LOTRO Academy: 71 – LOTRO Goals for 2013

LOTRO Academy
Branick, Mysteri, and Pineleaf celebrate the New Year with LOTRO-specific resolutions in this feedback-filled first episode of 2013. Thanks for listening.

7 comments

  1. Halryn /

    Hello All,

    Great podcast as usual.

    Normally, I often feel when Branick is upset about other people’s behavior in game I often feel, I don’t think it is that big of a deal, but I finnaly have an area I solidly disagree with you on. I do think it is rude to follow someone in game to help with open tapping. Part of the fun is the challenge. While I want to win say 95% of my fights, I still want a challenge. If I am fighting an at level orc and someone helps me with that one orc or mob. Great. That is fine. Yet, if you keep following me without communicating with me. Yes, that is rude! Basically you forced a fellowship upon me without asking me. There are times I just want to do the fighting (i.e. challenge) myself.

    Now understand even before open tapping if I saw someone fighting something and they were taking a reasonable amount of damage I might help with that one kill, but then I would move on. That or if I had a healing ability I would heal them and then move on. That is completely fine with me. Yet to be a “stalker” in game just so you can get easy kills at my expense without asking. Just plan rude.

    Now there are exceptions. Warbands for an example. Those seem to be considered open and when I am fighting those yes please jump right in and help. Yet, in the rest of the game, if you follow me to kill what I am killing, I think it is rude unless you ask. Now I should send a tell to the other player first saying, “Hey I can appricate what you are doing by helping me, but I rather fight these alone. Thank you.” Then if he/she still follows. Then I would report herassment.

    I am typically very easy going and find it funny that while I normally don’t mind other character’s behavior that you have found to be rude, I now have one I disagree with.

    Anyone else have thoughts on this?

    Keep up the great work!

    Halryn – Arkenstone.

  2. as far as the “event” that took place.. it was crazy.. I have never seen anything like this in LOTRO and I hope that I don’t again… according the to Dev chat yesterday they’re putting in the option to disable forced emotes and they’re giving it to everyone for free.. So we will have to see what happens with that…

    as far as Open tapping, I have yet to have a “bad” experience with it.. I guess your miles will vary but on the 3 servers I play on, it’s working great..

    My goals for 2013 are… to get to Level Cap on Both Arkenstone and Landorval.. And also get my Lore Master to Level cap on Menedlor…

  3. Zyngor /

    Hail Academy, and well met!

    Grats on getting your good grades, Myst & Branick – Honorific Roll to the both of ye! Also, best of luck on all of your 2013 goals. I look forward to you guys knocking those out of the park (and for Pineleaf to complete all skirmishes blindfolded, in Tier 4 24-man raid mode).

    As per my goals I posted from the previous 2012 Goal episode:

    1) Get my champion to 75, Lore-Master to at least 50, if not also capped. Would also love to get an Arkenstone character to 75, but will certainly continue all fun Academy activities first and foremost.

    VERDICT: Well, I did get both my champ and on of my Arkenstone characters to 75, so no problems there. Alas, I did not get my Lore-master to 50, as she decided to camp out in Rivendell and pursue her dreams of becoming a scholar (read: I know the character is supposed to pick up a bit more heading into their 40s – alas, the character play just wasn’t my cup of tea). I was able to start up a captain to see if I enjoyed it more than an LM, and so far it does seem to be the case.

    2) Uh, have…fun? Yeh, that sounds good.

    VERDICT: Well, obviously I am, if I am continuing to play the game. Freebie goals for the win!

    OVERALL: I’ll give myself a B+ overall, cutting myself short for not reaching the LM goal, and instead exploring the Captain path (didn’t get him to 50 yet either, but that wasn’t really a goal for me when I decided to start one).

    For 2013: Hmmm, I’ll say that I’d like to get at least 2-3 characters of mine that are currently sub-50 to the level cap as of now (85). Also, I’d love to write up another LOTRO guide of some kind – no topic yet set. Finally, I guess I’d say that I would love to raid (or at least group) a bit more. As of now, I am mostly a solo player (mostly be choice, partially due to current RL living situation).

  4. @ The Academy & Friends

    Best wishes in the new year! Keep up the fun and the good work!

    @ Kazrin (sp?)

    I think I had mentioned it prior, but my festival time was bookended by symbols (at the beginning and at the end), as well as a hobby horse in the middle. I know friends that have way more alts than I do, that got nothing. I think like Branick said, you just fell victim of the RNG.

    If you really want to crunch numbers on one vs. two handed weapons, and you’re plugin savvy, you may want to check out the Combat Analysis plugin. This would give you stats on your DPS (max / average), as well as how fast you are killing mobs. Might be something to check out.

  5. 1. Similar to Pineleaf on the primary goal. I level up my characters (one of each class) in 5-level parallels, managing to get all 9 set up in formation for the RoR release at 75 75 75 70 65 60 55 50 45. Start of the year, I was at 85 85 85 80 75 70 65 60 55. Already up to 85 85 85 85 82 77 72 67 62, so I think nine 85s by the release of the next expansion is totally achievable.

    2. Would like to herd the cats in my kin into running at least two 3-man instances.

    3. Make some progress in the cooking guild, the only guild I don’t have maxed (I haven’t even touched it).

  6. Hail Academites. To the first commenters point re: open tapping. I would say 98% of players I know would not mind someone chipping in to make their grind faster, but always good to keep in mind that you never know what is motivating the other player and how they like to play and if they are doing it for the challenge of soloing the landscape (which is not nearly as much as it used to be), then I can see a scenario where this could be found annoying. Still, I think a polite tell letting someone know that you would rather go it alone would resolve the majority of these instances, rather than getting upset about it.
    My goal for 2013 is to get my long envisioned Podcast off the ground. If I do, I will send you a shout out to let you know! Cheers,
    Braag of Vilya.

  7. Tapkoh /

    I heartily disapprove of open tapping in games not designed for it. They’re just copying a feature they saw elsewhere without copying the *reason* it was there. In a system that still uses the Kill 10 Rats questing model, it encourages “ownership” of mobs. They’re YOUR 10 rats, not that other person’s. So when someone comes along and interferes, it’s inherently more personal. In a game like Guild Wars 2 where killing stuff is often optional, they’re not your mobs, they’re just mobs and it feels more like you’re working toward a common goal. Introducing open tapping to LotRO (and other games) just brings out more ways to grief people and to be a jerk.

    As for champions, what you said is basically true. A 2H will give you higher numbers, but is slow while dual-wielding is smaller numbers, but faster. Many champs switch to a 2H for the Ettenmoors because sustained dps is very hard to get and instead you want to bash a creep’s face in while you’re doing a dance around them.

    One factor to consider is the availability of offhands. If there is an exceptional offhand weapon in the game for your level, then you may do more dps DW than with a 2H. From what I’m told, the best offhand at the moment comes from the PVMP vendors. I don’t know how others compare.

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