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Wednesday 6 June 2012

LOTRO: Riders of Rohan legendary edition


After yesterday's announcement of the Riders of Rohan pre-order launch, the LOTRO forums were overflowed with people who were... 'displeased' by the promised sixth bag only available through the legendary pack and the high price of this pack. I must admit it fed my... 'disappointment' towards the Store as well, as it all smells much like a "barter wallet déja-vu". Either way, it seems like Turbine has reacted on the reception of their offer by releasing information about the "pack-exclusive" items in the Store after all. The previous enigmatic "they may or they may not be available through the Store in the future" has been replaced by the statement that indeed nearly all items will be available through the Store in September:
  • Rohan Expansion Content (including the quests of the region): 4295 TP
  • Rohirrim Skinned Soldier on Landscape: 295 TP
  • 6th Inventory Bag (Account-wide): 995 TP
  • Crystal of Remembrance: 995 TP
  • The Outriders Token: 495 TP

To buy the legendary edition or not?

So the legendary edition is pretty expensive ($70), and many things can also be bought through the Store separately if you have the patience to wait until September. Is it still worth buying the legendary edition?

This is what the legendary edition seems to offer "exclusively" compared to the other pre-order editions:
  • Complete cosmetic Rohirrim armour set
  • This is nice, but I'm not overly enthusiastic on the looks of all pieces, so I think I can live without it (picture to the right). The more I look at it, the more it reminds me of the teenage ninja turtles. I got the previous cosmetic set when I pre-ordered the Rise of Isengard expansion (picture on top of this article), but I don't really wear that set much at all anymore. This is typically a thing that's a cool present, but the shinyness wears off with time.
  • 6th Bag
  • If you buy the legendary edition you get it right away, but you can also buy it from the Store in September for 995 TP (account-wide).
  • Crystal of Remembrance
  • Adds one extra major legacy to your weapon. How do you mean, Pay to Win? Sigh. This is a nice extra thing, but it's not like "I really need this, lets spend $70 on it!" I'm actually pretty much settled on the amount of majors on my legendary items. If you wait until September, you will be able to buy it from the Store for 995 TP. Not that I'm going to do that.
  • Exclusive Rohan Content
  • It isn't explained exactly what this means, but I've heard of two things:
    1. Horse session play, an introduction to mounted combat. There are apparently some horse session teaser quests that can only be played if you get the legendary edition. It is a chain that grants you a deed if you complete it. The quests have a cooldown of one day and the deed apparently asks you to complete 60.
    2. Favour of the Mearas horse skill, whatever it may do. I also remember reading something about having 3 horse "traits" available instead of the usual 2, so "horse skill" might be the same as the mentioned "horse trait". We don't really know how important these traits/skills are and what they really do. I think I'm probably able to live without it, as content has proven not to be particularly hard and I'm not feeling any urge yet to grind out stuff for my mount and make it perfect.
I've established that I personally can live without the cosmetic armour, crystal and bag - if I won't buy the legendary edition, I'll buy the bag for TP in September. The big question mark is the last point, the "exclusive Rohan content". It's not really clear what this content exactly is, nor how important it is overall.

Now if I'd have a big RL wallet, I wouldn't hesitate and buy the legendary edition to just get everything and be rid of all the decisions. However, I do not have a big wallet. I'll spend some time thinking about it and hope that more information about the "exclusive content" and the Riders of Rohan expansion itself will be released.

8 comments :

  1. I'm pretty sure the crystal is a legacy of your choice. I have a few friends who have added a major legacy to their weapons.

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    1. Thanks, it's good to hear how it works. I don't think I'll be bothering with it, though (unless I do happen to buy the super expensive edition): 995 TP is a tad too much for me.

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  2. I'll skip the legendary too. Didn't like the cosmetics, and I can get a big enough horse collection in the game already. Might get the bag at a later point with TP (that makes me think of toilet paper, that would be a neat trade-in).

    I love and hate the Legendary weapon system. If they offering something to make it even more complex, I'll totally pass it.

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    Replies
    1. Toilet paper, I'm going to remember that one! xD

      I like how you can personalize and perfect your weapon in the Legendary Item system, but I hate the huge grind that's involved in it. I prefer the way it's arranged in SWTOR.

      The new crystal is a thingy that adds an extra major to your weapon, so it doesn't really make the system more complicated. It won't be "required" either, since you can do without and I don't think that many people will buy it. See it as a small extra that people with too many Toilet Paper with a love for pay to win will buy. You can pretty much ignore it.

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  3. I do like the look of the armor but since it is so tied to Rohan I might not end up using it much as I still even tried to decide what kind of alts I want to play. So it might not make much sense for any of my characters to wear it. Yes, I worry about such details even though I don't roleplay. /le sigh

    The sixth bag is something I am finding myself in dire need since I have been collecting a bunch of stuff while doing my daily quests for the Spring Festival. Mostly daily tasks stuff I haven't been able to complete yet or recipes for alts. Guess I will try clearing my inventory and bank space of some of those.

    The rest I admit I am still blissfully ignorant about being still a new player and all that so I can't really comment on it.

    All in all I don't get the feeling that it is worth spending $70 on it either.

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    Replies
    1. Heh, I know what you mean with the bag! I have more than 1 bag full of jewellery, one bag full with armour sets, one with pots/scrolls/tokens, one with LI's/clickies/emote stuff and then there's only one left. I can't put any of those things in my vault (which is also already full, by the way), because I'm using them while raiding etc. I *need* that bag, but I'm considering putting it off a bit and get it with Toilet Paper when the Riders of Rohan launches.

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  4. The announcement for RoR has put me off the game quite a bit. I was always a big fan of Turbine and felt that they really understood their customers. They did F2P right.

    What I am hating is how they promise stuff only for us to find out that they were only telling part of the story. Case in point the landscape soldier and the extra bag slot. They need to re-think how they present new feature in the game since everyone is starting to get really wary when anything new is announced.

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    Replies
    1. Agreed. I'm constantly holding my enthusiasm back when something new gets announced, because I think "oh wait, they're probably going to tell later that it's only going to be available in the Store for really many TP and I'll be all disappointed". The game itself (the landscape, the quests, the end-game...) is still brilliant and much worth enjoying, but I really dislike the marketing strategies and the increasing feeling of walking around in one big advertisement game with "buy this in the Store!"-buttons everywhere. I know I'm not the only one thinking like this, so I really hope (against the odds) that they will think better about such things in the future - the game deserves it.

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