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Lord of the Rings Online: Helm's Deep Pre-purchase Program Begins
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Turbine has announced that the pre-purchase option for the Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Helm's Deep, has officially started. Helm's Deep is set to launch on November 18th and can be purchased for either $29.99 or $59.99, each package coming with various in-game items.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE: HELM’S DEEP FEATURES:
Experience the Battle for Helm’s Deep – Fight to defend Helm’s Deep starting as early as level 10, when your character enlists as a soldier in the Battle of the Hornburg, the most epic conflict yet in The Lord of the Rings Online. Earn rewards for your contribution to the war effort – win or lose, your skill makes a difference!
Explore new landscapes across Western Rohan - Explore the Westemnet of Rohan and rally each of the five ridings as Rohan returns to glory. Traverse the capital of Edoras, mysterious Dunharrow, and the fortress of the Hornburg within Helm’s Deep.
Advance from levels 85 to 95 - Experience 10 new levels, from 85 to 95, with new skills and completely updated class specializations. Both mounted and un-mounted combat will challenge you as you war against the evil forces of Saruman.
Continue the Epic Story - Encounter beloved characters such as Aragorn, Éowyn, and Éomer. Restore King Théoden to his rightful throne while you defend the peoples of Rohan at Helm’s Deep.
Beginning today, players can take advantage of special pre-purchase offers:
PREMIUM EDITION - $59.99, €53,99, £44.99
Features all Helm’s Deep content, with level cap increase. This edition also grants these great items:
Armour of the Hammerhand – an exclusive full set of Rohirrim cosmetic armour
+10 quest log slots
Crystal of Remembrance – adds one additional legacy to your legendary weapon
Helm’s Deep Title – Helm’s Enforcer
Helm’s Deep Title – Helm’s Avenger
2,000 Turbine pointsPre-purchasers will also receive these items that can be used immediately in the game:
Shield of the Hammerhand (Statted Cloak +25%XP, scales to level of wearer)
Exclusive War-steed Bundle (The Steed of the Hammerhand) – an exclusive Rohirrim mount with matching War-Steed appearanceBASE EDITION – $39.99, €35,99, £29.99
Features all Helm’s Deep content, with level cap increase. Also grants these items:
Hauberk of the Hammerhand - an exclusive Rohirrim cosmetic chest piece
Helm’s Deep Title: Helm’s Enforcer
1,000 Turbine pointsPre-purchasers will also receive these items that can be used immediately in the game:
Token of Hornburg (+25% Monster XP)
The Steed of the Hammerhand – an exclusive Rohirrim Mount
Read more on the Lord of the Rings Online site.
Comments
"mmorpg.com forum admins are all TROLLS and losers in real life"
My opinion
GG Suzie, that was fast...
the http://www.lotro.com/en/helmsdeep page went up, I've red it through, come here to post, and it's already on the news section
Whoo hoo!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Maybe it's server dependent. I'm on Brandywine and there are quite a lot of people.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Brandywine as well but only level 41 so maybe all the people are at level cap or something cause I only see NPC.
"mmorpg.com forum admins are all TROLLS and losers in real life"
My opinion
Same on Snowbourn and Withy from Eu side, especially now with the Farmer's Faire. Snowbourn was actually right behind Brandywine on the Bounder's Boon chasing, but then the Faire started, and many folks there are festival addicts
Launches NOVEMBER 18, not September.
The thing with this game, right from launch really, is that the population ebbs and flows based on the expansions. So as soon as an expansion is released there is a flood of people. Once the expansion has been out for a while the people dwindle away until the next one.
It's shame but that's how it's "gone down" all the years I've been playing.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Man the game is starting to look it´s age, at least in that trailer.
Nice to see them going strong with expanding middle earth though.
This have been a good conversation
Not to be an apologist as I could rant for pages on how they have screwed up this game (and be very angry in the process) but aren't Epic Battles instances? And probably pretty involved.
As far as raids, discounting that the raiding population isn't huge and that putting in effort, time, money etc into creating a raid that only a handful of people would play, (not against this just pointing it out) "what raid would they do"?
A serious question.
who would you raid? The battle of helm's deep is probably "the raid" of sorts.
but there is no monster, npc, character to raid.
My guess is that once you get to Shelob you will have a raid. But at this point in the story there is no raid. Who are you going to raid, Saruman?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
You forgot Lorien, Mirkwood and Enedwaith, all arrived before f2p
Jokes aside, there's some truth with RoI and RoR, Draigoch arrived late, etc. But, since there's always one but, most of the playerbase doesn't seem to mind it. Of course it's not the same playerbase as pre-f2p. Turbine is just trying to follow the current playerbase... regardless the concerns of the old ones (just check the arriving revamp with the trait-lines)
It still looks good, and some of the graphics / scenery is breathtakingly awesome, which I do not see in a lot of latest MMOs. I prefer it to the likes of SWTOR, Wildstar, and EQ next (although hopefully the game will be OK as the Voxels will make the game great).
The only MMO with decent graphics to possibly top LOTRO will be ESO.
Graphics in MMOs will never match that of a single player game, as the graphics are reduced to allow many players on screen with as little lag as possible. Single player games do not need many players on screen!
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
Sure sounds like a lot of time to seriously address the major concerns raised in this first beta and iteratively test them out.
I'm astounded that the release date was announced (Nov 18th) when class trees are in such a sloppy state, and we haven't even tested Big Battles yet!
I feel terrible for all the people who pre-order not knowing about the changes to their classes.
I'm surprised at the pre-order perks as well. Seems very vanilla to me. None of them sound very appealing to me.
Yeah, I'm a bit unimpressed with the packages and I think this expansion should have been postponed until January and the testing period extended through late November or early December. There's too much unrest amongst the testers regarding the restrictiveness and sloppiness of the class trees. We haven't really even had a chance to test out the Big Battles yet nor a majority of the West Rohan landscape. It's a legitimate concern that the innovative Big Battles system could have issues on par with Draigoch. Draigoch was an innovative raid, but look what happened there
This sadly confirms what people have predicted based on past beta's. The current system was set in stone before we started. There might be some room for tinkering but nothing else. There isn't time to make any real changes and test them properly.
I feel it's very irresponsible for Turbine to announce the pre-orders and the release date so soon. Especially given that we have only just had the first beta build and no chance yet to see big battles, also with the general population yet to see the trait trees and how it its going to affect them. People where burned once when Rohan was advertised with an instance cluster only to be pulled from the advertisement after pre-orders had been available for 2/3 days
It also tells us a great deal about how out feedback on the trees will have next to 0 impact as with such a fast approaching release date it's almost like they have decided like or lump it its what you are getting.
disappointed
Judging from what I saw (broken doors, wrong NPCs, problem lighting, things wrong with quests) there is an awful, awful, awful lot to get sorted in only two months. I hope they have a very big bug fixing team working on this baby
You don't let the customer see the pig in the poke before buying if the pig has foot and mouth disease. Marketing 101. Of course they were always going to sell it sight unseen especially now they know what a storm of protest it will generate. Who cares what people say by the time they fully understand the changes. The cheque's been cashed.
I would be buying it at this moment if I wasn't in beta. It would never occur to me that all that innocuous talk of removing a few little used skills and 'specialisation of roles' meant what it actually means.
Wow. Mind is boggled. Not sure what to say, really.
I'd love to see a roadmap of when fixes and unseen/unfinished elements (big battles, LI legacy updates to name a few) are intended to be rolled out for beta testing
I think I'll stop there for now
Quote
I feel terrible for all the people who pre-order not knowing about the changes to their classes.
Endquote
I agree and its killing me not to be able to tell anyone to just stop and wait to see it first. All my kinmates and friends.. ugh...
Like I prefaced before, the changes had been made. They never asked for help changing the classes, they never wanted that.. just feedback, probably to see how it would be received by the masses.
I would probably be buying it too right now if I wasn't in beta I'm saddened and frustrated about how I feel Turbine is deceiving its playerbase. I feel so helpless because I can't say anything to the players who are purchasing this expansion right now out of excitement, ignorance, and good faith.
This is going to be interesting. Popcorn anyone?
Quote
I feel terrible for all the people who pre-order not knowing about the changes to their classes.
Endquote
That's the position I find myself in. I feel like Turbine's promotional materials are somewhat misleading and I want to fill in the omissions, but my hands are tied by the NDA I agreed to. I won't break the NDA. But I can't help feeling that I'm part of the deception now - I don't like that. Please excuse me, I must wash my hands again. "Out damned spot! Out I say!"
You actually have to play to realise the nature and scale of these changes. It's all very sad and I suspect that a lot of people who slap down their credit cards for this pig in a poke will lose all trust in the company.
But there it is. Middle Earth becomes a place I visit occasionally for nostalgia, being a lifer with enough TP left over to get HD for free. See how what's left of the kinship is doing.
Sad, sad day.
I've purchased every previous expansion the moment I received the pre-order email. Sadly, I won't be purchasing this expansion at all. I guess I should thank Turbine for inviting me to the beta - they saved me $40.
The release version code will be frozen well in advance of the 18th. A month at least. Surely no one believes it is possible, even were there the will, to make the major changes to the tree system people want, test it and make more changes and then balance HD for it
No? Of course not.
The best we can hope for is vague promises of maybe looking at things in the future.
No deal I'm afraid
The money grab has begun, feel sorry for all the preorders.
i am astounded to see a release date for helms deep already. seeing the state of the class trees in phase one of beta, the amount of glitches and bugs. to be honest i was half expecting the release to be put back till early 2014. i feel sorry for all those that will blindly buy the expansion not knowing the changes they will get when november 18th comes round. for the first time i wont be pre-ordering, and depending on the rest of beta i havent deciding on whether i will even log in again. im pretty sure the class changes are set in stone seeing as the dev diaries on classes have started to be released. i am hoping the rest of beta testing will allow to get used to the changes, but i doubt it hunters yet again getting a raw deal. good luck with this turbine...you going to need it.
Having reflected a while on the issue, i wonder how much of the release date and pre-order has been forced by Warner, because as sure as night follows day no person of right mind at Turbine would have sanctioned the release date prior to it being fully tested. The feedback from trait trees has been the cause of a lot of hurt and debate from a great many of the beta players. Big Battles have yet to even been seen. Legendary Items ... we don't even know how those will begin to be affected
No deal I'm afraid
Do you really think that they will make those major class changes people want?. The fact that they have set a release date tells me that they have no intention of changing things (I really hope i'm wrong) and if that is the case, then this is very, very sad news. Up till now, I have pre-purchased every xpac, but alas this will be the first one I will NOT pre-purchase due to the class trait trees as I just don't like the set up as it is and I can't see myself playing the game if the trees stay as they were in beta. I will wait until it goes live, see what changes have been made to the trait trees and if indeed they do listen to the people and make the needed changes, I will then buy HD from the store with TP. If not, then I guess I wont bother which will be a real shame as I love the game, but just hate the trait trees as they currently are. My fingers & toes are firmly crossed.
November 18? Given the state of class trees in Beta 1 and the fact that we haven't yet seen Big Battles, this release date seems less like optimism and more like self-inflicted trauma. Good luck, devs.
Two months from closed beta to announced launch is rediculous, especially when one of the big selling points wasn't even open at the time. RoR had 3 months and then was pushed back a month. Isengard had 5 months.
This clearly is not set by anyone who has been looking at player feedback
I wonder if the Player's council has anything to say about this whole thing, or any input? Not that we'd know, but I'm still curious.
This will be very, very tight. And there can be no excuse that there was no warning about the potential reaction these changes will cause. I'm just hoping that by the end of beta there'll be an expansion which I'll want to purchase myself and right now I've got some ability to at least help file some bug reports to go towards that. The rest, I don't know. I really don't know.
So many friends this morning already opening there wallets or talking about it and all I can do is listen and not say a word. Thanks Turbine.
What an epic mess!
For ONE LOW PRICE of $60.00 You get all your favorite skills taken away but a new cosmetic shield-cloak thingy with scaling stats and other non-dyeable cosmetics for you and your broken warsteed!
Having seen the responses in beta forums they should've waited. Now people will pay for it, then log on to an open beta or log on November 18th and have these responses too. Don't forget we haven't paid $ 60 yet, just imagine you had to pay $ 60 upfront and then see what you saw when beta started.... This is asking for trouble to be honest. For once I believe it would've been smarter to first sort things instead of pushing. And it's a shame to see that we aren't here to test, we are here to tweak and get a preview. I would've hoped the comments on these forums had carried more weight... however, due to lack of dev responses I should've known
I really hope it won't be as bad, but turbine, I would brace for impact. Because the problem ain't a door not working, the problem as stated in all those posts is that you wipe the whole identity people had build into their chars. Which goes beyond a tweak and a bad or non-adjusted pic in the tree
The only reason I log onto live every couple weeks is to get mail, keep my kins alive, and continue to collect tp on my lifetime accounts. I used to regularly buy tp but that is done with the class changes and lack of raid/instance content.
I'll use that tp on all 3 accounts to buy the expansion eventually. I'm not going to pre-order, and I'm not going to pay money for something I think is so poorly thought out.
That's a very bold statement. And I'm not buying it unless you can come up with proof or at least a well thought out explanation.
Because that's like me believing some guy stating that "x game has issues because people in my guild said .... "
If this is opinion then great, you are welcome to state it. But I see no evidence that the raiding sector is what keeps games going.
Lotro is not dead because it turned its back on the raiding community. It does not have the population it could have because it took a popular IP and modelled a game around it that is very limited in scope. Exploration is nil, everything is about collecting some sort of token to turn in for gear, pvp is limited, and the game relies upon repeated content ad nauseum,.
Giving people real and novel ways to play and experience the game keeps an mmo going. Having players repeate content over and over again and then over and over again for tokens until the next x-pac is not. Giving players real reasons to interact with each other on a variety of fronts is the way to keep an mmo going. Having players follow solo quests to the end and then instituting dailies is not.
So there's "your clue".
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Feel exactly the same since two expacs ago. Rise of Isengard was a terrible expac, where they made the horrible shift from free open world questing to linear hold Your hand questing.
Then last year With the ridilously overpriced Rohan Expac when a fullblow outcry on the official forums was needed to get the planned instance cluster added to the expansion purchase.
And now they don't even add an instance cluster anymore.
Yeah.... the P2P days of LOTRO were great! Community was one of the best back then too.
Then came F2P and it went downhill ever since.
Sapience (interesting choice of names), if what you are saying is true this is damning. To release something that is not finished is not good at all.
I will say this. I am glad they are dumping some of the skills. There were simply too many, Half of which I never used ( on some characters). I also check in about every ten days to keep my kin going and have not been playing the game for some time now. The quest format is getting long in the tooth now and they need to move on. GW2 changed the rules, I hope they make it to Mordor, but am having my doubts now.
Holy price point, Batman. I was excited for this xpac, but $40 to $60 for an expac? Really? A new game costs $60....
I think they've over-valued the enthusiasm for this product...
...
I'm just stunned to be honest.
Yep, it's a bit strange that they removed the base option and left only $40 and $60 (both RoI and RoR came with three packages)
But no worries, I bet there will be a 50% sale in the next summer, just like with the previous two
and by then you can check and revisit back and forth your class's changes (maybe with leveling a new one from scratch...) so you can decide whether buy it or not.
I must admit, these pre-purchase bonuses are a bit meh... at least for me. Not to mention it's pretty much a leap of faith to the unknown, as sapience456 wrote (great name btw
) "all the people who pre-order not knowing about the changes to their classes."