Siege of Mirkwood: The nitty-gritty details begin to emerge!

Isy posted this on November 8th, 2009. It has 1 Comment »
Categorized as News, Siege of Mirkwood.
Tagged as , , , , , , , , .
Shorthand Link: http://mmeow.net/tw2373

LOTRO_Mirkwood_Logo

Tipped off by my kin­nie Havborn, I have come across an exclu­sive album of Siege of Mirk­wood screen­shots at The Mad­house Tav­ern (a Euro­pean LotRO fan­site). I strongly rec­om­mend head­ing over to the site to peruse the pic­tures your­self as they reveal a lot of small but rel­e­vant tid­bits relat­ing to the Mirk­wood region and skir­mishes!  Some of the most rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion includes:

  • Hunters and War­dens will be able to port/muster to Mirkeaves if they gain acquain­tance rep­u­ta­tion with the Malladhrim.
  • Carn Dum and Uru­gath class items (e.g. Putrid Slime of Helchgam) is trade­able with Skir­mish Marks
  • Skir­mish marks can also get you a lot of craft­ing mate­ri­als includ­ing shards (e.g. Mithril Flakes and Ruby Shards). The craft­ing sec­tion also  includes ‘Tomes of Mid­dle Earth’ which may be new crit-items or ingre­di­ents for craft­ing items between Lvls 60 – 65.
  • The in-game menu has been updated and includes a more colour­ful lay­out with more options. Our char­ac­ter pan­els will also be sub­di­vided into tabs based upon our mit­i­ga­tions and damage-output. Minor  but pos­i­tive changes!
  • At least 3 skir­mishes will be based in Mirk­wood / Dol Gul­dur, and are designed for those at the new level cap of 65.

Thanks to the Mad­house Tavern’s brief write-up of Krispy’s hands-on with the expan­sion, it seems that:

  • Crafters can make 1st Age legendaries.
  • Some class leg­endary skills which the player-base have deemed use­less, are being replcaed or modified.
  • You get to use war-machines dur­ing some of the quests/skirmishes!

Hunters, Burglars and Lore-masters Beyond Level 50

Tony posted this on October 8th, 2008. It has No Comments »
Categorized as Burglar, Hunter, Loremaster, Mines of Moria.
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Shorthand Link: http://mmeow.net/tw582

There’s been a lot of talk about the new War­den and Rune-keeper classes and what they’ll be able to do in Mines of Moria, but there’s been very lit­tle talk about what will hap­pen with our exist­ing Level 50 char­ac­ters. Today Tur­bine updated with three sep­a­rate arti­cles that cover just that. If you’re a Bur­glar, Hunter or Lore–mas­ter you’re in luck as Tur­bine has you cov­ered. The rest of us will have to wait for new articles.

Mines of Moria adds a new Trait Set sys­tem to the game. Accord­ing to Tur­bine, “Trait Sets group each class’s Class Traits into three loosely related sets of eight traits and give addi­tional bonuses for using mul­ti­ple Traits in a set.” Play­ers would be choos­ing a set based upon how they’d like their char­ac­ter to play … This is sim­i­lar to trees used in other MMORPGs and finally gives LotRO play­ers a way to quickly tell oth­ers how they’re specced (i.e., a “mischief-maker bur­glar”, which is focused on tricks).

Addi­tion­ally, the expan­sion will also see improve­ments to exist­ing skills, both active and pas­sive. Hunters can find three new group travel skills (one appar­ently lead­ing to Forochel if you’re on good terms with the Los­soth). Lore–mas­ters will gain access to two new pets, the saber-tooth and the bog–guardian. Bur­glars will find that their class quest reward, the Bur­glar’s Tools, will be con­verted to Leg­endary sta­tus and can be lev­eled up along­side the character.

For Bur­glars, it’s all the more rea­son to go after those class quest items now while the Token pro­mo­tion is going on.

Be sure to at least read the arti­cle about your own class, assum­ing one is ready. It’s a nice way to get a head­start on what to expect.