Developer diary outlines the goals for Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming raid

by Eliot Lefebvre on Mar 3rd 2011 8:00PM

Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Game mechanics, Patches, Endgame, News items, Free-to-play

Raid design is as much an art as a science. Lord of the Rings Online is slated for a big update to its raiding game with the removal of the radiance mechanic, but that's hardly the only feature in the queue for the upcoming patch. Ost Dunhoth is en route, and in a new developer diary, Joe Barry talks about some of the major changes that are being placed in the raid to make it fun and challenging in equal amounts.

Aside from the known fact that no radiance will be needed, the raid will also feature an automatic cooldown reset for each boss fight, ensuring that players won't be prohibited from a second try by a recharging skill. The raid is also divided into three wings, with progress through the first two needed to unlock the third and final wing. Take a look at the full rundown of features in the diary entry, which also includes a few previews of the loot. And if you're a Lord of the Rings Online player in Europe enticed by new content, well, there is a Welcome Back weekend running...

Source: Ost Dunhoth development diary

Tags: design-goals, development, development-diary, dungeons, f2p, free-to-play, joe-barry, lord-of-the-rings-online, lore, lotro, new-raids, patch-content, patches, pending-updates, raids, turbine, turbine-entertainment

Reader Comments (2)

After reading the details of this thing from the diary and the feedback from the public test server, I think we finally have it. The Rift-killer is here!

Bloodlust and Anger both sound like pretty good ideas. I'm not sold on "automated raid markings", it would take me less than 5 seconds to mark up the next trash pulls because I had the marks hotkeyed to my number pad - often I'd start marking them up while the raid cleared up the remains of the prior pull. I think it's a step too far in the "accessibility" direction, honestly.

Anyway, LotRO has sailed for me. Spending close to a year with no new content took its toll and this isn't going to bring me back, free to play or not.