LOTRO early-game ideas

lotro-early-game.txt

LOTRO early game

1. pick a race and class
really this shouldn't matter too much, play what you like. for noobs,
 Hunter is your classic DPS monster, Champion is DPSy and survivable
 too, and Guardian is DPSy enough to landscape bash and has more
 interesting mechanics

what race you pick determines your tutorial environment, assuming the
 default four Ered Luin is much more interesting than Archet Dale IMO.
 that means Dwarf/Elf are preferred. Archet doesn't suck by any means
 and might be a bit more cozy for someone who wants that "olde England"
 feel

once you complete the starting area and are unleashed on the full world
 map, though, it's hard to beat the Archet/Combe/Bree area for early
 questing (1-15). the Shire is very twee, if you're into that sort of
 thing, and Ered Luin is very spread out but also weirdly linear. it
 doesn't feel particularly lived-in. lots more options in Bree-land, so
 I'd suggest travelling there whatever race you pick.

 (I'm pretty sure this is doable as long as you don't accept any Epic
 Quest -- "Volume <whatever>" names, book titles basically -- quests
 before you leave.)

1a. crafting?!?
professions don't matter too much but can be part of the fun. at low
levels, gear you craft yourself is usually better than quest drops.
if you're playing a melee type, Armsman is pretty self-contained, as
is Armorer. if you use bows or staves, Woodsman is your jam. Yeoman
gives you farming and cooking, which is super useful, but less fun
than roaming the landscape farming mats.

2. adventuring in Bree-land

I'm assuming a few things here:

- you want to see cool quest and gameplay shit
- you're kind of interested in the storyline
- you aren't interested in Kill Ten Rats style quests
- you're at least a little interested in crafting

the epic storyline in Bree-land, through Combe (think "up until you
 meet Strider") is pretty good and takes you through some interesting
 places and events. you can top up on quests in Staddle if you need the
 XP but IMO that's more of a "I love these quaint people and I want to
 solve more of their problems" thing.

once you get to Bree you have a few choices, as indicated by the "No
 Time For Tours" quest taking you to the quest-givers:

 - Chief Watcher Grimbriar (northwest of Bree) has a good bandit-
  related quest chain that'll take you around the western Bree-fields
  and south into Andrath. it's pretty fun and varied, I recommend it.
  the dude is an absolute dick though
 - Adso Haybank (west of Bree along the road, halfway to Buckland) has
  a small number of other bandit-related quests, if you like shout-outs
  to the books (Bill Ferny shows up) you might enjoy those. his camp
  also includes a bunch of really annoying fetch quests
 - Celandine Brandybuck (Buckland) has an Old Forest quest, which I
  don't particularly like. she doesn't really have a quest "chain" for
  you, and the Buckland quests are all a bit scattered and out of the
  way from the rest of the storyline

I'd recommend alternating between the Grimbriar ("bandits from the
 South") and storyline quests. when the storyline takes you past Adso's
 camp, stop and do a few of his bandit quests if you like that sort of
 thing.

I'd also recommend staying the fuck away from the Old Forest. It's a
 very atmospheric and true-to-feel rendition of the Old Forest from
 the books - which is to say you get lost a lot and it's annoying to
 navigate.

the epic storyline will take you to Tom Bombadil's house, which is on
 the border between the Old Forest and the Barrow-Downs. instead of
 slogging through the Old Forest, go through the Barrow-Downs; there's
 a corpse at the entry (just east of Adso's camp) that'll open up some
 quests to show you around the northern 'Downs and in general you can
 get a lot of fun quests around there. the southern 'Downs are higher
 powered and have some interesting architecture but don't really have
 good quest support

3. road to lv20
level 20 is a big one because that's where VIP (subscription) accounts
 get access to the Riding skill, and let's face it walking sucks. there
 are a few ways to get there in Bree-land that're reasonably fun.

3a. the Barrow-Downs
you can make some good levels in the Barrow-Downs, especially the
 instances in named barrows (and the deeds associated with them). in
 Bree, there are quest-givers way in the south of town who'll prompt
 you. Haudh Iarchith is a good public dungeon to mess around in and
 most of the barrows are the same but smaller-scale.

running Barrows dungeons and bopping around the landscape, farming mats
 and killing wights and barghests for slayer deeds, is a pretty good
 way to go.

3b. north Bree-fields
after completing Adso's bandit quests you should get an invite from a
 Ranger called Saeradan, who starts the "Thornley's Work-Site" quest
 chain. you can also find a Dwarf named Oddvar by a ruined wall in the
 Horse-fields, who'll kick off some other quests for you. either way,
 these involve killing a bunch of orcs (your first), and take you
 through some nice outdoor areas. still, I don't think it's as much fun
 as blowing up Barrow-wights

absolutely do not take quests in Nen Harn, that place is a pain in the
 god damn ass.

3c. spend coins on the problem
buying the Riding skill costs like 75 game coins, which is pretty close
 to negligible. you could totally buy Riding at like level 16 and go
 buy a horse (500 silver, probably most of your money at that level but
 definitely worth it and you won't be poor for long)

anyway, once you have a horse and you're around lv20 it's time to go to
 the Lone-Lands. finish up whatever epic quests you haven't done yet,
 and you'll get sent to Candaith at Weathertop.

4. adventuring in the Lone-Lands
your first stop is the Forsaken Inn. it has a bunch of fetch quests,
 but they more or less all take you through the same terrain so you can
 complete several at once. note the "Bounty:" quests, which are repeat-
 able and give you crafting scrolls; you can grind those if you like,
 but it's not how I'd spend much of my time

the Lone-Lands is interesting from a game-dev perspective because you
 get a couple quests off of "unique" dropped items, which every goblin
 or orc will drop and shit up your pending inventory. anyway, those are
 kind of fun

so complete the "fuck up the goblins" quests around the Forsaken Inn,
 and probably run Candac's "collect pottery shards and shit" quest - it
 takes you to the outskirts of Minas Eriol, which is a fun little place
 to bash goblins and look at neat ruins. that should get you around
 level 22-23, which is a good place for picking up the epic storyline
 again.

at this point, you can complete Candaith's epic quests without too much
 difficulty, up through the "Retake Weathertop" instance. he'll send
 you back to the Forsaken Inn, and this is where my advice gets quite
 specific.

4a. go find Ost Guruth
the epic quest will take you to meet Radagast the Brown in Ost Guruth,
 at a quest level that's probably orange or red for you. that's a lot
 of XP! go ride out to Ost Guruth, farm any mats you find along the
 way (this is where you get a taste of Expert-level crafting). also,
 stop at the stable, you can quick-travel between Ost Guruth and Bree
 and save yourself a ton of time

4b. find the Elgain camp
ride on back nearly to the Forsaken Inn; there's a cut in the mountain
 east of Minas Eriol that takes you to a small campsite. Hunulf Munce
 is here to give you an excellent quest chain.

there's a bunch of stuff here about spiders (which are annoying) and
 Old Mugwort wants you to Kill Ten Lynx, but your ticket here is the
 Our Greatest Find quest. pick it up, go across the bridge and kill a
 surprisingly badass goblin or three until you get the statue, then
 return to Hunulf

you will get access to three quests in a ruined stronghold taken over
 by half-orcs: A Righteous Recovery, Half-breed Thieves, and Sever the
 White Hand. you'll also get Stocky Folk from the West, hold onto that
 for a minute

4c. go fuck up some half-orcs
I don't know that this quest is incredible from a story or mechanical
 perspective, but I like crawling around epic ruins and there's not a
 lot of grind here. complete the quests, turn them in to Hunulf, and
 go seek out the dorf

4d. find Refr Quicksilver
this guy is a twofer: he'll give you some neat quests around the ruins
 in the area, kind of in the middle of the Lone-Lands just into the
 Expert crafting-mats tier, and he's next to the entrance to Iorvinas,
 which is a delightful public dungeon in the middle of nowhere.

anyway, do his quests, enter and dick around in the dungeon, make
 frequent trips to Ost Guruth to craft stuff and sell vendor trash and
 turn in tasks. at this point you're probably level 24-25 and could
 carefully chip away at the epic storyline quests.

but honestly? don't

5. questing in the North Downs
at lv24 you get a quest option to go talk to someone in Trestlebridge,
 in the North Downs north (yeah) along the road from Bree. at about
 this level the quests in Trestlebridge are fun, and a good bridge to
 get to the high 20s if you don't want to spend the next few hours of
 gameplay Metal Gear Solid-ing wights and trolls in east Lone-Lands.
 so get there from Bree and get started.

the quests in Trestlebridge are pretty much all enjoyable. one thing
 about the North Downs is that there are a lot of environment quests
 showing up when you enter a zone or kill the first of a group of mobs,
 so be prepared. most of those are "meh" but stuff you'd be doing
 regardless

having killed a bunch of orcs around Trestlebridge you get a quest to
 visit Amon Raith, with an admonition not to go north at the cross-
 roads. obviously go north at the crossroads, you get some neat quests
 in the Fields of Fornost. this is another "Expert crafting, lots of
 undead" area like the Southern Barrow-Downs

questing around Trestlebridge and Fornost will get you to the mid-20s,
 which is a good place to go back to the Lone-Lands and pick up the
 epic storyline again.