LotRO's Update 17.1 To Include Level 95 Boost, In-Home Crafting Stations

Update 17.1 for The Lord of the Rings Online is only in testing right now. As usual, there's a long list of bug fixes and improvements that will be implemented in some form or another. But at the top of the forum thread on the update, there are a few new store items that are worth talking about.

Blessing of the Valar is an item that will instantly boost a character to level 95, just five levels short of the current cap of 100. If you've got a mid-level character, level 51 or higher, you can purchase the (likely cheaper) Blessing of the Valar Upgrade to get you to 95.

A couple of years ago, when Turbine first offered the Gift of the Valar, it boosted characters to level 50, well short of the then-current cap of 85, so it still required significant time to get to max level. Now, with this upcoming item, it will be a mere pittance to gain those last five levels, which could be viewed as a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view.

The other major LotRO store item to be offered in Update 17.1 will be crafting stations for housing. This LotRO player remembers, a long time ago, Turbine saying it didn't want crafting in housing instances, so people would be more likely to converge on towns and interact with each other. The times, they do change, and apparently the demand for in-home crafting stations was high enough to add them to the store.