LOTRO Lightsabres

Now he drew it out. It shone pale and dim before his eyes. 'So it is an elvish blade, too,' he thought; 'and goblins are not very near, and yet not far enough.'

It is a property of Bilbo's and Frodo's blade that all seem to know. Sting glows blue when orcs are near.

Where this is actually illustrated in the text, I know not. Perhaps it was popularized by the movie trilogy. But LOTRO has included its own little nod to its roots, as I suddenly noticed midway through a regular "kill 24 drakes" collector quest.

Here's my sword. It's just some regular, non-legendary, two-hander I picked up from some quest in Angmar that I was using because it was a bit faster than a higher dps hammer, and the race of Men just look better fighting with a sword than a honking hammer.



Note the purple racial bonus.



This is my badly dressed character (I can't exactly afford color-matching dyes, y'know? And so much for cosmetic clothes on top of oogly armor when the clothes are just as oogly and cost a bomb to craft - I'm wearing free "marketing bonus" clothing) fighting an ordinary wolf, with the unassuming two-hander.



This is me midway through my twentieth drake kill (out of 24!) when I suddenly realize something's kinda... different. And kinda cool. In a fanboi kinda way.

Here's a story some LOTRO player, Stormwaltz, shared on the f13.net forums, that I found while searching for the relevant book quote:

True story:

I was in Gamil Filik (Silvertine) knocking off a couple of quests. I'd killed everything near me and had stopped to rearrange my inventory when I noticed my staff glowing. I spun around, but the closest goblin was at least fifty feet away.

I had just enough time to think "Well what--?" before the Moria Sneak dropped out of stealth and stuck a knife in my side.

Sadly for the goblin, my lynx was stealthed behind him. Between her ambush and my dropping Light of the Rising Dawn, he didn't last long.

Neat immersion trick for an understated kind of MMO.