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The following is a summary of the developer notes for Tuesday, May 15th.

• Level 50 class quests
• Level 30 Guardian Quest
• Level 30 Hunter Class Quest
• Level 30 Burglar Class Quest
• Level 30 Captain Quest
• Level 45 class quests unequal?
• Shores of Evendim: Group Content Teaser
• Bundle for Michael Delving

Level 50 class quests
When Dwarven-Might said that he wished there were level 50 class quests, MadeOfLions responded.

Dwarven-Might (great name, by the way, I’m a dwarf at heart), I’d like nothing better than to add some high-level class quests in the same vein as the L15 and L30 ones, because those were a real blast to make. It’s all a matter of when we’d be able to fit them into the schedule, but I don’t think it’s out of the question.

Level 30 Guardian Quest
Turns out there’s a sneaky orc causing some guardians trouble. MadeOfLions confirms that the orc is the key to this quest. He also mentions the L15 quest has a bug which makes it tough.

Yeah, that sneaky orc is really the ‘trick’ to this one, and once you realize he’s there it’s a lot easier. That the L15 quest is so tough is a bug, by the way — it should be soloable when Evendim comes out (unless that change made it Live already; sometimes it’s hard to remember what’s gone where).

Level 30 Hunter Class Quest
MadeOfLions visits with the hunters next.

One of the real joys of quest design is seeing all the great strategies you guys can come up with to ’solve’ quests like this. The flipside is that a lot of the class quests (and this one in particular!) are really, really tough to balance: during Beta I’d get bug after bug saying ‘It’s too hard!’ or ‘This quest is impossible!’ and have to spend awhile learning how to play Hunter so I could tell if it really was or not.

Level 30 Burglar Class Quest
Next, it’s the Burglars.

Honest opinion, guys: is the L30 quest a pushover? Does it feel like you’re just about to be seen by the high-level enemies keeping watch, or does it feel like a cakewalk? If it’s really too easy, I might consider adding some more patrols and difficult sneaking spots.

MadeOfLions posts a followup after someone posts about a bug in the Burglar quest which players could use to complete the quest in a way that wasn’t intended to work. Although it seems this bug has proved inspirational (uh-oh).

Sssnapdragon - I was afraid someone was going to discover that.

Probably you should bug it. I’ll need to see why the quest isn’t failing when you get defeated, but, er, that’s not how it’s supposed to work.

I love the idea that someone might notice the sword missing and send everybody into alert mode — that might be a neat gimmick to save for whenever I get to do another round of Burglar quests, though.

Level 30 Captain Quest
Then a quick visit with the Captains.

With the class quests, I usually started with a theme, and raising the banners of the Free Peoples over an enemy stronghold seemed very Captain-like. Also, who doesn’t love jumping?

Okay, maybe having a jumping puzzle in the class quest for a pet class wasn’t the best of ideas… but it *is* memorable. Maybe it’s to make up for having one of the easier L15 quests.

Level 45 class quests unequal?
MadeOfLions addresses the inequality some feel exists between class quests.

The first stage of collections for the Level 45 quests are all ‘quest items,’ which mean you need to collect them yourself, and these should all be doable at Level 45. The second and third stages of each quest ask for ‘trophy items,’ which means that the items are all tradable/sellable; the hope is that if you don’t enjoy delving into high-level dungeons or extremely dangerous areas, after awhile you might be able to buy these from the auction house, trade for them with your kinship, etc.

I would love to make some high-level class quests more in line with the L15 and L30 quests; it’s just a question of finding where to fit them into the schedule.

Shores of Evendim: Group Content Teaser
While there’s no details, the significance of this tease by MadeOfLions is that there is “fancy” new content for groups coming in the update.

There’s some group content in ‘Shores of Evendim,’ but I’m pretty sure we’re not talking about most of it yet. The emphasis is on the solo quests, since that’s where the gap is, but if you love to group you’ll have some fancy new content to keep you busy too.

Bundle for Michael Delving
MadeOfLions offers some tips for someone struggling with delivering mail to Michael Delving.

You might be running too close to a Nosey Hobbit - they’re really excited about the mail, and will fail your quest if you get too close to one of them. They’re marked on the radar with a little eye icon, so you want to avoid those.

EDIT: Also, stay out of water - if you start to swim, you’ll also drop the mail satchel.

Further in the thread a few players mention that there might be issues with some of the terrain and reported hearing splashing sounds right before failing even though they were nowhere near the water. Some of have reported logging out and back in fixed the problem. Others have simply tried altering the route. Whatever it is, find comfort in knowing that you’re not alone in having problems deliving the mail.