The Lord of the Rings Online Interview

VG247 had the opportunity to quiz The Lord of the Rings Online live producer Aaron Campbell about the recently released Volume II, Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dûm update and what other additions we can expect in the MMORPG’s future.

The updates made to the game for Volume 2 Book 8 are very extensive, and while we would like to ask you a few questions regarding these, we would first like to focus on the crafting changes.

The new recipes and ingredients that go into creating pieces of weaponry, armor, food, etc will these help bring more value to crafting as a whole? With the introduction of Legendary weapons, for example, a lot of players feel that creating new ones on the Supreme level are no longer worth the time and the expense of obtaining mithril flakes etc – will these changes make better use of what is crafted?

Most crafting changes in Book 8 were specifically targeted at your gameplay experience while advancing through the early and middle levels of the game. The goal is to make sure that you always have something relevant to craft at each level range, and that crafted items are always comparable or superior to the quest rewards you encounter at the same level.

Legendary items are really a special case they are meant to be rare, and rooted in ancient lore. The team is looking for ways to connect crafters more deeply with legendary items. Later this year the team is also planning to add new recipes to Lothlorien to fill gaps that are not filled by legendary items, for example in off-hand weapons, shields or armor. You can continue to expect crafting to provide some nice rewards and to be important to balancing out your character.