LOTR maybe?

The Ancient Gaming Noob mentioned the MMO Report on LOTR: Mines of Moria, so I took a look at this G4 video. The expansion for LOTR does introduce some interesting possibilities, so I may look into them. The new classes, the Rune-Keeper and Warden look like very good characters. The Rune-Keeper is a caster class that combines healing and damage methods, and the Warden is a melee damage-dealer with a combo system.

I did a trial version of LOTR a long time ago, but I was not very impressed with it. The problem was partly that I do not understand the lore well. In fact, I don't care to follow the lore too closely. I tried reading the Hobbit in the 1960s and did not care for the book. The movie series is very excellent, but wading through the books does not appeal to me. Hobbits and Dwarves are not my favorite character types. I do like the Elves and Humans.

In the trial, I started an Elf hunter, but I died doing some quests and ended up in a city with grumpy Dwarves, so I was very unhappy. But another player explained that it is part of the lore. The Elves lose their home and dwell with the Dwarves for a time. I don't remember that being explained, so I guess you just have to fill in the blanks. Shrug.

The crafting is better developed in LOTR than in WAR. The WAR crafting system is terrible. There are only 2 crafts, and they don't really help the characters that much. One can make potions. The other can make armor and weapon enhancements called talismans. In LOTR, there are several crafting options. I was reading that minstrels are a big hit, with players making up songs and playing them.

I was reading that LOTR has an option where players can assume the roles of monsters. I hadn't heard of that before. Apparently, players can battle one another in arenas that way.

LOTR does sound interesting, and may be worth a try sometime.