Think of the Grind as "Sharpening the Blade"

[the_gneech]

It was a productive weekend on LotRO (in as much as any time spent in a video game can be called "productive"): Rufaniel reached level 50, got to Vol 1 Book 8, finished the Vol 2 prologue, finished several class deeds and ground up seven virtue deeds. She's done just about all I can stomach to do in Angmar for now (although I have to go back for the second phase of her "Implements of Daring" items, boo), finished about half of Forochel (I'll be back for the book quests eventually, so no rush), and I decided to reward her by sending her back to Eregion to continue with that for a while.

As part of finishing the Vol II prologue, she stepped briefly into Moria, and I was surprised at how happy I actually was to see the place. It says a lot about my feelings towards Angmar that Moria feels like being welcomed home by an old friend, and admittedly there are parts of Moria I actually quite like. This is a good thing, because looking ahead at my virtues, there are a ton of deeds in Moria I'm going to need to do, which means Rufaniel is going to end up spending a lot of time there.

So her plan for the immediate future: Eregion, phase II, plus going back to Angmar sometime later this week probably (certainly before she finishes level 52) to get those stupid barghest tails and corrosive droplets. When the time comes to finish off that quest line, she'll probably just buy the implements with skirmish marks so I don't have to spam LFF for help polishing off the quest in the depths of Carn Dum or wherever.

I suppose I should start putting some serious effort into finding a kinship to run with on Rufaniel, 'cos it is getting a tad lonely. There are a couple of kins that I've run with in the past and would probably welcome her in, but there is drama and baggage there that I'm not sure I wouldn't rather just leave behind. Unfortunately, that means making a whole slew of new friends, but that wouldn't be such a bad thing if I could find the right ones.

Problem is, kinships in LotRO seem to run to such extremes: some are uber-casual, to the point of being sloppy and shapeless; others are hardcore-endgame-instances-are-all and quit trying to RP at us, please; others still are "full immersion, slow-leveling, RP on at all times, WHY ARE YOU RUNNING IN TOWN, TOGGLE YOUR WALK MODE OR GET OUT!" ... and a few are even "Wheee! I'm naming my dwarf Dildo Faggins, bwahahahaha!" Granted, this last category tends to get shouted down quickly.

So what would I want in a kinship? I think something like, "RP by default, but OOC okay as needed; caring about the lore or at the very least playing the game straight required; serious enough players to do instances and do them well without being gear-auditing trolls about it; willing to help with whatever's needed or just run with each other for the fun of it." I don't know if any such kinships actually exist, and I don't know if the vagaries of human interaction would allow such a kinship to continue for more than a few months at a time. But it's a nice dream, anyhow.

-The Gneech

Comments

[jamesbarrett.livejournal.com]

As far as CD/uru class deed items go, remind me what they are and I'll go solo for them. would take me about 10 minutes to get them.

You're welcome in my kin at any time, though we don't have anybody low level right now. But there's be chatter in the kin channel and we have a teamspeak server we're in about half the time. Running instances is what we like to do, but we won't sweat how your geared. In fact, we'll run stuff so you can win the good gear from it. it is true that most of us (if not all) are in the hard core gamer club, the hard core part that the Valar Guild lost recently, but we don't try to make others conform to us. I refer to my kin as "a bunch of friends" cause those of us in it are friends. when we get serious, we join the groups/organizations we are all associated with to play the high intensity stuff.

If you wanna go another direction with a kin, that's fine too. I hope that I can still IM you and ask "hey wanna run Sambrog with us?"

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

If you were gonna go get 'em, I'd at least want to come along for the ride. :P For that matter, if Rufaniel was 85, she could go get 'em herself. ;) The reason they have 'em at Skirmish Vendors is because it's so hard to find groups at level 50 any more. Although I did send you a note about grinding up some drakes in Angmar a while back.

Whatever kin I end up with, I try to make myself available for stuff when I'm singed on if I can, so invites are always welcome. The main problem with me would be ensuring that it was done before midnight.

-TG