The value will start to rise when the whole crypto market shows again the healthy trade, as of now its better to hold and wait, ltc will bring new updates and if remember it correctly they also planning or already have their own platform for ico project so it will comeback and will continue to progress, its always better to have a good basis when you are investing knowing the plan and all the necessary needs about the coins we supported and how the community intercourse with the team, keep buying if you still have spare money and hold maybe another 2-3 months.

Yes, I can recommend you zpool cause there you can mine other altcoins and get it exchanged to LTC which is way more profitable at the moment than just mining LTC. You could use the Zpool GUI miner, which mines the most profitable coin for you at the moment.

Is it going to overthrow Bitcoin or is just a more convenient currency to trade with?

Nothing can beat the Litecoin. Around this time some horrifying stories are everywhere for the same reason: To be able to buy cheaper coins. Litecoin will be around $1000  in April-may this year since there are some whales already started to come in from tomorrow on.

Every single time crypto pulls back from increased speculation on Asian regulations, it recovers sharply within a week or so. This time will be no different. Ltc to $400