Update 7 content

[DobbelB_EU]

The highlights have been released.

http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/1966

1 new skirmish with only 2 difficulty tiers
Fornost Revamp, 4 instances
Moria Revamp

At first sight it is not very much. But it's better than nothing, and quality goes always above quantity.
I was hoping for an epic book, though. Hopefully that means more time is spent at RoR.

[zalladi]

Aha! Thanks for the link! Finally some good news. Shame that no more classes were revised though (*ahem*, hunter)

[Nakiami]

Oh no! I'll have to relearn Moria! Cautiously optimistic.

Fornost scaled - woo.

Aha! Thanks for the link! Finally some good news. Shame that no more classes were revised though (*ahem*, hunter)

Considering this high-level overview didn't mention the known Warden fixes, I think you should wait til the final patch notes are released to say that.

I will say that hunters have become very good at whining. So much so that I've stopped reading their forums, despite owning a 75 hunter.

[Nyrion]

Interesting.

1 new skirmish, essentially 4 new endgame six-man instances and a revamp of Moria. As a mostly solo player I'm more curious about the changes to Moria.

To be honest I never had THAT many issues with the place, I think the Trollshaws, Misty Mountains or North Downs would have made better candidates, but oh well. *shrug*

Frankly the parts mentioned were never particularly difficult, it's the implied changes to the looks that has me piqued.

[Armaius]

Cool. I look forward to reading the dev diaries.

[Unrecorded]

no mention on pvmp balance or class updates?
buying guild wars 2 now

[A_Rabaey]

Personally, while I don't see what's wrong with moria( my favorite place, just awesome) though some quick travels seemed to be missing. I don't know what they are going to do. I'm exited.

[RJFerret]

I agree Trollshaws is badly need of a revamp, I wouldn't have imagined Moria was even on the list. Nothing can be changed there that would appease those who dislike it (by it's nature it needs to be a big empty twisty cavernous area with walls--they already complain of MOB density, if you add more, they'll just complain more, if you take any away, there'll be none there and nothing to do).

A North Downs revamp would be lovely--all the back and forth from one side of the mountain ridge to the other, blyech. Misty is very streamlined though, most quests are right around the corner from the giver, but more content there would be nice, although redundant to the multitude of similar level quests in competitive areas.

Thanks OP for sharing the link, +rep.



"Sometimes survival comes down to not being hit. Actually, most times." -the chicken skill, Bob and Weave

[Sapience]

Cool. I look forward to reading the dev diaries.

There are two developer diaries planned. One for Fornost and one for Moria.

Personally, while I don't see what's wrong with moria( my favorite place, just awesome) though some quick travels seemed to be missing. I don't know what they are going to do. I'm exited.

Moria is one of those places in the game where we've discovered people have strong feelings one way or the other. We also heard a lot of feedback that even those who really love Moria had a sort of "love/hate" relationship with the place. So we're trying to make that more of a 'love/love'.

[WhitewolfShui]

Fornost I'll probably be happy with. It's been in need of a revamp for a good while. In Moria, I'm hoping the quests will be a bit more streamlined than what they are currently. Does it apply to all of Moria or just the few that have been listed?

[dietlbomb]

I love the idea for the new skirmish. That plotline in Dunland just kinda stopped unexpectedly, so I'm glad they picked it up again. Why only 2 tiers, though?

A revamped Moria sounds fun. I have a couple characters getting close to that level.

[Astegorn]

"love/hate" relationship

The only problem was that it was hard to read the map of Moria because of the terrain level differences.
A simple map redrawing with selectable layers (lowest, low, normal, high, highest, etc) would have made the difference from the start.

Personally, I absolutely love it, most outstanding work of the level designers, exploration heaven for explorers and cartographers. Hope to see more like this in the future (except in the outdoors:P).

[melee_classes]

no mention on pvmp balance or class updates?
buying guild wars 2 now

my thoughts exactly!

[Gylve]

Hmmmm...that offers me some tough decisions. I have an RK that just finished Moria, other than the going back in you have to do for Loth quests, and I have a hunter who would be in there very soon (this weekend probably) who I will now likely park until the revamp. Having *just* finished it on one toon, I'll be interested to see the changes on another run through so soon.

I do have mixed feelings about it. I'd sort of describe it as a "love/hate" relationship myself, but parts of the "hate" I think are actually pretty interesting game design. The only genuinely annoying thing I can think of is how the epic line in there meshes so poorly with the other quests in Moria. Why does Chamber of the Crossroads stuff send me back into the Great Delving?

I guess making it so there's less "running through hallways full of mobs...all...the...time" would probably help reduce complaints about the place quite a bit, so that's the kind of thing I'm expecting.

Re: Fornost - I hope it's worth running at 75! I really liked doing daily Lib/School/GB runs at 75 because the purples were decent and the barter currency made it worthwhile. The U5 nerf to those instances in terms of valuable rewards was a real shame and kind of ruined the point of scaling them to some extent, so I hope there's more to level 75 Fornost than a nostalgia trip that's got the difficulty scaled by level.

[Lord_Sauron]

Outa curiosity will it just be the quests in Moria getting some love or will the instances also be getting some scaling perhaps?

[Saialill]

Moria - it has HUGE potential. If revamp is right. What's right in my opinion? Make usage of all those shut doors we see but which can't be accessed. More instances, 3-man too, and raids. Simple ones which can be done by casual players and something hard for hardcore elite. Expansion would be good - perhaps dwarves could have discovered some of those drowned treasuries or opened up passage which was previously blocked.
But this could also go real bad if everything just gets changed or made very simple. Imho Moria should remain a dark and dangerous place. Still, even if it gets ruined, will have something nice to remember... Optimistic, waiting for developer's diary

But other places... Trollshaws really needs some update. At the very least, some swift travels but it's generally underdog compared to others. North-downs could use some refreshing in several spots aswell. Right now, several quests hubs/settlements can be and probably ARE bypassed easily at the first time for a new player. And later on, bypassed because they offer little compared to all the available content for this level range (25-35).

To sum this up, I welcome all new additions and upgrades but am a bit nervous some good existing things could end up less appealing in Turbine's effort to make them more popular.

[Mark_J]

Interesting.

1 new skirmish, essentially 4 new endgame six-man instances and a revamp of Moria. <snip>

I don't think the instances are new, they appear to be old instances scaled to the level cap...

[Nyrion]

I don't think the instances are new, they appear to be old instances scaled to the level cap...

That's why I said essentially new. How many people do you know that run Fornost at all these days?

Also, the page states that the instances are being updated too, so it's not like they're just slapping level 75 on all the mobs.

[Reniannen]

New skirmish? Neat.
Fornost revamp. Neat as well but we already knew that.
Moria revamp? Holy mother of … caves. (Although I hope it won't get too simple, I like its current maze-y nature)

[ColorSpecs]

This is really disappointing to hear Fornost has gone the way of Helegrod, Garth Agarwen and Great Barrows, getting gutted and ruined by splitting this now once epic instance into four pieces.

I do not understand why Turbine does this. These are classic spaces and running them were events akin to running a raid, but didn't require 12 or 24 people - helegrod notwithstanding.

Lotro is supposed to be first and formost about storytelling and these instances as they were had a flow and were an adventure in and of themselves. By breaking up the instances, not to mention not requiring us to actually travel to the instances, you break of the flow, the narrative of these places. You make them feel disjointed and more like skirmishes than what they were in the past.

I don't understand why you can't scale these spaces but leave them as they were. At this rate, I hope you never get around to CD, Uru and the Rift. Honestly, I'd rather run them under level and get the full experience instead of playing the hacked up half assed pseudo skirmish that the others have become.

[cnrsnl]

Moria is one of those places in the game where we've discovered people have strong feelings one way or the other. We also heard a lot of feedback that even those who really love Moria had a sort of "love/hate" relationship with the place. So we're trying to make that more of a 'love/love'.

In other words, Moria becomes just another linear and boring zone? What a shame, it was perfect in its current state imo. An orc infested cavern should not be pleasant. If I was to change anything in Moria, I would only add more swift travels, and that's all.

[DavadaOT]

I do not understand why Turbine does this. These are classic spaces and running them were events akin to running a raid, but didn't require 12 or 24 people - helegrod notwithstanding.

Fornost (as it existed) is a classic space with serious design issues (the instance ranges from 36 to 42, depending on depth), with very little replay value. Perhaps 1 in 10 players have set foot in there in the past two years.

[Lestache]

New skirmish? Neat.
Fornost revamp. Neat as well but we already knew that.
Moria revamp? Holy mother of … caves. (Although I hope it won't get too simple, I like its current maze-y nature)

I do wonder what is being done to Moria. I actually think that the quests flow pretty well in there already, with perhaps the exception of the Epic book itself sometimes dragging you all over Moria rather than focusing on the part of Moria that you're likely questing in at the time.

Should be interesting to see. Looks like my 43 Hunter may finally get to leave the Craft Hall in Esteldin.

[cnrsnl]

This is really disappointing to hear Fornost has gone the way of Helegrod, Garth Agarwen and Great Barrows, getting gutted and ruined by splitting this now once epic instance into four pieces.

I do not understand why Turbine does this. These are classic spaces and running them were events akin to running a raid, but didn't require 12 or 24 people - helegrod notwithstanding.

Lotro is supposed to be first and formost about storytelling and these instances as they were had a flow and were an adventure in and of themselves. By breaking up the instances, not to mention not requiring us to actually travel to the instances, you break of the flow, the narrative of these places. You make them feel disjointed and more like skirmishes than what they were in the past.

I don't understand why you can't scale these spaces but leave them as they were. At this rate, I hope you never get around to CD, Uru and the Rift. Honestly, I'd rather run them under level and get the full experience instead of playing the hacked up half assed pseudo skirmish that the others have become.

I strongly agree with this one. +rep

I consider myself lucky that i've experienced Great Barrows, Helegrod, Garth Agarwen and Fornost before Turbine ruined them by dividing these instances.

[lorddarek]

It's actually pretty funny that they decided to revamp Moria now when there are two threads about it running right now. /tinfoilhat