Updated: July 23rd, 2021
General Tips
- Starter LIs (lvls 45-50): the quest-arc starts at Rathwald in Echad Dúnnan. Do not spend any resources on them beyond the autobestowed ones, it’s not worth it.
- Keep your scrolls & crystals, mind their max. lvl and if they don’t display any, save them until you get your lvl 100 FAs.
- Lootboxes: they drop a lot, keys are store-only. It’s not really worth it at low levels.
- Radar/Minimap: right-click to edit the icons it displays (filter) or “track nearby quests” (chooses nearest 5 for your Quest Tracker list).
- Type /help in the chat window to get a list of commands.
- VIP Extra Benefits (U27.1):
- Who to talk to: NPC Wenda at Bree Boar Fountain or near your Homesteads Task Boards!
- What do you get: Town Services and Subscriber’s Jug.
- They do not disappear from your bags when you log out.
- Sub Jug puts this Buff under your Vitals.
- Town Services opens a panel for you to select from. It works inside instances and inside housing areas, too.
Keymapping/UI
Ctrl+M = I set this to open Mailbox (useful for VIPs for remote access).
Ctrl+R = I set the Reputation panel to this combo, up to you!
Right Ctrl = I set this to Mount/Dismount (it’ll remember the last mount you summoned).
Y/U keys = Find Item/Interact functions (‘Delete’ is the default key to find items near you while ‘U’ is the default key for interact with them or NPCs).
/follow: it’s useful to have this command keymapped (I use the + key) or quickslotted (here’s how)
Alt+RMB (right-click): allows you to use reputation items in bulk. For IXP runes you’ll have a scroll bar atop the panel that allows you to select the amount.
Alt+F10 = personal lantern, by default, a helpful feature in dark places or during nighttime.
Alt+R = Filter feature. Drag and drop items you don’t want to see in your bags anymore (like the lootboxes).
P = lock/unlock quickslots (this prevents you from dragging out skills accidentally – you can choose any key you like, I went for P)
UI Skins = I recommend the JRR Skins Collection since it offers a wide variety.
Ctrl+\ allows you to move the UI elements and you can resize many of them under Options. If you want to carry that UI layout and apply it to another server or account you can do so by typing the following commands in the Chat window:
/ui layout load [name]
/ui layout save [name]
Raiding must-haves
- Selection’s target = toggle to see who’s targetting who (works for fellows and for mobs, easy to notice when you’ve lost aggro)
- Induction bar display = key to spot and time inductions (yellow bars equal interruptible ones, grey bars uninterruptibles ones). You must keep the “Floating Names” option enabled for this bar to show.
Screenshots utilities
- F12 hide the UI and take better screenshots!
- “Floating name opacity” is a dial bar that will allow you to make transparent even the names of those objects/NPCs you have selected.
- “Selection indicator” allows you to control whether you want to see the point-down arrow on top of your selected target.
Crafting Tip for New Players
You want to choose a Craft & the first issue is going to be Tools. The starter & vendor ones are old versions while Metalsmiths can make “combined 3-in-1 Tools”. You can ask in chat.. but if you’re a DIY player here’s my tip, step by step:
Step 1: Talk to the Master of Apprentices – pick Armsman – get intro quest to Weaponsmith – talk to the Novice Weaponsmith NPC – get a crate and open it = receive 2 bronze ingots.
Step 2: Talk to the Master again – pick Armourer – get intro quest to Metalsmith – talk to the Novice Metalsmith NPC – get a crate and open it = receive 2 bronze ingots. Now you’ve a total of 4, enough for tools.
Step 3: At the Novice Metalsmith buy a recipe for tools of your desired prof + basic mats from its shop & CRAFT! There’s no min. level so you can equip these right away.
Step 4: Talk to the Master again & choose the craft you wanted your character to have for the rest of its journey. You’re all set!
Festival Tips
Note: given that a common issue during festivals is people “camping” on top of quest bestower NPCs, use the “Select Next NPC” key and then the U key. That’ll prompt the quest panel and you’ll be able to continue with your questing.
Anniversary
#Beorning Tip – if you prefer to be in Bear Form but those pesky envelopes require you to shapeshift, fear not! Just go for the flying ones & you’ll snag them without giving up on your Wanderlust!
Buried Treasure Event
- Download a plugin called “Rich!”, it’ll help you keep track timers, consumables and rewards while making it easier to use those consumables during the hunt for that Huge Cache.
- Use alts instead of waiting for the 15min cooldown on the main quest. Their tokens will be useful to barter for non-bound items and send to your main.
- Repeat the main quest till you gather enough picks & cave claws to make the digging worth it.
Midsummer Event
Travel tip: Stable-masters from South Bree, Michel Delving and your Housing neighbourhood will swift you to Midsummer MT. But for higher level toons, it’s useful to have the return skills/guides/musters to MT Before and After Battle. That’s another quick way to get back to the Entrance level.
Hunter: use Desperate Flight and you get ported right outside of the gates. I love it for a quick wrapper quest turn-in.
Beorning: like in Anniversary, those Wayward Verses in Houses of Lore can be caught while you’re in Wanderlust stance. Beat the crowds!
Sweet Treats: the Hungry Guards in Craftsmen Tier like pretending they’re not so hungry, making their floating ring disappear for a short while (while they’re standing ground). Mind the names to spot these NPCs.
Unhelpful dogs – in 2 steps – there are 3 fast moving dogs, when you click on the right one, his overhead ring-icon will disappear. Then click on the slower moving dog near the NPC Lebadar. And you’re done 😉
To the last drop: all the cups are static (on the same spot) except one that changes locations. That one contains always the right wine.
Spring
- Use F10 to find the chickens in the maze. You may need to keymap this via the Options panel (ctrl+O) – type nearest NPC on the search bar to find the feature and keymap it to F10.
- You can juggle 3 quests at the same time! Pick up the Tweens, the Wandering Elves & the Dire Beers quests, enter the Hedge Maze & don’t leave till you’re done with all 3 goals!
- Shrew Garden: it’s polite to dismiss your pets/cosmetics pets during the stomping.
- The Green Challenge: if you have trouble with the drunkness effect LOTRO puts on you, just disable “Post processing effects“
- #Beorning Tip: Like for flying envelopes, you can remain in Wanderlust stance while picking flowers for Avery.
- Don’t waste your time trying to drink from a dire beer that someone else is already interacting with. Same with the Tweens.
Treasure Bugan
- You have to run the instances at the same level of your character.
- The spawn points for the Bugan are fixed. Each scaling instance has one. Some locations in the wiki.
- Tip for melee combat: if you have trouble hitting the hyperactive Bugan, put it on /follow (like it says above, you can have this command on a shortcut or keybound).
- If you’re running with a group, make sure everyone is close enough to the spawn point or they won’t get the quest – no quest, no coins.
- If you found the bugan & got the quest in X instance, wait 5 minutes before trying again – there’s a hidden reset timer. If you don’t wait, it can happen that the bugan will appear but you won’t get coins and the quest won’t advance.
- Also, the chance of getting a coin off the Bugan kill with or without the quest is 1%. Credits to my kinnie, Eorlthain, for the reset timer & kill drop chance tip!
Yule
- Approach a sleeping Snow Beast, select it & click THREE times (fast) on the /cheer emote icon from your quest tracker. That way you don’t wake up all 3 available snowbeasts and your fellow festival-goers will appreciate it.
- Theater: remember the audience needs to use both flowers and rotten fruit consumables for their deeds, so consider messing up your emotes on purpose if your fellow actors are going for the perfect perfomance
Plugins
There are two ways to obtain them: 1) the easy way – download the Plugin Compendium which will install your chosen plugins automatically; or 2) download from LOTRO Interface forums & install them manually.
For Quality of Life purposes
- AltInventory (best QoL if you’re an alt-aholic)
- AltWallet (same as above)
- Travel Window II (free those quickslots!)
- Horsey (works for cosmetics pets too)
- PetCarousel (for LMs)
- GearUp (not in the Compendium)
For Combat
- Prime (oh where to start! just install & give it a go)
- CombatAnalysis
- DebuffVitals (very nice for LMs)
- MiniRaid
- BuffBars
- TonicBars
- MouseFinder
Housing
If you’re interested in the fundamentals regarding neighbourhoods, house styles, ammenities, decorations, I strongly recommend you visit a specialized website: https://en.dcodumilieu.fr/
Not only they have a great item database, but they also organize events periodically!
How to pay maintenance for a house that you don’t own:
- Travel to the house you intend to pay for and step into its boundaries (the name of the owner and address pop in your screen).
- Look on your radar wheel and click on the housing icon. The panel that pops then should display the upkeep for that particular house.
Note: the Housing button that appears in your Character Panel (C) will only display the houses you own and/or those that belong to your toon’s kinship.
How to travel to another kin member’s house:
- Your kinnie has to have set “Primary Residence” at a personal house by clickin on the Star icon below the address in the House tab in the Character Panel (C).
- Open Kinship panel (O) and select the kin member you intend to visit. If they’ve done the step described above, you’ll see the “Visit” option at the bottom of the panel light up. Click & travel.
- The player you’re visiting doesn’t need to be online.
How to visit any house:
Option 1: Stable-masters
Several stable-masters offer Swift Travels to Homesteads. The one inside each neighbourhood or the ones you can buy from the LOTRO Store to use as decorations, connect you with all the rest of the Housing areas; and then there are some other Stable-masters in main hubs for each race that will connect you to the corresponding Homestead type:
| South Bree | Bree-land Homestead |
| Celondim, Duillond | Falathlorn Homestead |
| Thorin’s Gate | Thorin’s Hall Homestead |
| Michel Delving, Hobbiton | The Shire Homestead |
| Aldburg, Edoras | Kingstead / Eastfold Homesteads |
| Dol Amroth* | Cape of Belfalas |
Option 2: Tour house
If a neighbourhood you wanna visit has empty houses, you can select any of them & use the “Tour” option. Once teleported you can find the address you wanted to visit.
Now, the easiest way to find the housing lists is to visit the Broker’s Office in the center of Bree Town (31.3S, 51.2W). It’s not the only location for these individual NPCs, but it is the only one where you’ll find them all together.
Option 3: Direct travel
So, what happens if the house you wanna visit is located in a neighbourhood where all the houses are occupied? Do not fret, the Broker’s Office not only gathers all Housing NPCs but also displays “Real Estate Ledgers” on the tables, and these items can be used to travel straight to the house you’re looking for.
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