We’ve been hearing about the Evendim revamp for a while now, and JWBarry delivers the diary today to help walkthrough all the upcoming changes.  There have been a few tweaks since its release but this latest update is quite substantial.  The two main goals were to tighten up the leveling process from 30 to 40 as well as providing enough content to achieve that level.  To do all this they needed to implement the following:

  • create enough solo content to get through the levels
  • tighten the level range and improve the flow
  • increase quest quantity and density
  • Raise the quest quality
  • revamp the rewards
  • provide more quality instances earlier in the leveling curve

This revamp also helps tie in the story of the zone better as it fully walks through all the areas of conflict as the Rangers try to reclaim Evendim from both the Tomb-raiders as well and the Angmarians in Annuminas.

He then walks through how each of the zones are changed and most noticeable is the level change, but other tweaks are made as well:

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Certainly the biggest change is the drop of Annuminas (Echad Garthadir) from a level 50 zone to a level 40 one as all the quests, mobs, and instances are now available much earlier.  This should also help with the overall learning curve of the game bringing challenging content to the players at an earlier point as opposed to the onslaught at level 50.

Another cool technology is the improvement of the quest delivery system such that you’re not always returning to the quest hub.  The example given is that each quest completion triggers a new quest and they’re all turned in at once when you’ve completed the whole arc.

In addition to all the quest changes are the reward and reputation changes.  Not only are they concerned about item inventory and un-usable quest rewards but they wanted the leveling process to provide a sense of accomplishment.  So they’ve implemented “advancement moments” where you’re given a choice of class specific gear as a reward.  While you won’t be getting nearly as many rewards, they should prove longer lasting and they’re also upping the monetary rewards to further compensate for the gap.  They also are shockingly enough implementing a barter system for Evendim but it will not be gated by reputation, so once you have enough tokens you can buy whatever you want.  Finally since this is a leveling zone, they’ve reworked the reputation curve such that it is easier to get higher purely by questing as opposed to the current grind.

Overall some great changes and this should really help folks out as they level since that range is notorious for being a challenge.