Larger (insert funny name here)

After much time debating and finally coming to a decision I ended up deleting my loremaster, Abellio, in order to create my newest character, Larger, he is a dwarf guardian with a long black beard and no hair on top of his head, after all, he always wears a helm, so who cares…plus I think it adds to the badass harley riding look I was going for…heh

The only thing Abellio still had that made me really think twice was his artisan level of jewelcrafting, but that really isn’t a big thing, after-all I have noticed that most of the jewellery I wear comes from completing quests after all, also, there are plenty of tinkerers in the kinship if I ever wanted to get items.

I know some of you are probably thinking why make a new character?  Well, to be honest, it is just my play style, there isn’t anything I can do to change it, so I accept it and enjoy the leveling process.  I decided to make him a metalsmith, since I don’t have one and always seem to be throwing away those recipes.  How is starting over from level 1 for the 6th time?  I have to say it really isn’t as bad as I remember, I did skip the introduction scene for the dwarves, where you go into the cave and end up meeting Gandalf who turns the troll into stone, it isn’t necessary and only gives you experience, not a big deal.

Also, once I hit level 11 I made my way to Bree to pickup the quests in Staddle and Bree-land, mainly because finding a group there is much easier and I know those quests by heart now.  I found a group of players to start Book 1 Chapter 1 and we ended up sticking together until finish Chapter 11 in the Barrow Downs, I was only level 13 and hadn’t died once so I was pretty excited about reaching level 14.  But, somehow upon stepping down the stairs inside the instance I was killed in one hit by one of the elite wights.  It was pretty crazy and I was stunned for a second trying to see how I died so fast, I guess I drew too much aggro, go figure, the tank getting the aggro, and our minstrel and captain couldn’t heal me fast enough to compensate.  Oh well, no big deal, I will always be the undefeated.

I am so glad I have a tailor and woodworker already created, I didn’t know you needed materials from those crafts to create the heavy armor and crafting tools.  I have found myself buying ore off the auction house to get my crafting up quickly, copper isn’t that expensive, not compared to buying ancient iron ore at least.

I reached level 18 the other day with Larger and upgraded my armor, I got the heavy shield from completing the Lallia escort quest, my total armor rating is over 500 now, which is pretty good for a level 18 character.  I think my level 42 burglar only has around 700 ac, but then again he can evade a lot of attacks.

I still have to yet to decide on a surname, some people in the kin suggested Member, and that is pretty funny, but I don’t know, I am thinking of something a bit more dangerous, like think of something a biker would be called, I don’t know, how about Steel, or Magnus or something…

Fall Beauty

Just a post with some pictures of my yard, the fall colors and the late afternoon fog make for some nice scenery…enjoy!

Beryl Shards

I know there are a lot of people out there roaming around in Middle Earth searching for the mobs that drop beryl shards.  So, I thought I would do a little searching and share some information here.

First of all, beryl shards are a required item for a lot of single use recipes at the Master level.  There is an excellent source with locations of the rare spawn mobs scattered throughout the game at lotrolife.com, link is HERE.

As far as respawn rates for these rare monsters, I really have no idea.  It varies supposedly from anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, and sometimes the rare spawn point is occupied by a normal monster, so you should know the exact location of the spawn point and keep it cleared.

I really had no idea there were so many rare spawns who actually dropped beryl shards before checking out the site.  It helps make it somewhat easier knowing ;loc also, maybe one of these days I will put together a path of travel for areas that can take me to the exact spawn points for each one with hopes of at least finding one of them and getting a shard out of it.

As far as finding the single use recipes, that is another endeavor altogether.  It can be assumed that since most of the humanoid type mobs drop recipes, you should go farm on level 47 plus mobs for the recipes.  But, once again this doesn’t guarantee you will get a single use recipe, they are random and meant to be rare, so time and luck once again will play major factors here.

As I said in my post about grand master crafting, it is almost easier to go buy the shards you need, of course if you have the gold to do it of course, if not, I hope this site will be of some help to you.

Happy hunting out there!

The Beatles

I have never really been a big fan of the beatles, but I can’t deny there are some songs they have done that get caught in my head sometimes.  Sometimes when I least expect it a song will start playing and it catches my ear and I can’t help but stop what I am doing and just listen…

Picture yourself on a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
and she’s gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
that grow so incredibly high

Newspaper taxies appear on the shores
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
and you’re gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah

Picture yourself in a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah 

Now, back to reality.  The melody of this song is very nice and the lyrics are fanciful.  Of course there are other beatles songs worth mentioning, but this one was on the radio and sparked some interest in me. 

LotRO Events

It has been a while since I posted about general questing in the game.  Basically, ever since I reached level 50 with my captain, I have only logged on to play him to do the occasional dungeon and to help farm beryl shards.  The rest of the time I have been busy leveling my burglar, who is now level 42.  Once I hit 42 I made sure to upgrade all of my gear, it helps, but one thing to consider, in Tal Bruinen there are quests which will give you a set of gear, either light, medium or heavy armor set, a chest piece, shoulders, and an arm band, so make sure you do those quests and don’t waste your money like I did…heh

I finally got to see Gollum, the quest itself was pretty neat, better than the walk with Frodo quest in Rivendell…I have found that playing a burglar is really a lot of fun, and if you know what you are doing you can avoid death in almost every situation.  With the help of Anglos, my kin leader and a good pick up group, we completed book 4 chapter 8, escorting Legolas, that quest can be pretty hard at the end if you don’t know what you are doing.  Right now I am setting my sights on finishing up the Misty Mountains quests and plan on heading out to Angmar after that.

Also, I reached Grand Master Cook with Sean, my burglar and it is sort of hit and miss as far as selling a stack of 15 lembas goes, sometimes they sell like hotcakes and other times they just sit there.  I noticed the weekends are usually better for selling, so I might just stick to that.  But, also, there are other cooks out there trying to sell their stuff as well, and so the battle for the lowest priced stack starts, I do not go below 215 buyout, so I don’t always sell my stuff, but when I do it is worth it.

As most of you have already stated and I know full well to reach a grand master level in a craft, you must devote almost all of you extra time and money into that, which right now I just don’t see the point.  I am happy making a few hundred silver a week off of lembas and the rest I make just doing quests and playing the game.  In order to keep the game fun, I have to draw the line somewhere, and becoming a money hungry crafting freak just doesn’t fit into the equation for me.