My foray into Middle-Earth is going well and I’m still really enjoying Lord of The Rings Online.  Even after 3 server changes due to guild indecision – 1st server was Nimrodel, which we abandoned for Landroval due to population issues (The guild didn’t feel there were enough people on Nimrodel). And then we discovered one of our old WoW guildies had been “playing in secret” for the past few months over on Brandywine and was already in an active guild and had levelled into his 30’s – so we moved over there.  Although we really haven’t seen hide-nor-hair of him or his guild since we moved, we’re still enjoying our time over on Brandywine.  The multiple servers will also give us alternative places to play if/when Brandywine goes down, which has happened once already and we just all migrated back to our Landroval characters until BW came back…

Anyway, I’ve got my Lore-Master into his early 20’s and he’s doing well. I’m learning how to be an OK crowd-control character.  It’s definitely helped out our group in some sticky situations – our most recent CC moment was doing the Bree-Land quest where you have to find the “Ancient Chest.”  After the initial party wipe, we came in better prepared for the second attempt and all was good.  

My LM is also a “Historian” by trade and I’m finding it difficult to come by some of the materials required for the “Scholar” sub-trade, so I started working on my “Farmer” sub-trade and that’s going much faster.  Each trade in LOTRO is composed of three sub-trades, so that at least adds some variety to the crafting part of the game.  I’m already a Journeyman farmer and need to move on from Bree to the Shire, where the master farmers are, in order to progress.   The coolest thing (for me) as a farmer is making different pipe-tobacco’s that let you blow different kinds of smoke-rings/animations.

One of the most refreshing aspects of the game is the distinct lack of “WoW Whine.” You know, all the smack talk and garbage chat that WoW is famous for, particularly in the Barrens. In Bree-Land, LOTRO’s equivalent of the Barrens, there is very little gratuitous chatting/arguing going on and lots of useful advice and helpful hints.  A definite breath of fresh air.

Guess I’d better head on over to the Shire and start farming, I want to be able to harvest “Wizard’s Fire” pipe-weed sometime this weekend. Oh, I’ve also posted a few new LoTRO screenshots on my “ScreenShots” page. Enjoy!