Is there a lore-respecting way for newbies to do the Midsummer Festival?

[GLipscom]

I enjoy most of the LOTRO annual festivals but find myself torn participating in Midsummer because it is further along in the Epic Quest (Vol. V) than I & my friends have reached yet (Vol. II). Is there a lore-respecting way to do the Midsummer Festival?

At last year's Midsummer, our group used the bestowed maps & stable masters to come to Minas Tirith, but when the Festival Reveller NPC bid us to speak with King Elessar, we skipped it since there was no King yet & still isn't as we have just now entered Moria for the 1st time. We did do other Midsummer quest outsider of Minas Tirith and were able to complete the festival wrapper quests and get some of the seasonal rewards, but it was grindy feeling & not very fun. But otherwise, I guess it'll give us something to look forward to when we reach EQ Vol. V...

[WeirdJedi]

One of the things they did for the game was introduce a sort of vision you can watch when you rest in a bed at the very beginning of the game. The same could be done in this regard. It could even be told through role-playing as if you saw into the Mirror of Galadriel of Aragorn's future since you are traveling with him and wondering if everything will turn out alright.

A second thing that the game presents is a sort of backstory re-telling when visiting areas in the past. Volume 3 revolves much about gaining his followers, Arwen's involvement, and heading down towards Gondor. Since you are around Volume 2, you can present this as some sort of premonition or a way of having the couple talk about what will happen when the battle is won as some sort of insightful blessing of what to look forward to.

[CloudCastle]

There are two things going on in the midsummer instance version: the wedding and the festival. You can avoid doing the wedding entirely by just not taking the Epic quest. The festival quests make no mention of the wedding, they only talk about a midsummer party, so you can do all of those. That's what I do on any alts that have not gotten to the right part of the story for the wedding yet.

[TesalionLortus]

Something that I wasn't aware of previously - the Hall with the Royal Banquet requires the chapter of the epic done, so if you avoid the epic entirely here, you can treat it as a normal festival celebration in Minas Tirith immersion-ok at any point in time (well, with the few obvious exceptions, like if you were during Mordor's full-on assault on Gondor during the War, that would have been awkward to switch to festival map :P)

For the sake of immersion, I guess you might also want to avoid entering the Tower of Ecthelion/Throne Room interior if they made it open-access-for-all (which they probably did to allow anyone to pick up the epic regardless of where they are in the storyline, I assume?).

Overall, it's a middle-ground and they should have communicated it more in-game HOW to do it if someone cares for immersion, but yeah, it's possible to immerse yourself taking the above into account, should be no problem there since the epic event is closed-off without the epic quests done (but a bit confusing due to the fact that you can still pick up the epic chapters and see a certain king *wink wink*, which is why I said they should have communicated it more).

[TobiasEstForte]

There are two things going on in the midsummer instance version: the wedding and the festival. You can avoid doing the wedding entirely by just not taking the Epic quest. The festival quests make no mention of the wedding, they only talk about a midsummer party, so you can do all of those. That's what I do on any alts that have not gotten to the right part of the story for the wedding yet.

Denethor is simply wearing his tailor-made Aragorn cosplay and RPing, right?

[CloudCastle]

Denethor is simply wearing his tailor-made Aragorn cosplay and RPing, right?

None of the festival quests send you into the room where Aragorn is in, so you should be able to avoid it entirely.

[GLipscom]

None of the festival quests send you into the room where Aragorn is in, so you should be able to avoid it entirely.

Just as you ride into the Workers' Tier of Minas Tirith, the Midsummer Reveller NPCs beckons to you to bestow the quest "A Midsummer Welcome" that bids you to present yourself to King Aragorn II Elessar in The Tower of Ecthelion to welcome you to the festival.

As far as I have been able to find, A Midsummer Welcome, the Festival Wrappers, and 4 crafting quests bestowed by Melthend on the Craftsmen's Tier are the only festival quest available in Minas Tirith, if you do not present yourself to King Aragorn II Elessar first...

[blacknazgul13]

I'm afraid that if you want to avoid the epic quest, you will have to complete festival quests in areas other than Minas Tirith to fill your daily quota. There are a couple in Bree-land, and probably in the other starter areas as well.

[CloudCastle]

Just as you ride into the Workers' Tier of Minas Tirith, the Midsummer Reveller NPCs beckons to you to bestow the quest "A Midsummer Welcome" that bids you to present yourself to King Aragorn II Elessar in The Tower of Ecthelion to welcome you to the festival.

As far as I have been able to find, A Midsummer Welcome, the Festival Wrappers, and 4 crafting quests bestowed by Melthend on the Craftsmen's Tier are the only festival quest available in Minas Tirith, if you do not present yourself to King Aragorn II Elessar first...

Well that's a shame. I'm surprised they made that a requirement since the festival being the a separate event is surely intended (after all, Aragorn and Arwen don't keep getting married year after year.) And surely they also must recognize that lots of people will not have characters who are the right level yet for the wedding part of the story, yet still want to participate. I would still recommend that anyone who doesn't want to do the Epic still do that one quest in order to unlock the festival. It seems unfair to force yourself to give up an entire festival over one quest. You can do whatever you like to justify it - pretend it didn't happen, it's just a foreshadowing dream, etc. Once you complete that quest, you never have to see references to the wedding again and can enjoy the festival every year until you are ready for the epic.

[OldMadeOfLions]

Since you are around Volume 2, you can present this as some sort of premonition or a way of having the couple talk about what will happen when the battle is won as some sort of insightful blessing of what to look forward to.

I like this! It puts me in mind of Elrond's premonition about Arwen's future from the movies... but a much more cheery version.

We often have characters talk about things that have already happened (Mordor Besieged, the Battle of Azanulbizar, etc. etc.) but framing it in this way lets you treat the Wedding as a thing that *will* happen, unless you'd rather wait to play it after you make it through Epic Volumes 2-4, the Black Book of Mordor, and the Kingdom of Gondor Allegiance. I'm a big fan of picking-and-choosing the stories you want your characters to participate in, so whichever way you prefer is fine by me, but this seems like a reasonable explanation if you'd rather not wait.

MoL

[GLipscom]

Thank you everyone for your input & suggestions. As you can see from my Forum Join Date, I've been playing LOTRO on-and-off now for 5 years, along with a couple other MMORPGs, explaining my very slow progress to Moria in Volume II. Rushing through the Epic Quest isn't a thing with me, as I would much rather take my time and savor the story to the fullest... in its own time.

Since LOTRO's 15th Anniversary event unlocked much of the game for Free-To-Play (F2P), our family & friends have made LOTRO our primary MMORPG and we're moving forward in the Epic Quest now in earnest. So, we will skip the Midsummer Festival this year and will look forward to it again when we reach Epic Quest Vol. V, once the Enemy of all Free Peoples is finally defeated (hopefully next year)...

Thanks again to all!

[Pathwarden]

A cool question. I've been playing much longer, but only have a few characters at or near the level limit. I feel odd skipping ahead with certain characters at times. Some are made for the "story"....some are just made to goof around. Odd, but it does matter to me.