#maybe if i had a regular raiding group but alas all my friends are spread across many servers

[rohirric-hunter]

I'm really glad they added in an option to return wraiths to single player instances. I know it's not what the servers are for, but when I decided to make a character on Angmar I was hoping for wraiths to interrupt all sorts of interesting moments, as that sort of shenaniganery is what gets the fanfic gears grinding in my head best. And of course the most interesting moments in LotRO are pretty much all instanced.

Also the first time I ever soloed a wraith (before they removed them from solo instances) was in my first class quest solo-only instance. It actually got me at first, and I wasn't sure I could beat it, but it was so exhiliarating and fun when I did. It added a whole other level to the regular gameplay, where I ended up taking out a lot of the regular enemies first so I would have room to maneuver (hoping I wouldn't spawn another while I was at it. No cooldown either back then.) This sort of strategic thinking is not usually necessary to LotRO, even with landscape difficulty. I roleplay it when I play on my Hathellang clones, using the stealth attacks extensively, but even the class designed to be dependent on stealth can still barrel through dozens of enemies without touching the stealth skill if you're in a hurry.

Honestly it brought me back to when I first started playing LotRO and had no idea how to build a character, never leveled my virtues, and outleveled all my gear. Of course as I learned new things and corrected them on my character, things becoming easier was an excellent reward. But the gameplay also lost a lot as it became less challenging. I'm thrilled that this kind of challenge is slowly being implemented into the game intentionally, through landscape difficulty and now the Veil of the Nine stuff.