Now that a lot of the content restrictions on the early game have been removed, it's been so much more fun getting to actually choose where you want to quest in the early game. In contrast to a few years ago where as f2p player you had to go through the same areas all the time because those were the quest packs that you had.
Lag will not go away completely because the game engine is antiquated. Could have been a WOW killer if the game was built on a different engine that used better threading and core tech. The story is the best MMO story period! WOW story is written as they go along and it shows.
Very true! But hopefully they can fix the lag with the engine they have as much as possible. Either way… it sure does seem like it would pave the way for LOTRO 2! 🙏
Ironically, I was playing a little LotRO tonight and wandered onto this video and I said one of the same things in my Kinship. I hate Legendary Weapons as a system because YES, it removes the fun of smithing my own weapons, and it makes it lame trying to find new weapons when you just have one leveling with you. I hate "items level with you" systems. :p
I found your YT and Twitch channels after you and Louey7 streamed together a while back. I'm very happy you're both part of this community and giving this game some great publicity. 💛
Thank you for bringing the content. I am streaming to 1-3 people and can’t wait to be able to stream to more people☺️. This next couple weeks I get to stream the best content, FESTIVALS!!! I do agree with a lot of the points. I do wish that VIP was worth more. Maybe add some mithril coin to it. I wish I could a lot of the raids and lack of groups have been felt on stream when I have to solo a lot of fellowship epic book quests. Which isn’t bad when you are twenty levels above and have the boost added as well but it would’ve made better content imo if I could’ve been able to show the fellowship quests as intended. We have talked about it and how I didn’t feel safe on your discord but I would definitely recommend the rest of your community as it is very amazing. I hope have a great day and hope you keep having a great time in Lotro. I can’t wait for more videos from you.
Pretty much hit the nail on the head with pro's and cons. While you listed one of your pro's as the comms from the Dev Team, it's true there has been more communication recently in regards to what is happening and where things are headed, which is great. But from what I've seen (and I know the Dev team is relatively small) that responses in regards to support requests etc still take quite a while or players issues just aren't resolved, lost accounts etc. I'm hoping that this aspect is improving, the lack of support is the reason I left lotro years ago. I do not like to dwell on negatives so in closing I will say I like the direction of lotro for what is coming and I hope that SSG are able to get some more resources to do what they want to do. Great being part of the Brightlife Community, just wish I could be on your streams more!
i LOVED THIS VIDEO! Came from Louey7s streams and now i ma sub. I am so addicted to this game now have a 40 captain whjo iis invincible nearly and a 35 beoonign who solod every instance on level so far! having a blast!
Love the content! Well named channel always brightens my day... I'm an mmo lover and I really do love this game, it's got its flaws like any game but if your someone who can look past those issues and see he amazing game that was built then this is definitely the mmo for you
Hey man, this is a long read, I hope you can get around to it. I have just finished watching your "Why NOW is the PERFECT Time to Return to LOTRO" and I must say, amazing video. I actually watched it on a public computer and wrote down your name to subscribe when I came back home. Never done that before in almost 15 years of watching RU-vid. I must say, as a 11-year LOTRO "veteran" player, as you so eloquently described us, I really think you represent the community beautifully. If you don't mind, send me your main details and I'll create an Arkenstone character to run with your Kinship. I normally play on Landy, but the server's seen better days. I'd love to see your channel grow and bring more people into the LOTRO community, and I believe you're a really good introduction to it, as I mentioned before. I studied cinematography (the course focused heavily on RU-vid), so if you need an extra pair of hands to help you out in my freetime, please don't be hesitant to ask, although I can't make any promises. I switched careers a couple of years ago, so I don't have as much time as I'd like to for artistic creativity. But most of all; Thank you for being you and bringing some extra light into this world. Gandalf would be proud. Sending you much love, Mark
This game can be a grind-fest, but a fun one! So many things to level up! Skills, Gear, Virtues, Rep, LI, Warsteed, Skirmish man, and etc... I'm on my 4th character now and trying to complete the epic story and enough deeds to keep my virtue on level. My other characters I boosted or rush leveled, and that was a mistake.
The lag is REAL, and I have a really good PC. On Evernight you can enter an instance or a new zone and it will be empty. You get what I call the Schroedinger Pause...you don't know if you're alive or dead until it passes and the mobs appear. Or sometimes you press a skill and it doesn't fire off at all, just stays with a red border for 10/15 seconds. No animation, everything is frozen. It's my only real problem, the rest I can put up with.
How strong a non-accelerated game's population is, is always determined primarily by how many are participating in mid-game content. LOTRO suffers from a lack of mid-level players, and thus is not considered a healthy mmo by most metrics. I've personally experienced this flaw.
On my server, I've recently noticed a lot more low level characters experiencing the game. Maybe it's temporary, but I'm loving it during my own leveling journeys.
The reason I am leveling so slow is because I already got the xp disabler turquoise equipped even though I'm still lvl 20. Those quests are all so good I dont wanna over level to experience them lol!!!!
I agree with most of your observations (particularly about LIs and the character depictions) and was pleased to hear that they will be remastering the characters. I do believe that you missed a very positive "pro" in your list: the faithfulness to JRR Tolkien's original lore and IP. The developers very obviously did their homework (especially in the levels preceding 132 or so) and (with a couple of glaring exceptions in the higher level dwarven areas) followed the professor's original ideals to a T, even going so far as to generate all new place names using his original language template. That's dedication to craft and is much appreciated. Good video, by the way!
Personally, my biggest con is the model animations. They just don't feel right. The weapon swings in particular are really bad. Stoked to see that they might be fixing that!
I've enabled combat animation blending in the combat options. I used to have a problem as well with the combat animations, but this has made it much better. Not perfect as a lot of the clunkiness from combat comes from server lag, but it definitely happens the animation part.
I wish the grouping experience was better. It definitely is tough to find groups unless youre running endgame. I try to keep a couple alts at lower levels to help mainly new players or just anyone who wants to run them on-level since I just use those alts for crafting, but a problem I've seen is that even with a small group of low levels running an instance, a lvl 140 will hop in and just destroy everything. It really takes away from the group experience imo. I also know a lot of people want a better dungeon finder that will help organize groups, but LOTRO has so many classes that can do different things, with raid mechanics that require a certain thing like ranged dps for The Anvil of Wintersith and The HiddenHoard of Abnankara raids. And then you have so many classes that have a tank spec, Guardian, Captain, Warden, Beorning, and now Brawler, but people wont raid if you dont have a certain class. Warden and Beorning tanks are non existent just because they arent that viable right now, so I can see a lot of people dodging or inting runs because they dont like the class or the person playing. Also it's something MaruLabs mentioned on one of your streams but we really gotta get a petition for Brightlife to switch his gambits to the classic 123 model as well as use his gambit masteries, turn the unkillable warden into a machine of mass destruction :)
Finding a decent Warden to play with was tough even when Moria was released. Everyone who rolled a Warden was a one trick pony with that spear throwing skill, unable to hold aggro, and ultimately caused a wipe because they didn't want to trait for tanking.
mY BIGGEST con was losing a high lvl char to a dead server and standing stone can't get it back ether. Rip Edwind of Nimrodel server you will be missed.
Hey Bright great video! My biggest con is the lag. I have fiber connection and a computer that gives me 75-100fps and I to live on the west coast, but it’s just horrible! I mean I have to wait a good min or two before each pack of enemies sometimes. Hope the fix comes soon! And great points on the LI system. I am somewhere in between. On one side I LOVE the lore of a legendary weapon but on the other side I agree with you that getting a new weapon feels so good! But you could still look forward to new weapons if for nothing else but their skin. Could we not just use the wardrobe system and put that new look on while we use our LI? I could be wrong on that…
100% agree! This game rocks!! But I became a sad weapon-smith burglar when a got my first legendary weapon, I really love grafting my own daggers. Now I would like to be a Scholar (like 90% of 140lvl characters..), but I really invested a lot of hours in Weapon-smith and I like it! If you have any recommendations about what to do (stop crafting, continuing no matter what, change to Scholar...), would love to know. Best!
I have one of each crafter, my favorite is the scholar for the dyes (and the scholar's guild has a lot of great recipes which makes leveling in the guild it worth it). Most of the other crafting skills I just use to outfit new characters. The cook has been somewhat useful for food and farming is super easy to level since you buy all the mats.
I'm there with you on Legendary system, wish they would do away with it and just bring back the desire to craft or chase after weapons that drop off group content.
The legendary system had more nuance before it was revised. Originally there were tiers of legendaries and lots of cosmetic differences. They shouldn't drop legendaries, just expand them. FYI at lvl 100 you can get other legendaries.
@@J.B.90 idk I do like the system and it's unique and all. But at the same time takes away the sense of excitement when getting a weapon upgrade from doing an instance or raid.
@@xmattyic3x505 I understand. What happened though, is you used to get tokens from raids to get various legendaries. You could get third age, second age, first age legendaries that were various powered levels. When they dropped that, it left legendaries not quite as exciting in some ways. So I definitely understand, but at the same time I'm a horder that get attached to my stuff, so I really like legendaries. Having an item that is mine, personally designed and named is just way more exciting to me. To each there own, but I really hope the legendary system never goes away. Any mmo offers loot drops, very few make anything feel unique and "mine." Hopefully we see some expansion of the system to get the varieties back.
@@J.B.90 I'm aware of the old system and current system. I've played since release. I've been through it all with lotro. Having drops that have a low drop chance is what makes those items feel unique. When you're 1/50 people on the server to have so called item makes that unique. When I have a legendary that basically use all the same traceries as everyone else based on what class or what line I am just doesn't feel unique to me. Like you said though it's definitely a each to their own. I like items that are rare that make them unique. Like when lotro first came out. That's just my preference and what I remember enjoying most from a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment.
I disagree with you about the LI system, it's one of the Unique things that separate this game from other MMOs. I do wish they would add more in game guidance and build suggestions for new players experience though. Without all the guides online it is a daunting system to learn even for returning players, especially since the LI Overhaul.....what can I do with this old LI I still have? Well noting for you to see here unless you go find an online guide. Also on the level squish, I think it's a bad idea....I think a better experience would be to make everything after Angmar (Level 50) or there abouts (The Rift is actually above 50) on level. So regardless of what level you are the quests and mobs are on your level, sort of how ESO does it. Not sure how "difficult" that would be either though.
The only thing I don't agree with is the Legendary Items I love the idea, of customizing and making one and leveling up with it, Warden traceries were super boring too me but the rest are amazing.
LOL. I've played on my current RK for a year and she's not even level 65 yet. So if you level like a snail, I must be leveling like molasses going uphill in winter! But let's see - lag is still an issue, though not as bad as a couple of months ago. The worldbuilding is fantastic and the #1 thing that keeps me playing after almost 13 years. I can't speak on any of the group stuff as I've not played with a group in ... a long time. VIP absolutely needs to be revamped. The new LI system is a whole thing and I feel like I'm sinking in quicksand anytime I try to figure it out. Again, I don't PvP so I can't speak on that but, from what I've heard other people say, it needs a revamp and PvMPers need a lot more love than they get. As for the character creation - I'd like to see them updated but at the same time I've seen much worse (I'm looking at you, New World). Also, I'd be afraid they'd try to shove some sort of cash shop optimization into changing character appearance. Once more, I love hearing your thoughts on the game. It gives me a fresh look instead of the (often) rose-colored glasses I can don from time to time. :D
I dont know if its a good or bad thing but to me the questing can be a bit messy at times, like it seems there are a few zones for the same or similar levels that i never went to cause i got over levelled by the time i got there and i think this might be cause at least where i am atm (lv 45) im getting a lot of quests to just keep going back and forth from places
I'll definitely agree with that. I've skipped several zones on my RK because there's so many options for leveling now. Among them are Forochel, Angmar (though I'll loop back around to it later cause I do love it), Misty Mountains, Eregion ... and I'm using an xp blocker to keep from leveling too fast. As much as I love the variety of areas to explore, there's that downside. Too bad they can't do something like they did with Guild Wars 2 - if you enter a zone, it levels you down to the level of the zone. I'm not sure how they'd do that without breaking the game ...
That's beacuse there are different leveling paths, sadly the game is not too explicit on that, so first time you find out by noticing there's a zone you're over leveled now and you never went there, but it can be cool to have them for second playthroughs with new characters, as I did!
Cons for me: -I don't agree with the combat part, I feel that in 2023 tap target with tons of buttons isn't fun anymore, for dozens of hours doing the same rotation gets boring really fast -SSG doesn't care about branching out and maintaining their player base worldwide, servers in the US is one thing, but many people in many places outright can barely play this, for me it's the fact that in my country (Ukraine) they do not allow purchases, there's only so much I can do without buying any content, and it really sucks that the company just doesn't care and doesn't listen Experiences can vary, mine isn't very flattering, yet I still play this game for the best parts of it
I have played LOTRO for over 12 years (off and on) now and they have improved the Hunter quite a bit. They are not as squishy as before and you can almost feel the power of each arrow (especially with fire oil) as it heads to the target. Looking forward to the class traits based on characters level. Deeds are a bad mechanic...never should have happened.
Sorry, but I cannot agree with a level squish, and I wish people would stop advocating for it. I absolutely love grinding my way to level cap and that wonderful feeling once you finally get there after that long and amazing journey! A level squish would just ruin so much content, rendering many areas to over-lap in level range, even more so than now. I also don't want level-scaled regions like WoW has, that is also a no-go for me.
Absolutely!! It’s a great game to play solo! I’d recommend coming to hang out with us on Arkenstone though, that way you’ve got a crew to chill with! Cheers!
They should do a level squish with non scalable instances, with month to month promotional rewards for running them. That way it gives max level players incentive to run content with newer players.
ESO have a much better level system. I have a complete different subscription model for a game like LOTRO. Like to talk with you about it. But not a fan of any MMO's F2P and that can change.
The lack of group content is what keeps me away from this game. I want to play an MMO. To play with other people. If im just gonna feel like im in a solo game, ill play skyrim. take a game liike ESO. You will have group content from day 1 to the end game.
