LotRO Hunter First Impression

Pluck, my hobbit hunter on Landroval server, is closing in on level 14. I am enjoying the class more and more as he gains new abilities. Hunters in Lord of the Rings Online dish out massive damage from a distance to single targets. At this low level I have a variety of shots: slow my opponent, place a DOT, and do extra damage. I've purposely avoided looking into what skills are available and when. As Pluck levels up, I'm pleasantly surprised when he gets a cool new ability.

When I solo in this game and fight "at level" mobs, I find myself finishing off their last bit of life in melee. Hunters in LotRO wear medium armor and have some decent attacks. Pluck isn't super squishy, but he can't go toe to toe with multiple bad guys for too long. My favorite melee attack animation is where Pluck slashes his opponent with an arrow and then shoots them with it.

My main in World of Warcraft was a hunter. I miss my kitty cat pet from that game. Hunter's in WOW are ideal for solo players. The pet tanks while you shoot from a distance. If the pet dies or you get aggro, just Feign Death to shed aggro. Unless I group up in a fellowship, Pluck doesn't have a meat shield protecting him. Instead, I have to plan out fights more carefully. For example, hunters in LotRO can stand still before a battle to gain focus, which lets me use more powerful attacks. (I assume Pluck will gain more skills that require Focus at higher levels.) If he moves after gaining focus, he loses it. I need to start the battle in the right location and know when and where to lay a trap if I'm facing a group of monsters.

I have mixed feelings about no ammo in LotRO. On one hand the game is simplified because I don't have to waste bag space or remember to restock before leaving town. Less time spent micro-managing my inventory means more time adventuring and exploring. On the other hand the game feels less realistic, and finding better quality ammo was fun (in the achiever's sense of the word).

I've been in fellowships about a third of my time in game, which is the perfect percentage for me. I ran one instance with two other hunters and a burglar. The poor burglar didn't have much to do. The PUG had obviously played MMOs before. We stayed close together and focused our artillery to drop mobs fast. The typical skills for playing a ranged DPS class in a group apply to LotRO as well. For example, pulling, trapping, avoiding cc'd mobs, and managing aggro. Overall I find group play in LotRO fun.

My plan is to play Pluck up to level 15, and then roll a minstrel. For the Horde! Er... I mean... for the Shire!

LotRO Is A Go

Forrest Gump would say Windows Vista is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get. I like some of its features and its looks, but other things have me spitting mad. For example, the spotty support for drivers.

Since I'd updated my drivers twice (once from Windows, then from nVidida) the driver rollback option was out. Instead, I found an install file for the original video drivers I had on the computer. After uninstalling the new and reinstalling the old, I am back in Lord of the Rings Online. I won't pretend to be technical enough to understand why, but my FPS actually increased by five over what it was originally. /shrug

P.S. Check out Random Ogre Thoughts. Good rants on a variety of MMO related topics. His post on Quality struck a chord with me. Another post to read is his What Do I Want in a MMO? He commented with the idea of rolling back my drivers, which put me on the path that led to the solution. So thanks!

Frustrated Unhappy CranKy

Me? Happy? No. Not today. Especially not last night. File this blog post under "if it ain't broke, fix it until it is"

I won't bore you with the details about my troubles activating the new version of MS Money on my Vista box. Or rant about how Microsoft removed and changed the features I depended upon. I've been using the same version of Money for about seven years...yes, it's a case of teaching old dogs new tricks.

But my troubles with MS Money are just annoyances. Little nothings that a couple hours of hardwork didn't fix up. My chief worry is Lord of the Rings Online.

I posted before about having to fiddle with the graphic settings to get a compromise between performance and and appearance. I tested my frames per second (FPS) with FRAPS and I was seeing 25 FPS in the wilds but less in the bigger towns. Not smooth, some stuttering... but acceptable.

The new PC easily beats the recommended system requirements except for the video card (but still above the required level). I want to upgrade to a better card so I can play LotRO with the graphic options cranked up on high. The game is gorgeous with high quality graphics. So I've been researching what card would give me the best bang for my buck in the $150 - $200 price range. Keep in mind this is just me dreaming... I can wait a few months. Or so I thought.

Last night I ran the Windows Update. No critical updates. Whew. Oh, but look, updates to my video card drivers. Sure, why not? I thought in my naivety that with updated drivers I might squeeze a couple more FPS out of the game. Hah. My FPS plummeted to about 8 and textures weren't rendering. The game went all Matrix on me with weird white images and black terrain with shifting color patterns. Very trippy.

I tried a few other 3D games and they looked and ran fine. FPS was 30+. WTF, Turbine.

Panic ensues. Stupid me. Lesson learned. Don't get my hardware drivers from Microsoft. Go to the hardware company's site to get my drivers. I jumped over to nVidia's site and installed the latest drivers for my card. The game doesn't have that weird hallucinogen look but I'm stuck at 15 FPS. And that's after ratcheting down the quality settings.

I want to play this game, but I can't at 15 FPS. I'll look for a solution tonight. I hope there is one besides upgrading my video card. We just had our house painted, so I'm tapped and I avoid buying with credit cards. No way I can justify buying on credit for a game. I'd hate to shelf LotRO, but I may have to do that until I can save for an upgrade.

I KAN HAZ 40 KWESTS?

The quest tracker in Lord of the Rings Online has a limit of 40. Forty? Really?

Yes, old news to every other gamer on the intrawebs. I'm showing up way late for this party, but LotRO is what I'm playing so LotRO is what I'm blogging.

When it comes to the number of quests available to the player at once, RPGs range from one quest to many quests. Diablo 2 was linear. You had one quest followed by another and another and another (except for a couple minor side quests). World of Warcraft's quest log started at 20 and expanded to 25 in the Burning Crusade. LotRO ups the ante to 40. What's next?

The advantage of one quest at a time is that your character IS at the center of a world-changing story. No collecting bits of woodland creatures to make Farmer Bob's stew. But I find those "big story" games too restrictive. I felt boxed in when I played Titan Quest. Like I was being led around. I want to explore a world and select from many available quests. I want to make the choices for my character.

At the other end of the spectrum are games with almost too many quests. I'm overwhelmed by the number of quests Pluck has collected in the Shire in such a short time. A 40 quest limit strikes me as exteme. I hit the quest limit in WOW a few times, but only because I hadn't cleared out the old gray stuff. How am I going to manage 40 active quests? I'll have to hold planning sessions before I play LotRO.

Then it hit me... I don't need to fill my quest log. What I have is more freedom. I can take on as many or as few quests as I feel comfortable. Tonight I'm going to try something new. Instead of grabbing every quest possible, I will take two to four at a time and focus on completing them. Not very efficient, but a self-imposed slower pace is a good thing. I don't want to fall in to my old bad habits again.

The title of the post? I have a soft spot for LOLCATS. A guilty pleasure. Avril doesn't understand it. I'm a loser, baby.

My Name Is Pluck And I'm Here To...

Thursday night I installed Lord of the Rings Online on my Vista box. The process was painless, easy, and (surprisingly) quick. The patching was not quick however. I've had a bad cold this week, so I doped up on medicine and hit the sack early.

Friday night I tucked the kids into bed and logged on for the first time. I created a hobbit hunter named Pluck on Landroval server. (Say 'hi' if you're in the Shire). Half way through the Intro newb zone, I was in a fellowship with some good people. I had three new friends on my list within one hour of starting a new game. That was a first for me. We completed the final instance and chatted for a bit in the Shire. Pluck collected a few quests and started exploring. Not to sound like a rube, but I was actually smiling while I was playing.

LotRO's graphics are simply beautiful, but I see what people meant when they wrote about the choppiness. The game looks freaking amazing if I have the quality cranked up... and stand in an out of the way place and don't move. Sigh. Add a bigger, better graphics card to my wish list. I spent a good 15 minutes playing with the advanced settings before I found a good compromise between appearance and performance.

So how long will that smile on my face last? One month, three months, nine months? I don't know. I don't care. I'm having fun now.

Curse You Amazon

I bought Lord of the Rings Online from Amazon.com. They said it would be delivered on September 28. WTF. Good thing I wasn't on vacation or out of town on business or in rehab.

When I walked in the door, there was a box from Amazon.com on the table. The game was delivered eight days early.

Original plan was a few more LotRO prep posts. Meh. Close enough.

Plan B instead...