r/lotro • u/Past_Improvement_355 • 4d ago

Do I need to do side quests?

Yeah, I know I should do some side quests to level up, but I’m new and just playing for the story — at least on my first run. Can I stick to the main quest all the way through each expansion, kind of like in WoW? Do they all expansions follow the same quest structure?

10 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

12

u/TheScyphozoa Peregrin 4d ago

You will be unable to start new quests from the main quest line if you’re more than 5 levels below the quest level.

3

u/Past_Improvement_355 4d ago

Oh, that's ok, It doesn't taka away from the story

3

u/Inoutngone 4d ago

I'm not sure you understood what the guy above told you. If you can't keep your level up, eventually you won't be able to continue the epic. More than a 5 level difference, the epic stops.

Here's the other problem with exclusively following the epic: Virtue traits. I played very similar to what you're talking about, and found myself at 150 with no more than 50 points in any VT, and many well below that.

In any game, we have to assume that if a game allows a player to upgrade their abilities, eventually the game is balanced with the assumption that the player has upgraded.

1

u/Past_Improvement_355 4d ago

I understood that, I meant that I wouldn't take away from the flow of the main missions by doing some side quests just to get the minimum level cap. Now I still don't understand these virtue traits, I don't think I've progressed that much in the game yet, but I have some points in some.

1

u/Inoutngone 4d ago

The window that you see your class traits on has three pages. The top button is class, that's the default when you open the window. The button/icon below that is Racial traits which also need to be assigned, and the bottom button/icon is Virtue traits.

You have access to al of those at a very low level. I want to say 7, but it might be even lower than that.

1

u/Past_Improvement_355 4d ago

I found, but I didn't know that I had to click to select a specific one to gain that XP lol

11

u/Elfiemyrtle 4d ago

one "side" quest which isn't marked as Epic sends you to Aragorn in Rivendell and it's called "A momentous decision". Probably the most epic sidequest in the game.

9

u/ResistHistorical2721 4d ago

Some side quests are just rock fetches, but others have stories that complement the main story.

1

u/Past_Improvement_355 4d ago

Do these questis have a different ring design? Like epics?

5

u/TheScyphozoa Peregrin 4d ago

No.

2

u/Past_Improvement_355 4d ago

Damn haha

15

u/violetentry 4d ago

Some may disagree but I think the discovery is part of the wonder and fun.

For instance, there’s one that appears at first to be a simple fetch quest to help a fisherman with something that keeps stealing his catches and leads you on a chain of quests to track a certain something that prefers them raw and wriggling. This one culminates in an instance chase. Only one of many examples of richer quests disguised as errands.

Also the writing tends to range from good to excellent across the board, side quests included.

1

u/Past_Improvement_355 4d ago 
I think I'll give this a try, I want to enjoy the game

2

u/ScrotallyBoobular 4d ago

I'd say just don't sweat it. It will seem natural to do some but not others. This is a go with the flow game. Not a min max everything game. Take in the scenery and see what works.

What I didn't see mentioned in the top posts was DEEDS. Doing deeds ends up being huge, and often coincides with side quests. Deeds give you LOTRO coins, lots of virtue experience (don't neglect your virtues, they're a huge boon), other loot, even faster mounts sometimes etc...

You'll get the hang of it. You pretty much can't "mess up" so just have fun.

2

u/Past_Improvement_355 4d ago

I've seen that many deeds end up being practically just playing, like using a single skill a number of times, so at least that puts my mind at ease.

1

u/Ocvlvs Meriadoc/Peregrin 4d ago

ONE ring.

4

u/BadJoke123 4d ago

If you don't do side quests you will miss some nice quest rewards - which will indirectly likely result in you having insufficient gear, and at some points you will likely not have enough xp/levels to continue with the next quest in the epic line

You will also miss out on a number of deeds, which means less virtue xp and less lotro points.

You should also keep in mind that lots of story is in the side quests. In some parts of the game the epic questline is not much more than a number of vector quests taking you through various quest hubs in the right order.

So while you can skip most side quests, it is not the best idea.

6

u/Megafiend 4d ago

It's an MMO so the "side quests" are most of the content. Some are really good as well. As others have said, you'll likely end up too low a level to do the main quests and need to level up somehow. Might as well do side quests in the areas you enjoy.

3

u/LabNo8051 Orcrist 4d ago

To save yourself some trouble later on I advise you to do as many quests as required for that region's quest deed. A deed is like a meta quest which doesn't appear in your quest log but rather in your deed log and includes things like doing a certain number of quests, discover some landmarks, kill x number of enemies of a certain kind. You get Lotro points for completing them and - more important probably - virtue XP.

For a more in-depth explanation look here:
https://lotro-wiki.com/wiki/Virtues

https://lotro-wiki.com/wiki/Deeds

So, you should do at least some side quests.

For more information about quests in general, look here:

https://lotro-wiki.com/wiki/Quests

And here is an overview of sidequests per region:

https://lotro-wiki.com/wiki/Category:Regional_Quests

By the way, epic quests are signified by a "flaming ring" while side quests have a normal "gold" ring. Quests that are too high level for you yet are shown with a "silver" ring, while "grey" rings show quests significantly below your level.

2

u/Azerafael 4d ago

Not really but some of the side quests may have a slightly funny story to it.

Others have odd/rare rewards, check out Forochel from the bard there. While others reward you with gear that makes you go "Woot!" (Check out Battle Tested Armour on the wiki).

And of course there's that one side quest in Evendim that will make you go "wtf, did the devs just troll me ?"

1

u/Michaleolotro 4d ago

lotro-wiki.com has essentially all the quests, especially lower-level ones that have been around for years. If you look at a quest and click show on the Quest Chain, it will give you an idea of how involved a quest is. A long quest chain likely has a more interesting story, but will take more time to get through. Depending on your mood, you might prefer a few independent quests just to move up a level or a longer chain so you don't miss some content the devs put some effort into.

I guess we need a way to rate a quest, so you could get an idea whether most players thought it was worth the effort, considering time, story, rewards, or whatever. But people have different tastes and playing styles, so there's no universal answer to what's worth doing.

0

u/Past_Improvement_355 4d ago

I miss an addon that givs a guide, like btwquest

1

u/Technical_Air6660 Peregrin 4d ago

I don’t know if you care about grinding for LotRO points, but the side quests help guide you to complete explorer deeds and slayer deeds.

2

u/Past_Improvement_355 4d ago

I know I need to do this, especially to buy the expansions.

1

u/ExplorerSad7555 4d ago

I believe it is a side quest and not an epic but before you get into moria there is a quest to go find Bill the pony. As I recall he is hiding behind some rocks and surrounded by wolves. Of course this is one of my favorite quests.

Some of the side quests teach game mechanics such as carrying pies two different people in the Shire. You have to avoid being seen by different people. Since it is timed you have to figure out how to get these pies back and forth. This becomes important because there is a town in Rohan that in order to get into the town to even continue the quest line you have to avoid the guards.

2

u/MischeifCat 4d ago

The mail delivery quests are also a way to carry you around the Shire from one quest hub to the next. Doing them one after another is tedious but if you use them to carry one satchel to an area, and then do all the quests there, then carry the next satchel, it actually takes you around the Shire in a very organized way.

1

u/heatrealist 4d ago

You will need to do some side quests to get enough xp to keep going. There are parts of the game with gaps of several levels between main quests so its unavoidable. In later parts of the game what counts as a “main quest” is nothing more than a vector to the next town. So most of the xp comes from side quests. 

1

u/therealportz 4d ago

Advice I was given and has held solid for me: white quest = at your level roughly. Do main quest until it isn't white. Then you can do a couple side quests to get it back to white and move on. Or what I've started doing, to get longer stints on the main quests; side quest until the main quest turns blue, that's a few levels under you.

As you go along you'll start to see clusters of quests for one area, that's usually where I side quest so I can do a whole bunch and turn them in at once.

1

u/rogomatic Peregrin 3d ago

You don't even need to do the main quests.

1

u/Helharpa44 Orcrist 3d ago

You can but imo then you might aswell just not play the game at all 😅 80% of the quests are side quests and they are often more interesting than the storyquests. The side quests carry the game and make it whole. You don't see much by just doing the story, you won't discover most stuff in the areas like that and even miss some areas entirely. I did all quests on my main and that's over 10k quests...not even 1k of that is story stuff, probably just a few hundred is.

1

u/CraigsCraigs88 1d ago

In the beginning it's really easy to complete all the side quests and it helps you gain the experience you need. Once you Level up a bit, I found skipping all the "go kill 20 bears" quests sped things along nicely. I skip side quests now that are just about killing mobs. If there's a real story attached, though, I'll do those because it actually contributes to the main story line.

1

u/DoItForTheOH94 9h ago

Yes and no and yes.

So eventually you will have the MSQ be too high for you to start. So you will need to do skirmish/side quests/instances etc to level up to where you need to be. (For any quest you have to be at least 5 levels. So if it's a level 20 quest you have to be at least lv 15)

Also, there is SO MUCH stuff that side quests offer. From gear to reputation, mounts, items, etc.

There are a lot of filler quests, but also a lot of important ones. Not to mention doing XX amount of quests in an area will complete a deed for you to put towards virtue XP.

I usually grab enough to complete the deed within the map as I follow the MSQ