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

Whenever a new content update for Lord of the Rings Online comes around, the Ten Ton Hammer staffers always look forward to talking with the developers from Turbine. You’ll rarely meet a group of nicer people, and there well-spoken passion about their game is contagious. During our tour, we had the opportunity to ask a number of questions to LOTRO’s live producer, Aaron Campbell, who was gracious enough to answer all of our questions. Enjoy!

---

Ten Ton Hammer: Are there any major mechanics changes going in with Book 7?

There are a number of game balance changes coming with LOTRO's Book 7.

Aaron Campbell: There are some pretty substantial changes to the overall game balance with this Book. These are meant to bring classes that were doing tactical sort of damage – like Minstrel and Loremaster – more in line with classes that do weapon-based damage like the Hunters and Champions. There have been a whole list of changes that have gone in because of that from changing the attacks players use to adjusting monster resistances to lowering casting time on Minstrel skill to tweaking monster health. There’s really just a package of things that are included in this update. It’s really just trying to balance things out with the numbers that we’ve been seeing since the launch of Moria.

Ten Ton Hammer: Will monster play be changing at all?

Aaron: We haven’t changed the content as it exists so much as definitely rebalancing some of the content based on the feedback and gameplay mechanics. We recently had a play test and the new tweaks are feeling very well balanced. Primarily, we’re upping monster resists, better damage and better perks to get them up to speed. After a major expansion, its always good to take a step back and make sure that your players are happy with the content and we make the adjustments where they’re necessary.