LotRO Diary: Concerning elves

I'll be delving into the birth of an Elven Hunter, covering feelings and experiences from the first evening of testing. Continuing what I begun in the previous post.

I thought I'd cover the elvish part of my initial testing in a separate post, instead of making it a part of a bigger whole, in order to keep the length of the posts more reasonable. Certainly wouldn't hurt to learn making more to the point posts from time to time.

So, after the couple of hours of dwarfdom, exploring Thorin's Hall a bit (one of the main cities), which in comparison isn't quite as big as Ironforge in WoW - this is a good thing in my view, and as far as conveying the feeling of "home" it's lightyears ahead in general atmosphere. One thing I have to say is that I was rather surprised at the lack of players in there. I was there late at night, the optimum nerdtime, an yet I only saw a handful of characters. Maybe the location is such that it isn't highly populated or it might be that the realm I joined isn't highly populated.

Anyway, time for some elfin action.

Everyone loves elves right? I mean, how could you not? They're like the prehistoric (if you go by the lore created by Tolkien) versions of the modern idealized man (and woman). Beautiful, lean, tall and very much in touch with their surroundings (and feelings?). Effortlessly and flowingly moving, in harmony with all, which is the overall theme of their society, reaching everything in their culture, art, language and architecture. Needless to say the pointy ears only add to their flowing, almost river-running-free-esque appeal.

For some reason the bulky, clunky elf males (and females to some extent as well) that Blizzard has decided to portray in World of Warcraft don't quite fit into that category in my view. I generally don't like gender bending all that much, but in WoW I just couldn't have bared to look at the really akward and unnatural runstyle of the male elves as my own characters.
Picture if you will, an Arnold Schwarzenegger size fella merged with the body of a 20-year-old European Ladies Figureskating Champion and you have a pretty accurate idea of the grace of which these "creatures" move. Hardly something you'd easily relate to the previous picture of elves or that of Tolkien origin.

LotRO obviously being based on the idea of "the grace of elves", I was looking forward to actually having to play a male character that is clearly male and yet beautiful in an elven kind of a way. I have to say that is very much what I got as well.

After some noodling around with the class selection, I thought the Hunter sounded interesting, as it loyal to the idea of a bow wielding damage dealer instead of the pet juggling counterpart in WoW.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I played the dwarf first and only after deciding to stop for the evening I thought I'd give the elf a spin just to see how it works out. Some of you may know how I relate to spoilers, but I just have to say: boy was I ever surprised at how brilliantly the elven starting story and quests link with that of the dwarves. I don't know yet how the Hobbits and Humans start, but I will definitely have to find out at some point, so cleverly are the stories and reasons why things are woven together between the elves and dwarves. Not only do you instantly get the feel that you really are in the same world, you also get to see and understand more about the details of why things were so with the other character. The phrase "the moment you think you're out, they pull you back in" comes to mind.

And what of the Hunter then? Wow! - not referring to the game in this case.
I thought I was being critical, but right from the start I was totally mezmerized at how the class works even at the very basic level - obviously I can't say anything about the higher levels yet. The sounds are awesome and you really feel like you're controlling a powerful character, for me the closest comparison would be to call the experience magical. Shooting arrows from far away, with awesome sounds I might add, and having very unique feeling hand-to-hand combat moves to finish off anything that gets too close. I know this doesn't sound at all like coming from someone who is heavily against any sort of hype and is cautious of spoiling anything for anyone.

It might even be that this is how hunters feel in WoW as well, but I wouldn't know. Of course hunters inLotRO have traps as well, but I've yet to have a proper chance at seeing how those work into the class mechanics.

I'm starting to see why people with experience in MMO's are saying LotRO is a game based on atmosphere, story and adventuring. Sure others are as well, but I find the way a lot more appealing than that of WoW, so far. Certainly I have to admit that the game is still very new to me and thus I can't really draw any major conclusions, but I can say for sure that the initial experience in WoW was very different.

One thing to take into consideration is that WoW was my first MMO and as such I wasn't at all familiar with the intricacies and inner workings of such games at the time and due to that my opinion in this case is also affected by being more familiar with the basics. Despite that, I'm looking forward to experiencing more of the world and seeing how my adventures will coincide with those of the actual fellowship.

So far it has been a very interesting experience and now, after almost reaching level 7, my elf has started it's "second chapter" in an area called Celondim, a foresty area west of The Shire close to the Gray Havens, I can't wait to have the chance to sit down and see where the road takes me next if I'm not mindful of my feet. Unfortunately tonight my feet take me to the barren wastelands of Post Apocalyptic Earth.

Until next time, may the light of Elendil shine upon you.