Nerfing Lotro (again)

Tags

Greedy SSG, Lord of the rings online, nerf

Lord of the rings online

And so it begins… Developers finally made it, a serious nerf. Almost everyone was against, yet they did not listen. And here we are: Anfalas scrolls are now bound and capped. Scrolls from Dol Amroth have a cap of 44, Minas Tirith and Rangers of Ithilien – 59. After that – there are no reliable source of income. Some weekly quests that award with entire three (!) scrolls – well, compare to daily ones that may award with 4. Basically: your imbued legendary item legacies stop at lvl.59 out of 83. And even if you have all regions – right now it stops at lvl.79. Top-tier ones are only for War of 3 peaks and this is gated. Gated behind (as graciously offered) 100 dollars/euro purchase. To make things worse – reputation acceleration tomes become bound too.

So now we finally have promised change in Legendary items. Everything will become (one site calculated) around 3 times worse. That’s the best calculation for ultra powerfull character that can run 10 Roving Threats a day, do raids etc. For not so “ubersoldat” it is about 10 times worse.

SSG cannot be accused of being wise or having any love to players. They just keep angering players. First, remove Sturdy keys, wellcome black keys. When players got Black keys – oh no, no more in-game acqusition, feel free to buy. When players did not buy – oh well, then new content first for buyers, others may wait almost a year. Now it’s direct invitation: purchase Lotro points for cash, get all you need from Store!

People are angry. Lotro haters are quite happy. Only ones who do not care – are developers. Greedy, heartless creatures that know too little of game mechanic and how players feel. This nerf also makes my wish to support Lotro with at least 1 month of VIP – null and void. Sorry, Greedy Pig Games – you do not deserve support. You do not deserve this game.

On the brighter note: Stormsong finished epic. Running there and here, finally reaching Gundabad. Land was impressive. I expected something half-prepared (as is typicall for SSG). Well, it is not. We have towns that look like towns, we have Dwarves, we have real battlefield – fortifications, trenches, lots of monsters. Speaking on monsters – we have two-headed troll. A direct copy-paste from Warcraft’s ogre – it also had two heads…

Attack on Gundabad went not so bright for Dwarves, since their own infights undermined everything. But since Durin himself tells “The day is won” – it is won then…

And so the day has ended. Last one before Lotro receive really bad nerf.

Kinship runs, ghosts and greeds

Tags

Lord of the rings online, Lotro

Lord of the ring online

So much is happening and not so much space to write it… First, I grinded Anfalas scrolls in Minas Tirith as much as I could. Same Smiths-Builders, Smiths first, finally riding back to Minas Tirirth, barteing and getting new scrolls.

Battle for scrolls and other nerfs is still going on. SSG will nerf scrolls, then tomes of reputation (maximum lvl. – 100), now they are preparing to nerf skirmishes – only 8 instead of 10. Ju$t gue$$ what $$G need$… Nobody in chats agreees with them (and yet some players still buy their stuff for cash).

Had sometimes heated discussion in Kin and /World about Minas Morgul. Went to look here on Xantipe.

And it became clear – as we say in Lithuania – “Greedy one pays twice”. I forgot to purchase this “expansion”. It was on sale, entire 20% off… so after some discussions purchased. Bye-bye, hard earned 2000 Lotro points.

Xantipe did some quests, foolishly accepted quest to finish Remmorchant. However, I did finish some deeds, getting Lps.

It was time for Stormsong. She abandoned scroll grind.

Entering Minas Morgul (MM) was just imposisble and I had to enter, since there is no other entrance. And I am not a Nazgul to fly. And then Kinship – once again, their typical policy – “If you need it, tell and we’ll help”. One really ultra-powerfull Kin Hunter helped. Almost one-shotted gate Troll, one-shotted anything. It was like a miracle. My best toon could just aid with dps. We ran through ghost city – quickly, efficiently, killing all, looting stuff. I got some quests, later finished some, started and finished deeds.

Epic was bit impressive, even if too quick and too much running from point A to point Z. Ayorzen immitated Karazgar. Then Gothmog was killed (by me), Ugrukhor was dead (killed by Gothmog), Ugrukhor’s captain was dead (killed by me), and ranger Culang was dead (killed by Ugrukhor). Aragorn told story about Earnur…and now looks like it would be running between Mordor besieged, Beorning lands and God knows what.

I also grinded stuff in Mordor besieged. Some deeds finished too. Really enjoying rare Mordor besieged chests – they contain valuable crafting materials.

So, right now I have Black book quest line to be finished. Then have quests in Mordor besieged. Then – grind Minas Morgul region. Enough action and with Kin help I may achieve lots of things.

And so weekend was over, a good time of runs, even if greed made me pay twice…

Anfalas scrolls: the end

Tags

Greedy SSG, Lord of the rings online, Lotro

Lord of the rings online

These days…Looking at developers’ Facebook, Twitter, forums. Everyone attacking Anfalas scroll nerf. Everyone unhappy. Situation is simple: untill lvl.45 you c an get them, later – nope, and so you are left to buy remaining 40 scrolls for 1 imbued LI legacy.

After so much protests – chat went alive: developers pulling back, we won! But this wasn’t victory. They just increased cap to lvl.59. Then you are left with either RNG (so, guaranteed drops – 0%) or paywall. Three peaks for as low as 100$.

To my dismay, some players acted like sheep, like it was victory. It was a crushing defeat for you. little sheep, yet you fail to see it. Developers demonstrated they had no clue about game, they never played it.

For me, it means almost an end. Dol Amroth does not reward with Amroth silver pieces (taken off very recently and in secret). Minas Tirirth is too slow, even if it is entire 5 scrolls a day. So, if I need some 30 tokens for one legacy – it’s around 200 for one imbued LI – and heck, 400 for two LIs – only 80 days of grind. New content is behind paywall. Pay 100$ to enter grind? No, thanks.

To make things more fun, my old PC lags too heavily in raids. So, raids are not an option and I am left without anything. Of course, developers told there would be other chances.

First – if they were, they all are RNG.
Second – they lie. There would be no chances, only Auction or store.
Developers do what they can best: they lie. Not telling truth, and the truth is – milk everything, place everything behind paywall and when there is no more income, just close game nobody of devs ever liked or played.

Fat, greedy, heartless pigs you are, Standing Stone Games. A bunch of money-grabbers with calculators of profit instead of eyes. With no love to Tolkien lore, with no compassion to players. And with beer instead of brains. You, my dear, are feeding Lotro haters’ community.

And it angers me. I want to use user-friendly, prospering game where most players are satisfied and can choose, where items are not mbehind hundreds and thousands of USD paywall. I want game that prospers and is reccomeneded by everyone. A game with great lore, with devs who playu and understand, who are able to listen to logic.

Right now – since next week all scrolls grind stop, my toons are left without any reliable income.

Lotro, worst nerfed game in all MMO industry. As one musical said – “<…> You would see the truth, but you close your eyes / While you live, your troubles are many <…> / To conquer death, you only have to die, you only have to die”.

/grumpy.

Anfalas scroll grind

Tags

Lord of the rings online, Lotro

Lord of the rings online

My days became switching between toons nad grinding, grinding, grinding.

Stormsong: Minas Tirith, Smiths and Builders dailies, skipping Uruk-hai (too little in too big area). Finish, barter tokens, get my 4-5 Anfalas scrolls. Teleport to Dol Amroth, do any dailies, barter for some 1-2 scrolls. return to lagging Minas Tirith.

Xantipe: Dol Amroth, any dailies, barter for 1-2 scrolls. Minas Tirith, Smith and Builders factions.

And then I have my noob-Jeweller who just receives crafting items from previous two toons and advances. Yesterday little Jeweller grew up as crafter…and was approached by kind player, asking if this wasn’t vault/craft alt. Of course it was. Player told he was about to offer quality weapons, but since it’s vault toon… I was really happy that such kind souls still exist. Lotro hold on such players only.

Developers’ proposed nerf met with total resistance. Every post on their twitter, facebook, forum (yes, a bastion of hard-line fanboys, the forum!) is negative. Nobody is happy. The question is – would they listen to? If they do, they retreat in shame. If they don’t, they anger playerbase and lose customers. This is what happens when you change game you do not play. And well, if they do this – every new player’s imbued Legendary item would stop at half way. No realistic ways to get thousands of scrolls, even for Lotro points.

Unhappy to see game being nerfed and nerfed with too little upgrades.

And boss, if you read this – I wrote mail to you…

Nerfing Lotro again

Tags

Greedy SSG, Lord of the rings online, Lotro, nerf

Lord of the rings online

My toons are happy with new Kinship. And yes, right now I have enough work to do each day. Log in Stormsong, do dailies for 2 Minas Tirith crafting factions. Log Naktieskarys, grind some ore. Log Zantipe, grind some virtues, via questing or taskboard. Log Xinderbor, my Jeweller, craft whatever possible to advance.

Minas Tirith lags heavily, is very player un-friendly (barter tokens 3 times so that instead of 10 tokens you get 2 or entire 3). However, it is effective, the best way to grind Anfalas scrolls. Thanks to lag, I do not take Burgsmen faction: it requires riding tos some 4th level of Minas ‘Lag’ Tirith.

And this is where $$G comes in. Incoming patch announcement on Bullroarer: Minas Tirith, Dol Amroth Anfalas scrolls are going to be nerfed, putting maximum level of Legendary item legacy – it is 44 (one vendor), and 35 (all others). And now – currently LI have level 79 legacies. Feel free to craft for tens of millions of shards. Or – how convenient – buy from $tore, it’s $$G after all. To make things worse, reputation tomes from Skirmish would be bound. Of course, $tore item$ won’t. And yeah, to make life more miserable – account-wide regional currency use gated behind quests. Regiona awards you with 10 tokens, yet you can’t use them before finishing God knows which quest…

It’s a blow. Even most loyal, forum fanboy community revolts. Nobody supports, every voice is against, some announcing they cancelled subscriptions. It is SSG that made imbued Legendary items a terrible grind. Several hundred of scrolls, tens of crystals for just one item (usually we have two of them). There was Seregost, efficient way to farm scrolls – no more, nobody runs Seregost now. There was slow Dol Amroth – well, looks like there would be no Dol Amroth dailies. There is Minas Tirith – looks like there would be no Minas Tirith.

This is the long-promised changes to imbued Legendary items! Stop at some level 44 and advance more. or pay, pay, pay with cash and get all you want.

Pay to win, it’s a direct way to Pay-to-Win model, PvE version. Wanna kill that monster – oh, call for half server or conveniently buy some stuff that makes you to survive. Only cash needed – pounds, euros, dollars…

Nobody is happy, players voice their protest. Nobody listens, SSG fails to listen. What a pity that such beautiful game, almost perfect F2P, with such quality stories – have such bad, greedy, unresponsible developers. They do not play their game, do not know how content may drive players grumpy. They have no ideas what normal f2p thinks and wishes. And yet…I am really afraid that SSG will change it.

And meanhwile, in a game there is one more current Kin member, who left Beggars some time ago. We share thoughts, some alarming news about players not logging since April. Left game? Took long break? No ideas, no mails and now it’s too late to guess. Was approached by other players who follow my blog and my (mis)adventures in Lotro.

Mood is “so-so”. Incoming nerf is bad and there is almost nothing to stop it. Unless majority cancells subscriptions with note: no scrolls, no money. And yes, Lotro needs new developers. Ones who love Tolkien lore, who love game, play game a lot and know what simple players think. Not you, SSG, you should be designing mobile pay-to-win games like Farmville.

End of [bit grumpy] post.

Gates and barters

Tags

Lord of the rings online

Lord of the rings online

Only Stormsong was active. Lag Tirith dailies. Builders and Smiths factions, all at different gates. Kind of easy, if not this heavy lag. Later, with the help of kinnie – exchange of tokens. Instead of one exchange – we have two separate, on separate NPCs.

Result – some 6 scrolls, this is without doing Burgsmen dailies. Running to Cisterns through laggy city – no, thanks.

So, everything is clear with those dailies: Smiths are the priority, others are just a hobby that sometimes proves to be efficient.

Beorning was idle. I need to grind some deeds in Trollshaws to max all of his virtues.

Social life is back to normal – joking about Lag Tirith, about famous “Isengard bids 5”. Life is back once again.

New begining(s)

Tags

Lord of the rings online

Lord of the rings online

I left my Kinship. Unfortunately, last months I had some problems – so it was better for me and them to part. Lucky me, no spamming like “Why did u leave?”. My new Kinship is kind of small, yet helpfull, it is there that I received many answers to many questions. And yes, they were fore-warned: I will ask a lot, from equipment to questing.

Yule festival was intense – so I played only on toons that needed Anfalas crystals/xp most: Vytautaz, Zantipe, sometimes – Naktieskarys. Beorning Zantipe now has some 14 crystals: when he reaches lvl.100, at least crystals would be ready.

New Kinship saw my Beorning back to action. I had to level up some virtue, so – so it became clear almost all deeds in Ered Luin and Shire were not even started. Of course, Beorning is melee (only two ranged attacks) – so there were some running backwards-forwards. Soon, Shire and Ered Luin deeds were done, except few very grindy ones and virtue increased from level 0 to level 39. All within two regions.
Beorning is nice, yet…yet I have to master red traittree, manage those 4 attacks in melee and 2 ranged. Let us hope that in this Kinship I will achieve that.

Stormsong returned to Minas Tirith before battle. Those daily quests for 3 factions. I thought it was clear: you get tokens, you barter for scrolls.
Wrong.
First, you battle heavy lag. Then, you do quests for 3 factions. Then, you barter tokens at such abysmally bad rate – that it makes no sense. You barter 5 Builder tokens for 1 Burgsmen token and then 3 Burgsmen tokens for 1 Smiths token. Luckily, 4 Smiths tokens mean 1 scroll. Well, running non-Smiths makes no sense: whatever you get, you lose with this exchange.

Back to social life: /World is on again. I know, too early and sometimes there is still politcs (Brexit/biden-Trump). However, global is not as polluted as I expected.

And so my social life is back again, I have activity to do once again, things look promising once again. New begining is there.

Year to end, year to go

Tags

Lord of the rings online, Lotro

Lord of the rings online

Days are passsing by. I am busy with Yule festival, logging only Zantipe and Vytautaz, to grind Anfalas crystals and get xp. Social quests are mostly a failure – where player interaction is required, there is typically no action. Theatre means 3 playhers and thus sometimes I stand alone half a day. Snowball fight requires at least two players and some days I get 2-3 hits…on those riding nearby, because field is empty.

There is little interaction with other players, even when I try to start a conversation. Noticed one player from Dunedain of the North kinship. Same as I was once in? Asked, if this is same kin from Withywindle with Bestone as leader. “I do not think so” – player answered.

Regional chat is mostly dead, very little players who are there and even less those, who wish to talk.

Stormsong left festival and resumed killing orcs in Riddermark, gathering valuable Red Agates. Later, will send Naktieskarys to grind ore.

There are many troublesome thoughts about Lotro and me. Some decisions I am unwilling admit to myself.

2020 was not to ogood for me. Many disappointments, many unanswered questions, living in silence for too long. 2021 must see me more active (not only festivals), less or more adequately equipped and returning of Stormsong to /World chat as helpfull Minstrel.

Your forest

Tags

Lord of the rings online, Yule festival

Lord of the rings online

Yule joy continues, sometimes I even manage to find other players for snowball fight! Sometimes…well…mostly it is a problem. However, quests goes on, I get those tokens and my under-equipped toons get a chance for those Anfalas crystals.

If only we had a chance for effective Anfalas scrolls farming! Now it is hopeless: one scroll a day and you need literally hundreds of them.

Zantipe, my grumpy Beorning, received some update in Bio. A medium size text about him and his mood. Stormsong added a bit info about herself too. No roleplay, just basic things and some philosophy.

Yule goes on, the real joy. When it ends – well…grind with little sense will be resumed.

Yule, Beornings

Tags

Lotro, Yule festival

Lord of the rings online

It’s Yule, finally! All my active toons rushed to festival. Well, this time we have one additional quest (for “mini-expansion” owners only). Also, Virtue xp added to some deeds.

And so it began…Stormsong, Naktieskarys, Vytautaz, Xantipe, Zantipe – all started grind. Natkeiskarys, Zantipe and Vytautas all need xp and Anfalas crystals, only Stormsong and Xantipe do not. Runs were nice and mostly effective. Troubles are sometimes with Theatre- less than 3 players and nobody comes. Snowball fight is unpredictable, mostly – empty. Only sometimes some players run and stand as living targets. Kind from then, yet I do not understand such behaviour.

Rewards: new horses, dyes (not so interesting). Golden Hobbit rewards have a chance to drop Huorn with Yule tree. But that’s only golden presents, no other way to get. Kind of unfair (I’d put it on store for Lotro points or for few thousand tokens). I bartered pointsettia decortated Huorn on Xantipe…bit disappointing.

I resumed playing Beorning, put some text in “Bio” tab. Had forgotten almost everything. Looks like I have some 4 attacks only, almost no AoE attack and nobody to ask. I asked some players – no response, posted in Regional – no response, no “hi” or “bye”. Only one time when I yelled in all caps one troll responded. Of course, trolling it was, nothing of any use.

Which led me to radical phrase: Lotro, most anti-social game. This game does not need chats. These are either politics/religion or are empty or are just trolling. No use for anyone, since most cries for help get ignored.

But meanwhile I have -luckily- very clear vision. First, grind all I can while Yule lasts. Second – finish some old quests on Beorning. Third – try to return to Osgiliath on Vytautaz. Fourth – metals/precious stone grind on Naktieskarys.

My days are almost good once again. If only players in Lotro were a bit more social…