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Turbine isn't resting on the laurels of the recent Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Riders of Rohan. At some point in the near future, they will be releasing the first major content addition, Against the Shadow. We've got an exclusive preview of the new content. Read on!
Titled "Against the Shadow" this update adds content, expands a number a existing features, and brings additional environmental technology to the game. The most noticeable change of the update is the addition of three all new instances. These instances will send your character back in time where you will be tasked by Gandalf to complete the following missions: Head to the Misty Mountains and prevent a giant eagle's egg from becoming a stone giant's breakfast. Travel underneath the Misty Mountains to the home of the Goblin King and prevent the goblins from reorganizing. Finally you will be asked to travel to Mirkwood and cull the wildlife. All three of these instances are designed for 3 players and scale in level from 20 to 85. In addition to talking to Gandalf you can access these through the instance finder.
Read more of Rob Lashley's Lord of the Rings Online: Against the Shadow Preview.
Comments
If I could have just one change made to this game, it would be to make levelling traits account wide rather than character wide. I would be much more motivated to play alts if they could level account-wide traits rather than have me spend long periods of time mindlessly killing grey mobs to get that +16 determination.
Adjust this Turbine and you will see much more life in the lower level areas.
Overall I'm happy with Robert's preview and being a lifetimer in an excellent kin I'll always be around the place, I'm just struggling with motivation just now because levelling an alt is too painful with all the things you have to re do that you shouldn't.
Playing: Darkfall New Dawn (and planning to play Fallout 76)
Favourite games have included: UO, Lineage2, Darkfall, Lotro, Baldur's Gate, SSX, FF7 and yes the original Wizardry on an Apple IIe
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I Agree. They should be account wide considering they are Lotro's form of Achievements. Would make playing alts more fun as well.
Not to sound too grumpy, but those 3 instances are part of the Rohan-expansion so dont sell them as a big NEW update.
There are even more instances which belong to RoR which are delayed to februari (or march).
So take of those rose-colored glasses; development is still painfully slow imo.
Rift is doing the same thing with their 2.1 update, a raid they chose not to release with the expansion because apparently people cant handle having 2 raids to choose from anymore. This sort of thing isnt that rare.
Between the update with free content before Rohan, RoR, and the big QoL patch on the PTS I'd say the LOTRO devs are back on track.
The cash shop aspect is sadly out of control though.
They are more than achievements, they are a form of character progression. But the slayer deeds are the worst thing in the game. 15/30 isnt so bad. 30/60 is ok for areas where you have to kill mst of that as quest mobs anyway. Anything above that is brutal.
If they dont want to fully give the stuff away, at least make them half the kills for every character thats already done the deed.
Time-travel, huh? Hmmmm....maybe I won't be going back to Middle Earth anytime soon.
/shoehorn
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Time travel starts touching on Tolkien's book the Lost Road.
With all the F2P players, they do need to do more for the lower levels. Especially to make it more rewarding for small groups (2-4 people) since so much of the content was developed for 6 man fellowships early on.
This is a good step in that direction.
The toy mount was a viral pr
And the open tag system makes me want to roll tons of alts. My Minstrel will never ever reach the top level (have played lotro since soa was freash)
I really like Rift but I agree with you about 2.1. Other than the updated Fae Yule event, which isn't really new, all of the content in 2.1 being added is stuff that I believe should have been in on the release.
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There was a pretty long 'dark' period for LOTRO after the freemium conversion where the content pace wasnt remotely acceptable. After a two year wait RoI wasnt acceptable,but with update 6 and Rohan since then things are back on track.
The big issue right now is the cash shop. It certainly has pay to win elements. Turbine pointsare earnable in game and you get some with your sub, but theyve crossed the line that shouldnt have been crossed. Not gamebreaking atm, but they better melt the ice on that slippery slope fast.
There was a pretty long 'dark' period for LOTRO after the freemium conversion where the content pace wasnt remotely acceptable. After a two year wait RoI wasnt acceptable,but with update 6 and Rohan since then things are back on track.
The big issue right now is the cash shop. It certainly has pay to win elements. Turbine pointsare earnable in game and you get some with your sub, but theyve crossed the line that shouldnt have been crossed. Not gamebreaking atm, but they better melt the ice on that slippery slope fast.
Yeah I agree, as i said it has elements. but its certainly not RoM where you are required to spend hundreds of dollars to be able to particpate in the top content or the other f2p games where your power is determined by your wallet and not what you have done in game.
there is no way on earth this game is pay to win or even getting close.there is no grind at all really in this game apart from the odd deed.i have had nothing but fun playing this game.if peeps wanna buy out the shop i,m ok with that as well.i think those peeps are supporting the game so no complaints here.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Oh look, more of the same old same old. More of the same boring mechanics; more quest hubs and endless instances that scale to any level.
Living world my rear-end, they continue to ignore any of the housing / crafting changes or any other system that would make the game feel like a 'living world' and not just a ridiculously casual (but pretty) adventure game.
Their art department remains good...which is about the only thing I still like about the game.
Housing I give you, it needs a revamp. But crafting has been changed and is fun and the new system of mounted combat makes, at least for me, the world feel more alive. My horse and fighting is very physics oriented, lending a very immersive experience to it all. LOVE the quest hub hopping in Rohan because it feels very organic now and less go here come back 20 times, now it's go here and you complete it while your out there and oh, here's another few quests while your out there that auto complete when you finish them, hells yes. this lets me focus on the storyline of each quest and the main storyline. To each their own I guess.