Doro

Well, to an outside observer, there isn't much that needs changing for a Champ. Hell, even a casual champ won't see much that's wrong. Yet there are some finer points that are an issue currently.


DPS

1. With the increase in Clobber cooldown, the Wild Attack > Swift > Brutal > Clobber rotation was destroyed. With that went 2handers being the same as DW for champs. If you don't already know, Clobber used to help break the Brutal animation so DPS was increased but with the higher cooldown, it's not a viable option.
Clobber needs the cooldown reduced again or maybe just make Swift an immediate skill so it will do the same job.

2. Along with Clobber hitting 2handers, so too did the stats on Offhands. My current offhand gives me 150 Might, 384 Phys Mast and 384 Crit. You'd be remarkably lucky to get the same Phys Mast and Crit as base stats on a 2hander but it's impossible to get the same level of Might. This gives DWing a huge advantage.
Either massively increase the base stats on 2Hs or, and I rather like this idea, take base stats off and give a new item that will slot into our Offhand slots but won't be a weapon (maybe a Scabbard, which we obviously won't hold, it will just be in the Offhand slot). This item will give us the same stats as an offhand would, giving people a proper choice between DW and 2H.


Tanking

1. It seems our Aggro Gen hasn't scaled the same as everyone elses DPS. All our Aggro skills aren't enough to match a properly geared DPS monster. If a straight Aggro Gen increase is too boring, here are some suggestions:
Maybe introduce a skill (of the same sort of thing as Blade Brother, Shield Wall and Melody of Battle) in which we can pick a member of the raid and it will remain on them until range is broken. This skill would transfer 50% of all threat to the Champ constantly. Either that or a skill that will generate AOE aggro every few seconds on all targets within a certain range of the champ.


This is all I can think of currently. Feel free to add your own.

So U11 rolled out and also rolled into the code like a bowling ball into pins. We all know about the absolute mess that came with its launch and other technical problems (lag, game freezes, client crashes, inability to patch and launcher failures) but what is U11 actually like? Well, here's my take.


Landscape

It's what most will expect when they hear a new snowy region: its some fields covered in snow with a snowy part of Fangorn for good measure.

Fangorn was actually the best bit about RoR yet this time it seems worse. It just feels too cluttered and too mob filled. I hated trying to complete the explorer deeds in there because you just can't see where you're going, what you're currently stuck on or what mob is hitting you. It's just a clusterfuck more than a voyage through a frozen, ancient, grumpy forest (sounds like a description of a certain old lady's downstairs).

I did like the edges of the new map. Standing in the northern, mountainous regions, you can see the statue in Great River from there. I love seeing that. And on the east, you can see all of the Wold. And the south lets you sit on top of those cliffs above Cliving and look across the plains. Honestly, the edges are probably the best bits of the landscape, just for the views.

And no, it wasn't five areas as Turbine claimed. It's one small zone. Their deception is getting too much.


Quests

Well, I only got up to the Cuthbards (sp?) farm quest, which was so badly bugged it had to be closed and now prevents people progressing through the zone. However, the few quests I did do weren't anything to brag about. Every single one was unoriginal, uninspired and boring. 'Kill x of these' and 'collect x of that'. Nothing new.


Book

I sighed. A big sigh. One of the least interesting books I've ever completed. A lot of running back and forth, talking to NPCs who are standing next to each other and some gathering/killing objectives. The instances were also pretty boring, save the new boss (I'll come to him in a bit). Even the end was underwhelming.

However, they at least made Session Plays optional. Hooray! I hated them and love that they were just a choice, not a requirement. One of the few good points of this update.


Warbands

Seems they at least listened. The newest boss Warbands aren't soloable (not yet, at least). They require you to actually group up for them or hope that a group is already working on it so you can just tag along. There's about 3 of these and they're pretty much just Bugud: kill the adds and then nuke the boss. Nothing too hard in an average group.


Nurzum

You know what? I actually like this idea. A giant that was warped and twisted using a piece of Thangorodrim found by Saruman. It's something new and different to the usual mobs. I like his size, his appearance (even if he does look like a cross between a Wood-troll and an Ice-wight on steroids) and I like the idea that he carries a blizzard with him like the Ringwraiths carry dread.

But something about him bugs me. As far as I can tell, he's restricted to those book instances. I've done all the explorer deeds and I've checked in-game chat but I can't find him out on the landscape. From the Wildermore dev video, it seemed like he would be this relentless, roaming force of destruction just wandering around Wildermore, smashing anything in his way. You'd see the screen get icy and you'd know Nurzum was near. Yet he isn't anywhere to be found. Was this just bad advertising or am I missing something?


Loot

Not much improvement. There are probably a handful of new items for each class that are any good and even these require grinding with Survivors to get (not that many will be able to do that till the quest fix). They also seemed to reduce the seal cost for FAs in the Skirm camp... if only I could find a competent group to complete Smaug T1 with!


The New Hytbolds

From what I've heard from people who managed to complete the bugged quest before it was so brilliantly shutdown, there are 2 new Hytbolds. You do 5 quests per day, getting 5 gold tokens per quest. It apparently takes a little over 3 weeks to get full Kindred with Survivors, without any speed ups. But then you still need 110 gold tokens per new bracelet... and that's not even including the new pockets or other loot.

I don't know anything else about it, really, since I'm limited by the damn bugged quest. If anyone has any better info, please feel free to share it.


Mounted Combat

Same as ever: Nascar on ice. The lag makes it impossible to navigate anything but a completely empty field (woe betide you if there's a branch or rock on the ground) and the rubberbanding is even worse. I spent almost a minute running south from Forlaw, only to find myself hurtling backwards at near the speed of sound before being lodged inbetween a lamp and a fence.


Interface

Nope. Don't like it. I've had to move my connection status panel because it no longer fits snugly in the left side of the screen. Not to mention I can't hide the Hobbit Slotmachine alert.

And then there's the annoying alert telling me that I have alerts. Whose stupid idea was that? It seems people are just playing the 'please don't fire me, I actually do things' game and it just results in shit like this. I have a god damn alert display for a reason!


Hobbit Presents

... I...

... Really?

Seriously, this is what happens when you hire douchebags from companies like Zynga. They make shitty games with nothing but popups asking for money and so that's what we got. We now have gambling in LotRO, a game with an age rating of 13+. 'Pay money and possibly win a prize!'.

And not only that but the prizes are actually better in some cases than end-game loot! And some of the prizes aren't even available in-game.


All in all, it wasn't a very good zone. Poorly implemented, poorly filled and poorly designed. And this is supposed to keep people busy until the coming fall, when I'm sure the next expansion will be set to be delayed.

It seems the problem with the TP has been fixed. Here's an email I got from a ticket.


'Thank you for your inquiry.

At this point we believe we have resolved an issue where lifetime players were not receiving their VIP points. You should now have your previously undelivered VIP points and should continue to receive your VIP points as normal going forward. Please note that you may have only received two months worth if you are still due May's grant later this month.

If you do not receive your monthly VIP points in future months, please contact Account Management and we will be happy to assist you. Additionally, if for some reason you did not receive your previously due monthly points for your lifetime subscription, please reply to this email and I will be happy to further review.
If you had contacted us for an issue with regards to VIP Points and you are not a lifetime member, or you are also experiencing other issues, please reply back to this email and an Account Support Agent will be happy to assist you further.

Thank you,
Account Management Supervisor'

My original ticket was about my missing May TP. However, I found that not only did they give me my May TP, they also gave me March and April TP... again. I had already recieved March and April from previous tickets. So I was 1,000 up in TP. I responded to their email to fix this and I got the above copy/pasted response.

Will I respond further? No. I'm not going to put myself out to fix their mistake when they won't even take the time of day to read my email the first time. I'd understand if this was the initial ticket but it was the third contact I had with them in the same ticket (one for the submit, one to stop the automated message closing my ticket and the final one to tell them they'd made a mistake).

Anyone else had this happen? Reckon they'll be taking TP back?

Seems like a few upgrades to current loot, especially if you have a tank setup (especially the crafted vit ring, the barter vit bracelet and the R10 PvP vit offhand).

Snowbourn's Global is getting tense. It seems Turbine has given everyone some cloak (The One Fund Cloak) and it's something to do with the Boston Bombing.

And rightly people are asking if we're going to get any items to remember all the other tragedies that happen around the world or if it's specifically a 'Murica thing. I'm with them on this. I get sick enough of those damn threads where people post 'in our prayers' at any event that happens in the US but then say absolutely nothing when worse happens to the rest of the world.

More about it here:

https://www.lotro.co.../one-fund-cloak