This week we have a decent amount of news and a ton of fun!
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Game News
New Roving Threats and PvMP Details – Update 16.2
Scheduled Server Downtime: Monday, July 20th
Store Sales
Free Sample Of The Week July 17th – 23rd
Regeneration Food x5 Use Coupon Code CD814 1/Account
20 % Off
- Shared Storage
- Vault Upgrades
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Limited Time:Now – July 23rd
- 20% off 1 year of VIP
LOTRO Players News
Imbued ‘Legendary’ Items – Tips, Tricks, and a Guide to the ‘Grind’
LotRO and Lore: Statues of the Elves
LOTRO Video Highlights: Song of Durin
LOTRO Academy: 108 — A Return to Normalcy
The Cottage of Pen and Play: The Diary of a Wood Elf – The Second Age
The House of Beorn – The Ranger(s)
The Family Line Part 55 – Twenty and Twenty
The Family Line Part 56 – A Court to Take
The Family Line Part 57 – To Retake the Ancient City
This week’s New Player Question is brought to you by MEAT: (Karv will read/perform)
“Hi LOTRO Players News! Hope you like this advert.
Hello, friends! Stay & have some tea with me, Bingo Boffin. Let me introduce you to Middle Earth Adventure Tours (MEAT for short). I’ve been scouting locations in Eriador recently and would like to offer you an alternative to enduring the summer doldrums. Are you longing for adventure? How about a tour of the Lone-lands? Go grab your hat & whip to be Indiana Jones searching for archaeological artifacts amongst the Arnornian rubble! Or perhaps you’d prefer a hunting trip? Then grab your weapon of choice & come bear hunting! You have the choice of the Blue Mountains or northern Bree-land. But if you’re the type to sit in the sun & fish all day, why not visit a cabin on the Brandywine in the Shire? For those who can’t decide upon a destination, why not pick up all 3 bundled together? So what are you waiting for? Go to Lalia’s Market in Bree and she will help get you all set up on your adventure!
Thank you,
Merryrose Morningsong”
New Player Question
What was your best noob moment? Maven will share first so you can think.
Week In LOTRO
Andang
- Finished the first episode of Middle-earth Lore
- Released on Patreon
- Put a ring on it
- Almost lost all my characters in The Hall of Fire
Arathaert
- Final L.UN.C.H. run! Had a DNS for Belegaer and a toasted chicken by Nimrodel – stream plan going forward: LAW.
- Finally got into a T2 Osgiliath run! Had fun tanking and the healer was a lil surprised ;P Totally lucked out with drops too.
- Landy mini!!
Karvett
- Ran all three skirmishes in Moria along the line of the Epics, finally completing the Dwarf part of that arc. Now to speak to the Elves to be sent back into deeper and darker parts of the world.
- Did a LOT more crafting, organized my leather hoard, crafted guild symbols, got most folks up to Westemnet, etc.
- Ran warbands in East Rohan for the first time. Was able to do all of them in a Duo including Bugud.
Maven
- I DON’T HAVE TO DO TUCKBOROUGH EVER AGAIN! (at least on one of my alts)
- Got Dresedin ready to run with Karvett and Kompany by doing all three epic quest Moria defensive (yawn) skirmishes….
- A tour of Moria with Teri’s runekeeper
Teriadwyn
- Lots of Trouble in Tuckborough with the hobbit guardian. Concluding in an epic 6-man with Maven, Pineleaf, Draculetta, Karvett and Ickarium.
- Arkenstone Teriadwyn got her Legendary Weapon, then ran Sarnur with Maven, Pineleaf and Draculetta to get Thorin’s Hall rep.
- Hobbit mini worked through more of epic Volume 3 and killed lots of things. Feeling like such a noob again on war-pony.
Pineleaf
- My Gladden Beorning ran the early parts of Mirkwood. I am currently at the Haunted Inn and am running quests in Dannenglor.
- On my challenge character, I ran the Weathertop part of Book 2 and ran skirmishes.
- Mythgard Battle of the Deep-way run. A few there were running it for the epic.
Donations
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Feedback
Reviews
Garnagras the Corsair Pirate left a 5-Star review on iTunes:
“Ahoy
Whenever I be traveling from Umbar to Peligar on a sea voyage I listen to LOTRO Players News to pass the time. | You’ll laugh so hard you’ll have to mop your poop deck. | It’s more fun than polishing me peg leg. | I always remove me hook or I might poke me good eye out. | Yarghhh!!! | And if you listen closely you can even hear me parrot JarjarJax. | X marks the spot on LOTRO Players News!!!!”
Gilvo on Nimrodel left a 5-Star review on iTunes:
“Wonderful program!
Wonderful hosts, great humor, and a fantastic source for new information about the game. I very much enjoy the skirmishes; which is a segment in which the hosts discuss a specific portion of the Tolkien universe and how well, or poorly, that part is depicted in LOTRO, the movies, and the original books. Keep up the good work!
Emails
Breadan writes:
“Good day guys,
I mail from sunny England (believe it or not, it is sunny).
I have been playing since beta…I remember picking up a hard copy of Lotro all those years ago and thinking oooh, this looks like fun! Boy was I right, I haven’t looked back since, except a few breaks here and there but that’s to be expected in any MMO. I have seen many changes since the games launch and I am sometimes guilty of chatting about the “Good ol’ days” in world chat.
I came across your podcast about 8 months ago now after hearing about you guys on the academy podcast and it is a pleasure to hear you all each week share your opinions on the different aspects of the game, whether they be good or bad and I find it hard to disagree most of the time. There was however one topic that caught my attention a couple of weeks ago and it wasn’t so much about the game but more about…marriage counselling! Someone wrote in saying that their wife saw them playing and wanted to join in and since then they have been enjoying this wonderful game together. If only I was that lucky! My wife just rolls her eyes every time she even hears me mention the game. “What are you doing?” she’d ask to which I’d happily reply, “Just doing a few errands for Elrond before bed”. This is met by a look of confusion but I know that she must be a keeper because most women would hand me divorce papers quicker than I could say Tom Bombadil.
Now what would you all suggest? It took me a lifetime to get her to watch the films, don’t get me started on trying to get her to read the books! I have shown her the wonders of middle earth too but she then just looks at me like I need a doctor, and quick.
Also how long have you all been playing and how much has the game changed since you started? Do you miss how it was?
I hope that I will get to join your adventures in middle earth. I play mostly on the Laurelin server but I would happily make a character elsewhere to join you all.
Many thanks and keep up the good work.
Tom aka Breadan”
Bellcaunion writes:
“I just listened to my first live show and participated in the chat. I want to thank you all so much. I recently had a death in my family and listening last night really brightened my mood. I had a blast and I can’t wait until next Saturday I will definitely be there. Keep up all the good work, you guys are the best.
Thanks again
Bellcaunion
(Bell-cow-neon)”
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Maven @tolkienmaven
Pineleaf @PineleafNeedles
Teriadwyn @Teriadwyn
Final Thoughts
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To be clear, I had not ran the Skrim Tutorial on my Mini on Landy.. just that Char.. (it sounded on the show, like I have never ever ran that 🙂
Great show, everyone! 🙂
As I listened to the wonderful discussion regarding everyone’s experiences and perspectives on how things have changed in LOTRO from the time they began playing, and in particular Andang’s comments on Helm’s Deep, a thought-experiment came to mind:
What differences would there be today if Vyvyanne and the current LOTRO team, knowing what they know now, were at the Helm during the development period for Helm’s Deep?
How many ‘impossible’ things might have been made possible? How many things ‘that will never happen’ would have happened?
Before Helm’s Deep, LOTRO was a place where the developers’ actions said, “Here is MIddle-earth, for you to enjoy in any way you wish within the bounds of what we can conceivably provide you, given the resources we have.
With Helm’s Deep, LOTRO changed to a place where the developers’ actions said, “Here is MIddle-earth, for you to enjoy in the chosen manner we have provided for you. If you do not like it, there is the door.” If you look at what came with Helm’s Deep, from Epic Battles only having one difficulty setting, to trait trees forcing ‘specialzations’ upon players, every single facet reduced the player’s ability to make choices.
If your playstyle fit the playstyle Turbine provided with Helm’s Deep, you were fine. But for those it did not, there was little recourse but to find somewhere else to go.
The greatest example of this was the change to the skills and skills system. It would be one thing to decide from the start that a simplified skill system would be best and develop things from there. Instead, Turbine decided to remove content that had already been conceived, developed, tested, retested, published and balanced from a 6 year old system, that many enjoyed, in order to force one playstyle upon all of their players. Sadly, ‘tragic’ is the kindest descriptor I can think of for that.
Thankfully, as dark as that dark age was, things are much brighter now. One simple example of that was Turbine adding the old sounds of the Lute and Harp back to the music system, to accommodate players who preferred the old instruments. As simple a change as that was, I am not sure the team that brought us Helm’s Deep would have done so.
The decisions made with Helm’s Deep cost us so many things, from resources to players, and even the careers of developers. What would a team more open to listening to the community have been able to do with the resources available to it then?
I best clarify that when I say ‘developers’, I most definitely do not mean those who breathe what path is decided for the game by others into life, but rather those who choose the path.the game will take. Clearly, there has been a tremendous reversal in that process 🙂
Been AWOL for a little over a week now and now getting caught up on the podcasts that I missed. What do I hear??? More about marriage counceling. Let me tell you my wife and I laughed so hard. You guys had us rolling. Just a small update, we made it to lvl 52 and are adventuring in Moria. She likes the area where I cant wait to get back out in the open. But still kicking butt and taking names.
You guys rock, keep up the great work.