LotRO - Update mostly Isengard

Almost two weeks since my last post. Lets start with Isengard. I had expected to get some news from E3, but there was nothing really new.

We have known since months, that that Isengard would be next and that the level cap would be raised. I had thought about it being raised to 70, but 75 it is. I doubt this is an improvement as a ten-level difference will make the level 65 equipment obsolete. I still use equipment with level 60, but nothing at level 55.

A raise of the virtue cap was also on the horizon and has now been confirmed. Again, I had hoped for some new virtues instead of a raise, but again, my hopes were not fulfilled.

Then we get a new crafting tier. This could also be expected, with a raise of ten levels. I just hope, that they will stop naming them and just say Tier I, Tier II, etc.

The three zones were also announced months ago and due to the lore will be similar to what we have seen. Getting 400 quests sounds like a lot, but Enedwaith had about 120, Moria about 250, Eregion about 75 and the Book 140.

As Enedwaith was released later, the size of the update will be about the size of Moria and Eregion and Volume 2. Decent, but not overwhelming.

With Moria, we got Legendary Items and two new classes and with Siege of Mirkwood, we at least got Skirmishes. With Isengard, we get nothing new? This is hugely disappointing!

I hope they will add something, but right now, I am not willing to spend money on that expansion. I did think about pre-ordering the expansion and I haven't ruled it out completely. On the other hand, I have three accounts, so I will have to pay three times as much as others...

What I like are the horses and the cosmetics. The Bonus-XP pocket item till level 65 is neat too. But again, when Isengard fails to capture my interest, I might go for the TP version.

I have been playing less of Lord of the Rings as I have used to. I only went to the Inn of the Forsaken once (and failed after being in there for a long time) and haven't been in the Halls of Night at all.

On one hand, I blame World of Tanks. On the other hand, we had some bad runs in Ost Dunhoth. We did have some great ones too, but...

We lost a raid-leader and officer. Hm, to be honest, I don't know if he will come back or if he is gone for good. I fear the later as he told me once, that he nearly left the game because I had criticized him once.
Last time I saw him, the main raid-leader told him to concentrate (and not talk about World of Tanks during the raid) and he wasn't seen again. We also lost other people, some for similar reasons, other because they were raiding at different hours.

Now we have not enough experienced and good raiders and the replacements often aren't as well equipped or don't know how to play their characters well enough. After all, Ost Dunhoth is not an easy raid and probably not meant for casual players, at least not when you try to do Tier 2 runs with the challenge.
This means, we fail more and this leads to the atmosphere not being what it should be. Bad atmosphere leads to less raid attendance and so we go in a downward spiral.

We either need to get some great raiders from other kins or do some Barad Guldur and other runs for getting everyone to the necessary skill levels for Ost Dunhoth. Master classes have started again, which is positive.

Update

Three months have past since my last update (not post, updates are a more general post). I use these posts to reflect what has happened since.

Then I had tried my first attempts at multi-boxing the school and library for Superior Third Marks. The weeks following that update-post, I have successfully run school and library loads of times while using thee accounts (triple-boxing with Captain (main) Hunter and Minstrel).

I stopped doing those runs, when I ran out of Legendary Fragments which are needed for crafting Legendary Items. I did spend about 200 gold, almost everything I had, on the Auction Hall to buy them (at about 3 gold a piece). So before the Echoes of the Dead update, I was broke.

The plan was to get at least two level 65 2nd Age Items for every of my main character. To make things a bit more challenging, I wanted them to have four Pool A legacies.

Sadly, I run out of cash, before I could achieve this. I did manage to get about 14 of them which is not too bad.

Since then, I was able to sell quite a few Legendary Items, some even have four Pool A legacies which are not producible anymore since the update and fetch quite some money on the Auction Hall.

At least at the moment, I have enough cash again, I even donated some gold to the poor tanks in our kin.
I've been in a lot of Ost Dunhoth raids. I missed the first few, but have been in almost every one since. We go to OD about six time per week.

Right now, we are working on our tactics on Gortheron, something I will write more about in a future post.
I have won two Symbols of the Elder King for a level 65 First Age Legendary Item. One I used for my Hunter to get him a bow, the second one I used for my Burglar. The bow is maxed out. The dagger for my Burglar is still missing the "Trick Range"-Legacy. I have been trying to get it for some time, but have run out of Item Experience Runes.

So I am running the Enedwaith repeatable quests on my Burglar to get ixp. The barter items and reputation are a welcome addition. I miss some skirmish marks to get the complete Epic Helegrod set for my Burglar. Taking him to the moors will be a priority.

I didn't have time to work on my Warden, I have started do some runs on my Guardian. I wish, my Captain had more to do during fights...

About my blog, my first post was on November 3rd 2010. My main blog is http://funfactfiction.blogspot.com/ and contains all of the LotRO post as well as some others.

Out of the 200 post there, 70 are LotRO related. I also have some games-, book- and movie-reviews as well as some other fun topics. Political comments can also be found there.

Most hits got a post about some 3D pictures of sexual positions.  This is after all the Internet. And are we really surprised, that I got most hits for that site from Pakistan and India?

I also run two other blogs, one about sex on the Internet and one about politics.

Back to this site. Thanks to http://combo.mmeow.net/ I have 2'500 page views, 1'300 of them in April 2011. Thanks a lot! There is a lot of interest about Ost Dunhoth and I will share some thoughts and tactics.
More than half of my visitors are from the USA followed by UK, Germany and Canada. 40 percent use FireFox, 30 percent Internet Explorer, 15 percent Chrome. 85 percent use Windows, 5 percent Mac, 3 percent iPhone and 2 percent Linux.

I would like to get more comments or feedback. Any idea how?