Moria - First Impressions?

[OnyxBlade]

Ok... so...day 1 passed by rather uneventfully. Here's my impressions. What's yours?

Wow! The update is relatively bug free! Yes, there's some minor bugs here, but for the most part, it's been painless.

I finally took a character out to the mad lands last night and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Yes, there were dozens of people all trying to kill the same 8 Huorns. But I expected so much worse.

I didn't get to play a lot of it, but the 2 new classes are both fun and interesting. Can't wait to get more into them. Charx, my rune-keeper is already on his second scholar quest.

I'm a little disappointed in the farming and cooking so far. There's 5 or 6 new farming recipes (unless there's some more recipes out there). The cooking recipes remind me of the Artisan tier. TOO expensive. Looking at half a gold for 50 of the new "perfect pies".

I did manage to Supreme Master Farming and almost there to SM cooking. And I do like the guild recipes. "Auto" crit is nice.

I love the new fonts and icons (for the most part). Love the space saving measures they've taken.

Tonight, I may actually try to gain my first point of experience on Onyxblade tonight. After I finish that SM cooking. And my daily guild cooking

[Zib]

I played both new classes a little bit. Rune keeper is interesting and I could see potential in the class. I doubt I will spend much time with it since my minstrel is filling the healer role for the terrible trio already.

I absolutely love the warden so far. I will reserve final judgement until after I get in a fellowship and tank though. This class just might surpass valewalker as my favorite non-Jedi class. It does melée damage, a little ranged, self heals and buffs. What's not to like? I just hope it does well in a group setting.

[thelonius]

Where are these "mad-lands" ye speak of??

[pepper]

I braved the crowds and went to Eregion. I didn't bother much with doing the quests yet, as it was quite apparent that hundreds of people were fighting over the same orcs and trees and whatnot. So, I explored (because I knew I had to for the port ) and then did the Book 1 Epic. The Book 1 Epic went very smoothly. I wasn't fighting over anything and even the expeditions were reasonably populated.

I really really really liked the travel instances in the Epic and (despite 14.6) the Session Play in Fall of Moria.

During Fall of Moria, I exclaimed "Hell no, I'm not going out there!" so loudly that my roommate walked over from her room to see what I was doing. Without spoiling anything, when you're told to Escape, follow your instincts...and listen to the background noises.

[Olmandis]

I thought the same thing with the update being bug free! I was very impressed as with a game this immense and with new classes, system, and an array of fine tuning, I think it went very well.

I'm still a bit overwhelmed at this point with alll the changes, but that has made it exciting.

Quests are in abundance, with random items even dropping and beginning quests of their own. Yes, there are alot of folks, but theres also a lot of options. On that note, even the area outside Moria is really quite amazing, with varied topography, rolling hills, high cliffs, crags and forests. And thats before even getting in the mine!

The gear rush is definatly in effect, with people gauging items and generally marveling at the new changes in stats and performance. I think solo play might suffer a bit when it comes to survivability, but group plays seems to be doing very well, and remains even more fluid and fun as ever, even if we may have to test the waters. (I am indeed taking alot more damage then I used to from multipe enemies)

Moria itself is absolutly stunning and seems to run very well. I think we can have a bit of a rp'ers paradise and lord knows if I will ever be able to tell my way around...(they give us a fleshed out map right away, but after getting lost even with it, I can see why)

I'm hoping that old tradition of 'get up and go instance' will still remain and the gear wont be as big a deal as other games, and I think the legendary items might essentially see to that, so thats a big plus in my book. All in all, im having a good time and really wanna start getting in there en masse with folks.