Author: Grifter0408
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So you have The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and it looks like a lot to take in but fear not, its all going to be ok. After you do all the technical stuff of installation, patching, and sign up you should be ready to play. When you sign on to the game you have server options: Arkentsone, Brandywine, Elendilmir, Firefoot, Gladden, Landroval, Meneldor, Silverlode, Vilya, and Windfola. There is nothing different on the servers other than community size. If you don’t have any friends already playing on a specific server then just choose randomly.
Character Creation:
In LOTRO you have 4 races to choose from: Man, Hobbit, Elf and Dwarf. Within all the races but Dwarf you can choose Male or Female. You can also view a video of each Race and some of their basic information.
After you have chosen your Race you will be taken to a Class Selection screen. Depending on the Race you select you will see the available Classes, also again with the option to view video of the Class in action. Each Class of character isn’t available to every Race. Below is the list of what is available to each Race in Middle Earth.
•Dwarf: Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Minstrel
•Hobbit: Burglar, Guardian, Hunter, and Minstrel
•Elf: Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Lore-master, and Minstrel
•Man: Burglar, Captain, Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Lore-master, Hunter, and Minstrel
Here is a link to LOTRO at Gameamp's Class section: Class Info.
You are near the end of the road of Character Creation, next you get to alter the look of your character. Here you will enter your name and then change the facial/hair features (eyes, skin, hair color; as well as mouth and a random detail). In addition to those choices you will also be able to choose the Origin of your character. Here is a list of the Origins to the Races.
•Dwarf: Blue Mt, Iron Hill, Lonely Mtn, Grey Mt, and White, Mt
•Elf: Edhellond, Lindon, Lorien, Mirkwood, and Rivendell
•Hobbit: Fallohide, Harfoot, and Stoor
•Man: Bree-land, Dale-land, Gondor, and Rohan
One of the nice bits of information you can find when you design your character is the Name Guidelines. In the Middle Earth realm many of the Races have special name beginnings and endings. And depending on what Race you are you will be able to see ideas/suggestions for your character name. An example for the Race of Men; Say he was from Rohan, some name prefixes could be: Ald, Beorn, Egel, Guth, or Theod. Name suffixes could be: bryt, gar, nath, wald, or wulf. This information helps in the naming process and can even assist a player who enjoys Role Playing. This gives you that in-depth feel to the world of Middle Earth and helps you develop the back story.
Now you have gone though the Character Creation process, your next step is to enter into the adventure of Lord of the Rings Online. Each Race has a specific starter zone that will help you integrate yourself into the game. Here you will learn how control your character, interact with NPCs (non-playable characters), attack opposition, earn experience/loot, and much more.
New to the World
Ok, Character Creation is complete you will now get the chance to play the game. Each Race has a specific opening tutorial and starter zone. Man and Hobbit begin their game in Archet; where as Dwarf and Elf begin in Thorin’s Gate. In each starter zone you will find vendors, trainers, and many quest to get you on your way.
As you being to progress throughout LOTRO you will notice many different features that may at first confuse you. The first we will look over are stats of your character. When you open your Character Profile (key O) you will see your character with all their equipment, attributes with stats, and other various things need to know. Some of the attribute/stats may be confusing but below is a list with definitions of each.
•Morale is the amount of damage you can take before being defeated in combat. (Otherwise known as Health)
•Power is your inner reserve. It is used to power combat maneuvers. (You may know this as Mana)
•Might increases your ability to block incoming attacks with a shield or parry incoming blows, and adds to the amount of damage you deal with a weapon. It also reduces incoming damage.
•Agility increases your ability to evade and parry incoming blows and adds to the amount of damage you deal with a ranged weapon. It also reduces your miss chance.
•Vitality increases your maximum Morale and ability to regenerate Morale when not in combat. Lastly, it reduces incoming damage from non-weapon sources.
•Will affects how much Power you regenerate when not in combat, and increases your maximum Power total.
•Fate adds to your momentum in combat, directly influencing how quickly you regenerate both Power and Morale while in combat.
•Critical Your percent-chance to execute a Critical Hit.
•Fire Your Armour will reduce the fire damage you take by this percentage.
•Common Your Armour will reduce the Common damage you take by this percentage.
•Shadow Your Armour will reduce the Shadow damage you take by this percentage.
•Block Your ability to block an attack (a shield equipped is required).
•Evade Your percent chance to Evade an attack.
•Parry Your percent chance to Parry an attack.
•Fear Your percent chance to resist Fear effects.
•Wound Your percent chance to resist Wound effects.
•Disease Your percent chance to resist Disease effects.
•Poison Your percent chance to resist Poison effects.
•Melee Effectiveness is your relative effectiveness in melee combat. Better weapons and higher Might will increase your effectiveness.
•Ranged Effectiveness is your relative effectiveness in ranged combat. Better weapons and a higher Agility will increase your effectiveness.
With all those variable stats/attributes many different builds can be achieved through the equipment available in the game. Certain combinations could enhance or even deter your character from being the best possible. Speaking of equipment/loot, the color scheme for equipment and the level of superiority is a tad different from other games. Purple in color items doesn’t mean its an epic item but merely superior to others. The color code of items breaks down like this:
•White/Grey = Common
•Yellow = Uncommon
•Purple = Rare
•Teal = Incomparable
•Brown = Legendary
There are also Durability factors: Brittle, Normal, and Tough. This just means how long the item can hold up under activity or wear. Many brittle items break very quickly after little use and thus need repair.
Hopefully this will be one in many of basic guides for LOTRO. Some of the information is very rudimentary but its nice to have at hand if need be. Look for more guides going into depth of starter zones for each class with maps, quest info and more. If there is anything that I may have missed or seems to be in accurate please let me know through our PM system or leave a comment for later reviews.
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