Reported Quest Difficulty Levels and Recommendations

[Malefice]

QUEST: Destroying the Hatchery
CATEGORY: North Downs
JOURNAL LEVEL: 32
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 32
ACTUAL ICON: Fellowship
REASONS: The only reason I believe that this quest should be labeled as "fellowship" is thus: The eggs do not seem to spawn in the nests near the worms. The eggs continually spawn next to elite drakes (in the little pools there). The only way I was able to solo this, I believe, was because I am a Lore-Master. I rooted one drake and busied the other with my raven, while I scrambled around, collected eggs, and ran like the dickens.

[JeanCarlo]

QUEST: Destroying the Hatchery
CATEGORY: North Downs
JOURNAL LEVEL: 32
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 32
ACTUAL ICON: Fellowship
REASONS: The only reason I believe that this quest should be labeled as "fellowship" is thus: The eggs do not seem to spawn in the nests near the worms. The eggs continually spawn next to elite drakes (in the little pools there). The only way I was able to solo this, I believe, was because I am a Lore-Master. I rooted one drake and busied the other with my raven, while I scrambled around, collected eggs, and ran like the dickens.

Hmmm you might have just missed the eggs by the worms. I know this exact thing happened to me first time I did this and I thought I had to go to where the Drakes where. The eggs do in fact spawn by the nests usually guarded by a cold worm and an rock worm (lvl 32 and 33 respective). And you can pick up the same egg spawn if you wait.

Edit: Might as well add my word in re: Weathertop. VERY challenging and fun but definitely over leveled in terms of current setting.

[UMCorian]

QUEST: Dourhand Plans
CATEGORY: North Downs
JOURNAL LEVEL: 29
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 29 is fine
ACTUAL ICON: Small Fellowship
REASONS: The plans are hidden at the complete rear of the Ost Garudar - for those who have been there, it is an absolute nightmare, mobs packed into a very tight place with an incredible respawn rate. Typically, the pulls are 3 Non-Elites, or 2 Non-Elites and a Swarm mob. Factor in also that, occasionally, a 4000 hp elite Falconeer spawns in the only corridor that leads to the plans - along with 3 non-elite buddies, and you have yourself recipe for pain if you're alone. Small Fellowship of 2 or 3 shouldn't have too much trouble though.

I cancelled this quest after the 3rd try when no one wanted to group for it - had problems with the Falconeer twice.

[Varam]

QUEST: An Urgent Summons
CATEGORY: Epic - Prologue
JOURNAL LEVEL: 6
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 6
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: All this quest involves is walking from Archet to the inn in Combe and talking to the innkeeper, then going up the stairs and talking to Toradan. There's no combat involved at all except for some boars and wolves you might run into on the road between Archet and Combe, but nobody is going to need a fellowship to deal with them.

[LawLessOne]

QUEST: An Urgent Summons
CATEGORY: Epic - Prologue
JOURNAL LEVEL: 6
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 6
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: All this quest involves is walking from Archet to the inn in Combe and talking to the innkeeper, then going up the stairs and talking to Toradan. There's no combat involved at all except for some boars and wolves you might run into on the road between Archet and Combe, but nobody is going to need a fellowship to deal with them.

It is also very amusing that when you accept this quest you get the tool-tip pop-up explaining about fellowship vs solo quest. Then the quest has nothing in it that requires a fellowship. Most amusing.

[swiftb3]

QUEST: Adelard's Chapter
CATEGORY: Shire
JOURNAL LEVEL: 7
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 9
ACTUAL ICON: solo
REASONS: Its a running joke that people suffer their first death (including me) in MD doing that quest where the bee hive falls, you fight bees, then before you can recover you fight bears...

Mark another up for fixing that quest. I also know of multiple people (including myself) that bit it for the first time on that quest.
If I remember right, the bees can easily steal all your power, and auto-attacks have no chance of defeating the bears.

[Zerrius]

QUEST: Iron-jaws
CATEGORY: Lone-lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 22
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: You get this quest from Ost Guruth which requires you to kill Wargs. The Wargs around Ost Guruth are level 25-26 making the level 22 designation on this quest a bit low. The other warg quest in the area, Raising the Wargs' Ire, is level 25 so I believe this should be a level 25 quest as well.

QUEST: Noisome Neighbours
CATEGORY: Lone-lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 23
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 26
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: The bugs you have to kill in the swamp for this are level 25-27 mixed in with other level 26-28 bog prowlers and wights. 23 is just too low of a level for a quest that requires killing up to level 27 mobs.

Also might want to take a look at the quests given by Adso Haybank in Breeland. (He's the hobbit with the camp on the road between Bree and the Shire) He requires you to kill boars / brigands / wolves / bears and then make various deliveries to people to pay them back. The problem is all these quests are level 10 and there's like 5 of them but they require killing level 12-13 mobs. Heck by the time most players even get to Adso Haybank they are at least level 12.

[Symar]

QUEST: Dourhand Plans
CATEGORY: North Downs
JOURNAL LEVEL: 29
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 30
ACTUAL ICON: Small or Full Fellowship, can't tell.
REASONS: There are elite Dourhand Falconer's in between you and the chest containing the plans. You've gotta fight 2 of them at once with two other adds. Not sure if there are any more after that, but as a 33 minstrel solo, and with a captain 29 helping, we couldn't make it. EDIT: Managed to do with with myself, a 29 minstrel, and a 33 hunter. Luckily I had damage traits slotted at the time. Not sure whether it should be small or full fellowship though.

[NezRe]

QUEST: Retake Weathertop
CATEGORY: Lone Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 20
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25+
ACTUAL ICON: Full Fellowship
REASONS: The final fight is insane. Overall, it's rather tough, but this is one of those quests that really reinforces "holy trinity" gameplay...to the point of people feeling classes are required for healing AND power regen. I've yet to find a good fellowship to complete this one...the final fight ends up sending people off to solo after the first few wipes.

This quest should be a lvl 25 quest, I agree, is a very difficult and rewarding experience.

[Bodha]

QUEST: Retake Weathertop
CATEGORY: Lone Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 20
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25+
ACTUAL ICON: Full Fellowship
REASONS: The final fight is insane. Overall, it's rather tough, but this is one of those quests that really reinforces "holy trinity" gameplay...to the point of people feeling classes are required for healing AND power regen. I've yet to find a good fellowship to complete this one...the final fight ends up sending people off to solo after the first few wipes.

I would say this quest is a 22 or maybe a 23. The problem is people need to realize this is one of those learning curve quests. People MUST learn to work together and this is one of those quests that emphasizes it. You can do this quest with a very well organized group of 20 or 21s, but a semi organized pug group can do this at 22 or 23. 25+ groups breeze through this or are using zerg style tactics. I would recommend though that the gate closing and subsequent events do not start until the entire party passes through the gate or the gate be further away from the endfight.

[krathax-lotro]

QUEST: Dourhand Plans
CATEGORY: North Downs
JOURNAL LEVEL: 29
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 30
ACTUAL ICON: Small or Full Fellowship, can't tell.
REASONS: There are elite Dourhand Falconer's in between you and the chest containing the plans. You've gotta fight 2 of them at once with two other adds. Not sure if there are any more after that, but as a 33 minstrel solo, and with a captain 29 helping, we couldn't make it. EDIT: Managed to do with with myself, a 29 minstrel, and a 33 hunter. Luckily I had damage traits slotted at the time. Not sure whether it should be small or full fellowship though.

I believe those Falconers are only there as a result of a failed Dori rescue (another quest for that area).

[ResonanceZero]

QUEST: Addie's Missing Sons
CATEGORY: Breeland
JOURNAL LEVEL: 16
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 15/16
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: You don't actually have to fight anyone to get this quest done, the 2nd part, finding Malin, sure needs a full fellowship unless you've got higher than required levels. But the first part just needs you to be reasonably confident to enter the barrow downs, avoid fights, and find the Perch.

I note that there are a lot of things that can swarm with a fairly high aggro range, so I'd say it genuinely is at least 16th level, but solo would be fine.

[Sildonas]

Quest Name: Chapter 2: In the Gaunt-Man's Grasp.
Category: Book 2 Epic, Lone-Lands
Journal Level: 28
Journal Icon: Solo/Epic
Actual Level: 30
Actual Icon: Small fellowship/Epic

Tried this when I got it, at 28th and it was white. Fighting yellow and orange wights just to get to the encounter only to see a signature and 2-3 adds in the 30 range. There are also a number of neutral Oathbreakers surrounding the mob you need to kill. I had a 25 Hunter in support. I figured that if the journal expected me to solo this, maybe the Oathbreakers will help out once I begin the fight. Not the case. Oathbreakers stood by and a 30+ Bog-Lord even decided to run into the fight from who knows where. We were decimated. This should be small-fellowship at least and level displayed as 30, to match the non-elites let alone the sig you have to kill. I have no doubt that 3-4 28-30's could pull this off.

[Roarack]

QUEST: Retake Weathertop
CATEGORY: Lone Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 20
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25+
ACTUAL ICON: Full Fellowship
REASONS: The final fight is insane. Overall, it's rather tough, but this is one of those quests that really reinforces "holy trinity" gameplay...to the point of people feeling classes are required for healing AND power regen. I've yet to find a good fellowship to complete this one...the final fight ends up sending people off to solo after the first few wipes.

I completely agree that this quest needs to be made at least 23, but I'd agree with 25 as well because of how hard it'll be with a PUG. The only thing is that if you have a PUG of 25's, which you need practically need for the boss if its a PUG and the troll doesn't bug, the rest of the instance is really easy. Its been a while since I ran the instance but I remember we rolled through the whole thing till the very end. Maybe make the rest of the place harder and raise the level?

[Tukahar]

QUEST: Terror in the Skies
CATEGORY: Lone Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 26
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 20
ACTUAL ICON: solo
REASONS: I got all of the eyes from the level 18-20 crows southwest of Ost Guruth- I saw one lvl 25 warg, but he was easy to avoid. There are also level 18-20 half orcs prowling around, but they were within a level 20 quest.

[joepfeifer]

The only problem with nearly all the 'solo' quests after level 25ish is that no minstrel can solo them. I'm thinking we need to have either a disclaimer added in at the very beginning or around lvl 30ish, or, although probably not possible, have different icons for different classes.

[joepfeifer]

QUEST: Dourhand Plans
CATEGORY: North Downs
JOURNAL LEVEL: 29
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 30
ACTUAL ICON: Small Fellowship
REASONS: The elites are left over from a failed chapter 4 attempt at Dori. They are a non-factor in the decision. As a champ I tried a couple times to do this, failing at the end when I had to face 3 birds and a dourhand at one time. Of course, as a burglar, I just snuck right up to it, grabbed it, and exited stage right. And there's no way a minstrel can solo it... duo with a champ or guard, sure.


QUEST: Adelard's Chapter
CATEGORY: Shire
JOURNAL LEVEL: 7
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 9-10
ACTUAL ICON: solo
REASONS: Its a running joke that people suffer their first death (including me) in MD doing that quest where the bee hive falls, you fight bees, then before you can recover you fight bears... as a minstrel, forget it til you're 12 or so...

[PCchick]

All of the listed quests were completed with a team of level 35+ players. Previous attempts with the listed level of players resulted in painful and expensive deaths.

Quest: Orcs of the Blood Mountain
Category: North Downs
Journal Level: 33
Journal Icon: fellowship
Actual Level: at least 36
Actual Icon: Fellowship or Raid
Reasons: Fast respawns, roaming patrols, and static spawns of at least 3 forces a group to take on 4-5 elites at any given time. My lvl 37 hunter can't solo one of these elites, so 4-5 of them hurt. After wiping 5 times in 6 hours, we finally finished. (the manslayers are waaaay in the back - hard to get to) Even when we teamed with two other groups, we all ended up wiping. Worse, the level required to complete the quest means the rewards are useless.

Quest: Weakening the Tide
Category: North Downs
Journal Level: 34
Journal Icon: fellowship
Actual Level: 37
Actual Icon: fellowship
Reasons: see above - same area, same respawns. Additionally, these guys only spawn in certain areas, and if another team is doing the same quest, this one takes for ever to complete. 20 bonespeakers takes minimum 2 hours, even doing with other quests. Quest rewards also need to match difficulty.

Quest: Seigecraft
Category: North Downs
Journal Level: 34
Journal Icon: fellowship
Actual Level: 37
Actual Icon: fellowship
Reasons: to complete this quest, you basically have to slaughter the whole camp (quickly to avoid respawns). A group of level 34s will wipe quickly up against a group of level 33-34 elites, and even if they manage to take the first group, the respawns will kill them on the second group. Quest rewards need to match the difficulty.

[joepfeifer]

QUEST: Iron-jaws
CATEGORY: Lone-lands (Ost Guruth)
JOURNAL LEVEL: 22
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: The wargs in the area around Ost Cyrn are level 25-26. Pretty simple fix


QUEST: Raising the Wargs Ire
CATEGORY: Lone-lands (Forsaken Inn)
JOURNAL LEVEL: 25
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: Yeah, i didn't change anything... The only question I have here is why you have a lvl 25 kill warg quest coming out of the Forsaken Inn? Once the Iron-Jaw quest is fixed you will have two quests, the same level, to go kill wargs in the same area...

[skadoink]

QUEST: Iron-jaws
CATEGORY: Lone-lands (Ost Guruth)
JOURNAL LEVEL: 22
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: The wargs in the area around Ost Cyrn are level 25-26. Pretty simple fix


QUEST: Raising the Wargs Ire
CATEGORY: Lone-lands (Forsaken Inn)
JOURNAL LEVEL: 25
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: Yeah, i didn't change anything... The only question I have here is why you have a lvl 25 kill warg quest coming out of the Forsaken Inn? Once the Iron-Jaw quest is fixed you will have two quests, the same level, to go kill wargs in the same area...

Maybe the levels of these two have been mixed up, As there are plenty of wargs around in Minas Eriol, and at Weatherfoot that are more than doable at Lvl22 (In fact usually Lvl25 wargs are doable at 22 as long as nothing else interferes. [for Guard/Hunt/LM anyway])

[BDKDini]

Virtually every Angmar Quest is FUBAR.

Solo quests have you fighting signature with escorts.

Solo quests have you questing in aggro range of elite mobs all across the eastern and north eastern parts of the map.

Quest descriptions are cryptic or just plain not helpful. The Orc quest for gathering tools and the Turtle Egg quest provide the same exact description of the Orc camp. Of course, the Egg quest means going much further north, to a completely different camp and one that has Orcs and Trolls. The fire itself isnt even a campfire but, yeah, people will figure that one out.

There are so few solo quests in Angmar you are better off going to Misty Mountains and farming goblins and dwarves. Oh yeah, drop rate in Angmar West is also abysmal.

Really, Angmar needs some really significant adjustment in mobs, quests, quest descriptions, you name it. As hard as groups are to come by until the very social people finally get into their 40's, the game is becoming a grind fest.

Lets not ruin the game with bad zones. It really is a good game. Making it mandatory to team just to level other than to grind puts us almost back to Dungeons and Dragons. Obvioiusly there was a need to have solo content there too huh? Not good. If the option is to grind, there is no real point in playing the game, grinding isn't content, it is mindless mashing of buttons.

[AKiene]

QUEST: Mountain Raiders
CATEGORY: Trollshaws (Chain from A Better Sort of Giant)
JOURNAL LEVEL: 40
JOURNAL ICON: Full Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 40-44? (see below)
ACTUAL ICON: Full Fellowship
REASONS: There are level 44 elite drakes in the area, one of which guards the pass you need to use to get into the area. My group of 37-40s couldn't touch it, and at least 2 people died each time when we tried to run by. Please either remove this drake or update the quest accordingly.

[Ulfbrandr]

QUEST: Reclaim the Lost Maiden (aka The Red Maid)
CATEGORY: Garth Agarwen
JOURNAL LEVEL: 35
JOURNAL ICON: fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 37+
ACTUAL ICON: fellowship
REASONS: This quest is far too difficult for a level 35 group.

QUEST: Master of the Black Tide
CATEGORY: North Downs (Dol Dinen)
JOURNAL LEVEL: 35
JOURNAL ICON: fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 37+
ACTUAL ICON: fellowship
REASONS: Even a level 37+ group will struggle with this, possibly wiping more than once. Far more difficult than level 35. As has been stated in other posts above, either the numbers, respawn times, or levels/elite status of the mobs need to be toned down or the quest level needs to be raised.

QUEST: The Forgotten Company
CATEGORY: Fornost
JOURNAL LEVEL: 36
JOURNAL ICON: fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 36
ACTUAL ICON: fellowship
REASONS: The problem with this quest is not levels. The problem is the number of items required and the inability to share item locations. Each member of the fellowship needs 20 arrowheads from the skeleton piles. That means in a full fellowship, 120 skeleton piles are needed so that each member can finish the quest in the instance. That's ridiculous. Make the piles so that members can share looting them (like the redeemed wight quest in the same instance), or drastically reduce the number of arrowheads required.

[Slave_to_the_Wheek]

QUEST: Iron-jaws
CATEGORY: Lone-lands (Ost Guruth)
JOURNAL LEVEL: 22
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: The wargs in the area around Ost Cyrn are level 25-26. Pretty simple fix


QUEST: Raising the Wargs Ire
CATEGORY: Lone-lands (Forsaken Inn)
JOURNAL LEVEL: 25
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: Yeah, i didn't change anything... The only question I have here is why you have a lvl 25 kill warg quest coming out of the Forsaken Inn? Once the Iron-Jaw quest is fixed you will have two quests, the same level, to go kill wargs in the same area...

Hunter lvl 22 can easily take down wargs that are Orange and Yellow. I don't know about a loremaster though.

I do agree that the quests seem to be opposite of what they should be. Something is wrong with the questing mechanism to me in that area. When I got Warg's Ire it was red to me, yet my hunter killed Wargs (if I could find any) and got the credit in my early 20-21 lvl. It took careful planning, but I did pull it off without getting killed by a warg.

[skadoink]

Hunter lvl 22 can easily take down wargs that are Orange and Yellow. I don't know about a loremaster though.

I do agree that the quests seem to be opposite of what they should be. Something is wrong with the questing mechanism to me in that area. When I got Warg's Ire it was red to me, yet my hunter killed Wargs (if I could find any) and got the credit in my early 20-21 lvl. It took careful planning, but I did pull it off without getting killed by a warg.

Yeah, LRM can do it too. Every now and then if things are looking iffy (which happens!) you can Blinding Flash and withdraw for a bit. But I managed this with a Lvl22 LRM also with no visits to the white circle.

QUEST: Master of the Lash
CATEGORY: Lone Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 24
JOURNAL ICON: solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 24
ACTUAL ICON: small fellowship
REASONS: Collecting the Orc-Swords is not a problem, but if you're the only person in the area, getting to and defeating the slaughterer is nigh on impossible for a lvl 24. He's surrounded by 3 other Lvl22 orcs, and the re-spawn rate for the other orcs nearby was insane. As a Lvl25 LRM, finding a Lvl23 GRD to group with made all the difference. It was still tough, but we did it.