What do you lose when you're no longer a VIP?

Question

In Lord of the Rings Online, it appears you gain access to some extra features/items when you become a paid subscriber/VIP. (Free access to an extra storage bag, etc.)

When you let your VIP status lapse, do you still keep those perks, or do you lose them when become a Premium member again?

The group of guys I play MMO's with used to play City of Heroes, but in that game, after losing VIP status, and returning to premium you lose access to characters that are prestige classes and things like that. (Which stinks because we didn't realize that going in and played for a month with characters that we lost access to when our VIP month ran out.)

I am hoping to find the answer before we decide if it is worth going VIP for a while or not.

Asked by The Sasquatch

Answer

You can keep these things (as long as you log into your characters):

Characters made on a premium account have a limit of five gold max and have their last two inventory bags locked. The gold cap is removed and the forth and fifth bags are unlocked if you have logged into this character while you have VIP status. (Basically, if you ever want to play other characters and not have a gold cap or limited to 3 inventory bags, just make a bunch of characters on different servers and log into them before you let your paid time lapse).

Extra Trait slots are treated just like gold and bags. Premium players have a limit of 1 or 2 (depending on type) trait slots available. VIP players have all of them. Just like gold and bags, this is kept if you log into a character before you downgrade (even if the trait slot hasn't been unlocked yet).

You keep the ability to swift travel on characters you have logged into during VIP status (as long as you meet the requirements for that location).

You will go from being able to post 30 items on the auction house at a time to only 5 items.

Characters that have earned their riding skill while having VIP status keep the privilege. Premium players must buy their riding skill from the store. So if you have several 20+ level characters, make sure you get the riding skill on each before you downgrade.

You will keep anything you purchased from the store during your VIP status, even if they are VIP only items. Expansions, Adventurer's Pack etc.

You will lose these:

• You will no longer get 500 Turbine Points a month
• You lose access to customer service (GM support tickets)
• You will fall back to a high priority for the login queue (Behind VIPs but in front of free2plays)
• You will lose 20 wardrobe slots
• You can no longer spend Destiny Points
• You lose access to Monster Play and the Ettenmoors PvMP (Except for the Reaver class, all other classes will be locked but they will not be deleted if you have them)
• If you haven't yet purchased quest packs your questing will be limited to the starter zones.
• Some instances and deeds (linked to quest packs) will become locked.
• You will not earn any more rest experience (you will keep and be able to use rest experience you have earned before you downgrade).
• Your chat and mail will be more limited (You can only send so many tells or so much mail in a certain timeframe).
• Your crafting will be more limited (You can advance in your current tier, join the crafting guild, and you can gain guild reputation but you will not be able to advance to the next crafting tier).
• Premium accounts only have access to three character slots per server while VIP has five. When you downgrade you will lose two of them. If you have more than three characters created on that server you will be asked to choose three and the other two will be locked until you purchase more character slots. (If you have purchased Mines of Moria physical copy or the expansion from the store you will have an additional 2 character slots available that you will not lose in addition to the Warden and Runekeeper classes)

If you want to read more about the transition or about purchasing expansion packs etc, I suggest you read this post on the official forums. It has a lot of information.

Answered by Adanion

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Where can I find hillmen?

Question

I've just hit level 30 and want to complete the Race of Man deed "Enmity of the Hillmen" and get myself a nice new racial trait.

Unfortunately, I've not come across a hillman yet in my travels.

Whereabouts can I find Hillmen and, for a bonus, where can I find the lowest-levelled Hillmen to make my life a bit easier?

Asked by Rawling

Answer

According to this, you should look in Amagaur in the Lone-Lands or Nan Amlug East in the North Downs. It suggests grouping, so you might not want to go it alone.

Answered by atreusmonk

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What are some tips for leveling up in LOTRO?

Question

Where can I find a good guide that focuses on efficiently leveling-up for LOTRO?

Asked by antony.trupe

Answer

Mmorsrsel has a section of their site for fast leveling. I think they describe it best when they say lotro isn't really the game to fast level through. They will describe what traits/deeds you should be finishing along the way because what is a level capped player with no virtues.

Answered by Steve Hook

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LOTRO Ettenmoors Help

Question

Can you get to the Ettenmoors if you're not a VIP? Is their any exception if you're not VIP, can you use Turbine points to get there?

Asked by AJB

Answer

If you have the Rise of Isengard expansion, you will be able to play in the Ettenmoors (with some restrictions).

From here:

The other big change in Rise of Isengard is PvMP. For the first time, F2P (free to play) gamers can play in the Ettenmoors as a reaver (the other monster classes cost Turbine points). Also, every monster class skill is available for purchase regardless of rank, so the Ettenmoors should see a large influx of new players testing it out. A recent patch boosted monster players up with 40% more out of combat morale regen and an across-the-board 20-30% DPS increase, making them much more competitive against the free peoples.

Also, more information, from here:

Before you are able to play Monster Play, you have to create a free player and attain at least level 10. After that, a red "Monster Play" button will be active on the character select screen after login (Prior to Book 10, Fell Scrying Pools were used in-game; these have been removed). In Monster Play, you have one slot for each class available to play. Free players get only the Orc Reaver as free class, the other classes cost 800 Turbine Points. The available classes are: Orc Reaver, Orc Defiler, Spider Weaver, Uruk Blackarrow, Uruk Warleader, or Warg Stalker (all of which start as level 75 monsters). Once created, each monster character will persist and be available for further play, unless you choose to reset it.

Answered by Ashley Nunn

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Where is Rathwald?

Question

I want to do the "Fall of Moria" instance. It is given by Rathwald near the gates of the Walls of Moria before I complete 2.1.8, and in the 21st Hall after. I cannot find Rathwald in the 21st hall, where is he?

Asked by fireDude67

Answer

If you want to do the Fall of Moria quest after entering Moria, find Skygni. He is in 21st Hall, just through the gates west of the stable-master. The link provide gives his exact coordinates.

Answered by seth.miller

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What is Skill Effect Level?

Question

Whenever I get Dread (death, evil things, etc.) one of the debuffs is -X skill level effect. How does this affect my character?

Answer

It lowers the level that your skills are considered while you are attacking or healing. So if you had Dread -12 your skills would be considered 10 levels lower. This causes your skills to become less potent (as if you were 10 levels lower than you are in the previous example). This will also give your skills a higher chance to miss because the skills are considered lower level. This is what makes the debuff the most dangerous IMO.

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Cheeky travel through Frostbluff

Question

I've just started playing LotRO, with my character starting in Bree-land.

I've just noticed that, on leaving Frostbluff from the Yule festival, the stable guy letts me return to any of the four starting areas for free - areas I would've expected to have to run to, or pay, in order to unlock.

Will I be missing anything if I take this opportunity to get easy access? Are there any quests I'm supposed to follow to take me to the other starter areas, say? Anything particularly dramatic about making the runs on foot? Any chance of ending up stuck far from home once Yule finishes?

Answer

People normally take the swift travel between starting areas - Travelling from thorin's hall to celondim to hobbitton to bree would take a long long time. Each starting area has a cheap stable to the other starting areas, so getting stranded isn't an issue. Also note that there are usually some other festival events in each starting area.

Each of the starting areas (including bree-land) and the lone-lands are free to play. You wonk't run out of free content until about level 30. I'd return later when you have a horse to complete all of the discovery deeds for the starting areas - that's easy turbine points and virtues there and some of the scenery is awesome.

Generally, you aren't directed to the other starting areas, although it can be a good idea to go there and do the quests / get deeds done to earn virtues and turbine points. The expected progression is: starting area -> bree -> lone lands (then I suggest evendim, but there are many options at this point).

Enjoy!

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What are destiny points in LOTRO?

Question

I have a free Lord of the Rings Online account.

What are destiny points? How do you earn these points? What can you do with them?

Answer

LOTRO Destiny Points (DP) can be earned by playing as Monster or by gaining levels after level 10 (200 destiny points each level).

Destiny Points can be spent in two ways:

• In Monster Play (buy skill, traits, play as Troll, etc.)
• Buying Player Perks

The are many useful perks that can help your character leveling faster, increase movement speed, armor and so on.

I suggest you to look at LOTRO Wiki for more info.

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When Can Different Races Party Up?

Question

In Lord of the Rings Online, how far into the game do you need to get to create a fellowship with different races? I see that dwarves and elves seem to start in a far different area than humans and hobbits.

I would like to make a new character who is a dwarf and play with friends who are planning to make humans and was wondering how long we would have to play seperate before we could team up and travel together?

Answer

You will have to finish the introductory instance which (if my memory serves me right) is around level 6. Once you leave the starter instance for whatever race you selected you should be able to swift travel at a stable to meet up with your friends. The Shire is a lot of fun if you are in to quest lore but from a strictly speed of leveling standpoint Breeland is much faster.

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What does the Lock in the Blue Circle next to my Quest mean?

Question

I was playing Lord of the Rings Online, and I noticed a lock icon in a blue circle next to a quest in my tracker. What does this mean? Is it related to the quest title being blue in the quest menu?

Answer

I determined by experimentation that the icon indicates that a quest is "locked" on the quest tracker, i.e. placed there manually, as opposed to the "free floating" or automatically displayed quests. Quests placed on the tracker manually will not be removed until they are finished or manually removed.

It is completely independent of quest title color.

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Where are the Mysterious Relics?

Question

I was running around Evendim and I found an angry hobbit who apparently got his prize pipeweed crops destroyed by a Mysterious Relic that gives +1 Dread to anyone who comes near. When I right-click it, I got a quest to talk to that angry hobbit, who complained, and then I got a new deed, which told me to find all 7. Where are these?

Answer

This sounds a lot like the Mysterious Relics deed, but there's only 5 mysterious relics (linked page has detailed maps to each one):

• Famine
• Death
• War
• Pestilence
• Purest Evil

Mysterious Relics is a deed gained from finding each of the five mysterious relics, gaining the delivery quest from each one, and completing them. The reward is the title, "The Calm Before the Storm". While you're tagging the relics, you might want to go tag the related instances as well, as explained on the In Their Absence page.

Each one also corresponds to a different Gaunt Lord, in the related deed In Their Absence, although the two deeds are not otherwise related.

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Can I play LOTRO on Nvidia ION based netbook running 64bit linux?

Question

I have a ASUS Eee PC 1215N netbook, from the Seashell series. It has a Nvidia ION graphic processor. I'm running 64bit Ubuntu Linux (11.10 Oneiric Ocelot) on it.

I've tried to install LOTRO on it following the HOWTO on

But the game fails to run with one of:

• Game Error [105], "Could not initialize Direct3D. Please ensure that DirectX 9.0c [Dec 2005] or higher is installed."
• Game Error [129], "Hardware texture compression support was not detected. This video card feature is required to run the game."

The PyLotro wine output contains eiter

err:wgl:has_opengl Failed to load libGL: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory err:wgl:has_opengl OpenGL support is disabled.

err:d3d_caps:WineD3D_CreateFakeGLContext Can't find a suitable iPixelFormat.

err:d3d:InitAdapters Failed to get a gl context for default adapter

Direct3D9 is not available without OpenGL.

Or a repeating errors ending in

ERROR: ld.so: object 'libdlfaker.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.

ERROR: ld.so: object 'librrfaker.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.

Xlib: extension "NV-GLX" missing on display ":2". Xlib: extension "NV-GLX" missing on display ":2".

err:winediag:X11DRV_WineGL_InitOpenglInfo Direct rendering is disabled, most likely your OpenGL drivers haven't been installed correctly

Answer

Running software using the ION processor will require extra software. Windows 7 Nvidia supplies Optimus. On linux you'll there's a project called Bumblebee.

To recap the several sources on the web for 64bit Oneiric:

Install LOTRO roughly following the howto

sudo apt-get install wine winetricks
export WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine-lotro
winetricks vcrun2008
winetricks d3dx9
cd /wherever/you've/downloaded/the/game
wine LOTROSetup.exe

This will have craeted a wine environtment (sometime revered to as 'bottle') in .wine-lotro in your home directory and installed the game there, including some native windows dll's that the game needs.

To launch the game from wine you'll need the special launcher called PyLotro. Normally on Ubuntu you do

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ajackson-bcs/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pylotro

But there's no Oneiric version in the ppa yet. So just get the source version (not the 'Stand-alone Version' exe one).

To have it use the Nvidia processor, you install Bumblebee

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bumblebee

And since wine is 32-bit, and 64-bit Oneiric uses multiarch, you install the 32-bit version of some libraries like this

sudo apt-get install virtualgl-libs:i386

without it you'll see thos LD_PRELOAD errors.

To have the pylotro launcher use optirun to run wine, I made a tiny wrapper script like this

mkdir $HOME/bin
cat << EOF > $HOME/bin/optiwine
#! /bin/sh
optirun wine \$@
EOF
chmod +x $HOME/bin/optiwine

In pylotro /Tools/Options, tick the Advanced Options and set /home/{username}/bin/optiwine as the Wine Program. And ofcourse set the right WINEPREFIX et al.

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Advice to not completely suck with a Lore-Master on LOTRO

Question

I played the game for a couple of weeks a while ago and would like to start again.

I really like the lore-master class but apparently it's one of the more difficult classes to play.

What knowledge can you share with me that will make my group not hate me?

What would be expected of me in a fight? What is a lore-master best at? What should I never do?

Any advice is welcome...

Answer

The most important things to remember are:
The Lore-Master is not a Damage Dealer
The Lore-Master is not a Healer

Your role is crowd control and supporter, which means you check which target can hurt your group most and immobilize it, usually with your Blinding Flash which is your most important skill in every group and instance.

You have to check that noone attacks this target so he will actually stay stunned. If the target you want to stun already gets attacked, just switch to the next important free target.

Priority targets are:

• Strong enemy damage dealers
• Anything attacking your healer
• Enemy healers

The second most important skill in your bar will be Share the Power which you can use to support your healer. Especially in later instances your healers will run out of energy quite fast, especially in a less experienced group.

I do not recommend pets in group since they easily attract more enemies than your party can handle.

Other usefull skills:

• Beacon of Hope to heal your healer in case of emergency
• Power of Knowledge to gain power you can then transfer to your healer
• Sticky Tar allows your casters/ranged players to kite the enemy more easily
• Herb Lore is especially usefull if there are too many enemies for your group to control, it allows you to easily root a whole group of enemies. Keep in mind that it's useless against ranged enemies though.
• Sign of Power: Righteousness is important against enemies that tend to stun a lot, in which case you should keep it up all the time on your healer.

All the other skills are nice to have but in groups you have to master the above mentioned skills and make sure you fullfill those tasks before you can expand your play to use all the other skills.

Lore-Master is an even less obvious character than healers, you usually don't see when he does anything, you only see when he doesn't do what he was supposed to do.

I think the lore master is the hardest solo character since it's extremely weak in melee. The pets make it easier but you still tend to die quite fast if you make even a slight mistake.

Oh, that reminds me of another important point:
The Lore-Master is not a Tank, keep moving in circles when you get attacked.

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Are tradeskills worthwhile in LOTRO?

Question

I am fond of tradeskills in MMOs, but games seem to be very hit and miss as far as what is actually worthwhile for players to take on. For instance, in WoW, engineering was pretty worthless while enchanting or alchemy were amazing.

I am looking for a brief overview as to what the actual professions in LOTRO can produce, and which are actually desirable by players.

If it makes a difference, I know there is some interdependence between the tradeskills and I will be playing fairly frequently with a friend so we will be able to, if necessary, pick complimentary vocations.

Answer

I've played a lot of MMOs and I've come to a conclusion that I find reinforced with each new game: the crafting that has the best bang for your buck is whatever is involved in making consumables. So in LotRO that's the historian. I don't find the weaponsmithing so useful--largely because of the cost of the ingredients versus what user-crafted stuff sells for--but the farmer and scholar can both rely on selling their stuff at the auction house without much trouble.

For example, each weekly batch of master-level athelas/celebrant potions I make cost me less than 200s but frequently bring in 1g (or more) at the AH with barely any effort on my part. And if I'm willing to make lower-level stuff--the oils for arrows in particular seem to sell well--then I can make even more money. But I find a quick and easy 1g a week more than pays for my efforts.

The tinker is probably the second best profession in light of the various tokens he can make, which are always needed for instances. And of all the items the various professions can make, it seems to me that I regularly sell high-end jewelry more easily than high-end armor, weapons, etc.

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What is the group/party size in Lord of the Rings Online?

Question

How large of a group can you play Lord of the Rings online with? Is it a group/party based game?

I play PC games with a group of 4-5 people and we are looking for something we can all play together online. Does LOTR Online fit that criteria?

We currently play Guild Wars, but we are running out of content there, and have been thinking of something different to start playing.

Answer

The maximum group size in LOTR: Online is 6 players.

I started playing LOTR after playing Guild Wars and I feel like it's very group oriented. The quests are all varying degrees of difficulty; some of them are recommended only for parties. The guilds that I've come across in LOTR are very active and friendly. There's a ton of content apart from the main storyline and new content gets added on a weekly basis. It should keep your interest for quite a while.

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How do I get the orange crystals?

Question

How do I get to the orange crystal for the quest Crystals and Moonlight?

Answer

11.2s 111.1w in the Silvertine Lodes zone is the location.

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How do I get a mount in Moria?

Question

How do I get a mount to use in Moria?

Answer

As already stated, you can buy a mount from the Iron Garrison Miners if you build enough rep; they have fast mounts that require kindred status, and slower mounts that don't. (Not sure what level of reputation they require.)

There's also an Adventure Pack that comes with a fast goat mount, less hardy than the other mounts but still quite good otherwise -- but I'm not sure if that's still available.

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What's the best way to get rep with the Iron Garrison Guards?

Question

In Lord of the Rings Online, what's the best/easiest/quickest way to grind reputation with the Iron Garrison Guards in Moria?

For those curious: Kindred (the highest reputation status) is required with the Iron Garrison Guards in order to unlock one of your class's final legendary traits.

Answer

I don't know if any of these are the BEST way, but rather than leave this question unanswered, here are the different ways I've found:

• Questing and mob-killing in Moria will generate reputation items over time, that can be traded in for reputation.

• There are a bunch of assorted quests in Moria that give IGG reputation.

• There are six crafting quest dailies at three different locations that can be used to generate a lot of crafting resources (if you're set to the right ones) as well as about 1400 Guards reputation points each. (and 700 Miner reputation points as well) That's ~8400 a day, which will take you from nothing to Kindred in a little over 10 days, without having to do anything else.

• Running the Grand Stair instance allegedly gives IGG reputation as well.

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How much do you have to play to make up the difference in the pay VS free editions of Lord of the Rings Online?

Question

I'm intrigued by LOTRO now being free. I only play MMOs casually anyway, so I'm already behind the times. How much longer/what extra work is involved to catch up to someone who has a pay account? Assuming we start at the same time.

Answer

There are 3 different levels of player: people who have an current, active account are VIP's, people who have paid for a subscription or expansion at some point in the past are Premiums, and everyone else is F2P.

You will have to focus on earning Turbine Points by grinding out achievements/deeds to unlock content past the first 3 'free' zones. I believe it is possible to unlock all zones by grinding deeds/TP's; I haven't done the math, but some sites have.

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Soloing in Lord of the Rings Online

Question

Which is the best race/class combination and tradeoffs involved for solo play in Lord of the Rings Online without the need to to be in a group most of the time?

Answer

The best class to solo with in LOTRO would be the Rune-keeper. The Rune-keeper can swap between healing and offensive spells, so you can pretty much deal lots of damage, and if you ever find yourself dying, stop dealing damage and heal yourself. (Note, with the rune-keepers' spell system, you need to build up healing or offensive energy - so if you've been casting offensive spells for a long time, you'll need to stop and start casting the low-power healing spells to build up healing energy, before you can heal yourself for any great amount of HP).

The class I've been soloing with is the burglar. He is good at soloing for the reason that he can disspapear if things get messy, and he can handle a large group of enemies better than other classes, with about 4 stuns and various debuffs.

Other than that, the Guardian - with a tank spec - can solo relatively easy, though it will take you longer as you won't be dealing a lot of damage.

Lastly, The Hunter is a pretty good soloer, as he can lay down traps and deal damage (more than the burglar can) from a distance, and can teleport away from combat if things get hairy.

Unless you have a class preference, I'd say go with the Rune-keeper or the hunter.

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