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

Book 12: The Ashen Wastes
Book 12 saw the revamp of Angmar and brought a lot of new updates and content with its implementation. Also referred to at times as the “Month of the Guardian” and the “Month of the Burglar” update, this book brought something I had been waiting for a long time: Guardian updates!

Guardians
Since launch, guardians of Middle-earth had anxiously awaited their update. A few things seemed lacking for the main tank class of the game, but Turbine delivered with Book 12. Skills such as “Shield Wall” (one of my personal favorites) and the “Overpower Stance” were added and made the guardian more capable of not only being a defensive monster, but the ability to switch up to an offensive stance gave a much needed boost to DPS for those long days spent soloing the creatures of Middle-earth. To compliment “Overpower,” the guardian was given two other skills: “Force Opening,” a skill that forces a parry response, and “Stagger,” a skill that can slow the enemy’s movement and attack speed if used from behind the enemy.

Needless to say, the changes to the guardian were a welcome addition to the game. Other skills were tweaked as well and additional skills were included such as “Salt the Wound,” finally making “Thrust” worth using.

Burglar
The Burglar class also got its time in the limelight with 11 new skills to cause mischief. Ironically, one of those skills is in fact called “Mischief.” With Mischief active, burglars were given two additional skills. The first is a skill called “Clever Retort,” which can be used on an enemy with a trick on them, causing the burglar to receive morale or harm the target. There are four random effects, but all work in favor of our little trickster. The second skill is called “Confound.” This skill dazes the enemy and slows its attacks. This can land on up to two targets. However, it’s ineffective on Beasts, Insects, and Creatures of Nature.

Along with those skills the burglar received a host of others that allowed it to deal damage over time, reset timers after successful “Fellowship Maneuvers,” and much more. Like the guardian, the burglar received a nice update that added to their skills and increased their role as a damage dealing, crowd controlling class, even though it required a bit of tweaking later.

The Great Angmar Revamp
Angmar received a huge revamp with this update. Many quests were re-worked and the developer’s admitted that things had gotten a little rushed at launch.

By the time development began on the Land of Angmar, the last region included in LOTRO at launch, the pressure was on: not only did we need to polish the rest of the game, but we needed to create an Angmar that lived up to its billing as the former home of the Witch-king. It was a period of late nights and early mornings, with all of us working at full speed to get everything done in time - and with a great deal of effort, we crossed the finish line and managed to avoid having to rename the game "The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of the North Downs"!

The great thing about MMORPGs is that there is always room for improvement and Turbine headed back to Angmar after launch and said “we can do better,” and they did. By making another pass at the region, the developers re-worked several quests to fit more with the dark lore behind the home of the Witch King. What sort of quests am I referring to you ask? Well, when you are sent to the land that one of the most evil characters in Tolkien’s lore called home, you expect to be asked to battle the dark forces of evil, the bane of the land, the plague of mankind. You know what I’m referring to: BOARS!!! Boars and the quest to kill them had become an all too common site in a land dripping of pure evil, so the developers made another pass and now the quests guide players more towards the story and less towards the boars.