Clarysta Moves...Like Jagger

You want to know how to make me smile

Take control, own me just for the night

And if I share my secret

You're gonna have to keep it

Nobody else can see this

So watch and learn

I won't show you twice



Turbine isn't learning. Apparently there's an annual fee added to my monthly subscription just to keep playing. Forget getting anything new for the cost of this expansion.


Phasing 

Interesting idea, poor execution. I believe a lot of the quest bugs were phasing-related. I duoed the whole way through with The Champ and we constantly had npcs with unusable quest rings, instances that said they could be duoed that were riddled with bugs, and a number of times where there would be 2 copies of an npc when we returned from an instance. I'm pretty sure this is because the engine was trying to render the right state for both of us, perhaps seconds after the state would have updated.

In Forthbrond, we actually saw different sets of npcs. We were in the same layer, so I think it must have something to do with the phasing again.

The Attack of the Clones 

Well, for those that are soloing, the helper npcs were probably pretty useful. In a duo though, we ended up with two sets of every npc helper. It looked ridiculous. 

Can't Touch This 

Many of the quests were not set up for groups at all. I don't mean difficulty, I mean the ability to update the fellow when an item is used by one person. We had to kill several bosses twice so we could both get credit, quest items disappeared on use, etc.

What Were They THINKING!

I am ANGRY about the Goat quest line and I'm sitting at 4/7 for the deed. There, I said it. Way to fail, Berephon. 

Crafting. What a mess. The lack of complete sets for 66-74. The absurdly high cost yet low crit rate for the level 75 gear (best you can get with a journal is 63% at the cost of 2 sigils, a high-level rep gate requirement and single-use recipes). Or week long cooldowns.

EDIT: I'm going to add to this - gating quest lines so they HAVE to be done in a linear fashion. I really wanted to just pick up the Riders rep quests ... and I can't ::madface.

And It Goes On and On and On

Where are the rep barter items? I much preferred that because at least you had a reason to keep doing the quests once you had rep. 

The repeatable rep quests in Galtrev: move them to Forthbrond and make them Rider quests, please. We hit kindred with the Dunlending around level 73 - while those quests were still orange to us. Now at level 75, I'd like to never see the Pit of Iron again and I still have 1/2 way to go to finish kindred with the Riders. 


Those Galtrev quests are interesting too. I still haven't conquered the one with the torch bearers (but I will!). Even though the fishing one drags out too long and the Forges one is easier than it needs to be, I'd redo them if I had a reason. 12k IXP is not enough for the time it takes to complete.

Several of the open world instances felt like they had been planned as skirmishes. The Forges quest at Galtrev for instance has this amazing space that was built, with just a handful of hornblowers, orcs and uruks running around. The Culling Pit. Dol Baran.

Monster Play Note

I am an UBER BA now. Actually I still suck at this game and I still die A LOT. I almost had a star last week, but thankfully that cleared up before anyone saw it.

I'm glad to see that in groups I can now contribute a lot of damage. I think that any cries for nerfs of any creep class are out of line, and I think that the freeps need to shut up for a couple of months. 

Skirmisher stance FTW! I got the mooooooves...like Jagger.