The Draigoch instance has been out for what, 8 months? And it still doesn't work right. Devs literally don't know how to fix it.

Update 6 introduced lag. Not just occasional lag, but constant, group wiping lag. ALOT. Update 6.1 attempted to fix it. it didn't. Update 7 attempted to fix it. It didn't. Its now been an extremely lagging game (check out the official forums if you are one of the lucky ones that isn't experiencing it) for several months.

Same thing with broken stable routes.

I could literally go on and on and on. If you love the game, great! Sincerely. And if you want to try it... you seriously should, its free, you have nothing to lose. But beware. EVERY game I've ever played (well over 300+) are more stable and less bug ridden than LOTRO. And I'm not exaggerating, when I say that every single update fails to resolve existing bugs and ADDITIONALLY introduces new ones.

We had the final boss of Carn Dum glitch on us once, to the degree that a GM couldn't fix it. At all. He eventually just apologized and reset the instance for us. Though I'm not sure if that's due to glitches (a lot of folks were having issues with CD at the time) or the GMs not having much power to really do anything, or both.

For me though the issue is that every new mechanic that's been introduced post-release has been crap. Legendary items, for instance, were random to the point of uselessness sometimes, or were hilariously overpowered. The initial runekeeper item was usually better than the level 60 First Ages because of all the legacies on it... which they eventually fixed (partially) by adding a spell-boosting legacy instead of the DPS-boosting one. But when they finally revamped the whole legacy system, they didn't really reduce the randomness at all, they just allowed you to grind endlessly to fix crap legacies.

And then there's the economy, of course, where people can accumulate gadzooks of money but have nothing to spend it on.

Wow, then I guess my team of players and me are extremely lucky, since we never experienced lag, except in Bree when the game turned F2P and sometimes in Galtrev. Seriously, Guild Wars 1 is lagging more often than LOTRO for me!

Which stable routes are broken? And how are they broken? That's a genuine question, because I've never experienced anything that could make me think "wow that stable route is broken!".

About raids or high-level instances, there can be bugs, I couldn't say, since I've never done any and I don't plan to. Simply because my group of players is too small to ever dream about doing a 12-members raid (at best we are 3 connected at the same time).

And for the legendary system, I must honestly say that I don't care. As long as the game enables me to kill the mobs, to die on sufficiently rare occasion, and to discover new regions and read new dialogues and lore, I'm more than satisfied.

I've never been the kind of guy fine-tuning his stuff, so... Yes, it's true, now that I'm level 74 I rarely have anything to buy and such I have vast sums of money. That's a pity, but that doesn't prevent me to play.

Not to sound rude, but let me clarify... I'm not giving my opinion when I explain the bugs in the game. There are many threads easily findable on the current pages of the LOTRO forums discussing these issues. AND, of course, I'm experiencing them first hand in the game. I've provided both pro and con to the game. IMHO, the people to question are the 100% pro and 100% con as they tend to have an agenda.

That said, to answer the stable route issue... ALL of them are bugged. There is a chance that your ride will just stop at ANY point in the route. This is particularity frustrating on the non-swift routes as you can literally be stranded in the middle (which can be hostile territory that is difficult or at least very time consuming to get out of). Sometimes they work as intended... sometimes they don't. In my personal experience (playing every day) it happens about 50% of the time. You are then out the cost of the route and you are stuck somewhere you didn't want to be.

You may be lucky, and that is awesome if you are, but its not accurate to say the game is not very buggy.

The threads on the forums have moderator responses explaining they are working on the problem but are having problems identifying the issues. (same for the lag). You can also check the patch notes to see that they attempted a fix, but it did not work.

As for CD, yes, that instance was bugged for a couple of months. Entire instances in Moria were also shut down for a couple of months. In fact, a couple of months is the standard amount of time to fix anything because that is how often they "attempt" to fix things. When it breaks, its broken for a significant amount of time.... (unless its an exploit, those get fixed rather quickly).

I'll re-state, that I'm not trying to talk anyone out of the game. Aside from answering your questions, my comment was simply to TRY THE GAME, but do so with lower expectations and you might like it.

And I'm not doubting you're sincere about the problems you're stating. My questions were just that: questions. Because it seems that i've been lucky enough to never experience many of the bugs you experienced and are still experiencing.

Like the stable routes: I NEVER, I repeat, NEVER encountered any bug in the stable routes. I'm not saying there are no problems. But I'm just saying that for me, they are working 100%, each time I'm playing and any route I may take.

So, you understand that what you wrote was a big surprise to me!

I must say I never go to LOTRO forums, official or not. It's just that I don't have the time, since I already go to several forums, certainly more than my limited time could normally afford me. So, in a way, I'm glad you stated those bugs, because if I encounter one, I'll now know exactly what's happening to me! ^_^

This is smart ;) MANY of the threads are complaints and the rest are PVP arguments. I've mostly quit going as well.

I play RIFT some (other MMO) and its a night and day experience to lotro. Smooth gameplay, few bugs, fixes come out every week for the minor issues, communication is very good, downtime is very small, etc. HOWEVER... it loses out in every way in terms of lore and quest story. Its why I still play LOTRO even though I'm very frustrated with the overall direction of the game.

And let me add, if you don't plan to raid/fellowship, your experience will likely be much better. As instances seem to bug more than anything else and the lag seems more pronounced there.

But I'm really surprised you haven't had a stable route stall on you... hope this thread didn't jinx you ;) If it happens, logging out (alt+tab and force quitting) and then logging back in will force it to resume. Unfortunately, this can take several minutes depending on your PC and connection.

Lots of good opinions in here. I think I will try to give it a go this weekend and see how it is. I've never played any other MMORPG before so I don't really have anything to compare it to, so I won't have that issue. Now I just need to decide on a good character name.

You earn TP while completing deeds. These will notify you once you get one. Typically its like kill 300 boar, or use a specific skill 150 times. Some find these grindy, but I suggest you stick with it. If you do those deeds and save up the TP you can unlock more of the game without paying more.

Also consider, that if you like the game at level 20 (should still be in free territory by then), then buying a $20.00 game card will permanently unlock some things for you in addition to the TP you get with it. And you don't have to sub (just the one time game card).

have fun!

Agreed here. I'm a lifetime LOTRO subscriber. I can play most content for no fees and I get free points for the store every month. But I haven't played in over a year or so. Free to play RUINED the game. Every window is a link to the store CONSTANTLY telling you to BUY BUY BUY!!! It's obnoxious and I can't STAND it.

slow ride from Ost Guruth, in the Lone Lands, to anywhere. youll get hung up right outside town. there are many spots, but this is the one place i hang 100% of the time i try to ride to Ridendell or The Forsaken Inn

you wanted a specific issue.



LOTRO is probably in my top 20 games of all time (and ive also played hundreds) and can agree it is THE most buggy game i have played (though, to be fair i should only compare it to other MMOs... still, most buggy. still, my favorite!).

glad to hear!

sorry to let you know that Sapien is already taken ;)


one thing to note (that i never hear mentioned) LOTRO is the only "free" game i have tried that *can be* truely free. as in, you can access ALL CONTENT by earning the specific store curreny, "Turbine Points," through ingame acheivments called "deeds."

while it will be a looong road withough throwing down some real $, it IS possible (and might take a few different characters replaying the same areas to earn points multiple times... for example, killing your first 30 goblins in The Shire will net you 5 TP. you can make multiple chars and do that "deed" again... and earn all ingame content/expansion by playing the game.).

Okay, so I've been doing a lot of reading on How To Pick a Race/Class and there is one question that shouldI be obvious but I don't see an answer for, and I don't want to invest weeks into a character that I don't like. I know that there are restrictions on which class you can choose based on race, but are there race or class restrictions on equipment? That is, can my Hobbit Burglar wear heavy armor? Can my Dwarf Champion use a bow and arrows? Can my Elf Hunter wield a 2-handed battle axe? I had assumed that these are all restricted because such things usually are in class based lore heavy RPGs, but I haven't read anything that states it clearly one way or another.

I've looked through the store and am both disappointed and excited by the number of quest packs and expansions. On the one hand there are a lot of places in Middle Earth that I am eager to explore, however most of them require a store purchase and a fairly high level. I plan to get at least a few of them, provided I like the game, and if I can "earn" some of those through gameplay then so much the better. Good idea about the gift cards, I was thinking about someway of getting upgraded to a Premium level membership if I choose to stick with it for a while.

Weapon restriction is by class only. So, no a burg can't wear heavy armor. Does not matter what race you are.

All champs get a bow.

No hunters are able to use a 2 hander.

Guardians can wear heavy armor, so a hobbit guardian can wear heavy armor.

Hope that makes sense. Race only has to do with what class you can play.

Also, once you buy ANY points with a card you become premium and never go back below premium.

Im played Lotro from beta and i love it. Game is buged ( only end content), but is the best game in Tolkien universe. WB/Turbine non stop upgrede Lotro and game is free (ofc if you want more, faster level up etc you must pay). Its mmo, but for me is a great single player rpg ( 95% is made for single play > for causal players). For me is the best mmo on market and the best rpg game !