Starting new. anyone currently playing? compositions? tips?

Havent played since 2007, but i'm looking to go all out through end game. I've always wanted to experience lotro, but have been too engaged in WoW to make time until now.

I've been sifting thoroughly through everything i could find to do with boxing and group compositions, but there is a lack of discussion regarding current patch data. It's been an issue for me to find out what class buffs stack and which dont, im still unsure about most of it. I eventually decided on going with 3 captains(one blue/yellow/red) and 3 hunters. Hopefully that is a decent 6man group. I tend to enjoy boxing same class/spec group mostly, but mixed groups aren't out of the question if they arent too clunky. Some classes that i just dont enjoy are runekeepers, wardens (unless solo), and beorning.

I created 3 captains and played around on the target dummies with /follow /assist and /IWT (/use), and wasnt very happy with the results. It seems IWT has a very short range in this game, maybe im doing it wrong, but it seemed smoother to just not use IWT and to just use the old method of walking through the mob and turning around. It made me reconsider going all ranged, butt im not sure how much content could be done with an all ranged group. Would 1 captain tanking for 5 hunters be able to clear everything? Would the captain have enough healing to keep himself and the hunters up in 6mans?

Im very excited about playing, hoping to get some answers.

I scrapped my former IWT setup and just went with assist leader on all my melee while also using the in game option to move and turn towards enemies when attacking, and this method is much much better for me. So with that i will continue to run 3 captains.

Still finding it difficult to get information on stacking buffs and abilities. My first healing spell is stacking and so is it's hot, which is really nice so far for an aoe group heal.

Played LoTRO a fair bit some time ago. My experience is that it's entertaining for a while but it's a huge grind and expensive to box if you want a full fellowship. You're looking at something like $150 USD per account to unlock all expansion content and then another $15 USD per month per account if you want VIP benefits.

There's also the issue with the way the client and plugins work in LoTRO. It's worse than vanilla WoW. You can't effectively track DoT's or debuffs on enemy targets, there's no [nochanneling] option for channeled spells and the way the spell queue (that can't be disabled) works is that if you push another ability too quickly it overwrites the previous cast so classes with complex rotations like wardens or loremasters are pretty difficult to box effectively. It's easy enough at low level but when you start doing challenging content with enrage timers and mechanics that will wipe you quickly if not dealt with properly the lack of functionality becomes a problem.

Also, just as a heads up before you invest too much time, you'll have a hard time with 3 captains as you level up. They're great tanks and have amazing group buffs that enhance the rest of the fellowships damage but their personal DPS is extremely poor and they have almost no AoE damage.

LoTRO has fairly poor class balance. If you want a DPS character at end-game the only real option is hunter. Support classes and tanks deal around 20,000 DPS, all of the other DPS classes are anywhere from 35,000-80,000 with RK being at the top end of the other DPS classes. Even a poorly played hunter with average gear can deal 75,000+ and a well played hunter in raid tier can parse 120,000+. 3 Captains will be doing half the damage of a single hunter at end-game and actually be less survivable due to being stacked and dealing with cleaves, GTAE boss skills, etc. You'll hit enrage timers on any end-game instance.

yah getting the full game is expensive for 6 accounts. I found the legendary servers as well and they seem perfect for new comers. It's basically a classic server and only requires a sub to access. They are slowly releasing expansions over time, currently on the first expansion, i believe, so it looks great for people looking to experience the game for the first time. Probably going to reroll on there and see where it takes me.