GUIDE: New to LOTRO - hints and tips

[fidor]

Just a thought, but would a category on the benefits of crafted consumables be useful?
The different types of food (cooked, trail etc), Hope tokens, scholar battle/warding scrolls, class consumables (fire oil, light oil etc), poison pots etc

[Thornelas]

Hmm, it would certainly be useful to certain players but I think it's a bit too much for this guide (it's already very lengthy and I think new players will just get too much information thrown at them, I think it's best to give them some time to digest all of this first, then they can move on. On top of that, I don't think the consumables are that hard to understand, it kind of points itself all out

[Cindir]

Great guide. Thank you so much. Long time player but have taken some time off and been playing low levels.

Re: Tasks
If you do not do tasks you will: 1) level faster because you can focus on quests and get more XP, 2) don't need to worry about which items to save, and 3) will make more money early on, which can be helpful to buy better gear on the AH.
Other than hard to get reputation, I cannot see any good reason to use tasks. At least on the lower levels, it seems better now to skip them (mainly for the time saved and the gold gained).

[Thornelas]

I don't entirely agree with that... Although it's through that quests give you more xp and better rewards, it doesn't mean you can't complete tasks at the same time. A lot of quests involve killing a number of enemies, which drop task stuff. You can then just go turn in your quests, and look at the task boards if you found anything that matches listed tasks there.

[yawumpus]

Great guide. Thank you so much. Long time player but have taken some time off and been playing low levels.

Re: Tasks
If you do not do tasks you will: 1) level faster because you can focus on quests and get more XP, 2) don't need to worry about which items to save, and 3) will make more money early on, which can be helpful to buy better gear on the AH.

Two problems:
1. Tasks only involve handing in items that dropped during your quests. You will likely have more of these drop than you can possibly turn in in one day, so don't worry about it. Use a plugin (like dailytasks) so you don't waste more time managing inventory.
2. Are you seriously suggesting new low level players buy gear on the AH? Most don't, and I wouldn't suggest it without carefully explaining that crafting involves making a ton of basic items and vendoring almost all of them. You should be able to find plenty of critted examples of these "[crafting] leveling items" on the AH due to random crits between journeyman and master levels. If it isn't cheap, don't waste your money on it. Lastly, note that the OP was right to point out that the AH isn't terribly worth unlocking via TP (you get slots automatically with VIP or Premium), so using the AH before finishing the Lone Lands may make even less sense.

[Cindir]

Two problems:
...
2. Are you seriously suggesting new low level players buy gear on the AH? Most don't, and I wouldn't suggest it without carefully explaining that crafting involves making a ton of basic items and vendoring almost all of them. You should be able to find plenty of critted examples of these "[crafting] leveling items" on the AH due to random crits between journeyman and master levels. If it isn't cheap, don't waste your money on it.

I think it's all just player choice. I don't see much need to do quests (oops! I mean tasks!) now on low levels, and I like the money I get from vendoring task items. Saves me a lot of time because I don't have to figure out what to save, where to turn in the item and what level the task it.

On the AH: since my toons have plenty of money low level, it does make sense for me to go to the AH every few levels and buy a good weapon or armor. You could also craft but if you wanted to level faster it might make sense to use the plenty of money on cheap AH items that will very much upgrade armor and weapons. Just my take on this - I think all playstyles and choices are valid.

[yawumpus]

On the AH: since my toons have plenty of money low level, it does make sense for me to go to the AH every few levels and buy a good weapon or armor. You could also craft but if you wanted to level faster it might make sense to use the plenty of money on cheap AH items that will very much upgrade armor and weapons. Just my take on this - I think all playstyles and choices are valid.

My surprise comes from what I've heard (I'm a new player myself) which is don't buy gear from the AH below cap, what I've seen (I sell tons of cheap critted crafted gear just to level crafting), and what you are saying. I suspect you are right but how you are right depends on the player:

f2p: player has to get rid of gold as they keep bouncing off cap. 95TP to be able to use their silver (and have a cash flow) may be a good value. Still not buying anything expensive (due to cap). Vault costs negligible until gold is uncapped. Crafting can also be ignored except for grabbing materials to sell on the AH.

premium: player has wildly less gold cap issues than above due to higher cap and the ability to mail gold (and the 17.5G maw known as the vault). Gear is a low priority, but will creep up after vault is fully (freely) unlocked.

VIP: player has neither cap nor limits with AH. Might as well buy some gear (but will still probably want to cough up that 17.5G first).

I would claim that 17.5G per character is still a lot for those new to LOTRO (especially considering the things this guide covers). 2G really isn't, more so when you must use or lose it on that character alone. I guess it mostly comes down to either deciding between spending TP on the AH of packs or deciding between vault unlocks or gear.

I think that crafting your own gear is the main argument against the AH, but that tends to assume you enjoy the crafting grind (probably better than grinding 95TP, but a single purchase changes that).

[Cindir]

Yeah, for me using the AH low level is all about buying the really cheap items - never anything too expensive. I am mostly just spending the money I get from questing and playing to upgrade my items - since I am not crafting.

I do have extra gold though from mail coming in from my other toons. So it's possible on the first toon on the server you may want to save more gold and silver. Also, I play on the crowded servers, so there may be more cheap good crafted items and drops on the AH.

[Shukar]

I would claim that 17.5G per character is still a lot for those new to LOTRO (especially considering the things this guide covers). 2G really isn't, more so when you must use or lose it on that character alone. I guess it mostly comes down to either deciding between spending TP on the AH of packs or deciding between vault unlocks or gear.

Remember that it's not 17.5 G (omg, did I really spend that much?) all at once. You buy it in 15-slot increments... and there's no point in buying more space until you have stuff to store there AND money to buy it with.

It is OK to buy gear in the AH *if* it is enough better than what you're wearing to be worth the money to buy it. Many people are dumb and replace their armor every level or two, thereby running through WAY too much money. Or they insist on having crit-crafted gear that they replace every 5 or 10 levels with the current most-awesome crit-crafted gear, spending a LOT on each piece, and then wonder why they're always broke.

You can get by nicely with the gear you get by questing. It's only if you're running into trouble, AND the gear you can afford is much better than the stuff you're wearing, that it makes sense to buy from the AH. Mostly I tell folks not to buy gear in the AH because none of it is significantly better than what you get questing until you are in your 40's... and can definitely afford to buy in the AH.

Of course, I have a guild Tailor and can outfit my alts and my kinnies in crit-crafted gear at most levels. This is one of the advantages of kinships.

[Niwashi]

2. Are you seriously suggesting new low level players buy gear on the AH? Most don't, and I wouldn't suggest it without carefully explaining that crafting involves making a ton of basic items and vendoring almost all of them.

You're assuming brand new players have at least four alts if you're suggesting they craft everything for themselves, since that's the minimum necessary to cover all the crafting professions. If they're starting off with a single character, they'll probably want to buy crafted items from whichever professions they're not pursuing for themselves. (Even within the professions they do have, it takes a lot of focus on crafting as opposed to questing if you want to keep pace with your leveling and be able to make items for yourself. Otherwise, crafting is more useful for equipping later alts, and many players buy all the gear for their first character.)

You should be able to find plenty of critted examples of these "[crafting] leveling items" on the AH due to random crits between journeyman and master levels. If it isn't cheap, don't waste your money on it.

Yeah, well that's why low-level crafted gear usually is pretty cheap, because there's so much of it produced while trying to level crafting skill. But given that it is fairly cheap, I'm not sure why people would recommend against the AH as a good place to get it. (Well, there is the caveat that relying on the AH means the specific items you want won't necessarily be available as soon as you want them. It might take a bit of persistence to keep trying back until what you want is there and at a reasonable price. For the same reason, it's good to also keep a lookout for items that you can't use yet but will want once you gain a few more levels.)

Lastly, note that the OP was right to point out that the AH isn't terribly worth unlocking via TP (you get slots automatically with VIP or Premium), so using the AH before finishing the Lone Lands may make even less sense.

The AH slots you buy are for selling your own items, not for buying new ones. Everyone can buy items from the AH.

[Shukar]

Lastly, note that the OP was right to point out that the AH isn't terribly worth unlocking via TP (you get slots automatically with VIP or Premium), so using the AH before finishing the Lone Lands may make even less sense.

This is very incorrect. You don't need to unlock the AH in order to buy things from the AH. Unlocking slots on the AH is for SELLING things... and even if you don't care to craft, this can be very profitable. Merely selling the unprocessed hides, crit items, and heal/power potions you get as drops will make you much more money than selling them to an NPC. If you can stand the minimal amount of crafting to advance your Prospecting (by crafting ore into ingots) and Forestry professions (by turning hides into leather), you can make a LOT of money in the AH and be better able to afford to buy armor and equipment there. Or you can trade your ores/ingots and hides/leather to a crafter who can make the items you want to use. All you have to do is take the Explorer profession and gather the ores and wood you see as you adventure.

[Rufus_T_Fyrfly]

This is very incorrect. You don't need to unlock the AH in order to buy things from the AH. Unlocking slots on the AH is for SELLING things... and even if you don't care to craft, this can be very profitable. Merely selling the unprocessed hides, crit items, and heal/power potions you get as drops will make you much more money than selling them to an NPC. If you can stand the minimal amount of crafting to advance your Prospecting (by crafting ore into ingots) and Forestry professions (by turning hides into leather), you can make a LOT of money in the AH and be better able to afford to buy armor and equipment there. Or you can trade your ores/ingots and hides/leather to a crafter who can make the items you want to use. All you have to do is take the Explorer profession and gather the ores and wood you see as you adventure.

This sounds like what I ended up doing. I started out as a Woodsman on my Warden, but I found that alot of weapons and armor were selling cheap on the AH. So I changed vocation to Explorer, and sold most of my hides and loot on the AH, while buying cheap gear for myself. I also found that as a premie, I was already hitting the 5g cap by lvl 15, so I ended up getting to currency unlock soon after.

[yawumpus]

This is very incorrect.

Oops. I unlocked the AH with TP extremely early (before becoming premium) and thought I couldn't buy things before (did that change recently, I know all players can buy on the AH now?) And while you need not "craft" to use the AH, selling raw materials on it is one of the reasons I suggest "get a crafting profession. If you can't decide or don't want one, take explorer (to sell the materials)".

[Shukar]

Oops. I unlocked the AH with TP extremely early (before becoming premium) and thought I couldn't buy things before (did that change recently, I know all players can buy on the AH now?)

All players could *buy* from the AH from day one, though I'm not sure if that's clear to new players. There's a limit to how many items you can have on your Bid list (and I'm not sure if that's a different number for different players). Free players can't *sell* on the AH without buying slots. Premium players get 5 slots and VIPs get 30 slots, and they also can buy more slots from the Store.

[Bomb2Bomb]

thanks for this

[Thornelas]

Just updated the guide to match the changes of last update... If there are still any errors you see, please let me know.

[Shukar]

Just updated the guide to match the changes of last update... If there are still any errors you see, please let me know.

I didn't see any errors, but I think it might be good to mention skirmishes and Big Battles. These are also "things to do" and some people find them fun but get confused about getting started with them.

Great guide, and kudos for maintaining it!

[Thornelas]

Okay, will try to work on that when I've had my first big battle experience (trying to do everything in chronological order so it may take a few days/week, but I'll get there eventually)

[bobf]

I am new to LOTRO, and I have to say, if it wasn't for this thread, I'd be completely lost! This has helped me sooo much i can't begin to explain! I basically started out game just playing from my WoW experience of playing that for 7 yrs, bt this is so different, without this, I would have quit already. Now, I am becoming a VIP member !!!!, thanks again

[Thornelas]

I am new to LOTRO, and I have to say, if it wasn't for this thread, I'd be completely lost! This has helped me sooo much i can't begin to explain! I basically started out game just playing from my WoW experience of playing that for 7 yrs, bt this is so different, without this, I would have quit already. Now, I am becoming a VIP member !!!!, thanks again

It's nice to read such awesome feedback, thank you very much Glad it helped you, feel free to recommend the guide to all your in-game friends!

(Now that I've seen this thread again for the first time in months, I remember that I have to add a section about skirms and BBs... *sigh*, way too much work to do... Maybe something to spread over the next few weekends)

[EmyrSelyf]

It might be a good idea to add this to the Player-Created-Guides-and-FAQs forum topic as well.

[Partas]

It has been over 3 years since I last played LOTRO. Much has changed since my early days on my founder account. Thanks for you guide. I have been reading through it and refreshing my memory.

[Thornelas]

Updated for U16 + added LI section (skirmishes and BBs still under construction):

8. Legendary Items

8.1 Your first Legendary Item

Starting at lvl 45, you are able to being the epic quests of Vol. II (even if you haven’t finished Vol. I yet). In the pre-Moria era of LOTRO, the last books of Vol. I all took place in Eriador, and half of entire Vol. I consisted of lvl 50 quests, so it’s quite understandable if you don’t want to stick around to finish those. Vol. II will lead you into Moria and continues the storyline after lvl 50, but since you can start quests 5 lvls below the actual quest lvl, it’s possible to start at 45. The first book of Vol. II will introduce you to the Iron Garrison, a company of Dwarves determined to retake Moria. Along the way, you’ll be rewarded with your first Legendary Items (or Lis for short). There are 3 types of Lis: a main-hand weapon (sword, axe, rune-stone etc.), a class item (minstrel songbook, guardian belt etc.) and a Legendary Bridle for mounted combat (lvl 75+). Usually, the main-hand weapon will boost your offensive abilities while your class item will focus on your other roles in grouping, like healing or tanking.

LIs can be further classified based on their age and lvl requirement. You can find new LIs as epic quest rewards (rarely), in loot (any minimum equip level possible between 50-100), bartering them at LI barter NPCs or by crafting (minimum equip levels of 60, 65, 75, 85, 95 or 100). The age of an LI determines how powerful it is: First Age (FA) items are more powerful, but require much more experience than Second Age (SA) items, and Third Age (TA) items are rarely used once you’re beyond lvl 65 since they can’t compare to SA or FA. Once you’ve acquired a new LI, you need to take it to a Forge Master NPC to identify it. During the identification process, the abilities (or major legacies) of your item are determined.

8.2 Improving and customizing your LI

What’s so special about Lis is that they level with you, and thus they grow stronger when you have them for a while. Normally, the maximum lvl of your LI is 60, but it can be increased to 70 by using a special Scroll of Delving. Each time your LI gains a level, it will also get a few Legendary Points which you can spend to improve the ranks of your legacies. Every legacy has a tier which determines how many points it costs to upgrade its rank: higher tier legacies are cheaper to upgrade so you can improve further with the same amount of Legendary Points. On top of that, every 10 levels you will need to reforge your LI to unlock further progress. By reforging (done at the forge master), you will unlock new minor legacies (reforges at 10, 20 and 30) or upgrade the tier of a legacy (at 40, 50, 60 and 70). You can also add more legacies, replace them or upgrade their tiers (max. tier 6) by using other Legendary Scrolls, but these are hard to come by. Useful to know is that every item type has one default legacy which is always present (like a bonus to tactical healing on the minstrel songbook or bonus to shield use on the guardian belt).

In order to make things even more complicated, Turbine added 4 relic slots to each LI: one for a setting, one for a gem, one for a rune and one for a crafted relic. Settings, gems and runes can be found by deconstructing other LIs, fused relics or sealed relics at a Relic Master. Crafted relics can only be acquired through crafting guilds. Relics also have tiers to indicate their potency, ranging from tier 1-10. There are also mounted relics which only fit on Legendary Bridles, but they’re quite similar so I won’t discuss them here.

Another thing worth mentioning are Legendary Titles: these are special items which you can barter or obtain through special quests in order to give your main-hand LI a special advantage over certain types of enemies, or just give it another stat bonus. These titles have 3 tiers and boost stats, mitigations or damage type skills, or they alter the damage type of your weapon. Altering your weapon’s damage can be crucial in order to survive some locations, as there are some types of mobs that are extremely resistant to common damage.

I’ve already mentioned Legendary scrolls a few times, here’s an overview of the different types that exist. Keep in mind that each type of scroll has several sub-types depending on the minimal equip lvl of the items you can use them on.

• Scrolls of Renewal: these reset the spent points on your LI so you can spend them in a different way. These aren’t used very often as you have the option to reset your spent points each time you reforge your LI.
• Scrolls of Empowerment: used to upgrade the tier of one legacy.
• Legacy exchange scrolls: will swap one of your current legacies for another specific legacy listed on the scroll. These can be stat legacies or legacy scrolls you obtained by deconstructing another leveled LI. Keep in mind that the scrolls you obtained from deconstruction can only be used on LIs that are max 1 crafting tier higher than the deconstructed item.
• Scrolls of Delving: adds 10 experience levels to the LI, can only be used once per item.

Finally I’d also like to mention Crystals. Star-lit Crystals are rare items which can be occasionally found as loot in raids or instances, and they are used to empower your LI even further. Upon use, the crystal will upgrade the DPS rating, the default legacy and any ratings-based legacies on the LI (so not percentage-based, cooldown-based or number of target-based legacies). You can use up to 3 Star-lit Crystals on each LI. The other type of Crystal is the Crystal of Remembrance. They can be used to add an additional major legacy slot, but they can only be used once on any LI.

8.3 The Relic Master

The Relic Master is (I think) the least known aspect of LIs for new players, even though he can be very handy. Most people only use the Relic Master for deconstructing LIs they don’t need or don’t need anymore. Since a LI can’t be sold to a vendor, it’s usually the only way to get rid of one besides destroying it from your bags. I would not recommend destroying them though, because deconstructing them has benefits: each time you deconstruct a LI, no matter how low or weak, you receive at least 1 relic (10+ relics for a fully leveled LI). These relics can then be used on your new LIs in order to empower them.

Another thing you can do at the Relic Master is Relic Forging. Basically, you take 3-5 relics of one tier and create one relic of a higher tier (or a few relics if you achieve critical success). Relic Forging is essential if you want to empower your LI with strong relics, since the higher tier relics are extremely rare to find. Since most Relic Forging will be random, you can’t really predict what kind of relic you’ll be creating. Don’t worry though, because through the Melding option at the Relic Master, you can transform one type of relic into another of the same tier by using shards (which are obtained by deconstructing LIs, refining relics or critical success during Relic Forging). You can also use the Melding ability to create items from just shards, very useful items like scrolls, random relics, Legendary Scrolls, Stat Legacies or unidentified low-lvl LIs.

The last option at the Relic Master is the Refining tab. Here you can choose any relic you possess and destroy it to receive shards, which can then be used for Melding. There’s also a small chance of receiving Heritage Runes upon Refining that will allow you to add a specific amount of item xp to your LI.

8.4 Imbuement

The last thing I want to mention is Imbuement. Introduced with Update 16 in May 2015, you can imbue a LI at lvl 100 to transform it permanently. Basically, you will never need to reforge or deconstruct the item again because it will lvl with you for the rest of the game. In order to do that, your LI has to be changed though: there won’t be a LI lvl anymore, but your legacies will level instead. Your LI’s “level” will then be shown as the total of all individual legacy levels. This means that you will no longer need to spend points on legacies, they will get stronger automatically. When your LI gains xp, it will be distributed equally among all legacies. For now, roughly 40 tiers can be earned for each legacy, although not all of these are free: the last 15-ish tiers will have to be purchased with Mithril Coins (or unlocked by rare items in-game). The default legacy will have fewer tiers though, about half of that of the regular legacies. Some legacies will also change their function because otherwise there would be legacies that improve your block chance to 90% and similar situations.


That’s about it for this guide, I hope it helped you to start up your journey through Middle-Earth, and if you have any questions… Feel free to ask! Again sorry for the very, very long post, and thanks for your patience if you read it all the way to this point. See you in-game!

[Thornelas]

Is Buffbars still functional?

I found it but it's listed under "Outdated LotRO Interfaces".

It still works for me. It's quite old indeed but I still haven't found aspects that don't work anymore so I keep using it until that happens

[Olgomil]

Nice guide Thornelas, Turbine need put this thread as sticky.

Sergio :-)