New player questions

[Shogun008]

Hello everyone i never played Lotro to max level, so having a free account brings up alot of questions.

If i get subbed in order to play Legendary servers , will i need to buy a new expansion after every patch?
Are questpacks still included in the Sub?
How slow is Treebeard server? 40% of xp seem like alot of grind but i do like 6 months between patches, 2 months is too fast.
Do u need to fellowship xp grind on treebeard?
Do i need to pay to unlock classes that werent in original Lotro?
Thank you for reading

[SniperCT]

You'll need to buy the expansions, yes. There's an expansion trove that includes all but the most recent 2. That would cover you for a very long time on treebeard and a year or so on Shadowfax.


Questpacks are included in the sub still.


Treebeard is too slow for my tastes, but a lot of people like it. It's one of those things I think thats a YMMV situation.


Don't believe you need to fellowship XP grind. You might need one for high difficulty mode questing though.


You would need to pay to unlock classes. I believe even the treasure trove doesn't include them. There is the Runekeeper, Warden and Beorning (and sometime later this year the Brawler)

[Shogun008]

Thank your for answering , so i noticed there is an expansion trove for 59.99 and quest packs are included in sub.
I noticed you playing on a faster server, so u moving from one expansion to the next every 2 month, isnt it a little bit too fast?
How populated are both servers ?

[SniperCT]

Thank your for answering , so i noticed there is an expansion trove for 59.99 and quest packs are included in sub.
I noticed you playing on a faster server, so u moving from one expansion to the next every 2 month, isnt it a little bit too fast?
How populated are both servers ?

I'm primarily on one of the older legendary servers, the pace for that one was... odd, which is why Shadowfax and Treebeard exist, each as a compromise for the players who thought Anor was too slow, and the ones who thought Anor was too fast. I personally thought some caps on Anor were too long and other caps weren't long enough.

Shadowfax may prove to be too fast (I personally think 3 months for Shadowfax and 4-5 for treebeard instead of 5-6 would be better) but xp gain on that SF server is insanely fast so it would be easy enough for most players to hi the level cap and enjoy endgame content for awhile before it cap goes up again.

[Achlys]

Regarding levelling speed, I find it a nice balance. I've completed nearly all of the shire by level 14 without needing a stone of the tortoise. On the main servers I had to leave so many quest chains incomplete because they'd become grey to me and even the new regions quests I'd already be well over level for. Hopefully this plays out in later regions post Bree too.

The 6 months also seems like a good time span too as it gives those who rush through plenty of time to raid at cap and level up more alts. It gives those of us who have irregular play time available a chance to actually still reach cap before the next expansion and get to raid for a bit too.

That said, it's going to be personal taste. Some will still find a need for the tortoise, others will fancy using some XP boosts perhaps when they level an alt.

As for expansion release schedule, I hope they go with a 6 months cadence for Treebeard. I fell far too behind on the prior Legendary server due to the odd month I was unable to game. I had no hope of catching up, let alone bringing any alts along to try a different class at cap either. Which meant before I was close to cap and able to join raids, people had moved on. Yes I could get a group to help me out without much trouble (lotro community is great for that ) but often that meant you had over levelled characters helping out and the raids lost what little challenge they had.

6 months feels like it should be about right for people to play through at a casual pace and still be able to hit cap in time to do plenty of group content before the next expansion. Worse case we spend a little longer at cap and level some alts or continue to level a character on a regular server. Best case is it allows more people to reach cap and keep up even if they have a small amount of play time, including a chance for those who join the servers later on in their life cycle. Too fast a pace will put off newcomers/returning players.

As for Shadowfax, I'm not sure as I don't level too fast it's not my style of play. If most players on the server hit cap and get to raid plenty and are ready for the next expansion drop by the 2 month mark. Then stick with it. It gives them a great way to level an alt in a cap stepped fashion until they're up to speed with the main servers and can transfer across. It may however prove too fast once you're a few expansions down the road as the chance of any new player joining and levelling up to cap to join in with the remaining expansions might be low unless they have lots of free time and don't mind XP boosting past content. I get the feeling that the player base for Shadowfax has a different play style though and boosting past content isn't as big an issue?

With 7 expansions plus SoA that's 4 years of releases, it's probably safe to say another expansion (maybe two) will be out during that time too so there's at least 5 years of releases on a 6 month cadence. I don't think I'd want to see it any slower than 6 months. Although depending on the later expansion sizes there may be an argument for 4-5 months release then if their content is not on a par with earlier.