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After finishing the training area, I was transported to the Elves' snowy starting town. As it turns out, this is on the same map as that of the Dwarves. In fact, they even share some of the same quests. Still, the fact that I was pursuing them with different weapons and skill sets kept them from feeling identical. My Dwarf was a Champion, who specializes in front-line melee area-of-effect damage (not exactly a tank, though -- that's the Guardian). Where my Elf could snipe from a distance, the Dwarf had to wade into battle. Then again, the Dwarf Champion was better able to handle multiple foes at once with his special melee skills. The Champion can also use a weapon in each hand, which makes the other classes just seem lazy in comparison.

Surprisingly, I had the most fun of all adventuring as a Hobbit in the Shire and surrounding regions. Just because they're short doesn't mean they're pushovers! I created a Hobbit Minstrel, intending to test how well the Minstrel class -- whose role is healing -- can handle solo play. (As it turns out, all of the classes I tried seemed to be capable lone wolves. Whether this remains the case into the higher levels remains to be seen, of course.)

My Minstrel's healing was handy, but happily it wasn't his entire purpose in life. He also had some effective ranged magic attacks and enhancements to his melee attacks. Also, it appears that in later levels, a Minstrel can buy different musical instruments to change or enhance his abilities.