The Lord of the Rings Online: Difference between revisions

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Currently the story is very near the end of the first book as the player character follows the trail of the Fellowship down the Anduin river, led there by mysterious dreams. After the events of the Isengard-storyline, the breaking of the Fellowship is imminent, and players will finally enter the timeframe of The Two Towers when the Riders of Rohan expansion is released this fall.

'''The Minstrel''': The primary healer. The game uses ''morale'' points instead of HP (you don't die, you just get demoralized and must retreat from battle) and the Minstrel is the one to cheer you back up. Their music attacks, heals, and offers their party quite a few buffs. This versatility lets them level solo with some ease. The minstrel has been largely revamped with the Rise of Isengard expansion, with simplifed attack patterns and much stronger self-healing while in War-Speech mode. The class draws inspiration from Luthien Tinuviel from ''[[The Silmarillion]]''.

 

 

'''The Burglar''': LotRO's rogue, the Burglar is more of a Debuffer/CC class than the average rogue archtype. Their debuffs make them a good asset for raid groups and decent in PVP, especially as they can start Fellowship Maneuvers (party-based combo attacks,) better than anyone else. While a Burglar has many stealth abilities, and a few "backstabs," unlike many other MMOs, they're not assassins and have relatively weak DPS (compared to the Hunter or Champion.) Can dual-wield, but have few ranged abilities apart from the ability to stun an opponent, and a hobbit burglar's stone-throwing skill. Bilbo from ''The Hobbit'' is the prototypical Burglar.

'''The Captain''': The Captain is the jack-of-all-trades with an emphasis on buffs. The Captain wears heavy armor and can use almost any melee weapon and light shields (no ranged weapons though) and has a few tanking, healing, and mezzing abilities. However the real strength comes from focused and party-wide buffs. The Captain's herald or banner grant aura bonuses (stat, morale, or power boost) that effect the whole party. They also have many shouts and battle-cries that heal or give temporary combat bonuses, again to the whole party. The Captain doesn't replace any role, he just makes everyone else do their job better. Only available to the Race of Men. Aragorn in battle would be a Captain.

 

 

'''The Lore-Master''': [[The Beast Master]]. While other MMO converts might first think this is simply the 'mage' of the game, the Lore-Master is also a pet class. The role of the Lore-Master is one of CC and Debuffers, but their damage is nothing to be sniffed at, either. Their pets (which, unlike the Captain's, are actual animals such as ravens or bears) are useful in all kinds of situations. Many would compare Gandalf to the Lore-Master, but Elrond would be a better example.

The Races are the races of the Free Peoples; Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits and Men. They have some class restrictions (mostly seen with the Captain and Rune-Keeper) and each race gets their own special attack as well as unique Deeds and Traits.

 

* [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]: Characters never need to rest or sleep, and eating is for the purposes of stat boosts or health and power regneration. Despite the fact that there is a day and night cycle, most characters and NPCs don't sleep, they just continue with the usual routine.

* [[An Adventurer Is You]]: Technically you're a member of the other forces of the Free People mentioned briefly in the books, but otherwise, it's this trope to a T.

** At least now it is possible to skip the tutorial and get straight to the introductory zone (Archet for hobbits and men, Thorin's Hall area for dwarves and elves).

* [[All Trolls Are Different]]: They turn to stone during the daytime (which is why low level characters shouldn't be in the Trollshaws at night) and are always [[Elite Mook|Signature]] or above.

* [[All Webbed Up]]: Most giant spider web sacs seen in the game are purely decorative. However, one quest in the Scuttledells has the player freeing elvish scouts who have been poisoned and encased in webbing by the local giant spiders. At other points in the game players can sometimes open up web sacs containing money and items.

* [[Allegedly Free Game]]: It's technically free-to-play, but so much of the content requires Turbine points (which you buy with real money) that you're probably going to end up paying. Can be averted through hard work, though, since doing deeds also gives you Turbine points.

* [[Ascended Extra]]: Thanks to the game focusing on what everyone else was doing, instead of the Fellowship, this trope comes up a lot. If a character was named in the books (or at least the first book, currently), there's a big chance they exist in the game, and are involved in at least one questline.

* [[Attack Pattern Alpha]]: Fellowship Maneuvers, where every member of a group gets to choose one of four effects (damage, damage over time, healing, power restoring), that combined make up a coordinated attack. If players sucessfully mixes effects in specific orders, instead of all choosing the same effect, the attack ends up more powerful, and may also have other benefits like summoning a oathbreaker to help out in the fight.

* [[Back Stab]]: The Burglar specializes in sneaking up behind enemies and attacking them from stealth mode. The lore-master's pet lynx also performs a stealth attack.

* [[Bag of Holding]]: Standard inventory, though mounts are now skills and do not take up inventory space

* [[Bat Out of Hell]]:

* [[Bond Creatures]]: Lore-master pets. Technically the Captain pets as well, game play-wise... but seeing as they're actual people lore-wise... huh.

* [[Book Ends]]: Some time after finding {{spoiler|the powerful mithril-axe Zigilburk}}, the dwarves trying to reclaim Moria decides to return it to where it was found, it having caused them nothing but trouble. While making your way where it was found, you will speak with a number of dwarves whom you have had dealings with during the storyline, reminding you of everything that you and they have been through.

** "You seem to have lost your pants. This makes you sad." (The icon is a [[Memetic Mutation|sad panda]] face.)

** "It's Drunk O'Clock, do you know where your pants are?"

** "You are quite merry."

* [[Boss Banter]]: Bosses often have stuff to tell you before they engage, and during... and as they die.

** The first example you'll probably face would be Baugarch, a level 15 elite warg in an area populated by level 8-11 Mooks which have 150-200 or so health each. As for Baugarch himself - it has over 1500 morale!

* [[Brick Joke]]:

** One early questline in the Shire deals with a hobbit who's gone missing. Turns out, he had hid himself on a pipe-weed wagon {{spoiler|belonging to a group of brigands working for "Sharkey". The wagon actually went all the way south to Isengard, before returning to the Shire with the hobbit still on it}}. About 30 levels later, players questing in the Trollshaws will, on the road leading south, stumble upon a barrel - full of pipe-weed!

** In Evendim, there is a questline where a hungry hobbit sends you searching for boars, in hope of being able to get some boar-meat, but no boars are to be found. In an update almost four years later, the hobbit finally got a piece of boar-meat.

** Another [[Brick Joke]] of enormous proportions is hidden within the Epic Story: During the storyline of ''Mines of Moria'' (released November 2008) Lady Galadriel looks into her Mirror and tells your character a vision of his future, unique for each class. Hunter's prophecy came to life during the storyline of ''Siege of Mirkwood'' (released December 2009) and Lore-Master's during ''Rise of Isengard'' (released September 2011). Considering that some other visions contain hints to events in Rohan and Gondor, remaining ones may take years of real-time to happen at the rate the game is developed.

** There is a literal broken bridge that prevents access to Rohan from Parth Celebrant.

* [[Brown Note]]: Minstrels have abilities that can cause enemies to run in fear, slow their attacks, etc. It's mostly the fear that falls under this trope. Hunters also have a few fear-inducing abilities, including one that affects only animals.

** Note that this is somewhat [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]]; it's possible, through the in-game deed system, to earn Turbine Points for playing. Many consider this excessive grinding, though.

* [[Calling Your Attacks]]: Common with instance-bosses, mostly to give players a chance to react to said attacks. Then there's one such boss doing it entirely in [[Con Lang|Black]] [[Bilingual Bonus|Speech]].

* [[Capital City]]: Bree, Thorin's Hall, Rivendell, Caras Galadhon, Twenty-first Hall and Galtrev.

* [[Cartography Sidequest]]: Both Deeds and Quests give you rewards for exploring. There's an exploration Deed for every zone, and a few zones have more than one.

** And then there is a map collecting deed that rewards you with a huge map of Eriador end the title "Cartographer"

* [[The Cavalry]]: Elfhelm and his riders, arriving just in time {{spoiler|to win the first battle of the Fords of Isen (though not in time to save Prince Theodred).}}

* [[Chainmail Bikini]]: Averted. Outfits do not change design depending on a gender of a character, although some tops do mysteriously gain a lower cut for female characters. You don't even get to see alot of [[Sexy Backless Outfit|back]] and there's no [[Bare Your Midriff|midriff exposure]] at all. The most female exposure that you see that commonly turn males (and maybe females) on is exposure of the top part of the breast and some cleavage, which isn't even bad or as explicit as some other things you would most likely see in a lot of other games.

* [[Cosmetic Award]]: All characters start able to use the Cosmetic Outfit system, allowing you to display the clothing of your choosing while retaining the bonuses provided by the actual armor. Many prizes in the festivals are these, and the titles... well. This game has more titles than all other MMOs COMBINED. You can even fall down a well and get a title.

* [[Cut and Paste Environments]]: Many of the ruins and houses; entire environments are not recycled, however.

** [[Your Mileage May Vary]], as that penalty can subvert this, especially at higher levels. Since that penalty is in the form of "dread" it not only gives you a penalty to morale, but also to incoming healing, the amount of damage you receive, the amount of damage you can do, and the effectiveness of your skills. Since nearly all of these penalties are percentage based, at higher levels you may find yourself forced to wait 10 minutes for it to expire before attempting reasonably challenging content again.

* [[Degraded Boss]]:

* [[Damage Typing]]: Although it includes standard types like "Light" and "Fire," it also includes types such as "Westernesse" and "Ancient Dwarf."

* [[Dark Reprise]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlwsVWhc9Mo Warpipes] to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60WvpPbgzLM Hills of the Shire]. Both are [[Crowning Music of Awesome|awesome.]] Also, there is a not too notable music heard in auction halls, vaults and crafting halls which gets a less boring dark reprise in Moria.

** Even though Moria (Khazad-Dum) was eventually re-settled, it didn't happen until a few years after the War of the Ring. Which means the Iron Garrison expedition is doomed to fail.

*** However, the Iron Guard's presence in Khazad-Dum is pretty serious break from canon, as there were precious few Dwarves in Khazad-Dum prior to the Fourth Age. In the canon, the Dwarves were expending almost all their resources [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Dale fighting the Easterlings with the Men of Dale.] There's no way that King Dain would actually have authorized such a resource-intensive expedition (remember, Khazad-Dum is ''huge'') in the face of his commitments in the East. Dain would also have had to contend with the massive losses incurred by the Dwarves in their extremely [[Pyrrhic Victory]] in the [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/War_of_Dwarves_and_Orcs War of Dwarves and Orcs.] So, it's entirely possible that the game occurs in the context of a slight [[Alternate History]], in which the Dwarves haven't diminished as much as in Tolkien's Third Age, or at least that there are enough Dwarves in the far western Blue Mountains (which contains Thorin's Hall, one of the two starting areas) to make a re-settlement plausible, again, not the case in canon. Thus, the Iron Guard's future may not be sealed. However, given the fate of every Dwarven expedition to Khazad-Dum since they were first driven out has ended in disaster, (prior to their final victory in the Fourth Age, that is) it seems altogether likely that the Iron Guard will meet the same fate.

** The Grey Company which settles out to ride south consists of over 60 named Dunedain Rangers led by Halbarad. Yet in the Book of ''"The Two Towers"'' Halbarad only had 30 companions with him, of which developers have confirmed to be perfectly aware... Proving that [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], it creates an [[Anyone Can Die]] situation, so the tensions are rather high and every threat '''is''' being taken seriously. {{spoiler|By the end of Book 4, it will be very apparent how those who didn't make it met their demise.}}

* [[Dwindling Party]]: ''Siege of Mirkwood'' storyline. You are send on a dangerous errand with Five Elves which compose "The Hidden Guard". {{spoiler|Their number starts to dwindle pretty fast. But when you barely knew the first one to die and couldn't really relay to his death, the passing of the last victim is truly heartbreaking.}}

* [[Dungeon Bypass]]: Early instances such as Fornost, Urugarth and Carn Dum featured non-linear layout and shortcut doors that allowed to skip majority of the instance and head straight the final group of bosses. Moria and subsequent instances generally avoid this.

* [[Dungeon Crawling]]: Moria could be considered to be the ultimate dungeon crawl, as many areas are still not under the control of the Moria Expeditionary Dwarves.

** Taken [[Up to Eleven]] when you are given tasks which effectively make you perform a dungeon crawl ''inside'' of a dungeon crawl.

* [[Dying Moment of Awesome]]:

** Durin the Sixth, [[Flash Back|going up against the Balrog that would end up being the doom of Moria]] [[Heroic Sacrifice|so that his son can escape and become king]].

* [[Elves Versus Dwarves]]: Somewhat subverted. While the tension between the two races is shown at various points (especially in the elf/dwarf starter zone), you will often end up uniting the two races against a common foe. {{spoiler|The elves of Lórien, as an example, are quick to help the dwarves within Moria, and their attack against Dol Guldur was partially motivated by one of the dwarves being taken captive, and imprisoned there.}}

* [[Elemental Powers]]:

** Lore-masters (Fire and Light are the big ones, with a bit of Frost and Lightning)

** Minstrels have a few powers activated by War-Speech that use light to damage the enemy.

** The elves love to tell you this. Their little voice clips used to remind you constantly until Turbine got enough complaints about 'emo elves' to distribute some happy pills to the Elvish populace.

** Literally true with defeated enemies, who simply vanish after a few seconds. Convenient, since otherwise every area in the game would be piled high with dead enemies.

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: The Monster Play classes:

** Orc Reaver ([[Always Male]]) to the Champion;

** Uruk Blackarrow ([[Always Male]]) to the Hunter;

** Uruk Warleader ([[Always Male]]) to the Captain;

* [[Evil Knockoff]]: Much like how the orcs and the trolls were noted in the books to have been made in mockery of the elves and the ents, the gaunt-lords created for the game are supposed to be a mockery of the five Wizards. This becomes even more apparent when you get to see Radagast the Brown, one of the wizards, take on his "evil copy", Ivar the Blood-hand, in a quick battle.

* [[Experience Points]]: Mostly gained via questing, but as of ''Siege of Mirkwood'' you can level via Skirmishes now as well.

* [[Five Races|Four Races]]: Hobbits, elves, men and dwarves. Each race is further divided based on background (Men can come from Rohan, Gondor, the Dale, or Bree, for instance), but this is entirely cosmetic.

* [[Flash Back]]: The "Session Play" mechanic, which allows you witness events from the past, while playing as another character. Some Session Plays feature characters and events made up by the developers, but from Moria and forward, you will also see Session Plays that display characters and events straight from the books, that normally would be unavailable to the players; {{spoiler|The release of the Balrog of Moria, the last stand of Balin's Company in the Chamber of Mazarbul, and Aragorn's first meeting with Gandalf, as some examples.}}

* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: While players get to interact with the members of the Fellowship, the only explanation for their mission in-game is that it is "of great importance" and that "it will decide the fate of Middle-Earth".

** Technically the player character is aware of Frodo's quest since the whole game is given away by Fredegar Bolger in an early part of the Book 1 epic questline. The player helps him surives a Craban attack and then Fredegar mentions "the Enemy's ring", information that is then passed along to the ranger watching the Buckland border. This knowledge is never mentioned again.

** Not to mention that boars can get quite annoying with their disease-causing bite, which lowers your damage output for two long minutes...

* [[Ghibli Hills]]: Most of the game world, but especially the Shire (which is the damn king of that trope) the Trollshaws, Bree-land, Ered Luin and Eregion.

** They seem to get much larger on the eastern side of the Misty Mountains. Compare the dog-sized giant spiders in the Lone-Lands or North Downs with the much larger ones in Mirkwood, or especially the Limlight Gorge, where the spiders have to be the size of a ''house''.

* [[Glass Cannon]]:

* [[Gravity Barrier]]: Just about every map area is surrounded by cliffs or hills that are too steep to climb, or in a couple of cases a body of water that can't be crossed without dying.

* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: There's a lot of "queer" things going on in Middle-earth.

* [[Healing Hands]]: The Minstrel and the Rune-Keeper are the primary healing classes. Captains and Lore-Masters can act as healers, though that isn't their primary role, and their healing abilities are more limited in scope.

* [[Hero Must Survive]]: Often happens when fighting a battle with one of the Rangers, or an allied elf or dwarf. Sometimes the NPC in question is very tough and can actually help you win the fight, while at other times the NPC is pitifully weak and keeping them alive is frustratingly difficult.

* [[Hide Your Children]]: While there are plenty of civilians strolling around in Bree, Rivendell, etc, there are no teenagers or children visible.

** Subverted with the Rise of Isengard, where there are kids running around in the Dunland village of Galtrev. Some of whom give quests. And sound like the wrinkly old women when you talk to them. Yes, even the boy.

* [[A Homeowner Is You]]: Once they hit level 15, players can buy and decorate a house in one of four regions, based on the style of housing used by the four playable races.

* [[Honor Before Reason]]: A villainous example. Elves on the outskirts of Lothlorien ask you to kill an Orc Chieftain, protected by a big Troll bodyguard too strong for you alone. The solution is to mock the Chieftain in front of his lackeys - he then orders the Troll to stand back while he charges you alone, desperate to earn back the respect of his subordinates. Needless to say, the player easily defeats him.

* [[Invisible Monsters]]: Stealthed enemies will appear invisible until you get near them, at which you will notice them moving stealthily about. By then, it may be too late, because they will usually aggro anybody who gets near...

* [[Item Crafting]]: There are numerous crafting options, including but not limited to cooking, farming, prospecting, woodworking, tailoring, etc. It's often the case that the best armor or weapons at any given level are player-crafted. Not to mention that there's an immersive quality to farming in the Shire, or forging in Rivendell.

** You have to go through Evendim as well, which is second to the Trollshaws in terms of difficulty. (As a chicken, of course.)

* [[Just Add Water]]: With some crafting professions (in particular, the Farmer), you literally just add water (and it has to be bought by vendors).

*** Swarm: Green (These guys are weak, they have 1/2 the hp and do about 1/2 the damage of a normal enemy of the same level. They tend to [[Zerg Rush|appear in groups, though]])

*** Normal: Blue (These guys are regular old Mooks, nothing special.

* [[Lethal Joke Character]]: The Lore-Master. At low levels, they don't seem much and can't do much. At higher levels, they are capable of whooping a Guardian with the right strategy, with melee attacks. From the front. With light armour. And a stick.

* [[Level Scaling]]: There's always a tougher enemy in the next region to challenge the player as they level up. If the enemies in a given area are too far above the player's level, those enemies hit harder and sense you from further away, making travel in those regions very dangerous.

* [[Life Meter]]: Called "morale" in-game, the idea being that the green bar represents your will to fight and your inner resolve rather than hit points.

* [[Loading Screen]]: You'll see some of the same landscapes or architecture many times as the computer loads up a new area. The tips can be useful though.

* [[Lost Superweapon]]: The dwarves during the Moria storyline believe that they have found one in the mithril-axe Zigilburk, and that it will help them turn the tide against the orcs infesting Moria. [[Subverted Trope|Many of the hardships the dwarves suffer during the storyline comes from them growing overconfident and making stupid decisions]] in the belief that the discovery of the axe alone will give them victory. In the end, they return it to where they found it, vowing never to use it again.

* [[Magic Music]]: Minstrels use this, though technically since you operate off of morale rather than hit points, they're only "boosting your will to fight" with inspirational music rather than using magic to heal. The reverse is true when it comes to wearing down an enemy, though the logic breaks down when it comes to the actual killing blow.

** That's for the healing at least; there is a canon basis for the more directly magic [[Magic Music]] that the Minstrel uses in the Lay of Beren and Luthien, in which Luthien is able to lull Morgoth to unconciousness with her song so she and Beren can steal a Silmaril.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: In Skirmishes, the enemy lieutenants which act as mini-bosses:

** Bearer of Blights attack with physical poison, disease, wound and fear attacks.

** Brothers of Destruction [[Wolfpack Boss|will summon copies of itself to attack the fellowship]], the number of which depends on the fellowship size. Thankfully they're not found in solo skirmishes.

** Chaos-Fiends use a plethora of deadly debuffs on your characters.

** Death-Mongers are able to summon a fell spirit from their fallen allies to battle you.

** Defenders of the Vile will use defensive buffs on their allies, reducing incoming damage.

** Dourhand Storm-Keepers attack your character with lightning magic.

** Echos of Death have an ability that reflects back attack effects as well as causing the attacker to take more damage for a period of time.

** Wretched Falconers will use their hit points to summon crows that attack the player.

** Zealots of Pain are able to buff their allies by inspiring them, increasing their attack power.

* [[Mordor]]: Well, aside from Mordor itself, there's Angmar, and Moria.

* [[Monsters Everywhere]]

** Players are certainly quick to reference the movies, and the associated memes when given the opportunity. Asking to buy taters in a trade-channel, for example, will lead to (multiple) replies of "what's taters, precious?" The Isengard announcement also confirmed that we are, in fact, taking our hobbits to Isengard.

** Mines of Moria introduced a quest to find a location named ''The Bat Cave'', due to being relatively hard to locate in an area where the density of mobs made exploration tedious, there were many pleas for help on finding this location. Much to those players' annoyance, the most common answer was "Under [[Batman|Wayne Manor]]".

** This comes in two varieties - the first and original was the ability for crafters to "name" what they made if they achieved critical success or crafted some item that required a rare ingredient. This name would appear in the "Name" field of the tooltip. From Mines of Moria on, with the introduction of Legendary Items, it is possible to actually name your weapon, and have it appear as the main text on the tooltip.

*** Amusingly enough on crafted Legendary Items, both systems come into play

* [[Narrator]]: Cutscenes that are shown after completing parts of the main storyline, and instances seperate from the open world, are with few exceptions narrated by high-profile characters from the books. Before the first expansion of the game, it was Gandalf. Through Moria, and beyond, it was Galadriel. Volume 3 deviated from having universal narrator for all content: various bits are narrated by Elrond, Halbarad, Grey Company Rangers, minor Dunlendings, not-so-minor Rohirrim and even Saruman himself whenever appropriate.

* [[Not the Fall That Kills You]]: Falling sprains your ankles (and causes one of the most bone-crunching cracks ever) and slows your movement speed for awhile. If you fall far enough, you die. (Unless you hit water that's deep enough... if it's not deep enough, your momentum will make you hit the bottom, and either your ankle will crack or you will die.)

* [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]: Pretty much everything the Fellowship does. [[Foregone Conclusion|We know what happens]], but are never around to see it, only arriving at a later date. The Burnt Tor, where the Fellowship fought some wargs and Gandalf put the trees on fire, is a prime example; All we get to see is a hilltop with charred trees, and some remains from the battle.

* [[Olympic Swimmer]]: How else is the PC capable of the hours of swimming required while crossing and re-crossing Lake Evendim? Not to mention swimming while loaded down with armor and supplies.

** [[Fridge Brilliance]] in that most people wouldn't play a female dwarf anyway.

* [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same]]: Turbine originally fell into this trope in respect to the voices, as throughout most of the original game, dwarves would always be portrayed with the stereotypical Scottish accent. From Mines of Moria on, they caught and corrected this error - giving an accent that was more in line with Tolkien's description of them. This can result in a perceived [[Misplaced Accent]], as the stereotype is so strong, those used to dwarves from other fantasy works may find this "correct" accent to be jarring. This trope is also ''heavily averted'' with Dwarves being able to play as [[Red Mage|Runekeepers]] and [[The Archer|Hunters]], which are as far from the Waraxe-wielding Dwarf Beserker stereotype as is possible to get.

* [[Our Ghosts Are Different]]: The vast majority of ghosts seen in the game are oath-breakers, men with [[Unfinished Business]] who failed to live up to sworn oaths in life and cannot find peace in death until they do what they originally promised.

* [[Our Orcs Are Different]]: Tolkien orcs! Nothing too surprising about them, really.

** Also, with Rise of Isengard, Warg Pups. Apparently, they show up in a quest called "[[Blatant Lies|Not Cute At All]]".

* [[Ruins for Ruins Sake]]: Averted for the most part. There are plenty of ruins to be found throughout Middle-Earth, but they generally have a known history and reason for being where they are.

* [[Run or Die]]: The Session Play Instance "The Fall Of Moria." You play as a dwarf alongside Durin and break down a cave wall to find Mithril. [[Oh Crap|Only to end up trapped, facing the Balrog]]. You then have to survive for about 2 minutes or so before the passage opens and you can run away.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: Every zone is made of this. Vast, majestic natural vistas abound in Middle-Earth. There's even a quest which rewards the player by allowing them to climb to the top of the Way of Kings colossus and just have a look around.

* [[Schmuck Bait]]: "It's Barrow-Brie! It's quite smelly and no doubt highly deadly. Only the unwise would eat it"

** And if you ''do'' eat the cheese despite the obvious warning, you get a debuff that does a considerable amount of damage every 2 seconds, for '''20 minutes'''. You also get the apt title "The Unwise".

* [[Serious Business]]:

** The lore. While most players agree that some changes between the books and the game is necessary to make it fun to play, every now and then someone asks on the forums for something that many see as "over the line", leading to this. Topics like "eagle mounts," "open world PVP" and "ranger/wizard class" are frequently exposed to this.

* [[Shoot the Medic First]]: This becomes a priority in Moria where any number of orcs can heal themselves or others, prolonging the fight as your power runs out.

** What does [[Stephen Colbert|Colbert the Mad]] pick as the number one threat on the Fields of Fornost? [[Hell Hound|The barghests?]] [[Our Orcs Are Different|The orcs?]] [[Our Ghosts Are Different|The Oathbreaker shades?]] [[Big Badass Wolf|The wargs?]] No, [[Everything Is Worse With Bears|the bears!]]

** Essence of Toad. "And the winner is... [[Futurama|the Deep-Toad. Total renown to the Deep-Toad.]]"

** '''Ashûrz the Great Goblin:''' "Madness? Madness? You fool! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lexeV42J4P8 This is Goblin-town!]"

** Debatable, but there IS an NPC in the earlier Man missions named [[Wil Wheaton|Wil Wheatley]]

** One of the events during the Winter Festival, is a theatre where three players get to perform a play, to the amusement (or bemusement) of their fellow players. Also present at the theatre, is a pair of critical hobbits named [[Statler and Waldorf|Statdor Proudfoot and Waldo Tunnley]].

'''Both:''' Oh-ho-ho-ho!' }}

** Concerned by recent events, the Shire chickens are planning to investigate matters. Led by [[Return to Oz|the brave hen, Billina]]

** [[Evil Dead|Quartermaster Ash]]: "Do you see this? [[This Is My Boomstick|This is my Orc-cleaver]]."

** There is one area in the game which goes by the name Dôl Dínen, [[Bilingual Bonus|which is Sindarin for]] [[Silent Hill]]. Given that the areas inhabitants are mostly orcs and trolls, this might be a coincidence.

** One of the musical instruments available to Minstrels is the ''moor cowbell'', a nod to [[Christopher Walken|Christopher Walken's]] Saturday Night Live sketch with Blue Oyster Cult.

** During the Elven Spring Festival, there's a quest involving a game of "Stomp-a-shrew". In this quest, you have to wear a pair of special shrew-stomping boots. The description for said boots? "These boots were made for stomping, and that's just what they'll do. One of these days these boots are going to stomp all over shrews."

* [[Smoking Is Cool]]: All players have access to the "smoke" emote which makes their character begin smoking a pipe. Various types of pipeweed are also available which allow for more elaborate smoking.

* [[Speak Friend and Enter]]: works well on Elf-enchanted doors, not so well when infiltrating a conspiracy hideout:

* [[Squishy Wizard]]: Rune-keepers, who wear light armour and cannot take much damage, though their spells can hurt for ''[[Glass Cannon|a lot]]''. Lore-Masters can also fall into this category, along with Minstrels since ROI, now that medium armor can no longer be used by the class.

* [[Status Buff]]: Most classes can buff their party members in some way, but the Minstrel takes the cake: pretty much every skill you have will buff you or the party. Captains also excel in this area.

* [[Stone Wall]]: Guardians. Their main role in battle is to tank damage and draw threat from the other members. However, their melee damage output isn't as good as a Champion, though the two-handed Overpower stance does allow for killing mobs quickly at the cost of protecting allies. Wardens fill in a similar role too as tanking characters.

* [[Supporting Protagonist]]: Your characters get some early heroics, but the real story in the epic chain leaves your character watching NPCs finish the fight.

* [[Sword of Plot Advancement]]: The first expansion, ''Mines of Moria'', introduced the Legendary Item advancement system. Until the player receives his Legendary weapon and proves that he can operate with it (reforge, slot relics, apply titles etc) he cannot advance the Main Storyline and cannot pass the Doors of Moria.

** An example from the original book is Narsil / Anduril. Turns out a special mineral is required to reforge such an epic sword and the player is sent on a quest to get a piece of it (which composes the longest non-epic quest chain in the game by the way).

* [[Taking Over the Town]]: The introductory questline for Men and Hobbits involves an effort to protect the village of Archet which is having this done to them by the Blackwolds, a vicious brigand gang that has cut a deal with the evil forces of Angmar. After blockading the gate to Combe, the neighboring town, to prevent the people of Archet from going there for aid, they proceed to launch an assault against the town that is only stopped by the intervention of the village leader's son, his band of hunters, and the player.

* [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|The Rangers Who Don't Do Anything]]: While they do join you and take a more active role on a few occasions, most of the time the Rangers of the North, who are said to be protecting the lands of Eriador from dangers, will send you to do most of their work for them. [[Justified Trope|Of course, it wouldn't really make for a fun game if they did all the work.]]

* [[Tragic Monster]]: Poor Amdir.

* [[Training Dummy]]: Training dummies in the starting areas, and now, in Galtrev, Stangard and Etheburg.

* [[Twenty Bear Asses]]: These are usually avoided, but they do pop up from time to time.

** It is fairly common for certain quest-lines to consist of a [[Kill Ten Rats]]-quest, followed by a [[Twenty Bear Asses]]-quest, and ending with a quest to kill an [[Elite Mook]], all of them taking place in the same area. No, doing them all at once is not an option, even though you logically should have been able to, and probably killed the [[Elite Mook]] at least once during your first two visits.

* [[Video Game Stealing]]: Another burglar ability. Successful pickpocketing can produce items from an enemy that will never be obtained by killing and looting the enemy.

* [[Virtual Paper Doll]]: You have two free slots for cosmetic outfits, and can even bind them to a key. More slots are available, but must be paid for.

** And then it appears as a [[Degraded Boss]]. Thankfully, it doesn't summon those dreaded Giant Barrow-crawlers.

* [[We Buy Anything]]: And thank god for it.

* [[Webcomic Time]]: Four years after launch, the storyline has progressed from The Fellowship of the Ring, to just before the beginning of The Two Towers, an in-universe timespan of six months. This might be made even worse in the future, with the rest of the storyline (The Two Towers, Return of the King) taking place over a period of one month, yet covering almost as much landscape as the game has already released. And if they're going to cover the events taking place at the Lonely Mountain [[It Got Worse|as well...]]

** Everything the PC experiences between meeting the Fellowship in Lothlorien and participating in Theodred's raid on Isengard takes about ''two weeks''. That's right, all the events in Mirkwood, back through Moria to the Enedwaith and all the roving around Dunland are somehow compressed into that very short window of time.

** He later manages ''another'' one by revealing the source of his knowledge.

** The reforging of the Narsil/Andúril sword was backed with a long line of quest that went through finding a vital ingredient for the sword and then your adventurer attending the reforging with the company of some of the main cast of the book. None of these things were much mentioned in the book aside from that the sword was reforged before Aragorn left Rivendell.

** The books mentions that after the Nazgul were wiped away at the Ford of Bruinen, only eight of their nine horses were found. In-game there's a long questline dealing with finding the ninth one.

** While adventuring in the Brown Lands, players will run across Easterlings know as Blue Caste Sorcerors. This is likely a reference to the two Blue Wizards, Allatar and Pallando, who came over the sea with Gandalf, Radagast and Saruman, and who went into the east of Middle-Earth and never returned. Tolkien speculates in one story that they may have become agents of Sauron, or spawned cults of magic in the east. Apparently in the world of LOTRO, this is exactly what happened.

* [[When Trees Attack]]: Mobile trees (known as Huorns in the lore) are a common hazard in the Old Forest and elsewhere. Many of them are Signature-level and have Swarm-level roots that also attack you.

* [[Wide Open Sandbox]]: You can go just about anywhere in the world, provided you can survive. There are exceptions, such as being unable to enter Moria without completing the initial legendary weapon storyline, but for the most part players are not restricted by any sort of linear plotline.

* [[Writing Around Trademarks]]: Turbine doesn't own the rights to all of Tolkien's books, so some things from his stories are off limits. As an example, even though Sauron called himself Annatar during part of the Second Age, the game names him Antheron during a flashback to that time period. Similarly, they can't use Ost-in-Edhil for Celebrimbor's capital city in Eregion, so the name Mirobel is substituted instead.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game]]