Disclaimer: Also canceled my account.

1) While my Guardian is only 45, it seems like getting to 50 is similar time-wise to getting to 60 in WoW - depends largely on your luck with grouping and how easily you get side tracked

2) Questing is definitely the quickest way to earn experience.

3) After the low-mid 20s a majority of quests become group quests - so you can't really solo to 50 unless you enjoy grinding.

4) Traits can be replaced at the Bard - it's the same price as inserting into an empty slot, however different traits cost different amounts to slot, so it might look like you're paying a different price.

5) I won't comment much about end-game activities as it seems woefully underdeveloped right now - certainly it's grossly under developed compared to WoW.

Just a quick rebuttal, if you run out of solo quest at mid 20 then imo your not looking hard enough. Now mid 20 the game stops holding your hand somewhat forcing you to explore a little more to find quest but they are there. Pre-Evendim update there was a lull in mid to late 30s but there were still some, and now post Evendim you should be able to get into the 40s without much of an issue just on solo questing.

The end game is certainly still a work in progress. My main is level 47 but is quasi on the shelf as I level an alt and wait for more folks to reach their 40s. Currently the end game is the 24 man raid, pvmp and 3 six man instances, and of course grinding deeds or legendary traits. One thing to keep in mind in this regard when comparing to WoW is the time frame, LOTRO launched 3 months ago, based on Turbine's track record I am confident that more end game is coming.

As far as time to 50, doing it solo will definitely take you longer than a month. I play very routinely, do a fair amount of grouping and still am not at 50. The leveling pace seems pretty standard for current mmos.

I think it is a little irrelevant to talk about "End game" for LOTRO at this point. After all, and correct me if I'm wrong, Turbine plans to unroll the rest of Middle Earth in various expansions and content updates in the coming months & years. I would assume that would mean raising level caps, etc. I assume & hope that they're viewing this as very much an ongoing work in progress and not a completed game with periodic updates. After all, Eriador is probably the least exciting place in Middle Earth...I sure hope they aren't content with that.

Yeah that makes sense. I guess I just brought it up because my one sore spot with LOTRO is that I get the feeling that the public (players, reviewers, etc.) aren't expecting enough out of Turbine in terms of really fleshing out the rest of the world. I was extremely disappointed that they were just doing Eriador, but once I got into the game I understand what a great idea it really was to limit their scope and do it *right*. However very few reviews or players mention much the fact that Eriador was only the exposition of LOTR, and that the really exciting, weighty stuff mostly happened elsewhere. I'm surprised at how many players are just looking for a MMO experience regardless of how well it fleshes out Middle Earth.

I have a couple of questions as well.

I have heard that unlike WoW the results of loot rolls and what everyone picked for Need/Greed is not shown so everyone in Fellowships picks Need. Is this true about the loot roll mechanics, and if so has it been everyone's experience that people in general do unnecessary "Need" rolls?

Has anyone done the PvM play yet? As someone that loved WoW world PvP the PvM mechanics of LoTRO seem slightly odd. Has anyone given this a fair shake?

In Beta (around late February/early March) the elf starting area was kind of boring and a little too large for a starter zone (it also seemed a lot less interesting than any of the starting areas in WoW [except for maybe the orc/troll area]). Anyone have any impressions of the elf starting area in its current form? In general which race has the best starting area?

PvM = Player vs. ?

Then come back to us, and check your PMs!

Just some background.

In WoW I made level 68 with my hunter on a PvE serve and did a fair amount of raiding. Made 58 on my warlock on a PvP server. In addition to these guys I had a 40s Rogue, Mage, and Warrior.

I LotRO I have a 44 Gaurdian (Master Tailor, Metalsmith, Prospector), 35 Lore-Master(Artisan Prospector, Forestor), 21 Burglar(Artisan Scholar, Weaponsmith) and a Grandmaster Forestor alt that I use just for some crafting stuff.

I think I have a failry good idea of both games but I did leave my 68 hunter in WoW to play LotRO beta so I obviously like this game.

1. Leveling is failry easy. In fact I made level 32 on my lore-master with 2 days 9 hours played. If I was dedicated on leveling only I certainly could be further in that time but I am also an active crafter. I play about 4 hours or so a night give or take a night here and hour there.

2. Questing is the best way to get xp for most part as it is really bonus xp if you notice that you would be killing this stuff if you were just grinding any way. Just grinding can actually be ok but you want to do it in a group of all things to get the best out of your xp per time.

3. Yes you can solo all the way but you will miss out on a bunch of group content or do it so late that it is meaningless other then just to see it sort of thing. Also solo all the time for a lot of people means they will now and then group for some quests but if you are hard core solo all the time it can be done just it will take you longer. Nordemere for example is 44 as a hunter and he basically solos all the time. All classes seem to solo well from my expereince.

4. Not really able to gimp more like refine your character how you wnat to play him. In fact I have played some levels without ever bothering to slot traits because I knew I would want to use some different traits then what I had available later and just did not want to spend the silver and bother with swapping them. Picking the right traits to complement your style of play really helps but certainly will not gimp you.

5. You named a couple end game activities but there is also deeds and traits to work on. Included with that is your legendary class traits. There are 6 man dungeons also. An up coming patch is also going to add session play which seems to be yet another diversion. There is also crafting and some mini games like tag and some chicken chase game which can be done anytime so while not end game certainly other options to explore. As others have said the game is only 3 months old at this point and Turbine has a great record for adding content to a game so of all the things this is least of my concern in dealing with Turbine.

If you have specific questions let me know and will do my best to answer them.

I finally got around to reading that Dev chat linked to above and cut and pasted some of the more interesting bits. Didn't realize that Badferret had pulled some of the highlights already... Everything below is a straight cut and paste job of comments from the devs. If you go to read the actual transcript be warned I think the devs were drinking, they get a little incoherent near the end

Housing
Housing is coming along great. In fact, we broke ground today on one of our first neighborhoods to the south of bree-town. Yes, you will be able to decorate your house. What exactly you will be able to use to decorate the house is still being determined at this time. Yes, you will be able to use it for storage.

Storage
With Book 10, you will have the ability to purchase additional storage containers from your friendly neighborhood vaultkeeper. Each container is equivalent to a single inventory pack in size. You can purchase the first couple of upgrades at any level, but to access them all, you'll need to hit specific levels first.
...a birdy has told me that kinship vaults will be on point along with housing... maybe.

Captains / Hunters
Book 10 is the combo month of the Hunter and the Captain. As a general rule, we're trying to make roles a lot more clear for each class, as well as ensuring they have broader bases. You can expect the Hunter to be gaining more damage capability, in addition to more types of traps, while the Captain is going to gain more options as well.

Horses
With book 10 you will be able to earn new horses. You will take more hits before you are knocked off and they will have new color variations.

Crafting
We're doing a massive crafting rebalance for Book 10 to make crafted items more alluring. After that, you'll see more high end recipes for each profession. After we improve on what's there, we'll start to tackle each vocation separately.

PvM
I can say that this update adds a lot of keep fortification/siege elements to both the Freeps and the Creeps, allowing each side to run missions that greatly influence how long they can hold a keep... or lose it.
No Creep Kinships Planned

Other
I can almost GUARANTEE that we'll have something similar to a new race and/or a new class in the future.

For Book 10, we are finishing off our work in Evendim and opening the gates to Annuminas. We'll also be opening the way to one of the hinted at locations on our map (though it won't be a full region). Going forward, we are looking towards Eregion. Outside of that, almost anywhere in Eriador is fair game and we'll get there as we are able.