Branick, Mysteri, and Pineleaf are joined by returning hosts Krorain and Rolfkrage to record an in-depth review of the Trollshaws Quest Pack. Thanks for listening.
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LOTRO-Wiki: The Trollshaws
Clandestine Games
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I was questing while listening so I might have missed it, but I don’t recall anyone mentioning swift travel specifically. A major part of why I don’t go to the Trollshaws is that the only swift travel point is Rivendell and only from *outside* the zone.
If I need to discover the Lost Temple, for example, I must ride out there on my own or take a long ride to Thorenhad. If there was at least swift travel between Rivendell and Thorenhad, I’d be a little more inclined to go there.
A couple of things:
1. The Steam Starter Pack has been changed. It no longer includes a horse; instead, there is a cosmetic set. Also, it only includes the Evendim quest pack.
If you want the Trollshaws, it is still included in the Path of the Fellowship quest pack (LOTRO store) or the Mithril edition.
2. It should be noted that while the Lost Temple instance is physically located in Trollshaws, it is not part of the Trollshaws quest pack. All of the In Their Absence instances, including Northcotton Farm (The Shire/Evendim), Stoneheight (North Downs), Lost Temple (Trollshaws) Sari-Surma (Forochel), and Ost Dunhoth (Enedwaith) are part of the Enedwaith quest pack.
Characters on-level with the Trollshaws should also be careful around Lost Temple. If you wander into the “aura” of the instance, you’ll be attacked by MoBs nearby. Those MoBs will be on-level, but there could be multiple enemies wandering around.
This is because there’s a mechanic that the aggro range is increased if you’re in an area for which you’re extremely underleveled. The same situation occurs in North Downs, if you’re within the aura of Stoneheight.
3. While the region might be labeled 32-40, there is a cave in the northwestern corner with level 65 MoBs. This is part of the Vol 3 epic, when you’re gathering up the wayward rangers to head south.
4. There is no deed specifically for finding Bilbo’s Trolls; however, finding them is a part of the greater exploration deed in the zone.
5. Welcome back Krorain and Rolf!
Couple points…Evendim has so many more quests because of the level range. it goes from about 25ish-50. Trollshaws is bascially a 5 level zone and granted it is somewhat barren and only has 50 some solo quests but think about. its 595 tps which is like 6 bucks. Which you unlock forever. And around the level you are in the trollshaws you also should be at the level where you can bounce between evendim,trollshaws,the misty mountains and forochel. So for only 6 bucks it will give you a break from grinding the same zone.
Nice work this episode, and a howdy to Krorain & Rolf – good to hear from you guys, sounds like RL is going well enough.
Good job on getting through the review for probably the least-quested and most-desired-for-revamp zone in the game. Admittedly, I have only done Trollshaws on one character because I felt bad that I had ignored it, and I’m pretty sure I skipped over the fellowship content.
I’m pretty sure it was mentioned by someone(s), but I’ll echo that I kinda find it hard to compare Evendim with the Trollshaws. The former is in its second stage of evolution, while the latter is still basically in its primal form.
When Myst mentioned a housing option, I kinda thought it’d be cool enough just to add more to the forest. We don’t need to cut it all down or anything, and it can all remain on the west side of the Ford, but perhaps add an enterable cabin somewhere out there. I know there is that one cabin near Echad Candelleth, but I don’t think you can enter it, and it acts as a small hub. Basically, reward players a bit more for exploring the region, other than physical (meager?) quest rewards.
To the heck with it, let’s cut it all down and turn it into SimMiddle Earth 5.
YAY!! New Quest Pack Review!!!
An interesting idea, jumping off something you guys pointed out. With Gandalf and Thorin getting their “legendary weapon” here, maybe they should move getting your first legendary weapon here? Also going to Rivendale to get it identified.
I totally agree. This area needs a revamp! I do not remember who suggested this, but make it more lvl 25-39 zone that you would do right after Lonelands, but right before Misty Mountains. That would be really cool.
Also as far as the map have it with a dusty trail in the mountain areas in the map, so you know where you can go.
You guys are so right on, this area has alot of potential and would be nice area as an “alt” to Evendim.
Great podcast! Glad you are back!
I agree TS needs a MAJOR revamp. I always quest there to get my quest deed done then I leave. Really fast. I wish they would put that at the top of the list to redo asap.
In general I really like your podcast (thanks for all the great work!!) but listening to this episode was a bit cruel for me because, yes, Trollshaws is my favorite zone in LoTRO (up to now; don’t know all zones yet, my main is level 74).
Let me use two quotes from the podcast to explain what I like about Trollshaws: “It’s a mismatched zone.” (yes, that’s it!) and “Make the quest hubs feal like real quest hubs.” (no, please not).
The fact that Trollshaws is a bit mismatched is exactly what I find so adorable! Today’s thempark MMOs are full of perfectly streamlined questing zones where you just follow an overly simplistic quest flow from hub to hub like a puppet on a string. I much prefer the old-school, sometimes chaotic quest layout of zones like Trollshaws. If I am constantly reminded that everything has a very simple organization into quest hubs this breaks my immersion and makes the questing soo predicatable and just feel like a grind (you have to complete this hub before being sent to and “unlocking” the next hub). Also I like traveling all around a zone instead of following a single linear path through it, seeing everything just once.
I think all the arguments you gave in the podcast for streamlining the Trollshaws were a good summary of the player expectation that drives devs to make modern MMOs so dull and boring.
Sorry for the rant 🙂 As I said, it’s just this one episode, all your others are great!
Hello Academites! I agree with the first commenter that swift travel would be an easy fix that would help a lot of problems with this zone. Rivendell to Thorenhad, Echad Candelleth and perhaps one more stable in the North End of the zone for you to find and unlock. Think of how much easier that would make the epic with it’s multiple trips back and forth from Rivendell to Echad Candelleth and Dagorlad alone!
Echad Candelleth is actually my favorite quest hub, it actually has some nice areas and efficient questing compared to Thorenhad or Barachen’s camp (especiallyu the wood-troll caves beyond the waterfall.) You also forgot to mention a personal favorite quest of mine to retrieve Arwen’s jewelry from the hidden tomb south of Rivendell and the Gollum quest by the fishing cabin is a god one as well.
Lastly, I would recommend they consider changing the epic quests to explore the troll caves into an offensive skirmish (with three tunnels branching out from one main cave). That quest was always a pain and you could not finish it all at one sitting anyway due to the CD on inspired greatness. If they gave it the Moria 2.5.5 treatment it would be much better and would have lots of replay value. What do you think? Cheers!
– Braag of Vilya
It’s good to see a new podcast! Looking forward to having a good listen.