A different kind of birthday party

[AarawynnP]

Hi, everyone. I'm just looking for some advice here.

This coming Friday, I will hit a milestone birthday in my life -- the big and scary three-O. Instead of being the hermit gamer I have been the last several years, I wanted to do something more social. (My last milestone, at 21, I hosted a D&D game that went all night long. It was awesome.) So I decided to pull together a fellowship in LOTRO for questing/skirmishes/etc. comprised of both friends who play regularly and those who had to make a new character just for the occasion. I stipulated that they should be at least level 20 and gotten the skirmish tutorials out of the way. We've got about 6 hours slotted on Saturday for this, and as I usually solo/duo in LOTRO, I really need some advice from people on what group content we might enjoy tackling. This is our party, give or take some of the 20-somethings* who may level a little higher:

My Loremaster, 56
Captain, 50
Runekeeper, 28
Warden, 24*
Champion, 22
Burglar, 20*

Any suggestions are welcome. Not being VIP, I also do not own a lot of the purchasable group content and would need to buy it. I'll likely wait until Thursday to see if any of it goes on sale before making a purchase, being a spendthrift when it comes to buying TP. Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to reply!

[AarawynnP]

Not sure why this was moved, since it's not server-specific. I intentionally wanted wider feedback from the general populace on what items I should buy for group play...

[Rufkin]

Not sure why this was moved, since it's not server-specific. I intentionally wanted wider feedback from the general populace on what items I should buy for group play...

Due to the recent eight-level (I think) limit on skirmishes, you will have to do any instances/skirmishes at 28 or lower. At that level range, your group will easily crush everything you face so I'd say just keep playing anything you already have. I personally prefer the defense skirmishes though, my favorite being The Ford of Bruinen, but like I said the level 20s in your group won't have access to that yet. Basically you will be able to play The Siege of Gondamon, Trouble in Tuckborough, Storm on Methedras (if everyone has purchased it or are VIP) for skirmishes. You will also be able to play the Great Barrow, Erebor (if they have all purchased it or are VIP), and Inn of the Forsaken (again, if they have all purchased it or are VIP) for instances.

Happy Birthday! I hope you have fun.

[AarawynnP]

Happy Birthday! I hope you have fun.

Thanks, Rufkin!

I wish LOTRO would adopt a really neat feature that RIFT has -- their mentor levels. You can scale yourself down to play with others at lower levels. I have lower-level characters I could use, but given the lack of playtime half the group has seen, I wanted to be sure we had a healer on-board, and there really aren't any besides my loremaster since the level 25 minstrel who was going to join us now can't.