Dev Chat Update 10 Snippets & Opinion

This month’s LOTRO Dev Chat on Twitter just wrapped and there were plenty of good questions asked and answered. A lot of information regarding Update 10 were given when asked. Update 10 hits Bullroarer next week according to Devs, but here are other little snippets with accompanying thoughts.

1. Wardens will now use Agility as their main stat

- Not a surprise to me; I’ve read about it somewhere on the forums previously. Initial thoughts were of doubt because of the various might+vit gear that Wardens and my own Warden, Dagenath has already acquired. But it’s going to be a scramble now for me to go fishing for Agility jewelry. I’m not so worried about armour, because Medium armour do have Agility variants anyways. Relics on my LI’s will also have to be thrown out the window however(Might ones stacked). I can see the logic to this, based on Wardens and their evasion tanking, but we’ll see how it goes. I’ll pop on Bullroarer and play around with it.

2. Dread removed from landscape defeats

- Interesting but welcome change. Mind you I don’t die a lot on the landscape (lol) but solo-ing Bugud on my Cappy occasionally gets me. Also, I tend to go AFK so much at random times that I simply just sit out there and have boars and other buggers chew me dead. Having no dread from annoying defeats like that will definitely be nice. Thanks I guess.

3. Fate potency increase and power pools standardized

- Now the Devs didn’t elaborate too much on this and it had me wondering. I don’t play toons at end game that uses Fate a whole lot, so I am not entirely sure what this change does. As for the power pools being standardized, one of the Devs did say it makes class changes in future a lot easier, and doesn’t make the difference in power pools between classes seem random. O.0? My thoughts exactly. I did see a Hunter with 6K power the other day though..

4. New/Existing/Scaled Instances receiving new loot

- Very Important change for my Kinship and I. We have been running plenty of instances for lootz(who doesn’t love lootz!??) and frankly the variations are disappointing and some of the old scaled ones are downright pathetic (DRAKESPLITTER!!?? ARE YOU FUGGING KIDDING ME TURBINE?). Running these instances are what’s keeping my kinship alive at the moment, so kudos for adding new shinies to keep the fires burning. Thank you.

5. 2nd part of instance cluster introduced

- Same sentiment as above. New content=longer interest. However, I can’t help but wonder why the hell won’t they just add the entire instance cluster into the expansion in the first place. Maybe, I just answered my own question.

6. New armour sets

- Saw this one coming. Was bound to happen. Now keep your eyes out on the difference between stats of the Hytbold raid level gear and the new ones. Let’s see how it holds up with the new instances. As for the BG sets…(insert sarcastic comment here).

7. No new Epic Book with Update 10

- A little let down with this one. But considering where we last stopped in the Epics, it’s only sensible that we continue it with either a new region or something huge that takes us away from the Eastemnet. What I can’t say for sure, but Devs have said that a huge Epic Book will be coming in Update 11. Interesting.

8. First Age LI’s and of Tarnished Symbols

- Yeap, it’s coming. Brace yourselves for a whole new grind end-gamers. Wonder if it will be called a Tarnished Symbol of the Elder King. As a result, Devs did not answer my question but have done so indirectly by saying that Tarnished Symbols of Celebrimbor can be attained via marks, meds, and seals(Skirmish Camp) after the update. This is good news for anyone at 85 who has yet to get one, so start saving your currencies and start running skirms and instances to stock up on some! You’ll need the upgrade. Having gotten 4 before the new year(lucky SOB I know), I’m decently geared on my Champ and Cappy but will still be getting a few more for alternative weapons for PVP and different builds.

And that’s about all the info of Update 10 that came out from the Dev Chat. There were plenty of other questions about cosmetics, housing, mounted combat etc and you can find the full transcript here. Cheers everyone.

Spring Springy Spring!

The Spring Festival is now live.  I’ve just logged in and headed straight away to Hengstacer’s Farm to check out my new ride that awaits me. Here it is…

Introducing the Simbelmyne Steed! A beauty isn’t she? Costs 2 Spring Race Tokens, and a whooping 40 Spring leaves, plus the compulsory Document of Mount Ownership. This seems to be the ‘price’ trend for all the new horses in the Festivals and it seems a little bit expensive to me. But no matter, 40 Spring Leaves is an achievable target especially with all the quests, games and races available. Where you ask? Why the horse races can be found in the Horse Fields/Bree festival grounds, south of Hengstacer’s Farm in Bree Land while the other is in the Shire, just slightly south east from the Michel Delving stable.  General festival areas are in Thorin’s Ale Hall, The Party Tree in Hobbiton, Duillond in Ered Luin and of course, the Bree festival grounds. So if you have your eyes set on the mount, cosmetics or the new consumables etc, start chipping away at the festival content to get your leaves folks! I’m off to get mine..

Edit* 45 minutes later…….

Adhrean is a phreak. Probably stole the horse.

Embracing The Warden 2.0

Can you feel it? From the tip of our spears, to the spines of our shields, change is coming and coming big for Wardens with Update 6. Which as it so happens, has just gone live.  I’ve just about managed to pull away from my pile of academic assignments and launched the LOTRO launcher to patch with the hopes of getting some game time before the break of dawn. Here’s a toast to a successful update, a spectacular new region with tons of memorable and enjoyable quests, and a thumping good time for all LOTRO players out there with their respective classes.

But what I really wanted to talk about here was the changes to the Warden.  I haven’t had the time to hop on to Bullroarer and play around, so I have been relying heavily on the forums and other Warden experts to get my source of information. Now when it comes to updates especially about the Warden, there’s only one person I look to, and that is Josh, Mr. Docholiday at docholidaymmo.com.

In his latest post, he has compiled pretty much some solid information of the changes to the Warden class from the forums, posted by players who have spent enough time testing the new changes. Go ahead and read up on them, some extra information besides the patch notes always helps. Click here.

Now, my personal thoughts about the Warden. I started playing the class when almost every other veteran out there had shelved theirs, during the Rise of Isengard season. It is broken, they said. Unable to tank, they said. I took it all in with a pinch of salt and played through the content my way. Dagenath is now 75 ( more on him and his adventures through Dunland, to be continued in future posts.), and has tanked end game content regularly. Yes I find myself vulnerable to critical boss hits, often getting one shotted, but I draw the line at pure bad luck. The lesson that I learned was to improvise my role in groups and my play stlye, as a hybrid tank. I experimented with trait lines and gear that suited the situation, often resulting in a desired effect that I wanted. Other players that have Warden alts have complimented me for sticking and persevering with the class, while finding my own way to play it when others simply could not. I appreciated that. With the current changes, I see the Warden being able to get into groups more with our new secondary role of ranged DPS. How effective will we be, I have not a clue but we can hope for the best. We might not have gotten the tanking changes that we wanted, but we have other ways of getting by. We have already survived this long even with the ‘broken class’ tag, so what’s a few more months of waiting for that big mitigation update eh? Trust me, this update will make you feel excited, as if you were learning how to play a new class. I for one, am excited. I only ask my fellow Wardens of Middle Earth to have patience and trust the Dev, Orion on getting us back into the front lines with our shield brothers.

As for new Wardens out there, here’s some advice. First and foremost, if you’re having second thoughts about starting a Warden, banish that thought. It’s such a fun and challenging class to play. We definitely can tank when it matters, you just need to be alert and have a good understanding of your class and your role in a group. Everything that comes after will be much easier.

So moving on, now that Update 6 is live, here are my final thoughts.

1. Pleased that the price of the Quest Pack is cheaper than I expected, at 795 TP

2. Disappointed that Skirmish Soldiers on the landscape requires an hourly summoning token that must be purchased from the store of bartered with medallions.

3. Disappointed that the Barter Wallet is a store purchase, and at a thumping price too.

4. Interested in the reward changes and added options to the Instance Finder, I will be using that more often for the bonus rewards now.

I guess that about sums it up for now, as patching is over and I can’t wait to head in game and play around with my Warden changes. Farewell for now!

Forth Eorlingas! Turbine & WB Announces New Expansion Riders of Rohan

Yeap! You read that right! I’m pretty much shaking with excitement inside as I read through the official announcement here. There is also another forum post about it here!

Huge thanks to Adam of The Khazad Guard for alerting us about the news!

In summary, the Riders of Rohan will be released during the Fall this year, and it’s main features includes :

1.  Levelling to 85!

I thought I was gonna stay 75 for awhile, I guess not!

2. Mounted Combat!

Durin’s beard! Read that again. Mounted combat! Finally it’s here! According to the posts, players will get War Steeds which can be customized in terms of armour and skills. We would be facing Warg Riders in the plains of Rohan it seems. Heh. Easy.

3. Option to bring Skirmish Soldiers with you in your adventures throughout Middle Earth!

Finally, my beloved Herbalists can heal me outside of Skirmishes!

4. The new expansion is said to be very huge,twice the size of Moria!

Well, I’m sure there might have been something I missed but please do check out the links for yourself if you want to know more, I’m sure more exciting news will be revealed as time goes on. Again, I’m so stoked for this! Woohoo

/cheer x100

Updates Galore, Fall Festival 2011 Has Arrived!

Hello again folks! I hope the week has been kind to all and that everyone has managed to clog in some decent LOTRO time.  Plenty of happenings to keep the community buzzing of course, and to begin with, the forums are back online, with a backlash of worried gamers demanding answers from the devs on the situation. Well, here are the links to the official discussion thread of the security issue, and an FAQ of the issue posted by Sapience. Read on if you are among the gamers that have been left out in the dark and want to have your questions answered. Upon reading posts from posters in the official thread ( rage, QQ, more rage, the occasional comedy relief ) and then later the FAQ, I guess it’s safe to conclude that my account will be safe. However, the way that Turbine handled the situation was just disgusting. I won’t elaborate, go on and read the thread.

Moving on, this year’s Fall Fest has arrived! Having joined LOTRO in late March this year,  I’ve been privileged enough to have taken part in the festivals that followed, namely the Spring and Summer Festivals, and I’ve enjoyed it. Everything about festivals makes me happy. From earning new mounts ( I think I have a mount-collecting syndrome.  My main toon has 18 now I believe. ), to collecting cosmetics,titles, deeds and taking part in fun games that rewards us with some quirky consumables, it definitely takes the robotic sequence of quest-hack-slash away for a few weeks, which is always a welcome change to me. Having managed to log in yesterday for a couple of hours to explore what the Fall festival had to offer, I was thrilled to discover the new Autumnfest mount, the Haunted Burrow, and cosmetics such as cloaks and masks that I’ve caught glimpses of and marked them down as targets. And here I am, 24 hours later, a proud owner of both the Fall horses and my cloak and mask of the raven!

Adhrean on his new Sable Harvestmath horse

Adhrean riding his new Autumnfest Horse ft. Dusk Scavenger Wolf

I achieved this thanks to stocking up on Badges of Dishonor, which you receive upon completing dailies from the Ale Association during the fests. One Badge of Dishonor trades for 3 Festival Tokens, so this made collecting tokens a breeze. As for the horse race tokens, I am sort of an expert at the race, so that’s that. =P

Cloak of the Raven

Mask of the Raven

So there they are, the cosmetics that I’ve been dreaming to get for Adhrean, and now he pretty much looks exactly like how I’ve always wanted him to look like ; BadA**.  Since the Fall fest will be here till the 7th of November, I definitely will be spending more time getting tokens for the rest of the stuff that I find interesting, house decorations and what not. The Haunted Burrow is also something I’ve yet to explore fully, and I’m looking forward to doing that this weekend!

Spoiler Alerts! Below are some spoilers from the festival that some players might not want to read, if you fancy discovering interesting things and happenings during the festival on your own. But if you want to, read on!

- The main reason for my interest in the Haunted Burrow is a treasure chest that is said to be located in the basement, that has a small chance of dropping a rare skeletal design horse! The chest has a cooldown of 24 hours, so have your toons check it daily for a better chance at the horse!

- For those of you who want a complete guide to the quests/rewards during the Fall fest, look no further! My heroes at http://www.casualstrolltomordor.com/ have compiled a guide based on last year’s festival! The guide even includes sub-guides to the Ale Association and the Inn League! Go on, procede to the guide right Here, you know you want to.

So that about concludes this brief update, more to follow over the weekend, where I shall be taking my Warden Dagenath deeper into Moria, and Adhrean into the Haunted Burrow! Cheers and enjoy the festival folks!