Project Altoholism: Levels 20 – 30

All right!  So for levels 20 – 30 I’ve been spending the majority my time on each character, in the The Lone-lands.  However, there are certain steps I’ve taken beforehand on each character.

First, I check the crafting skills of all my characters and make sure that they have leveled through the first two tiers of their gathering/crafting skills.  This usually requires the use of Shared Storage to shuffle around materials, but I think it’s important to make sure that each character has maximized their crafting skills if possible.  Then, I proceed to make them whatever crafted gear I can, that is an upgrade for them.  Next, I dump all their quests, except any of the Prologue or Volume 1, Book 1 quests that might need to be finished up; and then finish those up.  Afterwards, it’s off to start Volume 1, Book 2 at the Prancing Pony in Bree and follow that line to  Weathertop!

**Side Note** If you decide to follow my route, know that there are no vendors near Weathertop and you cannot use the horse route from Wethertop to The Forsaken Inn until you have finished Volume 1, Book 2:  Chapter 5.  So make sure you have plenty of bag space!

So above is the progressive questing route that I take throughout the Lone-lands.  I’ve found it to be fairly simple and streamlined, although depending on the class you play or the level of your character, you may need to wait to complete certain quests from an earlier quest hub until after you’ve moved on to the next.  For example, on my Minstrel I had to wait and complete several kill quests until later due to the difficulty I had soloing with that character.  However, the Burglar and Captain had no issues completing them as soon as they received the quests.  Also note, that I have not included any of the Agamaur quests either because I was usually able to hit 30 before I started on them.  in fact, the farthest I have been able to get with a  character until having to stop was Harloeg (with the Minstrel) and even then I only completed several quests until I leveled.

Despite having a good experience with… experience; I found myself surprised at how little resources I was finding along the way with those who had the Explorer vocation.  Mostly because I was past the Barrow Iron and Ash Wood and that’s what populates the western half of the Lone-lands.  The Eastern side has Rich Iron, Gold, Sturdy Hide, and Yew Wood which is what I’m really after.  Although Gold is always rare it felt like all resources in general were in shorter supply than they had been through levels 1 – 20.  In fact, by the time I was done with level 20 most of my characters had spare ore, leather, and wood left over in their raw state because all of them were able to master Tier 2 on their own before they hit 20.  With levels 20 – 30 I’ve had to struggle to achieve completing the first half of mastery in Tier 3, let alone master it.  In fact, my supply of leather and wood was so low on my Minstrel that I had him tracking wood instead of ore because my Forester skill was so low.  I realize that 30 – 40 should supply me with more time to get Tier 3 resources, but it’s just a bit disconcerting.

I’m going to stick with leveling my characters in the Lone-lands because it’s going very quickly now that I’ve got the groove of where to go.  The only thing that may hold me up is our Trip to PAX and the Spring Festival!  But for now, I’m going to sit back and enjoy the Welcome Back Week and finish up the Burglar and probably move on to the Champion.  I’m also going to start releasing overviews on the different characters and then start on the 30 – 40 process.  I think I’ll stick with the Lone-lands and follow a similar path Harperella has outlined, but I’m not quite sure I can handle going through Angmar again…  I guess we’ll see!