Loremaster - Pets

So you are a Loremaster and you want a cute pet?  

In this guide you can read how to accomplish this!

Introduction

Cute pets
Maybe you have heard rumors that some people in LOTRO have cute pets. Well, that rumor is absolutely true! Nowadays, there are 3 kinds of pets in the game:

Pets for the Loremaster only:
1) combat pets: pets who will assist you for fighting mobs. These pets you will gain by leveling, like the bear, raven, lynx, bog-guardian, spirit of nature and the sabre-tooth.
2) non-combat pets: pets just for show-off during parties and server events. You can summon them by doing the rescuing of animals quest in Agamaur (you get this quest from Radagast, see below).

Pets for every class (press shift+C to see them on your lotro game screen):
3) cosmetic pets: pets you can obtain by doing festival quests, buying tomes at the store or donating money to some good cause (like the Extra Life action in 2014, for obtaining the Ghost Bear and the Little Tundra Cub). The act exactly like the non-combat pets of the Loremaster, so their only purpose is to impress other players. There are many cosmetic pets these days, a selection of them is described below:

• Huorns: are a possible reward for completing incremental quests in the Entwood or by bartering 375 Fangorn Leaves with Quickbeam. There are 3 different kinds of Huorn pets.
• Chickens: are bartered during Hobnanigans festival (you will get an automatic questring if it is active) for either a single rare token or a sum of at least 150 Hobnanigans tokens. There are 6 different kinds of chickens, the most expensive ones can be bartered for 2160 Hobnanigans tokens.
• Shrews: 4 different kind of Tome of the Shrew could be obtained doing the stomping the shrew quest during the spring festival of 2014. Maybe this Tome will reappear at spring 2015.
• Swans of West Gondor: 2 kinds of Swans (black and white) by doing treasure Hunter quests. One night Swan can be bought from the store.
• Cave Claws:  6 kinds of Cave Claws doing Treasure hunting
• Frogs: 5 different kinds of Frogs

Obtaining a Loremaster non-combat pet
To obtain a non-combat pet, you must be a Loremaster. All other classes can only obtain cosmetic pets (see above). There are quite a few non-combat pets in the game: a total of 9 different species is known at this moment (October 2014). Remember that you can summon only one pet, either a combat pet, a non-combat pet or a cosmetic pet.

The pictures below show all the LM (loremaster) non combat-pets of the game:

My non-combat LM pets - the squirrel and frog are absent here

Oh, there they are!

Quest requirements for non-conbat pets
If you're around level 30 you can get your first non-combat pet as a Loremaster: a Hare. Its a cute little rodent which will follow you everywhere, just for fun. If you want to have such a wonderful pet, you must ensure that you have completed the epic book quest 2, called "The Red Maid". That quest takes place in the Lone-lands, in the enchanted area of Agamaur. Maybe you remember this area: those horrible ruins in the very-scary blood-red swamp. 
After you have completed book 2, go to your Loremaster trainer, which you can find for example in Breetown (in the alley), Michel Delving (in the training house), in Celondim (at the harbor) or any other place. Your trainer will ask you to talk with Radagast the Brown, a powerful wizard who is fond (or mad?) of animals. He lives in a Tower insinde the ruins of Agamaur (see picture below). You must help him to find three of his beloved animals and lead them safely to Radagast's Tower.

To the Tower of Radagast and rescue some animals!
Radagast's Tower is located in the Ruins of Agamaur, which are to the east of Ost Guruth in the Lone Lands. Just go left (east) after you leave the ruin at the main stairs (south entrance) and travel some time until you see a red swamp in the distance. If you look carefully to the north, you will see a gap in the northern mountain range. Behind this gap you will find the dangerous ruins of Agamaur (at level 30 they are pretty dangerous!).

Road from Ost Guruth to Agamaur

1. Enter the mountain gap to Radagast's Tower

2. After passing the gorge, turn left to Radagast's Tower

3. The gate to Radagast's Tower

After you have entered the mountain path, turn left and you will find a camp (Eglain) and the tower of Radagast. Go inside the tower and speak with Radagast, you will get a quest to locate three animals, the so-called Lost animals. 


The first to be found is the Hare, and she is located in a hare hole at the southern part of Haragmar, the red swamp of the Circle of Blood you just passed to enter Radagast's Tower. In the old days all the animals were located in the ruins of Agamaur, but the seemed to have fled to a far saver hiding place.

Pet missions
You have to complete 3 pet finding and rescueing missions before you get your first pet. Only if you bring all the lost animals back to Radagast the Brown, you will get the passive skill Friend of the Wild. This skill will enable you get some cute little animals. You can summon them like a comvat pet, and take them with you into the enchanted world of Lotro's Middle Earth.



1st mission: find the hare 
The first mission is to find a hare, which is located (these days) in the southern part of the Circle of Blood (Haragmar). You passed that bloody swamp already when entering the ruins of Agamaur. Just go back to the swam with the red pools and locate the hare, it's pretty simple these days... The goal is also very simple: find the hare's hole and bring him back to Radagast as soon as possible (within 5 minutes). The hare will follow you at your jpurney back to Radagast. Just keep some animals and undead away from that poor animal, she is quickly frightened! Don't be afraid when you don't see the hare if you are inside the ruin. As soon as you enter Radagast's Tower you can click the Wizard and get our 2nd quest.

2nd mission: find the turtle 
Your next quest is to find a turtle, who is also located in the red swamp of haragmar. Go outside the ruins, and locate this poor thing between two fallen pillars in the red swamp. Bring him safely back to Radagast within 5 minutes.

3rd mission: find the sparrow
Your last quest will be the lost sparrow. You can find this little songbird in Harloeg, which is the swamp far to the southeast of Radagast's Tower. It is a long run to this place, but if you take care it will not be a big problem to locate the sparrow. Bring this little bird back to Radagast as soon as possible, within 20 minutes. 
Spoiler: 
...  you can even call your horse these days and race back to Radagast ...Why on Middle Earth did they make this quest so simple these days?

If you have completed the 3rd task, you have finished the pet-finding tasks! 

The rewards of this petfinding quest series are:

• New title: Friend of the Wild 
• New Passive Skill: Friend of the Wild 
• New Skill: Rabbit -Speech (ehhhh, wasn't it a hare? 

Activating your cute pet skill 
You can call your pet by opening the Character Panel, pressing the Skills button, select a a pet-speech icon from your skill list and drag it into your quickslot bar.

Activating your non-combat pet in the quickslot bar

Pet commands
Pets can be awkward to handle. Once called, you may have some trouble by putting them away and call your combat pet, like your lynx, bear or raven. You have to click on the petskill button to release it. You can also enter a command in the chatline to let a non-combat vanish:
/pet release [enter] 

If you want another name for the pet, just type:
/pet rename NAME [enter] 

Type any name you want on the place of NAME, like: /pet rename Oscar [enter], and your pet will have the name Oscar.

By typing /pet [enter] you will see all the pet commands, if you forget them. Remember that the non-aggressive pets can only be summoned, released or renamed. No other commands will work on them.

More non-combat pets for the loremaster
Beside the hare, there are many more non-combat pets to be found in LOTRO's Middle Earth. To obtain them, you need a Tome to activate the pet. These tomes can be occasionally found (rare drop!) as a loot item on Bosses in level 45+ areas. There are 8 pet Tomes in the game. Known drop places of the Tomes are the bosses in Goblin-town, Barad Gularan, Helegrod and Carn Dûm. The endboss of Fornost will drop also a Tome.There are definitely some more places, like the Watcher in the Water (Moria), but these places are the best known (sorry, old school). A well known boss that will regularly drop a pet Tome is the Cargûl in Angmar.  They can be found within the Carn Dum instance outside the gate of Tármunn Súrsa (at 12.7N, 33.6W). 
Another one roams the Angmarim village in Himbar, east of the Carn Dum. he can be found in Bail Cátharnakh, roughly at 10.2N, 27.1W. At high level you can solo this Cargûl pretty easily and he respawns after 5 minutes.

A Cargûl in Angmar can drop a pet Tome

There is also a (very) rare chance to obtain pet Tomes as a drop from high-level humanoid mobs throughout the world. But I wouldn't count on it if you are actively searching for them.
There was a time that you could buy a Tome for 250/350 TP in the LOTRO store (price varies), but it seems obsolete these days (checked at 17 October 2014).

Turtle and sparrow
After the hare, the sparrow and the turtle are relatively easy to obtain. If you have enough reputation standing, you can obtain them at a reputation vendor in Rivendell (at the elven refuge Imlad Gelair, south of the house of Elrond) and Michel Delving (inside the Mathom House). The sparrow is really a great pet, since it will sing regularly. If no pets are allowed during a raid, take him with you to enlighten the hearts of all the enlisted heroes of Middle Earth!

Fox
I recently got 2 drops of the Tome of the Fox from regular/signature mobs in Goblin Town and in Eregion (south of Gwingris, near the wood-trolls cave). On one ocassion (level 46) I was roaming the woodtroll and lurker area, directly south of Gwingris in Eregion. There are many wood trolls and evil huorns near a wood-troll cave (the cave is only accessible with a quest).
Some days later, at level 47, I was for reputation items in Goblin Town. The Tome seems to drop (probably) if you kill 100-200 goblins/orcs/trolls there. Just combine it with a reputation grinding session or a goblin slayer deed in Misty Mountains. I don't know of the Tome of the Fox drops more often from a regular/signature creature, but 2 Tomes in 3 days, without quite looking for it, seems not very rare at all. Or was I just lucky? Outside Goblin Town there is a goblin camp, and maybe it is also possible to get a Tome of the Fox drop at that place. 
So, although pet Tome drops from normal or signature creatures seem to be rare, it could actually happen!

Cat, dog, frog, snake and squirrel
All these pets, actually their Tomes, are hard to get and rumor says that the squirrel is the rarest of them all. If you really want a pet and you can't obtain a pet Tome-drop from a boss, its advisable to check the Auction Hall regularly. The price of a tome on the Auction Hall varies, depending on the demand. A common tome, like the Tome of the Cat, can be bought for less then 1 gold. The rare Tome of the Squirrel can be 5-20 gold, maybe even higher (or lower ... who knows).

If you are an Ally of the Mathon Society, you can buy a Tome of the Turtle in Michel Delving

Complete list of non-combat pets for the Loremaster

1. Cat: drops from bosses in Carn Dum, Rift (in the treasure chest of the 5th boss) and Goblin Town. Also reported from Gauradan in Tal Bruinen and Summoners in Barad Gularan.
2. Dog: drops from the endboss of Fornost and bosses from Carn Dum, Rift and Goblin Town.
3. Fox: drops from bosses in Carn Dum, Rift and Goblin Town. Drops from lurkers, huorns or woodtrolls in Eregion (near Gwingris at the wood troll location). Drops from goblins, orcs or trolls in Goblin Town.
4. Frog: a rare drop from bosses in Carn Dum, Rift and Goblin Town. Also reported from bosses in Sarnur and Urugarth.
5. Hare: as described above, its the pet you get as a quest reward for the completion of Friend of Sparrows. This is the last quest in line of the "A Friend of the Wild" quest series from Radagast the Brown.
6. Snake: drops from bosses in Carn Dum, Rift and Goblin Town (the bosses in the jail)
7. Sparrow: reputation item from the Elves of Rivendell. The Tome of the Sparrow may be purchased from Atharbain within Imlad Gelair in Rivendell. Note: it requires Kindred standing with Elves of Rivendell.
8. Squirrel: the most rarest drop! Reported from the Rift bosses in Angmar (in the treasure chest from 5th boss onwards), but also as a very very rare drop from Cargûl's in Angmar.
9. Turtle: reputation item from the Mathom Society. The Tome of the Turtle can be purchased from Maneser Goodbody within the Mathom-house in Michel Delving. Note: it requires Ally Standing with The Mathom Society.