A helpful post to lotro players

The start of The Lord of the Rings Online with some help

April 6th was the start of open beta for everyone who didn’t pre-order LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online). You might be ready to start in the open beta or playing right now but still need some helpful tips. I am always reading the forums to find what problems people have. The number 1 problem is getting more money! This is still beta and still may be tweaked a bit before the game goes live so don’t get too discouraged about it.

Forming groups will gain more levels faster but everything is shared! Also for unique or expensive items all the members of the group have to roll and the highest number rolled will get that item! If you are going solo you shouldn’t have much of a problem with money. Remember you don’t have to repair your items unless they get really low. Usually you will get a better item with your next quest or a drop from a mob (monster or other enemy character). Good drops come from humanoid enemies and I find spiders drop really well. Find some low level spiders and start grinding (constantly killing same monsters for experience or money).

This game is not very good for people who grind for experience. You get a lot of experience with doing quests! Make sure you get all quests you see. You have a limit of 40 quests you can do at one time. This is where a fellowship (grouping together with other players) will come in handy. Grouping will also allow you to do harder quests which give you more experience.

Crafting is another way of making money but can also cost money if you’re not careful. I’ll leave this for another post because it is very involved. I haven’t farmed yet but hear that it’s very costly to buy the seeds for the first timers.

Lord of the Rings shows Gandalf helping players

I have played mostly a minstrel through closed beta and open beta so that is the class I know best. It’s a very good solo character but you do have to wait longer than other classes to finish some of the harder quests. Because minstrels are healers you will be asked to join groups a lot more than other characters. Remember you are a healer first so don’t think of attacking mobs when in a group. Especially if you are grouped with lower level players. Watch their health and heal as much as you can! Only attack if everyone is staying healthy because minstrel attacks can be helpful sometimes.

Lore-masters don’t seem needed in some groups but they can help mele (close combat) characters with their pets and skills. Your pets can be very helpful because you can send them in first and then attack with your range skills. By the time the enemy attacks you they should be half-way dead. You can move your pet skills from the pet bar to your quick slot bars for easier fighting (thanks to geekwing for this tip!). Burglars should always try attacking behind a monster for the best result! Be stealthy as much as you can around mobs. Hunters are the best at long distance fighting with their arrows and traps. Hunters are great in a group with some mele players.

There is a cap at level 15 so take your time and relax. Play each of the 4 races because each will start at a different area and have a different story. The elves and dwarfs will start in the same place and share most of the introduction quests. The humans and hobbits share their own area and quests as well. Try some crafting and explore the game world. When you get to level 10 you can try the monster play which is fun and needs another post all it’s own. Monster play will get better when regular player characters can enter the area at level 40+.

Another problem some people are having are the waiting queues for servers. It might not be the best to wait a couple of minutes to play and this might change in the future. My longest wait was around 10 minutes for Brandywine server. In fact Brandywine and silverlode seems to be the busiest servers with short and medium waiting times. Please try the other servers if you hate waiting. You are allowed 5 regular characters for each server. You can have 5 separate monster characters for each server too. At this time you can not move to another server so pick your main carefully!

Here are some good links and tutorials to help you out. Some will be links to forums which may change in the future.