Saruman hat 5 mächtige Ringe geschmiedet, 4 sind an die Elemente gebunden und quasi die vorbosse. Am Ende muss man gegen Saruman selber antreten um seinen Ring zu zerstören. Natürlich besiegen wir ihn nicht. Adler werden eine Rolle spielen.

Mehr dazu unter: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/11/15/...otros-update-5/

The Tower of Orthanc

Update 5's new instance cluster contains a little something for everyone: three three-man, one six-man, and one 12-man dungeon. It's meant to provide experienced Rise of Isengarders with plenty of endgame challenge while advancing the timeline of the game to the same point as Book 5. Because the good guys' forces in the area have mostly departed, players are left with the task of guerrilla warfare -- to harass, confound, and stymie Saruman at every turn.

Please note that there are plenty of spoilers ahead, including story and fight elements! So if you wish to remain blissfully ignorant, please skip to the conclusion.

At the end of the new six-man instance, The Foundry, players will discover that the devious wizard has created a ring forge of his own and is attempting to make rings of power like Sauron. This is canonical, by the way; the books contain two mentions to Saruman as a "ring-maker" but fail to elaborate on that. Turbine's decided to pick up that loose thread and run with it as far as possible.

So the 12-man raid, The Tower of Orthanc, tells the story of the players' attempt to destroy Saruman's newfound source of power. In a funny twist, Saruman welcomes us in, thinking that we've seen how mighty he is and are applying to become his apprentices (humility is not Saruman's strong point). It turns out that Saruman has crafted five minor rings and one major one and has bestowed the minor rings on other apprentices. We'll just call them "bosses," m'kay? Each minor ring is attuned to a different element -- fire, frost, acid, lightning and shadow -- with the major ring extending dominion over them.

The first stop in this raid is to tackle three separate wings in any order and capture the minor rings off the end bosses. Turbine says that these shouldn't take too long -- between 30 and 45 minutes on average -- and they only contain a couple of trash pulls before the boss. In addition to sporting unique looks, these trash mobs have a real purpose: They give clues as to the patterns and makeup of the boss fight ahead.

Once the wings are vanquished, it's on to the tower proper for a confrontation with the Shadow boss. His fight is considerably more difficult, as the 1.5 million-hit point foe has to be defeated in 10 minutes or less as glowing blue walls consistently close in on the players. Oh, and he can also throw up a self-healing bubble from time to time that needs to be shattered as quickly as possible.

For players who are well-versed in the "don't stand in the fire!" mantra, the Shadow boss is the opposite: When he starts exuding smoke, it's vital to stand still or else take massive damage. If you're up for his challenge mode, you'll need to defeat this boss within five minutes. Bring it on!

Face-to-face with Saruman
The final stage of The Tower of Orthanc takes place on its top, as players finally confront Saruman in a showdown that we've been itching for ever since the expansion released. This is a challenging six-phase battle that requires raids to be at their very best. In its Tier 2 form, this will be the toughest battle in LotRO.

Before the fight begins, five members of the raid can pick up one of the minor elemental rings to redirect Saruman's power back against him. For the seven members feeling left out, the ring-bearers can bestow incredible buffs on the rest of the party that will, in the words of the devs, "have you make bigger numbers than you've ever seen in this game." New UI elements will pop up to reflect how the battle is progressing and whether you're on the track to winning... or losing.

The battle not only can be lost by a wipe but will automatically fail if players fail to reflect Saruman's damage three times or if 10 party members die during the struggle. The fight begins with Saruman summoning elemental clones of himself and grows increasingly more complex as it progresses. Later phases have Saruman controlling the weather, creating dangerous hot spots that will hurt those standing in them, and summoning extra clones in an attempt to swarm the player.

As a fun bonus feature, Saruman will sometimes attack players with light-based damage, which is a first for any enemy mob in the game. Guess how much defense there is for players against light damage? Yeah. You're going to get pounded. You can even be knocked off the top of the tower to your death, so positioning is key.

If you survive and prevail against Saruman, you'll eventually be able to break his ring and hurt him for the first time. Of course, since he's a wizard, he's not going to stand around taking that kind of abuse, and it's at this moment that the fight ends with his knocking you off the tower and onto the backs of helpful Eagles who are returning from EagleCon '11.

This raid represents Turbine's efforts to push the limits of what's doable in the game and to make a lasting challenge for endgame adventurers. The rewards for such efforts are worth it: Over 100 unique pieces of gear have been created for this instance cluster. There are even drops that will allow you to craft together a legendary necklace or upgrade your Draigoch cloak. The raid also has the allure of level 75 first-age legendaries. Tier 2 has a chance to drop them while you're running the challenge mode; beating it without a single player death will guarantee them.