Buy all expansion packs?

[jakobharentis]

Hi, I'm new to LOTRO and is just a f2p player right now. Do I have to buy all expansions to progress after base game or just the newest expansion Minas Morgul?
Or can I just subscribe as VIP for 1 month and get access to all expansions?

Thanks

[Elitewrecker PT]

VIPs don't get access to any expansion, only the quest packs (and only while subbed), and the latest expansion doesn't include the previous ones, they all have to be bought individually (but they can be bought ingame by grinding).

[SunfireKnight86]

My advice? Pay for VIP to see if you like it. Get through Eriador in that month. Buy the Quad Pack from cheap punk. That can carry you through quite literally 4 expansion packs. All of that together is 1-3 months of game depending on how much you play, easy.

By the time you do that you're invested. Get another month or two when you get to Gondor to get all that content for a short while. Then you can buy Mordor and use the points you've saved to get the quest packs that bridge Mordor and Minas Morgul before picking up Morgul.

All of this is months of content. You're looking at 100-130 dollars for 6+ months of game doing it this way. It's a good deal if you love the game. SSG pricing is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy and needs an update, but there it is.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Instead of saying 6 months, I'd say you're looking at several hundred (possibly over a thousand, depending on how completionist you are) hours.

[TheArtilleryman]

Agreed. I’ve been playing 18 months, have 2000+ hours (more than it says on Steam) and haven’t done even half the content, despite getting to level 123 and having several alts.

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

Instead of saying 6 months, I'd say you're looking at several hundred (possibly over a thousand, depending on how completionist you are) hours.

[SunfireKnight86]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

Instead of saying 6 months, I'd say you're looking at several hundred (possibly over a thousand, depending on how completionist you are) hours.

Maybe, but maybe not. Telling someone who hasn't played it takes 2000 hours to hit end game is 1) dishonest and 2) not a selling point.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Well I didn't say it takes 2000 hours to "hit end game". You can do it faster yes, but if you're buying all expansions and subscribing to VIP and then rush to end game you're skipping most of the content. That's why I said, "depending on how (much of a) completionist you are".

Plus, even if we skip most of that, it still comes down to time played. Not time elapsed in real time. It may be 1-3 months for Eriador or it can be 6 months.

[Running-Target]

VIPs still have to buy all the expansions, if they want to play them. If you are free to play you can buy the quests and expansions as you reach them or buy them all if you find a good sale. Otherwise as a F2P, you have will have No quests to follow except the Epic and Bingo quest chains. Once you buy stuff in the game, your account is changed to Premium. The latest Expansion does Not include the older expansions in the deal, each expansion is their own thing. There is a bundle deal called the Quad Pack that has the 4 oldest expansions in one cheaper price.

Read here > https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Expansion

[SunfireKnight86]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

Well I didn't say it takes 2000 hours to "hit end game". You can do it faster yes, but if you're buying all expansions and subscribing to VIP and then rush to end game you're skipping most of the content. That's why I said, "depending on how (much of a) completionist you are".

Plus, even if we skip most of that, it still comes down to time played. Not time elapsed in real time. It may be 1-3 months for Eriador or it can be 6 months.

Nobody said "rush". Playing casually still doesn't take anywhere near 1000 hours. And if it did, that would be a good reason not to play, since MMOs are almost universally defined by their end game and this one has basically no people around until the final few zones. Good look ever finding someone to do on level instanced content with you.

You can play a few hours a day and be at end game in a few months, like I said.

[jakobharentis]

So just to be clear - If I want to reach endgame I have to buy 140 euros worth of expansions? If so, that is probably the worst entry price in an MMO I have ever seen.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Well, technically you don't have to buy anything, you COULD just grind a lot of points to buy the expansions ingame. If you want to "reach" and play the current "endgame" you only technically need the latest expansion, but then you'll have to grind repeatable free instances to reach the level cap.

[SunfireKnight86]

Originally posted by jakobharentis:

So just to be clear - If I want to reach endgame I have to buy 140 euros worth of expansions? If so, that is probably the worst entry price in an MMO I have ever seen.

You can do it for 60-100 USD if you're thrifty, but yes, their pricing is the worst of any traditional MMO. It's insane and exploitative. They would rather hook a few whales who drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on the shop than make the game accessible to everyone and nickel and dime people, which is insane. It also keeps the population low as hell. You see peak players of less than a thousand on all the servers pretty much all the time.

And grinding lotro points is dumb. You could get a minimum wage job, work for forty hours, quit, and have gotten all the same content faster than you would have doing that boring grindy crap. It's a newb trap.

[Platinumb]

Originally posted by Maybe Your Dad:

Originally posted by jakobharentis:

So just to be clear - If I want to reach endgame I have to buy 140 euros worth of expansions? If so, that is probably the worst entry price in an MMO I have ever seen.

You can do it for 60-100 USD if you're thrifty, but yes, their pricing is the worst of any traditional MMO. It's insane and exploitative. They would rather hook a few whales who drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on the shop than make the game accessible to everyone and nickel and dime people, which is insane. It also keeps the population low as hell. You see peak players of less than a thousand on all the servers pretty much all the time.

And grinding lotro points is dumb. You could get a minimum wage job, work for forty hours, quit, and have gotten all the same content faster than you would have doing that boring grindy crap. It's a newb trap.

Or sub to the VIP and go on a legendary server!

[TenThousandPineapples]

As f2p, you can do the epic questline up until Helm's Deep. If you buy Helm's Deep (which is worth it imo) you can finish vol iii and vol iv. Then if you want to do the next part of the epic, The Black Book of Mordor, you have to buy the Mordor expansion.

[SunfireKnight86]

Originally posted by TenThousandPineapples:

As f2p, you can do the epic questline up until Helm's Deep. If you buy Helm's Deep (which is worth it imo) you can finish vol iii and vol iv. Then if you want to do the next part of the epic, The Black Book of Mordor, you have to buy the Mordor expansion.

True, but you can't realisticlly keep up with leveling by epic alone.

[Lord Banterhead]

Buying an expansion does not unlock the expansions released prior. Getting VIP will only give access to quest packs.
I would recommend doing Free To Play content in Ered Luin, The Shire, Bree, and The Lone-Lands before spending money on the game.