Turbine has posted an article named “Book 14 Developer Diary: Instance Updates” which covers information about instances in Book 14. Who doesn’t enjoy to dungeon crawl together with friends? The developers of Lord of the Rings Online are looking to enhance the instances experience in Book 14 and we’re going to be seeing some pretty big updates to several of the higher end instances.
Angmar
Angmar has 3 main instances: Urugarth, Carn Dûm and Barad Gúlaran. While they are set in some awesome spaces, they have suffered from some problems, both in balance and rewards. We've tried to address some of these issues in Book 14.
A New Armour Set
The most significant change to these instances in Book 14 is the addition of a new Angmar armour set. This set comes in the standard flavors of light, medium and heavy, and can be acquired through defeating bosses in these instances. The acquisition of these armour pieces follows a pattern similar to Annúminas, although the number of smaller barter items needed to purchase a piece is much smaller. For all you number crunchers, here are some screenshots of the new sets for you to enjoy:
Annúminas
Over the past few updates, Annúminas has received a number of changes, and more are coming in Book 14. Some of them are pretty substantial.
Armour Tweaks
We feel the instances represent the hardest 6-man content in LOTRO, but didn't feel the armour matched that difficulty. To address this, we've bumped the armour up to make it much more desirable, and again for you number crunchers, the updated armour stats can be found below. Note that the Light and Medium Armour sets have a new helm piece that you can purchase. This gives you more flexibility in what armour pieces you use to get your set bonuses.
Epic Instances
While certainly not as challenging as some of our other content, the various Epic instances have suffered for some time from not having any incentive to play them again. How many times have you seen someone looking for a Book 4 group? Well to provide some incentive to replay these instances, we are introducing a series of repeatable quests that direct you into those instances. Players who have never done a particular instance before will be able to group up with those who have and both will be rewarded.
These quests will reward you with a barter item, and with stacks of these items, you can purchase rewards, like consumables, crafting resources, on up to beryl shards and armour pieces from Angmar, Annúminas or Helegrod. These quests, though, are on a weekly timer, so you will only be able to get a limited number of these a week. In addition you will only be able to get one of the armour pieces once a month, so our instance content won't be completely negated by these quests.
These are only some of the changes coming to the instances in Lord of the Rings Online. What are your thoughts on what’s planned for book 14 so far?
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