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I found a deal to buy the CE of Mines of Moria + Shadows of Angmar for $10. From what I understand there is another expansion out/coming out for $30. Does a new player need this expansion for any reason?

Also, I know that there is a progressive arching storyline, but can new players participate in the storyline that's passed by doing instances/quests? Is there anything that has been done in game now that new players will never be able to experience?

Finally, what's the maximum number of players per "storyline" instance? I'd like to experience the entire "lore" of the game and wondering if I have to do any 10+ player raids to see the "important" characters/storylines.

I haven't played in over a year, but the new content is post 50, I think. So no, you won't NEED it for awhile. Unless it introduces new classes, in which case I could see a reason to want it.

The progressive story lines are divided up into Books, some of which take place in areas that are technically in the past of the current story line. This means you can still get quests from Gandalf and the like from when they were sitting in Rivendale, even though they are long since past it in the official game storyline. Once you have completed their quests, I think they leave those areas.

As for raiding.. some of the story missions require large teams, but never more than you can get outside of a raid area (at least as far as I've played, and I was up to the Misty Mountains before they unlocked Moria.)

BTW, what are you playing as? I got to the mid 40's as a Guardian and had a lot of fun. Classes seem a lot more versatile in LOTRO than in WoW.

I haven't started yet, I wanted some basic info before jumping in fully.

So wait, you have to do full large raids to see storyline content? That's different than I had heard a while back.

God damn it... wrote a long post about the classes but the forum ate it. Short of it? You don't need to Raid (at least as far as I got into it.) A normal team will be fine.

So the point of big raids is gear only?

The storyline quests (Epic quests) are broken up into "Volumes" and "Books." They range from solo to 6man. Never more than that. Raiding in LOTRO is like WoW, at endgame only and for the phat lootz. They are not part of the main epic storylines, though of course they have their own lore to go along with them. The Seige of Mirkwood expansion isn't really necessary till at least lv. 30 when you can start doing skirmishes (a new sort of scale-able and customizable instances added with the new expansion). But I think you can do them a limited number of times per day or week or something if you don't have the expansion. Other than that Mirkwood didnt add any content until level 60+ as it raised the level cap from 60 to 65.

I'd reccomend the Brandywine server, as it is widely thought to be the most populated server, therefore, it will be easiest to find groups.

There's nothing denied to new players now that was in the game before. The storyline of the game advances only as you go through it. For example in one player's personal storyline, Aragorn may be in the Prancing Pony while another who is further along, they will find him in Rivendell.

I highly suggest you do all the epic quest lines and take the time to read the quest descriptions for the epic quests as they are the main plot of the game, and the one thing that LOTRO does better than any other MMO in my opinion is tell a good story.

Is it also true that most classes can solo if they prefer to max levels? (Taking time to group for epic storyline quests)

You can solo MOST content outside of Instances with any class. Each class has a few tricks that help it out immensely when your trying to solo or when teaming.

Guardian: Sword and Board gives you lots of parry and blocks, which means you have more opportunities to use your special counter attacks to do stuns, bleeds, and big damage. Can get an Overpower Stance to do some impressive damage, but you give up your shield so you can't use your block line of counter attacks. Inspired by Sam Gamgee.

Burglars: Lots of Debuffs and some special tools to stun and distract. Stealth and Sneak attacks too. Think Bilbo.

Minstrels: 3 Tier Ballad system that lets you perform stronger songs depending on what you've recently done. Buffs, Heals, and can do special damage types.

Champions: Just plain raw melee DPS, along with some shouts. Can go dual or two-handed. Think Gimlee.

Captains: You can use your follower to tank/extra DPS or your Banner to buff yourself and allies. Can do a bit of everything AND have some special weapons. Think Aragorn.

Ranger: Ranged DPS and a few special tricks, like placing snares to immobilize enemies before they can get to you. Think Legolas.

Loremaster: Does Special Damage types, along with stuns, mezs, and other control. Can tank or do extra DPS with their pet (Bird, Bear, or Cat) and has some cool utility abilities. Think Gandalf.

Haven't played as Warden or Runemaster, so I don't know what they do.

Also, a quick note on crafting: It's usually not worth it until you can farm special items to increase your chances of getting special items. Just go Yeomen for Wood/Leather Gathering and Mining, refine the items into supplies, and sell them on the market for cash. It'll be easier to buy the stuff you want that way.

Anything last minute I should know before diving in? The 10day trial just finished downloading.

Shegokigo said:

Anything last minute I should know before diving in? The 10day trial just finished downloading.

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Try out the Monster PvP once you hit level 10. I think it's great fun, and you become more powerful by getting more PvP kills to increase your rank or spending Destiny points.

Right now I can't seem to decide between Ranger and Lore-Master.

I like the idea of crowd control/pets for Lore-Master, but Ranger teleporting is really tempting.

Another question is how decently do Champions tank? They're listed as secondary tanks but I'm wondering how "secondary" is it? Like, unable to raid tank bosses but off tank raid adds or instance bosses?

Shegokigo said:

Right now I can't seem to decide between Ranger and Lore-Master.

I like the idea of crowd control/pets for Lore-Master, but Ranger teleporting is really tempting.

Another question is how decently do Champions tank? They're listed as secondary tanks but I'm wondering how "secondary" is it? Like, unable to raid tank bosses but off tank raid adds or instance bosses?

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I'd go with Loremaster. The Ranger ports are nice, but being able to own pretty much anything solo is better. Besides, once you get a mount, it's not that hard to get around.

As for Champions... I'd say that a Guardian makes a better off-DPS than a Champion makes an off-tank. Without a shield, you just can't tank effectively as your sacrificing upwards of 20-30% chance to block (which prevents all damage, like a parry.) Relying on parry and hit points is no way to off-tank.

Shegokigo said:

Right now I can't seem to decide between Ranger and Lore-Master.
I like the idea of crowd control/pets for Lore-Master, but Ranger teleporting is really tempting.

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Well it depends on if you'd rather Pew Pew or debuff/cc. There's lots of "swift travel" points in LOTRO which lets you travel instantly from one place to another, so while hunter ports are nice and will save you time, traveling still isn't that much of a hassle without them.

Shegokigo said:

Right now I can't seem to decide between Ranger and Lore-Master.

I like the idea of crowd control/pets for Lore-Master, but Ranger teleporting is really tempting.

Another question is how decently do Champions tank? They're listed as secondary tanks but I'm wondering how "secondary" is it? Like, unable to raid tank bosses but off tank raid adds or instance bosses?

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Champions make a fine off-tank if your raid/group doesn't have a second warden or guardian. They have a tanking stance and can trait to use heavy shields too. You probably wouldn't want them as a main tank in a raid or 6man instance though. 3-man instances by their nature though are more flexible, and a champ could probably tank those just fine.

Since Ash gave a a nice description of the classes, I'll add what the Rune-Keeper and Warden do:

Rune-Keepers are the offensive casters of the game. They easliy match hunters in the dmg department by either direct damage lightning spells or stacking fire dots. But that's not their only roll. They are also pretty good healers. Not quite as powerful in that department as minstrels but they still can hold their own with their heals, especially when traited for healing. This might make them sound overpowerd, but thier 'attunment system" keeps the class in check. This system ensures that an RK can only heal or dps at one time, but can never fill both rolls simoultaneasly. As an RK starts doing DPS they build up dmg attunment, unlocking more damaging spells, while healing spells become locked out. the opposite happens when they build up healing attunment from healing.

Wardens are main tanks, and can tank about as well as a guardian, though they do it very differently. They only have medium armor but rely on their powerful self-hots to stay alive. All their abilities are through a gambit system, which is similar to Age of Conan's combo battle system, meaning to pull off "gambits" moves you have to hit different abilities in the right order.

So Lore-Masters wouldn't be considered for a heavy dps role? That would mostly fall into the hunter/rune-keeper category?

Shegokigo said:

So Lore-Masters wouldn't be considered for a heavy dps role? That would mostly fall into the hunter/rune-keeper category?

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They do pretty good damage, but not as much as Rangers. The main draw is that you do better damage to some types of enemies because the Loremaster does special types of damage (Even better, most of the stuns and mezzes are tied to damage spells, meaning your doing damage WHILE your controlling them.) while having lots of control and utility. For instance, Loremasters can:

- Heal (weak)
- Stop Bleeds
- Cure Poisons
- Repel Wights (Undead)
- Switch Pets on the Fly for different Roles (Bird = DPS, Bear = Tank, Cat = Burglar)

Really, I think Loremaster is much better, hands down. It's also much more in flavor with the original works, where magic was much more subtle than the kinds of shit Runemasters use.

AshburnerX;321573][QUOTE=Shegokigo said:

So Lore-Masters wouldn't be considered for a heavy dps role? That would mostly fall into the hunter/rune-keeper category?

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They do pretty good damage, but not as much as Rangers. The main draw is that you do better damage to some types of enemies because the Loremaster does special types of damage (Even better, most of the stuns and mezzes are tied to damage spells, meaning your doing damage WHILE your controlling them.) while having lots of control and utility. For instance, Loremasters can:

- Heal (weak)
- Stop Bleeds
- Cure Poisons
- Repel Wights (Undead)
- Switch Pets on the Fly for different Roles (Bird = DPS, Bear = Tank, Cat = Burglar)

Really, I think Loremaster is much better, hands down. It's also much more in flavor with the original works, where magic was much more subtle than the kinds of shit Runemasters use.[/QUOTE]

You forgot one of the LRM's most useful roles... power battery. They can drain power from mobs and transfer it to allies. Don't role a LRM if you want to DPS. You can DPS decently but nowhere near as good as a champ hunter or Rune-keeper, but that's not why groups will invite you. They'll want you to be cc/debuff/power battery/disease and wound cures.

Just made it to Combe and curious what profession to pick up.

Can you have a gathering profession + crafting? Two gathering instead? What professions directly benefit Lore-Masters? What's the best crafting/gathering profession on Brandywine?

Hey, I don't know anything about the kinds of dynamics anyone's talking about at all, but I have played this game for months, but I pretty much solo everything and I'm sure there's tons I don't know. I picked Tinkerer for crafting just because I wanted to cook things and make pretty jewelry. Have I mentioned I'm terrible at gaming?

My main is a level 36 hunter hobbit on Gladden!

Working on quests in Evendim currently.

Honestly, unless you plan on doing crafting full time and are willing to look for items to enhance your crit chance on getting Superior items, the only crafting worth doing is resource crafting and maybe cooking.. Go Yeoman for Wood/Leather and Mining (You can tailor too i think) to make cash and just buy anything you want.

Are you able to drop professions later?

If I decide to go with gathering professions and then later crafting ones?

What's the limit on professions you can have.

You can only take one profession (3 crafting skills each) at a time. If you want to change, you will lose all progress you've made on any skills that aren't also in the new profession. I'm so far along in mine that I don't want to lose that progress personally, but you just talk to a Master of Apprentices to change professions whenever you want.

Question: What's the best way to get dyes? Scholar profession? They seem pricey for a newbie on the AH.

Also, what's the "wowhead" style site for Lotro? I tried Lotro-DB but it's very limited as well as LOTRO-Wiki

Scholars make dyes, but you get the stuff to make dyes from mining and other places.

Shegokigo said:

Question: What's the best way to get dyes? Scholar profession? They seem pricey for a newbie on the AH.

Also, what's the \"wowhead\" style site for Lotro? I tried Lotro-DB but it's very limited as well as LOTRO-Wiki

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LOTRO actually runs their own wow-head type site. http://lorebook.lotro.com

I can't seem to find much off that site either

What exactly are you looking for?

Items, npcs, a few things I've come across aren't listed.

The problem is that LOTRO doesn't allow data-mining like WoW, so you're not going to find site's a comprehensive as WoWhead or Thottbott. Unfortunately the best third party site of found is LOTRO DB
By the way, do you have the quest tracker turned on in-game? I forget if it defaults on or off when you first start. It's a huge help.

I'm a bit torn between Lore-Master and Rune-Keeper. What's the population size on each class you think? I prefer playing something that is going to be more in demand as I get to the higher levels. Is CC actually usefull in instances? It was great when WoW was first around but lost it luster to AoE fighting.

Considering the Loremaster is more versatile, they will probably be in demand more than a DPS/Heal class. You can always, ALWAYS get more DPS or Heals , but it can be hard to find people to cure or control.

You'll find parties fine with either class. At low level it might seem that RKs are over populated because they are a newer class that was added with the MoM expansion so more people roll them as alts, but by endgame their pop is fine in my experiences. Being an RK myself, I never really had a hard time getting into parties. I have leveled both classes to the cap, and enjoyed both of them. They are very different bests for sure. Personally I preferred my RK, But I usually enjoy ranged dps classes the most in any mmo, so your mileage may vary. I say just take each class to at least lv 15 or so and see which you like better.

I was going to try this, but the 10 day trial apparently goes from when you sign up for it, not from when you first log in. That's stupid. I signed up over the summer, but I never got around to downloading and installing it. Now I can't

Well, how often is a RK called on to heal? If there's one thing I hate about hybrids is being bothered to "heal spec" when I want to dps.

At endgame 6-man instances and raids, people will want you for dps most of the time and generally prefer a minstrel as a main healer (RK healing is generally under appreciated imo). In 3-man instances and other smaller group stuff you might need to heal as they are built with more flexibility regarding class combinations.

But one of the things I like most in LOTRO over WoW is their trait system vs. WoW's talent system, because in LOTRO you're not "locked" into a spec. Have to heal one instance, then want to dps the next? Just quickly go to town and change your traits and you're good to go. It only costs a modest price and never goes up no matter how many times you respec. So you never really have to feel like you're not specced right cause you can change your traits as many times as you want. It's not a big deal like resetting your talents in WoW. It makes being a hybrid class much easier.

What's the big draw for Lore-Master soloing? Special elites or camps? Or just xping/questing things that other classes might not be able to?

Loremasters can pretty much solo anything that doesn't -require- a Team quest wise, or at least they could back when I was playing.

Still wondering about professions and which would best suit a Lore-Master.

Shegokigo said:

Still wondering about professions and which would best suit a Lore-Master.

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If you MUST make your own Loremaster tools (books mainly) then you have to take Scholar. Scholar is self contained, needing no other classes to make most of it's goods, as the resources needed to make the stuff are ether bought from the market, bought off NPCs, dropped from enemies, or found from items you study at ruins. This will also let you make potions and dyes, but you'll have to buy some dye ingredients from the marketplace, as they can only be found from mining.

Another good choice would be Jeweler, as it's extremely helpful to have earrings, rings, and necklaces early on to help boost your intellect. However, you'll need to take up mining in order to get the gems and ingots to make your jewelry, and it can take awhile to gather all your ingots. Non-purple Jewelry isn't worth much ether, like most craftable items.

This means your going to need to take Historian (for Scholar) or Tinker (for Jeweler). If you want to make money for your character, Tinker is the better of the two, as you can sell your non-precious metal ingots and dye ingredients on the market for extra cash, as well as any jewelry you make. Alternatively, you can send the dye ingredients to one of your alts over the mail and have them make them for you (assuming they have scholar).

Tinker sounds interesting, what's a good level to begin?

Shegokigo said:

Tinker sounds interesting, what's a good level to begin?

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Immediately, as your going to need copper to level. I recommend doing the storyline starting in the Shire to help facilitate this, as I seem to remember it having lots more copper dig sites than the Human or Elf/Dwarf starting areas. Since you look like your going to be Loremaster or Runecaster, your going to need to walk/ride there. Once you've maxed copper twice (because you need to do it once to advance, and then a second time to make crit items) you'll need to move onto the Old Forest and Barrow Downs for Silver and Barrow Iron. It will take you much longer to get Silver than it did Copper, because Silver has a much lower spawn rate.

Once you max your Jewelry for that Rank, you'll need to do a quest to make an object to advance to the next level. This means you'll need to be doing stuff in the Lone-lands, which means your going to need to be 15-20 minimum. This can be annoying to do, but it's not hard. At least you'll be able to get plenty of Gold while your there!

Anyone mind giving me some details on Destiny Points?

Shegokigo said:

Anyone mind giving me some details on Destiny Points?

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Destiny Points are used to ether buy short term perks in the Main part of the game (You know, the part with loot and such) or to upgrade your monster characters in the Monster PvP zone.

For the Main part, you can buy short term buffs to your HP gen, Def, Movement Speed, and the like. They usually last between 15 minutes and an hour, depending on how much you spent on them. These are VERY useful during Instances and Raids. However, the only way to gain more Destiny Points in the main game is to level up or buy them online (I think... I can't remember if you can buy them or not.)

The Monster PvP is different... there you receive Destiny Points instead of XP for doing Quests for the various forts. Once you have enough, you can spend them at the Trainer to learn new perks and attacks, as well as the ability to change how your monster looks. However, in order to unlock new moves and perks you need to kill players to advance your rank first. This can be easy or hard depending on what Monster Class you are... but I never had much trouble raising my rank with my Orc (Main DPS). Regardless, you can spend the Destiny Points you earn in the main game here or vice versa, but it's much easier to earn them as a monster.

I highly suggest you try out the Monster PvP if you can get a chance. It's lots of fun when you can get a Raid team going to seize one of the Forts and it's an easy way to get Destiny.

So should I save them for future raids/instances or use them now for xp bonuses?

Shegokigo said:

So should I save them for future raids/instances or use them now for xp bonuses?

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Considering how easy it is to earn them from the Monster PvP zones (You can earn them from simple Dailies) I'd just say use them whenever you want. The XP bonus is going to be negligible frankly, unless you can somehow keep it up the entire time you play, which is doubtful unless you grind Destiny. Just use them whenever you feel the need.

My favorite use of DP is to take away dread after I die.

So then that's a "no" on the xp bonus thing?

Shegokigo said:

So then that's a "no" on the xp bonus thing?

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Yeah, it's probably better to use it to get rid of Dread if you die or just save it for instances. But really, it's easy to get more if you need it so don't feel like you shouldn't spend some if you want to. I wouldn't waste it on XP bonuses, considering how brief it lasts... not to mention that speeding up the XP curve might have you leaving some quests behind when your ready to move on. You did want to see the story, right?

Sadly I'm about to cancel my subscription before I could really enjoy the game.

I'm one of the (apparantely) many who suffer from "hitching". I've tried alot of the "fixes" and nothing seems to work for me. The only thing I haven't tried is the seperate SATA drive for LOTRO by itself.

Sorry to hear that... who knows, maybe you can try it again when you next upgrade and nothing will be wrong then.

Well I know it's not a hardware issue as doing a search for "Lotro Hitching" gives thousands of website and forum hits all over. My system is more than capable of handling a game like this, I just couldn't find an real "fixes" for the issue in any of the sites I checked.

What causes the hitching? For that matter... what IS hitching? I never had an problems with game when I played.

So... small, brief freezes?

Small, brief freezes, multiplied by every 10steps. Even powerhouse systems with 4-8x the power required to play LOTRO have hitching even when they can run Crysis at max settings and over 60fps. It's a bit absurd. It detracts from the gameplay (for some) and seems to be an issue with the core engine itself. The devs also were stated as saying that the "players need to fix the issue on their own side" when it's not the player's system that is the issue.

A game this old, on a brand new system, shouldn't hitch every 10seconds. Maybe when loading an entirely new area (obviously) but not every few steps.

Have you tried to run this game with only one core process activated?