Lord of the Rings Online, First Impressions

Pros: World design, Warden Gambits
Cons: Broken crafting system

I've now been playing Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) for a bit over a month. My main character is a level 57 Warden, while my other six character slots languish in Lowbieville. I have a while yet to go on my Warden before I hit the level cap of 60, because leveling is slow in LOTRO compared to many MMOs, specifically WoW.

I have tasted the endgame, and it seems satisfying. Indeed, to my surprise, I am even looking forward to the endgame, which has never been the case in any MMO I've played. I think that the reason for this is the exquisite world Turbine has put together for my enjoyment. Yes, the game has its share of bugs and interface issues, and I have some major complaints about the crafting system... but the world, oh, the world. Damn near everyplace I've been in LOTRO has been enthralling, interesting, beautiful, rich in ambience, and on and on. From the mountain crags of Evendim to the desert wasteland of the Lone-Lands to the bucolic homeliness of The Shire to the towering Dwarf stonework of the Mines of Moria, every environment has its own flavor, and each one is crafted with a level of care that I've never seen in another MMO.

In short, world design, check.

The quests are, on the whole, engaging and well-written. They mostly do a good job of maintaining the illusion that there's a reason you're killing the mob du jour other than the quest reward. Some of the writing is downright funny, especially in Forochel and parts of the Mines of Moria, which I suspect were written by the same person. Aside from the writing, there's nothing to differentiate the quests in this game from the quests in any other MMO. Go somewhere, kill X of Y, come back. Go somewhere else, gather X number of body parts from Y, come back. As I said before, it's the world that holds it together, because each new quest hub feels fresh, like a new game unto itself.

The many instanced quests I've done and the handful of instanced content that I've run have been uniformly excellent. The LOTRO dev team has made stellar use of instanced content to tell stories with a level of quality that no other MMO I've played can touch. The endgame instances I've run have been only small three-man instances, designed to be bite-size content, and they have been highly enjoyable, tightly-crafted little areas with just the right amount of challenge. If the instances which are designed for larger groups are up to the same standard, this may well be the first MMO I continue to play past the level cap.

The classes are very satisfying to play as and play with. Because there is no PvP in LOTRO apart from sparring, the classes benefit from being balanced exclusively for PvE, which means, for example, that Hunters, the archer class, can be actual, honest-to-God archers, because there isn't a melee class standing on the other end of the arrows pissing and moaning about how OP Hunters are. Each class has its own role to play, and each class is very good at its role. There is a bit of trouble in Paradise, however. I did not play the game before the Mines of Moria expansion, so I only have hearsay that the two MoM classes, the Warden and the Rune-Keeper, unbalanced the class structure. I believe it, though.

Wardens are a light tank class, unique in my MMO experience. Rather than surviving by damage mitigation and massive health and armor numbers, Wardens survive through Evade/Block/Parry and a robust ability to self-heal and to drain health from their attackers. Wardens also have something else unique in my experience, the Gambit system, which I'll go into in more detail in a bit. Wardens stole some of the tanking glory from the Guardians, although Wardens and Guardians are different enough that each can still find work in the endgame.

The problem child of the Mines of Moria expansion is the Rune-Keeper, who took the "primary DPS class" title from the Hunters, and also can heal well enough to give the primary healing class, the Minstrel, a run for their money. The only thing that keeps Rune-Keepers from being the ultimate class is that they cannot DPS and heal at the same time, due to the clever "attunement" system. In a nutshell, every time an RK casts an offensive spell, he becomes more attuned to the damage side of the scale, unlocking more powerful abilities and giving boosts to his damage output. The opposite is true for healing spells, which attune the RK to the healing side. Most of the RK's most powerful abilities require a certain level of attunement on one side or the other, which means that an RK cannot change gears instantly. Instead, he must use some of his pool of attunement-neutral skills to reduce his attunement level to a point where he can begin using the other set of skills. In spite of the attunement system, Rune-Keepers are pretty much the uberclass, meaning that there are far too many of them in the game, to the detriment of class balance.

Now, on to a subject close to my heart: the Warden's Gambit System. Now this? This is cool. Playing a Warden is a lot like playing Massively Multiplayer Fighting Game Online, which keeps me from getting bored during the grind. Wardens don't have "skills" like a normal MMO class. Instead, they have gambits. Wardens are equipped with a trio of skills which perform basic attacks and also add an icon to the Gambit Panel, a line of five empty boxes which fill with gambit icons as you use your basic skills. Gambits are composed of at least two icons and up to five icons, in particular combinations. When a valid combination of icons is present in the Panel, the name of the readied gambit is displayed on the Panel, and the Warden can use his special trigger skill to unleash the gambit in question. Gambits come in three flavors: Spear gambits deal damage and/or give offensive buffs, Shield gambits heal and/or give defensive buffs, and Fist gambits generate threat and/or drain health and/or deal damage over time.

There's quite a bit of variation within each of the three types of gambits, however. By way of example, take Dance of War, a length-four Shield gambit (shield, fist, shield, fist). Dance of War applies a hefty bonus to Evade for 20 seconds, and also transfers threat from every member of the group to the Warden. Compare that to Surety of Death, a length-four Fist gambit (fist, shield, fist, shield), which deals direct damage initially followed by damage over time, and generates increased threat. The ins and outs of the Gambit System make the Warden a very engaging class to play, and the wide variety of tricks they have up their sleeve makes them one of the best solo classes in the game.

The one major problem I have with the game is the crafting system. LOTRO uses the WoW-style crafting system, wherein you gather your materials and click "make." That's boring but acceptable. The problem is that the crafting system was clearly designed before the Mines of Moria expansion added Legendary Items, a special class of endgame item which have potentially powerful class-specific bonuses and which gain experience points and level up to become more powerful. Legendary Items are a really cool idea. Unfortunately, they rendered large swaths of the crafting system moot in the endgame, because you can't craft anything that can compete with a Legendary. Sadly, the crafting system in LOTRO is useful for outfitting your alts, and very little else.

LOTRO has a ten-day free trial and doesn't require purchase of the game on disk. If you're an MMO player, it's worth your time to try it.

Resources:
LOTROInfo, the single best source of advanced info I've found.
The LOTRO Wiki