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The Road to Mordor: Seven things to do in Ered Luin before you die
As I moved on to my second starter zone in Lord of the Rings Online on my mission to complete every quest in every area of the game, I was in for a rude, if expected, awakening. In comparison to the Shire, LotRO's Ered Luin is lacking across the board. It's hard to imagine that the game's most eastern zone, which houses not one but two racial starting areas, could turn out to be a snoozefest, but I'll let the title of this article do the talking for me. I wanted to have 10 highlights of each zone for this series and could barely get to seven. The problem here is multifold. In trying to cram both the Elves and Dwarves into a relatively small (if tall) zone, Turbine didn't allow for the space to develop either race's culture before throwing them together in the middle for an awkward social dance. The races aren't allowed to really establish their personalities, either, leaving the Elves to start shining in Rivendell and the Dwarves in Moria. Finally, many of the quests are so dull and forgettable as to prompt players to race through the area to escape to more interesting locales. It's not all a loss, of course. Some of the areas are quite scenic, and I do actually approve of the concept of setting up the conflict between Dwarves and Elves. If anything, the taste of ideas here almost begs for the area to be significantly expanded so that these concepts could be played out and the respective Elf and Dwarf habitations could be given more life. In the end, I recommend that visiting travelers, adventurers, and treasure-hunters pack a light lunch and plan to get the following seven activities done in a half-day's span.
