Thread: Alternate levelling areas for L50 to 75 please?

I want another way past Moria and Mirkwood levels, as they both bore and depress me, hence my alts being stuck around there as I can't stand doing those areas again!

Rather than adding higher and higher level areas to the game all the time, how about some alternate content for our alternate characters?

No, I don't 'grind', nor do I 'raid' - running through again with alts can be fun if you like the area, or have alternative areas to choose (Like you do up to level 50).

It's nice that the 'endgame crew' get higher levels and new raids and all their equipment becomes worthless so they can grind raids for the next lot, but what about the rest of us who just want to meander about Middle Earth with a different character for some FUN?

Give us alternate areas for L50-75 please, so it's fun to play an alt - I'll even PAY you for them

i hated moria, but loved mirkwood. I flew through 60-65 in mirkwood

You can hit level 55 easily without entering Moria by doing all the quests in Eregion & Angmar, which would allow you to pretty much run straight through Moria to the other side - Maybe doing the epic quests which would gain you another level. Then do the Lothlorion quests, which would likely bring you up to around 61/62 - More than enough that you're able to skip straight to Enedwaith or Dunland.

*signed*

There could be more content around lvl 40 - 45 as well. For level 50 there is a lot since it was the cap for quite some time. Also I don't want to do "everything before Moria" just to skip Moria. I want to play until Moria by doing different stuff with different chars AND do Moria with some intensively and pass through with others.

Also more class and race specific content would be great.

There is a way to skip those levels, it's called skirmishes

Originally Posted by Fralin

There is a way to skip those levels, it's called skirmishes

No - it's called GRINDing skirmishes as the rewards for them are so little it takes many skirmishes to get one level above 50.

See the part where I said "I don't grind"?

I got my current minstrel to L55 outside of Moria, but running straight through and then struggling with orange/red quests is not my idea of FUN.

As pointed out - we have choices of areas all the way up to 50, just want the same above that.

Originally Posted by Fralin

There is a way to skip those levels, it's called skirmishes

Plus they don't reward XP at the end. It would be the same as killing mobs forever.

Originally Posted by Sambrog

Plus they don't reward XP at the end. It would be the same as killing mobs forever.

But monsters in skirmishes give more exp than monsters of the same level outside skirmishes.

Originally Posted by Nakiami

But monsters in skirmishes give more exp than monsters of the same level outside skirmishes.

Grind is grind is grind.

More content please

for one who dont like any i can find 10 who like this area, so turbine wont care about those criers who dont like something.
As Homer said "If you dont like it, go to Russian"...

The only levels where you don't have much of a choice now, are ~55-60, and 70-75. 70-75 we are getting new content for, which just leaves 55-60... There are a couple of daily quests for L55 in Bree-land, but they aren't even enough to get half-a-level a day, though they would help relax the grind in skirmishes... So a small region for those levels would not go amiss... Perhaps expand Zirak-Zigil to have a small quest hub and a larger region - Its mid-Moria, but outside, which is seemingly what you people want...

In this interview (at 37:32-38:14) they mention that they might be revamping Moria sometime soon. We'll see.

Originally Posted by Hrefntor

Rather than adding higher and higher level areas to the game all the time, how about some alternate content for our alternate characters?

IMHO - The fundamental problem is a lack of resources and dollars. The release rate of regions is very slow. We do not get many in a calendar year. If you look at historical data, assuming I got my information correct we have the following:

1) 2007 the level cap is 50.

2) Fall of 2008 the level cap jumps to 60 with Mines of Moria. We get Eregion for the 48-54. Moria 50-60.

3) 2009, we get Lothlorien to help with the 56+ leveling.

4) Late in 2009, the level cap jumps to 65 with Siege of Mirkwood. We get Mirkwood 60-65.

5) 2010, no regions. Game development is halted for the conversion to F2P.

6) Early in 2011, we get Endewaith 62-65.

7) Fall 2011, level cap jumps to 75 with Rise of Isengard. We get Dunland for 65-75.

In Summary, we got 25 levels added and only five regions (Moria, Lothlorien, Mirkwood, Endewaith and Dunland). Six if you want to count Eregion.

Notice that the level cap was 65 for two years. We got two regions.

Turbine is going to raise the level cap once a year. Turbine is only going to release one or two regions a year. There is no capacity to back fill for alternative leveling. There is only enough content to get to the level cap by doing the majority of the content. Unless you are willing to do over, do over, do over repeatable content "grind" it.

We can only hope that Turbine increases the rate of delivery of new regions. It was fine early on with Forochel and Evendim ... The pace slowed way down.

Grinding is what MMOs are all about, if you don't like the grind then don't play. True, you can choose how much you grind but if you want to level you'll always have to grind experience one way or the other

Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

6) Early in 2011, we get Endewaith 62-65.

Last time I tried, Enedwaith quests require a character level of 65 to accept. That annoyed me as I had to level my RK in Mirkwood to 65, then back to quest in Enedwaith purely for the rep.

Originally Posted by Fralin

Grinding is what MMOs are all about, if you don't like the grind then don't play. True, you can choose how much you grind but if you want to level you'll always have to grind experience one way or the other

Untrue, and the fact that you think that basically makes you totally unqualified to comment on this thread doesn't it?

My playstyle never includes grinding of any sort. It's a GAME and is supposed to be FUN.

I have reached cap in many MMOs without grinding (EQ2, WoW, SWG, AO, etc.) because you only grind if all you care about is ENDGAME. Once I reach your 'endgame' my character is pretty much shelved because I have no interest whatsover in raiding. What I then do is make an ALT and play the whole game again. Several times the fun!

The problem seems to be that the most vociferous posters think grinding is what the game is about because they want to raid, grind gear, whatever, whilst they attempt to sideline the casual players and mock their playstyle as irrelevant. Not liking a coupe of areas of the game doesn't mean not liking the game. Not wanting to repeat the same quests for every alt doesn't mean not liking the game.

If you don't like my playstyle, go grind some raids/skirmishes and stop reading the forums

I don't have any figures, but I'd be willing to bet that more players avoid raiding overall than take part in it - it seems statistically obvious given the elitism rampant among raid-goers

Originally Posted by someenigma

Last time I tried, Enedwaith quests require a character level of 65 to accept. That annoyed me as I had to level my RK in Mirkwood to 65, then back to quest in Enedwaith purely for the rep.

They change it. My RK was level 60 and I did the vol 3 quest up to level 70.

Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

IMHO - The fundamental problem is a lack of resources and dollars. The release rate of regions is very slow. We do not get many in a calendar year. If you look at historical data, assuming I got my information correct we have the following:


5) 2010, no regions. Game development is halted for the conversion to F2P.

6) Early in 2011, we get Endewaith 62-65.

I believe that we actually got Enedwaith about the same time as F2P -Septemberish of 2010?

Enedwaith came with the conversion to free-to-play in September 2010. There have also been other new zones since the game's release.

Evendim came with Book 12ish, and Forochel with Book 13 back in 2008. I believe that the southern Trollshaws and eastern Misty Mountains were also added after release.

With my third character into Moria now, I have found that there are actually parts of Moria I can enjoy while others I try to get through as quickly as possible. I have found that a combination of different approaches help me through that level range:

• I have explored different parts of the level-50-content with different characters, one doing most of Forochel, the next one questing heavily in Angmar, while the third did the Misty Mountains and pretty much all of Eregion. With a few enjoyable quests/areas from the other parts thrown in all of my characters were able to get well past level 50 before I found the need to take them into Moria
• Like I said above I find that there are parts of Moria that I can tolerate (or even enjoy) much more than others. For me the lower parts (Waterworks, Flaming Deeps, Redhorn Lodes) are actually quite decent and the later characters have concentrated on questing in that part of the mines
• Instances have contributed considerably to the higher 50s xp gain for all of my characters. Moria is filled with a variety of instances that break up the monotony of solo questing for me and also offer a good number of quests for xp and other rewards
• I do run out into the sunlight on the eastern side of Moria at 55 or 56, not for good but to get a break and do some of the easier daily quests inbetween. That way I can get access to Lothlorien fairly early and quest there to my heart's content (I love that area ... almost as much as the Shire )
• With my first character I was level 65 by the time I was halfway through Lothlorien (and 72 by the time I had finally done all I wanted to do in Mirkwood and Enedwaith and entered Dunland ). While the later characters didn't quest as extensively and got there earlier, I found that entering Enedwaith around 62 or 63 was doable and allowed me to bypass most of Mirkwood.

First trip to moria was very frustrating, even started spending more time on my alts than on my main.

Second travel through the mines where very different and in the end I was rather sad than glad to leave moria. Honestly I'm rather excited questing there for the third time

Leveling in Mirkwood is a breeze, not sure why anyone would hate that zone. Dunland on the other hand ...

What I really hate about questing in Dunland *again* is the fact that you're forced to complete quests in a certain order.
I remember running around bonevales just to find this one lonely npc who starts the whole questchain.
Some quests you can complete or simply ignore would be very much welcome there.

Should there will be a alternate questing area (which I doubt) I really hope for Lonely mountain <3

If you're not a fan of mountains, this might be worth a look:
http://hugo1900.pagesperso-orange.fr...-VERSION-7.jpg

Originally Posted by Hrefntor

My playstyle never includes grinding of any sort. It's a GAME and is supposed to be FUN.

I have reached cap in many MMOs without grinding (EQ2, WoW, SWG, AO, etc.)

Grinding is only grinding if you dont like the gameplay. You have to repeat a significant amount of content to reach endgame, be it by questing or skirming or grouping or what have you - whether that's a grind to you or not, repetitive content is the foundation of every MMO, I think thats fair to say

I love skirms, they're not a grind to me at all.

That being said, we did see an area level rebalance once before. I wouldnt be surprised to see one again, tweaking some Eriador content to provide a smoother level progression towards Dunland. Seeing as we have Enedwaith, which is essentially a level-progression-neutral zone since its all L65, Mirkwood and Loth and Moria could be bumped down a couple levels, Enedwaith expanded to be a 60-65 zone thats an alternative to/transition from Mirkwood. Maybe bump up the quests in southwest Eregion as something of an alternative to Moria.

Originally Posted by droid

Grinding is only grinding if you dont like the gameplay. You have to repeat a significant amount of content to reach endgame, be it by questing or skirming or grouping or what have you - whether that's a grind to you or not, repetitive content is the foundation of every MMO, I think thats fair to say

I don't repeat content. Skirmishes can be fun, but running them one after the other to get XP would be a total grind. I do the odd one now and again just to relax, or fill in 30 minutes while waiting for something.

I don't do instances with groups, I duo (paired with my wife) the main content ONCE and manage to level in every game, all the way to cap. If we hit a point where that is not possible, we stop playing that game.

Like I said - I don't grind...

This thread is probably out of place because the Rohan expansion could never accomodate the OP's request. However, I would be very much in favor of an alternate path. Why not have a back door in Goblin Town, and follow Bilbo's path through Northern Mirkwood, Beornings, Dale, Laketown, Lonely Mountain, even the Iron Hills? Remember, the War of the Ring was fought in that region as well. I don't think it's realistic to expect substantial resources to be dedicated to this type of back-fill when everyone is clamoring for Helm's Deep, Ithilien, Minas Tirith, etc., but to me it would be logical and maybe one can dream....

Originally Posted by Fralin

Grinding is what MMOs are all about, if you don't like the grind then don't play. True, you can choose how much you grind but if you want to level you'll always have to grind experience one way or the other

Just because something has always been so, doesn't mean it must always be so. Just sayin'

Re the OPs request, I'd love to see new areas for 40-45 and then 50-60 in that order. I find that getting from 40 to 45 doesn't move smoothly at all. For 50-60, I personally love Moria and take all my characters there, but I prefer the out-of-doors so I'm happy when my characters get through it. It would be fun to have another way to move through those levels, even if it's a TP-required zone with no tie-in to the Epic, like Evendim.

Originally Posted by Hrefntor

I don't repeat content. Skirmishes can be fun, but running them one after the other to get XP would be a total grind. I do the odd one now and again just to relax, or fill in 30 minutes while waiting for something.

I don't do instances with groups, I duo (paired with my wife) the main content ONCE and manage to level in every game, all the way to cap. If we hit a point where that is not possible, we stop playing that game.

Like I said - I don't grind...

I get what you're trying to say here, but grinding in its widest sense encompasses any repetitive action you perform. Modern MMO break up their grind into little bits called quests to seem less grindy, but it's still very much a grind at its core. Unless you don't do any kill X, collect Y quests, unless you don't do any crafting whatsoever, unless you don't upgrade your LIs, you do most certainly grind in this game.

Moria isn't so bad if you get a goat from the beginning. Running around this massive area makes it seem like you're in there forever. A goat speeds up your travel time and allows you to level quicker so you can get in and get out.

I know how you feel though. I have a warden alt that hit the boredom wall at 60. I made it thru Moria but I don't really want to go thru Lothlorien, Mirkwood/Enedwaith, and Dunland/Isengard again. I have 3 level 75's and a level 73. I am just alt'ed out.

I ran into the same problem in SWTOR though so maybe it's just my gaming playstyle that has changed as I've gotten older. I only leveled two characters into the 30's in that game because the path thru the planets is the same after the starter worlds. I refused to do Tatooine and Alderaan again!

I want a game that allows one character to play different class types. But that might not be fun for anyone but me. I've become a lazy gamer. I can't get thru long games anymore. I can't even finish Skyrim despite how awesome it is. The thought of starting over in LOTRO from level 1 and going all the way to 75 (soon to be 85!!!) just makes me cringe inside. The journey was fun but not so much the 5th time thru.

If you don't like grinding, if you don't like grouping for instances, and if you don't want to do the recommended quests to get up to level, then don't play MMOs.

MMOs are about the grouping content. MMOs are about the end game. Whether that end game is purely reaching max level (like the old days) or the end game raids (like the current days) is up to individual games.


To the OP: you have it easy already. Suck it up or play another game. Sorry to break the news to you the harsh way.

Originally Posted by Zhengzhe

If you don't like grinding, if you don't like grouping for instances, and if you don't want to do the recommended quests to get up to level, then don't play MMOs.

MMOs are about the grouping content. MMOs are about the end game. Whether that end game is purely reaching max level (like the old days) or the end game raids (like the current days) is up to individual games.


To the OP: you have it easy already. Suck it up or play another game. Sorry to break the news to you the harsh way.

Here, have a cookie and go sit in the corner with your opinions...


There always seem to be lots of you 'play my way or you're wrong' guys, who think the rest of us just need to 'suck it up'. I have news for you, check your stats - casual gamers are the MAJORITY, not raiders...

MMOs are about socialising - by your definition, roleplayers in Bree are not playing the game right because they don't group up. Someone RPing a 'lone wolf' character but chatting with his kinship is not playing the game right. Someone RPing in a duo of hobbits is not playing the game right because they skip the 'full fellowship' quests and don't raid.

As they say where I come from: away an' bile yer heid, ye scunner...

Originally Posted by Zhengzhe

If you don't like grinding, if you don't like grouping for instances, and if you don't want to do the recommended quests to get up to level, then don't play MMOs.

MMOs are about the grouping content. MMOs are about the end game. Whether that end game is purely reaching max level (like the old days) or the end game raids (like the current days) is up to individual games.


To the OP: you have it easy already. Suck it up or play another game. Sorry to break the news to you the harsh way.

Completely disagree with your OPINION. You do not make the rules of what an MMO should or should not be. A game is whatever the player makes it. I group up for the occasional skraid or 3 man but I rarely raid. For me, this game is Middle Earth with chat channels for the social aspect. I enjoy running solo but still chatting with guild mates in kin chat and other friends over GLFF. The world feels more immersive because there are other players roaming the landscape. I do not have to raid or go play another game. This game is soloable from lvl 1 to 75. It can be played entirely as a single player experience with some social elements mixed in. There are many valid types of play styles that can enjoy MMO's. It's called Massively Multiplayer Online, not Must Raid Or Go Play Another Game. Raiders make up a small percentage of the game population. They are the most vocal and most active population but they are still small compared to the casual player base. Sorry to break the news to you the harsh way.

Originally Posted by Jenara

...even if it's a TP-required zone with no tie-in to the Epic, like Evendim.

The epic did run its course on through to Evendim. The epic has ran its course through all the different zones.

I would say that "Dunlending" (which include Dunland, the Gap of Rohan and Isengard) is the only zone in which every sub-area is included in the epic. Maybe Mirkwood as well...

Originally Posted by JuaQuins

I would say that "Dunlending" (which include Dunland, the Gap of Rohan and Isengard) is the only zone in which every sub-area is included in the epic. Maybe Mirkwood as well...

I believe Dunlending, Mirkwood and Moria all have this feature. You have to go to every area. The Epic becomes a tour mechanism to drag you from one area and camp to the next.

Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

I believe Dunlending, Mirkwood and Moria all have this feature. You have to go to every area. The Epic becomes a tour mechanism to drag you from one area and camp to the next.

I think it's a lot more emphasized with Dunland. In Moria and Mirkwood, you have a bunch of separate quests for the epic lines that happen to be in different areas. Moria, especially, had you running back and forth to places you had already been- Chamber of Crossroads anyone?

It seems like most of the Epic Dunland quests were all 1. Go to this area X. 2. When you feel like you're done with this area to your satisfaction, go to area Y. Much more like a tour guide.