Your First SoM Impressions

Posted on 02. Dec, 2009 by Goldenstar in General, Seige of Mirkwood

Sad HobbitYesterday I purposely left my laptop on and bugged Merric to remote in and start me loading the patch during lunch. I was prepared and ready. Baby Hobbit would be asleep by 9 p.m. and I would get an hour or two to dive into the new expansion.

Despite my best laid plans, Baby Hobbit did not see fit to allow any free time last night so I did not get to experience any of Siege of Mirkwood last night. Nothing’s wrong with her just one of her “sleep is for the weak” nights where she woke up every hour.

So I’m asking to let me live vicariously through you!

  • What were your first impressions of Mirkwood?
  • Did the launch go as smoothly as it seemed?
  • When I do get to play, what do you suggest I tackle first?
  • Was there anything you weren’t able to play with that you planned on?

Please leave a comment telling me about your experiences!

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17 Responses to “Your First SoM Impressions”

  1. Givias

    02. Dec, 2009

    Hey Goldenstar!

    I got in for about an hour before the wife and baby got home from their day, and I rode out to Lothlorien to try and get through to Mirkwood. I didn’t know that the lake on the far east end of Lothlorien can cause you to die and so I did and then had to log off.

    I was able to utilize the new mount changes, as the token disappeared neatly and was replaced with a skill hot button. Pretty cool to interact with NPCs and activate standing buffs on my Hunter while mounted. My goal was to run through the skirmish tutorial (what you have to do before joining any skirmish) but I wasn’t able to find the skirmish person to do that.

    So I guess I wasn’t able to get into it too much, but the launch was really smooth for me. I went home at lunch, set the download, and was able to get in no problem yesterday evening.

    -G

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  2. Rob Tillotson

    02. Dec, 2009

    Well, I haven’t had much time to try it yet, but I did log into a few of my characters and check out the new mount system, shared storage, reassign legacy points etc. Both of my Burglar’s 2nd ages were above 50 due to the IXP changes so I got a reforge plus with the changes to legacies, his tools got a bit of a boost too. Also I’m looking forward, with the combat changes, to using daggers in the future instead of a mace, it just seems more appropriate!

    As for the first thing I plan to do “for real”, that’s skirmishes… I enjoyed them in the beta and have been looking forward to them. I am also eager to check out the revamped Lone-Lands, but I can’t decide if I should go back with a 60 or level yet another alt in one of the two new character slots… oh god I’m such an altaholic :)

    Technically I had no problems… let the patch download while I was out, and was able to log in when I got home.

    –Rob

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  3. Gunthurr

    02. Dec, 2009

    Hi Goldenstar,

    I am a level 47 Guardian on the Gladden server.

    Being only level 47 I was unable to visit the new zone of Mirkwood, but I was able to partake of the skirmish content.

    After completing the access quest and doing the initial tutorial skirmish, which is a great intro to skirmishes, I was able to do 2 Solo skirmishes, Bree and the Dwarven one.

    The Solo skirmishes were great fun. They are a real challenge and with my Herbalist sidekick, I really got to fell like a Guardian battling the foes of Mordor.

    I look forward to trying some of the 3 and 6 player group ones in the future.

    I also liked the way you earn skirmish maks and can use them to develope your skirmish mate.

    Love the Podcast,

    Gunthurr,
    Guardian of Gladden

    PS. By the way, the skirmish camp that I used was found outside the Bree Gate that leads to the Lone Lands.

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  4. Jimwise

    02. Dec, 2009

    Skirmishes now own me. Completely.

    I patched early on like you did and played a bit over lunch. Mostly small stuff like fiddling around with the Adventure Pack toys and checking out the new features (the combat upgrade is a godsend to my Guardians!). Did the skirmish tutorials (was prepared thanks to your videos!) as well.

    Logged back in later that night and despite some very grumpy behavior from Landroval (server, not the community itself) had an absolute blast. I ran every skirmish available, some of them twice, and racked up quite the haul of marks already. Upgraded my Herbalist to level 6 and 6 in all skills as well. I love that grumpy old dwarf (how cool is it you can pick its race?), saved my butt so many times…

    Finally, after about 5 solid hours I called it a night. I can still hear that horn going off in my head. Another Lieutenant has entered the battles! Woot!!

    Hope you guys are able to play tonight. Good luck!

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  5. Jimwise

    02. Dec, 2009

    Oh yes, I never even got across the river to Mirkwood. Fun still awaits me!

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  6. Korrath

    02. Dec, 2009

    I got to play for a couple of hours and was geared up to get into the skirmishes!

    After a couple of neat surprises with the mount system and enabling the new combat animation system (which is cooler imo – I’m a 36 Champ) I finally finished the skirmish tutorial quests.

    Within only a couple of hours, I got 2 new purple armor upgrades and a new purple sword upgrade! Idk how I’m ever gonna level crafting or make any money now that skirmishes are out! :D

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  7. Pete S

    02. Dec, 2009

    I’m only 40 (my character that is, me, I can’t recall what 40 felt like) so for me it was all about the skirmishes.

    Launch felt pretty smooth but in retrospect I think Landroval was struggling since my herbalist (in skirmishes) was an awful healer and let me die many times in my first skirmish. Didn’t have that issue in the preview and I now think it was a bug/server lag, because in a subsequent skirmish I saw not only my healer stop healing, but an NPC colleague just stopped fighting for about 3-4 minutes (and I died).

    In spite of that, I had an absolute blast and earned about half a level just doing skirmishes (with rested experience).

    Shared bank space is going to be awesome for my altaholic self. Mounts as skills is great, but of course now half my inventory is filled with stacks of Marks! Maybe we can request a “Mark Wallet” to carry these things in.

    More details on my blog, but overall I was very pleased.

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  8. Merric

    02. Dec, 2009

    Well, first I spent some time creating and naming my new alts (rune-keeper and warden) which took some time as I wanted to use Sindarin names. Then I was able to log in and got my LI’s situated (just re-allocated points and added runes) and then learned my new “mounts”.

    Next I went off to the 21st Hall… Or at least I tried to, but I kept rubber-banding in the middle of a hallway. So then I went to Hobbiton and rubber-banded near Ted Sandyman who I swear was laughing at me the whole time. So I hopped a horse to Bree, but that’s when the baby decided sleeping was stupid so I logged out quite tired and frustrated.

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  9. Deburgh

    02. Dec, 2009

    Logged into Brandywine last night and started out getting my legacy items in order, decideing what i wanted and did not want. Then over to Mirkwood (did nto the intro was a starter instance..thought it was always so crazy!) Well there were lots of problems. there were corpses everywhere STANDING UP, one quest where you rescue soldiers was bugged out and then back in loth 2.9.1 was bugged as well so I’m stuck there. I have to say though, one good thing about crowding was that there is an area in teh starter mirkwood where you have destroy stuff and its VERY hard with all the mobs, considering they seems to regen after 20-30 seconds! The large numbmer of people in there last night helped.

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  10. SeanMc74

    02. Dec, 2009

    Let’s see, the first thing I did was create my new alts a Hobbit Warden and a Dwarf Minnie. Now I have 1 of each class.

    I took my 60 Champ to the nearest Skirmish camp and got those quests then it was off to Mirkwood. Only got to spend an hour or so in Mirkwood, still level 60 even though I saw a couple level 63’s running around.

    So far I’m liking it, will play more tonight and hopefully get to try out the Skirmishes.

    Reply to this comment

  11. Fionnuala

    02. Dec, 2009

    Last night was pretty nightmarish on Landroval anyway. Zombie Orcs everywhere, people losing their Kinships, trouble forming and disbanding groups. I ended up giving up and going to bed early. Hopefully today I’ll be able to jump right in. :)

    Reply to this comment

  12. Docholiday

    02. Dec, 2009

    For me the big hit was skirmishes – so I’d suggest getting them going as soon as possible. I suggest grabbing that quest first, then go off and do something else (head to Mirkwood, whatever) such that it doesn’t feel like such a grind. I’ve posted a few videos up on youtube – you can them on my blog or search for docholidayj7.
    As launches go (I’m on silverlode) it was incredibly smooth, nothing real terrible at all.

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  13. Phebe

    03. Dec, 2009

    I left my computer on while I was at work, and it downloaded the patch and installed it, so that I could log in right when I got home. Awesome! Upon logging in, I checked out my new goat and fiddled with my UI. I changed all my bag buttons to something more useful and moved my hunter ports off of my quickslot bars so I could free up some spots. I love that I can just click on my “Skills” button and activate my port from there. Also, I discovered I could port while sitting on my goat! That was a fun moment. So the new mount system is a HUGE plus, don’t know why they didn’t do this 2 years ago. ;-p

    After that I picked up the skirmish quest and headed for Mirkwood. After dying there, I decided to go back to Moria for a bit. Since I’m a “new 60″ I’m just not tough enough for those baddies in the Mirk-eaves yet. Got my war-orders for the skirmish quest while killing orcs in Moria, then turned it in and started the tutorial, which was so darned much fun. Did two more skirmishes after that, one solo and one 3-man. Very very fun, and I am spending all of my marks on upgrading my little hobbit-lad herbalist! It’s like having yet another alt! Heehee. Hope you get to play some SoM soon, Goldenstar!

    (Oh, and I did have a couple issues on Landroval — the game crashed on me twice, and my loading screens took much longer than usual, but other than that, very smooth!)

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  14. Parts Held Back from SoM | A Casual Stroll to Mordor

    03. Dec, 2009

    [...] went very smoothly. Apart from Landroval and Brandywine having server issues, there have been very few complaints I’ve heard. Perhaps part of this is due to some parts that were planned to be released being purposely held [...]

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  15. Blue Kae

    03. Dec, 2009

    I tried to get prepatched by leaving my computer on and the launcher up, but when I got home I was getting an error every time I launched. I think there was a problem either because of Windows 7 or because I was in the beta. Fortunately I was able to find a quick fix on the forum, then it was a short wait to patch up.

    My first night on Landroval, I unlocked skirmishes and finished the Mirkwood intro instance (killing Orcs to unlock both at once).

    - Brynulf

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  16. Candace

    03. Dec, 2009

    I am in love with skirmishes! I haven’t stopped playing them on my Rune Keeper since I got into SoM. I’ve not even checked out the re-vamped quests yet.

    I did have a Burglar that I kept off the leveling status just so I could try out the Lone Lands re-vamp and the new Book 2 re-vamp. I was mildly disappointed. Lone Lands is still a serious grind but some of the bad grinds have been made into bounties now which does make things nicer. I’m 50/50 on the quests there. I don’t like the LL grind, but I do like the new bounties and Book quests.

    All together, Mirkwood is so much fun and some awesome improvements, especially for low level characters!

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  17. Heiko

    04. Dec, 2009

    The update on this side of the pool was very smooth. I downloaded the torrent with the pre-patch that Codemasters had made available. Yesterday was our big day in Europe, around 9 in the morning the patching servers became available, and while my clients (mine and that of my girlfriend) were applying the pre-downloaded patch, the game servers came up as well! So once I started applying the patches, I was able to log in about 20 minutes later!

    I didn’t expect the gameservers to be up early in the morning, so it completely ruined my working day ;) .

    I avoided Mirkwood because I heard it was so crowded and I remember last years queuing up for mobs in Moria… So I started with the skirmish prequest and did some solo tier II skirmishes thereafter. They provided a nice challenge and I really liked the system. Later that day I did more skirmishes with a couple of friends and they are even more fun when in a small fellowship! It is complete mayhem at times! We ended the day with a Tier II small FS skirmish (the thievery one in Bree) which we did ok, until we met the end bosses (two 40k nemesis mobs…). And we couldn’t figure out how to get them down.

    The extra challenges that are put in the skirmishes also provide great fun. Well done I’d say!

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