Massively^™

As with last week's dev diary concerning class changes to the Burglar, Hunter and Lore-master, this week's guide to life after level 50 pertains to the Champion, Minstrel and Rune-keeper. When Mines of Moria hits the shelves (and our hard drives) on November 18th, most of us will share our time between experimenting with the new classes and advancing out existing ones. That's where this dev diary comes in handy.

As with the previous article, this one discusses the changes to skills and play style introduced with the new expansion. However, this one is the first to mention one of the new classes: the Rune-keeper. Following an article from a few weeks ago regarding the Rune-keeper's 1-50 level progression, this one picks up where the original left off. Check this one out, and make sure to look for the final installment, presumably involving the Guardian, Warden and Captain, hopefully coming soon!

One of the great online tools for Lord of the Rings Online players is LotRO's recently updated official wiki, The Lorebook. Being a wiki, player contributions were requested and lately the Lorebook has seen more than minor edits. Players who enjoy writing up extensive play guides on the forums are now getting their work spotlighted on the wiki as well.

The latest contribution is a guide to the DPS class, the Champion, by player Aceeka. It's quite an extensive overview of the class covering equipment choices, stances, traits, playstyle and more. It even explores the heavily debated racial skills and how those impact the class.

The other excellent class guide in this section of the Lorebook is the brilliant "What we wish other classes knew about the Champion." Every class has one of these threads in the official forums, but it's great to see this one ensconced on the Lorebook as well. As soon as the Lorebook becomes available in-game, we're going to point every pick up group to this article.

Less than two months after launch, the first content patch added Book 9: The Shores of Evendim on June 14, 2007. Not only did it include a continuation of the epic storyline, but it also released a new zone -- the aforementioned Evendim. This is the land of the Dúnedain that Elendil and his people settled in after arriving in Middle-earth from the destroyed island of Númenor. Though Elendil died away from home, and his body was never returned, a great tomb was erected for him. The tomb remains empty of bodies but contains many treasures -- treasure that certain brigands might be interested in obtaining for themselves.

Along with the new zone came the game's first large-scale raid instance: Helegrod. This was an ancient city built by Dwarves that was assaulted by the evil dragon Thorog. Wielding the powerful sword Mírdanant, Durin the fifth slayed Thorog but was killed in the process. Ever since attempts have been made to retake the city, but some evil prevents the Dwarves from reclaiming it. It is up to your hero, with 23 of his/her best friends, to defeat the evil inside once and for all.

Gameplay-wise, huge improvements to the profession of Farming and the music system were made, and the Champion class received its class review (the first one, that is). Many more quests were introduced to smooth out the leveling at higher levels and the first collectible armor sets were seen.

The new year brought Book 12: The Ashen Wastes on February 13, 2008. This was the first major update that didn't include the introduction of a new region. What it did bring to the table is a mix of revamps and new features.

The high level adventuring area Angmar received a major overhaul, making it significantly more solo friendly. many elite mobs were taken out of the solo area population. And the boars, oh the boars, were mostly removed in favor of more menacing mobs. Finally, the questlines were smoothed out to move players along to area more appropriate to their leve.

PvMP players received a new PvE dungeon, the Delving of Frór. The Creeps and Freeps battle for control of the dungeon and should one gain access while the other was battling a raid target within, well, that's when the real fun begins. New armor and items were also made available to the player side.

Cosmetic enhancements were introduced to the game in Book 12 as well. The outfit system allowed players to choose one set of armor for stats and another for display. The barber system allowed players to change their hairstyle and facial choices, even adding a few new hairstyles to the game.

Finally, three classes got a revamp this time. Guardians received a mix bag as their defenses were both nerfed and buffed, they received a dps stance and gained some utility. Burglars got a buff to nearly all their functions including damage, debuffing, trickery and crowd control. Champions also got an extra pass that gave them a stance that was part offensive and part defensive. This round concluded the class revamps planned by Turbine.

Turbine has been concocting major revisions to the classes of The Lord of the Rings Online since launch. In the forthcoming Book 12 update (now titled "The Ashen Wastes"), the Guardian and Burglar classes will get full treatment, but Champions will see some boons as well. Those boons have been detailed in the latest dev diary entry.

As we learned on the forums a while back, Champions will receive "Ardour," a new stance which strikes a balance between offense and defense. Previously, they had only the mostly-useless default and the haphazardly offensive Fervour stances until late in life. Glory, the defensive stance that they presently get at level 46, will be moved all the way back to level 30, because the 30s are arguably when Champions are most often called upon to tank.

The class will also get some major revamps to its Legendary Skills. If you want all the minute details, Turbine reps went even deeper on the official forum. We Champs have a lot to look forward to!

The second part of TenTonHammer's Lord of the Rings Online loot guide has been posted. Part one had a look at rift-coins and the rewards associated with them, but now we're getting to the really good stuff -- gems. Gems can be handed in for class-specific items, both armor and weapons. However, as each gem will be required by every class, expect to be raiding a while before you've finished your set.

This chapter of the guide details the loot that Guardians and Champions can look forward to. The guide shows the stats on each piece, and lists the set bonuses gained by wearing more of the pieces at once. There is also a table that shows which bosses drop which gems, and noted here is the fact that one of the bosses (as of the writing of the guide) is not giving up his gem.

The bugged encounter should yield a Dazzling Emerald, and the fact that he isn't translates into the shoulder pieces from each set currently being unavailable. No doubt, as reports are being sent in about the issue, it will be fixed soon enough. Click the related story to get a list of the item sets for Guardians and Champions, and we will keep an eye out for the next installment, which will cover another handful of classes.

[Via Curse]