Lotro - Lord of the Rings Online Game Gold & Crafting

There are benefits to crafting beyond simply being able to craft your own armour, pots or weapons.
In my experience the best way to craft once aquiring a Supreme Master level is for own personal use. There are many items that once crafted can be sold in the Auction Hall (AH) for a nice sum of cash. However, as your crafting tier raises you will be able to aquire higher level materials. Materials can in many vocations provide you with a far better ingame income than the finished product itself. I will go into further detail with that later on in this guide.
To get started one must first decide which vocation you want your character to have. Each vocation consists of three different professions in which you can master. I have listed each of those vocations below along with their professions. The first thing you should do is choose a vocation that best suits your interest. You can change your vocation at any time, however you will lose 'ALL' progress and recipes memorized in any profession that is not available in your new vocation.

Vocation...................Professions

• Armourer ....Metalsmith * Prospector * Tailor


• Armsman ....Prospector * Weaponsmith * Woodworker


• Explorer ......Forester * Prospector * Tailor


• Historian .....Scholar * Farmer * Weaponsmith


• Tinker .........Cook * Jeweller * Prospector


• Woodsman ..Farmer * Forester * Woodworker


• Yoeman .......Cook * Farmer * Tailor

Now that you have aquired yourself a profession, its time to get started. If you chose a profession that includes Forester or Prospector your off to an easy start. As you gather your wood and/or ore simply treat the wood or smelt the ore for your tier advancement. After smelting and treating if you are not planning to use these materials for another trade list them in the Auction Hall. AH prices are very fair when it comes to materials. If you have Forester you can also treat the hides that you pick up from defeated beasts. Tailor or Woodworker trades will require the hides and the treated wood for use. Once you have achieved your desired levels on your crafting tiers you can sell the finished products in the AH as well.
When it comes to making gold in Lotro its really quite simple. Below are few tips to use while out exploring.

• Never vender purple or teal items


• While crafting for tier advancement its best to make components, Rep items or Decorations until that tier is mastered


• Any unused materials should be sold in appropriate stacks

Another important factor is to decide which is more important to you. Do you want lots of Gold and don't care if your crafting advances? or Do you want to advance your crafting while making as much money as possible in the process?
If your choice is Gold only. I would suggest choosing the Explorer vocation. This gives you Prospector, Forester and Tailor. Use the Prospector skill to gather ore. Sell them as ore stacks or smelt them and sell as ingots. Either way ores generally pay off well in the AH. Use the Forester skill to gather wood while your out getting your ore. Either sell the wood as it is or treat and sell in treated stacks. Wood also pays out very well in the AH. In addition to those two items Foresters can also boil any hides dropped by mobs, these can be sold as well for a good chunk of change.
If your looking to advance your crafting 'while' making money, you have virtually endless options. Anytime that your out gathering your crafting materials any materials that you are not going to use will sell. Materials always sell easily in the AH.
In June book 8 is schedualed to be released this will have a huge bonus for this type of money making for materials. After its release if you pick up an item and move your cursor over the item it will tell you what craft uses that item. This will be very helpful in knowing what item you want to keep and what item you want to sell.

Whatever you decide to do as a craft or for making money. It's always best to do it honostly. Why risk getting your account banned after spending countless hours building a character. It isn't worth the risk and personally I think it takes away from the game experience. There is nothing more annoying to a lotro gamer than to be spammed to death by gold spammers each time you set foot in Bree.
Other ways some of the gamers I know make thier Money:

• Gathering ore and selling either plain or smelted into ingots


• Collecting third age and second age weapons in Moria to put in AH


• Selling finished craft products. I.e. armour, tools, weapons, potions.


• Selling recipes is another excellent way to make money in game. Recipes are dropped by mobs of ever level.


• Selling reputation items can pay off in a big way as they usually bring good coin amounts.


• A freind of mine swears by Cooking and scholar skills. Food and pots sell often and for good amounts of coins.

Crafting is a good choice because you need money for things such as a house, a mount, and good armour and weapons.
Eventually you may want to fight in the Ettenmoors or Hard Mode instances in Moria. For these things you will need good armour and weapons and unless you can make them, they will cost you.