Quote Originally Posted by littlesquinky View Post
PVP requires very good skill first, then good gear since you are to compete with other good players. Some of the bbs, expecially the dps race ones, are far easier when people have good gear and stats. BBs have their own grind too, by the way, higher ranks make them both easier and less boring. T2C content requires good gear period, no matter how good you are, if you haven't got enough morale or mits you die, and make your group fail too.

If you are not a completionist in even the smalles way, If you are a role player hanging in eriador all the time, If you only enjoy landscape quests, if you don't play group content, if you don't pvp, then you don't need to grind for anything at all. Every landscape solo quest can be completed with quest gear, 3rd age li's and zero virtues at all.

But hey, how many ifs had I to put in that sentence
Define "Good gear"?

I suspect what you're suggesting is that to do t2c content, one's character must have maxed levelled LI, full BB gold jewellery, armour with full gold essences etc etc. In that case you're just pedalling the same old bull that the phat l00tz l337 kids have done in all MMOs - which is to exaggerate the entry level of gear required in order to create that sense of elitism for those who already have it all.

Or to put it another way, without any Turbine-defined gear benchmarks for each instance that (nearly all other MMOs have) that tells the player the minimum level of gear required in order to stand sufficient chance at completing the content (skill notwithstanding) then people will just make up their own benchmarks in order to meet their own purposes, and what we have in lotro are those who peddle the notion that characters must be fully geared in order to do t2c content when all the evidence is there to the contrary.

Now, of course with pvmp it's different as freeps will try to eek out whatever edge they can, but for pve it's just rubbish.