Essences are a different thing, for upgrading (none Legendary) weapons that have 'Empty Slots'. Apparently they're a level 100+ thing, so you won't really need the low-level essences.
One other thing (that you may already know): you can reforge at every level ending in -1 and -6. So 56, 61, 66 etc. No idea why, seems arbritrary. There are forgemasters all through Moria, no need to travel to a hub. So you can keep checking whether it's time to reforge, if you like. Reforging at 56 is no different to reforging at 58, so just do it as soon as you can.
Although to be totally honest, the actual world quests are fairly easy, so there's no need to min-max your weapon. It feels like more of an end-game raid thing.
LOTRO is pretty easy, it adds to the whole comfort gaming feel of the thing although I think the game used to be a lot harder in the early days. Certainly there was a lot more forced group content whereas nowadays you can do all the story instances solo (I would never have made to the end of the first volume if I had to do all those instances as part of a group). There are a lot of multiplayer instances and raids in the game still but I think they're now all optional and joined through the instance finder.
They did patch in the Landscape Difficulty feature though, there's someone in most of the starting areas that will allow you to increase the difficulty of the entire game and there are a whole bunch of titles you can get if you set that early enough and play through the whole thing like that.
Blizzard are giving away 7 days of free WoW game time this week, so I hopped back on. (It's been about five years.) A few differences I noticed between WoW and LotRO, in 2023:
The technical side of WoW is years ahead. It's got all the latest bells and whistles, the engine has been tweaked constantly and it still looks like a brand-new game. The art helps too, which has to be some of the best in the business.
The amount of general guff in Warcraft is a little overwhelming these days. I logged back into my old character and I honestly had no idea where to start; I spent half an hour reading tutorial menus about the new features then gave up. I imagine for new players this is all introduced gradually, and is much more intuitive, but holy crap it bombards returning players.
WoW is SO much more modern and flexible with its quests and general gameplay – and I'm not convinced that's any better than LotRO's approach. When I first loaded in the game said to me "oh hey, you've been away for a while, which expansion would you like to play? We'll make sure the levels and rewards match, don't worry". I selected an expansion and was transported straight there, into the intro quest. It's the sort of player convenience LotRO wouldn't dream of, but then, that's probably because…
WoW's story is a load of old bobbins. It doesn't really matter whether you play Shadowlands before Lich King, because who actually understands and appreciates what's happening in either of those games? LotRO has tied itself completely to an existing, well-loved narrative, so it's sort of stuck being exactly what it is, forever. And there's something to be said for that level of narrative integrity, especially when your story is genuinely enjoyable.
They both do entirely different things, and I love both. I'm going to stick with LotRO hopefully until the level cap (I have a verrrrry quiet client at work right now, can you tell?) but I'll definitely revisit WoW again.
LOTRO's difficulty setting has recently gone live (it was test servers only for a while), and it makes such a difference.
I'm not one for difficult games, but LOTRO's single-player questing is a little too easy. The difficulty system has ten levels of toughness, and 3/10 is my sweet spot. With the click of a button, combat becomes interesting. Entire systems that I never had to think about suddenly become relevant, and there's a genuine sense of progression. New gear matters, new skills are exciting again.
If you're still playing, Gar, I'd recommend experimeting with it!
If anyone else has played WoW in the past (feltmonkey?) I'd recommend checking out the new expansion, which is the most fun I think I've ever had in a WoW expansion.
It focuses on the dragons, and most importantly lets you ride your own dragon which is about a million times more fun than a normal flying mount. They have dragon races, which are more exciting than a game about right-clicking on wolves has any right to be. Plus, they just introduced dragon-riding on to the old continents too, so you can fly around Kalimdor etc at breakneck speeds (in specific races).
WoW hasn't paused for breath in over a year now, and the fun keeps on coming. This week they're starting Pandaria Remix, brand new servers where you can play one of the expansions (Mists of Pandaria) remixed with lots of fun new stuff. Levelling is sped up, so you can hit the level cap in this one expansion.
Then once you're done, you can transfer over to a normal server and play the new expansion with your max-level character.
I think it's a great idea that will get people exploring a wealth of old (but still brilliant) content. Dungeons, raids, world quests… just a load of great stuff that had been largely forgotten.
Goodbye Endwalker, the expansion I played least of them all because I don't raid anymore and there wasn't much for me to do, but I still have some great memories, like doing a very important raid on Xmas day with some friends I met when ARR launched, friends I've now met in real life, that's the important thing and why this is my favourite FF game. (if not game)
Spoilars
If you played FFIV you probably know where this is
This expansion has the coolest 24 man raid by far, a massive step up from the Nier raid in Shadowbringers which I hated. Though, the Dawntrail 24 man is the FFXI one so that SHOULD be theb est and none of my non XI playing ass friends will know why, fuck em'. :)
Very lore importnant location, but also pretty
The 8 man raid tier, FFII reference. It was alriiiight.
Too bad I cant get a picture of this before everything fucking died, it was beautiful
One of the new main hubs in EW, Radz-At-Han, and the new Elephant race I forget the name of….
Another dead world
And another, except this is kinda different…
Another FFIV reference but also, as hinted in the trailer we went to the fucking moon! D:
Kinda sad, wishing I played more but Dawntrail is upon us in a few days, so gotta look forward! 🫡
I've been banging the WoW drum for a little while now, but its resurgence has been incredible to see. They went from their most-hated expansions (two in a row) to two absolute bangers. The game is in such incredible shape now, and they've made some huge changes across the board. Skyriding (the new way to fly) is just a joy, and the War Within zones are some of the series' best. (Hallowfall is THE best, no question.)
Plus, War Within is the start of a years-long story arc, a first for WoW. So it's a great jumping on point.
Back to LOTRO on a post-Rings of Power wave of enthusiasm.
Actually it seriously enhances the experience. I'd left off a level or so into Moria and so getting to explore Khazad-Dum properly and now really understanding the story behind Eregion has made the whole thing even sweeter. The amount of detail that's been poured into this game and all its various quests and references never ceases to astound me.
Anyway, I've forgotten how to use Legendary Weapons again so off I go to the wiki. Ho-hum. Has there ever been a less intuitive system in a game? There's even a menu panel called Legendary Items that appears to show you nothing of note, with all the actual relevant stuff being accessed by dropping something onto something else in your inventory. It's utterly baffling.
That window is from the old system, which they removed, but left the actual empty UI in the game. Because they're mental.
I'm level 85 now, getting towards the end of Rohan. I'm a good five or six expansions in, and at no point has it gotten more modern. You've got to admire how stubborn the general design of the game is. WoW is clearly the better game, but the storytelling in LotRO is much better. And although the individual zones of WoW are infinitely more impressive, Middle Earth here is such a cohesive (enormous) land mass. Even if it's creaking on an ancient engine.
I've got ten more levels to go, then I've run out of free content. Although subscribers get everything except the latest expansion included for their tenner a month, and I've already subbed a few times just to support the game.
They're clearly dragging their feet to avoid the Scouring of the Shire, and the end of the epic quest. The last two expansions have been full of palm trees, sand dunes and pirates, which must be the most niche corner of lore they could find.
They’ve given later expansions away free on multiple occasions. I’m pretty sure I’ve got everything up to and including Mordor from some anniversary event. Like you say though the sub isn’t extortionate and it gets you pretty much everything.
The new expansion is called Legacy of Morgoth, I don’t know exactly what it is but if they start doing First and Second Age stuff then they could string this thing out forever. I wonder what exactly they have the rights to.
