From Peregrine Island to Peregron Took:
         A City of Heroes refugee's thoughts on Lord of the Rings Online
                     Chapter 13 - The End Of The Year
==============================================================================

     Specifically, the end of LotRO's sixth year, as they're about to launch
the 6th Anniversary event.


BARROW RAIDER

     I decided to make a Burglar, and I tossed out my original idea for a
Scootaloo reference and made a Hobbit version of Lara Croft, a Burglar/
Historian.

     In the process of leveling her up, I explored more of the Shire, and
found that it has more "not-Hobbity" content that I'd missed on Penegon.
Specifically, if you go to Needlehole while in the right level range, you can
pick up a quest chain that takes you into a Dourhand outpost in the
northwestern Shire and involves a Stone Troll the Dourhands captured.  (Its
captivity-induced weakness makes it beatable.)

     I also discovered that Lobelia Sackville-Baggins doesn't have a fixed
startpoint.  The first time through, I pretty much went straight to her and
got the fireworks-recovery quest line.  This time, I held off until after I'd
finished the Stone Troll arc, and Lobelia dropped me directly into the Scary
arc with Bullroarer's Club.


OH, SO THAT'S WHAT THAT DOES

     In addition to Shire-specific discoveries, I figured out a few useful
things on Laburnia Undercroft and my other characters since my last
installment.  

     You can bind a key to "follow" but it's not set by default.  The f key
defaults to "attack whatever the selected fellowship member is attacking",
but since setting skill forwarding renders that obsolete, I went ahead and
rebound it.  
     Follow is VERY useful, even moreso than in CoH, since facing is
important.  If you're a melee AT, having follow on will prevent you from
doing annoying things like running through your opponent, will keep you
facing them (distinct from the X key's default bind, which keeps the CAMERA
pointed at the target, but not the CHARACTER).  And it even works in
conjunction with the radar minimap: click on a red dot or a resource node,
and then hit follow and you'll make a beeline for it.  Even if the resource
node is represented by an "off the edge" arrow.  Mind you, I don't recommend
doing this unless you're much higher level than the zone, or you might run
straight into something hungry.

     Hovering your cursor over one of those signposts will give you a
translation of whatever language it's written in.  Not really necessary when
you can pop to the map, but maybe it's a relic system.

     I found a few more ways into places.  There's a back way into Nan
Wathren in the North Downs so you don't have to go all the way around to
Trestlebridge when doing Book 3, Chapter 5.  And I would have been able to
easily been able to get back to the contact afterward, but the stupid broken
elf-stone decided to punk out once I took out the target, but before I got
out of the land of elite bosses.  So I ended up at the rally point.

     MUCH more conveniently, I found that the eastern pass from the North
Downs into Angmar is empty...I'd been putting off Angmar because the western
pass is full of dragons and I didn't feel like fighting my way through them.
So I've now gotten to play around with some of the Angmar content that I
*could* have been working on with Penegon a month or so ago.

     Instead of Angmar, Penegon spent a lot of time soloing Misty Mountains
content.  I actually managed to use Hobbit-Stealth to sneak through the Giant
Halls and complete the missions I had there.  Even killed a few giants along
the way.  Then I died riding off a cliff trying to avoid having to fight
through a bunch of bears.  Derp.  At least the rally point that time was at
my final destination.

     Penegon also found some L46 missions in Thorin's Hall, but so far
they're just reputation missions (i.e. make dwarf jewelry for reputation with
Thorin's Hall).  However, there IS that dungeon in Ered Luin that's supposed
to be for L45 or so, I should give that a try soon.


ONGOING QUEST TO FIX BUGS

     They fixed the fellowship-members-on-the-minimap bug with update 10.2,
but replaced it with a new bug...after quitting a fellowship, the
Loremaster's bear still showed up on my map.  So, not perfect.  
     Invisible horses are rare now, but I do occasionally see them.  And I
still occasionally get blank screens or weird gaps in the environment.
     Bree-town lag is, if anything, getting worse.
     Still no joy on being able to hot-swap headphones.


STATUS

     (A group followed by a number is the reputation rank with that group.  4
is the maximum reputation.  Crafting rank is the highest level the character
can make, not the highest level for which they have the badge.)

     Voglar (Vilya): L37 Dwarven Minstrel, Master Scholar, Master
Weaponsmith, Supreme Farmer, Bree 4, Mathom 3, Eglain 2, Annuminas 1, Scholar
3, Esteldin 1.
     Penegon (Vilya): L44 Hobbit Guardian, Supreme Prospector, Master
Jeweler, Master Cook, Mathom 4, Bree 4, Eglain 2, Annuminas 4, Jeweler 1,
Rivendell 1.
     Sharyn Venturer (Gladden): L38 Woman Champion, Master Prospector, Master
Weaponsmith, Master Woodworker, Bree 4, Eglain 1, Esteldin 2, Mathom 2,
Annuminas 1, Thorin 1.
     Arthemiel (Gladden): L42 Elven Hunter, Master Prospector, Master
Forester, Master Tailor, Bree 4, Mathom 3, Eglain 2, Annuminas 3, Rivendell
1.
     Mistapo (Gladden): L34 Dwarven Rune-Keeper, Artisan Prospector, Master
Jeweler, Apprentice Cook, Ale 1, Bree 4, Mathom 2, Thorin 1, Eglain 1,
Jeweler 2, Esteldin 1.
     Thomys Malfeas (Gladden): L35 Man Warden, Artisan Prospector, Artisan
Metalsmith, Artisan Tailor, Bree 4, Mathom 1, Eglain 2, Esteldin 1,
Metalsmith 1.
     Filigsell (Gladden): L31 Elven Lore-Master, Expert Farmer, Artisan
Forester, Expert Woodworker, Bree 4, Mathom 1, Eglain 2, Esteldin 1.
     Laburnia Undercroft (Gladden): L28 Hobbit Burglar, Artisan Scholar,
Expert Weaponsmith, Artisan Farmer, Bree 4, Mathom 2, Eglain 1.