Desolation of Mordor: New Combat Abilities, Numenorean Artifacts, Augments and Torvin

Monolith revealed interesting details about the new combat mechanics and Baranor’s special abilities, how to collect numenorean artifacts , how to augment your gear and what role Torvin will play in the upcoming Story DLC for Middle-earth: Shadow of War.

If you’ve read my previous two articles, you already know the basics about the new story expansion to Middle-earth: Shadow of War – it releases on 8th of May and will offer you quite a different kind of experience as you play with Baranor in the new desert region of Lithlad.

Today I’ve got exciting things to show and tell you about the new combat mechanics, how the numenorean artifacts are obtained, what are augments and what role Torvin (from Shadow of Mordor) plays in all of this.

New UI Elements and Gameplay Features

Because of several new mechanics and features, the UI of the game has seen some changes as well. The first thing you will notice are the arrows pointing to all the available missions in the region. Each one has different icon, representing the type of a mission Baranor can pick up – main, side quests, gear quests and so on.

A brand new “hook” mechanic is implemented for Baranor to be able to climb quickly. Remember, he’s a normal human and doesn’t have the ability to jump quickly on a vertical plane, like Talion and Eltariel. As you look around with the camera, a new pop-up will appear on screen and stick to different places, notifying you of a possible hook grapple location, so you could get there quickly using one of Baranor’s new abilities.

In the left bottom corner you will also notice a new icon and numerical value (in this case 3/3) – Healing Elixir. These are collectibles from the corpses of your enemies and can heal Baranor up to full HP (on easy difficulty).

Another new gameplay mechanic noticeable on the UI is the number of arrows that Baranor can shoot. They are not elf-shot, but rather bolts for his special Crossbow! These ammunitions, however, are not available throughout the world (like elf-shot). So far we only know that they drop as loot from killed enemies. They do act in the same sense as the style as Talion’s bow in terms of gameplay, though

On the image above you see the new “wheel”. This element of the UI may look different on PC – this is the console version and on top of that it’s an early build of the game still (one month before release).

The elements we know details about so far are the ones on the top left and right – the left ones are the crossbow bolts that I told you about earlier and on the right side are the Concussion Bombs – area-effect explosives that damage, stun or knock down enemies. More on bolts later in this post.

The “T” symbols below might represent new special “Torvin Skill Upgrades” or possible new gear pieces that you will be collecting.

Finding Numenorean Artifacts

There is new numenorean inspired gear set(s) in Lithlad. They are spread around the world in the forms of “side missions. The bigger focus in today’s article are the artifacts, though. Artifacts will provide Baranor with a “Torvin skill upgrade”. This is also where Torvin – from Shadow of Mordor – comes into play.

He will be giving Baranor special “maps” that show a location in Lithlad where an artifact will be hidden. These maps, however, don’t exactly point you to the direction of the item. Instead, you get a beautifully drawn sketch type of a picture of a specific area. A particular segment of the picture is highlighted – that’s exactly where the artifact is hidden. In the case of the image above – the left side is highlighted.

You have to match the images from these maps to the world around him and this will allow you to find where exactly the artifact is hidden. It may actually really be beneficial if you use Photo Mode to locate these places. Below is the in-game screenshot of that exact location shown earlier in the map.

The Numenorean skill upgrade artifacts look like this:

After you collect one of these, you can hear a piece of a monologue from Torvin himself, who will tell you a bit of the lore behind this item. You then go visit him and he will reward you with a new “Torvin Skill Upgrade”.

These are so called “meta upgrades”. Because Baranor is a mortal human, he will die a lot and some parts of your progression will be reset. These artifacts, though will stick with you. You will not need to go find them again and again after each death.

Augments

There’s a new segment in Baranor’s equipment – Augments. These special upgrades can be sold for Coins if you don’t need them. Coins are a new In-Game currency related to the Mercenaries in Lithlad. The specific Augment you see on the image below – a Reinforced Plating – will attach to Baranor’s shield and boost his defense by allowing him to take 5% less damage.

These Augments are stackable (or maybe not all of them), meaning you can gain several of the Reinforced Platings and put them all into your shield, thus increasing your Defense value multiple times.

Augments do have an appearance altering effect, but it is not going to be the same as in the core game. More details on that will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Basic Combat Mechanics

The first and probably most popular new special attack is Shield Charge. It allows Baranor to do exactly that – shield charge forward, damaging enemies that stay in front of him and knocking them down. It’s more of a stun and crowd control ability than a damaging attack. The default key on console is “X” and you have to press and hold it to perform the Shield Charge. There is no “adapted” mechanic, meaning your enemies will always be affected by your Shield Charge. Shield Chargebuilds up your Might.

Just Shielding will allow you to block incoming attacks, which on its own is a brand new gameplay feature or Shadow of War. Careful, though. Shielding only works when you are facing your opponents. Exposing your back against a grunt or any other enemy will still allow them to hurt you. While Shielding, you cannot Counter. The shield cannot block and protect you from Caragor jump-attacks, which is understandable. However, you can block normal ground-attacks from the beasts. The idea here is for this shield to work as a real weapon of war. Usaing the Sheild to block incoming attacks builds up your Might.

The ability that was hidden behind the artifact I told you about earlier, is a new skill – Cyclone. It’s an area of effect whip kind of an attack. It’s a very powerful full 360 degree ability that slices and cuts grunts in half. Its animation is very short, but the effect is absolutely devastating! To use Cyclone you need to build up your Might to full as it uses it all up in one go.

The Crossbow works similarly to Talion’s bow when it’s fully charged (for max damage), but the animation is slightly different as the crossbow is mounted on Baranor’s left hand. The Focus timer is still here. The bolts are often dropping from Archers.

A whole new set of animations are added with this DLC, including new finishers, executions and very cool way to defend yourself against Caragors and finish them off when they are down.

Misc and Q&A

Here are a few more misc updates that were not specified in enough details for me to overview them here:

There is an equivalent ability to “Elven Rage”, but it is still early for this one to be revealed. it is related to Baranor’s followers is all we know so far.
When out in the world you can still find intel for captains and higher ranked orcs. There might be a new way for Baranor to obtain this information (as it was hinted in Monolith’s live stream).
There is no fall damage. There’s a way around it.
Baranor can do a roll too.
There will be no new tribe, unless you count the Mercenaries as one. They certainly are a big force.
Fortress Assault and Sieges do still exist. The regular orc tribes and their perks will be present in Lithlad.
Drakes are still a menace.
There will be a Baranor skin you can wear.
Graugs are also roaming Lighlad.
There will be new things for the core game as well, though most of the new mechanics are unique for Baranor and the Desolation of Mordor story and Lighlad.
Baranor cannot ride Caragors or Drakes.
No Shadow Strikes… if you were wondering :)
Baranor can still climb the normal way, but the new grapple hooks will allow him to do it much faster.
You can summon Followers.