One of the most important yet easiest to overlook parts of your character’s growth in Lord of the Rings Online is investing into virtues, especially early on in the long grind to the current level cap of 150. If you want a good start to your character, then by the time you enter Moria at level 50 you should have identified your five core (slotted) virtue bundles and have them sitting around rank 25.
For this, you’ll need a total of 140,000 virtue XP (VXP), as each rank 25 requires 28,000 VXP. The good news is that there are more than enough avenues for VXP in the many zones of Eriador to make this happen. But is there a more efficient way to go about this than simply doing every deed in a zone? I think there is, which is why I went through every single zone from 1 to 50 and identified the easiest virtues to get you to this goal.
Do note that this guide is assuming that you’re playing on normal difficulty. Higher-difficulty levels require less VXP overall. Level 1 gives you +1% VXP gain, level 2 is +3%, and everything from level 3 on up is +5% VXP gain. So say you get 2000 VXP from a deed on level 3, you’ll actually net another 100 VXP on top of that. You may want to get all of these anyway, as extra VXP goes toward passive bonuses!
The Shire
You’ll definitely want to knock out the two explorer deeds (Farms and Sights) for 4,000 VXP plus another 2,000 for the meta. I’d argue that Restoring the Quick Post is pretty easy, getting you 2K and some stable master unlocks for running around the place. Shire Brewmaster is a hidden deed that gives you another 2K for doing five quick quests. As a plus, doing the mail running and Brewmaster gets you over the first Life of a Bounder deed milestone, which is another 2K.
The rest of the pie-running and quests take too long for this guide, so I’d simply say that all of the slayer deeds should be done because of their low count (12K for the six plus 2K for the meta) – 26,000 VXP right there. That’s a great start.
Ered Luin
Hear me out: You need to do all of the lowbie deeds here for the meta. This is an incredibly quick starter area that can be finished in an evening, and it’s very rewarding. You have to do only 30 quests here for three deeds (8K), four explorer deeds for another 8K, and five slayer deeds for 10K. The three meta adds another 6K on top of everything. That stacks up to an impressive 26,000 VXP for not much effort.
Bree-land
I’m going to start being a little more choosy here because some Bree-land deeds take a while. Let’s grab the easy ones: Ruins of Bree-land (2K), Lore of the Cardolan Prince (2k), History of the Dúnedain (2K), Brigand-slayer (2K), Orc-slayer (2K), Spider-slayer (2K), and Wight-slayer (2K). Ignore the other slayer and explorer deeds, but you know what? Do the full meta quest deed. It’s only 45 quests, many of which you can do in Combe and Staddle, and that gets you a whopping 8K, bringing this zone’s total up to 22,000 VXP.
Swanfleet
Our last starting zone isn’t the best for deeding, as it’s pretty stingy with rewards. Dwellers of Old Swanfleet isn’t too hard for 1K, Many Folk of the Glanduin is another 1K, and Perils of Swanfleet is (you guessed it), 1K. I’d skip the quests (no VXP whatsoever) and maybe grab Brigand-slayer (2K), Warg-slayer (2K), and Uruk-slayer (2K) as they all have camps packed with mobs to farm. That’s only another 9,000 VXP.
Yondershire
Let’s take a side trip to extended Hobbit country for just one deed: Sites of Yondershire isn’t too onerous for 1K.
Cardolan
Again, these newer zones are extremely stingy on deed rewards, so there’s not much here. Inhabitants of the Vanished Realm is a simple 1K and Perils of Cardolan for another 1K if you don’t mind riding around for a little while. The slayer deeds are far higher in count than newbie zones, so skip those.
Lone-lands
Back to older zones and greater rewards! The Grimfens is 2K for exploring just two spots, Defences of the Lone-lands is 2K, and Weathertop is the easiest 2K you’ll ever earn. Honestly, Tales of the Lonely Road is not that difficult either, trading 8K of VXP for your time and effort doing just 45 quests. The Craban and Warg slayer deeds can be done right next to each other for a zippy 4K total, and there are great camps for goblins (2K) and spiders (2K) too. A few days in Lone-lands and you’re sitting on 22,000 VXP.
North Downs
Let’s simplify this zone and completely cut out quests and slayer deeds in order to concentrate fully on explorer. There are four explorer deeds (forget the treasure one, always forget those), which can be done in a leisurely zone tour. That’s 8K for the deeds, plus another 2K for the meta. 10K in maybe a half-hour!
Evendim
This is a huge zone full of hit-or-miss deeds. The low-hanging fruit are Ruins of Evendim (2K), Tombs of Evendim (2K), and Wilds of Evendim (2K). Everything else is a much bigger time investment.
Trollshaws
As we start climbing up in levels, many of the slayer deeds represent hundreds of kills apiece, so I’m not looking at those as much any more. Trollshaws is good for Ruins of the Trollshaws (2K), The Road to Rivendell (2K), and Wilds of Tâl Bruinen (2K), which gets you another 2K for the meta. You only have to do 30 quests for the meta, which really isn’t that bad, and that means another 8K for our tally.
Then, you can zip down to the Angle for a couple quick explorer deeds (Sites and Enemies) which is another 4K total. Just 25 quests gets the meta for that (2K).
Misty Mountains
This zone actually has some difficult explorer deeds, so I would only recommend Ruins of the Misty Mountains (2K) and maybe knocking out 30 quests for that meta (8K).
Angmar
Just… just skip all of this. It’s not a good zone for deeds whatsoever, and you don’t want to torture yourself by hanging out here for that long.
Forochel
This icy vacation has a very easy set of two explorer deeds (6K total for the meta), and the quest meta (6K) is another one of those low, 30-count deals.
Eregion
Easily the best trade for your time here is doing the three explorer quests (Dens, Ring Goes South, and Ruins) maybe in one go. That’s 6K right there without getting off your pony.
Conclusion
This is a quick-and-loose guide that’ll put you well over the top of your 140,000 goal — actually, all of the above should be 173,000 VXP if I counted right. On top of that, you’ll be grabbing several titles and over 700 LP along the way. Not bad for going easy!
Every two weeks, the LOTRO Legendarium goes on an adventure (horrid things, those) through the wondrous, terrifying, inspiring, and, well, legendary online world of Middle-earth. Justin has been playing LOTRO since its launch in 2007! If you have a topic for the column, send it to him at justin@massivelyop.com.
