Lord of the Rings Online MMO News, Guides, and Features at Ten Ton Hammer

Everybody likes new stuff. We like new stuff even when the "old stuff" is really not that old. This goes as much for the Lord of the Rings Online as for anything else. Update 2: Echoes of the Dead hasn't been out that long, and Turbine is already geared up and ready to launch Update 3: Lost Legends of Eriador near the end of May.

North American players will see this new content on May 23, and the EU crowd can expect to see it when the European operations are migrated to Turbine's new Global Service after June 1, when the Global Service goes live. And while Update 3 is not as massive as Update 2 was, it's still pretty sweet, and the devs were eager to show off their handiwork in a hectic playsession.

Joining us for this play session were our old pals Adam Mersky, Executive Director of Communications for Turbine, and Aaron Campbell, Producer of LotRO, plus a couple of new friends: Bob Hess, Content Designer and the man responsible for some of this new madness, and Linda Currie, Design Director. Bob was eager to show off his work and explain the bizarre new mechanics as we went along. We started with the new skirmish, "Attack at Dawn," available at level 30 and scaling to level cap.

Attack at Dawn
"In the late evening hours, a small group of refugees sought refuge in the hidden Ranger-camp of Esteldín. These refugees were followed by a small group of goblin-scouts that quickly fled to Dol Dínen to bring word to their chief, Graug. Siniath the Ranger has asked you to seek out Graug and defeat him before he can spread word of Esteldín's location. As you arrive near Dol Dínen, the first rays of false dawn can be seen overhead."

This is an "offense" skirmish along the same lines as Trouble in Tuckborough, Aaron explained. With offense skirmishes, players can take their time and go through at their own pace, without having to worry about the pressure of timed assaults. The goal is to take control points, defend them against counter-attacks, and continue on until you reach the boss.

Attack at Dawn features a rather interesting new mechanic. As you get to roughly the middle of the encampment, the orcs take notice and try to discourage you with their catapults. The ground is marked with glowing orange circles, and standing in these circles for too long can be extremely hazardous. This applies to both the attackers and the defenders; clever players will quickly figure out how to use the siege targets to best advantage, holding mobs inside with traps, stuns and mezzes while keeping themselves safely out of the blast radius.

At the end of the skirmish, this same mechanic plays out on a smaller scale - goblins are standing atop scaffolding around the inside of the boss's tent, hucking fire pots at the combatants below. And as the fight goes on, they grow to realize their own untenable employment situation and attempt to leave the arena. If too many goblins escape, they will reveal the secret location of Esteldin, so the players need to stop them before they get free.

Our next stop was the Forsaken Inn in the Lone-lands, where Anlaf the Forlorn, innkeeper extraordinaire, has been hearing strange noises in the basement late at night. In order to run this instance from the Instance Join panel, you first have to go there and get the quest from Anlaf.

Inn of the Forsaken
"You have been asked by the proprietor of the Forsaken Inn to investigate the source of a terrible wailing noise coming from the basement. Rumours abound that the inn is haunted and as a result, business has been suffering."

You start off drunk as a skunk after a hard day's drinking, waiting for the place to close down for the night. Heading down into the basement, one finds a sleepless dwarf complaining about strange noises issuing from a suspicious bookcase - actually a secret door into an underground labyrith. Story-wise, the players are asked to assist Umin, a shady character lurking in the tunnels, find his way through the place, following in the footsteps of Captain Rabghul, a no-goodnik pirate who hoped to use the secluded cove to stash his booty and whatnot. As you collect pages from Captain Rabghul's journal, you learn of the terrible secret history of these trap-filled tunnels.

This instance is very unique in the world of LotRO, more reminiscent of D&D-style dungeon crawls when the group has a sadistic but creative DM. There are some interesting mechanics at play here: riddle-locked doors (read the riddle and use the proper /emote to unlock it), evil whirling-blade traps activated by pressure plates, and objects throughout that can only be used by specific classes. For example, the rune-covered plaques on the walls can only be deciphered by the more "scholarly" classes (Lore-masters, Minstrels, Rune-keepers), certain levers and complex mechanisms can only be triggered by "support" types (Burglars, Hunters, Captains), and heavy lifting must be done by the strong-of-arm classes (Guardians, Champions, Wardens).  A good group balance is important here, and there's actually deed for completing the instance with "the perfect group," which can only be completed on Tier 2 difficulty and involves interacting with or destroying basically everything in the dungeon.

The fun part of this - for me at least - was not feeling like a total noob when trying to decipher the riddles on the doors. Aaron and Bob were likewise stumped by a few of them, so I didn't feel like a total moron when I /burped instead of /coughed. "You'd think that, as a dev, I should know all the riddles off by heart, but I don't," Aaron admitted.

After riddling your way through doors and sidling past the devious traps, you are rewarded with a breakneck ride down a waterslide and find yourself in a place that, according to Aaron and Bob, is "totally not from Goonies at all, no way": a water-filled cave containing a ramshackle pirate ship. Here you encounter the boss of the place, and the fight on the main deck of the ship again emphasizes a strong class balance and group coordination. The by-now-obvious trap mechanisms can be used against the boss, and the activation triggers are class-specific. On Tier 2 (which we didn't do on this run, but which I did try later), this fight gets even crazier, and doesn't end when the boss goes down. Conserve your power, because you're going to need it for stage 2, in which the traps play an even greater part - the fight gets pretty busy and you will probably want to make good use of the tools available.