Last night in LOTRO my level 30 Champion set foot in Garth Agarwen for the first time. This is my first time there as well; this is the highest level I’ve managed so far in LOTRO.

Our group was hardly ideal, but up until now it has felt like just about any group composition works in LOTRO, as long as its a full group and you aren’t fighting way over your head. But last night we had 2 minstrels, 2 lore-masters, 1 captain and 1 champion. And my champion died constantly.

Now granted, it wasn’t the most well disciplined group in the world, either. We had a couple of eager beavers that kept aggro’ing multiple groups of mobs. My champ was doing his best at tanking (he’d just learned to wield a heavy shield and had learned the ‘tanking self buff’) but that meant less DPS in a group already light on DPS, and I think that was our biggest problem. We had plenty of healing, at least in theory, but the minstrels were trying to add to the DPS of the group too.

Ah well, live and learn. I finally finished Book II of the epic quests, and that was awesome. I don’t want to spoil anything for those who haven’t played, and there’s a section in that last chapter of Book II that really captured the feeling of being in an epic adventure.

This is my last weekend of hardcore LOTRO since a week from today Warhammer Headstart begins. And today football season begins. So I’m not sure how much farther I’ll get in this ‘go’ at LOTRO. But I’m sure enjoying the game an awful lot these days.