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The Road to Mordor: A year in Middle-earth
What a difference a year makes, eh? One year ago, and you didn't have to put up with me yammering at you every Friday like a hyperactive badger with a personality disorder. One year ago, and we weren't free-to-play-anything, Turbine was its own company, the festivals were nowhere near as cool as they are today, and shrews freely roamed the land without fear of reprisal. So in my last Road to Mordor (of the year, stop rejoicing over there!), I thought it'd be great to look back at the wild rollercoaster that was 2010 in Lord of the Rings Online. I also thought I'd get an easy column out of all this, but that was before I had to read through 1,337 posts and my eyeballs began to lose pressure. January Stuff happened. Let's move on.
LotRO Volume III: Book 1 releases today
Lord of the Rings Online Volume III, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers went live today, to the delight of LotRO fans. This major update builds on the skirmish system introduced in Siege of Mirkwood by introducing four new 12-player Skirmishes as well as Duo Mode to the game. New skills and recipes have arrived with the update as well, and the Spring Festival will return on March 22. Take a look after the jump for a roundup of our Oath of the Rangers coverage so far, then head into Middle-earth to check it out for yourself!
The Road to Mordor: Massively tour of LotRO Volume III Book 1
Every Friday, The Road to Mordor brings you the latest in Lord of the Rings Online news, guides and analysis. Lord of the Rings Online Volume III: Allies of the King is kicking off Book 1: Oath of the Rangers on the live servers this Monday, March 1st. Massively got to sit down with a LotRO dev for a tour of the new content. But before we jump in to that, a quick note about content patches. There have been some complaints on the official forums that this content update doesn't include a new land mass to explore. But the history of content updates for LotRO shows a pattern of only adding land mass every other update. Since the last update was a full expansion with the introduction of Mirkwood, it follows that this one would not include new lands. That being said, there are many new areas to explore. The devs have created new instances in the "old world" for you to enjoy as part of the new Volume III epic quest line. So while this update doesn't deliver Rohan, it does have new dungeons to explore as well as a new Skirmish. The tour (with some mild spoilers) starts after the jump!
Be crafty with ease in Lord of the Rings Online Volume III
Crafting, for many people, has a bit of a love-hate relationship going on. Nobody can complain about the bonuses it offers in the long run, but actually getting to high levels is an exercise in tedium and worthlessness for many. Which is why it's always a good thing when crafting gets a boost, as is happening in the upcoming Oath of the Rangers update for Lord of the Rings Online. The game has been putting out several developer diaries outlining the changes coming for the next installment, and the most recent diary deals with updates to the Jeweller, Cooks, Farmers, Woodworkers, and Weaponsmiths. Jewellery gets a fair all-around boost, with improved stats on crafted items, new icons, and the option to queue up multiple items for production. Cooks get their ingredients rebalanced and bigger buffs offered from their food, while new Trail Food recipies help provide a new set of desirable buffs. Farmers can also enjoy new recipes to provide ingredients for Cooks, and Woodworkers and Weaponsmiths alike get new class-specific items. The details of the changes can be found in the full diary, something most Lord of the Rings Online players might not consider especially crafty but still clever.
Lord of the Rings Online talks about skill upgrades for Volume III
With some major combat upgrades going hand-in-hand with the last major expansion, Lord of the Rings Online drew a few raised eyebrows over the lack of major skill updates at launch. However, as the official site's most recent developer diary explains, it wasn't for lack of interest so much as wanting to see how the new combat system played out before making changes. With the upcoming Oath of the Rangers, the systems team has been hard at work adding level 64 upgrades to help each class play better and more enjoyably in all areas of the game. Outlining a simple design philosophy -- make underused skills interesting, give exciting bonuses, and leave general class balance alone -- the diary goes on to highlight the upgrades offered to each class. Champions, Guardians, and Captains get improved buffs for themselves, Burglars and Hunters see their Power concerns addressed, and other classes got underused skills happily improved to bring them better to the forefront of play. Lord of the Rings Online has always had a respectable diversity among its classes, and the coming update seems poised to improve the game as a whole by making everyone just a little stronger.
The Road to Mordor: Vol 3 Book 1 new Skirmish gear rewards
Every Friday, The Road to Mordor brings you the latest in Lord of the Rings Online news, guides and analysis. Volume 3 Book 1, Oath of the Rangers, has been keeping me busy on Bullroarer, the test server. I've been working my way through the new epic quest line, trying out the new Spring Festival events and drooling over the new Skirmish rewards. For this installment of The Road to Mordor, I've spent an unlawful amount of time at the Skirmish camp vendors transcribing the new rewards. After the jump, I've listed the current stats of the new Heavy, Medium and Light Armors as well as the new Cloaks and Rift Cosmetics. There are also pics of the new items and a video showing the cosmetics. Keep in mind that this is all on the test server and subject to change.
Turbine reveals new screenshots from Volume III
It's been almost two weeks since the announcement of Lord of the Rings Online Volume III, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers. Fans continue to pore over and discuss the information currently released as Turbine keeps interest high with screenshots, patch notes, and dev diaries. The latest round of screenshots was released today, giving us five gorgeous new images to add to our gallery. This time they focus on skirmishes, which are set to get an extensive makeover with the upcoming patch. Look for changes to everything from Skirmish Mark drop rates to icon appearances, as well as the addition of the mysterious duo mode. All in good time, however. Volume III is on the way, and until then we'll keep occupied with the current notes and screenshots. Take a look at the gallery below for the latest batch. %Gallery-84675%
LotRO releases new skirmish dev diary for Volume III: Book 1
You'd be hard-pressed to find news on Lord of the Rings Online these days that doesn't talk about skirmishes. Probably the single biggest feature added in Siege of Mirkwood, these scaling dungeon fights are both an excellent way of expanding the game's content availability and a now-integral component of the ongoing epicc story in the game. The first skirmish of the upcoming Oath of the Rangers (Volume III, Book 1) is detailed in a new developer diary on the official site, where Joe Barry of the content design staff walks players through what they can expect. The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu is the setting of the new Skirmish, with players guiding the ranger Corunir to the Coliseum at the heart of the molten expanse. Fellowship Manoeuvers are slated to play a major part in the escort, as well as being instrumental in navigating the most deadly encounters with bosses. But that's hardly all coming in the near future -- new raid versions are being added to four Skirmishes, a duo mode is being added, and rewards for taking on the Skirmish as a larger group are being scaled up. Lord of the Rings Online players will want to check out the full diary on the official site, and get ready for even more time in the game's dial-a-dungeon feature.
The Road to Mordor: Vol III, Book 1 test realm notes analyzed
Every Friday, the Road to Mordor brings you the latest in Lord of the Rings Online news, guides and analysis. Turbine's Lord of the Ring's Online has just announced the Volume III, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers free content expansion and the patch is already up on their test server, Bullroarer. And with a test patch, comes patch notes. I have to give the normal disclaimers about test notes changing before going live, but given that, let's dig in. Two highlights are listed in the notes right off the bat with little explanation other than a promise of a dev diary to come at a future date. Those two new changes are: Duo mode now available in Skirmishes Extensive changes to the original Shadows of Angmar Volume I epic quest line Players have been gimping the Small Fellowship (3-man) system by significantly dropping the level of the mobs when creating their Skirmish. That costs them Skirmish marks. Hopefully the new system will fix that. The changes to the original epic quest line are probably to make it more solo friendly. It's very hard to complete it now that most players have leveled past it. If you are new to the game, you are probably begging higher level guild members to help you or skipping it altogether. Skipping it, though, is cheating yourself out of some of the best lore-based content in the game. I hope Turbine is changing it to make it more accessible for newer players who don't have access to groups at their level. New level 64 player skills, Skirmish changes and new crafting after the jump!
Turbine offers up a dev diary and screens for Oath of the Rangers
We got the first details on the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online book, titled Oath of the Rangers, earlier this week. Now, to add to the excitement, Turbine has followed up on the initial information by releasing a handful of screens and an excellent developer's diary. Flowing mightily from the keyboard of Jeff 'MadeOfLions' Libby, the diary gives Lord of the Rings Online fans much to discuss. Aside from the talk of storylines and a new skirmish, there's a really great behind-the-scenes portion about how precisely the LotRO team sets up something called "drama sequences." Essentially, these scripted sequences tailor NPC dialogue to you based on your own personal quest history -- bringing you info the story. There's also some information on ways the team is seeking to make travel a bit easier for the casual players, or more rewarding for those who take the long path. If Middle-earth is the place you call home, then you'll definitely want to check out the new screens we've gathered up for you as well as the enlightening developer diary over on the LotRO site. %Gallery-84675%
LotRO announces Volume III, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers
Lord of the Rings Online fans have been speculating for a while, wondering what the name of Volume III, Book 1 was going to be. Turbine's Sapience has been giving increasingly specific hints in a hangman-style game in the forums. Now the game's over, he's had his fun, and we have a title. Volume 3:Allies of the King, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers is on the way, bringing with it plenty of new additions to the game. Players will be returning to Dol Guldur for four skirmishes in the brand new twelve person mode, and a fifth skirmish in the Depths of Nûrz Ghâshu. Crafting will receive a some attention as well: players will be able to craft items up to level 65, and there will be crafting updates for Jewellers, Cooks, Woodworkers, Farmers, and Weaponsmiths. Of course, these are just a few of the highlights for the newly-titled Volume. All the current details are on the official site, so take a look, and we'll keep an eye out for more information!
