Beo’s Top 7 Middle Earth Regions

MMO Viking takes into consideration many factors determining his favorite regions.  Most likely in this order:  Scenery, lore, then quests.

7.  Lothlórien –  The golden wood is terrific for screenshots with its yellow leaves and fall colors year round.   Lothlórien itself looks fantastic with its elf tree forts and you get to meet Galadriel and Celeborn.  You also get to see the Fellowship resting after escaping from the Mines of Moria.   You can see some of my screenshots of the fellowship here.  On the quest side some of it sucks with the elves sending you on errands to pick flowers for faction.

6.  Ered Luin – The starter area for dwarves and elves has a nice balance of snowy mountain ranges to the north and elven woods to the south.  The region is very well done, Thorin’s Gate and Duillond look fantastic.  The quests are enjoyable and its an all around great region.

5.  Trollshaws – This region has a lot of Middle Earth lore.  Bilbo’s Trolls, The Ford of Bruinen, Rivendell and The Last Homely House.  Rivendell is very nice for screenshots.  You can find Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and Frodo in the House of Elrond.  I enjoyed the quests in Trollshaws, even Gollum appears in one of them.  Myyy PRECIOUSSS.

4.  Evendim –  Sometimes called Everswim before they added the boat across, Evendim contains one of my favorite quest areas the ancient abandoned city of Annúminas.  Another great looking region with Lake Evendim and its evergreen forests.  One of the only regions where Beowyf has done each and every quest offered.

3.  Forochel – The northern uttermost edge of civilized Middle Earth, snowbound and icy.  MMO Viking loves screenshots in this region it’s very Nordic-looking.  I read somewhere that Tolkien based Forochel off Finland so a lot of the NPC names are in Finnish.  This is Nindrojrir’s favorite zone.  I might have it higher but I hated questing there due to the long travel distances.

2.  Thorin’s Hall – The dwarf starter city in lotro.  Large and fantastic looking and hey I had to rate it high, its dwarves and dwarves rock!

1.  The Shire – First off the Shire in Lord of the Rings Online is the most accurate to Tolkiens vision due to the detailed maps Tolkien had.  So that is awesome.  Then it just looks the best with its rolling green hills and hobbit homes.  For lore you have Bag motherlovin End!  Bilbo and Frodo Baggin’s home Bag End where The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring start.  The Shire also has the best housing area in the game in my humble opinion!

Kinship Home

MMO Viking’s campaign to have his kinship move the home from Bree to the Shire paid off.  Beowyf had to pay the 15 gold for the home but that is fine.  It was worth it!  We almost own the entire Barleywick neighborhood which is fun.  A lot of people ask me why not a dwarf neighborhood?  It basically boils down to I don’t like the screenshots there.  Plus you have to love the Shire hobbit homes with their round doors and rolling hills.  Don’t you worry though Beowyf decorated the front yard of the Noble Rage kinship home.  A huge tower from the Rangers of Esteldin faction and some pillars from the Rangers of Annuminas faction.  Then the best part, nine Dwarven Hero statues from Thorin’s Hall faction!  The yard looks awesome!  A little obnoxious, a little creepy maybe, but most definitely awesome.  It will provoke reactions.  The statues kind of look like a dwarf fellowship was attacked by a medusa, or giant yard gnomes.  Capron says they kind of look like Hitler’s Dwarf youth brigade with their arms raised like that.  The tower is the largest structure in the entire neighborhood and is definitely obnoxious.  I shall name it Beo’s Tower.

Hall of Mirrors fun

I want to congratulate Afastr and Capron for each reaching level 60.  I’ve been really looking forward to them getting up here so we can all adventure together in 3-man and 6-man instances.  Beowyf and Nindrojrir took Afastr to the Hall of Mirrors in Moria tonight.  Dwarf Brigade II Electric Boogaloo.  Hall of Mirrors is one of my favorite Moria instances.  Mostly because Nin has the mirror sequence memorized!  It really is a cool looking place.  It was fun cutting through the place like a hot knife through butter with our level 65 dps.  The final boss was dead way before we were down to her last 4 minions.  She had like 10 or 12 still alive when she died.  Good times.  In other news MMO Viking is pulling for the Saints to win the Superbowl.  You would think I would pulling for the Vikings and maybe I would of but I’m tired of Brett Farve and Drew Brees is the man.  I usually root for the underdogs and the teams that have never won a Superbowl before.  Go Saints!

Online Sandbox

I like to make up my own games within MMO’s.  I like kidding around with my friends in-game, giving each other a hard time about their choice of race, gender or how bad their gear is, or how little gold they have.  I know in the past Nindrojrir and I would pay each other to do obnoxious things during a group play session just to spruce it up.  These deals made up on the fly in private tells.  Beowyf has stripped down to his skivvies and charged into battle before shouting “BEOSMASH!” just for laughs.  My latest sandboxing of lotro is my effort to get all my friends and kinmates to move into the same neighborhood.  Barleywick neighborhood of the Shire homesteads.  Currently including Beowyf there is eight of us in the ‘hood.  I’m mounting a campaign to get our guild house moved from boring Bree to Barleywick.  Beowyf has even offered to pay for the move which is alot of gold for a kin house.  Another game within the game I like to do in MMOs  is the in-game economics.  Basically it boils down to trying to make more gold then Nindrojrir.  Lord of the Rings Online makes it pretty hard to make in-game money.  A lot goes to repairing gear and potions and housing.  Most the gold I’ve made in-game is from tradeskilling.  Either just selling the items from the collection nodes or actually making potions from them and selling them in the Auction House.  In Everquest the best way to make money was hunt down Named Mobs, kill them and sell the weapon or gear they dropped in the Bazaar for plat.  That was easier.  In lotro the named only drop mithril shards which is ok but only go for about 800 silver currently.  I miss making fast plat in EQ.  I remember one time when a new EQ expansion came out I made an unholy alliance with Nin to kill a bunch of the new named and sell the new gear in the bazaar.  I think we each made 1 million plat in 2 weeks time before the new expansion inflation went away.  The new gear sold for 250,000 plat at first then 150,000, then 100,000 and finally after about a month the same gear was selling for 9000 to 10,000 plat.  I miss the Everquest marketplace, goodtimes!  Now most MMOs make the gear undroppable / bound to whoever loots it.  It helps keep the marketplace from going crazy but it’s kind of boring to me.  I say make everything droppable.  I can see where it would promote farming items but so be it.  That’s part of the sandbox!  Beowyf would gladly pay gold for a rare cool looking cloak that he liked instead of hiking deep into Goblin Town.  I remember Capron and Afastr farmed Lodizal the giant turtle in EQ for two weeks even setting their alarm to wake them every 14 hours when it would pop.  Now thats some game within and without the game. 

The Gunshow

Beowyf deconstructed his first Level 65 bow and is now using a Level 65 crossbow “The Gunshow”.  Nin and Red say a crossbow looks more dwarf-like and I think I have to agree.  Had another successful Sammuth Gul run last night.  The group consisted of Redranth, Nindrojrir, Beowyf and 3 pickups a Burgler, a Loremaster and another Hunter.  Best SG group so far!  We beat everything  down fast.  We were like Lian Neeson chopping throats in Taken except no girl to rescue at the end.  It was very nice.  I still haven’t seen a 2nd age item drop yet but its bound to happen one of these times!  I had Beowyf join a new kinship / guild.  It’s actually a friend guild.  My old Everquest guild Noble Rage.  So now I think NR of lotro has the following people in it:  Redranth, Nindrojrir, Beowyf, Canum, Scionof, Adanther, Capron, Afastr, Borthos.  Correct me if I am missing anyone, but I think that’s it.   I’d of rather tried to make our own kinship then use our old Everquest guild name.  I know I could come up with something cooler sounding, something hardcore and nordic or maybe even Tolkien-ish.  I mean Noble Rage always sounded to me like a French Musketeer taking off his white glove and slapping someone in the face with it.  But I will live for now I guess.  This is definitely a friend guild.  Guilds in MMOs go in this order:  Bankguild:  Guilds made just for the shared bankspace.  Friendguild:  guild made just to chat and maybe make 1 group of 6 once a week.  Casualguild:  Guild that raids maybe once or twice a week but mostly helps newb members get stuff.  Hardcoreguild:  Raids 3-5 nights a week.  I’ve been in all of them and they all have their plusses and minuses.  Bonus two screenshots this post because I like them both.

Beowyf the Explorer

I updated Beowyf’s ranger-look with the Adventurer’s Hat and Map-makers Backpack from skirmish custom looks rewards.  I really like the backpack it has alot of detail with the two books, lots of maps, quill and ink.  I just had the hat on yesterday, Nin and Red called me Cowboy-Beo.  So I started charging into battle shouting “HE-HAW!”.  I like to think of this look as Indiana-Jonesbeo or Bayorah the Explorer.  Beowyf destroyed his old Level 60 2nd Age Hammer BEOSMASH and is now using his new Level 65 3rd Age Hammer BEOSMASH II.  One of the cool new legacies I like on it is increased hunter run speed.  Normal Hunter runspeed buff is 15% so far I’ve got it up to 20%.  I’m not sure how high it will go, but I will find out!  Fast is good.

Dwarven 1st Calvary Division

Had a fun night taking Afastr to the Library and School 3-man instances in Eregion tonight.  Afastr dinged level 49.  Nindrojrir made me farm him some ingredients for his legendary item 4th aug slot.  He paid me with a stack of 50 teas that give vitality which are nice for instances.  And he promised to make me a +100 morale one for my legendary item.  Afastr, Nin and Beowyf make up the Dwarven Brigade of the Viking Fellowship.  We bring much-needed facial hair and toughness to the Fellowship.  Without the dwarves the fellowship would be way too Fae and Elven.  It would be like a group of gay male runway models or maybe a boyband.  Basically I’m saying without us dwarves the Fellowship would be *NSYNC.

Happy New Year from Middle Earth

Happy New Year everyone.  I hope 2010 is awesome for you all and that it brings us to Rohan and Helms Deep!  I’ve submitted a screenshot for a contest at http://mmeow.net/ check it out and vote!  I like a couple of the scenery shots but scenery is boring without someone in it I always say!  What’s with the new desktop icon for lotro?  It actually says Lord of the Rings Online now.  I like the old one better with the inscription from the One Ring.  This new one looks like crap compared to the One Ring icon.  I made Capron fifty-ish morale potions yesterday after he threatened to quit leveling and to just tradeskill.  I guess he keeps getting beatdown in Moria.  Poor burglar.  Me thinks we should start doing the good ole Moria 6-mans with him.  The Viking Fellowship lowbies are staring to slowly but surely catch up.  Afastr is Level 47.  Nindrojrir, Derrigaul, Catlady and I all helped him complete his Uru class questing yesterday.  Capron is 54 I believe and Derrigaul is Level 56 at the moment.  Beowyf broke 200 gold yesterday which seems like a ton in lotro.  Lord of the Rings Online really seems to roadblock making alot of in game money compared to other MMOs.  Compared to other MMOs lotro also only increase characters uberness incrementally each expansion.  I remember in Everquest a new expansion would come out and your character would gain 5 levels, 5000 hitpoints and 10 spells and would be able to destroy earlier content like Ivan Drago vs Apollo Creed.  “If he dies, he dies”.  In lotro its hard for me to tell if Beowyf is beating lower mobs any faster since getting 5 more levels and new equipment in Siege of Mirkwood.  Maybe I need to find a parse program to use.  Happy New Years bitches!