When Standing Stone Games introduced the delving system with last year’s Before the Shadow mini-expansion, it was banking hard on this difficulty slider being a major feature in Lord of the Rings Online going forward. And while the system itself has seen mixed reviews, the studio remains resolute in improving and expanding delvings.
In a new developer diary, SSG outlined major nerfs, improvements, and expanded functionality that the delving system will see in the near future.
The studio said that it’s going to nerf higher tiers of difficulty, increase the number of tiers to 12 to help with a smoother challenge curve, shifting the rotation of malices, consolidating the gems from 20 down to four, and improving the reward loot tables.
But that’s not all: “We are also adding our first instances to delvings with the introduction of The School at Tham MÃrdain and The Library at Tham MÃrdain! These instances will also have a small chance at a second, rare delving box with rare rewards, with higher tiers having a better chance at getting the rare delving box.”