Believe it or not, for the last time lord of the rings online brought new legendary servers, it was the pair of Treebeard and Shadowfax in June 2021. We only had the chance to experience these special progressive shards once before, when the original duo of Anor and Ithil opened in November 2018. Today, three of those four shut down​​ and Treebeard still trudges on, hmm hmm.
Suffice it to say, new LOTRO legendary servers don’t come every day. We’ve known for over a year that SSG has a new idea for the next batch in the works, but the studio has been tight-lipped about it — until this week. At last night’s live stream, executive producer Rob Ciccolini finally revealed the next set of servers. And this time they come with a few surprises.
Welcome to Angmar and Mordor!
Ciccolini confirmed that the other two servers will be called Angmar and Mordor.
The first surprise is that the studio has placed a server in Europe to host Mordor, making it the first LOTRO shard to be physically located in this region since Codemasters (Angmar will be based in the US). “That’s super exciting for us,” Ciccolini said. He expressed concern that the single EU server could be “overwhelmed” by too many players rushing to it.
Players should also expect a different kind of leveling on these two servers if their namesakes weren’t sufficiently warned. SSG refers to both of these shards as “Veil of the Nine servers”, a sign of increased challenge. While players after level 15 are dealing with the world, they will occasionally be attacked by one of the lower wraiths chasing them around, which can be a mild problem on normal difficulty or a nail biter if your difficulty is increased.
Additionally, one of the nine Ringwraiths can appear to players at the current level. Ciccolini said there was no way you could solo them; he expects groups of up to 50 players will be needed to fend them off. So it becomes an occasional server event that brings the community together.
When battling the Ringwraiths, players will find it very helpful to find one of the 12 tradable special rings hidden throughout the game world. Anyone who finds the ring will be able to control it for 10 days before it self-disappears and hides again. But while you have the ring, you’ll be in high demand for those Ringwraith fights. Successful fights will be paid out in special rewards.
Stress tests on these servers should begin within a week, with a launch sometime in July. As with the other legendary servers, Angmar and Mordor should be VIP only experiences. The level cap starts at 50 and continues normally from there. Other than that, the leveling speed will be more or less standard as you’d find on any server (though there may be some level nudging to help people hit the cap a bit faster).
These servers will also mark the debut LOTRO’s a new 64-bit server technology that should help combat lag significantly and allow the game to preload all instances. Between that and the fact that all the characters will be brand new, these shards should feature some of the most seamless experiences in an MMO right now.
Response to Veil of the Nine servers
There’s certainly a lot to look forward to, if nothing else than getting the first servers for a fresh start from 2021. Ideally, this should be a big draw for players looking to get in on the ground floor with a community that will line up next to each other. them. I absolutely loved my do-overs on Anor and Treebeard back then, and I’m already planning what character I’ll make for Angmar when they arrive.
This is definitely great news for European players who have had to deal with higher latency when connecting to regular overseas realms. Having a shard in their backyard, so to speak, will be a huge asset and offer an unrivaled gaming experience in Middle-earth. I don’t personally benefit from it, but I’m quite happy for my EU friends.
When I thought about what I would like to see in a legendary server, a big theme of mine was “higher challenge”. While it doesn’t go as far as I’d like, it still has the potential to be exciting. There’s the individual threat of a smaller specter popping up at you every now and then, which should keep us on our toes (and maybe provide a few jump scares!).
But these larger Ringwraith fights have the potential to draw the entire server community together for impromptu battles. I hope the rewards are definitely good enough (and spread out among all involved) that it tempts it to be beyond novelty.
So we have a month, more or less, before these servers open. That’s plenty of time to start planning, organizing kinships, and stoking the fires of hype. I think this is the perfect time LOTRO to see it through, especially if it arrives with the quality-of-life improvements of Update 41. We don’t have much mass content until this fall’s expansion, which Ciccolini didn’t want to talk about, so a new server or two definitely gives us something to do in the meantime.
What do you think of the Veil of the Nine servers? Will you sum up the new tone or ignore it completely? Let’s chat in the comments!
Every two weeks, the LOTRO Legendarium sets off on an adventure (horrible things, you) through the awesome, terrifying, inspiring and, well, legendary online world of Middle-earth. Justin has been playing LOTRO since its launch in 2007! If you have a topic for a column, send it to him at justin@massivelyop.com.advertisement