Steefel explained that the new classes were created with the solo player in mind. In fact, the expansion pack heavily caters to casual gamers’ playstyle. “They want the ability that if they’re in for a couple of hours on their own, they want to deal with what they want to deal with,” he said. Many of the new instances are 3-mannable, and there’s only one new 12-man raid instance. There are no new 24-man raid instances.

Another major addition to the game is the legendary item system. You may find legendary-capable items, which are identified by a Forge Master. If you don’t care for an item’s stats, you can take it to a Rune Master to deconstruct it and salvage its runes or relics. These runes can then be applied to a more favorable item or combined to make a stronger rune. Steefel noted that some older items may also be salvageable. “If you have that raid set that’s no longer cool, deconstruct it, get all the relics, and use them to build something cool.”

Legendary items are essentially an extension of your character. They gain XP and level as you do, and you can give them a unique name, like Frodo’s dagger Sting or Gandalf’s sword Glamdring. You can improve up to six legendary items at a time, and the XP you gain is distributed among them. However, you can always disable a particular item if you don’t want it to receive XP.

Although PvE has many new features with the expansion pack, there are few changes to PvP (AKA Monster Play). There’s no new map and no new monster classes. However, a “capture the flag” system is being introduced. Balance issues in terms of numbers are also being addressed. If one side has significantly more players than the other, the latter will receive buffs to compensate for its smaller size.

The Mines of Moria will keep LOTRO players busy over the next several months with its exciting new content. Hardcore raiders and PvPers may feel somewhat slighted, but the game’s main demographic of casual and solo players will happily dive in the next chapter of this popular MMO.

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