Running out of free content in LotRO F2p

Greetings

So I am a subscriber on 1 account (my guard) and the rest of my team is F2p accounts. I'm sneaking up on lvl 30 and am just about to start the GA instances and then - that's it for free content

I started this without knowing how far I would take this and just to see if i thought it was fun enough to go beyond the free content. Well I got to say I cant wait to get my team into Fornost, Car Dum, The Rift, MORIA!!! Especially Moria.

All that time I spent waiting for groups and pug'ing moria and never being able to get enough players online at the same time to do the harder instances (No I'm not talking GS) Its gonna be so sweeeeet to just log in and run an instance. (heck it already is) I spent so much time spinning in circle in the 21st hall looking for groups and waiting on people to log, walk the dog, pick up their kids, grab a smoke. - you all know the drill - it is so nice to actually spend my gaming time actually playing the game that I'm really tempted to lay out the cash for 5 subs and moria xpacs - But... unfortunately I cant really afford or justify that in these times, not with out having to divorce my wife - And I'm really accustomed to Taco Tuesday so that aint gonna happen - which brings me to Turbine Points

I don't know if its acceptable for these forums to talk about farming TPs - but I have some questions

Basically I want to earn enough TPs on each account to be able to buy:

North downs (for Fornost and Dol Dinnion),
Angmar (for Carn Dum and the Rift)
And the Moria expansion

http://lotro.mmorsel.com has a TP finder and gives tips about how to optimize your TP reserves

Is this the sort of approach you guys took? is their a less Grind intensive way? I see sometimes these game adds or survey thingys on the interwebz claiming to award free TPs - Im sceptical and usually shy away from fishy scammy feeling gimmicks, but...

Is this appropriate conversation for this forum?

W

[Kaische]

No, sadly you have to grind

On mmorsel are 2 nice comments here and here and in addition this and this inspired me for my own route.

I run this with 6 elven runekeeper (you need the Moria expansion for this class) and do 30 quests and all slayer and exploration deeds in Ered Luin (even those in Rath Teraig) and in the Shire all exploration and slayer deeds as well (but not the slug-deeds because it is time consuming to wait for the respawn or kill the flies(?) too because they share the same spawnpoint). After i finish in Breeland all the exploration and slayer deeds i either delete my chars or do some questing and deeds in the barrow-downs and old forrest to get to level 20 and finish the 2 quests from the giftbox in Trestlebridge and The Forsaken Inn to get another 20 TP.

My chars are elves and for this reason i finish the race deed automatically with level 13+ when i kill goblins (shire) and orcs (breeland). Normally i don't bother with time to finish all on the same day so i take care of some of the runekeeper traits while grinding.
I have those tp farm teams spreaded on multiple servers, some EU, some US because of the time difference so i can farm alone with no competition in a spot.
Next time i have to do /played so i can tell you how long it takes for me

I really hope that the LOTRO yule festival, which should start hopefully in mid december, bring back those Flower-petals and Rotten Fruit frostbluff deeds from last year.
Easiest way to earn TP especially as a multiboxer!

And... you probably know it already but the LOTRO Store has some nice special offers every day in december.


The only way to get some free TP i know is in the Lottery (with some luck).

I hope my hints help.

Thanks Kaische - so grind it is - I spent most of the night last night plotting my path - lots of useful guides and sites to help with this and the links you pointed to , I can see that my thoughts were not too far off from what others have done/are doing.
I have the 2nd character slot open on all my main teams f2p accounts and with a little modification to my basic script im gonna set up a TP Farm team - My hopes is to nail about 300 or 400 tps per toon per weekend session (4+ hrs or so) rinse and repeat

I also have a few higher level toons on a different server or two and can establish a farm teams there as well - so with a little effort and time i think that i could prolly earn enough points timely enough to make my stated goals

Im planning on 1st to unlock the trait and virtue slots (1 to 2 farm cycles) on each toon then ND, Ang, and perhaps Eregion (another 3 to 4 cycles) - then Moria (another 6 or so cycles) - its gonna take some work but i can do it in spurts to lesson the monotony of the grind.

Ill keep ya all posted and perhaps we can share tips for best utilization of time and technique - most of the guides are for solo toons - I suspect with a box team we can make much better time and return of effort then the mono-walkers - lol

W

ok so maybe my expectations are a little high - i spent all day and so far earned a grand total of 20 TPs per toon (

A lot of this time was spent on the set up and the intro and im sure i can get this down on a check list and save some time but UGG!!!

happy grinding...

W

[Kaische]

I am sorry

But i agree, the tutorial (f2p have to do it, premium and vip can skip it) and the intro (everyone have to do it) is a pita! In the past i played all 6 chars through the intro seperatly. Now, let's call it, i "sync" them with the features ISBoxer offer. In my "TP Farm Character Set" i use mainly the keymap "Target next NPC", "Follow Current Target" and 4 keymaps respectively for ASWD. With my runekeepers i can step back a few steps in a fight and target through the NPC to help kill all the enemys.

Another Tip: You can save your ingame LOTRO layout of your UI (IF your use some other UI than the standard one or don't like some standard alignment), this makes it easy to "Next Click" or "Repeat Mouse" because all is lined up in the same spot. Arrange at your main and load with your other toons:
Saving: /ui layout save XXX
Loading: /ui layout load XXX
And after you created a char and changed the UI afterwards with the above command you have to logout and reenter middleearth.

If you have further problems or questions, please let me/us know.

Update: Ok so now that i have a system nailed down I'm doing much better - I managed to grind out about 640 TP this weekend with 4 teams - i just grinded the deeds in Ered luin and the shire - I skipped the slugs and flies which earned me 160 per team - so about 6hrs per day for 2 days I made about 600 tps - basically the equivalent of a $7.99 Turbine game card - lol

but heres the rub: I did this on 6 characters simultaneously - 600 a piece @ $7.99 x 6 = $47.94 - now that's more like it!!! If I was playing just one toon i would not grind for TPs - to little return of effort - but needing TPs on multiple toons - then playing the weekend to save $50 bucks is totally worth it to me.

next stop Moria - lol

W

I would caution against spending too much time grinding TP. I burnt out on the game and haven't played in several months after levelling 42 toons up and getting riding on all of them.

If you watch the sales you can find the moria xpack for ~$10 which includes a month of free gameplay. It also gives the bonus of no longer being F2P (higher gold caps, trade gold, more bags, quest for riding skill, etc)

Make sure that the pack is for Turbine and not Codemasters. Turbine doesn't honor codemasters game cards.

[Kaische]

Did you burned out because of grinding TP for your 42 chars or because you get bored of all the leveling...

7 teams ... uuuggghhh

yeah burn out is a problem... I don't get too burnt out grinding, its kinda fun killing things and I experiment with different configs and skills and such - what gets me is getting my teams through the intro - especially through the elf/dwarf into - the man/hobbit one is not bad but I prefer elf hunters so... lol

all this week i spent an hour or so each night just making toons and getting them through the into so now i have 4 teams completely through the intro and together at Thorins just waiting to earn me points - and another 4 sitting in the intro areas - that will make a total of 11 teams (12 if you count my main team) earning TPs - and yeah - i can see burn out approaching - I think after grinding these out this weekend ima gonna break from the grind and purchase ND and start my main team in fornost and just P.L.A.Y for a while.

During my grinding i ran into another boxer in ered luin who was obviously grinding too - a mixed team of 4 toons - we were both after the wolfs in that vale above Celondim - I was wondering if it was one of you guys? On Firefoot (maybe it was landroval - heck i forget ) - we didnt talk or anything and gave each other a wide berth - but yeah ... anyways happy hunting

OK done deal - racked up the TPS and purchased North Downs and Angmar - Now Im gonna set the farm teams aside and lvl my main team - Fornost, DD, Carn Dum , The Rift + GB, GA, and skirms - should keep me busy and off da streets for a while... Ill run a farm team through the deeds every now and then and hopefully when its time for Moria i wont have to grind too hard - im also gonna sub each account for a month one at a time for the extra bags, trait slots, gold cap and action (im starting to rack up lots of mats so perhaps im gonna get in the crafting/selling business as a diversion )

Im thinking i need to refine my config file a bit - but im not sure what i would like to do - sure would like some input and examples of what everyone else is doing beyond the basics as described in Mor_ons guide script and the fellowship moves - im thinking as content get harder i need to be able to do special skills like interrupts, poison removal , corruption removal, traps, burning scrolls, potions, food etc with a push of a key... unfortunately i don't have a great imagination so I really don't know what i need or how to do it...

My main team is: main Guard - 4 hunters and a mini - any suggestions or example scripts you can share?


thanks
W