Thursday 11 February 2010

Avoiding the terror mechanic

The new instances in LotRO have an interesting mechanic, which I believe is called "terror". A character under terror will start running (fleeing) in random directions, and can possibly run into places it really, really shouldn't. Fire and shadow clouds, which can possibly insta-kill, are plentiful in the new raid, and in the later stages some trash mobs can also give terror and make you run into another room filled with enemies. The effect cannot be removed, but it can be controlled while it lasts.

Map "toggle first-person mode" to some easily accessed key (I still have the default, which is * on my numpad), and whenever you get the terror effect, quickly turn your camera to the direction you want your fleeing character to face, and toggle first-person camera on and off. This will make your character turn to the direction you want, and can be repeated as many times as needed until the terror effect wears off. Use it to stay in whatever range you prefer (melee/ranged), and also to avoid accidental pulls or running straight into deathclouds.

I'd often like to slap those players in Sammath Gul who let their characters run all the way downstairs during the third boss fight.

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Ode to a Glass Cannon

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I reached the level cap some time ago on my Rune-keeper. It was the fastest leveling I've done so far, thanks to my boyfriend's Warden who did a pretty good job of keeping nasties off me so I could do some mad zap zap. I'd been watching his RK enviously for more than a year, and I must say I really like having a piece of the action too. My very first main character was a healer, and nowadays I mostly raid as ranged dps, so the RK combining those two mechanics is very appealing to me.

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I must admit though that I really really dislike the concept of "glass cannon", and originally I liked the design in LotRO that healers are much tougher than their counterparts in other games, and that there was no real "glass cannon" dps class before either, since even hunters can take quite a lot of hate before going down. I play my Lore-master as I play my Champion, and I started playing the RK like I do my LM - and I died so fast. And sooo many times. But I learned... eventually.

Here are some screens of the poor scrub's leveling:
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I could swear some of the LotRO artists are completely colour-blind, where do they come up with these costumes?!

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Blue Screen of Death, hmm?

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Lost in a snowstorm near the Redhorn Pass.

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65, at last!

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Also, visited Gollum's Cave and Durin's Bane.

There's so much stuff I'd love to try and do with the RK, but STO is getting more attention at the moment.. attention which I should really devote to my degree work :D.