ByJustin Olivetti

Even as Lord of the Rings Online’s 17th anniversary gets underway this week, Standing Stone Games is already laying the foundation for the MMO’s next big chapter. Last night, the studio announced that it began testing Update 40 on the Bullroarer server, primarily to see how some load balancing changes affect the performance of the game.

PLAY LOTRO FOR FREE We have implemented some load balancing changes to help prevent certain areas of the world from impacting play quality and performance in other areas. In particular, the Ettenmoors and Before Battle Minas Tirith landscapes have been isolated from other areas of the world and private encounter instances,” the devs said.

Other small tweaks that players can check out include naming carry-alls, the (re)activation of sieges to Monster Play, five high-level quests, and more adjustments to the beleaguered forester crafting vent.

Absent from this initial round of testing is the content meat-and-potatoes of the update, which is rumored to be a time-gated quest series similar to Bingo Boffin.