DocHoliday posted this on August 31st, 2010.
Categorized as BG, End Game, Enedwaith, Free to Play, Guardians, Raids and End-game, beta, captain, champion, champions, gear, group, hard-mode, lotro, moors, pvp, reputation, screenshots.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/todays-update-to-bullroarer/
As I quoted yesterday, Sapience indicated that some of the items in the store have been tweaked. Now granted, I will admit I may be a build or two behind on some of these but I did want to talk about a couple of them as there was a new patch up today. However, nothing earth shattering on the patch with only a few notes in total.
First up, I’m happy that they did add in a helm to the Annuminas Heavy Armor set. I’m not super excited about the look, but it is nice to have another option including the cloak to get the full 6/6 bonus which this set really needs to be comparable. I’ve updated my spreadsheet but am really struggling with Google Docs so I’ll probably wait until launch and post a final version. But certainly take a look below for the stats and looks of it.
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DocHoliday posted this on August 30th, 2010.
Categorized as BG, End Game, Equipment, Guardians, Minstral, Minstrel, Mirkwood, Raid, Raids and End-game, Warden, captain, champion, champions, crafting, gear, group, hard-mode, lotro, moors, radiance.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/good-warden-end-game-gear/
This will probably have some spill-over for the other classes as well but I wanted to start keeping track of not only some of the better gear options but where some of these things drop. The forums are a great resource for this kind of information but sometimes it can be hard to find and even lost due to forum wipes.
The armor sets are a little easier to keep up with and follow, but I do have some spreadsheets for Wardens, Captains, and Minstrels comparing the various sets statistically and visually.
When it comes to jewelry and cloaks it gets a little bit harder for 2 main reasons. First off there’s just a lot more variety in these areas with crafted, drops, quest rewards, etc that all can be viable in certain cases. But probably the tougher part is that many of these are random boss drops that don’t always drop so it can be hard to not only track them but remember where they dropped from.
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DocHoliday posted this on July 30th, 2010.
Categorized as End Game, Equipment, Mirkwood, Raids and End-game, Warden, gambits, gear, group, legacy, legendary items, lotro, moors, threat.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/tell-the-community-team-wardens/
No surprise here, I have some thoughts on this one 
And I strongly recommend all you Wardens to post your thoughts as well. I’m going to just copy/paste what I have here into the thread on the live forums.
Question 1
Give three examples of changes or improvements you would make to improve the Warden class (e.g. skills and abilities). Please limit your responses to 3 brief examples. Wardens only please!
1. Lower the power costs of the gambit builders themselves, we have lots of ways to drop the gambit costs but they don’t apply to the builders which are the big problems.
2. Another ranged attack would really help us fulfill a secondary ranged DPS role.
3. Some way to recover threat after a death. Something on a long cool-down that pops us back to our pre-death level, or even pre-death level minus some percentage.
Question 2
If you could create one new legacy to add to the Warden’s Legendary Item pool, what would it be? Please specify whether you feel it should be a Pool A or Pool B legacy.
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DocHoliday posted this on July 27th, 2010.
Categorized as End Game, Enedwaith, Equipment, Free to Play, Raid, beta, expansion, festival, isengard, legendary items, lore, lotro, moors, radiance, rohan, screenshots.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/filefront-hands-on-with-lotro-f2p/
There’s been a number of write-ups from people (Massively Part 1,Massively Part 2) who have had hands on experience with the new content and business model but Ron Whitaker’s (@ffronw) from FileFront did have some new tidbits that I figured I’d touch on. I’m not going to focus on the portions that are common from the other previews, just the things I haven’t seen before.
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DocHoliday posted this on July 16th, 2010.
Categorized as End Game, Equipment, Mirkwood, Raid, Skirmishes, Traits, Virtues, captain, gear, group, legacy, legendary items, lotro, moors, podcast, pvp, radiance, threat.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/captain-roundtable/
If you missed it live (or want to listen to it again), a Casual Stroll to Mordor’s Captain Roundtable is now posted both on their site and on iTunes. I participated but definitely Elb and Geiri really do know their stuff and they do play their captains slightly different. If you have a captain or want to learn more about the class, it is certainly well worth the listen. It is a little long (a shade over 2 hours) but we do also cover a bunch of other group related topics as well. The build-up and recording of it certainly has gotten me more fired up about the class and I’m actually working on my captain again as well as working on his radiance. I did finally hit 65 and realized that I really do miss the class I’m not saying he’s going to become my main again, but certainly not banished to the Thorin’s Hall Homestead either.
DocHoliday posted this on July 8th, 2010.
Categorized as BG, End Game, Equipment, Mirkwood, Raid, Raids and End-game, Traits, Virtues, captain, crafting, epic line, gear, group, legacy, legendary items, lotro, moors, podcast, radiance, threat.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/captains-roundtable-live-tonight/
In case you missed the post from a Casual Stroll to Mordor I will be participating in another roundtable tonight, this time focusing on Captains. If you can join us live at 9pm Eastern (-5GMT) there will be a live chat room where you can participate. The link for the chat room information is either on CStM’s live page or on the LOTRO Network. Or you can feel free to post questions here or on their thread, or email one of us if you have specific questions or topics you’d like us to cover. It will be a similar format to the Warden roundtable.
And if you can’t make it live, we’ll both be posting when it it released.
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DocHoliday posted this on June 30th, 2010.
Categorized as End Game, Equipment, Mirkwood, Raids and End-game, Skirmishes, Traits, Virtues, Warden, gambits, gear, group, legacy, legendary items, lotro, moors, podcast, pvp, radiance, threat.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/warden-roundtable/
As I mentioned a week or so ago I participated on the Casual Stroll to Mordor’s podcast as part of their class roundtables, this one focused on the Warden class. I will admit it is a bit of a long episode (tad over 2 hours) but it was fun to not only have my thoughts but a couple other very good Wardens as well. Both Azz and Ryodor play the class slightly differently then me and have different experiences so it is a nice diversion from my ramblings.
For those of you looking to pick up additional tricks or are just starting out with the class I’d strongly suggest taking a listen.
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DocHoliday posted this on June 22nd, 2010.
Categorized as Equipment, Mirkwood, Skirmishes, Warden, cosmetic, gear, lotro, moors, screenshots.
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Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/new-battle-outfit/
I’m not as much of a home decorator in game, but I do tend to change my outfits quite frequently. Through some previous work in the Moors and luck with the gift boxes I was able to get enough of the various spirit stones to get some of the Ettenmoors armor. I have no desire to use this for actual armor, but it just looks much cooler then other sets. Pretty much for those who haven’t seen it, the moors sets are the same look at the Moria Radiance sets but black and purple (by default). The main difference is that they’ve changed the majority of the color schemes to black such that you can actually create a dark looking set. I may end up getting the boots and shoulders if I can get enough of the Luminous Stones (need 6 more) but for the boots I need to be rank 5, and I’m still only at rank 4. So I took a couple of shots after a trip from the Moria Keg and then dyed the set black and took a couple shots from Mirkwood.
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DocHoliday posted this on June 21st, 2010.
Categorized as End Game, Equipment, Guardians, Minstral, Minstrel, Mirkwood, Raid, Raids and End-game, Traits, Virtues, Warden, expansion, gambits, gear, group, legendary items, lotro, moors, podcast, pvp, radiance.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/podcast-re-cap-and-updates/
The Casual Stroll to Mordor folks have been running a series of class specific round-tables, the first of which being for the Minstrels. All sorts of good information as they had a good mix of play-styles represented. So if you’re interested in learning about the class or how to better group with Minstrels it is a great listen.
The second of the classes they’ve covered is the Warden and I had a blast as one of the participants on that episode. It hasn’t been released, but as soon as it is I will put up the link. I will admit, in hindsight I might’ve been a tad on the confident (or cocky) side but as a tank I do think you need to have a bit of that mentality. Again we did have a good mix of playstyles like the Minstrel roundtable so that made for some great discussions.
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DocHoliday posted this on June 4th, 2010.
Categorized as Free to Play, General, Mirkwood, Skirmishes, Traits, expansion, lifetime, lotro, moors, pvp, radiance, volume 3.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/turbine-announces-lotro-going-free-to-play/
Ironically we were just having this discussion over on Mordor of Bust but Turbine made it official today with the official announcement that they’re adopting the same pay model as they recently implemented with Dungeons and Dragons Online. Needless to say, twitter has just exploded today with all sorts of discussions and comments.
I’m still a bit conflicted about it, but so far I’m leaning more to the positive side but more on my thoughts later, I’m just going to make this a news and summary post.
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