Mordor crafting

Tags

Lord of the rings online, The secret world legends

Lord of the rings online

…was in fact offline. Up to some 22:00 Lithuanian time – all servers under maintenance. I suppose (and some agree with me) they are step-by-step transferring Mordor content. Which is, no doubt, wise from SSG. If that’s the fact – kudos on making things right.

There was almost no activity. I missed opporutinty to join several groups, then one players – known to World chat – invited me (“since you needed FI”). We ran quickly and efficiently. Only that this player – Guardian – was all the time on the front line, always taking damage. Had to cast protective shield on him. Challenges were done and I even got one Anfalas crystal.

It was satisfying result. My Minstrel has some 120 Anfalas scrolls and 9 Anfalas crystals. I am ready to max my Legendary weapons after Mordor.

Helped one Champion with Eregion quest to kill 2 named trolls. It was nice and easy: arrive, AoE anything, quest done. At least some refreshong activity.

Mordor crafting announced. We receive new crafting tier and lots of things to be crafted, including Minstrel instruments. No new Guild tier.  New crafting material – some ashes. We could make some deconstructable item (cooldown – 1 day).
I do doubt about this crafting. Since you almost can’t kill monster, you can’t loot ashes, since you can’t loot ashes, you can’t craft; even if you manage to kill one monster and loot ashes – you can’t get recipes, these are gated behind paywall. Result – almost zero chance to craft anything.

I talked about Mordor, yet can’t find answers. Perhabs the only things left to do is to grind LPs for some usefull purchases, like inventory, shared inventory, wardrobe, milestone skills.

Oh, and I thought one stupid thing: to subscribe for 1 month, then rush through all content. Of course, it is stupid, I have no wish to support extremely bad content.

Secret world legends

Played a bit…and died a lot. First, some deeds finished (killed 500 zombies, yay!), then did quest to find this or kill that. From far, versus weakier monsters I am effective. Closer and with toigher mobs – always having problems.

Tried to talk, but to little results. Linked maybe 10 Talismans asking which one to use…was adviced to use one who is weakier than equipped. I would probably end in upgrading existing. Loot is almost non-existent.

Community is too…very passive. In Lotro, we have talks, invites…there you could feel like in solo game. Yet all atmosphere is really nice, my class is good, deeds are doable and so far no pay-to-win thing. The only minus is hand-holding: if you need to visit building A, B, C – you should visit Building A first. You know, just because game wants so.

Overall, SWL is nice game. Not one I’d like to play for days and hours – but some kind of alternative. I like it and could play it.

 

And so the day has ended: a bit sad in Lotro and somehow active in SWL.

Talks before maintenance

Tags

Lord of the rings online

Lord of the rings online

Stormsong was active. Did both Featured instance (Glinghant) runs. Loot was mediocre. Some tier8 essences were deposited, some trashed. Managed to cheaply sell 2 lootboxes, other two are waiting.

Helped one kinnie with Trollshaws. It was pure relaxation to run and kill, run and kill. He completed some quests and I looted some valuable mathoms. I do enjoy helping people.

Talked -once again- about Mordor. About my three choices, each of them is wrong. Do not go at all, but level up to lvl.115; do not go untill they make it solo friendly (would make years to wait) or go for epic only and suffer defeat every second step.

I talked to one kinnie. All facts are against me. Weakiest attack from trahs mob is 7000. All resources heavily guarded, making crafting impossible. Forced fellowship/raid content. Debuffs everywhere. And no chance to earn any essence/armour via epic questing or bartering. Everything is locked behind paywall.

Such is Mordor. A region where I would always be out-dps’ed and could not out-heal. Where trash mob is way stronger than me. Kinnie adviced to buy content and try it. Throw away some 2500 LPs? No, just no. He told he could solo on tankish class:possible…not on champion/minstrel.

Then what to do? No idea. Nobody can give me any wise advice. To ask half kinship to escort me is not an option.

Today they would have extended maintenance, probably slowly uploading Mordor, And I stand in darkness, in labyrinth where all passages are wrong since none leads to exit. I am lost, totally lost, in need of some advice that would explain everything.

The day has ended, a bit grumpy in Lotro.

Actually silence

Tags

Lord of the rings online

Lord of the rings online

Summer festival is over, so my toons had little to do. Stormsong helped one group (lvl.65, thenlvl.105 Warden and me,. lvl.105 Minstrel) to storm Barrows. We ran, we killed, I looted Tome of Agility-2. A pity, it’s of no use to me – already have it on main toons.

Featurted instance is Glinghant, but groups were rare and very quickly filled – I was too late.

In Kin chat had a half-hard talk about Mordor. Not my fault, people were already talking. Of course, I am not pre-purchasing or subscribing (subscribe for bad content? No, thanks). I am not purchasing it, because Lotro points are needed elsewhere – storage, shared storage, milestone skills and alike, even Mithril coins.

I am left with 3 strategies, no less, no more:
1. Stop at Black gate and do not enter Mordor, epic quests or not.  This allows levelling up my toon and LIs.
2. Stop at Black gate now, do not enter Mordor…wait untill they make it playable and enter then.  This allows levelling, but is risky – can wait for too long, like Hytbold took many years.
3. Enter Mordor, do epic quests, dying every second step, in hopes of obtaining armour/essences to gear my toon up. High risk, because any of my toons would be killed too often and I do not have required skills, like healing 100% health or having some ranged nuke with 1 sec. cooldown.

Kinnies opposed. I brought simple data: since trash mob’s weakiest attack is 7000 (reported by players, not me) – it takes 5 hits to kill me. Not speculating about devastating/critical hits or stuns – that’s instakill. So, I cannot out-dps or out-heal. If I dps, I do not heal – if I heal, i do not dps. That’s a lose-lose situation. And sophisms like “learn how to separate groups” are just sophisms. If monster outperforms me and I have not enough firepower/heals to survive – monster is overpowered, no strategy would help.

Good news: folks report that Mordor essences are really strong, with statuses from 5000 to 13.000. The only small question is: would I be able to get them, even if I enter Mordor? Knowing our developers, they would probably be locked behind expansion purchase. Answer is negative.

A pity Lotro does not end with Mordor. I wish it said “bye-bye” and closed. Story would end, game would be remembered as a legend.

But for now I have to survive my troubling thoughts, new bad and extremely hard content with actually most content, excluding stables and taskboards, locked behind purchases..

The day has ended, nervous and bit grumpy in Lotro.

Summer and flame

Tags

Lord of the rings online, The secret world legends

Lord of the rings online

Summer festival ends today! I used almost all free time to get those crystals or at least – get as many tokens as possible. Naktieskarys and Vytautaz grinded.

Then it was Featured instance time. Ran on few toons (maybe 3). Got Might-II tome and Anfalas crystal, also some trashy tier 8 essences, war materials. Might-2 along with Might-3 were used by Naktieskarys. Essences were trashed, war materials deposited. Not sure why, probably I won’t be needing them. Featured instance runs were very good, very fast and groups were nice.

Helped one player with Bogbereth. There were 4 of us – lvl.105 me, lvl.105 other player and two lower levels (40 and 60?). Spiders were killed quickly and efficiently, raid level instance was finished.

And then I had nothing to do. Went to Haudth Iarcith to farm mathoms. Hunted untill saw other, lower lvl., players hunting – then left. Now I have enough mathoms to get Kindred, so that 100 LPs are guaranteed.

What is really enjoyable – givinng away crafting stuff. Scholar items are really popular, while some players answer “gimme all”. I am glad to help others.

I am preparing for post-Mordor. We would need 5 Anfalas crystals and some 35 scrolls for one LI. Stormsong has some 120 scrolls and 8 crystals. Naktieskarys has enough scrolls (100?) and 2 crystals. Vytautaz has some 60 scrolls and 1 crystal. Well, would have to grind at neariest festival (Yule?).

In chat we ranted about One Ring. Of course, it was Gollum who saved the Middle Earth and destroyed The Ring (credits went to some thief Frodo). And since the Ring belonged to Sauron, it was probably Sauron who let the Ring go to freedom, it wa Sauron who placed little guards so that Frodo can sneak…and it was Sauron who let the ring to be destroyed.
Credits went to Frodo the thief, Aragorn the Noob and others from that company. Real heroes were forgotten…

The Secret World Legends

My half-dressed toon continued her adventures. Levelling slowly, it’s not like Lotro. Killed few times. Still don’t understanding mechanic. For example – upgrading weapons. I still have my first weapon, upgraded it sacrificing some trashy ones, then empowered. Upgrade costs some 800 blue crystals, my weapon is now lvl.12 and deals a bit more damage. Is it wise to upgrade or should I wait for some epic weapon (i.e. like Lotro’s at lvl.15)? No idea. Then, my abilities – looked at them, none seems needed. I have 2 rifle attacks and 1 grenade, that’s all. Can get more attacks, though they seem a bit…weird. Like healing shot that heals some 1%…sorry, it’s 3 hp if I am at 300, too little to invest into.

Community: there is some, but almost no social activity, like “Clan ABCD invites players, please send tell”, “Selling Great Cannon of Owning, only 99 gold”, “Maybe someone has Zombie parts?”, “Dungeon NN starting, 2/12”. Few questions, few answers.

Gameplay is really nice. Kingsmouth is huge, lots of things to do, atmosphere is just right. I ran through zombie-infested forest, killing groups of them., avoiding others, lighting the blueish lights of cultists, then investigating the ship, killing zombified Captain, talking to one cool old woman…

I enjoy SWL. If only I could cope with awfull controlls and re-arrange them like I can do in Lotro. Sometimes I can be wrong with SWL, like that ‘impossible mission’ with camera, I just needed to panic less. But once again: I write what I feel, how I feel and why I feel.

SWL could be my secondary game should Lotro become too boring.

---

And so weekend has ended. I had enough activity. Lotro is moving towards Mordor which (Mordor) would be really hard and bad. But for now, I can only expect next Featured instance is nice and I can grind those scrolls/crystals…

Festival, Secret World

Tags

Lord of the rings online, The secret world legends

Lord of the rings online

Naktieskarys did Festival runs, bartered for one more Anfalas crystal.
Stormsong and Naktieskarys ran Featured instance. Only one time killed (on Champion, of course: we, Minstrels, are just superior to most of the classes), loot was standard: valuable Anfalas scrolls, then some trash: crafting journal boxes, essences. Essences are auto-deleted, I do not bother sellign them.

Stormsong aided one lvl.61 Hunter to run Sambrog. It was really nice experience, player knew how to run Sambrog, so everything went nice.

Mordor this is a headache for me, ultra-hard content plus all this “master race” approach from SSG. In their place I would employ different approach: more privileges for preorders. I would calculate: you gain NN Lotro points from deeds, you get this, this and this, worth NN Lotro points, so all bundle is worth investment + some cool fluff (never to be sold in store).
My friend in real life told me I should leave game if it foes not give joy to me. Talked with one wise kinnie about that. I can’t leave my game, my Family behind, at least my social life in Lotro. Kinnie told I just need to chill, chat. Kinnie and friend are right, I do need to think less and to find something meaningfull to be busy all the time. The question is- how do I do this?

So far I have stuff to do. Featured instance and Anfalas scrolls collecting. Festival and Anfalas crystal collecting. Occasional helping other players (very rare now). Festival would end, Featured instance may be too long to bother: what’s then?

Secret world legends

Finally logged in. Asked aid, received advices – and by some accident my half-nude Templar managed to deactivate evil camera! Plant cameras in the town: done, shooting zombies on my way (and my AoE is really nice). Return to police HQ, finish mission, receive new one from deputy Andy. I was to kill some hordes of zombies, then protect barricades, finally – to defeat really big monster. Everything was done, just with big one ran out of weapon energy few times.

I enjoy my class. I enjoy part of game where I must shoot enemies. See group – aim – fire – get xp. Finished one local deed to kill 50 enemies.

Problems: getting equipment that is worse than equipped and not being able to sacrifice it for upgrades, finally – statuses, got 2 talismans with absolutely different statuses and only God knows which one I need to equip and which one to trash. Would have to spam community for help.

SWL is nice. I enjoy atmosphere. I enjoy seeing other players, some even looked like Lotro minstrel (you know, this glowing on hands?) and Runekeeper (just not glowing…lightning).

 

And so the day has ended. It was easier for me, though in Lotro chats are either dead or full of “let’s talk about Mordor”. My future in Lotro is unclear, SWL may remain as secondary game.

Sieg Heil to Master race!

Tags

Lord of the rings online, Mordor

Lord of the rings online

Mordor is announced. Pre-purchase starts now, launching is July 21 (or Jul. 31). There are three packages, 130, 50 and 40 $ worth. Top one rewards with some shared inventory slots, titles, mounts, relics…and 30 days of VIP status. All advertise “over 300 quests”, instance(s) and raid.

High elf is purchased separately. Price – 1000 Lotro points. Price of expansion is 2495 Lotro points. It’s 2500 less than I epected (I thought they would follow Helms Deep and charge some 4995).

Yet the devil is in details. Those who preorder or are VIPs, would enjoy Mordor since its launch. Those who have LP only, would have to wait untill December.

Which splits community into two parts. Well, Nazi-type society: Master race and sub-humans. Free players still do not have badge “F2P” like they had Jew badge – but who knows? Right now, free players are treated like trash. Once again – like one war-time sign in Belarus: There water is only for Germans. You are legit player, yet can’t enjoy content.

Kinnies in Kinship chat (silent, topo much time it is silent except “hi”, “back”, “wb”) keep telling levelling may be easy, getting gear – not. And crafting is almost impossible. And killing monsters too.

Add this to divided community – you will get me being really upset (and well, NOT having anybody to talk to). I may be ok even with hard content, but I am not ok into creating “Master race”.

I still question myself – is it worth even to enter Mordor? No, I don’t care for cinematic (movie was better). No, I no longer read quest texts, I jusk skip them. Yes, we do know what happened in Mordor.  Crafting? Almost impossible. Slaying? Extremely hard. Exploration? Extremely hard, since you may stay alive on roads only. New race? Do not care, satisfied with Human/Dwarf.

I am alone, upset and abandoned. Game is just empty, without future, just a bunch of lame fanboys screaming around content is not hard. Why there is no game that could remind Lotro in terms of paying model and story?

Untill festival ends, I still have activity. After Mordor, I won’t have it: festival would be over, almost nobody will be doing FI and elitists would be screaming how easy things are.
Right now i can do things. Took part in festival. Helped one lvl.67 Hunter with Northcotton farm (yes, my Minstrel nuked everyrthing).

The future is pure darkness without any light. Days are starting to be really grumpy in Lotro. Sieg heil to your Master-race, SSG, sieg heil.

Swimming scrolls

Tags

Lord of the rings online

Lord of the rings online

I love Evendim. Even if it means Everswim – it’s beautifull and inviting. Yesterday Vilnius reminded one Evendim: streets turned into rivers, public transport stopping, those that went – late up to 50 minutes, rain and lightning. Got home late, got little time to play. So much about swimming.

In Lotro: Naktieskarys farmed festival tokens. I will need another Anfalas crystal, many of them after Mordor comes. Vytautaz ran quests, was succesfull in fishing (got Starry Flounder on each toon!), bartered for first Anfalas crystal. Would be nice additionn too.

Unfortunately, did not make it into Featured instance. Not sure about how many scrolls would I need: would 100 be enough for one toon? Somebody told about 70 – is it for one LI or both?

Talked in Kinship chat about Mordor, untill one kinnie asked not to spoil details. These are spoiled all over the web – but let it be. Then, one player reminded me I stood in her line of sight while fishing. Apologised – and I really must be more carefull next time.

And so the day has ended. So far I have enough activities to be busy: Featured instance (the best – on all 3 toons), festival (on 2 toons) or helping others if they need help. Just not sure what would happen when Summer festival ends…

Lotro and comments in wait

Tags

Lord of the rings online, The secret world legends

Lord of the rings online

Featured instance this week – Lost Temple. This is a real refreshment for me. Ran on Stormsong with random group and on Naktieskarys – with Kinship. Kinship run was pure joy, we did everything quickly and efficiently. Having our Sith-Rune keeper made many things one-shotted. I enjoyed my AoE. Loot was some ANfalas scrolls and Universal solvent.
Stormsong managed to die from some debuff one time. Looted Anfalas scrolls and various trash.

Naktieskarys finally got last needed Anfalas starlit crystal. Now, his Grumpy Rune has everything, just need some LI xp runes to max it. Of course, catching 1 rare fish (2 tokens) helped me too.

Had no time to log in Vytautaz.

This week promises to be good. I may log all 3 toons, loot valuable Anfalas scrolls. Almost everything else is a trash: war materials, crafting journals, essences, equipment. If crafting journal boxes could stack, would be great: but they don’t.

On official forums somebody posted Mordor boots. Some mediocre-level statuse and +10 “Light of Earendill”. Well, I would really laugh when at post-Mordor region all these lights becomes trash. Developers do not think ahead. Now we are near Mordor, tomorrow – at Mordor, after that – say, SHire and Saruman’s yoke. Would Shire be dark, grumpy and will this “Earendill light” be of any use? Nope.

Not sure about Mordor, there is almost no activity on our server – sometimes it is like giant siesta in Southern countries: there are people in town, yet you won’t see anyone. Festival is a salvation, I can grind stuff there, be it new steed (ugly one…) or Anfalas crystal.

Secret World legends

Did not play. Only now noticed 2 comments on moderation…and these were helpfull. Approved, of course (I approve all comments, except spam), will read and try to survive.

Dear SWL developers, please lessen amounts of quests where only mouse and internet speeds are relevant. It is not fun, you know. having to avoid security cameras – yes. Solve solvable puzzles – yes. Going on carnage – of course! Making choices – would be perfect (like: kill this wounded Illuminati for 5000 xp and Big Shiny Rifle or treat this wounded Illuminati for 50 xp and Superior Shiny Armour)/

And so the day has ended. I almost lost interes in FF-14, stopped with SWL…but may return to Secret world after that cursed mission. Oh, and have to redress my half-naked toon…I thought it to be temporaly one…

Overall – so far things are good in Lotro, promising in SWL and not-so-shiny in FF-14.

Secret world legends, Burglars

Tags

Lord of the rings online, The secret world legends

Lord of the rings online

Summer festival goes well – Naktieskarys is making run for last neeed Anfalas crystal. Fishing is pure RNG, sometimes really good, sometimes awfull. What happens after that Anfalas? Would grind for more Anflas, just for post-Mordor.

Stormsong did nothing, just farmed Barrows, declining cold invitations to fellowship. I was not sure how long would I be there, all I needed were Mathoms. Then some player contacted me, I thought he was dissatisfied that I was killing monsters. I left, he told me I did not understand. Hmm…
Managed to help one player with grumpy Moria. At least some use from me. Also, donated crafting materials looted from Barrows.

Vytautaz started festival grind for Anfalas crystals. Same few quests near Party tree, then fishing.

All chats were empty. Talked with ex-kinnie. He is – as always was – wise and listening to others. Understands my frustrations and doubts about Mordor. Tells some more details about Mordor (not too bright…), then explains about his new Kinship. His advice – start a new toon, he suggests Burglar.

Which was done. XBurglar was born, Human female. Medium armour user, prefered weapons – daggers. Absolutely no ranged weapons. Up to lvl.8 – only three melee attacks (red trait tree) + 2 special attacks + 1 good melee long-cooldown attack. Of course, Stealth mode since lvl.1 and deed to use it.
Burglar should go near enemy, strike from the shadows, but I felt I was just doomed to really slowly play. Run, execute attacks, hope for critical chance. If critical chance, you may execute one special attack; if that attack succeeds and enemy is alive, feel free to execute second. I managed to finish intro, get to Ered Luin, kill 30 wolves…and then my patience just exhausted. Sorry, I wasn’t able to play such slow way.Toon deleted.

However, I gained experience with Hunter, Burglar and now can judge about their playstyle.

Secret World Legends

Just got stuck. I ran questing, killing monsters (rifle really destroys groups of monsters)…untill ran to Kingsmouth mining museum. Quest redirected me to dungeon of museum. FIrst surveilance cam, I have to avoid it and turn it off. Ok, done. Next room – camera again. It has 3 sectors it see with small security islands. Each sector lasts 4 seconds (maybe 4,5). It is enough to go from “island” A to “island” B and even climb near to camera: it is impossible to move further.

I got killed and killed. Disliked it really much. Asked for help – initially it was silence, then one grumpy person told – “go and kill yourself”. Second time I got similiar answers, like “it’s doable, just move”. Only one person, probably of Polish ancestry – Alycya – tried her best to aid me, but this time I had to leave game and rush for real-life stuff.

Getting really annoyed. Always hated quests where your mouse sensitivity and internet connection decided if you will win or lose. Community is of little help, no guides/wikis – you are left without any clue to face impossible quest.

 

Abd so weekend has ended. Lotro is going quite good, I am collecting crystals and hopefully would run Featured instance this week. SWL, unfortunately, is a candidate for uninstalling.

Secret Mordor

Tags

Lord of the rings online, The secret world legends

Lord of the rings online

I was wrong about Mordor. Information – I interpreted it in a wrong way. Explaining: one day folks told me statuses would be down to 20% after lvl.106. I thought that every status higher than 20% (be it 21 or 99) would be nerfed to 20% and I will lose much of hard-earned stuff. It turned out there is some combat status when instead of 30% chance I will have 23% chance. I.e. – no nerfing, just a small, insignificant decrease. Rumours are, monster drop armour at lvl.106 would be better than any current. For me, it could mean – if I am ever to enter Mordor, I must powerlevel and be lvl.115 before entering.
Doubts about that “drop armour”. Very unclear about “Shadow instances”. I tried to talk about Mordor in World chat – that I see no argument to purchase it, when one played sniffed like “oh no, someone starting doom about Mordor”. I was not telling ir rose or black colours, I was just expressing my thoughts. And my thoughts were: there are no logical argument for me to purchase Mordor. If that player had – he was free to tell, I do surrender to logic.

World chat was empty, nobody needed help, Trade chat was full of “WTS…” and nobody responded. I am trying to trade my Tome of Will 1 to other tome – so far no responses.

Naktieskarys was the main active. Did festival deeds, having some 20 tokens. Today will grind remaining 10 and get third Anfalas crystal. This system is pure salvation for me, whoever thought about that had really good understanding on game.

Mordor is leaving me in hard thoughts. It is a hard region, forced-fellowship, maybe even forced raid one with enemies hard to kill and resources hard to harvest (thus making it super hard to advance crafting). There are only 2 options:
a) do not enter at all, wait for this region to be made user-friendly;
b) power-level to lvl.115 and enter then.

Secret World Legends

Played today (yesterday was maintenance). I finalle entered Agharta, some world hub with players running around by foot or on motocycles. First combat mission: enter Kingsmouth, deal with undead and maybe Illuminati. Ok, I was alone in the world and thought I could go freely.

Nope. Game guided me with lots of cutscenes. Talked to cowboy. received obligatory “Accept NN quest”.

Surroundings are interesting. Zombies are everywhere. You kill (some 8 xp…) – they appear soon. I thought it to be unfair, but hey – that’s zombie infection! Some can be put on fire, some just shot. My shotgun was really efective versus groups – something I really like. 3-4 shots, group dead. Energy runs quickly though.  Then I saw some policeman (dead), took munition and was headed to police station. Not to worry, there were quests too.

Some quests had prerequisites: finish A quest to receive B. Had to run backwards, shoot something. Returned, got quest to steal 3 security cameras.

I thought I was free to take them as I want. Wrong: game force-guided me: first this location, then another…and then other. A bit wrong approach.

Impressions so far: atmosphere is nice. Quests are interesting. Surroundings are really good. Forced questing is not good: sorry, I would like to explore worldd, running into quests…not being told “go precisely there, accept precisely that”.  Controls are horrible, not intuitive, whoever has done them – did not think about players from other mmos. Overall rating: playable nice game.

 

And such were my adventures in pre-Mordor Lotro and Secret world legends. I am having just empty time in Lotro: no FIs, no crafting, no sense in grind Wasteland resources, just some quests in Festival. SWL looks nice and inviting, I should play it more often.