Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-26119768-20170222024948/@comment-31907131-20170224032137

Recneps wrote: The Balrog isn't all the end-game in Utumno, which is why removing them wouldn't remove all of it. Also, I don't mean Utumno is any form of end-game for the mod, I mean that the Balrog is end-game within Utumno, as in the iconic mob to defeat on a raid. Also, are we sure we want to take out a significant part of the challenge of Utumno? If it was worked into a fully-fledged suggestion to compensate for that, then I could support it, but as it stands, removing the Balrog would practically gut Utumno. Sure, the other mobs can be hard, but none of them are actually harder than can be found in Middle-Earth, or much different. They're mostly just reskins of normal NPCs from Middle-Earth. I didn't say all of the end-game; I said practically all. Compensation? I can think of none, from a description of Utumno. But then I can think of nothing powerful in the first place that might have inhabited it, since close to all of Melkor's servants are gone by the time of the mod, just as all his main fortresses are.

So the verdict, judging by lore? Gut Utumno. Then behead it. It can still be accessed when that planned thing (the First Age) is added, but not at this time.

The verdict, judging by gameplay and enjoyment? Leave Utumno exactly as it is.

A suitable compromise can probably be achieved between the two of these, with Balrogs being replaced with something else and Utumno taking a lesser role, but I am not the one to make it.