Goldenstar posted this on March 5th, 2010.
Categorized as General, crafting, jewelry, reference, tinker.
Shorthand Link: http://combo.mmeow.net/h12
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/Cf85HwXYMXk/
Our good friend Adam (El-Galandir) sent us this link to Updated Jewelry Recipes for Volume III: Book 1 and boy was he right when he told us it’s an awesome site. It’s a great way to quickly look and compare the jewelry options available including the multi-output recipes. It allows sorting to try to narrow down to just the pieces your interested in. It really is pretty stinking handy.
Crafters always appreciate it when you come to them knowing exactly what you want and can even offer some of the materials they need. The worst kind of customer is the guy who says “ I need a new ring, what can you make?” I can make all sorts of stuff but what do you need?
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DocHoliday posted this on March 2nd, 2010.
Categorized as End Game, Minstral, Minstrel, Mirkwood, Single player, Warden, crafting, epic line, gambits, group, legendary items, lore, lotro, screenshots, volume 3.
Shorthand Link: http://combo.mmeow.net/gx4
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/my-first-day-in-volume-3/
I was pretty successful yesterday, although I ended up running out of steam towards the evening 
and didn’t get quite as much done as I had planned.
I started off on my Minstrel as I had less to do on him. I had logged out the previous night at Gath Forthnir such that I could jump right in and finish off the final quest of Volume 1. Considering this is still a level 50 quest, my 65 minstrel had a LOT of fun running through there. The “Inspire Greatness” buff is quite fun and I ended up having some real nifty big numbers floating around my screen 
The biggest was my Call to the 2nd Age critting for over 5K on all three mobs attacking me! Here’s a shot of me in the middle of that quest, and a shot of the buff (notice at this point I had forgotten to re-do my legendaries)…
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DocHoliday posted this on February 27th, 2010.
Categorized as Raids and End-game, Skirmishes, Warden, crafting, epic line, festival, lotro, screenshots, volume 3.
Shorthand Link: http://combo.mmeow.net/gtn
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/massively-tours-volume-3-book-1/
In case you haven’t made your patch day plans, Massively has a pretty good walkthrough of all the new things coming with the latest update. as they continue their weekly feature “On the road to Mordor.” Be warned, there are some spoilers in there as they describe some of the epic storyline and the new Rift skirmish. But there’s also information about the upcoming festival and it looks like once again they’ve come up with another fun game! I mean not only to do you get to stomp shrews, but you have a chance to win a huge shrew lawn ornament!
Certainly some nice information, including screenshots, and I’m again looking forward to this upcoming Spring festival which starts in a couple weeks.
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DocHoliday posted this on February 26th, 2010.
Categorized as End Game, Equipment, Minstral, Minstrel, Mirkwood, Raid, Raids and End-game, Skirmishes, Warden, books, crafting, epic line, gear, legendary items, lotro, pvp, radiance, volume 3.
Shorthand Link: http://combo.mmeow.net/gsk
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/plans-for-patch-day/
As you may or may not have seen, Monday March 1st is patch day for LOTRO as Turbine releases Volume 3 Book 1. The full official patch notes are up, but I will admit I didn’t see too much different between this version and what was posted to Bullroarer. I’m pretty excited about this patch not only for the content but it actually hits at a good time for me personally such that I’ll have big chunks of un-interrupted time available! So I figured I’d try to plan out a bit what I’ll be up to. I’m sure there will be many other thoughts and/or plans – what’s everyone else excited about doing first?
First up will be a check on my Minstrel for all the crafting changes. He’s my Cook/Jeweler so there are lots of changes I’ll need to absorb and ingredient lists to make (although I may try to do some of that ahead of time). Then I’ll probably have to put up sticky notes to remind myself to re-distribute points to my legendary items It is then off to Angmar to finish up Volume 1 Book 15, chapter 12 and get my new horse!
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DocHoliday posted this on February 25th, 2010.
Categorized as End Game, Equipment, Raids and End-game, Warden, crafting, epic line, gear, group, legendary items, lore, lotro, runes, screenshots, volume 3.
Shorthand Link: http://combo.mmeow.net/grf
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/developer-diary-volume-1-revised-edition/
The much anticipated Dev. Diary on the Volume 1 revamp has been posted by Orion. We already knew many of the details, but I really appreciate the way all of these diaries (and this one is no exception) walk us through the process in how they attempted something particular. I’m all for the changes and not just because I want my pretty horse I also appreciate that they were very concerned about not only the balance but the lore and remind us that all throughout the LOTR books there are cases where characters do things they probably shouldn’t normally be able to do. The general idea behind this is when doing quests that would normally be a full fellowship you will get a scalable buff to your morale, power, regen rates, incoming damage, and outgoing damage all of which scale based on how many others are in your fellowship. So this system allows you full flexibility in not only your initial play through but allows you to repeat these quests in any fashion as well, which was a draw-back to the system put in place for the Lone-lands revamp.
The addition of the “Elf-stones” allows them to tightly control the areas where these massive buffs will be allow during quests that are out in the open. However, maybe my memory is failing me, but I can really only think of one quest that is a fellowship quest out in the open. That quest is the find the rider quest in the Trollshaws, which other then farming trolls, there’s really no reason to go down there.
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DocHoliday posted this on February 24th, 2010.
Categorized as End Game, Equipment, Guardians, Mirkwood, Raid, Raids and End-game, Warden, captain, crafting, gambits, gear, group, legendary items, lotro, pvp.
Shorthand Link: http://combo.mmeow.net/go5
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/wardens-in-the-ettenmoors-part-2/
So I really haven’t taken my Warden out in the moors at all, but I am starting to get more of an itch to go check it out. I did quite a bit of PvMP back in the SoA days with my Captain and Minstrel and did enjoy it quite a bit. It is a nice diversion from grinding rep, IXP, or other things you might do at the level cap. I managed to stumble upon a couple of posts on the LOTRO live boards about how to fight as a Warden in the moors with some cool ideas for leveraging other classes.
I did mention the moors a while ago when I saw a thread on this same topic but it wasn’t nearly as intriguing or promising as this more recent post
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Goldenstar posted this on February 21st, 2010.
Categorized as Bullroarer, Episodes, Episodes from 2010, crafting, dev diary, dungeon, episode, maintenance, podcast, raids, skill.
Shorthand Link: http://combo.mmeow.net/gm2
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/xR6gzRJBwpc/
This week’s CStM we primarily talk about the raid into the rift that we both were able to attend. Well Goldenstar did the whole thing, Merric came in at the end to tank the Balrog. Merric also discusses his experience with the Lone Lands revamp with his Captain. Our main topic is actually about these two areas and how some areas get attention while other pieces are mostly left as is.
Goldenstar is happy to report she’s finally getting the skirmish system and doing well. On her burglar anyway. She’s able to complete on level tier 1 skirmishes without any difficulty.
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Merric posted this on February 18th, 2010.
Categorized as Dev Team, General, LotRO News, crafting, dev diary, turbine, volume 3.
Shorthand Link: http://combo.mmeow.net/gj0
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/fB_DIGv5U2M/
On Thursday, February 18 Turbine released a Developer Diary containing details upon the upcoming improvements for Jewelers and Cooks, as well as the new class item recipes for Woodworkers and Weasponsmiths, that we will be seeing released with Volume 3, Book 1.
Jeweler
All bracelets, earrings, necklaces and rings crafted after the release of Volume 3.1 will have different stats that have been “…reblanced to provide better, more useful stat increases, and to generally improve the quality and consistency of jewellery stats across the board!”- Bracelets, earrings, necklaces and rings crafted post Volume 3.1 will have different icons than the current versions.
- All existing crafted jewellery pieces will remain the same, whether they are worn or stored.
Many of the recipes in all tiers have been updated and have become multi-output recipes. (Meaning they can create different versions of the same item, usually with different stats.)- Some recipes (the example given is the “Ring of Tactics” will be redundant. This will be addressed at a later time.
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DocHoliday posted this on February 18th, 2010.
Categorized as Equipment, Mirkwood, crafting, gear, lotro, reputation, screenshots, volume 3.
Shorthand Link: http://combo.mmeow.net/gj3
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/developer-diary-crafting-update/
Today Turbine released another developer diary, this one talking about the crafting system updates. Certainly a good read as there are lots of changes – but the main ones for me were the jeweler and cooking/farming changes. I’ll summarize them, but certainly go check out the full notes. A lot of this was evident from the patch notes, but this breaks it down into more detail.
All jewelry items have had not only their stats adjusted but also their looks as well. In addition, they’re also implementing the multi-output option for jewelry just like they did for the armor professions. Because of this, certain recipes, like the various tactics rings, will no longer exist as they are now one of the output options. It is important to note that existing items will NOT change, just newly crafted ones. So, if there are ones you like better make them now For a full listing of the new stats, check out my previous post on this topic.
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Mordor or Bust posted this on February 7th, 2010.
Categorized as crafting.
Shorthand Link: http://combo.mmeow.net/gby
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MordorOrBust/~3/4txcwopTrHs/
One of the biggest pet peeves I’ve encountered in LOTRO is the lack of a decent economy on my server. It is difficult to purchase crafted items when you need them as you level a toon. When I was part of a large kinship it was less of an issue because I could always ask a kinmate to craft something for me. But now that I decided to create my own kin I simply don’t have that luxury any more.
I like to be self-sufficient as much as possible, so about a week ago I decided to level up enough toons to max out every possible crafting profession. Yeah, I’m a glutton for punishment! LOL
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