Monster Play

[Lalanae]

I'm actually enjoying the game's Monster Play feature. Something satisfying about beating up on hobbits as a spider or wolf...

Has anyone been able to play as a Free Peoples character yet? Just curious what that's like. I dont see myself getting to lvl 40 anytime soon.

[Mr Bacon]

Unless you have a lot of baddies on (more than 20, i guess) available to raid, it's kind of lacking.

I also don't feel that leveling to 10 justifies running a level 50 character.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

What is Free Peoples character?

I can understand the joy of attacking newbie hobbits as an Orc!

Can you be Ringwraiths, high-end monsters as well? Maybe disrupting a raid or similar or just low llv 1-10 critters?

[Boogahz]

At level 10, you are able to start playing a level 50 Monster Character (Org, Wolf, Spider, etc.) in PvP. The Free People are mainly player characters.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

At level 10, you are able to start playing a level 50 Monster Character (Org, Wolf, Spider, etc.) in PvP. The Free People are mainly player characters.

Sounds kinda fun camping a pass as a giant spider with a net, hoping to catch some hobos!

[Xanupox]

There was a lot of changes to PvMP with this weeks patch.

The spider class got some major loving. They can now burrow underground while in combat and stay underground for 1 minute. This can buy them the time needed for thier call out for help from others in the zone to aid them, or maybe they just run into a pack of hostile monsters and go underground. The players would pickup all the agro and either have to fight the monsters and wait for the spider to surface or flee.

Spiders in addition to the 1 minute burrow while in combat, can actually dig deep and lay in wait for up to 15 minutes for an ambush.

I have seen groups of 10-15 spiders hiding underground at the ends of bridges and all pop up and eat the shit ouf whole groups as they pass over the bridges. They shoot up so many webs no one can move and they poison the shit out of everyone.

They also added tons of more quests, that give leveling xp now as well for players. I play on Gladden and we have 3-4 MONSTER only guilds, where these guys dont even play the lotro game. They logon and just play monsters 24/7. They are all leveling up and getting really strong. Monsters can become Signature and Elite as well, some of these guys already are.

[Boogahz]

That's pretty sweet. I haven't been able to log in for a few weeks due to billing screwups by Turbine and time spent in EQ2, but I think I will have to get back in soon and check out more Monsterplay.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

LoTR sounds worth to play merely for the monster-side!

What monsters can slow down movement/snare a target?

[Winnow]

Anyone remember when you could do this in EverQuest? The only problem was the highest level mob you could be was a bat. Not too fun!

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Was a good idea in EQ; but since you couldn't leave the noob-areas, not very lasting fun!

But it seems as if LOTRS Monster-play fixed this! You could lvl and become an elite mob!

Talk about stalking specific players as well as a Shade or Wraith

[Xanupox]

They are tweaking things still. Only recently have many of the players called "Freeps" for Free Peoples, began to hit the levels enmass, enough to provide a good battle against the monster players... called 'Creeps".

Usually there are somewhere between 25-40 Creeps and 20-30 Freeps 24/7 on Gladden. So you can get solo fights, fellowship/group skirmishes and straight up keep battles/raid level fights all over the zone.

Freep benefits are you gain battle ranks, which give you opportunity to buy special gear based on your rank. Freeps also get to do quests for "Valor Token" rewards, you can turn these in 10 at a time to get a key that unlocks one of 4 random chests in the treasure area for 4-5 nice rare items plus a bind on aquire nice item.

These tokens can also be turned into certain NPCs, the Eagle Lord and the Bear Morninglord to call upon these animals and thier fellow kin to aid you in taking a monster controlled keep. Its awesome to give the Eagle Lord 18 valor token and then seeing him and his 20 eagles come charging into the Isendeep mines with your raid force, rolling over anything that gets in your way.

Turbine is having a lot of fun with this game and it shows.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Can you be a Monster in merely one zone?

Can't ambush someone in a dungeon for example?

[Xanupox]

Monsterplay is currently limited to one area due to many reasons. The main being the world is seamless, no zoning or instant travel required... which means no limits on the distance a monster could go in thier efforts to kill lowbies, aka newbie areas.

So basically, there is a location that it is physically impossible to get into or out of by just jumping/climbing etc. Players enter the area via a type of instant travel/swift travel on horse and if you play a monster, you simply logon in the monster starting area each time.

Technically a monster COULD get out of there by using some climbing sploit or hack, but I think you would get quickly banned if you were out in the gameworld killing players.

[Sabek]

Anyone remember when you could do this in EverQuest? The only problem was the highest level mob you could be was a bat. Not too fun!

And getting stuck in stonebrunt mountains with no actual PCs sucked much ass.