Thread: Rohan vs Isengard?

I've recently been playing LOTRO a lot and I have a couple questions:

Will Riders of Rohan include previous expansion packs? I know that Rise of Isengard Legendary edition included all of the areas from previous packs.

Also, in light of this, would it be better if I just waited for RoR even though RoI is currently on sale? I don't want to spend too much money on this, but I do love the game and want to be able to experience all that I can. I am currently just on F2P and haven't gotten any new areas, so I would be starting fresh with expansions.

And finally, is there a good place to get news about this expansion? I would like to be able to read up on what I have to look forward to.

Thanks in advance!

Hi, and welcome to the forums.

I don't think too much has been discussed in terms of what forms RoR will be made available in, probably because Turbine themselves may not have decided yet, it's still too far away for such things.

Likewise, not too much of the content has been let out yet either. We do know we're supposed to be getting some form of Mounted Combat with our own War Steeds, and a level cap raise to 85, but that's about it.

One of the more recent articles -

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-01-26-more-detail-on-lotro-riders-of-rohan-expansion

I think the OPs question is driven by the practices of some other game company...

All the LoTRO expansions stand on their own. Sometimes higher-priced versions of an expansion will include access to all or part of other expansions (e.g "The Path of the Company" special pack is included in the Legendary version of RoI).

At the same time, you don't have to have every expansion just to get to the area covered by the latest one.

Additionally, Turbine is making the Epic Quests available to all players, whether you have purchased the quests in a given zone or not...if the Epic Quests go through that zone, you can do the Epic Quests even if you can't do any other quests there.

tl;dr LoTRO is not WoW.

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer

Well, I would like to be able to have all of the quests available to me, so I would like to own the content in the expansions. Yes, I was refering to the higher-priced RoI edition with "The Path of the Company" because it seemed to have all of the areas available without using TP. This is the chart that I used for info: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...k-Access-Chart

My question still is:

Should I buy ROI now while it's on sale, or wait for RoR to see if a higher-priced version includes more areas like RoI Legendary edition did?

Originally Posted by whheydt

tl;dr LoTRO is not WoW.

Thank the One.

Originally Posted by Elette

Should I buy ROI now while it's on sale, or wait for RoR to see if a higher-priced version includes more areas like RoI Legendary edition did?

Let me ask my crystal ball .. outlook is murky.

We can't answer your question. Only Turbine can, and they haven't shared that info yet.

Originally Posted by Elette

Should I buy ROI now while it's on sale, or wait for RoR to see if a higher-priced version includes more areas like RoI Legendary edition did?

I would probably wait myself (unless you have nothing else to do and are too eager to play it).
The expansion will always be there for you to grab, in time it will likely go cheaper as well.

RoR is still at least four months away. That's not a short time, so keep that in mind.

Originally Posted by Elette

I've recently been playing LOTRO a lot and I have a couple questions:

Will Riders of Rohan include previous expansion packs? I know that Rise of Isengard Legendary edition included all of the areas from previous packs.

Also, in light of this, would it be better if I just waited for RoR even though RoI is currently on sale? I don't want to spend too much money on this, but I do love the game and want to be able to experience all that I can. I am currently just on F2P and haven't gotten any new areas, so I would be starting fresh with expansions.

And finally, is there a good place to get news about this expansion? I would like to be able to read up on what I have to look forward to.

Thanks in advance!

There's no way to predict that, in all honesty. While it's possible that they'll release an edition of ROR that includes the Path of the Fellowship, but it's not really a good idea to ride all your bets on those being included in the expansion.

I personally doubt that ROR will include ROI. I personally would suggest purchasing ROI legendary, and then all you'll have to purchase ("have to") with ROR is the basic expansion for the quest/deed access and such.

Google is, by far, your best bet for getting news about ROR. The Dev's and people from Turbine release more news snippets about their expansions in scattered articles and interiews. TenTonHammer, Casual Stroll to Mordor... those types of websites usually have good information.

Comparing the prices of the quest packs in the LOTRO store to the currently discounted price of the RoI legendary edition, the current deal looks like a real winner. Each of those quest packs will go on sale occasionally, but the monetary cost of the turbine points will still be way higher than the $25 you'd spend on that package. (The Dunland quest pack by itself costs more than $25 in Turbine points normally).

If there is a sale like this after RoR comes out, it will probably be a long time after sales have slowed.

I will be waiting to see what it's like, due to many people telling me to on my other thread. :P

We don't have much information on RoR now, and if you really want to get the most bang for your buck, I'd suggest buying the Isengard legendary addition now while it's 50% off and getting nearly all the areas you need to level up, or waiting until you can pre-order Rohan and buying the edition which gives the path of the fellowship and isengard.

World or Warcraft isnt the only company that includes all previous expansions with the latest expansion. Sony does it with Everquest 2 and there are many others (AOC, GW, ETC).

I am new to this game (just tried it in 2007) and coming over from EQ2. I would only be interested in preordering Rohan if it included all previous content. What would be the sense in preordering an expansion when I have years of expansions to catch up on? Also, why is it even worth buying the previous expansions since we already have access to those zones?

I have spent, literally, over a thousand dollars on Everquest 2. That's multiple accounts because I like to two box or three box. I'm financially well off. But in order to interest me in actually making lotro my new home they are going to have to do better than making me buy each and every expansion.

I'm already at a disadvantage because I'm coming to the game so late. Forcing me and other players to purchase each expansion individually is counterproductive and might cost Turbine a fresh customer base.

As a World of Warcraft player since the launch of Burning Crusade I'd point out that WoW hasn't always given away the older expansions. To be honest, I wasn't aware that they had started doing so now. Heavily discounting them, yes, but not giving them away free. If such a change has happened it is quite recent, (relatively speaking) and doesn't reflect the state of affairs as I experienced them, where each prior expansion had to be purchased if you wanted access to the content/races.

Back on topic, it is my understanding that you have access to the zones of the past expansions in LOTRO, but not the content. Someone who has not purchased an expansion can visit that region, do deeds, kill mobs and participate in any of the epic storyline that takes place there. However, they will not have access to the quests for that region.

As for Turbine losing potential customers as a result of this; I doubt it. I first dabbled in LOTRO shortly after Mines of Moria came out. I bought the Mines of Moria/Shadows of Angmar box, (thankfully!) and tried it out for a month. At the time, it wasn't for me, and I couldn't afford to pay for it and WoW each month. I have only come back in the past couple of months, and find that I am being drawn more and more to the LOTRO experience.

Since I already had the Moria box, I had access to a number of regions anyway. After playing for a while, and deciding that I liked it here, I bought the Gamestop Mithril Edition, (sadly no longer available for digital download). This opened up some more regions, and gave me some Turbine points. When the Isengard legendary edition went on sale for 50% of its regular cost, I snapped it up. This opened up more content, (though there was some overlap with my other purchases) and gave me some more Turbine points. When the announcement was made about the Steam Mithril edition being launched, I snapped that up too. The price was very low, and included a couple of regions I didn't have. With the Turbine points I have accumulated in game I was able to buy a number of quest packs and, by watching the forums, I was able to snap up Great River for 50% off today.

My outlay has been very, very minimal, (and I say this from the point of view of someone on a very tight budget) and I now only have one quest pack yet to buy, (Enedwaith). Levelling a few alts will take care of the points I need for that, and I will be more than happy to keep playing for as long as Turbine continue to keep the servers running. I will not be rushing to buy Riders of Rohan because of my tight budget, but nor do I think Turbine are being in any way unreasonable.

This has become longer than I intended, sorry.

My point is, I am certainly not a hardcore LOTRO player, but I have been able to get "caught up" with quest packs and expansions, in a very short space of time, by looking out for bargains and shopping judiciously. The process is nowhere near as daunting as you suggest, and I very much doubt it will put anyone off if they have a real interest in playing the game.

Originally Posted by loupegarrou

Back on topic, it is my understanding that you have access to the zones of the past expansions in LOTRO, but not the content. Someone who has not purchased an expansion can visit that region, do deeds, kill mobs and participate in any of the epic storyline that takes place there. However, they will not have access to the quests for that region.

If you don't own the quest pack for a zone, you also don't own the deeds.

Here's my .2 cents

Moria and Mirkwood were included in RoI Legendary (Along with the rest of the PotF). Moria and Mirkwood are (were) expansion packs back in the day. I would be very surprised if RoR didn't include all 3 expansion packs.

Moria and Mirkwood were 3 and 2 years old when Isengard launched. Isengard will be less than a year old when Rohan launches.

I don't think you'll be seeing any other expansions included with Rohan. It has enough of its own selling points, and that would be highlighted on the pre-order page to attract more buyers if it was intended for inclusion.

The fact that Isengard has had a recent price-cut too suggests that there are no plans to bundle it.

Personally I would just buy Rohan now, as the only real change we're likely to see with it this year is a TP bundle of its constituent parts, including the instance cluster (likely in December), which will still be more expensive than pre-ordering it with cash now.

Think of it this way: if Rohan included all previous expansions some players will say they are being charged extra for this content they already bought over the years, and they will want a discount (like many VIPs said last year when the Path of the Fellowship quest packs were given with the Legendary Edition - despite them already having access to all of these).

It's bad practise, in my opinion, to base expectations and predictions on what other companies do. Base them on what Turbine did, but not what Blizzard or Sony did, as none of them follow the same business models.

-Bel

Originally Posted by loupegarrou

.....

Back on topic, it is my understanding that you have access to the zones of the past expansions in LOTRO, but not the content. Someone who has not purchased an expansion can visit that region, do deeds, kill mobs and participate in any of the epic storyline that takes place there. However, they will not have access to the quests for that region.

I underlined the part that is wrong here. They wont give you the deeds if you are not a subscriber and do not "own" an area. So it's pretty miserable. About all you can do is see the scenery and kill things. You would not really want to play doing only the epic quests and nothing else. I think playing higher levels without the expansions (ROI and ROR) will be pretty bad, although it seems you could do some mounted combat.

Originally Posted by Cindir

I underlined the part that is wrong here. They wont give you the deeds if you are not a subscriber and do not "own" an area. So it's pretty miserable. About all you can do is see the scenery and kill things. You would not really want to play doing only the epic quests and nothing else. I think playing higher levels without the expansions (ROI and ROR) will be pretty bad, although it seems you could do some mounted combat.

Thanks for the correction, Cindir. You are, of course, correct. When I typed deeds I was actually thinking of tasks, since I believe those are open to all, (though please correct me if I am wrong on that score).

You've also helped to enforce the point I was making in response to the Gonsec's comment:

Originally Posted by Gonsec

Also, why is it even worth buying the previous expansions since we already have access to those zones?

The point I was trying to make was, yes, you do have access to those areas without buying the expansions. However, as you point out, access and fun may be very different things. Without access to quests, deeds and the like it would certainly be a miserable experience. So, again in response to Gonsec, the reason it is worth buying the expansions is so you actually have access to the full content. If someone prefers to just wander a region and kill random mobs, well, more power to them!

Personally, I will happily keep buying the expansions when I am able to, and keep enjoying my time in LOTRO.