Group Leveling
Group Levelling – Busy Times
Jun 25th
Our group has come to a very difficult time. Many of our members have begun to have some long term (several months) commitments that do not allow them to go in game as often as they have in the past. Due to school, work and family commitments, we’re not able to get all five of us in game for content as often as we’d like.
Group Leveling
Apr 26th
Our intrepid little group is slowly working it’s way toward Moria. At the conclusion of the last group leveling column, members of the group where newly minted level 40s, with a 3 or 4 level gap between the highest level character and the lowest. As we’ve gotten closer to level 50, and each level has started to come a little slower, we’ve narrowed that gap to about 2 levels between the highest and the lowest.
Group Leveling
Dec 21st
It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these Group Leveling columns, so there is a lot to tell. As of the last post, the group was working its way through Trollshaws, completing the Epic Quests in search of the Nazgul.
We continued running around the Trollshaws, our group happened to find Bilbo’s Trolls.
This was another experience where we stopped as a group, took a couple of screenshots, talked about how cool it was, and then moved on. One of the wonderful things about LOTRO is that they have taken the lore of the game and incorporated these little elements into the game world. We continued running through Trollshaws, finding the caves for Book 4 Chapter 5 and having an overall grand time. It was a lot of fun running through the caves, as they designed like small dungeons, and that is where our group shines. We slew the trolls in the caves, and returned to Rivendell.
Group Leveling
Oct 25th
Our fellowship continues its journey through LOTRO with Volume 1 Book 4 solidly under way. We’ve come to Rivendell and met several members of the fellowship (oh how Salennia pines after Legolas, and Isanni after Aragorn). We’ve even managed to play a riddle game with Bilbo! Having recently re-read The Hobbit, this part excited me to no end!
Garth Agarwen is also successfully behind us. I’m very happy to have been through it in its original form, before the big changes are completed. Although I do like the changes that are coming (see here for my thoughts) I hate to have content that is impossible for me to see. We found that we where able to do the majority of the instance with our group of 5, except for Ivar and the Fortress section. Yes, I know thats a large portion of it, but we did get through the rest just fine. Another couple of levels, and we probably could have gotten through the entire thing without needing a 6th.
Group Leveling – Random People Edition
Oct 11th
After a frustrating night of banging our heads into the brick wall that is Ivar, the regular group that I play with decided that they wanted a night off, so I went in game with an alt. It’s very important when you’re trying to level as a group not to get too far ahead of the other members of the fellowship. Since I was already 1 level ahead of some members, and alt was the only way to go, as much as my Warden may have been calling to me!
While I was running around North Downs, I saw a message in LFF asking for more fellowship members for Tending the Glade. Well, I decided to go for it, and joined up with a great group of people. We ended up doing Tending the Glade, as well as Defence of Treslebridge and a few other North Downs quests while we where in the area.
The one thing that I like about LOTRO, as I’ve mentioned several times before, is the quality of the community. People are always willing to help you out, I’ve never had anyone drop group the minute the quest was completed, and people are always willing to help you out if you have a couple of quests that you need help with.
So we ran around southern North Down, killed some goblins and orcs, and I got used to playing my guardian again! Even managed to throw out a Cor Pethroni invite while we where at it.
Thank random group of people!
See you in game!
Group Leveling – Early Thirties
Sep 27th
We’ve managed to make it to the mid-Thirties with out group. We’ve been running a little light for the past week or so, as one of our members has been away, but we’ve decided to forge ahead and help her catch up when she gets back.
One of the things that really helped us get leveling again was moving into a different zone. Although we haven’t been trying to get every quest in a zone done before we moved on, we have been trying to “finish” the zone, i.e. try to get the important quests done, maybe all of the group ones, before we move on.
Now, I was talking to Aji, a new member of the kinship (see more details about Cor Pethroni here), and he was mentioning that he likes to complete every quest in a zone before moving on. He also reminded me that if you don’t complete every quest, you are likely to miss out on some great events and stories that come out of those quest chains, which I hadn’t thought of. I think that for us, as a group, we have to move on. We just aren’t able to stay in a zone long enough to get all of the quests completed. That’s something that Bill and I mentioned in the very first podcast, something that we both love and hate at the same time: LOTRO has WAY more content in each zone than is needed to level. That makes it easier to pick and choose what is interesting, but it also makes it hard if you do want to complete all of the content. I know that I struggled with that choice for a while myself. We tried finishing all the quests as a group at first, but by the time we got close to finishing the zone, all of the mobs where such a low level, it was very boring for us to kill them. We then decided not to do that anymore, and to move on. For the first 20-25 levels, I would go back after the group had logged off and complete some of the quests that they had decided to skip. I wanted to get everything done. But I found that I started to get a little too bogged down in the grind, so I made the conscious choice to move on out of the zone when a new one became level appropriate. It’s just not important enough for me to finish them all.
That being said, I wish that I was patient enough to be in LOTRO only for the journey through the content. I am more interested in the content than in getting to the “end game” of max level, but I also really enjoy NEW content. It’s not that I’m rushing though the game, it’s just that I like seeing the new and shiny things. Call it a personality fault.
As mentioned previously, on the talk like a pirate day post, we recently discovered Evendim, and that got our explorer juices going, and we haven’t really stopped since. We decided the very next time that we played that we where going to run to Rivendell, as one of our fellowship member did not have a port to travel there.
What an enjoyable run that was!
We completed a few quests along the way, we started to get some of the next tier crafting materials, and we killed a whole bunch of Rock Trolls. A good time was had by all.
We followed that up with a night of questing in Evendim, where we slew many brigands, as well as salamanders and the such. Again, a good time was had by all.
On both evenings, each person managed to level once, and some of us even leveled twice. We are now almost within reach of our coveted horses! We can’t wait until we hit level 35 and receive those boons to transportation. Now, those of you who already have your horses, please don’t tell me how they’re not really that great. Don’t tell me that they are not much more convenient than the stable masters. I don’t want to hear that it’s a pain that you can’t interact with the world while you are on them, or do any emotes (that’s being changed in SoM anyways!). All I want to hear is how the entire game will get even better than it already is the minute I get my horse.
Our fellowship is slowly getting closer and closer to Moria. Each step brings us to new and exciting places, where we get to see new and exciting things and, well, kill them.
See you in game!
Group Leveling – Members MIA edition
Sep 20th
As some of our group was unable to play last night, Bill, Isanni and I decided to do the Pirate Day quest to kill some time. While this turned out not to be as much fun as we had hoped it did give us a couple of new items to wear. Yeah eye patch!
One of the side effects of doing this quest was some exploration of Evendim. Our group was looking for a Stable Master, so that we could take a horse back to Buckland instead or running, and we ran around for a bit before we found one. Evendim is such change from Lone Lands and North Downs, and it was nice to get out and explore.
It was also nice that we where able to do something without the entire group being available. If we hadn’t had the chance to do the Pirate Day quest, then we might have worked on some deeds, or done some other, non-xp gaining activities. We’ve never really tried out Monster Play before. Maybe that’s what we need to try the next time we’re running short.
Either that or start another alt……
Wait, I can’t. I already used up all of my character slots. Oh well.
See you in game!
c
Group Leveling – Some more thoughts
Sep 1st
Leveling with a group, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, can be some of the most rewarding, and the most frustrating game time that you will have in LOTRO. I think that it’s important to keept a few things in mind as you level with a group: your leveling will most likely be at a slower pace than if you where playing alone/sometime with a group; you will often be working with a diverse group of people, who are each expecting something different from the game; and you will need to find one person who will act as the unofficial leader of the group.
The XP system in LOTRO works in such a way that when you kill something as a group, each member who took part in the kill received XP, but not as much as if they had killed it alone. This is so that groups don’t have an advantage over individual players, as it is much easier to kill something as a group than alone. This does have the affect of slowing down people leveling somewhat, as your XP is reduced. This is mitigated somewhat by the fact that you kill things more quickly as a group than alone, but in my experience, the end result is less XP when in a group. One area of XP that is not affected by groups is quest XP. You receive that same amount of XP for completing a quest no matter whether you are in a group or not.
Another way in which leveling a group will slow your XP gain is that you will often have to repeat content that you have completed but that other group members have not to be able to move forward in quest chains. This means that you will get reduced XP for the kills, and no XP for the quest, as you have already completed it.
Something else to keep in mind about leveling with a group is that you will be with the same people throughout your leveling experience, and often times, their expectations for their play time will differ from yours. This can cause some friction in the group, as I find that when people are not all working on something that they find rewarding, and/or worthwhile, they will find a reason to complain. I’m lucky with the group that I’m currently playing with, in that we’re just happy to be playing the game, and playing it together, so these issues don’t tend to come out. I have been in situations in the past, however, where group members have left half way through a quest chain because they didn’t like the way that thing where progressing (too fast or too slow) and didn’t feel that the rest of the group carred. As with most things in life, communication is the key.
I also find that it helps when leveling in a group to have an official/unofficial leader for the group. This function is served by both Bill and myself in our group. It’s not that we tell everyone what to do, but each time we play, one of us is usually helping things along. We’re quite the democratic group at the moment, but if things aren’t moving along, Bill or I usually prod things forward a bit. If no one was doing this, things would probably be much slower with the group. Usually, when everyone is running things, in reality no one is, and the group gets stagnant and bored.
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times in this post, the group I’m leveling with currently is avoiding most of the usual pitfall of leveling together, expect for the big one: Finding enough time to play together!
See you in game!
