ALICE
This has been my first Spring Festival and I was pretty excited to participate. I loved the locations of the Festival, Celondim and Duillon, with their eternal Spring, were the perfect scenery to celebrate this season, and the hedge maze in Bree-land was funny. I didn’t like to spend so much money to travel here and there to complete the quests, and that’s why I gave up with the quests for the Inn League.
I’m very happy for the cosmetics and the mounts to barter. My favourite set is the Lissuin one, both the dress and the pony, my Hobbit looks so pretty in her new outfit and her Hobbit hole has received a refresh with the lovely Clover Stool and the Pea-green Wall Paint.
Honestly, the things I preferred about this Festival is the skill that allow you to “summon a Spotted Shrew to brighten your day”. I named my pet Errol and I love that it follows my Hobbit during her wanderings in Middle-earth.
AMANDA
Just like some of my fellow Warriors, this was my first Spring Festival! I was quite excited about attending and had heard so many fascinating stories. Stories of shrews and chickens, tweens and mazes, drinking and special steeds.
An exciting opportunity came with the ability to raise my standing with either the Inn League or the Ale Association. Being that my main character is a Dwarf, I of course chose the latter. The Ale Association is known for being much bolder and antagonistic to say the least. Passing the nerve-wracking and disorienting initiation quest involved drinking six ales at five different locations around Bree. The drinking itself was not difficult, it was getting to the next location while drunk before time ran out that proved to be challenging. After failing the first time my Dwarf, Rumki, persevered and went on to complete the quest with 2 seconds to spare the second time. I found it hilarious to listen to a drunk Dwarf because they sound much like Homer Simpson repeating his famous “Doh” line.
Once you pass the initiation and receive the title of “Ale Association member”, you are free to do some repeatable quests given out by other Ale Association members found in various festival locations. While the tasks themselves are not necessarily difficult, it is the distance from one task to the next that will challenge your commitment to the Association. After several hours of playing throughout the duration of the Spring Festival, Rumki is not only a proud member of the Ale Association but has also reached “Friend” standing with them. Hopefully when it comes time for the next festival, she will be able to reach “Kindred” standing to purchase the Prized Ale Association Goat!
BRITTA
This was the first festival in which I hardly participated. Having played the game for over five years now, I had already obtained all of the rewards I wanted in previous years’ Spring Festivals. Once again, I found there were few new additions to the rewards pool – and they were hardly worth the effort, in my opinion. However, I have an addiction to festival runs – it’s easy levelling and hoarding tokens one year comes in very handy the next! – so by the end of the week, I started to play through the hedge maze and spend some time in Duillond. This was also the first festival where I had nine characters (as opposed to five), so it was a real challenge trying to decide who needed horses and experiences and who could sit this one out.
From the amount I have played so far, I am enjoying the festival; I just wish the rewards were updated a bit more. I personally am not a huge fan of the “tablecloth” steeds, and I also think there should be more cosmetic options, perhaps even by race (everyone celebrates spring differently, after all!). If, when they introduced a new cosmetic, they included both the dress and robe versions, then I would be a bit more satisfied. I have found that dresses look wonderful on any female character (especially hobbits!), but robes and hauberks are harder to pull off, even on some of my male characters.
MARIA
I loved the spring festival. I wasn’t sure what to expect as it has been my first Spring Festival, but I loved it. Most quests were enjoyable and there were many moments I had to giggle (drunk Hobbits are adorable). Altgough, I have to admit, I’ve never thought I’d hate tween Hobbits so much in my life! I even ended up loving “Stomp a Shrew” (although I did felt sorry for them…)
As for the cosmetics and ponies, I was pleasently surprised that the cheapest pony turned out to be the one I liked the most. My absolute favorite, however, will always be the majestic painting of a shrew.
All in all, I really enjoyed the Spring festival!
MYLA
This was my second Spring Festival but it kind of felt like my first because I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do last year. I vaguely remembered a maze that made me want to rip my hair out, and running around Ered Luin looking for string. I was pretty excited for this festival because I had looked up what cosmetics and housing decorations would be available. My first though was “I’m going to buy ALL THE THINGS!!” That didn’t happen, haha. I started the festival with high spirits thinking it would be so fun that I wouldn’t want to stop playing. After the first couple days I became a little bored and frustrated, but that’s because I wanted more quests that would satisfy my lazy needs! Totally not LOTRO’s fault, I was just exhausted from the end of the semester so I wanted to do as little as possible to get everything I wanted.
After a while I gave up on the maze quests, occasionally doing the tween one. I spent most of my time in Duillond stomping shrews and running all around Middle-earth in search of flowers. I was so determined to get the Steed of the Jester (which I did)! I did some horse races and dance quests, and now my guardian can dance like all of the races! Her favorites are the dwarf and hobbit ones. It’s nearing the end of the festival and I’m content with the things I acquired. I have the Lissuin Steed, the Steed of the Jester and all of the maps. One step closer to the Eriador Cartographer deed! Kind of wish I could get the Steed of Spring Gardens but ehhh, maybe next year. OH! I forgot to talk about the two new shrews my guardian has! She’s especially fond of the spotted one, next she’ll need to think of a good name.
What did you think of this year’s Spring Festival? Let us know in the comments below!
