Last fall’s move to start charging every Lord of the Rings Online player — including subscribers — for what was a glorified content update has the community watching SSG like a hawk to see how it’s going to be handling similar patches in 2021. The good news is that the studio confirmed that the next zone coming to the game, Wildwood, won’t be another “mini-expansion” that requires VIP players to buy it.
Community Manager Jerry Snook announced this in the latest Friday afternoon livestream. Wildwood will include at least one new instance and is notable because it’s going to add mid-level content, which goes against the trend of LOTRO only adding new stuff to the end of the game. “I think it’s pretty unusual for us to do something like this. I think it’s pretty cool,” he said.
He hemmed and hawed over a possible kinship rework, the Guardian class balance, and legendary item updates. SSG isn’t going to revert the changes to grinding LI experience scrolls in Minas Tirith, but it is looking to address as many player concerns of this system as it can.
Snook said that the studio is “hard at work” on the 2021 producer’s letter, which is “closer” to being ready to post (although there is no ETA on it). He also said that The War of Three Peaks DLC will become available for LOTRO Points “relatively soon.”
