Just a quick post to celebrate the fact that a couple nights ago, I hit level 35 and was able to get my Advanced Riding skill and buy a fast mount (I had enough gold, miraculously!) in Lord of the Rings Online.
I gotta say though, reaching this milestone was one of those big fat “Dur, I’m such a moron” moments. I must have tried the race course five times before I was able to get the riding skill reward. If you’re reading this and thinking I had trouble with the timed quest…well, you’d be wrong. The course was easy; I always managed to make it with around 15 seconds on the clock to spare. The problem was, every time I reached the quest giver, he wouldn’t talk to me to let me finish the quest!
So there I was swearing up a blue storm at this idiot NPC who kept failing me, until I finally opened up my journal to read the quest again. Right then and there, I gave myself the biggest facepalm of my life. I’d read the quest text too quickly. It actually told me to use the bloodbay steed (the mob stabled on the grounds) when I’d originally thought it said your bloodbay steed. In retrospect, I guess if they’d actually wanted you to use your own mount, they’d probably have specifically stated “starter steed”. The thing is, I know my horse colors (like every little girl, I was obsessed with ponies and knew everything that had to do with them). In my mind, I’d always refer to my starter pony as a “bloodbay” because that’s actually the color it was…and after 15 levels, it kinda stuck. When I read the description in the quest text, my mind immediately made the erroneous connection to my own mount.
Yeah, I could say it was 3am at the time and I was tired, out of it, and eager to get to bed, but in the end I really have no good excuse. I was a right big noob, plain and simple.
But boy, it was worth it. Behold my new fast pony.
MMO Gamer Chick 