The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (PC) (PC)

Anyone for an online Hobbit habit?
1/29/2008 12:00 AM | 1 Comments | Page 2 of 3

Combat is largely conventional, with the usual trappings: tanks, aggro, healing, DPS and so on. However, the super-attacks, called conjunctions, are a big part of grouping and they're unique to Lord of the Rings Online. There will be times that someone scores a critical hit, which briefly pauses combat and gives everyone the opportunity to select a color. Your party can score straights, full houses, four of a kind and so on, each with powerful effects. They don't require any character-based skills and they're a huge factor in more advanced battles. Since burglars are the only class that can invoke conjunctions at will, they're nearly as valuable as healers.

The character issue

Lord of the Rings Online has some of the best character development of any MMO. There are basically four types of advancement, each related but distinct. The first is your typical questing for experience points and gear. The quests are the usual stuff, but many of them do a good job of guiding you through the world and relating to the lore, often with cool scripted sequences. There are also instanced adventures, some very long and involved. Most of your character's experience will come from quest rewards, but it's worth noting that Lord of the Rings Online leans heavily on group play, particularly at higher levels.

The second type of character advancement is built around "deeds." These are achievements, almost like you'd find on Xbox Live. They often involve killing a certain number of a particular creature, or perhaps using a skill a certain number of times -- "grinding," as it were. However, many of them are built around exploration, such as finding particular farms in the Shire or certain ruins in the Lone-Lands. The rewards for completed deeds are "traits," which can be stacked for improved bonuses to your character. For instance, the charity trait improves your mana regeneration, while loyalty trait gives you an armor bonus. You can accumulate these traits and arrange them to tweak your character build. There are even unique racial and class traits that give you new skills and abilities.

The third type of character advancement is crafting. This is also pretty conventional, allowing your character to make increasingly powerful armor, weapons, potions and so forth. But the crafting skills are divided into "professions," each with a skill dependent on other characters. For instance, a tinker can extract metal to make jewelry, but he's also got cooking skills that he can't use without the help of a farmer's crops. The economy in Lord of the Rings Online has had some rough times, but as a form of character advancement, it offers yet another nice alternative to the typical questing. It's also worth noting this is one of the few MMOs with actual bona fide farming. There's something relaxing about growing and harvesting crops.

The final type of character advancement is the most controversial. The core gameplay in Lord of the Rings Online has no player vs. player (PvP) combat. The internal fiction simply doesn't support elves at war with hobbits, and furthermore, everyone's supposed role is to help Frodo deliver the Ring to Mount Doom. But Turbine has created the Ettenmoors as a dedicated PvP area. Once your character reaches level 40 (the current cap is level 50), he can enter the Ettenmoors to face player-controlled monsters. These wargs, orcs and spiders are like separate character slots for each player, and they have their own form of advancement based on destiny points, which are earned in the Ettenmoors' PvP gameplay. These destiny points can also be used by your main character to buy temporary perks that will help you get through tough situations.