“What to expect when Siege of Mirkwood releases!”

By Mad

Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of LotRO, was interviewed at PAX by Ten Ton Hammer regarding, Siege of Mirkwood … many of you have probably already seen the interview, it was quite informative.  While watching the full video of the interview, I was able to pick out a few things in regard to what the expansion will be adding to the game & also it made me realize how a lot of other game content will be impacted by the expansion.  First of all, let’s look at what SoM will bring in regard to end-game instances:

·        2 x 3-man instances

·        1 x 6-man instance

·        1 x 12-man instance (Dol Guldur)

In case you didn’t notice, that’s exactly the same amount of instance content that was added in Book 8 which was a free update. In comparison, Mines of Moria launched with 7 x 6-man instances and a lair raid.

So what the hell?  Is this what end-game will look like until Volume 3: Book 1 is released next year?  Sigh … well I hope it’s worth the money I paid, that’s all I’m sayin’!!!

Now, one thing that is going to be very different about this expansion compared to the others is that SoM will not make MoM content obsolete.  We need to discard our usual conception of an expansion invalidating previous end-game content.  SoM includes Book 9, the conclusion to the Volume 2 epic story, & players should (or should I say, will have to) progress naturally from MoM content to SoM content.  Those interested in raiding aren’t going to be able to skip the MoM content.  Why you may ask?  The reason is our good old friend … Radiance.  To quote Jeffrey Steefel, Dol Guldur is going to require ‘tons & tons of radiance’.  So if you want to raid Dol Guldur, you’re going to need to acquaint / reacquaint yourself with the radiance cluster.

It isn’t all dread & gloom, however.  Instead of Moria’s 10 levels, the level-cap is only increasing by 5 this time around.  What impact will this have on the game?  Well first of all, this will make MoM’s end-game instances significantly easier, but it isn’t high enough to trivialize them completely.  Those that have found one or more of the hard-modes too challenging will now find them much more forgiving.  The Watcher will now be manageable by pugs & casual raiders, at least with a bit of persistence.  Additionally, the prospective changes that will be made to radiance gear bartering should further facilitate acquisition.

In consequence, Dar Narbugud will likely become almost as accessible as The Rift of Nurz Gashu & Helegrod was back in the day.  Those extra 5 levels will allow the vast majority of players to make good progress there.  Dol Guldur most likely will require something in the area of 100 base radiance.  With the cap increase, this should now be a pretty realistic goal for those that can only raid a couple of nights a week.  Think about it, 3 or 4 pieces of DN +20 gear, the rest +10 or +15 pieces & your ready to go.  In the worst case scenario, it might be necessary to obtain a full DN set, but if all that’s keeping you out of DG is radiance then I think that would be extremely unlikely.

So what can we expect from the new instances?  Jeffrey Steefel demonstrates a little of the Dol Guldur instance during the interview.  He mentions that it is a multi-boss raid & going by previous content, we might assume this means it will include 6 bosses – enough to provide barter items for a full armor set.  Dol Guldur, being a former stronghold of Sauron with a rich history in the lore, certainly deserves an epic instance of this magnitude.

On the other hand, multi-boss raids take a considerable chunk of development time to put together & Dar Narbugud was only released a couple of months ago.  Makes me wonder if Turbine had enough time to produce another substantial bug-free 6-boss raid instance so soon?  Isn’t it more likely that the raid will only include 2 or 3 bosses?  Without any other information to go on, since Dar Narbugud was originally scheduled for Book 7, I’m going to assume that Dol Guldur has been in development for quite a while & will indeed be a full multi-boss raid.

The other new instances we know even less about are the new 3-mans, but it would probably be safe to assume that they share a little in common with the similar ‘cluster’ instances added in Book 8.  The 3-mans will be interesting & challenging, probably designed to take about 30-60 minutes & the 6-man will take about an hour and contain a few challenging bosses.  I’d love to one day see another huge Carn-Dum like instance for the 6-mans, but alas, I think it’ll be unlikely.

Loot wise, I wouldn’t be surprised if these instances provided (via bartering) +15 radiance pieces to complement those obtained from the Book 8 cluster, cumulating in 90 radiance for a full set. This would sound the death knell for the original MoM 6-mans, however, we’ll see what happens at release.