Are you a subscriber to LOTRO who’s looking to downgrade to Premium once Free to Play launches? There are a few things you should know about to make sure you get the maximum benefits possible after your switch.
These perks can also apply to people who purchased a product key that included 30 days free time making them a VIP account for the month. Many but not all product keys includes VIP play time and can be used to upgrade existing accounts (so not just for new players). [faq P4]
Downgrading your account to VIP is pretty simple. Stop paying your monthly subscription. At the end of your subscription billing cycle, your account will automatically downgrade from VIP to premium.
Don’t cancel your VIP subscription, yet!
There are a few things you should do first to keep some VIP benefits on your character. Most of these simply require you to login your characters but I want to go through them all so you know what exactly you can or cannot keep when downgrading and I link to the FAQ about that specific topic. I assume that you will have to do these tasks after free to play goes live but it is not explicitly stated that is a requirement. I would wait to do these after free to play and then downgrade your account just to be on the safe side.
Removing Gold Cap Restrictions
Premium players have a gold limit of 5 gold that is kept on the character. However, you can keep your unlimited gold status for your characters if downgrading from VIP to Premium.
To permanently remove the gold cap on your characters, simply log them in while still VIP. These characters will get to keep the unlimited gold collection that VIPs enjoy. Any characters you do not login or any new characters you create while premium will have the 5 gold cap applied. [faq D2]
Retaining Inventory Bags
Premium players have a limit of 3 inventory bags (the bags on your character) instead of the full 5 a VIP enjoys. You can keep your 5 bags if downgrading from VIP to Premium.
Like the gold cap, all you need to do is log in all your characters while still VIP. Any characters you do not login or any new characters you create while premium will have the 3 bag rule applied. [faq D3]
Earn Your Riding Skill
Those characters who earned the riding skill while VIP will keep their riding privileges. [faq D4]
In case you aren’t aware, the riding skill is available at level 20 (down from level 35) in F2P and is a single quest rather than the series of quests we have now.
Premium (and free) players must purchase their riding skill from the store. They are not able to earn this trait through an in game quest.
Save yourself some real life cash by getting all your 20+ characters their riding skill before downgrading to premium!
Keeping Extra Traits Slots
Premium (and Free) players have a limit of 1 or 2 trait slots open to them per trait type. Any VIP downgrading to premium gets to keep all their trait slots open. Even for the higher level trait slots they haven’t unlocked yet. [faq D13]
Similar to the gold cap and inventory bags you must log in your characters to keep their traits. Any un-played or new character will still receive the premium trait limits after downgrading.
Benefits You Will Lose After Downgrading
- Ability to post items on the auction house. Current auctions will finish but you will be unable to post any new items. [faq D14]
- Access to quests outside the starting areas. [faq D15] Your account will be limited to quest packs in the Shire, Ered Luin and Breeland until you purchase more.
- Some Instances [faq D15.1] and deeds [faq D16] as these items are part of quest packs and will be unlocked with quest pack purchase.
- Rest Experience. [faq D20] You will be able to use any rest experience you’ve earned but your character will not gain any more after downgrading.
- Unlimited chat (tells sent to other players) [faq D21.1] and unlimited mail [faq D22.1]. Chat and mailing for a premium player is not as restrictive as a free player but it is still time limited to number of times you are allowed to send (tells or mail items) in a specific timeframe.
- Most swift travel. [faq D23] Outside of the starter zones, most swift travel is only open to VIPs.
- Unlimited Crafting. You will be able to advance in your current tier, join the crafting guild and work on guild reputation but you will will not be able to advance to the next tier. [faq D24]
- Character Slots. Premium accounts are limited to 3 base character slots while a VIP has 5 base character slots. Downgrading will deactivate 2 of your current character slots. [faq D26.2] If all your slots are currently full, you will be prompted to chose the characters you wish to play after downgrading. The remaining characters will remain there but cannot be accessed unless extra character slots are purchased.
You Keep Your Purchases
As a reminder, you will get to keep anything you purchase with either in-game gold or using the LOTRO Store after downgrading. Even if they are VIP only items, if you purchased it – you keep it. [faq S3] Any extras you may have purchased such as the Mines of Moria or Mirkwood expansions or the Adventurer’s Pack are yours to keep when you downgrade.
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August 27, 2010 at 11:41 am
Thanks, this was very informative!
I had thought of trying this once my sub runs out in October but it seems like I will be losing much too much. As long as nothing is lost permanently (which it apparently is not) I might try it anyway just for sheer curiosity.
I wonder who will be able to tolerate the base Free To Play account? Not having quests, swift travel, character slots, et al seems too much to bear and I wonder if this will have the intended effect (getting people to shell out cash) or if it will drive folks away. I reckon it all depends on their first impressions.
I’m excited for the changes anyway.
August 27, 2010 at 11:45 am
Well I suppose the truly new player will not know what they are missing. I suspect the returning players at premium and suddenly limited are the ones who will notice the difference.
August 27, 2010 at 11:53 am
I had that thought, though I wonder if experienced MMO players will care.
August 27, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Here’s another tip for the New Free Players.
1. Create your account when F2Play launches.
1a. Purchase a retail box of Mines of Moria Complete, usually available for about $10 or less in many game/online retailers(Amazon). Hold this box in reserve, you don’t want to use it just yet.
2. Work up your various characters as much as possible without making any store purchases. Make as many characters as you think you will be playing, even on other servers if you think you’ll play on more than one server. Take each character as far as you can.
3. NOW use the Product key fron the retail box. You now have VIP access for 30 days to perform the delimiting actions as Goldenstar noted above in her post. But you also now have 30 days to get as many deeds/quests unlocked as possible in Lonelands, North Downs, etc. It’s my understanding that any quests in your log or any deeds already unlocked will not lock back up if the account reverts to Premium.
As a side note, to keep things from being to repetitive if you plan to make more than one character this way, take one through Lonelands and another through North Downs. This will give a little variety to your playing time.
Now remember, you haven’t actually used any Turbine Points yets (refer to #2 above). After your 30 free days ends, go back and work all those deeds that have been unlocked and you should have enough points to unlock a zone or two. This should get the New player a little further into the game before they really have to consider purchasing points.
The alternative is of course to make a throw-away character, grind lowbie zone deeds, delete throw-away character, rinse and repeat.
August 28, 2010 at 7:07 pm
I think the best thing to do is to weigh out the cost of VIP and the amount of money you would make grinding deeds to open up areas and decide whats worth your time. I can almost guarantee that it will be VIP status.
August 30, 2010 at 2:12 pm
So my subscription ended a week ago and when lotro goes “F2P,” Ill be a premium account for a while. Will I still retain things such as unlimited gold cap when I log in on Sept 10th?
August 30, 2010 at 2:43 pm
I’m honestly unsure unfortunately. The listing did not specify if you had to be a VIP at launch to take advantage of these bonuses.
August 30, 2010 at 7:30 pm
You have to be a VIP at some point AFTER it goes free to play to qualify for the VIP to Premium downgrade. So you won’t get the VIP privileges unless you pay for another month at some point down the road. Then you will officially be VIP, even briefly, and can let it lapse and get all the nice residuals.
September 4, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Thanks for clearing that up.
September 8, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Well, I logged in the game after patching last night, and I forgot to check my gold, but I was able to have 5 of my 7 toons (I have Moria/Mirkwood) and I had all my bags still open. I’ll get into more testing later, and maybe put off re-subbing for a little bit, as I am leveling a new toon and have 2 toons at cap anyways.
September 8, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Oh that is very interesting! Please let us know what you discover with your premium status!
November 2, 2010 at 11:48 am
I’m going to ask you guys this, as from past experience, I know Turbine customer support can be a bit slow…
So I bought the Moria disk from Amazon, and went to register the product code. When I entered the code, it then asked me to select a subscription plan and credit card info.
Do I enter this info., and then immediately cancel the sub? It does mention on the same page that my first 30 days are free, but I don’t really want to give Turbine my credit card number.
Have you guys had any experience with this?
November 2, 2010 at 12:23 pm
I am a lifetime member but it did the same to us when we bought moria. It may be required to get your 30 day free but you can cancel before the 30 days is up and you will not be charged.
November 2, 2010 at 11:58 pm
This is the best tutorial I’ve seen on how to upgrade. http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?359381-TUTORIAL-How-to-upgrade-F2P-account-with-Mines-of-Moria-retail-box
April 1, 2011 at 1:21 pm
# Ability to post items on the auction house. Current auctions will finish but you will be unable to post any new items. [faq D14]
You will have 5 posting slots per character if you haven’t purchased any more.
# Most swift travel. [faq D23] Outside of the starter zones, most swift travel is only open to VIPs.
You will have swift travel access on characters played during the VIP period. You must still meet all other requirements to use the swift travel location (Deeds/Quests/Reputation) if you want to pay with in game coin rather than TP.
April 1, 2011 at 1:22 pm
And your theme of the day seems to have broken my ability to leave a reply on its own thread entirely for some reason.
April 1, 2011 at 1:29 pm
Its the same exact theme, just a different color.