I've Got to Leave Ol' Goblin-Town

Goblin-town.  If you've seen "The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey" (or read the book "The Hobbit") then you know it is a town of goblins (natch) located in (or under, if you prefer) "The Misty Mountains".  In LotRO, it is a massive, maze-like area, with several layers, that starts off completely masked by the "fog-of-war".  Fortunately, once you've explored an area, you lift the fog-of-war permanently...at least, as far as I know it's permanent.

I am told that LotRO is more like other conventional MMOs than DDO is:  there are few private questing instances; most areas are public and questing items/goals are located within them.  The mobs are plentiful and, generally speaking, continuously re-spawning.  The length of time between re-spawns seems to vary, but best I can tell, you have at least a minute, probably more.  Now, if there are a lot of people running a particular area, this can be good if you don't need kills as part of your quest goal.  You could, in theory, let someone else run through first, killing mobs that are in the way, with you following behind not having to fight.  In theory.

Goblin-town can be a real headache in that you must fight your way in, stumble around until you find your goal(s), then fight your way back out* - you can literally spend hours trying to complete just one quest (I know, because I have).  And you don't dare leave in the middle of a quest** because that means essentially doing the whole thing all over again from the beginning.  Except, not quite.  Because now you at least have a clear-ish map of where you've been...but that assumes you can remember where it is you were going.  The best analogy in DDO is probably "The Temple of Elemental Evil", but even that falls short because once you complete part one, you can skip right to part two.  No such 'skipping' in Goblin-town - you leave, you start all over again from the entrance.

There *may* be some 'safe' spots, by which I mean I have not seen any roaming mobs, where you can leave the game for a while and then log-in back in and resume without re-entering, per se.  But just because I didn't see any roaming mobs in certain areas doesn't mean there no roaming mobs in those areas.

Running it solo at or below level is tough.  Not because the mobs are necessarily very difficult (although, there are a few), but just because there are so many of them.  You can try just running past them, but I wouldn't recommend it in an area covered by the fog-of-war.  Eventually, they do rubber-band, but you may run out of running room before then or, just as likely, pick up even more along the way.  If you're sufficiently over level (where the mob names are gray), you should be able to ignore them, as they should ignore you†.  But where's the fun in that?

Anyway, I've been spending quite a bit of time in ol' Goblin-town, lately.  And I'm not done yet.

But since I needed a break, and for whatever reason this song was running through my head, I give you a "Goblin-town" filk:

Chorus:
I've got to leave ol' Goblin-town,
I've got to leave ol' Goblin-town,
I've got to leave ol' Goblin-town,
And I hope that I don't get cut-down.

Back when I went first through the door,
I fought tons of mobs in the corridors,
Now I've turned a corner and there's even more,
And they're chasing - chasing, chasing, chasing, chasing me!

(Chorus)

So long ago - my head is in a haze,
I've been running up and down and 'round this maze,
Crap! I've angered mobs just past those large archways,
And they're chasing - chasing, chasing, chasing, chasing me!

(Chorus)

Have I been down this hall before?
Wait a minute - does that look like a door?
Maybe, but more mobs have spawned there like before,
And they're chasing - chasing, chasing, chasing, chasing me!

(Chorus) x2

La, la-la-la, la, la-la, la,
La, la-la-la, la, la-la, la,
La, la-la-la, la, la-la, la,
La-la, la-la, la-la, la-la, la.



____
* Unlike DDO, there is no "recall/finish" option.  However, there are certain...fast travel options, if you have them, that can teleport you to a milestone (or other locations, for certain classes).  But except for one, that I know of, all of them can be easily interrupted, so don't use them in battle.

** Yeah, you can - and I have - left in the middle of a quest.  Sometimes you need to.  And yes, then I have to fight my way back to where I was when I want to resume.  *Sigh*

† Unless, of course, you attack them.  Except possibly for instances.  But I don't think Goblin-town is an instance, as instances are generally private, and I'm pretty sure Goblin-town is public.