The Lord of the Rings Online Previews
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After a while fighting in the Ettenmoors as my Lore-Master, I decided I wanted to see the battle from the other side. This was where I started to see the real beauty of LotRO's monster play system. Rather than force players to roll up an alt to be an Orc, players can be evil and still play the game in ways that benefit their main character. Starting at level 10, players will be able to take their main character into large cities and look into "dark scrying pools." The first time they do this, they'll be offered the chance to create a subsidiary character in one of four different classes -- Orc, Uruk-Hai, Worg or Spider, each with an assortment of strengths and weaknesses. In my case, I created a "fighting Uruk-Hai" named ZugZug.
The second is at IGN PC:
Though a Minstrel's melee attacks often miss against higher level creatures, there's still have a few interesting attack options. Herald's Strike gives Minstrels a melee damage bonus to their next attack, and also boosts their ability to self-heal. Even better is the Noble Cause skill, which improves your special attacks and causes your next three Herald's Strikes to turn part of that extra damage into Morale restored to your entire party. While waiting for the cooldown on Herald's Strike to wind up, you could also unleash a Piercing Cry, which does a sizable amount of light damage to your enemy. When combined with the Ballad of Resonance that boosts your light damage output, this can be even more effective. If Minstrels get into trouble they can activate Cry of the Valar, which sends enemies running away in fear for a short time.
And the third is at Gameworld Network:
My favorite thing about the Hobbit region, though, was the setting. The scenery was gorgeous. I hiked across cobblestone roads, over hills of swaying flowers, past shimmering lakes and gnarled old trees, under skies filled with cottony clouds and even, on one occasion, a rainbow. The Hobbit architecture was also true to the movies. (Strictly speaking, the game only has license to use elements from the books. But since the books contained so much description, that turns out to be not much of a restriction after all.)
