I think it's a smart move on Turbine's part to push through some zone revamps. I just recently picked the game back up having not played since the open beta event so haven't made it to Angmar, but have a good feel for the types of changes they're planning since I can see where they might be used in some of the other zones as well.
The boars? Yea, the absolute LAST thing I'd want to see when I get a character that far into the game is ANOTHER giant pile of what I've come to call the Pigdogs. My highest character is level 21 and in each and every single area I've been to minus the tutorial instance, I've been forced to fight either wolves or boars. Mordor isn't half the threat to Middle Earth that the Pigdogs are!
At any rate, there are definitely a lot of areas where the roaming soloable mobs simply feel like filler content vs. something that was charted / graphed / planned out in great detail. Sure, tailors need those massive piles of hides from somewhere ... but please don't make it be Pigdogs for 50 full levels. Keep in mind I had the exact same issue with WoW - nothing was worse than finally getting my first character into the Plaguelands and seeing MORE bears. Or in EQ zoning into the Plane of Disease only to see MORE rats. RATS! In all cases it feels like lazy game design (kind of like sewer levels being all the rage as filler content in single player games) so please, no more Pigdogs! Really!
Otherwise the solo vs. group content seems like it will always be a tricky one to truly balance. I'll give a wee anecdote about my trio of characters to give you an idea of what I mean:
Two of my characters are playing Middle Earth Online, one of them is playing Lord of the Rings Online. What's that? There's no Middle Earth Online you say? Oh, but there is!
You see, those two characters happen to be Elves. Since I play at some fairly odd times it seems there's rarely other players in the low level areas for the Elves. Thankfully there's a large pile of solo content, but what about that epic storyline that's supposed to tie your character's fate to that of the Fellowship? Well, forced (and I mean Forced) grouping hits in the quest chain by the low teens. No other players in those zones = a dead stop to your epic quest, without which you're really just playing a game set in Middle Earth that otherwise doesn't provide many links to the LotR plot line.
My third character? That one's a Human - and Bree seems to be a sizable gathering hub for pretty much all races. I see as many level 10 dwarves, hobbits and elves as I do humans, which leads me to believe that apart from my odd play times there's also a mass migration that contributes to the low zone populations my elves experience. As a result, my human has absolutely no problem finding groups for the (forced) group quests in the epic chain.
There is absolutely no moral to my story, though there is a point or two to be made:
A) It's almost
too easy to simply solo your way through the bulk of the game. Mileage may vary depending on class selection.
B) The epic quest chain, given the solo-friendly nature of the game otherwise, forces grouping on players about 10 levels too early. Let players all work their way to that giant nexus so there's a large enough population to support the necessity of grouping to complete those quests. It was different in beta and at launch when the bulk of players were all in those starting zones, but it's become a minor source of frustration for anyone in my shoes who's picked up the live game a bit later.
C) If you take away the epic quest chain, you really do just have Middle Earth Online. Hopefully as they work on further zone revamps they'll find some ways to link more of the quests in towns and outposts to the lore specific to the time frame of Lord of the Rings. Or at least reduce the number of people who want me to kill Pigdogs. Either / or.
Lord of the Rings Online Developer Interview - A Look at 2008
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