Under the Banner

When I first installed LotRO and started to study all the new aspects of the game one of the things that excited me was the concept of farming. Then I tried it. To say the least I was disappointed. You mean all I can grow is pipe weed and a few veggies that are sort of useless to a cook?

I live in Northern California a very lage agricultural area. And do you know what we do with the produce we produce? We cook and eat it. With the Shores of Evendim on the horizon I decided to check out the test server Roheryn to see just how many changes have been made.

After creating my test character a leveling to 30 I grabbed the Yeomen profession and instant leveled it using the quests in the Eyes and Guard Inn. Then I hit the fields.

The first thing that I noticed was a new icon in my skills set. I now had the ability to track crops all over Middle Earth. Simply turn it on and the little things that pop up all around the world are now seen on your mini map. My wife was very excited about this inclusion. She is a Historian without a trackable profession, until the expansion anyway. She loves to stop in the middle of everything to go grab a bush of blueberries. Now she can seek them out while we are in combat and run over to them.

Additional good news is the exorbitant prices of items that can only be purchased from vendors has been drastically reduced on the test server. This provides an attractive incentive for farmers to produce well . . . produce. But why should they do that? Can’t cooks get what they need from a vendor much cheaper than a farmer? Not anymore.

The vendor now sells recipes for a huge assortment of items that cooks need and use. In my kinship we have what some would describe as an unhealthy obsession with blueberries. And now farmers can keep your blueberry crazed players happy beyond belief! Or perhaps you go nuts for potatoes. Well now you can also grow as many as you like.

Overall I am looking forward to dusting off my farming tools. We have many cooks in our kinship that would love to get some of these great items.

Here are some screen shots of what is now available from the farming vendor in the Shire.