Things I Wish I'd Known

I posted part of this on the LotRO forums, but I thought I'd expand it and post it as part of my blog.

I'm not an experienced gamer. Before LotRO, my gaming experience consisted of the Mario and Zelda games on various Nintendo systems, plus a bit of Donkey Kong and a few other arcade games. I did try WoW and a couple of other MMOs, but I couldn't get into them.

So, that leads me to my point. There are some things I wish I'd know when I started playing the game:

1. Skirmishes are more integral to the game than is generally implied. Skirmish Marks are pretty important beginning around level 45, when you get a class quest that requires going into Carn Dûm to kill Helchgam for the slime and into Urugarth for other items (i.e., the Emblem of Ritual, the Rune of Evil Presence, and the Goblin-Badge of Rank). It's difficult to get groups for these instances, but they are available from the Curiosities Vendor in any Skirmish Camp. Most of these items cost around 1,000 Skirmish Marks, and the Slime costs around 2,600.

In addition, some of the Volume II and III epics quests require running specific skirmishes at least once (especially after the Echoes of the Dead update on March 21, 2011). You'll need to level your soldier (again, requiring Skirmish Marks) to run these on-level. Also, each piece in the Annuminas and Helegrod armour sets required around 2,300 skirmish marks, in addition to superior third mark and special raid tokens.

2. Grouping becomes more and more important after you enter Moria, and, especially for support classes like Ministrels and Loremasters, you're probably going to have to relearn your toon and reevaluate your traits. As a lore-master, I relied heavily on the red (DPS/Tactical) trait line through must of the Shadows of Angmar content, and I didn't have to rely too much on the self-buff and debuffs - and almost never used the Power-Draw skill. Now that I'm having to run group content, I've found that people expect me to mezz, to supply power, and to be less of a DPS-machine. In fact, in some fights, I do nothing but stand beside a troll hitting him with blinding flash until everything else is dead and the tanks can swoop in for the kill.

There are only 2 formal dungeons ("classic instances") before Moria: Great Barrows and Fornost. While other areas require grouping, the groups are not as formal as these two; thus, you can complete quests in areas like Nan Warthen (North Downs), Dol Dinen (North Downs), Garth Agarwen (Lone Lands), and others with one or two others people. Also, you don't have a full array of skills yet, nor do you have class and racial deeds completed. As a result, you probably won't fully realize your role in the group.

I really wish the development team would add some new true instances/raids so that lower-level toons can begin learning the role their class should assume during a formal grouping. These could be tied to some sort of mentoring system, with it's own deeds, titles, and rewards.

3. You will probably need to reevaluate your traits every so often. While Virtues might remain static, your Racial, Class and Legendary traits will become more situational - you'll be traited one way for soloing, and another for instances/raids.

As you learn the game, you might also experiment with Virtues to determine what works best for your class and play style.

4. You can't do every quest in every zone - nor should you try. Learn the color-coding system, and a good rule of thumb is to start wrapping things up when MOB names turn light blue. Or, if the zone offers deeds for completing a certain number of quests, complete those deeds and move on (you can come back later to grind reputation and slayer deeds). At that point, begin wrapping up the quest chain.

I spent way too long in North Downs....and finished all but one quest there. Because of that, I had to play catch up in a lot of other zones.

5. Gold is virtually worthless in the game, especially after you buy a decent mount and your house. For armour, weapons, potions, and jewelry, join a kin (if you participate in good faith, most kin mates will be willing to craft stuff for you at little or no cost (and the cost is usually just materials)). The good stuff usually drops as loot in instances, or can be bartered for using the various marks, tokens, or medallions that drop in those instances.

After you get your house, about the only thing you'll need gold for is skill upgrades, reputation mounts, cosmetics, and class items (i.e., your legendary pages).

There are probably some other things I'm forgetting, but that's all for now.