Ranhold – Man, Champion, Historian, Supreme Weaponsmith & Supreme Scholar. Level 51

After gaining his legendary weapons and traits it’s bee a quiet time for the old battler. In the near future I want to get him back on the epic story line and into Moria, but not before I’ve completed his class quests and completed the whole Shadows of Angmar tale.

Keltorn – Man of Bree, Warden, Explorer. Level 46

Keltorn’s journey through Forocel & Erigion for his legendary traits were fun indeed, as was his gaining of his legendary spear and javelin fighting the Watcher of the Water outside Moria, but since then he’s not stopped! With the help of my great kin mate Elrexob I have gained all but three of his class quests too and once I have those he’ll gain use of his masteries, something I’m both looking forward to (more powaaaaar!) and dread (head storage status is critical). Still, no point bellowing insults at the tide, best just to strip off, run in and have a damn good swim.

My long term plans are to do more skirmishes, move through more Epic Storyline content and write up some more of his adventures – the stuff I’ve written so far can still be read here  (honestly I really do have plans to carry them on at some point! Honest!).

Gorfrik – Dwarf, Hunter, Armourer, Artisan Metalsmith & Artisan Tailor. Level 27

Sewing like a trooper and going through flax like it grew on trees (!) Gorfrik is startingto be a small itch under my skin that says ‘plaaaay me… plaaaaaaaay me again…’

Nimlarn – Elf, Minstrel, Woodsman & Artisan Woodworker. Level 22

The boats are sailing… the world goes grey… the leaves, the fallen leaves make me weep so. Jesus, bloody elf.

Hocko – Hobbit, Burglar, Tinkerer & Master Jeweller. Level 20

Hocko is grinding like a demon.If the bar maid’s husband finds out he’s a dead hobbit!

Rolcko – Hobbit, Guardian, Yeoman, Supreme Farmer & Master Cook. Level 32

Cooking and very little else. I know I should do something with this guy, but god alone knows what and when – Ranhold and Keltorn have all the action sewn up at the moment.

Arranborn – Elf, Rune Keeper, Explorer, Level 28

After a huge start, Arranborn has been twiddling his thumbs in Michel Delving and awaiting care packages of ore and wood from Keltorn so he could process it for Hocko, Gorfrik and Nimlarn. Maybe after Keltorn goes as far as I want him I’ll come back to him.

Elsewhere…

Work is as busy as hell in high season, I’ve had a total bastard of a cold and my home life is about to get one more person busy. I picked a hell of a week to chewing qat…

While you are at it, and I know I’ve mentioned it before, but if you haven’t listened to Shipwreck’s bloody ace podcast about the history of the regions covered by the game, check out his excellent work here: http://www.lotrobeneathyourfeet.com/

I realised this as I, or rather Keltorn, was slaughtering his twentieth Dunlending wood cutter. An Elf in Erigion’s Gwingris had sent me out there to kill twelve of these poor buggers and I had set about my task with a certain amount of unhealthy glee* (and an even unhealthier dose of resigned boredom) when it hit me. What a bastard I was.

Here these poor fuckers were, just cutting down trees. True they weren’t their trees but we aren’t talking about industrial harvesting here. Also true they were cutting them down to feed Saurman’s war machine, but these guys weren’t Saurman or any of his generals, they were just labourers and their guards. True they were Dunlendings, but that doesn’t make them inherently evil – many Dunlendings stood against Saurman and those that fought with him were tricked with promises of vengeance for what could very easily be seen to be a legitimate grievance over the Gondorian kings giving their traditional lands to the Rohirrim horsemen. And here I was, taking sides in a fight I, or rather Keltorn, had so little information about he shouldn’t have been forming an opinion on, let alone killing people for.

Yet I was doing just that.

Unlike hacking down orcs and goblins, there were no monsters in this fight. No monsters but me.

What a bastard.

* Glee because it afforded me chance to get more pages of my legendary skills books, more XP to get me nearer level 45 and my legendary weapon and more Dunlending kills to secure me a racial bonus that would help my evade and block ratings in combat. Not only were these poor fuckers part of a conflict Keltron didn’t understand, they were placed there *just* to be killed which also explains the resigned boredom bit.

Ranhold – Man, Champion, Historian, Supreme Weaponsmith & Supreme Scholar. Level 51

The last few weeks have seen me concentrating on Arranborn and Keltorn so lucky old Ranhold had a holiday too. No fighting orcs and worms for him, no instead I managed at last, and with only several days of material gathering and the spending of several gold pieces in the AH, to get his weaponsmith skills up to supreme. This has been the one skill in all my guy’s skills I have found the hardest to level simply because it needed so much bloody metal ores to make the mountains of various ingots the weapon crafting required! God what a ballache! Still, I can now make weapons that go up to 60ish so it’s been worth it

Keltorn – Man of Bree, Warden, Explorer. Level 44

Keltorn, bored of hanging around Bree punching boars to death, decided to gather his legendary pages before he hit 45 at which point he would go and get his own legendary weapon from Moria (Ranhold’s been winding up about having an inferior weapon – boys!). He rode out to Forocel and spent an enjoyable time marmalising Guradan wolf-men warriors from whom he got half the needed pages and a couple of lovely levels. After that he rode out to Erigion and set about riding the world of half-orcs and Dunlendings by the cart load. As it stands he has four more pages to collect which should just about get him to 45 at which point he too goes Legendary, baby!

I’m *really* enjoying playing this guy – his self-heals make long fights quite enjoyable as you have to mix the gambits up to keep your morale up enough whilst still doing damage and cycling through evade & block buff moves. All in all it’s way more complex & interesting than fighting with a Champ and almost as much fun. Almost.

Speaking of Champs, Ranhold crafted a big old sword for Keltorn and although I know Wardens use swords and I really like the sword Ran made, something just feels so very wrong about him not having a spear. I wonder what I’ll go for at 45?

My long term plans are to do more skirmishes, move through more Epic Storyline content and write up some more of his adventures – the stuff I’ve written so far can still be read here  (honestly I really do have plans to carry them on at some point! Honest!).

Gorfrik – Dwarf, Hunter, Armourer, Artisan Metalsmith & Artisan Tailor. Level 27

No fighting still for our brave dwarven hunter, but plenty of crafting for Keltorn has seen him rise up a lot. His crit chance is still waaaay lower than any of my other guys which means he wastes a lot of leather and flax. Fair breaks my heart

Nimlarn – Elf, Minstrel, Woodsman & Artisan Woodworker. Level 22

Nimlarn stopped wafting about Esteldin for just long enough to move his woodworking up and and craft some lovely spears, javelins, bows and crossbows for the rest of the team. Still a bloody elf though.

Hocko – Hobbit, Burglar, Tinkerer & Master Jeweller. Level 20

Hocko is still grinding out rep items but has also managed to make new bling for Arranborn and Keltorn – what a guy!

Rolcko – Hobbit, Guardian, Yeoman, Supreme Farmer & Master Cook. Level 32

Rolcko has been cooking up lots of regen food for Ranhold and Keltorn – the latter seems to burn through it like it’s going out of fashion! The x25 guild recipes are great though – first guild recipe I actually use I think, except for Ranhold’s dyes & health potions.

Arranborn – Elf, Rune Keeper, Explorer, Level 28

Arranborn went from 20 to 28 in a blistering few days of mad skirmishing! He’s already capable of gathering and preping the same level of materials as Keltorn so I just need to get him through his 30s and I can start getting his legendary skills and weapons too. I may leave that a while or I’ll burn out, but I’m looking forward to getting back on with him as RKs are great fun!

Elsewhere…

Back at work now so play will slow down I expect. I picked a hell of a week to stop sniffing petrol.

Ranhold – Man, Champion, Historian, Master Expert Weaponsmith & Supreme Scholar. Level 51

I wanted a goat. Moria was/is looming and I knew I would need a goat. All the podcasts tell me it is a nightmare in there without one. Trouble is not one of my main guys has ever come near gaining Kindred with Thorin’s Hall, not even Gorfrik and he’s a frigging dwarf! I googled a little and soon found out that raiding in Sarnur is the best, fastest way of gaining Rep items so off I trotted. Nowhere in my googling did it mention how frigging rock-hard some of the bad guys in there are – and these were just the ones at the bloody entrance! A quick chat with my kin and I found out my weapons needed to do ancient dwarf damage and the only way to get that was to either buy a weapon with it on or bite the bullet and finally get my arse into gear about getting a legendary weapon.

I won’t go into much detail on legendary weapons here, suffice to say the game has a complex system whereby you gain special weapons that can be ‘built up’ with special skills and the like – hell, they even level along with you getting better and better all the time. I only knew about this is passing, never actually getting around to starting it. Until now. My very kind and patient kinmate Saelolyn came to my aid in Sarnur and then rode me all the way out to Erigion where I journeyed alone to the Gates of Moria and aided the dwarven mining team fight the dreadful Watcher in the Water. This quest chain granted me a legendary sword (which I have named Cresting Wave in honour of its Arnorian heritage). This sword was put to good use in Sarnur where I ground down the first level of Dourhands until I reached Kindred with Thorin and was at last granted access to the secret area of his Hall so I could buy the goat.

After that I moved back to Misty Mountains in order to move the along the Epic quest line and what had started out a dull run-a-about for Gloin turned into a bloody great battle with giants, Skorgrim, a zombie dragon and even a Nazgul! I all but ODed on fanboy squeeing this weekend!

Keltorn – Man of Bree, Warden, Explorer. Level 40

Poor Keltorn was ill this week – nasty head cold so his mum wouldn’t let him out to play.

My long term plans are to do more skirmishes, move through more Epic Storyline content and write up some more of his adventures – the stuff I’ve written so far can still be read here  (honestly I really do have plans to carry them on at some point! Honest!).

Gorfrik – Dwarf, Hunter, Armourer, Master Metalsmith & Artisan Tailor. Level 27

Gorfrik seems to have taken to sitting in a corner of Esteldin and counting his precious flax fibres over and over again. Strange boy.

Nimlarn – Elf, Minstrel, Woodsman & Master Expert Woodworker. Level 22

Nimlarn read a poem that lasted three days and nights. Two people died of boredom and three just gave up breathing. Bloody elves.

Hocko – Hobbit, Burglar, Tinkerer & Master Jeweller. Level 20

Hocko is grinding out rep items & seems to have a lot more platinum than I remember mining for him. Questions will be asked.

Rolcko – Hobbit, Guardian, Yeoman, Supreme Farmer & Master Cook. Level 32

Rolcko has been cooking up a storm and is a gnat’s nudger away from the top of the cook’s guild. After that I’m looking forward to cooking lots and selling it in the AH instead of having his entire inventory full of bloody half made ingredients!

Arranborn – Elf, Rune Keeper, Explorer, Level 19

I gave in to temptation of created a Rune Keeper. Erid Luin was a bloody chore and I managed to get him killed just before he hit 20 and got the undying title. What a maroon!

Elsewhere…

My head is spinning with work, home and Xmas. I picked a hell of a week to stop drinking boot polish.

1. I have wanted to try a Rune Keeper for some time,
2. I need another Explorer to gather crafting mats,
3. I am a plonker who can’t ever just finish one bloody thing!

So Arranborn was, well, born. This elf of Lindon, noob rune-keeper & hopeful material gatherer stepped out into Erid Luin and immediately reminded me why I dislike Erid Luin so much. Also Elves. And Dwarves. Sigh. Still I burnt through the first 10 levels in no time and got up to 15 very fast. I had no troubles whatsoever – nothing came close to killing me, even though I found the magic-wielder to be less powerful (and therefore less fun) than I had imagined.

Around about the start of level 16 I began to seriously tire of the Erid Luin quests and noticed that my levelling had slowed to the pace of an dying snail. So I bit the bullet and buggered off to Bree – my idea was simple, get to 20 as fast as possible in Far Chetwood and just start skirmishing into my 40s, after all Far Chetwood had been good to all my guys so far and had seen two of them get their undying titles.

Ahhhh the Undying title. It means nothing yet matters so much. After such a good run with this guy I wanted it and I wanted it bad. I blasted through Far Chetwood and got to 19 in an orgy of killing bears, boars, wolves and Orcs like a man (Elf) possessed. and then I came to the Wood Troll. And killed him 3 times in a row. Bang. Bang. Bang. Get down and stay down punk!

I was a man (Elf) unstoppable.

I was Death with a satchel.

I was the Grim Reaper with just a whetstone baby.

So this morning when I had a 30 minute window I decided I’d get to 20 and be down with it. Nothing there could touch me now. Nothing.

Except I’m not on my game at the moment. I’m distracted. Work and home are on my mind more than healing stones and attack skill rotations. I tackled a few turtles but they were harder than before, took longer to put down. I made stupid little errors and failed to plan. Then I came across the wood troll again. I didn’t have to, but I took him down but it was harder. Not like yesterday when I ripped through him time after time. Still, he went down eventually.

And then I made my worst mistake of this character’s life. I failed to move from the troll’s spot. He regenerates very quickly. I had chosen to fight a turtle who did not go down. I had my back to the point where the troll appeared and it seems the fucker knows how to hold a grudge against someone who killed him so many times in a row. The bastard.

I floundered. I dithered. I hit the wrong skills. I didn’t run when I could. I tried to run when I couldn’t. I hadn’t put a healing stone down. I wasn’t using regen food. In short I did everything I could possible do to fuck the fight up and in ten seconds flat I went from a thousand XP away from being called The Undying to simply just dead.

If I could spend the billions of pounds needed to make a time machine and risk the whole of the fabric of existence itself by switching it on, I would use it to go back and punch myself.

Marks.

That’s right, you heard me, marks. Skirmish marks to be exact. Up until now the currency you got as a reward for skirmishes was a confusing jumble of (frankly) low value crap. In the two months I’ve been skirmishing with Keltorn I have barely earned enough for upgrading my soldier’s skills let alone the much-needed crafting items and much-wanted cosmetic items they supposedly could be exchanged for. Skirmishing to me was a grind for little reward – a fun grind maybe, but a grind nonetheless.

Update 5 has changed this. The LOTRO Devs have simplified all the various mark-type reward currencies down to a simple mix of three and on top of that they have reduced the cost of the much-needed & wanted items they can can purchase. In two minutes last night I managed to ‘buy’ more cosmetic items than I had dome in the past two months, all without running one single skirmish. Add to that the fact that the Instance Join makes finding a skirmish a cake walk and what Turbine have done is finally turn me on to Skirmishing! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord I’m a convert!

Addendum: In the interests of balance I should point out that many folks are not happy with either the Rise of Isengard expansion or Update 5 as they feel they were both rushed out unfinished & untested (the later specifically to trump SWTOR early opening later this week). I don’t know, I haven’t got to the Isengard areas yet and won’t for many moons – hell I suspect it’ll be Update 7 or 8 by then – but the list of known issues and bugs for Update 5 was released at the same time as it went live which struck me as odd. And what a whopper! It’s a huge list! Really! Giant’s cock length! I kid you not! The biggest  Uh-Uh for me is that “Assisted Movement” has stopped turning you to face an enemy and now merely has you charging at it like a mentalist – not great for ranged classes I can tell you ;-D

Ranhold – Man, Champion, Historian, Master Expert Weaponsmith & Supreme Scholar. Level 49

Stubbornly hanging on to the dying end of level 49, Ranhold has been ignored of late after my marathons Orc-slay-a-thons in Angmar failed to net me the last to pages of my legendary books resulted in a near case of burnout-induced rage. Still, after a few days of rollicking good fun with Keltorn and then several more days of happily crafting guild rep items across all my guys I was ready to return to Ranhold and his search – and was immediately rewarded with one of the two final missing pages meaning he now has two (count ‘em!) legendary combat skills that are both freakin’ OOOSSSOOOMMMM! *sching sching*

I’m hoping to start him back on the path of the Epic Books again soon – after all, Gloin is still waiting for him in the *shudder* Misty Mountains

Keltorn – Man of Bree, Warden, Explorer. Level 40

Frustrated beyond belief with Ranhold’s inability to find the last two pages of his legendary books (no matter how many frigging orcs I had to kill!) I decided to roll out Keltorn and run him through a few skirmishes. My plan was to use some of the skirmish reward boosts and XP boosts I’d won in the lotteries to move him up from level 34 to 35 or 36.Little did I know I’d chosen a weekend that Turbine gave out double XP across the board! My we warden shot up through the ranks like a pig with poker up its arse and after what felt like no time at all I hit 40 with him! Since then he’s been on a bit of a go-slow as I’ve been crafting guild rep with the rest of my guys and trying to get Ranhold to the next level but I can honestly say I’ve freaking’ loved playing the warden class!

My long term plans are to do more skirmishes, move through more Epic Storyline content and write up some more of his adventures – the stuff I’ve written so far can still be read here  (honestly I really do have plans to carry them on at some point! Honest!).

Gorfrik – Dwarf, Hunter, Armourer, Master Metalsmith & Artisan Tailor. Level 27

Gorfrik hammered his own hand flat whilst making a new shield. People are beginning to suspect he’s not the full shilling.

Nimlarn – Elf, Minstrel, Woodsman & Master Expert Woodworker. Level 22

Nimlarn was last seen wafting about a meadow somewhere droning on and on about how the world was so sad and grey now. Bloody elves.

Hocko – Hobbit, Burglar, Tinkerer & Master Jeweller. Level 20

Hocko is back in Esteldin’s good books and quietly crafting rep items for the bling guild.

Rolcko – Hobbit, Guardian, Yeoman, Supreme Farmer & Master Cook. Level 32

Rolcko has been rescued from the well and has been spending his convalescence in Michel Delving cooking for the troops, working his way up the cook”s guild ladder and doing very nicely indeed in the auction house (one sale netted me more GP in one go than I had made from my whole previous 8 months in game – blimey).

Elsewhere…

I’m fighting off the temptation to roll up a Rune Keeper and start it all again. This would be a Silly Thing as I simply don’t have time but man do I want some lightning action! Also? Christsavemeformwork. I picked a hell of a week to injecting CIA-grade acid.

Until about two weeks ago I decided I should give it another go. I think I read about ir being out of Beta, maybe that tickled my fancy or something but whatever it was I turned back to the phone app and found it wouldn’t work. How odd. I went to the PC and there I found my account had been suspended due to name violation. Of course I’d read about the hoohah in Beta but quickly lost interest as G+ became irrelevant to me. It would appear the issue had not been resolved and now I had fallen victim to Google’s odd Big Brother-esque ruling. At first I wasn’t fussed. Big deal, thunk I, I don’t use it and probably never will. But then I noticed that they had suspended my profile too. That’s when I got riled.

I put in an appeal and in a week or so got a reply stating the G-men had looked at my case and found I was indeed guilty of being HeadBurro Antfarm, a name my mother had not given me when first I popped into the world, therefore they would not reverse their decision. I was welcome, they told me, to put my real name in the main name section and relegate HeadBurro Antfarm to the nicknames section meaning that both would be searchable. Now , none of you – NONE – know me by my real name. Well, maybe 3 or 4 of the TSMGO crowd do, but outside that NONE of you and no one who reads this blog* knows my real name so searching for my real name would be meaningless. And the thought that some of you could find my real name when searching for my actual name (I consider my actual name to be HeadBurro Antfarm, just not my real, birth name) makes my lower back all sweaty. I think it’s fear. I mean, I’m sure you are all a lovely bunch, it’s just I’m not going to put that to the test anytime soon, m’kay.

Now, I’m an easy going kind of guy so thought “Well, if I have to I have to. No biggie. Just as long as I can protect my real name, what harm is there? After all, Google know full well who I am, where I live and what my credit card number is as I’ve bought storage from them. I’ll do it as long as they let me ‘private’ my real name.” So I replied and asked if that would be an option.

It’s taken a few days for the reply to come through and it seems I can’t. I can not hide my real name if I fill in the profile as they want. But they did provide me with a workaround should I wish to use it.

I could (wait for it, it’s a doozie) put my real first name & just my last name initial in the name field. Brilliant! Genius! Now instead of being a unique HeadBurro Antfarm (a name I have held online for 5 years now) I can be just one of millions of “David B”s in the world. That, dear readers, is the thinking that got the Apollo 13 crew back to Earth, that is! That’s the kind of idea that makes the Dragon’s Den Dragons wet their pants with excitement! That’s the kind of clear, brilliant solution I’m used to expecting from an amazing organisation like Google.

Oh no, wait. No it isn’t.

It’s fucking daft is what it is.

So I won’t be using Google+, although I suspect they couldn’t care less if I do or don’t. On top of that I’ll be deleting my Google Profiles. All of them. I mean, what is the fucking point? I use Gmail, the calender, the RSS reader & Docs. I don’t share or like or +1, I just use these things for what I need. I blog with WordPress & keep my photos on Flickr. I imagine from Google’s point of view I’m a nothing to them.

* I don’t count my missus. she never reads this drivel.