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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