LOTRO to relaunch as free to play?

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3661

So apparently loot boxes changed dramatically at some point over the last year when I wasn’t playing.

All that drops now (for me since I’m not level capped) is the Traveler’s Steel-Bound Lootbox, which scales to your level (20-115) and requires a Black Steel Key to open. Black Steel Keys are now a LOTRO Store only item, so require cash (or a lot of deed grinding) to acquire.

That’s fine I guess, I probably won’t spend money to open them, just sell them on the auction house if I can. But in my bank I have 20 of the old style Steel-Bound Lootboxes of various types (Gold, Dwarf, Elf) and 20 Steel-Bound keys I’d been saving up to open them at some point (or sell the lower level lootboxes and open higher level ones with the keys). I guess those are all obsolete now, so if I want 21 bank slots back I should probably just have a big old lootbox opening party one evening?

3662

Yeah, loot boxes changed.

Open the old-timey steel-bound lootboxes if you have the old-timey keys. You won’t get those keys for them anymore, other than via the store. They used to drop in old deeds but no more.

I put loot boxes on ignore a few months ago.

So yeah…have a loot box opening party if you have the old keys.

[edit] You will get a lot of junk. Cosmetics mainly. In my experience it was worth clearing out the vault space even at lvl 90.

[2nd edit] You can’t put the new traverler’s lootboxes on the AH. Ignore them or dump them or gasp buy a key to open them.

3663

Cool, thanks for the advice. I do need the vault space, so I will just crack them all open one night soon. My 120 slot vault has rapidly filled up with crafting components, large XP heritage runes (which I’m saving for when I upgrade my LI weapon to a First Age one), various mithril flakes and other turn-in items, and other accumulated flotsam that I just can’t seem to let go of. I’m sure opening 20 lootboxes will probably result in more of the same, but at least it will be stackable.

Over the weekend I played quite a bit, knocking out a couple of dozen quests in The Flaming Deeps, Zelem-melek and Nud-melek to essentially finish the progression through Moria. I’m now mopping up the only zone I have left, The Foundations of Stone, which is pretty cool, but holy shit it’s huge, so much running…

I also worked quite a bit on the Moria Epic line. I’d fallen way behind on it, so I did a lot of backtracking through regions that were long gray to me, but thankfully the goats got me everywhere I needed to go fairly quickly. I then did all three of the Skirmish battles to defend the various dwarven strongholds in Moria, and collected a ton of nice rewards for that. I have a ridiculous amount of Marks at this point, like 20K, so I should really look into what I can spend them on. I’m now on Book 6, which wants me to exit Moria and speak to the elves of Lothlorien. I’d like to finish up some leftover quests and deeds I’m close to accomplishing before doing that, even though I know the Epic will bring me back into Moria again before I’m done.

It’s so amazing to finally be nearly finished with Moria after playing LOTRO for over a decade across half a dozen characters without ever having seen any of the content on the other side of Moria.

3664

Wrapped up the final sets of quests in Foundations of Stone, knocked out a bunch of exploration and slayer deeds in the process, and advanced the Moria Epic to the point where I have defeated the big boss and am moving on to talk to Lady Galadriel and company, all of which means I’m pretty much done with Moria. All that’s left are a handful of Advanced Slayer deeds, the quest deed for Dimrill Dale, which I will complete as soon as I turn in the half dozen outstanding completed quests I have there, and the meta deeds (Quests/Triumph/Deeds) of Khazad-dum.

Before I move on, I have some inventory items I need to do something with. I have dozens of Rusted Dwarf Tools and Khuzdul Tablets I’ve looted over my many years in Moria. It says I can trade these directly to my class vendor for a Third Age Legendary class-specific weapon or item, but I already have a Second Age sword and a Second Age rune that I’ve invested 40+ levels into, so I have no need for Third Age zero xp items. I can also apparently trade them to the class traders for Fused Bronze Relics, which contain 6-10 Tier One relics on deconstruction. That seems like a much more reasonable use for them, correct?

I’ve also been nursing along an additional 4 Third Age Legendary Items in my other legendary slots, so each of them is around level 30 or so. I should probably deconstruct them all for the goodies within, then trade my Tools/Tablets for 4 brand new LI’s to level over the next however long. At what point does it pay to deconstruct these “extra” LI’s I’ve been leveling? Is it even worth bothering to level extras?

3665

I never had the patience for that place… always got lost going deep in there.

You missed out on everyone trying to farm that amazing-looking story boss for cloaks & crazy guesses how to make it drop. Good times.

Won’t be long until you’re in Mirkwood. Hope you enjoy that as much as I did :)

3666

LI’s are their own mini-game up to lvl 100 if you want to play it (and many people don’t). They’re something a bit different after 100 if you imbue but you’re a long way from that.

You have the right idea. If you have tons of LI’s that you’re not using…and tablets count…and if you want to maximize your gains… level them to Lvl 31 and then deconstruct. The value of the blue marbles (I forget their name) that can be used to give IXP to other LIs rises every 10 levels so that you get the same range of marble values between 21 and 30, 31 and 40, etc. Going to lvl 30 also lets you pick 3 legacies from the lottery each time you reforge them…after that you only get to increase the rank of one of the legacies you already have.

Also, when you deconstruct after lvl 30 you can select a legacy from that LI to get as a scroll that can be applied to another LI in case you want it but haven’t won it in the reforging lottery yet. Just be sure it’s usable for the range of LI that you have equipped or want to use…the legacy scrolls you get from deconstruction have a max-level LI that they’ll work on. The tool tip will tell you. For example, I think that if you take a legacy scroll from a lvl 55 LI, it will only work on a LI that is lvl 65 or below.

[edit] I forgot about the relics (those gems and whatnots that you slot into your LI’s. You get far more at lvl 31 deconstruct than before, but they’re low-level. That may be the only advantage to leveling up unused LIs, but the amount of experience needed to go from lvl 31 to 60 isn’t worth it IMO, if you have tons of LI’s (or tablets) just sitting there. Relics can be fused at a relic master.

See what I mean by a mini-game? :)

3667

It’s pretty annoying, but once you get the general layout down it becomes a lot easier to navigate. The disconnect between what you see on the hand drawn area map and how you actually navigate the zone is HUGE though, which can be confusing. Thankfully they’ve sprinkled several goats throughout, making a return to Shadowed Refuge a hell of a lot easier between sets of quests.

Thanks for the advice on LI’s @DTG ! I’m going to deconstruct the extra ones I have now as soon as they each hit 31, then start leveling a new set gained from tablet turn ins. I will probably also dump a bunch of tools/tablets for fused bronze relics too, as there is no way I can level 100+ extra LI’s before I reach the point where I’ve moved on to the Level 100 stuff.

I have a crapton of Essences in my vault too. I checked into them, and it looks like they don’t really com into play until after Level 100. Apparently there are a few very rare drop items with sockets for Essences before you reach Level 100, but they’re also likely to be less effective, even with essences installed, than armor you’re already using. With that in mind, I may try dumping my minor essences onto the auction house, and just hanging on to the major ones.

I’m 65 now, and wearing a lot of armor that’s rated 51-58ish, so it may be time to look into some new pieces of equipment. A lot of my stuff is light blue though, and some of the purple stuff is a set with full bonuses, so it might be hard to beat even with 60-65 stuff. I have several blue Incomparable Mathom Hunter’s Armor boxes in my vault, and a couple of gold Legendary Mathom Hunter’s Armor boxes as well. I’ve heard it’s better to wait until the upper levels, like 90-120, to open those though?

3668

Almost forgot, finally stopped to get a nice screenshot of me in the Dimrill Dale, aka the exit from Moria!

Moria
Moria.jpg1920×1080 548 KB

It’s hard to believe I am finally moving on to entirely new content. I finished up all the quests in the Dimrill Dale, which not only knocked out that deed, but the deed for questing in Moria overall. I then finished Book 6, Chapter 9 (Mirror of Galadriel) of the Moria Epic, which in turn competed the Mines of Moria Epic deed, netting me a bunch of TP, a class trait point and a nice title, Avenger of Khazad-Dum.

3669

Grats. Nice picture :)

I should get back into the game again soon, just so much to do in ‘other game x’. The downside to having a lifetime sub is that I keep “putting off” playing it… and I fear eventually the game will be cancelled, or without any players to do stuff with. Would be nice if they had the DDO route for everything so you could do a low-difficulty (one person) version of all dungeons/raids/encounters if you’re unable to find other players.

3670

How playable is this today if you’re starting essentially from scratch as a F2P player? I mean, I’ve played in the past, and have a couple of characters up to around… Let’s say 30-ish, but I have not played in years. I do have some of the expansions but no idea what.

3671

I’ve recently started playing again, and it seems fairly playable (up to 28 at least!) as F2P. The only real restrictions I’ve run into have been the gold cap and missing out on swift travel.

3672

Think one month of VIP and you retain a bunch of the benefits after it expires.

3673

As a F2P game you want VIP for one month to unlock a crap ton of stuff permanently. Just make a ton of toons and log in during the VIP window to unlock everything for each. You also permanently unlock fast travel routes at the account level. The game is basically painful to play without this unless you are a Hunter or Warden.

During the VIP window you should also level to 20 and do the horse riding quest at a farm in Breeland to unlock the Riding Skill for free. You have to do this for each toon unfortunately.

Next, and if you continue playing long term in any capacity, you want to get the premium wallet as soon as possible. It auto stores all those different annoying faction tokens from across all the regions, festivals, events, skirmishes, celebrations, etc so they don’t clog up your inventory/vault/house storage/etc.

3674

Um, I haven’t played in a while…when did they change the whole virtues system? And where do I find a good run-down of how this works? The patch notes are fairly useless.

3675

Virtues system was changed several weeks ago.

I think it’s better than before. You get to choose which virtues rise when doing deeds instead of having each deed give you a rank in one specific virtue, whether you want that virtue or not.

Lotro wiki is always a good source. I don’t know who keeps this up but it’s basically the only place to go for things like this:
https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Virtues

I don’t know what level you are, but I’m dumping all of my points into tactical/physical mitigation, and tactical damage (for a lore-master).

3676

I was wondering more how the old system would be converted over to the new. Basically I now have most virtues leveled between 20-30 with Wit at 0 which I assume was something new added. While I can now start lvling targeted virtues it might work better from a new character.

3677

That is how it was for me as well, I logged in to find the vast majority of my Virtues were sitting at Level 21-24, with some of the ones I’d specifically worked on previously (like my equipped ones) sitting at 26-30.

I started out by working my way through my already equipped virtues. Turns out each virtue is capped at half your current level, so at Level 65 I could only raise a virtue to 32.5. I’ve been knocking out a lot of Moria deeds over the past couple of weeks as I prepare to leave Moria behind, so I managed to get all my equipped virtues to max, then started leveling Wit (which is apparently new) with the intent to get it to the low 20’s so it’s in line with my other non-equipped virtues. After that I may poke around for a virtue to swap out with one of my equipped ones depending on how my equipment changeover (I’m 66 and still using a lot of mid-50’s equipment) effects my stats.

Over the weekend I crushed a lot of outstanding deeds. Back before I started focusing on Moria I had done nearly every deed in the “old” zones (Eriador). As I flipped through all the empty tabs, I came to one that wasn’t empty. Turns out I had failed to complete the Explorer deed for Angmar. I was too low level at the time to get behind the Witch-King’s fortress and approach three of the doors that were named locations in the Circle of Despair deed, so I had that deed, the Explorer deed and then the Angmar overall deed still left undone. At level 65 I was able to walk right up to each location unchallenged, so in about 15 minutes of horseback riding I was able to sweep up 5 TP, a bunch of Marks, Virtue experience and 300 Motes. Score.

Flipping through my outstanding Moria deeds, all I still needed were several Advanced Slayer deeds and the meta-deeds attached to them (Triumph in the Deeps and Deeds of Khazad-dum). I’d already knocked out some of the Advanced Slayer stuff while running around questing down in Foundations of Stone (Globsnaga, Goblins, Orcs, Spiders, Nameless and Trolls are all easy to farm down there). So I decided I was going to knock out the rest.

To get Advanced Wormslayer I spent about 40 minutes at Tanunshush in the Flaming Deeps. There are 13 worms in a small area there with a quick respawn timer. Bonus, they were still green to me, so I got a tiny amount of XP and was able to trigger some skill use increases for the handful of skills I’m still trying to get the training point for.

Advanced Grodbog took even less time to get 200. The Palace of Nain in the Great Delving has like 25 of them on a fast respawn. Sadly all long gray to me, but that just made it faster.

For Wargs, Morroval and Dragonets it turns out Zirakzigil, the wintery outside mountain area where the Balrog’s body lies, is an absolute speed-run for farming. I realized I had a couple of Slayer boosts left from when I did the Eriador deeds way back when, so I popped one and it only took 60 of the 90 minutes to slay 200 of each.

I then relocated to the Great Delving and headed to Katub-zahar, which is filled with Deep-Claws, the only remaining Advanced Slayer deed I have left. I was too tired to finish it last night, but with 20+ minutes left on the slayer boost, and 25+ fast respawning deep-claws in the area, it shouldn’t take long to get it done next time.

3678

For the past month I’ve been playing a lvl 85 loremaster that I left languishing 5 or so years ago I think. He didn’t clear the deed logs much at all, so now I can go back and focus points where I want when I go back to do them. I’ll get them up to lvl 42.

My main, a lvl 116 Burg, was a deed completionist. Most of his virtues are already in the 50’s, even though I don’t want many of them (hence my approval of the new system).

I’m not sure how this would work for a new character. Since virtue level is capped at one-half of your level, I figure one could hit that cap on selected virtues at lower levels and would need to hold off completing deeds if you wanted to focus on only a few. For example, a lvl 40 character could hit the cap of 20 for their 5 slotted virtues…and then would need to stop doing deeds until another level opened up.

All my characters are lvl 85 or above so I get to play with the system.

[edit] - I’ll add that Wit is indeed new but that finesse (its main benefit) is not much needed until Mordor. At least for landscape/solo stuff. After that it is very much important.

3679

After finishing up the Moria Epic to the point where the Golden Host is ready to set forth, I’m now whittling away at the Lothlorien quests to try to finish the area up before moving on to Dol Guldur and Mirkwood with them. The atmosphere and the music in Lothlorien is absolutely magical. I play at night before I go to bed, and it’s very relaxing.

One thing I’m discovering that sucks about being so far behind the curve in terms of the rest of the playerbase is equipment upgrades. My LI sword is fantastic, as is my Champion’s Rune, though I wish I could find First Age versions (using Second Age ones now). I even did OK with my armor, cobbling together a nice mix of quest reward stuff (including a 3-piece set with bonuses) and mathom hunters pieces. The problem is the jewelry. Most of the stuff I have, earrings, rings, necklace, are all level 50-53, and I’m now 66. There hasn’t been much in the way of quest rewards for jewelry in Moria, and what was offered didn’t stack up in terms of my main needs, Might, Agility, Vitality/Morale and Physical Mastery.

I’ve been checking the auction house nightly, but nobody is making and listing crafted jewelry in the 55-70 level range. Hell, I’m not even sue if there is crafted stuff in that range that has decent MGT/AGI/VIT and Critical/Physical Mastery bonuses. I may have to resort to shouting my needs to the Trade channel and see if anyone takes pity on me.

3680

You don’t need 1st age for landscape / solo. Not worth the price unless you can make them yourself. Save that for lvl 100 and imbuing (if you get that far). What is more important for LI’s at <100 is the jump in quality at the 5’s…65, 75, etc. 3rd-age items are fine if you keep up with them, even better than lower-level 2nd-agers. Use those blue marbles (heritage runes?) to level them up fast if you can get a big jump in quality.

There is, but no one is bothering with making them anymore. Most are Mirkwood recipes for lvl 65-ish. And if a jeweler’s guild member there are a few really good ones. If I was on your server I could bang out some decent upgrades for you on my burg jeweler. But if you’re a level or 2 above the content you don’t really need them.