LotRO's Southern Expansion Towards Umbar Should Be Exciting For Any Tolkien Fan | MMORPG.com

System · January 2023

LotRO's Southern Expansion Towards Umbar Should Be Exciting For Any Tolkien Fan | MMORPG.com

Last year when The Lord of the Rings Online teased the location of the next major expansion, Bradford was hoping for Mithlond. However, yesterday's announcement that it's in fact Umbar, it might have him more excited, especially as a Tolkien fanatic.

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Scot · January 2023

The Kin Strife would be a great setting for a flash back. It was picked out as a default time period for Rolemasters LotR: The Kin Strife was one of my favourite table-top background supplements. We had a campaign that lasted over four years but they were wrapped up so much with goings on in the north that we never finished it before I decided it was time to move on to a new campaign. Oh well.

BlackDragon74 · January 2023

Unfortunately the link to the video is not correcct.
The link points to an old Q&A from 2022.

Here is a link to the new Q&A from January 2023

Gorwe · January 2023

As usual for LOTRO, beautiful artworks and reenactments of Middle Earth, but the game itself ... quite meh. This is my enduring opinion of LOTRO that I didn't see a single reason to change. I would want to change it, but meh.

Maurgrim · January 2023

Scot said:

The Kin Strife would be a great setting for a flash back. It was picked out as a default time period for Rolemasters LotR: The Kin Strife was one of my favourite table-top background supplements. We had a campaign that lasted over four years but they were wrapped up so much with goings on in the north that we never finished it before I decided it was time to move on to a new campaign. Oh well.

Played MERP for years with my friends, Last campaign we played was Shadow in the South, that setting was placed further south than Umbar.

gelraen · January 2023

Gorwe said:

As usual for LOTRO, beautiful artworks and reenactments of Middle Earth, but the game itself ... quite meh. This is my enduring opinion of LOTRO that I didn't see a single reason to change. I would want to change it, but meh.

This, precisely. I kind of take issue with the headline of this article, because it's simply not true. I am such an obsessed MMO fan, and a lifelong Tolkien fan, but I simply can't find pleasure in LOTRO despite many attempts over the years. I wish it wasn't so, but I find the game to be the most generic, lifeless MMO out there.

Hariken · January 2023

I could never go back to LOTRO because of all the dang deed grinding. They need to trim the deeds down a lot. It's just to much.

Nebless · January 2023

Hariken said:

I could never go back to LOTRO because of all the dang deed grinding. They need to trim the deeds down a lot. It's just to much.

You know you don't have to do deeds if you don't want to. Totally optionally.

Yes you can get nice things from completing deeds be it free store points or trait points etc.... but it's your choice to do them or not. Nothing makes you.

FrodoFragins · January 2023

Hariken said:

I could never go back to LOTRO because of all the dang deed grinding. They need to trim the deeds down a lot. It's just to much.

They got rid of the trait deeds and let you target level the trait you want one at a time. Some need to be unlocked as you level it seems.

Darkhawke · January 2023

Nebless said:

Hariken said:

I could never go back to LOTRO because of all the dang deed grinding. They need to trim the deeds down a lot. It's just to much.

You know you don't have to do deeds if you don't want to. Totally optionally.

Yes you can get nice things from completing deeds be it free store points or trait points etc.... but it's your choice to do them or not. Nothing makes you.

If you want to raid in LOTRO you must do the deeds as they are the main source of Virtue exp , which many of them must be at cap for different Raids .

Altho you can just swipe your credit card and instantly max the Virtues..

Gorwe · January 2023

gelraen said:

Gorwe said:

As usual for LOTRO, beautiful artworks and reenactments of Middle Earth, but the game itself ... quite meh. This is my enduring opinion of LOTRO that I didn't see a single reason to change. I would want to change it, but meh.

This, precisely. I kind of take issue with the headline of this article, because it's simply not true. I am such an obsessed MMO fan, and a lifelong Tolkien fan, but I simply can't find pleasure in LOTRO despite many attempts over the years. I wish it wasn't so, but I find the game to be the most generic, lifeless MMO out there.

It's the moment to moment gameplay. There's barely anything to it. Models + animations don't exactly help. But, otherwise, it's such a beautiful, classic game. Like a less "special" ESO, I find a lot of overlap here.

I'm more of a Warhammer Fantasy fan, but LoTR is awesome too, ofc.

Hariken · January 2023

Nebless said:

Hariken said:

I could never go back to LOTRO because of all the dang deed grinding. They need to trim the deeds down a lot. It's just to much.

You know you don't have to do deeds if you don't want to. Totally optionally.

Yes you can get nice things from completing deeds be it free store points or trait points etc.... but it's your choice to do them or not. Nothing makes you.

I was told you need to do all these deeds or your character would be weak. If this is not true let me know please.

Darkhawke · January 2023

Hariken said:

Nebless said:

Hariken said:

I could never go back to LOTRO because of all the dang deed grinding. They need to trim the deeds down a lot. It's just to much.

You know you don't have to do deeds if you don't want to. Totally optionally.

Yes you can get nice things from completing deeds be it free store points or trait points etc.... but it's your choice to do them or not. Nothing makes you.

I was told you need to do all these deeds or your character would be weak. If this is not true let me know please.

100% True , if you plan on end game raiding , deeds are the main source of Virtue xp , and you need to max different sets of Virtues for raiding..

If you plan on only playing casually, you can get away without ..

Keep in mind , you can swipe your CC to max all Virtues

Nebless · January 2023

Hariken said"

I was told you need to do all these deeds or your character would be weak. If this is not true let me know please.

If all you're doing is playing the game; questing through the different zones up to what ever the level cap is, than NO, YOU DO NOT NEED THEM, your character will be fine.

If on the other hand you've decided you want to do Pvp or End Game raiding, than you might just need to grind.

Hariken · January 2023

Nebless said:

Hariken said"

I was told you need to do all these deeds or your character would be weak. If this is not true let me know please.

If all you're doing is playing the game; questing through the different zones up to what ever the level cap is, than NO, YOU DO NOT NEED THEM, your character will be fine.

If on the other hand you've decided you want to do Pvp or End Game raiding, than you might just need to grind.

Ok thx guys also i play casually and don't raid or PVP. What about the race traits? I play as a human hunter and a lot of them are about sword play. How important are they?

Nebless · January 2023

Hariken said:

Ok thx guys also i play casually and don't raid or PVP. What about the race traits? I play as a human hunter and a lot of them are about sword play. How important are they?

Depends on if you swap to your secondary melee weapons when the mobs close or just keep shooting the bow.

I've got a hunter too and haven't swapped to melee weapons since they left Archet.

If you don't swap out than you can pretty much ignore the those racials as they don't apply. If you do swap than sure grab them as they come to give yourself a boost.

Hariken · January 2023

Nebless said:

Hariken said:

Ok thx guys also i play casually and don't raid or PVP. What about the race traits? I play as a human hunter and a lot of them are about sword play. How important are they?

Depends on if you swap to your secondary melee weapons when the mobs close or just keep shooting the bow.

I've got a hunter too and haven't swapped to melee weapons since they left Archet.

If you don't swap out than you can pretty much ignore the those racials as they don't apply. If you do swap than sure grab them as they come to give yourself a boost.

OK thank you so much.

PoorOld_GamerGent · January 2023

What Nebless and Frodo said.

The Virtue revamp kinda "detached" the deeds from the grind, you just pick 5 Virtues you wanna use (and maybe a couple more for build variety), and all the completed deeds fuel those.

With that change, the deeds you complete on the side, while average/casual play through the game, are more than enough to keep those selected Virtues up to level.
Basically you can ignore the whole former "deed grinding" side of the game.

There was an another aspect to it, the class deeds for the trait trees, well, since the last update you can forget about that as well, points were tied to levels (as you advance in levels, you automatically get the points to trait).
Class deeds and class quest are still there, but only curiosities now - you can do them if you really want, but not necessary at all.

Darkhawke · January 2023

Hariken said:

Nebless said:

Hariken said:

Ok thx guys also i play casually and don't raid or PVP. What about the race traits? I play as a human hunter and a lot of them are about sword play. How important are they?

Depends on if you swap to your secondary melee weapons when the mobs close or just keep shooting the bow.

I've got a hunter too and haven't swapped to melee weapons since they left Archet.

If you don't swap out than you can pretty much ignore the those racials as they don't apply. If you do swap than sure grab them as they come to give yourself a boost.

OK thank you so much.

There is no "Weapon Swap" per say in LOTRO it automatically happens , and yes you need to use your melee skills, altho few the Focus build and Stun are life savers at times ..

And FYI I have a raiding Hunter, atm I have 12 Virtues capped and change out different set ups for different raids .. It is a must for success in higher tier raids..

It's also worth noting that even unslotted Virtues will now grant a passive buff to STATS, PhysMit , Tact Mit etc.. So any serious player is trying to cap ALL Virtues ..

And Deeding is must to achieve this .. Or as was mentioned before .

Swipe your CC and max Everything.

But if you are only following Books and casual you don't need to get yourself twisted up trying to min -max .. Just enjoy the flow and some of it will occur thru regular gameplay.

Nebless · January 2023

Darkhawke said:
There is no "Weapon Swap" per say in LOTRO it automatically happens , and yes you need to use your melee skills,

*** When I say "weapon swap" for the hunter I'm referring to YOU decided to you your melee weapons vice, sticking with the bow.

Yes both the Hunter and Warden swap animations to melee when npc's close on them. That does NOT mean you have to use your melee skills though.

Heck my lvl 50 hunter has 2 melee abilities; low cut and another fairly useless one. If I had to rely on my melee skills I'd be killed over and over.

Just because the animation has swapped, you can still use your bow. The animation will just keep flip flopping back and forth, big deal. Your bow has the more abilities and will generally be the stronger weapon.

As to the warden, you actually have a separate melee stance, but again; just like the hunter, your javelin attacks are more plentiful and powerful than dropping to melee.

As I said before I haven't used melee attacks on my Hunter or Warden in over 10 years, and while my Hunter alt is only level 50, my Warden main is lvl 121.

PoorOld_GamerGent · January 2023

Darkhawke said:

It's also worth noting that even unslotted Virtues will now grant a passive buff to STATS, PhysMit , Tact Mit etc.. So any serious player is trying to cap ALL Virtues ...

Sorry, but have to digress - or maybe just the wording...

Deeding in its current form is definitely not a must for "any serious player", unless you mean that the min-maxer endgame hardcore raiders are the only serious players in the game.

In that case let me refer Sapience's infamous post about how tiny of a fracture your numbers are, within the playerbase...

Not to mention Hariken even said

Hariken said:

Ok thx guys also i play casually and don't raid or PVP.

For any player (ok, the "non-serious" ones

) deeding is now a fire-and-forget thing, you don't even need to pay attention to it beyond picking up which Virtues you wanna slot for your build.

There's even a notification if you forget it for too long and your selected Virtue is at the current cap, to switch onto an another one, and then all the deeds you complete on the side while your "non-serious" playtime will feed that one afterwards.

Of course Darkhawke is correct in that all the deeds are still in the game, for the completionists, or if you want a specific title, etc.

And at the very endgame, if you have nothing else left to do, sure you can go out and "trying to cap ALL Virtues". It can take several weeks, and by the end you'll be rewarded with a massive, about 1% more overall damage and some higher max Morale.

So worth it.

Wait, it doesnt.

Guess I'm a non-serious player...

Darkhawke · January 2023

PoorOld_GamerGent said:

Darkhawke said:

It's also worth noting that even unslotted Virtues will now grant a passive buff to STATS, PhysMit , Tact Mit etc.. So any serious player is trying to cap ALL Virtues ...

Sorry, but have to digress - or maybe just the wording...
Deeding in its current form is definitely not a must for "any serious player", unless you mean that the min-maxer endgame hardcore raiders are the only serious players in the game.

In that case let me refer Sapience's infamous post about how tiny of a fracture your numbers are, within the playerbase...

Not to mention Hariken even said

Hariken said:

Ok thx guys also i play casually and don't raid or PVP.

For any player (ok, the "non-serious" ones ) deeding is now a fire-and-forget thing, you don't even need to pay attention to it beyond picking up which Virtues you wanna slot for your build.
There's even a notification if you forget it for too long and your selected Virtue is at the current cap, to switch onto an another one, and then all the deeds you complete on the side while your "non-serious" playtime will feed that one afterwards.

Of course Darkhawke is correct in that all the deeds are still in the game, for the completionists, or if you want a specific title, etc.
And at the very endgame, if you have nothing else left to do, sure you can go out and "trying to cap ALL Virtues". It can take several weeks, and by the end you'll be rewarded with a massive, about 1% more overall damage and some higher max Morale.
So worth it.
Wait, it doesnt.
Guess I'm a non-serious player...

I made my stance very clear and speak from experience , if you want to raid and have success at it, you Must get your Virturs capped..Simple as that , there is no getting away from it ..

Also your 1% is way off , but putting that aside having the proper Virtues capped and slotted in "name raid" ( it varies) is more about damage you don't take rather than damage you do .

From the sound of it you do not raid, and there is nothing wrong with that .. I have toons I do not raid with and play in a much more relaxed manner ..

PoorOld_GamerGent · January 2023

Darkhawke said:

From the sound of it you do not raid, and there is nothing wrong with that .. I have toons I do not raid with and play in a much more relaxed manner ..

Yup, I raid very occasionally and even then just the entry tiers, casually.

Nothing's wrong with that, just as nothing's wrong with raiding either...

I wasn't debating your points, just the wording

Serious players can just as much be interested in the questing/story aspect, in roleplay and the community, in the music scene, in PvMP, in the cosmetics, in crafting, etc.

None of those requires the deed grinding to the point of "capping ALL the Virtues".

By the wording of Hariken (moreso with the later clarification) it was obvious he meant the former grind of the mandatory seeking and clearing specific deeds to raise and slot the required Virtues.

And that's definitely gone with the Virtue revamp, and with this recent class skills/points revamp. It was the whole purpose of that revamp, actually.

I agree that deeds (via "cap ALL Virtues") might be still important at the end, however I'd debate the "must" part still.

With the 1% damage I just meant Phys/Tac Mastery has a hardcap. Sure, if you do the min/maxing and shuffle around it the gear, leaning more on crits or finesse, etc. it could be a bit more.

Still, that's the territory of the very top of the endgame, and even then it's optional.

Definitely not the kind of grind Hariken meant by

Hariken said:

I could never go back to LOTRO because of all the dang deed grinding. They need to trim the deeds down a lot. It's just to much.

This part was watered down via the Virtue revamp in Anduin.

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