A Casual Stroll to Mordor

That’s right, in this round of leveling I’ve gone not 10, but 15 levels. Previously in my alt leveling project I’ve usually only covered 10 level increments, but after the release of Rise of Isengard it felt that Level 65, not 60 was a natural place for a stopping point

When I got my Champion to level 75 I was excited. I finally felt that I could get my weekly dungeon group going and that soon I would be able some raids with my kinship.

The last time I played my Minstrel, I said that I would put her aside until I reached 75 on my warden and Lore-master. While I leveled my warden immediately, I decided to level my minstrel to 60 before leveling my lore-master to the new cap. Yes, I am still wearing the outfit from the [...]

I think most of us who have played any MMO for a considerable amount of time has been there. You find yourself in a situation where slowly, but surely you discover that one of your characters besides your main is taking up the majority of your time. Maybe it started innocently…

When I started out with with the Warden I fell in love with it. I seriously thought that maybe this class would be one that would eventually replace my main of a Guardian. And as I leveled throughout the world of Middle-earth I was amazed at how everything was much easier and more laid back.

Ah, Mirkwood; vast forest inhabited by elves, orcs, spiders, and crazy adventurers. Previously it was the occasional holiday vacation spot of Hobbits and Dwarves, but now it has been besieged by the invading forces of the Free People who seek to root out the forces of evil from Dol Guldur. But as someone who went through Mirkwood right after its release how does the area hold up?

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.

The Hunter class makes a strong play for being one of the most fun classes to play. Although some may see the class as a mindless DPS class (and I’ll admit I thought that a bit at first too) I think one of the reason we see so many Hunters is that playing one is just good fun.

For the recruit levels (20-29), I worked with a warden on Nimrodel. This was mainly in preparation for a special event that was held on that server. For this article, I decided to start from scratch as part of a new challenge.

When Attack at Dawn and The Icy Crevasse were released, the main character for my blog (Spear and Skirmish) was in the middle of Mirkwood preparing to assault Dol Guldur. Despite this, I decided to handle the two new skirmishes promptly. The upshot of this was that I needed to select one of my other [...]

Ah, my Rune-keeper. This class is always so refreshing because I have a DPS class that can also do some reliable healing (even if I only use it for myself). It is always a much appreciated change of pace by the time I get to it in my leveling schedule.

Every player has some classes that they play well and others that they find challenging. For me, the Champion definitely falls in the latter category.

My Lore-master has sat on the sidelines of my alt project up until now because it was a character that I had played back in 2007 after my Guardian had reached the late 40’s and most of our regular gaming friends had moved on to (or back to) different games.

The Champion has always vexed me a little. When I started the class I was a bit confused as I had thought it to be a whirling deathstorm of blades; hacking its way through orcs, trolls, and any other nasty denizen of Middle-earth that got in my way.

In this article I take a look at my experiences with the Burglar from levels 40-50.

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.

For my recruit-level article on the hunter, I ran with my Landroval hunter. For the footman levels, I am returning to my main hunter on Windfola.

I had not originally planned to write Pineleaf Plays articles for level 65. I figured that I would not have any characters at level 65 until the release of Isengard and the increase of the level cap. This proved not to be the case for the Lore-master.

The Captain is my first go-to character. Why? Sure, it may be slower than some character classes when you start off in the lower levels, but like all classes it really comes into its own as it levels. And as a solo player, while using a Captain I find myself surviving situations where other classes would die.

My original plan had been to level each class at an even pace. I decided to concentrate on my Lore-master for a while have for three reasons. First, I was getting a little tired of alting.

For my recruit-level article on the Lore-master, I ran with Pinecone, my Landroval Lore-master. For the footman levels, I am returning to Pinestaff, my main lore-master on Windfola.

With the captain I had no troubles running in the 30s. Therefore, the increased difficulty in the 40s smacked me in the face. This was a signal that it was time to really learn how to play this class.

The information in my first article on the burglar covered the Footman levels more than the Recruit levels. Despite this, I generally avoided referring to skills you gained after level 20, so there is something to discuss concerning the burglar for this second series.