The LOTRO economy is currently in the equivalent of a deep recession, at least in the sense that economic activity is virtually frozen. Why? Because most l.65 players are awash with money, and have nothing to spend it on. The one single item that players might still be willing to shell out for is the Symbol of Celebrimbor, the essential ingredient for the forging of l.65 Second-Age items. It doesn't come up often in the AH, and when it does, the asking price ranges from 60G to 150G - though I seriously doubt that it actually sells for much over a hundred. However, the drop rate in Sammath Gul is said to be improving, and more to the point, given the depressingly limited shelf life of LIs, many people are beginning to wonder whether investing that kind of money in a weapon which will almost certainly be superannuated two months or so down the road is a smart move. LOTRO's economic czar has clearly screwed things up here, if the entire economic model is teetering, so to speak, upon the demand for one single product (and a rapidly crumbling demand, at that).
The Challenging DDO/LOTRO Re-Onboarding Process
4 years ago
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My level 65 LM is my primary character. I won't say he has all the best gear, but after 16 months of playing, he more than adequately "tooled up".
My gold reserves fluctuate between 80-100 pieces. Every few weeks I simply stock up on tokens, blue/green pots and food. There is simply nothing else out there for me to spend the hard earnt cash on.
I put some ore up for sale on AH this week, to find that there was hardly any other vendors. As a result, Ancient Iron ore, a commodity that usually sells for approximately 400s for 50 units, I sold for double that value.
However, stocks of crafted items, particularly high-end armour and jewellery are virtually non existent.
I also don't see the crowds in AH like I use to.
Something is certainly not right.
I think less people are playing since the half-assed expansion came out. Besides logging in and doing Book 3 last week (on only one of my toons), I pretty much just log in once a week or so and pay rent. Turbine really screwed the pooch on this "expansion", my friends list is full of people that haven't logged in for over 2 months. There are maybe two active players in my kin. I've actually started playing WoW again just because there isn't anything worth doing in LOTRO.
Hahaha I must be doing it wrong. I'm a level 65 with less than 5 gold.
I spend all my gold on moonpies and penny whistles.
Great observation, I've posted my thoughts on the topic. The TL;DR summary is that almost everything a max level player needs is obtained through non-tradeable currencies and/or skirmish marks, so I guess it was only a matter of time before the gold-based economy fell by the wayside.
Certainly on Nimrodel where I play the AH has become a forsaken wasteland devoid of life.
I tend to agree with previous posters that it is a combination of higher level players just not needing anything from the AH and the ever decreasing game population which on Nimrodel at least seems to be spiralling ever downwards.
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