Moving Day

After almost a full year of writing about LOTRO and various other topics, I’ve decided to move sites over to docholidaymmo.com.  I will have the RSS feeds moved over and it should be a pretty smooth transition, but please let me know if something gets messed up 🙂  If you’re using the WordPress RSS feed, please switch over to the FeedBurner one that you’ll find over on the widget on the right.  It has been a fun year in what started just as an idea for me to write about Wardens.  I’ve branched out to cover my main classes in LOTRO and also other games as well.  I did keep the name somewhat generic, as although I do love LOTRO and will be spending lots of time there, in the future I know my interests will diverge in other areas.  I will continue to write what drives me but continue to ask for ideas or topics you’d like me to cover.  One thing I know I’ll be working on is more videos and screenshots of my gameplay and I’m very anxious to start doing some comparisons between champions and wardens, so get your torches and asbestos gear ready 😉

I’ve also dabbled a bit in the podcast arena as a guest on a few shows (CSTM, LOTRO Reporter, and Gondor Awaits) and have enjoyed them so much that I am contemplating starting my own podcast.  However with the return of Ringcast and The One True Cast there seem to be quite a few LOTRO podcasts and I want to make sure that if I do something it would be unique.  So stayed tuned for news on that front.

Thanks so much for all that have contributed to this site and helped me out in more ways then I can possibly fit in one post.  Here’s looking forward to another fun year and making our way closer to Mordor!

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More LOTRO Video Resources

There’s been a number of new (or maybe just new to me) videos posted over the past few days that I wanted to comment on and share.

First up, I know many of you are interested in the Lua scripting so in addition to the video and information I posted previously Merric from a Casual Stroll to Mordor has put up a great video.  His video focuses on just a couple plugins and seems to hint that he’ll be doing more of them, this review touches on the Plugin Manager and Hunter Travel Window.  I think the Hunter Travel window will definitely be one of the must-haves for any Hunter or Warden.

Next up for those of you looking for tips or hints from running the various Instances, Middle Earth Chronicles has started a new section of the blog with a good collection of videos.  Go check out their Instance page and make sure to send in any videos you may have.

In addition check out Carlosjuero’s video showing some of the new UI tweaks over at LOTRO Reporter.  Many I had seen, but I totally missed that you can now color code your quest helper on the map overlay.  Good stuff and really walks through all the new tweaks available.

And finally but certainly not least I’ve been quite enjoying the video podcast published by the Uruk Hunter.  Not only some good information but he also does comment his videos quite well.

Go check those sites out if you haven’t already, and I’ve also updated my Blog roll appropriately.

A Couple Other Place to Find Me

Just a quick update this Monday morning, but I should have another post out today with some new goodies on the Skirmish vendors over on Bullroarer.

I posted a new version of my traits discussion over on the LOTRO Reporter which took a slightly different approach from the post I did here a while back.  The one over on LOTRO Reporter is a bit more high-level while the post on this blog is more detail oriented.

I also joined @Theobor on his latest episode of the Gondor Awaits Podcast chatting about Minstrels, so if you’re interested in my take on that class head on over there.

Also of late I’ve started working on a new toon as I came to the realization that ranged classes aren’t for me.  So after all my bad mouthing of them, I decided to work on a Champion to see how they play out.  I’m only to level 12 but so far am enjoying the class, nothing like running into lots of mobs and mowing them down.  But I anticipate that mentality might get me into a bit of trouble soon 🙂  I’m not sure how quickly or how much I’ll play my champ but you’ll probably see a bit more Champ focused posting here as I go.

New Podcast and Blog

I wanted to toss a quick shout-out to the Numenorean Update which in addition to being a new blogger he’s also released his first episode of his Podcast.  You can also find the podcast on iTunes as well.  Pretty good start to the show and he also will be bringing in various lore segments which I’ll admit I can’t get enough of.

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New Blogs and Podcasts

It seems like the LOTRO community is getting bigger by the second, but I wanted to put out a quick welcome post to a couple of new Podcasts and a new blog.  These are all over in my Links section on the right hand side but please let me know if I’m missing anyone.  I’ve tried to keep my lists up to date with separate areas for LOTRO info (just in the LOTRO section), LOTRO Blogs (the LOTRO Blogroll), podcast (some are double posted in the blogs), and Warden specific posts or information.

First up is Gondor Awaits where Theobor has been blogging for a bit now but also has released his first episode of his Podcast.  You can find the show on his blog, the RSS feed, iTunes, and probably Zune as well (I haven’t made that complete switch yet).  His first episode is mainly an introduction but I look forward to what he has to offer as I’ve enjoyed his blog.

Brian from Mordor of Bust has also released his first podcast show which focuses quite a bit on the Free to Play news but has quite a few comedic  elements to it.  He’s got a great blog and his first show was a blast so I can’t wait to see where he takes it.

And one of the more chatty dwarves on Twitter, Thamorian has announced his new blog Drums of the Deep. He’s another fellow Silverlode member and I’ve grouped with their kin a number of times.  Plus with a kinship name like Fat Smokin Hobbits there has to be some good stories on the horizon!

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Wardens grabbing even more attention

So I’m stealing the title from my post over on LOTRO Reporter in which I walk through the basics of tanking for a Warden.  I wanted to link to that over here as well as refresh a couple other previous posts I’ve made along those lines.

There were significant combat system changes with the launch of Mirkwood, so I took some time in this post to walk through all the changes.

For more specifics on tanking gambits you can check out my entire series over on the LOTRO Reporter, but also I posted in significant length on this subject back in November.

With all the agro talk, I also wanted to refresh the post I made quoting Graalx2 with the threat definitions.

And finally I’ve also mentioned a few times about Legendary Items which comes up in many of these posts so I figured I’d post the links to those posts here covering both the Warden Legendary Item Pools and legacy and rune discussions.

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Omission from my community post

So I just realized as I was updating my iTunes that I forgot to mention another new community site when I posted on saturday. @CandaceVO has started up not only a new blog but a new podcast as well, you can find her blog over at The Green Dragon Inn and her podcast is available on her blog and in iTunes as well.  Her format will be a little bit different as she admits there are already good news casts out there (CStM, LOTRO Reporter, and LOTRO Cast), so hers will be more community based.  As much as I enjoy the other casts, it is always nice to have something from a different perspective.

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LOTRO Community Projects and News

So there’s been a number of new (or maybe just new to me) projects and updates from the various community outlets and I wanted to highlight a few of them.

First up is another video from the EveNArtworkS folks I mentioned in a previous post with their amazing Warden video, this time highlighting one of my favorite classes to group with – the Loremaster! If you haven’t seen either of these, I highly recommend them as they do a great job of mixing the beauty of LOTRO with the music and the uniqueness of each class.

@Veneration has been pretty active of late not only putting together good forum resources for new players but also in launching and updating the LOTRO Network. This is a community site for sharing all sorts of LOTRO related videos as well as the site for the live stream of the LOTRO Reporter. @Veneration also has been streaming various in-game events like runs through the MIrkwood instance Sammath Gul.  All of the live streaming events are usually announced through twitter so it might be worth following those guys if you want to catch things live.  I usually try to catch the live cast of the LOTRO Reporter as its a good time with the folks in the chat-room.

I’ve talked numerous times about the tool CStats including recently on my post about my BG raid experience and there’s now a community resource not only for the continuation of the tool but also for sharing your logs.  If you’re interested in looking at others logs or in posting your own head over to the Lord of the Logs site. I’ve posted a couple and will be posting more as I get in a better habit of parsing my fights 🙂

The folks over at LOTRO Weekly continue to put out high quality stuff, and this is no exception as they’ve released the beta of a LOTRO Crafting Calculator.  This will allow you to see exactly how many materials you will need to craft whatever you’re working on.  There are some tricky things as there’s no way to account for crits or the way Farming works, but it really is a handy resource.  They’re still finishing it off, so it might not have every tier for every profession but I wish something like this was around when I started crafting!

And last but certainly not least, for all you fellow bloggers and podcasters you might want to check out Lunna’s forums post titled “Advice for new bloggers” as there’s not only good advice in her post but the thread has quite a few good nuggets in it.

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Warden Centric Forums Recap

I have a store of good forum posts so I wanted to share a few of them with you all.

First up I wanted to pass on the Spring Blogger Gathering announcement that sounds like a blast, so hopefully I will be able to attend.  The event will be Saturday May 15th at 9pm Eastern over on the Nimrodel server.  Primarily a discussion on what folks blog and what readers want from those blogs.  Even if you’re not from Nimrodel (like me) you can quickly roll an alt and get through the intro to join in the fun.

This next post was something that I never noticed before but apparently if you used one of our gambit masteries you would enable auto-attack which in certain situations can be a bad thing.  However, fear not as shortly after our knight in blue text (Graalx2) posted that this has been fixed but will not make it in until the next patch cycle.

There’s a pretty good discussion going on that talks about Warden tweaks or what we’d like to see added or changed from the class.  Naso24 does a pretty good job of articulating ideas and most aren’t terribly game breaking, although there are a couple that will never happen.  For me, I think I agree with most of his top 4 sections but he goes a tad far (which he admits) on the “for Fun” section as most of those sound very overpowered.

For those of you (like me at times) struggling with in-combat power regen (ICPR) you might take a look at this thread as there are some good thoughts on it.  Honestly on my Warden I don’t think there exists the concept of too much ICPR 🙂

For those of you who are interested in PvMP there’s a pretty decent Guide to the Moors posted which has a really good breakdown of the various different creeps and how to fight them.  In addition to the post, there’s also a hefty amount of discussion,

For those of you looking to learn some of the trickier instances/fights, you might want to check out Ferghuss’s post on the Protectors of the Fire kinship forums over on Firefoot, as he covers SG and the watcher.  Now his artwork isn’t going to get him into any museums, but it is simple enough to get the message across.

And finally, following up from my post on BG the other day, you might want to check out this post regarding tanking the Fire and Shadow twins in BG. I haven’t tried that fight, but just knowing the mechanics and read the discussion gives me a pretty good handle on the fight before walking in the door.

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Volume 3 patch notes and other assorted news

My apologies for the lack of activity of late, I blame it on a number of things but hopefully I should be back to a more normal schedule.  And most importantly I should hopefully get back to being in game more!

First up are the Volume 3 Book 1 patch notes that are currently up on Bullroarer.  This is mainly a patch of bug fixes, but one thing of special notice for me was the new meta deeds for Angmar, Moria, and Lothlorien.  Thanks to LOTRO Weekly for the snaps and details of the deeds!  I really like this idea for a couple of reasons.  First off, who doesn’t want more horses and goats!  Secondly this gives people more incentives to do other dungeons and quests that they might not have normally done.  It will also provide more options for people leveling to run group content before hitting the Moria and Mirkwood instances.  I remember when they added a bunch of deeds to all the Angmar instances and those dungeons were PACKED for a significant period of time so hopefully this addition will do the same thing for all these instances.  The other interesting item from Bullroarer is a new Bard discount of 20% which (details of acquiring said reward is still TBD) will be really handy for all of us who swap traits depending on the content being run.

In addition to the patch notes, there’s also been a bunch of news over on the My.LOTRO site as Duwis points out and clarifies.  The first post confirms and explains how to access the My.LOTRO side from the in-game browser.  I really like this idea as the in-game browser always bugged me as it was more of an annoyance and not terribly useful.  Now it seems like it will be quite handy!  Duwis has another post with suggestions for how to properly maintain and update the Lorebook, so make sure to check that out if you’re interested or frustrated with the Lorebook.

For those of you who follow the lore but every once in a while get tripped up, Snowlock from the forums has posted a pretty short guide on the back-story for LOTRO and the history of Middle-Earth.  Some good tidbits (and maps) in there with a lot of information that either I didn’t know or had forgotten 🙂

In addition to the LOTRO Weekly blog I mentioned before, the folks over at MMORSEL.com have put up a number of cool updates.  For those of you struggling with the idea of radiance they have a nice write-up as well as detailed descriptions for all the various armor sets. They’ve also built a pretty slick utility for planning out and spending points on your Legendary items such that you can see how high you can level them without having to waste any scrolls.  They were also nice enough to post the instructions as well as the handy tool.

This last piece doesn’t really impact me, but I thought it was pretty cool so I wanted to share with those who might be helped by it.  I first saw this over at Mordor of Bust where they’ve posted a good walkthrough and explanation of the LOTRO Flashboost utility.  Now sadly it only works on Windows 7 (well sad for me as I’m on XP) but it appears pretty helpful in increasing performance or LOTRO.  In the post are links to not only the official Lorebook page for this utility but also the forum post with more discussion and support.  If you’re running Windows 7, it looks like it would be worth at least checking it out to see if you would benefit.

That’s all for now, I actually decided mid-post to hold some things for a bit later so I didn’t have a 14 page post…