Potential newb questionsFollow

Whew, so many questions!

As for similarities, well, you've played many MMOs so the mechanics will be very easy for you to pick up. It's not as demanding as EQ or Vanguard, it's more engaging (lore-wise) than WoW or EQ2 (in my opinion). It's a bit more challenging than WoW, but not overly tough. I never played AoC or Darkfall so I can't speak to them. All in all, the game can be played on fairly "easy mode" but the instanced dungeons can be very challenging, so there are options.

I get the impression the game designers really want players to take their time in this game and get into the storyline. You can race through content and hit max level very quickly if you want. The down-side is you'll run out of level appropriate things to do and you'll miss a ton of detail. For me, coming across locations you know from the stories or meeting familiar characters is tons of fun (e.g. you get to play riddle games with Bilbo).

Regarding which classes work well together, that's fairly open. Try different combinations until you find a comfortable one. They made every class capable of soloing through all levels so it's not like you're stuck only with the tank/healer option. My husband and I made a minstrel (healer) and champion (dps/pseudo tank) as our mains, but our alts, a hunter and loremaster seem to have a much easier time as a duo, which suprised us both.

Captains are the 2hander specialists in this game. A guardian can use a 2 hander, but rarely does because of their use of heavy shields. A champion switches between dual wielding and using a 2 hander, depending on what one is fighting. Captains (from what I've observed) seem to use 2 handers exclusively and indeed are the only class that can wield a halberd. Only humans can be Captains, by the way.

I believe you can keep your toons if you switch from the trial to the "real" game. The downside to the trial version is that there are game features that won't be available to you because of your account status. I believe things like trading items to other players, in game mail and the auction house (and speaking in /tells ) are off limits to trial accounts. They're trying to keep the gold seller population down.

I don't know if the expansion will be "all inclusive" or if you have to buy the original version too. I bet someone else can answer that.

Edited, Sep 18th 2008 5:00pm by Yanari

I'd call this game very similar to EQ, Vg, and EQII. Just another flavor of the same basic epic fantasy based MMPORPG. Personally I'd say that compared to EQ and Vg (never played EQII) it's much easier to level and develope a character. However, there is some strategically difficult end-game content. There is lots of diversionary stuff - titles, music creation, chicken play, emote traits, and of course professions/crafting (though I've not found anything I liked as much as Vg's diplomacy game)

You'll find the classes and races lacking compared to the other games mentioned (4 races, 7 classes), but there are two more classes coming with the new expansion in November. There are no 'evil' classes in the PvE game.

Someone mentioned most any two toons in this game will make for an additive relationship, probably because all classes are given some abilities to allow them to solo efficiently.

I only have really raised a Minstrel, but have duoed her with most classses. The most duoing fun I've had with my Minstrel is with another Minstrel:D

Like most games the healer is probably most sought after. Because there are only seven classes, though, there are plenty of each around. Very few kins would make class a criteria for membership.

The game is not nearly as 'open' as Vanguard. I loved in Vanguard that if you could see it you could go there. Middle-earth is more constrained. You're often confined by the scenery. It's not zoned, but much of the content is done with instances - WoW style I think(??).

Anyone will tell you their server is 'the best', but really people are people and you get about the same mix everywhere. I think the general poplulation average age is slightly older than WoW's and therefore less immature. Different activities will make for different types of in-game chat (for example PvMP chat is notoriously vindictive and childish).

There are plenty of kins, though, that really stress maturity. You can easily surround yourself (virtually) with polite, mature chat.

Jump in and give it a try:)




Edited, Sep 19th 2008 7:30pm by Elinda

Welcome to Middle Earth!

Just picking off a few small points here...

The first expansion (Mines of Moria) will indeed include the basic game unless you buy the download version (which is new content only)

When the expansion goes live there will be 2 new classes for you to choose from. One of these, "Rune Keeper" is a hybrid healer/nuker and may be a good choice for your duo.

I see the game as far more open than EQ or EQ2 in that you can move from zone to zone without any perceptible change except for the messages in your chat box regarding the channels you are leaving/entering. The only time you see a traditional transition between one zone and another is when going from zone to instance or from instance to zone. (Instances in LotRO include dungeons and also most building interiors.)

And finally, although the opening stage of the game is different for each race, (unique starting zones and quest lines for humans, dwarves, hobbits and elves) you and your wife can choose different races and still play even the earliest stages of the game together. For 1S, you can take a rental horse from any of the starting areas to any other starting area.

LotRO is extremely casual!

Yes there are player owned mounts. You can do the quest line to qualify and then buy one at lvl 35. Humans & elves get to ride horses and hobbits & dwarves get to ride ponies.

I find the game to be unbelievably beautiful but then it's in the eye of the beholder... You will need a high end computer to really get everything out of the graphics here but it is well worth it.

I've seen some people complain about the character models and some of the animations but again, it's a subjective call and personally I don't have any issues with the way things look or work.

The game is not terribly gear-centric. There is plenty of cool stuff in drops and player crafted gear is pretty good. There are so many good quest rewards that you are unlikely to need to purchase much of anything until the highest levels of the game (say 40+).

All in all, I'd say you will find the community both here and in game to be adult in nature and very helpful...

The emotes sound funny. I'll have to have my wife /spank......... erm /scold me so I can be naughty lol! I have 1 high end machine and one above average. I can run both on full tilt on VG, but the lower end one does better on high settings. Yeah they have flying mounts, but they are hard to get. There is a group and raid version of the griffon, a raid only (pretty stinkin' rare still) version of the wyvern, and a faction version (slowest flying mount) of the Pegasus. Most people don't have the flying mounts unless they're pretty hard core. They aren't super useful due to the rentable mounts though. The game still seems fairly buggy, and the Dev team is so small, etc. It still in the "could be a great game" stage, but it's just not really working out for us. I want a game that is more active, and we were planning on going back to EQ2, but LOTRO sparked my interest as we don't seem to be able to play enough to really do the hard grind on an MMO these days. Our toons are levle 71 and 68 in EQ2, but it doesn't feel "fresh" to play them, and we're still well behind our level 80 guildies in so far as gear/content/etc. goes.