Thread: New to game - Quest Pack expansion questions

Ok, So I only recently go into LOTRO and to be honest, I am kind of lost on something. The LOTRO store has all these Quest Packs/expansions which add content. But I am so new to the game, I don't know what I am missing, so even if I wanted to buy something I don't know what I need.

So here is the break down, I started out totally f2p, but currently have a 60 day VIP access. So what content am I missing, and what is the best way to go about getting that?

Any help would be really appreciated.

As a new player who is a VIP, you have access to everything up to the Mines of Moria (first expansion).

Moria starts at about level 48-50 so you have a ways to go before you have to buy anything.

While VIP you have free access to all the quest packs in Eriador.

If you don't plan on continuing your VIP sub then I would suggest you hang onto all the Turbine points you can until your VIP runs out then buy whatever quest pack/Expansion you are up to at that point.

Have fun and welcome to Middle earth.

As mentioned, if you stay VIP, you have access to all the quests pack on Eriador. Expansions must be bought by everyone, with TP and/or money.

But be aware that as long as you are VIP, you cannot buy any quest pack. So, you cannot stay VIP and hope to buy quest packs when they are on discount. As F2P/Premium, you have access only to the base starting regions and Lonelands.

Welcome to Lotro!

As a VIP you have access to every quest pack except for: Moria, Mirkwood, Dunland/Isengard, and Rohan (come September). So if you're planning to stay subscribed, you won't have to worry about any quest packs until you reach level 45 or 50.

If you're planning to drop your subscription after the 60 days are up, I agree that it's going to be best to save your TPs and see where you're at then. If you hold onto the 1000 TPs you receive for two months of VIP, you can use them to unlock whatever content you need next. There are a few content by level charts floating around. This chart at mmorsel stopped being updated a while ago, but for the lower levels it's still good. There's also the table at this thread here, which includes information about what quest packs come in which bundles, though it's also slightly out of date and doesn't have the Great River quest pack at level 75.

There's more than enough content in the game to level through - I can level up two alts with very little duplicated content between them, if I want. There are options. So don't worry about unlocking every single quest pack right away. Focus on getting the one that you need next, and then there's less risk of wasting your money or TPs on something you won't be using. I did it this way, one at a time, and now I have access to every quest pack.

There are some good bundled deals floating around, if you want to spend a chunk of money and get several quest packs at once. There's the Steam starter edition, the Mithril edition, the RoR heroic pre-order. If you poke around you should be able to find details on some of those, if that idea tickles your fancy.

Wow if I had VIP for 60 days I would try and see as much as could up to the mid 50's levelwise and then use TP to buy Moria XPC. You also would be able to run all the group stuff a bunch of times and see how well you like them. If you want to keep them then add the quest pack the ones you like are in and run them forever. I myself am trying to get to the mid 50's as a ftp and then get Moria quest pack with the TP earned ingame.

Moira expansion is getting on sale soon (or is now), thats 500TP less than usual for best bundle tubine offers

I'd say but it for sure :P

Originally Posted by ElvenHaven

Ok, So I only recently go into LOTRO and to be honest, I am kind of lost on something. The LOTRO store has all these Quest Packs/expansions which add content. But I am so new to the game, I don't know what I am missing, so even if I wanted to buy something I don't know what I need.

What may help is a concept framework for making decisions. Let me try zooming out and things may become clearer. This turned out to be a lot longer than I intended but I hope it's informative.

LotRO wasn't always a free-to-play game. It launched in 2007 using a standard subscription model -- pay your monthly fee and you have access to everything, don't pay and you have nothing. When the first expansion (Moria) came out in 2008, it was $50 for the expansion or you didn't get to go to Moria, didn't get to level past 50, etc.

In September of 2010 they released Free-to-Play. As part of that, they needed to package up all pre-2010 content into packages that could be purchased by non-subscribers... but they didn't want to be unfair to existing subscribers who had paid for Moria and Mirkwood as it was released. They also wanted to be able to make money from expansions in the future because, hey, they all have mortgages and families and aren't making this game as a public service.

So they decided to break the content into quest packs. Everyone could travel to any zone and do the Epic quest series (the backbone of the game) without paying. But if you wanted to do the quests and deeds in the zone, you need to "have" the quest pack. You can "have" it either by subscribing, or by purchasing the quest pack from the Store. They made the Bree, Ered Luin, Shire, and (later) Lonelands quest packs free for everyone to let folks figure out whether or not they liked the game before playing.

For the zones that are expansion content, you can ONLY get the quest pack by purchasing it... either from the Store or externally from Digital River or something. This means that even VIPs (subscribers) must purchase that content, but means that those who previously purchased Moria and Mirkwood didn't throw their money away. And it means that they can count on new money, even from subscribers, when they go an extra mile to do expansions. Expansions are also when they release major new game systems, like Legendary Items, which nowadays everyone gets whether they buy the expansion or not. And when they raise the level cap.

For new players this can get confusing. In the Store you see both quest packs and expansions for sale. In the Store, an expansion is a package of content that also can (usually) be purchased separately. (For example, the Isengard expansion wasn't available in the Store for TPs until the instance package was released a couple of months after the rest of the expansion. The Isengard quest pack just contains quests and deeds. The Isengard expansion contains the quest pack plus the instance pack, plus maybe some more stuff.)

So if you are VIP (have a subscription), you only need the expansion-type quest packs. If you are not, then you need to buy quest packs as you level up... IF you want to do quests and deeds in a particular zone. There are at least twice as many zones as you need in order to level up, so if you don't want to subscribe or buy all the quest packs, you can pick your zones as you go.

Note that you can always do the EPIC quests in a zone even if you don't have access to the zone's quest pack. They've stayed with this principle since 2010 and since it's a major draw, I don't see them changing this in the future. Epic quests advance your character's personal story and move you through the timeline of Middle Earth. They also provide you with better rewards than other quests (typically) and are some of the best storytelling in the game. I highly recommend that everyone do them, at least on ONE character if not all.