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Top Tips for Faster Leveling

Top Tips for Faster Leveling

While you could can zoom to level 50 running only skirmishes your character would end up weak against the regular content, like an astronaut trying to walk on Earth after an extended mission in space. Character advancement is woven into regular leveling in LOTRO, so a balanced approach ends up to be more effective in the long run.

That said, there are solid techniques for speeding up your leveling without compromising your character's advancement or your enjoyment of the game. Here are our Top 15 Tips for Faster Leveling:

Tip #1: Quest for XP

Quests give more XP than grinding, especially yellow and orange quests. You can also earn gear upgrades, coin and sellable loot. It's important to be smart about questing, though. Be ready to drop quests that you've outleveled or can't find a group for, unless you are Free/Premium and running low on content.

Tip #2: Train on Even Levels

Visit your class trainer every EVEN level. Unless you are certain you won't use a specific skill, train every active and passive skill available. The passive skills you get on odd levels are nice bonuses, but not so powerful you can't skip the extra trip.

Tip #3: Skip Crafting - For Now

Mining will make you money while you level without slowing you down. Skip crafting until you have a better idea which craft will really benefit your character. Many players wait until max level. See Crafting for Max Level Players for an idea how crafting is viewed at max level.

Tip #4: Use the Quest Guide

LOTRO Quest Guide
A very useful tool for leveling is the Quest Guide feature, which will help you find quest objectives. Add the quests for a given area to your quest tracker and you will easily be able to plan your path between objectives. It's a lot more efficient to complete 3-4 quests in one area before heading back to town than one at a time.

To turn this on, go to UI Settings > Quest Guide and check all 3 boxes and click Accept. Once enabled, you'll see quest guidance in two places. First, when you view your map, you'll see highlighted areas and rings for the quests in currently in your quest tracker. Uncheck ones that create "noise", like kill 10 common mobs quests, so you can better see where to go for place-specific objectives.

The other place you'll get quest guidance is on your mini-map (aka "radar"). The Quest Guide adds a white arrow that points to your closest objective. You can also set "focus" on a particular quest by right-clicking the ring for the quest in the Quest Tracker and choosing "Set as Quest Guide Focus".

Tip #5: Use a Follow macro

You'd be surprised how handy it is to be able to follow other players, NPCs, gathering nodes, chests and even mobs. That's right, folks! Follow in LOTRO is not limited to party members. Melee classes can run straight to the next mob with follow. Want to step away for a drink? Follow another player. Are you a prospector? Follow that Deposit of Tin Ore!

To create a Follow macro, first identify an available slot on your quickslot bars. You'll need to figure out the number of the slot. Quickslot bar 1 has slots 1-12, quickslot bar 2 has 13-24 and so on. Once you've picked on out, enter this command: "/shortcut XX /follow", where XX is the quickslot number you identified above.

Next go to Options, Key Mappings. Under Quickslots and find the number you assigned to Follow. Assign it to an easy-to-use key. I use the f key.

Tip #6: Quest for Virtues

One of the easiest ways to earn virtue traits is to complete three tiers of quest deeds for each zone you level in. Check your Deed Log (Shift-L) before moving to the next zone. You could be just a few quests short of earning another Virtue. Bonus Tip: Quest deeds reward Turbine Points!

Tip #7: Skirmish Daily

You can pick up some fast levels by skirmishing, which is great when you run low on quests. Take advantage of the daily quests for bonus XP and skirmish marks. Balance with questing to develop your virtues. See Get Started with Skirmishes.

Tip #8: Do the Epic Quests

Not only do the epic quests give a lot of experience, Volume 1 can be soloed, so you won't be slowed down looking for a group. Bonus tip: Many chapters are repeatable, and like skirmishes, can be good XP when content runs low.

Tip #9: Get a Boost from Food

Using Food can both help you survive hard fights and reduce the downtime between battles. You can have three types of food active (like buffs) at once: Cooked Food (increases power and morale regen), Trail Food (increases stats like Vitality) and Fortifying Food (increases resists). Weak versions of cooked food can be bought from a vendor; the rest is crafted. Check with your kin or buy from the AH if you are not a cook yourself.

Tip #10: Advance Class Traits Deeds as you Level

Advance Class Traits deeds by working those skills into your combat rotation while leveling. Make it a habit to trigger long cooldown skills before logging. Check your deed log every few levels just to make sure there isn't a class trait deed you are neglecting.

Tip #11: Setup Speed Looting

You'd be surprised how much faster leveling seems when you can Speed Loot. You can loot a mob with just two key presses: "Select Nearest Item" (Delete), then "Use Selection" (u). If you have "Always Loot All" turned on (Options > UI Settings), you won't even see the loot window. To speed up looting even more, map the "Select Nearest Item" and "Use Selection" keys to be close to your movement keys (Options > Key Mapping).

Tip #12: Buy Enhanced XP

Enhanced XP, the blue portion of your XP bar, doubles the experience gained per mob kill. VIPs gain Enhanced XP from rest (time away from playing that character) and can also purchase Accelerated Experience with Destiny Points after level 10, which adds more enhanced XP to your bar. All players can use Tomes of Experience to boost the experience gained per mob kill by 25%.

Tip #13: Make Sure Your XP Grinds Pay TP

If you feel like you need to grind (kill mobs) for XP (as many Free and Premium players will), be sure your XP grind also pays Turbine Points. Our TP Finder Tool will help you find TP you may have missed. Once you've harvested all the TP you can, consider grinding for reputation barter items, especially if you like the rewards the reputation faction offers.

Tip #14: Bulk Up

If you feel weak against the content, visit the Bard and make sure you have your best traits slotted. Free and Premium players should first consider buying more Class trait slots to take advantage of the trait line bonuses, then virtue slots for more survivability traits. See Choosing Your Virtues.

Check your Gear and replace any that 10 levels or more behind your current level. Ask your Kin before visiting the Auction House - someone might be able to craft you an upgrade. See Stats for Leveling for recommendations for your class.

Tip #15: Buff up with Scrolls

Using scrolls can make leveling noticeably easier. Warding Lore scrolls reduce all incoming damage, and Battle Lore increase all outgoing damage. Scrolls can be expensive to buy on the AH, so save them for when you need a little extra oomph. Or, choose Historian as your crafting profession. You can level Scholar mostly by making scrolls, and enjoy boost they provide as you level.
Leveling Guide Home
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Leveling Plan for 1-21
How to Earn Turbine Points
Get Started with Skirmishes