Lord of the Rings Online Quest Difficulty Guide

Lord of the Rings Online Quest Difficulty Guide by MadeOfLions

Hi everybody! You know what everybody likes? Everybody likes when the level of a quest and the number of people you need to complete it as reported in the Quest Journal are… I don’t know… accurate. Bringing five friends when you only needed to bring two, or bringing no one when you should have brought five… that’s not so much fun.

This is where you come in! It would be really great if you could use this post to report instances like this; that way, we can revise the reported challenge level of a quest so it reflects the actual level you would need to be to complete it. Also, if you complete a quest and think the Recommendation is incorrect, use this thread to make that observation as well. Here’s a format that should work:

QUEST: Name of the quest
CATEGORY: What category does the quest appear under in your Journal?
JOURNAL LEVEL: The level of the quest in the Quest Journal
JOURNAL ICON: Solo, Small Fellowship, Fellowship, Raid
ACTUAL LEVEL: What level do you think the quest should *actually* be?
ACTUAL ICON: What icon do you think the quest should *actually* be?
REASONS: Why do you think the Actual Level or Actual Icon should be as you’ve recommended? Include any info here that you think might be relevant, such as the levels of the monsters involved or between you and your objective, the number and classes of people in your Fellowship, anything like that.

This way, there will be one convenient place where we can monitor such inconsistencies and work toward that beautiful future: when players will once again trust their Quest Journals not to lead them astray. Rosy, I know… but with your help we can get there!

MoL

A Tenuous Thread
CATEGORY: Angmar
JOURNAL LEVEL: 50
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 50
ACTUAL ICON: Small Fellowship
REASONS: The mobs you need to kill for this quest are all elites close to level 50.

Addie’s Missing Sons
CATEGORY: Breeland
JOURNAL LEVEL: 16
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 15/16
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: You don’t actually have to fight anyone to get this quest done, the 2nd part, finding Malin, sure needs a full fellowship unless you’ve got higher than required levels. But the first part just needs you to be reasonably confident to enter the barrow downs, avoid fights, and find the Perch.

Adelard’s Chapter
CATEGORY: Shire
JOURNAL LEVEL: 7
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 9
ACTUAL ICON: solo
REASONS: Its a running joke that people suffer their first death (including me) in MD doing that quest where the bee hive falls, you fight bees, then before you can recover you fight bears. A few levels later I did it solo, a good fight. Used a potion and my burglar heal ability.

At the level you get the quest you need 2 people.

Options: Solo level 9-10
Or: Small fellow 7-8

An Urgent Summons
CATEGORY: Epic – Prologue
JOURNAL LEVEL: 6
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 6
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: All this quest involves is walking from Archet to the inn in Combe and talking to the innkeeper, then going up the stairs and talking to Toradan. There’s no combat involved at all except for some boars and wolves you might run into on the road between Archet and Combe, but nobody is going to need a fellowship to deal with them.

Coat of Shadow
CATEGORY: North Downs
JOURNAL LEVEL: 31
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 31
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: See below.

Level and icon are fine. The quest is fine. The drop rates and spawn rates are horrid. The Dire Wargs are hard to find and they drop the quest hides rarely. The drop rate is the stupid part because they almost always drop a Sturdy Hide–I’d gladly give *that* to the Earth-kin if I could. And why only the Dire Wargs–why not let go north and kill some of the 33 Hunter Wargs if I choose to?

Counting the clutch
CATEGORY: Angmar
JOURNAL LEVEL: 49
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 47
ACTUAL ICON: Small Fellow
REASONS: The goal is to click on six egg nests, but you have to fight through numberous 47 and 48 elite drakes. If you are careful you can take them one at a time so only a small fellow is needed.

A lot of issue is that if a quest only requires single elites they can usually be duoed or so fairly easily depending on your duo. Once a quest starts to require multiple elite pulls it becomes a full fellowship quest. Even a non-elite quest can become a small fellow quest in reality when you start to get three plus non elites in a pull.

I am assuming the Actual Level should be the approximate level of the mobs in the area that need to be defeated, that level in itself can change the fellowship size.

Destroying the Hatchery
CATEGORY: North Downs
JOURNAL LEVEL: 32
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 32
ACTUAL ICON: Fellowship
REASONS: The only reason I believe that this quest should be labeled as “fellowship” is thus: The eggs do not seem to spawn in the nests near the worms. The eggs continually spawn next to elite drakes (in the little pools there). The only way I was able to solo this, I believe, was because I am a Lore-Master. I rooted one drake and busied the other with my raven, while I scrambled around, collected eggs, and ran like the dickens.

Dourhand Plans
CATEGORY: North Downs
JOURNAL LEVEL: 29
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 29 is fine
ACTUAL ICON: Small Fellowship
REASONS: The plans are hidden at the complete rear of the Ost Garudar – for those who have been there, it is an absolute nightmare, mobs packed into a very tight place with an incredible respawn rate. Typically, the pulls are 3 Non-Elites, or 2 Non-Elites and a Swarm mob. Factor in also that, occasionally, a 4000 hp elite Falconeer spawns in the only corridor that leads to the plans – along with 3 non-elite buddies, and you have yourself recipe for pain if you’re alone. Small Fellowship of 2 or 3 shouldn’t have too much trouble though.

I cancelled this quest after the 3rd try when no one wanted to group for it – had problems with the Falconeer twice.

Free the Fallen
CATEGORY: Fornost
JOURNAL LEVEL: 39
JOURNAL ICON: fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: None
ACTUAL ICON: None
REASONS: The problem with this quest is not levels. The problem is the number of items required and the inability to share item locations. Each member of the fellowship needs to free 30 spirits from the skeleton piles. That means in a full fellowship, 180 skeleton piles are needed so that each member can finish the quest in the instance. And having 180 spots doesn’t give you 180 Freed Spirits. To top it off, the skeleton piles can EITHER OR spawn an elite non-siganture undead instead of the Freed Spirit version the quest requires.

In general, this quest needs to be scrapped or completely reworked as it’s not worth the 34s for any but one person to complete at a time.

Goblin Leader
CATEGORY: Fight your way through mobs, and mobs of Goblines and kill the leader.
JOURNAL LEVEL: 22
JOURNAL ICON: Full Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25 – 26
RESONS: Goblins respawn extremly fast, always fighting 3 Goblins, these lvl 22 20 -22 Goblins are tough and your always fighting repop Goblins, and patroling Goblins.

In the Gaunt-Man’s Grasp.
Category: Book 2 Epic, Lone-Lands
Journal Level: 28
Journal Icon: Solo/Epic
Actual Level: 30
Actual Icon: Small fellowship/Epic

Tried this when I got it, at 28th and it was white. Fighting yellow and orange wights just to get to the encounter only to see a signature and 2-3 adds in the 30 range. There are also a number of neutral Oathbreakers surrounding the mob you need to kill. I had a 25 Hunter in support. I figured that if the journal expected me to solo this, maybe the Oathbreakers will help out once I begin the fight. Not the case. Oathbreakers stood by and a 30+ Bog-Lord even decided to run into the fight from who knows where. We were decimated. This should be small-fellowship at least and level displayed as 30, to match the non-elites let alone the sig you have to kill. I have no doubt that 3-4 28-30’s could pull this off.

Iron-jaws
CATEGORY: Lone-lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 22
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: You get this quest from Ost Guruth which requires you to kill Wargs. The Wargs around Ost Guruth are level 25-26 making the level 22 designation on this quest a bit low. The other warg quest in the area, Raising the Wargs’ Ire, is level 25 so I believe this should be a level 25 quest as well.

Ivar the Blood Hand
CATEGORY: Lone Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 34
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 38 if you like a BIG challenge 40 for a 50/50 chance with an unbalanced group.
ACTUAL ICON: Fellowship. Raid if you do it at 34
REASONS: The Level should be upped because at level 34 getting the key to get to the area with Ivar is a challenge and Ivar even if you do take out his banner guys is still a long hard fight. Since he respawns them and his minions. If you don’t have a way to either DPS him down quick while at the same time a way to regen power there is no way you’ll complete this quest even at level 38+. At level 34 even with a balanced group its more luck then anything if you take him down.

Master of the Black Tide
CATEGORY: Lone Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 35
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 37+
ACTUAL ICON: Fellowship
REASONS: I think the level needs to be changed for this quest. Just way too hard to keep everything cleared with a level 35 group.

Master of the Lash
CATEGORY: Lone Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 24
JOURNAL ICON: solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 24
ACTUAL ICON: small fellowship
REASONS: Collecting the Orc-Swords is not a problem, but if you’re the only person in the area, getting to and defeating the slaughterer is nigh on impossible for a lvl 24. He’s surrounded by 3 other Lvl22 orcs, and the re-spawn rate for the other orcs nearby was insane. As a Lvl25 LRM, finding a Lvl23 GRD to group with made all the difference. It was still tough, but we did it.

Mistress of Shadows
CATEGORY: Angmar
JOURNAL LEVEL: 43
JOURNAL ICON: Small Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 43 is fine
ACTUAL ICON: Full Fellowship
REASONS: The Mistress of Shadows is an elite who also has 2 signature mobs that added during the fight (at least when my group attempted her). In my opinion a group of 3 level 43s would probably not have a chance. This is pretty much a healer required quest due to the amount of mobs in the last encounter so I think this should not be marked as small fellowship.

Mountain Raiders
CATEGORY: Trollshaws (Chain from A Better Sort of Giant)
JOURNAL LEVEL: 40
JOURNAL ICON: Full Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 40-44? (see below)
ACTUAL ICON: Full Fellowship
REASONS: There are level 44 elite drakes in the area, one of which guards the pass you need to use to get into the area. My group of 37-40s couldn’t touch it, and at least 2 people died each time when we tried to run by. Please either remove this drake or update the quest accordingly.

Noisome Neighbours
CATEGORY: Lone-lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 23
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 26
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: The bugs you have to kill in the swamp for this are level 25-27 mixed in with other level 26-28 bog prowlers and wights. 23 is just too low of a level for a quest that requires killing up to level 27 mobs.

Orcs of the Blood Mountain
Category: North Downs
Journal Level: 33
Journal Icon: fellowship
Actual Level: at least 36
Actual Icon: Fellowship or Raid
Reasons: Fast respawns, roaming patrols, and static spawns of at least 3 forces a group to take on 4-5 elites at any given time. My lvl 37 hunter can’t solo one of these elites, so 4-5 of them hurt. After wiping 5 times in 6 hours, we finally finished. (the manslayers are waaaay in the back – hard to get to) Even when we teamed with two other groups, we all ended up wiping. Worse, the level required to complete the quest means the rewards are useless.

Our Greatest Find
CATEGORY: One member of your Fellowship picks up a statue, and carries it to a guy standing on the cliff.
JOURNAL LEVEL: 22
JOURNAL ICON: Full Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25 – 26
ACTUAL ICON: Full Fellowship
REASONS: This is a fun and difficult quest, but it’s not a lvl 22 quest the goblins respawn fast, you are always fighting 2 – 4 Elite lvl 20 -22 Goblins, and one play needs to pick up a statue and stand there and do nothing, so you are already down 1 person in a fellowship. I completed this quest at lvl 27. The party was 24+

Raising the Wargs Ire
CATEGORY: Lone-lands (Forsaken Inn)
JOURNAL LEVEL: 25
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25
ACTUAL ICON: Solo
REASONS: Yeah, i didn’t change anything… The only question I have here is why you have a lvl 25 kill warg quest coming out of the Forsaken Inn? Once the Iron-Jaw quest is fixed you will have two quests, the same level, to go kill wargs in the same area…

Reclaim the Lost Maiden (aka The Red Maid)
CATEGORY: Garth Agarwen
JOURNAL LEVEL: 35
JOURNAL ICON: fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 37+
ACTUAL ICON: fellowship
REASONS: This quest is far too difficult for a level 35 group.

Retake Weathertop
CATEGORY: Lone Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 20
JOURNAL ICON: Fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 25+
ACTUAL ICON: Full Fellowship
REASONS: The final fight is insane. Overall, it’s rather tough, but this is one of those quests that really reinforces “holy trinity” gameplay…to the point of people feeling classes are required for healing AND power regen. I’ve yet to find a good fellowship to complete this one…the final fight ends up sending people off to solo after the first few wipes.

Scales Menace
CATEGORY: Angmar
JOURNAL LEVEL: 48
JOURNAL ICON: solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 48
ACTUAL ICON: fellowship
REASONS: These are 47/48 elite drakes… not quite soloable.

Seigecraft
Category: North Downs
Journal Level: 34
Journal Icon: fellowship
Actual Level: 37
Actual Icon: fellowship
Reasons: to complete this quest, you basically have to slaughter the whole camp (quickly to avoid respawns). A group of level 34s will wipe quickly up against a group of level 33-34 elites, and even if they manage to take the first group, the respawns will kill them on the second group. Quest rewards need to match the difficulty.

Spirits of Morgoth
CATEGORY: Angmar
JOURNAL LEVEL: 48
JOURNAL ICON: solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 48
ACTUAL ICON: fellowship
REASONS: Tons of elite mobs around. Unless you’re a burglar, I’m not too sure how this is supposed to be soloable.

Terror in the Skies
CATEGORY: Lone Lands
JOURNAL LEVEL: 26
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 20
ACTUAL ICON: solo
REASONS: I got all of the eyes from the level 18-20 crows southwest of Ost Guruth- I saw one lvl 25 warg, but he was easy to avoid. There are also level 18-20 half orcs prowling around, but they were within a level 20 quest.

The Forgotten Company
CATEGORY: Fornost
JOURNAL LEVEL: 36
JOURNAL ICON: fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 36
ACTUAL ICON: fellowship
REASONS: The problem with this quest is not levels. The problem is the number of items required and the inability to share item locations. Each member of the fellowship needs 20 arrowheads from the skeleton piles. That means in a full fellowship, 120 skeleton piles are needed so that each member can finish the quest in the instance. That’s ridiculous. Make the piles so that members can share looting them (like the redeemed wight quest in the same instance), or drastically reduce the number of arrowheads required.

The Shadow Falls
CATEGORY: North Downs
JOURNAL LEVEL: 42
JOURNAL ICON: fellowship
ACTUAL LEVEL: 42*
ACTUAL ICON: fellowship*
REASONS: *This would be a fine estimation of level, if not for the last room before the last boss.

We did this last night with a group of level 38 to 40, plus a level 44 minstrel. The boss fight was hard, but we managed. The problem was the last room before going up to the boss. The first pull in that room brings 6 or more TOUGH shades and a flock of bats. We wiped 3 times in that room before we were able to whittle them down to a manageable population. All night, we did not wipe anywhere else, and we pretty much knocked out all the Fornost quests, fighting every boss in order. We had some other close calls, but nothing so devastating as this one room.

Also, this quest is very long and involved and takes up too much inventory with the 4 non-stacking hilts. It should be split up into multiple quests. Another problem is that the key needed to shortcut to the last boss only drops once, from the third boss. This is a major pain for such a big place where so many quest are done behind a locked door. Please make the keys drop from each boss, or at least make the third one drop multiple keys.

The Silent Judge
CATEGORY: Angmar
JOURNAL LEVEL: 44
JOURNAL ICON: Solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 44 is fine
ACTUAL ICON: Small Fellowship
REASONS: The Silent Judge is a signature mob with 2 normal mob adds, one of which heals. Pretty impossible to take on solo. A group of 3 works pretty well. Also just getting to the judge has you taking out spawns of 2 or 3 normal mobs on a fairly quick (3 minute?) respawn timer. If you are solo I doubt you can move fast enough to progress through the city he is in. There is also a level 45 elite who spawns ally spiders that attack you. He is pretty much death for any solo player or even a small fellowship without healing. However due to the way he paths through the city he can be avoided, so I’ll stick with a small fellowship recommendation for this one.

Weakening the Tide
Category: North Downs
Journal Level: 34
Journal Icon: fellowship
Actual Level: 37
Actual Icon: fellowship
Reasons: see above – same area, same respawns. Additionally, these guys only spawn in certain areas, and if another team is doing the same quest, this one takes for ever to complete. 20 bonespeakers takes minimum 2 hours, even doing with other quests. Quest rewards also need to match difficulty.

Worse than Death
CATEGORY: Angmar
JOURNAL LEVEL: 48
JOURNAL ICON: solo
ACTUAL LEVEL: 48
ACTUAL ICON: fellowship
REASONS: Tons of elite mobs around. Unless you’re a burglar, I’m not too sure how this is supposed to be soloable.