How to become a woodworker

The Woodworker profession

If you like making bows and wooden staffs, maybe the Woodworker profession is something for you. Woodworker is a crafting profession, so to become a proper woodworker you have to enlist at a crafter.

I will guide you through the first steps of a woodworker, just follow the step-numbers and the accompanying pictures.

If you know all this, visit the advanced pages of this blog, about finding wood types and wood lore in Middle Earth. Just follow this link:
http://elannah.blogspot.nl/2013/01/wood-and-where-to-farm-it.html
 

Step 0. Know the crafting button
Okay, this is easy, click on the anvil button and you know enough 

Step 1. Going to a crafting place
In the Shire a nice crafting place can be found just opposite of the stable in Michel Delving. This place is situated in the most southwestern corner of the Shire. You can also travel to Michel Delving by horse from the stables at Celondim and Thorins Place in Ered Luin and the stable at the West Bree gate in Bree-land. Of course, you can start your career anywhere, but we will start in Michel Delving. Why? Simple because I like this place a lot! There is a trainers house nearby, at the tower is a bank and there is also an Auction Hall. 

Woodworker step 1: going to a crafting place

Step 2. Speaking with the Mistress/Master of Apprentices
At the crafting place of Michel Delving you will find two persons concerning your craft. The Mistress of Apprentices is the first to talk to. She will give you the opprtunity to learn the woodworker profession. There is also a Master of Crafting Guilds, Dob Proudfoot. You can enlist to the woodworkers guild later on, at a higher level. Why, well they will give you the best crafting-receipts when you becoming a better woodworker.

Step 2: Enlist at the Mistress of Apprentices

Step 3. Enlist
To become a Woodworker, you must choose a crafting Vocation. Asking the Mistress of Apprentices you will get 7 choices. Choose to learn the Woodsman Craft Vocation.

Step 4.Train
After choosing the woodsman craft vocation, you have to hit the Train button. You can also read a short description about what a woodsman is. You will learn the following crafting skills: Woodworker, Forester and Farmer. If you only need to make bows, staffs and other wooden material - like musical instruments - you don't need the Farmer profession.  But, you can not swap farming with another craft, so probably the Farmer will be an inactive craft for you. It can become handy to make tobacco and beer, however. Or to process flowers, vegetables or fruit. If you have an other adventurer in Lotro who want to become a cook, the Farmer profession will be even invaluable! Although it is a bit boring, all that sowing and ploughin..

Step 5. Doing Introductory Quests
After choosing woodman, you get the opportunity to learn the basics of crafting. Choose at least Introduction to Forestry and Woodworking. Farming is not necessary, but if you insist, you can always do this one too.

Step 6. Check your Inventory
Hitting the I-key will open your bags (I for Inventory). After choosing your crafts and the introductory quests, you will find the following in your bags:
1. A Woodsman Guide (open it by clicking and read it carefully)
2. A crate with materials: click it and you get wood and other crafting stuff to learn the basics
3. An Foresters Axe (to hack wood in the fields. However, it is an inferior one, which means that it will break sooner than later...)
4. A Woodworking Tool (to process wood on a workbench)

Step 7. Get better gear
It is strongly advisable to go to the Supplier and buy a better axe and woodworking tools. The inferior axe and saw you got for free, need a lot of repair. So buy immediately a better one at a supplier. If your level is higher you can even buy better tools. Just ask someone to make them for you - an armorer can - or look on the lists of the Auction Hall to buy a proper tool. You can also buy fore some Turbine Points a very good tool!

Step 8. Start your quests

Go to the Novice Woodworker (Belba Bracegirdle) and talk to her or him. You will get a quest and you can read a lot by clicking on the appropriate blue question rings. 

Step 9B. Go to the workbench and start crafting

Step 9B. Choose something to make: as a Woodworker
By clicking on the workbench or opening you crafting panel (click the round anvil icon, on the icon bar, left-under in your screen). It will open a list, click on the +/- keys to drop down the possibilities. Try to make a Rowan Bow. You will Need to make 1 Bowstaff, and after that you have to make a Rowan Bow. By choosing the right products, by clicking them, and hitting the [make] button, all will be self-explanatory.

Step 9C. Make treated Rowan
The most simple wood type you can process as an Apprentice Woodworker and Forester is Rowan Wood. As a Forester you can make Treated Rowan Planks. To do this, you need two components: (1) Logs of Rowan Wood and (2) a Lump of Wax. The Lump of Wax can be bought at a Novice Woodworker or a Supplier. look at the titles of the people who are hanging around at the crafting place. You can read what to need in the crafting panel, for example Rowan Planks in the Wood-section of the Apprentice Section.
You will start as an Apprentice, which is also known as a Tier 1 Woodworker/Forester. You can advance to tier 2 - like leveling - by processing lots of woods or hides (hides can be farmed by shooting bears, boars and wolves). For evey thing you make you get crafting XP (experience) and also XP as a character. In the panel of woodworker you can see that you will need 200 XP points to advance to tier 2. You get 8 points for each Logs of Rowan Wood you will turn into a Treated Rowan Plank. After making the planks, you can turn the planks into a Rowan Bowstaff. As soon if you have a Bowstaff, you can turn that component in a bow. If you are a hunter, you are lucky, since the bow you have made is mostly better that the one you acquired for free.

Step 10. Search for Wood
As a woodworker you need wood. To find it easily, hit the Track Wood skill. It will be automatically placed in your skill bar when you got the woodsman craft profession. As soon as you activate this skill, a white dotted line will appear around the skill icon. After the track wood skill is activated, the only thing you have to do is walking around and watch your round mini-map (or radar). As soon as you see a blue arrow appear at the edge of the radar, you have found some wood. Point your mouse pointer on the blue arrow and you will read what kind of wood you have found (in the distance) with your tracking skill. If you come nearer, a green shield will appear. You also see the distance in m (meters) until you reach the wood spot. Be aware of the red dots around it: this could be an enemy who is going to attack you when you are trying to acquire the wood you have found.

Step 11. Hack the Wood
Farm the wood by right clicking on the wood. By hitting the 'N' key, you will see the names of the wood - and also of mobs and other things - from a distance. The N key dictated the Names-off and Names-on in the game, if it doesn't work: change the settings in the Options Panel. I can strongly advise you to turn names on! 

Sometimes you cannot harvest the wood. There are only 2 reasons when this happens: if you get the message that you don't have the proper training for it, forget it. You are too low in training to acquire the wood type you found. For example Ash in Bree-land at Tier 1. First you have to acquire Tier 2 (= level 2 in Forestry). You can level by processing wood on a workbench into planks.
After you have reached a new tier, you can hack a higher type of wood  For example: in the Shire after Rowan (tier 1) will come Ash (tier 2), the next higher wood type. 

Oh, I nearly forgot. The other reason is, that you have forgotten to equip your axe. Just click on it in your Inventory. You can also drag the axe into one of your skill bars, and then clicking on that tool. Remember to click on your woodworking tools when processing the wood on a workbench. Well, you know what you are up to in the coming days.  Look for wood in the fields and forests, process it to planks on a workbench, and ... have fun!