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Flameseeker Chronicles: A brief history of Guild Wars 2's Tyria
I see a lot of questions about whether or not people who want to play Guild Wars 2 should jump into the original in the (increasingly diminishing) time left before launch. I don't think there's really a one-size-fits-all answer to that question. For those of you who are worried about missing a bunch of lore and history, however, I can do a little to help with an introduction to Tyria, its history, and the events leading up to Guild Wars 2. This won't be exhaustive (see the word brief in the title?), but it might help you understand what the dragon nonsense is about and what's going on with the world you're stepping into. Except where events had exceptional impact, this focuses mostly on what happened in the continent (not the entire world) of Tyria. I hope it goes without saying that there are lore spoilers ahead, as well as Guild Wars campaign spoilers.
Through Turbine's palantír: Developers outline LotRO's future
In J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, characters would use magical orbs known as palantírs to see and communicate with far away places. While Massively's own palantír is at the shop, we had access to the next best thing -- a one-on-two chat about Lord of the Rings Online's future with Turbine's Aaron Campbell and Adam Mersky. A lot's been happening since LotRO's free-to-play version went online last fall -- the closest thing to a relaunch that this game is likely to ever see -- and both Campbell and Mersky have one important message for fans: We're just getting started. Even as the Turbine team gears up for LotRO's third expansion, Rise of Isengard, the devs want you to know that they're also dedicated to bringing a good amount of content between now and then. Everything was on the table during this discussion, from this weekend's anniversary celebration to next month's update to the new expansion. Join us after the jump for a look through the palantír to see what information we can pry from the future!
Exploring Middle-Earth: The Rift
While the high level area "The Rift" never made it into the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, it is another great example of how Turbine was able to expand the lore of The Lord of the Rings without treading on his toes and ripping apart the world. It is also the subject of the exploring Middle-Earth column over at the Europe LotRO community."The folk of Middle-earth's northern lands have long held the name of Angmar in dread, but in that fell kingdom are places that cause even the minions of Mordirith to tremble. At the feet of the Mountains of Angmar lies the terrible land of death and decay, Gath Uior. Even the Orcs and evil Men who gather there fear what lurks behind the great portal that leads under the mountains. It is said that ever-vigilant guards watch the gates, which were hewn long before the Witch-king first came to Angmar – not to keep enemies out, but to keep something in."If you wish to check out the full article, jump on over and look at the neat screenshots and all of the lore of the Rift in one location.
LotRO, A Look Back: Books 10 & 11
On August 21, 2007, Book 10: The City of Kings was released and opened up the city of Annúminas was for players to experience. Unfortunately, the city had been invaded by the forces of Angmar, and players had to fight to keep certain points of the city friendly to them. If they failed, the entire area will fall under the Witch-king's control. Hunters and Captains both received class reviews, and a new mechanic was introduced called Critter Play. Different than PvMP, Critter Play allowed players to take on new forms in a PvE setting. The first form introduced was that of a chicken. Not to be outdone, Trolls, and Rangers were introduced into PvMP as well as a very large polish pass on PvMP as a whole.Other new features brought to the game were factions with the major races (with rewards for increasing said faction) and the bartering system which allowed players to turn in certain monster drops for armor rewards. And of course, no Book is complete without a raft of new quests introduced for high level players to grind through.
LotRO downtime today for Book 11 Patch 1
Book 11 provided a huge chunk of content for Lord of the Rings Online players. Player housing, Balrog raids, the Harvest Festival, revamps to the Lore-master and Burglar classes, the introduction of Gollum, the list goes on. And with every fat patch comes a swarm of bugs that make it to the Live servers.Today, Turbine is stomping on a number of those bug with Book 11 Patch 1. Servers are down from 7am - 1p EST while the new patch is implemented on the Live servers. Along with usual pathing problems, stability adjustments and mob AI tweaks, fixes include DirextX 10 support coming out of beta, fixes to the Hooks in housing used to place decorations and nerfing some Conjunctions used in Player vs Monster Player combat.For a complete list of patch notes, check out LotRO's Lorebook wiki.
Conclusion to The Rift loot guide
We've reached part four of TenTonHammer's guide to the equipment obtained in Lord of the Rings Online's new raid zone, The Rift of Nurz Ghashu. In this final update, it is Hunters, Captains, and Burglars whose eyes will light up, as their new class-specific armor sets are examined in detail. The three classes will receive the "Doom-Hunter" set, the "Armor of the North Star", and the "Thrill-Seeker" set, respectively. As with the other Rift gear we've had a look at, these sets are some of the best equipment in the game. Each gem that is handed in for gear will be needed by each class, and will always result in the same slot of armor. For example, a Sparkling Diamond is what is used for the glove-slot armor of every class. This does make it a bit easier to keep track of than in some other games, where the same quest item may equal different types of armor for different classes, and a whole raid can stall while people struggle to figure out if it's something they need or not.So if the thought of slaying a Balrog isn't enough of an incentive for you to try and assemble your guild at The Rift (it isn't?) then hopefully the lure of these epic lewts will draw you to this exciting new content. Part four of the guide -- for hunters, burglars and captains -- is found through the related story link, and if you didn't get to see our previous posts, here is our coverage of part one, part two and part three.
The Rift loot guide part three lists Minstrel, Lore-master goodies
Ten Ton Hammer has been giving us the lowdown on all the shiny new gear LotRO players can acquire in The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu, the new raid instance Turbine added to the game in the Book 11 update. First they listed the coin rewards. Second, it was the gem rewards for Guardians and Champions. They've just launched part three and this time they're covering all the sweetness Minstrels and Lore-masters can acquire with the elusive gems that drop in the instance.Lore-masters can get a new armor set awesomely and appropriately called "The Elder Days," which gives mad stat boosts as well as some shadow damage mitigation. Minstrels can gather up the pieces of a suit of armor called the "Armour of the Wandering Bard," which provides similarly sweet stat bonuses and tactical critical modifiers. There are new weapons for both classes as well.It's excellent gear, and all this on top of all the other lovin' Minstrels and Lore-masters got in Book 11. We'll let you know when part four of the guide hits the streets.
Part 2 of LotRO 'The Rift' loot guide
The second part of TenTonHammer's Lord of the Rings Online loot guide has been posted. Part one had a look at rift-coins and the rewards associated with them, but now we're getting to the really good stuff -- gems. Gems can be handed in for class-specific items, both armor and weapons. However, as each gem will be required by every class, expect to be raiding a while before you've finished your set.This chapter of the guide details the loot that Guardians and Champions can look forward to. The guide shows the stats on each piece, and lists the set bonuses gained by wearing more of the pieces at once. There is also a table that shows which bosses drop which gems, and noted here is the fact that one of the bosses (as of the writing of the guide) is not giving up his gem.The bugged encounter should yield a Dazzling Emerald, and the fact that he isn't translates into the shoulder pieces from each set currently being unavailable. No doubt, as reports are being sent in about the issue, it will be fixed soon enough. Click the related story to get a list of the item sets for Guardians and Champions, and we will keep an eye out for the next installment, which will cover another handful of classes.
A look at new LotRO loot from 'The Rift'
TenTonHammer has posted a guide that looks at some of the loot from Lord of the Rings Online's new raid instance, 'The Rift of Nurz Ghashu', in which players get to band together to hunt down a poor defenseless Balrog. There will eventually be more parts to the guide, but this first installment examines the loot rewarded from handing in Rift-iron coins.The aforementioned coins are obtained by turning in ore from The Rift, and are then traded on for various items. Note that the coins are not used to get class-specific sets -- these will come from the dropped gems, covered in a future guide. The coins can be traded for some useful consumables, or other general armor pieces (which still look like fairly decent items). Almost all armor items will cost 2 coins, with the one exception being a 4-coin ring, and the consumables are between 1-2 coins each. It looks like even if you aren't lucky enough to get your hands on a gem during a raid, grabbing some ore to trade for coins can still net you some nice new shineys. The full list of coin loot, with stats and costs, is available via the link below.
LotRO Book 11 notes and early download available
Book 11: Defenders of Eriador , the third free content update for Lord of the Rings Online, is arriving Wednesday morning. In advance of the patch going live, Turbine has released the patch notes two days early on the LotRO Lorebook, their official Wiki site.There are no surprises since we saw these patch notes on the Preview server earlier this month. Still on track are all the major changes: The introduction of player and guild housing in the Man, Elf, Hobbit and Dwarf cities Four new level 40+ outdoor zones in and around The Misty Mountains to smooth out high level questing The Rift, the game's second raid zone, a 12-man level 50 instance that pits your group against a Balrog and introduces new class armor sets Class revamps for Lore-masters (new Lynx pet, new high level skills) and Minstrels (Warspeech, a new dps stance for faster soloing, new high level skills.) Also, the introduction of Gollum to the game through a flashback instance. And the epic quest series that allows the players to help the Fellowship in its journey to Mordor has a new 13-quest arc. We're not sure yet how the new Epic Quest series plays out yet, but the title of patch could mean all the playable lands are in jeopardy.The patch is currently available by Torrent and direct download. It will also be available through the patcher on Wednesday, October 22, 2007.
