Summary
Lord of the Rings Onlineis gearing up to release its 11th major expansion, Corsairs of Umbar, which will take players to the previously unseen coastal region of Umbar south of Gondor for more of the game’s best-in-class storytelling and Middle-earth exploration. Of course, like any good MMORPG expansion, there will be plenty of gameplay improvements such as an overhaul of the crafting system and additional landscape difficulty settings for more challenge-oriented players.
Lord of the Rings Onlineexecutive producer Robert Ciccolini sat down with Game Rant to discuss the new expansion including the all-new Mariner class, as well as the challenges involved in taking players to a vastly different region compared to much of the game’s past content.
Lord of the Rings Online Is Introducing the New Mariner Support Class
Ciccolini noted that most of the newly added classes inpast expansionslacked strong support options, and so one of the goals this time around was to introduce something that would bring additional support playstyles to the table. The Mariner’s support role is focused on enhancing the group’s capabilities with powerful buffs in the form of catchy sea shanties. The Mariner also has a satisfying DPS spec in its red line that’s focused on melee bleed damage, and its yellow line is packed with debuffs and ground-targeted abilities that can debilitate foes from a distance.
Our previous classes didn’t really bring new support options to the table, and so one of the things with Mariner is that it can do DPS, but it also can add support. That’s been interesting because support is tough. When you’re buffing other people, it’s hard to measure that as a goal. It messes with your DPS meters, you know, “How valuable is this person?”
The Mariner also uses a Balance system where you don’t want to get too far out of balance to either the fore or aft. With DPS, I think it’s a more straightforward problem of making sure that the people are using a variety of skills to keep the balance. Support also uses that system, and I think it’ll be interesting to see how as a support person you’re going to manage that resource as well.
The Mariner’s unique balance system will also add some complexity to its gameplay. Certain abilities push the Mariner’s balance either fore or aftward and going too far in either direction can take them off-balance with some negative effects. Based on Game Rant’searly look at the Mariner class, this system is not as difficult to manage as it sounds and is quite satisfying to play once the rhythm becomes apparent.
Umbar Is New Territory for Lord of the Rings Online
AlthoughLord of the Rings Online’s many expansionshave taken players across and even beneath Middle-earth, some of these environments naturally repeat established themes. Dwarven mountain strongholds, after all, aren’t going to be much different thematically since it’s the same culture. The Mordor expansion certainly broke new ground in this area, and Ciccolini says that Umbar will also be a similar change of pace as players encounter a completely different coastal society among the corsairs.
It’s been a long time since we’ve introduced a land that has to, by design, have a different look and feel. The last time we did something like that was Mordor, but Mordor is the penultimate of things that we had already done. We added a lot of new things in Mordor, but I think that the vision for what it was had been there for so long that it was easier on the world team.
When you go to Umbar, all of a sudden you have to evoke a different kind of seafaring culture, and so new trees, new grasses, new stones, and different buildings. We’re asking ourselves “What is the armor? What does the clothing look like?” and so there’s a lot of world-building stuff happening that really hasn’t happened before. I really think that the world team is going to knock it out of the park.
Lord of the Rings Onlinehas always stayed remarkablytrue to Tolkien’s vision, and it’ll be interesting to see how they’ve brought this little-explored region to life and what the team’s expert storytellers have in store for players this time around.
