I have never really been a big fan of PvP in online games. I do play a lot of what you would consider PvP for the console, but just never connected to the MMO player versus player gameplay. I met a few friends that seemed to be into a little more so I joined them from time to time after my mover to Elendilmir (Landroval PvMP is not that great.) I kinda got the feel for it and I think I enjoy it a little more now. My only real PvP experiences other than LOTRO were on Ragnarok Online. I played a private server that was all PvP in all zones except towns. I didn’t enjoy it that much because RO is made fore PVE mostly, and the fighting system isn’t so great for PvP. The other problem was PvP came down to who had the better gear and cards rather than player skill, oh and not to mention asura monks that just spammed asura strike.

Anyways I picked back up on the PvMP in LOTRO and since my guild mates are a little higher level now we can run around out there. I also never really touched the Monster Player side of the game because I just never felt like playing one. I always had one and would spend some DP on them but it was pretty much wasted because I would just delete the character due to boredom with it or it being an eyesore. Recently though I made a Warg Stalker for the Elendilmir creeps and I must say it has been quite enjoyable. A lot of the creep community is very cool and has a lot of experienced players along with very promising players.

Vvardenfell

My warg Vvardenfell (yes the main island in Morrowind) is pretty fun to play. It was difficult at first without the improved stealth trait since moving around in stealth was very very slow. As of now I am 19.2% complete with him. A lot of creeps are good about putting together quest groups to run around and do most of the 2k DP quests, so getting DP for skills and improvements hasn’t been too terribly hard, but I still need lots and lots more to get the stuff I want now. I also am going with as much DMG as possible for the warg. I picked up Dmg for Power, Dmg for Health, and Health for Power Corruptions. Power never seems to be a real problem when actually fighting freeps so its not that important. It really only comes into play for long fights against the PvE content. My only problem with PvMP so far is that just like on the normal characters skills toggle before they go off and I just absolutely hate that. When I press POUNCE! I wanna freaking pounce not wait 2 seconds after I press it and then pounce.

Vvardenfell

Please read the full post before commenting, and please understand that I do like the game and I’m still happily playing it.

I have seen some blogs, read some reports, and looked at some graphs. It seems that LOTRO is  having a small flux in players and some people claim it to be a downfall in the works for the online game. This may be true or it may be false, I for one hope for the latter.

I have a feeling though that LOTRO wont be going anywhere. As we have seen in the past if an MMO such as this obtains a decently sized player base that supports it then it has a very good chance of sticking around. There are a lot of MMO’s out there that have failed and that is because they never gained a player base. Whether people are leaving or not I look at it as a fortunate situation because I would rather have a small good then a big bad. Maybe this will eliminate the player we don’t want around and the gold spammers that seem to have left(At least on my server).

As for the cause of the downfall, I feel some of the Devs are to blame for that. It is obvious that a number of them do not play their own game and if they do it is not often. Their tabs on the problems in game is from players submitting bug reports and the such. I can see them getting on with the QA to fix the problem, but to be a great game designer you have to play your game and put yourself in the players shoes. The game needs to be what the players will find fun. I’m not saying that the game isn’t fun, but there have been some mistakes in Moria, mainly mainstreaming one type of end-game gear and adding in legendary weapons. While getting on and playing through say an instance to make sure all the bugs are out, does not justify making sure the game is what it’s supposed to be. I’m not saying testing for bugs isn’t important but thats not the only thing needed.

At least to me I feel like my profession(woodsman) is now obsolete. Yes I can make weapons for people lower than 45, but there really is not reason since mine don’t actually do the same as a legendary or a weapon smiths weapons. The end-game armor is pretty nifty, but there is only one set which in my tastes might not be what I want. I think  there should be much more flexibility instead of one single path. Of course I don’t have to wear radiance gear, but then I cannot “Raid” because I am required the gear to do so. See where I’m going with this?

I enjoy the game still, I really wish the outfits would be updating I’m not too impressed on that end and I want some killer looking cloths!

No I still do not have one, and I am sure the problem will be that the first few I get will not be what I want. It saddens me that getting the first age coins while not too hard to get are split between about 12 people so that can take some time. Even still when you get your item it will probably not have the legacies you want on it. I feel the devs placed random legacies that are really of no use on these items just to screw with us lol.

It has been an interesting two weeks! Our kinship is finally being active and we are enjoying lots of gameplay. I finally started getting into more instance runs so I can get my Radiance Gear. So far I have collected a the boots and pants, and have run about 15 forges and still havn’t gotten that damn coin! Either way the experience of the run is good enough for me because I now know how to lead my kinmates through the instances.

I also picked up a few 2nd age items lately and that is awesome, but I still can’t figure out if I want a 2nd age bow or crossbow. I know there is the difference between them being the speed swift bow is let off, but I don’t actually feel that big a change in performance. Bows still feel better to me so I am a little muddled on which to chose. Either way I just hope they have good legacies!

Kanashi

So it seems it has come time for me to transfer worlds. My Kinship and I are unhappy with the lack of people wanting to quest/raid/chat/PvMP on Landroval. We enjoy RP, but that’s pretty much what everyone does 24/7 on the server, and I am not saying that is a bad thing we just wish to experience more  video game like conversations and gameplay than role playing our way through the game.

Bye Bye Landroval, it was fun.

Kanashi

So far I enjoy the MyLotro Beta and it seems like it has a lot of room for great potential. This could help the social groups link together and communicate on a larger scale. Hopefully the beta turns into something great that all us Lotro players can enjoy and use.

Kanashi