Skirmish Soldiers One of the features that distinguishes skirmishes from other types of instances is your skirmish soldier. Each player character is allowed to summon a companion who fights along with them during the skirmish. There are two areas where you may normally summon a skirmish soldier. The first is within a skirmish, which is the location for which...

The guardian skirmish marathon was successfully completed. If anyone is interested in watching the replay, it will be available at my Twitch page for  a few more days. The chat channel was working this time, though I did not find it easy to follow the chat channel and play at the same time. Thanks to those who attended. Skirmish Statistics The total time of the...

Today at 10:00 AM Server Time, I will be running my second skirmish marathon. This time, the goal is to run all 19 skirmishes with my Guardian. You can watch the proceedings on Twitch at http://www.twitch.tv/pineleafneedles May your shield protect you and and speak never break, Pineleaf Needles

Cooking in lotro makes my head spin (it occasionally does in real life too!)  The amount of ingredients needed (vendor bought, farm produced, cook produced) and the different tiers of expertise involved is pretty complex, so in an effort to tame the virtual storecupboard I produced this spreadsheet 😉  This is just for the Cook’s Guild repasts (rep items)....

Andang returns to guest host this episode of the LOTRO Academy Podcast alongside Branick, Mysteri, and Pineleaf, to talk about the new LOTRO Players website and how it came about. Thanks for listening.

Belwynne asks: Is there any difference in marks and medallions awarded if you die during a skirmish and if you don’t? What other factors impact # of medallions/marks awarded? Skirmish Awards We will start with the broader question: what factors affect your mark/medallion awards in a skirmish? Marks are awarded each time you complete a goal within a...

And we’re back! Today’s edition centers around the cute furry cuddly wuddly pet, the Lynx! The Lynx is the straight up DPS pet. Its stats and abilities are all based on damage output, with little room for anything else. We will be looking at just how viable the Lynx’s DPS really is, and in particular whether it’s enough to make it a good...

After last week’s successful run, thePineleafNeedles Twitch channel will get into full swing this week. I have posted a schedule on the site. I will be broadcasting The Fellowship of the Creeps during each episode I am attending. This show airs on Saturdays at 5:00 PM Server Time (so the next episode will be today). The next PVE LOTRO event will be the...

  Lilikate asks Do book pages drop in skirmishes? By “book pages,” I presume she means the ones associated with the legendary class deeds you unlock at level 39. The short answer is “Yes.” Naturally, it’s not quite that simple. First, skirmish mobs follow the same rule concerning page drops as landscape mobs: the mobs must be...

  solo = green small fellowship = purple fellowship = blue raid = red I put this together so I could easily find soloable warbands or if I was looking for a particular warband for the daily Forlaw quest.  I hope you find it useful too. Warband tokens drop from the gift box quest reward (the daily auto bestowed quests), they seem to be more common with the...

Good day fellow adventurers. Yesterday I picked up my staff to undertake the challenge of running as many skirmishes as possible in six hours. I ran this series on Pinestaff, my Lore-master on Windfola. There are currently a total of 19 skirmishes available in the game. I predicted that I would get through 15 of them; I actually completed 13. The first 11 were...

  Welcome back, folks! Before we get into the topic of this week, I would like to take the time to thank ya’ll for the responses to my last (and technically first) article. It’s very encouraging and I’ll be bearing(har) the comments in mind for this edition and for future ones. Today we’ll be looking at the second of the Lore-master’s zoo of companions,...

Looking back at my deaths in Middle Earth, words that crop up often are: “You have been incapacitated by misadventure.” Really, misadventure?  Surely not!  But, sadly, it is true.  So what is this misadventure? Well it can be anything from riding through an enemy village and being fired upon by archers until you fall off your horse and succumb to...

On Saturday, June 22 @ 10:00 AM Server Time, I will begin a six-hour skirmish marathon on the PineleafNeedles Twitch channel. Here I will play as many skirmishes as I can in the six-hour span. While it is unlikely I will be able to get through all 19, I should at least place a good dent in the total. The skirmishes will be selected semi-randomly. By that I mean...

During my first days, weeks, even months of playing Lord of the Rings Online, I died several times.  You could say that Death and I became “besties” and well, although it was usually some sort of mob that killed me, I blamed the deaths on a MMO player’s worst nightmare – lag. If you’re new to the MMO world, then you might not...

G’day and welcome to the New User Guide – How to Die in Lotro. For any new player, it is always stressful starting out and wondering how to stay alive.  Most players don’t know that there are a few titles to earn for just achieving that with the most sought after being that of “Undying”. Listed here will be the ways I have died. ...

Lilikate asks: Pineleaf I’d love a tutorial about how you have your screen set up! How did you get the icons along the top of the screen and why? The short answer is that I am using plugins. I will go through each of the plugins and describe what they do. TitanBar The icons on the top of the screen are from TitanBar. This plugin provides you several icons...

  What Is The First Thing You Will Do When Mordor Is Released? Simply Walk Into ........ (43%, 63 Votes) The Epic Story! (38%, 55 Votes) Other (Leave Comment) (15%, 22 Votes) Side Quests (2%, 3 Votes) The Black Book Of Mordor (1%, 2 Votes) Total Voters: 141  Loading ... Note: This poll is now closed. This Saturday (June 22) at 10:00 AM Server Time I...

Crafting is something that people will love or hate.  There are players that will not craft as they feel like it is a waste of time, however, now with the inclusion of XP for crafting and gathering materials (mats) it isn’t quite so much of a waste.  Others love the sheer joy of it and can’t get enough of it as it can be a relaxing past time. To...

How Do You Start Skirmishing? You have reached level 20 and you are ready to skirmish. Now just open the Instance Finder and…. Wait a moment, why won’t it let me run any skirmishes? Oh, that’s right, you need to run the skirmish tutorial first. Soon after you reach level 20, you will receive a letter in the mail asking you to report to one of the skirmish...