Dev Diary – Update 13 Revamps: The North Downs, the Trollshaws, and the Misty Mountains

By Lauren "Budgeford" Salk

Overview of Changes

We took a good, hard look at a few older zones from Shadows of Angmar for the content revamps in Update 13. The North Downs, Trollshaws, and Misty Mountains all needed some love.

The goal of this revamp was to spruce up some very outdated content and yet still retain all of the best aspects of these three very unique regions. There were some great stories, beautiful and diverse environments, memorable characters, and unforgettable moments throughout the content we looked at. Hopefully these have only been enhanced with the improvements that we've made.

The North Downs

1. Quests have been re-leveled to cover 24-30. Previous level coverage was incredibly sparse and scattered, ranging from levels 21-45. Now players won't have to leave the zone and come back later in order to finish the content here.

2. Quest flow has been modernized and improved significantly. This zone was really showing its age with the scattered nature of the quests.

3. The existing stories in the zone have been highlighted and better supported.

4. Back-and-forth travel from quest hub to objective has been reduced. Running from Trestlebridge into Nan Wathren several times is annoying, so...no more of that.

5. Many quests have been added to areas with not enough content. (eg. Nan Wathren, the Fields of Fornost, Annundir, etc.)

6. Quests with overly high kill/collect numbers have been made more sane.

7. All quest hubs are OPEN! Completionists will still get recommendations on where to go when they finish a batch of content, but explorers can ditch Trestlebridge halfway through and pick up at the beginning with Mincham, if that's what they want.

The Trollshaws

1. A new final quest instance featuring the rise of the Gaunt-lord, Ferndúr the Virulent, has been added.

2. Quest flow has been streamlined, and now there is much less backtracking and ping-ponging.

3. Swift Travel has been added to several hubs throughout the Trollshaws.

4. Numerous repeatable quests have been added, intended to provide something to do no matter where you are in the Trollshaws.

5. Fellowship content experience and gold rewards have been enhanced, and additional group quests have been added to the more difficult areas of the zone.

The Misty Mountains

The smallest of our revamps, the Misties have still gotten some attention. Very few new quests have been added, but the quests that were there are more streamlined and have much better flow. The goal here was to ping-pong the player less frequently from far-Misties to Rivendell, to far-Misties to Gloín's camp, and so on.

There are two new small quest hubs for player convenience which should help the quests feel more efficient.

Goblin Town is now completely solo-able, although it will still likely be difficult for most players. This is a great space, full of interesting lore, so it will be nice for solo players to have deeper access to this enormous dungeon.