[Video] Thievery & Mischief Skirmish – Landroval

Greetings Reader[s].

Once again I bring you the further adventures of Jonthon, Man-Captain on Landroval. Today I recorded him going through the Thievery & Mischief skirmish. This one is a bit more straightforward for me, and it is easier to locate the encounter mobs. The final fight is a bit tougher than the last skirmish I showed you due to it being against an Elite, but it is doable for me.

Without much further ado, here is the 2 part recording of the skirmish:

Thievery & Mischief Skirmish – Part 1/2

Thievery & Mischief Skirmish – Part 2/2

I hope you enjoy them.

~Branadoc

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[Video] Trouble in Tuckborough Skirmish – Landroval

Greetings reader[s]!

I bring you yet another 2 videos of my Captain adventuring on Landroval. This time I am showing him running through the Trouble in Tuckborough skirmish. As you can see from the video I have a system of how I take out the enemies and flip the control points.

Out of the 2 encounters I only did one, I don’t remember where the second one spawns [I think it was the bear] and didn’t want to spend a long time looking for it. My skirmish soldier is a Herbalist, which some may say is overkill for a Captain – but I look at it like this: If I don’t run out of health I can focus on defeating the bad guys better ;).

So here you go, a 2 part jaunt into the Shire:

Trouble In Tuckborough – Part 1/2

Trouble in Tuckborough – Part 2/2

I hope you enjoy them.

~Branadoc

[Video] Retake Weathertop Instance – Landroval

Here are 2 more videos for you. A 2 part set showing a run through the Retake Weathertop [Solo] Instance for 1.2.5 – I was a bit over level for the quest so everything was pretty trivial. The Inspired Greatness buff also sort of made me overpowered when facing the 2 final bosses.

Without further ado:

Retake Weathertop [Video] Part 1/2:

Retake Weathertop [Video] Part 2/2:

Enjoy!

~Branadoc

[Video] Short footage of Iorvinas dungeon in Lone Lands

Being the sneaky Hobbit that I am I figured I would just spring this on you all without warning 🙂

This is a short video I recorded while running through the Iorvinas public dungeon in The Lone Lands on Landroval. Nothing really special going on here.

Yes, that is a Man Captain – poor hobbits are left out of the Captain class entirely. Hope you enjoy.

~Branadoc

Yule Fest 2010 Errata

So this year for Lord of the Rings Online Yule fest I have found a definite dearth of holiday spirit. No fault of Turbine’s but I have been feeling meh about it all.

This year Turbine added a new zone for the holidays called “Winter Home”, this is a snow covered area (ostensibly located to the NW of Forochel) which holds quite a few festive (and some not so festive) quests for the season. You don’t get direct awards of Yule Fest Tokens, instead you get Frostbluff Coin items that can either be bartered for festival tokens, or used in quests.

Level Up! Branadoc hits 50; A look at Producer Paizs’ Letter

During my continued adventuring yesterday my main character, Branadoc, finally hit level 50! Yep, after 3.5 years of existence I finally hit the Shadows of Angmar level cap and now there are only 15 more levels keeping me from the current cap!… Yay? I might, feasibly, see the current cap before Rise of Isengard is released but who knows right?

Now don’t take my comments above as showing me to be some sort of person who only aims for “end game”. I just want to have at least one level capped character on my account after 3.5 years you know? Then I can focus on my huge bevy of alts and look into all the different quest zones I haven’t experienced (mainly due to them coming out after I had already out-leveled them on my main).

If you want to read my opinion on the latest State of the Game [Producer’s] letter by Lord of the Rings Online producer Kate Paiz then read on after the break.

Freezing Forochel and Lopping Moose Heads

This is the first character update in quite a while I see, well – the name of the site is “Sneaky Hobbits” right? Can’t be all not-sneaky and provide regular updates now can I? 🙂

Ok, so the past few days I have returned Branadoc to Forochel because Eregion was starting to wear on me a little bit (I have a few quests marked as solo that I just can’t seem to finish). Forochel is bloody cold of course, but its main annoyance to me is that every single mob seems to give me wounds constantly. I am running through wound pots too darned fast – maybe it is due to how many Beast mob classes there are.

Read on after the break…

Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard Announced (Fall 2011)

Being the Sneaky Hobbit that I am, I am springing this post on y’all with no warm-up or intro!

Today Turbine announced that the next expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online will be coming to us in Fall of 2011. The Expansion is named Rise of Isengard to portray our arrival in that fabled area. Here is a short list of some of the features coming with the new expansion pack:

• Experience the Rise of Isengard – The Epic Story continues as the Grey Company makes its way south into Dunland, but troubles arise as their road takes them into lands where Dunlending forces, marshaled by the Wizard Saruman, prepare for war. The Rangers must seek new allies and face dangerous new foes, chief among them the traitor Saruman, whose web of intrigue threatens to endanger your quest, your friends, and your life.
• Increased Level Cap — Players will be able advance their characters up to level 70, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests.  
• Expanded Monster Play – LOTRO’s monster play system will get a major revamp including opening up the feature to all players, changes to monster player skills and advancement and a brand new region for players to battle for or against the forces of evil.

Source: Release Announcement on LotRO.com

That last bullet point should be nice for folks who care about PvMP in the game – though it likely won’t be enough for some of the more, shall we say, strident of voices.

The announcement also states that it will be “coming to the Turbine Store”, which makes me think that it will be 100% purchasable with Turbine Points – if so it will be the first “big” test of their new system in my eyes.. if the entire expansion can be purchased (non piece-meal) for a decent TP cost from the store then us Lifetime members have it made ;).

Anyways, that is the big news in LotRO’s world today. As for me, I will try to post more frequently on the blog here, but Real Life keeps kicking me in the bum.

Happy Hunting Middle Earth!

~Branadoc

More information on Free-2-Play

The folks at A Casual Stroll to Mordor have been hard at work compiling information, they have managed to break down what the Free-2-Play move will mean for old players/current players/new players/etc.

Go on over there to check out the informative post: http://www.casualstrolltomordor.com/2010/06/lotro-free-to-play-and-you/

~Branadoc

Lord of the Rings Online going Free-2-Play; This is not a joke

Today Turbine officially announced that the game we all know and love, Lord of the Rings Online, will be going Free-2-Play this fall with the release of Volume 3 Book 2. Yeah, I know that sounds like an April Fool’s joke – so here it is straight from the horses mouth:

Today is an important day for LOTRO: we’ve announced that this fall, LOTRO will begin offering a Free-to-Play option! Players will be able to download the game and adventure in Middle-earth for free. With Free-to-Play comes the addition of the LOTRO Store, where players will have immediate in-game access to a wide variety of special items, account services, and convenience items.

Read the Full Announcement here

Yes, this means Turbine is taking LotRO down the same route they took DDO [Dungeons & Dragons Online]. It is no surprise really, DDO increased revenue in a dramatic way after going F2P – it was only a matter of time, I guess, before LotRO was added to that list.

I have major reservations about this, I am a Lifetime Subscriber so am automatically a ‘VIP’ member but the DDO Store has many… er… “helper” items in it that make game play extremely easy – if the same happens with LotRO then what?

I will reserve full judgement until I either get into the Beta for it, or I see it Live.  The Sky is not falling Chicken Little.. but times, they are a changing.

~Branadoc