After several attempts, I finally was able to complete the Collecting History quest, although it took until 12:30am. I say several attempts because I have been in other fellowships doing Great Barrows quests, collecting chalices as I went, but something always went wrong and I didn’t get all ten that you need. It doesn’t help, of course, that multiple people needed the quest, and they are in limited supply. Last night, I was able to get the four more that I needed, however.

The night started out with me making the decision to head to the Great Barrows in the hopes of finding a group to quest with. I only had two major quests remaining in the area, Collecting History and Broken Alliance. I decided that I’d go for Collecting History, since Broken Alliance is further north, and I wanted to wait to check out Trestlebridge later on.  I couldn’t find anyone that was working on Great Barrows quests, though, but someone was forming for Broken Alliance. I went ahead and changed my plans and joined up with them. We got the quest done pretty easily and the group actually had people that wanted to work on Great Barrows quests, so we all headed down there, anyway, so things worked out for me in the end.

The group was all level 21 and 22, which was probably the lowest average level that I’ve quested with, and you could definitely tell the difference. We were dropping like flies whenever we got to an area with multiple creatures to attack. Luckily, since we were in a private instance, we regenerated inside the Great Barrows, and not in the Old Forest like normal. Creatures also didn’t regenerate, so we were able to make our way back to the group easily enough. This made it take quite a while longer, though, and before I knew it, it was after midnight. I stayed online as long as I could, but Wednesdays are long days for me (I watch the twins myself after work), but at 12:30am I had to bow out and map home to Bree.

It was a long night, but I do think it was worth it. I leveled up to 22 and completed all of the Bree quests that I had, which I think are all of them that are at my level at this point. Now I’m free to continue on to another area without leaving things hanging, like I did in Erid Luin.

time: 2h

Had a pretty good night. Was able to finish the Ruins of Cardolan quest, which I had on my plate for a while. I fellowed with a Minstrel and the first attempt failed, but then we found another player and got through it without too much difficulty the second time.

I also realized that completing the Big Problems quest doesn’t actually involve needing to defeal the level 30 elite giant that is there. He eventually just walks away, and you can run in and grab the backpack without any problems.

I’m starting to figure out the economy of the game, especially the Auction House, a little more. There are certain items which definitely catch a much better price when auctioned. For instance, I had some Rushlight Seed that sell to a vendor for 2 copper, but auctioned for 2 silver, and that was the buyout price that I set. I’ll set a higher buyout price next time and see what happens.

time: 1.5h

I jumped online and was intending to solo quest for a little while, but got together with a group doing Evil’s Final Chapter and Heading West. We didn’t have a minstrel, and almost disbanded, but the fellowship leader asked us to give him a minute, and we got a high level character (>35), instead (I can’t remember if he was a captain or a guardian, I think he was a captain, though, which is good, since they can bring someone back to life if they get defeated).

We got through the quests with only one of us getting defeated, that I noticed, which was actually pretty good. There were certainly a couple of times that we had to sit and let our health build up, but I think we actually did pretty well. This also goes to show that you don’t always need a minstrel to get through these quests, and these two are supposed to be some of the more difficult to accomplish.

I learned a very hard lesson last night, too. One of the members of the fellowship was really low on power, so I initiated a trade with him and dragged a healing potion on my side and clicked trade. This basically offers him the item for free. I had ten of the potions, so I didn’t mind giving one away. What I didn’t realize was that  when you have a stack and drag it to the trade box, IT INCLUDES THE ENTIRE STACK! I gave away all of my potions, instead of just one.  UGH! I guess that’s a good way to learn, though.

time: 2h

[Note: I skipped blogging two nights, since nothing much happened]

I finally got my Scholar profession proficient in the first level! Now I can start on the next level, which includes a bunch of scrolls that I honestly don’t understand what they do. Time to check out the forums…

Also, I used a horse for the first time. In order to get the tier 1 proficiency, I had to go from Bree to Duillond, which was quite a haul. But, fast travel to Celondim, plus using my map home back to Bree afterwards made the trip much faster.

time: 1.5h

Another good night, although it turned out to be not as productive as it could have been, at the cost of good karma…

Once again I got into a fellowship early on that was doing a large quest that I needed; Book 1, Chapter 11, which is another Great Barrows quest. We had a full contingent of folks including a minstrel, but I was one of the higher level players, as opposed to the previous night when I was the lowest. We started the quest and were doing well until we were working on the last big elite character and the minstrel got defeated. The rest of us were able to finish the quest, but she didn’t end up getting credit for it, unfortunately. I guess we were all in a good mood, since we all said that we’d find a reflecting pool to do the quest again so that she’d get credit.

One kind of cool thing that happened was that I leveled up during the quest, and during the time we were getting to the reflecting pool a couple of the fellowship members congratulated me. That was a social interaction which I hadn’t had before, and it was kind of nice.

Anway, we got through the quest again without any real problems. After we were done a few of the folks needed the Lalia quest, which I had already done, but said I’d help out with. Once we finished that, it was almost 11:00PM, so I had to go. But, like I said, it was a good night, but I spent a lot of time working on quests that I didn’t need, so it could have been a more productive night.

I was pretty excited to see what new skills I received at level 20, and there were some cool ones. Rain of Arrows is a pretty intense shot which sends multiple arrows at a target. I also received the ability to use fire, which means I can put fire oil on my arrows before I shoot them, thereby potentially igniting a target that I hit. I also have the “Desperate Flight” skill which allows me to teleport to the nearest rally point in case I’m in a really bad situation.

tim: 1.5h

Pretty good night. I joined a fellowship early on that was going to work on An Ancient Story of Evil, which is a quest that I’ve had for quite a long time. Once we were all together (one member was quite a ways off), we ventured into the Great Barrow and got started. A couple of the members needed to collect chalices for another quest, so we worked our way through the maze for a while looking for those. This didn’t bother me, since I also had a quest where I needed to kill 25 wights in the Great Barrows, so that got done pretty easily, especially since any wights killed by the fellowship counted towards my tally. I did have a little trouble with pulling MOBs to me, however, which is a problem for hunters. Ideally we will sit back and throw pop shots into the crowd, letting the characters which are better at melee handle the up close combat. The problem arises when I hit a character too many times, and they decide to come after me, instead, and the other characters have to then chase after them. I need to remember to switch my targets to spread out the damage, I guess. I’ll pose that question on the forums for advice.

The questing took quite some time and after about an hour and a half, we finally completed it. We did have to hunt around the maze for a while before we could find the one character that had the item we came for, however, so that added some time. Once we were done, the other hunter in the group used one of her skills to teleport us back to Bree. I  can’t quite remember what the skill is called, but I can’t wait to get it.

The Fellowship broke up once we got back to Bree, since most of us had to logoff pretty soon after. I was going to logoff quickly, but realized I was only about 1000 points from getting to level 20, and I wanted to see if I could get there quickly. Grinding like that takes more time than I had, however, since I couldn’t find any high level MOBs close to Bree, and I didn’t want to venture too far away. So, I had to logoff around 11:15 with only 600 points to go. Oh well, I should get there easily enough the next time I play.

time: 2h

Last night was a mixed bag. I got up to level 19 pretty easily, but didn’t get much questing done. I did get through one quest, A Blade for a Life, with a player that was a few levels below me. It was kind of neat because he actually got defeated mid-quest, but I was able to complete it without him. He still received the credit for it, though, which I appreciated. I wouldn’t have been able to do it solo, and his help at the beginning was enough to get both of us the completion.

I’m getting really frustrated with groups that won’t even attempt a quest without a minstrel. For those that don’t know, minstrels are the healers in LOTRO. If you have one in your fellowship, they can take certain actions which will restore everyone’s health. It’s certainly a useful person to have around on very difficult quests, I’ll admit. But people waste a lot of time waiting for a minstrel when they don’t even know if the quest is that difficult. Besides, with enough high level characters, you can get through some quests without a minstrel’s assistance.

At one point I joined a group that was going to try An Ancient Story of Evil, but gave up because they couldn’t find enough people. Now, there were two in the group that were over level 30, which probably would have made the quest a cakewalk for the four of us. The most annoying part, for me at least, was that when I joined the group I was working in another area and they disbanded right as I was getting to them. I wasted close to ten minutes because they didn’t even want to try the quest! There was another group that literally stood in front of the Great Barrows for probably half an hour waiting for a minstrel, I don’t know if they ever even tried the quest or not.

I also had a minor setback money wise last night. I forgot that traits needed to be equipped by a Bard, and they of course charge you for their services. So, I spent about sixty silver equipping some traits that I really wanted. Oh well, by the end of the night I had made it all back, so I guess it wasn’t a huge deal.

Oh, I also bought a Lute so I can make music now! I have to remember to take a screenshot of my character playing it so I can show it off (how dorky is that?).

time 1.5h

Had a pretty good night, last night. When I first signed on I did a few solo quests and then decided to head into the Barrow-Downs, hoping to find some folks to quest with once I got there. I met up with someone pretty quickly and we were trying to decide which quests to do, since we both had different ones to complete. We decided that we’d try Lalia’s Safe Passage, since we both needed that one. We failed miserably, but found a few more people to help out. By the time we had a good fellowship together (we actually had six in it, including two minstrels), someone else had grabbed Lalia and we had to wait. After waiting a little while, we decided to try Book 1, Chapter 10 since a few of us needed it and the rest were willing to help out. We completed the quest without any problems, but when we went on to try Chapter 11, the fellowship got divided.

At least two members had already done the quest, and one left the fellowship all together. Another member went back to Bree to find a Reflecting Pool, which allows you to participate in a quest which you have already completed, but by the time he got there, the rest of us had been defeated. We decided to try Lalia again picked up another member. After waiting for her to appear we completed the quest without too much difficulty.

I wanted to hang out more and help the guys that still had other quests to complete, but it was after 11:00PM and I really had to get to bed. I realized a little later, though, that I was only about 1000 points shy of leveling up, so maybe it would have been worth hanging around a little longer. Oh well.

I had some problems getting to sleep after playing, so I’m starting to think that I need a little cool down period after playing. That also means that I’ll have to start logging off sooner, in order for that to happen.

time: 2h

It started off as a pretty boring night, although I did manage to get to level 18 pretty quickly. Other than that, I completed a couple of minor quests and was about to logoff around 10:45 but then saw someone looking for fellowship on two quests that I needed. I knew it would take a while, but decided not to pass it up. We ended up getting a pretty big group together and completed the Bone Man and the Find Malin quests. So, in the end, it turned out to be a pretty good night after all.

time: 1.5h

It was a pretty good night. I met up with someone fairly early and we tried Book 1, Chapter 1 with just the two of us. We almost completed it when the character we had to defend got killed. We asked for more help and someone said he would use the reflecting pool (meaning he had already completed the quest) to join in. Turns out he was a level 41 captain, which was completely awesome. We got through the quest without any real problems.

After that quest, the two of us made it through Chapter 7 and then the other guy had to stop for the night. I completed a couple of minor quests and then stopped. Oh, and of course, one of the quests got me a better bow! I guess I shouldn’t have spent that money last time. Oh well.

time: 1.5h