1601

Man, your name is Bowyer! You should be able to make him a bow.

1602

Another vote for skirmishes. Your time-span is exactly what skirmishes were designed for, and you can launch them while standing in a skirmish camp ready to buy a sweet weapon from a vendor. There’s also no real penalty for leaving them (right click on your portrait and choose LEAVE, or just log off where you won’t get aggro), just lesser rewards than if you finished.

I’ve personally never bought any skirmish weapon/armor/jewelry pieces, but they look to be a good alternative to crit crafted weapons.

Also, check the auction house. Set the weapon level to 42, and look for bows or crossbows, as that’s the next tier of weapons. (I’d check for any weapons within five levels above your own, you can grow into them).

Finally, if can just ask in /ooc or other channels if anyone could make you a crit level 42 bow, and ask how much someone would charge for the service if there aren’t any on the AH. You might make a friend willing to make you gear for reasonable prices (or materials, etc.).

1603

I haven’t done skirmishes for ages, I really need to remember to do so when the quests are getting sparse.

1604

Skirmishes are a great way to find decent weapons or pieces of gear. I’ve upgraded portions of mine over time with it too. Plus they provide a fun distraction from the normal questing if you get bored, and plus with your limited time to play, it’s perfect. You can run a couple skirmishes in your allotted time and earn enough marks to buy what you’d want!

1605

Hah. My main IS a woodworker…

1606

You have mail…for when you hit 42. :)

1607

Fun thing I never noticed before about skirmishes - I was thinking the other day, if you dont do skirmishes daily, you’r going to have a hard time levelling up your soldier. Well, thats not so!! Appearently, all costs decreases with your level, and I mean decrease a LOT!

So, pretty much no matter how far behind you are, you can always play a skirmish or two, and have enough skirmish coins to purchase upgrades - awesome way to implement it!

About the LI - why shouldnt I upgrade it at lvl 20? I don’t understand that

1608

Yeah, I never played many skirmishes with my Hunter and skipped them entirely between lvl 28 and 40. Ran the Ford of Bruinen once, that was hairy, but it gave me enough marks to upgrade my Protector from lvl 27 to 40 in all aspects.

My Captain OTOH, could well do Skirmishes exclusively as he’s insanely awesome in them. But he’s mainly waiting for Imatarget to get back in the fold .

1609

Really? Skirmishes? I do my daily 5 or so skirmishes a day for the past 2 weeks (that is how I have been leveling with my limited play time). I get a lot of skirmish points/marks and I am almost done a few of the deeds in the skirmishes… but I have yet to see any decent weapon drops.

Come to think of it I think I can safely say that I don’t recall even one decent weapon being dropped during any of my skirshes. That includes killing named mobs and the new level 40 skirmish. Is there some setting option I need to modify ? (boy, that sounded dumb)… the drops are always skirmish marks.

1610

Muchos gracias. Thanks.

1611

Weapons never drop - the only thing that drops in skirmishes is Skirmish marks, and ONLY from the Lieutenants and the chest at the end of the skirmish.

You use your skirmish marks at the Weapons trainer to get what is normalyl god damn awesome weapons for your level. Its pretty cheap and pretty hot diggity damn good.

1612

Correct. This is what I meant by “find”. Probably not the best choice of term, but yea, using them to barter for improved weapons or gear. I’ve done it less and less as I’ve leveled and quest rewards have been improvements to my gear. Now though it’s time to start creating crafting alts for my guys and start working on some of the great crafting gear. It’s nice that my RK can create all manner of swords and bladed weapons that are completely useless to him!

1613

Yeah - re the crafting - many people dont realize when they select a craft vocation, that you end up being able to create legendary weapons and if you choose something that doesnt fit your character, it seems a bit of a waste - at least if you are in a crafting guild

1614

Is there a chart or page somewhere that details which vocations can craft what?

Edit: Duh! Google is my friend! http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Vocations

1615

I have a hard time accepting this to be completely true since then there would be no point in crafting, other than Woodworking and Weaponsmith for the higher levels. From my limited grasp of it I thought that all/most crafts can create some stuff/thingys you can put in/on the LI’s?

1616

That could be, but - an example is a that it seems a better fit for a guardian to be able to make their own legendary swords or legendary belts, than something to slot in their legendary weapon?

1617

Jewellers, Cooks, and Scholars make consumables that everyone can use:

Jewellers: Edelharn tokens (Hope tokens)
Cooks: Food (duh)
Scholars: Scrolls of Battle Lore or Warding Lore

Also, Cooks make pet food for Loremaster pets and lute strings for Minstrels. Scholars make many class-specific items, crafting crit bonus scrolls, and oils used by Hunters and Wardens. Weaponsmiths make Burglar consumables like marbles, caltrops, and stun dust; they also make Hunter traps and shield spikes for Guardians and Wardens.

All of these items above are consumable and therefore will have recurring demand. Crafting does not go out of style even when you are 65 and have great armor and weapons.

1618

Your very first main-hand weapon Legendary Item will only gain item experience when equipped (unlike all other LI’s). It’s a special case here.

If you slot your best relics in the starter LI and continue to level it past level 20, you’ll either have to wield a weapon with sub-par DPS at level 5x until the level 30 reforge, or deconstruct it between reforges and lose your slotted relics. Which are likely the best ones you’ll have for a long while.

Once you hit level 51+, I keep my old ‘main’ weapon slotted until the level 30 reforge so I can get the relics back (and apply the LI rune to the new ‘main’ weapon I’m leveling). At that point, wait till they hit level 31 for better relics/item xp items from deconstruction.

More so than item level, grinding for high level relics to slot in your LI’s can be a huge grind. It’s less bad than it used to be, given that you can win relics in the lotro lotteries or buy them with skirmish marks. When LI’s were launched with Moria, people would grind massive amounts of LI’s to level 2 or 11 to get relics to recombine.

It’s still a good idea to keep your LI slots full and level them to 2, 11, or 21 (if you’re lacking in LI’s to level) and then deconstruct (you get both relics and LI exp items to dump into the main weapon starting at level 11; you get only relics at level 2).

I apologize if this sounds complicated. I’m keeping it rather simple vs. the months of work in the forums after LI’s launched with statistical data supporting that this is the best way to level LI’s to get runes/ixp.

I’m happy to answer specific questions on how the LI system works (until they change it someday).

1619

Nice summary. I’ve heard that “someday” will come in February, and the lottery-style of LI’s will change, but I haven’t bothered to read up on it yet.

1620

Hah, I just found the Outfitter in Thorin’s Hall - I thought cosmetic items were for real monies only.

Is there a different outfitter for each race? I see a handful of of dwarven items here, so I’m assuming that’s the case? Anyone know offhand what cities have them other than Thorin’s Hall?

Edit: Google etc. :) Looks like my Hunter’s off for Celondim.