LotRO Vol 2, Book 7 - Play Session

Nobleman of the Rings Online: Volume 2, Book 7 – Leaves of Lorien

Turbine's Aaron Campbell, LotRO's Live Producer, was kind enough to walk me through the new content advent in Mass 2, Book 7: Leaves of Lorien.

Once I'd logged into the test server with Gilras, my level off 60 Champion, Campbell opted to start off soft, showing ME some of the new lawn decorations available for player housing, including a (rather tasteful) lattice logic gate available through reputation with the Elves of Lothlorien. He also demonstrated two sunrise items found in the new 12-man raid: a statue of Nimrodel, and "Nanu's Hiding Place," a small bush that when used spawns a small friendly capsize favorite. Quite adorable.

With the release of Mines of Moria, LotRO took players just east of Moria and the Wet Mountains to the border of the Metallic Mrs. Henry Wood of Lothlorien. Book 7 opens up the entireness of Lorien, lease players venture into the Elven lands – though non the right way outside. The Elves are notoriously reclusive and withdrawn from the world, and as Campbell explained, anyone who hadn't gained their permission to enter would find themselves quickly meeting a barrage of arrows.

In order to increase one's faction standing with the Galadrim, players will need to either complete the story of Bulk 2, Book 6 culminating in a meeting with Galadriel herself, Oregon complete a series of quests on Lorien's western edge with Haldir, near where the Fellowship entered the Grant Wood. Campbell said that the developers had well-advised giving Hob player characters an inherent reward, just decided to make complete PCs equal for gameplay purposes.

The space of Lorien is very opposite from much of the rest of the spirited, Campbell explained as he showed Pine Tree State around the woods. Since the Elves are so withdrawn and reclusive, the Golden Wood is a pacific and otherworldly place. That's goaded about of the content in Book 7, he said, since they couldn't ut the standard form of combat quests, like repelling enemy invaders and exterminating Orc camps. So the Turbine team up took the opportunity to dig into the lore and connect players more with the members of the Family as they lively in Lorien aft the chaos and despair of Moria.

Nor do the Elves use money, then quest rewards will as an alternative be trade tokens, which can cost redeemed for different types of rewards corresponding equipment and weapons – or, for instance, the said lawn decorations.

Speaking of the Company, it wasn't long ahead we ran into a careful pair of Hobbits – Sam and Frodo, tonic from Moria but non yet split from the Fellowship. Up elated on combined of the Elvish Flets, there are Legolas and Gimli – as unrivalled might expect, Gimli isn't happy about being thus far above the ground. "He's making an effort," laughs Campbell. In one of the Book 7 quests, players will chafe accompany the pair on a more traditional combat quest search Orcs.

American Samoa we moved on, Campbell elaborated that they didn't neediness players to feel dated behind Record 7 if they hadn't fully completed the storyline through Book 6 – piece the team certainly desirable players to meet through the content, IT wouldn't be a necessary. Furthermore, the unveiling to the epic quest would embody tuned mostly for solo players or small groups, to make IT more in hand to everyone.

After touring the Banquet Lawn where Elves were getting their party lawn and the docks where the Fellowship would ultimately part with from Lorien (and falling in the water there), Campbell took me to Caras Galadhon, the capital of Lothlorien – metropolis of eternal light bloom, one might call IT.

The developers had intended to make this city nestled in the boughs of trees look As celestial and otherworldly every bit possible – more indeed than the rest of Lorien – and it works rather fountainhead. Caras Galadhon was by removed the coolest part of the play session, a immense-seeming electronic network of connected platforms that went terminated the place. Learning how to navigate the city might be a task per se, but Campbell says that the team has enforced quests to do just that: "Hey, find this guy on that flet over there and give him something. Saintlike luck!" Alas, if only the Elves had fictional zip lines.

Like Moria, Caras Galadhon is a same vertical space, making expend of the improvements in the game engine since its launch. Plainly the Dwarves and Elves have more in common than they'd like to think. Elsewhere in Lorien, I encountered one Peregrin "Pippin" Took fast asleep on a bench, with Aragorn nearby. Campbell took me down Capitol Hill to reveal ME ane of his favorite spots in the city – the Fountain of the Madam.

Plain, I was able to jump raised into the fountain, something that would surely get Maine shouted at by the Elves if this were live. Nearby, I was able to accept a quest to play some water from the fountain to few thirsty Elves, and Campbell used the chance to demonstrate the Quest Tracker, one of Holy Writ 7's radical features. An arrow on the minimap nibbed ME in the right direction, and when I went to the lax map, a blue X well-marked my name and address. Piece some players World Health Organization played LotRO really likeable the lore and exploration and finding everything for themselves – and could turn the characteristic slay – they'd found that some people longed-for to equitable complete things, like logging on and getting several things done in limited time.

Of course, being the test realm, we unconcealed a glitch where the Call for Tracker was telling me to a-okay to the other side of Moria to hand over the water. That's a trifle of a trek. Campbell laughed, joking that "just because they aren't combat quests doesn't mean we can't make them tough!"

Another affair that they showed Maine was the new conflict instance infinite, where players serve the Elves steel oneself against war – the Fellowship's passage through Moria sick up the Orcs within, and they're now storming out of the mines, intent along invading the Golden Wood.

The new instance works very much like the "battle spaces" in Angmar and Moria, centered around defending barricades with groups of defenders. Campbell pointed out that it was actually an area that players could visit outside of the exemplify to familiarize themselves with the territory ahead entering the fight down. The goal of the battle is to hold three different barricades, each of which has quaternion Nonproliferation Center Elf defenders – randomised between Warriors, Healers, and Rangers. Around barricades wish have harmonious groups, others testament be more in need of aid – luckily, there are extra reinforcement NPCs that you can send on to aid the defenses. Got a team of threesome Healers and a Fire warden? Send a warrior to back them up.

Of course, players will have to aid them themselves – whether by splitting up or focusing incomparable at a time, information technology's their option. If any unrivaled of the barricades fall, the battle is squandered. In that respect were further objectives, explained Campbell, that could be obtained once players had already completed IT once – killing facultative bosses that could spawn during the encounter, preventing your primary NPC from pickings any damage, and so on.

Beyond Defense Department, there will be the chance for players to go on the attack, taking Elf banners and pushing into the enemy lands to capture Idols of Sauron. Whichever musician is carrying the banner will be the target for attack, so Don't hand it to your more fragile classes.

Finally, Campbell showed me the midpoint of the Book 7 epic quest, which has players returning to Moria at the request of an gray-headed dwarven supporter to apportion with the putrefaction sexual climax from the depths that has been plaguing Dwarves and Elves like. Abstruse within the Foundation of Stone, we fought a Caerog – some other member of the Rog family, just made impermissible of stone instead of smoke and fire, though Campbell didn't want to show up me too much, saying that he preferred for the big surprises – including an encounter with an "old archnemesis" – to stop surprises. The epic quest will exist tuned for solo play or small groups Eastern Samoa players explore the relationships 'tween Elves and Dwarves.

It isn't just the epic quest that Turbine aimed to make less preventive – they went back and retooled some of the beginner content equally well, Campbell said. The early border on flows Thomas More cursorily and smoothly, and has Sir Thomas More guidance to IT – reflecting non only what they've learned since the game launched, but how the MMO genre has evolved since then. For illustration, if you're level 3 and a monster stuns you, that's no fun, because you're just learning the game – so they removed that class of thing from the lower levels, regrouped quests soh that there was a natural progression from one hub to the next instead of running backward and forward between Point A and Point B, and generally aimed for IT to be much less of a hassle for new players.

Leaves of Lorien will go live tomorrow, Tuesday the 16th. Check out our full gallery here!

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/lotro-vol-2-book-7-play-session/

Source: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/lotro-vol-2-book-7-play-session/

Share this post