This time...

10 hours in and I'm level 18. That puts me a couple of levels ahead of where I probably should be at this point, judging by the level of the epic story quests and the mobs I'm fighting, so I'm giving some thought to what I'll do and what I'll pass on.

This time.

My fondness for alts means I'm always on the lookout for ways to change up the levelling paths, and having areas that I pass by on one character just means that in time I'll go back and do those quests on a different character.

I prefer to run quests at my current level or above. My most recent experience of World of Warcraft dulled, in part, when nothing could kill me, and so far I've only died once during this run of LOTRO, back in Rath Taraig, when I underestimated the DoT of a goblin sapper.

Having done all of Ered Luin (almost – a couple of deeds went unfinished because I didn't feel like killing another 60 spiders) I was already over-level for the initial quests in Bree-land and since the xp curve in this game has surely been smoothed out a couple of times over the years there's far more quests in this zone than I'd ever need to stay on track.

So I've skipped pretty much everything unrelated to the epic story, only that gets a bit harder to do now, because I love the Old Forest.

By the time I first played LOTRO the Old Forest had already been made easier – with a map and less aggressive mobs. I'm sorry I missed the original experience, but even so it was the first area in the game that I really enjoyed (I hadn't gone to the Shire, or Ered Luin, on my first character.) I still love the atmosphere, and the music, and old Tom Bombadil. It's one of those areas I could stay in for a lot longer than I actually need to, and it's only with reluctance that I'm pushing on.

Next time I'll pace things differently and take longer here. For now I'm moving on to the Barrow Downs, which is another fantastic area I could run for far longer than I actually will.

This time.