Originally posted by 𝕬𝖘𝖍𝖆:

Originally posted by CokeVoAYCE:

does it ever get challenging?

The main appeal of this game, at least for myself, has always been the immersive visual and narrative experience of Tolkien's works. If you follow the progression as is set for you there likely won't be much of a challenge until you start doing large-scale instances & raids with other people.

I personally would always challenge myself by venturing into areas almost beyond my reach, that is, areas where hostile NPCs have a red title (as the inaccuracy of dealing with purple makes it either impossible or grossly impractical) and standard quests are still offered.

This also depends on your chosen class.

when do i make it to large-scale instances & raids, and is it possible to do as a free to play player?

The game is nowhere around p2w, it is more story driven mmo, with lots to explore and read, it can be very difficuly from the very start, right after you finish the tutorial area or any characters you can find a npc that give instant quest to switch difficulty of the combat, combat and gameplay can be fun and engaging depends what you expect out of it and also with what class do you play, class is very important or what you would want to do and see on the combat side,also monetizations, you need to get vip at least once to unlock lots of stuff, and you'll earn lots of currency while playing,exploring to unlock stuff within the game store, I personally own everything( everything, means all the zones,packs,expansions,faster mount speed and extra inventory space) in-game, all packs and expansions by being vip few few months only, it can be very enjoyable.

Originally posted by CokeVoAYCE:

Originally posted by 𝕬𝖘𝖍𝖆:

The main appeal of this game, at least for myself, has always been the immersive visual and narrative experience of Tolkien's works. If you follow the progression as is set for you there likely won't be much of a challenge until you start doing large-scale instances & raids with other people.

I personally would always challenge myself by venturing into areas almost beyond my reach, that is, areas where hostile NPCs have a red title (as the inaccuracy of dealing with purple makes it either impossible or grossly impractical) and standard quests are still offered.

This also depends on your chosen class.

when do i make it to large-scale instances & raids, and is it possible to do as a free to play player?

The hard content are higher difficulty instances and raids. Instances start being unlocked at level 20 but you'll have a harder time finding people to do instances at lower levels.
Many are available for f2p without any content purchase (be it points or real money), but for the most played ones you'll have to purchase the more recent content.

Originally posted by CokeVoAYCE:

hi. wondering what the monetization model is for this game, i.e. how pay to win it is. also, i've been playing for a little while doing quests and wondering, when does the combat get fun? does it ever get challenging? thanks

yes, after 15 and you start fighting the Orcs. Also, you can manually adjust your characters entire difficulty at the very start of a game by talking to a NPC. There are like 10 different settings and you earn rewards by picking this route.

The game is great if you enjoy lotr. You can see the world building done as you head more east and people are being subverted/attacked by Saruman and the Naz.

Also, I recommend forcing 'Anisotropic Filtering' manually in your Control Panel for this game. The textures will look cleaner, as the ingame Anisotropic Filtering is compressed.

Go to the npc outside the prancing pony in bree and turn up the landscape difficulty

The game concept and fun part is not in its combat, not in end game, but its in the story telling, environmental story telling, and world atmosphere. You can play the game with just a VIP and when buying the expansion with LP or on huge discount during the 2-3 times a year. If you focus on questing and exploring and even better while reading any of the middle earth books, you WILL have fun. If not, you wont ever have fun as the rest of the game is hyper outdated, as in terms of mechanics, end game, pvmp etc.

The combat won't get ever get 'fun'. People in the past have said they can read books while fighting etc..... as it's just sets of keystrokes over and over no real thinking needed.

While not totally true, it's true enough.

The Fun comes from the stories, the narrative it weaves, visiting places you saw in the movies or read about in the books.