Scaling Instances

• All Classic Instances (other than Helegrod) have had their loot completely revamped.
  

  Photo courtesy of Rorimli

  • Completely new loot
  • Ranges from Rare to Legendary
  • Each instance cluster has loot focused around different gear types
• They will now use Remote Looting
• 3 and 6-man Dungeons
  • The final boss’s chest will be able to drop equipment
  • Other chests will drop Legendary Item (LI) materials (I’m assuming relics, sealed runes, Item XP relics, etc.)
• Raids
  • Equipment will be linked to each boss chest
  • Challenge modes will have an additional chest

For the most part I’m a fan of these changes.  The only thing I’m a bit hesitant about is the way that they focused the loot of instance clusters for different group roles.  To quote RockX:

Each instance cluster is now focused on a handful of different gear types, so DPS looking for a necklace would want to run instances and raids from cluster X, while Tanks looking for a necklace would want to run cluster Y.

While I haven’t had any experience running the recent clusters in LOTRO (so I may be speaking out of ignorance) I do foresee that this decision could cause a potential problems in the formation of groups.  If DPS people only want to run certain clusters and Tanks want to run others, then will there be enough motivation for them to compromise on which ones they’ll run?  In past games it has been my experience that people typically queue for the dungeons for which they feel they have the potential to gain the most rewards.  This results in different roles queuing up for separate clusters which leads to groups taking longer to fill; especially in LOTRO since there is no easy way for players to switch their traits and virtues on-the-fly.

It’s also been my experience that when it comes to pre-existing/regular groups there can be some additional discussion about which cluster/dungeon the group should run since some roles in the group are generally going to have to resolve to running the dungeon without the opportunity for loot. (Yes, I know that most of these groups are formed and maintained for social reasons, but everyone likes new toys once-in-a-while.)

Again, I haven’t looked in-depth into how the loot is split up between clusters so please feel free to input your thoughts in the comments below.

Update:  It’s been clarified that the instances will contain items for all group archetypes, but that each cluster will focus on a different slot for each one.

It appears there was definitely room for confusion with what I wrote for the Dev Diary, and I can definitely see why now in hindsight. I apologize for the confusion which has been brought up in this thread.

To expand a little on what Rowan wrote yesterday:
Each Instance Cluster is focused around a handful of item types and roles. For example, Cluster A might give DPS Bracelets, DPS Off-hands, Tanking Heads, Tanking Rings, Healing Hands, Healing Legs, etc.
Each Instance within the cluster has its own Rare and/or Incomparable loot, based off what was assigned to the cluster, and every revamped instance has equipment which is usable by each class.

This should help to encourage players to run different instances, as different pieces of gear will drop for them in different spaces.

I have to say I do like the option of running a cluster of dungeons rather than a single dungeon for items, but we’ll have to see how this will affect grouping post Update 10.

Set Bonuses

• Sets will now either give stats or skill modifying effects
• Skill modifying effects have been moved from the 3 & 5 set bonuses and moved to the 2 & 4 set bonuses

The reason behind this change, RockX states is begrudgingly logical in that when the end game gear gives both bonus stats and skill modifiers, players will only want to replace that gear with similar gear; i.e. the next end-game armor.  Also, Turbine would need to keep increasing the stats on end-game armor sets as they are released in order to make the bonuses seem a worthwhile upgrade.

Admittedly this makes sense to me.  It’s very logical.  However, when I compare the armor I have in-game now to what it will be once Update 10 is released I can’t help but feel a pang of loss at all the stats that will be disappearing.  In essence it makes me a sad panda.  .

Conclusion

Other highlights of the diary include:

• Two new sets of gear from the Erebor raids
  • Each class will have a “lesser” and “greater” set
  • The lesser set is available for marks, medallions and seals at the skirmish vendors and will require the completion of Tier 1 raids.
  • The greater set will require the corresponding lesser piece, new “gems” that drop from the raids, and the completed Tier 2 of the appropriate raid.
    • There are four gems
    • They are not bound (they can be traded and sold on the AH)
    • They are also used to upgrade the Rohan Warband rings to Legendary Quality
    • They are also required for some new crafting recipes

I’m pretty interested to see some of how this plays out.  I think that making the “gems” not bound is a good move, but their existence does leave me wondering if there really needs to be another (random?) currency implemented towards earning “the best” gear.  Shouldn’t the completion of a T2 raid be enough of a requirement to get “the best” gear in the game?  Let me know what you think chiming in on this and the other changes in the comments below!

Original Version
PDF Version

The site Boston.com is reporting that today (and on the Boston Globe) Turbine has laid off a number of individuals have been laid off as a “part of a restructuring at its parent company, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.”

“As part of the continual review of our business operations and fluctuating market conditions, we have had to make reductions in our Turbine workforce,” said Remi Sklar, spokeswoman for Warner Bros. Entertainment Group, in an e-mail. “The group continues to remain an integral part of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.”

No specifics have been given as to how many individuals have been laid off or what departments were “reduced”.  We also know that Turbine works on several games including Asheron’s Call, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and probably other projects we don’t know about so it’s hard to know how this will affect our favorite MMO specifically.

The odd thing about the timing of such a lay off is that just a few days ago it was announced that they hired several new people to fill leadership roles.  We also know that just last May they were attending a Job Fair to fill 50 roles at the company.

The lay offs could be related downsizing after large releases. LOTRO just experienced a large expansion, Riders of Rohan, and DDO also had an expansion this summer but that could be mere coincidence. We have not been told a specific reason for the lay offs.  Either way, it was very much a shock to hear this horrible news.

So while we don’t know how many people from LOTRO team have been let go (we know at least one from the LOTRO Community Team has been), our deepest sympathies go out to the ones who did as well as all the other employees of Turbine.

Hey everyone DJ Helsing here. With the upcoming release of Riders of Rohan I wanted to take a few minutes to go over all the bonuses that are provided in the Legendary Edition of the Riders of Rohan expansion and give you my opinion and take on the extra content and if it’s worth the extra thirty dollars. In the following article I am going to be going into detail about the main differences between the Base Edition and the Legendary Edition; the 6th bag, Cosmetic Armour, Crystal of Remembrance, 1,000 Turbine Points, Exclusive Rohan content and the Outrider’s Token.

To begin I wanted to discuss the Exclusive Rohan content that’s provided in the Legendary Edition. This is by far one of the best goodies provided in this bundle. I won’t give any big spoilers but this content provides you with a few hours of fun running around and helping a variety of characters help out a mysterious horse. In addition you get the unique opportunity to run a few solo instances as the actual horse actually attacking orc’s and completing quests while playing as the actual horse. These quests are a ton of fun for those of you who like LOTRO quests and the instances provide a very unique and entertaining experience unlike any other in game to date.

Next up comes the Crystal of Remembrance. This item has a lot of players debating whether it is worth going Legendary or not. The Crystal is a one time use item that you can use on a legendary item to add a Legacy slot. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you use it. If you use it on a low level legendary or Third age item most players would say that you have wasted the Crystal mainly because of the lack of points that you can use to level up your legacies. Although the Crystal gives you another legacy it does not however give you more points. So it would be a great way to add more Might or other skills to a item but not the best for a skill focused Legacy since you won’t have the points available to level it up to its capacity. Personally I think there is a lot of potential when the level 85 Legendary items come out but that is yet to be seen so I’ll be holding on to mine for a while.

The best part of this package in my opinion would be the 6th bag. I don’t want to go into to much detail about the importance of bags but the extra 15 slots really helps reduce the stress of managing your inventory perfectly so as to have room for random pick up raids or large group or kin runs. Having to run back to town one or two less times per play session is a huge savings of time and well worth the investment into Legendary Edition. I’ll be following up in a week or so with another article focusing on what items you should always have on hand so keep your eyes open for that in a few weeks.

As for the other goodies, the Cosmetic Armour in my opinion is just filler. Although a lot of players do love dressing up their toons, as a more game play focused player I feel that these types of goodies aren’t tailored for me and thus aren’t very appealing as a bonus. I will admit that they do look really cool on my toon I personally aren’t to impressed by the Armour. The extra 1,000 Turbine Points on the other hand I believe is a big bonus and a great addition to the package. If you buy turbine points online you’re looking at around a twelve dollar and fifty cent value. With that in mind your basically only paying seventeen fifty for the rest of the goodies. You can never have enough Turbine points especially if your running multiple toons or if you’re playing free to play. The Outrider’s Token can be great for those of you with low level toons but for those of us who are already level 75 it really does nothing for us. Although I do like how I can share it between characters so If I start another toon they have this bonus. So the Token is really hit or miss, either you love it or it’s useless.

So what does this all come down to? Is Legendary Edition worth the extra thirty dollars? In my opinion I would say yes, Legendary Edition is the way to go. The 6th Bag is a huge in game benefit giving you more room and less stress having to worry about optimizing your bag space. The Crystal will give our new level 85 Legendary items another Legacy which makes a big difference in end game scenarios. The Exclusive Roan Content provides a very entertaining quest line taking you through the life of a Horse and giving you a lot of fun quests in game along with a special skill for use in mounted combat. The Outriders token can be useful for anyone under level 75 or with alts. The cosmetics are a nice addition for those fashion forward types and the extra 1,000 Turbine Points top it off giving you the ability to add any of your favorite items to the batch of amazing bonuses for going Legendary.

I hope this article helped you make your decision on whether to go Legendary or to go Basic. I would definitely recommend talking to your Kin mates about their experiences before making the final decision and also do a little research because at the end of the day its your game, your toon and you can play it how ever you like

Be sure to keep an eye out for my upcoming article on must have items to hold in your new 6th bag. But until next time…

“Ride for wrath, ride for ruin, and a red dawn! Forth Eorlingas!”

While at E3 this past weekend I had the honor of yet again getting a behind the scenes look at Turbines new expansion to their popular MMO Lord of the Rings Online! This year I had the unique opportunity of receiving a walkthrough of Rohan by none other than the Executive Producer, Community Manager and Digital Communications Manager of Lord of the Rings Online. Not only did I receive the traditional media overview of Rohan but I was also able to take this unique opportunity to also ask the creators of the game a number of preselected questions taken directly from the LOTRO community, the world’s largest collection of Tolkien fans.

The Lord of the Rings: Riders of Rohan is the forth expansion for LOTRO and will be providing players the opportunity to explore and adventure into Eastern Rohan an all new region of Tolkien’s world. Although this expansion is only providing one new region this region is by far the largest region to date. Although there is only one major region there will be multiple mini zones within this region bringing a variety of vibrant environments to the users including areas of Fangorn Forest and Amon Hen. While exploring these new and treacherous lands players will be able to meet and interact with members of the fellowship including Treebeard, Gandalf the White, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas as well as numerous members of the Rohirrim.

Even since its initial launch LOTRO has been on the cutting edge of MMO’s constantly bringing their players fresh new content while utilizing state of the art technological capabilities and this expansion is no exception. By utilizing Direct X 11 players will be able to experience upgrades to the graphics of the game including all new tree and lighting systems. In addition LOTRO is introducing frill upgrades to grass and water so that every movement that the character makes will have an effect on the environment around them. With that being said for all the users who have older computers and graphics cards, don’t fret because you may choose to opt out of these advanced graphics options and use the current specs that you run the game at today.

One of the most highly anticipated aspects of this expansion is the new mounted combat system. Mounted combat is an all new system where the player will be granted their very own mearas who they can both dress up and level up. Turbine has built out an all new skill system where players can choose how they want to build out their steed. Players will be able to choose a steed type, heavy, medium and light, as well as be able to choose which skills to level up. Players will be able to save each character build and skill distribution so that they can switch between skill sets depending on their situation. If the player is in a group fighting packs of wargs they may want a steed who is faster and more agile so they can keep up with their fellowship but if playing solo they may want a steed with more endurance and health to survive a battle against a group of wargs.

To help account for this new form of combat players will be learning new skills to be used in mounted combat as well as have edits to their old skills with tweaks for mounted combat. To account for these new skills Turbine has made some cool edits so that each time you mount up on your war steed your skill bars and quick slots switch to a different set of skill bars and quick slots. With this edit players can easily choose which skills they want on their quick slot bars when mounted and which you want when on foot so as to not confuse players of which skills they can use when on foot and which they can use in combat.

A few other pieces of information of note regarding mounted combat is the speed of your horse and where you can and can’t use your war horse. On release mounted combat will only be available in Eastern Rohan. With that being said you will be able to ride your warhorse in many other maps which are large and open but not every map will have this option especially regions that are small or dense with trees or other environmental factors that aren’t ideal for a war horse. Regarding speed the war mounts will be the fastest mounts in the game with 300 times the run speed of a normal character.

At the end of this eye opening walkthrough of Riders of Rohan I had the unique opportunity to ask the Turbine representatives a number of different questions which I have been collecting directly from the community over the last few weeks. Although not all of my questions were answered here is a list of these questions along with the associated response that were given. Although many of the questions received the traditional “I can’t talk about that now.” Many of the questions had a very different response which can be read into however you wish.

Q: Will Edoras be in this expansion?
A: No but it will be coming in the future with Western Rohan!

Q: Will there be any instances available in ROR?
A: There will be solo instances available at launch and an instance cluster closely following in 2012!

Q: Will there be any other new Regions available in 2012?
A: Not in 2012!

Q: Will there be new non mounted skills available for those of us who want to play non mounted content?
A: Yes!

Q: Will there be a new housing instance for Rohan?
A: We are talking about this and the team is really excited about the idea but not at this time!

Q: Are you hiring more developers to help work on the game?
A: Yes we have a number of open positions and Turbine is currently in a growth stage so please apply!

Q: Are you working on any updates on the player avatar?
A: We are working on an avatar upgrade for the future!

Q: Will there be more skirmishes with the release of ROR?
A: There will be No skirmishes with this update!

Q: Server Lag is a big issue on larger servers like Brandywine and it’s getting worse. What are you doing about this issue.
A: We are constantly working on the server lag and issues. We have fixes going our monthly and are aware of the issue. We are currently working with the community on this and are doing tons of investigation so please visit the forums to see how you can help us on this investigation.

Q: Will Moors access for freeps be available for purchase for FTP players?
A: We aren’t the right people to ask about that, not the business team, but it’s an interesting idea!

Q: Will there be in game marriage in the future?
A: We have no plans for in game marriage!

Q: Will there be Hobbit themed Regions and Updates with the movie coming out?
A: Not on the Road Map!

Q: Will there be new hobbies?
A: Not on the Road Map!

Q: Will the 6th bag, Crystal and Quests available in the pre purchase bundle be available for purchase in the store?
A: You can visit the Q&A forum for more information about this and the price of these features etc!

Q: Will there be a new PVMP zone?
A: Not on the Road Map!

Q: Will there be new crafting and recipes with the new level cap?
A: Yes

Q: Will there be new Creep Levels with the upcoming Freep level cap?
A: Yes

Q: Will more currency types like festival currency be account shareable with the wallet?
A: We’re not the right person for this question.

Q: Will there be Virtue level cap increases with this expansion?
A: We don’t know yet. We’re still in Alpha and once we go to Beta and get players feedback then we will determine things like this.

Q: Will there be more classes in the future?
A: Not on the Road Map!

Q: Will there be more races in the future? (Ents)
A: No

Q: Will there be more legacy points be available for LI’s with the addition of the new Crystal? If the Crystal adds a legacy we need points for it. Or will we be able to increase the level of the legacy’s to reduce the cost?
A: No comment We’re still in Alpha and once we go to Beta and get players feedback then we will determine things like this.

Q: Will there be more quick slot bars?
A: No we decided to switch out quick slot bars for mounted and non mounted instead.

Q: Is there planned level cap increase for skirmish soldiers?
A: Don’t remember

Q: What does the Horseshoe do?
A: No Comment BUT we will let the community know at some point!

Q: Are you planning another 24 man raid?
A: Not on the Road Map but the feedback from the community is that they want raids more accessible.

Q: Will the rift be scaled?
A: Over time most instances will be scaled!

Q: Will there be revamping of PVMP Creep classes?
A: In time

If you have never played LOTRO I would highly recommend it especially now with all this new content on its way. LOTRO is by far one of the best MMO’s available and is still standing strong with yearly game of the year awards as well as monthly updates and expansions keeping the content fresh and fun.

Lots of Love

Chris Castagnetto
aka Moggle (DJ Helsing)

Chris is editor at Kalamari Kastle and was kind enough to share this article with the CSTM audience. Thank you Chris!

An article by Ten Ton Hammer

• Mounted combat will only be available in certain areas
• The war steed will be useable in all areas (that horses are allowed)
• Mounts will have their own set of skills that replace the standard combat bar
• The skills will be dependent upon the traits that you utilize

However, they do include some new information on mounted combat such as:

Trait trees will have three main categories split as offensive traits, defensive traits, and support traits. The final version of these traits was not available during our play session, but needless to say it will allow for some very specific customization of the mount…

They also state that mounts will also have abilities that will assist players in maneuvering them so that they are free to perform other tasks before the battle even begins.

Instead of relying on players to be able to grow a third hand, the mounts come pre-equipped with abilities that will charge the steed directly toward the targeted enemy. This will free up the player to prepare their attack and strike hard and true at the precise moment that will inflict the most damage. The damage is not only calculated from the type of ability that was used but also by the speed of the horse; so the faster you ride into your opponent, the more damage you’ll do.

This actually sounds pretty cool to me.  Ever since I played a “Warrior” in World of Warcraft I’ve been a huge fan of charging skills.  If these skills will bring me into battle and at the same time allow me to queue skills and prepare myself for the actual fight, then I’m happy.

TenTonHammer goes on to discuss briefly the new technology being utilized by Turbine to increase the graphical appearance, but ends up with some cool information about some of the ways that Turbine is making daily quests more interesting.

During their travels, players will come across the town of Snowborn, which has been burned to the ground. The daily quest will have players rebuilding the city.  At first glance the premise may sound a little old-hat, but the implementation is anything but. Every day as players perform these quests they will see a little bit of the town rebuilt which will happen dynamically right in front of them in a phasing-sort of concept.

To me, this sounds pretty cool.  Especially since Ten Ton Hammer reports that after the town is rebuilt that the daily quests will be complete and the players will get a final reward.  The downside though is that this is apparently not coming out with the release of Rohan, but sometime after it; and of course that means that the information on these quests could change.  Hopefully though we’ll all be assisting the town of Snowborn rebuild themselves to their former glory.

• Exclusive Noble Grey Steed: Saddle up on this striking grey steed as early as level 5 and travel across Middle-earth 62% 68% faster than on foot.
• Three Bonus Quest Packs: Continue your adventures through the troubled Northdowns, tranquil Evendim, and frigid Misty Mountains
• 25% XP Boost Token: Earn 25% more experience from quests and monster while you have this token equipped, all the way to level 65
• 1,000 Turbine Points: Customize your experience in Middle-earth with 1,000 Turbine Points. Buy cosmetic gear, rare mounts, experience boosts, buffs, and more.

The pack sells for $29.99 USD, but for now it seems to be on sale for $14.99 USD.  I personally think that this is a good move on Turbine’s behalf as Steam makes it much easier to download and install games due to its automated system.  The only thing that I think is a bit of a downer is that they included the Misty Mountains as one of the bonus Quest Packs.  I really think that since that zone has yet to be revamped it doesn’t best represent the games content.  Other than that it seems like a pretty good deal to me, especially at its sale price.

Update:  So there is some good news and some bad news.  The good news is that the horse actually has a 68% speed increase and 250 health; plus it’s account wide.  (And it constantly blows “steam” from it’s nose.  Get it?  Steam?)  The down side is that the extra 25% token is actually Derudh’s Stone which means that it only gives 25% Experience Gain on Monster Kills.  You can also add this pack to existing accounts by adding the game to your Library in the Steam client (I did this by having it start the download), right-clicking the title name, and choosing “View game CD key”.  This will give you the key that you can add to your account through Turbine’s My Account page.  You can then stop and delete the install from Steam if you wish to do so.

Q3: Art director: Do you have any job openings in the 3D art department? – Heather Hughes
A: We’re pretty well staffed up at the moment, but opportunities are always arising. Keep your eyes on the Turbine Jobs page! – Todd Demille, Art Director

While some revealed possible upcoming features:

Q1: Will you ever have an experience eliminator/on-off switch? – Justin Viskoc
A: Since we’ve already done some work on an experience disabler, I’d say the odds are real good J. It’s not 100% polished yet and until it is, here also is the standard fine print line that there is no commitment implied here as to when it will see the light of day. – Linda “LLena” Currie, Design Director

And of course others showed the humor that we’re so accustomed to from the Devs:

Q19: Why doesn’t the captain class have Elvish heralds? – Justin Duncan
A: Elves are lackeys to no Man. – Jared “Kelsan” Pruett

Overall the questions were varied from topics ranging from the musical score to how landscapes are modeled; making it quite an interesting read overall.  I highly recommend taking a look and seeing what information might be exciting to you!

Original Version

PDF Version

Turbine gave us a press release this morning announcing a stand-alone expansion coming spring 2013. Adventures of Bilbo!

Adventures of Bilbo launches in the spring of 2013 with a new story taking place around the time of “The Hobbit”, includes existing lands around the story along with new ones such as Mirkwood, Dale and the Iron Hills, there is also a new water mount system and much more!

AoB is expected to be around the size of the recent Rise of Isengard expansion.  It will be a stand-alone expansion since it takes place several years before Lord of the Rings.

This is to be another digital expansion similar to how Isengard was released (no in-store boxed copies).

NEW FEATURES:

• Experience the Adventures of Bilbo – Join with the Bilbo and creep through Mirkwood; join the battle of the five armies; forge alliances with the Elves and Dwarves; and aid Bilbo on his epic tale through Middle Earth!
• Introducing a new water mount system – Ride the waters of Middle Earth on a variety of buoyant devices.  Ride with Bilbo in barrels to escape you foes.  Customize your barrel and level its skills over time to aid Bilbo on his epic journey.   Mount your barrels and gather your fellows to flee from evil together. Taking a lighter tone as with the books players can expect to have features such as this one that would not fit in The Lord of the Rings.
• Advance to level 60 – Begin the legend in the Adventures of Bilbo! Experience the adventure that started it all in the epic story, and gain new skills and deeds as you face new challenges on your journey to 60!

Turbine goes on to explain that players have the option to auto-level to 40 as the adventure does not start until players get to the Trollshaws.  While this zone might feel very similar, players will be able watch the trolls turn into stone.  The real adventure starts when players get to the Misty Mountains with an expanded zone.  The meat of the expansion however will be Mirkwood.  Players will be able to level from around 45 to around level 58 in Mirkwood.  Players can expect to see some of the darkest and creepiest things in Middle Earth, mostly dealing with goblins and spiders.

To get the players the last two levels they will go on to the small zones of Dale and the Iron Hills.  Here players can expect to do help fight against Smaug.  The content will end with a level 60 24 man raid to attempt to take down Smaug.  Players will be able to escape the cave with one piece of loot if they are fast enough and can prove themselves as real burglars.

Players missing the depth of Dwarves, Elves and Hobbits found in the early zones will not be missing much longer.  This stand-alone expansion will allow players to get a nice look into the lives of each of these races.  I am glad to see this because it will get old when we go to all these man-themed zones that are coming this fall and beyond.

The press release also stated that VIPs will get the stand-alone expansion at half price and that Turbine Points will transfer to this new stand-alone expansion.  Also released was that players can expect to have some cool pre-order in-game items such as an invisible ring and Bilbo’s barrel.

If you are wondering how/why Turbine will be releasing this expansion just a few months after they released Riders of Rohan it is because they split into two teams.  They wanted to be in the middle of “The Hobbit” movies to get the maximum amount of hype out of possible players.  There is a very good chance that in 2013 we could see two expansions for LotRO if two teams will be working on the content.

In conclusion 2012 and 2013 seem to be exciting years for LotRO as it is showing more life than ever.  I am really looking forward to see a lighter hearted version of LotRO as they follow the events of “The Hobbit” in Adventures of Bilbo.

The LOTRO Game Servers will be brought down on Monday, March 12th from 6:00 – 10:00 AM Eastern (-5 GMT) to launch the latest game update, Update 6: Shores of the Great River. Patch notes will be available during the downtime. Thanks for your patience, and we’ll see you back in the game soon!

Source: LOTRO Launcher

Rune-keeper

The Rune-keeper class has seen its fair share of changes in the past, but somewhere along the line it no longer became the class that everyone wanted to play.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an extremely popular class, but with Isengard the term “glass cannon” didn’t seem to even sum up how frustratingly fragile the class seemed to have become.  And as ZC (Zombie Columbus) points out the class seemed to “stand still” while other classes “evolved”.  And so it is with this update that ZC seems to have the goals of:

1. Give the class more options to increase their survivability.
2. Increase their healing and damage dealing while attempting to add more variety and utility.

Granted, he does warn that some of these changes (namely the healing and damage) is that their Power sustainability may suffer some in exchange for the buffs that they receive.  So what changes are coming?

• All Writs now have no attunement requirements and Master of Writs will be removed from the game.
• Affinity will be removed from all Rune-stones and using elemental skills will change your affinity even outside of combat.
• Calming Verse has been changed to reduce perceived threat by 25% and can be enhanced by the different trait lines.
• Weapon of X has changed to Rune-sign of X and is now a healing skill that does a small HoT and adds an additional buff.
• The passive bonuses that the Master of X traits gave are all being rolled into the 3 set bonus of their traitline.
• A new skill called “Scribe a New Ending” will remove dread from your party
• The Blade Shall Not Wound and The Fang Shall Not Poison have been combined into a new skill called “Their Weapons Will Not Harm Us”.

I’m going to be honest, these changes are extensive and if you’re a Rune-keeper you’re going to want to read the full notes to see everything that is changing.  I like the changes that I’ve been seeing, but I’m also interested in hearing what others think about them as well, so please leave a comment and let us know what you think about them.

PDF Version

Warden

Since January, Orion has had numerous blog posts and subsequent discussions covering his revisions of the Warden class.  And as a result, many changes for the Warden are coming:

These changes were expected to fall into a difficulty and scope between Minstrel and Champion and ended up exceeding them both. These are just big, big changes. Testing, so far, has proven that the Warden is now far more survivable in raids and capable as DPS. I am looking forward to all of you getting your hands on the changes.

Those who have been following the changes will already be pretty well up-to-speed on what is coming to the class.  But for those who haven’t, I’ll try to summarize some of the bigger changes.

• The Warden will now have 3 distinct stances
• Determination will remain the tanking stance
• Recklessness remains the melee damage stance
• Assailment replaces conservation and becomes a ranged DPS stance.
• Each stance will alter “the majority of gambits” to their distinct play-style.
• The Assailment stance alters the spear gambit to javelin gambits; meaning you will need to train the new javelin gambits at your trainer.
• A new skill called Battle Preparation will allow you to build a gambit and execute them outside of combat.
• Masteries can now be trained at level 20, but can only be used when you are traited.
• Defiant Challenge is no longer a gambit, but now an “Emergency” button.
• Dark Before the Dawn no longer requires the Warden be at 50% morale or lower to use, but it restores only ~50% as much power as well as a power over time.

Again, trust me when I say I am just scratching the surface.  I personally am looking forward to seeing what the Warden class holds and frankly with all these changes I’m starting to get excited about leveling one again as well.

PDF Version

Today saw the release of a Developer Diary concerning the new ability for players to bring Skirmish Soldiers out onto the Landscape.  The Developer Diary was done in the form of an FAQ, so I’ll try to sum up the main points.

• Skirmish Soldiers are summoned (outside of Skirmishes) via Landscape Soldier Token.
• These tokens are purchased in-game either in two locations
• The “Currency Exchange” vendor in Skirmish Camps (Price dependent on your character level)
• In the LOTRO Store (100 TP)
• The Tokens can be used in “…most non-instanced locations in Middle-earth”, with the exception of some “major hubs”.  (We’re assuming towns like Bree, Galtrev, etc.)
• There is a new Soldier UI for landscape use, which can be hidden if you don’t want to see it.
• If you want to stop “spending time” on your soldier, you will simply need to dismiss it.
• Soldiers will be auto-dismissed if you
• Enter an area they cannot be summoned
• When you teleport
• When you Fast-travel
• Skirmish items that can be used to enhance soldiers nor benefits granted by the soldier’s “personal” traits are not implemented outside of Skirmishes
• Soldiers will not be full pets; they will retain the limited commands used in Skirmishes.
• Tokens are not needed to summon Soldiers inside of Skirmishes.

Really, I’m still a bit disappointed in the way that Turbine handled announcing the use of Skirmish Soldiers.  While I fully admit that their use is a nice addition I still feel that I, as a player, was a bit led on to believe that soldiers would be out all the time without any type of Token or time-limit.  Maybe that was my own mistake, but I don’t recall anyone from Turbine rushing to correct myself or anyone else.  Although I definitely understand that without limitations there might be some severe issues with lag and trivializing the content.  So, I have to say that I personally cannot see myself using Skirmish Soldiers on landscape all that often unless I’m in a particularly tough area or I’m trying to powerlevel a character.  How about you?

PDF Version

Image courtesy of Melkraen

The Instance Finder

Currently, within the Instance Finder players are able to choose their role, what type of instance, the size of the group, and what tier the player wants to participate in.  In Update 6 players will find that the Instance Finder has not only increased in its functionality, but that it also has a bit of a revised interface as well.

First, there are now three tabs: Simple, Advanced, and Specific.  The Simple Interface allows you to merely select your role and one of three types of instances to queue for (Skimish, Isengard, Instance) and has a join button; that’s all.  This will be useful for anyone who simply wants to go to any instance as quickly as possible and doesn’t have a care about the size, tier, or type of instance.

The Advanced Tab

The Advanced Tab allows you to refine your selection a bit more.  All the familiar options will be available, but it will also have a lower panel on the interface that will list the entire set of instances for which you are queued.  It is also within this panel that you will be able to search and refine the list of instances and “uncheck” any that you don’t wish to participate in.  An example used within the diary shows  the following situation:

…the screenshot above shows a user interested in running a 3-man scaling instance. There are only 4 of these, and they have selected Library or School. Because “6” is not selected for size, none of the 6-man instances are shown.

Note that only encounters that you (and your fellowship, if you are in a fellowship) are eligible for will be displayed in the “Advanced” tab.

The Specific Tab

The last tab, the Specific Tab, accomplishes the design goal of combining the Instance Finder with the Instance Join interface.

This tab allows you to launch a specific encounter with your current group immediately.  After you select an instance to join, you can configure its size, tier, and level at the top of the panel before clicking the “Launch Now” button.

One nice addition to the old “Instance Join” functionality is the “Search” box, which will allow you to find instances in the list easier than before.

This list will also include instances that you or your party may not be eligible for, in which case you will find that the “Launch Now” button becomes greyed out.

Player Voting

Last, but not least, there is a new feature being introduced “…to prevent abuses by the leader of fellowships put together by Instance Finder,” which is voting.  Now players can vote to dismiss players, change the loot rules, or change the quality threshold.  To initiate a vote for loot rules any player simply needs to click on their portrait and select the correct menu option.  If everyone agrees then the vote passes and the change is made.  If someone chooses “No” or makes no action then the vote fails and nothing happens.  Voting to remove a player allows everyone except that player to vote for their removal.

Instance Finder Rewards

In its current configuration, the Instance Finder allows for a bonus (+50% Currency and +5% Morale and Power) only if you choose to allow it to truly randomize which instance you will play.  But, with Update 6 and the combining of the Instance Finder and Instance Join, the bonus will now scale depending on how many instances you select to be randomized.  However, Free/Premium players don’t need to fret about never being able to reach the full bonus as the bonus is based on the amount of instances are available to you rather than what could be available to you.  On the flip side, the more instances that are in your pool the more you can deselect before you take a penalty.

For example:

Example A	Example B

In Example A you can see that the player has a large pool (11) of instances in which they are eligible to participate in.  Therefore they can deselect three of these instances and still retain the full bonus.  However, in Example B where the pool of instances is small (4) once they deselect one of the options the bonus is immediately affected.  If the player in Example B wished to retain the full bonus they would either need to re-select Inn of the Forsaken as a viable option or add more instances into the pool.

Skirmish Dailies

One final change coming is that Skirmishes will once again have a quest associated with them.

The instance quest present every time you play a Skirmish will now award XP, IX, Reputation, gold and Marks. The bonus XP awards that were added to monster kills in Update 5 will be reduced to make room for this. All these award amounts will be balanced off the difficulty / duration of the Skirmish in question.

Final Thoughts

I like the changes coming to the Instance Finder.  I think that these steps will go a long ways in making it a full-fledged feature of the game.  And while I still wish that there was the possibility of using it to find raids, Ransroth states that raid functionality and cross-server groups are things that he is working on for future releases.  So until that time I hope that these changes will really benefit player in the long run.

The only thing I’m a little nervous about is player voting.  While this definitely may be a good thing I just hope it’s not abused in any way.  It seems though that some consideration has gone into what players can and cannot do so I don’t have too many worries when it comes to this feature.

PDF Version: Instance Finder

PDF Version: Instance Finder Rewards

New art assets for this zone began pouring in not long ago, and we had the pleasure of watching the formation of an entirely new territory in Middle-earth. The Great River not only offers something fresh-feeling and new, but also some fairly epic eye candy. This region delivers the first established Rohirrim-run town, a settlement called Stangard, with interiors and exteriors unlike all others in the game. As you roam through this zone, you will likely feel a rekindling of your early sensations as an explorer of Middle-earth.

And while visuals are so important to having a great atmosphere within the game, there is no doubt that the content within will be of great importance as well. So what’s the breakdown of the zone?

• It will be a 75 end-game region
• It’s focused around solo or duo gameplay
• There will be a new reputation faction “…with notably better barter items than the rep stuff found in the Rise of Isengard release.”
• Quests will give items that are upgrades to those rewarded in the Dunland/Isengard areas.
• “There is plenty of content to help you earn these rewards without having to grind…” (Consider me hopeful, but skeptical on this one.)

And it appears that there will be group content as well:

If you prefer to do more challenging content in groups, there is a new landscape division just for you: the Limlight Gorge. There is a separate reputation faction just for the brave folks who want to tempt their fate against terrifying trolls and enraged huorns, with higher-end loot to barter when you earn rep with that area.

The rest of the article discusses the development process in creating a new region. Anyone who is interested in game design or at a behind-the-scenes look at how these areas are created should definitely check it out.

PDF Version

The Patch Notes for Update 6’s initial release to the Bullroarer Server have been posted. And it is important to note that as always the notes are in Beta and therefore are missing some sections such as information on the Rune-keeper and Warden class changes. There are however some very interesting things to note.

First off it seems that Skirmish soldiers will only be able to be summoned by use of a “Landscape soldier token”, which is bartered for at Skirmish camps with Marks and Seals. They will also be unavailable within “high-population zones.” What exactly this means is unknown, but there is a future Developer Diary that will be released that will elaborate further upon the issue.

Secondly, the Shores of the Great River is being released. Turbine touts that the region will have 200 quests and that it will be free for VIP’s.

Other interesting points include:

• Virtues have been extended to Rank 14.
• All tiers of stat tomes and the relic removal scroll can now drop from the final bosses in scaled instances.
• Melding recipes for Tier 8 relics, Level 75 relics and Level 75 legendary items have been added.
• Legendary Items level 66 and above have increased relic return from deconstruction if they are advanced to level 31 or higher. The increase is more significant if the item is advanced to level 60 and above.
• New recipes for Level 75 crafted relics are located on the Crafting Guild vendors. The Compendium of Middle Earth, Volume III, can be acquired via a reward for completing the daily repeatable quest “The Forges of Isengard,” given by Bron in Galtrev.
• Worn Symbols of Celebrimbor are now available via Skirmish barter vendors.
• Marks, Medallions, Seals, and Relic Currency are all now bind to account.
• Unique class titles have been added as rewards for the level 15, 30, 45, and 58 class quests. Characters who have previously completed these quests will be rewarded the titles retroactively.
• Lore-masters will have new talismans which will turn their Spirit of Nature Pet into spirits of other animals.
• The Skirmish instance quests (the quest you receive every time you play a Skirmish) will now award gold, reputation, XP and IXP. This quest, unlike the old daily quests, will be awarded every time the Skirmish is completed, and will scale more accurately to the level of the Skirmish. The previous XP bonus on monsters has been reduced to compensate.
• Added a new lock-on camera mode which keeps the camera pointed towards your target. By default this can be engaged using the [X] key, but you can remap it in Options->;Key Mapping->;Camera.

And that’s just to name a few. So what are you excited about with the release of Update 6?

PDF Version

Updated March 2, 2012 to include the Rune-keeper changes

Updated March 3, 2012 to include Reaver changes

To recap, this update will introduce two new stance, Shadow and Flayer.  The Shadow Stance will be based mostly on stealth-based skills, while the Flayer Stance (which is replacing Shadow Howler) will be for those wargs who have been “…dying to charge in and ferociously rip their opponents apart while soaking up damage,”.  Shadow Stance will be unlocked at Rank 1 while Slayer Stance will unlock at Rank 10.  Both will share a 10-second cooldown.  A number of skills are also being updated in order to accommodate the new stances.

For an in-depth analysis of the new skills and stances check out The Art of Warg blog by Mr. Warg who has done an excellent job in going over the new changes.

PDF Version

The Treasure Event is now live across all servers!  It will be running from now until February 26th and according to Turbine includes 2 new quests and new rewards.  If you haven’t been to the event take a look at Ketani’s Treasure Hunt Guide, which will be updated with the new information as soon as we can.

So go get your picks and start digging!

• Provide the Weaver with increased survivability and burst dps while maintaining the core of the class.
• Create synergistic skill rotations that allows for a variety of play-styles.

So what exactly does this mean? Well, first off the Weaver will now generate pips (similar to the Champion) called “Venom” which will increase the Resistance Penetration and damage of their Poison skills each time it stacks. A Weaver will be able to stack up to 5 pips at one time and they will decay when outside of combat at a rate of 1 pip per second. The Weaver will also be gaining two new skills that will utilize these pips:

• Deep Bite (Rank 4), which will be a strong melee skill that replenishes a portion of the Weaver’s health.
• Virulent Poison (Rank 7), which will be a ranged attack that applies a strong Damage over Time (DoT) effect and will also apply direct Poison damage upon its removal.

Weavers will also have a new debuff named “Ensnared” which will be caused by most of their web skills and can stack up to three times. While this debuff in itself will not do any harm, the debuffs can be removed by a new skill called “Envenom” which will not only apply damage to the target, but it will also generate Venom pips at the same time. The amount of damage and pips generated is dependant upon the amount of time Ensnared is stacked on the target.

• 1 Stack: Weak Damage; Generates 2 Venom pips
• 2 Stacks: Moderate Damage; Generates 4 Venom pips
• 3 Stacks: Heavy Damage; Generates 5 Venom pips

A number of other skills have been updated as well; most of which seem to be for the positive. And since I am no PvMP expert, let alone a Weaver expert, I can’t begin to imagine the impact that this might have upon the class at this time.

So that’s where you all come in. Tell me what you think of these changes and whether in Update 6 PvMP is finally getting some of the attention it so rightfully deserves.

PDF Version

• Current PvMP gear fees “underpowered” or too difficult to acquire. (So that it did not devalue PvE offerings.)
• PvMP combat is too fast paced due to the damage changes made in Isengard. (Such as the removal of stat caps.)
• Crowd Control effects are still too powerful.
• PvMP has no “seasonal mechanic” so that there is no incentive to earn additional gear once it is obtained.

Both Freeps and Creeps will be able to increase their Audacity by either purchasing PvMP armor (Freeps) or by purchasing a rank in a new passive trait (Creeps).  Both Creeps and Freeps will gain a “free” rank of Audacity.  Creeps will gain this rank upon their creation and Freeps will gain it upon hitting level 40. Audacity will also be capped at rank 7 for both sides, but that rank will be increased over time as future sets of armor are released.  Both Creeps and Freeps will be able to check their rank of Audacity within the War Panel.

Opinion

I believe it was in our last episode where I stated that I wasn’t sure how Turbine could make sure that PvMP gear was not as effective in PvE without throwing in a stat like this and sure enough here is the stat.  Now, this doesn’t mean that Audacity isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  However, despite what Turbine may say I always found that as “Seasons” of PvMP progressed in other games it was increasingly difficult to stand against players who already had obtained specifically statted gear.  But on the other hand since most battles in the Ettenmoors are usually more horde vs. horde than 1 vs. 1; who’s to say that this route won’t work?  I’m interested to hear what our readers think though, so please feel free to voice your opinion below.

PDF Version

Some of the highlights of the changes include:

• All players will start at 0 commendations
• PvMP quests that previously gave Destiny Points will reward Commendations.
• Defeating Players will result in ~50 Commendations
• The current contribution and diminishing return system will be used for the time being
• Post-Update 6
• Commendation swill be divided equally between all contributing players.
• “Diminishing Returns are applied each time a player is defeated within 60s of retreating. Each defeat within 60s of retreating reduces that player’s Commendation value by 20% with a maximum reduction of 90%.”
• Armor will no longer have a Rank requirement.  However, the Rank requirement for jewelry, weapons, off-hands, mounts, etc. will remain in-place.
• The PvMP gear will be useable outside of the Ettenmoors, but the intention is that those items will be more effective in PvMP than in PvE.
• All existing Ettenmoor and Ettendeep barter tokens will be converted over to Commendations in Update 6.

My Opinion

I’ll start by stating what Kelsan says the main purpose of Commendations is:

PvMP was in need of a unified currency system that allowed PvMP players to progress in Monster-play without needing to PvE. Destiny was always intended to be the PvMP currency, but due to easy accrual and limited sinks we have ended up with extremely bloated Destiny pools. In order to accomplish our goals and not impact the PvE experience, we need to create a new currency specifically for use in PvMP.

The intention of this change is to create a sustainable currency that prohibits exploitive behavior, encourages active participation with each content update, and places the primary source of PvMP advancement on PvMP combat.

That being said, after reading what some heavy PvMP participants had as their Destiny Pools, I tend to agree that something needed to be done with the currency system to make it more balanced.  However, I also wrestle with the fact that people who have such high Destiny Pools are the people who make Monster Play what it is.  They are the people who enjoy it the most and who are usually the guiding forces in the Ettenmoors.  And my hope is that with this change that they don’t find themselves being “hurt” and that their enjoyment of Monster Play will carry them through this new “grind”.  One player in the official feedback thread suggested that players be allowed to purchase Commendations with their Destiny Points or to have some other form of compensation as they don’t usually play Freep-side.  And while I’m not sure if this would work from a balance perspective I can’t help but feel for these guys who see their admittedly vast pools of Destiny Points as somewhat meaningless to them now.

As a PvE player I also take a look at this and can’t help but feel that I’m potentially being cheated a bit as well.  I now cannot use PvMP to renew my Destiny Points, which I in-turn use to purchase perks.  Ketani was kind enough to inform me that there are dungeon dailies in Moira that can be done in order to obtain Destiny Points, and that Elb has lately been running those instances to earn more points.  So, as long as those stay in-tact then PvE players will still have a viable way to “renew” their Destiny Point pools; it just may be on a slower rate than they are used to.  (Or it could be faster if you’re horrible at PvMP like I am!)  Hopefully, we can hear back from Kelsan or someone else from Turbine  soon on whether or not those quests will in fact still reward Destiny Points.

PDF Version

In an effort to resolve the ill-will that was generated by the initial integration of the store-only armor into the game, it was announced yesterday that starting in Update 5.2 Turbine will be adding the current store-only Relic Removal Scrolls, Morale Potions, and Power Potions to the Lock box system.  They will also be increasing the drop rates for both Lock boxes and keys as one of their “first steps” into integrating these items into the game.  They will also be discussing further ways for players to possibly obtain the store-only armor outside of the store.  In the meantime you can expect that these items (as well as some other suggested items ) to be appearing in upcoming lotteries.  But while Sapience stresses that these are “first steps” to resolving the issues surrounding these items; he also explains that not every solution that is suggested will actually be implemented. (I for one would be surprised if the store armor was ever made craftable.)

On a personal note, I can appreciate this note from Sapience as well as Turbine’s decision to try to find a way to integrate these items into the game.  I’m not entirely sold on the idea of the Lock box system being a good solution to distributing these items, but as long as they follow through on their stated intentions I can take a “wait and see” approach to the whole ordeal for the time being.  What I’d really like to know is what you all think about the statment.  Is this a good start?  What else can be done to remedy the situation?  Please leave us a comment telling us what you think.

First, Orion states that there were three goals with this update:

• Improve upon and highlight the strengths of the Stealth Warg
• Provide Wargs with a secondary method of playing the class that gave them more survivability though a little less damage
• Highlight that wargs are pack hunters

Also, as Orion is prone to do in a revamp, he is giving the Warg class two stances; Shadow and Flayer.  Much like the Champion and Minstrel, these stances will “accentuate” how the Warg is played and grant different benefits to existing skills depending on the stance you are currently in.  However, unlike the Freep classes if you attempt to switch stances there will be a delay between your being able to cancel a stance and enter a different one.

If you switch out of one stance, you will be delayed from entering the other stance, the benefits and merits of the two stances, while complimentary, coupled with the linear design of monster players would make the ability to quickly switch between the two simply overpowered. We’re not backing down on this one. It is set in stone…

Shadow Stance will be the “stealth” stance which will increase damage, in-combat power regeneration, and will be “…the primary driver for stealth skills.”  Flayer Stance will replace Shadow Howler and will disallow stealth, but will increase armor, tactical and physical mitigations.  It will also add a small “morale bubble” on the Warg that will attempt to refresh every 7 seconds.

If the bubble is still present this results in healing the warg for 5% of its max health. If the bubble is not present, the bubble is re-applied. When the bubble breaks the warg is healed for 1% of their max health. Grants access to Brute and brute bonuses.

To me this sounds like an incredible change and I can see why there will not be any “stance dancing” allowed.  If a Warg was able to switch between these two stances at will they’d be fairly unstoppable.

Also included in the post were various skill changes which will have a different effect or even become an entirely new skill depending on the stance the Warg finds itself in (including no stance at all).  And while I myself am not a Monster Play expert, I will however The Art of Warg blog where our friend, Mr. Warg is taking a close look at the proposed changes and what they could mean to Wargs everywhere and Monster Play in general.

Let us know what you think about the changes below.

PDF Version

“He’s (Saruman is) sending out these packs of mounted orcs, 40 or 50 at a time, and they’re devastating the town’s people and the landscape of Rohan – as is written in the books.”   ”And you, as a player, are meeting that challenge with something equivalent.”

This sounds amazing.  When I heard warbands from previous news, for some reason I thought that number was a lot lower then 40 to 50 mounted orcs.  Also it says that they are devastating the people and landscape of Rohan which sounds almost like dynamic events happening all the time, all around you, throughout Rohan.

The only named mounted combat skill so far is Trample, which all classes can use. There’s been no detailed description of what Trample does, beyond what it suggests. Paiz said there will be class-specific mounted combat skills, too.

I think in retrospect being so excited about mount emotes seems rather foolish now that we know we can trample orcs in the name of Rohan.  The interview continues on to say that you have both new mounted skills and you can use most existing character skills while mounted.  This means that I still can hope that burglars will be able to go into stealth while mounted on their war horse.

The article continues on to talk about LotRO’s future…

“Helm’s Deep is a big story, obviously. It’s a huge challenge for an MMO technically to have – from the books, – 10,000 orcs cresting a hill, running towards the keep. That’s a really robust effort from us and the investment is significant. “So we need time to get that tech ready for launch so we can bring it to life in a way that players will find credible and in a way that will meet their expectations.”

I am glad that Turbine is taking their time with Helm’s Deep because I want it done right.  What I think will be more amazing is 10,000 orcs being ambushed by several thousand Riders of Rohan storming down the hill into the giant mass of orcs.  Also notice how they say that we will see the orcs cresting over the hill implying that we will be part of the defense force of Helm’s Deep and not the riders comming to save them (with Gandalf and what not) yet we still may ride out with the King of Rohan.  Also I think that this is almost garanteed to happen since they talk about all the effort and investment they have put into this project.

Now on to Gondor?

Minas Tirith, the white-stoned and multi-tiered stronghold of Gondor, is also on the cards. Paiz described it as “huge”: “There’s a tremendous amount of white stone that has to be laid. They had thousands of years; I’m sure it won’t take us anywhere near that long, but it is a significant undertaking!”

This sounds like it will take a long time to build.  Also keep in mind the fact that at Gondor there were 100,000 orcs if I remember right from the books.  This could mean that we will go on a few detours before arriving at the white city so that Turbine can perfect the tech.  It does sound very impressive though as it is the largest settlement in Middle Earth at this time.  Keep in mind that they have to populate the city, then have it attacked, then have the Men of Rohan come save them.  All in all this will be a huge battle that even LotRO might not be able to pull off.  Even if they do, will there be incentive to fight against an army of that size.  Will we actually make a difference on the battlefield at that point?  Oh yeah…Gandalf will be there…never mind.  I am ready to fight those orcs to the death…and then respawn…and fight them to the death again!

I hope you are looking forward to the future of LotRO with excitement as it seems Turbine has a good game plan.

Also let me say that the Mordor expansion has to be called Eye of Sauron.

In his first change, a sort of bombshell was dropped:

Masteries will be trained on the warden from the very outset of the class. Old Wardens will need to visit their trainer to get the masteries. New Wardens will have them when they are created. Though you will have the masteries, they will not be accessible until you trait into the different lines. The unlocking process is listed in the trait information below.

This is a huge change as Masteries were previously unlocked by completing class and Legendary Deeds; some of which were painful (in my opinion) to complete.  Now that they are unlocked by trait lines, Wardens should find themselves better off for it.

Orion also included what class traits he is changing as well:

And if that wasn’t enough, there are also plenty of Legendary Item Legacy changes that are going to be coming as well as a different advancement scheme for gambits and other skills.  Again, most of this is still subject to change so all feedback is welcomed by Orion.  So, if you see something you don’t like be sure to leave a comment on his blog post making sure to leave as much constructive feedback as possible.

PDF Version

In his second post he takes a look at the Gambits for the Shield and Spear gambits and how their effects change depending on the stance the Warden is in at the time of their execution.  Also included are changes to the Legendary Skills Defiant Challenge and Way of the Warden.

PDF Version

Over at Massively Justin Olivetti was able to get Turbine to talk about the Riders of Rohan as well as some of the updates that will be preceding the expansion.  Specifically, he spoke to them in regards to this year being LOTRO’s 5th year anniversary and how they are adjusting the event so that it hopefully doesn’t inspire the ire with players that last year’s did.  He goes on to talk about the new region coming to the game before the Riders of Rohan, which will be “The Great River” (taken from the Great River Anduin) and how it will “…serve as a gateway between Lothlorien to the southern country of Rohan, much the same way that Enedwaith led into Dunland.”  Justin then moves onto Update 6 which will bring in updates to the Instance Finder, and how it will eventually replace the world join and reflecting pools.  He was also able to get a couple of details out of Turbine regarding players being able to use skirmish soldiers outside of skirmishes, the arrival of a new festival this year, and the LOTRO team adopting a monthly update model similar to that of Asheron’s Call team.

This means that we’ll be seeing smaller, frequent content updates between the major rollouts. These smaller updates will be designed to give players something to look forward to and should include bug fixes, store additions, quality of life improvements, festival tweaks, and additional epic storyline content. This will be made possible by restructuring the Turbine team to meet the demands of this “tighter cycle.”

Justin then delves into the news from the expansion and gets a big surprise when he is informed that the regions developed for the expansion are going to be twice as large as Moria.  However, as Chris Perry over at PC Gamer reminds us,

Rohan is a vast kingdom, allowing players to level to the new cap of 85 while exploring its expansive terrain. And this massive zone will only cover the East plains of Rohan, so you’ll have to wait for the next expansion to visit the legendary Helm’s Deep–which is located near the Western border of the region.

But worry not, because mounted combat will be coming to the game which will include a War-steed which can be leveled along with the player (through what method is unknown at this time, although some popular conjectures of the public is either through a method similar to Skirmish Soldiers or *shudder* Legendary Items) which can be customized in their appearance and performance.  You can then use your War-steed to engage roving bands of enemies that will be roaming the plains of Rohan.  On a down side, it does not appear that Ent Session Play may not have made it into the expansion.

Overall Riders of Rohan sounds like it might be a nice change of pace from the latest expansion, Rise of Isengard, which seems to still inspire mixed responses depending on who I speak to about it.  Regardless, Turbine seems ever vigilant in proving its dedication to the Tolkien-based MMO and delivering content that fits into the Lord of the Rings universe on a continued basis. (You’ll find no Pokemon or Pandas here!)

Sources:

• Massively
• PC Gamer
• MMORPG
• G4TV
• Zam
• Gamesradar
• Gamefront
• Eurogamer