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 make life a little easier, I thought I would share with some knowledge about the crafts. This is a basic guide only as I thought it would be beneficial to have this to give new players a little insight as to what craft, if any, they would like to choose.

Selecting a craft isn’t easy as a new player, some will do it depending on their class so that they can make better armour, jewellery or weapons. This allows them to improve their statistics but some will choose a craft on what they like to do or their race. Let us look at what the crafts are first.

There are Seven (7) Vocations in the Crafting world – Armourer, Armsman, Explorer, Historian, Tinker, Woodsman and Yeoman.

Each of these have three (3) Professions which can be a mix of – Prospector, Metalsmith, Tailor, Weaponsmith, Woodworker, Forester, Farmer, Scholar, Cook or Jeweller.

Some vocations are difficult and expensive to advance while others are easy and the table below shows each vocation and their professions.



“Nice to know what profession goes with vocation but, what does each of them do and how do I know what I want to do?”

Great question and I am so happy you asked. Let us break the above table down further. Below is a vocation table with the vocation and what can be made by that vocation.



The next table is the Profession and what can be done by that profession.

Take a look at the professions needed for the Vocation. Let us look at the Explorer – they need the professions of Forester, Prospector, Tailor. When you take on this profession, inferior tools are automatically placed in your inventory.
After equipping the respective tool, Forester is easy because as you walk, run or skip through Middle Earth you will find certain branches that you can collect to turn into planks. To do this though, please bear in mind that you will have to buy Lumps of Wax from the Supplier or Profession Vendor (These will be explained in our next guide).
A Forrester can also collect hides from animals that you kill which can be turned into leather and progress this profession through the levels. If you don’t want to spend money at this point, you can just use hides to progress through the Forester level and sell branches that you have collected at the Auction House (AH).

Prospector is easy but only has the option of collecting ore, also known as nodes, as you find it through the land. There is no second item that a prospector can find to progress through. There is enough ore, however, to progress through the levels. There will always be one type of ore that isn’t as abundant however. In the starting areas, where you find copper, you will also find tin. The tin in this case is less prevalent.

The third profession is Tailor. For an Explorer, tailoring, although a little time consuming, is relatively easy as they can farm the hides needed to turn into the leather needed for tailoring. Please note though, you will need a few hundred hides to level this profession

I would not call the Explorer on a whole a hard vocation to undertake. It is also the easiest to make money from if you sell the materials (mats) you collect at the AH.

Now let’s look at the Armourer – they need professions of Prospector, Metalsmith and Tailor.

Prospector is easy because as you walk, run or skip through Middle Earth, you will come across nodes which you can collect as I mentioned above .
Metalsmith, because you mine the ore needed to advance this profession, it will take time to progress through the levels, but it isn’t hard.

Tailor is the hardest profession for the Armourer. They are unable to collect hides nor turn them into leather and so if they want to progress this profession, they will need to rely on the AH for their supply of leather or kin members who can do this for them. To progress the Tailor profession in this instance, could prove very costly and time consuming.

Finally, let’s look at the Historian. To me this is an example of the hardest vocation. The professions needed are Farmer, Scholar and Weaponsmith.

If you are a patient person and not in a hurry, then Farming will suit you. Farming takes a lot of time and does not suit all people. You plant the crops, harvest the crops and then turn them into usable ingredients for cooks to use or sell themat the AH.

Scholar is much harder. A scholar needs to find their items throughout Middle Earth. They don’t seem to drop in abundance and can be found in jars and urns. Also when killing certain mobs, Scholar items can be picked up as drops. The problem I have found with this profession is that there are not enough drops to level quickly and it takes a lot of time collecting the items you need.

The last profession of Weaponsmith is for the Scholar what Tailor is for the Armourer. They will need to buy from the AH or have awesome kinship mates donating the items they need to advance as they cannot collect or craft any ores.

When selecting a craft, there are other things that may be useful to consider as well. Some Professions can craft Housing Items or Reputation Items depending on the crafting level achieved.

“This is getting confusing…” I hear you say. Yes and no. Below is a table to help guide you through the “Other Crafting benefits” maze but please remember that what you can craft will depend on your crafting level and your reputation already gained with a faction.

Also, it is not that important that you know all of this when you first start out, but I thought it might be handy to have. If you want to make tables down the track, then there is no point becoming a tailor, for example.



Please Note: The above table is not a comprehensive guide. It is merely scratching the surface and it is there only as a guide to help you decide on a vocation.

More extensive Housing and Reputation crafting guides will be supplied later as the purpose here is just a beginner’s guide to the crafting system. The next part of the Crafting series will take a look at where you can learn your craft and from whom.

More Guides to Lotro found at: http://lotroplayers.mymiddleearth.com/category/theacademy/new-player-guides/