Came back after loooong break. Need some advice

[ExiledTaru]

Hey guys.

I have recently been able to get claw my account back and the guys over in Turbine support have been great in recovering lost items and currency etc. However that is besides the point.

My main was a level 42 (now 44) minstrel and I was curious how much of the game has changed and finding it somewhat difficult to get to grips again. Ive checked over some of the posts and advice on here and its helped a bit, but does anyone know of any kind of updated guides or advice in terms of specing and leveling areas? As well as equipment and any possible side things I will more than likely miss

Also, Ive been checking out UIs and plugins, are there any which are kind of considered "required" in order to do dungeons and raids etc

Thanks

Lurikeen (L44 Minstrel/Snowborne)

[00CloughRN]

Well it's all change in just over a week witht he new trait trees coming with HD, guide can be found at https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...mmary-Minstrel

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...se-of-Isengard will give you a primer into the current state of the class.

[ExiledTaru]

Thanks for that 00CloughRN. I will take a look see. The plan (ha) was to try and get him leveled up to be ready for HD but we'll see how that progresses....

[Eldarian_Grace]

Thanks for that 00CloughRN. I will take a look see. The plan (ha) was to try and get him leveled up to be ready for HD but we'll see how that progresses....

There's currently a lot of XP bonuses going around with some pre Helms deep expansion buffs floating by your morale bar so maybe you can make it to cap. There is a "leveling competition" happening, basically a rare giveaway for a lucky few. you get an entry per level gained from 60-85 per character. if you're extremely lucky you might get helms deep free I believe!

I would see how you like the game as is and post Helms deep before splashing too much cash on anything. Good luck, hope you're here to stay and enjoy Lotro.

ps. can't help with mini advice, clueless I'm afraid.

[Cartman76]

I loaded up my old lvl 43ish Mini that was the last class I played before I took another break.
I almost panicked when I saw the QBars but I did the easiest thing.
Removed them all and resorted them after reading all the tooltips carefully.
After that it actually started to make a bit of sence again

I was looking for add ons as well and so far Buffbars has been a real good one, so I'd take a look at that if I where you.

[Namesse]

You're better off waiting a week when most of your skills will be removed for you, then you'll be able to just hit the couple skills that are off cooldown for simplified game play; there's no point in learning how to use a skill which will be removed for you.

[ExiledTaru]

You're better off waiting a week when most of your skills will be removed for you, then you'll be able to just hit the couple skills that are off cooldown for simplified game play; there's no point in learning how to use a skill which will be removed for you.

Is the expansion really going to make this many changes? I thought it was mostly back end stat changes for skills and stuff

[Namesse]

Is the expansion really going to make this many changes? I thought it was mostly back end stat changes for skills and stuff

Pretty much. If you were at level cap at HD, when logging in the first time you would see over half your skills gone from your UI - not sure what it's like at lower levels. Some skills you will regain by choosing to spend points on them, others will be passives in the trait line you've chosen, but you'll never be able to get them all back; the devs have stated that their goal is to give each class around 20 skills, down from the 50 or so that we currently have today at cap. To compensate for not having very many skills, the devs have made the few skills you have very powerful, for example, really only needing 3 healing skills to keep a group up with no effort and no danger of them dying (per Beaniemooch testing in beta).

Back to my original point of waiting a week, all classes are drastically changing and any effort put in to relearning what you have today could be for nothing. The only thing you might think about doing is working your class deeds, or virtues or crafting, if you think you'd like to give it a try anyway.