#LOTRO Epic Quest

[loremastering]

Lothrandir wasn't entirely wrong in the last panel. even if brenin left this particular cave alive, he will still die in one.

#lotro #allies of the king #lotro spoilers #yes this part is a decade old now but for new players who follow this blog i will tag big events in the stories #i also tag the names of the epic quest books

[a-lonely-dunedain]

I keep forgetting how cool this spot is

#I wish epic quests still had fellowship instances and unique setpieces like this tbh #lotro #moria

[masterelrond]

Riding towards Minas Tirith - through the beauty of Imloth Melui, South Ithilien, and beyond

#i'm over the moon to get ranger content again and the whole time it makes me feel like they're talking about my blorbo in law<3 #even without him being there you can feel his purpose and the mark he left on the rangers. extremely secksy of lotro #while i love love love rivendell imloth melui is the level of lush environment i envision as the true beloved rivendell in my head. she is.. #everything to me. #also i realised i accidentally discontinued my epic quests screenshots #i'm back (well i never left i just forgot to post) !!!!!!!!! #lotro #lotro spoilers #nori disrupts air

[rannadylin]

It will never cease to amuse me that the LOTRO writers just took a snippet of Old English from the opening lines of Beowulf and made it an NPC's name in Rohan... XD

#lotro #ellen fremedon #beowulf #clever devs #this is almost as good as trimalchio->dimalchio in WOTR #come to think of it the previous book of the epic quest had a Thrymm and that is how you pronounce the þrym in the previous line... #now i need to learn old english and read more of beowulf just to be on the lookout for more of these linguistic easter eggs i guess

[rohirric-hunter]

The LotRO fandom on Tumblr ought to have creative weeks like some other fandoms do; a week with themed days where people make art or fics or other transformative work to suit the theme and post them on the day in question. I love that format for content creation challenges; it's low-pressure, fairly casual, doesn't threaten burnout like month-long challenges do, and the short format of it means we could have multiple events throughout the year with different themes, a must-have for a piece of media as big as LotRO.

#lotro #one event like idk an October challenge just couldnt hope to encapsulate everything #but yeah im thinking there could be a week with OC themed prompts #a week with festival and event themed prompts #a week for epic quests and a week for side quests #maybe a couple of appreciation weeks like female character appreciation or Ranger appreciation or something #a week for different factions #and like multiple prompts for each day just to keep things super casual #one that though is that often these fandom weeks just drop the prompts on the first day and i would like to drop them in advance #like two or three weeks in advance #maybe a whole month just for the round numbers #im definitely thinking of throwing out my own week but maybe not until like mid to late January #got the redwall midwinter gift exchange to moderate so you know #busy

[most-beloved-star]

okay but "To arms! Two arms!" is a definite contender for the funniest line in lotro

#lotro #before the shadow #lotro spoilers #not super spoilery but this is from an epic quest so #i had to stop fighting to laugh when that line came up

[morchalliel-the-unwise]

There are so many points in the game that choke me up, but Frodo's outburst of trauma and survivor's guilt is one of the most heart-breaking moments in LOTRO. He really had to sail to the West, no doubt.

(source: lotro-wiki.com)

#lotro #frodo baggins #epic quest #had this on my mind today but no oc anywhere near cormallen #so quoting the wiki it is #spoiler alert

[lesbiansforboromir]

I am sorry, but LOTRO is...like a LOTR game? The plot is good? It has which characters?

HAH you know that's such a good question, didn't even think to explain it properly.

LOTRO is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game), think World of Warcraft-esque. It's about 15 years old so it's a little on the dated side graphics wise and it's gameplay is essentially landscape exploration and combat, with group content that goes from three-person dungeons to full 12-person raids.

BEING a 15 year old game the plot is... enormous. Like its hard to even talk about a 'plot' at this point, since there are about 30 different individual storylines for each zone strewn throughout a multitude of quests that see you talking to every character imaginable. Like 'which characters does it have'? all of them, LOTRO has all characters from lotr in it. LOTRO has characters you don't even remember in it. In LOTRO you get major questlines from Denethor's two unnamed elder sisters. In LOTRO they make you care about the men named amongst the dead in the song of lament after the pelennor fields, people you never speak too in the books.

You create a character and choose your race and begin to journey from the furthest west (Ered Luin, the Shire, Bree or Cardolan depending on choices) to the furthest east and act as a side character to the main plot of lotr. You cross paths with the fellowship at various points and develop relationships with all of them, up to and past the death of sauron (currently the game has expanded into Umbar, months after Sauron's defeat in game canon.) All of the game's story is told through quest dialogue, which you have to read, it's a hell of a lot of reading, whether thats reading what people are saying to you when you accept a quest or reading what NPC's are saying to you within quest instances and 'cutscenes'.

So there is an overarching plot, called 'epic book quests', which will take you on this journey, but it is dwarfed by the sheer number of surrounding tales going within each area you visit. Dunland is an excellent example, you have to travel through it to get to Rohan but what you're doing whilst you're there is investing yourself in the struggles, politics, dangers and cultures of the people who live in Dunland. And that is true for every area you visit, which inevitably makes LOTRO a massive worldbuilding and expanding project for middle earth. Like it's really hard to put into words quite how much 'plot' there is in this game. Some of it is good, some of it is not so good, some of it is so good it makes me want to bite the game, some of it is so bad it makes me want to bite the game, you will find 30 favourite plots and 30 hated plots and 100+ more in the middle.

Of course, this means LOTRO also creates it's own characters to fit into the world and get attached too, many of whom I now love and care for just as much as original canon characters. Like fucking Ayorzen. Oh my god. I love Ayorzen. You only meet him at level 110 in mordor and it takes you real life months of questing to reach that point. Not anything repetetive either, you do not grind exp in this game unless you actually want too, there are just that many quests and storylines between you and mordor that it takes you months to finish them all. Are some of the epic book quests kinda superfluous and make you run around way too much? Yes. I don't care about them, the point of lotro is in the smaller stories you find along the way. The game is about being able to walk, by yourself, no loading screens, from the Shire to Mordor and beyond and experience the minutae of middle-earth living whilst you do it. Hope that somehow answers your questions!

Oh it's also a dress up game, forgot to mention that, the lotro devs will disagree but this is a dress up game except you're dressing up TO journey through middle earth and you can unlock multiple outfit slots to customise that you can change your character into whenever you like, no restrictions on what you can put on your outfits regardless of levels or classes so long as you have wardrobe space. Unfortunately the game's armours are ugly as sin until level 50, though happily that's a shorter trip than it sounds, early game goes by much faster than the post-50 stuff.

#chats #Anonymous #lotro

[aurore-parle-de-ses-idees]

LOTRO intro game with Sileär?

sil is fun bc you can do a high elf intro in mordor or a more current day one, in which case she’d be in rivendell (elf still being the most plausible pc race here, but yknow you do you lol)

mordor version: honestly she gets to keep most of the things the actual helf intro has. location gets moved around a bit, but otherwise she’s doing that. you’re most likely there as one of the younger elves in the alliance; mostly meant to be a message runner. you’re sent to deliver something to sil & halthel, and this should be a perfectly routine thing really, but you’re right on sauron’s doorstep. what even is routine any more

so things go wrong, naturally

you and silear get separated from the rest of her company and she’s very intent on 1, making sure you don’t die (combat tutorial) and 2, getting back to the rest of the company (escort/follow the npc quest). this is a little later than the actual helf intro is set- a couple years at least into the siege of barad-dur. silear’s company was up among the feet of the ered lithui, possibly running around those watchtowers that are full of wraiths and fell spirits in post-war of the ring dor amarth or camped nearby to watch them. your message for silear was where she and halthel were supposed to meet people from a few other companies for some vague secret mission (you don’t get to know all the details then, but they’re running off to chase gaunt-lords). incidentally, that’s also where sil gets stabbed with a morgul blade, but i’m getting a little ahead of myself there

so you’re trying to get back to the rest of her company. that goes fine, you get back, you give them your message. there’s a bit where they invite you to sit down and eat with them and it’s nice and chill and nothing happens. you find a bedroll and stay the night in their camp, intending to head back to echad-in-edhil in the morning, going at least part of the way with silear and halthel for purposes of Not Wandering Mordor Alone if it can be avoided. then you wake up in rivendell in the third age and get a bit of a summary of ‘war over, sauron gone (for now), also silear got stabbed and is in a morgul coma still. if i break from game mechanics a little bit, you can be trollshaws level and join the epic around book 4/chasing shadows (though even that’s a little lower level than i’d be thinking, but 50 in rivendell doesn’t have a great epic entry that i like and that doesn’t lose a ton of important early vol 1 stuff or skip you straight to vol 2). if we don’t break things, you just kinda get to be level ten or so because Game Says So. silear wakes up, you say hi, you both end up on the trip to edhelion and you do the epic as normal from there. you may get to have sil as an npc who shows up for in their absence stuff later

rivendell intro: if you start as a fairly young elf in rivendell, you probably meet a silear who’s just woken up. she’s still pretty weak, but she can do something like really mild sparring or training with someone who is just learning themself (she is trying very hard to be patient with everyone involved). it’s a very chill intro honestly, with no early awful experiences for your guy! probably just works as an alternate tutorial instance that then leads into the thorin’s gate prologue stuff- get put on the expedition to edhelion as a history lesson or just to get some travel experience and then get sucked in by the epic vortex

ok the rivendell one is way less involved actually lol. hang out a bit, have tea with sil and bilbo, get sucker punched by just how much the epic is. tada!

#ask games #sil & om #ty friend!

[malledhrim]

i got one of the returning characters in lotro's umbar epics spoiled for me, but the second i saw that quest text about the elf with the corsairs? 👁👁

#i've just received confirmation of who it is i'm so happy he's back #the second he showed up in the instance i was full on face pressed against computer screen #this game reuses character models so often i didn't want to be sure until it was confirmed in the text #lotro #tolkien #the boys are back babey!!!

[gapol]

Order to Play Quests of Different Regions in LOTRO

Play quests in level order, even if the character is strong or survivable (eg. healer can survive better), because some enemies of higher levels get immune to damage.

Overview of the order of play

War in the North (Eriador): The Witch-king

War in Rohan: Saruman

War in Gondor: Sauron

Last region: Mount Doom

The best order is

First, play from the beginning to last region in Rhovanion (Lothlorien) and go to The Great River.

Second, play to Kingstead (Edoras) where there are 3 possible ways next: To Isengard direction (Merry, Pippin, Rohan war), to Gondor direction (Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gondor war), to Mordor direction (Frodo, Sam).

To avoid the immunity problem of enemies, play in this order: (1) To Isengard, then (2) to Gondor, then last (3) to Mordor.

Note about the above order :

After Westfold and Isengard, go to the Paths of the Dead (PotD), but after the PotD, go to Old Anorien (Minas Tirith) instead of Far Anorien (extra area, higher levels than Old Anorien).

The Roads:

Recommended play order: Main quests (Epic) first, if out of current region, do side quests. Or at least, complete main quests of current region before moving to next region.

Eriador

The Shire -> Bree-lands -> Lone-lands -> Trollshaws -> Eregion

And other regions in Eriador

Rhovanion

Moria -> Dimrill -> Lothlorien

And other regions in Rhovanion

Rohan

The Great River -> 3 ways (in order of levels):

Merry/Pippin's way: Fangorn -> Isengard

Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli's way: Regions to Kingstead -> (1) Kingstead -> Isengard, and (2) Kingstead -> Paths of the Dead

Frodo/Sam's way: Cross quickly to Ithilien (hard levels, continue to Gondor first)

And other regions in Rohan

Gondor

Blackroot Vale -> Lamedon -> Central Gondor -> Dor-en-ernil -> Lebennin -> Lossarnach -> Pelennor (Minas Tirith) -> Osgiliath -> Ithilien

And other regions in Gondor

Mordor

Ithilien -> (1) The Wastes, (2) Morgul Vale -> Gorgoroth -> Mount Doom

And other regions in Mordor

#lotro #mmorpgs #edoras #isengard #gondor #mordor

[loremastering]

BABYGIRL HAS ARRIVED

#lotro #the black book of mordor #<-- blacklist if you dont want to see spoilers if you havent done this epic quest/expansion/regions

[a-lonely-dunedain]

LOTRO intro game with Tossdir?

(for this ask game where you send in one of my OCs, and I give you a synopsis of what it would look like if they were the main NPC in a tutorial quest)

ah! ok this one is fun, because Tossdir fits into Before the Shadow more naturally as an NPC than a PC lol

So you show up in Mossward, enter the blacksmith shop, and are greeted by not one, but two Rangers! Meneldir, area Mysterious Guy, and his slightly more approachable but still Weird brother, Tossdir.

during the raid on Mossward Tossdir would be fighting right alongside the PC, and would probably even initiate a little competition to see which of you can kill the most orcs. Tossdir will actually forget what the count was by the end of the instance though, what with Tegwen being in danger both he and the PC had more pressing matters on their minds. (but I think later on in the questline, prompted by absolutely nothing, he will suddenly exclaim that he's remembered you won the wager and offer to buy you a drink at the Crossway House)

Most of the time his role in the questline would be just to play off of Meneldir and offer a little levity when appropriate. here's how a few lines might be changed with his inclusion: "I have never had much patience for children. Well, except for Tossdir." "HEY!" and "but my kin are far away now..." "Meneldir I'm right here" "I was not talking about you!"

I think I've already posted a bit about the end of this questline in the Tossdir-verse. but yeah Meneldir survives Specter of the Grey Fear, Tossdir gets possessed, you Meneldir and friends have to fight him in Sarch Vorn, Meneldir dies in the 2nd stage of the bossfight etc. difference in this version is, bc Tossdir is not the Main Character™, he will just go to Thornhad and later Esteldin, ending up as an occasionally reoccurring NPC throughout the epics. Next time you encounter him he's going to seem really really depressed, but you will see him improve later on after he's had time to process things and reconnect with the other Rangers

#lotro #Meneldir #ask game #lotro oc #Tossdir #ty friend!

[masterelrond]

Hi. Im the new to lotro anon and I have played it a bit now and it is very fun! I chose to play as a high Elf Hunter from imladris and the intro was very fun, being friends with all the cool people. The starting area after that is also nice. Im well into the main starting quest, I think. But now ive travelled to the shire to help bingo? And next i want to get a horse. I am a bit worried about some things and confused about others but overall its very fun.

🥹 i’m SO happy for you omg so happy to see new players <333

I also started on high elf and how cool is it that you're one of the oldest friends of elrond, thranduil and glorfindel??!!!!!!! and then elrond watching over you for thousands of years waiting for you to wake up again im fine im fine im fi

Ered Luin is a really pretty area to quest in, I loved it! I'd recommend getting the stone of the tortoise (xp disabler) on the lotro store so that you dont become too high level too fast while questing in the shire, it’s just very cute and laid back so it would be a shame to zoom through it too quickly

I believe you can get a horse for free like in this video, the devs made the riding trait free a while back (it used to be 99 lotro points on the store). I believe you can travel to west Bree from Michel Delving for free, then from Bree to Mossward. Once you're there, talk to Skardí in the blacksmith shop and you should be able to get it!

The horse he gives you is only 32% speed, but it'll get you the riding skill and you can buy a 62% horse at Hengstacer farm to the north of Bree!! [22.3S, 52.3W]

#once you've finished the shire i would check out breeland as well! all three of them are starter areas depending on your race #and i wouldn't miss out on meeting aragorn in bree 🥰 #the epic quests and bingo will guide you around to new areas though dw <3 have fun!!!! #lotro #asks

[find-the-path]

Stealing this because it's fun :D

Also it's one week because I need to write more.

#wip #writing #yes 'That Annúminas Thing' really is its wip title #i was Tired and now i'm attached #lotro #the wingfeather saga #polls #why do i have so many wips #this is why nothing ever gets published #shoot mispelled oskar #this is *checks notes* ...maybe a third of my wips #i have a problem

[rohirric-hunter]

Bingo you're a little shit (affectionate)

#lotro #if dinodas doesnt chill out hes gonna get grey hairs early #very confused about the timeline on the whole boffin quests #because here it feels like bingo & family already know you and bingos already had his adventure #but that adventure explicitly takes place during the war and all this is happening concurrently with lothos takeover #i guess maybe bingo returned to the shire before the war was over and this takes place in early to mid ta 3019? #but gildor is here and talks about how hes heading to meluinen next #referencing the epic quests that take place on or before december 8th 3018 #and then the harvest festival in general just doesnt fit into any combination of years in or around the war #the timelines just dont line up #but i will forgive it because boffin quests are always amazing