So I started my Return of the Warden adventures in LOTRO. I have no friends that play LOTRO (that I know of) and I really haven’t played since launch (2007) except for a quick jump in when it was free to play Mines of Moira – which allowed me to test drive the Warden. To which I never played again because Turbine wouldn’t let me play a Warden without paying for it.
The warden was one of my 4 favorite MMO classes of all time from my quick play of it. I finally caved and gave them $8 and bought the warden. As you see from the crazy link-love above, I have always really wanted to play and like this game I just haven’t found the traction with it. It’s late in this game’s life but I am going to give it the old college try.
I was greeted back in LOTRO with some surprises!
First off, two cloaks
Cloak of the Peace Keeper, War-Cloak of Isildur. I have no clue why I got these – but very nice to have a cool cloak when I log in. I am guessing that it has to do with either beta, or pre-order, or maybe both.
I also have 6 gift boxes – one for every year! A 1 year Gift Box, 2 year, etc. These yielded (in yearly order)
- Anniversary Fireworks (GB1)
- 90 Min +5% Damage buff (GB2)
- 10 Battle potions of Restoration (GB2)
- 3 sturdy steel keys (GB3)
- Festive Azure Clothes (dress, trousers, tunic, cloak) (GB4)
- Festive Azure Steed (GB5)
- Festive Azure Caparison, Halter, Saddle, and Accessory for the horse (GB6)
All in all, a nice welcome back. Now I am going to go kill things, and do a good old MMO Quest-a-thon. I am actually looking forward to old school, non-dodge combat and normal questing. Hopefully its zen-like. I am going to read all quest text and see if I can be immersed in Middle-Earth.
After 5 levels, two quick comments – one is that I am ridiculously overpowered for my level, but two is that there is no looting in the traditional sense. You kill stuff, and you have a loot menu that you can go to anytime, and click “loot all”. you have one hour per item to loot.
I like that part. I also like how they throw a major character at you in the beginning tutorial. Strider was mine, and I am running quests for him throughout the first part. That is a nice connection with the main story and movies.