Since PAX there has been relatively little new news regarding the upcoming ‘Siege of Mirkwood’ expansion. However, today I came across a little nugget of new information while trawling through the LOTRO.com forums. The juice comes from the resident LotRO lore–monkey Berephon and his MyLotRO blog — which can be found here.
The blog explains how in his downtime (from fixing typos and checking the lore used in the new Mirkwood quests), he was given the opportunity to do an Orion style update on a small corner of Middle Earth. Berephon goes on to explain his choice of Fanuidhol — the orc-infested war-zone north of Lothlorien, where there are currently just a few quests. His overhaul will include 14 new tasks which include several repeatable quests to gain Lothlorien reputation, IXP, cash and silver branches. A comment in the discussion, which follows the blog entry indicates that highly-prized Lothlorien gold leaves may also be included as a quest reward, should the rewards guru permit it!
Berephon’s choice to add to the currently limited number of Fanuidhol’s quests is well justified. Based upon my own travels in the Golden Wood, any quests that add variety to the reputation-grinding quests in Lothlorien is most welcome, and I look forward to seeing the results.
There are all ready complaints about this being added to SoM and how the poster on the forums “hopes that this is not all we see in SoM”. Really? Really we feel the need to complain about new quests that didn’t even have to be made in the first place? Personally, I think the whole spirit of this addition is good because it sets a precedence of a Turbine employee seeing a lack of quests for an area, adding them into the game, and making them so that they a) can be completed at the same time b) add item XP and b) add reputation. I think it’s a great addition.
The whole expansion seems to be very controversial with the player-base. I think it is fair to say, the majority were perhaps a little surprised that Mirkwood was to be an expansion (not a free update), but realise this expansion will bring with it a helluva lot of new material: 5 new levels, Legendary/Class/Trait updates, tonnes of new quests, Mirkwood, Lone Lands revamp, Horses update, Combat update, Skirmishes e.t.c. and are therefore appeased. While, others remain very unhappy as radiance will carry on (albeit in a new form), and they generally do not feel the updates are worthy of a paid-expansion. Admittedly, I was not convinced of its worth to start with, but the more I hear about the little updates (such as what Berephon is doing) I think this expansion will be a fantastic new addition to my Middle Earth experiences. Saying this, I have a lot of unanswered questions — two of the mains one relationg to map size and the other to radiance-gating… all in good time I guess!
The LL revamp is not coming until Mirkwood? I thought that was coming in a book update in the next month or so? Or did that book get folded into the expansion?
I don’t think there are any more updates now until SoM.
Radiance gating creates content.
Do you honestly think that Turbine would go to the trouble to make the 6 6-man instances they did make for moria without radiance gating? No, they wouldn’t, because then people would do the instances maybe once or twice and then move on to the “better” content of, say, the watcher. Just think what you would do if there wasn’t a hard-mode version of the instances out there.
For the sole reason that it is driving turbine to create content such as new instances as opposed to creating bull**** updates such as lothlorien or fishing, I love radiance gating.
If you don’t like radiance gating yourself, the solution is simple: Don’t participate. If you think “zomg it’s a grind”, then don’t do it. Everything in MMOs is a grind, that is the whole point. You put in work to get a higher level or better gear, which is what makes it fun for people.
Also, forgot to mention, the new raid will be radiance gated, as stated by Jeffrey Steefle in a video interview with tentonhammer. He explained that because his super-account didn’t have radiance gear, he was cowering all over the place.
I want to know about radiance gating in terms of, will their changes (mentioned in the mylotro blogs) to attaining radiance have changed in time for the expansion… and how far do these changes go? (i.e. will DN be under same new system). I am well aware what Steefel said about radiance requirements for the tower of Dol Guldur, but I don’t get how Level 60 radiance gear is going to be relevant in a Level 65 raid… i.e. do we have to wear armor 5 levels beneath us at level cap to do the hardest raid in the game? Or have they got new instances for this content and/or a way to transfer radiance.
I have never been hugely opposed to how one attains radiance gear (i.e. a cluster of instances),but have been dissapointed that because of the “gating” component of the Vile Maw and DN, that even groups who play regularly together have such a long slog to get their whole group radianced up for this content. I like to work hard for the best armour — it makes sense to me — but in my opinion such top-end armor should be an advantage to participating in instances such as DN and Vile Maw, not the pre-requisite.
The good thing about the increased level cap is that now instances like DN and Vile Maw will be opened up to less radiant players who have attained level 65.
My assumption is kind of that this all will be handled like Moria was. Everyone got the Book 15 update, but only expansion owners got to go beyond that.
So I imagine LL updates will hit at the same time to keep things simple.