Here are three solid strategies to make some serious cash quickly in LoTRO!
1. One of the biggest costs associated with adventuring in the most dangerous areas is the overhead cost of repairs if you happen to die. Turbine accidentally gave people a way around this issue with their most recent patch, which allows characters under 10th level to die without damaging their objects in inventory. For this reason, it's a particularly good strategy to use such chracters as mules, picking up treasure as it drops, but protected by the rest of a higher level group. Lower level mules can also be used to trigger traps,activating monsters, or drawing them towards traps or luring them out without risk, allowing the higher level characters to focus on damage. One technique this can also be used in would be to lure a mob of creatures towards the rest of a party, and have that party pick off one of the monsters, drawing its aggro while the lower level mule character draws the rest of the mob away from the battle for the moment. This gives parties a low-risk way to break up even the largest, toughest mobs. It also guarantees that they will respawn individually, rather than all at once, allowing parties to safely camp out near particularly lucrative treasure chests, etc.
2. Mining ore is progressively riskier in LOTRO, but it's not necessarily a good idea to mine the most advanced ores to make a good profit. The way that LOTRO levels up prospecting skills requires even high-level prospectors to have copper ore, which is surprisingly the most in demand in the game, fetching prices up to 2 silver each in the auction house. The best place to mine silver is on near the road from the Brandywine Bridge to the construction camp along the road southwest of Bree, as it respawns most rapidly there. It is quite possible to harvest 80 copper there in one hour, which could be sold for up to 160 silver in the auction house... perhaps more as the economy starts to develop and inflation kicks in. As the game evolves, it may be a far better idea for leveling prospectors to harvest and auction copper in order to buy other ores which are, by definition, less in demand for experience leveling purposes.
3. One of the best areas of the game to farm for quality drops is in the Emyn Hoedh region of northeastern Erid Luin. The wights in that region drop consistantly good treasure, but are easier to kill and in less dangerous groupings than the wights of the Barrow Downs to the west of Bree. From my experience, this is an even better location than the city to the east in the same area of Erid Luin, as the resale value of the items dropped is better and the drops are more consistantly good. This area will get even better as the game progresses, as demands for wights body parts increases... many are used for potions and the like.
 |
