Maybe I will not write as much as I did for LotroNotes.com but I may write some things from time to time… so to start 2010 here we go with skirmishes in a more “bloggy” style.

So far, I like Skirmishes, a lot. It was easier to level Romiriel (Minstrel alt). Combined with quests and the Epics, the skirmishes allowed me to jump 3 levels in a couple of days (yeah, vacation days are a factor to consider also).

Besides leveling my Minstrel I got the Rune of Winged Dominance which I needed to finish the second minstrel class quest in order to get Fellowship’s Heart.

Side Note: I still want to do Carn Dum for the deeds / traits so to me that’s not an issue. I still see some LFF for that. It’s ok and I will still do those instances. Besides, instances and quests are still a must in order to get traits, deeds, titles and travel routes in most cases.

And… crafting. A must now for the volumes we need for relics.

Those are three key points why i like skirmishes. But wait… there is more… I tend to level my only alt from time to time… and I tend to forget about skills during this process so I needed some time to get used to it again. Skirmishes helped in this matter allowing me to put some thought on what to use and when during these small battles.

About group skirmishes… I would like to try them more. Just a small advice about it: last time I tried a small fellowship skirmish (three characters) we tried a tier 2 skirmish. Was hard and we died a lot… so we finally got it and got the marks but it was not a deal since I got a 600 silver repair bill and a 20% penalty… so if you want to try it the hard way just be careful with the mix of classes and do something that can be run without defeats, otherwise it would be a waste of time… and silver.

What else… encounters: tricky, sometimes. I try to get them all since there are some deeds to complete them. check the deeds panel. Good example of how to use your skills. With hunter / minstrel you can practice some Fear Skills to get the encounter boss first and delay the next wave while you burn things down.

Choosing your Soldier: for my hunter I’m using a Warrior… but I am thinking about a protector (tank) or herbalist (healer). So far Warrior is fine to burn things faster. Didn’t test it so much. In my Minstrel I can recommend 100% the protector, good mix, she tanks, I spank gets better with higher skill levels, helps to avoid interrupts.

Beside the names (herbalist, protector, warrior) think of them as healer, tank, champion, etc and imagine which class would be the best duo for your class, there is no perfect mix but I’m sure you can find two perfect mixes for each class. Each skirmish may have its own combination also but I don’t like to dig that deep.

So that’s it. Hope this entry helps.

Just a Question: what are those two defilers doing in the Bruinen skirmish? or just there to test if we target them by mistake?

Ramiros is my main (Hunter, 60) and Romiriel (Minstrel, 51) is my alt. The problem after playing a hunter is how to get to other places fast. I got used to the Taxi service so, when playing my Minstrel I pay a lot of attention to maps and where to go from and to thinking about connections, horse routes.

The funny thing is that Romiriel is getting pretty used… maybe I must say addicted… to travel to the kinship house to leave some stuff and then save a trip by drinking from the League Keg. Sometimes she goes near the planned destination… sometimes (nearly all the times), not.

So far the most funny / frustrating attempt ended up on a piece of ice in Forochel. I thought she was not going to make it to the shore

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Last time, planning on returning to Forochel using this particulary alternative system, she ended up in the Bree Jail… guess that was coming sooner or later.

This is more like a personal note. After a while, yesterday a played again on my Minstrel, joined a fellowship and completed 1.5.8 (Fire & Ice). One of the good things about playing between a Minstrel and a Hunter is the perspective.

One thing I’ve noticed is that people relies in other classes (not only minstrels) to remove poison, wounds, etc. Yeah, the skill is there but in most cases there is a cooldown so you are by yourself in the matters of auto-healing this types of damage. Bottom line: we all need to carry pots.

I’m not 100% focus on this, I must confess, but fortunately for me there are some great fellowship leaders and team mates in my Kinship that are always reminding about this.

Anyway… pots are a must, even if you can survive you are adding the Minstrel a lot of job by keeping an eye on your always-going-down green bar. Having someone to heal / remove effects doesn’t mean he / she needs to be doing that all the time. Keep yourself alive.

Going back to my issue of returning to this game after five months… I must say I’m not a person that pays attention to detailed, technical stuff, I just enjoy the game and try to play it the best I can, I’m always listening, I know I’m not the best hunter / minstrel around. But I do spent (and still do) time doing some research and trying to combine things the best way for my own game play pleasure.

However I’ve noticed (since this is my first MMORPG) that it is easy to remember and learn all the skills, combinations, etc, etc when you play continuously… yeah, that’s obvious you may say. Some people says it is like riding a bike… I disagree. The last time work, family and other stuff took me away (poor me hehe) from the game was only a month… now after five months I feel like I forgot a lot of important stuff so this situation requires me to re-learn and re-read a lot of information.

Just a quick note about how sucked in we are about games like this… casual or not we all want to improve, be useful and even get some credit for it. Just pointing out that this is a game but it requires a lot of attention (and time of course) some people seems to manage this easily, some others (like me) don’t.

Anyway, it is not a big issue, I will check in the following days (or weeks) how to develop my abilities again

I am (slowly) returning to the game since February. I like this game a lot and enjoy the late night runs with my kin. One of my concerns is that I can’t remember a lot of tricks about playing a hunter. My last hiatus longed just one month, maybe a little less. This time I need to polish my skills after a 5 month absence.

So… one of the things I did was checking the Hunters sections of the forums and I was surprised to see (again) a lot of “Why hunters are so hated” threads. Funny, I missed a book, five months, lots of changes in the last patches and still the same mood about hunters… maybe more.

So here is why I think this is still happening:

• Hunters are, and maybe it was designed that way, the most straightforward class in the game. Don’t get me wrong this doesn’t mean it is a “plain to play” class. It is just the fact that you can start to play a hunter and learn right away how to kill stuff and evolve your character, step by step. Even if this is your first MMO (like in my case).
  This translated into a large amount of new players using the class so let’s say it is like Windows, majority of people uses the system so it has the larger amount of attacks from hackers… second thought: yeah, I’ve picked a bad example (I love Linux)… anyway… this means numbers, lots of people, both good and bad players.
• DPS draws a lot of agro so this class became like the official nightmare of Guardians and Minstrels … yeah, all other classes two but lets see:
  Guardians: they are supposed to keep aggro so, you see the point… and let’s not forget that this generates an ego issue too, lol. No offense. Hunters feel this too when a LM pet’s crits higher than us :D.
  Minstrels: the story about “I’m tired of saving the hunter’s ass. He/she is pulling everything “. I understand.
  Lore-Masters: yeah, let’s not forget about this: the CC master is pissed when the hunter releases one (or all) of the mobs. 100% understandable.
• A lot of people complain that hunters are useless and totally replaceable by other classes.

Well, that’s basically the bad part… the good part now… and some explanations:

• I’m one of those hunters that prefer to be balanced, I normally do not slot stuff for DPS, I prfer a good balance of evade / parry and DPS. Even in this case I can draw some attention from mobs and I understand that guardians must get the attentions first. I have assumed the “stand a and help the group to burn down these mobs” attitude.
  However, since Moria I’ve seen a lot of “We need hunters for the Watcher” announcements and a lot of guides recommended (and still do) to have at least two hunters with full DPS capabilities. Also, when groups are unbalanced or based on other abilities (healing, CC, etc) hunters are required to burn down mobs… so the point about being useless is… useless. All classes are replaceable the game was designed that way. I saw a lot of threads (especially about killing the Balrog last year) showing how fellowships and raids did great jobs without hunters… and other classes as well.
• I supposed that after all these changes our bad reputation would end but even when it seems that less people is rolling hunters (less reasons to roll one since there are two new classes since Moria) still we are getting the bad reputation, maybe it is a matter of time.
• About Aggro… I don’t know, I have a lot of respect about other classes since I play them also and I know a lot of great players that have a great understanding of technical stuff that… specifically taking about guardians here… a good guardian can get aggro even if the hunter(s) are really bad. And I have seen it, one of my kinmates can deliver insane DPS and even in a bad situation a little talk and organization is enough to get things straight up. Maybe a lot of this hunter’s hatred is related to bad PUG’s also.
• About communication: same issue, blame the hunter, but a lot of people can remember bad experiences with Minstrels (damn, I can even remember a Minstrel in Nimrodel that only needed a “This fellowship is about to die” badge).

I mean, the worst thing we can do is to release mobs that are under the skills of the CC classes… besides that taking aggro is an easy to fix situation (even if the hunter must die). To me it is worst when the minstrel heals the wrong class or if the guardian can’t keep aggro (excepting hunters, of course) or if the entire team fails in communication. Burglars trying to do stealthy stuff and drawing three mobs, people pulling (all classes can do this, right?) so I don’t understand why failure is seen in hunters more than in other classes… maybe it is the amount of hunters out there… I don’t know…

(Why did I choose this topic to start blogging here… that’s a good question)

Turbine has opened http://my.lotro.com where you can customize your profile, find important information about your character including times when ou reached levels in both PvE and PvMP and more.

You can even start your owb Blog & Check the new and awaited Leaderboards!!!

We have added the Rune-Keeper and Warden to the Class list and we are starting to display some tips for Moria. We will have more tips soon also as the days go by. You can register and submit your own notes or you can contact us and send your tips by mail.

Enjoy!

Follow these simple isntructions and get it from GamesRadar.com. The Cloak of the Dark Halls looks pretty cool. (Only available for US Servers).

Release notes for the Mines of Moria expansion are up. You can even download the PDF online manual and check the Lore-Book for more Mines of Moria news and changes.

You can now download the 2.7 GB patch for Lord of the Rings Online: The Mines of Moria. Players who don’t plan on buying the expansion will need the patch anyway. This will include new changes and Book 15.