Introduction to This Guide

Hello!

Call me Busty. The Lord of the Rings Online has always been one of my favourite computer games. I love the atmosphere, the attention to detail, the focus on a personal story, the music and the scenery. The sheer amount of progression each character has to go through once daunted me, but now I love it because it allows for me to listen to audiobooks or work on more important things while I complete whole areas, large deeds and entire quest packs. It's a great feeling, seeing a character you've created have an entire chunk of content under their belt.

I am a completionist. When I go into an area like the Shire or Mirkwood or Lothlorien, I am not satisfied until every single non-restricted quest from beginning to end is done. Otherwise, to me, it feels like reading half a book and then moving on. Lingering grey entries in my quest log irk me, and abandoning those quests means I will spend hours searching and rediscovering them. I've been working on memorizing a patter of optimal quest completion: one which both of us could use to make a character, embark on a journey from zone to zone doing ALL quests, and minimize the amount of time lost wandering or failing or being confused.

To start out, I'll post simple guides that involve "chunks." For example, in Evendim, you have the "chunk" of Oatbarton, then the "chunks" of Dwaling and the Colossus, and so on. Some areas have very straightforward quest hubs, but other areas define their "chunks" very poorly, and you can find yourself wandering around doing and re-doing areas as you pick up new quests that go along with old ones you've already done. These guides should help you to blow through a zone in the least amount of time possible, or allow you to take your time and enjoy the stories while at the same time knowing you're taking the optimal route. The pace is up to you.

This might not be the fastest way to get to level 95 (or whatever the level cap is at the time you read this), so if that's your only goal, this isn't for you. But if your goal is completion of game content and character advancement, rather than just hitting the level cap, this should be your ticket.

In the future, I'm considering starting a new character and video-documenting their questing journey on YouTube, so you can see the path I take from one town to another, from one set of objectives to the next, et cetera. I'd start out in the Shire, and possibly go all the way to the beginning of Rohan, picking up all the quests and little exploration deeds along the way. Video may make things a lot easier to grasp and remember. It should be a lot of fun, if time allows.

This blog isn't guaranteed to be 100% accurate: I just make an effort to make it that way. If you see any mistakes, such as quests being left out, shoot me a comment or a message.