Lord of the Rings Online: Journey to Level 60 #1

Hello and welcome to the first edition of LOTRO: Journey to Level 60. Each week I will retell my adventures in Middle-Earth and give some much-needed attention to a game that is better than many say it is. This week I will give my first impressions of the game and tell you all which race and class I am playing. 

It took me a week and a half to figure the race and class I wanted to play. Initially I was going with the Warden class, which has only been in the game since the Mines of Moria expansion. The Warden uses combos to unleash deadlier attack and was fun for the first few levels, until I go to a point where I couldn’t solo anymore. The problem I find with most MMO games that aren’t World of Warcraft is at some point they force you to group with others to complete quests. This wouldn’t be a problem if the in-game chat wasn’t a barren wasteland I haven’t seen the likes of since a few weeks after the Warhammer Online launch. I haven’t figured out if I am playing on a low-population server or if all starting zones have no chatter. So, after not getting to level 10 with the Warden, I decided to try a Minstrel since I only played healers in WoW and is my favorite type of class to play in RPGs. Once again I got a few levels and then was unable to solo without getting killed.

At this point thoughts start to set in that somehow I am playing this game wrong. After taking a break for a day or two I start a Dwarf Champion named Joshipoo. The champion class is a dual-wielding melee DPS class and is the main one I played back in the beta. For some reason this class really clicks with me and my personality. The Champion’s main focus is to kill mobs before they kill you by using your superior firepower and strength. This is my kind of class.

As of right now I am leveling in Thorin’s Gate and I am level 7. Besides a few problems with the inactivity in the chat room and a god awful map that makes it almost impossible to find where you need to go, I am really enjoying my time so far in Lord of the Rings Online. Once I play a bit more I can go into further detail on how the developers could decrease the frustrations the more casual MMO player would have with the game. If you’re interested in playing along with me I am on the Nimrodel server and would love to start up a Kinship (guild) for anyone who would like to try this game.