Merric posted this on October 26th, 2011.
Categorized as altoholic, moria, Project Altoholism.
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It’s been a while since I’ve spent some time in Moria; I mean really spent some time in there. However, recently with the Fellowship walk and my wife putting a hold on her Minstrel until it had completed, I decided that I would pull out my Champion and run through a bit of Moria and really put the Rise of Isengard changes to test (at least as far as the Fury and Ardour lines go). And I have to say I was a bit surprised at what I discovered on my journey.
First off, let me say that in my alt experiment one thing that I should have done, as suggested by a fan, was to stagger out the levels of the characters so that they were all at different level ranges. 
However, I tend to be a fairly linear thinker so I decided to take them all through the same zones at the same time. And for a while it worked well. In fact, I really loved the Lone-lands so much that I enjoyed my time going through that area on all my characters one after the other. But I didn’t really think about my time going through the areas that I didn’t like so much the first time through, especially Moria. That’s not to say that Moria is a bad place to go through; in fact it’s one of the more epic areas in the game and everyone should experience it at least once. Still, I think most people would admit that it has some shortcomings like being hard to navigate at times; in later levels it really sends you running all over the place; and after too much time underground the dark atmosphere can get to you. And once I started hitting level 50 on my characters the thought of running 8 characters through Moria back-to-back (my Guardian has already gone through a while ago) worried me . I mean seriously, how did I not think about this at the start?
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Merric posted this on July 8th, 2011.
Categorized as altoholic, alts, Minstrel, project, Project Altoholism.
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There really isn’t much that changed for me with the Minstrel in these levels. My plan for leveling pretty much just stayed the same as always. But I really can’t say I had many complaints. I just take things easy and try not to pull more than two to three mobs at a time while making sure that I drop out of War-speech or even run away when things get out-of-hand. Even so, I also consider this class to be on the other spectrum of The Captain, and my experiences pretty much affirm when and where I am going to have difficulties on some of the classes that I consider to be more difficult to play.
However, I did find myself pleasantly surprised this time around upon finding that I had an easier time with some of the tougher Eregion mobs than some other people I noticed leveling up along with me at the same time. Don’t get me wrong though, there were still a number of Merric deaths, but as I got more attuned as to when I should drop War-speech things went much more smoothly. The ability to heal ones’ self and still do some decent DPS helps both in landscape and in Skirmishes really goes a long way to making the experience much better. Still I’m thinking that the Rise of Isengard revamps are going to make the experience all the better.
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Pineleaf posted this on February 17th, 2011.
Categorized as altoholic, captain, Skirmish Guides, Skirmishes.
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When my captain reached the low 40s, I finally discovered the wall. What wall is this? This is the point where skirmishes are cranked up a notch and they become more challenging.
While I have already skirmished with two other classes through this level range, I had not noticed this wall before. Yes, I read about it in the forums but I had never personally experienced it. Why is this?
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Pineleaf posted this on January 27th, 2011.
Categorized as altoholic, Burglar, class, General, Guides, Skirmish Guides, Skirmishes.
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When I wrote the first article on playing the burglar, I had not yet set the format for this series. As a result, the information in my first article on the burglar covered the Footman levels more than the Recruit levels. Despite this, I generally avoided referring to skills you gained after level 20, so there is something to discuss concerning the burglar for this second series.
| Level Range |
Name |
Number Soldier Skills |
| 20-29 |
Recruit |
1 |
| 30-44 |
Footman |
2 |
| 45-59 |
Esquire |
3 |
| 60-70 |
Guardsman |
4 |
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Merric posted this on January 17th, 2011.
Categorized as altoholic, General, Project Altoholism, SOA.
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Content. It’s one of the main things that keeps us entertained as we progress through the game. And although new content is being released we sometimes forget about what content lies within the lower levels. So, it was with some surprise that as I leveled my Captain closer to level 50 the more content started opening up for him to complete. Quickly I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with choices and even as I made decisions about what quests to fulfill, what zones to explore, and what goals to accomplish I couldn’t help but feel that I was missing out on various things in the game that were intended to keep players entertained once-upon-a-time before the Mines of Moria expansion was released.
And as a result there is a lot of content to choose from. So much, in fact, that someone who didn’t have the Moria or Mirkwood expansions could find themselves occupied for a while allowing that they could actually find level appropriate groups to go through some of the content.
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Merric posted this on January 7th, 2011.
Categorized as altoholic, alts, General, Hunter, project, Project Altoholism.
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Ah, the Hunter. It wasn’t with more than a little trepidation that I picked up this character and began leveling to 40 with this character after a long stint of going through Enedwaith and leveling reputation with my Guardian. However, after telling Goldenstar that she could go ahead and level her Rune-keeper and seeing her progress with it; I felt that it was time for me to go ahead and move forward with that character. And in the blink of an eye I was level 34.
To say that the Hunter was a breeze to level would be an understatement. The first time I ran Skirmishes with him I felt like I was cheating because it was so easy! Using a Warrior as my soldier (I wanted something out in front of me and decided to go double DPS) really allowed me to get through them with little to no problem.
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Pineleaf posted this on January 6th, 2011.
Categorized as altoholic, Guides, Skirmish Guides, Skirmishes.
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Lord of the Rings Online allows you to play nine classes. Each class has its own style, challenges, and role in a group. I am engaging in my own altaholism project by playing several skirmishes with each of these classes.
I will run through each class in four level ranges that correspond to the rewards ranges for marks and bounties dropped by lieutenants and bosses. These are also approximately the same levels at which your soldier gains new skill slots.
| Level Range |
Name |
Number Soldier Skills |
| 20-29 |
Recruit |
1 |
| 30-44 |
Footman |
2 |
| 45-59 |
Esquire |
3 |
| 60-70 |
Guardsman |
4 |
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Merric posted this on December 31st, 2010.
Categorized as altoholic, project, Project Altoholism, Warden.
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The Warden itself usually revitalizes me when I hit “the wall” with my alt leveling project. It really is a fun class that’s just “different” enough from other classes that I really get a kick out of playing it every time. Also, the fact that it’s a tank also helps quite a bit, because that’s my preferred method of playing. Or maybe it’s just a marker that my time in this leveling in this area is done. Whatever it may be, I usually start feeling better about everything when I start playing this character.
Now first off, I am a Warden dumb-dumb. Most of the other classes I play I really feel like I’ve started getting into a good “groove”, but with the Warden I discovered that at level 30 I was really behind in my class deeds. I mean really, really behind. So my main goal this time around was to make sure that I accomplished as many of these deeds as possible. To do this I utilized some of the Warden plugins, namely Warden Ease, to make sure that I was performing the correct gambit and by placing them on my Quest Tracker as a constant reminder. However, in the later levels as the deeds were completed I tried to start working on a skill rotation; starting off with an aggro gain gambit, throwing up a defensive gambit and then testing from there. The next go around though I’m definitely going to have to take a closer look at DocHoliday’s Warden posts and the Official Warden Forums to get a better idea on what works for other people and then make it my own.
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Pineleaf posted this on December 30th, 2010.
Categorized as altoholic, Guide, Guides, Skirmish Guides, Skirmishes.
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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/ApnBVDzOA8A/
Lord of the Rings Online allows you to play nine classes. Each class has its own style, challenges, and role in a group. I am engaging in my own altaholism project by playing several skirmishes with each of these classes.
I will run through each class in four level ranges that correspond to the rewards ranges for marks and bounties dropped by lieutenants and bosses. These are also approximately the same levels at which your soldier gains new skill slots.
| Level Range |
Name |
Number Soldier Skills |
| 20-29 |
Recruit |
1 |
| 30-44 |
Footman |
2 |
| 45-59 |
Esquire |
3 |
| 60-70 |
Guardsman |
4 |
Read the rest of this entry »
Merric posted this on December 15th, 2010.
Categorized as altoholic, alts, project, Project Altoholism, runekeeper.
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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/_3E25yaeqLU/
I’m always blown away when I bring out the Rune-keeper, or any DPS for that matter really, with how easy it is to drop a mob. It’s astonishing to me how quickly things can die when you play a class that’s actually meant to do damage! Before I met my wife, I purely played DPS and utility classes; never a tank. When she met me though, I had discovered how much I loved tanking so she’s never really seen me in that role before, except for a brief time in WoW. And granted, I’m very much out-of-practice, but thankfully thanks to my weekly group I’m getting the hang of being more proactive than a reactive player; making DPS all the more familiar. But even if I didn’t have my group to help me along, nothing will encourage you to blow up mobs like playing a Rune-keeper.
Levels 30 – 40 give you some nice utility skills with Abrupt Words and Weapon of Storm. Using either one of them has its own drawback, but on the whole they round out a Rune-keepers abilities quite well. It’s not hard to see why the Rune-keeper class gives the Hunter class a run for its money when it comes to popularity. Nice healing abilities, great DPS capabilities, some nice utility skills and some amazing skill graphics make for a good player experience. And even though the new patch was a bit unsettling for some players, most have found that despite having to switch chisels or re-arrange their skill rotation they’re still doing really well.
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It’s been a while since I’ve spent some time in Moria; I mean really spent some time in there. However, recently with the Fellowship walk and my wife putting a hold on her Minstrel until it had completed, I decided that I would pull out my Champion and run through a bit of Moria and really put the Rise of Isengard changes to test (at least as far as the Fury and Ardour lines go). And I have to say I was a bit surprised at what I discovered on my journey.
However, I tend to be a fairly linear thinker so I decided to take them all through the same zones at the same time. And for a while it worked well. In fact, I really loved the Lone-lands so much that I enjoyed my time going through that area on all my characters one after the other. But I didn’t really think about my time going through the areas that I didn’t like so much the first time through, especially Moria. That’s not to say that Moria is a bad place to go through; in fact it’s one of the more epic areas in the game and everyone should experience it at least once. Still, I think most people would admit that it has some shortcomings like being hard to navigate at times; in later levels it really sends you running all over the place; and after too much time underground the dark atmosphere can get to you. And once I started hitting level 50 on my characters the thought of running 8 characters through Moria back-to-back (my Guardian has already gone through a while ago) worried me . I mean seriously, how did I not think about this at the start?
