I simply cannot wait for Moria.  With all the huplah around WoW's expansion, and the release of WAR, a lot of people still have not noticed that LotrO is the best MMO out there.  Mines of Moria is going to take this game to even greater heights (or should that be depths?).

I do have a couple of questions though.  Namely, does anyone know when it is due out?  Also, will the expansion alter the minimum specs required to play the game?  My pc is really old and it would be a tragedy for me if they had to raise the specs to play the game.

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Originally posted by JK-Kanosi
The reason why I bring up Turbines promise to honor the IP, by not putting magic users in the game as a playable class, is because if Runekeepers can shoot fireballs and heal, then they are already doing more than Gandolf did and he was supposed to be one of the most powerful beings in the world at that time. The Runekeeper doesn't stretch anything, it completely breaks the IP. The Fellowship is supposed to be comprised of the best of the best, but you have players that have better and more powerful abilities in the LoTRO game. That's not supposed to happen and the early Beta players should back me up on this, because it was then that Turbine said they wouldn't put magic using classes in the game, due to lore restrictions. Why the change? While I admit that the class sounds fun and I would probably like playing it; the class doesn't belong in LoTRO, it belongs in a high magic fantasy setting, like DnD, EQ, or WoW.

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I think you make a good and valid point here, Kanosi. Turbine has said in interviews that they *know* they are stretching things with the Runekeeper class. They weren't going to do it originally but then they had to backpedal a bit. Oh well.

The way I figure it, Peter Jackson did a lot of stretching to beef up the Eowyn and Arwen roles for his films. In LOTRO, just having female warriors is also a bit of a stretch, as Tolkein was a bit more of a traditionalist than that. (I'm not up on Tolkein lore and details, but I don't recall a lot of high-profile female warriors of any kind.) But the various changes Jackson made to the basic story with his movies just made them better, imo.

So, too, the changes and tweaks Turbine has made in LOTRO work well as far as I'm concerned. The introduction of the Runekeeper class just doesn't bother me -- and I in no way feel it "weakens" the achievements and abilities of the original fellowship. In fact, I think it is very clever the way Turbine has preserved the original characters and story in LOTRO in the midst of filling in an entire world with MMO quests and adventures. This is an MMO, after all, so one has to allow a bit of "wiggle room" where the lore is concerned.

I do sometimes wonder if players are eventually going to encounter -- and defeat -- Sauron himself in some kind of epic, end-game raid. lol. But that's probably 5 or 6 expansions farther down the road. I am not worried about it, in any case.

The Runekeeper sounds like my PERFECT class. I'll definitely be coming back when Moria drops.

Whereas I do welcome the introduction of the new classes (as I feel they breathe new life into a game, and allow you to try out new alts), I can also see where the lore-purists are coming from.

I'm currently re-reading The Hobbit, before the movie comes out.  Gandalf's supposed powers seem to be very limited, especially in this book.  Heck, it takes him some effort to cause fire to burn the wargs when he and the dwarves are stuck up the trees.  Hardly a formiddable magic-user.  And yet in Tolkien's world, he is one of the best.  So you can see how people who love the lore and the books will be a bit pissed off when suddenly Middle-Earth has thousands of powerful 'fireball' casting magic-users running around.

It's a tentative situation for Turbine.  Perhaps the best compromise would be for a 'lore specific' server, where these classes would be eliminated.  I for one don't mind the rune keeper class, but I do see how some people are dead against it.

It seems pretty clear.  They are breaking IP if you want to treat the original works as the Bible, which many do.  But it's already gotten approval of the people licensing the game to Turbine, which isn't Tolkein Enterprises btw, so it really doesn't matter.  In fact, I can almost tell you exactly how it went down. 

Saul Zantz (sp?) says to Turbine "Hey, this game got amazing reviews by all the sites but it's not doing as well as we would think given the reviews." 

Turbine - "Well, as it turns out, there's fewer Lore nuts out there that are hardcore, long-term gamers.  If we really want to bring people in we need to be a bit more flexible with the rules in order to attract long time WoW players." 

SZ - "Can you do it without wadding up the lore and throwing it in the fire?"

Turbine - "I think we could do that although the really hardcore lore junkies are going to be extremely upset."

SZ - "Will we make more money?"

Turbine - "Probably"

SZ - "Then go for it"

And that's how we got a magic using class.  Personally I'm happy about it, I'm playing a game that's an interpretation of the original works.  I enjoyed the movie for what it is as well, even though there were many things wrong with it.  Turbine earned their creative license at this point.  I can assure you that the magic users will feel more Middle Earth-y than any caster in any other MMO.

I'm not a lore freak, but I really hate the idea of fireball and lightning casters. Okay, fireball maybe, if you have collected coal and phosphorus and such, but lightning? I hope it has at least a 20% chance of striking the caster or other fellowship member.

In fact, neither class excites me. So what exactly again is a warden? I don't grasp the concept of a medium armour wearing "tank". Why do we need it? What sort of role does it fill in a fellowship? If you want a middle of the road class, captain probably already fits the bill. "Gambits" sound just the same as existing tier-based actions, so what's new there?

Forget the new classes, but I'd still go for more character slots.

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