The Lord of the Rings Online will be getting a few skill upgrades with the new Siege of Mirkwood expansion. The latest developer diary outlines the changes to classes that will result in some getting new skills and others will receive a skill upgrade.

With the decision to place the main focus of the systems work for Siege of Mirkwood™ on our basic combat and item advancement systems, we had to re-evaluate what that would mean for class skills and how changing or adding to them would alter the balance we were looking for with the other changes. Turning too many dials at once can lead to unintended and, very often, unexpected consequences! We knew this overhaul would be necessary to complete the process we began in Moria that ensures the long-term advancement of characters in LOTRO. As a result the decision was made to scale back plans for the classes themselves. We appreciate how this may be disappointing to some of you, though we do hope the overall improvement to combat results in a new and rewarding gameplay experience.

Despite this, each class is getting either a new skill or skill upgrade at level 62. For the most part these new skills are focused on utility rather than combat. With all that said let’s look at the skill upgrades coming in Siege of Mirkwood!

• Read the full diary here.