Angmar is the first endgame zone in Lord of the Rings Online, but there's a way to go yet.
This game is something of a wonder of the MMO world, because it faced a unique challenge when it launched in 2007. From day one the world of LOTRO was mapped out, and while there were detours along the way there was never any doubt of where the game was going – where it had to go – and the route it would have to take to get there. All roads led eventually to Mordor, and that Standing Stone Games actually got there in the end – in 2017 – is no small achievement.
It meant that for a long time some of the most iconic locations in Middle-earth were off limits to the dev team – good for future expansions, but not for the launch game. I mention this because in the original 1-50 experience Angmar is something of a stand-in for Mordor. It's the domain of the Big Bad, or one of them at least, and it's bleak and hostile and full of orcs and wargs and monsters. Even the sky looks evil.
As I come to the end of this run I haven't progressed very far through this zone. I slowed down again once I got here, and I've been doing regular quests in addition to the Epic for the last few days. Most of these have centered on a small settlement of Men in the south west of Angmar... and I'm starting to think that because my character is an Elf the quest text is being put through a filter to make these questgivers sound even more weak and whiny than they actually are.
This isn't the first time I've made this observation since many of the Men of Bree-lands, the Lone Lands and Evendim come across just as badly, but the Trev Gallorg take it to the next level with a questline that starts off asking me to Prove My Worth (sigh) and then once I do they basically put the entire future of the tribe in my hands while acting like they're doing me a favour by doing so. Seldom has the question “why don't you do it your damn self?” so hovered over my interactions with questgivers as it does here.
Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that
the Men of Angmar want me to do everything for them – I am, after
all, invincible. Yes, this is the bit at the end of the run where I
talk about how unkillable I am – it's becoming something of a
tradition in this game.
I racked up a few deaths in group
instances (solo) including the Halls of Night, which is one of those
moments when you remember that SSG also do Dungeons & Dragons
Online. HoN is very reminsicent of DDO, especially the electronic music which is very uncharacteristic of LOTRO. HoN is an unusual instance though so it fits.
Aside from those, my only deaths were two insta-kills in Angmar – one from a fall and one when I went looking for the instant death warding stones that split the zone in half – and exactly one death in the open world, while fighting an Elite Master two levels above me in a quest recommended for a group. Other than that, I could comfortably take on anything I encountered, and didn't use the Inspired buff in the epic story except in those instances where it is auto applied. I went below half health a few times when going 1 v 2 against elite mobs, but if I keep my rotation up then there's very little that can do enough damage to outdo my self-heals.
To some extent this is
working as intended. I'm playing a warden with a tank spec so I would expect my survivability to be high, but not this high. In the open world I'm essentially invincible, and I'm barely less so in solo'd group content. Bosses in fellowship
instances can kill me, but not all of them and not quickly. It's worth emphasising, as I did in my last post on this subject, that this is not an exceptionally well geared character - my only crafted item is my sword (sometimes) and the rest of my equipment is made up of quest rewards and random drops.
This remains as much a problem as it's ever been. LOTRO is a good experience, but as a game there's no challenge to it on this character. It's fun charging into just about any location heedless of the risks because there are no risks, but it's only fun for a while. The world has fantastic atmosphere, but it's less of an adventure when there's no real sense of danger, so I'm faced with the same old dilemma - I want to reach Moria on this character, but I don't know if I want to go through Moria on this character.
That's not the only thing that might keep me from returning to LOTRO for a while; there's also the lag. I didn't have any problems with it in the Trollshaws or Misty Mountains, but it's been really bad in Angmar.
Fair enough, LOTRO has never been a stranger to performance issues, but at times this has bordered on unplayable and SSG really need to get it fixed. The Rings of Power has surely drawn some new players into Tolkien's world, and I can't imagine that an invisible horse makes a good first impression.
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