In the 4 days since my Legendary Leveling post-of-glee, I've leveled my starter staff to 17. I've looted numerous legendary items, including one Second Age Rune-Satchel which stands out in its blueness. I've collected and mostly disassembled legendary items for every class except my own. The inevitable luck of numbers dictates some sort of justification for bitching about drops. In particular I seem to be the magnet for Rune-Keeper legendaries. Hopefully Nelgdorf will be as lucky for me as I have been for him.

My legendary staff is so ugly that I couldn't bear to name it on reforging, as if doing so would invoke some unmentionable evil. Nazrin suggested "Swab", "Canal Cleaner" and a few other names appropriate to its appearance, so I may resign myself to giving it a mocking moniker.

I'm enjoying the Legendary system immensely, which isn't a surprise, it's been less than a week. Still, I think I'll be immune to the dread of grind that others have warned me about. I've been asking for this sort of thing for awhile now: rewards granted via persistence regardless of solo or group play. I'm so tired of the XX players formula for loot rewards, where small teams get shafted and large raids have epics rained upon them.

It's unlikely you'll catch me complaining about leveling these weapons, I'm quite careful of what I wish for and this is pretty close to the mark.

After taking a break from questing and doing my best not to level for over 20 levels (obviously my task wasn't a complete success), I've dinged 50.

Nazrin passed me along the way, but now that I've basically reset my questing experience into the expansion content, I'm pretty sure I'll be at Endgame very soon. Nelgdorf is lagging a bit behind, taking some moments to catch a deep breath and smell the flowers of the pre-expansion content, but we're pushing the reluctant dwarf into Moria anyway.

I've got my first two Legendary items, thanks to the Vol 2 Book 1 quests. I'm very pleased with them.

The presence of Moria, just over the hill and across the pond, is almost overwhelming, in a good way. It's like a mountain to climb, although crawling under is probably more apt. I'm almost mentally preparing myself for the shift on the other side, where as our faces hit daylight we'll also be migrating from leveling-up mode to Endgame mode. I like both modes, but they're distinctly dissimilar. For now though, the mines... Khazad-dûm awaits!

Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. Legendary items rock.

Hearing about it, reading about it, I was just like "hey that's pretty cool" but getting my first Legendary staff (via Volume 2 Book 1) and killing my first mob with it-- and having the item itself gain a level and then train that level-- This had an immediate and pronounced effect on me. There's a great big sheepish grin on my face, like I've just eaten a great key-lime pie and there's no way I should have enjoyed it so much.

It's perfect for me, really. I don't play alts that much and I'm happy to grind gear, rep, whatever at Endgame. More than happy to grind honestly. I just hadn't put much thought to it, but leveling up weapons with my one main character: That's incredibly satisfying.

And hell, now I can ding a whole lot. Ding, ding, ding.

I hit 35 this past weekend and picked out a Bloodbay horse as my mount.

I've noticed players in Middle-Earth don't tend to crowd around on their mounts. There's probably less motivation to stand and model when most of the choices are similar: horses and ponies.

I was never big on the whole collecting weird mounts thing. In WoW I appreciated the basic non-armoured horses (well, maybe flaming horses too) more than odd-looking emasculated dragons and steampunk gryocopters. Mind you, there is one other choice (via rep?) in LOTRO and it's a bizarro looking ram. I'll stick with my horse, maybe upgrading to a different breed later on. I'm not a big horse nut, but there's something about the blend of fantasy and reality involved here that I appreciate.

On the topic of reaching 35: Yes I'm still taking my time, even avoiding quests (more on that soon). I still end up outleveling most of my kinship-mates, although Nelgdorf and Nazrin have both managed to catch up to me. We're a triad to be reckoned with (as long as you're a <40 mob).

I naturally outlevel my casual friends just from more /played time. I'm trying my best to slow down on my Lore-Master in LOTRO, but even my attempt to shift to crafting results in a fair bit of exp while I farm Wargs for leather. I've even passed Nelgdorf and Nazrin by several levels.

Being able to play compelling content together with my friends has been an issue in almost every MMORPG I've played, either because of myself pulling ahead or someone else.

City of Heroes has several tools to get around the problem, including the Sidekick system (which I adore) and now the Leveling Pact (which divides exp between two players, even while one is logged out). CoH's advances have been embraced by EQ2's Mentoring and Final Fantasy XI's Level Sync, but other games haven't adopted the ideas.

There are three reasons why I assume level disparity between friends is accepted (and even preferred) in MMORPG design:

• As Pacing for storyline, leveling is a good game mechanic, but it may be so finely tuned that it just doesn't allow for adjustments like syncing.
• Leveling independently is often considered as a rite of passage to 'know your class'. In other words, it's pacing for character growth. Any perceived boost may be seen by the playerbase as unfair gains: This was an issue in Age of Conan, where many players balked at the mentoring system until it was nerfed past usefulness.
• Level disparity feeds The Vision, which dictates that you should find and group with new acquaintances while you level up so you'll have sticky in-game-only friends at Endgame to make it emotionally difficult to leave the game.

Simpler and more apt for my current situation:

I wish LOTRO had something akin to Vanguard's Reduced XP Gain spell. Basically, some way to lock my level and not gain any exp until my friends catch up. I think nearly every MMORPG could benefit from a Level Lock feature (The Vision be damned).

Imagine players who would like to experience the old pre-expansion raiding content by locking their levels at the old Endgame. Or roleplayers who don't wish to grow up past Hobbiton. Granted, most would probably still prefer to be competitive at the very top of the scale, but what a natural way for developers to stretch content further, via player choice.

And it would as easy as candy to implement too.

I've requested a Level Lock feature via a post on Turbine's suggestions forum. I hope they're listening. =)

I hit Rank 20 with Skereye this past weekend. Here's a quick video showing a small taste of Squig Herder soloing combat, plus a pleasant ride down the beach on my new mount.

I'm fairly happy with the Squig Herder class. The charm of the Gobbo (Goblin) makes up for the numerous pet-related bugs and design limitations (how is having only one squig at a time "herding"?). There's also the sheer joy of spraying arrows. =)

I've been leveling at a steady pace and I think I detect some cries of alarm from guildmates seeking to catch up. It hasn't seemed rushed, I try to hold myself back, but my Polearm Guardian is too much fun dammit.

Kheshatta is the level 80 zone in this game and I have to admit in my first visit I was underwhelmed. Perhaps I've yet to find the hidden gems in the zone, so I'll withhold any deep criticism, who knows with first impressions right? Desert landscapes don't appeal to me on the surface.

Atzel's Approach on the other hand, has proven a surprising alternative. I expected to be moving on by now but it goes all the way from 60-75. It's cleverly laid out, whomever the zone designer was he has my deep respect because Atzel's Approach has layers. Like onions, or better yet a layered cake. Oh yes, my analogies suck.

I just wrote a poetic description of the place that was borderline brilliant, but I nuked it for sake of explorer spoilers. =P   Discover the zone on your own terms, because this good stuff is too far and between in these games.