Lotro's expansion vs. WoW's Expansion... ready,.. get set.... fight!!!

So in a very short amount of time two games that I'm very familiar with are going to have their expansions come out!

Which is better? What is better in which? and Which has more witches! (It being Halloween week and all) Well being the (ahem) unbiased and forthcoming reporter that I am. (don't believe it for a second) I went and did some quick research and the new Lake Wintergrasp area has been spun up to sound pretty cool, just like everything else Blizzard spins up to the media. I mean, they've got scaling buffs to the side that's losing, vehicles you can ride and assault. I certainly have some qualms with some things they say in this article though, like: "With so much resting on the zone -- it's Blizzard's first attempt at a non-instanced Battleground and completely PvP-centric zone with PvP-centric quests -- it simply can't fail." Oh yes, yes it can. "To have a broken Battleground is one thing, but to have a zone that nobody is interested in would be a major disaster." No, no it wouldn't. See Azeroth nowadays. Especially the hard to reach areas like Desolace, Feralas, Silithus etc.. Well the short and fat of this though is that WoW is doing something to address its dearth of World PVP that it had promised since launch and hadn't yet delivered. It is probably a good thing, though very slow in coming.

Item #1 Who's PVP area is better? I will place my bets on.... WoW's! at least after they get rid of the bugs and everything. (*see bottom for correction)Lotro has left their Ettenmoors untouched too long. I still enjoy romping there but if nothing ever changes it gets stale. And people improve on what you have. Will this get me to go back to WoW? No chance in this freezing Jihad. (props to Tobold for the term) Anyways I have WAR for my quickie pvp fix so we're good to go.

Item #2 that WoW is adding is dungeons with two sizes, 10 man and 25 man! amazing! genius! Never been done before. Anyways, sarcasm aside. WoW is doign something to address their elitist problem and I'm glad of that. What is Lotro up to on this front? some 3 man + some 5 man + 1 12 man dungeon? Sounds neat. Gathering tons of people !=(does not equal) fun. Playing with your friends no matter how numerous or how few they are does equal fun. I'll still miss City of Heroes but I prefer Lotro over Wow on this one.

Item #3 10 more levels of content! I think WoW will do a better job making quests solo able initially, and Lotro will do a better job in the look and feel and ambiance and group dynamic. They are adding more of the same types of zones, only with lots of snow and an underground goblin city I think, to WoW. In Lotro they are adding two above ground zones, the top of a mountain accessible only by and endless stair, and 8 new underground zones of Moria. Are these more of the same? Well, they could be but they are giving the monsters new a corruption AI's and environmental awareness, plus there will be many places that are pitch dark except for a light you bring with you. Is it just a grind? That depends on your sense of adventure. If you view that as a grind, then all MMO's created to this date are just a grind of numbers and aren't you really starting over with every one that you buy? I personally enjoy the adventure and the journey far more than being "uber powerful". Being uber powerful gets boring real fast.

Item #4 Which has more witches! WoW does of course! Lotro doesn't have any! Although if it was a comparison with WAR, WAR would win hands down. (the scantily clad obnoxious kind)

Item #5 Which is introducing cooler classes? Ooooooooo toughie. I'm gonna let my readers decide. What do you guys think? Is the deathknight da bomb or the Rune Keeper and the Warden? 2 is better than one right? Not necessarily. Here's the scoop for the uninitiated. The Death Knight gets to start at lvl 55 right off the bat. Second, the Death Knight can tank, almost as well as a Warrior. A Warden can tank almost as well as a Guardian also, they do it though dodging and blocks with their special warden shield though instead of massive mitigation. Third, the Death Knight can dps, a Warden can also dps, as can a Rune Keeper! (Rune Keepers can flip to healing but they cannot do both at the same time very well and they have to build up to one or the other) Lastly, Arthas was a death knight! Who wouldn't want to play a gnome death knight? Cmon! They oughta offer a leper gnome one. Sheesh :D Well that's about all I know. If you wanna add more please do.

--addendum Lotro will have Legendary Weapons. These weapons level up with your character. What is possibly more interesting is that you can kind of "disenchant" other Legendaries you find or your old Legendary if you want to use a new one and then use the components to enhance the one you choose. This should give equipment more life and resist "Mudflation" so to speak.

*it was just announced that Lotro will have changes to the Ettenmoors in Moria. Some of these will add more, smaller capturable objectives, and others will make taking keeps a little harder. The last major change is the addition of a third faction in the Moors (a nuetral one from beneath) and multiple entry points to the Moors.