A series of updates for Lord of the Rings Online will be landing between now and early next year, opening up Epic Quests from the game's expansions to free-to-play accounts. The updates will also upgrade Legendary Items, add more raids and instances to the zones of Middle Earth and make high level raids accessible to more players. Read on for details.
Opening up Epic Quests in Moria and Mirkwood will give those with free-to-play accounts a chance to see the expansion zones and play through the story missions without having to pay anything. Players will then be able to pay if they want to unlock the rest of the quests and the additional classes.
It's not just parts of the expansions that will be made free, either. At the moment free players have to buy quest packs to unlock quests in level 20 zones. Turbine have now said that the quests of the mid level Low Lands will be unlocked to all players, and more missions will be added to make it easier for players to gain enough reputation to progress in the Epic Quest.
Top level players will be pleased to know that Radiance restrictions on high tier raids will be removed completely. Previously players would have to grind heavily to gain the equipment needed to fight the powerful debuffs of high tier raids. As of early next year, this won't be a worry, meaning more players will be free to run Lord of the Rings Online's most challenging quests.
There's plenty more information on the planned changes on the official Lord of the Rings Online site. The huge series of free updates will prepare the game for the arrival of next year's Rise to Isengard expansion, which will add new areas, raise the level cap and extend the Epic Quest even further.
