Lord of the Rings Online starts testing massive class changes

It’s finally here. For a while now, Standing Stone Games has promised that it would be giving most of Lord of the Rings Online’s classes a major balance pass. Today, the studio announced that it has started testing the first batch of these with Update 22.2.

And everyone is in a panic.

The class changes, which are extensive and address six of the current professions, have the community scrambling to figure out how current builds and rotations will change come 22.2. Many talent lines are being adjusted or outright revamped, and numerous skills have seen alternating buffs and nerfs depending on the developers’ vision for the class in question.

For those who wade past the class changes, there are a few festival improvements awaiting in the patch notes. The studio has created lowbie-friendly versions of the anniversary scavenger hunt (which was a major complaint last year), and there is a Summer Picnic activity that’s been created for the upcoming celebration.