When Lord of the Rings Online arrived at its fifth expansion in 2013, its studio did the unthinkable: It broke the naming format of “Noun of Proper Noun.” Now we simply got Helm’s Deep, and it was more than enough, because what else were you going to call this sweeping conclusion to the Rohan conflict?
A year after players plunged into the vast realm of Rohan, the second half of the country unfolded before them with this expansion. It was both more of the same and more innovation. So how doesHelm’s Deep hold up so many years later?
When I think back to Helm’s Deep, the very first thing that comes to mind is that this was when Lord of the Rings Online shifted from its old slottable traits to the current trait trees.
This arrived with no small amount of consternation and community arguments. Some appreciated the unique feel of the old trait system (of which you can see remnants in the racial panel and monster character UI), while others welcomed a more traditional MMORPG talent tree.
I was — and still am — on board with the trait trees. They’re simply easier to understand and allowed for more interesting build and additional traits. But no matter where you sat on this discussion, it represented a huge change to the game.
The other major change with the expansion was the introduction of the epic battle system. This was marketed to the community as a beefed-up version of skirmishes, a way to convey the huge battle of Helm’s Deep within LOTRO’s limitations.
To put it as kindly as I can, the idea of epic battles was commendable, but the execution of them was pretty horrid. While epic battles have their fans (and the system still exists in the game), many players weren’t thrilled with what turned out to be very long, tedious instances. The rewards — focusing on jewelry — weren’t worth the grind, and a lot of the playerbase only engaged with this system to get through the epic story and then never again. Eventually, SSG would add a way to bypass the big battles entirely.
While epic battles was a misstep, the rest of the expansion was generally excellent. The Westemnet was more interesting than Riders of Rohan’s Eastemnet, with the iconic capital of Edoras, the massive Hornburg, and the creepily beautiful Dunharrow. The landscape leaned more into war as a theme, with villages aflame and enemies roaming more aggressively.
The expansion took players to level 95. For reasons that we’ll go into next week, this expansion cycle was a fairly short one, going only through Updates 12 and 13. The latter (which came out in early 2014) wrapped up the story of the Two Towers with the Entwood and a flooded version of Isengard.
It was a sizable expansion in terms of the story and regions added, butHelm’s Deep doesn’t seem to enjoy strong nostalgia from the playerbase. I think that some of this may be attributed to the distaste of the epic battles and the general fatigue of endless Rohan towns. Personally, I am favorably inclined toward it. The stories were pretty great and deeply tied into the books, and getting to experience it alongside your little fellowship made it extra memorable. Plus the landscape — when it wasn’t on fire — was gorgeous and definitely screenshot-worthy.
Every two weeks, the LOTRO Legendarium goes on an adventure (horrid things, those) through the wondrous, 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 the column, send it to him at justin@massivelyop.com.
