Given the recent popularity of Amazon's new prequel series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, broader interest in J.R.R. Tolkien's luminary fantasy epic continues to surge in 2023. The world of Arda is robust in history, and as such, its scope spans well beyond The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, making it a ripe setting for an MMORPG like The Lord of the Rings Online.
Coincidentally, the 2007 MMORPG is an important piece of video game history, sitting directly in the game design gap between World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14, and if you haven't tried it (now available for free on Steam), it might just scratch an RPG-itch you didn't know you had. LOTRO features a seamless world full of handcrafted locations and lovingly-designed characters, but it's also far more story-focused than WoW, featuring a lore-rich campaign written in Tolkien's prose. It's well-regarded among Tolkien fans for doing justice to the good professor's tightly-woven mythology, minus a few concessions here and there -- like the magic-slinging Rune-keeper class which absolutely bends Tolkien lore -- but that's a conversation for another time.
Regardless, nearly 16 years after its release, it features most of the landmass of Middle-earth, spanning Hobbiton to Orodruin (and many locations in between). In November 2022, LOTRO’s new player experience was refreshed with the addition of two new zones in the excellent Before the Shadow expansion pack. That's an awful lot of game, especially if you're a newbie who doesn't know Beleriand from the Bay of Belfalas.
Luckily, there are a ton of helpful plugins to download and install via the highly convenient Plugin Compendium desktop app, and they're quite easy to set up once you’re in-game. Here are some of the most essential and least invasive plugins that fit naturally into LOTRO’s basic interface and add greatly to LOTRO's quality of life:
Setting up Plugin Compendium
Before you get started with any plugins at all, you’ll need to download and install the latest version of The Lord of the Rings Online. You can set up a free account via Steam, but make sure to log in at least once – this way, you can ensure your client is patched up to the latest version.
Once this is done, you’ll want to head over to the Plugin Compendium download page on the LoTROInterface website. As an aside, this website is where basically all of your LOTRO plugin needs can be met from here on out, but you won’t need to download anything else directly from the website for now. Just click the big blue “Download” button on the right-hand side of the page above “How to Install (FAQ)”.
Extract the downloaded .zip file to any local folder, then run the PluginCompendiumSetup installer and go through the steps until finished. Once it’s installed, you should be able to find the app listed as Plugin Compendium on your desktop or search bar. Mac and Linux users may find luck with the separate Mac/Linux version of the Plugin Compendium app.
Once you open up the Plugin Compendium app, you can easily find, download, and install each of the plugins listed in this article. Simply tab over to the “Add New Plugins” tab, checkmark each one you want, then press the “Add” button on the right side of the interface. After everything is installed here, you can navigate directly to the LOTRO client and begin playing. There’s a bit more finagling to be done, however, since you must enable each plugin manually from the “Manage Plugins” menu nested inside of the in-game character select screen.
Be sure to avoid activating anything other than the properly-named plugins you’ve manually downloaded and installed via the Plugin Compendium app, since some items that appear in the “Manage Plugins” menu are actually resource nodes generated by plugins that have no direct use in and of themselves – and you may screw things up by turning those on. They generally have some sort of warning message attached, so don’t worry too much here. Just activate the plugins you want and ignore anything that instructs you not to touch it.
Now that you understand how to install and set up plugins via Plugin Compendium and LOTRO’s in-game plugin manager, let’s get into the essential plugins you should absolutely try out as a new LOTRO player in 2023.
Terrain Map + MoorMap
One of the best parts of experiencing The Lord of the Rings Online for the first time is scouring its expansive world map, which now covers much of Eriador, Rhovanion, Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor. Unfortunately, it isn’t all that intuitive. There are two plugins that, when combined together, can fix basically all of LOTRO’s map woes.
First up is Terrain Map, which features a Google Map-esque geographic map of Middle-earth, showing you detailed information about the geography of the world around you. It also includes detailed tooltips and a highly customizable filter and search function, allowing you to quickly find certain NPCs and areas.
MoorMap does something similar but converts the original world map into an information-rich interface. You can even leave your own annotations on top of the map, for instance if you find a secret treasure cache or if you want to remember the location of a named quest NPC.
Granted, Terrain Map and MoorMap are two separate entities, but they’re designed with integration features that allow you to quickly share information between the two. You can leave an annotation in Terrain Map that appears in the MoorMap interface, and vice versa, making it so much more useful than the regular world map.
Prime Plugin (Prime Bags)
Prime Plugin is a user interface overhaul that affects almost everything, but it may be a little overwhelming for a new player. In any case, you should opt to use the Prime Bags module of the Prime Plugin, which collates each of your separate bags into one inventory screen and categorizes each of your items by type. It also tells you how many remaining empty spots you have left in each of your bags, and it even includes a button that conveniently unequips all of your gear.
WhereToPlay
Middle-earth is quite large, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might get swept off to. That is, unless you’ve installed the WhereToPlay mod, which serves you a complete list of locations across the world, ordered by level. It’s color-coded to give you an approximate sense of which locations you can begin exploring at your character’s current level, and which locations may be a bit too close to the sun – for now, anyway. This can help you keep track of your progress and may stop the sheer size of the world from feeling too overwhelming when you’re getting your bearings.
Travel Window II
As you play through LOTRO’s campaign, depending on which class you play – such as the Hunter, which is given quite a few fast-travel skills – you will gradually accumulate abilities to quickly transport yourself to other areas of the world. Travel Window II compiles each of these abilities into a single window which you can quickly toggle with the click of an icon. At least early on it’s nice to remember that you can cast “Return Home” to teleport back to your last-activated milestone once per hour if you’re feeling lost.
TitanBar
TitanBar is an information-rich quickbar that sits at the very top of LOTRO’s interface, showing things like your character’s currency, backpack, an icon to access Terrain Map/MoorMap, time of day, and a few other things. The best part is that it’s entirely non-invasive, sitting naturally in the base interface. In any case, you can quietly collapse it into a small tab and expand it back out to its full size whenever you feel like it.
Deed Tracker
Deed Tracker does exactly what it sounds like. The base game’s deed tracker window is difficult to parse, especially if you’re trying to fast-track certain rewards or titles. The Deed Tracker plugin simplifies everything down to a single window which can quickly show you everything you need to know about each of your deeds, and it even shows you deeds you haven’t unlocked yet. It also tells you the maximum number of premium LOTRO points (currency spendable in the cash shop) you can earn by completing each deed in a given category.
WelcomeToMiddleEarth
WelcomeToMiddleEarth congratulates you each time you level up, showing you a full list of skills your character can learn at your current level in addition to any upcoming skills you’ll be able to learn in the next few levels. It’s a nice touch, especially if you aren’t too sure if you’ll enjoy playing a certain class early on. Plus, being congratulated with a message box each time you gain a level adds to the overall experience and immersion.
These eight plugins should suffice for any new LOTRO player looking to improve their experience early on, but there are plenty of other plugins out there to check out within the Plugin Compendium catalog. Experiment and enjoy!
