Why should I leave Vanguard for LOTRO?Follow

I guess it would help to know why you are considering leaving Vanguard? What do you like/dislike about it? What are you looking for in a MMORPG?

LotrO is more similar to WoW than any other MMORPG in the market. At least thats what I would assume, I've only played WoW, LotrO and FFXI.

I would love to be swept up in a story while playing. Does the game overdue trying to get you involved in the Ring Bearer/Fellowship of the ring scenario or does it let you just interact with Middle Earth?

The thing that "sold" me on Vanguard was that it gave me that same feeling I had on the first day of EQ. No other game has ever done that for me. The problem was that that feeling after a short while felt like I had played for seven plus years and was getting bored already. The very thing that attracted me is driving me away. I'm starting to think that LOTRO may be the game with the different experience I need.

If you are looking for the experience to mirror that of EQ (or Vanguard), keep looking!

LOTRO is an entirely different game designed for a different kind of player.

In LOTRO, you will not find a demanding and unforgiving death penalty. In fact, you will find almost no penalty at all for dying. A short run back from your re-spawn point and a slightly increased repair cost and that's all. There is no corpse run and there is no loss of XP.

You will not find a massive world with zones that can take hours to cross. Although the world is big and the terrain is varied, you will never feel like you are traveling a great and perilous distance to get from say the Southern gates of Bree to the foot of Weathertop. (That trip will take you about 15 minutes on foot or under 5 minutes on horseback!)

You will not find a "mob-grind-based" system that requires you to kill endless numbers of snakes before you graduate to killing countless beetles which will lead you to killing scads of whatever... You will instead find a system which encourages you to quest for the bulk of your XP and kill only what you must to get by. (You will most likely get tired of killing pig, bear and bird... but then we all have!)

You will not find a system which requires you to find a high end "power guild" in order to have a shot at getting armor and weapon drops that are worth wearing. In addition, you will not find a game in which you replace a set of armor at the beginning of a tier and coast till you reach the next tier. What you will find is a system wherein you will see new and interesting drops often and your toon can and will change out individual items of gear as often as you like.

You will not find a system in which crafting is something that must be planned for and done instead of adventuring. You will instead find a system designed to let you craft for a few minutes here or there, whenever you choose, and still make forward motion.

In short, (ok it's way to late for a short answer!), LOTRO is designed to immerse a casual player in Middle Earth and it does so very well. I've been playing since last November and I'm not burned out yet!

If it sounds like that might be something you might enjoy then give it a whirl.

Turbine is/has taken a very active stance against Gold sellers/Buyers. Yeah I said buyers also, few weeks ago they announced they had banned a handful of people caught buying. So far other than greedy people, economy seems ok to me... but I'm use to FFXI in its hayday of gil buying/selling prices....

You shouldn't.

The download "buddy key" version has gimped low-res graphics. Just FYI.

That said, if the concept Vanguard seems as if it should be the experience you're craving, you probably won't find LoTRO to be an adequate substitute. They're two games on completely separate tracks.

I played LoTRO during open beta. I worked a Minstrel to level 7 and another hobbit guy to 11 (I dont even recall what class he was, a tank type of some sort).

I had fun, and was spurred on by finishing that next quest.

BT's got it though, I've never felt so 'there' as I do when I play Vanguard. I top a new hill and get apprehenive about what I might find on the other side....and I still find stuff!!

Also I am completely enamoured with my Gnome. She's freakin' adorable, loaded with Gnomish personality and nukes like there is NO tomorrow.

I agree the games are very different. Vanguard is very much a modernized EQ. LoTRO is more casual friendly perhaps??

I also think I have a hang up with the whole story to game thing with LoTR. The Hobbit was the first novel type book I ever read; followed shortly there after by the trilogy. I lived my fantasy time in Middle Earth, all in my head, for years as a young girl. I'm now thoroughly convinced that I'm not going to someday mysteriously turn a corner and find myself in Middle Earth with my Little Bear bow at my side....and this game isn't going to change that.

There's no better experience than trying it out.

It really is hard to say, even if you prefer your mmorpg's to be more like EQ and Vanguard. Because LotrO is not, it is in many ways a lot like WoW (crafting, buying new skills, death penalty,...).

In a way, I still prefer EQ out of all the mmorpg's I've played. If I had a better computer, I'ld try out Vanguard to be honest.

LotrO is a casual game, with mostly interesting quests that do their job of levelling players and providing them with good armour and weapons. In a way, it's often a bit too fast, levelling up to lvl 20 takes very little time compared to many other games. Not necessarily a bad thing though. You can join in with the main epic story, which is pretty interesting actually (although I haven't done much of that myself), or you can just roam the lands and do the odd quest to keep going.

The game itself isn't really big, but it hasn't bothered me as yet. You come back to the same places often, roam the same zone for quite a bit, but there is plenty of variaty and so far it's enough.

The deeds and achievements are addictive, dangerously so even. Find certain places, kill enough of a certain type of mob, ... and you get a new title or an extra ability or some sort of boost. Very nicely done, even if some of the mobs needed are a bit scarce.

Don't really care much for the death penalty, there basically isn't much of one, unless you die often in a row, that will cost you money, especially later on. (again identical to WoW)

As for the whole Tolkien angle, well, haven't really experienced that all that much as yet. It's fun to talk to Gandalf for instance, or go on a mission with Aragorn, to visit the Shire or stand on Weathertop,... If you follow the epic story line, you encounter such things more. But other than that, it got a lot of added elements as it is a game that has to keep people occupied naturally.

Best advice would be to find a buddy key and try it out. Or if you want to take a little gamble, find the game itself. At least the first 30 days should be free.

Edited to add: I'm only on the Euro server (for some silly reason the new games don't allow global servers anymore, a pity really) but the community is quite good. Yes, there are still pretty infantile players and discussions, but all in all I have little to complain about.



Edited, Jun 18th 2007 11:01pm by Zieveraar

On the lighter side I do have an available Buddy Key if anyone would be interested.

Well, I take rather poor screenshots, and I wouldn't call thes amazing, but here's one of my cleric being studly.

Here's another of me standing next to a high elf girlie. It's nighttime in that second pic so I have my torch lit.

I agree about the uncanny valley thing; the VG models look so life-like that the tiniest details can be more destructive immersion-wise than old EQ graphics were. Mostly it's in the facial expressions, I find.