Revised for Update 2
For levels 41-50, you'll want to focus as much on Traits and Legendary Items as you do on gaining levels. Challenging content lies ahead, both in level 50 instances and in the Mines of Moria expansion, and you'll want to be prepared.
The approach we suggest is to break this level range into three efforts:
- From level 41-45, finish collecting the pages for your legendary traits while level. This means questing in Misty Mountains and Angmar. Once you have all of your pages, you can add the Tal Bruinen area of Trollshaws to your leveling plan.
- Once you reach 45, it's time to change gears. You should take a break from regular questing to start your level 45-50 class quests and, if you own the Mines of Moria expansion, get your first Legendary Items. Completing these will make your character feel more powerful. See New Options for Character Improvement below.
- From 46-50, Forochel and Eregion add a lot of solo content to the remaining content in Misty Mountains and Angmar. Angmar in particular has a number of group quests, especially at you approach 50.
Free and Premium Tactics
If you are planning to purchase just one quest pack for 41-50, your choice will depend greatly on what you enjoy:- If you like grouping, Angmar has a ton of quests and deeds as well as some of the most enjoyable fellowship instances in the game. If you don't buy Angmar, plan to skimish daily to build up the marks you will need to buy the major class items for your level 45 class quest.
- If you are a lore junky, Misty Mountains is home to Goblin Town, the scene of Bilbo's capture in the Hobbit. While, Misty Mountains offers the fewest quests in this range, there are plenty of coin-dropping humanoids to grind on. The Helegrod instance cluster is not heavily used outside of farming the daily quests for instance marks.
- Snowy Forochel is a vast zone filled mostly with beasts. In addition to the regular quests, there are daily quests that are useful for grinding Lossoth reputation, one of the hardest factions in the game to raise. If you like solitude, this is the place for you.
- Questing in Eregion can't be started until 45 or so, but is one of my favorite zones in the game. Most of the quest lines can be soloed and deeds rewarding useful virtues are plentiful. The 3-man Library and School at Tham Mirdain are some of the most popular instances in the game, especially at 65.
You should also work on your survivability for these levels. Once you enter Moria, the mobs hit a lot harder and many have damage types other than common. If you haven't already, consider subscribing for a month to unlock virtue and class traits. See the VIP-to-Premium Chart for more info.
New Content for 41-50
| Content | Quests, deeds and TP | Classic and Skirmish Join |
|---|---|---|
| Misty Mountains VIP or Quest Pack (695 TP as of 4/13/2011) | 70+ quests (levels 40-50) 21 deeds 170 TP from zone deeds | Classic Join: [50] Goblin Town - Throne Room (6-man) [50-65] Helegrod: Drake Wing (12-man raid) [50-65] Helegrod: Giant Wing (12-man raid) [50-65] Helegrod: Spider Wing (12-man raid) [50-65] Helegrod: Dragon Wing (24-man raid) Public Dungeon: [49-50] Goblin Town |
| Angmar VIP or Quest Pack (795 TP as of 4/13/2011) | 200+ quests (levels 40-50) 58 deeds 165 TP from zone deeds 255 TP from instance deeds | Classic Join: [50] Barad Gularan (6-man) [50] Carn Dum (6-man) [50] Urugarth (6-man) [50] The Rift of Nurz Ghashu (12-man raid) |
| Forochel VIP or Quest Pack (595 TP as of 4/13/2011) | 100+ quests (levels 44-50) 18 deeds 140 TP from zone deeds | |
| Survival: Barrow-downs VIP or Purchase | Skirmish Join: 45-70 Survival: Barrow-downs | |
| Eregion VIP or Quest Pack (695 TP as of 4/13/2011) | 100+ quests (levels 48-53) 37 deeds 175 TP from zone deeds 130 TP from instance deeds | Classic Join: [50-65] The Library at Tham Mirdain (3-man) [50-65] The School at Tham Mirdain (3-man) |
New Options for Character Improvement
Legendary Items
Volume II of the epic story opens up another advancement system in LOTRO: Legendary Items. Each class can equip two legendary items, usually a weapon and a class item. These legendary items level with you via Item Experience (IXP), gaining in power.Volume II, Book 1 can be started as early as level 45 and before you finish Volume I (they are independent). Chapter 9 awards a legendary weapon, and& Chapter 14 (min level 46) awards a second legendary item: a class slot item for most classes, a one-handed weapon for Hunter and a javelin for Warden. See the elf just outside the Last Homely House in Rivendell to get started.
Completing Volume II, Book 1 challenging at this level, but rewarding! If it is simply too hard, come back in a couple of levels.
Another Legendary Trait to Earn
The level 50 class quest series can be started at level 45 - these quests require you gather items and kill specific named mobs. Completing the quest series will give you another Legendary Trait and some gear.While many players still run Carn Dum and Urugarth (VIP or Angmar Quest Pack) for the rare items, it can be quicker and easier to barter for them with skirmish marks or buy them from the auction house. See Earning Your Legendary Traits for details.
| Area | Details |
|---|---|
| Legendary Traits | [39] Keep an eye out for pages to complete your level 39 legendary deeds - the top four pages for each drop from humanoids in Angmar or Eregion, the bottom four pages for each drop from humanoids in Misty Mountains and Forochel. |
| Class Traits | [40] More deeds for class traits opened up at 40. As you approach 50, you'll want to unlock most, if not all, of your class trait slots to take advantage of trait line bonuses. |
| Class Quests | [45] The level 50 class quests can be started at level 45 - see your class trainer. Completing the series will give you another legendary trait and some gear. |
| Legendary Items | [45] Volume II of the Epic Story opens up at level 45. The Prologue (starts outside the Last Homely House in Rivendell) is optional, Book 1 will award your first legendary weapon. |
| Virtue Traits | [46] As you approach 50, you'll want to unlock most, if not all, of your virtue slots and trait your best survivability virtues. |
Optional Content
| Content | Details |
|---|---|
| Reputation | [45] Reputation quests for Rangers of Esteldin and Council of the North can be started at 40. [46] Reputation quests for Thorin's Hall can be started at 41. [46] Earning Neutral standing with the Lossoth of Forochel opens up reputation quests in Suri-kyla (minimum level 41). [49] More reputation quests open up with Wardens of Annuminas, Elves of Rivendell and Council of the North (minimum level 44). |
Leveling Plan
- Leveling Plan for 1-21
- Leveling Plan for 22-31
- Leveling Plan for 32-40
- Leveling Plan for 41-50
- Leveling Plan for 51-60
- Leveling Plan for 61-65
9 comments:
"[46] As you approach 50, you'll want to unlock most, if not all, of your virtue slots and trait your best survivability virtues."
Consider also bumping to vip with a one month subscription to unlock all of your virtue/class/legendary/racial slots.
This is a great tactic Jon, and one we should mention earlier in the leveling plan series. I'll find a home for it in the 22-31 article.
Personally, I'd suggest using your one month for the 40s-50s range. Thats when it started being really painful having the limited slots, and the lack of swift travel. I'd want to do lots of running around between zones depending on where other people were questing or even just some variety for soloing. Everything else was reasonably easy to do with just LL at 25. Finishing up LL around 35 Just doing the daily skirmishes for the 4k xp made it pretty smooth sailing to 42, with a brief stop for some epic replay via the pool in Rivendell of 1.4.8 (L41, startable at 37) for 15k xp a run. A month at 40-50 is a pretty good way to get a feel for which of the areas you may want to buy for a second character. Be sure to take advantage of your time as a VIP to create extra characters for the benefits from the slots, also consider leveling them to 20 to pick up riding for free.
-Crell, F2P Beta.
i tried getting vol. 2 started by talking to elrond at level 45, but he had nothing for me (except the find the scout in goblin-town quest). am i doing something wrong? where do i start volume 2?
First, Volume 2 is part of the Mines of Moria expansion, so make sure you have that on your account. The Prologue used to start with Elrond, but it can be skipped. Try Rathwald just inside the Walls of Moria instance near Echad Dunann in Eregion. That's letter "C" on the map in our Eregion zone guide http://lotro.mmorsel.com/2010/04/leveing-guide-to-eregion.html.
yeah, i have MoM, that wasn't the problem. i solved it somehow, by talking to an elf right outside the last homely house. he gave me a quest to talk to elrond. not sure what that was all about, but now i'm on my way to my LI, so i'm happy! :)
Forochel has some nice crafted reputation armor. Though the set bonuses are "meh" the individual armor stats often exceeds the fem armor. The only problem is that you have to earn enough Lossoth rep to equipped it. Some individual items require Acquaintance standing, while others require Ally. However, most (not all) require Kindred to craft it, but the good news is that the armor is BoE; so those unwilling to craft it, can search the AH, or find someone dedicated enough to craft it for you.
If you are on the brandywine server and are looking to buy some Lossoth Armor..send me a tell
At lvl 45, You should start considering grinding for (Dourhand Crests/First Age Relics) Thorin's Hall rep in Sarnúr if you haven't obtained a goat mount yet. Anything less then a goat mount wont be allowed for travel within Moria. Once you hit Kindred with Thorin's Hall, you'll be able to buy your own goat for roughly 5 and half gold.
It is cheaper though, to partake in Ale Association quests during seasonal festivals. Reaching kindred with them is easy to do (takes about a week if you do all the daily repeatable quests) and is significantly cheaper costing 20 Badges of Dishonour and 1 Document of Mount Ownership (200s)
See http://lotro.mmorsel.com/2010/08/leveling-plan-for-41-50.html for the level 41-50 leveling plan, revised for Update 2
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