I know more than a few of you have been hoping to find out the cost of the Rise of Isengard expansion in Turbine Points. Today Sapience posted on the forums the how Rise of Isengard will be sold in the in-game LOTRO Store and their prices.
Rise of Isengard Expansion Content
The Rise of Isengard content will essentially be sold in three packs.
Isengard Expansion Quests – 3250 Turbine Points
Available in the LOTRO Store September 27 (Isengard Launch) for 3250 Turbine Points
Over 375 Quests and more than 40 Deeds for characters level 66-75 in the following regions
- Dunland — Adventure amidst the bright forests in the foothills of the southern Misty Mountains. Beware the Dunland Clans, rugged warriors tempted by the dark promise of power.
- Gap of Rohan — Battle over the legendary pass between Eriador and the plane of Rohan. This key strategic point must be defended against the ambitions of Sauron.
- Isengard — Explore Orthanc, one of the iconic Two Towers as it rises over the once beautiful Isengard valley. The once beautiful vale now desecrated beyond imagination by the Wizard Saruman the betrayer.
Raid: Draigoch’s Lair – 1250 Turbine Points
Available in the LOTRO Store September 27 (Isengard Launch) for 1250 Turbine Points
- Face the ancient evil of Draigoch, one of the most powerful creatures in Middle-earth! Prepare for the ultimate challenge where nothing less than the strength of an entire force of 24 heroes stands the chance of victory
Expansion Instances – 1495 Turbine Points
Available with Update 5, currently slated for December, for 1495 Turbine Points
- One 12-player instance
- One 6-player instance
- Three 3-player instances
You can get the expansions included if you pre-order OR purchase from the online web store. However, there is no way to obtain the expansion instances pack for free with Turbine Points.
Total cost for all the Rise of Isengard content = 5,995 Turbine Points (approximately $59.95 US).
There may be an “Expansion Package” later in the year when the instances release but no news on what that may cost.
Also, for those who are comparing Moria, Mirkwood, and Isengard, you should notice that there is no "expansion" option for Isengard, jut the a la carte items. This is due to the instances coming later (currently slated for December). The LOTRO Store doesn’t allow us to put things in that don’t exist in game yet. So we can’t put an ‘expansion’ bundle in the store until then.
This total may seem quite a bit (and I totally agree with you) especially since it includes none of the pre-order goodies. However, if you’re a VIP who’s been squirrelling Turbine Points away for this day, it won’t seem like a big deal.
Also you have to take into consideration that you’d only need to purchase the first two packs as the final pack isn’t due out for a few months. September 27th cost for the content available is 4,500 Turbine Points (approximately $45 US). I only included the grand finally to compare with the pre-order offer which would include all these items and the lowest option for the pre-order is $30.
Pre-Order Experience Bonus Item
Turbine is also adding the 25% experience bonus item to the store at ROI launch.
Derudh’s Stone – 995 Turbine Points
Available in the LOTRO Store September 27 (Isengard Launch) for 995 Turbine Points
- A permanent pocket item that grants +25% XP on Monster Kills when equipped. This item binds to the purchasing character. Usable by characters level 1-64.
This was a bit unexpected for me since I thought the pre-order items were not going to be available in the store. Overall I don’t really have a problem with it available, just surprised it is there. I still received other items from my pre-order that will be unavailable. It’s a personal enhancement item that in the long run won’t affect me so if someone wants to fork over $10 for it, I suppose they can feel free to do so.
Pre-Order or LOTRO Store?
So is it worth it for you to buy the pre-order before September 27th, or just wait and get it in the store? Well of course this will depend on your situation and it’s unlikely I can discuss them all. I will do my best to try to address some scenarios to help you try to determine what may be best for you.
I really really like the pre-order items!
If you are drooling over the horses, cosmetics, or the title, you need to purchase the expansion before release in one of their pre-order packages. These goodies are for the pre-order only and will not be available after launch of Isengard.
Not sure which pre-order package you should get? See this post for some guidance.
I am super-duper casual
If you are hyper super casual you totally can wait and buy it from the store.
The super casual may take so long to get to 65 that they end up catching an Isengard sale and catch the bits and pieces they need at a discount as they go along.
None of my characters are even near level 65
Previously my advice for this group was to wait but it would actually be cheaper for you to pre-order the $30 package and get the pre-order goodies and the Expansion Quests over the $32-ish it will cost in Turbine Points.
Eh, it’s only $2 I hear you scoff. Well that $30 also includes the Derudh’s Stone which would cost you approximately an extra $10 if purchased in the store. Not to mention the horses and clothing your characters will receive.
If you have no use for the horses, cosmetics and wasn’t planning on buying the exp item anyway, it’s only a $2 difference. It’s your choice.
The Legendary Edition pre-order is a better deal for getting some missing quest packs for those leveling. See this post for some help deciding if it’s a good buy for you.
I am level 65 but I don’t raid!
The quest pack plus the free instances coming later may make it worth your while to pre-order rather than buy it piece meal.
If you think you’ll have no problem earning up the TP by December for the instance pack, there’s no harm waiting.
If you don’t expect to try the new instances either, perhaps just buy the regions from the store if you have the Turbine Points available.
I’m a Raider
Chances are you’ve already pre-ordered but in case you haven’t, you’re going to want to buy on release from the Turbine Web Store (not the in-game LOTRO Store) so you will get the expansion with the Draigoch raid included in the cost.
Any thoughts on other player scenarios that may help folks decide to pre-purchase or wait?
September 8, 2011 at 5:14 pm
This seems a bit much; almost a 100% cost increase if you buy from the LotRO store instead of pre-ordering. Just my 2c. I know they had to make pre-ordering more desirable than piecemeal, but they have overdone it in my opinion, with the quest pack costing more than the cheapest pre-order.
September 8, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Makes me feel better about my pre-order for sure.
September 8, 2011 at 5:32 pm
There are inevitably going to be more skirmishes and other mini add-ons througout the life of this expansion. Anyone know if by buying it via pre-order if you’re likely to get those for free down the road? It sounds like if you piecemeal it by using TP you will also have to buy other additions down the road.
September 8, 2011 at 5:52 pm
So far all we know extra to be included as ROI expansion is the December instance cluster. Updates past that I would suspect to be normal updates like we saw in march & may this year & not tied to an expansion. That is only my guess though.
September 8, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Wow, this stuff is expensive. I thought the pre-order was expensive considering what you get, but the store pricing is just as bad. I know I have the TP to buy stuff a la carte, but I might just skip purchasing ROI altogether until there is a bundle deal or something. Really, what the store is teaching me is that if you hold out, then you’ll get a reasonable price someday in the future but if you buy right away you will pay a major premium. Given my current lack of playtime and the dearth of desirable content, I’m going to wait. I’ve got alts I’ve been wanting to focus on anyway.
September 8, 2011 at 5:38 pm
Ok…So I’m still VIP and haven’t bought the pre-order. My question is, if I buy the Isengard Expansion Quests, does my VIP status mean I don’t have to buy the Raid and Expansion Instances while I remain VIP?
September 8, 2011 at 5:44 pm
$45 compared to $30 isn’t the end of the world, I guess, but the difference is larger than I expected. At least there’s still time to pre-order if you’ve been on the fence.
Kind of stinks if you’ve been saving up TP for it… I paid $40, got all of this, the pre-order bonuses and 1,000 TP.
September 8, 2011 at 5:45 pm
Sorry, I didn’t mean to reply to your post!
But to answer you, my understanding is that NONE of this is included just by being a VIP because it’s all technically considered “expansion” content. Meaning you’d only have access to what you actually bought, regardless of your status.
September 8, 2011 at 5:49 pm
Yes. Turbine is considering them part of the expansion and EVERYONE as to buy expansions. This is not new for VIPs who had to buy Moria & Mirkwood.
You will get it all for 1 price if you purchase it out if game via their web store either by pre-order or after launch. Currently there is no all in one purchase bundle option for the in-game LOTRO store (see the sapience quote above).
September 8, 2011 at 5:51 pm
Ya after seeing the crazy amounts of TPs you will need to get everything, I am seriously considering pre-ordering.
September 8, 2011 at 5:55 pm
If I understand it correctly the Derudh’s Stone costs 995 tp for only “the purchasing character”, while the pre-order gives you the stone on all of your characters. I think Turbine really wants people to preorder, and in my humble opinion the package with all of the goodies is really worth it.
September 8, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Re:”Pre-Order Experience Bonus Item” Technically they said they wouldn’t sell the bundles. They didnt say what they wouldn’t sell, or make any statements about the LotrO store configurations until today.
They’re still not selling the Cosmetics or Horses.
September 8, 2011 at 6:17 pm
Holy cow, turbine is really jumping the cow with the prices here, I think that I’ll have to quit the game for lack of founds. I don’t think I’ll gather the 50 bucks (or 30, for that matter) before 19 days, and buying this stuff after RoI comes live is just nuts with this prices. Well, it was fun while it lasted
September 8, 2011 at 6:37 pm
In that case I suggest checking out Massively’s TP finder or using brugzerg’s deed lists (deeds are usually associated with tp). If you really want to experience ROI for free, you can. Oh, and even if you don’t purchase anything you can still explore it and do the epics, so there’s that.
September 8, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Well, that’s what I’ve been doing since I run out of quest back in angmar. Now that I’m 59 I kinda got tired of leveling purely on skirms/dailies/epic quests. They TP cost of the expansion really turned me off, since I’ll never be able to gather so much with deeds only (unlike moria). Not that is a bad thing, I have friends that have done it, and if I had the money I’ll have bought the legendary edition long ago
September 8, 2011 at 7:41 pm
Do you have a link to Massively’s TP Finder? Can’t seem to find it.
September 9, 2011 at 1:30 am
http://lotro.mmorsel.com/p/tpfinder.html
September 9, 2011 at 1:50 am
Ahhhh…Crell beat me to it but only because I went on a rant.
Crell, don’t you ever sleep?
September 9, 2011 at 9:34 am
Oh okay. I use that one thought there was another one since he said Massively’s TP Finder. Since that site apparently is not going to be updated anymore was hoping to find another TP finder.
September 9, 2011 at 1:49 am
I think you are actually looking for mmoesel’s TP Finder
http://lotro.mmorsel.com/
As for the instore prices for the ROI stuff…it doesn’t really surprise me. But even though the prices don’t surprise me, Turbine should be ashamed of their marketing tactics. They’ve been telling people since before F2Play started,”Yes, you will be able to use your TP for Expansions”…..conveinently leaving out the part about how they were going to screw you over in the process. I know everyone seems to hate on the players that they consider “free loaders or point farmers who play the game at zero cost” but I think that is a very very small percentage compared to those players that bought loads of points with hard cash with expectation they would be able to use those points to buy this expansion. And that includes VIPs because that subcription fee they pay every month does cover part of that token TP stipend they get get every month. Turbine has just devalued those points and point purchases with this announcement.
September 8, 2011 at 6:28 pm
I was going to reply to this, but it would have got me banned.
September 9, 2011 at 12:43 am
you’re a better poster than me (in the past)! =]
September 8, 2011 at 6:46 pm
I know we all love Turbine and Lotro but really, this pricing just seems greedy. Im also really sick of them offering “special” items only to be put in the store at a later date. Like ive expressed before, i will play this game until it is offline but Turbine as a company has lost my respect utterly. Alottttt of people love the game and i wish they would speak out more about certain things rather then sit back and take it and be nice about it. Im not saying be rude but the community needs to voice their opinion about stuff like this more. At least the more adult community who wont rage quit every thread and make stupid arguments about topics they cant grasp.
And just wait, the cosmetics and mounts will be hitting the store.
September 8, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Given the price of the stone (1k turbine points), I’d say it’s pretty much pre-order bonus restricted anyway, other than people willing to put down a huge amount of points just for some measly exp. Not exactly the same tho, sure.
September 9, 2011 at 1:31 am
+Sapience: “Also, it’s worth noting that the mounts included with the pre-order will NOT be available in the LOTRO Store. ”
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=5668515#post5668515
September 9, 2011 at 1:55 am
Crell, considering the prices they put on Store-only mounts with restriction to single characters, I think it precludes most people with commen sense wanting to buy them anyway.
September 8, 2011 at 7:07 pm
As a Premium player who’s only ever spent $9.09 for the Moria box, I’m disappointed by the high TP cost, but it won’t drive me away. I currently have ~3400 TP saved. That’ll get me the Isengard quest/deed content, which is all I really need, since I usually solo and duo. But I might wait for a sale!
September 9, 2011 at 1:31 am
Nice. Even I don’t have that much banked; But I’ve been buying shared storage and some other stuff along the way.
September 10, 2011 at 4:26 pm
I have followed almost the same plan as you, and have 5000tp banked
I was considering buying more storage or the new skirmish/instances, but I decided to wait. Good thing in this case.
September 8, 2011 at 7:16 pm
Oh crap, I was just criticising the actual value of the expansion, and why haven’t Turbine discontinued them as they don’t fit well with the new payment model. I estimated the expansion would cost about 3000 TP total, and then they go and confound all my expectations with this… I can’t even describe it, the only logic I can see is that they really want people to spend the cash rather than people spending TP they’ve saved up with their sub by making the in-store offerings twice as expensive.
The price point I’d pay would be about 1995 TP, but rather pick it up when it’s 50% off. I’m not going to be buying the expansion anytime soon, I might take a look about the landscape but that’ll probably be my experiences of ROI for the time being.
September 8, 2011 at 7:34 pm
I paid 50 for MOM when it came out, which i gladly did but this just seems like ALOT for what your getting. I know your getting alot of stuff but its very pricy.
September 8, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Turbine’s honestly made it an easy answer; if you have any interest in RoI at all, you are doing yourself a disservice by not preordering.
September 8, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Yeah, exactly. It definitely seems foolish not to pre-order, unless you’re sitting on a really massive stockpile of points or will absolutely never want to play the Draigoch raid or use the new instance cluster.
September 8, 2011 at 9:34 pm
I didn’t realized that the experience item was only good for characters under level 65. I guess I’m to blame since I never tried to equip the stone on my 65′s and simply kept them for 65-66 once ROI launches.
September 8, 2011 at 9:35 pm
*realize
September 8, 2011 at 10:43 pm
OMFG… nowhere NEAR what I expected. I figured we’d get it all for closer to 4500. It seemed like most people figured on that. But ~6K TP? They REALLY hate us Lifer-VIP.
Thankfully I have enough TP and enough to spare to get the Quests/Raid/Instances, but man, I feel dirty for it.
Being the casual player, I should wait for a store deal… that would be the smart move… I’ve not even approached Mirkwood yet… but I’m not sure if I can wait once it’s T-Store available.
September 9, 2011 at 2:03 am
I think you can safely bet that there will be NO good deals on ROI stuff in the store for quite some time after the launch. Even though they’ve probably caught most people on the “cash only” pre-order, they will hold out to try and snag those last few that get desperate after ROI launches.
September 9, 2011 at 7:33 am
My bet is the price of the RoI expansionbundle (will be out when instances are live) will be comparable with Moria/Mirkwood. At this moment they really want you to spend real money. Better said: they want you to spend real money on expansions and TP on ingame fluff stuff.
September 9, 2011 at 12:39 am
Sorry Turbine, but you totally messed up here.
I did pre-order, but I feel really bad for those who have to get this via the LOTRO store.
4k TP max for the whole deal (quests, raid and instances) would be OK, but this is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overpriced!
September 9, 2011 at 12:58 am
i’m another of the preorderers so it doesn’t really affect me, but i still think that pricing is ridiculous. not so much for the quest pack or instance pack, but for the raid. over 1000 points for a single raid that was meant to be free 6 months ago is insane.
September 9, 2011 at 1:13 am
It is very expensive, but if you time your points purchase for a special offer time, the cost of the whole expansion comes down to $40 rather than $60, which is closer to the pre-order prices.
September 10, 2011 at 4:10 pm
But also without the pre-order bonuses. So if you were to pay cash for tp, and then buy the expansion in game, you’d be paying about 50% more.
September 9, 2011 at 1:16 am
This caused me to uninstall the game. I’m finished. These prices are ridiculous (imo). I had a feeling they were holding back the instances so they could charge extra for them and it looks like I was right. I never preordered because I didn’t think this expansion was a value at $30. I’m quitting now after enjoying a solid year of LOTRO. Enjoy the expansion everyone.
September 12, 2011 at 4:34 pm
LOL
Sorry, this makes me laugh. Turbine is a company and companies run on cash, not TP’s. I just think back to when this was released. I had been in the beta. I dropped the money for the game ($50?) plus the cash for a lifetime subscription all “sight unseen” and here are people who’ve been given the opportunity to play a significant portion of this game FOR FREE and are now rage quitting after Turbine’s affront of charging $30 for the pre-order!
LOL
Hey, I do understand times are tough all over. Money is tight here too and, honestly, if I didn’t have a lifetime sub, I probably wouldn’t be playing now. But, the idea of having to use actual cash to pay for content to me seems totally fair. And have you walked the game aisle of Best Buy (or where ever) lately and looked at prices? $50 for a title you haven’t played is basically the norm. 6,000 TPs IS a lot, but, you CAN get all those TP’s free…
/rant
September 12, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Should be had NOT been in beta…
September 9, 2011 at 1:22 am
On one hand, this is good for me. I have a bit over half the quest pack’s cost in accumulated lifetime sub TP. I want Isengard’s quest content, but I’ve never raided, and I probably never well. I save money there – I won’t be paying for content I’ll never use.
On the other hand, the only preorder item they’re putting into the store is the only one I don’t give a flying hobbit about. Keep your cheaty XP rock, Turbine, and put the cosmetics and mounts in instead.
On the gripping hand (Google it), though, I *wanted* to give Turbine money for this expansion. I feel bad about the fact that, as a lifer, I’ve effectively played for free for the past two years, and haven’t given back anything to Turbine. But as much as I want to give them money, they haven’t managed to give me any compelling reason to do so.
I want the “everyday” quests and the epics. I want the cosmetics and mounts. But to get the latter I’d need to pay an extra $30-$40 for a bunch of stuff (raids, cheat-rock) that I have no need for. While I like the Rohirrim stuff, I don’t like them enough to pay $40 three robes and three horses.
This whole thing has left me upset and depressed. When I logged into LotRO to check my TP, I noticed my last login was five weeks ago. I hadn’t even noticed the lack of the LotRO in my life, a and this was a game I played every day for four years. I don’t like to think that we’ve grown apart, but if I’m bean-counting the cost of the expansion like this I have to wonder.
September 9, 2011 at 3:35 am
Not to nitpick, but it is three full sets of cosmetics covering you head-to-toe. Not just 3 robes. Gives the option of doing some mixing and matching with other cosmetics, etc.
September 9, 2011 at 2:23 am
Overpriced imo. I did not pre-order because I bought a $50 TP bundle for this purpose. At these prices I would be paying almost double the cost than what someone who paid cash for it. I guess it’s my fault for believing TP was the only option several months ago (before pre-order), but I won’t reward Turbine for my naivete by spending another $30 on them.
September 9, 2011 at 4:23 am
Well I have to say, I feel much better about buying the legendary pre-order pack now. Felt at first like I was overpaying for the expansion, but considering the cash->TP ratio, I’m getting a ton of bonus stuff for the same price. (and bonus stuff is for all present and future characters.)
I may be flamed for this, but I’m actually glad that they made the TP cost as high as they did.(could have been a little bit lower, like 1000tp less overall for a 5k total cost) Pre-order people were buying blind up until now, and they now justified the preorder cost vs TP method as actually being a decent deal. And in my opinion, lifetime members needed an occasional high-cost item to spend TP on.(beyond frivolous stuff like cosmetics and store-mounts which are easily skipped)
PS- when comparing costs of the pre-order vs buying it all separately in the TP store, don’t forget that legendary pre-order pack buyers get 1000 TP as a bonus.(effectively discounting the price, by comparison.) So the only way that buying after release with TP makes any sense is if you already have 6k TP saved up, or you don’t need all three pieces of the expansion. Otherwise, it takes a temporary double-bonus TP sale (like we just had) to even make the costs even.(and even then the TP buyers are still missing all the pre-order goodies.)
September 9, 2011 at 4:25 am
Trend really showing its head now. Lotro updates have always been on a glacial timescale. Now the precendence for content updates being paid for by subscibers has been tried. Lotro doesnt justify a £12+ or so monthly subsciption especially when it’s around double the price of some other high budget MMOG’s.
The games practically deserted on my server during peak times its a shadow of what it used to be, it pains me to log in even for a few minutes after playing for 3 years.
ill wait until i see some reviews of Isengard, the whole pre-order incentives have a tinge of desperate money grab about them. And when they look like a good deal in comparison to the price in the in game store, you know your in trouble.
September 9, 2011 at 6:44 am
I expected the expansion alone to be between 4k tp and 4.5k tp. I was suprised to discover its actually cheaper than I had originally thought. Having close to 4.8k tp currently, I’ll be able to grab it and the raid instance.
Being a guardian (tank traited) requires me to grind the deeds, giving me the virtues to soak the damage and maintain the aggro. And being Vip, 500 tp a month isn’t bad. I’ll have what I need by the time the instance pack becomes available with update 5, without so much as lifting a finger.
As for the pre-order mounts and cosmetic bonus’s. Personally I don’t care about them, the cosmetics are just for show, and the mounts are not as good as the Elf Ambassador Horse/Pony. 250 morale, 68% speed. Free with 3 deeds completed. Rivendell/Galadhrim/Malledhrim.
September 9, 2011 at 11:43 am
The full price of the expansion (once it’s all available) is 5995 TP. That is if you compare it to what the people who pay cash are getting.
I wouldn’t consider the quest pack of 3250 to be the expansion. All you really get there are deeds and 350 quests. Roughly 9TP per quest.
September 9, 2011 at 3:54 pm
The full price of the expansion piecemeal is 5995 TP, not the expansion purchased as a bundle when that becomes available after Update 5.
September 10, 2011 at 7:02 am
How many of those “quests” are “find so-and-so and talk to them”?
September 9, 2011 at 10:44 am
Am I the only person who finds it interesting that the new expansion is RoI, which among others means ‘Return On Investment’ ? With these prices fir the expansion in the store this is more true then ever
September 9, 2011 at 1:46 pm
No, you’re not the only one. That thought also crossed my mind…
September 9, 2011 at 11:35 am
We still dont have information on some pricing for other parts of this expansion. How about prices for the various Creep classes?
September 9, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Turbine is really making some screwy business decisions these days. There is also a huge outcry at the moment on the DDO forums because of the way they are handling the introduction of the new Artificer class (if you want to play it at release, you *have* to pay for it; it won’t be unlockable by favor, even for VIPs, until the next update). I’m not usually one to whine about Turbine management etc etc but it feels like the financial guys are imposing these things on everyone else…
September 9, 2011 at 5:06 pm
Turbine is following a good-on-paper money making strategy. The pre-purchase options, which based on what we know we get for content, is all over-priced. But they throw in things they know players like already- fluffy cosmetic do-nothings and try to make you think you are getting a great deal on those too. Then when they release the TP cost which is so heavily inflated they make the real money costs look good. Except when you compare RoI to SoM or MoM you start wondering- why am I essentially paying nearly the price of a full release game, assuming you get ‘the best deal’ according to Sapience by paying $50. Then you start comparing that to brand new game with a ton of more content, and you start wondering why you are paying new game prices for an expansion that is the worst in LOTRO history.
Don’t get me wrong though. Overall the game is good. I wouldn’t have played it for 4 years. I feel my lifetime sub was an exceptional buy. But that doesn’t blind me to obvious money grabs for little substance. And as someone who’s waited patiently for good reasons to keep on pvmping to have all that swept off the table with both the new map being postponed indefinitely AND having creepside rewards for long term players marketed in the store for any r0 to buy, I’m glad I did prepurchase SWTOR and I’ll probably check in on LOTRO in 2 or so years from now to see if they’ve managed to get some interesting content in both pve and pvmp.
September 9, 2011 at 6:54 pm
1) I don’t know a time on anything when the sum of the parts has been the same as or less than the purchase of a “whole” item. Buy a computer in parts vs. buying one from a retailer and more than likely the sum of the parts will be greater than the pre-built model. Buy RoI in pieces and I’d expect you’d not get the same value. 2) It seems like a lot of people made assumptions on how much the expansion was going to be in TP, gambled on that assumption, and lost. When you gamble, eventually you are going to lose. Gamble again that it may be in a cheap bundle later? That is on you.
I may be in the minority here, but:
$00 – FTP install
$20 – Mines of Moria Expansion w/60 VIP found on ebay
$50 – RoI Lengendary
I’ve been playing for almost a year now, so that is a total of $70 spent – an average of $5.80 a month and going down each month. I have nearly every other zone as well, with normal TP collection. I might have gotten lucky with when I started and the purchases I’ve made, but a $6 cost per month for daily entertainment? I don’t think I can make an argument that I’m not getting value for my money spent.
September 10, 2011 at 7:00 am
It’s already been noted in the forums that for players like you, playing only a year, the ROI Legendary purchase is a super good deal because of the QPs thrown in. But for someone who’s been subbing to LOTRO for years, those QPs hold little to no value because of the duplication and/or old content for those long term players. I could also comment on other issues with the deal but don’t want to get all negative here. I will say that although I enjoy LOTRO, their marketing efforts since Mirkwood have been not so much to my liking. And the ROI deal @ $50 feels quite sub par when compared to Mines of Moria.
I guess I’m in the same camp with others who have pre-ordered SWTOR. That’s money that Turbine will not be seeing unfortunately.
September 12, 2011 at 2:18 am
lets get real here. Anyone who preordered SWTOR would have done so anyway regardless of how good RoI was with pricing or content. Star Wars fans are die-hards.
September 10, 2011 at 4:23 pm
“Buy a computer in parts vs. buying one from a retailer and more than likely the sum of the parts will be greater than the pre-built model. ” That is only true if you consider the name brand to have a dollar value, or the price of assembling a computer. I regularly buy components from Newegg, and put them together myself, buying a pre-built computer with the same components would be easily $100 more. But yes, in general buying a bulk package gives a better total deal. Buying a la carte can make for smaller total purchases if you know there’s parts you will never want.
2. I would need to find the exact quote, but Sapience said something along the lines of “Isengard will cost a bit north of moria and mirkwood”. It was vague, but most people I talked to assumed he meant it would cost atleast 3000tp for the whole expansion, not 3000 for just the quest pack. Keep in mind that is already double the cost of the moria quest pack, not counting the lack of instances and raids.
September 10, 2011 at 10:10 pm
“Buy a computer in parts vs. buying one from a retailer and more than likely the sum of the parts will be greater than the pre-built model. Buy RoI in pieces and I’d expect you’d not get the same value.”
True. But if you’re buying a computer like that you buy exactly the parts you want and ONLY the parts you want. Now go back to the expansion. If you only want the quests, fine. But if you want all of it, why should it cost twice as much as buying the whole thing? Buying a computer piecemeal may cost 10 or 20 percent more than buying a complete one. Not double.
September 10, 2011 at 9:45 pm
Holy frack that’s a rip off! That’s twice as much as paying cash for the same thing. Very unfair and unreasonable for them to be charging separately for the different sections like that. Either you buy the expansion pack and get everything, or you don’t buy it and get nothing. It’s extremely unfair that they’ve split it like that. Unfair and uncalled for.
I’m actually also a little concerned now that I’ve given them my money thinking I’m paying for the full expac, and yet I’m going to get stung for more should I dare to consider doing the raids and instances when they’re released.
Bad form Turbine. Very bad form. Nice way to screw over your playerbase.
September 11, 2011 at 2:54 am
If you do the preorder, you are getting the raid and the instance cluster for no additional fee. re-read the article, man.
September 12, 2011 at 7:00 pm
I did. It didn’t instill me with confidence that they won’t change their minds come release date.
September 11, 2011 at 12:00 am
It doesn’t seem that much for an expansion pack to a game that you will be playing for a long time. Other games charge the same for their expansions and if you preorder, the account wide horses alone make up for it.
However, I can understand the let down by those that have been skimping and saving TPs hoping to be able to buy it faster.
I agree with the other poster that I bet all the items will show up in the store, and after the newness wears off they will present the expansion at a much reduced bundle sale, prob after the christmas holiday during the doldrums of a new fiscal year.
September 12, 2011 at 7:59 am
hehe lucky i got about 5932 saved up i might skip the raid though and just buy the instance pack when it comes out since i do a lot of 3 mans and 6 mans
September 16, 2011 at 11:14 am
The statement about preorder horses not being instore doesnt stipulate timeframe. Not in store on release of RoI or not ever in store?
Given the reappearance of previous short-terms buy now or miss out horses, I’d not be too surprised at them coming to the store 6months down the line.
Given the price hike between cash sales and points store cost I’m glad I forked out for the preorder. Not a big fan of grinding so via TP’s would have been painful.
September 20, 2011 at 4:26 am
I suppose it’s meaning of pre-order to save money and get bonuses. Just do it, it’s easy. Many of you are complaining about high TP price. I know a lot of previous VIP or lifetimers who has 5k+ TP for sure. And new players will need time to get their char to lvl65, after that several month there will be TP discount or some favourable questpack.
It’s all about marketing, yes it costs the money and Turbine is greedy. But if you do some math game is cheaper than it was with monthly VIP pays. As a Premium player (who was 1 month VIP and pre-order legendary RoI and most of questbacks, few skirmishes) for about 100$ you got access to almost whole Lotro world (lvl 1-75) forever.
It’s just not fair for original VIP players who spent a lot of money and all TP and now they can just play Trouble in Tuckeborow and Gondamon..