DocHoliday posted this on November 15th, 2011.
Categorized as Armies of Isengard, End Game, epic line, Equipment, gear, group, instances, isengard, legacy, legendary items, lord of the rings online, lotro, Patch Notes, Raid, Raids and End-game, Skirmishes, Update 5, Warden.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/11/15/update-5-armies-of-isengard-release-notes/
I’m sure many have already found these but I at least wanted to toss in a few comments as I go through them. I will be going through the armor sets and the Warden class here in the next day or so. And remember, these are just the first set of notes so get on Bullroarer, test, and submit those bugs!
Some of the big items in this update are (many talked about here):
Read the rest of this entry »DocHoliday posted this on October 7th, 2011.
Categorized as epic line, isengard, legendary items, lore, lotro, Rise Of Isengard.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/10/07/developer-diary-isengard-book-4/
In today’s Developer Diary, Jeff “MadeofLions” Libby walks us through the design process for the main storyline in Isengard, Book 4 of the Epic Line.
This is somewhat of a fluff article, but a couple things jumped out at me:
Read the rest of this entry »DocHoliday posted this on October 7th, 2011.
Categorized as epic line, isengard, legendary items, lore, lotro, Rise Of Isengard.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/10/07/developer-diary-isengard-book-4/
In today’s Developer Diary, Jeff “MadeofLions” Libby walks us through the design process for the main storyline in Isengard, Book 4 of the Epic Line.
This is somewhat of a fluff article, but a couple things jumped out at me:
Read the rest of this entry »DocHoliday posted this on October 6th, 2011.
Categorized as Developer Diaries, epic line, gear, instances, isengard, lord of the rings online, lotro, podcast, Rise Of Isengard, Skirmishes, threat, Warden.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/10/06/episode-24-off-to-isengard/
Maybe you’re luckier then me and don’t have the song stuck in your head, but this episode talks about the recent news and my impressions so far on the Rise of Isengard expansion.
News:
Read the rest of this entry »DocHoliday posted this on October 1st, 2011.
Categorized as crafting, epic line, expansion, gear, instances, isengard, lord of the rings online, lore, lotro, Rise Of Isengard, Traits, Warden.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/10/01/isengard-post-launch-thoughts/
I’m a little torn so far on my thoughts for the new Isengard expansion. I haven’t had as much time in game as I might like, but I have been in quite a bit and have hit 70 on my Warden.
Starting with the downers, there are significant issues with the expansion as you can see from the Known Issues thread. There are some little ones, but some major ones like the Lua crashing issue. The frustrating part about the Lua issue is that this was well known and documented during Beta, but since Lua isn’t officially supported it wasn’t addressed nor have work-arounds been released to the developing community. For now the best suggestion is to not use plugins, which unfortunately hits me pretty hard as there are many that I really enjoy. There are also 2 quest completion traits that are messed up including the deed for the Trum Dreng zone which is one short of completion and the Starkmoor quest completion Starkmoor quest completion that incorrectly includes the 4 fellowship quests inside the Pit. This pack certainly does feel rushed to me as I’m just surprised things like this made it through without being addressed. I really hope we see something in the next week or so that addresses these issues.
Enough of the down sides, with all the issues Isengard has, the zones are amazing. I’m really enjoying the quest lines and all the stories involved in the expansion. I realize there are many kill quests and the like but they’ve wrapped them in such a way that I don’t notice it nearly as badly. The zone phasing effects are quite well done and are a huge new tool for them to tell better stories. The Weft’s Cleft instance is also really well done and gives me all sorts of hope for what’s to come with some of the larger battles we know are coming.
Read the rest of this entry »DocHoliday posted this on September 26th, 2011.
Categorized as captain, champions, Classes, End Game, epic line, expansion, gear, group, isengard, legendary items, lord of the rings online, lotro, Minstral, Raid, Raids and End-game, Rise Of Isengard, Warden.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/09/26/rise-of-isengard-official-patch-notes/
While you wait for the patching and servers to come live, there are certainly enough patch notes to keep you busy.
I don’t expect too many changes, but as always there are a few things that we haven’t seen.
Read the rest of this entry »DocHoliday posted this on September 13th, 2011.
Categorized as beta, champion, crafting, Draigoch, epic line, expansion, gear, group, Instance, isengard, legendary items, lord of the rings online, lotro, Minstral, podcast, Raid, Raids and End-game, reputation, Rise Of Isengard, store, Warden.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/09/13/episode-22-isengard-interview-with-turbine/
I have to admit I was a little shocked by the conversation today with Turbine on a number of fronts. I was very happy to hear from folks other then the Producers, not that that’s not valuable, but I had some pretty specific questions that I was glad to here ZC and Graalx2 hop in to cover. Not to mention there were quite a few very exciting things brought up in this interview.
My apologies for the call quality, not only were they on a speaker phone but I was recording using Google Voice which would sometimes drop out on our ends, but still record in good quality resulting in some question repetition.
Read the rest of this entry »DocHoliday posted this on July 28th, 2011.
Categorized as beta, crafting, End Game, epic line, Equipment, expansion, finesse, gear, group, isengard, lord of the rings online, lotro, radiance, Raid, Raids and End-game, reputation, Rift, Rise Of Isengard, Skirmishes.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/07/28/lotro-rise-of-isengard-itemization-developer-diary/
Today Turbine posted a new Developer Diary talking about the itemization coming with the Rise of Isengard expansion. One of the big encouraging things for me was the intent to incentivize all sorts of player types including solo, crafters, raiders, and casual groupers. Of course, we still have to actually see it, but I was encouraged that they’ve identified there is a problem and are working to try to fix it. The pure fact that many still raid OD (all my characters do) with numerous pieces of the Moria sets highlights that we’ve been stuck in an item rut for a long time.
The first two points of the diary were to identify the big problems they’ve been facing:
Read the rest of this entry »DocHoliday posted this on July 20th, 2011.
Categorized as Angmar, beta, dragon, Draigoch, epic line, group, isengard, lord of the rings online, lore, lotro, Raid, Raids and End-game, Rise Of Isengard.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/07/20/my-take-on-lotros-draigoch/
I’m sure many of you by now have seen the image of the upcoming dragon in LOTRO with the Isengard expansion but I wanted to talk a bit about it. For me it looks amazing and is certainly what I think of when I picture dragons and brings back good memories of battles with Thorog. And based on what mechanics we’ve seen Turbine pulling out for the new instances, I’m very interested in what all Turbine has up their sleeves for what this nasty will bring out for us. I’m a D&D fan and have all sorts of fantasy influences, so I’m all about dragons and love to see them in games. Now granted, I wouldn’t want Turbine to break the lore (which would have issues with anyway), but if they can find ways to do it well I love it.
Now for some reason I can’t quite understand, it seems to me that many are jumping out of the woodwork to protest this dragon, but not Thorog or even when Draigoch was initially announced. However, Berephon has been amazing on the thread and has posted many times on this exact subject.
Read the rest of this entry »DocHoliday posted this on April 21st, 2011.
Categorized as beta, End Game, epic line, Equipment, expansion, festival, gear, group, isengard, lord of the rings online, lotro, mounts, Raid, Raids and End-game, Rise Of Isengard, rohan, Skirmishes.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/04/21/massivelys-interview-on-lotrors-future/
Massively got a chance to sit down with Adam Mersky and Aaron Campbell to chat about the next couple of updates coming to Middle-Earth. Check out the full article, but I did want to cherry pick a few items:
