LOTRO New Player Experience
I started up a new character in Lord of the Rings Online just days before the new Leaves of Lorien content was added. Since part of the expansion includes a “new player experience,” I thought I would go back and see what the differences are. So, I rolled up another Guardian with the same race and starting area and logged in. I didn’t see much of a difference.
The introductory instance is exactly the same as before. I did not notice any changes to it whatsoever. It is still a good way to get started with the game, but where are the changes?
Once out of the starter instance, I arrived in the town of Arhet again. The first few quests are exactly the same as before. The first difference I noted was when I went to train at the Guardian trainer. I was given a new combat skill and I was told to go over to a training dummy nearby and try it out. This short quest wanted me to take a swipe at the training dummy and then return to my trainer with news of my success. It was easy enough to accomplish. The training dummies are lined up against a nearby wall, so I ran over, targeted one, and used my new skill on it.
Something else I noticed that I did not remember being there are the marsh flies located around the small lake near the hunter’s cabin. I also found a quest NPC behind the cabin that hired me to go out and slay a few of them. The reward was some colored dye. I also found an elite Marsh Fly Queen, and I was surprised that no quests had me run over and take her out. I took her down anyway but it dropped useless loot.
The experience points I gained were maybe a little higher than before, but not by a huge margin. Everything else seemed to be unchanged. We’ll see how it goes once I leave the starter instance.
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