Now that we've covered the basics of crafting in the last post, let's move on to the more important task of choosing a vocation to go well with your class.
On the surface this may seem simple. Hunters use bows so they should choose woodsman so they can make their own bows, right? Not necessarily...
First off let's straighten something out: it's your character and you are free to do whatever you want with it. This guide is designed to help you make an informed decision that you won't regret 30 levels into the game. You may also have one or more other characters who are able to craft everything your hunter needs except bows. In this case you'v probably made the best decision.
However, if this is your first toon, you might want to consider what's going to give you the greatest long term benefits. So here we go...
Captain
Cappys benefit from a wide range of professions: They use heavy armour and can use shields so metalsmithing can be handy, they can use halberds, which aren't always easy to find, so that would mean weaponsmith, but then they also use captain emblems from a woodworker as well as armaments and standards from a tailor and tonics from a scholar. Keeping in mind that cook or tinker wouldn't exactly be a waste really there's no bad choice for a captain.
Just as in the rest of the game, captains are not a spectacular choice for any particular vocation, so it depends on your circumstances. If this is going to be your one toon then I would suggest choosing armorer. This will let you craft your own armour (6 items: head, shoulders, upper body, lower body, hands, and feet) and shields, as well as letting you purchase leathers to make cloaks, herald armaments and standards. That's 10 items total which will certainly be valuable to you both in equipment and in trade potential (how much stuff you can sell to other players).
Champion
The champ is a bit more straightforward to choose for. While champs certainly benefit from champion horns (woodworker) and champion potions (scholar) and heavy armour (metalsmith), the reality is that the champion wants great weapons above all else, making armsman an excellent choice. Barring this, the next best is almost certainly armorer, though really neither of these is bad. Some players run a champ as armsman and a guard or cappy as an armorer so both weapons and armour are provided for both.
Guardian
Guards may be the most obvious. Heavy armour use, heavy shields, legendary guardian belts and crafting tools make metalsmithing the most obvious and certainly most valuable choice. Throw in the ability to make your own cloaks through tailoring and congrats: the perfect armorer. No other class benefits from armorer as much as the guard.
Hunter
I used this earlier to mention that the most obvious isn't always the best and the hunter is a good example of this. The obvious choice is woodsman, which certainly isn't bad. You can make your own bows and if you're a hobbit you can get some bonuses with clubs as well, but that's about all you'd really get. Not that three weapons is bad, but you can do better.
My personal choice for a hunter vocation? Scholar. Why? All of the not-so-obvious reasons:
Hunter books provide permanent bonuses as long as they are equipped, hunter chants give huge combat advantages, hunter potions give short term combat boosts, and the hunter/warden oils can change your damage to light or fire, which can be very helpful. Add in battle lore and warding lore scrolls, healing pots and dyes and you stand to gain a lot more from a scholar than a woodsman.
Lore Master
There are three vocations that LMs get extra benefit from:
Scholar provides books and parables, jeweller provides talismans and brooches (both class specific), but if your lore master relies heavily on pets, then cook may be the best route to choose. Cooks can make pet food for lore master pets which provides significant combat advantages to your pet. These can be purchased or traded for from others players, but combined with the ability to make them yourself as well as keep yourself in cooked, trail and fortifying food, it's not a bad choice. It might even be the best choice.
Minstrel
The minstrel has a few decent choices:
A tailor will provide a continuous supply of top notch light armour, while a woodworker provides a good selection of instruments to use, but a scholar can give access to sheet music and legendary minstrel books.
Which one you choose is up to you and will likely depend on what other toons you have or are planning to roll. Some players don't use sheet music that often and legendary items can be purchased or traded for. If you use a wide range of instruments then run with woodworker otherwise choose a vocation that includes tailor. Go with woodsman and you can make your own instruments and have a friend (or alt) make you armour with the leather you provide.
Rune Keeper
More than any other class, rune keepers have special class specific items in a number of different professions:
Woodworkers give RK parchments, tailors make rune bags, jewellers produce rune stones, scholars make rune inlays and enamels, and metalsmiths make rifflers and chisels. One thing to say for sure: RKs make lousy weaponsmiths...or rather weaponsmiths are lousy for RKs...
So your top professions will be tinker, historian, armorer, explorer or yeoman. Tinker will give you jeweller as well as cook, but you need to track down cook ingredients. Historian gives you scholar but farmer doesn't produce anything for you while weaponsmith is completely useless (since you'd have to buy the materials and then have to try to profit from the sale of weapons (which is usually a glutted market in LOTRO).Yeoman if fine if you just want to cook, but since you'd have to purchase mats for tailoring it's not as good a choice as explorer, which lets you produce leather to turn into armour and rune bags.
My personal choice here is tinker. You can make all your own jewellery (7 equipped items) in addition to making your own rune stones. The addition of edhelharn tokens doesn't hurt either. You can also do some cooking (which is easier if you have a toon with farming).
Second pick for the RK would be armorer: you can make rifflers and chisels as well as light armour (though this would require mat purchases as well).
Warden
I'll sum up quickly with the ward: Woodsman. Here's why...
While warden excel with swords and clubs, they're usually the only class often seen running around with spears. They are also the only class that can use javelins. No biggie so far, but woodworkers also make warden carvings, which are very helpful, as well as warden hymns, which provide short duration buffs in combat. Farmer can raise some extra money or supply your tinker RK.
Ultimately it's up to you what you roll both for class and crafting. These are some suggestions and you're free to either take them or leave them.
The important thing to remember is that it's a game. So go have fun!
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