Saturday 7 September 2013

Vendor Trash. Or Is It?

As you play along you'll find your bags filling up with all manner of things, Bent Claws, Dirty Filth, Broken Shortswords etc. and assume you've collected LotROs versions of vendor trash.  You'll pull up at a vendor, ready to have this cheery fellow purchase all this junk and free up your precious storage space.  Then as you mouse hover over an item, set to sell it, you'll notice red text near the bottom of the item tooltip "This item may be turned in for Tasks".  To your dismay (or delight), you'll find this text on every single snippet and part you've looted.

What are tasks?  Where are they obtained and turned in?  Do they really want all this stuff and how much of it?  What do I get out of it?  These, if you're like me, are the questions that will immediately come to mind.  So today we'll discuss Tasks and Vendor Trash.
 

What Are Tasks?

Simply put, Tasks are LotROs version of daily quests.  They are turn-in quests which are available in a variety of locations.  Tasks will have you collect 10 items and turn them in for a reward.  Each Task has a minimum level attached to it, and you can only accept and turn in Tasks within 4 levels of your character.  For example, the daily Task Dirty Filth given in Hobbiton has a minimum level of 8.  You can accept this Task between character level 8 and 12 only.

You can obtain and turn in the same quest multiple times, or a variety of quests, but you have an initial daily limit of 5 tasks. You can increase the number of daily tasks you can complete (to an absolute limit of 15) in two ways: completing Task Deeds and purchasing an increased Task limit from the Store.

Task Deeds

There are 5 Deeds associated with Tasks:

  • The Up and Comer - complete 100 tasks
  • The Go-Getter - complete 200 tasks
  • The Busy Bee - complete 300 tasks
  • The Eager Beaver - complete 400 tasks
  • The Hot Shot - complete 500 tasks
Completion of each Deed increases your daily Task limit by one, awards you a title (example "The Up and Comer" and grants you 5 TP.  Completion of The Busy Bee, The Eager Beaver and The Hot Shot also award a unique cloak.  Completion of all these Deeds will bring your total daily Task limit to ten.

Purchasing Increased Task Limit

If you are disinclined to wait until you've completed the aforementioned Deeds or you've completed them and wish to increase your limit to the maximum of 15, you can purchase an increased Task limit from the Store.  Well, not directly, but this is how you do it.

First you must purchase tokens called Mithril Coins from the Store.  These are sold in lots of 5, 25, 100 and 250.  As with purchasing TP, the unit price of Mithril coins decreases as you purchase larger lots.  The price breakdown is as follows:
  • 5 Mithril coins - 50 TP (10 TP each)
  • 25 Mithril coins - 250 TP (10 TP each)
  • 100 Mithril coins - 850 TP (8.5 TP each)
  • 250 Mithril coins - 2000 TP (8 TP each)
Mithril coins function as currency for a variety of things, but we'll address the other uses another time.

The cost of a single daily Task update is 20 Mithril coins.  Under the old, now redundant system, you could purchase a maximum of 5 upgrades to your Task limit.  I have not yet been able to unearth sufficient information to be able to determine if this is still the case, or whether you can now purchase 10 upgrades using Mithril coins.  Frankly, I don't care to spend the TP to find out, so I will go on assuming that 5 purchases are the maximum.  If anyone knows differently, please feel free to let us know.

So, going on, we'll assume that you start with a daily limit of 5 Tasks, can earn 5 more from Deeds and purchase 5 more from the Store (at a cost of 100 Mithril coins or 850 TP) for a maximum of 15 daily Tasks.

Resetting your Task Limit

Once you've turned in your daily Tasks to your limit, you do have the ability to reset it, and turn in more Tasks that same day.  You can reset your daily Tasks 5 times, allowing you to complete a maximum of 75 Tasks (15 x 5) each and every day.  There is, of course, a cost associated with this, 5 Mithril coins per reset to be precise.  So, 5 resets will set you back 25 Mithril coins (250 TP) every day you choose to do it.  Rather expensive in  my opinion, as that equates to around $2.50.

Where are Tasks Obtained and Turned In?

Tasks are obtained from Task Boards which are located in several locations.  Boards can be identified as small billboards with a quest ring hovering over top.  The one of immediate concern (for the new player) are the Boards located in Ered Luin, the Shire, Breeland and the Lone Lands. 

  • The Ered Luin board can be found in Gondamon, the small Dwarven city located at roughly the midpoint of the zone (coords 20, 97).
  • The Shire board is located in the centre of Hobbiton at roughly coords 31, 71
  • In the Breeland, the board can be found in Bree in the Market Square at coords 30, 51
  • The Lone Lands has three boards, each of which cover a different level range
    • the Forsaken Inn in the far west of the zone at coords 34, 40.7 for levels 20 -27
    • Ost Guruth north of the road in the Eastern half of the zone at coords 31, 29.5 for levels 24 to 31
    • and Barad Dhorn in Agamaur, beyond the Red Pass at coords 29.6, 27.3 for levels 28 to 34
The quest text for each Task will outline what is needed, the quantity required and who wants it.  Generally the NPC to whom you turn in the completed Task is standing in the immediate area of the Task Board.

Do They Really Want All This Stuff and What Do I Get Out of It?

Yes and No and things.  To be precise, yes, the Tasks really require 10 Bent Claws, for example.  No, not every item tagged with the red text will actually have an associated Task.  When you turn in a Task you will be rewarded with an amount of XP and a reputation increase of 300 with the local or associated faction.  Some items can be used for Tasks in more than one zone and at different levels.  For example Dirty Wings can be used in  Ered Luin for a Task between levels 8 and 12, and also in the Shire for a Task between levels 10 and 14.

To aid you in your decision of what to keep and what to vendor and which faction to work for, I have 2 lists for you.  The first list is an exhaustive list of items required for tasks in all zones up to and including the Lone Lands, organized alphabetically, and with information on the level range of the associate Task, and the zone in which the Task is offered and turned in.  The second list is a list of Tasks organized by  the zone in which it is granted, and the level at which you will be offered the Task.

Task Items Alphabetically


Please note that there is overlap between zones, and I have not addressed North Downs (level 20 - 34), Evendim (level 28 - 42), or the Trollshaws (level 30 - 46).  These zones are completely accessible to VIP players, but must be purchased by F2P and Premium players and I know that not all players will do all zones.  To this end I have created a page found on the blog header which contains a complete exhaustive list of all task items.

If some or all of the other zones are of no immediate interest to you, you may assume that any other trash-type item in your bags is complete vendor trash and sell it.

Task Items by Zone



In Conclusion

So, there you have it.  Tasks are dailies that reward XP and reputation with a number of different factions.  You can increase your Task limit and reset it, for a cost.  You can complete Deeds and earn cosmetic rewards, titles, Turbine Points and Task limit increases.  Or, you can ignore the whole Task system and sell it all to a vendor.  It's entirely up to you, but forewarned is forearmed. 

Oh, one last point of interest; Task items are not soulbound.  You can save them up and pass them off to any of your other characters so that you may direct and control who earns which reputations.  Earning reputation does have it's rewards, but that topic is for another day.  Enjoy.

Cheers,
E

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