(just a question, 3months vip? If you plan only 2 characters, you can easily go through the lvl30-lvl50 part with them in 1 month. After you reach under Moria, the vip status means barely nothing anymore, from 50 and above the only thing matters is whether you have the expansion or not)
See, i don't know those things , that VIP does not mean much past 50... I just saw that 1 month VIP would cost half of three months VIP, making three months VIP the better deal, considering the TP's which come with the sub. I'll do some math again and reconsider.
Yep, from Moria and above the difference (in content-wise I mean) is whether you have the expansions or not. With vip you get the rest xp and you can go pvmp'ing in the Moors, but that's all. In content-wise:
You don't have the expansions: you can go there, you can do the Book quests, and that's it. Regardless if you're vip or not.
You do have the expansions: you can play the whole content. Regardless if you're vip or not
So if you buy for example Moria as a non-vip, you get the same leveling experience as a vip who buys Moria (except he'll be a bit faster through it, since the rest xp).
As you wrote earlier "I find LOTRO's F2P to be a terrible system for the new player" which is somewhat true - not exactly terrible, but sure it needs some planning and spending a few bucks. On the other hand the system is awesome for old players, since vip is nowadays needed only for the lvl30-lvl50 part in Eriador (and for pvmp). Until the last update there were the destiny perks too, but Turbine nullified that. No wonder, a lot of previous subscribers are playing as Premiums now - myself included
that's why the 1month vip is important for you, after that you'll be also an "old player", keeping all character-based restrictions unlocked (bags, gold limit, swift travel, etc), so until you don't make new alts, the only restrictions left for you are the content-based ones.
Edit: just watch out for the difference between expansion and quest packs. You can buy both, quest pack is cheaper but doesn't contain the instances, etc. Not a strict rule of thumb, but usually buying the expansions is cheaper in the long run.
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See, i don't know those things
, that VIP does not mean much past 50... I just saw that 1 month VIP would cost half of three months VIP, making three months VIP the better deal, considering the TP's which come with the sub. I'll do some math again and reconsider.
Yep, from Moria and above the difference (in content-wise I mean) is whether you have the expansions or not. With vip you get the rest xp and you can go pvmp'ing in the Moors, but that's all. In content-wise:
You don't have the expansions: you can go there, you can do the Book quests, and that's it. Regardless if you're vip or not.
You do have the expansions: you can play the whole content. Regardless if you're vip or not
So if you buy for example Moria as a non-vip, you get the same leveling experience as a vip who buys Moria (except he'll be a bit faster through it, since the rest xp).
As you wrote earlier "I find LOTRO's F2P to be a terrible system for the new player" which is somewhat true - not exactly terrible, but sure it needs some planning and spending a few bucks. On the other hand the system is awesome for old players, since vip is nowadays needed only for the lvl30-lvl50 part in Eriador (and for pvmp). Until the last update there were the destiny perks too, but Turbine nullified that. No wonder, a lot of previous subscribers are playing as Premiums now - myself included
that's why the 1month vip is important for you, after that you'll be also an "old player", keeping all character-based restrictions unlocked (bags, gold limit, swift travel, etc), so until you don't make new alts, the only restrictions left for you are the content-based ones.
Edit: just watch out for the difference between expansion and quest packs. You can buy both, quest pack is cheaper but doesn't contain the instances, etc. Not a strict rule of thumb, but usually buying the expansions is cheaper in the long run.