ZAM chats with LOTRO's designers about the newest content!

Being invincible for tours helps. This evil tree is meant to challenge 6-person Fellowships

Next we jumped on to Limlight Gorge, a throwback to the first year, as it’s a group-only region. “The entire area is dedicated to groups of three or six players. Big and nasty creatures here will stomp on your head; spiders the size of houses, nasty looking trees… it’s not as fully populated as other regions, so a brave adventurer could sneak in here solo… but we recommend bringing a Fellowship. Your ‘overpowered’ Warden won’t be lasting long by himself!” Further on in the Gorge we come across the edges of Fangorn Forest and an opportunity to interact with the Ents. “A lot of the stuff that goes on here is derived from the book. We have Fangorn Forest and the Ents. There’s quite a bit of history here with the elves in ages past when Fangorn and Lothlorien were all one connected forest.

The tall reeds hide monsters that ambush players suddenly

After, we moved onto the Crushgore, a good old swamp. Not only did the reeds provide atmosphere, but they hid monsters that would rush out at us unexpectedly from all sides. “It’s not only the monsters here that provide a challenge, but the environment itself is difficult to navigate,” said the designers. Things will suddenly rush out from the bushes… players beware!

Brown Lands outpost

Out of the Swamp we jumped to the Brownlands. “Though aptly named, they aren’t ONLY brown,” the designers told us. “They were decimated by Sauron in ages past. Literally nothing grows. But the Rohirrim build their outpost here anyway.” Right outside we ran into our first Easterlings; the culture shows as very distinct with unique armor, weapons, and facial types. They come in melee varieties as well as magic types called Blue Sorcerers. “The quests in this region have decision points that will affect results later on in the quest line,” we were warned.

As mentioned previously, the Easterling enemies have randomized models now

After the Brownlands, we ended up at the Desolation of the Gardens. “Do you remember the Ents from Tolkien lore?” I was asked (and by the way, yes I do. I even know about Tom Bombadil. Boo-yah, +1 Tolkien lore), “The Ents used to travel far and wide and the Ent-Wives would stay home and tend the gardens. But at some point the Ents roamed too far, and when they came back the Ent-Wives were gone and to this day, no one knows where they are. And then Sauron came and decimated what was left of their gardens… and this is the result.” The area boasted brand new trolls; some who stayed out in the sunlight a bit too long and turned into statues, but others who proudly flaunt the Rohan shields they wear as belt buckles.

Somehow doubting the trolls traded for those shields...

Outside of the new regions, we also briefly discussed the improved soldier function. Players have been able to summon and level up their soldiers previously in skirmishes, but they are now available in the broader worlds. They can be bought in one-hour increments for medallions, or purchased through the LOTRO store, and that one-hour timer counts down as long as they are out (ie, they can be dismissed to save on time remaining).

The new instance finder has several options to help players find just what they want

Shift + F brings up the instance finder. Improving on the grouping system in update 5, the instance finder gives three tabs to identify the best kind of Fellowship content. The first lets you pick your role, the type of content, and enjoy! They’ll find something for you. “If you hit the second tab, Advanced, we’ll have a lot more options. You still choose your role and the type of content you want to play, but you also pick the size, difficulty, and filter through instances and skirmishes. So you can collect where you want to go. As you select more and more places, you get more of a bonus for spreading out… up to 50% bonus to the currency you gain and 5% to your morale and power.” Finally, you can use the specific tab which replaces the old world tab and is best for players who know exactly what you want. The developers told me that this updated feature was based primarily on feedback from players; the Fellowships are being heard!

Finally, currency has been changed. Previously there was one currency system for both PvP and PvE players. Now it has been broken up so that commendations are the currency for PvP and earned by (shockingly) killing other players. They can be used to buy brand-new PvP armor sets, or to rank up and advance a monster player. A new PvP stat has been added to gear and rank called Audacity, which reduces incoming damage and improving abilities.

"Brrharroom. There have been no Entings for a terrible long count of years."

And that, fellow LOTRO fans, sums up Update 6: new areas, new stories, an improved instance finder, soldiers in the open field, and PvP updates! As we mentioned before, the Great River update sets the stage for the Rohan expansion to be released later this year. Already we’ve seen a lot of new areas and changes; and ZAM will be there every step of the way as LOTRO continues to churn out just what its players want!

Paul "LockeColeMA" Cleveland, Staff Writer