A day in the life of a middle-aged Captain


Beta Journal by John "Methost" Irwin

Disclaimer: The following journal was written
during The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of
Angmar ™’s (LOTRO) Beta phase. Much of the information provided
here is
subject to change. The journal is meant to give you a cross section of
LOTRO as
it was at the time of this writing, and has been approved by Turbine
for public
release.

       
    Setting aside a few hours to play
The Lord of the Rings Online is pretty hard these days, but I manage to
do so this
week. Armed with tortilla chips, salsa, and a 20 oz. Diet Pepsi, I
closed the
door to my office and log in.

Today’s session begins
with my
level 36 Captain resting in the beauty of Rivendell. My quest log reads
like a
book of short stories told by Tolkien himself. Bilbo Baggins wants me
to solve
his riddle, Elrond has asked me to talk to Frodo, and there is a Troll
problem
in the South Trollshaws. There are
hundreds of
decisions to be made during my time in Middle-earth, and this is the
one I
always get hung up on. What shall I do first? A member of my kinship
informs me
that he will be hunting stone trolls in the very near future and that I
am
welcome to join him if I like. Problem solved. I mount my horse and
blaze off
in the direction of the troll hunting party. (Yes, I have a horse.)

The ride from The Last
Homely House
to the hunting party is a long one; Middle-earth is a big place, and
travel
takes time. Along the way I pass Sam at the Meeting Spire, Boromir near
the
road to the Misty
Mountains and a
number of
friendly Elven merchants selling their wares. I cross the Ford of
Bruinen
without incident, but the ride gets more dangerous from here. Many
creatures
roam these lands and running into a Troll is not uncommon 
-- get too close to one of these and you’ll
find yourself knocked from your steed and in a very tight spot. Luck is
on my
side this day, and I meet up with my party in one piece.

Scanning my group
list, I quickly
realize that we’re more than a match for any Trolls in the area. Small
talk
commences as we wait for one or two more members to show up. It’s not
long
before we are all assembled and searching for our quarry. My quest log
currently contains two Troll quests. The first of these was given by a
Dwarf; he
is searching for an unremarkable stone and is convinced that one of
these
monsters has walked off with it. Its return has become my
responsibility. My
second quest is to thin out the Troll population some. I’m to kill 6 of
them and
report back for my reward.

As we follow our
tracker through
the woods, my attention turns to the skill bar on my user interface.
The
Captain is a good secondary buffer and I contemplate which party
members should
receive which buffs. The Champion will get “Relentless
Attack.” This is a “Command” buff and it allows one to attack
ferociously, giving
them the ability to critically wound with their attacks more often by
adding 5%
to their critical hit chance. We also have a Guardian in the group and
on him I
bestow “On Guard.” This is a
defensive buff that adds 5% to his parry chance. These are in addition
to the “Motivating Speech” buff I have already
placed on the entire group. This skill increases the affected player’s
morale
pool by 1.1%.

We quickly come up on
a group of
Trolls and I dole out my buffs. It’s also time for me to summon my
herald. At
level 36 I have three to choose from: Hope, War, and Victory are their
names.
My Herald of Hope adds additional
increases to the fellowship’s Morale
pool while the Herald of War adds
points to our Might and Agility scores.
I don’t think these
trolls are going to be too much trouble, so I use the Herald
of Victory which gives us each a larger Power
pool to work with.

We move in on the
Trolls and the
battle is joined. Because of the ease of this fight, my Herald and I
use mostly
auto-attack so I can relax and chat during the encounter instead of
playing
mash the buttons. I do use one of my favorite skills from time to time.
“Reveling Mark” is a skill that I use to
point out weaknesses in our foe’s defense. It also allows fellowship
members
gain morale as they do damage. This is a nice little skill that will
save a
group’s healer some power over the course of a long skirmish.

Because they are Elite
monsters, Fellowship
Combos aid us in our fight, and we dispatch the required number of
Trolls in
short order. My hunting party returns to the quest givers and reap our
rewards.
Talk turns to another quest that I have already completed, so I say
goodbye to
my group. There’s a Hobbit in Rivendell waiting to chat with me.

The return ride is as
uneventful as
the trip out, and in no time I find myself on the steps of Elrond’s
beautiful
home. I talk to Frodo and he asks if I will take a walk with him. I
won’t go
into the details of this quest; its surprise adds to the enjoyment
factor of
this session and I wouldn’t want to rob you of that.

My time is about up so
I finish
with Frodo and head to the nearest merchant to repair some armor and
sell off
some junk I acquired during my travels. Just before I sign off for the
evening,
I take a moment to look out over the valley. Turbine’s art team has
placed
wonderful looking Elven dwellings among beautiful streams, bridges and
trees
here. As with other areas in this game, their presentation of Imladris
is truly
a thing to behold. I log out of the game, looking forward to tomorrow
morning.
Bilbo has a riddle for me -- and his are always the most fun.