You are here: There are very few development teams in the MMO world that can boast of being able to release new content on a consistent basis, but it seems as though Turbine and their Lord of the Rings team has gotten that down pat, as December 1st will see the launch of their next digital expansion: The Siege of Mirkwood. The Siege of Mirkwood is also quite special for LOTRO fans, as this will act as the conclusion to Volume II: Mines of Moria, thereby suggesting that we may see a new expansion coming in the not so distant future.
Either way, just as constant as the dev team is with their content updates, their PR guys work equally hard, making sure that with every coming book release also comes… an in-game tour! So today, Turbine invited ZAM.com to sit down with Adam Mersky, Director of Communications, and Aaron LOTRO Gold Campbell, LOTRO's Live Producer, to check out what makes Book9: Siege of Mirkwood one of the most action-packed expansions to come along in quite some time.
First of all, for anyone who hasn't been following Turbine's consistent flow of content updates, The Siege of Mirkwood follows players as they join the Army of Lothlorien to invade Mirkwood and drive the baddies out, as well as swinging by Dol Guldur (the Hill of Sorcery) to convince one of Sauron's Nazguls to vacate the premises (eviction notices were sent and ignored, I suspect). What's really interesting about this new Siege of Mirkwood expansion, however, is that players will really get the feeling that all of Middle Earth is LOTRO Gold going to war. Players will be joining Lothlorien's "A" team, their strike force, so to speak, to lead the Elvish armies to victory.
One very welcome change (at least for me) that became noticeable as soon as the tour began was that Turbine has really streamlined their combat system. Now players will find that their skills will be more responsive, as each time you use an ability, it will be used immediately while your auto attack damage will be relegated to the background. In this way, players may discover that combat has definitely become smoother with the launch of Siege of Mirkwood.
In terms of other game play upgrades, the team also notes that legendary items will be buffed to level 60, and items will be reworked to give more information up front, so players can determine if it's worth keeping from early on. As well, mounts have been transformed into learnable "abilities," to free up a bank slot. Finally, the team noted that a fourth relic slot has been added for players; a crafting relic slot!
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