LOTRO: Thoughts on Fate of Gundabad
I’ve spent the last week catching up with recent content in The Lord of the Rings Online. I started the Update 30: Blood of Azog and struggled with the PVE quests, due to the stats nerf and LI change. I got to level 132 and then decided to replace my two Legendary Weapons on my Lore-master. I would like to thank Linawillow for their advice via social media. So much for the new system being easier to understand and implement. I now have new LIs that have boosted my stats sufficiently enough for me to deal with the mobs above 130. Hence I completed the story set in the Battle of Azanulbizar, which was very well conceived and implemented. It has a great deal of canonical detail and is engagingly presented. By the time I finished the Epic Story and side quests in the area, my character had reached level 136, so I decided to go straight to Gundabad.
As I usually participate in the Bullroarer test preview of new content for LOTRO, I was already aware of the vertical dimension that is an integral part of the Delvings of Gundabad. Mattugard and Deepscrave are very reminiscent of Moria and one needs to reconcile oneself to the reality of navigating around such an environment. Thankfully, being several levels higher than the content of the area helps. So I have taken my time to explore these areas and have just taken quests as and when they’ve been offered. At present, there are lots of other players in the area, so if you do run into any difficulty or get lost, you are not without support. Whether you actually like the labyrinthine design is a matter of personal taste. If you stick to the main routes through the area, you will miss a great deal of discovery deeds. I find the best approach is to explore specific areas between stables and to be systematic in your approach.
To make my exploration of the entire zone a little easier, I used my supply of Mithril Coins to unlock access to all the new stables. I visited them using slow travel, as this also unlocks discovery deeds as you pass through an area. It also allows you to reconnoitre and determine the level and variety of mobs, without taking any unnecessary risks. When I do get into combat, although my new LI can deal significant damage, my moral takes quite a hit. I checked into this and it would appear that my armour and jewellery is now lacking. I last re-geared my primary alt back in January 2020, using lockboxes. I think it may be time to do this again but it makes sense to do so when I hit the new 140 level cap. By then I should have sufficient barter currency to buy reputation gear or alternatively, spend some money on lockboxes.
I have never been especially knowledgeable about the statistical side of LOTRO. I know what type of stats are beneficial to my class but I am not au fait with the minutiae of the system. Hence I tend to rely on how combat “feels”. It’s difficult to quantify but I tend to know when a fight is hard or more importantly, getting away from me. The new LI system has certainly boosted my stats and I now feel in control again but when I look at my alt’s stats in the character panel, the power creep is getting silly. I have over a million Tactical Mastery at present. This will no doubt increase further when I get to level cap. I can’t help but feel that when numbers become this big, they begin to fail to convey anything tangible to the average player. I wonder if LOTRO would benefit from a level “squish” as we saw recently in World of Warcraft or some other recalibration of stats.
One of the things I often find frustrating with the MMORPG genre is the gear cycle. Superior gear is usually gated behind reputation status, barter tokens or is just awarded when the player reaches the current level cap. This comes from a historical design choice where you earned intermediate gear at level cap and then went on to do group content such as raids to get the better gear. But very few players follow that route now. Hence it seems redundant to be awarded with the best gear once you hit level cap and have nothing else to do. Sadly LOTRO is still locked in this model. You need robust gear as you’re levelling and not having access to any is an impediment. This is why I didn’t start playing through Gundabad content until I was level 136. It means I will reach the new cap of 140 and re-equip my main character and then play through the remaining half of the expansion with an optimal build. I regularly inspect other players in my journeys and sometimes marvel at how they’ve come so far while indifferently equipped.
I was surprised to see that the Allegiance system has had a further faction added with this expansion. You can now affiliate with the Zhélruka, whose main hub is in the Hall of Vérnozal in Gundabad, which is convenient. There is a fast travel skill with a 5 minute cooldown which is invaluable if you’re currently questing in this region. Unlike the Mordor-expansion allegiances, the Zhélruka allegiance is scalable, allowing players with a minimum level of 20 and above to participate. It uses the Missions system, rather than zone specific PVE content that the previous allegiances did. It came as a pleasant surprise that developers SSG had added another. However, I’m not so well disposed toward the increase in virtue traits. These now cap at 80 which is a significant increase. I finally got the five that I currently have slotted on my primary character to level 75 a few months ago. I am somewhat peeved that I have to get on that particular treadmill again.
Returning to the subject of the new LI system, one of the consequences of this major revamp is that there is now a great deal of redundant NPCs throughout Middle-earth and a lot of superfluous rewards. The User Interface also retains some outdated features which will be confusing for players just beginning to use the Legendary Item system. It will be interesting to see if SSG makes an effort to remove these obsolete aspects of the game at some future point. There are also a lot of old items that still need to be replaced. I have half a dozen relic removal scrolls which I assume I will be able to exchange at some point for traceries removal scrolls. I suspect that there will be some players who will require a great deal of compensation, especially for store bought items
As I mentioned in a previous post, Fate of Gundabad is very much a question of more of the same. This seems to be the business model that Standing Stone Games have chosen and I suspect they are not going to change. If you are a returning player, then Fate of Gundabad will offer you a familiar experience. One that is reassuring and enjoyable as you know what the game has to offer but you’ll have a new story to immerse yourself in. If you are a regular player then that familiarity, untempered with time away from the game, may feel a lot more like repetition. As ever the story is well written and thought provoking. Bill Champagne’s soundtrack is sublime and he uses many of his established leitmotifs very effectively. There is a palpable atmosphere in Glooming Tarn, especially when the sombre and portentous music cues start to play. But overall, when looked at objectively, Fate of Gundabad is essentially just treading familiar ground.
Regardless of my views on Fate of Gundabad, the expansion is certainly proving successful. The volume of players online on Laurelin server has meant that the dynamic layering system is active in most zones. In one respect this is indicative of an expansion that is engaging with players and finding an audience. Sadly the downside to this are server performance issues. Lag is a common place, especially when interacting with Mission NPCs. There are also delays with skill inductions and connecting to the chat server. It can be quite an impediment at times. No doubt SSG will address these issues in the weeks to come. Overall despite following a tried and tested formula, Fate of Gundabad is the strongest expansion LOTRO has seen for a while. It has a wide variety of maps, several ways to level and a robust narrative. The polish will come over the next few patches. But as the main story about the line of Durin comes to an end, it does raise the question where does the game go from here?
