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Thursday 16 August 2012

LOTRO: On the menu

Random picture of today (above, working on 5.): who needs a flashlight if you got a lore-master?

There's a few people online in my kinship, but there's not that much happening in LotRO during the day: it's the traditional quiet before the launch of a new expansion. Understandable, since gear you win is going to be outdated within 20 days, and that's not very motivating. Still, there is enough to gain that will keep it's value. What will I be doing before Riders of Rohan unleashes? 

1. A virtue-a-day
Virtues now go up to 14, and while my lore-master has been taken care of, my captain and rune-keeper are hopping behind, having their virtues in between 10-14. It's not too bad, but grinding virtues is just so damn boring. I know I won't have the patience for it once Riders of Rohan is there, so I can better do it before. If I complete one deed a day, it should be doable. I already started well today on my captain by getting lost in the Fanged Pit to complete the Eastern Durin's Way exploration deed.

2. Skirmisher deed
Skirmish marks are useful and I'm sure they'll come in handy when we need new empowerment scrolls with the Riders of Rohan. Besides, since there was a deed introduced for killing all encounters in all skirmishes, I've been wanting to get it done on my lore-master. I've done so many skirmishes with her during the Rise of Isengard time back when there was no end-game yet, that it shouldn't be too much work. I should look up which encounters I still need, make a list, and get this going.

3. Role-play a hamster
There's a dutch verb, 'hamsteren', and it means gathering supplies in advance (because you think the world's going to end and the grocery shops will be empty, for instance). Guess that tells something about us dutch people. In this case, I think hamsteren would be appropriate: the needs of a leveling character are high and I want to spend all my available time on enjoying the new content. So I'll be stacking iXP runes in my vault and will try to get at least one empty bag on each character - a new expansion also means new junk. I'm already busy with crafting guild symbols in expectation of a new crafting tier: a kinnie did that a year ago with the Rise of Isengard expansion, got kindred with Westfold right away and could craft us new guild recipes the first day. I thought this was smart, as you need crafted stuff especially while leveling - in end-game, you'll mostly be looking for drops anyway.

4. Craft away
It would be good to at least get that westfold farmer's tier over with, the last incomplete crafting tier of my three raiding characters. And that's even on my main character, Ravanel the lore-master! Crafting a stack of barley each week should do the trick and will even help my supplies for 5., because last but not least...


5. Take down Saruman
...we need to take down Saruman! We have cleared everything on T2 now apart from Saruman, and although the fight is very though, I do think it is possible. I believe the Tower of Orthanc raid is/was a bit too hard, as I don't believe many kinships worldwide have completed all the challenges. Fire & Ice challenge, for instance, is still believed to be impossible without two burgs even after the nerfs to the fight. Given the difficulty of this raid, I'll settle for clearing everything on T2, but no less!

With these five points taken care of, I should be totally ready for the Riders of Rohan expansion. What do you want to achieve before the 5th of September?

9 comments :

  1. I'm right there with you on #3 and especially trying to do #5. We got in there this past weekend and owned phases 1-4, but phase 5 is a tough one.

    One thing I'm halfway afraid will increase in price is the Reputation boost from the Curiosities vendor. I want to stockpile those just in case.

    Have you done any daily quests with the intention of turning them in for a boost of XP on launch day?

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    1. On Saruman, it occurs to me that phase 1-4 is like 'trash' and phase 5 is the real thing. I wish you luck on the last phase as well. :D

      I'm not using reputation boosts and that sort of stuff myself. In my experience, I'll want to do all quests there are on the first character I level (which will almost certainly be my lore-master), which usually results in (almost) getting maxed out with any new reputation anyway.

      I'm also not aiming for getting level 85 as fast as possible. I'll be taking my time, suck in the new environment, have fun with everything that's new. I really don't care if others are level 85 earlier than I, I'm not the fast leveler type. I'll only speed things up on my second and third character (still not certain what I'll want to level secondly: rune-keeper or captain).

      I guess that means you're the 'opposite' type, in that you want to level as fast as possible? :)

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    2. It just occurred to me that while you may say Hamster, in America we "squirrel" things away for later.

      Me, I don't like to do the same quests too often. I figure if I level fast through one area, and then go through on my next toon and try to do the quests I skipped, then I've seen everything.

      Plus it is kind of a race for some of my kinmates, and that's fun in itself.

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    3. Thanks, it's always good to learn some new expressions (seriously). :)

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  2. A lot of that is similar to what I am doing as well!

    Working deed completion, everything I can get my hands on from Solo through Raid. Reason being, it will likely be many months before I can drag a Raid to Dar Narbugud to slay more trolls (for deed) when Rohan is fresh and shiny.

    As usual, "hamster" stock pile crafted relics. Either I will want to decon them for shards, want a few high end ones to slot in new LIs, or can sell them to fund other ventures.

    Oh, and stock away some Task items to get a leg up on leveling when Rohan is released. Turning in a pile of them in Stangard will be the first thing I do before riding into the expanse.

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    1. Another 'fast leveler'! I get the feeling I'm of a dying race... (far-fetched elf pun intended)
      ;)

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    2. I would never think of myself as a fast leveler. I prefer the opposite, but I am an opportunist. Besides, what else should I do with hundreds of blue Goo, except turn them in for Tasks...
      With the delay of Rohan, I will probably unload some more of them, just to get them out of my vault.

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    3. Hehe, you do have a point! I think I'll keep some apart for either my captain or rune-keeper, so they can skip a bit when I've done all the content on my lore-master already anyway.

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  3. hahaha, "who needs a flashlight if you got a lore-master?" -- that's what I ALWAYS say! :)

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