’t remember every character creation and defeat but I do remember some specifics and strategies that I came up with.  I wanted to share them with you.

The easiest subject for me to remember is what classes were easy to do this with and what were hard.  Here is a list in about the order that I got them to 20:

Hunter             Hard     Maybe a dozen tries
Guardian          Easy     First try
Warden            Easy     First or second try
Rune-Keeper   Easy     First try
Minstrel           Easy     First try
Champion        Medium  About six tries
Burgler             Medium About six tries

Some interesting notes:  I acheived lvl 19.5 with one Burgler when he was defeated in the ruins in the Lone-Lands getting boxes.  I had a Champion defeated at lvl 18, same place.  My Hunter was really the “point-man” figuring out all the trouble spots and “danger zones” to be careful of.

It’s interesting to see which clases are hard and which are easy.  Guardian and Warden do not suprise me that they are easy.  However, Rune-Keeper and Minstrel did surprise me.  They are light armour classes and I was worried they would be much harder than my Hunter, which was the first one I got to 20 without dying.

What I have found is that the medium armour classes are the harder ones to make the goal.  I think the reason for this is that they do not have the heavy armour as the tank classes but also don’t have the DPS of the light armour classes.  You really have to learn how to use their skills properly in order for them to survive.

The Burgler was a prime example of this for me.  The first couple of times I had a lot of trouble.  I also had trouble with my Hunter, but since he was my first, his trouble was mostly learning when to run, where to level and where prossible problem spots could be.  By the time I got to my Burgler I knew what I had to do but I kept failing.  It took me a while to learn exactly how to use the Burgler’s skills to survive.

How important is the Undying title?  You see, I usually test high in Acheiver/Explorer on the Bartle Test. Titles really feed into the Acheiver appeal of players.  A title like “Undying” REALLY feeds into Acheiver appeal.

I’ve decided to create seven characters for seven vocations.  Does it matter if they have Undying?  Certainly, the Acheiver in me wants my main to have Undying but what if I change my main someday?  If that class doesn’t have the Undying Title then I certainly don’t want to go back and start that class over.  This is especially true if I have made that character good in a certain vocation.  In that case the character will lose all that crafting knowledge.

So, how important IS the Undying title?  Could it be rare and admired?  Could it be mostly irrelivant once you get to level 60?  Could it be pretensous?  Could having it, especially on seven characters, just be a sign of a obsesive compulsive disorder.

I have only started playing this game but I wanted to start it right.  So, I decided to work hard and to acheive the Undying title on all my characters.  This was going to be hard to do.

I like crafting in games.  I once played an MMO that had no fighting whatsoever.  It was basically nothing but a crafting game (10 points for anyone who can name it, it’s still around and very small; only 1 “server”).

I noticed a lot of drops for crafting while leveling up various characters.  So many choices in what to chose for crafting.  I was pondering what to do with them all.  I could use some.  Others I could vendor but I just felt so guilty.  Someone could use them (I hadn’t realized yet just how often and easily they dropped).  I could try to auction them but they are such a low level I’m sure any one who needs them has them.

I like trying out different crafting.  Sure, all crafting is a grind but mechanics in how it’s implemented can be interesting.  I wanted to try out all the crafting in LotR-Online.  But how?  Well, I guess I’ll just have to make enough characters to be able to craft anything.

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t want every single one to be Grand Master Crafter (or whatever).  I just would like to try them all out.  I also saw a post somewhere that with seven slots you could just get enough vocations to be able to craft everything.  It was time for me to do some research.

I got it figured out and started planing my races, classes and professions.  Here they are:

Dwarf Guardian Armourer
Elf Rune-Keeper Historian
Human Champion Armsmen
Hobbit Bugler Yeoman
Hobbit Minstrel Tinker(er)
Elf Hunter Woodsman
Elf Warden Explorer

Is creating this mini army of characters as simple as just loging in and playing?  What about the Undying title?

When I started I just wanted to play a good old damage dealing class.  So, I chose a Man champion.  It didn’t take long to discover the map and get the “Wary” title.  I enjoyed him.  However, I’m a man in real life so what fun is that?  I like Elves so I decided to create an Elf champion.  I was a little worried about that lack of strength Elves typically bring but I went ahead anyway.

The next time I logged in there was a notice that new players should play on Vilya.  I had started on Brandywine.  Want to be a good Middle Earth Citizen and since I had only gotten my champions up to around lvl 12 I decided to go ahead and restart on Vilya.

At this point I decided to start trying out different classes.  I liked Elves so I tried out a Elf Hunter.  I really liked this class and how it played.  At this point I decided that this would be my “main” class (yes, I’m an altaholic).  I also tried a Dwarf Guardian.  It played as I expected and had some good durability.  I tried a Rune-Keeper and was suprised at it’s durability.  But neither of these would be my main.

I rolled up a Hobbit Burgler.  I have to, right?  I mean…..Middle Earth is famous for Bilbo!  Gag;  I find sneaky classes very much against my playstyle and this was no different.  However, Burglers aren’t nearly as against my playstyle as pet classes.  At one point I tried a Captain.  They seem to be such a unique class and so . . . I don’t know. . . epic.  Well, it went as I expected.  I stunk at it as with most pet classes.  I have trouble keeping track of myself during a fight much less two “of me”.

I started to read around the net and noticed that Wardens were a relatively new class (a long with Rune-Keepers).  I also had noticed some of them running around like porcupines.  I rolled up an Elf Warden (remember, Elves are my favorite) and wow . . . just wow. . .  I liked this class even more than Hunter.  I had the durability of a Guardian (almost), the range of a Hunter and got to use cool shields.  I really like the mechanics the designers implemented with spears.  They chose fun over realism and it worked for me.  I also really enjoyed the skill combinations creating different results. This was my new main class.  I just enjoyed it too much.

A moment to talk about LotR-Online’s “healing” class; the Minstrel.  I have played A LOT of MMOs.  The first time I played a healing class was in DaoC.  I was surpised at how fun it was.  In the game I played previous to LotRO I played a very high level, raiding “healer”.  I got to the point of hating it.  Serious case of whack-a-mole-itis.  After trying most of the classes I only had Minstrel and two pet classes left.  I decided to give Minstrel a try.

Wow.  This is the most unique way to present healing I have ever seen.  At first I didn’t think it fit very well with the whole “fantasy” genre.  However, after thinking about what I have read in the books and the attitude of music in them it started to grow on me.  One thing was for sure:  it was very fun playing a healing class this way.  Minstrel is probably the most unique class ever created in any MMO.  I could also see how it might appeal to female players or even people who want to play a somewhat non-violent role in the game.  Many kudos for the mechanics created with this class.

But what about all these extra crafting drops I keep getting?

After noticing the map, I noticed the title that I got at level 5.  I found this pretty neat.  After looking into titles I liked them even more.  They define the history of your character.  In some games you play, get to a level but how you got there doesn’t matter.  Titles show a history of how you got to where you are.  They create a greater depth of your character.  Sure, it can be a little artificial if you go back at a higher level to get titles for their traits but it still provides richer meaning to your character.

That brings me to traits.  I didn’t understand them for a while but after playing a few characters it occured to me how traits customize your character’s abilities.  I think this also helps further define your character in a unique way that I haven’t seen in other games.  Especially since they are tied to what you have done in the game.

Although I haven’t leveled a character past 20, so far I find combination of titles and traits very compeling for making characters at least somewhat unique in the game.

I just have to figure out what main class I want to play.

Since my household have all now made it to level 20, it is time for me to start crafting.  I have plenty of materials and I will be the first  of the household to start since I will provide materials for others.  I wonder how long it will take to go through all these mats.

Today I finally completed my initial goal of 7 Characters, 7 Classes and 7 Vocations; all undying with Loytra.