LotRO - Ressources

An other link I would love to share, is the Tolkien Professor:

http://www.tolkienprofessor.com/

Corey Olsen, the TP, teaches English at Washington College in Maryland. As of Thanksgiving 2010, the Tolkien Professor lecture series has been ranked among the top 15 most downloaded university courses in the world for the last four weeks on iTunesU. Check it out on the iTunesU home page.

I really enjoy listening to his posts while playing LotRO. They have helped me enjoy Middle Earth even more!

LotRO - Ressources

I want to post some of my favourite and LotRO related links. The first is in German:

http://www.hdro-der-widerstand.de/index_db.html

This is my most used ressource for quests and also a good ressource for all housing-related questions. I especially like the flash-based preview of walls, for example:

http://www.hdro-der-widerstand.de/fragen/housing/gegenstaende/wandstruktur/Sommertagsfest-Wand/Sommertagsfest-Wand.html

LotRO - Hunter Sets

Today, I want to take a look at the high-end hunter armour-sets.

There are two kind of sets, the class-sets and the non-class-sets.

The class-sets can only be worn by the class it has been made for. The non-class-sets can be worn by those class, which can use that type of armour. There are three types of armour: Heavy, Medium and Light.

An other factor is Radiance. Even though Radiance will be removed, it still does pay some importance i.e., to be able to do some instances, you need a certain amount of Radience.

Most of the class-armour-sets do have special, class-related bonuses.

There is no perfect armour, some sets are better in some aspect than others.

The Far-Arrow-Set has the highest Radiance at the moment, which is 180. You can get this set by killing the bosses in Barad Guldur, the Tower of the Lieutenant.

Each of the three boss-encounters has usually one (max two) Dark Emblems which can be bartered for a piece of the set. You get the chest-piece for Durchest Hard-Mode, the boots for Durchest Easy-Mode, The gloves for the Twins Hard-Mode and the helm for the Twins Easy-Mode. The Leggins drop from the Lieutenant Easy-Mode and last but not least (and hardest to get) shoulders you get from Lieutenant Hard-Mode.

The bonuses are not that great.

For two pieces, you get +20 Vitality, for 3/6: +126 Ranged Offence Rating and +183 Morale, 4/6 give you +756 Frost Defence and +756 Shadow Defence and 5/6 gives you a 5% chance to apply a ranged defence debuff to target with Swift Bow and +252 Ranged Offence Rating.

The better set for a hunter, at least in my opinion, is the Armor of the Aurochs. You can get all the pieces for 2'370 Skirmish Marks (SM), two Helegrod Marks and five Superior Third Marks (S3M).

Each piece has got 25 Radiance and the stats are superior to the Far-Arrows-Set. Where the Helegrod-set really shines, is the bonus for several parts.

For 2/6 we get +23 Agility, for 4/6 the Swift Bow recovery time is reduced by 2.5 seconds (form 10 s to 7.5 s) and for 6/6 you can use Penetrating Shot at 1.5 s instead of 3 s.

The Armour of the Lady's Dicerment is the set you can win parts from Dar Narbugud. They have +20 Radiance. Stats are worse than the other two.

The Armour of the Great Bow you can get with Medallions of Moria, the last two pieces drop only from the watcher. I have done that fight loads of times, but never won a single piece. To be fair, I forgot to roll for the pieces the first few runs. The stats and bonuses are not that special.

The Nenuial's Armour can be bartered with 1'896 Skirmish Marks, one Annuminas Mark and three Superior Third Marks. The set has +25 Radiance and is very easy to get. There are no Hunter-specific Bonuses, the stats are ok though.

Last thing, looks. Hm, the sest are not that great looking, I haven't seen one, I realy need to get. I don't like the look of the new Armour of the Aurochs. It is too blue. At least the old one looked as if it was made of Aurochs-Hides. I am running on the Far-Arrow-Set at the moment. I got five parts and would be happy if I get the last one tonight.

LotRO - Rune-Keeper - Legendaries

Second class I want to share my thoughts about are Rune-Keepers. Rune-Keepers often switch from dps to healing and back during raids. This means, I usually have on healing bag, one fighting bag, one fire-damage-stone, one lightning-damage-stone and one healing-stone. This does leave little room for leveling...

Healing:

Rune-keeper Satchel Pool A

*** Writ of Health Healing
** Self Motivation Power Return
** Pulses Prelude to Hope
* Distracting Winds Cooldown
* Shocking Words Stun Chance
Writ of Fire Damage
Essence of Flame Damage
Scribe's Spark Damage

Rune-keeper Satchel Pool B

*** Mending Verse Healing
* Do Not Fall This Day Cooldown
* Word of Exaltation Cooldown
* Frozen Epilogue Cooldown
* Epic for the Ages Healing
Chilling Rhetoric Cooldown
Target Shocking Touch Resist Rating
Ceaseless Argument Power Cost

Rune-stone Pool A

*** Healing Over Time
** Healing
** Healing Attuned Skill Power Cost
Battle Attuned Skill Power Cost
Fury of Storm Damage
Fire Skill Damage
Wrath of Flame Damage Over Time

Rune-stone Pool B

*** Glorious Foreshadowing Duration
*** Target All Skills Resist Rating
* Steady Attuned Skill Power Cost
* Vivid Imagery Targets
Chill of Winter Debuff Duration
Chill of Winter Damage
Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier
Distracting Flame Cooldown

Lightning

Rune-keeper Satchel Pool A

*** Scribe's Spark Damage
** Self Motivation Power Return
* Shocking Words Stun Chance
Distracting Winds Cooldown
Writ of Health Healing
Pulses Prelude to Hope
Writ of Fire Damage
Essence of Flame Damage

Rune-keeper Satchel Pool B

** Ceaseless Argument Power Cost
* Target Shocking Touch Resist Rating
Chilling Rhetoric Cooldown
Frozen Epilogue Cooldown
Do Not Fall This Day Cooldown
Word of Exaltation Cooldown
Mending Verse Healing
Epic for the Ages Healing

Rune-stone Pool A

*** Fury of Storm Damage
** Battle Attuned Skill Power Cost
Healing Attuned Skill Power Cost
Fire Skill Damage
Healing
Wrath of Flame Damage Over Time
Healing Over Time

Rune-stone Pool B

*** Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier
*** Target All Skills Resist Rating
* Vivid Imagery Targets
Steady Attuned Skill Power Cost
Chill of Winter Damage
Distracting Flame Cooldown
Chill of Winter Debuff Duration
Glorious Foreshadowing Duration

Fire

Rune-keeper Satchel Pool A

*** Writ of Fire Damage
** Essence of Flame Damage
** Self Motivation Power Return
* Shocking Words Stun Chance
Distracting Winds Cooldown
Writ of Health Healing
Pulses Prelude to Hope
Scribe's Spark Damage

Rune-keeper Satchel Pool B

* Target Shocking Touch Resist Rating
Chilling Rhetoric Cooldown
Frozen Epilogue Cooldown
Do Not Fall This Day Cooldown
Word of Exaltation Cooldown
Mending Verse Healing
Epic for the Ages Healing
Ceaseless Argument Power Cost

Rune-stone Pool A

*** Wrath of Flame Damage Over Time
** Fire Skill Damage
** Battle Attuned Skill Power Cost
Healing Attuned Skill Power Cost
Fury of Storm Damage
Healing
Healing Over Time

Rune-stone Pool B

*** Target All Skills Resist Rating
Steady Attuned Skill Power Cost
Chill of Winter Damage
Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier
Vivid Imagery Targets
Distracting Flame Cooldown
Chill of Winter Debuff Duration
Glorious Foreshadowing Duration

LotRO - Minstrel - Legendaries

I mostly use my Minstrel for raids. Therefore my recommodations are mainly for raids.

As we know, there are two pools for LIs:

Minstrel Songbook Pool A

•Target Ballad Resist Rating 2/4 is OK, but not great
•Healing and Motivation Skills Morale Healing 4/4 must have
•Raise the Spirit Healing 3/4
•Bolster Courage Healing 4/4 must have
•Inspire Fellows Healing 2/4
•Ballad of War Magnitude 3/4 good if grouping with melee classes
•Healing Skills Power Cost 3/4 good for longer fights

Minstrel Songbook Pool B

•Target Song Resist Rating 2/4
•Chord of Salvation Cooldown 3/4 I like to use this skill, no wonder I run out of power that often.
•Echoes of Battle Resistance Rating Debuff 1/4
•Cry of the Chorus Cooldown 2/4
•Song of the Dead Cooldown 1/4 (This has become a bit better with Morfears on LT fight)
•Ballad of Unshakable Will Fear Resistance 1/4
•Ballad of Flame Fire Defence 1/4

Main Hand Weapon Pool A

•Triumphant Spirit Cooldown 2/4 even though I use this skill, reducing CD is not that important
•Call to War Skills Resistance Chance 3/4
•Piercing Cry Damage 3/4
•Call of Oromë Damage 3/4
•Soliloquy of Spirit Heal Over Time Pulses 2/4 don't use this much
•Rally! Cooldown 4/4 for groups a must have
•Healing Threat 3/4 sounds good, not sure how good it is

Main Hand Weapon Pool B

•Call of the Second Age Targets 3/4
•Call to Fate Critical Multiplier 2/4
•Recovery time Still as Death 3/4 (I had this on 1/4 but when you got a lot of wipes, this becomes more interesting)
•Tier 1 Ballad Damage 2/4 better for solo than groups
•Tier 2 Ballad Damage 2/4 better for solo than groups
•Target Resist Cry of Valar 2/4 good for CC
•Cure Fear Cooldown 1/4 (usually you have a Captain for the fears, so this becomes useless, it also has a short range and you need to look towards the person you wan't to use this skill on).

LotRO - Skeleton Horse

Tomorrow will be the last day of the festival and, at least for this year, the last chance to win the Skeleton horse.

I have it on four or five characters (out of 21) but only on one main, my Minstrel.

Two I got on the first try. The rest on later attempts.

Is there a way for a higher chance to win it?

This is rather difficult to answer. The Elebrandir's Horseshoe might be a factor, but I somehow doubt it. The hooded man with the squirrels could be an other. I tried to test if the amout of time spent in the barrows gives a higher chance for getting the horse, but I have had no desicive results.

Anyways. I will try tomorrow, if doing quests does improve the drop rate. But I doubt there is anything more than just a random roll of a dice.

This would be something I would buy in the store. Not for every character, just for my Hobbit Burglar.

LotRO - Update

I did some quests in Enedwaith on my Burglar and my Captain. Both have a new shiny 2nd age weapon at level 65 and I am hoping to get good legacies on the reforges.

Not sure, what character I will use my next Symbol of Celebrimbor on. As I want to take my Lore-Master and my Champion through Enedwaith next and both have one 2nd ager, I am unsure. I got a good bow on hunter. I am not sure, I really need a 2nd ager on my Minstrel. My Rune-Keeper has acceptable 2nd and 3rd agers. I don't want to waste a symbol on my Guardian or my Warden, as I don't intend to play them much. I am not even sure, I will do the books on them, hm, I might...

I made a crappy bow for a kinnie with (probably) the worst legacies on a bow possible. I hope, he has more luck on reforges. It really is a bit of a lottery, this Legendary Item system and it has room for lots of improvements.

Afterwards we logged on creep-side for an photo-opp.

That finished, we grouped up for Helegrod. We wanted to run the whole instance at level 65, but only managed to do the spider wing. I didn't mind that too much as that wing was the only one I still needed on Burglar. We missed Hard Mode but the locks were more important, at least for me.

Lord of the Rings Online, Mines of Moria

Rather than an actual review, this is an first try with an amazon.co.uk link.

I have, of course, had and am still having a lot of fun playing this game, but as I said this is a first try.

LotRO Harvestmath Festival

The Harvest Festival has been extended until Friday 26th November, so there's even more time for you to find your way through the Haunted Barrow, bob for apples and pick pumpkins.

You can find the Harvest Festival celebrations taking place in the following areas of Middle-earth;

Duillond – Ered Luin
The Party Tree – Shire
The Festival Grounds – Bree-land
Thorin's Hall Bar - Thorin's Hall

Have fun!

Source: Satine

So, last chance to get that Skeleton Horse and the /boo emote ;)

Ruins in Enedwaith

Yesterday in kin-chat, someone asked, who had built the large road and the ruins.

The road seems to have no other name that the "North-South Road". It was built by the Númenórians (Human) and starts (or ends) in Fornost. From there it goes south to Bree somewhere south of Trestlebridge, the vegetation becomes stronger and overgrows the road. Therefore that part is called the Greenway.

In Bree it crosses the old road from Rivendell to the Grey Havens and continues south towards the Andrach (between the South Downs and the Burrow Downs (the word Down or Downs originates from the German/Norse word dun, which means hill, which will also lead us to the Dunlendings and Dunlands).

This part, we can visit in game. About the same length would leed us to Tharbad on the river Greyflood. Tharbad was the bordertown between Arnor and Gondor. The road would first continue South a bit, but then would turn South-East, towards the Gap of Rohan. This was also the road, the Ringwaiths took as they were going to get the Ring in the Shire.

I had hoped to see such a reference in game, but have seen none. Did I miss anything (I admit, I didn't always read all the quest-texts)?

After crossing the river Isen, the road is called the West Road and continues South West and West till Osgiliath.

An other icon is Harndirion. The White Tree of Gondor makes it clear, that it was built by the rulers of Gondor. More details, I couldn't find. It seems unlikly to be a place of war, as it it has neither gates nor other defensive structures. It could be a grave, but why so far in the wilderness? No major town was anywhere near. So it could be the result of a job creation program or a huge "f*ck you" towards the Dunlendings opposing the rule of Gondor.

There was further discussion about the influence of Sauron. This being Saruman's back yard, I would think Saruman is more active here than Sauron.

I doubt Sauron has much use of Humans. Why the Corsairs and Haradrim were eager to join Sauron always felt a bit strange. Perhaps a Mordirith-type is acting in the south as an intermediary.

Saruman on the other hand is known (not to us yet) to be a no-gooder. I would like to fight him in a group of 12 and at all time Sauron uses two of the fellowship to fight against the others member of the group.

Saruman uses Dunlendings to fight the Rohirrim and lots of them were storming the Hornburg. I hope this theme is a bit stronger in the next landmass expansion. I'd also like a counter to be added as there was in the water-works before you could fight the turtle

LotRO Enedwaith

This is a reedited compilation of some of my kin-forum-posts. I started this on September 2nd 2010, so a lot of this is outdated:

So, lots of people have asked, where we will go from Mirkwood, or rather Southern Mirkwood as it is called ingame.

Some were hoping, for a trip north. I sure hope, this will happen someday, but if they are wise, they will release that part with the movie releast of The Hobbit in 2012ish.

According to an interview in a Finnish GameZine, Jeffrey Steefel said " Mr. producer does not tell in which direction Lord of the Rings Online's story is heading next, but hints that the next major area expansions name will begin with "E"..."

Could it be Enedwaith?

Originally Posted by dinkydino666
"I think your guess is spot on.. Just finished Vol 3 Book 1 on Bullroarer and there's a mention of Enedwaith and the rangers heading south, also, the video at the end of the book is quite suggestive of where we will be going next."

Further evidence of this, is a new area south of Eregion which is shown on some maps (This part is out of date, as it was later announced, that the map we saw, was not the map we would get).

I like the town in the southeastern part, which seems to be quite big. Anyone know, which town that could be? It seems to be on the banks of the river Glanduin, Echad Mirobel being where the two arms meet. Hm is Mirobel identical to Ost-in-Edhil? Did they have to rename it, because it was not part of the Movie and they didn't have the rights to the name? Strange...

What would I like to see in Enedwaith? Some say, the ocean. But I don't care that much. Would be fun thought, to be able to get some salt water fishes ;)

Tharbad was destroyed by a great flood in 2911, 107 years before the ring left the shire. I like old ruins and therefore, I'd like to go there. Lond Daer, the Great Haven lies also in ruins, however it is still featured on 'todays' maps.

Who live here? Dunlendings, enemies of the Rohirrim, humans but on a lower cultural level than those from Bree and Rohan and much further away from Gondor. Bronze and Iron Age? Picts and Celts? Then close to the mountain, some Goblins possible, but no Orcs or even Uruks. Masses instead of quality, I'd hope.

As the forests here were cut down by the Númenóreans, grassy plains should be dominant. Borders to east with mountains, west the river Gwathló, north Eregion, Southwest the ocean, South the river Isen and Southeast the Gap of Rohan, guarded by the forces of Saruman.

I just did a recheck of the map, as it has taken some minutes to load (I didn't think it would load at all.

The city (blue circle, lower right part of above picture) I was talking about is actually very small, about the size of Othrikar, even though it seems to be human, not dwarven. Of course there could be some dwarves, as it is close to the mountains (some might have fled from Moria), but not many. So at least it is not lore-breaking (as there is no big town there on the maps I checked).

There are two rez-circles (marked in red), one near the village, one near a small ruin, marked yellow, in the left part of the above picture.

The other yellow blob is a larger elven (?) ruin with a road leading to it.

Actually there is a third rez-circle in the topmost left corner across the river of the orc camp south of the school of Tham Mirdain.

In the center, there is a swamp, so yeah, some bog-lurker killing deed ftw

Now what is the green blob? The usual answer would be, it is a border. It starts as a mountain border in the east, but then it seems to change into a chasm (also a useful border). The amout of shades indicate, that it is very deep ad steep, so crossing it might be impossible. They seem to be even deeper then the Eregion border in the West.

The pile of boulders at the western end is quite big. I wouldn't be suprised, if it were an entrance to an underground area.

If what we see is what we get, then we get only little. My guess is, that the pile of boulders is the bottleneck to the next part and if we are going to Tharbad, then it should be further west.

So new information have been found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uQL8uUl6-w

"We are on the road to Isengard ... soon" and "our next game region will be Enedwaith later this year"

Quick Facts (from the Lorebook)
Location: Between the Rivers Gwathló to the north and Isen to the south
Race: Men
Pronunciation: e'nedwaith ('ai' rhymes with English 'eye')
Meaning: '(Land of the) Middle-folk'1

The wide and empty land between the kingdoms of the Dúnedain
The wide lands that lay between Arnor in the north and Gondor in the south. Originally deeply forested, the great forests of this region were cut down by the Númenóreans during the Second Age.

Footnotes
1 In the years after their founding, Enedwaith lay between Arnor to the north and Gondor to the south, and so the people who lived here were known as the 'middle-folk'. Though Enedwaith did not belong to either Kingdom, it was jointly administered by the Dúnedain, and the Wild Men who lived here ultimately did so under their control. Tolkien goes so far as to hint that, in the earliest days of the Two Kingdoms, Enedwaith was considered to fall within the boundaries of Gondor.

I also like his thoughts about exploring "all of Middle Earth" and his mention of Forochel as well as the abilities to travel from one place to the other (fasttravel FTW). I hope this will mean we will revisit some old places and that they get some more content. We had some of this already, Vol. 3 Book 1, for example as well as the Skirmishes and the IXP-runs of old.

With all the Lifetimers and the licence running till 2017, they will need some other business model in the next years. Probably move it to free to play in a year or so and get income by paid Expandions and Micro-Transactions?

The wardrobe will be a shared by all chars on the same account. If there is nothing added, there seems to be little reason to get this, at least if you already have a shared storage. I got two mules with cosmetics, so there won't be enought space to share everything anyway (even if I buy all the 50 slots possible).

They are thinking about reducing the amount of trash-loot and increasing the size of their stacks. A good one.

Best news I've heard in a long time. After all, do I really need a separate spot for Boar Ears, Boar Tusks, Tufts of Boar Fur, and Boar Tails? Just call it Generic Boar Parts ;^)

I wouldn't go that far though ;)

Question: If one, like myself has purchased all 3 game packs SA, MoM & SoM, and ends up dropping the sub during the F2P phase - What happens to my current trait slots? Do they drop from the current lvl65 amount of slots to 1-2 trait slots?

Answer: I am fairly certain that yes, the additional slots will be locked if you downgrade. You'd need to unlock them again via the LOTRO Store.

Even though some won't like it, it is reasonable from a business-view.

If someone from Turbine is listening, I have an idea for a Mirkwood expansion:

I would like to see Central Mirkwood as a instanced region which changes each time you go in. Of course, there would be some landmarks, that were more or less at the same place all the time (a big tree, a bold hill, etc,) but the vegetation would grow so fast, that the way to the exit would be different each time. The dark forest would have few enemies, spiders, goblins, lights and such, and they wouldnt' be that hard at the beginning. But time after time, the dread would get bigger and bigger so that even the mightiest warrior would be slain after a certain time.

To hinder people from just running through, some monsters have slowing attacks, other stun and sometimes monsters need to be killed for a passage to open. Once you have passed through, it becomes a bit easier the next time and after, say three successfull runs, you could fast-horse through it.

Lord of the Rings Online going to Isengard in 2011

The Hobbits are going to Isengard! Speaking to PC Gamer on the show floor of E3 this week, LOTRO’s Executive Producer Kate Paiz told us, “We’re definitely planning to get players to Isengard next year”.

Isengard is the tower of Sauramon the White, Gandalf’s former friend who works for Sauron (the bad guy), and the setting for one of the most epic wizard battles in the entire LotR series. A central figure in several key moments in the storyline, it hasn’t been decided yet how involved the players will be in with Sauramon’s plight – but there is precedence for players taking control of central lore figures to act out these types of big moments.

Paiz also told us that they’re going to wait and see how players react to content packs (as opposed to expansions) before deciding if Isengard will be part of a content pack purchased through the in-game cash shop, or a full expansion.

Not too much information to be honest, this was to be expected.

So we have the first screeny of the map:



What do we see? And how does it look like the earlier posted map from the lore-book?

The general set-up is the same. But there are also a lot of changes and the maps don't fit. Therefore I think they will change it and what we see now on the lore-book-map will be very different. Thoro's Coombe is on this map, as suggested. A small village lies east to it, I still think, this will be the main hub.

There are two exits to the south going to the Dunlands and one to the north-west, without a name. But as we know from, say, the Shire, even if there was a name (Southfarthing there) this means little. Between the two exits to the south, there are some ruins (or a castle).

If we compare it to the earlier posted map from the lore-book, we can recognise the small island in the river being the border to Eregion. Using this as a reference, I fear Enedwaith is quite small, smaller than Southern Mirkwood, smaller then Eregion, but probably with a similiar amount of quest (or at least quest hubs) as Eregion. Size does not mean anything, but I would have liked Enedwaith to be bigger, maybe going to the sea, with a large town (about the size of Bree). Again, size is not everything, and lotro shines with lots of details, but I also like riding over sunny fields without hitting a wall after a few paces.



I just love this map. One thing I noticed. Enedwaith is, at least on that map and according to wikipedia, almost a region, much larger than what we get now. Dunland on the other hand seems to be a part of Enedwaith. Why Turbine changed this, I have no clue.

So what else do we get? The above interview mentions scalable instances with according loot. I think this is a mixed blessing. On one hand, it is great to get some new loot (at least I hope we get something new and shiny) and it is a waste not to go back to Fornost and such. Helegrod with a mighty dragon could really be fun, no more popping eggs though. It will make some legendaries harder again. We'll see, if there will be enough people going back to do those instandes.

Of course it could also mean, that you could solo Thorog, if they also scale down the instances, or even LT on hard mode... Nah, not going to happen (I hope).

"Another feature will involve new Session Play content that will allow players to experience the game as a Ranger and learn about Aragorn’s forefathers. Previously, Rangers could only be used in PvMP, so the new Session Play missions will offer a chance to experience one of the Rangers in PvE and learn more about the lineage of one of LotRO’s most notable characters."

I love this. Epic win! One of my most favourite moments in the whole game is the last battle of the Dwarfs in Moria, where you write the last lines in the chamber of Mazubul (sp) north of 21st Hall.

"Enedwaith will introduce four new dungeons to the game that will be associated with the new epic storyline. Three of those dungeons will be solo instances and the fourth will be an open world dungeon, much like the Bree reputation dungeon of Haudh Iarchith. While there won’t be a focus on the group instance game with this update, Turbine representatives ensured us that new instances are on the books for the following update."

Meh, no new raid, probably similiar to what we got with the last book. But better than nothing.

"For fans that have been concerned about mounted combat possibly being cut, Kate Paiz confirmed that it is still on the table for the Rohan expansion. Along with that will be more we were also told that Rohan will be set post-orc work camps, so much of the Ent forest around Isengard will already have been destroyed, but players will have the chance to experience the forest in its full past glory through Session Play."

Mounted combat seems still to be planned. I am really looking forward to the Session Play (please, let me play as an Ent!).

"The new content certainly looks interesting and the new land mass will provide between 80 and 200 new quests."

Yeay, should get my last two chars to 65 and ease the path of others too.

And, from an other source:

"Players will be glad to hear that both Housing and Hobbies are getting some love. No specifics were given other than Housing getting an "upgrade" and a new Hobby is in the works. These plans are long-term and not for the upcoming patch."

"New skirmishes are being worked on, just not for this patch."

"The last feature coming with the new patch is DX11 support. We weren't shown the shininess of Middle-earth using DX11 technology, but were promised screenshots soon."

Time to get a new PC!

"Due to player feedback on their official forums, Turbine will make the old world raid instances available through the Skirmish interface for any group size, from solo to 24-man raid. These aren't technically Skrimishes so you will receive no Skirmish Marks, but they use the Skirmish technology to set the instance difficulty, port you there and then drop you back into the world when you are done."

So, they are listening to the forums and no more races up to Helegrod from Rivendell.

This could mean, that you get marks, just not skirmish marks, if you want to do the old raids. I don't understand, why they do not use the skirmish-mark system. And they should remove skirmish-marks from bags and put them in a seperate location (like the runes and relics for the legendaries).


About Thror (source Wiki):

Thrór (T.A. 2542 − 2790) was a King of Durin's folk, the son of Dáin I, father of Thráin II, and brother to Frór and Grór. In 2790 he journeyed with Nár to Moria, upon entering it, he was killed by Azog the Orc who chopped his head off with an axe and fed his body to the ravens, which started the War of the Dwarves and Orcs.


"Regarding the size of Enedwaith: I don't actually know in terms of square miles. However, I can give you this; in terms of content, Enedwaith is larger than the North Downs. (North Downs had almost 140 quests, plus the 10 in Fornost, Mirkwood has almost 160 quests)."

"Scaled Instances
To clear up any misunderstandings; Instances will be scaled by the player, not automatically. It works like the level setting for Skirmishes. So for something like Helegrod you could choose to run it at level 61 if you wanted. I know some are worried about a ’solo raid’. The instances will not scale in terms of group size. Fighting Thorog is still going to take 24 people."

Also, not every instance will be scaled at launch. The team is working hard to get as many in as they can, but time is finite. The plan is to revist them all, but they’re not all going to happen in Book 2.
To give you some idea of how major this change is, JWBarry is currently writing his first novel, also called the Instance Scaling Dev diary. Seriously, it’s a book.

It’s a level 62-65 area with a lot of new content. Berephon is really excited about this area! So much so he’s going to write a Dev diary all about it. Enedwaith, not his excitement.

More information concerning the upcoming update is starting to show on the internet, even with some pictures.

One new thing is quest-tips with pictures. nothing too great for those playing since a long time, but for those just starting, an advantage:

Like GA, Helegrod too is split up:

So there is a Helegrod: Dragon Wing, a Drake Wing, a Giant Wing and a Spider Wing. Shown also is the Library at Tham Mirdain.

An other picture shows, that Finishing the Troll Slayer in Misty Mountains (not the Advanced, 80 Trolls) give 5 Turbine Points. Of course, these numbers might change.

Instance interface and scaling

As seen above, the instance scaling interface looks similiar to the skirmish interface. This allows "you and a team of friends to jump into the action right away, no matter where everyone is in the world."

Turbine will add more scaled instances and will also add new monsters, monster skills, polish and other general tweaks. "Not all of the dungeons have received this treatment yet; as of right now, four hubs' worth of dungeons (Helegrod, Annúminas, Great Barrows and the Eregion group dungeons) are upgraded, with more to follow." So, no Rift to start with.

"Turbine clarified that while the instances and raids do not scale to group size, they will scale up to your level. For example, you can first access Great Barrows at level 20, and from then on scale it up so that you never out-level it."

"Another cool change to these dungeons is that they're being chopped up into wings where appropriate so that players won't have to sit through a four-hour instance to finish the whole thing. You can jump into any of the four wings of Helegrod, for example, depending on how much time you have and where your interest lies. The team have also abolished raid locks and lowered the raid size (from 24 to 12) to make this raid more accessible."

"When an instance is scaled up in levels, players receive proportionate rewards for the increased difficulty including marks and custom tokens. Similar to skirmish campaign marks, these instance marks are used as unique currency for gear and other items. Turbine are also making sure that these upgraded instances have a challenge mode, similar to what they started in the Mines of Moria expansion, so that players willing to undergo a unique challenge will receive a superior token for their efforts."

Sounds good. Bad part is, even more bagspace will be filled with Tokens....

"You'll also have more to do in these upgraded dungeons. LotRO will automatically hand you a number of quests for whatever dungeon you're running, on an average of five to six new quests, including a mission to slay the end boss. Additionally, there will be new deeds and daily dungeon quests available to prompt players to try a wide range of instances. Turbine's currently working on a dev diary to go into more details for this system."

Enedwaith

"As Lothlórien was to Moria, so too Enedwaith is to Mirkwood -- a return of a cheery, open zone after a long stretch in the gloomy dark. Enedwaith is essentially an extension of Eregion in terms of atmosphere and landscapes, although its dearth of official details gave the developers a longer leash when creating its content. From snowy vistas to red cliffs to pastoral scenery, Enedwaith covers a large spectrum of visuals, not to mention an even larger spectrum of quests. Over 160 quests for the zone are currently in the game, giving players a lot to do when it opens up to the public this fall."

Nothing new here.

"Enedwaith's theme might as well be "Forgotten Country." The zone is a buffer between the more populated lands to the north and the kingdom of Gondor to the south (Gondorian ruins can be spotted here), but its inhabitants lack the civilization of either. Many of the humans are Dunlandings who are deserters from the failed Eregion invasion campaign, and now are squatting on this remote piece of land. The inspiration for these wilds is being drawn from Wales and Welsh folklore, especially when it comes to some of the monsters and culture players will encounter. It is, for sure, a very beautiful zone."

I am not too sure about the Gondorian ruins, they look like the Elven ruins of past... At least the Welsh will feel at home here ;)

"I was surprised to discover that Enedwaith is no stranger to the little folk. In one corner lies the isolated hobbit settlement of Maur Tulhau, where hobbits have developed quite differently than in the Shire. They are a group of Stoors who decided to plant roots here instead of continuing north, and as a result have become a bit more bumpkin than their Shire relatives. (These hobbits are actually mentioned in the prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring.) Their backwoods nature is reflected in the little details, from the facial hair on the men to rope belts to the modified look of their buildings. Turbine said that they're trying something interesting with Maur Tulhau, in that there's only one quest to pick up as you enter the town -- and that quest (well, quest chain) will change depending on your race. So dwarf characters will experience a different story than elves, and so on."

As said before, interesting to find other Hobbits. I don't think it is too lore-breaking, as long as the settlement is small and secluded. I also like, that there will be different stories depending on your race. I always thought it a bit strange, that a Lothlorian Elf needed to do the same quests like a dwarf to get into CG.

"Seeing as how most Enedwaith-bound characters will be level-capped already, I asked the team what incentive there would be to proceed through this new content. While the team didn't think it was the right time to increase the level cap (chances are that will come with Isengard), they listed quite a few reasons for players to explore this zone. The first was to not only see the sights, but to continue the epic story in Volume III Book 2. At this point in the game, the Fellowship is about to be broken as they head down the Great River Anduin, but the rangers and characters will be doing everything to help Frodo's quest succeed. On top of that, Enedwaith has a host of goodies for high-level characters, including new legendary item upgrades, cosmetic items and faction horses. Plus, all of the post-50 quests in the game are guaranteed to give item XP, so the 160+ additional quests will be a great boon to players leveling up their legendaries."

Item XP will help to cut the grind on leveling our LIs, thank you, Turbine. I hope we not only get some IXP but also IXP runes.

No mention of a new raid. Would have hoped that the Rift was one of the newly made instances. Do hope they add special bags for Tokens.

In one picture, a Hobbit says: "Enaid-helgi carried away my cousin’s nephew’s sister’s daughter!"

Which of course reminded me of a famous Spaceballs conversations:

Dark Helmet: Before you die there is something you should know about us, Lone Star.
Lone Starr: What?
Dark Helmet: I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
Lone Starr: What's that make us?
Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing! Which is what you are about to become.

I took some more time to look at the screenies and even though the quality of them are not that great (settings seem to be quite low) I really like the look of Enedwaith. It is diverse and seems to be big. I also like the new bulls (or ox?) and wolves. Besides them we have some wargs and tribsmen. As said before, the settings are quite low but Turbine has made a good job up till now with the human characters and I am looking forward to see them in all their beauty.

There seem also to have added some new cosmetics but I am no expert here.

I hope the challenge modes will be challenging and keep top-raiders on their toes.

Yay, it was a long week, but massively has kept its promise and has further updates.

Near the festival tree, a new door is being added. For the fall festival, we weill be able to visit the haunted cellar of Bilbo ;) Sounds fun!

"It features several themed wings (such as the cobweb wing), hidden doors, scared hobbits, treasure chests and loads of cool decorations. Bookshelves slid apart to reveal new rooms, and a fake wall of kegs unfolded to show a chest full of spooky goodies. Take a wrong turn and -- bam! -- you're blind, stumbling through the halls until your vision returns. The fact that everything here is hobbit-sized makes it feel a bit claustrophobic, and that certainly works in the Haunted Cellar's favor to evoke a more personal experience."

This sounds great, I am really looking forward to this and might even go through it before I enter Enedwaith. It has also be confirmed, that special decorations will be available for the player's house as well as some new cosmetics (no word yet about a new horse though, tbh, I do not mind that much).

There are some more inside picture on that site, even darker than Moria. Hm, that Bilbo was up to no good, it seems ;). Again I like a bit of halloween coming to the shire to join the pumpkins!

Further pictures are from the shop. You now can buy emotes, like the firebreath for 50 TP. Horses, even the rep ones are for sale too. Hm. The price is high though, it costs more (as the prices are now) than the Rune-Keeper. Let's see the real shop, before I will say anything more.

There hasn't been that much more news and sadly/luckily no more pictures (about half of the 29 pictures posted are of the Haunted Cellar, the rest from the shop).

The future of the game

Isengard will come next year with a level-cap increase. Content update should come on a regular basis and faster (couldn't be much slower tbh). Virtues will stay at 10 for the forseeable future.

Some more character customization options are not out of the question. But no dolphins, dragons eagles and such to ride (Oliphant please, War-Oliphant would be even greater and not lorebreaking ;)

"New cosmetic models are in the works (not just re-skinned versions of old models)."

No currency bag for tokens in the short-term, long-term they got a probably....

If you have a Dwarf of the White Mountains (South of Isengard, West of Minas Tirith, you could be able to visit your brethern (and bring some of your elven friends of course). "One of the possibilities for the future is to visit the dwarves in the White Mountains." As I want to visit all of Middle Earth, I like devs talking about new (and unexpected) content.

"Future updates will address and streamline itemization." Not too sure what to make of this. Maybe I don't understand the word well enough. Are they talking about easier LIs or will LIs be able to level too (so that a lvl 60 First-Age-Weapon can somehow become a lvl 65 or even 70 First-Age-Weapon?).

LOTRO Executive Producer Kate Paiz answered some questions at Mordor or Bust.

Most has been talked over loads and loads of times. I just want to cover some, partly new, points:

Q: Will content continue to be released on a regular basis?

(not exact quote) DDO F2P had five updates since September 2009. I expect that LOTRO will have a similar frequency of patches and updates, "as we have a lot of world to cover to get to Mordor".

Q: Will the content updates be similar to what we have seen in the past? Is a major expansion like Mines of Moria a thing of the past?

We are not sure how expansions fit into the Free model. This is something we are actively exploring in Beta, and we’ll have more clarity around closer to launch. But it is our goal to have expansion-sized content going forward.

Q: Can you share any changes that are a direct result of player feedback in the Beta?

We have increased the drop rates and the number of mobs that drop the new stat tomes that are also available in the Store. We’ve also revised the Vault UI to include more chests and to preserve players’ current chest organization as a direct result of player feedback, as well as fixed a wide variety of bugs and usability issues in ways players have recommended. (So it seems that we also get world-drops for the new stat-rising tomes which also can be bought).

Q:Wickedpt asks: Will there be new classes added to LOTRO in the near future, 2010-11?

While we have a lot of ideas for new classes, nothing has entered production yet, so I really can’t give a timeline right now for them. (Nice. We got some fun to play new classes and I do think we should get Shapeshifters and Corsairs.)

Q: Taltn328 asks: Will the move to F2P mean the end of open Eriador/Moria world design in favor of “instanced” zones eg. Lothlorien/Mirkwood?

Enedwaith has been added to Eriador in an open world way, and we will continue to provide the landscape experience that is such a hallmark of the game. It is very likely that Lothlórien and Mirkwood will be joined into the rest of the world as we develop content east of the Misty Mountains.

1. I am always a bit puzzled, why the First Hall does not connect with Dimrill Gate. According to the map, there is quite a lot of distance between these two places.

2. Hopefully we will go to Gladden Fields where we (again hopefully) will be able to play Isildur and loose the ring and with some luck also will be able to play Gollom and kill Deagol, who is he to take my birthday present ;) More Hobbit-country FTW!

The new dev-diary was about Enedwaith.

Fordirith, the north-most part of Enedwaith has some Dunlendings and Shadow-wolves.

In the Windfells we will find the Uch-lûth, one of two clans of Dunlendings derogatorily known as the Algraig – or Outliers – to the inhabitants of southern Dunland. There will also be more rangers (Saeradan of Bree-land) at Amon Mîn, the ruins of a great Gondorian watchtower now claimed by the Draig-lûth to watch the North-South Road.

Already some information was leaked about:

"Cuthraul

The Cuthraul (derived from the Welsh Cythraul) are fell spirits which appear at night, spreading terror among the hunters and herdsmen of the Uch-lûth. Unlike other fell spirits in The Lord of the Rings OnlineTM, these creatures fall into the category of Ancient Evil, rather than Dead . . . a theme which will quickly become apparent in Enedwaith. However, never fear: the Reputation vendors of the Grey Company will offer you special Westernesse damage scrolls for your Legendary Items which will improve your capabilities against them!"

as well as Demonic Goats:

This lady seems to play a big part in the expansion:

In the Gloomglens, we can find this beauty:



"the Rangers have also seen majestic stags, shining white in the forest gloom. There is something unnatural about these creatures, and they hesitate to hunt them."

"The Gloomglens features two instance quests, including a new boss monster."



Isn't this beautiful! Could this be the new DX?

"Volume 3, Book 2 F2P update introduced several new emotes to LOTRO. They are available in store and from barter NPCs through normal play. In order: Feathers, Drunk, Spin, Golf Drive, Golf Chip, Golf Putt, Tickle and Jump."

In Enedwaith, if we ever get there..., there is a time where you can choose either to "Feeding the Company" or to "A Matter of Doubt".

"If you take the option to “Feed the Company” you’ll miss out on some valuable repeatable quest reputation with the Algraig, which is by far the harder reputation to grind. In addition you’ll miss out on a repeatable gold token quest which is the more valuable barter token needed for ports, horses, etc. The quest dialog does indicate the choice but not so much on the long term impact so it is easy to miss.

If you’re not concerned with reputation this isn’t a big deal, but if it weren’t for this forum thread I would’ve made my reputation grind much steeper."

I somehow even like the Skeleton horse. I will use that one for Blueruby, my hobbit burgler. I really would hate to miss the Haunted Burrows. Waiting for that for a year just because of Codies? I will not buy a game distributed by that company in the next time (certainly no mmorg).

The rest of the informations Artim provided seems to be a collection from differnt sources.

Familiar villains? Who could that be? Some new instances in the "Old World"? I hope they put one instance in Forochel, the North-West corner with the Angmarian Fortress. Always annoyed me, that I could not venture further...

Then wie have the giant animals which we have seen lurking, but could never fight. The huge glow-worm in the Mirkwood-Caves. There are two other biests in Moria which we can see, but not fight...

PS: The horseshoe is pure genius. Add an item to the game which might give an advantage or not. Have fights in the forums exploded between believers and agnostics ;)

LotRO - Update

Yay, downed the Lieutenant on the first run. Had a group of the best raiders our kin has and even though we had two deaths, with two Morfears, we recovered very well and I got the trousers for my Minstrel.

Now, I am a happy Hobbit and jumping around in Ost Galadh. Might even go to bed early.

I am so relieved, that we succeeded in doing this again, after so many weeks and attempts failing. Hope, that is lying behind us now and that certain rules will make this success more common.

LotRO - Update

When I came home on Friday, I couldn't log in. It was of little satisfaction, that nobody could log. I watched a movie on my PS3 and after some hours, I could log in. The Rift-Run didn't happen as there were few people online.

I went to bed early and on Saturday, I spent most of the morning and early afternoon with rearangeing bags. With 21 chars, I need a lot of time. I bought some more shared storage and now I have 50 shared storage on all three accounts.

In the afternoon, we made a run in Barad Guldur and successfully and with little problems cleared the Twins in hard mode. We then got a bit cocky and continued to the Lieutenant of Barad Guldur and had several wipes. Mostly because one person had no mike on vent. This meant he couldn't warn us when he had the purple eye and was feared into the group, which killed everyone.

I thought WTF, ok, I did not only think WTF but said it out loud. Which means one more person who hates me and no longer will come to a raid with me/us. To be honest, I think it is a sad, that he won't come to our raids anymore, but I would never dare to go to a raid unprepared.

OK, I know, I caused some wipes when we did the Twins run last time, but it is not easy and I was filling that spot (kiting one of the Twins) for the first time. But having no working vent is a big no-no for me as communication is very important for these raids.

After two wipes, I left and was replaced. But they couldn't kill him either. I went shopping and ate and joined about two hours later. We did an other attempt at the Lieutenant, but as we had some people who had never seen the fight, we wiped and couldn't even do an Easy Mode run.

I had to leave after some attempts because part of my equipment was broken. We didn't continue that night.

On Sunday I finished Vol. 3 Book 1 and started with Book 2 which will bring me to Enedwaith. I am bringing my Captain and Burglar through. I then turned off the computer for some hours and spent time with my nephew. He seemed happy to see me.

When I came back, we did a Helegrod-run on my Lore-Master, so now I can try Thorog, the undead Dragon on Minstrel, Hunter, Rune-Keeper and Lore-Master.

LotRO - Update

I run some more alts through the Haunted Cellar and got one more Skeleton Horse today. Not sure, if I have four or five of them at the moment. Still no luck on Burg nor any other high-level character.

Did some more runs through different instances.

Joined also a run for BG 1 + 2 on Minstrel. Durchest went well with only one death but after that, things went from bad to worse. We had some wipes on our way up. This should not happen. And we wiped on the Twins. Mostly because two people were not paying attention or did not react fast enough. Really pisses me off to run with one of them. The other one is bad, but at least he is fun to play with.

LotRO - Update

Worked long yesterday and when I logged in, I just had some time before the raid.

I ran some chars through the Haunted Barrows, just trying to get the Skeleton Horse, but no luck this time around. The festival has been extended till the end of the month, which will give me about eight chances to get it.

Afterwards we tried Barad Guldur. This is the top instance for 12 people at the moment with three bosses and some trash-mobs in between. The Gauntlet is the first staircase to the frist Boss, Durchest. I. has worked out some great tactics and we rushed through it in about fiveteen minutes.

Then we had some crashes and disconnects and we had to wait again.

First run of Durchest didn't go too well and after too many deaths, we tried again. The second attempt was not much better and some got dispaired. I was on Minstrel and run out of power fast. Loremaster didn't power me and during the attempts, I often had little or no power.

I know, I might not be the most power efficient Minstrel around, but I rather heal too much and burn some power than let someone die on my watch.

On the third try, we had a Rune-Keeper who was also specced healing. Things went better but still not good enough. I think we had a bit bad luck with the special attacks from Durchest as he can hit like a freight train.

Forth time was perfect, only one death which we recovered fast from. Did win a symbol, but failed again on the chest-piece.

LotRO - Update

Today, after a long day at work, I did run through the Haunted Burrow and got the Skeleton horse on an other mule. At least that one was lvl 20 and should be able to ride it.

Now I got it on three characters from a total of 21 after three tries.

Someone said, that it is now on a daily reset, so you can open the chest every day. We'll see. I also read, that the festival will be extended till the end of the month. No official source, sadly.

I finished the quests in Enedwaith, at least I think so. Still can do the reapeatables there and some of them, I haven't finished at all. There are some Signature Giants which hit hard and I managed to kill some of them, but stayed away of the bosses.

Then I joined a run of the three wings into Helegrod. We did this at lvl 51, so we could finish faster.

Thorog was next on the menue and after a wipe the second attempt went so well, that I didn't even have to do much (I was healing). Noone died in the second attempt, which is a sign how well it went.

LotRO Skeleton Horse

The Skeleton Horse in lotRO is a rare drop from the autumn-festival.

Under Bilbo Baggin's house a haunted cellar has appeared. There you can open a chest with a two-day cool-down and get the unique Skeleton Horse. I ran all my 21 chars through it and got it on two characters.

On the second try, this weekend, none of the 19 characters still able to get it had any luck.

I mainly want it for my Hobbit-Burglar as she likes to dress in black.

LotRO Update

Last weekend, I took a day off (Friday) but was sick during most of Friday and Saturday.

I took my main group, Hunter, Rune-Keeper and Minstrel through Enedwaith, the new area south of Eregion.

All the textures have been redone and after a year, it is refreshing to see new content. I did the quests in the first two camps. Nothing special here. Then I went to the Gloomgens where, at the Eastern-most part, there is a small Hobbit village surrounded by some Goblin villages.

Two things I noticed here. When you enter the village, you get one quest (to win the trust of the Hobbits). What suprised me was that the quest you get depends on your race. Hobbits have to go to the shire to buy some pipeweed-seeds, elfs need to hunt a ghost and dwarves need to kill a hound. I haven't got a man there yet.

The second thing I noticed, was that the graphics of the Goblins are randomized. As I was triple-boxing (three computers running one account each, three in total), even when I was fighting the same Goblin, its appearance was different on each screen.

Last thing before I logged off was to get the hunter-port skill to Enedwaith.

The kin is doing Thorog, the big undead dragon, this evening. Sadly, I still need to fight through the wings, before I can attempt to kill him. This is also true with the other updated instances, so I will need lots of time to be able to run them with all mains.

LotRO goes F2P

That is a bit too cryptic. So let take this appart.

LotRO is the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (short MMORPG, alternative Middleaged Men Online Playing Girls) in J.R.R. Tolkien's world Middle Earth at the end of the third age, when the book (and, yes movie) Lord of the Rings takes place.

You can download the client (i.e. game) here.

I have been playing this game for far too long and am member of the guild Hope and Glory on the European-English server Gilrain.

F2P means Free to Play which is halfway true. You can play for free, but it is more like an extended demo than an actual free game. There are lots of people complaining, that it is not completely free but as I am not working for free, I understand that other people also want to get paid for their work.

What am I doing in Middle Earth? There is a new area, Enedwaith, which I will visit on Friday and probalby the rest of the weekend. There is a special Mount you can get from Bilbo's haunted cellar that I really want to have on my Burglar.

(In LotRO you can play four races [Hobbits, Men, Elf and Dwarf] and nine classes; my Burglar is, I would almost say of course, a Hobbit).