Book 12 is now on the Roheryn preview server and the patch notes read like a novel! The Ashen Wastes is the name of this update and it is not just a tweak. Various aspects have already been discussed in the Developer Diaries:

Angmar is undergoing a complete revamp.

Burglars gain new skills, tanking is improved for Guardians and Champions get a second pass. Hunters, Lore-masters and Minstrels also have some minor changes so it’s well worth taking a look at the detailed notes.

Yesterday a new diary was posted with a write-up on the long-awaited Outfit System which will allow you to have three outfits. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

Here’s your chance to apply for the Isengard Test Server!

The Codemasters community officer posted to say that they are accepting applications for Turbine’s Isengard test server. The whole Codemaster/Turbine split is pretty confusing, to be honest. I didn’t see anything on the Turbine boards about this but as we aren’t allowed to post there (I received a nice mail from Turbine explaining that that was OK because Turbine customers couldn’t post on the Codemaster message boards either), I don’t really watch those boards.

Still, it looks very straight-forward to apply via Codemasters:

[More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

LotRO has a system for customising characters which is quite powerful but not as intuitive as it could be: traits. The simplest and most customizable of these traits are virtue traits, which you gain by doing virtue deeds.

A virtue deed is simply a quest in a different journal. These quests come in four types: slayer, explorer, reputation and lore. Each virtue deed is tied to a specific location and is added into your deed journal (shift-L) automatically. For example, if there is a deed to kill ten wolves in the Shire, the deed will appear in your journal the first time you kill a wolf in the Shire. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

Keystrokes in LotRO that I couldn’t live without

[Backspace] to target nearest the NPC. If you use [Tab], you get the NPC closest to your current target, not the NPC closest to you. That makes it easy to tab out of the encounter accidentally. [Backspace] will always give the NPC closest to you. If you are already targeted on the NPC closest to you, it will leave your target alone.

[Delete] to target the nearest object. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

The racial deeds in LotRO can be easy to overlook but the cumulative rewards make it very worthwhile to do the deeds as they come up, getting maximum experience for the deed and the kills and making sure you have the best traits available to you as the slots become free.

All racial deeds are slayer deeds. When you gain the level needed for the deed, you simply need to kill one mob of the type needed and the deed will be added to your journal. You must do the deed series sequentially, that is, at level 19 you can’t start the Enmity of the Goblins II deed until you have completed Enmity of the Goblins I.

You receive a total of five racial trait slots which open up at levels 13, 19, 25, 31 and 37.

The racial deeds, sorted by level: [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

There is a special winter quest in Lord of the Rings Online to get a Yule-tree that you can place in your garden. It’s a fast and easy run-around quest but it will only be available until Christmas, so don’t miss your chance.

Speak to Hal Hornblower at the Hobbiton Stables. He’ll tell you the terrible news that Lobelia Sackville-Baggins is in charge of the Hobbiton Yule-feast and offer you [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

There’s a very interesting Developer Diary: The Great Angmar Revamp on the official site with a lot of detail about the upcoming changes to the quests there.

Six months after LOTRO’s launch, what are some of the things we’d like to change about Angmar that have come up from player feedback and our own internal reviews? Here are some of the issues we’ve identified:

• Quest flow is sometimes inconsistent and doesn’t send players to the correct level bands
• Quest difficulty is mislabeled in many cases, both for Suggested Levels and Suggested Group Size
• The spawns in Angmar feel out of place (boars again? Really?), and Elite mobs should not share spawn-points with Normal-statted mobs
• Spawn density in certain locations is too great, resulting in very frustrating gameplay
• The ratio of Full Fellowship quests to Solo quests is not correct; more Solo quests are required

You can see some of the details of what they are planning by following the link, but the important thing to note is that any Angmar quests that you have in progress will be taken out of your log book when Book 12 launches.

When Book 12 gets closer, we’ll release a list of all the quests that will be removed from your log, and a more detailed breakdown of changes. Admittedly, when you collect the quest again, you’ll be playing the freshly-polished and improved version, but if you’ve collected nine pea-plants and need ten, you might want to just get that tenth one and turn in the quest before Book 12 arrives.

The posts concludes with a reassurance that any quest rewards already acquired will be left alone. There still isn’t a firm date for Book 12 although it has been confirmed that it won’t be until the new year. I’m just waiting for my chance to go fishing.

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

It’s terrible, going around with nothing in my pocketses. It just seems all wrong. This is partly because there aren’t crafted baubles, so it’s an easy slot to miss. My main has an age-old item that desperately needs upgrading and most of my alts don’t have anything at all!

In order to keep organised, I’ve made this list of pocket items, ordered by level. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

There have been a few dev chats recently, with a US Dev transcript available on MMORPG and a EU dev chat on LOTROlife.

Not a lot of new news was released in the chats. Book 12 won’t be available until the new year and won’t include new lands. The good news is that [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.

There’s been another flurry of activity regarding housing in Middle-Earth. If you are in the process of creating your own home-sweet-home, then you’ll find these links helpful.

TenTonHammer have a fun link to a Video Dev Diary about player housing.

Interviews on various fan sites have confirmed that Book 12 will be adding support [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://mmorpg-info.org.