Hey everyone... I've been playing lotro since 2008... And it's been a great ride... BUT...
Rohan was definitely the best expansion for the leveling portion, at least for the most part. Quest in the Rohan region give less xp than quest did as I was finishing up the Isengard expansion. For the last few levels, I was receiving xp at the rate that I did back in Mirkwood/beginning of Isengard. Rather pathetic in my opinion, it really slowed down the gameplay, and not in a good way.
However, this is but the least of my problems (using a xp boost token from the free goodie bag I received enabled me to hit 85 without any road blocks, but that isn't acceptable either). There were no instances at launch. This is something that I just can't wrap my head around. Turbine has big brother WB to fund their development, so there's no financial excuse to cutting the instances from launch. Why did they do it? This leaves practically nothing to do at endgame for a certain subset of player's. So combine the slow xp with the lack of endgame, I've hardly played since getting my main to the cap. I've skirmish raided with him a few times, but aside from that, there's nothing to do. And despite how fun the quest are, I can't bring myself to slowly level an alt to an empty endgame.
So now that my experiences with the expansion are out of the way, here comes the real problem... A few weeks ago, I won a Tarnished symbol in a skirm raid. Yay! Go me! However, I didn't know anyone who could craft a bow for me so I had to wait before I got my 2nd age. Tonight, a friend was kind enough to craft the bow for me. It came out with meh stats, but that isn't really an issue after the LI revamp (that was only half finished). So I go to decon all my old LIs so I can get their legacies to fix my new 2nd age... I accidentally deconned the new 2nd age, and Turbine's support staff wouldn't roll it back for me because it's not part of their reimbursement policy... I mean really? What type of company has such strict policies that may as well be titled "A GM's Guide to Screwing Over the Fans!"
So I love lotro, I love the setting, I love the quest, I love the memories, I love the world building, I love the classes, I love my friends... However, I just don't know anymore. And there's really no other MMO that I'd want to go to...
Rohan was definitely the best expansion for the leveling portion, at least for the most part. Quest in the Rohan region give less xp than quest did as I was finishing up the Isengard expansion. For the last few levels, I was receiving xp at the rate that I did back in Mirkwood/beginning of Isengard. Rather pathetic in my opinion, it really slowed down the gameplay, and not in a good way.
However, this is but the least of my problems (using a xp boost token from the free goodie bag I received enabled me to hit 85 without any road blocks, but that isn't acceptable either). There were no instances at launch. This is something that I just can't wrap my head around. Turbine has big brother WB to fund their development, so there's no financial excuse to cutting the instances from launch. Why did they do it? This leaves practically nothing to do at endgame for a certain subset of player's. So combine the slow xp with the lack of endgame, I've hardly played since getting my main to the cap. I've skirmish raided with him a few times, but aside from that, there's nothing to do. And despite how fun the quest are, I can't bring myself to slowly level an alt to an empty endgame.
So now that my experiences with the expansion are out of the way, here comes the real problem... A few weeks ago, I won a Tarnished symbol in a skirm raid. Yay! Go me! However, I didn't know anyone who could craft a bow for me so I had to wait before I got my 2nd age. Tonight, a friend was kind enough to craft the bow for me. It came out with meh stats, but that isn't really an issue after the LI revamp (that was only half finished). So I go to decon all my old LIs so I can get their legacies to fix my new 2nd age... I accidentally deconned the new 2nd age, and Turbine's support staff wouldn't roll it back for me because it's not part of their reimbursement policy... I mean really? What type of company has such strict policies that may as well be titled "A GM's Guide to Screwing Over the Fans!"
So I love lotro, I love the setting, I love the quest, I love the memories, I love the world building, I love the classes, I love my friends... However, I just don't know anymore. And there's really no other MMO that I'd want to go to...