It's a busy Wednesday for The Lord of the Rings Online, with the first part of Update 37 now available for testing on the Bullroarer test server. Also, LotRO showcased the new Lyndelby Homesteads for those interested in player housing on the most recent stream.
First things first: the first part of Update 37 is available for testing on the Bullroarer test server, giving players a glimpse at the upcoming content drop slated for sometime in August (according to Scenario in today's Casual Stroll stream). Today's test server sees the new stat crunch available for testing, as well as the Guardian and Beorning class updates. Also, if you're interested in becoming a competitive Forester, the new Forester Event is now live on Bullroarer for testing.
Regarding the Stat Crunch coming with U37, the developers took to the forums today to start to explain exactly what's going on, with QA dev Lord of the Squids giving a high-level explainer. Numbers across the board are going down with the crunch, as well having a balance pass to "reduce some of the more severe spikes and troughs in difficulty."
Additionally, monster damage and player healing has also gone up, relative to the player's overall Morale. Mainstats are also being resigned to be more class specific.
"Mainstats (Might, Dexterity, Will) have been redesigned to be more role specific for each class. We have long had a problem where a classes' main stat simply did not benefit one or more of their roles, resulting in a lot of badly allocated stats. The new design allows classes with multiple roles to use different mainstats that are designed to support those roles effectively. The general scaling of main stats have also been improved to make them more favorable."
In other LotRO news, Senior World Designer Matt "Scenario" Elliot showcased the new Hobbit Premium Housing neighborhood, Lyndelby, in a new stream. The premium neighborhood features the iconic smials and Hobbit holes we all know and love, complete with furniture hook consolidation, as well as allowing more decorations to be attached to other hook types. Each house also has an expansive yard, complete with a stable to hook your mount up to, as well as the iconic Hobbit hole tucked in the back.
As someone who loves housing in LotRO, I'm already saving up my Mithril Coins.
You can check out the stream in the embed below.
