Some basics

• Creep - monster (player playing monster)
• Freep - normal player

Freeps can start playing from moment their toon reach lvl 40. At this level they are, worth of noting, easy food for creeps (which are level 50 by nature).

Creeps can start playing from moment their toon reach level 10. They are automatically level 50 and are not able to level - by ranking (which comes from killing freeps, nowhere else) they are able to purchase (for Destiny points) new abilities or improve existing abilities.

Destiny points are acquired by PVE activites (200 per level from any toon you have), questing creeps side (150-2000 per quest) and killing monsters/freeps.

Ranks

Freeps

• Rank 0 (no title) 0-499
• Rank 1 (Tracker) 500-1499
• Rank 2 (Scout) 1500-3499
• Rank 3 (Skirmisher) 3500-7499
• Rank 4 (Fighter) 7500-19499
• Rank 5 (Soldier) 19500-44499
• Rank 6 (Sentry) 45000-94499
• Rank 7 (Chief Guard) 95000-
• Rank 15 (Tyrant)

Creeps

• Rank 0 (None) 0-499
• Rank 1 (Footman) 500-1499
• Rank 2 (Esquire) 1500-3499
• Rank 3 (Guardsman) 3500- 7499
• Rank 4 (Man-At-Arms) 7500-19499
• Rank 5 (Sergeant of the Guard) 19500-44499
• Rank 6 (Sergeant-at-Arms) 44500-94499
• Rank 7 (Master Guardsman) 94500-194499
• Rank 8 (Master-at-Arms) 194500-
• Rank 9 (High Warden)
• Rank 10 (Lieutenant)
• Rank 11 (Commander)
• Rank 12 (Third Marshal)
• Rank 13 (Second Marshal)
• Rank 14 (First Marshal)
• Rank 15 (Captain-General)

Map of Ettenmoors

Handy map of Ettenmoors with all important places marked - easy to see all abbreviations used in Ettenmoors chat. And four monster/npc locations. Red color means monster (creeps) side, Blue color means freeps side. Black color is available for both (like keeps).

Frequently used abbreviations

• Tirith Rhaw (TR) - keep, can be taken 
• Ost Rindyr (OR) or (OST) - freeps keep, cannot be taken
• Grothum (GR) - creeps camp, cannot be taken
• Isendeep Mine (ID) or (IM) - can be taken 
• Lugazag (LG) or (LUG) - keep, can be taken 
• Tol Ascarnen (TA) - keep, can be taken
• Elf Camp (EC) - freeps camp, cannot be taken
• Orc Camp (OC) - creeps camp, cannot be taken
• Grimwood Lumber Camp (LC) - can be taken
• Hoarhallow (HH) - freeps village, cannot be taken
• Dar-Gazag (DG) - creeps keep, cannot be taken
• Glan Vraig (GV) - main freeps base, cannot be taken
• Gramsfoot (Grams) - main creeps base, cannot be taken
• X-Roads (Cross-Roads) - crossroads just next to EC

Creeps general hints

• Take any item you can pickup through your journey. Any items better than white are for sure quest items. Some white items can be quest items as well. What you wont use for quest sell, you will need money for fitting your traits
• Take maximum of quests available from all places - mainly the quest where you have to kill something. If you don't have place in quest log, don't take quest based on bringing some items. Those can be done as you go through
• Big tent in Gramsfoot offers quests for retaking the keeps, get those quests every time keep is in hand of freeps (2000 destiny points for each is really good)
• Buy all skills you can at given rank as soon as possible, freeps are heavily favoured by game developers so you need to be really at your best. As skills cost destiny points, pay attention to all quests which you can finish
• Ignore rating and stars, they will not give you any advantage nor penalty
• When keep is taken, there are some quests which must be finished in mid time frame - usually based on "calling for reinforcements". Don't forget to do them, destiny points are good
• Quests will give you access to maps which can save time travelling in Ettenmoors. There are three level of maps, with different cooldown lenght (and which are on different cooldown) and quality. You can see your map status in Deeds and they are another good reason to do quests in all places.
• Getting Infamy points is based on your contribution to damage/killing freeps, so be sure that you take this into consideration when fighting
• Collect Oil as much as you can. Every keep has a flag (TA basement, others at Tyrant) which shows how much oil is needed (like 0/10, which means 10 quests for delivers 10 oils must be finished). 10/10 of oils means, that main entrance to keep will be protected by boiling oil. Do not return your quests for oil if status is 10/10.

Helpfull quests

[Stringy Innards]  (10x Drake Sinew) will help defending TA by calling up Hornblower. You must have the quest for Drake Sinews to drop, then return then to NPC in basement of TA.

[Maw of Mazauk]  (75x Morningthaw-haunch) will make Mazauk stop hiding between rocks and he will join for fight for Lugazag.

Potions and eatables

Get [Odorous Salt] and [Solvent of Painful Freedom]. First one frees you of daze/stun, second one from being rooted. It can save your life when running away. And it can make you scoring a kill if chasing freeps.

Items safe to sell

General rule - most of low quality items. BUT, there are few exceptions (see bellow)

Albino Cave Claw Skin, Exceptional Hide (yes!), Glossy Cave-Claw Skin, Great Bear Paw, Hoarhallow Ale, Huge Bear Paw, Lethal Sharp Bear Paw, Monstrous Cave Claw Digit, Monstrou Slug Feeler, Monstrous Slug Membrane, Monstrous Slug Slime, Monstrous Wolf Ear, Neekerbreeker Ichor, Razor Sharp Cave Claw Nail, Razor Sharp Cave Claw Talon, Razor Sharp Bear Claw, Untreated Leather Hide, Wintersebb Drake Fang

Items which you really should not sell
(even they look like crap)

• Food Sack (Quests : Not Just for Eating, I've Got a Theory)
• Shattered Blade (for TA reinforcements)
• Shard of Troll Stone (Quests: Set in Stone, Stonewall Fandmau)
• Slug Meat
• Sinew

Conjuctions

• Purple (Fell Spirit's Terror) : 161.7 morale damage, 517.5 morale recover
• Yellow (Wight's Rot) : 42.7 common damage, 194 power drain, 323.4 power recover, 85 power every 2 secs for 10 secs power recover
• Green (Spider's Venom) : 43 Common damage, 43 Common damage very 4 secs for 20 sec
• Red (Troll's Brutality) : 358 Common damage

Random CJ invoked by crit by creep has only 2 seconds duration

Intentional CJ invoked by Warg (Tendon Shred) or Weaver (Smothering Web) has 6 seconds duration.

Combat hints

Take advantage of pets. If you get aggro on pet, drag it to NPCs as it will make NPCs go after pet owner as soon as pet dies.

Take care of healers (minstrel, captain) as soon as possible. Dead minstrel is your best friend. Silence or stun them, interrupt them. Take care of lore-masters as they are most powerfull CC (Crowd-Control) class.

Engange hunters in melee as they are really hopeless in such situation.

Never stun burglars as it gives them great advantage (50% evade and huge instant heal).

Ignore guardians as they do not really do any real damage and are only used as bait. Everyone steps on them making it easy for all other freeps to kill everyone.

Captains are waste of time, they will use Last-Stand and you just waste time on them. Stun them, silence, root, anything like it, then go kill some other freep.

DoT them as much as possible where it's applicable. DoT can stop some classes from vanishing. DoT can make freep dead even when running away.

Slow their attack or run speed.

Crowd Control freeps by webbing them, stunning them (no burglars!) and slowing their run speed.

Control points

Contrary to popular belief, control points aren't there for creeps/freeps to be saved from vicious attacks. Their function is far more imporant - owning a control point gives a advantage for creep defenders of nearby keep. Only by owning control points, example, around TA, the TA will provide huge dread a disease debuff for those attacking it.

Here is the map of control points (red) and spawn points (yellow). Click for more readable version if you want.

Taking a control point involves killing guards and then one creep/freep standing up to 30 sec close to flag. It's good idea to (a) stand in front of flag and (b) really only one creep/freep stand there. Current (2007/12) bug is resetting the timer every time somewhere else enters the area.

More later folks ...