Lysistra and the Good Humor man at level 27, in Trestlebridge
I joined a group last night and we were amazing, we were on fire, we went around the North Downs killing… spiders, and wolves. And I think we may have killed one or two bears.
Seriously. Not since the original Dark Ages of Camelot has a MMO reused the same couple of models in so many different ways. I have three or four different titles from killing spiders. This isn’t an epic. It’s a spider-killing simulator.
Can’t you read? DON’T. WALK. ON. THE. GRASS.
I guess I should be happy LotRO stays with familiar mobs most of the time, because what is that thing? Did Tolkein get some inspiration from Day of the Triffids or something? You find this new mob (called a “prowler”) pretty much everywhere from Lone Lands up; prowling the Red Marsh; behind the spider dens on the North Downs; stalking across the frozen peaks of the Misty Mountains… I think it’s supposed to be a lump of grass with legs.
Book I had you as silent partners to the Hobbits as they made their way from the Shire to Rivendell. Book II through IV of the epic questlines entirely depart from this and go their own way to face other threats to Eriador that have taken Sauron and Saruman’s rise as permission to invade a normally peaceful country.
Book II begins in Ost Guruth (in the center of the Lone Lands) from Gandalf’s good friend and unwitting betrayer, Radagast the Brown. There’s a red marsh next door playfully named “The Circle of Blood” by the children who frolic there. Radagast thinks there may be an evil presence there.
Gosh. You think?
Chapter I is a short solo quest to get you used to the gigantic game of hide-and-seek between you and the various mobs that pop out of nowhere; just have to click on ten prowler nests and you’re done. Chapter II gets a little more intense; now you have to kill the solo wights. Chapter III requires a group, as you hunt the big daddy level 29 and 30 elite wights, and their one to three friends.
An evil shrine? Better worship at it, just to be on the safe side.
Chapter IV leaves the north behind and sends adventurers into the level 30-35-ish swamp to the south. This is a scary place. Same mobs as before, but now they’re high level. So, level 35 flies and stuff. Bring some Raid.
This is as far as I’ve gone on it; I’m currently questing in the North Downs to level up a little to complete Book II; I’m thinking 30 would be a good level to see it through. Perhaps Chapter VIII will be an instance. The elf/dwarf prologue quests and Book 1 included many instances; the infamous Chapter 11 was a high point, for me, of open beta. So far in Book 2… no instances.
Oh well. I have some more spiders to kill. I might go a little crazy and kill some pigs while I’m at it. I hope I don’t meet up with these guys. Trolls, they are. The left one is going to post 1001 ways to cook Hobbits to the micheldelving.com.shire forums. The one on the right thinks granite is the finest of the rocks, and if you prefer limestone, well, maybe if you love limestone so much, you should marry it.
