My LOTRO champion hit level 70 this week while clearing out Enedwaith - a zone that now sits as an alternate leveling track through the early-mid 60's that was added in between the Mirkwood and Isengard expansions.
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| The LOTRO ding graphic is now a giant incarnation of the White Tree of Gondor. |
The level number makes it obvious that, as a premium player who pays by the zone, this was a very skippable chunk of content. I was over-level when I started it since I used the last of the Mirkwood content to advance beyond 65 before moving on, and now I'm going to be even more over-level for the Isengard content I have yet to reach. That said, if I erred it was in opting not to purchase and complete this content when it was in the correct level range, as it was high quality material and it would have been a shame to miss it.
For better or worse, I'd imagine that most LOTRO players already know how many of the storylines are going to play out. That said, Turbine continues to do a good job working around this challenge by weaving stories that are interesting in the spaces between the lore we know, while adding some original characters to give them some more flexibility.
Bonus rewardsOne final tidbit concerns Turbine Points and deeds. In the course of completing the content, I completed many of the zone's deeds, awarding a grand total of 75 TP and 4 virtue upgrades along with some titles and exp runes. Many deeds remain, and, judging from the past kill deeds in my tracker, I will never complete most of them. (Two that I might snag are the reputation deed for kindred with the Grey Company and the Algraig. Each grants 20 TP, and the latter also grants access to a teleport back to the zone. I'm around 10-15 or so daily quests away from each.)
If I had done the Epic book story and passed through the zone without paying for the quest pack, I would have completed some of these requirements and not received credit. Instead, I paid 528 TP for the quests (after some sale discounts) and got back a small but non-zero rebate. Those numbers would be even more appealing if I ever anticipated getting another character this high into LOTRO, but so far that has not fared so well. Still, it's a reasonably good value for the money, and a nice little bonus to save up for the next paid content update.
