The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria

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The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria

Developer(s)	Turbine, Inc.
Publisher(s)	Turbine, Inc. Midway Games Codemasters
Composer(s)	Chance Thomas
Engine	Turbine G3
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	November 18, 2008
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is the first retail expansion pack for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and was released on November 18, 2008. It was announced on March 14, 2008 at Codemasters Online Connect 2008.

The storyline is set in Moria, an enormous underground complex in north-western Middle-earth. Apart from that, the expansion will also add the regions Eregion and Lórien. The game's level cap will be increased to level 60, the expansion (also called "Volume II") will extend the epic storyline by six more books, and add two new classes (the Rune-Keeper and the Warden). Other new features include environment aware AI, dynamic lighting, and a new weapon enhancement system.

Unlock the Mines of Moria

The expansion was promoted through playing web-based minigames. Visitors could play three games: King Under the Mountain, Swig & Toss, Eleventy-Seven Morsels at the official site. By performing certain tasks players could complete "deeds", three of which unlocked a "goodie". These included one trailer and three game arts. By applying for a beta invitation, players could also receive a fourth game art.

New Classes

There are two new classes being added to the game. These are Warden and Rune-keeper.

Wardens use spears and medium armour, making them neither a tank nor a DPS class specifically. Designed to represent the equivalent of a town sheriff, Wardens are protectors that specialize in combination attacks using their Gambit User Interface. The idea is that a Warden will execute their abilities in certain sequences that eventually culminate in a special attack only available after completing the prescribed set of moves. In practice, the Warden's Gambit UI is an array of two to five (depending on character level) squares that slot the abilities as you use them. Once all of the squares have been filled, a new skill will flash at the end of the bar as it becomes available.

Rune-keepers are the closest things to magic-users offered in The Lord of the Rings Online, but they aren't magicians in the traditional sense. Their new Attunement mechanic is represented by a bar with a sliding scale to illustrate whether they're attuned to dealing damage or healing wounds. As a Rune-keeper uses either healing or damaging abilities, the scale slides towards either end of the bar and the Rune-keeper's proficiency in either focus increases. As the Rune-keeper increases focus towards one end of the scale, more of those skills become available in greater power. However, the Rune-keeper will then also lose focus on the other end of the scale, making the skills associated with the opposite end unavailable. Therefore, the Rune-keeper can only effectively maneuver either their healing or damage abilities, but not both. Switching between proficiencies requires time.

As well as these new classes, current classes that were available with the release of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar will be improved with added skills for the additional levels included in the expansion.

Legendary Items

The new Legendary Item Advancement System is designed to replicate the kind of connection with individual weapons characteristic of the most famous weapons found in Tolkien lore. Bilbo's short sword Sting, Gandalf's Glamdring and Aragorn's Anduril are renowned as superior implements of battle, Turbine wants to give players a similar sense of ownership over their own hardcore hardware. To that end, two new NPCs called Forge Masters and Relic Masters will appear to assist in the construction and maintenance of a special new class of customizable weapon. These weapons, denoted by gilded borders on their icons, can be forged and re-forged with a variety of abilities and stat boosts and actually grow in efficacy over time.

While Forge Masters are necessary to identify and modify the legendary weapons and items you come across in your adventures, Relic Masters provide the raw materials for further modifications and can break down existing weapons into their constituent runes. Basically, players can choose to have a Relic Master destroy some of their legendary equipment for components that a Forge Master can then infuse into another. Players can even name their gear during the reforging process, giving their new gear a specific identity.

Their legendary equipment gains experience and levels alongside their character, so the more they are used, the more powerful the items will become. Special super-rare raid drops can be applied to legendary gear that will instantly increase the amount of experience points and artificially level them. Between the increased potency through use and the reforging and slotting of stat-boosting runes and gems, the Legendary Item Advancement System has the side benefit of eliminating the "loot malaise" that goes along with scoring new gear that may outshine previous hard-won acquisitions. For instance, if a player likes his bracers he needn't vendor them just because he found some new bracers with slightly better stats, because he can just break down the new bracers and add some of their superior statistics to his old standby pair. It's not a straight-across stat trade, but it should give his favourite pieces a bit of extra longevity.

Future expansions

At a Mines of Moria presentation, Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel revealed plans to add a new "volume" each year. The expansion "The Mines of Moria" and subsequent content updates (patches) will signal the end of Tolkien's first book, The Fellowship of the Ring, and set the tone for the second, The Two Towers, which will allow players to visit Rohan, the Dead Marshes, and more. Turbine plans to gradually include the entirety of north-western Middle-earth in more expansions.

Soundtrack

Critically acclaimed video game composer Chance Thomas who worked on the first installment of The Lord of the Rings Online has been confirmed to be working on the expansion.

References

"Turbine Announces Distribution Partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria". Turbine Press Release. 2008-07-30. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
"HUGEsound.com". Chance Thomas' Web Site. Retrieved 2008-06-12.

External links

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