LOTRO Legendarium: 6 tips for fun and profitable deed hunting

Just because you’ve hit the level cap or come to the end of available quests in Lord of the Rings Online doesn’t mean you’ve run out of content to do. As I’ve been waiting for new patch unlocks to happen this last month or so, I’ve turned to a surprisingly engaging activity that’s been in the game from launch: deed hunting.

LOTRO’s deeds aren’t just there for bragging rights, as with achievement systems in other MMOs. By completing deeds, players get tons of rewards (titles, LOTRO points, embers, housing decorations, emotes) and can further their character’s growth through experience and virtue points. With last year’s overhaul to the virtue system, every single leveled virtue in the game at least lends a passive bonus to your character — and deeds power up all of these.

I’ve been going zone by zone through the game and doing every non-dungeon deed out there — and rather enjoying myself in the process. Deeding can be a lot of fun, but there are ways to get even more out of this activity and maximize the return for your effort. In today’s column, I want to share six helpful tips for when you want to knock out a slew of deeds from your log.

Tip #1: Quest first, deed later

Never start a zone by focusing on deeds, but rather go through the epic and zone storylines and simply have a good time questing. By the time you’ve wrapped up an area’s quests, you’ll most likely have triggered many deeds and partially or completely finished several of them. You’ll need to quest anyway for the questing deeds (which usually has multiple tiers), and those quests will lead you to areas and have you fight mobs that are part of even more deeds. So save deliberate deed hunting until the last thing you do so you don’t waste time!

Tip #2: Target deed mobs while questing

That said, you really do want to be aware of what mobs you’re going to be grinding later for slayer deeds. If you see any of those while questing, kill ’em, even if they’re not in your way. Some particular types of deed mobs are more rare than others, so keeping an eye out for them during your questing phase could pay off in less frustration later. Here’s an additional hint: When you mouse over a mob on the landscape, the pop-up box should tell you if it’s part of a deed you’re completing. That’s helpful when you don’t have that particular deed on your tracker.

Tip #3: Scout LOTRO Wiki’s lists

I can’t emphasize this enough: LOTRO Wiki’s deed pages are absolutely invaluable to this process. When you get questing done, pull up the deed page for that zone and cross-compare with your own deed log. Chances are that there are a few deeds that you haven’t triggered and therefore might not be aware of. For example, recently I was going through Eregion doing deeds and had no idea that there was a special, semi-hidden deed to jump to the top of a mountain for a title. That’s why you want to check.

Tip #4: Group up deeds into areas

Another reason to spend some time plotting out your deed run is to be the most efficient when it comes to running around a zone. Sometimes two or three deed objectives are located in the same area, so it makes sense to do them while you’re there and not have to backtrack later. For example, in Misty Mountains, both Bilbo’s Buttons and Goblin-town both have objectives in the same underground instance. Trust me, you won’t want to go back there twice if you don’t have to.

Tip #5: Deed while overleveled for the zone

You can deed while you’re at-level for a zone, but let me tell you, there’s a joy in coming back to a region when you’re 20 or 30 levels above it and demolishing everything in your path without worrying about aggro. Obviously, one-shotting mobs is going to be faster for slayer deeds, but you’ll have to weigh that against not getting any potentially useful XP from it. For me, it’s worth the trade-off.

Tip #6: Be a slayer champ

Probably the biggest stigma for deeds are all of the slayer (kill X mobs) challenges, mostly because the number used to be ridiculous back in the day. They’re much more manageable now, and can be even more so if you take my advice. First, check LOTRO Wiki’s entry for that slayer deed, as there are usually map coordinates for the best farming locations with lots of related spawns. Second, if you have a slayer deed book (don’t buy these in the store, but use any you do get for free!), only pop one when you can do multiple slayer deeds in a row. I had one 90-minute boost that I used to knock out five slayer deeds in Forochel, which probably saved me that same amount of time.

And finally, don’t resent doing slayer deeds. Just find a good farming spot, figure out an efficient pattern to run, and go at it while listening to podcasts or watching movies to the side. It can be a relaxing activity with a nice monetary payout (you’re going to get a TON of things to vendor) and will usually max your reputation with certain factions from dropped items.

Good luck!