So I am growing tired of Aion and I need something else to play, I am very interested in the lore of LOTR so I would like to try this game out so here is my few questions

How is population doing atm in Europe?

Is there any population in starter areas?

And how is the game doing generaly?

And do I need to buy the expansion back imediately or can I buy later ?

And what would you guys say as the best healer?

Thank you in advance for answers =)

I'm an european playing in the US servers. From what i heard the population in the EU servers is pretty low unless you wanna play in the german and french servers.

In the US, brandywine and elendilmir have a healthy european/asian population.

=( I don't think my internet connection is good enough to play to US servers

There is no problem with the EU servers. I play on Evernight which is one of the smaller servers but never had any problems with it. Playing on US servers is a bad idea if you dont play very late at night since not many will be online during EU prime-time.

Snowbourne, Eldar and Laurelin (offical RP server) are supposed to have the highest population of the english servers. Dont know how the low level zones are thou since I haven been there for a while, but after reaching Bree-land its usually no problem.

The population on the English servers, in the starter areas, is very low, a maximum of 10 players if you are lucky. It gives a strange feeling to play a supposedly Massively Multiplayer game, when you play all by yourself most of the time. It is a petty really, since LotRo is the MMO which best suits my taste when it comes to gameplay and world experience. Unfortunately I have the impression of being the only European to think so. So I unsurscribed for now.

Maybe I'll start playing on the US servers. How are they accesible to me from Europe? I know it is known to be a top heavy community. But to me it seems like if you missed the launch back in 2007 and progressed with the game and community from then on, you lost your chance of really playing and enjoying the game with others; to play it as a true MMO.   

As trues as what you say about starting areas might be, that is the way of all MMOs after a while.

Take a look at WoW as an example I reactivated to play with friends and the zones I am in at low lvl are wastelands to put it simple, and this is a pvp server at lvl 33 I have still not seen more then I think 3 allies that were not lvl 80 killing npc's at taurren mill or cross roads :-)

So yeah if you miss the first year of an MMO you are left behind till mid level, will not help you if you change to US servers it is even worse as they are in a total different time zone unless you play every night :-)

Just my 2 cent, I am by the way reactivating my lotro acc to start over on snow....something server with friends :-) so give it a shot see what happens the game is dirt cheap anyways, also to play on US servers you need the US version of the game just a heads up :-)

Originally posted by Rosmariini

So I am growing tired of Aion and I need something else to play, I am very interested in the lore of LOTR so I would like to try this game out so here is my few questions

How is population doing atm in Europe?

Is there any population in starter areas?

And how is the game doing generaly?

And do I need to buy the expansion back imediately or can I buy later ?

And what would you guys say as the best healer?

 

Thank you in advance for answers =)

Minstrel is the healer of choice if you want to be a healer.

Runekeepers can heal OR do damage

I think loremasters have a heal? Been a while so someone might have to chime in on that. They are not healers though.

On the U.S. servers, Brandywine has the largest population.

-I am playing on Laurelin and its really nice, people are active and something is always happening :) and if you want good healing class then choose Rune-Keeper, its fun to lvlup because its really good dps and its really good healing class too :P

Loremasters can heal but they are not to be considered primary healers as they don't have enough heals to keep all the party's health elevated. Captains can

Well, should I buy the expansion immediately or can I survive first month with out it?

Originally posted by Rosmariini

Well, should I buy the expansion immediately or can I survive first month with out it?

You can wait buying the expansions if you like, although they have a complete pack with the original and the two expansions (if you want to play RuneKeeper or Warden you will need at least Mines of Moria).

On you other questions. The population is okay on Lauralin, on the Evernight server it's pretty low at this moment.

If your looking for the best healing class, go for minstrell if you want to do some dps at times and still be able to heal go RK.

All in all, welcome to Lotro!

Thanks everybody, I am just dl'ng the 14 day trial and I think I'll buy the pack which includes Mines of Moria, server suggestions are greatly appriciatet still though!