Tuesday 14 June 2011

Update - mostly Isengard

Almost two weeks since my last post. Lets start with Isengard. I had expected to get some news from E3, but there was nothing really new.

We have known since months, that that Isengard would be next and that the level cap would be raised. I had thought about it being raised to 70, but 75 it is. I doubt this is an improvement as a ten-level difference will make the level 65 equipment obsolete. I still use equipment with level 60, but nothing at level 55.

A raise of the virtue cap was also on the horizon and has now been confirmed. Again, I had hoped for some new virtues instead of a raise, but again, my hopes were not fulfilled.

Then we get a new crafting tier. This could also be expected, with a raise of ten levels. I just hope, that they will stop naming them and just say Tier I, Tier II, etc.

The three zones were also announced months ago and due to the lore will be similar to what we have seen. Getting 400 quests sounds like a lot, but Enedwaith had about 120, Moria about 250, Eregion about 75 and the Book 140.

As Enedwaith was released later, the size of the update will be about the size of Moria and Eregion and Volume 2. Decent, but not overwhelming.

With Moria, we got Legendary Items and two new classes and with Siege of Mirkwood, we at least got Skirmishes. With Isengard, we get nothing new? This is hugely disappointing!

I hope they will add something, but right now, I am not willing to spend money on that expansion. I did think about pre-ordering the expansion and I haven't ruled it out completely. On the other hand, I have three accounts, so I will have to pay three times as much as others...

What I like are the horses and the cosmetics. The Bonus-XP pocket item till level 65 is neat too. But again, when Isengard fails to capture my interest, I might go for the TP version.

I have been playing less of Lord of the Rings as I have used to. I only went to the Inn of the Forsaken once (and failed after being in there for a long time) and haven't been in the Halls of Night at all.

On one hand, I blame World of Tanks. On the other hand, we had some bad runs in Ost Dunhoth. We did have some great ones too, but...

We lost a raid-leader and officer. Hm, to be honest, I don't know if he will come back or if he is gone for good. I fear the later as he told me once, that he nearly left the game because I had criticized him once.

Last time I saw him, the main raid-leader told him to concentrate (and not talk about World of Tanks during the raid) and he wasn't seen again. We also lost other people, some for similar reasons, other because they were raiding at different hours.

Now we have not enough experienced and good raiders and the replacements often aren't as well equipped or don't know how to play their characters well enough. After all, Ost Dunhoth is not an easy raid and probably not meant for casual players, at least not when you try to do Tier 2 runs with the challenge.

This means, we fail more and this leads to the atmosphere not being what it should be. Bad atmosphere leads to less raid attendance and so we go in a downward spiral.

We either need to get some great raiders from other kins or do some Barad Guldur and other runs for getting everyone to the necessary skill levels for Ost Dunhoth. Master classes have started again, which is positive.