I don't give a damn about my bad reputation(s)


Somewhere in the main quest hub of each zone there will often be a reputation vendor, waiting idly beside a horse with the air of a used car salesman on a slow day. No doubt it's a hard sell, because LOTRO isn't like most other MMOs when it comes to mounts. You can get a horse or you can get... another horse, with slightly different markings.

(Also goats later, and I think I've seen a few people riding stags. Otherwise it's all horses, all the time.)

I daresay there are players who collect horses, but I'm not one of them. With little or nothing except for the colouring to tell them apart I take an entirely utilitarian view of mounts in LOTRO – I can only ride one horse so one horse is all I need – and that's one more reason to pay very little attention to many of the game's ubiquitous rep grinds.

So I don't. Back when I wrote about the Barrow Downs last year it didn't occur to me that the reason that area is so full of repeatable content is that it's how you grind out reputation in Bree. That it has a completely different purpose from what I'd thought doesn't make the Barrow Downs any less awesome. It's still a fantastically realised location and when I finally do some alting in this game again I know I'll spend more time there than I have to – not to grind out rep, but because it's fun.

Right now – and likely for the forseeable future – I doubt I'll spend much time working on advancing my reputations, except for those like my crafting guild that I'll actually need as I progress. Sure I'll use rep items when they drop and take a look at what's on offer once in a while, but I won't focus on it. After all, it won't matter at all if I'm well regarded by the Eglain or the Wardens of Annunimas by the time I reach Rohan and Gondor.
 
 

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