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The Road to Mordor: The 10 most memorable quests in LotRO
I honestly have no idea how many quests we're up to in Lord of the Rings Online at this point. Thousands, for sure. And as with many other facets in life, 90% of these quests are fated to be unmemorable tasks that blur together with all the rest. However, I've always felt that LotRO has a decently high cool quest-to-forgettable chore ratio, at least compared to other MMOs. What makes a memorable quest? Here's my litmus test: When I sat down first thing in the morning, all bleary-eyed, to write this article, these quests bubbled up to the forefront of my mind. They've "stuck," for lack of a more precise term, in my head. They've made an impression, and because of that I feel they're among the cream of the crop in LotRO's repertoire. For today's Road to Mordor, I'm going to simply list the first 10 most memorable quests that came to me. I actually was going to just do six, but couldn't stop myself there; I could barely halt at 10, if that gives you an indication. These might not be your most favorite quests or even the best in the game, but they've been the ones that have stuck with me through thick and thin.' Warning: Past this point thar be spoilers! Beware!
The Road to Mordor: A look back at Volume 2
Last year, I spent a column giving my reflections, thoughts, and observations on the entirety of Volume 1 of Lord of the Rings Online's epic storyline, and today I'd like to do the same for Volume 2. Since these stories are at the center of LotRO's player experience, it's important to see how they function and hold up in today's increasingly story-centric MMO environment. I've gone through Volume 2 twice, once before the "solofication" of the recent update and once after. The second journey was, by far, much more enjoyable since I didn't have to sit there for weeks hoping to find enough players on the same part of the Fellowship portions to continue the tale. Being able to go through it at my own pace was vastly more enjoyable, especially when I could dedicate huge chunks of time to knock out several chapters in one go. And this is a good thing, as this volume of the epic story not only gives you one of your legendary traits but greatly helps you build reputation toward a faction that will give you another one (the Iron Garrison Guards). As such, Volume 2 will continue to be an important part of any character's journey. So let's dig into this puppy (not... a literal puppy, you understand) and see what Volume 2 has to offer. If you haven't yet gone through this part of the epic story, beware: Here be spoilers!
The Road to Mordor: Re-evaluating Moria
When I first left Lord of the Rings Online, it was early in 2008 and we were constrained to Eriador and Eriador alone. Angmar was the most dangerous spot on the map, level 50 was the cap, and getting your legendary traits was an almost inhuman feat. When I returned in 2010, I discovered I had missed out on the release of not one but two expansions and a huge amount of new content in the world. As a previous player, I felt as though everything I had known was completely different, and there was nothing as unknown or intriguing as the Mines of Moria. Expansions have a funny way of making or breaking MMOs, you see. They can exemplify some of the best qualities of the genre: they represent the persistent growing world; they give our characters new challenges to overcome; and they can introduce new features that significantly change how the game is played. Of course, they can damage the game's reputation by creating a worse endgame than before, by screwing up the good aspects of the game, or simply by being unpopular. So how does Mines of Moria fare two-plus years after its release? Today, I want to take a look back at what will probably be the single largest expansion that LotRO will ever see and examine how its purpose has changed from 2008 to 2011. Also, we'll probably make fun of Dwarves.
The Road to Mordor: Echo... echo... echo...
Last night before I drifted off to sleep, I was idly wondering what it would be like to actually live in Middle-earth. Apart from the extremely high mortality rate due to wandering wolves, bold bandits, and orchestrating orcs, it might be a pretty excellent place to dwell, as long as one didn't mind a lack of Wi-Fi and Starbucks. I think Hobbit pies and Dwarf ale would be an acceptable substitute. Next week our virtual world will grow a bit in girth and depth with the Echoes of the Dead update. When all is patched and done, it'll be a truly big update containing meaty piles of content to devour. I think many of us are still scrutinizing Turbine as we go through this first year after the free-to-play switch, watching to see whether all of this additional revenue will be pumped back into the game or not. Echoes of the Dead marks the second post-F2P update for Lord of the Rings Online, following last November's Journey to Winter-home, and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with just how much is being served up this time around. So in anticipation of the patch, let's walk through the major features of LotRO's latest update and see whether it was worth the wait!
Lord of the Rings Online: "Solofication" is the word of the day
Ever since Turbine modified the first volume of its epic storyline for Lord of the Rings Online, players have eagerly anticipated the same revamp of Mines of Moria's Volume II. With the upcoming Echoes of the Dead patch, this will in fact take place, and Turbine's ready with another illuminating dev diary to shed some light on the process on the "solofication" of Volume II. It turns out that reworking Volume II wasn't as simple as scaling down mob health or just slapping Inspired Greatness (a huge buff) on characters. Every stage of the journey -- which contained many large group instances -- had to be reconsidered, and Turbine's Bob Hess details how the content team broke down the journey, adjusted it and then reassembled it to be a more solo-friendly experience. "Overall, I feel as though the changes made will allow a great number of players who previously could not proceed through the epic to see the rest of the story unfold," Hess said. Volume II's solofication includes taking battle instances and transforming them into skirmishes, adjusting the levels of the different books and making quest objectives simpler. You can read the entire article over at LotRO's website, and don't miss out on five new screenshots from Echoes of the Dead below! %Gallery-101902%
