ZAM's Lord of the Rings ContestFollow

For me LotRO is not about leveling, its not about having the best gear. Its all about exploring Middle Earth. Ever since I saw the Hobbit cartoon as a kid and had The Lord of the Rings read to be as a bedtime story I have always wanted to go to Middle Earth. Back in 2007, Turbine, made my dream come true. I can now run around the Old Forest, take a walk through the Lone-lands, take a camping trip in the Misty Mts. I find myself walking around more than anything, just looking at places. Did Frodo come here? How about this rock, Legoles stand here and look into the distance? How did the fellowship get through the Mines of Moria? The game feels like new to me almost every time I log in.

Now about the game. Hehe.
For me LotRO has it all. Solo time, group time, PvP time. Unlike other MMOs I have played I feel like I am someone when I play LotRO, either as my Rune-keeper that heals poeple when I see them in need, or my Hunter that off leading a group of hobbits to Rivendel. The quality of game play is much higher. The matureity group is also very high in LotRO, in the 2 years of playing have never had anyone freak out on my for helping them randomly, or when talking about loot for an instance run. Everyone just seems so much more laid back and fun to play with.

Started playing LOTRO at launch, in hopes of being pulled away from WoW. I found it to be a great game with fun mechanics, and some innoveative features. Unfortunately, for a world so rich in lore, i was amazed at the relative lack of rp that i was able to find around me. Now that im utterly and completely bored with WoW, I'm looking desperately for a new game. Hopefully this time, LOTRO will suck me in for good!

The lord of the rings online was worth the money I spent on it. I played it close to release and stopped a year after and I am looking to continue. It had the fundementals of a good mmorpg but the extras is what made me like it, for example the deed system and engaging gameplay and story that makes you feel as if you are in tolkiens world. I am looking forward to the new legendary Item system. The bet parts of the game i liked were the instances and player versus monster player. The game did have some downsides, like leveling could get tiresome, but the game had many options to make up for it like pvmp, hobbies, and crafting. The games gameplay may get a little repetitive, for example many quests will ask you to go collect several items or to go slay a certain number of enemies then you return the quest, receive more that are sort of similar, and then repeat. But the game does well with the presentation. This may already have been stated many times but the graphics, music, voice-acting, dialouge, quests, story, art, characters, etc, really made me think that i was paging through tolkiens books. Great game! I would suggest to someone that they atleast try the 10 day trial and see what they think.

I've played MMo's for years now. Starting off with Asheron's call, and eventually going into Dark Age of Camelot. Then playing Asheron's Call 2, Shaiya, and finally LOTRO. I can easily say that this is by far the best MMO I've ever played. The game is fun, the graphics are absolutely amazing. Trust me, this is not WOW. If you expect wow, then your in the wrong game. You don't have to download anything.

It has built in voice chat for fellowships and raids and dungeons, so there's no need to download any additional software. The quest's are interesting, sure, it does have alot of fetch quests, but you still get a great amount of xp and items from doing those, so they are well worth your time.

The character class's are all great. There is not one single character type that is totally worthless in game. The Archer's are amazing, whereas in other games such as DAoC, they were a total waist of time in most groups. Allot of characters have cross class abilities. Take for example my Champion, which is your dual wield berzerker. Once you reach level 20, you gain the ability to use a bow. How is that important, well, basically if your used to playing a tank class in an MMO, your used to the fact that in order to attack anything, you have to actually run up to it. That's all good, until you have to run into a large group just to be able to attack something. Being able to use a bow allows for you to pull the mob to you, without having to run into the middle of the entire group and getting the attention of every monster in range of aggro. As you would expect, the Champion starts out with the ability to use light and medium armor, but eventually gets to use Heavy armor, so he really does become a fun character class. Sure, you might not take as much damage as a "True" tank, since you lack a shield, but if you should chose to use one, you can. Although you lose the use of allot of your skills do to not equipping a second offhand weapon. Switching between weapons is a simple thing. As I mentioned above, your able to actually use a bow at 20, but you don't have to go into any menu to do so. You just click the bow skill, or right click on a mob at range, and you automatically switch to your bow and fire. Once the mob comes into range, and if your not performing your one power shot, you automatically switch back to both of your melee weapons, and then continue to attack.

The Warden class is very similar to the Champion. It's also a Semi Tank, but the Warden is designed for one handed fighting, and the use of a wardens shield. But that doesn't mean that he isn't able to use ranged. Instead of using a bow, the Warden class uses a Javelin. It doesn't have quit as far a range as the bow, but at the same time, the Javelin does a really nice amount of damage. In most cases, with either the Champion or Warden, if your fighting a level appropriate mob, you will have anywhere from one quarter of their health gone, to three quarters by the time the mob actually reaches you. This means that you usually don't have to sit as you would in Wow to regenerate your power. The warden though isn't able to use heavy armor, medium is the highest you will go, but that doesn't mean you can't find armor with high points, because you will definitely find great items both in quests, and in the auction house. The Wardens's specialty though is his Gambit system. At first, the gambit system will seem difficult, but in the end, it's a very easy system to use in combat. What the gambit system does is keeps tracks of what types of skills you've used, and if you do a proper sequence of attacks, you will get to use a powerful "Gambit Attack". These range from stun moves, to super damage dealing attacks.

The true tank in the game is your Guardian. The guardian is a damage soaking machine. He gets the most health in game, and also get's the heavy gear. There really isn't anything bad about the class though, since you can actually still do a weak ranged attack with your throwing axes, so your still able to pull mobs, but the bread and butter for the Guardian is his main weapon and his shield. A guardian is able to do taunts that are extremely important for his role in any group/raid. Without the taunts, your basically just worthless, since most other character class's are able to do much more damage, which will constantly have you chasing after the mob in an attempt to keep him from killing your healer, or nuke class. With the taunt though, your able to keep the monsters attention, and save the lives of your fellow players. You have limited AOE, area of effect, but you can usually fight two, three, four or five different monsters at a time without having to worry about dying. You do eventually get one heal, but it's very weak compared to any other healing types in game, but it will help you stay alive in a tight situation, so it can mean the difference between staying alive, and biting the big one.

Your Hunter class is the main nuker class. You have tremendous power, and are usually able to bring down most mobs in no time. In fact, a majority of the time as a Hunter, your enemies will be dead long before they reach you. In the rare event that they do reach you though, you are able to swiftly switch from your bow to a sword, so you do have limited melee ability. Again, no need to do any manual weapon switching, everything is taken care of as soon as you click on a particular skill. As a ranger, you have the most useful skill in the game, which is to summon your allies. In case you have to get a large group of people to a far away dungeon, as the Ranger, once you get to your desired location, your able to create a campfire. From that campfire, you are able to summon your allies one at a time to your location, so the entire group doesn't have to make the dangerous run to the site. Now, sure, you might be tempted to think, "Why would you want to go alone?", but there are going to be tons of times where you'll be looking for a group outside of a dungeon, and once you find people using the in game chat Channel called LFF, or looking for fellowship, the ability to get them to you without having to wait for them to actually run, or ride their mount to you is a huge time saver.

Now, there are several other character types, all of which are tremendously useful, but I've gone through enough for now, so it's up to you if you'd be interested in playing the game and finding out more. The healer class's, yup, there are more than one type that can heal, are usually just as fun as a regular character. Rune keepers are able to do huge damage, but can also heal allies. Lore Masters are able to heal others, as well as doing light damage, but are also aided by pets, such as a raven, bear, and more. Minstrels play songs which raise your party's moral, which heals your character. They are also able to fight, although not doing a tremendous amount of damage. Burglers are your debuff class, capable of stuns and other useful spells to disorient your foes. The captain is a semi tank, that's always aided by a pet of sorts which always carries your banner. Captains are able to raise fallen party members from the dead, and have party buffs.

In all, the game is very fun to play, and not one single character type is worthless. All work well in group, and the ability of most class's to do cross style attacks is the best part of the game. Being able to go from ranged to melee, or from damage to healing is interesting, and extremely vital for successful game-play.

Of course, if your just after eye candy, look no further. Playing the game at 1920x1080 with the settings on Ultra, your going to play an MMO that absolutely destroys everything else currently out there as far as visuals are concerned. Your first trip into any of the forests in game, with the shadows of every tree moving around as the wind blows through the branches will blow your mind. The fog is amazing, but what truly has to be seen to be believed is the look of the area in the Lone Lands where you fight the first type of Trolls. The mix of shade, plus the water effects are just breathtaking. And don't forget the excitement that comes when the troll actual swats you back a good twenty or thirty feet. This game has to be played, and I'm not talking about a ten day trial, You would have to spend at least one good month playing to be able to really appreciate what your getting. The area that you play at the very beginning isn't able to convey the vast amount of detail spent in creating this alternate universe. Some of the most beautiful settings aren't open to lower level characters, but not due to some strange invisible wall, but because the mobs will tear you apart if you aren't careful. Trust me, give this game one month, and I'll bet you will be hooked.

I love this game i got into this game thru my friend and i bought this game for me and him at full price with the upgrade and lifetime substruction (I cant spell by the way). But anyway and then he helps me and i help him. I have another friend that plays. I enjoy it cause it still brings challenge although of the upgrades which makes it better everytime. The items enhance the quality of playing the game for long periods of time. The diferent species and genders alow you to undstand the quailty of each one does. the craftings lets you know what it takes to last in life time that is not real

I have just recently started to play Lord of the Rings and am enjoying the experience thus far.

Being an ex-WoW player I have found many things I appreciate about the game, but also find many small imperfections.

The user interface, the lack of details in the combat log and skill tool-tips, and-a person pet peeve- only doing voice over for a small amount of content.

There are so many elements that are appreciated in the various major MMOs currently out. There are also untapped niches, I think if someone could take just strike the right balance there would be a smash hit, obviously.

LOTR itself has me caught because of the world design and the "depths" of its dungeons. I hope to continue to enjoy the game and see how it is at the end-game. Currently working on Vol 2. book 1.


Baraloo

I've Played LOTRO when it was just closed beta , enjoyed the game considering im a big lord of the rings fan aswell. Sadly could not stay with the game do to financial reasons . Recently i perchased A new copy of LOTRO came with the mines of mines moria expansion .So Im back into the game :) I must say WOW their has been tons of changes ,but all for the better . I am enjoying all the new stuff added.I am lower level right at the moment mid 20's .so i havn't had the chance to explore the newer higher level content ,but that will come soon enough . I must say im glad to be back in LOTRO .

I've been playing LOTRO since launch. I bought a premium box set then, and a lifetime subscription. A year later, I bought a second lifetime subscription. I've gotten my friends, my girlfriend and random co-workers interested in the game. As a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings, I was already interested in the franchise, and to see the amazing balance between the books and the movies, was just amazing. I'll probably be playing this game the day they shut the servers down, which I hope isn't for a long, long time.

I agree with alexhadriel, no game can compare to LOTRO's graphics or gameplay. LOTRO is one of the best games I have ever seen. On a scale of 1-10 I rate it a 10

LOTRO is only the second MMO that I have played and stayed with. Although I have only played for a little over a year, I like that the game allows you to play the way you want. You can play solo or as a group, you can just go out and kill stuff or you can work on quests and deeds. Or you can enjoy the crafting and selling. I have found too many of the games limit you to only playing solo at low lvls and then you must form groups to play the high end with raids and large group quests. The game allows you to make what you want of the game. I also like that both adults and younger kids can play the game without feeling like they are exposed to language and situations that are inappropreate.

The thing I love most about LOTR is the deeds system. I love not only getting roleplaying and combat goodies(titles & traits)for exploring the world, but getting 'better' at certain abilities the more I use them. now, maybe it's because I've only played one or two MMORPGs other than LOTR, but to me the deeds system is what sets this game apart. Other areas of LOTR I gush about to my gaming buddies is the richness of the world, in terms of its graphics, storyline and overall content. I also love just being able to run about in the world of Lord of the Rings and encounter some of my favorite characters from the books, like Tom Bombadil or Barliman Butterbur.

The only reason I have to not play LOTR more often is that I know if I log on, I need to have several hours to dedicate to playing since I know I won't want to stop!

Do you play? yes.

Have you tried the game? Yes.

What do you like about it?
* Founders: Great Idea! Perhaps we can get something on our Anniversary too.

What don't you like about it?

* Minstrels (Mins): Odd that they can damage foes with music. Strange how fast
the Min can whip out the lute, put it back and wield a dagger in the next move..
And how mobs don't smash the heck out of the instrument in melee.

*More item skins

"Lack of players to do low level stuff" agreed

*Ranged: Why don't arrows and spears stay stuck into the mob? After a few seconds,
they should look like a pin cushion.

Whats the deal with unlimited javelins?