alt="Update 3: Lost Legends of Eriador - a LotRO Play Session with the Devs"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98360" />
Everybody likes new stuff. We like new stuff even when the
"old stuff" is really not that old. This goes as much for
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro">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.
alt="Attack at Dawn"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98352" />
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.
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98353" />
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.
alt="Inn of the Forsaken - a trap-filled tunnel"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98354" />
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.
alt="Inn of the Forsaken - a ship in an underground cove, totally NOT the Goonies."
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98355" />
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.
alt="Update 3: Lost Legends of Eriador - a LotRO Play Session with the Devs"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98360" />
After finishing the Inn of the Forsaken, the Turbine team had
to go do some dev stuff, but I was still keen on exploring, so I
tackled the other new content with some other beta-players.
alt="Icy Crevasse"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98356" />
The second skirmish, Icy Crevasse, takes place deep in the
frozen heart of Forochel. This is another "offense" skirmish, capturing
control points and defending them against counter-attacks.
The Icy Crevasse
"A
powerful sorceror from Angmar seeks to drive the frozen winds of
Forochel south into Evendim, freezing the lake and allowing a great
army to march on Tinnudir...."
The mobs are fairly spread-out in the canyons, and this is a
fairly standard offense-style skirmish. There are 3 canyons to control,
and a counter-attack at each one. The counter-attacks can be pretty
savage at higher tiers, and the last one before the cave is
particularly tough. To make things slightly easier, there are several
steaming vents scattered throughout the canyons, which add a healing
buff to anyone standing on them. When you're not standing on the vents,
you get a debuff which slows you down because of the cold.
alt="Malgen, the zombie mammoth"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98357" />
After clearing the canyons and dealing with the brutal
counter-attacks, you're ready for the fight against the sorcerer,
Guinokh, and his pet zombie mammoth, Malgen. Guinokh and Malgen swap
back and forth a couple of times, and at the end you fight both.
Guinokh drops green circles on the ground, and fighting inside these
circles is a bad idea - the sorcerer gets healed when he hits you while
standing inside. There are 2 vents inside the cave, and you can bounce
back and forth between them to avoid Guinokh's green circle effect.
Having seen the Inn of the Forsaken, I was most keenly
interested in the other 3-man instance, Halls of Night. This one is set
in Angmar, and is the most visually-compelling of the new instances.
The Halls of Night
"The
Hillmen of Angmar have discovered an ancient barrow, hidden away for
centuries. The leaders of Aughaire have called for adventurers willing
to brave the tomb rumoured to be filled with wealth and riches.
Markings surrounding its entrance bear an ominous warning; twisted
creatures and slumbering warriors at the foot of a powerful
sorcerer..."
This one starts in Aughaire with Declan, a lute-playing guy
standing in the middle of town. His grandfather, Durell, has gone
missing, and he wants you to find out what happened. The trail leads to
a strange crypt stuck in the mountains just northeast of town.
alt="Nightmare throne in the Halls of Night"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98358" />
As you go in, you find a grand Aztec-looking throne with a
skeleton sitting on it. Examining the throne triggers some kind of
funky magic and throws the group into a dark, hazy dream-land deeper
inside the crypt, wearing some kind of crazy robe that glows with the
color of your spirit - either red, blue or green. This color comes into
play as you progress through the tomb battling angry ghosts. When you
fight
spirits the same color as you, you get combat bonuses, but these
bonuses can be drained by Hungry Spirits who sap your energy. The
fights come in little clusters around the tombs. The tombs are guarded
by armored spirits and take no damage as long as the tomb guards are
alive, and while the tombs are whole they spawn tortured spirits of
various colors. Kill the guards first, then the tombs, then the spirits.
When you reach the main room and meet Nightmare, the ghostly
nemesis in charge of the place, you'll be put to a test against his
underlings, Panic and Terror. These guys are a little more than your
average goon squad.
Panic elects to fight in an inverted version of the "war room"
in Esteldin (where Halbarad is during later epic books). The room is
lined with red, blue and/or green ghosts, and Panic is "drawn" to
different colors at
various times throughout the fight. When this happens, the color he is
drawn-to does extra damage against him, and only ghosts of the other 2
colors are present in the room. The color to which he is drawn does
normal damage, and the other 2 colors do less damage to Panic. While
your color is not called out, you can work on killing the ghosts of
your color along the walls to build up combat bonuses for when you are
called upon to attack Panic.
Terror is a real mean guy, and he fights dirty. He will
disappear at different times during the fight, only to reappear across
the room with a couple of weaker doppelgangers backing him up. He also
electrifies the purple puddles in the room, turning them into crazy
vortex traps when stepped on, so melee classes in
particular will want to take caution when closing in to fight Terror
and his clones.
alt="Halls of Night main room"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98359" />
After the sub-bosses are handled, it's time to fight Nightmare
in the central room. He also fights dirty, sapping his main target's
"spirit juice" and activating the tomb guards and their respective
tombs one at a time. For a player whose spirit is drained, killing an
appropriately-colored ghost is supposed to revitalize and refresh the
spirit-color buff. Be aware that
the genuflecting tortured spirits around the outside of the combat area
don't
aggro unless they are attacked - using AoEs indiscriminately near them
will cause them to enter the fray, which can be problematic if the
"tank" is already fending off a large number of enemies. Defeating
Nightmare without harming any of the tortured spirits is a condition
for the Tier 2 challenge.
There wouldn't be much point in new adventures if there
weren't new rewards to go with them. This update features piles of
rewards, linked either to the Odothuilan skirmish campaign (Attack at
Dawn and Icy Crevasse) or to one of the two 3-man instances. And
because all of these new adventures start at mid-level and scale to 65,
there's something for everyone.
The endgame gear available from skirmish camps is outstanding.
The Inn of the Forsaken offers 3 excellent pocket item rewards from the
Classic Vendor:
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The Halls of Night has 4 bracelet-and-ring sets that stand up
well compared to other level 65 jewelry, also from the Classic Vendor:
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src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98364" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98365" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98366" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98367" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98368" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98369" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98370" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98371" />
The Odothuilan Campaign Marks can be saved up and redeemed for
some very good necklaces from the Jewellery and Cloaks vendor:
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98372" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98373" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98374" />
They can also be redeemed for very good armor pieces. These
pieces generall have lower armor ratings than Helegrod pieces, and do
not confer set bonuses, but the stats can arguably make up for these
"shortcomings." These pieces can be found at the Heavy, Medium and
Light Armour vendors:
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98375" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98376" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98377" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98378" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98379" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98380" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98381" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98382" />
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98383" />
Loot and reward tables are not yet finalized for these
instances, but as an interesting side-note: the group I ran Tier 2 Inn
of the Forsaken with, we each looted 1 gold coin from each of the 2 end
boss chests. And in a Tier 1 Halls of Night run, we found a Superior
Third Mark in one of the sub-boss chests, but did not receive one for
completing the Tier 2 challenge.
And more newness: community-designed relics for legendary
items. These can be made via the Melding tab at your local Relic-master
(Extraordinary Level 65), and cost 1392 shards and 4 Tier 6 relics:
alt="True Setting of the Ages"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98384" />
alt="True Gem of the Encircling Stars"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98385" />
alt="True Rune of the Two Trees"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/98386" />
You can slot these fancy new relics in your fancy new Second
Age weapon, which is now much less expensive to make. Symbols of
Celebrimbor now cost but a pittance: 1005 Skirmish Marks and 1 Superior
Third Mark (instead of 5 Superior Third Marks).
And speaking of legendary items, the Lore-master legendary
traders outside of Dolven-view are no longer crying for no apparent
reason. So it looks like everyone will find something they like in
Update 3.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Lord of the Rings Online Game Page.
