The Lord of the Rings Online: Difference between revisions

''The Lord of the Rings Online'' (aka ''LotRO'') is yet another MMO on the market. While nowhere near as popular as [[World of Warcraft]], it has a healthy player base that has grown since their recent expansion. Often compared against [[World of Warcraft]] (and which MMO isn't, these days) it holds up well enough. Its emphasis is less on [[Player Versus Player|PVP]] and Raiding and more on Roleplaying, Crafting, and Socializing (though [[Player Versus Player|PVP]] and Raid elements are present and Raiding is an important part of the game). With a low emphasis on [[Player Versus Player|PVP]] and a high emphasis on RP and social aspects, LotRO has managed to attract one of the nicer and more mature MMO communities around.

 

 

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 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.

 

{{tropelist}}

* [[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.

* [[Anti Poop Socking]]: Rested XP exists in this game as well; it's actually better than ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' in this respect (though [[Your Mileage May Vary]]), since you gain it no matter where you are, and you can use Destiny Points (earned via leveling and questing, and shared across characters) and Turbine Points to purchase more. You also gain it faster than [[WoW]].

* [[Armor-Piercing Attack]]: The Hunter's Piercing Shot, which bypasses some of the opponent's armour mitigation. The Lore-master has a debuff, Ancient Craft, which reduces an opponent's armor value by a significant margin.

* [[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]]:

** 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.

* [[But Thou Must!]]: During the Mirkwood storyline, the player and a company of elves is tasked with escorting a captured orc chieftain to Dol Guldur, with the intention of trading him for a dwarf that has been taken prisoner. After an encounter with spiders, the orc becomes infected by a deadly poison, as does one of the elves. While an antidote is found, it is only enough to save one of them. It appears as if the player is allowed to choose who to save, but if one chooses the elf, she declines the antidote and you end up having to choose the orc.

* [[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.}}

* [[Dual-Wielding]]: Champions' main shtick; Burglars and Hunters can do it as well. High-level Lore-masters can eventually dual-wield with a sword and a staff if they equip the appropriate trait.

** 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]].

* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]: Gollum. Canonically, he was stuck in Moria until the Fellowship entered, and he discovered them. In the game, players get a chance to meet him in the Trollshaws before the Fellowship leaves Rivendell. It's worth noting that Turbine doesn't have the rights to the books stating that Gollum was in Moria at the time, so they had some leeway to make him appear this early, most likely as an [[Easter Egg]] to the players.

** 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.

* [[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.

{{quote| '''Lost leaf of paper:''' In a hole in the ground there lived a boar. No, [[The Hobbit|that's not it]].}}

* [[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.

* [[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.

** 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.

* [[Non-Lethal KO]]

* [[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.)

** [[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.

* [[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.

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

* [[Tree-Top Town]]: Caras Galadhon, the [[Hidden Elf Village]] that is the capital of Lothlorien. It's almost entirely built of platforms up in the Mallorn trees that comprise the forest.

* [[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.

{{quote| {{spoiler|'''Nar:''' Well, Saruman the White of course. I thought you knew...}}}}

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]: An early minstrel quest requires you to help a hobbit seek revenge on those who have {{spoiler|''stolen his lunch''}}. You later write and perform a ballad about it.

** 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.