Did you know
Did You Know…
Nov 24th
As listeners of the LOTRO Reporter podcast may know, I am well and truly hooked on PvMP. My warg feels like an extension of myself, and whenever a coworker is starting to bother me, I wish I could run behind a tree, pop into Stealth Mode, dash out and Pounce them to shut them up, Maul them to really get my point across, and then Disappear to confuse and annoy them…..
Anyway, this post is not all about my confusion between the game and reality! I am here to talk about the Destiny Points system, a system that may be underused by a large population of players. Destiny Points (DP) are gained on the Free Peoples side (that’s dwarves, elves, men, and hobbits) by gaining levels for your characters. So, if you are an alt-a-holic and are leveling many characters, your DP will go up fairly quickly. DP is very useful before a big fight to gain temporary buffs, such as increased speed, morale, or power. I once cashed in a bunch of DP on increased speed so that I could run into the Trollshaws and Rivendell at an insanely low level, leaving my enemy pursuers in the dust. (That’s not to say that I didn’t squeal in terror like a little girl as gigantic bears tried to chase me down!)
On the Monster Player side (that’s wargs, spiders, orcs, and uruks), the DP is more liberally doled out. All quests completed as a creep gain DP, since DP is the main source of currency for gaining new skills and abilities for your creep. Again, DP can also be used to gain temporary buffs to speed, morale, power, and so on.
Now, here is the really cool thing. Did you know that DP is shared amongst your characters? All your characters. Both freeps and creeps. So, here is the thing, if you want to take advantage of the buying power of Destiny Points, you need to maximize their influx. Before I became a creep, the DP was coming rather slowly. I enjoyed using the points for buffs before big boss fights, or for making sure I always had the “rested XP” bonus (a bonus that allows your character to gain experience points more quickly), but I didn’t have a steady supply of them.
But playing a Monster Player changed all that. As I mentioned, every quest you complete gains you DP, from 125 DP for simple solitary quests to 2000 DP for fellowship quests. For the quests that give 2000 DP, Monster Players generally keep several alts just to make multiple runs at those quests. If you’re at all serious about Monster Play, you will spend a lot of that DP on your creeps, but you can save some for your freeps, too! If you really want to!
Did You Know…
Oct 11th
I have a confession to make: I am a good little healing minstrel who also loves to *thump* the heads of baddies!
Now obviously, when I am playing in a fellowship, and my fellows are counting on me to be the dividing line between glorious victory and head-hanging, foot-shuffling defeat, my main focus must be on strumming my theorbo for all it is worth, keeping those morale bars nice and fat.
So, what’s a mini to do when they really, really just want to sneak in a Ballad of Resonance or a Piercing Cry? First of all, I recommend that you not — I repeat, not — give in to this urge if you are pounding those heals as fast as you can till your fingers are bleeding. However, if the pace is a little more leisurely and you are able to throw a few damaging spells in between keeping your companions enheartened, using the following options might help to streamline the process for you.
Options –> Combat Options –>Show the Vitals of Your Selection’s Target — Allows you to select a target, such as the tank of your group (who should be attracting most of the aggro), and see which mob s/he is targeting and what that mob’s morale and power are at. Useful for keeping track of bosses and other bothersome mobs without switching the focus of your attention from your fellows to the mobs and back.
Options –> Combat Options –> Enable Skill Target Forwarding — Here’s the REALLY useful little trick. This option allows you to bang off healing skills intermingled with damage skills without changing targets, saving you time and potential confusion! How does it work? Well, if you have your tank targeted, you are already throwing heals that way, but if you are desperate to flex your big, strong minstrel muscles and want to toss in a Ballad of Steel or whatnot, you perform the offensive skill and (in my imagination) that skill flows through your target, not harming or healing him/her, to their own target, the enemy, and then executes. Another way I have found this option useful is during soloing. I can be bashing away at a mob and need some healing, so instead of changing my target to myself and performing the heal, I simply keep attacking and sneak in a heal when needed, never breaking rhythm or a sweat. The heal passes unnoticed through the enemy and comes back to me!
Did You Know…
Sep 21st
A very handy little feature I discovered today while chatting with a brand new player to LOTRO is the option to add a “note” beside someone’s name when you add them as a friend. To add a friend, go to your Social panel –> Friends –> Add, type in their name, and presto! To add a note, simply select their name, click ‘Note’, and type in something weird and wonderful to remind yourself why the heck you added that person’s name in the first place!
Did You Know…
Sep 6th
Here is a bit of interesting random trivia: Did you ever notice, when playing an Elf character, that wild animals, such as foxes and hares, do not run away from you the way they run from Dwarves, Men, and Hobbits? Also, Elves are unable to harm those innocent creatures, while the other races may (if they desire to be so cranky and mean!) I thought that was a cool testiment to the lore of Tolkien’s world, where Elves are basically a peace-loving people, thoroughly at harmony with nature and the creatures of field and forest.
Speaking of harmony and peace, did you realize that if you do not want to see blood and guts during gameplay, you can turn that function off? Go to Options –> UI Options –> and uncheck “Enable Blood Effects”. I don’t need to see all that messy stuff!
Did You Know…
Aug 31st
After a brief hiatus from posting — due to the demands of the dreaded “REAL LIFE” — I am back with another installment of “Did You Know”! Don’t worry, you can be well assured that I was appropriately pummelled with wet noodles for my prolonged absense, and it won’t happen again!
So….. “did you know” that when you are buying items from a vendor, there are different options for choosing the amount that you buy? What I mean is, with a simple press of a button, you can indicate the quantity you’d like:
- Press Shift if you would like to buy a stack (usually 100)
- Press Tab to buy just enough to complete a partial stack already in your inventory
- Press Alt to buy any random number of that item that your little heart desires (and your money purse can afford).
See the screen shot below to get the good ole’ “picture tells a thousand words” effect!
Whatever key you hold, you will notice that the “BUY” button changes to indicate which action you are trying to perform. Key an eye on that button so that you don’t accidentally buy a stack of 100 when you really only wanted to buy 3!
Okay, I’m done now. It’s good to be back!
Did You Know…
Jul 25th
This Did You Know comes from Cor Pethroni member Rufustus, a burglar:
The burglar’s distract ability, Riddle, is a great way of pulling a single enemy out of a pack to make the fight more even for a soloing burglar. When a burglar poses a riddle to an intelligent enemy (not Beasts, Insects, or Creatures of Nature), the enemy will become distracted for 30 seconds (or until damaged) as it tries to solve the riddle. So, how do you use this skill to your advantage?
First, approach the group of mobs until they notice you and start attacking. Second, quickly distract the mob you want “mezzed” for 30 sec.
Third, run away from the others until they stop chasing you.
Fourth, run back and stand just out of range before 30 seconds are up. Finally, when the distracted mob gives up trying to solve the riddle, it will come after you, but the others will stay put, milling idly around with glazed looks on their faces: “Hey, where’s that other guy running off to in such a hurry?… ah, who cares.” You can quickly and easily dispatch the single enemy, and then Riddle the next one!
Rufustus believes that knowing this little trick will make some solo quests a LOT easier for novice burglars. It is also useful for questing in a group with a burglar, when that group is attacking mobs above their level range.
Happy burgling!
Did You Know…
Jul 13th
Okay, after much scientific study, including countless hours of perfecting our hypothesis and designing the perfect imperically-based study, our group of five has come to a evidence-supported conclusion. “Drumroll, please!”:
Did you know…
Jul 1st
Here’s a teeny tiny Did You Know that I just discovered:
You can change the size of the chat window! I feel silly that I never knew this, but glad that I just found it. At the bottom right of the chat window, there is a tiny stripey triangle that you can click and drag to change the size and dimensions of the chat window.
Some more basic information about the chat window:
You can move the chat window by clicking on General and dragging it wherever you want it.
You can view more than one type of window at a time (eg. General and Combat), by clicking and dragging any tab other than General to wherever on the screen you would like it (demonstrated in the screenshot below).
You can add (and later move around) new tabs by right clicking any existing tab and selecting “Create New Tab”. Once your new tab is created, right click it to rename it, change the filter to display whatever you want it to display, and even change text size/colour for different types of chat events (for example, messages from your fellowship could be a different colour from messages in the /advice channel).
To reintegrate a window that you have separated from the main window, simple click and drag it back to the main window until the tab header turns yellow (as seen in the screenshot below).
Did you know…
Jun 22nd
If you are like me, you like to feel involved with the community when you are playing LoTRO. I read the /advice channel and try to help whenever I can. I get a chuckle out of some of the random stuff discussed in /ooc, and I like to chat with people I fellow with. Being able to converse with my fellow players and know what they are up to is part of why I love the game so much.
However!
There are two things that have annoyed me since the very first time I played LoTRO oh so long ago…
I simply DO NOT CARE when random player Fluffybunnyface defeats the Enraged Splintertusk! Or Pinkbubbles defeats the Awful Tarkrip.
Also, I find it annoying, especially when I am playing a group without voice chat, to see what every single person rolled on every single item. Sometimes I have to scroll back through the chat window to ensure I haven’t missed any important instructions from my fellowship leader or other members. It can be pretty difficult to keep up with what is going on in the midst of a busy instance, for example, when the chat window is constantly filled up with this extraneous bits of information.
I thought I was stuck suffering with these two annoying aspects of the chat window. I should have known better. A couple of days ago, I stumbled headlong over a couple of little button clicks to declutter my LoTRO experience:
In the chat window, right-click General and then mouse over Change Filters. Uncheck “Standard” to ensure loot rolls don’t scroll important fellowship information off the screen. Uncheck “Combat Event” to stop hearing about it when Gorgonzolacheese defeats the Roving Warg.
:)
Did you know…
Jun 6th
Our intrepid little band of adventurers hit Moria a while back and, like many of you, have found it to be a dark, labyrinthine-like place. After multiple mishaps involving the majority of our group falling to their deaths (yay for me as a minstrel, since I got to up my “Rezzing” deed!) or plunging into unforgiving pits filled with nasties, we have learned to step a little more cautiously. A loyal reader of the blog (thanks, Zeomox of Brandywine!) sent me a great tip a while back, which I thought I’d share with you now. While in the deep, unforgiving darkness of places such as Moria (or Mirkwood — so we’ve been told, since we haven’t been there yet), you can activate a special “lantern” on your character (in 3rd person mode only) to illuminate the space around you. This is a great thing to do to give more definition to walls, cliffs, and deep pits. I have used it often in Moria and it really is a big help. Press Alt F10 to activate the latern, press it again to make it brighter, and one more time to turn it off.
Anyway, I hope this tip helps you out on those long, dark, lonely nights in Moria and beyond. :-)
