Update 6

My poor neglected burglar. There he is, stranded in the ‘Shadowed Refuge’, without much hope of rescue. Having been played almost daily for the past month or so, levelled to within an inch of escaping Moria, he’s now been dropped like a hot Shire tater. All because of ‘Update 6’. He could shed tears…

2.6.8 - solo on my burg

But, nevertheless, ‘Update 6’ is here. My LoTRO client patched without issue last Monday evening, and now I’m looking at quite a bit of new content. Here’s my ‘To Do’ list:

• Purchase the premium wallet (account wide purchase).
• Pickup the ‘return to Galtrev’ skill.
• Visit your crafting guild representatives to pick up new crafted relic, armour, jewellery, weapon & cooking recipes.
• Run the quest in Glatrv to pick up your ‘Middle Earth Compendium vol III’.
• Make crafted relics and apply.
• Finish up ‘To catch an old goat’ deed.
• Head off to Grimbold’s camp to pick up the epic quest line.

And here’s more detail on that list…

First and foremost, any toon based in Galtrev, should run over to the Dunland rep vendor and buy the new ‘Return to Galtrev’ skill.

Second, if you have 995 turbine points to spare, I strongly recommend buying the new ‘Premium Wallet’, too; this is an essential piece of LoTRO ‘kit’ if you have multiple alts. Possibly, it’s not so important if you only run one toon…either way, the implementation of this ‘Premium’ functionality is the real way that Turbine are financing their LoTRO operation during the first part of this year, in my opinion.

So what else? Well, guilded crafters should take a look at the new Westfold guild recipes (non-guilded recipes will drop as loot). New armour, weapons, jewellery, etc are all available in ‘Great River’ flavours. These, generally, are marginally better that their Dunland equivalents too. In the jewellery line, the most interest is probably being created by the new loremaster brooch recipes (drop only) which are the first items specifically geared for the LM’s ranged slot. These new brooches give pet buffs.

Westfold Brooches - Critted Versions

The new Westfold-tier crafted relics (for legendary items) are very nice. Running the ‘Forges of Isenguard‘ solo repeatable quest in Galtrev will net you your ‘Compendium  of Middle Earth, Volume III’, which can be used once per week by your guilded Westfold master craftsman to produced one of these juicy relics:

Update 6 has also changed the Warden class out of all recognition. My warden has been parked at level 48 for over a year now and, honestly, I can see me ever going back to her. It’d be like starting to learn a whole new class from scratch at this stage, and I can’t see me undertaking that exercise. The changes to the Rune Keeper class are also extensive, although not as severe. I played my RK for an hour or so last Tuesday night, and found no problem adapting to the differences.

Before setting out for the new region, it might also be worth finishing up that nightmare deed ‘Tracking An Old Goat’. Turbine have thoughtfully re-enabled the quests to complete this deed for anyone that didn’t managed it first time around. But hey, you only have one shot at completing it, ‘cos if you happen to log out before attempting the deed – poooof – it’s gone again. Fantastic testing by Turbine, fantastic.

So, having looked at all of the above, it might be time to try out some of the new quests. Update 6 brings us an extension to ‘Volume 3’ of the Epic Quest line. Picking this up where Update 5 left off, in Grimbold’s Camp (near Isenguard) quickly bring us into the new zone that has appeared to the south of Lothlorien – The Great River. So far, I’ve not strayed too far into this new zone, but from first impressions, it looks pretty enough, with plenty of standard-type quests. So far, nothing to get too thrilled about…but time will tell.

Finally, a bit of good new for my burglar. Enedwaith has now been tweaked, such that it’s now a level 61 to 65 zone – as opposed to just a level 65 zone previous to Update 6. This is good news for my burg, as it will provide an alternative to entering Mirkwood, once finished in Lothlorien. Of course, that will mean skipping the second half of Volume 2 and moving straight on to Volume 3. I’ll have to decide if that’s a consequence I’m willing to accept.