General
The epic plot twist commences
Mar 31st
(This is a post about my University of Connecticut course (Gaming) Homer, which I’m running on the Windfola server of LOTRO. See this post for more information.)
Having lured the operatives (students) into a false sense of security that they knew how the course would play out, with Iliadic and Odyssean factions, we entered into the “Ethical Critique” module. In this module the objective is to learn to analyze homeric epic and modern epic—including LOTRO—as critique of the way people do things in the real world. It’s my way of beginning to approach that slippery ground of “meaning” and “profundity.” If we can talk about what epic, ancient and modern, does, we can avoid having to have endless discussions about the meaning of meaning.
Scheduled Maintenance Monday March 26
Mar 29th
Tolero posted about tomorrow’s downtime in the forums. Note that you’ll still be able to read the forums, and it sounds like my.lotro as well, just no in-game play.
The LOTRO Game Servers and http://myaccount.turbine.com will be offline for maintenance on Monday, March 29 from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM Eastern (-5 GMT). The forums and social sites will remain up, but players may not be able to log in. Thanks for your patience, and we’ll see you back in the game soon!
Spring Festival Horse Vendor AWOL!
Mar 28th
Now that I’ve gotten your attention with a sensationalistic headline, Sapience posted a couple of days ago that there are some problems with the Spring Festival horse vendor that require a client side patch to fix, and therefore the vendor has been removed until the next planned patch, which should be at the end of the festival.
Sapience said:
The horse vendor will not be available until sometime near the planned end of the Spring Festival. Possibly later. The nature of this issue requires a client side patch to resolve.
Because we have a planned patch due around the end of Spring Festival, we intend to roll the fix for this issue into that patch. Because this will occur after the planned end of the Spring Festival, we will either extend the festival for an additional week or re-enable it once the patch is live to ensure everyone who has earned their Spring Festival mount can trade for it.
In the meantime, you’ll still be able to acquire all your tokens and everything you need to obtain the horse, you just won’t be able to trade them in until we have the fix in place.
We realize this is an inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding. We want everyone who has earned their mount to be able to enjoy it.
So there you have it. You can still collect everything that you need for the horse, but you won’t be able to get the festival horse at the moment. We’ll keep you updated and let you know when the vendor returns.
See you in-game!
LOTRO on Sale!
Mar 28th
Turbine has set up a great deal to celebrate PAX East, with the LOTRO Collector’s Edition, Mines of Moria AND Siege of Mirkwood bundled together for $10. This deal will only last until the end of today, so if you know anyone who is thinking of trying LOTRO out, have them give this a try.
Personally, for $10, you can almost think of this as a 30 day trial, instead of a 10 day trial. Spread the word!
See you in game!
[Lore-Master] Wizard’s Fire: Killing You Softly
Mar 27th
I recently came to the realization that our Sign of Battle: Wizard’s Fire spell is useful for more than just the Flanked self-heal. It does damage too! Now certainly I knew this before, but had never really paid much attention. It turns out that when traited properly, it can be a noticeable addition to our damage output.
When not traited MoNF, Wizard’s Fire does only ~65 damage on hit and per tick, but in MoNF (with Improved Sign of Battle: Wizardry), this amount is nearly doubled. In this spec (with ~6k Tact Offense), it changes to a ~125 hit and tick every 5 seconds for up to 40 seconds with only a 79 power cost. If you run with Knowledge of the Past traited, you have a 20% chance to restore 2/3 of this power on cast as well. More >
Wardens start to become powerful
Mar 25th
My previous article left off at level 30 with length 3 gambits and just shy of the next class quest. If you’re starting with this post you might also want to check out that article as well as my first post to catch up. As my title indicates this was really the part of the leveling curve that I felt my Warden getting REALLY strong, which is good as this is also the part of the leveling curve most people dread :) I was able to do quests in zones that I didn’t think I could and survive pulls and adds that I could’ve sworn were going to be the end of me. I’m going to stop this just before the acquisition of the level 45 class quests, but don’t worry there are lots of good things for Wardens in those 15 levels including your first legendary trait. Also during this range you’ll probably end up tanking more and we definitely do get stronger in that area. I mentioned it in my first post, but as you read the tool-tips for our gambits you might be confused by the different definitions, which the developer Graalx2 has commented quite a bit about on the forums and I’ve summarized on my blog.
Pets Deserve Emotes Too
Mar 22nd
I love my pets. Everytime I play an alt these days, it is inevitably a pet-less class (since I have no captain) and I feel like I’m missing something as if I were leaving the house without my cell.
It doesn’t seem to be specific to a certain pet either. I typically use my Lynx when in MoNF, my Bog-Lurker when in KoM, my Sabertooth when in a skirmish, and the others when the situation requires. Just that presence of another (pretend) being next to me is what I miss.
Pets don’t make me feel like I’m not playing solo though. They are no substitute for a human being (at least not in Middle Earth). Still, when I come back to my LM after an alt excursion, I pull out my pet and just want to give him/her a good cuddle. Imagine if he/she could then /purr back at me! Or /cuddle or /snuggle! Maybe I’m getting a little too excited about this, but it would be nice if my pet could return the affection I give him/her so freely.
This makes me think of the fact that I think of my pets as having certain genders. My raven and sabertooth are female, the others male. Their names are not English nor meaningful in any other language I know – they just seemed to fit them.
What are your habits with your pets? Do you think of them as having specific genders? Do you miss them when they’re not there?
A new LOTRO Blog – The Uruk Hunter
Mar 21st
LOTRO Reporter would like to welcome a new blog to the LOTRO online community. The Uruk Hunter, which can be found here: http://theurukhunter.wordpress.com/
It’s still a pretty new blog, but I like the way it’s written, and I’m looking forward to reading more.
Check it out, then I’ll see you in-game!
Dev Diary: Spring Festival
Mar 19th
Budgeford has posted a new Dev Diary discussing this year’s Spring Festival, which will be starting next week. In the diary, Budgeford describes the challenges in making the Schrew Stomping game, and how diffucult it was to make it work for players of all levels.
Also introduced in this diary is a new, ummmm, faction? Budgeford describes the poor lone dwarf Jónar, who is jealous of the hobbit’s Inn League. He know that dwarves are far supperior brewers than hobbits. this new faction will not have any reputation associated yet, according to this post. Instead, you will be disrupting Inn League activities. Sounds like fun! Wouldn’t it be an interesting development in LOTRO if you had to pick one faction to support, and whenever you increased reputation with one, you decreased it with the other? You could have some cool rewards that you can only gain when you reach Kindred with that faction.
You can find the Dev Diary here. If you’re at all interested in festivals, it’s a good read.
This all sounds good, and I’m looking forward to it. See you in-game!
The LOTRO Lottery returns!
Mar 17th
The LOTRO lotteries have returned! According to a post by Sapience (here), you can win Mithril Flakes, a mount, silver, even Skirmish Marks! It seems like Turbine has worked out all the bug, and we can look forward to more of these in the future. Check out my.lotro here.
Good luck, and I’ll see you in-game!
