The Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria - PC

I've been a player of Lord of the Rings online now for over a year. I have found it to be a fantastic MMO that really captured the lore of Tolkien, while giving you a nice casual gameplay feel. The game is setup in a way that makes it friendly for young adults, while maintaining simplicity for adults. The community is fantastic, and comes across very mature when compared to other MMOs. ** As you know, LoTRO is now a "Free to Play(F2P)" game. You do not have to pay a single dime to enjoy the game. Simply create an account, download the client and you are off with a "free" account. However a Free account has restrictions which can be seen on the main homepage and honestly, in the end will require something along the lines of $150 for you to unlock everything via buying Turbine Points(TP) * By purchasing this package at its current price ($17.99) You will be getting LoTRO: SoA and the first major expansion, Mines of Moria. (after installing you'll need maybe 1-2 hrs to download and update the client but beats downloading the entire client!) You also will receive VIP status for 30 days. - Free = basic access to the game, you get the starting areas (lv1-15 zones), and access to the entire Shadows of Angmar Epic quest line (goes lv 5 - 50) but no quest packs, major storage and can only carry 2 gold per toon. - Premium = you purchased a copy (like a physical copy, or let your subscription expire). Basically it is a Free account w/ less restrictions - VIP = subscription based account, currently it is $14.99/mo or $9.99/mo (if you sign up for 3mo or more in advance) If you have wanted to try LoTRO I ** HIGHLY ** recommend you create a free account and download the client to test the game out. It only gets better past the initial starting areas so if you had a blast with those you definitely should purchase this edition. $17.99 for 30 days of VIP service, SoA and MoM unlocked. You only will have to purchase Siege of Mirkwood then for something like $19.99 worth of TP (it was a $19.99 expansion at launch so makes sense) and you are all set. You end up saving quite a bit of money with this box set $9.99 (or 14.99) for a free month, $19.99 for MoM purchase so right there is a $30 value for just $18 not even including the fact you now get PREMIUM status if you decide to unsubscribe/not subscribe which grants you a few extra perks. ** If you subscribe you get 500 TP per month, Siege of Mirkwood costs I think 2000 TP so after 4 months of subscribing you can purchase SoM w/o paying anything more than simply having been subscribed for 4 months as a VIP ** ****** for those who have never played Lord of the Rings Online - This game has a very casual feel to it. There is no need to rush or mega grind.. yet if you do grind deeds you are given rewards in the form of free TP to use at the store, Traits to buff your character, titles, experience etc. - With Mines of Moria you gain access to customizable weapons known as "legendary Items" . These are pieces of gear that you can acquire when venturing into Moria that produces randomized stats and legendary perks. As it levels up you can unlock additional random perks (you get to pick from a list of 2-4 per level up) so in a way you customize your weapon and offhand. They are a dime a dozen so if you are not happy with the sword you found? Just find another or trade at a NPC for another sword to test your luck. - Trait system allows you to customize the stats of your toon to create a unique feel, cover up a weakness in your stats, or enhance existing stats - Plenty of Raids and epic raid battles which drops epic loot ^_^ - Plenty of repeatable dungeon spots to grind unique coins to purchase radiance gear (special gear with amazing stats and set perks that grants "radiance". Allows you to offset the negative effects of areas; but you want this gear. Amazing stats!) - Crafting perks as you become loyal to factions and your crafting guild (unique recipes and ability to craft legendary upgrades etc) The game went through a major "cosmetic" overhaul the past few months, since turning F2P, fixing many little annoyances the community had; and now truly provides a fantastic experience you should at least test out edit(7/29/2011) - Radiance has since been removed to make instances/raids easier to get groups for - Rise of Isenguard pre-order pack is available via the Lord of the Rings Main Page (good until 9/26/2011). For $49.99 you can get Moria, Isenguard, Mirkwood + Trollshaw, Eregion, and Lothlorien quest packs. + tons of bonus items (including a +25% exp item). Ideal for someone who does not own any of the expansions and is on a Premium or Free-2-Play account

Lord of the rings online has now gone free to play. What that means for you as a gamer is that it no longer cost 15$ a month, but you can play it for free choosing which aspects of the game you wish to purchase with TURBINE POINTS (The mode of game currency that can be bought with real life $$ or earned in game) With the purchase of this expansion from amazon you will get many things that would cost several times the amount in turbine points. As for example. You usually start with 3 inventory bags..this expansion gives you two more. You usually will not have the warden class to play...this expansion gives it to you Same with the runekeeper class. It opens up all your virtue slots It gives you 500 Turbine points for going VIP for the 1 month playing time (which comes free in the box) It gives you 2 extra character slots. It gives you the mines of moria expansion .....and you get to keep all this stuff even when you drop from vip back to ftp (free to play) As stated before the cost for all these that would be bought with turbine points is several times the cost of this box set sold by amazon, thats why these box sets are being sold like wild fire, so if you play LOTRO then you should buy this box set as soon as possible. They are not going to last long, and word is supplies are already dwindling. If you play LOTRO you owe it to yourself to get this box set, save yourself some heartache and some hard earned $$ and just buy it now. As far as the box itself i ordered 2 copies of it. One for me and 1 for my wife. One of the boxes was a little banged up and dented, but i didn't really care since if you have already downloaded the game client and are playing... the only thing you really need from the box is the "product key code" to open up all the stuff for you. All in all a purchase worth every penny many times over.