Decided to go with a Male Elf Hunter (Nuker), making him look as gay as possible.2 Somehow resisted the impulse to name him some derivative of Legolas, settling on Aeradan of Lórien. Was underway a few minutes after agonizing over that wonderous name.
Started out in an instance all by myself.3 Equiped my uber-special-free Cloak of the Peace-Keeper and Ring of Agility then pillaged a fallen elf for a dagger and bow. Got led around the area with some enemies to kill until Elrond appeared to one-shot a Snow Troll. We watched the leader of the Dourhands try to get some artifacts but a roof and shit fell on him. Elrond buggered off and some cut-scene with broken audio introduced me to the newbie area: Refuge of Edhelion. Filled with n00bs, naturally.
So I killed some lynx, collected their paws, and handed them over to an elf named Laergil to level. The leveling system isn't bad; it's broken into active and passive skills to acquire with level. I got a new ranged attack then discovered the passive list included my racials. Apparently I have reduced fate (whatever that means) and improved agility because I'm an elf. Further, it turns out the elves feel things more deeply so I have reduced morale and morale regeneration out of combat. (!!!) Hopefully that is countered by the fact that I'm resistant to disease and poison.
So after talking to my trainer Glanwen, Dorongúr Whitethorn gave me some pants and told me to scout Siler Deep and find one of Elrond's sons Elladan. The Grocer Gailthin wanted some scrolls from the ruined library there and Orodlin wanted me to clear out some cave-claws, so it seemed I had little choice.
Elladan was waiting outside all buff after killing some goblins. He said I should go in there an look at their corpses because he was to busy. Sure enough, I found their corpses and incriminating dwarf-made axes. Proof of dwarves and goblins collaborating—for shame! Killed my cave-claws along the way and found the library since there was no other place to go.
Even though it was an instance, I shared it with the other n00bs. Didn't really care for the competition but the spawn rate was high enough to make it only a passing annoyance. Turned in all my quests and got some elite elven leather to better protect my gay elf ass. Then took my incriminating axes further west to Ferin's Court.
There I found a dwarf named Dwalin Longbeard who liked my axes but wanted further proof of evil-doing. So I had to track down a Goblin-prowler for irrefutable proof. Mathi Stouthand also wanted me to kill a foul-tempered aurochs-bull named Frostmantle. There was a uber n00b sword in it for me if I did, so I wend to the overcamped area to drop him. It took four spawns until I managed to tag one from the gankers. I also found a prowler that had a curious dwarf sword so I ran back to the Court to get shit going.
Dwalin had talked to elves and seeing the sword I found he was inspired to take pen in hand. Another on of Elrond's sons Elrohir was up in the Mirkstone Tunnels past the Axe-head Path and he wanted his freshly scrawled note delivered to him. I had nothing better to do so I was the obvious choice. Fought through n00bs and goblins alike to find Elrohir. Elrohir also had some writing to do so I took his missive back to Dwalin, only to be rewarded with a very gay feathered cap.
On my was back I noticed a haughty elf chick named Erynwen who wanted me to kill plants that could be used for foul intentions. I could bitch slap her because she was going to give me a new bow if I did her bidding. So I went back to the Axe-head path to brave n00bs and goblins again, destorying these plants as I went. Got my bow. The future was looking bright.
Dwalin was now ready to head out and kick ass. All signs pointed to a stranger in a red robe and tales of a possible resurrection of Skorgrím. Skorgrím was a dirty dwarf that allied his clan with goblins and trolls way back. Dwalin insisted that no magic on Middle-Earth could bring back the dead but I had my suspicions.
By accepting Dwalin's quest, I would be leaving n00b haven so I decided to take a break and reflect. So far I found the graphics to be really shitty. The jumping animation actually looks more than dorky, it's painful. Some n00bs were saying the looks improve when we get the real DVDs to install. It would make sense that the downloadable stuff is minimal. It defaulted me to a horrible 960x600 resolution, so popping up to 1280x720 help a little with the text.4
Yet the interface is decent for being stock. All of the main windows can be dragged into new, remembered positions. Key display elements can also be moved. All quests are tracked, with a tree showing progress and the details are all there for review. The tooltips tell you when items are just vendor trash or can be used in tradeskills. Armor pops up with what you're currently wearing for easy comparison.
One seriously nice thing is you start out with five fifteen slot bags, so there's no initial storage issue for a pack-rat like me. There was no ammo being tracked which was nice but that means no bonuses from crafting. There's no encumerance but I certainly don't miss that. I was also able to fire at point-blank range. You can get interrupted but there's no dead-zone.
The armor all mentions dyes, so hopefully tradeskills will allow armor to be colors. That was one thing I liked in EQ and miss in WoW—tinting. I am gay. I want my armor to match, dammit.
Only remaining problem is the mob text. There's no indication of hostile vs. friendly. The names will display relative threat based on level instead. Red means tough ass, white is roughly equal, navy is less challenging, and cyan is trivial. Might be able to get used to that.
Took the pause to try another character. This time I went with a Human Captain (Buffer/Pets) which seemed to be akin to a Paladin. Made her look slightly serious and named her Favor. The starting area involved me being rescued from some brigands by a hobbit-loving ranger Amdir. He wanted me to rescue two hobbits while he buggered off with diversions.
Found the hobbits, was led around by the nose again, and eventually even saw a Nazgú stike down the ranger. Apparently the Ring Wraith was afraid of me and the hobbits because we were close to fire. *snicker* So we took Amdir to the n00b area for healing. There's some quests to get going around helping the locals and convincing a Captain Brackenbrook that one of his men, Calder Cob, is actually in league with the Blackwold.
The Captain class is interesting. They can use a ton of weapons right off. They work off of various shouts for buffing with a post-battle shout that heals with a heal-over-time. It takes them a while to get a pet and eventually they can use a shield, so it has potential. I noticed that my human racial lamely reduces my Power so I was going to pick another race that wouldn't hamper my mana. Turns out only Humans can be Captians, so I have to deal with the gimping. Ended up camping her.
Decided to roll a Female Elf Lore-Master (Crowd-Control/Pets) that I named Ishara. Seen a few about with a raven so I wanted to see what they're like. They start with a DoT and a slow. Really seemed to like their mechanics so I trudged through the elven n00b area again. This time I also found two quests I missed. In my character summary it shows I finished 6/10 possible quests in the area so I earned a “Ally of Ered Luin” deed granting me a bonus “Charity +1” where “I find myself more resistant to wounds, able to defend against ranged attacks more easily, and able to recover my Power more quickly outside of combat.” Well well!
I couldn't find any more quests so I accepted Dwalin's quest to get the fuck out of Dodge. We went through another solo instance where I protected Dwalin with my Raven on the way to Skorgrím. The red robed guy ended up being something funky looking called Ivar who escaped with the restored Skorgrím. Dwalin and I finished off Marrec and a flunky, saving Elrohir.
That dropped me off in an area called Celondim. There were a bunch of new quests and finally a Master of Apprentices so I could choose a Vocation. Even found a mailbox which mentioned an Auction House being somewhere. Was feeling overwhelmed and unready to commit to a vocation so I decided to call it a night.
The pets are decent, with the commands very WoW-like. I was given a hint to dismiss my pet when I level so I can re-summon one that would have leveled with me. But poor little Brittle is stuck at level four while I'm six. Not sure what I need to do there.
So this morning I think I'm going to figure out what vocation I want to pick. Noticed when I logged in that you get rested XP.5 Also want to get to level eight for my bear pet. Then I might try another class.
So far every character I've created comes with the bonus cloak and ring, which is nice. Was hoping I didn't have to pick my main without checking out all the classes. I haven't “died” yet so I should try that to see what it's like to recover. Going to hold off though since I got the Hunter and Lore-Master to five without dying so I earned titles “the Wary”6 for them.
Tried using the windowed-mode and it's surprisingly responsive when the game has focus. When using another application most everything freezes though, which for a RT game is pretty lame. That might be a beta thing. I hope.
Anyway. Fuck all this writing. Back to Middle-Earth.
- Still can't believe I bought it without even reviewing it. I blame the marketing hype, in-game freebies, and unique chance to ego fluff.
- Never that hard with the traditional Elf models.
- GREAT idea. Don't have to fight other newbie fuckers when learning the basics.
- I am still running a GeForce 6600 so I held off on anything higher.
- LotR calls it “Enhanced XP.”
- Maybe “The Timid” or “Teh Pussy” would be appropriate, too.
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