The Melting Pot

Highlights: Resolina makes Allegiances and discovers the hardships of Mordor

January 2nd - 4th

Release Problems: There has been a growing problem ever since Mordor was released back in August 2, 2017. I'm not talking about the orc-kind. It was meant to be released July 31, 2017 but there was a delay (which was stated could be up to 30 days on the Mordor expansion page). As usual, the expansion did not include any instances. Those instances were released in October 10, 2017. The raid came on December 11, 2017. They stated that Mordor was not going to be offered for lotro points until Update 22 during the winter. Update 21.3.2 - December 19, 2017 was the last patch and - as stated back when I had a ton of lotro points - Mordor was released for points sometime in the beginning of November. They have "fixed" a lot of issues but from what I just went through, I still see a lot of problems.

Allegiance Problems: I really like what they did with the content and the stories but there are so many design flaws the developers must have been too lazy to change. If it wasn't for the wiki page, I don't know what I would I do. Week after week I listened to people have the same issues and week after week I'd tell them. For example:

  • Requiring Volume 4, Book 9 The Ring of Power to open up the quests. This one is sort of a given seeing that you really wouldn't be able to enter Mordor without breaking open the Black Gate. I think a lot of people snuck in one way or another and then realized they couldn't have access to the Allegience Allegiance System.
  • Requiring level 110. I'm not too sure why there is a high level requirement to begin with. I guess because it is a nice even number that is in the Mordor range of 106-115. I would have much rather preferred at least access to the allegiance system right when you enter Mordor without providing a way to level them at that moment.
  • The contacts not appearing until you've chosen your allegiance. This check doesn't work real well. Most people, like myself, is standing there in Cirith Gorgor trying to get the allegiance quests and I have to relog for them to appear (I guess I could have taken a ride out of the area too). 

 

Resolina, Born from Ashes meets Gandalf, The Flash as he moves really fast between two spots

  • Dailies requiring Tales of Gorgoroth. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people wonder why they can't get the dailies. Amusingly, I guess the deed didn't pop up until Update 21 Patch 2 on October 10th to show you the requirements. The wiki specifies you being level 110 for those who go looking for dailies before accepting an Allegiance or go in without knowing the requirements. Completing the Black Book (the new version of the epic) is a task all in itself.
  • Token of Services. This system is a mess through-and-through. It ruins the deed log and clutters the Allegiance window. No reason why we need to see each and every level completion. Why even have a whole separate barter item in the first place? If anything, have them rewarded at the end of each chapter.
  • Difficulty spike in the Lothlorien session play. You playthrough being this awesome elf, able to withstand every attack from the enemy until the very last fight. Then you suddenly get hit by all sorts of wounds and double damage attacks that kill you nearly instantly. Making me do the whole instance over again did not make me a happy camper. I would have loved it if that one elf came by and gave me a second chance the moment I fell.


Allegiances: I haven't had too much experience with the Allegiance system, but I do enjoy them immensely. I love being able to port to each hall through the skill window or Allegiance window (the little house icon). I love porting to any of the 4 at 5-minute intervals. The artwork is gorgeous. The story is awesome. Having access to about anything makes life much easier to a non-hunter/non-warden class.

         

Equipment Problems: At first I laughed at the notion of people not being able to kill anything in Mordor. Then I realized why they were having such an issue. The developers wanted people to get to Mordor but they didn't tell them all the things they might have needed before going in like...

  • Light equipment. All the equipment that I've seen through the barter system requires you to be level 112 or 115. Due to the developers not enjoying the "Ash Farms" created to rapidly kill enemies to find equipment, all light equipment has been removed from all the zones. The equipment that you obtain through the rare chests are laughable and anything from regular instances don't give you the new stat. So how are you supposed to combat "Radiance 2.0" that the developers openly admitted was a bad idea? I guess you can always craft them. No wait, you need ash to do that.
  • Imbued Weapon. I think a lot of people just assume that their level 100 legendary weapon would allow them to do enough damage. Like I said before, using crystals to get that weapon from 250 dps to 500 dps helps tremendously. This must be torture for those who bypassed the whole region with an Aria token only to be gated by the crystal grind. A good source is doing the festival daily for 2 whole days (not even counting the beer exchange). Still, 24 tiers is a lot of ground to cover. We aren't even talking about getting the legacy scrolls. At least the ixp runes drop like candy in Court of Seregost. Oh yeah, you still have to discover the instance. Besides, it was 2 whole months before it came out.
  • Secondary stats. For people who have the biggest and baddest items from The Wastes, this zone is still going to be tough for them. They finally made it so you have to pay attention to stats like finesse and physical mitigation. Of course, the new items have all the proper stats. Too bad you aren't going to survive long enough to get them.

Equipment: Being level 115 when entering Mordor helped me walk past most of the orcs without a fight. Having my weapon maxed out allowed me to dish out enough damage to solo the content. Getting light equipment crafted from a kinmate helped me get through the zone without a hinderance. It wasn't until later I realized that my finesse was only roughly 8% but for this zone it was sufficient. 

Udûn (Levels 106 & 107)
Missing Page: #4 (well-hidden under some support beams)
Problems: Zombie-men's movement animation was all over the place, too many quests not NSYNC in sync


Quests: The Tales of Garmadon Gorgoroth (sorry, just watched Lego Ninjago) requires two quest arcs: A Solemn Gathering "The Search for Captain Lachir" and What Was Spoken and What Revealed "The Slaves of Udun" This proves beneficial since those are pretty much the only story arcs you will find in the region. Every other quest pops up when you least expect it and sends you running another lap around the area. Still, the main highlights of my adventure were the two castles: Durthang and Anglach (My picture is a lot scarier than the one in the wiki). I'm proud to admit that I didn't get lost in either castle but I did have to revisit them several times. I should have just waited until I had all the proper quests before entering such a massive dungeon. (Pictures are out of order but you should be able to tell which one is which).

          

Black Book of Mordor: Another thing I need to talk about is Chapter 2 of the Black Book of Mordor. Chapter 1 gives you a lot of lore regarding the tower of Durthang. But Chapter 1 also has you chasing after an object without telling you what it is exactly. Brilliantly, the object is different for every class! For my class, the captain, I chased after the Heirloom of the Riddermark. Mithrandir sends me to a jeweler in Minas Tirith, who sends me to his companion in Snowbourn, who sends me to a bard in Aldburg. This leads me into discovering the real story behind the Legend of Folca.

    

 

2018-01-08