LOTRO: Newer Brighter Sharper?

I decided on a whim to log into Lord of the Rings online yesterday. Wow, right off they wanted to install 6 gb of High Definition Files. Yo, you bet. That game is so fuzzy. Then, it wanted Direct X 11, np.

So I log in and…

Well, maybe it’s sharper?

Ok the harder I squint at it, the sharper it gets.

I want to play LOTRO. The problem is, I don’t know the game anymore. The usual solution to this is to just run a lower level character so you re-familiarize yourself with the world, the interface and how the game plays.

However, I really want my main character, who I’ve played since beta, dang it, to get to maximum level. I want to play that character, I just do. In order to do that, I need to:

Fix my re-set Legendaries

Choose a specialization (I’m going to read Myndariel’s Middle Earth guide for that one)

Clear my inventory, good god.

Re-learn my skills. Develop a rotation.

Look up my Trade skills and where I should be with those.

Figure out how to use the in game maps to find where to go for my quests. I know they’re intentionally vague so as not to spoon feed anyone, I remember the arguments. Still, it could be a bit more helpful.

I thought I’d never get out of Lothlorian, and now my character is mired in Mirkwood. What a dark, dank place. I wonder if there’s an alternative path through the world I could be following to level past the nasty place. Level my way to the next area where the sun hopefully shines.

Another bone to pick, why have they never made it so you can switch servers without logging all the way out? Grrr.

Last thing, they could do away with the -1 after my formerly Meneldor character names. I cringe every time I see it. Couldn’t they have just displayed Blah Blah of Meneldor instead? So there’s Blah Blah of Meneldor, and Blah Blah of Landroval. Clearly not the same character, but nobody is minus anything.

You’re right, I run a lower level character for awhile. La la la, here I come, Middle Earth.

Lord of the Rings Online: Escape From Lothlorien

I purchased the Mirkwood expansion when it came out, played very little (as it turns out my character simply wasn’t high enough level for the area and things didn’t go well for her).

I was never a fan of Lothlorien, and didn’t wish to continue playing there, nor did I want to drop my main character and level through older areas, only to get here again in the future.

So I stopped playing for a few years.

Here I am, frustrated with Lothlorien still, so I thought to look at the level for Mirkwood. 61-65! Yay! I’m level 62.

Abandon ship, I said, find the way to Mirkwood and la la la.

On the area map, it isn’t so far away. I just need to cross the Anduin River and I’m off on new adventures. Note my happy arrow. Good ol’ Paint.

Ride, ride ride all the way across Lothlorien to the shores of the river. Hmm, I can see they won’t let me get up on the other side from here.

Ride ride ride the shoreline. This looks good, clearly I can swim over and climb up easily right from here.

Swim a few feet. Dead. Inexplicably dead. Retreat puts me back in the middle of Lothlorien. If you’re going to cause me to die bogusly, at least stick me back on the shoreline where I apparently went so foul of the river’s swimming rules.

Many many bad words spoken.

I then looked up “How to get to Mirkwood for Lothlorien”. How nice, I can get a quest from Haldir (which I likely unknowing got in 2009 but hmmpf), or I can ask the Elf at the Docks for a ride over.

Nice. The boat awaits!

I actually wasn’t sure if I’d been to Mirkwood already, but I certainly had. I had a FAILED quest in my log. Welcome back, puny dog. Been Here, Failed That.

Oh, man, we’re bunnoles deep in ORC territory. How I’ve missed them! Hubba hubba, ORCS, I say.

Damn. I was sooo eager to reach the Orc fortress, I didn’t see a Goblin in the murk. He popped me off my horse, then completely grayed out all my skills so I had a tough time beating him, but I did get him, he’s a dead little goblin.