Friday night I managed to finally get the last of the updates for LoTRO on my PC, set up the cheaper 3 monthly account option and managed to remember first attempt which server I had rolled my characters on all those months ago - Laurelin.

A nice thing this time was a message popped up telling me I could play in DX10 so did I want to use enhanced textures? Of course lol. Its nice to see it was automatic so saving me the time of doing it all manually. Looking into the options anyway I was pleased to see all the settings on high by default.

But which to choose? Should I play my lvl 13 Elf Hunter? Maybe I should carry on with my lvl 11 Hobbit Minstrel?

Well there was no contest because I had thought about it a bit while I was installing and decided that by far the most visually pleasing one I could remember was my lvl 3 Dwarf Guardian "Glencoe".

And so it was that over the course of this weekend I have taken him from lvl 3 to lvl 11. Unfortunately I couldnt play as much as I wanted to; all day Sunday we went out to Kew Gardens in London - an amazing place to walk around (and get sunburned).

However what I really wanted to say was in LoTRO when I finally managed to enter Thorins Keep (is that what its called?) where all the trainers, AH, Banks etc are there is a wide path running through its length. Standing on this path you notice there is such a high mirror sheen to it that you can see a proper refelction not only of yourself, but also the NPC's moving about and the surrounding architecture. Not just a passable reflection, but a true likeness. For example if I changed clothes you instantly see the mirror image change too.

I dont know if these visuals also appear in DX9 rendering but it is stunning - and with all the other activity occuring about you there is no lag or jumpiness either. Now why cant Age of Conan handle something like that?

I think playing Glencoe The Dwarf is going to be a lot of fun too, plus his "dreadlocks" look cool.

A few questions:

1. I have picked up the Fishing hobby and caught a few tiddlers. As I have chosen Metalworking as a vocation (i.e not cooking) are these fish any use & is leveling up the fishing skill pointless?

2. I have decided to be a "true" dwarf and stick with a shield and either one handed hammers or axes. I bought a new hammer & shield on the AH but would my assumption be correct that as I am a Guardian most of the skills I will get are shield based, so training 2 handed weapons is a waste of time?

3. Can I train for a bow eventually? It would be handy to use a ranged weapon for pulling.