A new store exclusive steed is coming to the LOTRO Store Friday, April 22nd. This one is called “Steed of Minas Ithil”.
It will be like the Steed of Night in that it has the best stats currently available in game with 250 health and 68% speed increase (compared to running on foot).
The announcement describes the horse as:
A silver-grey horse meant to display and carry the fearsome guard of Isildur into battle. Bright blue and white dressing sets this steed apart.
The price is 1,995 Turbine Points which is the same as the Steed of Night.
The mount (just as all store mounts are currently set) will be per-character instead of per-account. However, on the bright side, it appears that there will be regularly scheduled lotteries giving away the horse for free even before the mount is available this Friday.
…we settled on a daily lottery that gives the winners their mounts immediately so they can show it off the next time they logged in. Winners also get to be in an exclusive group for a couple of weeks until this goes live in the store.
Also, the lotteries will start and end at the exact same time every day. So you won’t have to guess or ‘get lucky’.
We’re not sure what the schedule may be as of yet, but once we do we will let you know! Also, there has not been an official screenshot released of the horse, so it is unclear what it looks like outside of the item icon and the description. Turbine’s plan is to allow the lottery winners the honor of posting the first pictures of the horse. I do hope that there are pictures of it posted soon as it’s hard to tell what the horse looks like from the given images.
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April 5, 2011 at 3:11 pm
Just from that small picture, I can already tell that I am far more interested in this mount than I was the Steed of Night. Unfortunately, I’m not $20 interested. Especially as I’ve been playing Rift lately, where I’m not levelled up enough to be annoyed by my inability to raid.
The lotteries are a nice touch, though. My luck has been pretty rotten of late, but I might throw my hat in a time or two just in case.
April 5, 2011 at 4:26 pm
Just a FYI, the PAX mount is account wide and I know at least last week you could get them for $15 to $20 on eBay. Same price, still a relatively exclusive mount but you buy it once and it’s on all of your characters.
Seems like a better way to spend your money to me.
April 9, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Got one on ebay for 7.00. Unfortunately it is not 168 speed
April 5, 2011 at 4:34 pm
*sigh* I really hate some store exclusive stuff. I know they need to make money, especially from many of us lifers who haven’t had to pay them anything since SoM, but it still ticks me off.
April 6, 2011 at 11:14 am
Right there with ya man.
April 5, 2011 at 5:11 pm
@Kurgan
I’m not a fan of the “Store Exclusives” either but I understand why they are doing it. That being said, there are more than enough mounts ingame that can be bought or earned via rep/festivals that no one is left wanting for a mount.
If someone has $20 burning a hole in their pocket, more power to them I guess. At the end of the day, it’s only someone riding a horse of a different color. It won’t make the game play any better or give you higher chance to get that armour drop you’ve been waiting for. All it does is add a bit more variety to the game which is actually a good thing.
April 5, 2011 at 5:26 pm
I’m sorry, but I must say it: “It has that stupid banner!” Looking to the picture I could buy it, but with that banner, no way! I refuse to use my 168% mounts just because of it, it just looks terrible.
April 5, 2011 at 6:24 pm
I agree about the banner, I don’t like them because they are just so unnatural. At least, I have never seen a banner attached to a saddle in such a manner, usually they are carried. As long as the horse itself looks good, I can sometimes use one of the banner horses (I’m a horse fanatic in real life).
@Hobbitmeister Oh I know it has no affect on game-play and the like, I’m just a horse nut and I collect the mounts so it bugs me (OCD-style) when they do store-only mounts because I might want it but it seems silly to spend that much TP. Depending on what this one looks like in-game, I may at least get it on my hunter, who has almost every in-game mount already (I’ll try the lotteries, of course), because I did like the blue and white color scheme when doing 3.3.
April 6, 2011 at 1:22 am
i love the banners. i might buy this thing just for the banner. no joke.
April 6, 2011 at 3:33 am
Yeah I really like the banners too. And i think the miniature picture of it reminds me of the Steeds of the Elf-Lords, which I earned yesterday. It also has a flag-banner-thing on its back but its brown instead and … well … more elvish.
April 9, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Earning a 168 speed mount is easy. Silly to use anything less. Who really gives a crap what it looks like? If it is faster it is better. Look at that guy I just passed with his Mathom Mount. Gee what a pretty horse. Haha!
April 7, 2011 at 3:17 am
I don’t agree with you in that point. The thing is that you don’t have to buy the stuff if you don’t want to. Like it is free to play it’s also free to choose.
I see your point that you criticize the fact that this mount is a full speed&health mount. But it is just one along others, that you can earn in-game too (World renowned, Elf-lord …).
And think about the VIPs & lifetimers who get 500 TP each month and maybe have enough TP to buy the mount cause they also like mounts (who doesn’t). Do you think the would buy and use the mount if it is slower and weaker than most of the other mounts? They would say “I payed TP worth like 15 bucks for that mount so i want it at least to be as good as normal horses you get for free.”
I won’t buy the mount but I’m sure there are people who will – and that is a good thing so Turbine can earn money and continue offering such great game for free.
April 7, 2011 at 8:10 am
You missed the point. Turbine announced the store steeds will be worse than those acquired in game, it’s not true; they said that store items won’t give advantage over in-game ones, it’s not true; do you really like to deal with guys that change their minds so easily?
April 7, 2011 at 9:33 am
Okay i see what you are meaning.
In one of the recent CSTM episodes M&G talked about that it would be a really bad thing, if someone is good at the game, because he can afford to buy a lot of stuff that makes him a better player – or at least that makes him look like one. (Next to fast mounts you can buy a lot of buffs, class items, potions, weapons (recipes), tomes, virtues etc.)
Sure this is not good at all from one point of view. On the other hand you still can get all of this (or mostly better) stuff in game too – but just not as fast as someone who just buys it in the store. (There are equal, similar or better variations available when playing regular.)
It’s just a strategy to make the people stay at LOTRO and make them stay and keep playing. For the players satisfaction and speed-reasons – and of course for making money.
But i agree with you that is is kinda shameless from Turbine if they said such stuff you mentioned. Well, as long as they don’t make the purchasable store-stuff better than regular in-game stuff, I’m fine with it. If people want to spend real money on the game then let them and offer them smth.
But as i understood it they will make the mounts recognizable as store-purchased mounts with some kind of name addition or what was that?