LOTRO’s new expansion Mordor is now available

After 10 years, one of the most important part of the Middle-Earth is now explorable! The Lord of the Rings Online: Mordor, a highly anticipated and the latest expansion of the title is now live. After a long time without any expansions after Helm’s Deep, LotRO has new features waiting to be explored.

After a short delay caused by some stability issues and after their transfer from Turbine to Standing Stone Games, players all around the world are pretty excited about this new expansion. Now, at long last, you can walk into Mordor. The epic story line will take you to an another story which is connected to the main story of LotR.

Despite of the fact that people were used to following Frodo and Sam’s mission to Mount Doom until this time, now we will be experiencing the aftermath of this. The ring will be destroyed and we will be walking around Mordor to finish some other deeds. Lore wise, it makes sense actually. As it would be being unfaithful to the LotR lore if we were to help Frodo right? So instead of this, we will be given many other choices. And the possibilities seems to be limitless at this point.

First of all, we will be able to access a new race: the High Elves. You can chose any class except for the Burglar and the Beorning, which also makes sense. I would never imagine an elf sneaking around or turning into a savage bear.

The new Mordor map is going to be huge. That’s another good thing about the expansion. And instead of following one main story, you will be able to chose between 4 different quest lines with the new Allegiance System. This system will let you chose to help the Dwarves, the Elves, the Hobbits or the race of Men. And each of these factions will lead you to another, individual story. No more doing the same quests with your alts!

Other than these big new features, Mordor expansion will implement many other things like improved character specialization, improved appearances, new mechanics, new monsters and of course new adventures. A new raid will be available a little bit after its release. And it will be a 24 man raid which will be pretty challenging of course considering the latest raid was a huge time killer for LotRO fans.

Can I start from the beginning?

Well, yes and no. You can start now of course. But you will have to work a little bit on your character before being able to join others in raids. But you will be able to quest and level up your character until you have a general idea about the game. So don’t worry.

For new players, there are an expansion bundle out there which will help you to start from the beginning and level up quickly until 95 and grind your way from there to level 105 and start Mordor. For Free-to-Play grinders, I have some bad news. Even if LotRO is one of the most F2P friendly games out there, it would take a lot of time and effort to get the latest content without paying anything.

It is not impossible and it is still fun even if you can’t join the huge raids. If you don’t mind walking around the Middle-Earth with your hobbit without worrying about gears, raids and late game content, you will have fun. And while you’re questing around and exploring the beautifully made Middle-Earth (yes it’s still beautiful after 10 years), you will earn points that you can spend. But if you don’t want to waste time, check the deals on expansion bundles and find the best way to start the game. You can check the LOTRO Market for the prices.

Other than these new features, there are many others of course. For more information, you can check out the FAQs page. And get hyped with this new launch video:

To be able to make a proper statement of course, we will have to play it first.

So, to older players (like me) I’d like to say: hope to see you in-game soon!

Enjoy simply walking into Mordor, and stay tuned for more news!