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Episode 42: Wall Up Angmar

June 21, 2010 | by

Episodes from 2010, Podcast

albumart We didn’t really do much this week. Both our alts are stuck in the high 30s and are having difficulty finding content we’re able to complete. We decided we probably should go to Angmar and we are starting a “Wall Up Angmar” petition and just let the witch king have the entire region.

Town Crier:

E3 news:

Free to Play/Beta

Player News:

Raise Your Glass:

Letter from Thandain of Elendilmir:

Dear Merric and Goldenstar,

I was just wondering if you knew of any way to purchase a lifetime subscription to Lotro since I had just saved up enough money when the news of the change to F2P broke and I have been unable to find the option since. Now more than ever with the bonuses the VIPs get after the change, I would like to purchase a lifetime subscription so that I do not have to pay the monthly subscription. Any ideas you have or ways you know of would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Thandain of Elendilmir

Hamilcar of Brandywine:

Greetings, Merric and Goldenstar!

I have just recently begun listening to your podcast, and I must say that it is most excellent! My only regret is that it took me so long to get around to listening.

In order to make up for my tardiness in becoming a regular patron of your show, I have been listening to back episodes. In doing so, I discovered the interview you had with Galenswerd of the Lonely Mountain Band.

During the interview, he mentioned the “Festival in the Shire,” a celebration of all things Tolkien to be held in Wales this August. He also mentioned that he was planning on putting together a group to attend.

I was wondering, did anything ever come of that? and if so, is there still a chance to get involved?

Thanks for your time, and your podcast.
Hamilcar of Brandywine

Sidarin of Landroval:

hello, i didn’t know if you wanted my lotro toons name or real life name so i just went with my lotro toons name.But a few weeks ago I started to listen to your podcasts, and they are great I enjoy listening to how others casually play, and just plain enjoy listening to podcasts.

I my self am a casual player also on landroval, im a casual burglar who is right now in a kinship that casually raids from time to time (sorry if that doesn’t make sense) and I do role play alot when i can. The other day i meet goldenstar at weatherstock.

Anyway it was nice to find your podcast and i hope you continue to do well.

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About Goldenstar

Goldenstar plays a minstrel as her main and enjoys the small things in LOTRO like festivals, parties, & clothing. In her spare time, she will join in fellowships to root out evil from Middle-earth.

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30 Responses to “Episode 42: Wall Up Angmar”

  1. Edmo Says:
    June 22, 2010 at 2:00 am

    waiting for DX11 screenshots/video =/
    Ex WoW players in Beta don’t have compatible GPU =p LOL

    Reply

  2. Ketani Says:
    June 22, 2010 at 8:06 am

    My concern with purchasing virtues is that grinding deeds is a good way to really memorize your skills, find creative ways to kill stuff or pull groups of mobs, and in my experience, that’s how I’ve formed a lot of my skill rotations and playing habits. Repetition may be boring, but it’s one of the best ways to learn.

    However, I doubt most people will be paying to max out every virtue. I can easily see where someone would take the option to just buy one more rank of Determination rather than grind out hard to find mobs like crawlers in the Trollshaws. I don’t think it’s the end of the world if people rank their virtues differently than I do, and honestly, I’d rather be grouping with people that purchased a few of their virtues and are at or near max level with the ones appropriate for their class than someone who doesn’t see the point of grinding or purchasing virtues at all.

    Oh, and you can see someone’s virtues and equipped traits by inspecting them–assuming they’re not anonymous. I know of many times when people have been turned down for a group because their traits were sub-par or they were anonymous and could not be inspected. Player skill does not always = character build, and I’m not likely to join a group that insists I trait a certain way just because they said so unless there is a good reason for it. Meh, that’s a long winded way of saying that while I don’t agree with judging people entirely on their traits, I can see the reasoning behind it, too.

    Reply

  3. Pineleaf Says:
    June 22, 2010 at 8:57 am

    Is this the only reference to housing in the Ten Ton Hammer article?

    “Free players will also have access to lower tiered housing as they can’t hold enough gold for the Deluxe.”

    This just sounds like the existing lower tier (the one gold standard house) rather than a new even lower tier. It sounds like a response to a question “Can free players purchase houses?”

    Reply

    • Goldenstar Says:
      June 22, 2010 at 9:20 am

      Well if that is the case how stupid to put that in the E3 announcement post as if something new. Boo. I did say it didn’t make sense as small houses were only a gold. Bleh.

      Reply

  4. The Gneech Says:
    June 22, 2010 at 9:45 am

    At the risk of nitpicking, please say “EN – ED – WAITH,” not “END – A – WAITH.” Please. :)

    I have a friend who can’t say “prerequisite,” but says “pre-REZ-a-quit,” and it drives me crazy. Same deal.

    -The Gneech

    Reply

  5. Harperella Says:
    June 22, 2010 at 4:49 pm

    Hasn’t CSTM proven they are not in it for the pronunctiations by now? Lay off lore-folk!

    –Harperella

    Reply

  6. Hamilcar Says:
    June 22, 2010 at 5:16 pm

    I actually have gone all the way through Fornost. Took my mini there on-level back in the SoA days. We wiped once, and needed a 50 burg to get us to the end, but all in all, a nice, if long, instance.

    The story behind the place is actually really cool. You’re going in there to destroy four wraiths who are all that remains of the four gate guards who betrayed Fornost back when it first fell to the witch-king.

    Reply

    • Merric Says:
      June 23, 2010 at 6:45 am

      Ah, that is a cool story. It was pretty epic, our problem was mainly that we had people who weren’t paying attention, we had already been there for 3-4 hours, and we had a ton of respawns in the way that we didn’t feel like killing for the 3rd/4th time.

      Reply

  7. Rindan Says:
    June 22, 2010 at 8:43 pm

    Walling off Angmar would be a great idea, I did all the solo quests there and then left never to return. Will need to get my CD items from skimishes.

    Reply

  8. shire garbage man Says:
    June 23, 2010 at 3:52 pm

    Purchasing virtues leads to character imbalance. One player can max his virtues at level 15, the other not until level 60. Can you open additional virtue slots from the store? If so that’s additional character imbalance. Isn’t buying a permanent character improvement the same as buying top tier armour or weapons? They both make your character strong/better than his or her level and do so without needing to play the game.

    The problem I see is you want characters of similar levels to have similar ability levels because it would throw fellowships out of balance. Sure players call in higher level ringers all the time, but if I do a level 25 full group quest with all 23-27th leveled players, I expect that quest to be challenging, as it was meant to be. If they all have maxed virtues because they bought them (and those virtues aren’t available if you farm them at your level) then I have no way of knowing that necessarily without scrutinizing each player first (which seems an unnecessary step for a fellowship) and then determining if their traited slots will make the quest too easy. I’d be fine with temporary buffs to help you get through obtaining virtues quicker, like power and morale buffs or a temporary bag increase for an hour of warg claw farming, but I think *permanent* character improvements should not be part of the store.

    Reply

    • Goldenstar Says:
      June 23, 2010 at 4:41 pm

      I would agree with you if that is how it works.

      Honestly we don’t know that is how it will operate in the store. It’s possible there may be level blocks to prevent a level 25 from maxing out their traits. There certainly are blocks to a leveling character from maxing out as you have to make it to the next zone to get new deeds and such.

      Lets not forget free and premium players won’t even have all their trait slots available. They are limited to their trait slots.

      I think that many of the store items will be permanent improvements. Mostly because if I spend my points on something I want it to be mine not taken away. We know for certain there will be purchasable bank slot increases and shared storage that will be permanent. I am ok with it simply because if I’m going to spend my points on something, I want it to be mine – not a fleeting boost but something I own.

      Reply

  9. Harperella Says:
    June 23, 2010 at 5:58 pm

    Normal questing should get your traits up to about 5-8 across the board at level 65. There is a max of 10. The lazy/power levelling sort might be tempted to buy these. I know I am on my second character. I don’t really like going back to 60 Breeland to kill sickle flies or whatever, and I don’t feel like killing 400 worms in the end game areas.

    Reply

  10. Blister Burster Says:
    June 23, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    Greetings from Nexus on the EU server Snowbourn!

    You mentioned the Chicken cloak during this podcast so I thought you may wish to view a few pictures of it. It is quite easy to get now as a high level character can escort your chicken to the required locations. Rivendell is really the only location which is hard to get to due to stealthed mobs but with a high level char walking you though it should be a piece of cake. One thing to note is that there is also an emote available when you use the cloak….altough the one hour cooldown is a bit of a let down.

    http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/60701

    http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w136/gff_lister/ScreenShot00736.jpg

    http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w136/gff_lister/ScreenShot00732.jpg

    http://img521.imageshack.us/i/screenshot00154.jpg/

    Reply

  11. Barael Says:
    June 24, 2010 at 3:12 am

    If you havn’t yet ,you might want to take a look at the early Misty mountain quests. They are around lvl 39. At least one of the you get in Rivendell while the others are from the road up to the Misties and in Gloins camp. :)

    Reply

  12. Pinkfae Says:
    June 25, 2010 at 11:54 am

    The buying traits is just one step below to buying character levels. How would you two feel if I could buy levels and not have to spend all that time grinding my way to level 65?

    I have mixed emotions about being able to buy traits. I only have one toon that is maxed out on traits. I really don’t plan on grinding them on my other toons.

    Reply

    • Barael Says:
      June 26, 2010 at 5:10 am

      To be perfectly honest I’d feel that anyone buying their way to lvl 65 would have made a big mistake. Lotro is not that that heavy on the end game. A big portion of the fun is questing and lvling in my opinion! So in your senario I belive I’d be the one getting the better deal ;)

      But I know people have different playstyles.

      Reply

  13. Pinkfae Says:
    June 25, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    Why be in a beta? You get to provide input to the developers what you like or dislike about the game. I’ve been in a few betas (three total) and everytime I was in one at least one of my ideas made it to “going gold”. Its great to see stuff in game that you said should be there. There are two things in LOTRO that I suggested from past betas.

    They will listen if you actually take the time to voice your opinion! It is like any other product where they do customer testing. They will take your input seriously when prior to releasing it to the public. It is just good business.

    Reply

  14. Belegedan Says:
    June 28, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    Oh, great! I just get my main up to 35 and now I hear that the trip from 35-48 is one big snoozefest! *sigh*

    Well, I’m having a lot of fun playing my Guardian now that he’s made the big trip to Landroval I think I’ll find some way to amuse myself. Like earning 4g for a horse…

    Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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