Merric posted this on October 26th, 2011.
Categorized as altoholic, moria, Project Altoholism.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/wwb6r5lGTxw/
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?
Read the rest of this entry »
Merric posted this on July 8th, 2011.
Categorized as altoholic, alts, Minstrel, project, Project Altoholism.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/Siei0vmiWq0/
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Merric posted this on January 17th, 2011.
Categorized as altoholic, General, Project Altoholism, SOA.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/I-JYCxxM7WE/
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Merric posted this on January 7th, 2011.
Categorized as altoholic, alts, General, Hunter, project, Project Altoholism.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/Xi4-DmLKXNQ/
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Merric posted this on December 31st, 2010.
Categorized as altoholic, project, Project Altoholism, Warden.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/oFbxzHoskuo/
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Merric posted this on December 15th, 2010.
Categorized as altoholic, alts, project, Project Altoholism, runekeeper.
Shorthand Link:
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Merric posted this on December 1st, 2010.
Categorized as altoholic, alts, Burglar, project, Project Altoholism.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/H5URTygXss8/
It was when I was playing this character that Azz mentioned to me that he was afraid I was burning myself out by leveling alts. I personally didn’t see it, but now that I’ve spent the past several weeks on my Guardian again, I definitely can see it. Not that I don’t love the class; I do. It’s probably one of my favorites out of all of them. But as I’ve stated before I found leveling quite dreary. That aside, I did get the most done with this character because of his ability to breeze through most of the content.
Where the other characters took a lot of time working through things, this character had no problems. With this character I was able to complete all of the quests in Esteldín that were not group related. I was also able to breeze through quite a bit of the content with little issue. It was also playing this character that I learned that all the crafting professions are able to craft a reputation item for different factions located within the game. This is probably something that most players are aware of, but it was a bit of a revelation for myself. I still felt that grinding Skirmishes was more rewarding, but it was good to know that if I had spare resources around they could go towards another aspect of the game other than the Auction House.
Read the rest of this entry »
Merric posted this on November 18th, 2010.
Categorized as altoholic, alts, champion, General, project, Project Altoholism.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/vR5LNZKG-IA/
By the time I got to the Champion I was just about fed-up with the questing process of 30-40; which was not a good thing considering that I had a few more characters to level. Previously I had gone from Garth Agarwen, to Oatbarten, to the Eastern part of The North Downs, and then to Evendim. But it felt slow; in fact it felt very slow. So to move things along I removed several steps including Garth Agarwen and Oatbarten. Instead I travelled straight to Esteldín and worked on the West side and then the East; moving onto Rivendell and then the Eastern side of the Trollshaws; augmenting them with Skirmishes when need be.
I also still found that the Champion is still quite gear dependent; more-so than any of the other classes. In fact, this character is one that I usually intentionally upgrade midway through the leveling process. Firstly, I will upgrade his weapons. This alone usually resolves 95% of the issues that he has surviving encounters. If this is not enough, I will go ahead and upgrade his armor as well. This goes a long ways into describing my playstyle with the Champion, which is to “burn them down” before I get defeated. Although I usually start distributing armor, weapons, class items and food to my alts when they reach 31, after reaching level 35 or 36 I headed over to a skirmish camp and purchased a couple of axes; and boy was I surprised. While it may not be news to some, but the art for the weapons you can purchase from skirmish vendors is pretty amazing! This resolved my issues and I went ahead and just replaced my armor as needed with quest rewards instead of going out of my way to obtain upgrades.
Read the rest of this entry »
Merric posted this on November 12th, 2010.
Categorized as altoholic, captain, General, project, Project Altoholism.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/1eowrp2S01Q/
I’ve been hot on the Minstrel ever since I discovered how effective it was at utilizing its offensive skills. I was seriously impressed and “in love” with the character playstyle. Although I was warned by Goldenstar and others that this could possibly change, I don’t think I was quite prepared with how frustratingly difficult things could actually become. In fact, for the first time since starting this character I found myself quickly frustrated and ultimately just plain ticked off at how I ended up having to play my character.
Now let me stipulate several things:
Read the rest of this entry »
Merric posted this on November 2nd, 2010.
Categorized as altoholic, captain, General, project, Project Altoholism.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/PGvO2gSczN4/
Despite discussing my burnout on the last couple of episodes (which is starting to fade), I started off with a pretty optimistic point of view with my Captain. What can I say about it other than I love this class (just not as much as Elborigorn). The Captain is a strong solo character that despite getting an abundance of “fellowship” orientated skills is still able to solo more effectively than most of the other classes in LOTRO; especially since the changes in Volume 3.2.
To give you an idea of how much I enjoyed the Captain, when his racial traits started popping up later in the experience, I had no problem with the idea of grinding them all out. Seriously, the character is just that much fun to play. Other classes were a chore, but the Captain just keeps getting better as time goes on as long as you enjoy melee classes. Personally, I only had to gear up the Captain once (at 31) and he was able to go through all the levels and areas I took him too with little to no problem. That’s not to say his gear couldn’t have been upgraded with Skirmish rewards, crafted gear, or quest rewards; it’s just that he didn’t need them.
Read the rest of this entry »
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?
