How does that work actually? It's like 500 marks+a special mark or something like that for a 60k rune. Seems like running Sword Halls twice nets you the same amount of runes plus those blasted tokens everyone needs.
How does that work actually? It's like 500 marks+a special mark or something like that for a 60k rune. Seems like running Sword Halls twice nets you the same amount of runes plus those blasted tokens everyone needs.
Yeah if you want heritage runes for leveling, plus the weapon exp from beating up white enemies. I'm really running them for the empowering scrolls which don't drop in SH, and they are like 1800 skirm marks a piece.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
For me it's more a question of what else am I going to do with them? The horse looks cool, but I already have the grey horse from volume one to wow people with...
In unrelated news: I finally managed to do the whole of SG tonight. We got the +25rad gloves for heavy armour and a nice caster ring. And also lots of tokens, I "just" need 31 more now for the shitty 15rad set.
For me it's more a question of what else am I going to do with them? The horse looks cool, but I already have the grey horse from volume one to wow people with...
In unrelated news: I finally managed to do the whole of SG tonight. We got the +25rad gloves for heavy armour and a nice caster ring. And also lots of tokens, I "just" need 31 more now for the shitty 15rad set.
Nice, I still haven't gone into SG yet; anything tank-wise worth knowing before I walk in blind?
I spent last night on a whim trying the shire --> rivendell chicken run; three close calls and almost got eaten by a stealthed cat at the very end, but I got the hardest part of getting the cloak out of the way
Nice, I still haven't gone into SG yet; anything tank-wise worth knowing before I walk in blind?
Yeah, the intro "gauntlet" is a running pull until you hit the first I-forget-what-they're-called. He's at the top of the first stairs, more or less. If you just sit there and tank everything as it comes, you'll never get anywhere.
When you activate the first boss, get off the altar, because the fire will kill you quickly.
Everything else I can think of is something the whole group should know (like the lightning in boss 2, or the bone piles, or getting punted over the edge), and is not specific to the tank.
Oh god there is so much to know. A lot you'll learn on the fly (why yes, you should use your wound/corruption/poison removal potions) and a lot you'll have to learn from whomever is with you who has done it before/read some tactics online.
The one thing that you should really do (and should already be doing anyway) is to turn all bosses away from the rest of the group. Same goes for the Brutes. They all have a 180° damage cone. There's things you should do for every pull in there, it's not a lot of trash, but they're all complex pulls that involve stunning, interrupting and focuses dps.
Oh and don't stand on the motherfucking bone piles.
Oh and don't stand on the motherfucking bone piles.
It's like a rite of passage. Your first time in, you're going to get booted over a wall and off the tower, no matter how careful you are about positioning ("Holy crap, I bounced!"), and on the way back to the group, you're going to trigger a bone pile ("Uh, guys? Didn't we clear the bone piles in the room before the first boss?"). It's practically guaranteed.
That said, by the time you get to the last boss, there's no excuse. People who get punted into the bone piles in there should have to spend a night in the box.
Hello, First post here. Seems like a very good group of players here for LoTRo and very knowledgable.
I love LoTRo and my Hunter which is presently 58. My normal playing group went back to WoW which I will NEVER return to so I am alone on my server (Gladden) At one time I was in a heavy raiding guild in WoW but left after the grind fest started.
My general LoTRo question is, what things should I be doing differently to advance? (ok, thats nearly an impossible question to answer)
What I am doing now is questing in MoM. Doing all I can grab, this is mainly my play time. I rarely group though I really want and need to.
As said before, all my kinship abandoned me so I am thinking about leaving to join an active one which I know will help.
My gear suxs. I have 15 gp
I do skirmishes occasionally with a tank.
I still have my original legendary bow and ax though I now have some 57 items I will switch to. I have lots of runes ect from deconstructing legedaries once they hit 12.
My books are way behind.
I'm pathetic I know
Just a general path I should be following is helpful. Also, I am not up on all the acronyms used here
At 58 you can move to Lothlorien: there you can easily get to lv60, gain reputation with the elves (you need 2 ranks of reputation to enter their main hangout). The quests are not very inspired, but they provide a lot of exp.
If you deconstruct your current weapons you should try to level them to the max first. That way you get all your runes and settings back.
Books are a bitch to do, but they tell an interesting story and provide legendary traits you might need to make a dent in end-game content.
Gearwise: you can get a crafted set of medium armour made for your level, that will probably blow out whatever quest rewards you're wearing now out of the water. The gear you will want is called radiance gear and you get tokens (just like in WoW, basically) for it from the various instances. The instances in Moria give you tokens for +10radiance, the instance in Mirkwood (Dol Guldur) give you tokens for +25 and +15 gear. You will need 120 radiance total to stand a chance in the current end-game content.
Your main concern should be enjoying yourself, though. If you want to improve yourself without completely focusing on end-game you should work on your virtues, traits and legendary traits. Nearly all of that is solo work and it makes you stronger regardless of what you want to do in LOTRO.
I'd wanted to post this on the official forums, but can't seem to get my forum account up and running for some reason. Essentially I've had LOTRO since it released, but I've only off and on again played it by myself, never getting higher than level 20. For whatever reason I picked it up again over my Christmas break from work and I've been playing it like crazy over the past few days, and actually am interested in keeping with it this time. However, I've ran into a few problems I can't find answers too via forum searches and wiki checks.
1) What is the stacking limit on items? I've got some that I've picked up that have stacked to 50+, and some that just don't stack, no middle ground or (that I've seen) high limit on those that do stack.
2) I've been able to find lots of basic information on legendary items except for when people say you should "ID" a legendary item. What in the world does that mean? Probably irrelevant to me since I'm a long ways from getting to them, but its bugging me to death.
3) Instance abbreviations and acronyms. Is there a list anywhere? Some of them are easy and straight-forward, but some get confusing. I see SH EZ and SH HM, which I've been assuming is Sword Halls Easy and Sword Halls Hard Mode and looked those up (as well as a couple others like "Wargs" and "Turtle"). But beyond that, I'm lost and I can't find a lot of updated wiki information on the Moria and Mirkwood material. Also, short of the Barrow Downs, I've been unable to find a breakdown of what to expect in an instance run. Since I'm brand new to all of them and I imagine most people I meet aren't, I'd like to be able to find out as much as I can about the place before I step into it and do something stupid.
4) In the GLFF channels it seems Captains are always in short supply and I'm not sure why they're so critical. I understand they provide some nice buffs and healing support, but generally I wouldn't think that'd be a major requirement for three & six man instances. On roughly the same vein, I see some people ask for "Healers" which is nice, but a lot of times I see them specifically call out ministrel's when as far as I can tell they just want a healer. Is that because of the stigma against Rune Keepers, or is there some concrete reason why you'd want a compotent Ministrel over a compotent Rune Keeper?
5) Finally, crafting. Is there any lasting reason to take a crafting specialization? I understand cook and scholar make buff items that obviously get used and need to be refreshed from time to time, but what of the other professions? Is there any reason, for example, to be a Jeweller other than making your own equipment which then becomes useless when you've made the best equipment you can?
Wow fuck.. so going through most of the new quests and content in GA, rolling with a full group kicking ass happiness abounds, then we get to where we have to go and do Ivar the Bloodhand's instance and whoop his bitch ass... Unfortunately you cant enter the instance with more than 3 people.. crap we have to split up the group.
So we had me 32 LM, a 38 Champ and a 37 warden, champ was tank spec it seemed. sadly the other team had the 58 Minstrel...
We killed everything except for the goddamn rare elite master which we believed opened the gate to where Ivar is... we were unsure this is how you opened the gate since all the guides and such were for the changes to Lonelands.. We tried the master twice.. died both times but we got close the second time around .. got him to 3k hps from 12000 . Unfortunately due to some earlier deaths some of my gear was red and it was late.. we called it a night..
Rough instance, especially since we had guys who were well above the content level.
Yeah the new ivar area you have to polish of that em, he'll summmon two guys during the fight (I think at predetermined health levels, the last guy heals him up to full). I did that instance on my lm for my wifes rk. Ivar wasn't too bad (his challenge is how I normally fought him anyway) Red maiden is easier then she was before actually, you just have to be willing to let her buff herself up to complete her challenge, the hardest challenge for a lowb to surive in the maidens area is the eglain one, since its hard to stay up without killing those fucks.
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I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
GlorntI'm the Bob Ross of Wombats.And I just had a "happy accident"... in my pants!Registered Userregular
edited January 2010
1. Things like hides, ores, gems, wood, and farmed goods generally stack to 100 (up from 50 pre-MoM). Potions stack to 50, I assume scrolls do as well, but I've never had enough to test that out (ditto with foods). Usable weapons and armours do not stack at all; for non-usable ones (e.g., torn hats), see trash items. Most trash items stack to 10, except possibly some that were crafting components before SoM (torn intestine, etc.). One thing I miss is my WoW addon that would add info -- including stack size -- to item tooltips.
2. Thanks to severe alt-itis and the even dumber server hopping (I'm determined now to stick with Landroval), my biggest guy is only lvl 29, so I'm not much help with this.
3. I'd like this as well. The only thing I can say here is if you're in your low-mid 20s, don't let some passing goofball drag you into trying to 2-man the Great Barrows -- we wiped on the very first encounter, although I think we did manage to kill one of the spiders.
4. I think there's a general impression that most RKs tend to focus more on DPSing and are therefore not as good at healing. It may also be due to the fact that RKs are more HoT than burst healing, and thus need to be more pro-active than reactive, so a minnie can probably afford to be a little more sloppy than an RK when it comes to healing -- while there should be no problem with a competent RK healing, a so-so minnie is probably going to be more successful than a so-so RK in a healing role.
5. The items you make may not be needed at endgame, but there are some very nice items that can help while levelling (especially once you achieve mastery at a given level and can create crit items), as well as getting some easy early quest xp (not sure if there are any higher level crafting quests apart from working on crafting guild rep), plus you can collect a few more titles to impress friends and relatives. There may also be an opportunity to profit in the AH with crit items, although so far I've only used the AH to sell materials, which can be obtained and treated with the collecting professions. If in doubt, go explorer. My lineup is this:
Champ - Weaponsmith
Guard - Metalsmith
Warden - Tailor
LM - Jeweller
Cap - Farmer
RK - Scholar
Hunter - Woodworker
Minnie - Cook
Burg - (Explorer, not using his tailoring)
Captain got farming by default. It was either him or the Burglar, and I couldn't see a burglar doing all that sowing and reaping...
The impression is that RK's can't heal a group as good as a minnie, as an LM my impression on that is its total bullshit. Rk's heal as well as minis, and because they are easier to solo rks are more prevalent, yet they aren't used as healer for much the same reason people are resistant to wardens tanking, they want cookie cutter roles they are used to.
This is on my server vilya and its pissing me off!
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
for #2:
the legendary items come unidentified as in what skills they can potentially buff from the get go. they themselves also get item xp as you start fighting stuff (this begins at 45 with the intro to the concept and most of the others are at 50+ I believe once you are inside Moria). These buffs are can be for a specific class of skills or one particular skill. For example, for a dps runekeeper, I tend to look for ones that boost all lightning based spells or all cold based spells. They can also include extra ticks on DoTs or HoTs (damage or heal over time), % reduction or boost in threat, etc.
every 10 item levels (up to 60? now I think), your legendary item can gain additional skill buff or improve upon a current buff.
There are two legendary items per class, I believe one in the ranged slot or class slot, and one as the main weapon.
Yeah Li's are a main weapon and a class item/ranged (hunters and wardens go ranged, everyone else goes class item).
Item levels 10, 20, and 30 all add a new legacy to the LI, item leveld 40,50, 60, upgrade an existing legacy by one tier (you can also upgrade legacies with scrolls from skirmish vendors).
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Having a 65 Minstrel and a 63 RK, and having healed Moria instances with both, I think I'm qualified to say that RKs are awesome single target healers, but unless you know that you're going into a fight in which only the tank will be taking damage, or if the damage all other characters will take is extremely predictable, a Minstrel is the better group healer. Minstrel has a better combat rez, better big group heals, and in the event of a wipe-in-progress, can flop.
In many respects, people want Minstrels over RKs for some things (like Turtle runs) because you can do things like say "Drop Fellowship's Heart at 120k." Although, I've seen a really good RK keep a main tank up through a 5k/tic DoT in there. So, you know, there's that.
You also see a lot of people advertising for Captains because they just make runs easier. Between buffs, off heals, In Harm's Way/Last Stand, and the extra combat rezzes (if they're paying attention), they go a long way towards smoothing out the bumps. Another thing is, they're more or less required for raid content, and so people forming Turtle groups are constantly advertising for them.
There may also be an opportunity to profit in the AH with crit items, although so far I've only used the AH to sell materials, which can be obtained and treated with the collecting professions. If in doubt, go explorer.
You can make a pretty good living off the AH with crit crafted armor and weapons, but you have to be willing to spend some time watching the market. It also helps if you pay attention to what was best for your classes as you leveled them, so you have an idea of which items are going to appeal better than others. e.g. Critted 2H weapons sell well enough, but Captains are the only people who use them regularly, while 1H weapons of the same level (and using the same materials) are going to appeal to a wider market.
Also, once you hit level 45, weapons are only worth crafting as off-hands, since everyone will have LIs in their main hand. Armor still sells well, though the prevalence of rad gear will eat into that market too. Jewelry sells well too, although you may be better off advertising pieces in Trade than trying to sell it on the AH.
In the last fights the bone piles are on a timer, they don't go off because someone walked on them.
First hand evidence says otherwise, although I suppose we could've gotten really unlucky, and 2 people got punted into 2 different bone piles that then went off on their timer at just that moment.
I loose all sense of time when tanking, but the skeletons usually come around 1/4th HP on Gorothul (orwhateverthefuckhe'scalled) for as far as I could see.
The ghosts on the bone piles automatically disappear after you kill the boss, further proof that they're part of the fight.
Champ - Weaponsmith
Guard - Metalsmith
Warden - Tailor
LM - Jeweller
Cap - Farmer
RK - Scholar
Hunter - Woodworker
Minnie - Cook
Burg - (Explorer, not using his tailoring)
Captain got farming by default. It was either him or the Burglar, and I couldn't see a burglar doing all that sowing and reaping...
The wiki has a great page on hitting everything with 4 characters, btw.
Yeah, back in the days of 5 characters per server, that was useful, but with a crew of nine, it seemed to make sense to spread out the work, and certain professions seem to go naturally with certain classes, Hunter/Woodworker and Guardian/Metalsmith being among the most obvious. Weaponsmith would go equally well with champ or burglar, I suppose, but I made my champ first. Jewellers can make necklaces that boost LM's pets, cooks can make lute strings, RKs just seem like they'd be scholarly (once you assign LM to jeweler, RK seems the most fitting choice), tailors should be a class that uses medium (or light) armour (I was going to have my warden be the farmer, but that would leave cap as tailor, and he'll graduate to heavy armour at 20 -- I could've made my burglar the tailor, but it seemed fitting to let him be the one that just collects stuff).
Of course, there are other combinations that would make sense, too, as most professions make class-specific items for multiple classes (scholars make fire oil for both hunters and wardens, and books for LMs, as well as those doohickeys for RKs that I haven't used yet), or for other professions (e.g., metalsmiths making improved crafting tools for all professions).
One possible drawback to my approach is that as I progress, if I find myself neglecting a particular character, his corresponding profession's progress is going to suffer -- unless it's my burglar, which (probably not coincidentally) is the class that I've played least of all up to now (I've played every other class up to at least level 22, and my top burglar hit 17 just a day or two ago).
scholars make potions for everyone, scrolls for all raids, oils for wardens and hunters, books for hunters, inlays for runekeepers, crafted legendaries for LMs and minstrels and crafting lore for all crafts.
Kind of a clusterfuck if you ask me.
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GlorntI'm the Bob Ross of Wombats.And I just had a "happy accident"... in my pants!Registered Userregular
scholars make potions for everyone, scrolls for all raids, oils for wardens and hunters, books for hunters, inlays for runekeepers, crafted legendaries for LMs and minstrels and crafting lore for all crafts.
Kind of a clusterfuck if you ask me.
As I said -- doohickeys... :P
All of that stuff, and yet my scholars tend to lag behind most of my other crafters (although not as badly as cook). Jewelcrafting seems to progress fastest, as they make items for seven equipment slots -- neck and 2 each for ears, wrist, and fingers. If you have alts to equip and the crafting quests, master apprentice comes along quickly. For that matter, if you have enough miners, just polishing all the gems they collect can move your jewelcrafting along pretty rapidly.
...
Edit: Miners? Jewelcrafting? What kind of talk is that? I haven't been to Azeroth for several months!
scholars make potions for everyone, scrolls for all raids, oils for wardens and hunters, books for hunters, inlays for runekeepers, crafted legendaries for LMs and minstrels and crafting lore for all crafts.
Kind of a clusterfuck if you ask me.
Inlays? My wife plays an Rk and has an sm scholar I was not aware there was another item rks had.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
scholars make potions for everyone, scrolls for all raids, oils for wardens and hunters, books for hunters, inlays for runekeepers, crafted legendaries for LMs and minstrels and crafting lore for all crafts.
Kind of a clusterfuck if you ask me.
Inlays? My wife plays an Rk and has an sm scholar I was not aware there was another item rks had.
They're buffs (short-term, from the ones I've seen so far) applied to the RK's rune-stone. For example, applying a Silver Inlay (Journeyman Scholar) will prevent the RK's next spell from being interrupted, which might come in handy for a crucial heal while getting hit. Haven't made any of these yet, as I'm still hoarding all my silver for my Jeweler.
scholars make potions for everyone, scrolls for all raids, oils for wardens and hunters, books for hunters, inlays for runekeepers, crafted legendaries for LMs and minstrels and crafting lore for all crafts.
Kind of a clusterfuck if you ask me.
Inlays? My wife plays an Rk and has an sm scholar I was not aware there was another item rks had.
2 consumables, inlays and enamels. One makes your next spell uninterruptable, the other bumps your attunement 3 points in the direction you're already heading (i.e. if you have 1 healing attunement and use this item, you now have 4 healing attunement. Not usable when steady attuned). Very handy, both for solo and group play.
Does Focus do anything for Hunters aside from serve as currency for some skills and/or bows? The name and in-game text makes me want to believe there's some sort of accuracy bonus involved, but a few searches hasn't turned up any real information.
Since I'm lifetime and have every bonus pack -- didn't one of those give extra char slots?
MoM (or its associated pack) upped the per server limit from 5 to 7 (but also added two new classes, making you still have to omit two classes on a server); the SoM-related pack upped it from 7 to 9 -- without adding any new classes -- making it possible to now cram in every class on a single server, an altaholic's dream.
Now, I think it's my hunter's turn to inch up a level before bedtime... (Edit: Done.)
Does Focus do anything for Hunters aside from serve as currency for some skills and/or bows? The name and in-game text makes me want to believe there's some sort of accuracy bonus involved, but a few searches hasn't turned up any real information.
So basically when you're using special bow attacks there are two kinds. There are those that use induction and those that use focus.
For induction attacks, there's a charge time before the shot goes off. So you start the attack, it takes your dude a second or two to pull back the string and sight down the bow, and then you release the arrow and do damage. These attacks build up your Focus meter. I guess the idea is that you are taking time to, well, focus on your enemy before you do these attacks. The good thing is that you can pull these off at any time, assuming you have enough power and that the skill isn't on cooldown. The bad thing is that during the induction any enemy hits will generally set back or even interrupt the induction.
Then you can do Focus attacks. These skills are almost instant, with no charge time, but they reduce your Focus meter. The bad thing is that you can't use these without building your focus meter up first.
So what a typical hunter fight might look like is:
Induction attack 1
Induction attack 2
induction attack 3
focus attack 1
induction attack 4
focus attack 2
focus attack 3
induction... etc.
tl;dr
Induction skills have a charge time before firing and build focus.
Focus skills don't have a charge time and spend focus.
Does Focus do anything for Hunters aside from serve as currency for some skills and/or bows? The name and in-game text makes me want to believe there's some sort of accuracy bonus involved, but a few searches hasn't turned up any real information.
So basically when you're using special bow attacks there are two kinds. There are those that use induction and those that use focus.
For induction attacks, there's a charge time before the shot goes off. So you start the attack, it takes your dude a second or two to pull back the string and sight down the bow, and then you release the arrow and do damage. These attacks build up your Focus meter. I guess the idea is that you are taking time to, well, focus on your enemy before you do these attacks. The good thing is that you can pull these off at any time, assuming you have enough power and that the skill isn't on cooldown. The bad thing is that during the induction any enemy hits will generally set back or even interrupt the induction.
Then you can do Focus attacks. These skills are almost instant, with no charge time, but they reduce your Focus meter. The bad thing is that you can't use these without building your focus meter up first.
So what a typical hunter fight might look like is:
Induction attack 1
Induction attack 2
induction attack 3
focus attack 1
induction attack 4
focus attack 2
focus attack 3
induction... etc.
tl;dr
Induction skills have a charge time before firing and build focus.
Focus skills don't have a charge time and spend focus.
Which attack is it where the hunter grabs aggro and runs around until he dies? I like that one.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
I had a champ pull aggro off me in SG all the fucking time. The moment he devastated was the moment the mob turned around. I believe it's because the mobs health is linked by a Brute, so I couldn't get aggro on the brute while that champ was wailing away at everything in its vicinity adding all damage to the Brute.
So glad champs can take a beating without freaking out immediately.
unlike hunters, bastard would have died right away if he pulled as much aggro as that champion.
As a warden, how do I get more gambits? I'm not seeing them at the trainers, and the wiki says I should have stuff like "The Boot" and "Defensive Strike".
As a warden, how do I get more gambits? I'm not seeing them at the trainers, and the wiki says I should have stuff like "The Boot" and "Defensive Strike".
Check the tabs? I forget if gambits are on the same skill tab as normal skills I don't think they are (should have skills, passive, and gambits) as tabs on the trainer.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
I had a champ pull aggro off me in SG all the fucking time. The moment he devastated was the moment the mob turned around. I believe it's because the mobs health is linked by a Brute, so I couldn't get aggro on the brute while that champ was wailing away at everything in its vicinity adding all damage to the Brute.
So glad champs can take a beating without freaking out immediately.
unlike hunters, bastard would have died right away if he pulled as much aggro as that champion.
I hate guard tanks as of late because they are all STT (Single Target Tank). Its fucking bothersome that turbine goes through the trouble of giving these guys aoe aggro abilities and yet 30 seconds into the encounter a simple damage/debuff spell like gust of wind (at best a crit of 620) can pull aggro on a secondary target.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
As a warden, how do I get more gambits? I'm not seeing them at the trainers, and the wiki says I should have stuff like "The Boot" and "Defensive Strike".
Check the tabs? I forget if gambits are on the same skill tab as normal skills I don't think they are (should have skills, passive, and gambits) as tabs on the trainer.
Yep, they have their own separate tab, both on your skills window and at the trainer -- active, passive, and then gambit. Go get those gambits now -- they should be the main focus of your combat activity (after hopefully being able to ambush and gank your first target; I forget what the ambush follow-up is called, it's probably not actually "gank", although that's what it does).
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Yeah if you want heritage runes for leveling, plus the weapon exp from beating up white enemies. I'm really running them for the empowering scrolls which don't drop in SH, and they are like 1800 skirm marks a piece.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Did you check the kindred vendors in Emyn Lum and Ghatburz (sp)? They sell a lot of shit there as well.
I think they are possibly on the vendor, but I don't get enough of those stars to waste on empowering scrolls from their vendor.
pleasepaypreacher.net
In unrelated news: I finally managed to do the whole of SG tonight. We got the +25rad gloves for heavy armour and a nice caster ring. And also lots of tokens, I "just" need 31 more now for the shitty 15rad set.
Nice, I still haven't gone into SG yet; anything tank-wise worth knowing before I walk in blind?
I spent last night on a whim trying the shire --> rivendell chicken run; three close calls and almost got eaten by a stealthed cat at the very end, but I got the hardest part of getting the cloak out of the way
PSN: LucidStar_BC
Yeah, the intro "gauntlet" is a running pull until you hit the first I-forget-what-they're-called. He's at the top of the first stairs, more or less. If you just sit there and tank everything as it comes, you'll never get anywhere.
When you activate the first boss, get off the altar, because the fire will kill you quickly.
Everything else I can think of is something the whole group should know (like the lightning in boss 2, or the bone piles, or getting punted over the edge), and is not specific to the tank.
The one thing that you should really do (and should already be doing anyway) is to turn all bosses away from the rest of the group. Same goes for the Brutes. They all have a 180° damage cone. There's things you should do for every pull in there, it's not a lot of trash, but they're all complex pulls that involve stunning, interrupting and focuses dps.
Oh and don't stand on the motherfucking bone piles.
It's like a rite of passage. Your first time in, you're going to get booted over a wall and off the tower, no matter how careful you are about positioning ("Holy crap, I bounced!"), and on the way back to the group, you're going to trigger a bone pile ("Uh, guys? Didn't we clear the bone piles in the room before the first boss?"). It's practically guaranteed.
That said, by the time you get to the last boss, there's no excuse. People who get punted into the bone piles in there should have to spend a night in the box.
It's the best fight for a warden by the way, I kept myself full of morale by spamming my aoe morale leeches. :P
I love LoTRo and my Hunter which is presently 58. My normal playing group went back to WoW which I will NEVER return to so I am alone on my server (Gladden) At one time I was in a heavy raiding guild in WoW but left after the grind fest started.
My general LoTRo question is, what things should I be doing differently to advance? (ok, thats nearly an impossible question to answer)
What I am doing now is questing in MoM. Doing all I can grab, this is mainly my play time. I rarely group though I really want and need to.
As said before, all my kinship abandoned me so I am thinking about leaving to join an active one which I know will help.
My gear suxs. I have 15 gp
I do skirmishes occasionally with a tank.
I still have my original legendary bow and ax though I now have some 57 items I will switch to. I have lots of runes ect from deconstructing legedaries once they hit 12.
My books are way behind.
I'm pathetic I know
Just a general path I should be following is helpful. Also, I am not up on all the acronyms used here
Thanks in advance.
Toxoph
If you deconstruct your current weapons you should try to level them to the max first. That way you get all your runes and settings back.
Books are a bitch to do, but they tell an interesting story and provide legendary traits you might need to make a dent in end-game content.
Gearwise: you can get a crafted set of medium armour made for your level, that will probably blow out whatever quest rewards you're wearing now out of the water. The gear you will want is called radiance gear and you get tokens (just like in WoW, basically) for it from the various instances. The instances in Moria give you tokens for +10radiance, the instance in Mirkwood (Dol Guldur) give you tokens for +25 and +15 gear. You will need 120 radiance total to stand a chance in the current end-game content.
Your main concern should be enjoying yourself, though. If you want to improve yourself without completely focusing on end-game you should work on your virtues, traits and legendary traits. Nearly all of that is solo work and it makes you stronger regardless of what you want to do in LOTRO.
1) What is the stacking limit on items? I've got some that I've picked up that have stacked to 50+, and some that just don't stack, no middle ground or (that I've seen) high limit on those that do stack.
2) I've been able to find lots of basic information on legendary items except for when people say you should "ID" a legendary item. What in the world does that mean? Probably irrelevant to me since I'm a long ways from getting to them, but its bugging me to death.
3) Instance abbreviations and acronyms. Is there a list anywhere? Some of them are easy and straight-forward, but some get confusing. I see SH EZ and SH HM, which I've been assuming is Sword Halls Easy and Sword Halls Hard Mode and looked those up (as well as a couple others like "Wargs" and "Turtle"). But beyond that, I'm lost and I can't find a lot of updated wiki information on the Moria and Mirkwood material. Also, short of the Barrow Downs, I've been unable to find a breakdown of what to expect in an instance run. Since I'm brand new to all of them and I imagine most people I meet aren't, I'd like to be able to find out as much as I can about the place before I step into it and do something stupid.
4) In the GLFF channels it seems Captains are always in short supply and I'm not sure why they're so critical. I understand they provide some nice buffs and healing support, but generally I wouldn't think that'd be a major requirement for three & six man instances. On roughly the same vein, I see some people ask for "Healers" which is nice, but a lot of times I see them specifically call out ministrel's when as far as I can tell they just want a healer. Is that because of the stigma against Rune Keepers, or is there some concrete reason why you'd want a compotent Ministrel over a compotent Rune Keeper?
5) Finally, crafting. Is there any lasting reason to take a crafting specialization? I understand cook and scholar make buff items that obviously get used and need to be refreshed from time to time, but what of the other professions? Is there any reason, for example, to be a Jeweller other than making your own equipment which then becomes useless when you've made the best equipment you can?
So we had me 32 LM, a 38 Champ and a 37 warden, champ was tank spec it seemed. sadly the other team had the 58 Minstrel...
We killed everything except for the goddamn rare elite master which we believed opened the gate to where Ivar is... we were unsure this is how you opened the gate since all the guides and such were for the changes to Lonelands.. We tried the master twice.. died both times but we got close the second time around .. got him to 3k hps from 12000 . Unfortunately due to some earlier deaths some of my gear was red and it was late.. we called it a night..
Rough instance, especially since we had guys who were well above the content level.
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2. Thanks to severe alt-itis and the even dumber server hopping (I'm determined now to stick with Landroval), my biggest guy is only lvl 29, so I'm not much help with this.
3. I'd like this as well. The only thing I can say here is if you're in your low-mid 20s, don't let some passing goofball drag you into trying to 2-man the Great Barrows -- we wiped on the very first encounter, although I think we did manage to kill one of the spiders.
4. I think there's a general impression that most RKs tend to focus more on DPSing and are therefore not as good at healing. It may also be due to the fact that RKs are more HoT than burst healing, and thus need to be more pro-active than reactive, so a minnie can probably afford to be a little more sloppy than an RK when it comes to healing -- while there should be no problem with a competent RK healing, a so-so minnie is probably going to be more successful than a so-so RK in a healing role.
5. The items you make may not be needed at endgame, but there are some very nice items that can help while levelling (especially once you achieve mastery at a given level and can create crit items), as well as getting some easy early quest xp (not sure if there are any higher level crafting quests apart from working on crafting guild rep), plus you can collect a few more titles to impress friends and relatives. There may also be an opportunity to profit in the AH with crit items, although so far I've only used the AH to sell materials, which can be obtained and treated with the collecting professions. If in doubt, go explorer. My lineup is this:
Champ - Weaponsmith
Guard - Metalsmith
Warden - Tailor
LM - Jeweller
Cap - Farmer
RK - Scholar
Hunter - Woodworker
Minnie - Cook
Burg - (Explorer, not using his tailoring)
Captain got farming by default. It was either him or the Burglar, and I couldn't see a burglar doing all that sowing and reaping...
Glorntisms
This is on my server vilya and its pissing me off!
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the legendary items come unidentified as in what skills they can potentially buff from the get go. they themselves also get item xp as you start fighting stuff (this begins at 45 with the intro to the concept and most of the others are at 50+ I believe once you are inside Moria). These buffs are can be for a specific class of skills or one particular skill. For example, for a dps runekeeper, I tend to look for ones that boost all lightning based spells or all cold based spells. They can also include extra ticks on DoTs or HoTs (damage or heal over time), % reduction or boost in threat, etc.
every 10 item levels (up to 60? now I think), your legendary item can gain additional skill buff or improve upon a current buff.
There are two legendary items per class, I believe one in the ranged slot or class slot, and one as the main weapon.
Item levels 10, 20, and 30 all add a new legacy to the LI, item leveld 40,50, 60, upgrade an existing legacy by one tier (you can also upgrade legacies with scrolls from skirmish vendors).
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In many respects, people want Minstrels over RKs for some things (like Turtle runs) because you can do things like say "Drop Fellowship's Heart at 120k." Although, I've seen a really good RK keep a main tank up through a 5k/tic DoT in there. So, you know, there's that.
You also see a lot of people advertising for Captains because they just make runs easier. Between buffs, off heals, In Harm's Way/Last Stand, and the extra combat rezzes (if they're paying attention), they go a long way towards smoothing out the bumps. Another thing is, they're more or less required for raid content, and so people forming Turtle groups are constantly advertising for them.
You can make a pretty good living off the AH with crit crafted armor and weapons, but you have to be willing to spend some time watching the market. It also helps if you pay attention to what was best for your classes as you leveled them, so you have an idea of which items are going to appeal better than others. e.g. Critted 2H weapons sell well enough, but Captains are the only people who use them regularly, while 1H weapons of the same level (and using the same materials) are going to appeal to a wider market.
Also, once you hit level 45, weapons are only worth crafting as off-hands, since everyone will have LIs in their main hand. Armor still sells well, though the prevalence of rad gear will eat into that market too. Jewelry sells well too, although you may be better off advertising pieces in Trade than trying to sell it on the AH.
First hand evidence says otherwise, although I suppose we could've gotten really unlucky, and 2 people got punted into 2 different bone piles that then went off on their timer at just that moment.
The ghosts on the bone piles automatically disappear after you kill the boss, further proof that they're part of the fight.
The wiki has a great page on hitting everything with 4 characters, btw.
Yeah, but with 7 crafter's guilds, that doesn't work so well anymore. At least, not if you're like me, and feel compelled to hit kindred in all 7...
Yeah, back in the days of 5 characters per server, that was useful, but with a crew of nine, it seemed to make sense to spread out the work, and certain professions seem to go naturally with certain classes, Hunter/Woodworker and Guardian/Metalsmith being among the most obvious. Weaponsmith would go equally well with champ or burglar, I suppose, but I made my champ first. Jewellers can make necklaces that boost LM's pets, cooks can make lute strings, RKs just seem like they'd be scholarly (once you assign LM to jeweler, RK seems the most fitting choice), tailors should be a class that uses medium (or light) armour (I was going to have my warden be the farmer, but that would leave cap as tailor, and he'll graduate to heavy armour at 20 -- I could've made my burglar the tailor, but it seemed fitting to let him be the one that just collects stuff).
Of course, there are other combinations that would make sense, too, as most professions make class-specific items for multiple classes (scholars make fire oil for both hunters and wardens, and books for LMs, as well as those doohickeys for RKs that I haven't used yet), or for other professions (e.g., metalsmiths making improved crafting tools for all professions).
One possible drawback to my approach is that as I progress, if I find myself neglecting a particular character, his corresponding profession's progress is going to suffer -- unless it's my burglar, which (probably not coincidentally) is the class that I've played least of all up to now (I've played every other class up to at least level 22, and my top burglar hit 17 just a day or two ago).
Glorntisms
Kind of a clusterfuck if you ask me.
All of that stuff, and yet my scholars tend to lag behind most of my other crafters (although not as badly as cook). Jewelcrafting seems to progress fastest, as they make items for seven equipment slots -- neck and 2 each for ears, wrist, and fingers. If you have alts to equip and the crafting quests, master apprentice comes along quickly. For that matter, if you have enough miners, just polishing all the gems they collect can move your jewelcrafting along pretty rapidly.
...
Edit: Miners? Jewelcrafting? What kind of talk is that? I haven't been to Azeroth for several months!
Glorntisms
Inlays? My wife plays an Rk and has an sm scholar I was not aware there was another item rks had.
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They're buffs (short-term, from the ones I've seen so far) applied to the RK's rune-stone. For example, applying a Silver Inlay (Journeyman Scholar) will prevent the RK's next spell from being interrupted, which might come in handy for a crucial heal while getting hit. Haven't made any of these yet, as I'm still hoarding all my silver for my Jeweler.
Glorntisms
2 consumables, inlays and enamels. One makes your next spell uninterruptable, the other bumps your attunement 3 points in the direction you're already heading (i.e. if you have 1 healing attunement and use this item, you now have 4 healing attunement. Not usable when steady attuned). Very handy, both for solo and group play.
Since I'm lifetime and have every bonus pack -- didn't one of those give extra char slots?
Now, I think it's my hunter's turn to inch up a level before bedtime... (Edit: Done.)
Glorntisms
So basically when you're using special bow attacks there are two kinds. There are those that use induction and those that use focus.
For induction attacks, there's a charge time before the shot goes off. So you start the attack, it takes your dude a second or two to pull back the string and sight down the bow, and then you release the arrow and do damage. These attacks build up your Focus meter. I guess the idea is that you are taking time to, well, focus on your enemy before you do these attacks. The good thing is that you can pull these off at any time, assuming you have enough power and that the skill isn't on cooldown. The bad thing is that during the induction any enemy hits will generally set back or even interrupt the induction.
Then you can do Focus attacks. These skills are almost instant, with no charge time, but they reduce your Focus meter. The bad thing is that you can't use these without building your focus meter up first.
So what a typical hunter fight might look like is:
Induction attack 1
Induction attack 2
induction attack 3
focus attack 1
induction attack 4
focus attack 2
focus attack 3
induction... etc.
tl;dr
Induction skills have a charge time before firing and build focus.
Focus skills don't have a charge time and spend focus.
Which attack is it where the hunter grabs aggro and runs around until he dies? I like that one.
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So glad champs can take a beating without freaking out immediately.
unlike hunters, bastard would have died right away if he pulled as much aggro as that champion.
Check the tabs? I forget if gambits are on the same skill tab as normal skills I don't think they are (should have skills, passive, and gambits) as tabs on the trainer.
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I hate guard tanks as of late because they are all STT (Single Target Tank). Its fucking bothersome that turbine goes through the trouble of giving these guys aoe aggro abilities and yet 30 seconds into the encounter a simple damage/debuff spell like gust of wind (at best a crit of 620) can pull aggro on a secondary target.
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Glorntisms
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