Things I remember about level 50

[Yosoff]

With the legendary server opening soon I've been thinking about what was different at level 50 end game vs. today and thought I'd share some thoughts. Please add your own in the comments, because I'm sure this is not a complete list.

* Conjunctions / Fellowship Maneuvers mattered. We used to run some group content without a dedicated healer and "burg heal" with CJs. Burgs were better off-healers than Captains. Getting healed 3k morale and power doesn't sound like much these days, but it was huge at level 50. CJs were also used to remove fear and wounds, put bleeds on bosses, summon oathbreakers, and inflict considerable damage as well. Group leaders were expected to set CJs and assign an order, with ranged classes getting any blue or green spots. I've always thought that CJs didn't get nerfed as much as they simply didn't scale, so they should be a big deal again.

* Crafting was more important. Crafted armor was good enough that you could run end-game content in it (and you didn't have to run the content to get the ingredients). Crafted jewelry and weapons were good as well. People were constantly farming beryl shards. Many people not only knew all of the shard droppers, but knew their spawn points and would kill the placeholder mobs to trigger a spawn. With today's personal loot system things might be different though. Also, everyone seemed to carry lots of consumables such as hope tokens, scrolls of battle/warding lore, food, crafted morale/power potions, etc.

* Virtues were a huge deal. These were especially important for mitigations and morale. Some raid leaders wouldn't even invite people who's virtues weren't "good enough". This is another item that didn't scale well, but will likely be critical again.

* Damage types mattered. Before legendary weapons, many people carried different end-game weapons with different damage types and switched them out constantly. Westernesse for undead, ancient-dwarf type for dragons (Thorog), beleriand for Thaurlach. I remember hunters using fire-oil against Thrang and then wiping the oil for Thaurlach.

* Gold was much harder to accumulate. Most people didn't even have 100 gold. It's going to take some time for the economy to straighten out.

* Class quests. Do we know if class quest items such as putrid slime of Helchgam will be available from skirmish camps? Also will even be able to earn skirmish points to barter for it? And will locks on the old SoA content keep the current reset schedule? It might not matter as much now anyway. It used to be that only one putrid slime would drop and you would have to win the roll and if you didn't win it then you had instance locks and had to wait to try again. Today (I could be wrong on this) I believe everyone gets one and the locks reset three times a week. Depending on how they handle the class quest loot we could all be doing a lot of Urugarth and Carn Dum runs, but we'll want to do the deeds for virtues anyway.

[aldariondb]

I hope they bring back the usefulness of conjunctions!

[Vilan]

As far as we know, it will be exactly the same as the live servers, except with maybe a small reduction in XP gain. So there will be skirm camps, and some skirmishes available, so you can get your Putrid Slime or beryl shards that way. I think the instances will be a fair bit easier than you remember, barring some significant last-minute work on adding difficulty.

[maartena]

Although I subscribed to VIP almost immediately (in the first week), my first experience with Lotro was in late 2010, not long after going free to play. The level cap at that time was 65, but end-game Moria was still fairly active at the time too. By the time I got into Moria though and was breaking the level 60 barrier..... Isengard got released, and the end-game moved to level 75. I got to level 75 a month or so later, and that was really my first end-game experience.....

So I don't remember the level 50 experience at all. I am however mostly looking forward to the Moria and Lothlorien end-game experience, running content at level 60 and getting those First Age legendary items!

Crafting is going to be hugely important. This is not a server for people who dislike crafting and just want to buy everything.... because indeed: Gold IS going to be harder to get, and NO ONE will have ridiculous amounts of gold on stock from filthy rich mains.

[Tiempko]

As far as we know, it will be exactly the same as the live servers, except with maybe a small reduction in XP gain. So there will be skirm camps, and some skirmishes available, so you can get your Putrid Slime or beryl shards that way. I think the instances will be a fair bit easier than you remember, barring some significant last-minute work on adding difficulty.

Skirmishes were not available until the Moria release . . . so no skirmishes in 0 through 50.

The camps might be there . . . and you might be able to get some marks and medallions through running the scalable instances at the Great Barrow, Fornost, and Annuminas. But there will be no full skirmishes. Just like there will be no epic battles.

[Eckenbrand]

Skirmishes were not available until the Moria release

Guess what else wasn't available until Moria?





Guess what's going to be available in Legendary from the start?

[maartena]

Skirmishes were not available until the Moria release . . . so no skirmishes in 0 through 50.

There are many things that weren't available at launch..... Evendim, Forochel, Eregion to name three regions.
As mentioned above the Runekeeper, Warden and Beorning weren't available.
There was no housing system.
There was no cosmetic system.

Anyways.... a VERY long, long list of things we now take for granted (such as not having to go TO the instance entrance to start it, and then running all the way BACK to a bard just to retrait....) in the current game will be available on the Legendary server as well, as it runs the same code base as the regular servers.

So yes.... Skirmishes will be available. As will Evendim, Forochel and Eregion. And houses. And cosmetics. And many more stables. And the "new" Bree. And cosmetic pets. And a few more festivals. And, and..... well, just look through some other topics and you will find out everything that has been added to the game since launch in 2007. I for one, am perfectly happy with the fact that there WILL be a Barber, there WILL be cosmetics, and I do NOT have to go to a trainer to get new skills each level.