Thread: What does it cost YOU to play LOTRO?

Originally Posted by warreni72

I think a lot of the responses I've read are from people who are in a different boat from the OP. He stated that he primarily plays PvMP and raids. These kinds of LOTRO play have certain "mandatory" costs associated with them that simply playing to the level-cap through the available quest content does not. Repairs, getting and maintaining suitable gear for raids, and the traits for monster toons can cost lots of TP that the other VIPs and lifers who responded may not be spending. It seems as though the OP has a few choices: either restrict his play or spend real money on TP routinely. Personally I don't see many alternatives.

You are probably correct.
I only have one character at top level and raid ready and I'm hardly optimized (no maxed virtue sets, only one set of 2nd age LIs without optimized relics...).
To keep several optimized characters without resorting to the Store would be nightmarish if not impossible (same goes for using only deed TPs).

$150 for a lifetime. Haven't purchased any TP.

That is just the money though. Who knows what else it has costed me, during the 5 months of /played.

Mostly, it costs me quality time with the wife.

As in, I 'have' to spend time with her occasionally, so she won't hassle me about playing.

Not a cent....or in my case a penny
Paid my $199 several years ago and get 500TP's a month I rarely spend!!

My dignity.

Sorry, had to be said.

I am premium, never been VIP.

What I have:
-All quest packs
-All expansion packs
-All instances
-All skirmishes except the new one from update 7
-All inventory bags
-70 Shared storage slots
-50 Shared wardrobe slots
-Currency cap removal
-Upgraded barter wallet
-1 character slot (6 total = 2 from f2p + 1 from being premium + 2 from moria + 1 extra)
-3 crafting guilds unlocked
-All virtues on my main unlocked (alts will get theirs unlocked as I play them and they earn TP through deeds).
-Riding skill for 4 of my toons (the ones I normally play)

What it cost:
-$50 for a 6900 TP bundle
-Patiences in waiting for 50% sales (rare these days but were common at start of F2P)
-Playing my main in a completion-ist fashion which means every deed gets done and as a bonus a lot of TP gets farmed.
-Time farming about 4000TP by making low level toons, grinding some deeds in free zones, deleting toon and repeating roughly 12-15 times)


Nowadays you can't count on the 50% off sales and not everyone will do the TP farming like I did, but one good TP bundle and patience for sales will get you a long way! The key for me is I don't waste the TP on consumables or mounts or any of that fluff. I spend it on permanent account level stuff.

I do plan to buy RoR expansion for cash if it's reasonable though. $50 has gotten me pretty far and I don't want to spend too much time farming TP to buy an expansion. I will for smaller things though.

I should add, the two things I don't have that I wish I did:

- swift travel access (though I like being able to travel the long way so I can walk away to get a drink)
- freep access to the moors. Tried with a creep and didn't care to try again. I'd pay TP for this!!!

Originally Posted by themateika

I pay $30 every three months for my VIP subscription, and I only spend TP when I get them from my monthly 500tp bonus, or from doing TP reward deeds and quests. I've been able to buy all my temptations in the store without spending any really money, other than my subscription.

There you go! $10/month = $120/year.

Of course...I also bought all of the expansions up to Isengard.

I went the other route. I bought 2 tp packs of 8300 when on sale and bought everything(questpacks,expansio ns/traits/wallet/skirms and what expansions i could.)will only pay for expansions like everyone else from here on out so i'm a lifer of sorts too.

I've spent a total of 19.99 (TP) and got a 3 month sub to unlock perks (3 was cheaper by the month than 1) With that small contribute, I have gotten Eregion, Loth, Endenwraith, RoI Quest pack, and Great river. If you don't minds a small grind, after you finish the Moria epics, you don't even have to buy Loth. Go straight to Endenwraith (since the level lowering, I didn't have that option) You can get to 75 easily without the 3 month sub on the quest packs I own alone LoTRO is free to play, but pay to make it faster :P

I think it's fair to say I spent more money playing LOTRO than I have on any other VIP game (because VIP doesn't cover 50% of the things you need).

I pay $99 per year for the annual sub (works out to $8.25 per month) and the expansions. That's it.

In August of 2009, I bought MoM, for either 9.99 or 14.99. I bought SoM pre-order and RoI pre-order. The other day, I needed new discs of the game, and bought Mithril Edition, 19.99. I used to sub at 30 dollars for three months, I just switched to 100/ year. Personally, I like this game and want it to keep going.

Wow! Lots of great inputs. Thanks.

I logged in my R0 Warleader and just hit the store items to see what it would cost. I didn't do much "shopping" I just selected everything available at the highest rank and here are the numbers I came up with.

• Class Skills: 7 @ 6035 TPs
• Class Traits: 12 @ 3840 TPs
• Corruptions: 5 @ 975 TPs
• Racial Traits: 7 @ 2265 TPs
• Map Set: 15 @ 5725 TPs
• Total Points Needed: 18840

Using the Following Point Bundles would it would cost the following to outfit this toon:

• 1 23000 TP Bundle @ 199.99 = 199.99
• 4 5000 TP Bundle @ 49.99 = 199.99
• 8 2500 TP Bundle @ 28.99 = 231.92
• 13 1550 TP Bundle @ 19.50 = 253.50

Left Over Points After Upgrade From Each Bundle

• 2300 TP = 4160
• 5000 TP = 1160
• 2500 TP = 1160
• 1550 TP = 1310

So, from this it looks like about $200/toon and the 2300 TP bundle would be the best "bargain". Of course when things are on sale it might cost a great deal less.

I haven't done any figuring on Freepside though - that's a pretty complicated area to go with. I have 2 L75 toons and a lot of lowbees <G> but even messing with the L75's could get pretty costly.

One thing though, it looks like the 2300 TP bundle is really the best buy if you can drop $200 on it, you certainly can get more mileage per dollar.

$10 TP card to unlock premium
$10 Copy of Mines of Moria from Micro Center to unlock VIP perks, RK, Warden Slots, etc.
$30 RoI basic
$20 Points purchase because I wanted great river when it came out and I was low on TPs

So $70 has gotten me every quest pack, all skirmishes other then survival barrow downs, and all instances other then Halls of Night.

I also have shared storage, the premium wallet, and some extra AH slots.

Such a good deal for all the gaming fun LOTRO has provided.

It costs me whatever my monthly internet fee is.

$12 MoM Box Amazon
$50 TP Sale
$50 TP Sale
$10 x 15 VIP (in 3 month plan)
$50 RoI expansion with all the junk and path of the fellowship
------------------------------------
$312

Store items I've bought
Stats 1-5 Will, Fate, Agility Warden
Stats 1-7 Might, Vitality Warden
Stats 1-5 Will, Fate LM
Stats 1-7 Might, Vitality Champ
Handful of Relic Legacy scrolls back when I got a 65 FA in OD
Two LI Slots - LM, Champ, Warden
Map Cooldown Champ, LM
Probably 6 riding skill (I'm not patient enough to wait til 20 for the quest)
1 character slot

Only stuff I wish I had was quest packs (Evendim, ND, Forochel, Angmar, MM, Enedwaith, Great River). Only other thing I miss from VIP is rest XP. Being VIP for awhile my virtues, swift travel and wallet cap are all open and my 7 toons all are kindred with their respective crafting guilds, which was done while I was still in VIP. If I could return my stat tomes I probably would. Most of them were bought when there were caps on stats and 50 made a difference. Now with main stats and those values being over 2k in some examples they are just a drop in the bucket.

So far this year I have only bought some TP for $60. I have a lifetime sub so I try not to go too crazy in the store. I hope to buy Rohan with TP if possible, those pre-order offers are usually very difficult to ignore.

I've been looking thru the old check book to see what $$ I have actually spent. I'm a vip/lifer/founder so I don't pay for quest packs and get the 500 TP/month on all my accounts.

Total 2011 150.00 (for 3 accounts = 50/account)
Total 2010 150.00 (for 3 accounts = 50/account)

I just bought a BIG packet of points because they are on sale and my calculator showed it's cheaper per point to buy the big packet of points rather than a bunch of small ones. I'll see how far I get with these points on the P2W model.

Total 2012 220.00 (as of 5/24/2012) (for 1 account - my main).

Now, I just have to wait for all the gear I want to come On Sale to get the most mileage out of the budget.

Originally Posted by SabrielofLorien

Wow! Lots of great inputs. Thanks.

I logged in my R0 Warleader and just hit the store items to see what it would cost. I didn't do much "shopping" I just selected everything available at the highest rank and here are the numbers I came up with.

• Class Skills: 7 @ 6035 TPs
• Class Traits: 12 @ 3840 TPs
• Corruptions: 5 @ 975 TPs
• Racial Traits: 7 @ 2265 TPs
• Map Set: 15 @ 5725 TPs
• Total Points Needed: 18840

Using the Following Point Bundles would it would cost the following to outfit this toon:

• 1 23000 TP Bundle @ 199.99 = 199.99
• 4 5000 TP Bundle @ 49.99 = 199.99
• 8 2500 TP Bundle @ 28.99 = 231.92
• 13 1550 TP Bundle @ 19.50 = 253.50

Left Over Points After Upgrade From Each Bundle

• 2300 TP = 4160
• 5000 TP = 1160
• 2500 TP = 1160
• 1550 TP = 1310

So, from this it looks like about $200/toon and the 2300 TP bundle would be the best "bargain". Of course when things are on sale it might cost a great deal less.

I haven't done any figuring on Freepside though - that's a pretty complicated area to go with. I have 2 L75 toons and a lot of lowbees <G> but even messing with the L75's could get pretty costly.

One thing though, it looks like the 2300 TP bundle is really the best buy if you can drop $200 on it, you certainly can get more mileage per dollar.

This is deeply scary. Since I'm premium, I can't do PvMP anymore unless I roll a reaver, and I'm not interested in that. Seeing the price tag ensures that I never will be interested in PvMP again - and I'm sure you're not exaggerating it. I don't buy legendary upgrades in the store and my toons seem fine for raiding - I'm also pretty laissez-faire about upgrading legacy tiers, etc. With my stable of crafting alts I have a good number of shards, and what I can't make or get from skirmish camps, I don't bother with - and most of the times I won't spend marks or medallions to get things, either.

Stat tomes for off-stats would be nice for some classes (my champs could use a will boost, for example, and I certainly wouldn't mind upping my RK's and burg's vit by 70), and the thought of grinding out yet more and more sets of virtues sends me into fits at times - it's tempting to buy my way out, but it's so pricey - and who knows which classes they'll break and fail to fix for six months once RoR comes out?

$10 for Moria, and $50 for RoI, so $60 total, in a year and a half.

I like the game but don't play it enough to justify a high monetary investment. And I don't see anything in the store as being necessary. But I play super casually, not-max level, don't care about deeds, virtues, my legendary seems fine, etc.

I'm not really a PC gamer, Lotro is just something I do with the wife. Most of my game time/budget goes to Xbox and Tabletop.

Paid £40 for RoI and another £8 for a douple of odd months VIP to unlock bags, swift travel etc. So far so good, about £50 seems reasonably for almost 2 years of fun.

Originally Posted by SabrielofLorien

Wow! Lots of great inputs. Thanks.

I logged in my R0 Warleader and just hit the store items to see what it would cost. I didn't do much "shopping" I just selected everything available at the highest rank and here are the numbers I came up with.

• Class Skills: 7 @ 6035 TPs
• Class Traits: 12 @ 3840 TPs
• Corruptions: 5 @ 975 TPs
• Racial Traits: 7 @ 2265 TPs
• Map Set: 15 @ 5725 TPs
• Total Points Needed: 18840

Using the Following Point Bundles would it would cost the following to outfit this toon:

• 1 23000 TP Bundle @ 199.99 = 199.99
• 4 5000 TP Bundle @ 49.99 = 199.99
• 8 2500 TP Bundle @ 28.99 = 231.92
• 13 1550 TP Bundle @ 19.50 = 253.50

Left Over Points After Upgrade From Each Bundle

• 2300 TP = 4160
• 5000 TP = 1160
• 2500 TP = 1160
• 1550 TP = 1310

So, from this it looks like about $200/toon and the 2300 TP bundle would be the best "bargain". Of course when things are on sale it might cost a great deal less.

I haven't done any figuring on Freepside though - that's a pretty complicated area to go with. I have 2 L75 toons and a lot of lowbees <G> but even messing with the L75's could get pretty costly.

One thing though, it looks like the 2300 TP bundle is really the best buy if you can drop $200 on it, you certainly can get more mileage per dollar.

Here's an update on costs of outfitting a R4 Defiler.

Currently there is a Store sale on creep skills/traits/racials. I outfitted my R4 Defiler with every thing I could get and only skipped 2 items which I didn't think would help much.

9 Skills 2898
7 Class 1864
5 Race 1155

Total: 5917 Turbine Points

You can use the above point table to figure out how many bundles you would have to buy if the points are not on sale. I did get the big point bundle "on sale": $199.99 for 33,500 points.

So the $200 is a "sunk cost"; its now a matter of how to distribute the TPs.

At present, I've only paid for a handful of the smallest point-bundles for minor necessities as I came to them - gold-cap removal, quest packs when I got to a story chapter in that area, spent leftover points on unlocking a trait slot or two. I've been taking the game at a pretty leisurely pace.

At this point in time, it costs me $19.99 per month....that's how much I pay for my internet.

I don't spend a dime on this game. Mostly because I was unemployed. I will admit though that once I start getting caught up on life now that I'm working again, I will be doing some number crunching to see if it's easier for me to fork out for points and buy everything, or crank out a sub.

I bought a card... once... just to bump up my gold cap so I could buy a house. That was $10, about a year ago.

I have bought all but ONE of my quest packs from turbine points I got by deed-grinding. It's not a huge pain, and it allows you to explore more of the content. It's been a blast.

That being said, I'm a casual player... my highest character isn't even 40. In the past, I have leveled one through 60.

I buy all my quest packs on sale through the store, and I have bought store-exclusive cosmetics. I buy nothing else from the store.

Quest packs I have, just so you can get a sense of where I can play:
North Downs
Evendim
Forochel
Lone Lands- before it became free for everyone.

I can feasibly and easily level a character through fifty with these. By the time I do, I will have enough TP to buy another quest pack.

All in all, it really isn't difficult to enjoy the game as a free player. I would suggest either subscribing for a month (no gold cap, five inventory bags) or buying a card, just so that gameplay is a little easier.

I pay $100 a year for VIP. That's $8.3 a month. I also got a $50 TP bundle once, and I payed $20 for the Mirkwood bundle. RoI was bought for my stipend TP. I will probably preorder RoR for real money, as I don't have that many TP saved up now.

If they released more Wardrobe space, I would get another TP bundle today, to buy it up!

$10/month for VIP (16 months less the 2 month i got free)
$7 for SofA box code (time card website)
$10 for mines of moria box (microcenter)
$25 for isenguard

Total Cash $182

I mostly play 2 characters, 1 lvl 75 mini , 1 lvl 70 burg cook (lvled for reputation recipes). I'm kinda completionist, so I earn quite a bit of tp in game and Ive played freep a little but so far not creep.

I'm in a crafting kin, so I don't use the store for anything craftable.

What I have purchased from store (using my 500/mth tp + earned in game) I try to buy things when they are on sale.

max bank size on both.
max shared storage
2 extra milestones on mini
expanded wallet
1 set of cosmetic robes I really wanted
1 5000 rep accelerator
a bunch of task board accelerators
a few deed accelerators here and there
Prolly a few other small convenience items

I enter lotteries ALL the time, even on my 2 characters which are just vault mules. And usually redeem each week's free sample from the store.

I still need to buy hurried traveler. Current TP balance 1400

2 of my kin mates do buy the point bundles to speed up virtues and such, as they don't have the grind time/patience.

I paid 175 pounds way back at pre-release for a collectors edition of the game. Wife thought I was insane to spend that amount on a game but a perma VIP as part of the deal makes it a great thing for me. Still love the game though I play less than I have, with 66 years left on the VIP I am sure I will see Mordor

$50 for SoA Box
$70 for SoA Collectors box
$199 x2 for two lifetime subs.
$40 x2 for MoM
$30 x2 for SoM
$50 x1 for RoI (I won one free on twitter).
$20 on one TP card


Not entirely certain of the original SoA box prices either. I has been 5 years.

Mostly psychological health.