There’s a lot of tanking classes in LOTRO, or at least melee and taunting classes. They can be lumped into three categories: the main tank, the off tank, and the bad tank. We can dress them up all we like, but that’s what it comes down to in most gaming situations. Considering all the possible combinations we are always left with one question; which class is the easiest to heal while in a group? Obviously the heavy tanks are the easiest to keep track of, as long as they do their jobs properly ; ). No offense players, but I get pretty upset when someone other than the tank pulls aggro right away. It’s not your fault and we all know it, but its aggravating nonetheless.
One thing I will say is that for sustainability, Wardens can go all night. For example, one gambit you simply MUST be aware of is The Dark Before Dawn, your happy warden will need to be below 50% morale in order to regenerate their power pool. It doesn’t have a recharge, but it IS a 5-part gambit, so you might want to give them a little time below half morale until you notice their power pop up a notch or two. Just be sure to let the warden know that you’ll happily cooperate with them to make the fight go faster and less stressful for all parties involved. They’re considered to be a main tank and I don’t have much experience with them. But this was one of the gambits I was aware of, so if you have other tips for healing Wardens, please let me know!
Skirmishes have been a success since day one of their release. This past weekend I was describing them to a friend of mine who quit in 2007 and he said a system that would allow him to jump into the game and then jump out 20-30 minutes later would be perfect. Needless to say, I’m going to be dropping him a line on September 10th to remind him to sign up for an account. Luckily for him, he’ll be able to try skirmishes 10 levels sooner than I was since with free-to-play Skirmishes will now be available at level 20 instead of level 30 (which is what it is set to now). As a free player he’ll have access to 4 skirmishes compared to 9 as a VIP (Premium only have 4 as well), with the option to purchase more.
So what skirmishes are available at what level, and how much will they cost?
Today we take a look at several of the LUA plugins that have been written by Beta Players during the Free-to-Play testing period. The two that we have featured in this episode are:
Plugin Manager which, once loaded will load and unload installed plugins through an interface instead of requiring you to use chat commands.
Hunter Travel Window which creates a separate window for all of your travel abilities (which despite the name works for all classes) freeing up your bar space and general UI clutter.
Lord of the Rings Online is a very rich, detailed world. The developers put a lot of effort into capturing the essence of real life in the game, so naturally you want to take screenshots and share the beauty with others! Here is the first in a series of posts with some beginner tips and tricks to help you get the screenshot you want.
Taking the Screenshot
Right off the bat before we go into anything else the first thing you need to know is how to take a screenshot. That’s easy!
In today’s Dev Diary (which we will have a review of up shortly) was released the Instance Join List that we will see in Free to Play. Those that are in bold type are the dungeons that have been revamped, while the rest are within the Instance Join List, but have yet to be converted to the new scaling model. Looking at the list, I’m pretty content with the number of instances that we’ll have on the new model and considering that I cannot solo my way through them it should provide plenty of time to gather marks and purchase the gear and cosmetics I want before I start yearning for some new dungeons. It will be interesting to see the progress that will be made on converting these dungeons over to the new system coupled with the release of new skirmishes.
A set of fair and well-enforced rules help build a structure for your raid that helps keep people on the same page and will do well in earning you the respect you need to do your job effectively.
This is the second part in the series on leading a raid. See Part 1 on Communication if you missed it.
The “Alternative Methods” guide set is aimed at presenting different ways to fill the basic roles/needs in any group or instance without use of either the normal class/roll or method. My goals with these set of suggestive guides are to break people of the “You have to have classes A, B, C, D and 2 others” mentality as well as offer suggestions of how to use skills and mechanics more aggressively in the logic of the best defense is a killer offense.
The classes in this game are far more flexible than some realize and there are a lot more possible class combinations that can work through content just fine. Break this mind set and you may find new fun and challenges in your everyday LotRO gaming.
The biggest key in raid success and especially in succeeding as a raid leader is communication. Everything from basic rules and strategy to who needs to go AFK and when needs to be communicated. If nobody knows anything because nothing has been communicated then the raid will inevitably fail and the leader will have failed as a leader.
In the topic of communication we’ll be covering the following subtopics: Quality Voice Software, “Keeping the Air Clean”, “Setting the Table” and Troubleshooting.
So you’re looking for a house eh? First know that two type of houses are available to individual player, the standard and the deluxe format. Here’s the breakdown of the differences between the two.
Standard
Deluxe
Purchase Price:
From 950s to 1g150s
From 6g650s to 8g50s
Upkeep Price:
Approximately 50s
Approximately 150s
Chests:
1
2
Hooks:
No Ceiling
No Special
2 Small Floor
No Large Floor
3 Small Furniture
2 Large Furniture
3 Small Wall
4 Large Wall
3 Thin Furniture
3 Small yard
1 Large Yard
1 Doormat
1 Ceiling
1 Special
2 Small Floor
1 Large Floor
5 Small Furniture
4 Large Furniture
8 Small Wall
10 Large Wall
6 Thin Furniture
4 Small yard
2 Large Yard
1 Doormat
We received a very well written email from Decimma of Gladden explaining his way of making money on the Auction House in LOTRO. I thought it such a good email, I asked if I could post it on our site to share with everyone. Thank you for sharing, Decimma!
Dear Casual Stroll,
I wanted to write in to add to a former interviewee’s suggestions regarding playing the Auction House (AH) and keeping yourself in the “black ink” in Middle Earth.
My main, Decimma (65 RK) is an explorer by trade, and that toon is now up to 137 gold and growing. I’m not writing in to brag and I realize that there are players out there with much more coin than I, but I’d like to offer up a few strategies that others may find helpful. In fact, if I were really trying to make coin, I am confident I could have double or even triple my current coin as I have been playing for nearly a year and a half now, and I find making virtual coin more of an occasional hobby than an obsession.
