Lord of the Rings Online MMO News, Guides, and Features at Ten Ton Hammer

If the Leech you chose was lounging around too close to one of his buddies, heed my advice and realize that as a freshly hatched spider, you have no chance in hell of taking them both on. Use your burrowing ability to dig into the ground and hide. Both targets will go back to their starting points and forget you ever existed. You'll soon discover that your ability to hide under the earth is one of your greatest abilities, especially when you're first starting out.

Where's Waldo?

If the Leech you chose was lounging around too close to one of his buddies, heed my advice and realize that as a freshly hatched spider, you have no chance in hell of taking them both on. Use your burrowing ability to dig into the ground and hide. Both targets will go back to their starting points and forget you ever existed. You'll soon discover that your ability to hide under the earth is one of your greatest abilities, especially when you're first starting out.

The Ultimate Spider

As you complete various quests and (to a lesser extent) defeat the creatures of the world, you'll gain Destiny Points. No, these aren't some newfangled method of getting the latest Destiny’s Child album (Cody made me do it), they're the points you'll spend to rise in power. You'll be able to choose a wide variety of abilities. Some will be new attacks, others will be passive effects.

Before spending any points, remember one very important lesson in case you haven't learned it quite yet. You are extremely squishy. At this point, Jell-O has more resilience than you, so the first thing I'd recommend is increasing your armor ranking. This will grant an additional 500+ points in armor and be invaluable, especially against the NPC's of the world that you're going to spend so much time fighting as you first start out.

After that, I'd spend my points in avoidance, resistance, and finally in health. It may sound odd to save health for the end, but the first rank only adds 5% and frankly, that doesn't add up to a whole lot. If you're still super squishy and easy to hit, it doesn't really matter how many hit points you have, does it? Finally, before you start saving up for some more impressive abilities, I'd suggest paying to change your appearance. Aside from satisfying a bizarre fashion need in your spider, it also makes for some great camouflage. The blue and grey you get turned into blends in with the rocks and stones *far* better than the grey and red you were before.

So you've done a bunch of quests, repeated a number of them even more, and finally have a slight chance of not being the first snowball to melt on your descent into hell. You're ready to take on your first *real* opponent.

The spider is not meant as a toe-to-toe character. They're great support in terms of both damage and crowd control, but against any more than a single opponent, they're going to have a rough time of it. As you slowly gain power, the spider is a force to be reckoned with, but even so, they're not designed for close combat.

Lying in wait and rooting stragglers from the main group are where the strengths of the spider lie. Even in your early days, this is an effective technique. As you gain strength, power, and skill, it becomes an absolutely devastating tactic. No other monster has the ability to pick off players in this method with the efficiency of the spider.

For ages, the spider has been a symbol of both power, and terror. And now it's time for the world to be reminded why. Go out and kill some Freeps!