[Part 2: Winning TP
The situation
Free to play suffers of one detail that is easily overcome regarding TP availability: each character has only a certain amount of points; the initial F2P player will have 1610 points free per character. In other words, considering the two character slots open, this means you will have 3220 points available once you have grinded each deed on each character. It is not extremely much, since it barely will get you one or two things in game, but there are other ways to gain all that TP.
There are different methods I have read about to obtain as many TP as you might want, but there is one I recommend a lot. I will start at the assumption that you will only have those two character slots and four basic questpacks and you won’t waste any points initially. The next article will then cover the issue of what I recommend to buy first and so on.
I know I am repeating myself here, but I want to remind that this idea is not a set-in-stone idea. It is what I have deemed to be the best method for me and is only to be used as an idea on how to win TP points that could be “unlimited”. It all depends, as said before, of being patient and grinding a lot.
The open character method
First off I think it is important to realize the options you will have as a free to play. Usually, when one plays an MMO, a person unconsciously, or even on purpose, chooses one or two (or more) “main character(s)”. This means that you will always have a character you will prefer over the others and play more often. The two character slots you have open pretty much limit you to have only one main character, two if you play more than just casually. This main character is often not decided on the first try.
In LotRO, the first twenty levels pretty much give you a general outlook on how a character is going to develop up to level cap. The main idea here is that when you don’t know what character type you want to be, you can use your exploration of the character types and their functions as a way to gain some extra TP before you settle for your main. If you did not like the Burglar, simply delete him and create your guardian or a minstrel to check those classes out. On the way you will be winning some extra points.
Tip: Don’t buy the riding skill if you didn’t decide to settle with the character you have at the moment. It may be only 95 TP, but initially a character that goes up to level 20 may win at a first normal run around 100-200 TP. In other words, if you were going to erase the character anyhow, you will have lost around the half of the TPs earned for nothing. Once you discover the class that suits you, the riding skill will be more than useful for your travels beyond the starting areas.
Once you find your perfect class, you will be playing it up to level 32 (and a bit beyond) without reaching an area that will require you to go to the store. Enjoy this character. Play as long as you like and however you like, the TPs will be coming in by themselves. Once you reach that level, you will be aching to buy more questpacks to advance. The initial points will be enough for one or two of the next ones, but you will also have to be thinking of future purchases. Usually, an area has about 100-200 TPs extra available, which is not bad, but not enough to buy even more questpacks.
You might at this point be tempted to use the second character slot, built a second character. I prefer to leave the second one free, since this one will be the real “grinding character”. What kind of character is this? Well, it is one that you will use only for certain time just to gather (or farm) easy obtainable TP, then delete it to create a new one.
This character will not be a permanent one. When you later on get more character slots, having the last one free for this kind of characters is a great idea. This gives you an option to get more TPs when you run out of deeds to complete to get more for the next questpack or other stuff you might want to buy.
The easy TP
Where exactly is this “easy TP” I am talking about? They are at the starting areas. This means Ered Luin, the Shire and Bree Land. Each area offers you over 100 points you can obtain easily in a matter of hours.
Normally, when I use a farming character, I make him a dwarven Champion; dwarf because it starts in one extreme of the starting areas (from there on I grind my way to Bree-Land) and champion because of the dps (damage per second) you have to kill faster (and get the slayer deeds quicker).
For each run you do of these areas, you will have to find the exploration points (which are easy to find) do from 45-60 quests and slay the respective enemies (30 initially, 60 on the follow up). Also, I recommend NOT to do the crafting quests (what use is the crafting if you are going to delete him anyways?) and the epic questline (this one activates no deed you can immediately finish, since the epics are finished, for Volume I, at level 50; way beyond of what you want to reach for a character that dies at level 20). Using the character I proposed, I will do a quick rundown on what to do and what not on each area:
a) Ered Luin: In this area I pretty much recommend to do every deed. Only 45 quests are needed, so this area should be left pretty quickly. Raith Therang may be the hardest part to explore, but from there on it is smooth sailing: you’ll leave the area at about level 15-16.
b) The Shire: Here I do almost all quests except the pie runs and the mail runs. I do those partially since they count towards the questbound deeds and sometimes you will have to wander to another quest that has casually a mail destination on the way.. But once the questdeed is done, I abandon the chains. All the walking around is just a huge time loss for a few TP. This area will leave you more or less at level 17-18.
c) Bree-land: this area is huge, since it carries characters form level 1-20. Here you will get the most TP if you do all quests. But it also is the area where the 150/300 slayer deeds start, which means that once you step out of the Combe and Archet area, the grinding (and thus the time spent to get the points) will be too high to be worth it. You may still gain about 120 TP in this area, which is not bad.
After running through these three areas, you may have gained about 400 TPs and something extra (since the class deeds and other might have activated too). It is not much maybe, but you can win those quickly. The deeds that take longer are not worth the grind unless your character is permanent. Also, I recommend to use the low virtues you get, since a little bonus always help to get things done quicker.
Next week I’ll give my list of recommended buys at the LotRO. All this grinding is done for the objective of obtaining the shiny stuff from the store anyways.
All Hail!]
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