Free-to-play Progress

After levelling 10 free-to-play classes to level 20, I had enough LOTRO points to get several characters riding and I bought the Evendim quest pack. After taking a few classes through Evendim, I was able to get the Angmar pack and so I have taken a hunter to level 50 and completed Volume 1 of the epic quest and had a great time. I must say, hunters are a fantastic choice for completing the epic quest because their travel skills make it so easy to get around, and they didn't have too much difficulty with any of the quests. It was also nice to revisit Angmar thoroughly - usually I'm rushing to get to Moria around level 46 or so, but the instances in Angmar are awesome, hence why I wrote some guides to them - I had fun there and I hope you will too.

Carn Dûm in Angmar

As part of the epic quest, my hunter went to Eregion and I was surprised to find that even though I hadn't unlocked the quest pack, I was able to get some LOTRO points for some exploration deeds and the Tham Mírdain instances. Unfortunately, climbing to the lookout on top of the Hollin hills didn't count, but there's still a great view to enjoy.

My hunter on top of the Hollin Ridge

After levelling a hunter to 50, now I want to level all the other classes to 50 on my free-to-play account. I've started with the burglar and she's in her early 30s now. Such a completely different play-style to the hunter really makes it feel like a fresh new experience even though I'm doing the same quests. I was worried about the burglar not having many AOE or ranged skills, but she's managing just fine.

I've been saving up my LOTRO points to get the Moria expansion, so I can get all the quests, instances, the Rune-keeper, Warden and two more character slots per server. I was half-way there, then they had the summer sales and the Eriador bundle was 75% off. Such an amazing good deal I just had to get it even though it cost me all my points. That gives me an extra 5 zones I can quest through and lots more opportunities to earn LOTRO points, so I think it's worth it, but it will take a bit longer to get to Moria.

I've almost finished levelling my new warden (on my VIP account) to level 20 for the Introducing X Class Series. I've been impressed with the environmental changes in Bree-land, especially around Archet and Combe, but also in the Old Forest. It looks really nice and adds a lot of atmosphere - Archet seems more tranquil, Combe more industrious and the Old Forest is more creepy. It's great to see the developers giving some of the older graphics a fresh coat of paint, so to speak. LOTRO continues to be the game I take the most screenshots in because there are so many beautiful places where the lighting and water reflections and scenery just makes me go "Wow! I wish was there."

Updated Archet lake

Introducing the Hunter: Level 1-20 (High Elf Edition)

Hunters are ranged archers, shooting their targets with bows from afar or using traps and decoys to control their opponents' position. They have melee weapons ready for close combat and a range of utility skills, including transporting themselves or a group to many important cities or camps throughout Middle Earth (see Travelling Around Middle Earth for more information). They are a strong DPS class with three interesting specialisations.

Here I'll record my experience levelling as a hunter from level 1 to 20, talking about skills and specs and anything else that may be useful to know. The High Elf starting experience is a little different from normal but once you complete the introduction the levelling should be similar between races.

Level 1 High Elf Hunter

Here's our brand new hunter and some basic information about her:

• Hunters wear medium armour
• Primary stat is Agility
• The main weapon is a bow, but also dual-wield one-handed melee weapons such as daggers, swords, or axes.
• Starting abilities are: Quick Shot (a ranged attack that generates focus), Penetrating Shot (a ranged attack that costs focus and bypasses enemy mitigations) and Blindside (a melee attack followed by a close-range ranged attack).

Focus is a key resource used by hunters. You build it up and then spend it on powerful attacks. At higher levels you will gain abilities that let you build it up quickly before or during battle. You could also gain bonus focus or reduce focus costs when using certain skills.

The high elf is initially scaled up to level 110 in the introduction in stats but not skills, and starts with a bow and a pair of daggers (one of the daggers is in your bags). When you return to Elrond's House, you are returned to level 1 stats. You receive a gift from Elrond which contains your old armour from the Second Age, some armour dyes, a housing decoration (a Radiant Basin), some basic food and some healing potions. You also gain the Milestone skill, automatically set to Celondim in Ered Luin, and the novice passive skill.

Arrival in Celondim, Ered Luin

The high elf is boosted to level 5 on arrival in Celondim. You also gain several skills:

• Set Trap: place a trap at your feet that will deal damage and root enemies in place for 30 seconds, giving you time to get away.
• Stance - Strength: this stance can be toggled on or off and increases your damage and critical chance. It also gives Quick Shot a slowing effect.
• Barbed Arrow: a ranged attack that generates focus, causes a bleeding effect (damage over time) and slows enemies.

At level 6 you can choose a specialisation. Here are the different specialisations you can choose:

• Blue = Huntsman - you can shoot while moving; you also gain Barrage (a ranged shot that costs focus and deals more damage each time it is used) and Scourging Blow (a melee attack that deals more damage if the enemy is bleeding from Barbed Arrow).
• Red = Bowmaster - you can attack faster and have greater range; you also gain Pinning Shot which roots an enemy in place for 5 seconds.
• Yellow = Trapper of Foes - you have many crowd control options and can cast traps while moving; you also gain Lingering Wound (an instant ranged attack that causes a bleed effect and stacks up to 4 times) and Decoy (an object that causes enemies to attack it instead of you).

I've played all the specs on various hunters and they're all good, with different playstyles. Blue offers great mobility and sustained damage, Red needs to stand still to shoot but has high burst damage, and Yellow has lots of crowd control and defensive buffs.

At level 7 you get your first trait point to spend in your chosen specialisation. You get additional trait points every odd level from now on, as well as from some quests and deeds.

At level 8 you gain the Focus skill which lets you fill up your Focus before combat so you can start with some strong attacks.

At level 10 you gain a couple of skills: Swift Bow, which generates 2 focus and hits hard, but has a long cast time (can be a useful opening skill, if the enemy doesn't know you're winding up a big shot), and Passage of Nature, which lets you track beasts (good for finding rare mobs or quest objectives). You are also now eligible to take part in Epic Battles such as Retaking Pelargir, but although you get scaled to level 100, without all the equipment slots filled and with limited abilities you will be very vulnerable, so it may not be a very successful or satisfactory experience.

You get a great skill at level 12: Find the Path. This is a toggled ability that gives you and your nearby fellowship members a run-speed buff when out of combat. You probably want this on all the time, so when you log in, change specs or get defeated you may need to turn it on again.

At level 14 you can Purge Poison (as well as wounds, disease and fear debuffs) from yourself.

By the time you get to level 15 you've probably got several quests sending you to Bree and Bree-land. At level 15 you get a quest in the mail suggesting you should visit a hunter trainer. The hunter trainer urges you to seek out Gytha Lainey at Adso's Camp in Bree-land who needs you to track down a wolf in the Old Forest.

Track down and defeat Yellowfang in the Old Forest

On completing the quest, you receive a furry helmet and the title "Swift Arrow".

At level 15 you also gain some passive abilities, namely that you can now wield clubs, hammers and maces, and you can also use Hand-wrought Traps (except these weaponsmith recipes and items are obsolete and no longer in the game).

I had been levelling as Yellow, but I switched to Red. At the Brigand's Watch camp in Bree-land, it seemed almost unfair that I could stand there, fill up my focus bar and then one-shot three of the brigands as fast as I could cast Penetrating Shot three times. They didn't even have time to warn their friends standing right next to them.

The Precision stance becomes available at level 16. With this stance toggled on, you gain some focus every 5 seconds, a brief finesse buff upon activation and Quick Shot has an increased critical strike chance.

At level 18 you get an AOE melee attack, Low Cut, which also slows enemies. I still had quests to do in Vale of Andrath and Adso's Camp, but I decided to head to the Barrow-downs because the rewards are better and I knew I would reach level 20 quickly there.

Usually there are racial deeds to be completed before gaining racial trait skills, but at level 19 I automatically got the High Elf skill Wrath of the Firstborn which, when slotted, gives you and your fellowship a 5% damage boost for 10 seconds on a 10 minute cooldown.

At level 20 you gain several skills which aid survival. Cry of the Hunter dazes and slows nearby mobs and gives you a morale "bubble" which absorbs damage and a speed boost to help you get away. You also get Desperate Flight which lets you travel instantly to the nearest rally point, on a 30 minute cooldown. Then there are also some new passive abilities: you can use Fire-oil when causes some of your shots to do extra fire damage to mobs. Fire-oil can be made by scholars or bought from Hunter Trainers. You can also use spears now.

Great view of Bree from the Dead-man's Perch

I went to the skirmish camp to upgrade any gear I could and found that skirmish gear is invisible on High Elves, at least in the character window. Fortunately I still had cosmetic armour showing or that might be embarrassing!

Here's how my hunter looks at level 20 now:

Level 20 High Elf Hunter (with invisible skirmish armour)

I then went to the training dummies in the Training Hall in Bree and found several other people using the dummies so I did the skirmish training and Siege of Gondamon instead. It was quite easy picking enemies off as they approached, but when I was casting Focus before the next wave of mobs arrived, the channelling would get interrupted if my skirmish soldier started combat.

I returned to the Training Hall and tested each spec's unbuffed DPS over 3 minutes (or until power runs out), and took a screenshot at the end to eliminate the effects of DoTs that kept going after I stopped attacking. For virtues, I had one tier of Compassion and three tiers of Charity active. With my 7 trait points, I focused on damage-boosting traits where possible.

Here are my DPS results (collected with CombatAnalysis plugin):

Statistics	Huntsman (Blue)	Bowmaster (Red)	Trapper of Foes (Yellow)
Damage	36466	38565	32179
Time	3 m 0.3 s	3 m 0.8 s	3 m 0.4 s
Average DPS	202.2	213.4	178.3
Minimum Hit	35	33	34
Average Hit	219	206	191
Maximum Hit	2061	1317	1317
Attacks	166	187	168
Critical Strikes (%)	41 (24.7%)	40 (21.4%)	27 (16.1%)
Skill Priorities	Focus Barrage Quick Shot	Focus Penetrating Shot Quick Shot	Focus Penetrating Shot Quick Shot

For the test, I started in Strength Stance, filled the Focus bar, cast 3 Penetrating Shots and then went into building up focus with 3 Quick Shots then spending it on Penetrating Shot (or Barrage). A very simple rotation, but in normal combat you should consider all your skills and which is most useful for the situation.

I was surprised that I was able to keep fighting for the full 3 minutes without power issues (10-30% power remaining at the end), as many of the other classes run out sooner.

I also tried using Barbed Arrow every 10 seconds in the rotation to keep up the damage over time debuff, but DPS ended up being about 17% lower in Red spec, possibly because it has a longer cast time and deals less damage up front. Even in Yellow spec which has bonuses to damage over time early in the trait tree, it was still a DPS loss to use Barbed Arrow or Lingering Wound. This may change at higher levels (for example, with full traits and legendary item legacies, Barbed Arrow may do more damage than Quick Shot or Swift Bow).

For the Blue spec, I tried both Penetrating Shot and Barrage as the focus spender skill and the average DPS was very close (199.1 for Penetrating Shot, 202.2 for Barrage). Average hit damage were similar, but Barrage had much higher maximum hit damage. Barrage used slightly more power than Penetrating Shot but after 3 minutes, with Penetrating Shot there was still 29.9% power left and with Barrage there was still 24.9% power left.

General Observations

Hunters have a lot of utility from early in the game - speed buffs, slows, purges, defensive bubbles, crowd control, mob tracking. Plus, the simple rotation but lots of options and having both ranged and melee abilities - hunters can deal with almost anything. They are very easy to level.

Strength stance seems to be the best in general, but learn when to use Precision or Endurance (becomes available later) stances.

Be careful not to break crowd control by using AOE abilities like Rain of Thorns (becomes available later). Also be careful not to pull threat off the tank when in a group situation, although it may be helpful to pull threat off the healer.

Specialisations

Blue - Huntsman: With good mobility and good damage, this spec is popular in instances and groups, but also very suitable for soloing - for tough mobs, you can kite them if necessary. Overall, I think this is the best general-purpose spec for hunters and if you're not sure which spec to use, try Blue.

Red - Bowmaster: I see this spec as a marksman - carefully positioned, they are deadly at picking off targets from afar suddenly. For soloing or PvMP, they don't have as many escape options as Blue or Yellow, so positioning and assessing the situation ("Can I deal with this quickly?" Yes - give it everything, No - flee and fight them later under more favourable circumstances) are important. Overall, I think this spec may be situational or suit a specific play style.

Yellow - Trapper of Foes: This reminds me of the engineer class in Guild Wars 2 or the engineering profession in World of Warcraft - they've got a gadget for everything. It's a fun change in play style and still very effective as you use traps, tripwires, explosions, decoys and more to destroy your enemies. With some planning, you can create quite a minefield that will lock down a number of mobs so you can pick them off, but if something goes wrong, you get some defensive bonuses to help you survive their fury. Overall, I think this spec is better for solo play, PvMP or maybe group questing in landscape areas than instances.

Stats

• Agility - your main stat that increases damage
• Critical Strike - increases damage
• Mitigations and Resistances - reduces damage taken
• Morale and Vitality - bigger health pool increases survival

These stats should help make the levelling process a bit easier in the beginning. Look for medium armour or jewellery with agility and critical rating, morale or vitality. If a piece of gear has Fate on it, it will also increase your critical strike chance. The best place to get Mitigations and Resistances at low levels is probably from virtues.

For ranged weapons, you can use bows or crossbows, but bows tend to have more offensive stats and crossbows tend to be more defensive (better for tanking classes like guardians). For melee weapons, consider the stats and DPS, then what racial bonuses you get from using a specific weapon type (e.g. Men and Elves get a bonus with swords, while Dwarves get a bonus with axes).

Here are some virtues that may be helpful for hunters and how to get them by level 20:

Virtue	Activity	Deed
INNOCENCE (physical mitigation, tactical mitigation, resistance)	Complete 75 quests in The Shire	Life of a Bounder (Final)(The Shire)
TOLERANCE (agility, tactical mitigation, in-combat morale regeneration)	Explore all the farms in The Shire	Farms of the Shire (The Shire)
COMPASSION (physical mitigation, tactical mitigation, non-combat power regeneration)	Complete 15 quests in The Shire Complete 20 quests in Ered Luin	Life of a Bounder (The Shire) Defender of Ered Luin (Ered Luin)
CHARITY (physical mitigation, resistance, non-combat power regeneration)	Complete 10 quests in Ered Luin Complete 30 quests in Ered Luin Complete 30 quests in Bree-land	Ally of Ered Luin (Ered Luin) Hero of Ered Luin (Ered Luin) Bree-land Adventurer (Advanced)(Bree-land)
DETERMINATION (agility, morale, in-combat morale regeneration)	Defeat 60 slugs in The Shire Defeat 90 wolves in Ered Luin Defeat 90 barghests in Bree-land	Slug Slayer (Advanced) (The Shire) Spider-slayer (Advanced)(Ered Luin) Barghest-slayer (Advanced)(Bree-land)
ZEAL (physical mitigation, morale, armour)	Defeat 90 goblins in Ered Luin Defeat 90 spiders in Ered Luin Defeat 90 Barrow-spiders in Bree-land	Goblin-slayer (Advanced)(Ered Luin) Spider-slayer (Advanced)(Ered Luin) Brood-hunter (Advanced)(Bree-land)
HONOUR (tactical mitigation, resistance, vitality)	Defeat 60 spiders in The Shire Defeat 90 spiders in Bree-land	Spider-slayer (Advanced)(The Shire) Spider-slayer (Advanced)(Bree-land)

Pros of the Hunter Class

• Good single-target damage
• Utility includes tracking mobs, speed buffs, fast travel
• Variety of playstyles
• Good survivability (mobility, crowd control, self-healing, stealth, threat-dumps)

Cons of the Hunter Class

• Limited defensive abilities

I hope this has been helpful. Feel free to leave any questions or advice for new hunters in the comments below.

Coming soon in the Introducing X Class series: the Lore-master.

July: Month of the Hunter

This month is all about hunters in Middle Earth for me: I'm currently levelling three hunters through various parts of the game and really enjoying the class. I usually play blue spec because I like the mobility, but I've been having fun trying out the yellow spec traps and decoy lately too.

Level 100 Robinya (VIP) - West/Central Gondor

Robinya doesn't really like fighting, she likes collecting artifacts. Fortunately, her quests in West Gondor recently took her to Edhellond where there were corsairs running around and nearly trampling priceless old elven artifacts amongst the ruins, so she had no compunction about putting an end to them when necessary.

Edhellond

Then she went to Dol Amroth and met up with Jajax again, who told her about the corsairs down on the coast at Hashadîr, so she went to their camp and found some crates of artifacts and she wasn't going to let any corsair slavers or pillagers stand in her way of returning them to the library in Dol Amroth for further study. Then Jajax got kidnapped so she had to go rescue him from Abedec's Watch, and they had been stealing artifacts too, so she reclaimed them as well.

Robinya reached level 100 in Ethring, Ringló Vale in Central Gondor. It would be nice to get her to level 105 before the Mordor expansion launches, but I don't think I have enough time.

Mordor Expansion

I watched some streams of people playing the Mordor beta and saw that there is still a lot missing, placeholder text for quests, character appearances looking worse than before (fat faces with less expression, flat chests and big bellies), class skills needing balancing or fixing etc. so I figured the expansion was a still a little ways off - this is Mordor: I hope it will be really polished. Then we see the announcement for preorders and in the fine print it mentions the release date at the end of this month - July 31st. The fine print! <shakes head in disbelief> I love LOTRO but sometimes I despair over how the game is run.

For most MMOs, expansion release dates is a big deal and they usually give you a fair bit of notice to build hype and let people prepare for it. When I used to play WoW, I would arrange to take my holidays during the first week of a new expansion so I could play it non-stop and enjoy all the new content without interruptions (oh server crashes or major bugs were inconvenient but also bonds players who were there together as they commiserate and help each other on voice chat, in-game chat or forums).

This will be the first expansion in LOTRO since I joined, and I'd love to dedicate several days to it, but I won't even be there when the gates of Mordor open because I've already made other plans - visiting my family in New Zealand. Normally I would hope expansions launch on time and be complete (unlike Rift's latest expansion which was missing most of the advertised expansion content), but this time I hope the Mordor launch is delayed, for both selfish reasons and so they can make it the best it can be.

Level 35 Mystrandos (F2P) - Evendim

Evendim

My free-to-play hunter Mystrandos is questing through Evendim, working on the Epic questline and saving up LOTRO points to unlock Angmar next.

I don't really enjoy the quests in Northcotton Farm - so much traipsing back and forth - but at least she got quite a bit of XP from it. She completed some Shire deeds by questing around Oatbarton and the Glassblower's Camp near Dwaling, so those LOTRO points will help. Now she's based at Tinnudir and I'm looking forward to visiting the ruins throughout Parth Aduial.

Level 1-20 Hunter

I actually levelled a hunter from 1-20 at the start of the month so that I could create a little kin for crafting alts and invite myself into it with two accounts and two instances of the game open at the same time. However, I was already level 10 before it hit me that I should have screen-shotted and documented her levelling for the Introducing X Class guides. Oops. Opportunity missed. Ah well, I'll just make another hunter and take notes this time. Never can have too many hunters right?

Blessing of the Valar Upgrade Unveiled

The Package - Unopened

Robinya, my hunter finally opened the Blessing of the Valar Upgrade Package after savouring it in her bag for a day or two. Kind of like seeing the presents under the Christmas tree with your name on and you know you're going to get to open them soon. The waiting and wondering what is in them can be part of the enjoyment.

The items that went into my bags

The items from the package as shown in chat

So you don't get instantly levelled to 95 - you have to use the Blessing of the Valar for that and when you do you'll be teleported to Éowyn's Camp in Dunharrow.

The Giant Pile of Silver Scraps is the only item not character-bound and is worth 1 gold 800 silver. 

On opening the package, you automatically get a medium war-steed added to your mounts. However, the war-steed riding skill [Trait: Mounted Combat] requires minimum level 75.

The [Trait: Legendary Items] lets you use legendary items but requires a minimum level 51 and is unusable if you already have the "Seeker of Deep Places" passive skill.
 
Virtue Pack 1 says it contains "4 ranks of each virtue Charity-Honour" (the virtues on the right half of the virtue panel). Virtue Pack 2 says it contains "4 ranks of each virtue Idealism-Zeal" (the virtues on the left half of the virtue panel). When you open these, the chat window shows that for each virtue you receive a bundle (e.g. [Bundle of Compassion] ) that permanently increases the virtue by 4 ranks, but it is auto-consumed and if you have the virtues panel open, you'll see the virtues increase instantly.

The Level 95 Weapon Pack contained a level 95, purple quality, item level 176, offhand weapon (a dagger for my hunter) and 3 Unidentified Third Age Legendary Item Box. These have a minimum level of 51 and say they contain level and class appropriate items. Don't open these until you are level 95! It would be such a shame to open it at level 51 and be stuck with a level 51 legendary weapon at level 95 until you can craft, buy or find a new one! I'm not sure yet whether there are 3 legendary weapons to choose from, or whether there is a main-hand weapon, class item (or bow for hunters) and war-steed bridle. I'll have to wait and see when we get to Dunharrow.

The Level 95 Armor Pack says it contains armour to get you started at level 95 - so I'm not expecting Best-in-Slot gear. Everything is item level 176, purple quality and you get the full set of armour (helmet, shoulders, chest, gloves, legs, boots and cloak) plus jewellery (necklace, 2 earrings, 2 bracelets and 2 rings). Everything had 4 stats and as a hunter these were: agility, vitality, fate plus something else - the armour had physical mastery, while the necklace had finesse rating, the earrings had max power, the bracelets had max morale and the rings had critical rating.

My bags are nearly full so I'll wait to open the Blessing of the Valar Item Pack until I get to Dunharrow and have replaced my gear. Off we go!

Goodbye level 50!

Hello level 95!

Well! There was a flash of chat spam as we completed a bunch of deeds and gained character trait points, new and upgraded skills, titles, destiny points, skirmish marks, a Westemnet Iron Coin and 10 Turbine Points. Then we were whisked away by a loading screen and a moment later we're standing in front of Éowyn in Dunharrow.

So I've got my new armour and jewellery on and it looks rather ugly. Never mind - thank the Valar for cosmetics! To open the Unidentified Third Age Legendary Item Box just right-click and then you can choose what weapon, class item or war-steed bridle you want. Once you've selected which items you want, then you will need to see a Forge-master to identify the items. Don't forget to equip them!  Adding relics and titles and some heritage runes for an IXP infusion would be great too, but they don't come in the Upgrade Package.

By the way, after I gained the war-steed riding skill, I was equipping the war-steed bridle and noticed the war-steed had no name at all, so time for renaming. I decided to call her steed GwenLaegel - gwen for little, laegel for Green Elf. Because like the Green Elves, my little hobbit hunter likes to spend time in the woods, blending into the background and avoiding conflict if possible.

I just spent the new character trait points and had to rearrange her skillbars to make some room for new skills (yay!). She will try them out, sooner or later. O_o (Excited for skills she hopes she won't have to use - go figure!)

Last thing to open from the Upgrade Package - the Blessing of the Valar Item Pack. Apparently it "contains a number of items to help you at level 95." Let's see ...

Everything in the Item Pack is account-bound except the Riding Trait which is character-bound.

• [Trait: Riding Characteristic] - learn to ride normal mounts. Already known.
• [Steed of the Citadel] - ooh pretty mount (and war-steed appearance set too)!
• [25 Dale-men's Crams] - basic food, but won't complain
• [25 Rejuvenation Potions] - basic healing potions, always handy
• [5 Tomes of Extraordinary Experience] - get to 100 a little quicker? great!
• [Map to Rivendell] - aww I like Rivendell, but do I have to go back just yet?
• [Map to the Sutcrofts - Snowbourn] - a useful travel point and town to visit
• [Map to Eastfold - Aldburg] - another useful travel point and town to visit
• 25 Mithril Coins - nice!

Steed of the Citadel

That's all folks! Robinya is now level 95 and could level to 100, or travel the world, or make friends with new factions, or find a nice farm to retire at near some ruins (Hytbold perhaps?), or go back to helping Bingo Boffin on his journey. Which will she choose? Well, she's not called Robinya, Honorary Boffin for nothing!

Blessing of the Valar for my Hunter

Ever since I heard about the character boost to level 95, I've wanted to get it for my hunter. Even before I heard about it, I wished she could be high level without having to do all the levelling. I finally got it and she will soon be jumping from level 50 to 95.

So why is she in such a hurry to skip the levelling process, when that is probably the best part of the game? Well it's got a lot to do with my hunter's personality and how she doesn't like doing things the traditional MMO way.

Robinya, my hunter that doesn't like to hunt

Ever since she was a wee hobbit, Robinya always liked exploring ruins and looking for mathoms and old knick-knacks that might have been left behind. She always looked forward to the Harvest Festival and couldn't wait to go exploring the Haunted Barrow. Her parents were concerned about her, especially when she was exploring the Bindbole Wood and the Scary quarry. They even tried locking her in her room, but she dug a tunnel out. So they decided that if they couldn't stop her, then they'd try to protect her by teaching her how to protect herself. She was given the option of learning to be a hunter, a guardian or a lore-master - her parents were sure she would choose the lore-master - but she chose to become a hunter. Robinya explained that a pet would be a nuisance and so would a big shield. She didn't really want to fight anyone so she thought being a hunter would let her blend into the background and not be noticed, but if she did have to fight, she could hopefully keep some distance between her and her enemy so she could get away safe. Her parents were impressed with her logic and lessons began straight away.

Robinya learnt the basics of being a hunter but she hated practising. She'd rather be harvesting Shire Apples for one of her ma's delicious Spiced Apple Pies than trying to shoot them off the fence-post. She hated how she got herself trapped in her own trap when she went to check why it hadn't caught anything. And she burnt herself when she tried to set up an explosive decoy. Her instructor, Bolo Boffin, was exasperated with her. But it finally clicked for her when she had a fright one evening while she was out exploring near the Scrag-dells and was ambushed by several Wild Gramsfoot. She threw her torch down and the Light Oil disoriented the goblins so they couldn't hit her. She ran a short distance then quickly set a trip-wire to slow any pursuit and then finally, when it really counted, she got the decoy to work properly and she hid behind a tree and watched as they attacked her bundle of sticks with its lit fuse. When it went boom, it was almost as good as Gandalf's fireworks.

Her parents were so proud of her. They could see Robinya as one of the Bounders, protecting the Shire honourably and in her spare time she could hunt mathoms and grow flowers and vegetables if she wished. But Robinya had other plans. One morning at breakfast, she told her parents she wanted to go to Rivendell and become a scholar. She had had enough of learning to be a hunter and she wanted to know more about other culture's mathoms - or relics she had learnt they were often called. She wanted to learn more about making potions, not just light oils. She wanted to learn to read and write scrolls and maybe even books. Her parents sighed and tried to argue that she could learn all that with the Mathom Society, but they knew she had made up her mind. But how could she bear to leave the Shire?!?

Last Homely House in Rivendell

So off she went to become a scholar, and she really enjoyed it. She had a desk near the library in the Last Homely House and people would send  relics to her and she would study them and file them away and write reports on what she learnt. Battle Lore reports were particularly popular, and so were Crafting Journals. Sometimes when she went exploring ruins she would find beautiful wild flowers or berries that she took home to Rivendell with her and the elves taught her to turn them into colourful dyes for clothing. She was very happy there, but eventually the Scholar Guild said she had mastered the skills of learning and they could not teach her anything she couldn't teach herself. So she went home to the Shire.

She caught up with Bolo Boffin, her old hunter trainer, and told him about her adventures in the Trollshaws. The next day, she got a letter from his relative Bingo Boffin, asking for help, although he wasn't quite specific about what he needed help with. Nevertheless, she was curious and decided to go find out. It turns out, he had ideas about going on an adventure and Robinya was just the companion he needed. She didn't mind. He was amusing company and they met a lot of interesting people along the way.

Bingo Boffin

However, the journey started getting more difficult and she started to think maybe she should have spent more time learning to be a better hunter. And then she thought about how when this journey was all over, she wanted to go to a place called Galtrev and learn about growing Wild Flower fields from the Men of Dunland. Some flower extracts were just so hard to get in the quantities she wanted for her dye-making hobby. Then Bingo Boffin disappeared into a cavern and she had to go to Moria with a Dourhand dwarf called Skalvi. They finally found Bingo, but the experience had so traumatised him that he didn't remember her. She wanted to help him recover, but she felt like she just wasn't strong enough. She hated to admit it, but there were creatures in Moria even smaller than her that scared her.

When Robinya was studying in Rivendell, she remembered hearing about the Valar and their mighty powers. She might of misinterpreted it, but she thought she read something about a pilgrimage to Gondor and seeking the Blessing of the Valar and if they found her worthy, her abilities would be upgraded almost instantly and she would become stronger and more knowledgeable about the world around her. It sounded too good to be true, but she started hoping it was a real possibility. Then she could continue the journey with Bingo and not have to be afraid of creatures in Moria. Then she could visit Galtrev, and the famous golden woods of Lothlórien she had heard so much about from the elves. She could go see the sea and find the corsairs' secret treasure caches. She could have her own war-steed (the thought both excited and terrified her) and ride across the plains of Rohan faster than hobbits could imagine. She could go where she wanted when she wanted and she wouldn't have to stay in one place doing tiresome chores for townsfolk who couldn't be bothered talking to their neighbour themself or picking up dirty dishes or eliminating the rats in their food stores. She wouldn't have to follow orders from commanders of the militia and earn their favour by killing their enemies over disputed land or loyalties. She could go un-noticed and live her life in peace, even if the rest of Middle Earth was at war over a ring - a ring!

The One Ring (credit to MirCore at DeviantArt)

So, that was a lot more than I intended to write, but perhaps you can see why this character means a lot to me and why using the Blessing of the Valar to boost her to level 95 makes sense. She doesn't want to quest through the zones, she wants to be able to go anywhere without having to fight to get there. She wants access to crafting resources and recipes and factions with interesting cosmetic items to collect. She wants to get gear that is good enough so she doesn't have to worry about improving it constantly. She wants to live in Middle Earth, not be a hero.

She's very different from most of my characters who earnestly want to help save Middle Earth. She's selfish, but she does help others, sharing her scrolls, her potions, her dyes and even protecting them with her life when needed. She spends hours growing flowers and pipe-weed on the farm and then sells most of it to a vendor because she only wanted a few flower petals or seeds and the rest was not her concern. She doesn't care about money - she has a vault full of relics that are priceless to her. She loves to travel (and having hunter guides to get to many towns around the world quickly is a great boon for her) and rarely returns home to the Shire except for festivals. She collects pets and mounts but never shows them off. She is endlessly frustrating and endearing because she doesn't do what I expect her to. I'll try to get her to do some quests to level up and it's so tiresome I give up. I'm just about to log off and the next thing I know, she's travelled half-way across the known world and is busily crafting away in the Bree Crafting Hall and mailing her wares off to my other characters to help them on their adventures.

Next time, I'll provide more details about what the Blessing of the Valar package actually includes, instead of justifying why my character should be boosted.

Travel Skills Summary Available

How often have you wondered, "I need to go to ...., what's the quickest way to get there?" Or how often have you seen in world chat, "I need a hunter to take me to ....", or "Can someone summon me to the Culverts (referring to the Osgiliath Culverts near Minas Tirith)?"

There are a lot of travel skills in LOTRO to help you move around the world faster. I've written a guide called Travelling Around Middle Earth about how to get the travel skills available to everyone and also the special wayfaring and mustering skills for hunters and wardens respectively.

I hope it will be helpful as a quick reference.