f13.net

I've decided that WoW just isn't doing it for me and this new expansion looks pretty interesting.  That being the case, I thought I'd ask where the more active groups of people are playing these days?  I have a few toons on Brandywine but I'm willing to reroll anywhere.  I'm interested in finding social people that don't mind answering a stupid question or 8 on occasion.  I'll even play a class to help with late game content.

If anyone wants some company a few evenings a week, let me know.

I'm running around in this now some.  I'm always up for a good chat.  I'll try to post some of my toons names when I get on my PC.

Edit:  My toons if you get bored.

Lurvy-  Burglar
Larenaitis-  Hunter
Doret-  Minstrel

The Riders of Middle Earth is still active on Brandywine.  Bloodworth is on a lot, plus the usual non-F13 suspects, but personally not finding a lot of time to devote to it due to work-related  :uhrr:.  It comes ahead of Fallen Earth, if that means anything.

I'm on more now that it's vacation time, and the expansion dropped. There's typically a pile of reasonably friendly people on in the Riders, though it's pretty quiet late-night.

Yeah, we are still active. I am still willing, as always to group with anyone. Unless i am in the middle of grouping with others.... Also, some times you can shut me up, and I try to answer anyone's questions if I know the answer.

We do need to start recruiting more though. My main play night is still Wednesdays before 9-10. Now that the expansion has come, more and more seem to be coming back from woodworks.

More recruitment! We haven't had anyone steal everything from the kinhall in months!

I'll probably be playing my warden Tyrk at first.  I have a burglar as well that I think is already in the fellowship. I didn't notice if I had been booted from the fellowship yet, so I'll check that this evening.

I would never boot you from the kinship. Its part of that secret package schild sells. I may or may not be on this evening, I have to many corporate party's to go to (joys of subcontracting!)


lol.

Ok, I took a look at Brandywine and I have a Burglar, Warden, and a hunter.  Any tips on leveling solo or on choosing a class?  I prefer hybrids, but would rather play a caster/ranged or a healer given the choice.  I'd also like to play something that is less common (if that's even possible).  Any suggestions happily welcomed.  I played my level 13 toon a bit and realized that I have forgotten everything about the game.  This may be like starting from scratch!

Captain is a good hybrid class.  It has a bit of everything, really.  Kindof like a Pally with a pet :grin:

Minstrel is a healy class, but solos well, and can be played in a bunch of different ways at endgame. Some people focus on healing, some on sword and shield shouty dps. Runekeeper has been overpowered for ages, and got buffed in Mirkwood, so if you like being OP and don't mind the small possibility of a nerf, it's a good healer/nuker.

The only thing the Kin has plenty of is hunters. We had 8 people on just before the expansion, all hunters.

I'm kind of liking the warden, but it feels pretty overpowered.  I can use my gambits for cc or dps and the self HoT seems a tad overpowered.  I thought about playing a minstrel or guardian, but there seem to be a lot fo them out there.  Captain seems like it may have potential. 

I just don't want to play a class that will never be useful.  Seems like hunter falls into that category.  I played a hunter and rogue in WoW and gave up on ever grouping because dps is never needed. 

Hunters have the best travel utility in the game, decent dps and a bit of cc. Fun and easy to solo, useful in groups. Wardens seem really good at soloing, but about as in demand at endgame as chimps, very little. Minstrels are ALWAYS helpful, and the class I see people asking for the most at every level of the game. I think there's a lot of Minstrels and Guards at early levels, but endgame there's still quite a demand for more of both, and people don't seem to stick with Minstrel past mid20s.

That's great information.  I think I'll roll one of each and see which I enjoy more.

Let me (Grimst) know toon names, :)

Playing Nebu the level 8 Minstrel.  Interesting class thus far.

Just FYI, but a lot of people find the Minstrel difficult (slow going) to play before level 20 (solo).  If you're interested in the class, but start to get frustrated try to push through to the mid 20s at least to give the class a fair shake.  Their offensive power really starts to come into play then.  They get the War-Speech offensive stance and more damage abilities that key off it.

I made it to 14 yesterday and the class seems pretty strong.  Not as strong as my warden, but it does well enough.  I can see that 15-20 will be a bit rough as I'm already taking a bit of a beating from things as their hp increase.  I'll stick with it to 30 or so to see how it shakes out.  I just want a toon that a) I can solo, b) isn't common, and c) will help our fellowship groups.

If you need gear, ask in kinchat. You can't be twinked as far anymore after the last craftables balance pass, but good purple gear still makes a world of difference at middle levels.

I finally called it quits. I've hit a brick wall in the 30s on three different characters now.

With the game being out as long as it has been, they really need some fucking solo content to get you to the end game. My quest logs are filled with groups quests, scattered all over the various zones, so travel is a pain in the ass.

The only groups I find are people who are leveling alts, so there will be a level 60 guy and a guy who is my level. We run around picking up gears and orc ears and assorted bullshit while the level 60 two shot things. Not fun.

Now it's even worse with the new expansion and less people leveling alts.

I have a 35. also, you are 30 now, you can play skirmishes solo.

At 30, there's upper Lone Lands, mid North Downs, and lower Evendim (which was designed later and is friendlier to soloers), and the tip of Trollshaws.

I have a 28 LM on Brandywine, but I've been leveling my crafting alts on Gladden since SoM was announced...

I stopped playing a few months ago in the middle of Moria. The grind just got to be too much.  I have no intention of returning until they make the story line quests accessible to everyone. No more forced grouping for me thanks.

Any recommended sites for learning about the nuances of this game?  I hate bugging you all in kin chat.

Thanks!

No one minds. Not one bit.

This has some rudimentary stuff in it (http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Getting_Started), some may be out of date.

Some stuff I found on the main forums about your current class. (http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=147595)

If you're a minstrel, I also liked this as the "good minstrelling" guide is out of date. It's more end game oriented, but it gave me an idea of stuff I should be thinking about.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=301733

I've found the most good information on the boards, but they're awfully chatty.

Thanks for the input.  I'm still learning the class, but levels 1-14 have been pretty fun. 

I'm still enjoying it, more or less, but I have to admit, the wheels fall of this one at 30 in a very big way.

Up until then, everything feels very hand crafted, fined tuned, and generally well done. The zones are familiar and you are left with the wonderment of simply being in Middle Earth. The trollshaws are too dangerous, too group oriented, hard to find ones way around, and just generally irritating. The game starts to use travel to slow progression and in a very obvious way. Experience progression slows down and it's when you really detach completely from the epic quests. And to fix it, they did a quickie zone and Evendim shows it--probably the worst zone I can think of in any game. It's a total mess with mobs scattered randomly using the 1 mob/(x-1) where x = aggro radius. No apparently real story or purpose. And Ost Forod, the most confusing quest hub I've ever seen. I can't even find my quest givers, nevermind the quest mobs.

I still have hope for after, and a solid guild who's been raiding and such, but while going from 30 to 35 it crossed my mind more than once that I had quit the game twice between those levels. I've been avoiding most quests other than the easy ones, abandoned the epics, done a lot of crafting, and taking best advantage of and thoroughly enjoying the skirmish system. But the 30-something range is not this game's shining moment.

Minstrel is extremely versatile, especially post 20.  Guardian is pretty solid also.  Most people stop playing them because they never bother experimenting.

For example, most people do not use 2 handed weapons with Guardian.  2 handed Guardian does decent DPS and is pretty nifty to solo with!  Mistrel and Guardian are the 2 most wanted classes come end game, especially minstrel.

Also, minstrel is the most involved class ever in a group.  EVER.  Especially with PUGS.  Well fuck, I need to resub.  Be on in a few :D

My minstrel is approaching 20.  Seems like a fun class with a group, but solo it's pretty boring.  I may give warden and guardian a try.

I also feel like I spend far too much time running between objectives and far too little time fighting/exploring.  Does this improve?

Don't ask.

I'd go back to WoW, but none of the classes in that game really did anything for me.  If I have nothing to look forward to in this game, all I have left is EQ2.  Ok, that or Star Trek Online...  :ye_gods:

20 gives you a bunch of new abilities that make solo much much much more enjoyable.  Travel does improve somewhat with a mount.  A lot with a mount, actually.  Key is to locate decent hubs of activity quest wise.

For some reason my password didn't work when trying to login to account page, which is odd because I am pretty certain its correct.  Did a password reset, been waiting well over an hour for the e-mail.  Has anyone had a loooong delay with Turbines password reset thingy?

Minstrel is a tedious class to play at high levels solo.  If I had it to do over again I'd go Rune Keeper.  Overpowered class with two different roles in a group.
Best thing to do with a Minstrel is to group, group, group.  And since you're a Minstrel you'll get more groups than Tiger Woods gets mistresses.

Unfortunately Minstrels have a lot of pressure on them in group instances, especially in pugs when Hunters gleefully fire away and draw aggro.  It's a pretty thankless job. 

But I'm not bitter.  :oh_i_see:

I hope someday to get these groups, but other than directly at launch, even before Moria, low level groups were pretty much impossible to get, even for a minstrel. I see some people LFF in the late 50s, but I've pretty much written off anything before then.

OTOH I don't know what the high end game is like, but soloing with a minstrel so far compared to the last time I played is insanely easy.

If they implemented WOW's new LFG system [preferably cross-server] with instant ports to instances / back at will, it would be verrrry nice and I'd probably resub. The question is, does that go against teh Vision™? :P

Have you played LotRO?  :oh_i_see:

I was going to link my level 49 LM's mylotro page, but inactive accounts don't get those. :/

And yes, the last sentence was mostly tongue-in-cheek, but the first one was serious... that is, unless you can do skirmish-style 'hit a button to queue, solo until queue is up, then boom, instance with a fully assembled group and you'll be right back to your questing when you're done' instancing for everything, including book instances (if you can, forget I said anything).

I was being snarky. :-P My point was that Turbine aren't deliberately adverse to ease-of-play or anything from what I've seen, they're just competing with a company that has money sombreros while they themselves have to settle for kippot.

Other than that, yeah, it would be great but I'm not holding my breath. :-)

Any sort of real LFF system would help. Flag for multiple quests/instances/skirmishes. They have the travel options already don't they with those horn thingies? I don't think it really needs to be cross server and I suspect they don't have the $ to do that, but I see people around enough. Just impossible to get together. They could do so much if they just had a proper lff tool.

Yes.

I get lots of group at all levels in LOTRO.  Here's what I do. I group invite anyone I see lurking around my quest area.  Nine times out of ten they accept.  LOTRO community is pretty great mostly.

Oh and Minstrels are fun up to around lvl 40.  Then the suck begins.  Come to think of it I think 40 is the magic number where LOTRO goes from enchanting life in Middle Earth to knuckle down and grind MMO.

I've toyed with the idea of hitting up WoW again, taking out my orc hunter that I loved (even if they nerfed named pets eons ago). But what the fuck is up with the expensive expansions? I'm spoiled by EQ2, buy the expansion every couple years and get all the others free. Looking at Amazon, it'd be $67+t/s for two goddamned expansions!

I group like Tann does, quick and dirty PUGs, run through everyone's quests for an area, disband. Nearing the end of Dragon Age, I'll be popping into lotro every now and again.

I've sort of ground to a halt at 35. The quest frustration level goes way way up with long travel times and lots of really unbalanced encounters (multiple orange mobs, some of whom are invisible, on a white quest? WTF?) If I slog through the trollshaws and the 30s, or just skirmish my way through, does it get better? Does Moria and Mirkwood bring back the kind of well crafted zones that you see up to 30? Is there a there there?

Where do I go to try the skirmishes? My account got turned back on for the next few days and my burglar is currently sitting somewhere in Moria at level 55.

There are skirmish camps outside of most of the towns.

I think 35 is where I started Evendim, or whatever that zone above the Shire is called, that gets you to ~40 so you can start west Angmar or Forochel, and it all goes fast from there. If you've already done that area, it's fairly bleak. The Trollshaws higher stuff is patchy at best.

I am loving my mini, and evidently rock at it.  Problem is my build is completely anti-solo and I am forced to group.

Which isn't too bad, God bless Marween lol.

Gimpy and I are looking to give this a go. He wants to go Minstrel. I'm completely unsure. Any suggestions for an interesting duo? Also, suggestions for any deals to go from trial to full game would be appreciated.

I'm partial to Loremaster/Hunter duo myself.  You have enough crowd control and debuffs  between both classes to not have to worry about tanking anything, you have spot heals for emergencies, and you can teleport around the world, to take the initial sting out of travel.  You however won't be entirely group friendly since there are a billion hunters and other dps classes already.

Runekeeper/Guardian also works somewhat well, since you have tank/healer when you need it and tank/dps for all other situations, and is obviously a great deal more group friendly than the other combo.  Minstrel also works in this, but is lower dps than Runekeeper.

Champion/Minstrel can work, since both can AOE fairly significantly, and the Champion can tank fairly well in a duo.

Burglars can also act as spot healers later on for groups/duos with their fellowship manuever openers, and they're primary debuffers also.  They can work in a similar role to the loremaster above, and can actually share their stealth with another player at higher levels. 

For any non-group content though, you can honestly go at it with pretty much any duo, and if you're decent at your classes, you can generally handle small group content as well.

I'll just add that a hunter/hunter duo can see some problems. :oh_i_see:  The way the game is built, you won't have any problem picking a pair of classes that work together well enough to progress.  Besides, you can always carry food and potions if you die a lot or need/want healing.  My wife and I do OK with a RK/Hunter pair but the lack of CC does bite from time to time... works better than the hunter/hunter thing we used to do.

Crafted triple traps.  It's not a sustained mez, but it'll keep most normal pulls off of you for a long while.  Crafted traps in general are your friend in this case, hope you know a weaponsmith.

Crafted traps, decoys, ranged root trait, beneath notice, snares, ranged slows, in combat trap trait...

Champ/Mini duo is rock solid.  RK/Champ duo would rock out as well - added advantage is both of you can solo as needed.

Hey hey,
Tried to talk to Cheddar tonight but since I'm on a trial I can't do so.
Send me a tell on Cadwin someone.

Oooh, I was wondering why I had a random invite from a level 13.  I think if I add you to friends list we can talk, will test shortly.

edit.  It did, Gimpy also added to Kin.

Yes, that would be my wife's alt, Wegelred. :oh_i_see:  Without the traps, things would be crappy.  I think she can do other things but I left my hunter at lv39.

when are you guys on?  Whats the timezone for this kin? 

wife and I are fed up with our kin on Elindilmir since they have turned into a hardcore raiding group

The timezone is 'most of the time' It's a diverse crowd, f13 people seem to be on mostly primetime across the US, but there's a few bored housewife/grizzled old crazies that are on all the time. 1am-6am EST seems to be the dead time.

About time you entered the fold.  :grin:  Also, what Rattran said.

thanks we will definitely think about it.   Still the best game for PvE IMO.  But may take a bit of a break.  Cheers.

There seems to be a lot of rerolling going on lately.  I just rolled a fancy new Captain!

Its a good time to join with the kin having a laarge spread of levels.

Heh, I started a Captain myself. Seems to be the in thing!

They are one of the more underplayed classes for some reason.  Captains are extremely versatile and rugged, but don't excel at any 1 thing.  I think thats what throws people off.

Captains are the bomb in a group after 30.  Damage, buffs, shitload of healing 4tw!

Captains are "race of man" only. I think that's a big reason you don't see more as well.

Next to hunters, Captains are the most common class that I see in the level 1-30 range.  Seems a popular class for people rerolling.

I've got a 27 LM, but she's been inactive for a while while I play with various chars on Gladden.

If anyone needs accompaniment in the 10PM-1AM EST window, I can be there between putting kids to bed and putting self to bed.

Good news!

Looks like we joined an alliance with a group of other guilds (using the fancy in game ability to make other chat channels).

Awesome, time to build some stations in zero-sec.

There were people 'are-peeing' in the alliance chat last night. I'm ascared to go in again.

damn.

Don't worry, Ched, I'm sure you will catch them online again.

That's the level I was at when I quit for the first time. Swimming across that goddamned lake over and over and over burned me out completely.

The game has potential and I can handle it in small doses but I just haven't got the patience for grinding anymore and the forced grouping is absolutely unacceptable in a modern game.

I'm still clearing out north downs, doing periodic skirmishes, and checking on old deeds.  Still, I feel like I spend 15 minutes running for every 2 minutes hunting.  It's making me sad.  I really want to love this game, but it's becoming more of a horseback riding simulation. 

Well I just hit 43 and it's still closely resembling a horse riding simulation. I actually get about half my xp now from doing skirmishes. I move from one hub to the next, do the easy stuff, don't bother with any group stuff (insert trademarked numtini LFF whine here) and if I get fed up with it I just don't play for a while.

Ugh.  I find I'm logging on for 30 mins or so and leaving.  It's pretty similar to my last few days of CoH.  May be time to give it a rest for a month or so.  I can't see playing like this until 50.   

That sounds a great deal like me quitting the first few times. At 35, have you been to Evendim and Trollshaws? There's a lot of different quest hubs. There's still a lot of travelling, but at least it makes you feel a bit like it's worthwhile.

Cheddar and I both got Captains up to 30 in the last few days, so there will at least be people on to point you toward new quest areas of knock out a few group quests

I'll check it out.  I have to admit that as a warden I like to stay near places that I can teleport.  Travel food is nice!

A good deal of the "swift travel" (This includes hunter skills, warden skills, horse stables, and other abilities) is able to be unlocked by level, deed, quest lines, or reputation. IIRCC everyone will eventually have the option to gain reputation and gain a port to the factions homeland (Change VIA Revamps).

There are quite a bit of them out there, if you choose to gain them. To put it all in perspective however, at one point and time, only hunters could port, swift travel stables were only for the starting areas, there was no boat in Evedom, and no one got a horse at 20 (even a slow one). So, technically while I can understand your pain, this is an area they have been improving on, especially as they keep adding landmass.

I also have a 35 (?) lore master, and at this point I think issa has quite a few alts in that range.

You have to reach out and explore.  I just hit 31 (rolled my captain a week ago) and have yet to stop questing/fighting etc.  Only running around I have really done is the Shire "run around quests" = but that was because I like doing them.

I went something like Shire -> Bree Downs -> Buckland -> Upper Part of Bree Downs -> West Lone Lands -> The Big Bridge City -> Eastern Lone Lands -> The Hub East of Mincham -> Esteldin + surrounding cities.

I skipped the pain in the ass quests (almost anything flagged as group) and have had almost no rest XP.

Don't forget you can boost rest xp via destiny points.  It's not really worth doing until the 20s though, since you'll burn through it retardedly fast early on.

It helps knowing where the clustered quests are, and which ones are just a pain. Any quests in North Downs that point at Dol Dinen, Fornost, or Nan Walthren? Not worth the time/effort. Also knowing which quests are doable early for lots of extra quest xp helps.

And gear, ask for gear in kinchat every few levels, it makes a world of difference sadly.

Is there a map of quest hubs anywhere? I've yet to find one. I burned out and quit twice while I was in the trollshaws/Evendim level range and this time around I found an entire quest hub I hadn't known about.

Damn.  It took me a month to get to 35 playing a couple of hours a night.  Apparently there's a trick to moving through quest lines more efficiently than I'm doing.  Is there any kind of a decent quest guide? 

They have done it a few times.


Old, but potentially useful.

Have a link to more like that?  I would have loved that before heading to that area.

I found a leveling guide that is less images (http://www.lotrolife.com/quests/lotro_leveling_guide/), but seems to go from 1 - 60 (not sure if it contains revamps, but you are passed that now anyway).

However, I always read your posts as if you feel some urgency to get to endgame, don't do that, makes me sad.

There is also this puppy (http://mehq.net/dynmap/), that may perhaps be sensory overload :)

Not really urgency.  I want to see some of the group content.  The only way to do that with fun people is to be at the same level as those in the guild... which seems to be in the 60-65 range. 

Thanks for the info!

Basically I roll into a hub and grab all the quests, then knock them all out.  Usually they are cluster so as to invade the same place for 2-3 quests.  Skirmishes are pretty damn fun and very good XP as well; there are a lot of awesome rewards you can get yourself by trading in marks.  Also - at 45 you can go to Moria, and it is the bomb.  Its almost like a completely new game from then on.

Also, get gear at 21, 31 and around 41 from the kin.  They will usually make you maxxed shit and it will last a good 10 levels and blow away any quest stuff you would have otherwise.

IE 64 bit isnt letting me edit my last post, so just doing a new one.

Anyhow, here is an example of how I do it.  I just hit 31.  Since the rest of the North Downs quests are lots of running to accomplish 1 goal I decided to move on to the next area.  My options are pretty much Troll Shaws or Evendim.  I decided on Evendim (there is a questline that gets a nifty title and pipe near it).  Now, I know I will have to run to the 2 hubs there; I use the quick travel from Esteldin to hit West Bree, then quick travel to Michael Delving.  From there I rode up to Brokenborings via the Hobbiton hub, and ran up towards Oatbarton.  I snagged the 2 quests (since I know I will be in that area to do the Evendim ones anyhow) and head north along the Eastern path.  Once at the Ranger island I snag the 15 or so quests, turn a couple invitation ones in (3k xp 4tw), and am now about to swing over to the second hub to grab the rest.

Next plan will be to catch a ride back towards Oatbarton; I can jump off the mount and hit up the sand dunes to knock out 5 or so of the quests then turn in the couple I snagged from Oatbarton.  From there I will probably head northeast to the Evil Human castle place and do those quests, then depending on how much loot I accumulate will either hit the town to sell or head northish to do the few there before heading to town to gain oddles of XP and plot my next action.

Most likely I will turn in the initial quests then travel out to the Trollshaws to pretty much do the same thing.  Once done I should be 35+ and can get the fast mount.

edit.  Pro-tip: one of the quest turn ins is on the way to the second hub, another free 4k xp!

I will re-emphasize the thing about getting all of the available quests at a hub when you first get there.  Even if you have to cancel some old ones from a different area.  Nothing wastes more time than getting a quest to kill thirteen goblins, turning it in and then seeing some other guy wants you to kill thirteen wargs... which are also in the goblin area.  The revamps are strengthening this, actually, but it is still important to look around and get as many on your list at once as possible.  Also, there is usually one quest in there that leads you to the next (or another) hub.  The cross-quests between Ost Guruth and Trestlebridge are a good example; fortunately they teleport you, and if you are bound the right way it is easy XP.

Being familiar with the area helps tremendously, also, but of course you have to learn the area first.

Being in a hurry will ruin this game for you, at least in the low end.

Thanks to my OCD Skirmish fetish I am actually going to hit 35 before hitting Trollshaws.  So, plan B is to get my fast mount.  Rattran is kind enough to make me armor (I hooked him up with the crit components) so will be ahead of the curve gear wise.  Then its off to Rivendell to finish the easy quests for uber XP, then back to the first Trollshaw hub to begin those. 

Afterward its off to Angmar (I love this area) and from there who knows.  I will probably do the Moria quest just so I can get the relic items then go back out to wrap up some areas until 50'ish. 

I think nebu has abandoned us.  :cry:

I'm still playing, just not as much.  I really love the game for its immersion and worldly feel.  Some nights I just want something more game-like and WoW fills that need, particularly with the pvp side.

Don't write me off yet!

Nebu has been on more than that Grimst guy, he seems to have fallen off the Earth (and landed on a new console controller I suppose)

Freelance work, mostly.

Indeed, some of us have jobs. :awesome_for_real:

Shortly before x-mass I step in and help my friend with the reproductions, as well as my own freelance work, and of course...work work.

Another reason the lifetime sub was a good idea for me  :grin:



Oh, I feel yah! That's why I have been checking out some allods.


Total monthly cost of two concurrent MMO's = Nothing.

So... I went to get my fast mount at 35 last night and the horsemaster guy is sending me on all these stupid long rides.  Are these necessary for the upgrade or can I just skip the quests? 

sadly they are all necessary.  Hopefully you have all the stables unlocked.

Route and quests:
Farm->Bree
Bree->Farm
Farm->MD
MD->Farm
Farm->Othrikar (north of Estledin)
Othrikar->Farm
Farm obstacle course (rage at this point)

For the obstacle course, when you get it, turn AROUND (SOUTH).  You need to run through the arches starting from the SOUTH gate.  Also, you need to jump at least 1 or 2 of the fences.  Don't bother with the last stone one since you can't make it.  And yes you have to do this for your alts as well....

Why, in my day, we had to bind ourselves in West Bree and walk to Hengstacer, uphill both ways!  And we liked it!

I hated that shit and did flips when I found the new farm route last week.

What happens at 40?

I felt like around 42 or so things opened up a lot actually. The 30-somethings I felt were the introduction to not as good zones. But 39-42 or so, maybe there's a zone hiding somewhere, but I felt like I was scrambling to find enough do-able quests. More likely it's the gap left by not being able to do group zones.

But at 45 I feel like I'm cruising, I can kill easily, I have 2 feign deaths as an "oh shit" button, I have a flock of white quests in Forochel. Things are pretty good.

I am doing something very, very wrong.  Can you share your build?

All in on warrior skald: medium armor, unrelenting, light in the dark, powerful voice, harmonious melody.
Valour, Justice, Loyalty, Idealism, Empathy.

I stack a lot of Will and run Tale of Heroism, though I have no idea how much that helps. I have 310 points of tactical crit.

I carry a +15 damage/+7 cost drum. With Light in the dark for 10 and four warrior skald for 25 that's 50% bonus damage on ballads. Plus 20% once I get the damage buff ballad off.

Orange yellow pairs I'm very consistent with, though I end up out of power and usually need an athelas (it's cheap with skirmish marks). I can take on a yellow or orange signature without much problem, depends on my luck.

The one thing is if something goes wrong, particularly if I'm surrounded or there's a patrol, I just have no chance. I run for a safe spot and feign death (I get two because I'm a hobbit).

And I just realized that I'm not wearing any more medium armor, so I guess I should drop that and slot something else as I only need the four warrior skald for the bonus.

My level 20 burglar has won the lottery again. A couple blue tools, some marks, a few other things. Maybe it's Turbine telling me to play that toon.

Those tools are godlike.

About to hit level 50.   :awesome_for_real:

Took about 3 weeks of work.  Plan now is to get some new armor and legendaries.  Thanks to Ratty I have the level 50 banners.

What's the deal with a lottery? You have to have an account on their stupid community site and log into that six times a week to sign up or some such shit? (to help your account get hacked via their community site?)

Sigh. Typical Turbine/Lotro lack of polish, commonsense or logic. Go to their mylotro site, try to log in, it tells me you need an active subscription. I can follow a different link to log into my turbine account which shows my sub. follow another link back to my lotro, and same shit again. Nowhere can I see a place to create a mylotro or forum account.

Um, its on your account page... Create forum log in or some such. And just an FYI, Forum and account are two different log ins.

Would you mind sharing your strategy on getting from 35 - 50?  I'm finding the amount of running to be crazy excessive and skirmishes getting old pretty fast.  If I could find a more efficient way to navigate quests/quest hubs I imagine that I'd enjoy the game a lot more.  

Edit: It's not that I'm in a huge hurry to get to the level cap.  When I only have an hour to play, I'd rather spend it bashing mobs than running in huge circles. 

I can't believe what a difference free travel has made this weekend.  They should think about easing up on the pricing and the restrictions on "fast travel" as well.  It's absolutely stupid that by the time you actually have the reputation to qualify for the fast travel option you're basically done with that zone forever.

No Cheddar, but I hit 35 about the same time as him.
If you haven't been to Rivendell and talked to anyone with a halo, do so. There's about half a level at 38 of back and forth quests, including the Riddles line from Bilbo in the Last Homey Home, and lots of 'talk to Elrond, run across Rivendell to talk to X, who sends you to talk to Elrond'
35-38 The Tinnudir/Ost Forod/Across the Lake stuff in Evendim, and finishing any remaining non Nan Walthen/Dol Dinen quests in North Downs and Lone Lands East. I think the first few South Trollshaws quests open up then too. (killing pigs, killing cave claw things)
 38-40 West Angmar: the giant guys on the middle path up from Estelin, cold worm quests from Estedlin on the left path, and the Crannog quest line in Aughaire which gets you a good set of Fem armor, and should get you to 42 or so. Lots of the Aughaire quests give decent loot too
40+  was all the remaining West Angmar stuff, the Book 6 (all soloable) Epic quest to open East Angmar, then the part of Trollshaws in the south-east, Echad Candelleth, and on into Eregion.
45 you go to Echad Dunnan in se Eregion, talk to the guy at the3 glowy gate, and do the opening Moria stuff, which gets you about a level, and your first 2 Legendary Items. Then go back and finish up whichever zones you haven't. I went and did some of East Angmar, finished up the now gray Book2 and Book3 stuff, and generally just cleaned up exploration deeds and level 45 class quest drops. You can do the rest of Eregion too. It's a good zone. Got me to 51, leveled both my legendaries to 20.

If you don't have a fast horse yet, you should get one. Drop me a line in-game if you're short cash or gear.

How do you get a fast horse? I still just have the normal one I got at level 35.

The 35 horse is the fast horse. You can get a cheap slow one now at 20 (founders get a free one at 15)

Ahh ok. I was hoping there was another travel improvement that I'd missed out on during one of my lengthy vacations.

Gotta agree with this.