I'm a newcomer. Allow me to introduce myself.

[Remmo87]

Hello folks.

Allow me to introduce myself and ask a few questions.
The introduction won't nessecarily be important to answer
the questions, but I'd still like to properly introduce myself.

This will be a big one. If you're one that sticks it to the end,
thank you and well done.

On the gaming side of things; I am a long time lover of the first version of
World of Warcraft, also known as Vanilla WoW..
I played it on and off since launch in 2006, and on various private servers
since it was shut down duo to the expansion, and I re-experienced it once
again with the launch of WoW Classic.

Since blizzard moved the game into its expansions again, and I retried them,
I only got even more convinced that I do not enjoy the game pace
that the expansions offer. I need that tedious slow paced grind and
immersion that the classic version of the game offers.

On the book reading side of things; I have been fond of reading various
fictions, including the Warcraft series and especially Warhammer 40K and
Horus Heresy. I figured, since my friend recommended it, I’d give Tolkien a
try and I bought The Hobbit. I have seen The Lord of the Rings movie
years ago, but to be honest, I wasn’t that into fantasy lore back then,
and why I don’t remember much of it.
With that I figured;
“Hey, perhaps reading The Hobbit and starting out a LOTRO char would
be a great combination to get me deeply immersed in this new world.”

On the real life side of things; I am a 35 year old husband
and a dad of two kids, 3 and 5 yo. I have a big place, vegetable garden,
animals and a full time job. I play computer 1-2 nights a week.

So as a newcomer, in both lore and the game, I have a few
questions I need answered before I can eventually truly start playing.

1. Will LOTRO potentially be suitable for me? I'm guessing you already
know what I think, but I'd like to hear anyone's take on that.

2. If I want to experience a casual yet developing progression through
the world, eventually reaching the endgame where I can progress
through raiding, while experiencing roleplaying all along the way, is
there one server that would be specifically fitting more than others?
If yes, which one? (Keep in mind i am EU based)

3. I think id like to tank dungeons and eventually raids. I want to be that
heavy hard to kill tank that easily holds aggro on a group of mobs, not
nessecarily dealing alot of damage while doing it.
However, outside of the occasional dungeon i will mostly be leveling
out in the open world solo, where I don't want to be too limited by a tanking class/spec.
I want to be able to quest solo and kill somewhat efficiently, be it single
target or AOE, though I know i probably can't have the best of both worlds in one character.
What class would perhaps suit me the best?

4. Any others tips lorewise, gameplay wise or the like, that i need to be aware of before i start playing?
Keep in mind, once i picked class and race, i don't want to dive any deeper into the meta of the game.
I'm not a min/maxer, but I'd like to have that solid foundation of the (potentially) right class from the
start, instead of spending months to narrow it down.

Again, thanks if you made it this far.
Double thanks for any questions answered.

Best regards, Alfrederik

[Tiboric]

Welcome aboard Alfrederik

You will be getting alot of info. . So first advice is go check everything lotro on wiki. Wiki is one's best friend know days.
It'll help answer most, if not all of your game question's . Outside the social realm.
We have many from WOW here.
and again Welcome to LOTRO where the road goes ever on.

[LagunaD2]

I play both WoW and LotRO.

1) LotRO is great for someone who wants to enjoy the story at their own pace. Be sure to obtain an XP-disabling item (which is not free, like in WoW, but still cheap). I think you'll enjoy it more if you read the books, although the first half of Fellowship of the Ring will get you through fifty levels.

2) I don't know the EU servers.

3) Guardian is the "easy" tank. Champion has the best dps off-spec (and is probably the most rarely used as tank). Captain is a popular and versatile group-support tank currently getting a revamp to improve its soloing damage (similar in some ways to a WoW Paladin, since they can tank, dps or heal). Warden is a more complex regen/avoidance tank, also getting a long-overdue revamp. Wardens' performance in high-end content has been hamstrung by the fact that no dev has understood the class for about 10-12 years. Beornings and Brawlers were added to the game much later, and while perhaps serviceable, lack the design elegance and cohesion of the others in my opinion. Brawlers are also a bad joke, lore-wise.

4) Don't be a Dorf. You'll smell bad, and everyone will hate you.

[TesalionLortus]

I would never recommend anyone to give up on this game because at the end of the day it's a very unique, well-crafted product and one of the biggest open worlds in existence. So just give it a try and see where it takes you, who knows, maybe you'll fall in love with it.

Reading the LOTR books would be a boom but I know a person who played for a long time without ever having done that, with their knowledge back then limited to just movies, common knowledge and stuff adapted in other games, say Battle for Middle-earth games. When they finally read the books their conclusion was "well I pretty much knew all that from the game" so the game has you covered, so to speak. Though of course you wouldn't be able to tell what's an original take/addition of the game - that still ties somewhat neatly into canon lore though - and what's clear-cut book canon and events from the books. But if you're fine with that and want to pay attention to the world and quest dialogues - knowledge of the books isn't as mandatory for immersion, as long as you love experiencing the fictional world of the game and its characters.

So yeah, definitely a great game if you want to immerse yourself in its world and stories.



That being said...

I play computer 1-2 nights a week.

2. If I want to experience a casual yet developing progression through
the world, eventually reaching the endgame where I can progress
through raiding, while experiencing roleplaying all along the way

It all depends on how you look at it though and what these 1-2 nights mean (whether it's insomnia type of thing when it's really an entire night or just 2-4 hours before bed). And how dedicated you are to complete the game's content - whether your "casual" means you'll slowly take 4+ years to explore all content, or you're not exactly intent on completing every quest and would rather run around the world and do more exploring where you're drawn to, in which case it may be problematic - because most content in the game that allows you to progress is designed on linear railroads with prerequisites, which is even more true in later regions, and 1-2 nights (by taking your time, full immersion and exploration, no speed runs to level up) doesn't even sound like a lot so it's going to be years until you're level cap probably. And on landscape can only efficiently level up from quests, nothing else. There is of course a sheer number of those quests as it is and you would need that stone of the tortoise, XP disabler, if you wanted to complete them all without overleveling but as I said linear setup so you can't really run freely unless you're fine with running through empty lands but that's your play time running out and no progression at all during that time. But yeah, it's a beautifully crafted enormous world of Middle-earth, so even if it would take long and no reaching cap for a long time, I can recommend. Hopefully the devs will do something to solve these landscape problems I mentioned because the world has potential to be even more enjoyable with more options offered.

[Remmo87]

Thanks for your folks welcomes and answers.
To elaborate;


I'm starting to lean towards Man Captain. Seems like thats the answer to my 4th question.
Looks like it can be an effective tank, though perhaps more challenging than Guardian, which can
be a good thing imo, and it can solo level effectively single target. I don't like
being forced to pull 10 mobs to be effective. I like being forced to be careful what i pull, and
if successful in that, being effective.

I will not get the xp-disabling item. Though i like to immerse myself with
reading quest texts and taking time to gear up, i like to see my xp progress and i don't
mind leaving an area that gets outleveled even if i have remaining quests.
As long as there's somewhere new that i can immerse myself that is more XP effective.

I play about 6 hours before bed, 1-2 times a week.
When I play I'm usually pretty effective.
If I'm not questing or leveling professions, I'm in a dungeon getting loot and xp.
I don't run around "wasting time" on exploring without a purpose.
I like exploring, but only if i have quest or otherwise progressive tasks in the area.

I don't mind a somewhat linear approach. Wow is kinda linear too.

[LagunaD2]

Captain's are currently (in the live version of the game) kind of painful and slow to level due to low damage output. The updates in testing, which will likely be released some time in March, aim to address that, as well as bringing the healing spec's capabilities closer into line with those of other healers.

[Remmo87]

Captain's are currently (in the live version of the game) kind of painful and slow to level due to low damage output. The updates in testing, which will likely be released some time in March, aim to address that, as well as bringing the healing spec's capabilities closer into line with those of other healers.

That sounds good at least.
Am i correct that captain is a good tanking class?
I'll have the patience i need for the fixing of the low dps.

[Gandolf_TheOld]

Links t o LOTRO sites.

If you are wondering, Why can I only post here


Welcome to LOTRO

[wispsong]

Thanks for your folks welcomes and answers.
To elaborate;


I'm starting to lean towards Man Captain. Seems like thats the answer to my 4th question.
Looks like it can be an effective tank, though perhaps more challenging than Guardian, which can
be a good thing imo, and it can solo level effectively single target. I don't like
being forced to pull 10 mobs to be effective. I like being forced to be careful what i pull, and
if successful in that, being effective.

I will not get the xp-disabling item. Though i like to immerse myself with
reading quest texts and taking time to gear up, i like to see my xp progress and i don't
mind leaving an area that gets outleveled even if i have remaining quests.
As long as there's somewhere new that i can immerse myself that is more XP effective.

I play about 6 hours before bed, 1-2 times a week.
When I play I'm usually pretty effective.
If I'm not questing or leveling professions, I'm in a dungeon getting loot and xp.
I don't run around "wasting time" on exploring without a purpose.
I like exploring, but only if i have quest or otherwise progressive tasks in the area.

I don't mind a somewhat linear approach. Wow is kinda linear too.

There are plenty of choices to do the first 50 levels and the one story I encourage you to do is the epic. It leads you through most of Middle Earth (ME). You will have to fill in from quests with the regions to get the xp needed but it is by far for me the most important part of the journey. Don't do missions. While they help levelling, they also distort the story since most of them play later.
Laurelin is a RP server in English and there is one in German. Landroval is the American RP encouraged server and we have a lot of European players. All servers are located in America.

[LagunaD2]

That sounds good at least.
Am i correct that captain is a good tanking class?
I'll have the patience i need for the fixing of the low dps.

The dust hasn't settled yet on the coming round of changes, but yes, they are currently considered an excellent tanking class.

[Remmo87]

There are plenty of choices to do the first 50 levels and the one story I encourage you to do is the epic. It leads you through most of Middle Earth (ME). You will have to fill in from quests with the regions to get the xp needed but it is by far for me the most important part of the journey. Don't do missions. While they help levelling, they also distort the story since most of them play later.
Laurelin is a RP server in English and there is one in German. Landroval is the American RP encouraged server and we have a lot of European players. All servers are located in America.

Thank you. I will make sure to be on lookout for the epic story and follow that.
When you say don't do missions, but only quests on the side, how do i distinguish Missions from quests?
Keep in mind, i still haven't logged into the game yet.

[LagunaD2]

You don't mention if you've played LotRO at all yet, but coming from WoW you should set your expectations realistically.

The difference in resources and development effort between the two games is like the difference between a science fair project (LotRO) and NASA (WoW). In WoW, most bugs are fixed in a few days, if not hours. In LotRO, most bugs persist for months, if they are fixed at all.

For years, LotRO has been plagued by frequent and often severe lag issues due to cutting corners on server costs. Despite being described as "top priority", there hasn't been a shred of noticeable improvement. Ever.

LotRO's strengths (IMO) are its story and coherent background lore, the immersive landscape and the original class designs from the core game and first expansion. There is also a great community of casual and semi-casual players, if you find the right kinship.

Unfortunately, it also has a number of failed/uncompleted/abandoned systems accumulated over the years. The quality and polish of the endgame instanced content has nothing to recommend it over WoW, even for the casual gamer.

To sum-up: a low-budget game, highly faithful to its source material.

[LagunaD2]

Thank you. I will make sure to be on lookout for the epic story and follow that.
When you say don't do missions, but only quests on the side, how do i distinguish Missions from quests?
Keep in mind, i still haven't logged into the game yet.

Missions are a type of instanced daily quest, picked up from specific Mission NPCs around the world.

https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Missions

[Remmo87]

You don't mention if you've played LotRO at all yet, but coming from WoW you should set your expectations realistically.

I did mention that in my first post.

The difference in resources and development effort between the two games is like the difference between a science fair project (LotRO) and NASA (WoW). In WoW, most bugs are fixed in a few days, if not hours. In LotRO, most bugs persist for months, if they are fixed at all.

For years, LotRO has been plagued by frequent and often severe lag issues due to cutting corners on server costs. Despite being described as "top priority", there hasn't been a shred of noticeable improvement. Ever.

The quality and polish of the endgame instanced content has nothing to recommend it over WoW, even for the casual gamer.

That doesn't exactly sell the game very well.
However, i will test if the game is too laggy from my end to enjoy.
Even if the endgame isn't recommendable over wow, it still might be recommendable for
someone who has already done wow endgame, multiple times.over and over again throughout the years?

[LagunaD2]

Even if the endgame isn't recommendable over wow, it still might be recommendable for
someone who has already done wow endgame, multiple times.over and over again throughout the years?

I mean it's not as good in any way (IMO). There's much less content, meaning you have to run the content that there is more, and the quality and variety of the content and mechanics doesn't compare. No reason you couldn't still find it enjoyable though (and I hope you do). Finding a large, active kinship will improve your experience a lot when getting started.

[Remmo87]

I mean it's not as good in any way (IMO). There's much less content, meaning you have to run the content that there is more, and the quality and variety of the content and mechanics doesn't compare. No reason you couldn't still find it enjoyable though (and I hope you do). Finding a large, active kinship will improve your experience a lot when getting started.

I hope i will! I will try to find a fitting kinship, and I will give this game at least a month of play time,
6 hours a few nights every week.

Im thinking of starting on the Evernight server.
Any thoughts on that? It seems like the more active of the non-legendary EU servers based on this site:
http://lotrostats.gefallenehelden.de/

I figure i shouldn't go Legendary servers. I don't like the extra XP one but i most surely do not
like the -60% xp one either.

Joining a RP server would be nice, but i want as much activity as possible.

[LagunaD2]

I play on Arkenstone, which has a large North American and Oceanic population.

Evernight - being the most populated EU server - seems to have the most complaints about lag (the lag is strongly correlated with the number of players online). I've never played on it.

As others have mentioned, all the servers are on the US east coast, so there is no "ping" advantage to playing on an EU server. From the stats on that German site, you can see how the number of logins on each varies over the day. Higher population at the time you play is a mixed blessing, due to lag. Maybe some Evernight folks can comment on performance at peak time there.

Also, unlike WoW, there is no cross-realm gameplay in LotRO. You can transfer from one NA server to another NA server, or one EU server to another EU server, but for historical reasons (originally the servers *were* separate, with slight differences) I don't believe you can transfer between NA and EU or vice-versa.

It wouldn't be a good idea to start on a legendary server, I think.

[Remmo87]

Good point, i might actually do wanna play on a lower populated server then...
Even if there's no ping advantage to EU servers, I'd still like to play on a server where
i can find groups for dungeons in my playtime.
It will be in the middle of the night/early morning in US when i play.

I think ill go Laurelin RP after all.
Should be a good middle way regarding pop and ping.
And then ill have the joy of it (hopefully) attracting more RPers.

[LagunaD2]

If you're playing mid-late evening in Europe, it will be afternoon in the US.

[Tarbel]

Welcome! I am new as well. Can't wait to get invested!