Previews

LotRO Vol 2, Book 7 - Play Session

Lord of the Rings Online: Volume 2, Book 7 - Leaves of Lorien

Turbine's Aaron Campbell, LotRO's Live Producer, was kind enough to walk me through the new content coming in Volume 2, Book 7: Leaves of Lorien.

Once I'd logged into the test server with Gilras, my level 60 Champion, Campbell opted to start off small, showing me some of the new lawn decorations available for player housing, including a (rather tasteful) lattice gate available through reputation with the Elves of Lothlorien. He also demonstrated two new items found in the new 12-man raid: a statue of Nimrodel, and "Nanu's Hiding Place," a small bush that when used spawns a small friendly turtle pet. Quite adorable.

With the release of Mines of Moria, LotRO took players just east of Moria and the Misty Mountains to the border of the Golden Wood of Lothlorien. Book 7 opens up the entirety of Lorien, letting players venture into the Elven lands - though not right away. The Elves are notoriously reclusive and withdrawn from the world, and as Campbell explained, anyone who hadn't gained their permission to enter would find themselves quickly meeting a barrage of arrows.

In order to increase one's faction standing with the Galadrim, players will need to either complete the story of Volume 2, Book 6 culminating in a meeting with Galadriel herself, or complete a series of quests on Lorien's western edge with Haldir, near where the Fellowship entered the wood. Campbell said that the developers had considered giving Elf player characters an inherent advantage, but decided to make all PCs equal for gameplay purposes.

The space of Lorien is very different from much of the rest of the game, Campbell explained as he showed me around the forest. Since the Elves are so withdrawn and reclusive, the Golden Wood is a peaceful and otherworldly place. That's driven most of the content in Book 7, he said, since they couldn't do the standard sort of combat quests, like repelling enemy invaders and exterminating Orc camps. So the Turbine team took the opportunity to dig into the lore and connect players more with the members of the Fellowship as they rested in Lorien after the chaos and despair of Moria.

Nor do the Elves use money, so quest rewards will instead be barter tokens, which can be redeemed for different types of rewards like equipment and weapons - or, for instance, the aforementioned lawn decorations.

Speaking of the Fellowship, it wasn't long before we ran into a certain pair of Hobbits - Sam and Frodo, fresh from Moria but not yet split from the Fellowship. Up high on one of the Elvish Flets, there are Legolas and Gimli - as one might expect, Gimli isn't happy about being so far above the ground. "He's making an effort," laughs Campbell. In one of the Book 7 quests, players will get to accompany the pair on a more traditional combat quest hunting Orcs.