MP Starter Guide

I you are new to MP or just thinking about starting to play some MP, here are some suggestions and tips. I have heard some grumbling around lately about new players in the area and the issues that come with new players. This is somewhat of a startup guide to try and help you all out. By the way, this is meant as a help to new players so please try and keep comments constructive.

First of all, those of us who have been playing MP welcome you. New creeps are always welcome in the fight.

SO you just rolled a creep.
A what? Creeps are the common term for any Monster Player. Conversely we also have freeps. Freeps are the Free Peoples (NPCs and players), just shortened. We fight against them. AND now you are in MP (monster play), in the Ettenmoors. You start in a fort with lots of wargs, trolls, spiders and the like. What to do first? At this point you have some choices to make. What kind of MP'er do you want to be? If you want to be one who dies a lot and never gets invites to raids then you have it easy. Just get on OOC and ask for a raid invite every 10 seconds until you get one. Then once you are invited ask where the freeps are and how to get there. If this is you then you can stop reading now, get back to the game and go feed some freep renown.

HOWEVER if you want to be a smart and successful MP'er then listen up.
First, forget about freeps for the time being. You are in Gramsfoot. The first thing you should do is go and get all quests available to you there. The most important quests are the exploration quests right now. You need to know where to go when freeps are spotted. Please complete these quests as it will reveal the entire map to you and also get you familiar with the locations of the keeps. Now go do the exploration quests. Note, while doing the exploration quests, collect all other quests that you see. Almost all of them are repeatable and you will not fill up your quest queue all the way as there are less than 40 total.

Below I will list the areas and keeps and their abbreviations to help you out:

Gramsfoot (Grams) - where you are right now, NW corner of the map. The starting location for all MP'ers when you log in. Also the rez circle if the freeps control everything.

Tol Ascarnen (TA) - Center of the map. Largest of the controllable keeps. It sits on its own island.

Isendeep (Isen) - Northern part of the map. Isen is one big mine. This is a controllable location

Grothum (Grothum) - Northeast corner of map. This is a goblin camp that is creep friendly. This cannot be taken, although it can be cleared.

Ost Ringdyr (Ost) - This is on the E side of the map, south of Grothum. This is a freep controlled keep. This cannot be taken.

Glan Vraig (GV) - This is in the Southeast corner of the map and is the freeps starting location in the Ettens, equivalent of our Gramsfoot.

Tirith Rhaw (TR) - between TA and GV, SW of Ost. A controllable Keep.

Grimwood Lumber Camp (LC) - South of TA on map. This is a controllable area.

Hoarhallow (HH) - SW corner of map. This is a hobbit villiage that cannot be taken.

Dar-Gazag (DG) - kind of like the freeps Ost, this is a non controllable creep keep location.

Lugazag (Lug) - same setup as TR, a controllable location, between TA and Grams.

South Bridge (SB) - the bridge off of the island where TA is on the south side. This is a popular place for battles.

Elf Camp (EC) - the group of rocks and NPCs just south of the SB. Another popular place for battles. A lot of time the freeps will bunker in the EC and creeps will bunker on the SB and will fight back and forth between the two.

Edit to add a few more locations:
Spiders: Friendly to creeps, there is a ruined keep between LC and HH. This is a freep questing area (i think) so you can sometimes find loners here.

Fields/Seeds/Seedfields: There is a field in the southern part of HH where brittleleaf seeds grow. There are lots of hobbits around, but if you clear them you can pick all the seeds you want. Often freeps will camp this spot.

Trees: There is an area S of LC where there are trees like the ones in the old forest.

Falls: Do the Poison the Hordale quest once and you will know of these falls just NE of TA. They are fun to jump off too.....

OK - you have finished the explore quests, now what?
Well now is a good time to test out your skills. If there is freep action you would have heard about it over OOC by now. Since all of the creeps in the Ettens can see OOC it is the defacto communication channel. LFF, Advice and the other channels are very rarely, if at all, used. If there is no freep activity I would suggest starting with Slugs. Slug ponds can be found outside of grams and down towards DG. Or you can go down to HH and take on some hobbits. Or whatever. Explore and find out which NPCs are friendly and which aren't. Drakes love to be petted though. Get to know the areas and talk to people.

UPDATE: A note on questing. I think I metioned that almost all quests are repeatable. Most are also soloable. Besides retaking keeps, there are 3 quests that you need to definitely group for (actually more than 3, but 3 really common ones). Thanks Bloodeater and Moinuk.

Goldenhead (Goldie): Is N/NE of TR. He has ~65k morale so a decent sized group is needed.

Golloval (Gollo): Is west of the Isen S (center) entrance. Also has ~65k morale.

A call for a G/G quest group is one that goes back and forth from Goldie to Golloval.

Mayor Mudbottom (i think the name is right): is at the center of HH in front of the tall house. He has ~10k morale, but be careful to not aggro other hobbits here.

NOW there are freeps around what do I do?
Well don't keep bugging people on OOC for invites. If someone has a raid going and needs more people they will ask for people to volunteer. Otherwise, feel free to go down and check out the action yourself. Listen over OOC to what is going on and where the action is. Some actions are frowned on when fighting freeps, listen to see if you are doing any of those. If a raid falls back you should too because freeps love to go after lone creeps after a raid pullback. If you do get in a raid, listen to the raid leaders. Do what they say. You can tell really quick if it is a smart raid group or not. If you all are coordinated move and attack together then it is a good group. If you join the raid to take on freeps and see the little dots on your map for your raid members and they are spread out all over the map, it is a good bet that the raid is not very organized. But most of all, listen and watch. There are some good strategies out there for dealing with freeps. You will learn them, it just takes time.

ONE other thing. I highly suggest this.
Do this before going after freeps or joining a big raid. Get a fellowship/raid together with other new people. I have a list of things for you to do. These are fun things and everyone needs to try them. And then get those things out of their system and never do them again.

1- Go camp outside of GV. Sit and wait for freeps to come out. Then try and get them to come out far enough so you can take them down. By the way, the NPC guards there are nicknamed 1-shot guards. If you want to know why, go talk to one of them up close. Get to know steve. He is the rock just over the crest of the hill outside GV.

Why this is frowned on: Yes it seems like fun. We have all done it. But the fact is, this is a horrible place to attack freeps. We can only come at them from one side, and they have lots of NPC help here and it quickly becomes a stalemate. Get it out of your system now.

2- Try and make it to the top of the GV stairs. Go up to GV and have a look and you will see the stairs. Get your group to go at once and see if you can make it to the top. Go ahead, you know you want to. We have all tried it.

Why this is frowned on: Its not frowned on. Its fun to do. Once. Try it and see.

3- If you are a warg, pounce a burglar. Then try and take him out.

Why this is frowned on: Burgs have a response skill to being stunned. It makes them pretty much impervious to attack for about 30 seconds. If you are 1v1 this makes things really tough. Do it once and get it out of your system.

4- Pull NPCs through a camp/area onto your group. Want to see your group run for cover? Get on the other side of HH or EC and run through, getting all of the NPCs to follow you and run straight into your group. Great fun!

Why this is frowned on: This happens a lot when fighting freeps. Its bad news because now, instead of just freeps, we have a bunch of NPCs to deal with too. If you find you have a bunch of NPCs on you please run away from your group, lose the NPCs then circle back around to your group.

5- Pull the Captain General. When the freeps control a keep (TR, TA, Isen, LC, Lug) and you are trying to take it back, go on in and whack the head guy. Its fun!

Why this is frowned on: The guys around the captain generals are hard to take out themselves as is, leave the cap-gen until last. As long as you don't go bothering him, he should stay right where he is.

6- Hang out alongside a raid that is killing goldie, golloval (quests) or a cap-gen, then run ahead of them at the last second and tap the main guy.

Why this is frowned on: Most raid will stop fighting the NPC if you do this, leaving you there alone to face the wrath. Either try and join the raid or start your own, but people don't want to spend a lot of time killing something when they won't get anything out of it, but you will get all the rewards because you tapped it.

7- Go crazy in the mines looking for freeps or scout the slug pits for burglars. Oftentimes freeps hang out in these two places to farm NPCs. Feel free to go hunting there if things are slow.

Why this is frowned on: Its not. Feel free to do this anytime. There are certain freeps you will find like to hang out there more than others. Just go crazy.

8- Poison the River and jump off the waterfall. We have all done it

9- Ask a lot of questions that aren't answered here on OOC.

Why this is frowned on: Its not. Not at all. Please ask away. But please remember that we are all doing stuff too, I know I see questions sometimes while fighting freeps and just don't have time to answer. We are friendly. If no one answers give it some time, then maybe try asking again. Nothing wrong with questions.


OK now you have done all of the fun stuff that gets old fast. Come on down and join us for a front row freep takedown.
post by soccergoof@http://forums.lotro.com