Is it Worth Playing The Lord of the Rings Online?
Wasn’t it Cancelled by Amazon?
The Lord of the Rings Online or known as LOTRO is a Free to Play MMORPG that was released back in 24 April 2007 developed and published by Standing Stone Games. This is a totally different version from the Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings Online that was cancelled. This version has been around for a decade now while it’s not hugely popular, it still has quite a active playerbase.
The Lord of the Rings Online
Publisher
The Lord of the Rings Online is developed by Standing Stones Games. You might know them for their other popular title such as Dungeons & Dragons Online. Unfortunately, SSG was part of an data breach back in 2013 where over 1 and half million account were compromised for the title Dungeons & Dragons Online and again couple of months later for The Lord of the Rings Online with just over 1 million accounts compromised.
Combat
The Lord of the Rings Online is an tab target combat system. There is nothing unique about it, a straight up tab target combat with hotkeys to press. I personally do prefer tab target combat over action combat so it did feel a bit more home for me. However, one of the things I have noticed is, combat is still very outdated, the whole game is outdated. In the pat 14 years, does not seem that they even bothered to update or make it better. One of the biggest downsides of LOTRO unfortunately. This could also be the reason why LOTRO was being remade by Amazon which unfortunately was cancelled due to disputes with Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent.
Gameplay
Features
It would be wrong to say that The Lord of the Rings Online has no real unique elements that makes it stand out from another Theme-Park MMORPG, simply due to being an MMORPG that was created back in 2007. However, as we are in 2021 now, it has nothing that will make you think, this MMO stands out, let’s try it.
Classes
| Beorning | Dwarf | Elf | High Elf | Hobbit | Human | Stout-axe | |
| Beorning | x | ||||||
| Burglar | x | x | x | ||||
| Captain | x | x | |||||
| Champion | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Guardian | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Hunter | x | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Lore-master | x | x | x | ||||
| Minstrel | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Rune-keeper | x | x | x | x | |||
| Warden | x | x | x | x |
| Class | Tank | DPS: Melee | DPS: AoE | DPS: Ranged | Crowd control | Debuffer | Healer | Buffer |
| Beorning** | P | S | P | |||||
| Burglar | P | P | P | |||||
| Captain | P | S | P | P | ||||
| Champion | S | P | P | |||||
| Guardian | P | S | S | |||||
| Hunter | S | P | S | |||||
| Lore-master | S | S | P | P | S | S | ||
| Minstrel | S | S | P | S | ||||
| Rune-keeper* | P | P | P | S | ||||
| Warden* | P | P | P | S | S |
Available with purchase of Mines of Moria or individually from the LotRO Store.
** Available for purchase individually from the LotRO Store.
*** Fringe use, but possible.
- World of The Lord of the Rings Online
- Immerse yourself in the world of LOTRO by J.R.R. Tolkien including iconic locations such as Mines of Moria, and Lothlórien.
- Customization
- Level 130 Cap
- 10 professions life skills
- 7 vocations
- 1,000 + Titles to collect
- Duel System
- PVMP Spars
- Player vs Monster Player Area is organized spar events between Freeps and Creeps.
- Dungeons
- Solo & Co-op Skirmishes
- Crafting System
- Legendary Items
- Design your own legendary weapons!!!
- Legendary Items
- Play as a Monster
PVE Gameplay
The Lord of the Rings Online showed a very traditional level path where it’s story quest after story quest to reach maximum level. While you level, unlike older traditional MMORPGs where you have to go find a skill NPC to learn or buy skills, you learn it automatically. LOTRO is a PVE game, it offers a wealth of PVE modes for the player to enjoy. You have quest or world instances or dungeons and skirmishes to enjoy. Let’s not forget raids as well. While quest instances are designed usually for solo play or small parties, their main purpose is to tell the lore. World instances on the other hand are more designed for full party play and usually always has boss encounters. Raids are for 12-18 players and they involve strategically defeating an bosses for end game gears. Lastly Skirmishes are dungeons/instances that can be accessed anywhere in the world that usually last anywhere between 30 to 90 minutes. This potentially is a highligh for any PVE heads making LOTRO worth playing.
Customization
Character Customization
The Lord of the Rings Online continues to have a very dated customization system where you have sliders to pick from a few presets of each class and race. Even after a decade, this has not been revamped or updated.
Build Customization
There isn’t much build customization at all, while it is an older game, we saw older games such as World of Warcraft or even Silkroad Online providing a ton of build customizations. Sadly Lord of the Rings Online falls short in this area. The only customization you have mixing class and race passives.
State of Game
Playerbase
The Lord of Rings Online has a stable player base, what we can only see as far as numbers goes is on SteamCharts, while keeping in mind, a good majority of players could be very well playing on it’s own private launcher. Over 2021, they have retained a average peak of 1,500 players monthly with an average of 600 online.
Updates
The Lord of the Rings Online War of the Three Peaks was the 9th expansion of the franchise, it was released on October 2020.
| Expansion | Acronym | Release date | Level cap increase |
| Mines of Moria | MoM | 18 Nov 2008 | from 50 to 60 |
| Siege of Mirkwood | SoM | 04 Sep 2009 | from 60 to 65 |
| Rise of Isengard | RoI | 01 Jan 2011 | from 65 to 75 |
| Riders of Rohan | RoR | 15 Oct 2012 | from 75 to 85 |
| Helm’s Deep | HD | 20 Nov 2013 | from 85 to 95 |
| Mordor | Mordor | 02 Aug 2017 | from 105 to 115 |
| Minas Morgul | MM | 05 Nov 2019 | from 120 to 130 |
| War of Three Peaks | WoTP | 20 Nov 2020 | No Level Increase |
Don’t get confused from LOTRO and Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMO, they were supposed to be two completely different MMORPG of the same theme that would of co-existed if Amazon did not cancel the project.
LOTRO has announced that they have an upcoming expansion named “Wildwood” and it won’t be a mini-expansion. It would be full-fledged, with possible kinship rework, the Guardian class balance, and legendary item updates. As of currently, there are no ETA on the release.
Cash Shop
Free to Play Players Friendly
Everyone starts off at the same point, whether you are free2player, Premium, or even VIP membership. As you progress and complete quests, deeds and be rewarded with lotro points this is where the #Pay2Win start showing. While all characters have access to starter zones, all other zones are locked and how do you unlock it? You know it, with lotro points.
The game rewards you with lotro points early during the game which many players would see as “awesome”, “cool”, free cash shop currency, time to get me the most fancy cool looking horse or cosmetic piece just to be unable to progress later on. While the game offers ways to earn more lotro points afterwards, however, it is super time consuming and each run last for over 4 hours.
Premium Subscription
In The Lord of The Rings Online, there is a Premium subscription model which includes the following benefits
- Mailbox Field Access!
- Custom character portrait frame
- Access All Character Trait Slots
- Daily +100% XP*
- 500 LOTRO Points per month
- Free weekly Gold Hobbit Present
- Access All Quest Packs and Skirmishes*
- Access All Monster Classes
- Unlimited Chat
- Access All Crafting Guilds
- 20 Slots of Shared Wardrobe Space
- No 5g Currency Cap
- Additional Inventory Slots
- Maximum Auction House Listings
- $14.99 – Monthly Subscription
- $29.97 – 3 Month Subscription
- $59.94 – 6 Monthly Subscription
- $99.99 – 12Monthly Subscription
Free Player Vs Premium Player Vs VIP
| Player Tier | Free Player | Premium Player | VIP |
| Level Cap | 115 | 115 | 115 |
| Quest Packs | 5** | 5** | 22** |
| Skirmishes | 11 | 11 | 15 |
| Monster play classes | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Character Slots | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| Inventory | 45 Bag Slots | 45 Bag Slots | 75 Bag Slots |
| Rest XP | Purchasable | Purchasable | Automatic |
| Gold Limit | 2 Gold | 5 Gold | Maximum |
| Auction | Purchasable | 5 active listings | 30 active listings |
| N/A | Limited | Maximum & Field Access | |
| Shared Wardrobe | Purchasable | Purchasable | 20 Slots |
| Crafting Guilds | Purchasable | Purchasable | Unlimited |
| Free Monthly Points | N/A | N/A | 500 / Month |
| Priority Login | Standard | High | Priority |
| Chat | Limited | Limited | Unlimited |
| Official Forums | Read/Limited Posting | Read/Post | Read/Post |
| In-Game Support | Self-service online * | Full access for 30 days following the purchase of Points * | Full Access* |
| World Access | Free | Free | Free |
| Epic Story | Unlimited ** | Unlimited ** | Unlimited ** |
| Races | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Core Classes | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Premium Classes** | Purchasable** | Purchasable** | Purchasable** |
| Shared Bank | Purchasable | Purchasable | Purchasable |
| Legendary Items | 6 Slots | 6 Slots | 6 Slots |
| Crafting | Tier 1-11 available | Tier 1-11 available | Tier 1-11 available |
| Housing | Available | Available | Available |
| Cosmetic System | 3 Outfit Slots | 3 Outfit Slots | 3 Outfit Slots |
| Swift Travel Access | N/A*** | N/A*** | Included*** |
(**): Purchasers of the Mines of Moria ™ expansion get access to the Mines of Moria content, premium classes (Rune-Keeper and Warden), higher maxiumum skirmish trait, and 2 extra character slots. Purchasers of the Siege of Mirkwood ™ expansion get access to the Siege of Mirkwood content. Purchasers of the Rise of Isengard™ Expansion get access to the Rise of Isengard Quest content, the Draigoch Raid, and the Isengard Instance cluster. Purchasers of the Riders of Rohan™ Expansion, get access to the Rohan Quest content, and the Rohan Instance cluster. Purchasers of the Helm’s Deep™ Expansion, get access to the Helm’s Deep content, Helm’s Deep epic story content, and Big Battles content. Purchasers of the Mordor™ Expansion will get access to the Mordor Quest content.
(***) Characters that were created and used during an active VIP subscription will retain access to Swift Travel Routes when an account returns to Premium status. Any characters created while Premium will not have Swift Travel access.
Graphics
The game is very old, the graphics has not been updated at all. This could be great for someone who does not mind graphics much but it has aged and is quite dated. Which means, old PCs are more than capable of running this game, just look at the system requirements below.
| Windows | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Operation System | Windows 7 (64bit recommended for high resolution) | 64-bit Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 |
| Processor (CPU) | Core 2 Duo / AMD Athlon II or better | Core i7 / AMD FX-8100 or better |
| Memory (RAM) | 2 GB RAM | 4 GB RAM |
| Graphics (GPU) | GeForce 7XXX / ATI Radeon HD 3000 series | Nvidia Geforce 8XXX / AMD Radeon HD 6### series or newer with 1GB or more of dedicated video memory |
| DirectX | Version 9.0c | Version 9.0c |
| Storage | 36 GB available space | 32 GB available space |
Is The Lord Of The Rings Online Worth Playing
Fun
So… Is The Lord Of The Rings Online fun to play? It would really depend what type of MMORPG are you looking into. The freshest and newest combat system or stunning graphics. Then no, you won’t even survive 5 minutes let alone a day minutes playing LOTRO. However, if you are looking for some relaxing story-time or casual dungeon runs. LOTRO can still sap away hours of your life giving you exactly just that.
