I agree that what's nice about Lotro as opposed to many other similar games is it's not pay to win. You really don't NEED anything from the store to enjoy the game or succeed at the game up to level 95 (free to play). However, there are a few quality of life items you can get through VIP and/or the store that are really nice. The extra inventory space/character slots, swift travel, 500 monthly lotro points, crafting speed boost, and no tool durability are all VIP benefits that are in my opinion very much worth the subscription alone, not to mention access to ALL expansion and quest packs except for the latest one. If you plan on playing this game long-term and you have a bit of extra money to spend, VIP is definitely worth it. As for store items, I like to save my points primarily for (1) things that apply account-wide and aren't just character-specific, and (2) upgrades to inventory space. Especially inventory space, you can never have enough. I focus on carry-all bags, extra bag space (+5 main inventory slots), shared storage expansions, wardrobe expansions, and even vault and/or house storage expansions. As soon as these are on sale I plan on buying them. One store item I do consider almost essential if you're a completionist and don't want to play regions over-leveled is the Experience Disabler. As a slowtro player, I consider it the closest thing to a must-have item in the store after the riding trait. The universal toolkits are also nice. I currently have 9 characters on Arkenstone, and I've purchased a universal toolkit and experience disabler for each of them. They're both cheap enough items that I can usually earn the points back very quickly just by completing the early-level deeds. The disabler is not necessary at all if you don't care about staying on level or just want to level as quickly as possible. I also have the journeyman riding trait package, which is really nice if you play a lot of different characters and don't want to spend 95 lotro for each one for the riding trait. You also get +78% speed for every mount in the game. I got it recently on sale and it still cost me a couple thousand points, but I'm happy with the purchase.
Voice of the Rings, Thanks for the tips. In-game chat (Brandtwine for me) has always been helpful with weekly coupon codes too. The improvements to this game just keep coming. Be well.
The incredible stat bloat in the game makes the stat tomes really not worth it. I know that 500-600 extra Vitality sounds like a lot and for a low level character it would be huge. But what’s your total Vitality even with Level 130 gear? 50,000? The bonus is 1%, even a hard-core we-want-to-be-first raid group won’t care about that. I’ve gotten a couple of stat tomes as Hobbit Gifts but there is so much useful and fun stuff to buy I can’t imagine ever spending a LOTRO Point on a stat tome. The keys for loot boxes are a form of gambling. Can the boxes have very fun and, if the character opening it is very high level, useful stuff? Yes. Can they be filled with worthless trash? Also yes. If you get some free keys, sure, open some boxes. But spend your LOTRO Points on the sure things, i.e. purchases of things you want, not some random chance to maybe get something cool but more likely to be the equivalent of burning your LOTRO Points in a fire. I filter out loot boxes, I never see them and I never want to (except when I get free keys, which are extremely rare). Sales at anniversary and holiday times can be amazing. They sometimes put stuff on sale for -75%, turning a very expensive purchase like a nearly 7000LP Valar boost or Housing Writs for a big premium house or a big batch of Mithril Coins into something much more reasonable. Even the weekly -20%/-30% sales are pretty great. And don’t dismiss the idea of buying the big $200 box of LOTRO points, if a double bonus sale is active that’s 33,000 LOTRO Points which - combined with patience to wait for sales on the store items you want - is enough for a lot of fun extras over a lot of time. Worth skipping the fancy lunches for a few weeks, make sandwiches from dinner leftovers and drink water!
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him (Jesus Christ) should not perish, but have everlasting life
I agree that what's nice about Lotro as opposed to many other similar games is it's not pay to win. You really don't NEED anything from the store to enjoy the game or succeed at the game up to level 95 (free to play). However, there are a few quality of life items you can get through VIP and/or the store that are really nice.
The extra inventory space/character slots, swift travel, 500 monthly lotro points, crafting speed boost, and no tool durability are all VIP benefits that are in my opinion very much worth the subscription alone, not to mention access to ALL expansion and quest packs except for the latest one. If you plan on playing this game long-term and you have a bit of extra money to spend, VIP is definitely worth it.
As for store items, I like to save my points primarily for (1) things that apply account-wide and aren't just character-specific, and (2) upgrades to inventory space. Especially inventory space, you can never have enough. I focus on carry-all bags, extra bag space (+5 main inventory slots), shared storage expansions, wardrobe expansions, and even vault and/or house storage expansions. As soon as these are on sale I plan on buying them.
One store item I do consider almost essential if you're a completionist and don't want to play regions over-leveled is the Experience Disabler. As a slowtro player, I consider it the closest thing to a must-have item in the store after the riding trait. The universal toolkits are also nice. I currently have 9 characters on Arkenstone, and I've purchased a universal toolkit and experience disabler for each of them. They're both cheap enough items that I can usually earn the points back very quickly just by completing the early-level deeds. The disabler is not necessary at all if you don't care about staying on level or just want to level as quickly as possible.
I also have the journeyman riding trait package, which is really nice if you play a lot of different characters and don't want to spend 95 lotro for each one for the riding trait. You also get +78% speed for every mount in the game. I got it recently on sale and it still cost me a couple thousand points, but I'm happy with the purchase.
Hey! This was very helpful thank you for the addition! Guys read this! Good info.
Entertaining and informative as always, thank you! Sharing on our kin's discord!
Voice of the Rings,
Thanks for the tips. In-game chat (Brandtwine for me) has always been helpful with weekly coupon codes too. The improvements to this game just keep coming. Be well.
Welcome!
What server do you play on?
Crickhollow, I think
Crickhollow
The incredible stat bloat in the game makes the stat tomes really not worth it. I know that 500-600 extra Vitality sounds like a lot and for a low level character it would be huge. But what’s your total Vitality even with Level 130 gear? 50,000? The bonus is 1%, even a hard-core we-want-to-be-first raid group won’t care about that. I’ve gotten a couple of stat tomes as Hobbit Gifts but there is so much useful and fun stuff to buy I can’t imagine ever spending a LOTRO Point on a stat tome.
The keys for loot boxes are a form of gambling. Can the boxes have very fun and, if the character opening it is very high level, useful stuff? Yes. Can they be filled with worthless trash? Also yes. If you get some free keys, sure, open some boxes. But spend your LOTRO Points on the sure things, i.e. purchases of things you want, not some random chance to maybe get something cool but more likely to be the equivalent of burning your LOTRO Points in a fire. I filter out loot boxes, I never see them and I never want to (except when I get free keys, which are extremely rare).
Sales at anniversary and holiday times can be amazing. They sometimes put stuff on sale for -75%, turning a very expensive purchase like a nearly 7000LP Valar boost or Housing Writs for a big premium house or a big batch of Mithril Coins into something much more reasonable. Even the weekly -20%/-30% sales are pretty great. And don’t dismiss the idea of buying the big $200 box of LOTRO points, if a double bonus sale is active that’s 33,000 LOTRO Points which - combined with patience to wait for sales on the store items you want - is enough for a lot of fun extras over a lot of time. Worth skipping the fancy lunches for a few weeks, make sandwiches from dinner leftovers and drink water!
Good points!
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him (Jesus Christ) should not perish, but have everlasting life
Amen John: 3:16