lotro-book-2.8 posts

Welcome back week for Lord of the Rings Online Europe starts next Monday

by Seraphina Brennan Jul 31st 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Events, in-game, News items

Hey just a friendly reminder for our European readers, Codemasters Online is running a welcome back week for Lord of the Rings Online starting on Monday. All former subscribers are welcome to come back for a great week of bonus experience and free gameplay. Who can turn down leveling faster and leveling for free?

Don't worry about fiddling with your account or clicking any "re-activate" links either. Codemasters will turn all of the accounts online on their own, so all you have to do is re-install the game or simply patch up to the latest version, Book 8: The Scourge of Khazad-Dûm. We have lots of information on Book 8, plus we even got a tour of it from Turbine! If you're not up-to-date, now's the perfect time to check out all of our coverage!

Tags: codemasters, event, free-gameplay, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, lotro-europe, turbine, welcome-back-week

Massively Speaking Episode 58

by Shawn Schuster Jun 24th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Podcasts, Culture, Events, in-game, Opinion, Massively meta, Rumors, Massively Speaking

Massively Speaking Episode 58 returns this week as Shawn is joined once again by Contributing Editor Colin Brennan and they discuss everything from LotRO Book 8 to Aion and Cities XL beta impressions, and more!

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot us an email to podcast AT massively DOT com. Maybe we'll read your letter on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
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Read below the cut for the full show notes.

Tags: aion, beta, cities-xl, featured, lotro-book-2.8, massively-speaking, podcasting, podcasts

LotRO Book 8 launches today in the US; Thursday 25th slated as tentative European release

by William Dobson Jun 23rd 2009 at 10:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches

The time has finally come for players of the US/Oceanic version of Lord of the Rings Online to experience Volume 2 Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dûm, as the large patch makes it to the live servers today. The information-packed official update notes are long and dense; here is a small sample of the changes and additions:

The Epic Book 8 quest line, involving the thwarting of Gorothúl, sorcerer of Dol Guldur
The Summer Festival, including two new events, located at The Shire and the area outside Thorin's Hall
A huge crafting revamp
Numerous class tweaks
A barter system for First Age Legendary Items
Changes to Lothlorien Gift Boxes
A boat NPC for Lake Everswim... er, Evendim!

Of course, to get the full scoop on these changes and more you'll want to sift through the actual notes, or for a more visual take, you can check the dev tour we were given late last month that looks at some of these things.

The other good news is that we now know that Thursday the 25th is the tentative release date for Book 8 on the European servers. It was first spotted on the LotRO-Europe Twitter, and later backed up by Community Officer Faya on the forums. We're expecting official confirmation of the European launch date within the next 24 hours.

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8 Dev Tour

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8

Tags: breaking, codemasters, launch, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, patch, scourge-of-khazad-dum, summer-festival, turbine

LotRO Book 8 releases June 23, pre-patching offered

by James Egan Jun 20th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, News items

Massively has been following the latest content update for Lord of the Rings Online, which is Volume II Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dûm. We've now learned via MMeOw that Scourge of Khazad-Dûm will release on June 23 (US/Oceanic)! As a bonus, players can already download the patch; the update weighs in at a fairly hefty 600mb and links can be found in the official announcement on the LotRO forums. The patch notes are epic in length, and it might just be quicker to re-read one of Tolkien's works, but they seem to cover everything that's changing in Lord of the Rings Online.

If the 23rd and the release of Scourge of Khazad-Dûm can't come soon enough for you, have a look through the dev tour that Turbine gave us, showing a bit of the content you'll soon be playing in Volume II Book 8.

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8 Dev Tour

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8

Tags: breaking, breakingnews, fantasy, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, mmeow, patch, patch-notes, patches, scourge-of-khazad-dum, turbine, update, updates

Changes to instances and raids in LotRO's upcoming Book 8

by Shawn Schuster Jun 15th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Game mechanics, Patches

In a recent dev journal from Turbine's Jared "Amlug" Hall-Dugas, we get an inside look at some of the new changes to raiding and instances coming with Lord of the Rings Online's Book 8. As we first announced late last month through our Book 8 dev tour, these new instances are quite the focus in this newest content patch.

This dev journal goes into a bit more depth from the technical side of what we can expect from the new instances, changes to existing instances and the changes to item drops in instances and raids. Amlug also explains the drop rate changes for First Age weapons per Watcher run, and the increased availability of Radiance gear for those runs. You can check out the complete journal over at Amlug's mylotro.com page, and keep an eye on Massively as we get closer to Book 8's release, later this month.

Tags: amlug, dev-diary, dev-journal, instances, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, raids, turbine

LotRO dev diary looks at Bree-land overhaul in Volume 2: Book 8

by William Dobson Jun 11th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, Leveling

One of the features of the next Lord of the Rings Online update, Volume 2: Book 8, is a revamping of some of the game's low to mid-level quests. The latest developer diary on the official site elaborates on the methods through which this will be achieved. A great deal of the overhauling will focus on the Bree-land zone, including Bree-town. Come Book 2.8, the area will be changed to be of more use to players between the levels 14-22, and we're promised two distinct questing paths that will lead to different places in the zone, and hopefully highlight some of the bigger storylines of Bree-land.

As Bree-land will become more commonly used by Tier 2 players, the crafting nodes in the area will also be changed to their Tier 2 versions. New repeatable "bounty quests" will be available, and existing quest rewards have been completely revised to ensure their usefulness for players in the adjusted level range. To learn more about all of the above changes, make sure to read the full dev diary.

Tags: bree-land, bree-town, dev-diary, developer-diary, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, new-player-experience-take-2, turbine

Gaze into LotRO Book 2.8's Hall of Mirrors with six new screenshots

by Kyle Horner Jun 10th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, News items

Turbine continues to shower us with imagery of their next free content update Volume II, Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dûm. This go-around we've been treated to a look at the Hall of Mirrors, a place where giant expensive looking mirrors shine light into the otherwise dark, vast caves.

Look, we're not sure it's so wise to have all these mirrors where things like giant wolves and bat monsters live, especially when adventurers seem to think it's fun to stomp through the place and fight everything in sight. Sooner or later, you know one of those giant mirrors is going to break. And what's the cost do you think? Probably several platinum pieces that frankly, we don't have.

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8

Tags: bats, lord-of-the-rings, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, patch, screens, screenshot, screenshots, turbine, update, wolves

New Lord of the Rings Online screens show Book 8's fiery crafting halls

by James Egan Jun 3rd 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches

Massively has been keeping an eye on what Turbine will deliver with Lord of the Rings Online Volume II Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dûm; in fact, we were given a dev tour of the Book 8 content and showed you some of the quest revamps and new instances. Beyond that we've taken a look at the Scourge of Khazad-Dûm teaser trailer and highlighted some of the crafting enhancements that are coming with Volume II Book 8. Now Turbine's given us a look at some more Book 8 content, with six new screenshots released today that show off the fiery crafting halls.

Click on through our LotRO Volume 2: Book 8 gallery for a peek at what you can expect in the June release of Scourge of Khazad-Dûm.

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8 Dev Tour

Tags: codemasters, fantasy, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, lotro-crafting, patches, photos, scourge-of-khazad-dum, screenshots, turbine

LotRO Book 8 crafting enhancements

by Jon Shute Jun 3rd 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, Crafting

Turbine has posted another developer diary for Lord of the Rings Online, which details changes coming to crafting in the upcoming Book 8 update. The major changes are to the levels of crafted items that can be equipped to smooth out the progression of items through the first 50 levels. All affected crafted items will have their new updated required level after the patch unless the item is currently equipped and would raise the level above the player's current level. This will prevent currently equipped items becoming unusable from the patch.

The rare items used in crafting as mastery options are also being changed. Currently these items just have a cryptic message saying that the item can be used for crafting and no details as to which crafting profession uses them for which level recipes. With the patch these items, such as eyes and claws, will no longer be used and a new system introduced that will drop from sentient creatures and as rare spawns in the resource nodes that contain the initial crafting materials. Any existing optional components players may have will become barter items that can be traded in for the equivalent items in the new system. Finally the last page contains a list of other changes, such as the updating of stack sizes for crafting to 100 items and the introduction of new recipes.

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8 Dev Tour

Tags: lotro, lotro-book-2.8, lotro-crafting, lotro-developer-diary, lotro-mastery-options, turbine

Codemasters releases trailer for LotRO Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dûm

by James Egan Jun 1st 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches

Things are looking pretty good for fans of Lord of the Rings Online with the frequent content updates that Turbine has been cranking out. Codemasters has just released a teaser trailer for Lord of the Rings Online Volume II Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dûm that shows what awaits your Fellowship in the Mines of Moria this summer.

Massively recently had the opportunity to go on a dev tour of the new content and get some info about the quest revamps, 3-, 6,- and 12-man instances, and a preview of the Summer Festival, which is well worth a look if we don't say so ourselves. LotRO's Volume II Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dûm is slated for a June release and we've got a video embed of the Book 8 teaser trailer for you after the jump.

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8 Dev Tour

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8

Tags: book-8, codemasters, fantasy, khazad-dum, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, mines-of-moria, patches, turbine

LotRO dev tour: Massively's look at Book 8

by Shawn Schuster May 29th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, News items, Hands-on

Once again, Turbine has been kind enough to offer us a sneak peek look at the newest Book update to Lord of the Rings Online. This newest one, Volume 2, Book 8, introduces two new 3-man instances, a 6-man space and their largest instance to date: an enormous 12-man instance with six bosses! In addition, there's a revamp of quests in the 15-25 level range, many crafting system improvements and the Summer Festival, complete with new events and a different way to win the festival horse.

This dev tour was given by Aaron "Rowan" Campbell, Live Producer for LotRO and Adam Mersky, Turbine's Director of Communications. It focused mainly on the new instances, as we were shown the highlights of each space, including the incredibly difficult bosses at the end. Follow along in our 26-image gallery below for more on what we saw in Book 8.

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8 Dev Tour

Tags: aaron-campbell, dev-tour, featured, instances, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, rowan, summer-festival, turbine

Massively Speaking Episode 55

by Shawn Schuster May 27th 2009 at 4:30PM

Filed under: Podcasts, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Massively meta, Massively Speaking

Massively Speaking Episode 55 is back this week as Shawn is joined by new(ish) blogger Lesley Smith. They discuss everything from WoW's newest patch 3.2 announcement to LotRO's Book 8 patch notes. There's also some great discussion on the sad state of mounts and inventory in MMOs these days. Ironically, we predict the delay of Jumpgate Evolution (along with everyone else) just before the news actually broke.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot us an email to podcast AT massively DOT com. Maybe we'll read your letter on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
[Zune] Subscribe to Massively Speaking via the Zune service.
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[Digg] Like the show? Digg it.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
[VW] Listen at VirginWorlds.com
Listen here on the page:

Read below the cut for the full show notes.

Tags: featured, lotro-book-2.8, massively-speaking, podcasting, podcasts, wow-patch-3.2

First screens for LotRO Vol. II Book 8 Scourge of Khazad-dum

by Kyle Horner May 27th 2009 at 3:30PM

Filed under: Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, News items

The very first screens from Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming free update are some of the best yet, featuring the Water Wheels and a new -- and enormous -- enemy fighting various player characters. We're really digging the monster design here, and highly recommend that you check it our for yourself to see what we're talking about.

Our guess is that the Water Wheels is a new instance. Can we just say that the whole wood and stone architecture is really awesome? It certainly adds some new variety to Turbine's envisioning of Middle-earth, not that there wasn't any to begin with -- making the achievement that much more impressive.

There's sure to be more screens and potentially concept art in the days to come, so keep your eyes peeled for it! And while you're doing that be sure to be on the lookout for our forthcoming Volume 2: Book 8 developer tour, too.

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8

Tags: lord-of-the-rings, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, screens, screenshot, screenshots, the-water-wheels, turbine, water-wheels

June to bring LotRO Vol. II, Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dum

by Kyle Horner May 26th 2009 at 11:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, News items

Turbine continues developing and publishing their content updates at a pace unmatched by pretty much any other developer. They've announced today via Twitter that Volume II, Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dum will be coming this June -- just about three months since the last update back in March. Seriously, the men and women at Turbine are like game developing machines. They must be robots, it's the only explanation.

The patch notes are already out, but we've got something even better in store for you Lord of the Rings Online players out there. Massively will be doing yet another developer tour for Vol. II, Book 8 very soon. So expect all sorts of screens and details to whet your appetite for the eventual patch day sometime in the 720 hours or so!

Tags: breaking, dev-tour, lord-of-the-rings, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, patch, turbine, update

LotRO two-year anniversary: Book 8 details announced

by Shawn Schuster Apr 24th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Interviews, MMO industry, Patches, Massively Interviews

As our LotRO 2nd anniversary coverage continues, we're pleased to bring you some of the latest news from a recent conference call we had with Turbine. This call involved Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of LotRO, Harry Teasley, Art Director for LotRO and Adam Mersky, Director of Communications for Turbine to provide us with a rundown of the last two years with the game and what the future holds.

Perhaps the most exciting part of this call came when a teaser was given for the upcoming Book 8 content. We were also treated to some more info on the 2nd Anniversary Welcome Back in-game promotion for former players, new discounted subscription pricing for new players and much more! Follow along after the cut below for a summary of this exciting new information from Turbine.

Tags: anniversary, featured, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, turbine