Rise of Isengard: Dev Diary Feedback: Volume III Book 4 Quest Notes

[Overtone]

***possible spoilers ahead***

I don't really play LOTRO for the story. I enjoy the immersive Middle Earth feel, but I primarily play for endgame raiding and PvP.

That said, I thought the RoI Epic 3.4 book was fantastic! I really enjoyed it. One thing I have been very satisfied with in the past expansions is solid Epic storywriting, and RoI definitely turned up the T-Factor. I mean, it covered it all, and hit points that I was really curious about. My favorite was meeting Saruman and the journey into the war pits of Isengard. I also enjoyed seeing the pre-war Isengard, and that Dungbog war camp raid was outstanding. Great stuff.

IMO, the Epic story was the one real bright spot of the expansion. It indeed felt like old school LOTRO, well planned out, engaging, well executed, epic in scale, bug-free and fun. The only thing it lacked was the group content of old, but it's a new solo-friendly LOTRO and things have changed. As long as you guys can keep doing solid storytelling like this, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to accept.

[Greavor1970]

2. Bugs that prevent certain quests and deeds from being completed. Again, a technical issue, I expect most to be fixed in the next patch and the rest being fixed eventually.

I hope my problem is merely a bug. I was doing the Prisoner of Isengard chpt's. I ported out because I had level'd and when I went back inside my Shackles were gone from my inventory. I also have no where to pick up where I left off. GM said it wasn't a known issue and do a bug report, which I did. Apparently I am not the only one whose had this happen so it not being a known issue is puzzling. I hope they fix this because my character is already out of quests. Tasks, dailies and skirms just isnt cutting it.

[Oeilduciel]

If i really enjoyed the quests, the story line of the book 4 begin to exasperate me since the enedwaith because devs make their own change for the grey company, wondering if they really read the books of Tolkien (here the return of the king) jugde on this:

Form the Return of the king:
-the Grey company begin the journey with 30 men and finish to Aragorn with 30 men, in other word without casualties
-Halbarad doesn't know where the Rohan is and need to ask to know that
-The company run as fast as possible and if we pay attention to what halbarad say there was no problems on the way.
-The company arrive in Rohan a little after the battle of helm's deep.

Now the devs:
- The grey company suffer heavy casualties with many dead, if halbarad begin the journey with 30 men according to "the return of the king" and in the end of the book 4 there's between 20 - 30 men remaining; can the devs explain me where they find all the dead dunadan? From nowhere?
-Saroumane know about the grey company: if it was the case in "the return of the king" the company would certainly suffer some casualties if not wiped out, and it's not.
-The company meet Theodred and arrive in the gap of rohan: Did i miss something? Theodred is dead from some times when the company arrive in rohan, it 's impossible for them to meet him.
At this point in the game it means that the grey company is in the Rohan someday BEFORE Aragorn and his friends shall be in Parth Galen where Boromir die. So i'm wondering how the devs will justify that the grey company, coming in rohan before Aragorn and gandalf, will not join them at Meduseld or will not help at the battle of helm's deep.

You see now that the epic story is full of nonsense and paradox with the story of Tolkien and it's that which exasperate me. The only things i can do now is to hope that Turbine will correct the shoot.......but i doubt of it.

[Macfeast]

Form the Return of the king:
-the Grey company begin the journey with 30 men and finish to Aragorn with 30 men, in other word without casualties

- The grey company suffer heavy casualties with many dead, if halbarad begin the journey with 30 men according to "the return of the king" and in the end of the book 4 there's between 20 - 30 men remaining; can the devs explain me where they find all the dead dunadan? From nowhere?

The devs thought they needed more than 30 rangers, so they added a few. A change for the sake of gameplay.

-The company run as fast as possible and if we pay attention to what halbarad say there was no problems on the way.

Not sure about that one, all he says is basically "We came as fast as we could," nothing about whether or not there were any dangers on the road. In addition, running into trouble on the way does not negate that statement, either; If I got late to a doctor's appointment because of a late bus, saying that "I came as fast as I could" is still correct, if a bit vague.
Note that Halbarad and Aragorn have very few conversations actually written down in the book (can't recall exactly, but I doubt more than ten); Yet, logically, they would have a lot to talk about. So, it makes sense that a lot of off-screen conversations happened between the two. More than enough time for him to explain what happened on the road down, and go into more detail beyond "We came as fast as we could".

-Saroumane know about the grey company: if it was the case in "the return of the king" the company would certainly suffer some casualties if not wiped out, and it's not.

Tough call. If the Rangers took a more stealthy approach (like they did with their entry into Dunland, splitting in two groups), he might have a harder time finding them. Either way, he has plenty of forces situated around the Fords of Isen, and the Grey Company would have to pass there, in addition to travelling very close to Isengard. He might be counting on wiping them out when they reach the Fords.

-The company meet Theodred and arrive in the gap of rohan: Did i miss something? Theodred is dead from some times when the company arrive in rohan, it 's impossible for them to meet him.

Gap of Rohan =/= Rohan. The Grey Company is not in Rohan yet; It lies past the Gap and the Fords of Isen.

[Lonefeather]

I've completed the epic quests on my main 75 champ and am now running through them on my alt guard who is currently 67. All I can say is that most, if not all, of the new epic quest rewards are worthless for my two heavy armored toons. For example -- and this is not an isolated incident -- my guard is still wearing his gauntlets from a level 58 epic quest because the reward from the level 67 epic quest would be too big of a loss for him to wear. My champ had the same problem. Which makes me wonder why I even bother to do the epic quests again; which makes me wonder why I even bothered to purchase the expansion. I would not have had I known how disappointed I would be with it. Don't get me started on the cheapness of reusing beginner level cosmetics on new gear and then making that gear the quest rewards over and over again. Don't get me started on how my 75 champ has nothing to do now unless I want to grind skirmishes. Where is the end game content for people who want to solo or who can't always get a group? You've stated you made yellow gear useful again? How is it useful and who is it useful to? Hint: If it isn't an upgrade, it's not useful.