LOTRO: Counting down to Moria (again)

When this post goes out, LOTRO’s Treebeard server is going to be a mere week away from going into its first expansion, over a half-year after the world’s launch. Everyone in my kinship is very much ready for it, having been in a holding pattern for months now (exceptions made for those frantically leveling to catch up, of course). I’m almost there — and it’s going to come down to the wire whether or not I’ll actually be ready for the first day of mountain delving.

It’s really OK if I’m not. Even pokey levelers have tons of time to catch up with this server unlock cadence. Right now I’m in the thick of the epic story, book 9 of 15 I think. The first volume of the epic is notoriously scattered across Eriador and has a lot of travel time, although the extra milestones I picked up a while back have really helped with this. Once I’m done, I’m going to need to hash out Eregon, but it might actually be better to do that after the unlock since I’ll get a level or two from that zone alone and get an edge on Moria.

I’ve been looking for any opportunities to group up with people, too. Without a proper group finder, it’s always up to chance if people are looking when I’m logged in. I did get in a quick kin run to take down the Yule raid boss. Since my gear isn’t great, I died a few times. Still, it was fun just to be with a bunch of people instead of on my own.

Over on Landroval, my Captain’s been steadily climbing the steps of Minas Morgul. I’m debating whether or not to drop the side quests and simply gun for the Black Book of Mordor and then maybe do some deeds afterward. I like Minas Morgul on the whole, but when you’ve been inside of its walls for days and days, it can start to feel a bit sloggish.

That all said, this is my final LOTRO post for 2021! I’m glad I’m engaged in it going into the new year, and I have high hopes for both of my characters’ adventures in 2022. I would very much like to get to Fate of Gundabad in a few months, and Erebor housing really has me psyched. Both of those will be a chunk of change, so I’m going to have to do some budgeting.