What happens in Evendim...

When you heard about a she-elf minstrel in Evendim, your mind could think about a lovely elf-maiden wandering near the coast with a lute or a harp, singing to the masive body of water and the misteries that lies there; with a peaceful aura and exotic voice, dressed with long robes of old, usually maded with white and gold colors.

Dont. Not even close.

Today I committed vandalism today in Evendim. A got some quests that made me do nasty, but funny things like burn down some boats, kill thousand of guys and steal some barrels and crates. Oh yes, Today early, Varsalle went wild in Evendim! I had the epic feeling that I was in god like mode, they were too easy to kill and i was hitting just to hard to accept.

I guess that when you beat a Tomb-treasure or a Evil scout minion, burn their belognings and steals their loot... it's not Vandalims.. Is just taking our things back, burn few other stuff and beating evil dudes. I did that quest with a happy face on myself and Varsalla´s face: I was finally kicking some mobs and they were not cheating goblins!

Berserker mode: Engage!

This is mine.. this too.. oh! look! Mine too!

More shinnies inside...?

Shinnies part II

Did you know that this, simple, boat maded of wood....

Could explote as if it has dinamite on it?

This kind of quests are funny, you could feel like someone playing DOOM or WOLFESTEIN 3D. you all alone with the entire enmy base.. and surprisingly! you are alive at the end. I recommend this chain, is fast, easy and have a nice silver and items rewards!

Well, I'm going back to game, gotta kill some things to complete my deeds.

I.. have to... to.. try!

See you all later, :)

Just because it's awesome

A friend of mine gave me this Jpeg days ago. I do not know where did he dound this or anythign about this, only that's is one of the awesome illustrations that I have ever seen about Zelda. And since my screens are lame and my google search takes just few seconds... I really want to share this art work with you friends.

I only hope thatyou like this as I. Enjoy :)

T_T Well done, however you did this. Well done! <3

Fellowship maneuvers

This post is gonna be kinda.. fast... this is a topic that confuse me all the time.

The first time I was playing Lotro, I was with my hunter killing goblins and brigands in Bree-lands when a Captain asked me to make a group. The quest was not hard enough that obligues you to make a fellowship but the respawns were just going to nasty so we did a perfectly timed group. Me as Range dps, the captain as a nasty melee oponent and some dude with a banner running back and forward in each fight. I do not know how, but someone maded that the enemy fell stunned or somethign and something that I had never seen in the game appear.

The game "paused" and four buttons appear in the screen, one red, one blue, one green and one yellow. I was kinda "WTH" and I tried to read each one but suddenly, it ended. After that, i never saw that again with that fellowship. Time later, in a skirmish, those same icons appeared many times and I only clicked on the red one since it's says: Damage. With a full red option by all players, a Ent will appear stomping the gorund and making damage.

This is a part of the game that I have seen a little and I hardly understand it as well.

Been reading about this and I know that several players (Veterans) Knows how this works, also, I learned that the Fellowship or Raid leader ir the one who should be worry about with and that you have to use your common sense in this thing. So far, I also know that each combination "unlocks" the sequence for further use and some fancy animation.

Oh, yes, of course.. and it helps a lot, A LOT, in battle sometimes.

Since I'm going healer (Ugh!... It hurts like hell when I'm saying it!) I'm gonna press so far either Blue or Green, why? This si the basic explanation:


Red: Solid Damage, Nasty damage and Nasty things against enemies.

Yellow: Damage per second against the enemy

Blue: Reg of Power

Green: Reg of Morale.

I'm still reading this on Lotro-wiki but I'm sure that only practice will make me better at the topic, so far I read: Red is for damage, blah, blah, blah, blah blaaaAAAAaaaah, Green for Reg morale Blah, blah, blah Blaaaaaaaaaaaag!!!!

So, I dont get a tiny thing of the matter. Yet, I found this... Feature, amazing. You were askign for strategy? Then get some strategy, not only to move your toon from side to side avoiding things and controlling your aggro. And using your Holy-crap buttons at the right time. This awesome feature is like a Holy-crap-awesome button for the entire party that allows you to handle the fight with more effiency.

You have combos, lots of combos, to made and I'm feeling lazy today... how unusual, right? so I'm gonna leave the link here to Lotro Wiki (Again) so you can check and learn them all. It's like playing with a Warden with more extra sequences to learn about.

The horror.

Have a good time! see you all later.

http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Fellowship_Maneuvers

Here, let's say that I'm not THAT lazy...

See? I'm not THAT lazy,
This pic took me 0.0003 segs to find it... Ask Google :D

My cell phone hates Twitter and Facebook.

There's something funny about technology sometimes and is that no matter how good are you in that, some problems are just "Weird" and hard to solve. For example, the one that I'm having with my Cell phone right now.

I can log everywhere in the internet with it, even Twitter and Facebook, but since a hour ag, the screen is telling me that I have a new message in both social networks and None of them have a update. So the Cell phone is doing this annoying crickett sound every five minutes and I can't find what' wrong with it.

I thought that there was a chance, a huge chance that the original trouble was somewhere between the floor and the device (I mean: Myself) so I decided to check in the computer for these updates and guess what? No new update. Weird... So I did a small reset to my cell phone and nothing, the same icons are in the screen saying that there's something "new" in both networks.

It is that normal? I hope not, and I hope that is just a funny situation of joking from my cell phone, i dont want to be all day listening the crickett sound once and again every five minutes... I could end mad, angry, crazy, berserker mode even.

As you can see, I'm bored, so I'm writing about anything... i have almost nothing to say about Lotro today (For now) since I decided to ignore my clock alarm at the morning and I woke up a little bit late. Still, I had chance to play a bit and I did few funny things that without screens they are like "meh", I'll make that post at night possibly.

Also, I deicded that I should go and try again the Trollshaws once more, has been 3 lvls ago since my last visit and some quests are already white-letter for me... And some quests in Evendim are asking me to visit the Trollshaws and Northdows as well, Orange-letter, so it could be good to make them fast, right?

Well, I gotta go to work now, so I'll be back a bit later with something more interesting... hopefully...

Cya!

A short post. a Different post.

Like 3 hours ago I decided to stop playing (For today, dont panic) Lotro and that it would be nice if I could get some sleep early. the main reason of this feeling is just becuase this day is not my day, not even my normal day, or most normal day... it{s my worst day to spent in Evendim.

I died twice again. Once running from goblins and Wargs, finally the Wargs got me, and the other the goblins got me... again. With the same silly strategy. So I call it a night.

The reason why I´m not sleeping? I'm just hipnotized with a T.V. Serie called "Castle"... Not for the Drama, but for the protagonist, the cop. She is kinda pretty and sexy at the same time and no matter if the episode has some coherence, on it, I'm just watching it with a dumb face expression.

o.o *Dumb expression*

O.O *Improve Dumb expression*

Yeah... I should go again, another chapter is already waiting for me to press play. See you later friends!

Why Everswim?

Evendim, the in-game zone where Annuminas is at, As well as several ruins of the second age is what my last topics is all about. I know that I should change the topic but for the moments I have my hands tied against my back. Its where I'm leveling right now and where the goblins showed me why should I hate them.

The zone of Evendim is quie easy to describe: Part of it is land, where the green fields and ruins of all lies invaded by treasure robbers and goblins (>.<) and Wargs and undeads, and the second part is a MASIVE BODY OF WATER that you can easily see i the map. In fact, just when you reach Tinnudir you get almost the entire map at once. Dont believe me? See the map right here:

A MASIVE BODY OF WATER... as I said.
Thanks to Lotro-Wiki for this map :)

The first time that I arrived here, with my hunter, I was looking at the map and I said: "Pfft... This is a exaggeration from Turbine's part... This lake can't be this big".

At this very moment I would like to retract my words and say: This lake is this big. maybe even more. I'm not lying at all, swimming across the lake can take you some minutes without reaching coast from coast, could be just for the size of the map or even for the fact that your swimming speed is kinda.. meh.

The only thing that I dont know is... Why turbine? Why you have to put some quest in the other, inhabited side of the lake? Are you just lost your mind? By all the Valars, those quests are quite annoying sometimes. and if you die twice and need to visit the graveyard... There's no graveyard near... None... zero... eaither walk by the coast or swimg across the lake: your choice.

Maybe with the Update they decided to make a extra Graveyard near, and hopefully away from Annuminas, where the last time that I saw, the mobs were around lvl 50 I think. honestly, i can't be sure right now. Away from home, away from game, away from actual info. But I do remember that I hard a hard time with my Hunter there and she was like lvl 36, maybe 37.

The reason why this place is know it as "Everswim" is just the lake, the other two rivers have no importance in here. Well, maybe the Brandywine river which starts at the Lake Evendim, of course. Still, this place is fun and is a good idea to try it.

Annúminas, the old empire.

Evendim lake... Part I

Evendim Lake, part II, and to be continue...

Big, ins't? Well, I have to go, see you later and I'll leave you with this normal Evendim screen.

And yes... I'm running with a chest in my hand... filled with treasures... and I'm not a thief.... gtg!

For the first time!

For the first time in my play time with Varsalla, I died twice in the same session. Evendim's fault! In fact... Goblin's fault! Yes, goblins! those despicable little green things that looks like Greedo! This is the reason why I have to kill them all now. They dont deserve mercy this time.

Still, they dont have all the fault, but a great part of it. At least the most disappointed battle of the two that killed me in the morning. At the beginning, I was doing quests for the people at Tinnudir and they decided to sent me to help another ranger far at east, near theborder of North-downs. Few quests, easier than usual and fast, kill some brigands, Oath breakers and a Oath-breaker commander.

Near the ruins of this guy's camp you could find them all. and when I mean "all" I really say "all" in the same spot. So my first death was my fault, for one moment I saw my medium armor and my shield and I say: "Pft, I can do this fast", I made a huge pull and after a tied battle againt the Commander and two brigands, The commander fell under my steel and I fell under the arrow of a range brigand while the other brigand was under my fear effect.

That was my fault and it's my pride who is hurt, We are not maded for that kind of battle and I thought that I was a super-minstrel or maybe  a guardian. I learned my lesson for good, next time, I will gor Burglar-mode for those battles.

But, my second death was nearly a hour after the first one, at least the Fallen debuff was wearing off and I could seek my vengeance after the revival and some food and buffs again.

The little goblin encampment at the north of the map, which is kinda dark and travling there at night is possibly the WORST idea ever (And I did it, I know...) was the spot for meeting a Warg that had a price over his head. That quest seemed to be easier than the other bounty quests of the zone, Wargs usually only apply some DoT and that's all. they can be feared, they are slow, and they dont have a large quantity of morale.

The trouble there was not the Warg, not even close, was the south entrance of the camp, were two idiots were taking a stand, filthy goblins, range and melee. Hate those goblins... Hate them, hate them! Anyway, I was killing the range perfectly so I decided to pull the melee as well, the battle was mine and I was doing a great work in that entrance, they were tasting my steeel and cries in the best way ever. It didnt took long from the melee pull when I killed the range and the melee decided to make a smart move.

He made a stun attack against me, and he success at the stun. "Bastard" I said, "You will see when I wak... Wait.. what's that?" At the door I was looking something unusual. A ENTIRE PATROL of GOBLINS walking toward my fight and I was stunned. totally stunned and the damage was not waking me up.

To give the short version, the patrol got aggro'd and I killed the melee with AoE and AoE but I died.

Goblins are getting smarter, they learned that they have to go in groups in order to success in a battle. Still, they are weak enough and those group usually dont have goblins with high morale point in the stack, so few Pew-pew-AoE can take them all fast.

The good thing is that after I took my revenge, I killed the freaking Warg and I ported back to Ost Forod and almost lvl up! yes, I'm like 3 bars away from lvl 37! (I reached lvl 36 today at the beginning of my session)

Evendim is a good place to lvl up a bit fast, but the goblins are smarter sometimes. And they learned how to do some team work! trust me: Strike them down!

See you later friends!

Towns of the Middle earth!

One thing that I like about this game are the cities and towns and campment. they actually looks like a city, town or encampment. Well done turbine, honestly. I was sick of those games in were you get a quest that says that you have to go to the city of "whatever-land" to deliver a important letter. After days and night of travelling, under the most harsh enviroments and figthing against the enemies of the nature and living things, you finalle reached the city just to fond that there are only like 10 persons in it, and three normal houses.

Come on, that' s not a city! that's just a... I dont know what that even is, but it's clarly not a city! Maybe a tiny group of houses or something, and that's just a "Maybe". in Lotro I have found out that this guys are not lying at all. when they tell you to go to go to the city of "Insert-a-name-here" They are actually saying the truth. Bree is huge, Rivendell it´s huge, Michel Delving it´s huge, Thorin´s hall is enormous! and that´s just few of the main cities that the game have... and the only ones that I only know so far too.

Not all the regins in the game have cities at all, some of them have towns, settlements and more. I`m not so sure what "Ost" means... beside of "Original Sound Track"... I mean, in the game. Must be somethign like settlement, town, mayor town, but most the (Let´s call them for now settlements) settlements in the game have the Ost at the beginning. Ost Baranor, Ost Guruth, Ost Forod and many others around Eriador and others lands.

When I walk inside each one it´s like, "Well... where do I have to go to... Wow.. What a place this is" and somehow this makes me happy in this aspect of the game style. Since the maps are larger than many others games that I have tested (Well, excepts perhaps the Barrens, in WoW) I guess that it´s right to make towns and cities bigger too.

Let's take a look to Ost Forod, in Evendim, for example:

crafter´s place, at Ost Forod.

Ost Forod, from the main "door" (Which is a crumbled piece of structure)

View from the South, Ost Forod.

Middle, (Yes, middle) level of Ost Forod, at the end you can barely see the
crafter`s place.

Upper level of Ost Forod, and I just realize that I missed another part of the town.

See what I'm saying? this places are huge! Maybe Ost means towns... And now that I'm thinking, maybe ruins, I dotn know, but of what I'm sure is that the townw in here are bigger than in many others games. and yes, i forgot to take a screen from another twoparts of the Ost Forod settlement: The merchant middle lvl and the Ring of fights... Because they have one and it´s kinda nice. Useless, but nice.

Now let´s take a look to the small campment at Tinnudir...

This is the encampment. A small ruin that serves as meeting place.

And not far from there you can find this huge structure (I have screen of this one in other posts)
where some other Wardens are. Still, they dont call this place a town, or a city, but a settlement.

Even with all type of merchants and crafters! But still a settlement!

And to reach to a end in this post, I'm gonna leave you with these screens of Annúminas, which I had to take from afar since all the guys in there are kinda nasty and higher lvls for me.

Behind the castle in the island: there`s a huge city with its OWN map inside the map of Evendim.

It is good to see that this matter, for little that they could be, are well kept in mind when they were making the game. It gives to the game a air of "Reality" that helps to enjoy the plot and the escenary. 

Well, I'm off to work, see you later and good luck!

Some concept Art of the game

Today something happened in the Transport system in the city, so the traffic is quite... horrible. My Girlfriend just texted me saying that she spent hour and a half from her work to her house. Taking aside that she is driving against in the side that theres no traffic at all, that's a lot. I could spend at least 2 hours maybe 2 hours in a half just wasted there, without saying that I offered myself to take a friend to his home, quite away from mine's.

So i'm wasting time in the webz, twittering, facebooking (Ew, sounds awfully, right?) and checking some illustrations of the game. While google offered me at least thousand of options to watch, I cannot be sure if all of them are from Lotro. As you already know, just tag a Pic of a Panda and name it Lotro and automatically theres a huge chance that you can google it under Lotro name.

I decided to enter in the Main Lotro web page and check the Concept art that they have uploaded there. Have to admit that I was waiting for a lot more, but the ones that I found there are enough just because they are awesome. I hope they have in mind to more uploads eventually.

I'm gonna post some of them here, but you can check them all in the Link:

http://www.lotro.com/lotro-media/concept-art

Balin's Tomb Door design. Moria, of course.

Darkwater Undead. I love this Concept Design!

Something like endless stairs.. never been there.

Galadriel's court!

Evendim! High King Cross place :D

Lothlorien Concept Art.

How Orcs really looks at Moria.

Well, I just wanted to share this, hope you like them, and check the web page too, theres some more. Good luck!

Never "been" in the shire

I have to confess it, I have never been in the Shire with Varsalla. Well, I went once, but was just deliver the mathoms and they only accepted the small ones, leaving me with 120 of Well kept-Mathoms in the back pack because a stupid, closed, door.

I barely rememeber something of the Shire in the game, I went there with my hunter time ago (Like for Spetember I think) when I was working on the quests for the deeds, an the slayers nd the exploration and stuff. and I didnt had a nice time there. The Quest Deed is just too long for the rewards and some quests are just running delivering letters and pies. Good things that those quests counts as deeds and bestows you with a Title.

The Shire stand in between Ered Luin and the Bree-lands and is one, in my opinion, of the largest area of the game, maybe because I was running without hore delivering things without being seeing or attacked or falling into the water, maybe just because it is the largest zone in Eriador. North of it you can find Evendim, the zone in where I am right now questing, and this one it's big too, but just because it has a enormous body of water in the middle.

Hobbits lives there, so you can imagine how are the houses, the towns and also that you will barely see a human, elf, either dwarf in their towns, living their troubles. it is good to see that, gives the game a bit of more sense. The other free people races can't hold the troubles of the hobbits *srslynod*

It is funny to walk between them, funny casual chats windows, funyn quests, like if they were living in another world far, far away from Sauron's forces and other evil creatures. well, maybe some spiders and bears so far, and wolves. Their quests are fast and basically straight, so its hard to get lost in there. it is good  to have a horse, anyways, as i said before the Shire is quite large and traveling on foot can be a pain.

One good thing about the Shire is the innate Hope bonus that you get, not so sure if is +3 or +2, while in other starting towns you will get basically only +1, guess that this lands is in fact peaceful and perfect. Darn hobbitses! we must burn their home dow and... oh... wait... their are my allies too? oh.. then, forget that about. it is good to have them and stuff. While the human is the most common race in the game, its easy to see dwarves and elves too, but its kinda hard to see a hobbit, a serious high lvl hobbit running around bree with awesome armor and epic weapons.

I guess that when a hobbit reaches mines of Moria and Lothlorien they forget about Eriador.

Rolling a Hobbit could be funny, but I dont know why I dont.. like it, perhaps? i guess that the impression that Frodo (From the movie ) leave it in my mind was just to bad enough to block me the will too roll a Hobbit. Also, the idea that they dont have actually a tutorial zone and starting zone related with the shire, but with Archet siege (Humans) it's kinda "Meh". The only thing that binds that intro with the Hobbits it's the fact that you rescue two hobbits there and the Nazgul is looking for another Hobbit (Guess who!)

I still have one slot free for a character, right now occupied with a Captain which makes me feel curiosity but it can't convince me yet. Guess that perhaps he can take a break and I could roll the most unexpected combnation possibly: Hobbit Burglar.

That's another thing, it is common to see Hobbits Burglars runing around, like the old Bilbo Baggins in his youth. I know thatI can make a minstrel or Warden hobbit, but I already have both classes and I'm not willing to repeat those for the moments. And a hobbit guardian is kinda "meh" for me. Hopefully, I will found another combination. Oh.. they also have hunters.. and I have one hunter too. guess that I have no more option there.

Meh.. Hobbit Burglar have to be the one that I could roll to test a new class/race.

Well, I'm still at work so I wont fill my head with that stuff right now, gotta end some things here to go home: so see you all later!

Roleplaying business.

Its been a while since I dont see a good Roleplaying in MMOs. And it's kinda weird since these games are RP games. I kinda miss it to be honest... And i'm kinda using the word "kinda" a lot, right?

Let's talk about the RP in the game, a huge business that it seems to be somehow forgotten due Raid and End content stuff. For those who dont know what RP means, it's the abbreviation for "Role-Play" and its what this game its all about. Role play games are somehow old, with all that Dungeons and Dragons games, Dark world, and many others that I dont know of becuase Im perhaps too young to remember them.

The goal in the RP games is just enjoy your character as if she/he were yourself. You make him or her to come to life and interact with all the surroundings and other imaginary persons in the game what we call NPC (or Non player Characters)

Usually, Table RP games hve what we call a Director, Master or Story-teller that leads us into a world of magic and mysteries, and makes us confront some perils and issues that we may be able to win or maybe we are destined to fail horrible. (Which is not bad, you have to know when you can or you can't do something, and when you should or should not retreat.. it's called Wisdom sometimes) In Table RP games the Master or Story-tellers acts as your enemies, allies, critters and even weather or fate of the history but most of all, he acts a judge. Judge means someone TOTALLY neutral.

If you die a lot, its not because the Master hates you... all the time, it could be because you kicked the face of a sleeping dragon that somehow did not noticed you while you were robbing t his gold pile or something, or when you insult and push back hard the bad guy of the story while you are just a low lvl without training.

The good thing about this game is that you can actually do ANYTHING that you want, and that your character could do as well. For example: there's a locked strongbox in the floor, maded with a lovely elven wood and its seems to be a masterwork... you dont have the key - You can smash the strongbox into pieces in order to open it. If is not magically seal or protected, the strongbox will be smashed and forget about the key. get your loot and run fast.

In MMOs, you can't do everything, for example, you can't smash the strongbox, but theres a good chance that you can find a extra way to open it or something. But you can create your toon and act as if you were her/him to your convinience. RP gaves the game a different perception, since the End game is a something... easy to reach and unwanted somehow. When you are done with the End game content, you have barely thing to do rather than gather hoars of gold and nice items.

Then go RP for a while! live the Drama of Roleplaying and enjoy been your character for a while, it's not a hard thing to do, and its sometimes a great stuff. You can have a great time with you group of friends and even you can met many other good persons in your travels.

The game offers you a lot of things, from Emotes to fancy armor to wear and many outfits to use for fast change of looking, from Dungeons to do a some sort of action RP to a house, to celebrate your victories over the enemies armies. Mounts, titles, spells with great animations, professions that allow you to sell in a ingenious way your crafted items and many other things that I'm sure that I'm forgetting.

I have done some RP sometimes, and I have to say that most of my best moemtns in the game comes from those little RP adventures (Most of them in WoW, I haven't been so lucky in Lotro for far.. and I'm still looking for it)

Well, End of the post, I dont want to bore you all with this Topic, but if you want to take a good advice to avoid the horrible End game content fulfilled: Do RP with your friends, create your own character past, goals, likes, dislikes (And please, try to make them most real... Forget about the thing that you are a directly  Gandalf's apprentice or even the lost brother of Aragorn... or Faramir under disguise to learn about other cultures... Not even that you are a Valar who is disguise as mortal... Be "Real" and dont twist the Tolkien's work)

Good luck, try it eventually, and have fun! see you later!

Greetings lvl 35!

So yes, I did it, after the last post that I uploaded at the morning, I ended doing some quests in Evendim and reached lvl 35 for good. Almost, in fact, it was really close and I think that 2 extra robbers that I killed in my way back helped me to get the level.

One thing that I couldnt understand, is that at lv 35 we only have one impovement that we barely use, more melee critical range. Im sure that the game is trying to remind me that I have to use my Herald's strike often, for the Deed that have been with me since lvl 7 or so. I hated Evendim until now, it is true that I haven't checked on the new content at all, so far I saw a rope in the big statues located in the brindge, and a extra stable master near Oathbarton but no quests.

Anyways, I'm not looking forward to make new content right now, Im looking forward for those sewwt rewards from the Annuminas vendors which looks awesome... also looking forward to complete a Healer set that I can buy one piece and get the others from quests rewards (I guess) the Heartmender, I believe that its the name.

Evendim reminds me, in travel-wise, to North downs. With the option that the middle of the map is not totally a waste, you can either use a boat sometimes or swim along the lake for the quests, specially those that are in the burning island in the middle-west zone. The view of the zone is great, maybe not the best of the game but by so far, it looks great, vast and in some way intimidating as well; full of perils for sure, since the Robbers decided to go inside every tomb and the undeads that remains there, either dont care or are allies of them.

About the Deeds of this zone, well, can't say too much about that but mostly I've seen that are exloration and lore-wise which is good for a change, I was kinda sick of the slayers deeds of the game, some of them were just kinda insane.

I guess that I'll be back inthe Trollshaws at lvl 40, maybe it's the best way to complete thos enasty quests over there and I'm looking forward to see how I help in the reforging of the sword. I was guessing that the quest about the sword was part of a Epic book, but seems like that for some reason they decided to keep it as a Evendim quest storyline. Maybe it's not that important... T_T

The things have been a little bit too rough for us, minstrel, lately. many quests involve a lot of fights and multiple fights so we have to be more cautious at the moment of the pull, either for respawns or for aggroing someone that we dont want too aggro yet. I almost died at the Tombs located at the East because of that, by mistake while I was attack 2 wolves, I misclicked and I targeted a human of the gang so they were after me. I love right now the Call of the Secon Age, thanks for that extra +10% in running!

I totally recommend this place, go and check it and see if it fills what you need most, either in Xp reward as well in loot reward. This last one is working kinda good for me. Well, I gotta go, take care and see you all later!

Evendim, land of old

Yesterday I realize two important things while I was doing quests in the rollshaws: 1) I shouldn't the writing stuff if I'm sleepy, my horrible mistakes and nonsense are really often while I'm in that state (I just checked the post and saw them, somehow fixed them too), 2) Trollshaws is a tough place for me now. mostly of the quests are not for my lvl and I have to wait to visit that land, at least 3 or 4 levels more.

So, I was on rivendell and i saw that Aragon had a Evendim quest with with, good thing to start in that place, right? So I talked to him, then with a master in the forge, then with him again, then with Elrond and then with him... again... and he sentme to Evenim, to see if I could help him there.

Not so sure what I could do, aside to helping with to reforged the sword and that, but hopefully, this place can offer me some quests of my level in some of the camps located there. I'm hoping not to go to the Northdowns again to complete those quests. I guess that almost a week is enough for me.

My rented ohrse is taking me to Tinnudir, the central "town" in this place located in the middle of a island at west coast of the lake of Evendim, which a friend of the guild calls "Everswim"... You have to see the size of the lake. and mostly the quests asks you to go from one side to another.

Well, I just reached there (Yes, I'm writing while i'm playing) so let me check the quests that I have in here first beofre saying that this place is spectacular for me to lvl up a bit. *Checking town* Ok! Well, this place is perfectly! you have noidea how many quests, quests rewards, awsome stuff, epic stuff, rep awesome stuff, rep epic stuff, I just saw waiting me to get them! here i'm gonna post some screens of the main city, Tinnudir, it was full of rings in the minimap Wohoooo!

The main settlement, in the ruins of the middle island.

A huge structure that only have guys outside, part I

second part of the huge structur mentioned before.

Well, I gotta go for now, wanna do some quests before I go to my work, see you later and good hunting!

Important people!

Well, I was on Trollshaws and it didnt go well. Not so sure if I should be there or what, but those quests where at least orange for me. lost and lots of lvl 36 and up and a quest of the Epic book that even with inspiration, I totally failed. elite mobs at lvl 39 while I'm just at lvl 34... Not a good idea, now that I think it right. The good things about this.. suicide adventure, was the wood that I found, I think that for the moments the nly good thing that I'm getting from here are the branches in the floor.

I as with zero at the beginning of my travels and I ended with 112 in like 40 minutes.. And I was not grabbing all the branches that were pointed in my minimap. I'm already working on my master at the Lebrethon lvl in Forester and i haven´t touched the Woodworking for now, still think if I shouls wait for the new instruments or if I should erase this vocation.

Honestly, I have been thinking a lot on it.

While I was in Rivendell, I decided to do a bit of exploration in the haven. big buildings, hospitality everywhere.. except in the guards... tress, mountains, trees and waterfalls.But also I found something (yesterday I think) that it could be great to announce for those who dont know the game at all.

You are playing Lord of the Ring online, and you already meet Aragorn at Bree as well Gandalf, in Bree too (If you are a elf) an I'm sure that you want to meet the rest of the fellowship.. Well, that wish is about to come true, I tooked many screens of them, waiting in the guess house.. Which is really small for four of them.

Well, there you have them, enjoy:

Gimli, son of Glóin! usually checking the back ack with rations and
rope and things to do.

Boromir of Gondor, poor guy, right? He have no idea of what is about to happen to him

You? Again? Aaaarg! Aragorn, waiting for the moment perfect for something that he has in mind.. reforging he sword!.

Bow master Legolas, this is finally good.

And then I meet:

Elrond... lucky dude >.<

And at the end of all of this:

Arwen, +9 at this moment of hope!.

She can be found near the misty mountains way out. But that´s another history form which I´m not gonna use to make you all sleep. Good night and follow us! leave a mssg or just ignored me, Im a little bit sleepy right now.

Waiting to go home

I'm still at the office, with all my duties of the day completed and no more duties for now, waiting in some art prints to end and time seems to go slower than usual. While I'm looking forward to go early, some comons sense tells you to not do it for several reasons: 1) Art prints, they machines can do many things, but not everything for you so you have to have an eye on them... look what happened on Terminator.. no one never kwows... 2) Traffic, driving now to home means at least hour and a half of traffic, heavy traffic, horrible heavy traffic. 3) Going out later (Than now) means free highway for me and some other mortals... can't have everything, right?

Anyway, I have to wait, like it or not. So in the meantime I'm searching for things in the internet related of what I'm gonna do in lotro when I arrive home while I'm wasting the last remains of my cel battery talking with my girlfriend about her day at the university. Also, I'm listening the Radio of the Dunedain, which I totally recommend it 100%, maybe more, gonna go for the 130%  this time. I was in the main office checking some files before I send to print and suddenly a voice that I know from somewhere filled the air in a music.

You have no idea how fast I ran to my office just to give it more volumen and how weird I was seeing by the rest of my friends, yet, they understand it eventually... I was like:

- *Jumping for happiness* Dragon age soundtrack!!
- "Dragon what?"
- *Stops* Dragon AGE... soundtrack... you dont know it?
- Uhm... Nope...
- How?
- I just dont know what are ou talking about
- *Tells the brave story of Dragon Age: Origins & Awakening*
- Sounds good...
- Sounds... good? Just "good"?
- Uh oh... Nerd rage...
- *Nerd Rage unsleash*

So, it was like that... Well, almost like that, I also show the a Video in youtube.

About what i'm gonna do in Lotro, its hard to explain, the last quest that I had on the Trollshaws was a heavily Fellowship quest and I have no more quests there, for now. Also I just explored like a 5% of the entire map, which means Imladris and the road with a Npc horse to the Bridge at the beginning.

Guess that I have a lot of things to explore there, I also read that I'm gonna find undeads there... another undead title, and i heard too that they look awesome, perhaps they look better than normal wights, skeletons and guant-lords that I have killed before, like in Lone lands and the Barrows, and Ered Luin. Also I wnt to test my new AoE attack, "Call of the second age" which not only hits many targets around you but also make you run faster. like a 10% extra. I really dotn have clue why, but fine with it, it's not a bad idea.

Wait.. I was reading all my spells in Lotro-wiki and I saw something that I never have trained... "Still as Death".. do they (Turbine) took off that spell? Hopefully dont... I could use it like... a lot.. and with 20sec CD?! OMG! I want that!

Meh.. still, I can't be sure if the spell is or is not on the game until I reach my home. but for the moments I will torment you no more friends, good luck, and see you later!

This is the Page of the Radio that I'm hearing, if you are interested, I found it on Twitter, so, if you have a Twitter account, check it ou and follow it too :)

http://middleearthnetwork.com/#/dunedain-radio/4548970989

Good luck again!

Minstrels can do dps too.

One thing that I have been seeing in the game is when you et in a group, with your Minstrel, people automatically thinks and asume that you are the healer. Why dont ask? Maybe the Minstrel is not specc as Healer, but Dps. It is normal to rely the dps on those who can shoot arrows and swings big axes and dual swords while the innocent dude with the lute or harp or drum or cowbell takes control over the healing duties, but just to inform: Minstrels can DO dps.

Dps is one of the three parts of the group (Along with heals and Tanking duties) and have the same meaning than the other two, it's kinda  circle, a evil circle that we all have to work in. Most of the classes do dps, in fact, almsot all the clase do dps in the game. Not so sure about the guardian doing dps or if he can, how good it is, but everyne can do dps, while not everyone can tank or heal.

Minstrels for example, can go melee, or Tanking mode... but they can do heals (Of course) and Dps, a good, really good dps to be honest. Look at the people who have misntrels and are lvling alone: They have to go in dps mode all the time and whe the fight starts it gets ugly for the enemy. At least when they reach us, a good part of their morale bar is low, a GOOD part sometimes.

I was thinking in doing Healing duties for a change, I'm always Dps in all the game, and sometimes a Tank... even if I fight against the system and I hate it, but I do Tank duties sometimes. I guess that I can do Healing for a moment... But I will love to do a deadly dps with Varsalla, to be honest. I feel that she have the potencial of being a slaughtering machine. My only trouble is that ppl can't see the minstrel as a Dps class. Well, not everyone, but a good part of it. It could be because of the Traits, maybe the spell power, or maybe because they dont want to hear the Minstrel yelling all the time, but from time to time you have to give them a chance and dont wait until another Minstrel get into the party for that.

Run-keepers are healers too, good healers to be honest, with easy healing spells that gets better with the time and the Rune system that they have, they also have healing per second, thing that We, Minstrel, dont have (At least at my lvl).. well, we have a Morale reg but requires us to attack and it has a nasty Cooldown too.

Minstrel can do DPS, a good Dps, and AoE dps as well, DoT too, and we can still toss our HoT from time to time, with a Buff for melee damage and many others things for the entire fellowship. Just let us try a bit.

Of course, as I said before, not everyone thinks like this... And I mean as "Everyone" also other classes that are not minstrels,  woudl love to thank those players for their understanding in this matter. I spoke in the name of all the misntrels that want to be dps sometime: We can yell a little less loud than usual, if that is what it bothers you all. But allows us to feel the battle! specially with our glowing hands from Warspeech! Wohooo!

Oh.. by the way, I got a new and nice AoE attack, Gonna talk about that later, with screens and stuff. For the moments, good luck! seeyou later too!

Emotes, lots of them!

One thing that makes the only games funnier are the Emotes that the character can do with the right command. from Dancing to smoke, be rude, yell or just play some instrument, these emotes are sometime sgreat to watch and useful to do some Roleplay or maybe just be a funny person while you are waiting for someone or something.

Some Emotes can be annoying, that's true, specially when someone is standing at the same time, spamming it and it has sound. Like the train emote in WoW... It's just annoying. Lotro have some of them too, not annoying but interesting that you shoudl check from time to time. they even sell some special emotes in the Lotro store.

For example, you have the tipically dance for each race. The dancing emotes are, thanks to the Valar, perfectly ambient emotes for the game/story, based perhaps in the dancing culture of the middle earth... So, if you are looking for dancing emotes with the dance of the moment in the real life: you should check in another game. In some holidays, in the main places where the Holiday party is allowed, you can find a way to learn new daning emotes doing a dancing quest contest. So eventually your Human can dance like a hobbit or maybe like a elf. I believe, dont kill me if is not.

I usually use the /Bow emote with my Kinship, whoever I meet in my journeys and no matter her/his rank in the Kinship. Right now Im still a Recruit so everyone is or at the same rank as me or higher, but if I get into the Kinwoman rank, I will /Bow before a recruit anyways. It's polite and funny. For example, in others games, like WoW or even DDO, when I played with Alawren (A dear good friend of mine) I usually made a emote war like /Hug or /Tickle, and with Lodakai or Nyx (Both of them good friends of mine too, and exceptional leaders in raid and guild's managment) I used /Poke... without reason, just to bother a bit.

I was checking the emote list for this game and I found that is... How to say this... H-U-G-E-!... If all of them works, of course, I will elave you the link to the Lorebook in Lotro.com at the end of the post, but I will say some of them here, first, just because I like to spoil things all the time. You have the normal ones like /Bow, /Yes, /No, /Agreed, /shakefist, /flirt and /flex... but you have some curious like /Swordsalute or /Snowwizard (This both I havent tested yet, but they are on the list)

I want to play, it is true, and since in my office there's only Macs and this game is not programed for Mac (Which I hope that eventually they will make the option) I can only search for things about the game... Like Emotes or quests, but quests is a topic that I have picked too many times already.

Go into the game and test them all, this is the link of the Lotro lorebook, and if the link is not working (Coz I suck at linking the stuff in here) just go to Lotro.com and in the search option, look for Emotes, its at the first result.

Enjoy!

http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Category:Emotes

Good luck everyone, and see you later :)

Server down, 1 week after the update!

As usual, like every week-day, I woke up a little bit more early to go inside the game, play a bit and take some screen for the day. Today tha was a total fail for me. We have already 1 week withthe upate Echoes of the undead within us and like every monday too, we are facing right now a maintenaince.

Seems like it is a good moment to talk a bit more about the Epic book quests of the game, not so sure if I talked about them completely or just a bit. The epic book quests are the only quests of the game that are completely free for everyeone, from thebeginning until the end, they will make you travel for all Eriador, Rhovanon and Moria following a side of the real books of Tolkien's story. Let's say tha you made what the fellowship of the ring couldn't do it for obviously reasons.

*WARNING, THIS POST MAY CONTENT SPOILER STUFF INSIDE*

The first book have some action on it, basically in here you are elarning about the evil enemies that you will have to confront eventually and their strange alliances with others forces, for example, the servants of Angmar arejoining forces with Skorgrim of the Dorhands and Ivar the Blood-hand from Garth Agarwen. In me experience, I haven`t read anything about this Ivar and from skorgrim only what the games shows you at the beginning, Lotro wiki seems that have only the necessary information about Ivar, like for example, how is the battle and what does he drop if you kiled him.

If you search for that Dwarf leader on Lotro wiki they will tell you a bit of his past and present status; and they wil also show you what he drops. For what it seems, you can solo this guy easily, his drops are nothing more than a simple mob of the game... Nothing special. It is a shame, I was waiting him to be at least the last boss or a boss, of a Instance. In the first you search also for Frodo and the rest of the hobbits and you met Aragorn and Gandalf, this book is based only in he things that you must have to learn to continue with the game storyline.

The second book is based in chasing the rest of the fellowship steps back to the Lone-lands and then, you get stuck in there. Seems like the troubles have taken another path and you have to face them all with courage. Undeads and nasty stuff are your enemies in here, even the Red maiden is waiting for you in Garth Agarwen, waiting to be defeated. Radagast the Brown is the main character in here, he is gonna lead you all the time and it is a epic book, in my own opinion.

The Third book is... Fast. mostly like "Hi", "Hi, how are you" *third book completed*

Is based in the Council of the North and guess who is the one that have to summon the dwarves, elves and humans? yes, you are! Some quests that always give you the Inspiration buff and with that buff, you are in Valar-mode on. even if is a short story, this book has a great importance and it is nice to completed in the game. It`s like that quest that if you miss it, you maybe are not going to understand litte things in the future. i guess... not so sure, anyways.

I´m upon the fourth book, chasing the riders after the river issue that they had, I know from my hunter that this book is also epic but I´m no gonna say anything at all for now. waiting to completed but I need to lvl up a bit, my next quests, even if is only a chat quest is already lvl 35, so maybe the next one, with a fight on it could reach lvl 36-37.

Endind this quest grants you with a Deed, some tubine points for your efforts (Like 20 on them) and a title, "A light from the shadows" Not bad, right?Well, so if you are playing this game and find yourself like me, at the beginning, check your quest log for them, they are important and help a lot to lvl. and you have to taste the power of the inspiration buff. It's just awesome.

Well, I guess that I'm gonna go to work early today, I'll see you all later, good luck and good hunting!

A bit of Rivendell

Well, I had no memories that the fourth book sends you to Rivendell. I'm happy about this for two huge reasons: I REALLY want to lvl up in the Trollshwas for a Bit, and, I have the Elven Trait that ports me to Rivendell. So I didnt hesitate when the told me to go there. it was like: "Varsalla, you have to go to Rivendell and speak with... Are you listen to me? Can you just put away that map for a bit?! This is important!" Kinda that fast it was.

When I arrived to Rivendell, not my first time there in my life-time of the game, but the first time with Varsalla, I was totally lost. I still dont know the cities perfectly, well, except Bree which is quite simple, but still. and Rivendell is kinda full of trees so it´s hard to see, between the elven structures and the trees, were are you going. I spoke with Aragorn (and I did not made a screen of that for this post) and I saw also Legolas, Gimli, Boromir, and with elrond, who gave me the next part of that chain. Sadly, that chain is just too high for me. For now.

One good thing that I like about the Trollshaws is that seems to be really linear and not complicated, and the wood and ore there are just awesome.Lots and lots of wood! I´m about to be the next tier of Forester! and all that with only like 4 quests in the same zone. Not lying here, if you need Lebethron wood: Go there.

I didnt went to deeply Trollshaws, because from Rivendell I grabbed the horse to Ost Guruth but jumped near the first encampment for the qests.My first quest there, my frist serious quest there (not the letter one) said that I have to kill boars. Lots of them too. Easy and fast, I completed it like 20 minutes (I´m seriously blaming the wood foresting there, I could had done it in less). After that i went to the last bridge again, searched for a box, went back to the encampment and then, THERE, I almost got killed.with a unusual fellowship quest.

Just to save a freaking dwarf!

That's all that I did, after that I went back to Rivendell and took some screens, worked on my 104 branches de Lebethron wood. So I didnt give it another try, I'm sure that he can exist by his own until tomorrow, and posible, tomorrow I'll be there.

Well, it's kinda late for me, but I will eave you all with these screens.

the Last homely house, house of Elrond (And inside are like 8k elves doing a lot of things, others doing nothing)

Same place, just after the Bridge of Rivendell.

Houses, trees, houses, trees, houses and look! a brigde! it's almost hidden behind a tree.

Looks good, right? 100% elven stuff.

The most incoherent screen ever of Rivendell... featuring the guard!

Forges of Rivendell, but the low lvl ones.

Well, tomorrow moring I will take the rest fot eh screens for the other heroes of the fellowship before I'll got to work, good night everyone! and good luck!

Epic Book 2: Conclusion

I finally returned to a normal game session for the rest of the day. Thinking that maybe I should complete my deeds in the Great barrows so I could move forward to the Old forest I decided to check upon my quest log and saw something interesting: I haven´t ended my Book 2 quest chain. Since it is in Lone lands, I thought that could be a good exceuse to stumble eventually in the Trollshaws and start questing there, as I so desire.

*WARNING**WARNING* SPOILER ALERT----SPOILER ALERT *WARNING**WARNING*

The quests that I needed was kinda easy: kill 5 gaunt lords and retrieve their amulets. Of course I had to kill like 7 of them to retrieve their amulets and almost died several times. AoE can be unfriendly sometimes. Good think that I was about to lvl up, like 3 bars more to go and reach the waited lvl 33, new spells! yay! Anyway, I was killed the guy, took their belongings and went directly to Radagast the Brown in Ost Guruth to end the chain. but that was a huge mistake from my side.

Radagast had others plans for me. My quest chain took me to the South parts of the Lone lands, near the Troll's forest to a Ruin, devastated and haunted, with wights and undeads everywhere. Normal in this game, right? In there I spoke with a guy who told me to talk with a Ghost, i did talk with the ghost and he offered me a challange, to defeat his minions... So I did correctly and fast, very clean to be honest, and with a Drum recipe as reward from a drop. After that, the ghost told me that I had to kill a Wight lord in the west ruins, at this point, everything was annoying.

After 15 minutes, I finally found the guy and 8-shooted him... almost.. maybe 9-shooted him, so i went with the ghost and he told me the history of his people and the fact that they were cursed. My road was going again to end in Radagast old tower. In there, we decided to strike down the enemies forces and guess what! Another instance-quest was opened.

A epic fight this Instance, totally a epic fight.

We went directly into the base of the enemy, and it was nasty. At the beginning some huge tree attacked us, and tRadagast summoned few Ravens... That's all. I was doing the hard fight again. But anyway, I was inspirated! extra morale points, mana points, extra awesome damage! Wohooo! I was gonna tear that place down!

But Radagast decided to recruit animals in the party, while I was fighting like a bloodthirsty barbarian. at the end of the frst place, we had a frog, fox, rabbit and squirrel in our party.

Full party and Radagast leaving me alone to talk with this undead fellow.

When we reached the first "Checkpoint", Radagast told me to wait in tat place and talk with the undead. Those guys are kinda great designed to be honest. Look at them, ethereal like, intimidating, floating spectres of evil, dead people who is cursed to be eternally bound to a commitment... wait.. Do I have to talk with "that"?

This is the "Friendly" guy. why he can look so good and I can´t?

This guy, Lets call him Dan, told me to no bother him and talk directly with the "Boss" so I run back to the new tower where Radagast entered and guess what? the magical door didnt let me go in. so this time, i was for myself in that blood-red swamp. "Meh, I'm inspired, so they cab barely hurt me" was my motto.

In this fight I was looking for potions in my bag pack... You can never know, right?

"So... you are the boss in here.. right?, seems like you run out of guards"

This is what I call "Cheating".. endless Waves of guards until  you kill the guy...

After I killed the boss, I dont readed too much the quest box, I just went to deliver and get my reward so i could move forward and suddenly everyone strated to run back and yell, in war mode like. I swear it, I dont know what I told him!

"Wait.. wait for the minstrel you dead-smelly-phantoms!"

After a Epic entrance in our enemies fortress, we rached another checkpoint with humans, seems like they were trying to get the loot before us but they utterly failed in their quet, so Radagast and I had to meet the last boss and kick him twice! Wohoo!

Against his servants! Die blood-red-water dudes! DIE! (8)

 And this is the part that I was waiting for.. The final batttle against Ivar, I was ready to kick his face several times but I was patiente.. it's one of my Virtues traits. So I let Radagast do the Epic chat first about how we were going to blown his mind and scatter his remains for all middle earth while his blood was going to be used as wine!

Muahahahaha!

 But...

Wait.. what? that's all?

Radagast owned the guy by himself while I was watching them both having a fight with spells and lightings and fireballs and useless stuff... What a waste of my talent!

Anyway, after this quests, you have to make several chat quest and you are done, you ended the second book of the game. I really liked this book, the part with the undead army was just great, hopefully the game have more things like this in the future adventures.

Well, I'm going back into busines, I just wanted to share this with you all, good luck! See you later for sure, with the Book 3, at least the beginning, IF is a epic stuff, if not, I'll be here also but with another thing to tell.