Ravric: Upgrades

I just hit 30th level! I am very glad because 20-30 feels like a bottleneck. I don't know if it was self-imposed because I stuck mainly to Lonelands with some North Downs mixed in, or if it is a flaw in the game. I was starting to really slow down again at 29 until I decided to head to Oathbarton, a hobbit outpost in south Evendim region. I was level 30 before I could believe it.

I think that Turbine, at the least, needs to find a better way of having players want to go to the different regions. I know that the books help, but if I had not known about Evendim from Moondog and my kinship, I would have never thought to get there until I found some hidden quest chain or something.

Level 30 came with a few nice upgrades. Moondog gave me a new armor for Maiden. Her morale skyrocketed, and altogether she is a much more useful pet. I also received two excellent new skills that make me feel like the Captain Kingshit.

The first is Revealing Mark. The Mark skills are useful, for sure. Noble Mark is especially good for pulling as it does damage to the enemy. Revealing Mark is just awesome. It gives me (and anyone else attacking the marked creature) morale for damaging the enemy... in the amount of near 20% of my damage. I am doing about 60-70 damage per hit now, and I receive back about 11-16 morale. My survivability skyrocketed there.

The second is Blade of Elendil, which is a decent attack skill that buffs me so that I could cause an initial damage-over-time skill (Light of Elendil) if I keep whacking the creature. The great thing is that it is another chain in my combo. So now I start with Battle-Shout, use Devastating Blow, then Blade of Elendil for some pretty decent damage.

The other thing I have been diligently working on is the Fishing Hobby. My guys has 80 Fishing skill right now, which is nice because I am finally getting fish that pay off the worms cost. Most fish at the low levels go for 1 copper, but I am getting ones in the 13-25 copper range, which still sucks but at least its a little something. That is also on top of the trophy fish which give 1.38 silver (approx.)

For reference, worms cost 3 silver (300 copper) and some change. A normal humanoid mob that I kill will give me about 3 silver. So fishing is not worth the cost of time right now, but it is a nice break. I can also chat with my wife while doing it.