Renkosi's Guide to the Siege of Mirkwood

For the last week the beta testers have finally been able to tell us all about their experiences in the Mines of Moria expansion. This has lead to a rash of articles across the web. I’ve been keeping an eye on them all, so read on for a round up of the new information.

1. Next weekend is the +25% XP welcome back weekend for European players on the Codemasters servers. This will be a great chance for players who have not been in the game for a while to try out the areas added this year (Forochel and Evendim) and additional quests based around the reputation factions for free. Current subscribers will of course get the opportunity to level up their characters a little faster to get ready for Moria, which is a level 50+ area. (It looks like players in the US will get a second weekend at the same time! Bah)
2. With the new crafting tier (superior) comes the new crafting guilds, these will allow you to specialise further in one of your craft skills, you can only be a member of one guild at anytime, so most characters will have to choose between two. If you swap guilds you will loose all your progress even if you swap back so make sure you choose carefully. Your position in a guild is advanced via reputation, so be prepared for a long grind. Get the full low down, and examples of the recipes and crafted items for Jewellers available in the Lord of the rings online.net’s guide:  (http://lordoftheringsonline.net/readarticle.php?article_id=28). Crited items have a greater bonus to stats than previously, so this effort will be eventually repaid. Craft guilds can be joined before level 50, but you can gain reputation faster if you use the supreme recipes which require materials from inside Moria. The reputation is limited by a cool-down on the recipes, such that you can craft two per day. It will take you about 30 days to complete without supreme and 15 days with. All the professions gain the ability to craft legendary items or weapons. the items are classified into three size ranges, small have a 1 day cool-down, medium a 3 day cool-down and large a 7 day cool-down. Lotro life offers a full guide and lists the items you need to collect now, so you can get started as soon as the game arrives! http://www.lotrolife.com/crafting_guild_guide_moria/
3. The tier 6 of course brings its own new recipes to the game, a range of these was revealed by Lotro Life. The have screen grabs for the amour, food and potions and woodworker weapons. http://www.lotrolife.com/moria_lotro_crafting_screenshots/
4. Legendary items help to make the game fun because they allow you to maintain the same weapon over a longer period of time, adding some stability to your character, but still providing the sense of progression. http://fidgit.com/archives/2008/10/mines-of-moria-to-introduce-le.php. Legendary items have three slots, one for each of three types of upgrade runes, gems and settings. Five level one relics can be cashed in for 1 level 2 relic, but you won’t know what type, as this is decided with a gambling mechanic.
5. Holin Gate is an instanced region (for at least the first time you visit), here you will complete volume 2, book 1 and you will not be able to enter the mines until you have completed it. This acts like a kind of speed bump and will hopefully reduce the day one pressure in the mines themselves (although I’m not planning on heading on in until after the first week or two!). After the introductory quests you make your way to the gate proper where the watcher crashes the party and you beat a hasty retreat as the dwarves get captured, this leads to the introduction of the legendary weapon system. To get into the mines your newly acquired weapon must be levelled to level 10, thus slowing you entrance to Moria further. As an optional extra there is a series of side quests fighting of some half Orcs, that have also come to claim Moria, now the Balrog has been defeated. (http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/the-lord-of-the-rings-online-mines-of-moria/921899p1.html), if you want the story spoiled in detail Massively covered book 1 chapter by chapter: http://www.massively.com/2008/10/20/massively-in-moria-exploring-book-1-chapter-by-chapter/
6. Turbine have announced that a ‘social network’ style feature will be coming to LOTRO before the end of this year, however Codemasters have yet to say anything about a EU version, which seems likely to follow, but probably in 6 months time… http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=256983
7. A map shows the new outposts on the Ettenmoors that can be flipped in the new capture the flag style game play: http://lotrovault.ign.com/fms/Image.php?id=2260. Keeps will also be taken in a capture the flag style game play after the captain general or  tyrant is killed. Glan Vraig and Gramsfoot also have an additional exit each, to try and make it harder for the starting points to be camped.
8. The new class trait sets have been fully revealed by Lotro Vault, along with the UI revamp and Warden skills. Visit Lotro Vault for these and a range of other screenshots. http://lotrovault.ign.com/View.php?view=Expansions.List#2.0

The full transcript can be read on LOTRO Stratics, but a few important questions were answered that confirmed some of the things which were previously unclear:

• None of the pre-Moria equipment is part of the legendary items system, thus it will be impossible to break down the Rift, Helegrod and other existing armour sets into relics. This is a bit of a shame, and indicates that it will be only new raid sets that can be broken down, along with other legendary items.
• The next few expansions will focus on Lothlorien as well as fleshing out some aspects of Moria itself. Following that they plan to across the river to deal with a threat to Lothlorien.
• Monster play will see infamy and renown increased slightly for small groups, and decreased for raids, to try and reduce zerging in large groups.
• The hunters distracting shot skill will be a basic crowd control move, but burglars and lore masters will still be needed.
• Legendary leveling system will be introduced via book 1 of the new epic storyline, in a story style tutorial.
• A key ring will be introduced to remove all those keys from your bags, and, most quest items that don’t need to be interacted with will be removed from our bags!
• You don’t need to finish volume one to enter Moria! However book 15 will have some very special rewards…
• New hobbies maybe coming post Moria.