Hunter waiting for Rohan, thinking about an alt...
I have a level 75 Hunter, done with solo quests and waiting for Rohan.
I'm thinking about creating an alt, but don't know which class would be the most fun. Here are my "requirements", in descending order of priority:
1) Easy to solo (especially later on) -- Although I've had fun in some joins, most of the time I prefer the solo experience. I'd like a class which can handle solo quests easily. I'd rather have the end game easier and the early game harder than vice versa.
2) Can solo some fellowship quests -- My hunter was able to solo some fellowship quests (once leveled high enough), but at end game, it was impossible. I'd heard stories of people soloing end game fellowship content, but my Hunter couldn't even come close. Are there other classes that have a better chance of soloing the hard stuff?
3) Different play experience from Hunter -- Although I enjoyed Hunter more than Guardian (which I got to level 30), I think if I'm going to go through all those areas and quests again, I'd like to try something a little different, just so it doesn't feel quite so repetitive.
4) Doesn't have to craft -- Speaking of repetition, I find crafting very tedious, especially when not willing to play every day. So, I don't want a class which is dependent on crafting items; I'd prefer using stuff from monster drops.
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Given those 4 requirements, which would you recommend for an alt?
If you have unlocked the Warden and Rune-Keeper, then go for Warden, it's the best solo/fellowship balance in the game. It's a light tank with self heal and some pretty high damage. If you don't have them, i think you should try the Champion, another balanced class, heavy armour good damage. Personally i recomend the Lore-Master, even though its survivabilty in soloing are thin, it is a good change of scenery, and different gameplay. Regarding the crafting since you aren't that interested in, you could go for tailor/woodworker, or armoursmith/weaponsmith, because the resources are pretty easy to find, for tailor you get the hides, even if you have the profession, or you don't, you still have to kill x wargs, y wolves etc, around middle-earth.
Hope this helped more or less. At least to point you towards a direction. Cheers
I'd recommend Champion or Minstrel, both can deal a good amount of damage and have good survivability. It's also pretty easy to shift your priority from one to the other. For both quest gear is sufficiant to deal with on level elites.
My first lotro character was also a hunter and while still I really love her the most I'm also really enjoying my warden. I can use her to do stuff that I couldn't even dream on doing on my hunter and in addition to good survaivability she has decent dps so I don't need to sit around all day when I want to kill a mob. Thought I need to say my warden is only lvl 26 or something right now. I also have lvl 63 Rune-Keeper and while I like her well enough her appeal lies within healing. She has some nice CC to help her stay alive + some healing that can be used in battle attunement but if I would need to choose between my hunter/warden and my runekeeper for soloing I would definitely pick my hunter and warden. I have also tried out champion and lore-master but didn't really warm up to those, dunno why.
Warden sounds like the general favorite, so I think I'll try that.
Any pros/cons to the different races? My hunter was an elf, and before that I had a hobbit guardian.
Also, if I *have* to craft, then what crafting combo would work best for a warden? I did tailor/woodworking for my hunter, which gave me decent light armor, but I'm guessing the Warden would want to wear something heavier?
And finally, I know there are lots of class-specific guides out there... which is the best one for someone starting a Warden alt? (I'd rather not have to be cross-referencing a bunch at once)
Also, if I *have* to craft, then what crafting combo would work best for a warden? I did tailor/woodworking for my hunter, which gave me decent light armor, but I'm guessing the Warden would want to wear something heavier?
I'm not qualified to answer any questions about Warden details. Yet I can field this one.
Wardens wear the same armor type as Hunters. So seeing as how you can already supply medium armor for your young Warden, maybe you should make said Warden into a Tinker for all those wonderful pieces of jewelry?
If you have a player house then you can use storage chests from that to swap stuff between characters if you dont have shared vault storage.
My suggestion for an alt would be the mini, once you get warspeech things seem to melt away quite nicely and it only gets better. Chucking out instant calls and cries and whatnot gives you a lot of mobility so being in light armour doesnt matter a huge amount. I was happily soloing the all lagtrev dailies by the time I was 68. Dropped my hunter at 73 in stunland and started levelling what was at the time my cooking alt and had a blast. The only downside with the mini is that if you don't like healing then finding groups can be very difficult for a dps mini, the general assumption is mini = heals, all other healing capable classes be damned.
For crafting and alts if you want the full range of professions you can cover them by using only 4 characters with armourer, historian, tinker and woodsman. You won't be able to rep up all the craft guilds but thats not always a huge issue if you were to guild the profs suited to your main, woodworker for LI bow crafting for example.
If you check lotro-wiki.com, yes the thing the lorebook here at mylotro wants to be, and search for "crafter interdependance" you should find a good run down. Can take a bit of work to get running but usually works quite well for profs like scholar if you can have a high level farming kills for drops.
I'm assuming I'd use some sort of shared storage to trade items, right? Would my characters be able to store/swap things in the same house?
I'm a bit confused as to the procedure of "cooperative crafting" between 2 characters. What would be an example sequence?
If you have a personal house, you can put your items in there for your other toon to grab. However, you can not put bound items in there, so if you are transferring armour, be careful you did not accidentally bind it to yourself.
If you have shared storage (visit bank --> believe its the second option 'Shared Storage') it works the same way as using the personal housing. However, if you have not unlocked this from the store, you will not have it.
You could also mail items back and forth between your toons. It's time consuming and can get expensive, but still works.
Any pros/cons to the different races? My hunter was an elf, and before that I had a hobbit guardian.
There is not a whole lot of diff between races except for the Race Traits they can slot, and for a solo Hobbits may be most attractive b/c of their "play dead" ability, or Men for their ability to regain 3,000 morale once/hr - both are life-savers, but in diff ways. Elves can parry like fiends for a short while, but that's more a stalling tactic, and better if you have cavalry that's coming.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
4) Doesn't have to craft -- Speaking of repetition, I find crafting very tedious, especially when not willing to play every day. So, I don't want a class which is dependent on crafting items; I'd prefer using stuff from monster drops.
No class "has" to Craft, but relying on drops puts you at a HUGE disad vs. crafting whatever gear you think is key. At level 40-50 or so, drops (and epic/legendary) start to compete w/ crit-crafted, and then surpass.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
Also, if I *have* to craft, then what crafting combo would work best for a warden? I did tailor/woodworking for my hunter, which gave me decent light armor, but I'm guessing the Warden would want to wear something heavier?
(Um.... Hunters wear medium...)
Anyway, Wardens wear identical armour to Hunters, but add a shield.
I wouldn't recommend worrying about any Craft for one-slot gear - a shield, a weapon, a javelin - those are easy enough to pick up/buy/commission every 5 levels or so. A suite of jewellery, a full suit of armour - those are much tougher to buy/negotiate/scrounge, 7 slots vs. 1. So your current Tailor for Medium Armour, plus Jeweller would be my call.
Hi, I ended up going for Minstrel because I notice that Warden costs TP; I must've bought the Moria quest pack rather than the expansion.
I have some questions:
1) I went the Tinker route, as recommended. The prospecting/jewelry part is easy, but the cooking is a pain because of the dependencies on farmers and foresters. I'm not in the habit of using food often, so I think maybe I'll just ignore cooking. Is that a safe course of action?
2) I'm currently level 15, still in the Shire. Some quests/deeds have been fun and easy, some [like the chicken, pie, and mail quests] are just as tedious as I remember. It's a very similar experience to my Hunter. I'm using the war speech "stance", focusing on DPS rather than healing. So far I haven't needed much healing, and haven't died yet. So, I'm wondering: At what point does a minstrel begin to "feel" different from a hunter? So far, the experience is very similar (minus the tracking, trapping, and campfire skills, which I miss).
3) And finally, I'm wondering: are there general tips for maximizing the "fun factor" of playing an alt? It's a long, long road from the Shire to Rohan, especially if we tackle all the different regions (except perhaps Ettenmoors)... We're talking months (for me at least) of daily play (1-2 hrs/day), and without the novelty factor, I'm a little worried about tedium outweighing the fun in the long run. Right now the Shire is pretty enjoyable, but it was always one of my favorite areas (lots of green). I'm kinda dreading the Lone Lands, Angmar, and some of the other drearier areas. So do alt players just skip the boring stuff (when it's not part of the epic quest)? Do they just focus alts on crafting and not worry about questing?
I suppose it all depends on why we alt. I'm doing it mostly because I enjoy LOTRO, but my main character has nothing left to do (in terms of solo quests). I didn't have crafting in mind when I created an alt, and I'm also not thinking about grouping.
4) I was hoping that Minstrel would play radically differently from Hunter (because Hunter and Guardian definitely play differently), but so far that hasn't been the case. Would Warden have the same issue? Is the process of killing a spider (or 3 spiders at a time) the same for Wardens as Hunters/Minstrels and/or Guardians? Or is the Warden combat experience fundamentally different?
1) I went the Tinker route, as recommended. The prospecting/jewelry part is easy, but the cooking is a pain because of the dependencies on farmers and foresters. I'm not in the habit of using food often, so I think maybe I'll just ignore cooking. Is that a safe course of action?
Sure. At some point you may want to make an alt that you don't level past, say, level 9, and park them in the Shire for Farming. That's what I did to support my Tinker before I had a Historian. I'm not sure what you need a forester for at this point.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
2) I'm currently level 15, still in the Shire. Some quests/deeds have been fun and easy, some [like the chicken, pie, and mail quests] are just as tedious as I remember. It's a very similar experience to my Hunter. I'm using the war speech "stance", focusing on DPS rather than healing. So far I haven't needed much healing, and haven't died yet. So, I'm wondering: At what point does a minstrel begin to "feel" different from a hunter? So far, the experience is very similar (minus the tracking, trapping, and campfire skills, which I miss).
You'll find the experience VERY different when you are grouping. I haven't leveled a Hunter so I'm afraid I can't be more specific. Try using the healing more, especially in fights against multiple foes. As a Minstrel, I don't kite when I can fear something and use the time they spend running about to heal myself.
Part of it may be that in Warspeech, you are basically playing a single-target DPS class with some buffing. NOT that different from Hunter. Once you get Harmony stance, you might find some other playstyles become possible.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
3) And finally, I'm wondering: are there general tips for maximizing the "fun factor" of playing an alt?
...snip...
I suppose it all depends on why we alt. I'm doing it mostly because I enjoy LOTRO, but my main character has nothing left to do (in terms of solo quests). I didn't have crafting in mind when I created an alt, and I'm also not thinking about grouping.
I'm wondering why you are taking your alt through the same zones you took your main through. Why re-do the Shire when you could try out Bree or Ered Luin? If your main mainly did the Lonelands, go to the North Downs. There are always more than one way to get leveling done.
And yes, I don't do anything I find boring on an alt unless I really want that alt to get the benefits of it.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
4) I was hoping that Minstrel would play radically differently from Hunter (because Hunter and Guardian definitely play differently), but so far that hasn't been the case. Would Warden have the same issue? Is the process of killing a spider (or 3 spiders at a time) the same for Wardens as Hunters/Minstrels and/or Guardians? Or is the Warden combat experience fundamentally different?
Wardens are VERY different, given that they build their attacks (Gambits) from other elemental attacks. They tank through evasion and self-heals rather than absorption.
I'm wondering why you are taking your alt through the same zones you took your main through. Why re-do the Shire when you could try out Bree or Ered Luin? If your main mainly did the Lonelands, go to the North Downs. There are always more than one way to get leveling done.
I was a completist with my hunter, so I went through *all* the areas, except Ettenmoors. (And yes, this meant a lot of time I was questing far below my level, which meant little or no XP). I finished all the solo quests, and most of the fellowship quests; only the really hard fellowship quests and instances will be new to me.
2) I'm currently level 15, still in the Shire. Some quests/deeds have been fun and easy, some [like the chicken, pie, and mail quests] are just as tedious as I remember. It's a very similar experience to my Hunter. I'm using the war speech "stance", focusing on DPS rather than healing. So far I haven't needed much healing, and haven't died yet. So, I'm wondering: At what point does a minstrel begin to "feel" different from a hunter? So far, the experience is very similar (minus the tracking, trapping, and campfire skills, which I miss).
4) I was hoping that Minstrel would play radically differently from Hunter (because Hunter and Guardian definitely play differently), but so far that hasn't been the case. Would Warden have the same issue? Is the process of killing a spider (or 3 spiders at a time) the same for Wardens as Hunters/Minstrels and/or Guardians? Or is the Warden combat experience fundamentally different?
At a pure UI level, Hunters and "spell casters" are very similar - both have ranged attacks, so you press a button and damage happens downrange. They become different once the nature of that damage changes to special effects (for the spell casters). I'd say this starts to become more evident around Lvl 25 or so.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
Hi, I ended up going for Minstrel because I notice that Warden costs TP; I must've bought the Moria quest pack rather than the expansion.
I have some questions:
1) I went the Tinker route, as recommended. The prospecting/jewelry part is easy, but the cooking is a pain because of the dependencies on farmers and foresters. I'm not in the habit of using food often, so I think maybe I'll just ignore cooking. Is that a safe course of action?
100% safe, and even recommended at times - like in your case. Let me illustrate by answering your previous question...
Originally Posted by kiwipop
...I'm a bit confused as to the procedure of "cooperative crafting" between 2 characters. What would be an example sequence?
Every Profession consists of 3 Crafts. One Craft (at least) is always a "gathering" Craft, and one Craft is always a "production" Craft supported by that gathering Craft - raw materials are gathered and finished products produced. The third Craft is always a misfit, either another Gather Craft, or an unsupported production Craft (where that Character cannot gather/fabricate the raw materials they need by themselves.) For example, Tinker has Prospector (which gathers ores/gems and creates ingots) which supports Jeweller (which turns those into jewellery), and then also Cook, but no Farmer to feed mass amounts of raw foods to support that food production. So the trick is to find a pair of misfits in 2 crafting Characters that can work together.
A typical "cooperative pairing" is something like Tinker + Woodsman. Woodsman adds Forestry which supports their Woodcrafting, but also has Farming, which produces raw foods. By itself, a Woodsman has no choice but to sell these raw foods (they can't be eaten/used "as is"), but when matched with the Tinker they can send the food to the Tinker/Cook* and it's a win.
(* via mail, shared vault, shared house storage, or dual-boxing).
(Of the 7 Professions (42 possible pairings w/ diff Professions), there are only 7 such pairings that dovetail well with each other.) 2 Characters can only achieve 3 supported Crafts at most (unless Scholar is in the mix, and even then only w/ the Tinker/Historian pairing - Jeweller, Cook, Scholar, Weaponsmith. Some Players expand their options by coordinating 4 characters between 2 FTP accounts.)
Originally Posted by Shukar
I'm not sure what you need a forester for at this point.
(iirc, he has an alt that can create light/medium armour - don't know if that alt has Forester. If Explorer, they do - if Armourer or Yeoman, they don't.)
My Hunter is an explorer, and can craft light armor for the minstrel. However, I don't have Farming, which leaves the tinker without cooking ingredients.
I could create a second alt which is a farmer. Maybe that alt could be a warden (for 795 turbine points). I could start it off in Ered Luin (instead of the Shire) and try to have each alt focus on different regions.
Does that seem like a fun plan? It'd take me twice as long to level the alts (since I'd be devoting half the time to each one). However, I would be able to craft "properly", which might make leveling easier/faster.
If I do this, then several questions pop to mind:
1) Should the warden be an elf or a dwarf (assuming I need one of those to start in Ered Luin)?
2) Should the warden's profession be a Historian? Farming would supply the tinker's cooking. Weaponsmith would be supplied (I hope) by the tinker's prospecting. I'm not sure what Scholar would do.
3) Should I start the warden ASAP (to begin supplying the tinker), or could I wait until the tinker is done with the Shire (for some closure on it)?
4) To share ingredients, would it be best to user (a) mail, (b) shared storage, or (c) my hunter's house?
5) Is there any immediate advantage in having a third alt which acts as "mule" (which I've read about, but don't entirely understand)?
To answer question two, have you ever used fire/light oils on your hunter?
The Warden can use those too.
To come to the point, if you´re too bogged down with all the crafting and just want to rely on loot drops or better buying stuff from the skirmish masters for skirmish points, then make that Warden a Historian.
It includes the scholar which uses the most quick and unobtrusive crafting option in the game and you can nicely boost your damage with fire/light oils you make yourself and battle scrolls that boost damage output and tanking.
Last edited by Flatfoot789; Jul 04 2012 at 04:43 PM.
#1 Dwarves iirc cannot be wardens
#2 Historians (scholars) can make useful consumables; woodworkers make consumable that almost nobody bothers with.
#3 An armsman can craft both wood and metal weapons, but can only join one guild. Both guilds can craft a wide spread of LIs, the main edge is woodsman has more ranged, but weaponcrafter can make ranged weapons for champions/burglars and traps and tricks for hunter/burg.
#4 So really, the best craft depends upon the class, but scholar is almost universally useful.
Tiger got to hunt,/ Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, / Bird got to land,
Man got to tell himself he understand.
As a player with lots of alts and a main hunter, I would say NOT to keep your alts around the same level.
I have 8 characters and they are all spread out through the levels (from my level 10 champion to my level 75 hunter).
I usually raise 10 levels on an alt and then raise another 10 on another keeping them 10 levels apart so that they are always enjoying different areas/regions of the game.
The important thing is that you want your gatherer to be higher leveled than your crafter (your farmer higher leveled than your cook, for instance), that way, you always have access to the materials for the crafter and have the products for your crafter AND your gatherer to use.
In your case, it is useful to level your warden to level 20 before getting your minstrel to level 10 and carry on like that (10 levels apart). Scholar is both a gatherer and crafter profession, so the warden will supply himself as a scholar and cook will need the materials the farmer supplies.
Besides, with your main being a hunter, a warden is much more different than a minstrel (specially in solo content) and will provide you much more respite. Another important aspect is that the gambit system the warden uses needs some getting used to and those initial uninterrupted 20 or so levels will help a lot.
Edit: The above about leveling your warden first being better for crafting is also true if you consider than the warden usually doesn't use weaponsmith weapons but woodworker ones and is thus more focused in scholarship than in weaponsmith (using the latter only to supply the minstrel)
Last edited by Lucanthanas; Jul 05 2012 at 11:15 AM.
Yesterday I halted progress on the minstrel (tinker) and created another alt. I balked again at the 795 TP for warden, so I created a captain (I've always been curious about the herald). Since I was a human, after the intro area, I ended up in Archet, and am now piddling around in the Combe/Chetwood area. It's been a long time since I did these low-level quests, so I don't mind doing them again.
I didn't know how much I'd play the captain (since I still want to do the warden), so I didn't want to be an historian. Therefore, I decided to make the captain a yeoman (the one with forestry, woodworking, and farming). This way, I can start making food for the tinker, and the forestry can help with the rowan branches the tinker needs to make cooking kits. I've never tried woodworking before, so that's something relatively novel. It doesn't look like captains can use bows, though, so I'm not sure what the woodworking will benefit these alts, but I'm not too concerned about that now.
So now I have 4 characters:
1) guardian - level 39 - prospecting/???/??? - abandoned long ago (not well optimized)
2) hunter - level 75 - forestry/prospecting/tailor - waiting for rohan - has a house near bree
3) minstrel - level 16 - prospecting/jeweler/cook - 3/4 of the way through the shire
4) captain - level 10 - forestry/woodworking/farming - early parts of bree
I have one more slot, which I plan to use for the warden/historian:
5) warden - unstarted - farming/scholar/weaponsmith - plan to start in ered luin
I plan to play the 3 "young" characters (minstrel, captain, warden) while waiting for Rohan to come out. At that point, I'll jump back to the hunter. Once the hunter is back at end game, I can return to the alts. I don't have any plans (at this point) to revisit the guardian.
So my question is: how should I coordinate leveling and trading with the alts?
It sounds like the "producers" (captain and warden) need to be higher level than the "consumer" (minstrel). At this point, it looks like the captain can provide the minstrel the most help for cooking, so should the captain be the highest level, followed by the warden, and then the minstrel?
I was initially planning to have them each finish their low-level areas (shire, bree/chetwood, ered luin) and then sync up at bree. At that point, one could head to lonelands, one to north downs, and I'm not sure about the third. Maybe I'll be down to 2 alts at that point.
If you had those 3 characters to play with (captain yeoman, warden historian, minstrel tinker), what itinerary would you set up for them? The goals would be to minimize questing overlap (except of course for epic quests), maximize crafting help, and hopefully minimize the amount of hassle when it comes to sharing items.
What rough road map would you set up for them? And if you had to play with just 2, which 2 would you pick?
The important thing is that you want your gatherer to be higher leveled than your crafter (your farmer higher leveled than your cook, for instance), that way, you always have access to the materials for the crafter and have the products for your crafter AND your gatherer to use.
That's a useful consideration for the prospector and forester gathering professions, where you have to be able to explore higher level areas in order to gather high level materials, but you can get farming all the way up to Supreme crafting without ever leaving the Shire, so it doesn't really apply as much to that one.
Given kiwipop's characters, it looks like the only two cases where one character will be supplying another is the captain's farming supplying produce for the minstrel's cooking (and as mentioned, farming isn't really level dependent) and one or the other of the prospectors supplying ingots for the warden's weaponsmithing (and since the hunter main who is above all the rest of them in level is a prospector, that shouldn't be an issue either).
The more relevant issue, if the goal is to make stuff for yourself, is to make sure your crafting levels keep pace with your characters' levels. That requires putting a fair amount of effort into leveling your crafting.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
I've never tried woodworking before, so that's something relatively novel. It doesn't look like captains can use bows, though, so I'm not sure what the woodworking will benefit these alts, but I'm not too concerned about that now.
Once your minstrel gets up to level 30 or above, he/she will be able to use crafted instruments that improve the effectiveness or reduce the power costs of songs. It's your woodworker that will be able to make those, provided you can get the recipes for them. (I believe all the instrument recipes are the type that drop from mobs rather than purchasable from crafting vendors.)
Plus, once you add your warden alt, your woodworker can make spears and javelins for him to fight with.
So, it sounds like the leveling order needs could be either:
1) captain yeoman - (currently level 13 in bree)
2) warden historian - (not created yet, will start in ered luin)
3) minstrel tinker - (currently level 16 in shire)
or
1) captain yeoman - (currently level 13 in bree)
2) minstrel tinker - (currently level 16 in shire)
3) warden historian - (not created yet, will start in ered luin)
...because the tinker and historian supply each other.
Since my warden doesn't even exist yet, it seems like the second approach (captain, minstrel, warden) will be less work to get going.
Still, it seems like a *lot* of work to run 3 alts at once. As long as they have different quests, it shouldn't get too tedious, but I'm not looking forward to overlap. Also, I can't see myself having enough time each day to devote a significant chunk to each alt. So, I'm guessing I'll need to play the alts in "phases" (focus on one for a day or two, switch).
Do you think running 3 alts simultaneously will become a drag? Should I reduce it to 2 (by dropping the captain)? If so, would a warden yeoman make more sense than a warden historian?
The important thing is that you want your gatherer to be higher leveled than your crafter (your farmer higher leveled than your cook, for instance), that way, you always have access to the materials for the crafter and have the products for your crafter AND your gatherer to use.
This is good advice... EXCEPT for farming. There is no advantage to having your farmer be levelled at all. Farmers do not need to go anywhere to level, and can craft up to Tier 7 stuff right from the superior farmland in Hobbiton.
Your gathering character (Explorer) should be your highest level character so as to provide ores/hides/other stuff to the rest of your crafters. This means your other crafters have a good shot at being able to make crit-crafted equipment at the level when you want it. Since you no longer need to be high level to get your crafting to Tier 7, it's really now a matter of getting your hands on enough material to grind your crafting and Guild access. It's probably most important for Prospecting; you can gather hides with a non-Forester and pass them to a Forester for processing, but it's tough to mine nodes in high-level areas with a low-level character.
S
Do you think running 3 alts simultaneously will become a drag? Should I reduce it to 2 (by dropping the captain)? If so, would a warden yeoman make more sense than a warden historian?
A Warden historian makes a lot of sense since Wardens use the oils that Scholars make. Note that a Historian/Tinker pair supports each other much better than Tinker/Yeoman; a Tinker/Yeoman has 2 characters with Cooking and nobody with Forestry, which is bad. (Yeoman is Farming/Cooking/Tailoring... right?)
so I created a captain (I've always been curious about the herald).
Dude, nothing is keeping you from doing ALL starter areas with a character.
Infact you actually should as the virtue levels you pick up there will help out a lot, especially in the beginning. Also the TP you easily can earn that way is nothing to sneeze at.
You might make enough TP to get that warden if you do this on all your alts, depending on how many you have.
Also another key tip concerning the Captain(love that class) is leveling up his Battleshout class deed. You can only add it at lvl21 when the 2nd class deed slot is unlocked(the free class deed is too useful) but the "-5 sec to cool down" it awards makes such a big difference in playing this class.
Though remember class deeds have only a certain allotted uses per day that count towards completing the deed. Keep in mind gray mobs don´t count towards CLASS deed completion.
Last edited by Flatfoot789; Jul 06 2012 at 02:40 AM.
That would be a complex guide indeed, since each area has more quests than really needed to advance to the next step. Both the Shire and Ered Luin (seperately!) have about twice the quests needed to get to Bree, and Bree offers much more than you need to get to the Lone Lands, etc etc.
When I've had conversations w/ folks about this, they usually head into "areas" of those lands - north or south EL, or go to NE Shire to battle gobbos or SE to battle brigands, etc etc. In Bree, you can go Old Forest or Brigands, and then either Barrows, or the north Bree Horsefields (orcs/critters), or SE to the Midgewater Marsh (gobbos & diff critters). Many do more than one, esp if you're chasing most/all the Slayer/Explorer Deeds.
It often depends, it seems, just on whether you turn left or right at a given juncture - you have 2 quests to choose from, one sends you down one chain in one area, the other down another, and by the time you get around to the one you skipped it's greyed out and waaay below your level, and just uninviting. Sometimes it's the end-reward that makes your choice for you - something useful to the current character's Class that wasn't to the last Character you took thru there.
You just pursue what seems most interesting, novel or rewarding at the time - it seems to all work out.
Two quests diverged in a Tolkien world, and I,
I took the one less quested by,
And that has made all the difference.
Other than the Prologue/core quests? You'd have to grind the math on that one (how many xp are needed vs. available).
You could certainly go either Shire or EL to get to Bree, and then Bree is quite diverse. Then you're Level 20-25 or so, and Lone Lands is the only Free zone in that range. After that you have to buy, and there are several options for those levels - yeah, it might be possible, or certainly very close.
I'm VIP, so have access to all the areas. I was thinking after Bree, I could take one to Lone Lands and one to North Downs. I don't know what the third would do.
Of course, at Moria, they all come together. That's months away, though.
I've leveled up my captain a bit so right now the three alts are:
1) captain yeoman - level 17 - bree
2) minstrel tinker - level 16 - shire
3) warden historian - not created - ered luin
I've got the BusyBee (task list) plugin installed, so I can see where my trophies need to be turned in. My captain has many trophies which could be used in the Shire or Ered Luin. If I mail trophies to my other characters, can they turn them in? Or are trophies bound?
To trade, should I use mail, shared storage, or my house in the bree lands?
I just mailed some trophies and ingredients back and forth between alts. It was easy, but cost a little postage. And I need to remember to check mail before it expires.
The shared storage option seems more flexible, but it requires TP to get started, and there are fewer vaults than mailboxes.
The postage is .50 plus an amount based on the value and rarity of the object(s) being mailed. Things like recipes are cheap - craft-crit'd items and 100-stacks of rare drops are more expensive.
Mail is good for something like 2 weeks + 1 day (something like that - whatever) - but you can double that by simply ignoring it! Unopened mail from a character will return to the Sender when it expires - and then the timer starts again. (You can add up to 2 days by opening it just before the 2-week time expires - then that 2 day time starts, then it's returned.)
I use both - for expensive/urgent items, or for things that both characters are collecting/storing, I use shared storage. Otoh, if I find a recipe that is over my Crafting ability for the moment, I'll mail it off (with a label to myself DO NOT OPEN!), and give myself a month to get that Crafting back up. If I need/want it early, I can open it and ignore it - it gets returned in 48 hrs w/ no additional postage.
(And, of course, if there are no nearby vaults, mail is the only option.)
(btw - another workaround to having no nearby vault access is buying additional Milestone skills. One bound to/near your current location, one to maybe Esteldin or T's Hall for both Crafting & Vault Access - good to go.)
Sometimes it's the end-reward that makes your choice for you - something useful to the current character's Class that wasn't to the last Character you took thru there.
The difficulty in deciding based on the end-reward is that quests only tell you what the reward is for that specific quest. You're generally going to want to choose which quest chains to follow or not follow, and you need to make that decision on the first quest in the chain when it's likely to be the last quest in the chain that has the best reward.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
Do you think it's possible to get 2 (or even 3) characters all the way to Moria without any quest overlap other than the epic quest?
I'm not attempting to (as I prefer to do all the quests with each character), so I'm only guessing here, but my guess is that you could easily do two characters without overlap. Three characters would take a bit more planning and keeping track of individual quest hubs but would likely still be possible with either no or minimal overlap (assuming you're either VIP or have all quest packs).
In following the stories, quest chains tend to move you around a region from one hub to another. If you're trying to keep track of what each character does so you can avoid overlap, you're going to want to focus on particular quest hubs, but I'd recommend following chains wherever they take you. For instance, if you have two characters leveling in the Shire, one might do all the quest chains that originate in Michael Delving while another does all quest chains that originate in Hobbiton, Bywater, or Tuckborough, etc. Each character should follow those chains wherever they lead, but not necessarily pick up new quests in each hub that takes them through. When you finish all chains that started from one hub, choose another hub to work from and keep track of which of your characters followed which hubs.
The other consideration is that, although this should get you enough XP to level multiple characters without much overlap, you may want to repeat some quest chains with each character if they reward reputation or deed advancement or some other reward that you find particularly useful at that level.
So here is an update, along with some questions...
the 3 alts:
1) Minstrel tinker - level 26, completed Shire and almost all of Bree-land
2) Captain yeoman - level 24, completed most of Bree-land
3) Warden historian - level 14, sitting in Gondamon
older characters:
4) Hunter explorer - level 75, waiting for rohan
5) Guardian armourer - level 39, my first character, and semi-abandoned
Of the 3 new alts, I decided to make the minstrel go first, since he is the only ore collector of the 3. He turns ore into ingots, which he either uses himself (as a jeweler) or passes to the warden (for weapons) or guardian (heavy armor). He also passes hides to the captain, who turns them into leather, which he then passes to the hunter, who turns them into very good light and medium armor. The warden doesn't do much crafting (because of a lack of ingredients). I haven't focused on farming yet, so the tinker's cooking skills are behind as well.
The minstrel also passes low-level trophies to the other 2 alts. Right now the alts are supplied with enough task trophies to last several days. So all I've really done with my warden and captain for the past few days is log in, check mail, turn in tasks, and log out. The minstrel is the one one who's questing at the moment. This seems to work fine for the moment, since I get a sense of progress with each alt, without having to invest time in all 3 or do a lot of context switching.
And now for the questions:
Question 1: Do you have any tips on getting momentum with farming? I feel like I need to get farming going before I can expect the cooking skills to develop. I don't use food often, so there hasn't been much of an incentive to get farming and cooking going yet. However, my tinker's inventory is clogged with ingredients, so I'd love to be able to turn some of those into food as a way of getting rid of them.
Question 2: How can I collect scholar ingredients faster? It's taking forever to progress, even with the other alts mailing him every ingredient they collect.
Question 3: Should ingots go to jewelry, weapons, or armor? I'm not sure which I should prioritize. My guess is armor should be last, since I already have a good tailor (the hunter), and at least one of the alts (the minstrel) will never be able to wear heavy armor. So between jewelry and weapons, which will be more useful to the 3 alts?
Question 4: Is there any advantage in doing the fellowship (3-an, 6-man) quests now? Or can I come back to them later on, when they are trivial? For example, do the Barrow Downs fellowship quests drop any really good items or deeds that will make things significantly easier later on?
Question 1: Do you have any tips on getting momentum with farming? I feel like I need to get farming going before I can expect the cooking skills to develop. I don't use food often, so there hasn't been much of an incentive to get farming and cooking going yet. However, my tinker's inventory is clogged with ingredients, so I'd love to be able to turn some of those into food as a way of getting rid of them.
When I decided to get rolling with Farming, I sent 5g to my farmer alt and just ground for as long as I could stand it. I sold the outputs in the AH or to the NPC until I got to the (few) ingredients for the items I was interested in. (Note that I'm VIP and have no gold cap. You can certainly get started with just 1 or 2 gold and replenish as needed.) You can choose to grow flowers (many of whom yield dye items) to make it less of a waste of time.
The only ingredients that your Tinker should hang onto are the crit items (Sprig of Mugwort, etc) and fish. All the cooking items you gather on the landscape can either be farmed at need or purchased from NPCs. Other things like Yarrow, Woad, and Indigo you should pass to your Scholar for later use as dyes. As I've gotten up in levels, I sometimes keep Fair Crops of things my cook often needs at level 75 for later processing into usable crops. Note that 5 fields (once you can use crit soil) will yield enough crops to create a stack of most foods. It is very easy for you to farm up huge quantities of stuff.
Your scholar is perfectly placed to be your farming alt. Move him from Gondamon to Hobbiton and he can level his crafting to Tier 7 without leaving the Shire. (Sometimes he may need to go to Michel Delving but that's about it.)
Originally Posted by kiwipop
Question 2: How can I collect scholar ingredients faster? It's taking forever to progress, even with the other alts mailing him every ingredient they collect.
When your scholar is adventuring, he'll be able to "mine" his own ingredients from scholar nodes. Those are things like "Broken Urn", "Forgotten Text" that you see on the landscape. Your scholar can also farm up ingredients for dyemaking, which don't require these scholar items. Make sure you buy (or keep) dye recipes and look to those for leveling.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
Question 3: Should ingots go to jewelry, weapons, or armor? I'm not sure which I should prioritize. My guess is armor should be last, since I already have a good tailor (the hunter), and at least one of the alts (the minstrel) will never be able to wear heavy armor. So between jewelry and weapons, which will be more useful to the 3 alts?
This is only a choice at tier 1, 6, and 7. Jewelers use different ingots than weaponsmiths and metalsmiths. For now I'd say to give all the copper to your Jeweler and hang onto the tin. At tier 2 you'll have barrow iron/silver, and your jeweler only needs the silver. Have your jeweler polish every gem you get; you get XP for that and it doesn't consume anything. Save the base metals for your weaponsmith (your scholar is a weaponsmith) and keep the "noble" metals like copper, silver, gold, platinum, etc. for your jeweler. Both will raise your Prospecting and let you keep gathering as you level up.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
Question 4: Is there any advantage in doing the fellowship (3-an, 6-man) quests now? Or can I come back to them later on, when they are trivial? For example, do the Barrow Downs fellowship quests drop any really good items or deeds that will make things significantly easier later on?
It's tough to answer that; at your levels you'll probably level past any rewards even if they're good. I'd say do them if it's convenient or if you really like a reward, and skip them if not. You can skip them with your Minstrel and do them later with your Warden... it's really up to you. Learning your class mechanics will do you more good than slightly better equipment, really.
So, farmers only need gold in order to generate stuff? They don't need to collect ingredients from the landscape?
My hunter has about 170 gold, so I can transfer some gold to my farmer, and then have the farmer generate materials for the cook. That will let me supply my alts with good food, although I'm not in the habit of using food because my hunter never had a steady supply of it. For which classes (and at what levels) is food most important?
And you are saying the farmer can also create scholar ingredients (like Yarrow root)? It would be great to be able to get the scholar caught up in crafting without him ever having to leave Gondamon (where he's turning in tasks).
So, farmers only need gold in order to generate stuff? They don't need to collect ingredients from the landscape?
Yes. Everything a farmer needs can be purchased from the Novice/Expert farmer NPC near the farmlands. Even the crit soil you need is purchased... except for Tier 7, though even for that I've found little use for it. You might want to have your metalsmith craft some farming tools for your farmer; better tools make it a little faster but even that isn't truly required.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
For which classes (and at what levels) is food most important?
Food is good for any character where you have to wait between battles to regenerate morale or power. You can also use food to give you a boost in a stat: you can make food that raises Vitality, Morale, Will, etc. A third type of food can increase your resistance to certain damage but that doesn't become important until your 60's, IMHO. If you have a Loremaster, there are foods that help your pets.
Originally Posted by kiwipop
And you are saying the farmer can also create scholar ingredients (like Yarrow root)? It would be great to be able to get the scholar caught up in crafting without him ever having to leave Gondamon (where he's turning in tasks).
There are 3 dye materials that can ONLY be gathered from the landscape: Yarrow, Woad, and Indigo. (I can't tell you how many times I have died for Woad... *darn* my addiction to Ered Luin Blue dye!) Many others come from Ore nodes: Copper salts, Ancient Iron Oxide, Umber, etc. And there are a LOT of them that can be farmed: Juicy Strawberries, Bluebottle Petals, Saffron Threads, etc.
If you are leveling up a farmer, having them farm up dye materials means you can use them to help level your Scholar... after you have farmed up enough to level your Cook. I think this is why Historians are Farmers; farming is a gathering profession for Scholars. Well, at least for the dyemaking part. You will also farm up Straw whenever you grow grains, and that can be used in Weaponsmithing to make a type of trap for your Hunter.
Minstrel is now level 33 (almost 34), and in northeast Lone Lands. I hate the place with a passion (all that red), and find my enthusiasm plummeting, just as it did my first 2 times through (guardian and then hunter). I'm so tired of all that red that I decide to just finish the epic quest and get out of there, leaving the fellowship quests for later (or never).
Captain is level 24 or so and hasn't done much questing, but instead just turns in daily tasks trophies, all supplied by the minstrel. Occasionally he crafts something, but there's not much woodworking can do, and he's given up farming altogether. He mails leathers to my tailor (level 75 hunter), who supplies everyone with good light and medium armor.
Warden is level 18 and also hasn't done much questing. Like the captain, he just turns in daily trophies, and farms every once in a while for the minstrel (tinker).
So here's the issue:
I'm looking forward to actually playing the captain and warden again, but they still have about 10-20 days worth of trophies to turn in. If I play them, they'll gain XP, which means they'll out-level some of those trophies. It seems a waste to have saved (and mailed) those trophies but then never actually turn them in, so my captain and warden are basically halted, waiting for either the supply of trophies (from the minstrel) to dry up, or for the XP from the tasks itself to out-level some of the trophies.
This could take forever.
In theory, my minstrel could provide enough trophies to the captain and minstrel to ensure that they never have to quest again... They just keep turning in trophies, and slowly leveling up that way. They both now can turn in 6 trophies, and in a few days that will be 7.... And then 8... As long as the minstrel can keep supplying them, they can keep leveling, without ever killing anything or questing. Hmm...
Is that a "fun" way to play?
Well, no, not really.
I'm a bit tired of playing the minstrel (though perhaps it's just northeast Lone Lands that sucks), and would love to take the warden through Ered Luin and the captain through North Downs, 2 places I haven't explored in a year and a half. However, like I said, I'm bogged down in trophies and don't want to out-level any of them. It's a hoarder complex, it seems.
Has anyone found themselves in this position? How'd you get out of it? (Or are you still stuck with bag upon bag of trophies?)
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Originally Posted by kiwipop
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