After a brief MMO hiatus during the Tour de France this year, I felt the call of Moria calling me to its depths and back to LotRO. Well, actually, Wilhelm and Gaff were laying it on pretty thick, so I thought what the heck– with a low thirties character, getting to 50 and Moria is a good intermediate goal.
I got patched and after overcoming the initial disorientation phase of reimmersion (oh, god, what do i do, where do I go? Panic log out), I got down to business. What really sealed the deal was when Wilhelm mentioned the upcoming Rise of Isengard expansion– specifically the pre-order loot. Even more specifically, the +25% xp boost pocket item that will last until level 65. I pulled the trigger on the legendary package for me and Mrs. P. I knew that the cosmetic items and the mounts would be a big hit (and they are).
I’m not normally one to speed leveling along, but in this case, I’d like to goose it a bit to catch up with Gaff and Wilhelm (both of whom have already dinged 50). So after a bit more than a week back in earnest, I managed to claw my way up to level 40.
And, as the title suggests, I did most of that in Evendim ingratiating myself to the Annuminorians. Roll file footage of the “big woosh”:
I’ve got to say, the revamped or revised or streamlined Evendim quests have much better flow than I remember then. Even though there is a fair amount of running around the zone, its such a beautiful zone that I hardly minded at all.
With the tour of the northern parts of the zone, I was ultimately guided to the southern part of the lake where Annuminas lay and where, after the few initial quests were completed, I hit the big four oh. On my return, I’ve been consistently reimpressed by the world Turbine has rendered. There are few places one cannot go if you have desire enough and they certainly aren’t afraid to use the landscape to its fullest.
True to form, the first quests in the southern part of the zone require ascending the ridge line to precarious heights with commensurate vistas once you arrive.
So with 40 under my belt, I’m looking forward to sweeping through Annuminas and moving on toward Moria. I’m told Forochel, the Misty Mountains and Angmar should be my focus. I’ve always been intrigued by Forochel which has always been one of those mysterious places on the edge of the map (in the books) that features only briefly in the comprehensive storyline of Tolkien’s universe.
potshot 
Those screenshots look gorgeous. I had a screenshot from LotRO as my desktop background for a while and it looked like a photograph out of National Geographic. LotRO has it in common with Allods that screenshots from the game look significantly better than the same scenes seen from within the game itself, I think. That’s not a bad thing either, given the vast number of screenshots I take.
I keep meaning to get back to LotRO now it’s free. I have a Guardian in the low 40s from back when I subbed, and a couple more in the 20s. Whenever I actually get round to logging one of them in, though, I have exactly the same reaction as you – “what do I do, where do I go? Panic, log out”. I might give it (yet) another try this week…
I have the opposite impression, I am always a bit disappointed at the way the screen shots look, especially if there is anyclose up or character/NPC detail, because the JPEG compression for LOTRO is set pretty high. I wish they would let you set the compression or allow one to simply take bitmap screen shots.
Revised Evendim is actually very nice now. There are still a few kinks, but it is better than it was my first run through.