Volume 3, Book 1

So, new content is almost upon us and Bullroarer is open for those in the US to go play with it and discover bugs, spelling mistakes, and what they think of the changes.

There’s not TOO much different, but there’s definitely changes of interest. The preliminary release notes can be read here – they’re not that long, so I suggest you go read through them all.

Headline stuff seems to be level 64 skills, 2-man skirmishes, new crafting recipes for certain crafts, and you can add notes to friend/ignore lists (so a year on you may remember why you ignored someone – something we were discussing only the other night). Oh +fate/+will food in the crafting stuff. Will have to hunt down my cooking friends!!

The level 64 skills seem, to me, to be upgrades throughout (they are all upgrades apart from the Warden one, which is a new gambit, just read words from Zombie Columbus clarifying), and I’m happy to see shield-brother getting the Captain love. Initially, I wanted a skill that improved me, but that’s not why I chose the Captain class. Our primary role is to buff, and once you accept that, then improving the shield-brother skillset is truly welcome (along with the fixes to Deeds Before Words), with a power boost and morale boost for our shield-brother, we may even have to think a little more tactically about who gets this increase and at what point in a fight/raid. It also means I’ll be tempted to duo with a Capt buddy to see what kind of accumulation we can get by using the buff on one another. Captain duo looks increasingly strong! I hope other classes are happy with theirs, it’s much much better than the level 62 ones, that’s for sure.

I like that skirmish cosmetic rewards are Bind on Equip now, I think that should have been in from the start – and I like the encouragement to do tier 2 ones, and duo ones. It appears from initial feedback that we’re going to need a ton of skirmish marks though, which still makes me a little uneasy. Skirmishes, despite having some random encounters, are still a grind. They’re just a grind with multiple (rather than specific) rewards. It’s a great equaliser, but still greatly rewards those with more time.

We’re all having our legendary items reset again. Semi-blah. I’m lazy. And I have a few weapons/emblems. But I’ll survive this ;p

Book 1 rewards – well, you can read about them here if you want spoilers. I don’t mind what they’ve done with the choices. For various stages you get a choice of fast travel to the next location of a physical reward. I’ll probably take the rewards, because I need stuff and have time to do travels, but it’s an interesting concept.

Overall, I’m looking forward to it, but with my usual reservations about skirmishes taking such a central role. Here’s to hearing a release date! (am guessing 1-4 March for Europe, as I’m in London then ;p)

Relics, and the crafting thereof

With the Siege of Mirkwood, Turbine introduced a category of Legendary Item (LI) relics that are crafted and fit into a 4th slot on your LI. Here’s a quick guide I drew up for my kin this morning (with help from Feor!):

For each craft there are three types of relics you can craft:

Purple

(1 day cooldown)*

+10 to a stat/+power or morale (can be traded, pre-deconstruction)

Teal

Requires 61+ LI

(3 day cooldown)*

+20 to a stat/+power or morale

Gold

Bind on Acquire,  Requires 65 LI

(1 week cooldown)*

Choice of:

• Symbol of Battle – +390 Melee Crit Rating, +390 Melee Offence Rating
• Symbol of Accuracy – +390 Ranged Crit Rating, +390 Ranged Offence Rating
• Symbol of Tactics – +390 Tactical Crit Rating, +390 Tactical Offence Rating
• Symbol of Vigour – +390 Outgoing Healing rating, +390 Tactical Crit Rating

*cooldowns are on crafting the barter items needed to make each relic

Craft specifics

Each craft has a specific stat they can raise on the Purple and Teal relics, both of which can be traded. The Gold relics are Bind on Acquire!

• Tailoring – +Fate
• Weaponcrafting – +Vitality
• Metalsmith – +Might
• Cook – +Morale
• Jeweller – +Will
• Woodworker – +Agility
• Scholar – +Power

Each guild craft trainer has three reputation-style recipes you can make and then trade in for one of the relics. For example, for Tailors, there are three types of tapestry, and I bought them from the Tailor’s Guild Legendary Recipes trader in the Tailoring Guild house at Esteldin.

Each recipe requires slightly different leathers and ingredients. The one with the least ingredients and no special requirements is the +10 relic. Then the +20 relic requires a Compendium of Middle Earth I, and the gold relic needs a Compendium of Middle Earth II – as well as other normal ingredients.  Once the barter item is made, you trade it in at the Guild Leader.

Compendiums of Middle Earth I & II

New special ingredients, brought in with the expansion. But do not fear, there are at least two ways of getting them. First, daily quests:

• Myndil (Relic-Master of Flaming Deeps) wants you to kill orcs and worms for ingots (15) and worm scales (10). Can choose Compendium of Middle Earth I, a selection of relics or a Moria iXP (item experience) rune as quest rewards.
• Legindir (Relic-Master of Ost Galadh in Mirkwood) wants 25 pieces of pristine webbing from the Scuttledells (level 65 quest). Can choose Compendium of Middle Earth II, better relics or a Mirkwood iXP rune as rewards.

Alternatively, you can trade for them at Curiosities vendors at Skirmish camps. The costs are:

• Compendium of Middle Earth I: 301 Skirmish Marks, 1 Third Mark
• Compendium of Middle Earth II: 603 Skirmish Marks, 1 Third Mark