Altoholism Relapse

[shoreless]

You wanna know what, I think my biggest struggle with LOTRO is not content or lore issues or hating SSG, but playing too many characters.

Can anyone relate?

I’m on record as being a chronic altoholic over the years. None of the original characters I made 13 years ago are still around.

For example, I finally found a regular trio to play with but now I’m torn about which character to run with them. There’s a minstrel dwarf, a champion dwarf, and me, the hunter hobbit...but I kinda want to run with a burglar dwarf. I already have a high level burg (and one in his 60s who I don’t play anymore) but it’s the beat class and it would be cool to have an all-dwarf team...but I also love running around as a Hobbit (I feel ambivalent about the Hunter class). So now I have no idea which to choose!

Stuff like that gets me all the time.

To continue the example, I’m also sitting on a 105 Aria. So then it’s like “Well I could play the Burg in the group and Aria the Hunter...or just delete the Burg because I have one and I can Aria that Captain I like...”

And soon I’m like that math meme lady.

[Froyo_K_Baggins]

I'm an altaholic, and have always been. I created a character per craft to start, and made each a different class to learn. As of DA, I stopped raiding because it became so much of a grind. In addition, they keep messing with different classes and changing mechanics. When solo, I can learn them or they don't matter. However, since Trait Trees were added, I've seen a rotating group of classes wanted and ignored in raids, so I don't think I'm missing much.

It's still fun doing landscape and then figuring out how I have to change things up depending on class, so I still have my eventually reaching cap each time.

[Elmagor]

Before Lotro, I play ~8 years in Age of Conan. They have pretty fast leveling, because on every 2 days of your VIP sub you can level ANY of your character to 1 level. At first, it was great and everything was fun. But after few years, almost everyone have 8-10 undergeared characters. After 5 years of playing developers find out what huge amount of players can't complete raid instances just because they wasn't good enough for them. Some guids can't kill 1st boss in some raid for 6, 7 years! It's just insane. People just don't want to learn how play that class, they more like "ok, if we won't kill that boss with me on that class, I relog... and relog... and relog". Some bosses acts like roadblocks what prevent players to reach deeper bosses (like Rukhor and Thossulun in Rem as example). Developers really don't like that complains, and they... just remove most deadly, punishing, unforgiving parts of mechanics from raid bosses. I really don't want to see that in Lotro.

[Froyo_K_Baggins]

Before Lotro, I play ~8 years in Age of Conan. They have pretty fast leveling, because on every 2 days of your VIP sub you can level ANY of your character to 1 level. At first, it was great and everything was fun. But after few years, almost everyone have 8-10 undergeared characters. After 5 years of playing developers find out what huge amount of players can't complete raid instances just because they wasn't good enough for them. Some guids can't kill 1st boss in some raid for 6, 7 years! It's just insane. People just don't want to learn how play that class, they more like "ok, if we won't kill that boss with me on that class, I relog... and relog... and relog". Some bosses acts like roadblocks what prevent players to reach deeper bosses (like Rukhor and Thossulun in Rem as example). Developers really don't like that complains, and they... just remove most deadly, punishing, unforgiving parts of mechanics from raid bosses. I really don't want to see that in Lotro.

You're already seeing it, via Valar. People P2W but then don't know how to use their classes. It is why SSG has simplified raids to focus on basics such as top gear, mits and dps races, so the whales don't have to think. They just have to follow instructions.

[Swanee]

I too am an altoholic. Not only did I have 12 characters on Brandywine, but when I transferred to Landroval a few years ago, I brought 6 characters and am up to 15 now. Only 3 have ever seen into Gondor. I play with the slotro group Club Eclair. The original group is at level 60, and I have 5 characters to choose from every time we meet. I find that my mood dictates which character I play. Still, it’s a lot of work to keep them all up to date. The repetition of Moria has been tough. Still, I think it’s the enjoyment of creating new character stories that keeps me perpetually in the SoA areas of the game.

[HerrDave]

I too am facing this resurgence in Altoholism

I have 4 characters:
- Human Captain
- Dwarf Guardian (Aria'd)
- Elf Hunter (Aria'd)
- Hobbit Minstrel

Until recently the Captain was my main, but then the Captain was updated and his aura was turned into a clunky 5-minute buff of debatable value.
That change was the straw that broke the camel's back, along with painful solo levelling and having a badly underpowered LI at 130, my Aria'd Guardian felt like such a breath of fresh air

Dude, guardians can:
- Shoot stuff, at range, with a bow (holy cow)
- Wield a shield the size of a door
- Sprint FAST and often
- Heal themselves very efficiently
- Enjoy a blissfully simple rotation

I was so enamored with the Guardian, I considered re-rolling my Captain as a Guardian, but that'd entail abandoning a 130, and a 121, which instantly faces complications as I'd have to either delete or ignore my Captain forever, and thus have 2 Humans on my account forever - or ignore or delete my Guardian, which will mean having 2 of the same class or deleting a 121.

-insert pained sound-

[hfe]

One thing that worked for me is to accept that not all characters need to see the end of the game... I keep an alt at every level range:

32
50
60
65
75
85 (though I don't care for this one myself)
and so on.

You can buy a tortoise to prevent yourself from getting any new exp.

Now you just need to find friends so you can do content, on level, and enjoy a bit of a challenge
It's a nice way to help your low level kinnies in Urugarth without feeling like you're holding a toddlers hand and one-shotting everything.


Personally, I find a lot of fun in for example my level 60 burglar, that, in yellow line, is able to heal the FS through many of the Moria instances.


LOTRO Imo becomes so much of a better game when you ignore the end game, and just enjoy the lore and sceneries.