Star Wars

Check out that title eh? Star Wars: The Old Republic or Swtor vs. Lotro (enough acronyms for ya?).

With my computer's motherboard packing a sad I've been relegated to using my wife's laptop to sate my gaming desires.

Begin rant.
I wanted to play Lotro (of course), so attempt to download it. Pando SUCKS SWEATY GOBLIN BALLS. It cannot download files properly. If there is ever an interruption in your internet connection or computer turned on'ness, have fun come installation time.

So had to move over to steam, download steam, make an account, download Lotro...phew finally got it.
Install time and now can't install something that is already on the @#$@#$ing computer. Microsoft Redistributable C++ 2005. 2005.....2005! What bloody epoch are you living in. So...try to find a fix. The only offical statement regarding this issue from 2-3 YEARS ago, is 'report as bug' 'complain to microsoft' and that's it. AWESOME. Needless to say, 4days later, it's still not working!

Dear Reader: If you ever encounter a company in whose customer support comes from it's customers...get the fuck out of there.

Turbine, you can't fix this after 5 years in the business, you need a slap in the head. You think you don't have competition, you want more people playing your game....THEN MAKE IT A PIECE OF CAKE TO FRAGGIN WELL INSTALL.

So I heard Swtor had gone F2P. So I tried downloading it to give it a go. The .exe file was small and very quick download. Ran it which opened up the game launcher and then proceeded to patch (i.e. patch and install the entire game). A few hours later, I'M PLAYING. Amazing. Turbine, in this department you royally suck.

So, what class, world (not sure, Asia RP), been trying a few classes up to lvl 5/10 to see which ones I like/can get into. Jedi's NO. Wayyy to goodie goodie. Sith...Noooo, way to tryhard.
Imperial Agent I might like (haven't tried it yet), tried Smuggler and find it a bit of fun (kinda burglar gameplay style methinks). Loaded up a trooper today and really like throwing grenades at people...so that might be the one for me.

On another note, since lotro is such a pain in the arse to download/install, I figured I'll push the envelope and install Linux when I get my comp. back and try installing it on THAT.

Happy Saturnalia and New Year.

The beginning of the end?

It's been a great 4 years of gaming in middle earth, I've had breaks once content became boring and I had no desire to reach max level with ANOTHER character, but would always return when the new expansion came out or I got bored with my whore game. With RoR though my feeling is a tad different.

Client crashing to desktop almost every gaming session (and my sessions are becoming rather short nowadays) and incessant lag, lack of...I don't know...excitment or something...lotro is really beinging to lose it's luster. I used to look forward to logging in, now I feel, well I'll log in do my dailies and log out. YIKES. Never before was I like that.

What actually has prompted me to write this was what happened last night. I put up my fps counter to see, does my computer actually suck now or what? (new OS). In instances I was hitting 200+ fps, whereas in open world RoR it was all over the place from 60fps to 20 (or lower). Sorry, but I just can't quite accept such an insanely drastic lack of gaming consistancy. Then I started thinking...do I have to put up with this shit not only for this expansion but west rohan too? God forbid into Gondor as well.

Quests: The RoI quest format...I liked. Good progression and loading up of the quest log. Could stay out in the "wilderness" without having to return to a town until it was time to unload the bags. RoR, not so much, it's new, creative with quests popping up when you kill a relevant mob, or enter the relevant area, but Ijust prefered/liked the RoI style.

Hytbold quests: Awesome, if it weren't for the insane lag when riding into the city. Love slowly rebuilding the place. Bad = some exploiting some of the quests, you assholes. PERIOD. So Turbine has taken them offline. Methinks the Norcoft ones (Cilving) which makes getting Kindred with them REALLY FUCKING HARD. Refer to my asshole comment before. Problem I have with Turbine is there is NO eta as to when they'll be back.

Next is the all important fluff from the Lotro store. OK, it's fluff, cosmetics. BUT, how many videos have you seen spouting the beautiful graphics of lotro. Aren't graphics fluff? If we didn't care about fluff, Benz, BMW, LV et.al. would be in a whole heap of trouble. So the cosmetics for our war steeds are INSANE. If it were account wide, I could be more readily accepting of it all, but per character, that's insane, especially ifyou start looking at this from a dollar point of view, and besides, if I pay I should get the use of it right? But no, I only get the use of it for one specific character. Before the lotro store, all cosmetic items could be found ingame and dyed due to player crafting. Sure we paid 10-15 dollars per month for this, but it was fun. Then the lotro store came along and we now basically had a choice of either kill that balrog for wigfield or buy it from the store. Then some items became store exclusive, BUT, if I bought it on this server, all my characters on that server could enjoy it. Now, only one character can enjoy it. Did my character buy it? Or did I buy it? Cosmetics is a big part of the game, it's beauty and it's a total fucking rip off now. BOOOOO.

So now I'm at the point where I'm reinstalling Skyrim, et.al. To enjoying riding a horse in the countryside without lag. I would say I'm disappointed, but I'm not, I have simply lost my love and excitment for the game and I really don't care. So, I'm off (well truthfully I'll be on to do the Hytbold dailies, but I won't be getting other toons to 85) and I'll be back for the new expansion.

My only huge relief is that this is the first time I've ever used TP to pay for an expansion. Man, I would have been super pissed if I'd paid 40 to 70 USD for this and on top of that have to spend a ton of TP changing the color of my fucking horse. For every character! Bullet dodged. $8 for 600points or $200 for 23000pts. 595 x 5 steed colors 595 x 5 equipement colors 595 x 7 body 395 for an accessory (ass pack) 395 for tail decoration (which will get shit all over it.) OK, getting all the colors and body patterns for a toon is rather extreme. But if we got 2 colors (total of 8) for steed and equipment, and a body pattern thats 595 x 5 = 2975 per toon. If you have OCD like many of my kinmates (I personally only have 1 toon at 85, 4 at 75 and I'm loath at the prospect of lagging my way through Rohan another 3 times) and have 9 thats, 2975 x 9 = 26755 points. At the current best sale offer for TP US$200 buys 23000. So US$200 to get nice looking warsteeds for all your toons plus $70 heroic edition because you love the game and all the extra 'fluff' that comes with that pack. US$270+ FUCK ME SIDEWAYS WITH A DWARVEN WARHAMMER.

Hitting the cap....again

Well, with this expansion I've gone with a burg as my main. After the captain, the intricacies of burg play was more appealing than the keyboard facerolling of the other 'dps' classes, i.e. huntards and chumpions.

So what do I think of this expansion...well, I must be turning into a grumpy old man or it's approaching Christmas (which accounts for my foul mood), as I think this expansion is boring. There. Said it. I found Mirkwood more intriguing.

Mounted combat is like dogfighting in Iron Eagle (and I've got Queen's 'one vision' blaring in the background) which is cool for about....10min. Skills are few and it's a whole new learning curve. It looks neat when theres a ton of people about and the lag is great too.

Open world tapping. Neat. One problem, nobody groups anymore. I haven't been in a fellowship for 10 levels! (ok, that's a lie, did raid OT >.>)

Horse cosmetics (the only really fun thing I see doing so far in this expansion) all cost TP, and they're character, not account wide purchases. FUCK THAT. Tourettes. Yeah it's fluff, but when you see a nice warsteed trot past...

I'm also impressed at how quickly we got from Fangorn to Edoras. We arrived after Aragorn. Yet beat them to Edoras since Grima was there (why the hell did we not kill him? I know I had my weapons still on me, and I've got pics to prove it).

Anyway, waiting on the instance pack to come out but so far, not overly impressed to be honest, the 'normal' quest line starting point vs. Epic quest line starts and leads off in 2 directions. Blah, this is turning to a boring wall of text. Till next time...bottoms up. *hic*

Went to Laurelin...and left

After trying to grind out virtues on Kalithir AGAIN, I finally got a bit burnt out. Coupled with making another close friend which might have seems the solo lifestyle of play that I have end, suddenly disappear I decided to try my luck on another server and kinship.

So I rolled another cappy (Steehelm) on Laurelin joined a kin and got myself to 75 to start doing end-game content again.

So far...compared to Elendilmir this server really sucks with it's PUG's. Both in skill and in attitude. So goodbye Laurelin.

Then I discovered a chinese kinship on Brandywine, so...trying there now with a Warden (since I don't have a 75 one and I've seen a few good wardens pulling and holding aggro like legends in Foundry and the like, looks like a bit of fun!) and see if I can't join the chinese speaking community there (same playtimes and I think...my chinese will be good enough to get by (or actually learn, haha).

Goodluck Jianding the warden wainrider from Rhun who grew up with his Easterling father and Dalelander mother in Dale.

Mirkwood gloams

Oh to have a private army

Well, after escaping the toilet bowl that is Moria I was briefly greeted by the 'woe is me' suicidal elves of Lothlorien. Being a burg I sneaked past the whole place an still don't have enough rep to enter CG. (That might hurt me later being unable to use CG stables). Enter the cherry woodland area that is Mirkwood. Not much has changed since I was here last, it's still a good quick way to level up to 65, but the twit that I am...should have gone to Endewaith, as it's the same lvl area.

 Why the 'twit', does it matter. To be concise, yes. Why? Endwaith came out after Mirkwood. So what? I hear you say. Well, typically, the more recent the release, the better the quest rewards. Fin. So now that Mirkwood is done, I now skip Endwaith (apart from getting the stable locations...) and charge into Dunland.

Yeah, go gett'em boys

Yep, victorious again! High five.

Just hanging out...looking cool and poisoned...

Umm, just a screenshot...

Yeah...the hand off at DG didn't go quite to plan...

Yeah well, she's got it coming. Quest line to get the Rangers off their asses and down to Rohan. Cellphones would be so much easier.

Breaking down a quote.

He who knows not and knows not he knows not: he is a fool - shun him.
He who knows not and knows he knows not: he is simple - teach him.
He who knows and knows not he knows: he is asleep - wake him.
He who knows and knows he knows: he is wise - follow him.

What a load of shit.

He who knows not and knows not he knows not: he is a fool - shun him.
Nope, he's your everyday human being. Even more true when you're a teenager.

He who knows not and knows he knows not: he is simple - teach him.
Nope, he's very self aware. He's very awake and knows himself. I'd trust this person. Maybe you could learn much from him.

He who knows and knows not he knows: he is asleep - wake him.
Nope, he's humble and is always willing to learn new things. If only there were more people like this one.

He who knows and knows he knows: he is wise - follow him.
Nope, he's an arrogant shit who will lead us all to hell. Follow at your own peril.

Moria Is Over

Well he made it. In doing so he may have added to the notion that he may be a vampire due to the fact that he was able to hold his breath from one end of Moira to the next. I mean who really wants to breath in hundred's of years of orc shit being stockpiled. Perhaps in the introduction to Moria quests Bosi and co. should be preparing gas masks instead.


Anyhoo. The revamp was good, up to a point. Durin's Threshold, Dolven view, Chamber of crossroads, through to Jazergund and into Morovailville, Silvertine Lodes, all GREAT. STAY AWAY FROM WATERWORKS. Ok, let me jog your memory. Evendim was labeled Everswim. This got fixed with a revamp of the area and some jet boats. However Lotro without some tedious back and forth in the most time consuming map just wasn't good 'ole classic Lotro, ergo WATERWORKS. Skip it, trust meeee. Get to Redhorn Lodes which was never a bad area for quests anyway, get your Back and Forth quest from the 21st hall, do it and then fill up your quest log (literally) with the Grand Stairs stuff. Once done, head to the First Hall and GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE YOU FOOLS. Enter Dimril Dale and poof, hello 59-60.

Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire?

Lothlorian. OMG. The biggest bunch of whinging windbags ever. Seriously. This places make me wanna help the orcs pillage and rape the entire area. Picking flowers etc is not my cup of tea. If I wanted to do that I'd be friggen well be playing Farmville. But wait, salvation is near. Loth rep is no longer needed to enter the golden wood. So...it's STRAIT TO MIRKWOOD! WEEEHOOOO. Kiss my ass Gladrial or w/e the hell your name is.


A compilation of screenies from GS (and 2 FT).

Moria Revamp is fantasticles!

With Kalithir on his way, I dreaded entering the orc feces cesspit that is Moria AGAIN (umm, 6th time I think).

With Update 7, the fine folks at Turbine HQ (aka Mordor), Moria got itself a revamp. The useless, unimportant, non-contributing nay-sayers who think their well informed rants (read tantrums of a 15 yr old virgin)   heralded this as a dumbing down of content and the end of Lotro as we know it. (hell the no rep needed for Lothlorien got 11 friggen pages ffs. I mean, it's really that important RIGHT). Fuck the lag, bugs. FIX THIS FIRST! But I digress.

You probably have noticed how different the quests chains/progression has changed since Galtav onwards. Rather than a quest hub (town or camp) and it's go out, return, rinse/repeat, it's been more this NPC gives 3 quests, you do em, return and NPC will give one more quest off to another NPC who then...

With Moria they've basically done that again, making progression/exploration through Moria much more logical, streamline and less frustrating, even adding new quests. Before, if you were leveling to get to 65, 75 w/e it was common (even my mate said this the other night) to get to 55 and GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE. The Loth, rep repeatables were better/quicker experience than running around like a deaf bat in Moria. Now...I'm not so sure.

In any case, it's more fun and I think that's what playing a game is about.

p.s. I love my burgs look in that pic /blowownhorn

Enter the Kalithir

After capping a Guard, Cappy and Champ (all the heavies, cause if you ain't wearing heavy metal, you suck...the only way I play my mini is to have it cosmetically outfitted to look like a D&D cleric), I got a LM to 69 but just not feelin it. Hunter to 43 but again...not feelin it, it gets too boring for me. I started the burg and dropped it after 26 levels as it was too much mucking around for me, but after capping I've had another crack at it, rearranged my skill bars and well, haven't looked back. Am loving it! I'm finding he mows through mobs quicker than my champ or hunter (at least normal mobs) as he doesn't have to 'focus up' or 'fervor up' to start with high damaging attacks. What was slow before (sneaking behind someone) has really been off-put with traited sneak trait, + distraction. BOOM. Basically running around at lvl 50 one shotting them crawlers.

Like any class I've played though, if there isn't an interesting enough backstory to the character, I hate playing him. (yes, I have stories in my mind, yes, I am crazy, any other questions?)

Now that Kalithir is 50, I'm confident in his rise to 75 and to become a recognizable name as Aoeworth and Fayadorn fade into "hey we need a cappy or guard, can you switch" (Vorss, my champ is an enigma as champs/hunters are so common I'm never asked to go on that class, even though I LOVE his backstory, but this is about Kalithir not the others)


So am gonna start a little diary on Kalithir's progression from 50 to 75 hope you enjoy it as much as I plan to.

Wardens SUCK

Yeah I said it. Are you a warden? Are you offended? GOOD. Prove me wrong.

I'm not saying the class sucks. It's an awesome class, however Turbine did forewarn you, it is an advanced class.

It's not really a class you can 'alt' on once in a blue moon and expect to be effective at playing it. The shear number of gambits with stances is for me, mind boggling. However, after playing the class for a bit, you do get into a rhythm of what gambits you like and for what situation and work with that. For the life of me it appears many Warden players completely throw the AOE taunt, threat building gambits right out the window or the thought of these gambits never occurred in their mind.

Because it's an advanced class, playing it doesn't make you an advanced player you nitwit.

Case in point (as to the reason of this post). Ran Foundry t2 with a warden. AWESOME run. He has balls the size of Jamaica. He ran in, aggroed everything, pulled them to the next group, aggroed them etc etc. Mini and I kept him up and our champs shing-shinged everything into oblivion.

The other side of the coin:
Lvl. 75 skirmish raid. 3 wardens in the raid (that's 3 for 12...) and the goddam skirmish protector solider is the one holding aggro...for extended periods of time (more than a force taunt would create) and I've got pics to prove it. Hilarious yes, embarrassing for the wardens, bloody well should be.

Rant off. Good luck wardening, because I suck at it therefore I DON'T PLAY IT IN FELLOWSHIPS.

Draigoch

First time in, took him down, flawless, no deaths (other than getting roasted on the way down)

How to be: Hardcore

Cavet: I am not hardcore (I think) and this is for giggles only.

So, you want to be hardcore? This would mean that currently you are not hardcore. Therefore you are either a wannabe or *cough* casual and are wasting space on the server, over-loading it, causing it to lag, thus affecting my gameplay which is thus why I hate you and your ilk.

If you want to be hardcore you can’t. You don’t become hardcore, you are BORN hardcore. We are born with the innate knowledge of all game abbreviations. If you like ‘art’, debating stuff (intellectually like) and logging into an online game to ‘meet new people’ and have ‘fun’, forget it, turn off the computer (would be better if you threw it out the window) and watch re-runs of Happy Days or Powderpuff Girls.

Being Hardcore is SERIOUS. This game is SERIOUS and has REAL MEANING. They are not pixels. They are extensions of my self, my personality, my awesomeness. IF you can beat somebodies pixels, you can beat them face to face too. My time is valuable! and it should not be wasted by treehugging carebear NOOBS (who should be playing Hello Kitty online or My little pony online).

Hardcore is to be the best (elitest if you would). On time for ALL RAIDS, fully ready with the best gear, food, and pots. Your LI’s must have the best legacies and maxed out (you should link them often in glff to show how awesome you are). Your virtues must be all 10 +/- 600 and you must be properly traited for the specific instance we are running. Of course, you are in vent because in-game chat is for NOOBS.

We don’t play to have ‘fun’, we play to WIN. If somebody messed up in the run and causes a wipe you must rage quit lest somebody think your getting soft.

Being hardcore means we don’t waste time on forums except to point out how we know more than others and ergo our opinion is more important (this is a daily matter). If there is a reply to your post you must respond again and again until you have the last word/post. If the thread gets closed by a moderator without you having the last post you’ll suffer -100 hardcore rep.

When new content is added you must call in sick for work for at least one week to ensure you get all the new best gear before anyone else and kill the newest bosses first. Second is for carebears. N.B. Playing straight for the first 48hours is mandatory. (if you’ve never passed out on your keyboard you are a carebear)

In the moors, if you are ever killed by being ganged up on, i.e. 2 or more on 1, you must post on the forums saying NOOB, you’d never beat me 1 on 1 et.al. If you were beaten 1 on 1 you must post saying I only lost because of mad lag or I had to pick the kids up form school/lost link et.al. Moreover if you repeatedly beat someone or beat up more than one at the same time you must also post on the forums so all will know how awesome you are and how privileged the server is that you play on it (And that they are carebear NOOBS).

So stop wasting my time. Be hardcore when you play a game. Playing a game for FUN is ridiculous. Play to win, because winning IS fun. Now take your cookie (make sure it’s a hardcore cookie) and eat it.

Next post: How to be *cough* casual. [runs to wash mouth out with sulphuric acid]