What MMORPG should I play?

Get a beta key and play Neverwinter this weekend. Its a lot of fun and if you like action RP games it should be right up your alley
 
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Sorry I would have replied on some of the LOTRO questions but I was off playing LOTRO :) I solo'ed my Hobbit hunter to 56 and I'm solo at the moment with a Guardian at 44. The Guard handles small fellowships solo really well. Great character if you are anti social.

As far as enchanted loot: the best stuff you can earn by getting rep in a region. For example: Kinship in Evendim (Warden of Annuminas, the nothern fallen kingdom of the Dunedain). My older sword was drop in the Barrows that served me for 5 levels, then a Mace I crafted, and now I'm using an Annuminas sword and matching armor set. Sets get some killer bonuses.

Fellowships I avoid for the most part, except with my brother which is rare. If someone is deeding I'll fellow up to try to get through a deed quicker for the bonuses (aka kill 150 Wargs). That said, some are just too difficult to solo so I'll use the "Looking for Fellowship" channel (LFF). Did that today in Angmar. I've never done a raid. I watched one long ago from a hilltop in Evendim, a group was taking down big group of trolls or something, looked spectacular with all the Lore Masters lighting up the skyline.

Anyway... I'm primarily a solo player and there is more than enough content to keep me busy doing that stuff, but if you like fellowships and Kins there are tons of them. Kins are always recruiting, I've got standing offers.

Until ArcheAge materializes or Elder Scrolls, there is no competition in my mind.

And yeah the Shire is amazing, charming and hilarious. I wore the 'Pie Runner' title for a while and later 'Servant of Process' for successfully delivering written complaints from a hobbit to a band of thugs (which of course tried to kill me repeatedly). Silly hobbits.
 
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I'm concerned about group play with LOTRO too.

Last MMO I played was Final Fantasy XI, and it heavily encouraged group play. The best way to earn experience and loot was to find others to team with and take down the difficult baddies you couldn't handle solo.

Does LOTRO encourage group play, even at low levels? I'd like to do quests that require a fellowship of adventurers to complete. I really enjoyed that aspect of FFXI and was hoping LOTRO would have some of that too.
 
You get better drops when grouping in LoTRO and some quests are made for followships. The main issue is that some server might be a bit devoid of players in the lower zones.
 
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I just died fellowing in Angmar trying to take down a drake boss. It wasn't even close. So yes there are plenty of no-freaking-way-can-you-solo-this quests and they are marked as solo vs fellowship. There just happens to be ample solo content so you can progress. Your choice.

The guy I was with was 10 levels above me and barely got out of there intact btw…
 
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That sounds awesome. The reason I was concerned is because I was watching someone play on youtube, and they got a quest that instructed them to put together a fellowship, but the guy solo'd it, quite easily to boot. But I'm glad there's some group content in the game, for sure.

I get my laptop tomorrow so hopefully I be able to download LOTRO and be playing by tomorrow night. How big is the download + updates?

Any tips I need to know? I'm a complete MMO noob pretty much, other than playing Asheron's Call about 15 years ago, and more recently playing one week of the free trial of WoW. What server should I play on?
 
It might have been a 'Book' quest, which is necessary to do in order to progress in some areas. For example, Book 4 has to be completed to move north of mid Angmar by the enemies monoliths (you die otherwise). Because of this, Turbine made these specific Fellowship quests solo-able. Those are certainly the exception to the rule. I ignore the Books myself, except the required ones. My Guardian is level 45 and I haven't touched them.

Tips? Dunno. All classes are fun. My hunter was a blast. A bit more fragile, but lots of tactics. The Guardian is very capable. I also have a champion, but I prefer the shield work of the Guardian. I haven't tried a Rune Keeper or Burglar. My brother has 2 burgs. He loves them. Very tactical. The warden is the most involved class as I understand it, but I have no direct experience.

If you start LOTRO try Vilya (server shard) and IM Calindorr, my Guardian.

One final edit: the client is big. 26GB so expect a few hours. Better than Conan though, which weighed in at 46GB! That took all night. So my advice is to start the download as early as possible knowing it will take a few hours. Its a pretty resilient download thankfully...
 
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Cool, downloading now. Only 14 more hours and I'll be playing :D. Can't wait.

Yeah, that quest I saw him do was a book quest. Elrond said to gather a fellowship to complete it but the guy just solo'd it without breaking a sweat. Maybe he was overleveled, too. Not sure.

Just curious, anyone have any experiences with Tera? I really liked the look of it, reminds me of a JRPG, really nice graphics and the combat system seemed really fun. Just wondering if that is another option for someone looking for an open-world RPG. I'm going to give it a shot at some point but in the foreseeable future it's LOTRO for me.
 
Conan is at 46GB!!! I though it was big at 13GB a few years ago, heheheh.

As for classes:
The Warden require buying the Moria expac or turbine points (as does the Runkeeper). I'm playing one right now. Kind of a special class, because of the combos you have to remember. There are some crazy map on the web for that. Overall, they are "jack-of-all-trade" (some ranged abilities, some AOE, some melee, some self-heal), but you have to remember what combo does what.

I also have a Minstrel (the healing class). They get to play instruments (real music) right away and teach it to other classes. Easy to play. Captains are a support class that have heralds (read a pet) and banners, boring at lower levels. Runekeepers are funky to play with the heal/damage switch-a-roo. I haven't tried one in ages though, I found them weak. Loremasters are your traditional ranged spellcaster class (can have a pet).
 
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Nice, thanks for the info. I'm probably going to roll a Hunter, since I like the Strider-type character. I'm hoping I can use a bow at distance and then when they close in start chopping them up with a sword. Is it possible to have 2 weapon types like that?
 
My hobbit hunter dual wields a pair of maces along with his legendary class bow. You'll love the hunter. He can set traps and mezz wih pinning shots etc. Not the easiest class but it was my first and very successful. Do it! Did i mention you can augment with flamming arrows? :). Plus you run at higher rates than normal classes via the 'find the path' skill.
 
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Nice! Dual wielding maces with a legendary bow sounds pretty amazing. I'll be happy with a nice longsword and a good shield, and whatever bow i can get my hands on. Setting traps sounds cool, too.

Find the path acts like a magical trail leading you to your quest objectives? Just a guess. Also, what's mezz?
 
Mez = stun/flash your enemy. Trapping them is functionally equivalent. Find the Path makes you run faster but I don't recall other benefits but it has been a while. The hunter does have a detect enemy feature for tracking/hunting specific enemy types… Very useful. I can't remember if you have melee type restrictions or shield restrictions. Melee is not primary, bow is and your skills are potent with a bow. I literally just got my legendary bow, can't tell you much about that. It's a Moria prerequisite and I'm just at the great stair with that character…
 
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They nerfed the hell out of Lotro group content. The story arc quests buff you to god-like stats if you're solo, making those quests a simplistic bore. Unfortunately, there is/was a real lack of people at lower level ranges so you are indeed forced to solo even if you wish to group.

The last time I played Lotro was about a year ago and it was just pure monotony, soloing all the damn time because it was so hard to make or find a group. The [lack of a] real LFG mechanic ala` DDO doesn't help matters either.

By far, the most interesting and solo-friendly class with a strong grouping aspect was the burglar for me. Warden will allow you to survive against all odds… but you'll eventually find yourself getting bored with the same combat routine over and over again. Guardian's ok - a little more AoE damage than the warden, but also just as one-dimensional. Loremaster, I've wanted to revisit for a while now- it also has great variation in strategy as the burglar, but in a different manner.

If Turbine were to snap out of their complacency and come up with a couple new classes, I might go back to the game. As it stands, the "magic" of Tolkien has been gone from the game ever since the original Shadows of Angmar (for me). So what were left with is the MMO industry standard of recycled content and concepts for the sake of keeping old players around. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely game to experience at least once for the Shire and other early areas. But, beyond that, I thought it quickly became increasingly oppressive and dull. Especially with subsequent character playthroughs. And I'm a Founder :*(
 
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I've been playing since 06 and I've never felt that way. Too each his own I suspect! I've always wanted a solo friendly MMO so that's probably why I'm far less disappointed. Books aside though, you can hardly describe the regular fellowship quests as nerfed.
 
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That's all it is now though, a solo mmo. For weeks at a time, you're forced into soloing until you get to max level and you find people running (some groups). This is somewhat fine for the first character while one is exploring, but later on....

Anyway, yes, to each their own. It's still one of the best MMO experiences I've ever had in the 1-50 range despite my reservations on subsequent content.
 
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Well, it looks like I might not even be able to play LOTRO. I'm trying to install the game now and when it gets to "sound_client.dat" it says the file cannot install. I can retry, ignore or abort. I click retry and get the same error, tried ignore this time and got an error that would not allow the game to start.

I've scoured the net and the best solution seems to be to have someone who has the game installed send the file you need. Could someone who has the game installed send me the client_sound.dat file somehow? Hosting it as a torren would work. That's probably the only way I'll be able to play this.

If someone did that I would be forever in your debt. Seriously. I really want to play this game.
 
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That file is 2.6 gb :p I'm uploading it now to File Dropper; will edit this once it's done (which could take a while). Are you trying to install via their client or physical CD?
 
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That file is 2.6 gb :p I'm uploading it now to File Dropper; will edit this once it's done (which could take a while). Are you trying to install via their client or physical CD?

You are amazing. Many thanks for the upload.

I downloaded the client from their website. Everything else installed fine except that client_sound. Hi-res version btw.
 
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