To summarize all the info so far... $40.00 yields just the questpack. Instances are already confirmed to NOT be part of the ROR expansion and will NOT be free to anyone that pre-ordered. More details on pricing for the instances will come later. (there was a confusing FAQ that said instances would be free... that has been removed and the mods have stated that FAQ was not accurate in that instances will NOT be free).

I'll also be waiting for a sale if I buy at all.

i like that horse... i might just get this.

Yeah the new RoR expansion pack seems to be as terrible as RoI was. Second expansion pack in a row that will launch with no new instances (Draigoch was a joke because it was supposed to be out for L65, but delayed immensely to eventually be bundled in with RoI, and bug-riddled for months after). Am glad for the game and the company that it's on Steam, though, but we as a raiding kin were massively underwhelmed by the farce that is Tower of Orthanc T2, and we're a kinship that consistently (until the latter stages of Orthanc) competed for all-servers-first raid clears and achievements.

Turbine essentially has long gone down the road of screwing over the long-time customers and pandering to the money that the F2Pers bring in, and while I can see and understand being very happy with the lower level and regular soloer (epic story, which is very well done for the most part) content, they are plagued with problems like disrespect to their users on the forums, endless grinds at endgame, exploitable bugs here and there and a policy that does not acknowledge errors nor punish those responsible (they'll just quietly close it two or three patches after if they can spare the manpower for it), lousy PvP/raiding devs and mechanics, and a blatantly pay to win store disguised as "oh, you can get so and so in game too... technically!" And things like the stupid TF2-style random loot boxes that you had to buy keys for.

It's a good game, great world and lore and stuff though, and fairly good community (some servers are worse than others), right up till you hit endgame and try to get into raiding or pvp. It's also probably the best MMO out there at the moment in terms of roleplaying, though you of course get all kinds too (as with all RP places), and surprisingly enough being F2P, gold spamming is nonexistent.

But still, this is the first xpack I haven't immediately pre-ordered.. going to wait and see on this one.

PS, I haven't read back far to find the context exactly, but 1st age L75 symbols indeed have a 0% chance of dropping from landscape mobs (and instances, and any raid except T2 Orthanc - not even Tier 1), EXCEPT through acquiring the L75-75 (maybe 70-75 ones too) loot boxes from a drop or AH, and acquiring a key similarly or from the store, and then winning the lottery upon opening it. You can also attain them by the occasional lottery that Turbine holds on your my.lotro character page.

Lastly, that thing about the dps stats of the 1st/2nd/3rd age L75s is extremely misleading, because the DPS difference between a 2nd age and 1st age falls from that displayed 30 DPS or so when unlevelled, to about 4-5 DPS or so when both are levelled fully (just the DPS stat alone - and it's generally the first stat to be levelled on any weapon where it can be levelled). It's extremely tiny. There are other advantages to the 1st age over the 2nd (mostly having more points to allocate) but outside of being "ooh shiny" and a lot of people having gold to burn, which is why prices tend to be so high, the advantage is not particularly great. I, however, support this!

this is also the first xpac i have not pre-ordered ASAP.

im waiting to see how they handle the instance cluster.



though, that 6th bag slot might be enough for me to pre-order.

Frankly, me too. :p Gosh all the stuff in the bags.. I have an organised spreadsheet of like 15 alts and the contents of their vaults, as well as shared storage, and housing chest inventories, for which I get made fun of all the time. But it's glorious. And I'm terrible.

If you want refund for RoR pre order you risk ban for account!
http://imageshack.us/f/715/turbineemail.png/
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?462820-RoR-pre-order-FAQ-ommision-Please-explain/page10
Not cool

well, good news... but I still think they are lying about the number of sales... especially since they stuck it in the article TWICE.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?464108-A-word-about-the-Riders-of-Rohan-Pre-Purchase-packs.

Summary:

Sales are strong, but we are caving... no, really, sales are awesome!

Good move, but still a shady company... Part of me wants to buy since they did a good thing... part of me wants to stop supporting a bad company.

For me and many players Legendary ed is still overpriced (most of players dont need TP). And ppl have very short memory...
I think most of players buy RoR on first sale(black monday)for half price.

Ermh, so I made an account and downloaded the game..

How do I play this? Any goggers still on in...it?

New expansion Helm s Deep!
http://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/warner-bros-interactive-entertainment-and-turbine-announce-lord-rings-online%E2%84%A2-helm%E2%80%99s

The determined defense of Lord of the Rings Online: Helm's Deep
http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/09/03/the-determined-defense-of-lord-of-the-rings-online-helms-deep/

Alright my curiosity for LOTRO is peaked when i discoverved that the game is world is LARGE. Just behind Daggerfall in terms of sheer size?

So question. How does this game treat its Free-to-Play feature? does it still allow me to access the whole game? the reason I say this is because D&D Online restricts you from not even leaving the starting city unless you subscribe.

Hmm I seem to remember playing DDO back in the day without such a restriction.
I'm pretty sure you can leave the starting villages in LoTRO, although I got bored with it before that was necessary.
I think you just have to pay for the expansions and extra stuff.
But maybe you should Googs it a bit and look at pages like this.