LOTRO Goings On

I'd guess this is the last week (which probably means they'll be terminated automatically before lunch after next maintenance, aka 11am EST or so on Tuesday); that will give them a week before spinning up the Spring Festival. In general, visit mylotro (accessible from a button off the minimap in-game or from outside as http://my.lotro.com ), log in and check the calendar link on the top bar.

Natus wrote:

When do the anniversary festivities stop?

I think they extended them to the 7th. The Spring Festival is tentatively scheduled to start May 16th.

BTW, they just reworked the first part of Moria to make it a little easier and to provide a smoother transition through the content. Plus you can now buy a goat as soon as you enter Moria, with no reputation requirements.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Plus you can now buy a goat as soon as you enter Moria, with no reputation requirements. :D

Poor old Sarnur, it was underpopulated and overlooked before, now it will ever be deserted.

ShynDarkly wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

Plus you can now buy a goat as soon as you enter Moria, with no reputation requirements. :D

Poor old Sarnur, it was underpopulated and overlooked before, now it will ever be deserted.

I used Sarnur to farm hides and a few other things even after I maxed my Thorin's Hall rep. It's a nice little dungeon. Selfishly, as a solo player, I liked having it to myself.

ShynDarkly wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

Plus you can now buy a goat as soon as you enter Moria, with no reputation requirements. :D

Poor old Sarnur, it was underpopulated and overlooked before, now it will ever be deserted.

I used Sarnur to farm hides and a few other things even after I maxed my Thorin's Hall rep. It's a nice little dungeon. Selfishly, as a solo player, I liked having it to myself.

So I picked up the Mithril edition after deciding I wanted a fun casual MMO to tinker with. Lobster gave me some great info and suggestions but one question I didn't ask him: what is a good class for soloing? I want a class that's arguably best at soloing to learn the fundamentals of the game with, after which I can pick a class based on my playstyle. Also, are there any significant differences between the races?

As far as racial choices go, some things to ponder: I'd argue if you're going to wield a sword, be race of men (men get some nice sword bonuses); if you're going to use a bow, be an elf (elves get some nice bow bonuses), and if you're going to be a burglar, be prepared to eat second breakfasts, and worry not about the size of your feet (feign death, self semi-steatlh and nice bonuses to conjunctions). If you're going to be a captain, you've no choice, its men only anyways. As far as fast soloers I'd say the choice comes down to one of these three:

Hunters were the perennial easy buttons and the friendliest class to introduce you to the world, high damage output, long range attacks, lots of quick travel/port skills for getting around LotROs relatively immense world. May find it heavy going level 50+ solo, and you'll likely not be very sought after in instances (pre-instance finder .. auto group/matchmaking tool for instances .. it was the case, can't confirm that since).

Minstrels, one of the two prime healing classes, were slow solo in the past, but recently underwent a revamp that pushed up their dps while keeping survivability high when soloing in their dps (warspeech) stance, not uncommon now to see one grinding an elite troll along one road or another (because it was there), and still very sought after for instances and groups if you're willing to heal.

Champions, plate class dps, with some recent tanking additions, are very popular. They tend to blow through things quickly (including power), Due to their popularity, suffer some of the same issues as hunters as far as getting groups. Have some nice AE skills, and watching a couple of champions 'shing-shing' their way through a wad of mobs is always an awesome sight.

Looking across some of the others:

Slower to solo, but still straightforward to play, is the guardian. Straight up old fashioned tank, excellent aggro holding skills, not terrible dps, but not in the same league as any of the prior 3.

Runekeeper (of of the two premium classes you may have to pay to unlock, cant remember if mithril includes them), a glass cannon dps/healer hybrid using mechanics similar to Warhammer Online's archmage and shaman, the more offensive abilities you use, the more powerful your offense becomes, but limiting your ability to heal, and vice versa. Tends to be something of a marmite class, you love them or hate them. If you're used to playing ranged class casters and kiting, you'd have no problem with one. They tend to kill things pretty quickly, so soloing can be fast, and if you can get your head around how to heal with them (tends to be a constant heal-over-time style rather than directed heals when someone is hurting) you'll have no issues finding groups.

Warden (the other premium class) is a medium armor wearing evasion tank, wielding what can only be described as a barn door in one hand, and often a spear in the other. I adore them (well, did until the recent revamp, which is why its down here in the list, not at the top), but their mechanic is not one for folks without monitor space for post-its, a street fighter fan, or a good memory (and boy has that been made worse with the revamp). They have a huge range of abilities, ranged attacks, taunts, group taunts, lifetaps, AE damage, single target damage, group heals, all keyed off 3 basic attacks (shield, fist, spear) to build up combo sequences knowns as gambits. There's precious little UI feedback as to what combo you're building though, and with the latest revamp changing the combos so that now you have different gambit trees based on three stances as well, and some complementary gambits are in different stance trees, which may necessitate mid-fight stance switching ... all in all a non-trivial intro to lotro class, but one that is capable of some amazing feats

That leaves the classes that I'd recommend more for people in group play; all classes can solo in LotRO, but these three tend to level slower solo, and much faster grouped (think of each of them as a force multiplier when operating in a group; if a group can kill X fast, add one of these and it will go 2X).

Loremaster, one of LotRO's two pet classes, and one that a lot of folks tend to jump straight into, either to play as Gandalf, or because they're used to hunters from WoW; and boy what a mistake that is. Whilst its possible to solo them, its slow, their pets are more subtle and less durable than in other MMOs and are not really setup to be tanks, although scarily the loremaster's own melee dps output is excellent, especially at level 50+. They excel in groups, being capable of curing all manner of nasty debuffs that LotROs designers love (yes, I am really wearing a 'dont stand in the poop' t-shirt, courtesy of a LotRO community member right now), as well as offering some last chance healing, resurrecting folks by smoking weed, tapping power/mana from mobs and forwarding it to the group, some of the best crowd control in the game, and an epic pet that can resurrect a group after a wipe. Fiddly, cloth wearing smokers who are more at home talking to animals than people, this is your class ... and are the only class in the game that can dual wield a two handed staff and a sword.

Burglar, whilst a class that can offer high dps backstabs .. they are great crowd controllers and the best debuffer/buffer in the game; all around insanely good characters to have in a group. With a huge array of stuns, sleeps and dazes, they can do some absurd feats of crowd control, mix in their 'gambles' for slows and confusion, and wrap the whole thing up with conjunctions. Conjunctions, or fellowship manoeuvres (FMs) as they are known to the new fangled kids of today, are group only abilities that can completely turn the tide in a fight, whether it be completely healing all group members, completely replenishing the groups mana/power, crippling mobs or massively buffing the groups attack speed, armor etc, without a burglar around, they tend to be very infrequent activities that a couple of classes can pull off. With a burglar around, he can set them up every couple of minutes; not with a chance of them occurring, but reliably.

And now ... to get back to work ... hope that helps!

EDIT: Doh, forgot captain, my most played class, rofl. Expect words later ... the other pet class, wear plate, can tank when needed, heal when needed, dps ... well they can, but not on a par with the dps classes. Excellent group amplifiers, any group plays better with a captain along ... and whilst their survivability is good, they are slow, slow to level.

Wow. Insanely informative post Shyn. Thank you!

I do most of my soloing with a Champion, who can kill groups of enemies quickly and has a few panic buttons (such as Dire Need, which gives you a ton of health but costs a lot of stamina and has a very long cool-down). They also get a couple of different "stances" they can use to adapt to a variety of situations, so should they join a group that can provide some healing support they can forgo defense to boost their damage on the fly.

Hunter really was the best solo option in the game for years. You could dish out huge amounts of DPS, and you had so many quick travel options.

They have made a lot of changes which allow more travel options for more classes, so it can really be about your preference. My top three solo leveling choices would be Hunter, Warden and Minstrel.

Put my vote for Champion. I soled all the way up 60 (?). Only grouped a couple of times for the story quests.

Soloed a minstrel up to around 63 or so, way back in the day. I like the sound of the War Speech buff, that would've been helpful

Are there any essential plugins?

Buffbars - Nice clear display of current buffs and debuffs (Turbine should just incorporate it at this point)

I like to add in Palantir as well, for solid center reticule display of health and mana (TERA why didn't you do this, its so obvious with your reticule centered display!)

Best source for them is probably LotroInterface.com, and if you prefer a more visual guide to what's available and how to install/set them up, check out Merric's video guides over at CSTM (site run by the Merric and Goldenstar, great real life husband and wife team who have something of a cult following).

If you like playing music, the SongBook mod makes it a lot easier to organize and play. I use a mod called AltInventories that saves a copy of each character's inventory between logins so I can check who has what, but it's imperfect. There used to be a mod that combined all of your bags into one big inventory but I don't think it works anymore. It looks like this user interface might do the same thing, along with a lot of other improvements. I'd be inclined to use it with this less obtrusive skin.

Psych wrote:

Hunter really was the best solo option in the game for years. You could dish out huge amounts of DPS, and you had so many quick travel options.

They have made a lot of changes which allow more travel options for more classes, so it can really be about your preference. My top three solo leveling choices would be Hunter, Warden and Minstrel.

I'd agree with these. My main is a mini and their dps was hugely boosted so leveling now is much faster than it used to be. And my hunter rocks! Very fast leveling with great pew pew plus all the fast ports around the world. If you learn your traps, you'll almost never die. Mine has soloed to 70 with only doing one instance. My warden is still low level but I'm hearing stories of their awesomeness so it's on my radar to level next.

Most important is having fun.

Just wish I knew a way to make Lore-Master go faster. They're great in groups but I just can't squeeze out enough DPS to make them work, especially with their weak armor.

LobsterMobster wrote:

There used to be a mod that combined all of your bags into one big inventory ...

Try HugeBag that one is working well.

To install

Go to: Documents > Lord of the Rings Online
Create a directory called Plugins.
Unzip the attached file into Documents > Lord of the Rings Online > Plugins
You should then have: Documents > Lord of the Rings Online > Plugins >HabnaPlugins
Inside that directory will be the various mode files.
When you start the game at your character selection screen select Manage Plugins (its on the right side of the screen).
Click Huge Bag v.1.4.52 make sure you select Automatically load for : ALL CHARACTERS
Open a bag while in game and should all be in one neat, searchable box.

On a separate note - the LOTRO design team seems to delight in what feels like ridiculous amounts of poison, disease, and other debuffs. It can really make soloing miserable at times. Is their a better way to adapt or is it to just stock potions?

LobsterMobster wrote:

Just wish I knew a way to make Lore-Master go faster. They're great in groups but I just can't squeeze out enough DPS to make them work, especially with their weak armor.

Things improve post 45-50 once you have the epic eagle and are traited with sword and staff, but yes, tis a slow old climb to get there and soloing the bits for the eagle can be a pain.

RichyRambo wrote:

On a separate note - the LOTRO design team seems to delight in what feels like ridiculous amounts of poison, disease, and other debuffs. It can really make soloing miserable at times. Is their a better way to adapt or is it to just stock potions?

Stock potions pretty much; couple of the classes have abilities to remove some of the crud, but no single class has cures for all.

Also remember that some food items will remove a few debuffs (as well as boost your power and morale regen). That's usually enough to keep me rolling but if I'm going somewhere with a lot of enemies that inflict the same kind of debuff, I'll stock potions specifically for that kind (eg, disease-curing potions when I'm fighting wights).

Since their class revamp champs are a lot tougher than they used to be without a drop in dps, so i'd rate them as a top tier soloing class as well.

Lore Masters have always been the kings of soloing content, or at least they were before aggro ranges were reduced and every mob and his dog were made immune to cc. Levelling one can be painfully slow as their dps until about level 45-50 is pretty poor but when you work your way through Moria and pick up Improved Sticky Gourd and work out which legacies to put on your legendary items things swing quite dramatically in their favour. LM survivability has always been dependent upon the correct use of CC, debuffs and pets. Fighting powerful solo mobs will usually involve a stun rotation, damage debuffs and flank heals, group fights (of which there are a lot fewer now) chain roots, debuffs and pets.

In the end though, you can easily solo your way through lotro with any class. Also, choosing to play a tanking or healing class doesn't cut you off from good to excellent dps and survivability. The only advice I'd give is that you find one which has combat mechanics and a group role you find interesting and fun.

Spring Festival starts today.

Hey, I see mention that a bunch of you are on Landroval and I am too! Please feel free to add Neiahel (main), Periia (alt), or Tirswen (alt). I'm a member of the Lonely Mountain Band and since I've gone back to the game 2 months ago I'm always looking for people to do stuff with or to help.

LOTRO is now available on Steam, with a special Steam version for sale. The client itself is free to download, as always.

WeatherStock IV approaches rapidly, well worth a visit even if you're not from Landroval, create a character and folks will get you to Weathertop by hook or by crook.

Riders of Rohan preorder is available with various editions.

So does anyone have one of the Outrider's Tokens from Rise of Isengard? Does it give a 25% xp boost up to 60-65? Anything to help get me through the post Evendim (40+) slog...

Edit - Found it. A pocket item called the Derudh's Stone, 25% xp boost to monster kills. Preorder got it account wide, now its a 995TP purchase at the store for one character.

So has anyone used the Stone? Worth picking up?

If the Steam pack is worthwhile, it includes one. As for the item, I have on on my account. It's kill XP only and doesn't apply to quests, but I'd say it's somewhat noticeable.

RichyRambo wrote:

Riders of Rohan preorder is available with various editions.

So does anyone have one of the Outrider's Tokens from Rise of Isengard? Does it give a 25% xp boost up to 60-65? Anything to help get me through the post Evendim (40+) slog...

Edit - Found it. A pocket item called the Derudh's Stone, 25% xp boost to monster kills. Preorder got it account wide, now its a 995TP purchase at the store for one character.

So has anyone used the Stone? Worth picking up?

I pre-ordered Isengard so I'm using it on all of my characters but I'm not in much of a position to tell you if it's worthwhile. I'm only at the early 40s myself and I've been using it since the early 30s. 995TP per character is pretty steep. Guess it comes down to the value you place on your time.

Not too sure which version of Rohan I'm going to get. They seem kind of pricy. I think I'm going to wait and see if they start selling that 6th inventory bag separately, and for how much.