What are you working on?

[SnakeCharmer]

Played this on trial a few months ago.  Actually kind of enjoyed it.  It's purty, the combat is easy.  Was thinking about giving it an actual go.

How's the leveling curve these days?  What's the easiest to play (i.e. overpowered)?  Lack of PvP is somewhat disheartening, but not a deal breaker.  But it looks fun.  As always, the people make it more fun. 

I might be a redneck asshole here but I'm a good gaming buddy, honest! 

[Tarami]

Wardens are good, DPS and high durability, although sorta FotM as they came with the expansion.

Otherwise hunters are good levelling toons thanks to DPS and teleport skills. Really though, the only class I'd avoid for decent levelling is lore-master and possibly burglar.

[Ard]

Otherwise hunters are good levelling toons thanks to DPS and teleport skills. Really though, the only class I'd avoid for decent levelling is lore-master and possibly burglar.

Loremaster is extremely easy leveling if you're good at pet-control + crowd control type gameplay (warlocks from WoW basically).  You can survive things that a lot of other classes just plain won't, and cheese your way through some of the quest encounters, but it does come down to whether or not you're good at that type of gameplay.

[Tarami]

Well, true enough that they're very -survivable- (roots, stuns, debuffs, self-heals, ka-pow!), but they aren't fast grinders compared to pretty much any other class.

I should know, after all. ;-) Maybe I suck though...

[Cheddar]

Weathertop is a wonderful quest most people miss.  I am now working on making moneys (AH + crafting) along with levelling my rune keeper minstrel.

[ghost]

I just re-fired this up after getting Moria.  I don't really know why I always drift away-  it is a stunning game and very well done.  Maybe it is the PVE thing, I don't know-  well, maybe it is because I started with a burglar, which are tough to play.

Anyhoo, I am trying to level up my Captain.  This is by far and away my favorite "class type" that I have played in any of the diku type games.  It is completely different than anything else I have dealt with.

[Soln]

the Warden is pure leveling luv.  If you need to be convinced by the game and get its idiosyncrasies try the Warden to get past 10 or 15.  It's WoW leveling speed fast or close enough to WoW  to shame a lot of other MMO's.

[Ard]

Well, true enough that they're very -survivable- (roots, stuns, debuffs, self-heals, ka-pow!), but they aren't fast grinders compared to pretty much any other class.

I should know, after all. ;-) Maybe I suck though...

I only say it's fast because there are some tricks you can use on the non-grind quests to complete things a lot faster than most other classes.  The big one is sending a bear in to grab all the mobs, and then grab the item on the ground they were guarding and pray the bear doesn't die before the timer finishes.  There are more than a few quests around like that where you can just walk in and complete it in seconds where it'd take most other people 5-10 minutes of clearing mobs to do safely.  Not to mention you can safely solo a lot of fellowship quests, which may or may not actually speed up your leveling, I've never really done any checking on that.

As far as speed goes, I've been doing about a level a day (on the days I've been playing) at a relatively casual pace since I restarted.  But I've also constantly got at least  half bar of rest xp to work with.

For straight grinding, there's no point to play anything other than a champion or hunter though >.>

[Tarami]

Absolutely, but I imagine a burglar would still be more useful for that... often you can actually use quest items while remaining stealthed.

[Arthur_Parker]

So how do these destiny point things work?

[Mrbloodworth]

So how do these destiny point things work?

You get destiny points by leveling up (Freep; Free peoples) and by doing monster play (Creep). Monsters "level up" by destiny point. Freeps can use them for temporary bonuses of many kinds.

The buffs, or "perks," you can give to your player with destiny points cover a wide range of interesting options. You can boost your morale, your running speed, your power, or your fighting ability (among other things). They come in varying strengths and durations with the longer and more powerful ones costing significantly more destiny points. You can use each perk up to five times in a 24-hour period, and they reset after that. Many players claim that spending destiny points on these perks is a waste since they're relatively short-lived, but as I'll explain in a moment, this isn't necessarily the case.

The other use for destiny points is to increase your monster character stats for PvP against player characters. Each of your monster characters starts as a swarm-level creature (the green-ringed ones you encounter in the wilderness). This means that they're easily dispatched by any player character near their level. To make them stronger and more capable of battling PCs, you'll need to invest destiny points in them and also to fight and gain ranks over time. Since monster play is the primary way of gaining destiny points in the first place, you'll definitely want to do this.

This has been expanded for Moria.

[Arthur_Parker]

I can use destiny points from my main character to level up a monster character?  That's nice (depending on how effective it is).

[Soln]

monster toons for PvMP depend on destiny points to gain new (passive) skills (e.g. more armor, damage, evade etc.)  That's how they advance.  They are already at the cap (60) when you start with them. 

[Mrbloodworth]

Monster play is the MAIN way to get the destiny points. You get them instead of "XP" for quests and kills and whatnot. As a free people (non-monster) you only get like 200 when you gain a level.


Fair warning, after the Moria patch, Monster play is a little....wonky. Other than questing, i would avoid freeps for right now, you will loose. I expect a substantial patch for monsters at some point, maybe just not right now.

[Arthur_Parker]

No that's fine thanks for the info, I did a bit of monster play in beta.

[Yegolev]

Last time I was creeping, there were zero freeps on at the time.  Not that I was some sort of elf-killing machine before Moria.

Also you get DP from each of your freep characters, not just the main.

I am now working on making moneys (AH + crafting)

So far I have failed miserably at selling things in the AH, but I'm not a high-end crafter so maybe that's it.  I am considering starting a guardian alt to be a historian since I'm not fond of the LM, but I needs my potions.

[Cheddar]

AH is tough - you have to kinda play around and find your niche, then rotate items.  Either sell stuff for mid teens to mid twenties or high end items; there is zero market for 35-45ish armor/weapons/jewelry.

Its EXTREMELY expensive to level crafting - you will want an alt camped at the ingredient NPC's to do the repeatable ingredient quests.

Scholarship is good because you can make weapons AND potions, plus misc other items.  Potions = money, weapons = money.  FYI - for awhile there I was making low level bronze purples for 75S, and they sold decently.

[Soln]

we've been making good coin (nearly 6 gold) by selling raw ore and wood.  Maybe an alternative.

[Cheddar]

we've been making good coin (nearly 6 gold) by selling raw ore and wood.  Maybe an alternative.

That makes the most money - drawback is you have to spend time gathering.

I currently make phat loots by buying ore off other people and making whatever the flavor of the moment is (Jeweler here with a Weaponsmith and Scholar to fallback on when things get slow). 

[Ard]

Woo, pub crawl is back.   
Guess that measn I'm working on my hangover!

[Tarami]

Don't forget to pick up the yule wallpaper. The one with wreaths. :-D

[Mrbloodworth]

if anything, i would focus on consumables (All schools have some). While armors and weapons that are crafted have "Spaces" to fill in the grand scheme of loot, it seems that they are narrow, and a lot of people are going to out level what you can make/sell them easily with drops ETC.. Not to say its worthless, some of the  Recipes drops are good, and rares/single use (Recipes) are even better. Still with all that in mind, crafting weapons and armor is not worthless in this game as in others. All crafting schools have usable items at all levels, so its always viable to craft. There are a ton more Recipes than what is given to you, or sold by the NPC's, drops are in the 100's.

[Mrbloodworth]

Don't forget to pick up the yule wallpaper. The one with wreaths. :-D

Elf:



Hobbit:







Scanning across the lotro forums this morning (as ya do), I came across a post about Santa. Apparently some caring soul created a dwarf character named Sainte Nicholas and was giving out presents to characters under 10 in the shire this morning.

[Yegolev]

Selling consumables is where it's at.  It is not at selling hides.  No one wants to buy hides since you trip over them outside any town.  I would sell wood but I end up using it all at the moment... except rowan and I don't know that anyone would buy rowan.

I was going to sell stacks of crafting crit items but that is pretty hit-or-miss.  Also I don't have a lot since I am not specifically farming them.

Hopefully I can get some Yule shit tonight, like drunk.  Wife is sick.  Maybe she will forgive me if I go on without her.

[Ard]

Woo hoo, got my yule horse token last night.  Now to just come up with the remaining gold I need to actually buy a horse in the first place... oops 

[Cheddar]

Woo hoo, got my yule horse token last night.  Now to just come up with the remaining gold I need to actually buy a horse in the first place... oops 

You with us on Brandywine?

[Arthur_Parker]

Did that pub crawl quest, excellent, really well done quest.  Did lots of the Yule quests, got a lump of coal, what's that about eh?

[Ard]

Woo hoo, got my yule horse token last night.  Now to just come up with the remaining gold I need to actually buy a horse in the first place... oops 

You with us on Brandywine?

No sir, all my characters have been on Windfola since launch, and while I'm somewhat tempted to move to Brandywine, I don't want to have to transfer all my low level crafters as well.  That'd get expensive fast. 

And anyhow, I can get the money for the horse, I've just been busy doing non-lotro stuff 

Did that pub crawl quest, excellent, really well done quest.  Did lots of the Yule quests, got a lump of coal, what's that about eh?

They know what you did last summer.

[Soln]

Did that pub crawl quest, excellent, really well done quest.  Did lots of the Yule quests, got a lump of coal, what's that about eh?

could be worse -- could've been a potato 

[Yegolev]

Before I talk about what I have been doing, I want to say that I don't have the slightest clue on how to do this dance event.  The best I have managed was to get the quest in the tracker, only to have it quietly disappear when I started dancing and ending with me getting zip.  It might be an improvement over an outright failure to a programmer, but I still don't have any racial dances.  Dammit.  I don't want to have to look it up somewhere.

Alright, I have done some Yule things.  I didn't get the Festival Run correct, but I only tried one time.  I have six tokens and I'm really hoping I don't get a lump of coal... like my wife did.  I suppose Santa saw her ninja-looting from her own husband.  The new Shire quest around Lobelia was fun and not terribly bothersome, not when compared to the pie run at least.  It did not raise my wife's considerably-low opinion of hobbits at all, though.

When my wife retired for the evening recently, I took Fallia back to Ered Luin to knock out some grey quests and do some more sweet, sweet deeds.  Somehow she ended up coming over there with me and we finished off all of her quests.  I still have a few.  After that she wanted to go to Bree and do some things, which I somehow interpreted as "let's go to the Barrow Downs".  I come over to the BD and notice she is in Bree, where I suppose she is unloading crap, so I ask her if I should wait for her or meet her in Bree... but my wife doesn't read her chat.  I should have called her, but instead I start wandering around BD and I suddenly stumble upon the Bone Man... and I kill him.  I wander around some more and stumble upon Malin, but I quickly wake up outside Tom Bombadil's house instead.  I mentioned to my wife that I found Malin and she said "WITHOUT ME?!"  Whoops!  I didn't tell her about Bone Man yet in the hopes that she won't notice and will not yell at me.  I also hope she doesn't read this post.   Communication is the key to every relationship, my friends, even the virtual ones.

[Mrbloodworth]

Before I talk about what I have been doing, I want to say that I don't have the slightest clue on how to do this dance event.  The best I have managed was to get the quest in the tracker, only to have it quietly disappear when I started dancing and ending with me getting zip.  It might be an improvement over an outright failure to a programmer, but I still don't have any racial dances.  Dammit.  I don't want to have to look it up somewhere.

Alright, I have done some Yule things.  I didn't get the Festival Run correct, but I only tried one time.  I have six tokens and I'm really hoping I don't get a lump of coal... like my wife did.  I suppose Santa saw her ninja-looting from her own husband.  The new Shire quest around Lobelia was fun and not terribly bothersome, not when compared to the pie run at least.  It did not raise my wife's considerably-low opinion of hobbits at all, though.

When my wife retired for the evening recently, I took Fallia back to Ered Luin to knock out some grey quests and do some more sweet, sweet deeds.  Somehow she ended up coming over there with me and we finished off all of her quests.  I still have a few.  After that she wanted to go to Bree and do some things, which I somehow interpreted as "let's go to the Barrow Downs".  I come over to the BD and notice she is in Bree, where I suppose she is unloading crap, so I ask her if I should wait for her or meet her in Bree... but my wife doesn't read her chat.  I should have called her, but instead I start wandering around BD and I suddenly stumble upon the Bone Man... and I kill him.  I wander around some more and stumble upon Malin, but I quickly wake up outside Tom Bombadil's house instead.  I mentioned to my wife that I found Malin and she said "WITHOUT ME?!"  Whoops!  I didn't tell her about Bone Man yet in the hopes that she won't notice and will not yell at me.  I also hope she doesn't read this post.   Communication is the key to every relationship, my friends, even the virtual ones.

lol, awesome stuff.

[Tarami]

I'll just give you a hint then; there are more dance moves than just /dance. :D Perhaps there's another clue in what she dance leader says...

[Yegolev]

I'll just give you a hint then; there are more dance moves than just /dance. :D Perhaps there's another clue in what she dance leader says...

If I screw that up, it tells me I failed.  I managed to figure that one out during the Fall Festival.  So maybe I'm reading the dance calls wrong, or taking too long, but when the caller says "do dance three" then I think I should do /dance3.  I also think if I fuck that up, the screen would say YOU FAILED... which it has.  So I am thinking maybe it is in the timing.  My wife had the same problem, and neither of us seem to have the patience to stand around for twenty minutes to try again.

[Tarami]

Sound like you're doing it right though. I have gotten mine that way.

[Soln]

ok, here's my walkthrough:

1) make dance buttons.  Here's how:

Code:

 /alias ;dance1 /dance1
/alias shortcut ;dance1 51

This will place a button titled "dance1" in quickslot #51.
Make sure quickslot base #5 is "always shown" from your options, unlock it and move the new button wherever you want
Repeat and replace ;dance1 with ;dance2 and ;dance3, and equivalently add /dance2 and /dance3.
You should now have 3 separate dance buttons

2) make a sequence reminder

Code:

/alias ;dancing /tell [your_name_here] 1, 2-3, 2-2-3, 3-1-3 
/alias shortcut ;dancing 51

This will send you a tell if you are too lazy like me to actually write down the steps per sequence.

Tips:
1) stay in area -- NPC quest giver warns you not to leave, so don't
2) keep the NPC quest giver targeted otherwise you wtfpwnfail after the first step (giant fail sign appears, nice)
3) press each button when they say "step one... step two... three"
4) when they say "take a breather", that's the cue for the next stage to begin shortly.  There are 4 stages, as shown above (steps 1, 2-3, 2-2-3, 3-1-3, which are /dance1, /dance2-/dance3 etc.)
5) win buttery emote