Thread: Tier 7 Stat tomes

Before when the stat cap was 650 the +50 to a stat mattered a whole lot more than it does now that you can get over 2k in a single stat. Moreover, stats other than your main stat don't really matter all that much. SO there probably isn't a noticeable difference in raising a stat other than you main stat and vitality.

Stat tomes are hard to get in the game but they are not impossible. I have actually won three stat tomes in the lottery. Yeah they were not the same stat and I ended up selling them instead of using them, but still stat tomes are available if you want are willing to pay a bit of gold for them on the auction hall.

Originally Posted by Hurin

Call me crazy, but I thought the point for a lot of people was to bring their characters up to maximum potential and ability through playing the game. Which is why all games using business models like this (at least initially) pay lip service to never outright selling advancement for cash.

So, as I think you actually know, the issue is that advancement of your character to maximum potential is no longer something that can be attained solely through playing the game. Some people don't care about maximizing their characters and I respect that. But it does matter to a lot of people and the migration of the means to maximizing/polishing our characters from gameplay into store exclusives undermines the very nature of the game as a game for us.

--H

The point you bring up is true for min/maxers. These people are in every form of game that has stats tied to a character, however these people are also not the norm.

I'll speak only for myself, however I'll wager a guess that a large and substantial portion of players, play simply for enjoyment purposes. What you find enjoyable may not lead to what others find enjoyable and vice-versa. Personally, I don't care one iota about stats and if someone has 300 more Vitality than I do, or if their Patience trait is 300 while mine is 2...now I also know that there are people out there that do, however it should be known that neither having nor not having these things will 'break' the game.

If you find stat tomes somehow an imbalance, then don't use them, it's not going to break the game for you and the only way to tell if you are 'lower powered' is if you constantly inspect every player you come across...or get into discussions about their habits.

The fact of the matter is this...no content in this game requires stat tomes, store pots, or anything else (this includes relic removal scrolls) from the store to play the game. If there are kins/groups out there that limit their admittance to people who use these items then that is something that is a player issue, not a game issue.

Originally Posted by Lambs

Before when the stat cap was 650 the +50 to a stat mattered a whole lot more than it does now that you can get over 2k in a single stat. Moreover, stats other than your main stat don't really matter all that much. SO there probably isn't a noticeable difference in raising a stat other than you main stat and vitality.

Stat tomes are hard to get in the game but they are not impossible. I have actually won three stat tomes in the lottery. Yeah they were not the same stat and I ended up selling them instead of using them, but still stat tomes are available if you want are willing to pay a bit of gold for them on the auction hall.

The lottery isn't part of the game. It's nice that you won those stat tomes, but you didn't win them by logging in to your characters and doing anything in-game - you won them by logging into the forums and checking some boxes on a web site.

The amount of the increase isn't the issue being raised so much as the fact that stat tomes are essentially unavailable in the game. Many things being sold in the LOTRO Store are available in-game, such as +1 to any virtue, as an earlier poster mentioned. Regardless of one's feelings on the Store, at least we can all choose to go kill 450 Worms in Angmar for +1 Valour, or spend a couple hundred TP for the same +1 Valour. Please tell me exactly what I need to do to acquire a Tome of Might I, Tome of Might II, Tome of Might III, Tome of Might IV, Tome of Might V, Tome of Might VI, and Tome of Might VII in-game.

Originally Posted by ShinryuLOTR

No disagreement to the OP for me here. It started out bad and is only getting worse. If Turbine finds it necessary to keep creating these tomes, and I'd imagine they do given that they're likely a major seller, what they should do is make the earlier ones easier to access in game. If +70 is for all intents and purposes store exclusive, and I agree that it essentially is, then tomes up to, for example, +40 should be increased in availability in game. Maybe put them in as random drops on any humanoid enemy of the appropriate level range. Or maybe just add them to the Skirmish barter vendors.

In short, leave the +70 as store exclusive if that's desired but let your average player who does not want to open up their wallet get to +40 without doing so. Then when +80 is added to the store make +50 much easier to get in game and so on.

I second that.

This would be a good idea imo to make this stuff available as a shop item (Turbine earns money) and also in the game (slippery slope averted).

+Rep for that from me.

Don't subscribers get free 500TP every month? Plus you'll probably 100-200 TP from completing deeds. This is enough to buy stat tomes for two essential stats per month for free.

I think I've got a pretty banging minstrel, decent gear, but at about 480 fate, I can get nearly a 20% increase on that stat. Sure I can stack will up the wazoo, and vit seems easy as well, but fate's slightly low.

The argument that this stuff won't make a difference is simply not true. It can make a 20% difference.

As for 'champion x next to me does more dps with his store bought stat therefore we all win in this raid' is fine until it is the minstrel who didn't buy the extra fate that ran out of power during a particularly bad lieutenant combo in tuckborough's final boss in a pug! The second minstrel was down, my power had run out due to a dead LM....it was really touch and go but alas I couldn't keep him up.

Sure, this is the only occasion recently where that extra fate might have made the difference, but you only have to multiply 'me' by the number of skirmishes by the number of servers to see that there are very many occasions where that store bought stat might mean a wipe rather than a quicker win. If only I'd bought more stat tomes!!

Originally Posted by Mithrandir3

Wait until they choose some other guy to take instead of you, because he hits harder and has more morale. It will happen eventually. I know kins and raid leaders who check stats on my.lotro before inviting.

A lot of these posters seem to be missing that point. Most of them take the stance of "It doesn't affect me on a personal level and it's not a problem to me, so therefore it is not a problem."

Take into account your fellow gamers. This will affect some of them. Certain people that raid for example. The might suddenly feel themselves compelled to pick these things up. If you are in a competitive situation and there are limited spots you will feel like you will need those extra stats so you don't get replaced.

Just because you don't raid or pvp or min/max is not an excuse to say who cares. It's allowing some players to buy an indirect advantage over others. And like was said earlier, where does it end? If a year from now it's +150 and you got passed up as a tank for a raid because you didn't buy the stats and another guy did will it still be ok?

If you care about the game as much as some of you say you do, you would say that is not ok regardless of whether or not you play it the same way they do.

Look, i can agree completly on your statement.
The turbine store(as many in my kin/tribe state) should be for players that don't have so much time to grind the requirements of raid armour, so they can actually "pay2compete" however the store is "pay2win"
As long as turbine gains profit from something they can care less what others think about it.
"moral" doesn't apply, it's a business, but do remember, the store "provides" if noone were to buy the +50stat tomes in the first place, i'm pretty sure the store wouldn't have brought us +60 or +70.

If we buy the things, then the store will extend their "merchandise" to say it like that.
The best example are the store horses, 1995TP for 1 horse on 1 char, rediculous price, however daily i see many people with bought horses from the store, if noone bought them they wouldn't make another, but since people do they keep making new ones, like the fleet-goat.

MT

This is the age of WB LOTRO. The game is their beta playbed for testing the microtransaction waters, nothing more. If you haven't noticed this, take your head out of the sand.

The days of caring about customers are long over for this game due to big business. It's all about making $ now. LOTRO is a test bed beta for microtransactions. Nothing more.

*edit* as a side note, I have not left for a different game, unless you call real life a game.

The horses are cosmetic. That's a material difference.

I am very ambivalent about this issue. For me the key question is are these things necessary to play the game. If the answer is "yes", then I would find it more problematical.

If not, then my question becomes "Who does it hurt?" I do not see LotRO as a competitive activity. It isn't Player A vs Player B, but rather Player A vs the game. I couldn't care less whether or not Player B has better gear/stats/etc than me, nor do I care how they achieved that. It does not impact me in the slightest. "Pay to win" is not a concept I recognize in this context.

Having said earlier that I would fiind a positive answer more problematical, I started thinking about the implications. If the answer to the original question is "yes", then the existence of these things falls into the category of "pay to play". After an initial reaction that that would be a bad thing, I suddenly realized that surely that was where started out before the game became free to play. At that stage everything fell into the category of "pay to play".

I have 2 VIP subscriptions and I am happy to continue to pay to play. If the game were to become completely free to play it would cease to exist. If there are no things that people have to buy, there have to be things available that people want to buy, otherwise there will be no source of revenue to sustain the operaton and development of the game.

Now it could be argued that VIP subscribers might have a legitimate argument that they were being disadvantaged when compared to someone who pays the equivalent amount of buying things such as stat tomes. I think it all comes down to a question of whether or not the VIP subscription benefits are sufficient. Lt 500 TP stipend is generally held to be approxinately a $5 benefit, so are the rest of the VIP benefits commensurate with the rest of the subscription costs, in my case $3.33/month, with a maximum for a monthly subscriber of $9.95/month. Clearly the answer is variable depending on what effective monthly rate you are paying. Perhaps a new subscriber benefit might be a permanent (as long as you subscribe) discount rate in the store.

Overall, after some internal debate, I don't see this issue as a major problem.

And to echo Nymphonic's original post, kudos to all posters in this thread for the quality of the posts. It is so Refreshing to see well presented and well argued debate on an ineternet forum.

Realizing the impact these tomes would have back when F2P first went live, I spent the vast majority of my loyalty TP on the tomes for my captain.

That purchase enabled me to pull off a might/will build that made the captain work as intended all the way up to RoI. I doubt I would have had enough slack in the stats to make that build work without getting those tomes.

Likewise, I see this as a money grab, but when my primary stat is over 1500, is 10 more might really going to make that much difference?

Fully agree with the OP. And what other people say, yes it's Warner Bros. I know it's not allowed to make ethical statements which i will not do, but you see it everywhere. Newspapers, Hollywood, international banking systems etc. These people do not care about others, they just want more and more money to get more power. A great man once told us about these people and stood up for his nation, he did not want the world to become as it is today with these people in charge. He was not successful as these people are very good at mind games and are crawling around the globe in many countries.

But we can make a difference here and stop spending money for TP. If you have a lifetime VIP subscription like myself you can consider yourself lucky and get your stuff without spending real money. For others, you will have to ask yourself is buying TP worth it?

I agree with the OP, however (and maybe I'm wrong) the problem is not how this new tier of tomes will affect in the near future the game, but how it CAN affect it in the FUTURE if this continues to go no.

Right now, as stated above, there's not a lot of difference (I guess, relatively new here) for another +10 added on top of those +60 someone already had. But, as I understood the post, in a couple of months/years if this continues to advance, we'll have a mighty +100 total (or more).

As of now, Turbine is at the edge of transforming this game into a pay 2 win (or even play if a raid doesn't accept you because you don't have enough stat tomes), so the point is Turbine should be careful with their moves, Don't pull too hard on the player base.

Since I'm just getting out of Moria, these tomes don't seem relevant to me, however I hope that when I get to cap I can still PUG with others... you know for fun, not as a chore or a min/max. I surely know that some people play like me, not competitive, but this is an MMO if the majority of players tend to play hardcore, there will be no room for casual gamers or people who just want to have a nice time (dying is also fun, specially for me since all of the content is a first time and I still enjoy the "old" instances).

To summarize,
- right now, not much of a problem
- if it persists, could be quite problematic

Good adventures for you!
Also, glad to see a calmed thread on the internet.

Remember...its all about convenience not advantage

I completely agree with OP. And for me the VII tomes have effectively turned into the straw that broke the camel's back by managing to finally completely turn me off LOTRO.

Sad.

Since the tomes were introduced, no one ever asked in sng for players with tomes for any instance/raid on my server. Why? Because it does not matter at all. You can't see if anyone has bought tomes and you can't see the primary stat values.

There is and probably never will be any content where it matters that you have 5% or 10% more of any stat. Before ROI the effect of the tomes on gameplay with the 650 cap was much bigger, as some have already mentioned.
Even with 150 more will (and we only have +70 tomes), how much more healing will my minstrel generate? 1% or 2%? Will that really cut it? Primary stats are now in the range of 1500-2000, so what?

Btw, I am a vip and get 500 points every month, maybe I just do as intended and spend them in the shop for something like this.

Looking forward to the +80 stat tome thread See ya all there!

Originally Posted by gondaran

i completely agree with op. And for me the vii tomes have effectively turned into the straw that broke the camel's back by managing to finally completely turn me off lotro.

Sad.

lmao omg!....

Again I need to state that Turbine Points are FREE!

If you choose tp purchase them, well, that's your choice.

Originally Posted by Toranoga

Again I need to state that Turbine Points are FREE!

If you choose tp purchase them, well, that's your choice.

Are they "FREE" because you can just spend some time grinding deeds and get the TP? In that case, work gives me free money. Honestly, the only difference at the moment is that work gives me more money than playing lotro gives me equivalent TP (based on either purchasing ratios, or TP cost vs real $ costs), and also that I actually find work more fulfilling than lotro. In terms of "fun", they're about the same.

Originally Posted by Toranoga

Again I need to state that Turbine Points are FREE!

If you choose tp purchase them, well, that's your choice.

And again I need to state that this poster obviously has no idea what Turbine Points are and so you can disregard them.

Originally Posted by Eartholloth

lmao omg!....

Thank you for your insightful reply.

Among my friends there have been an ever increasing amount of discontent about recent LOTRO developments (many of which include the store in some way). The fact is that most of my friends have turned to other games and only a few still remain in lotro.

I've been sticking with LOTRO as I've learned that all MMOs are fundamentally the same and have thought that it's not worth the effort to switch at this point. And I have indeed been a true Lotro fanboi: Previously I had leveled all my chars (1 of each class and even 2 of a few classes) to the level cap diligently and been mostly having fun doing it. But since RoI I could only muster up the stamina to level up 6.

Part of my disappointment is that everything that Turbine seems to be doing has the appearance of having been done lazily -- without true commitment to make a great game. I can understand and sometimes even appreciate laziness in people (as I'm quite a sloth myself) but in my opinion the doom gloomers and my friends have it right: Lotro has gone downhill fast. I've been hoping for the plunge to turn it's direction and still am, but it's obvious that it's only a fool's hope and I'm getting increasingly unhappy about it.

I got 2 conflicting opinions about this;

1. One way, i really don't like these tomes, since although theoretically they are acquirable ingame, it's impossible to acquire all 35 different tomes on 1 char ingame, since the drop chance is extremely low.
They give an advantage (more stat without a disadvantage, because you lose nothing by acquiring it) and the only practical way to acquire them is ingame. It's not convenience, it's advantage they sell. If you spend more turbine points, which aren't easy to grind for in these amounts (5 stats, 7 tomes, 295? a tome = 5*7*295 is around 10k turbine points), you get higher stats. You buy advantage.

2. The big question is, why bothering? We can't see each others stats, I doubt if anyone would notice if you have them or you don't have them. They probably won't influence if you are selected and the advantage of those tomes is small (70 extra might, while you can have 2k with armour/jewelry, is 3,5% extra). Since lotro is focussed mostly around PvE i really don't care about how great/perfect gear/stats other players have and i think most of us really don't mind. If they decide to buy succes, good for them and for me, because more money for this game and better group-mates if i randomly join a group, since some of them will have stat tomes, thus better stats.

So the pro's of this decision are a lot bigger then the con's. The only problem i have with this is they said "convenience, not advantage". I think it's time Turbine makes a new statement that they sometimes sell advantage instead of convenience items only.

I don't think it's that terrible...

I have various stat tomes in my shared storage about 4-5 of them, can't use them becouse I don't wanna buy any but I wanna have them when I get the lower tiers. That means, those I have I got from lowlever instances and Lottery.
That's how I play it.

having +10 - +70 more stat won't do that big change, though it would be neat to have.

And as I have understod about this buy your t7 stat tome is only for a short time means they won't go to t8 t9 becouse they know that would be to much.
But having "one time" only chance to buy T7 would mean for those who havent gotten T6 to buy so they can buy this T7 before it's gone making alot of player buy not only this new T7 but also <T6 becouse they can't just wait to buy T7 becouse it will be gone.

If you understand what im getting at, I think that is how this plan is and it will make profit. So in a few months we will see this campain again and then it's more profit from those who missed it and are new.

@Turbine: Now please don't go making T8 Stat tomes>

PEOPLE STOPPED CARING AGES AGO!!!

those that really dont like it allready stopped playing, fact is they making more money by just catering to the people that find it no big deal.

We've been lied to, scammed off and disgusted ever since f2p. This slap in the face is landing on the part of my cheeck that has allready gone numb from all the previous battering.

It stil amazes me the people who its not a big deal, 70 is a very big deal, pre roi it was the lastest lvl65 instance drop main stat & almost all readiers/istance runners wanted the new item, e.g Ril Mil one main +70 & some lesser stats, 70 virt is alot of extra moral & as the post the other day, wile extreme version its true we seem to need lot of HP now another 70virt would be awsome.

Poeple wast a legacy for 30-40 more & slot virtures for 30 more loosing other nice bonues for that little bit extra & you say 70 aint alot, your in a bubble 70 is lovly & as said what next 80-90-100+ were is the line.

I havent personaly looked at the cost but as a VIP with 5 main chars what would it cost me, would the 500 free points get me many ?, if not then Vip should maybe get them cheaper or more easy since we invest in the game constantly.

That said I think ill end my sub again now since realy playing ftp you dont realy loose anything worthwile & they still cash grab off you as vip.

For me personally I have strong dislike of the F2P concept as a whole and stopped spending money on Lotro the minute I heard they were switching... but there's two arguments here that I'd like to counter:

First of all several people are saying 'Well, it's not PvP, so stats don't matter!'. I don't know wether those people regularly play with the same people, but my kinship regularly tries to best the latest raids in a more or less casual fashion. We don't like to check people's equipment and stats, we don't expect people to know the raid by heart before it starts and regularly try to take new, inexperienced members along. So yes, we often wipe and struggle. Nevertheless almost everyone in the raid tries to be the best equipped they can be, based on their play time, tolerance of 'grinding' etc. because no one likes to feel they're 'dragging the whole group down'. So while there's no competition, there can still be a very strong drive to 'max out' your character.

Second, you can't seriously say '70 agility/will/whatever doesn't matter'... it's basically an entire jewellery slot! If that doesn't make a difference, what will? 100? 150? where's the limit? Sure, the top-end solid raid groups won't fail just because they lack 70 of a stat, but for those that don't have the latest shiniest gear yet, that 70 can just be difference between success and failure.

Hurry, only available until Jan 26th! Supplies are limited, so sign right here on the dotted line!













--

Hey, let's go there: Datacrons are available in-game and finding them is actually fun, unlike stat tomes. Fun, accessible versus "advantage not convenience" - discuss.

Originally Posted by StavroMuellerBeta

Basically, stat tomes are on their way to being Radiance 3.0.

LOL. Was Radiance 2.0 Finesse? If that is the case then I will agree with you. Stat Tomes will be as like Radiance as Finesse was (i.e. not at all.)

To my eyes (and other people I'm sure), the obvious solution is to make stat tomes truly and realistically obtainable in-game.

For the poster who said he/she rolled on 30/40 stat tomes so far, you either play 24/7 and/or have the best lucky charm I've ever heard of. I too ran 100s of GBs. And Annuminas. And Helegrods. And Inn of the Forsaken. And Halls of Night. X 4 characters... I've seen 2 stat tomes drop... (that I lost the roll too)

Suggestion: make stat tomes drop with the same % as the worn symbol in the foudry. For all instances <40, t1-t4. For instances 40-75, t4-t7. Turbine would actually see more people buying stat tomes from the store if they gave players some of them (and people would have to complete the "set"). At least wouldn't be as shady as it it now (the total silence regarding stat tomes for over a year supports this entirely).

To echo Lestache's post back there, kudos to Hurin for putting a good and civilized fight. You are a very well spoken person who writes coherent, objective and organized posts.

Apparently the current t2 Orthanc encounters are really challenging. Every "little" bit counts and +70 will/fate on a minie, might/vitality on a champ, agility/vitality on a hunter/burglar, multiplied by 12 people in a raid... Well... If one fails to see the "advantage" of this scenario...

PS: Don't buy stat tomes. Don't fall into the trap.

Stat tomes are a product of DDO that were shoehorned into LOTRO to make a buck. There were enough ways to raise your stats through gear, virtues, LIs, and consumables (temporarily). They don't fit into LOTRO, that's obvious by Turbine's decision to lift the stat cap to sell these things. Even having 7,000+ free points for being a lifer, I won't bother to buy these.

This is the blunt truth. I don't care if I get negative rep for this or this post is deleted.

Out of all the MMORPG's I've ever played, Turbine puts too much emphasis on their in-game store.
Most MMORPG's either
A) Have no in-game store
B) Have an in-game store and announce they have sales on certain items ONCE A WEEK, not three times per day.

When I'm doing tasks and I hit my limit, a message pops up saying "Go to the LOTRO store to reset your limit."
When I went on the treasure hunt, a message pops up saying "Go to the LOTRO store to buy more pickaxes."
When I load the launcher, I am told about sales on certain items.
When I enter PvMP, I get to fight a bunch of store bought BAs. The majority of monster players are Blackarrows, at least 70% of them.
The capstone of store bought stats has gone from 60 to 70.
Once you get that rare chest drop, the only way to open it is to buy the key in the LOTRO store.
Etc...Etc.

Plus, the fact that most of the items are store exclusives is terrible..meaning that the only way to acquire such items or bonuses is to buy them in the store. There is no way to earn +70 to each stat or get a key(extremely rare). That is essentially what makes them P2W. If players had the chance to earn these items in-game...that would be different. But they don't...so this is P2W.

Everyone has been saying since ROI launched... that this game would be turning into P2W and it has "surprisingly. "

Honestly, I feel I'm at Wal-mart looking around at stuff that says "20% off" or "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" or "We've lowered the prices even more!"
Oh and FYI...I hate Wal-mart. I went in there once and when I came out of the store, it was destroyed. Building collapsed, people had to evacuate.

I'm not surprised by this in the least. I didn't think going to t6 was enough. It is impressive how quickly after the expansion TB/WB needed more cash though. Scotch, hookers and blow must be more expensive in the North East than in the other parts of the US.

On the bright side, if they offer a few more tiers I might be able to fix my warden. Bring on the tier 15 stat tomes please. Also please add more store relics for my LIs that aren't available in game. I love those. Can you double the price of the mitigation store scrolls and up the decreased incoming damage to 10% too?

Seriously though, they just offered you the best deal on fictitious money ever (123k bundle). You should be happy that your virtual currency can be spent on something useful.

</sarcasm>

As long as you can earn the item in the game to barter the tomes or other items, I see no problems with stat tomes. F2P is still given.

Originally Posted by RicardoFurriel

To my eyes (and other people I'm sure), the obvious solution is to make stat tomes truly and realistically obtainable in-game.

For the poster who said he/she rolled on 30/40 stat tomes so far, you either play 24/7 and/or have the best lucky charm I've ever heard of. I too ran 100s of GBs. And Annuminas. And Helegrods. And Inn of the Forsaken. And Halls of Night. X 4 characters... I've seen 2 stat tomes drop... (that I lost the roll too)

Suggestion: make stat tomes drop with the same % as the worn symbol in the foudry. For all instances <40, t1-t4. For instances 40-75, t4-t7. Turbine would actually see more people buying stat tomes from the store if they gave players some of them (and people would have to complete the "set"). At least wouldn't be as shady as it it now (the total silence regarding stat tomes for over a year supports this entirely).

To echo Lestache's post back there, kudos to Hurin for putting a good and civilized fight. You are a very well spoken person who writes coherent, objective and organized posts.

Apparently the current t2 Orthanc encounters are really challenging. Every "little" bit counts and +70 will/fate on a minie, might/vitality on a champ, agility/vitality on a hunter/burglar, multiplied by 12 people in a raid... Well... If one fails to see the "advantage" of this scenario...

PS: Don't buy stat tomes. Don't fall into the trap.

This pretty much sums up the way I feel about this issue.

I've only seen one drop in-game (Warg Pens). It was a tier 2 so I had to buy the tier 1 off the store to be able to use it. I agree that the store would see more business if more of these dropped randomly in-game. People who have high standards about not buying them may give in to the temptation if they get a tier 2/3/4 in loot and have to buy the earlier tiers in order to use the one they just found.

Great post OP!

I guess I'm the sort of player that Turbine is targeting. I've slapped down $200+ on TP over the last year and a half.

What I would like to see Turbine do is make store items non-bindable. CCP does this with Eve Online. You can buy a PLEX (basically a 30 day sub), and trade it with other players. It actually brings forward purchases as there are players out there who want to spend gold rather than TP, and there are those who happy to spend TP to earn gold. Binding store items or forcing them to be auto-applied after purchase is ######-baggery.

Originally Posted by Valerian_Moonfire

Since the tomes were introduced, no one ever asked in sng for players with tomes for any instance/raid on my server. Why? Because it does not matter at all. You can't see if anyone has bought tomes and you can't see the primary stat values.

Wrong. Here's my character, which the whole world can see: http://my.lotro.com/home/character/E...mir/theodorius

Kinships and raid leaders use my.lotro to evaluate applications. An extra 70 in every stat gives you an advantage over those who haven't bought it.

Yours isn't visible yet due to Morthond not being in my.lotro yet... but they are working on it.

I was hoping someone had posted their distaste about this. This is not a convenience, it's an edge. Just like every other thing in the store that "enhances" your ability. It's steroids. And it's gonna get to the point that in order to be competitive in the game you're going to have to buy all these things. I don't mind spending a few bucks, but as it has been said, we are in freefall here. Permanent finesse boots, ICPR... the sky's the limit. And you can't say, well it will slow down or stop. No it won't. Anything there is a market for, they will try to sell.

For what it's worth, I say STOP RIGHT NOW when it comes to permanent character enhancements. Consumables are a whole other issue, but as far as virtues and stats, please stop.

I still think every item in shop should be available by reasonable means in game.

So big NO to t7 stat tomes.

If i remember correctly, a year ago when T5 tomes were in store, Tier6 tomes were available for a limited time. So why are people surprised now that T7 tomes are available for limited time. In a years time when T7 will be in the store permanently, we wll see T8 tomes for limited time.

People have the option to play without a subscription. They pay-as-they-play. From the moment people can play without a subscription, Turbine needs to have the store to sell items and recover the "lost" revenue from people without a subscription. Also, at these times pplayers also benefit by paying for what content they use.
The store is here to stay, other games have also a store. Turbine can use the store to add items that some players want, and can add lots of fulff. Players can choose to buy items in the store, or can choose to ignore it.

Tomes like other items (cosmetics, extra storage, unique store relics etc) are not needed to play the game. They may offer some advantage but not having them wont lock players out of content or make content unbeatable. 70 vitality (350 morale (tanks have so much morale to bother with 700 more) or any other +70 stat is nothing after all the buffs people can get in game (saw a 17k morale tank after buffs in raid (having 60 vitality extra is 3.5% which is not an advantage).

I didnt see any complains when Turbine increased toon storage again through the store after Update 5. Just like storage, the tomes are in the store, and they will be in the future.