LotrO gets New Test server with Book 7 release notes!

Papadam · February 2009

LotrO is geting a new Test server called Bullroarer and will be updated with the upcoming book 7!

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=251205

Here are the release notes for the content update on the Test server.

http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Volume_2_Book_7_Bullroarer_Official

Not sure if I like the changes to make levelin easier and adding a quest helper...

1 new 12-man raid, 6 soloinstances for crafters, opening up the rest of Lothlorien with 50+ new quests and book 7 itself have 9 chapters and instances seems like a pretty big update

Lots of balancing and polish in all areas of the game it seems. The nerf on Captains "In harms way" will be interesting, I fully understand why they have to do it even if its a hard hit on us Captains.

blindside044 · February 2009

I like the self-rez feature, thats pretty cool. I dont really like, but also dont really care that they made leveling easier, in terms of less exp to level. The quest helper thing will have an option to turn it off completely for those that dont want it. (according to a dev) The crafting instances does sound interesting.

No point in commenting on the 'balance' changes as you can only really see how balanced it is once it goes live.. but hopefully they do balance a lot of things out.

Khrymson · February 2009

Yeah I know much of this can change, but not by much...here are my thoughts if you care enough to read them:

Changes I agree with:

New Player Experience ~ I agree that this did need a revamp...looking forward to seeing what they have added and going back to play the new quests!

Changes I don't agree with:

Quest Guide ~ No thx, its already too easy to do quests as is and this is just another shot at making it silver platter material now.
Crafting Instances ~ {There are six instances; two each for prospecting, forestry, and scholar materials.} Seriously, why no love for any of the other crafts, like say Tailoring which is a bitch to get high end mats for, but I guess ultimately it doesn't really matter anymore since Tailoring has been deemed pretty useless because of the new Radiance gear. ...and of course the 1 week cooldown not only on the mats, but also for each high end recipe even when you're a supreme-master{SM}
XP Curve Change ~ Goes along with the Quest Guide above...just more silver platter material and why do they think players need to rush to the end-game and catch up anyway when this game isn't designed around end-game!? This tells me that in the coming months/years to look forward to end-game style of instance grinding for armor sets which have already started with the radiance gear!
DPS and Mob Difficulty Rebalanced ~ So in other words they've reduced mob difficulty and the amount in which we can hit them for, so not much change at all in the leveling curve from 50-60. Sounds like it'll take us longer to kill them, but they won't hurt us as much either making it easier and longer at the same time!
New Self-revive Mechanic ~ Now I can understand that this kinda nice at the early parts of the game where there are no raises available often, but then again its so easy early on why does having the ability to raise where you died needed...its a short run back in most areas. As far as high end this is really dumb and even though its got a 2hr cooldown its a /hard slap to the classes that can raise, as well as make many boss fights super easy....just save your raise when doing a really tough boss if there isn't a battle-raise available!
Induction Times Reduced ~ Once again more silver platter material and a follow in WoWs footsteps as Blizzard did the same not too long ago also....why the emphasis on rushing?

Since I only play a Minstrel, I'm only gonna talk about that class here:

Inanimate creatures (Mushrooms, Totems, Fumaroles) ~ are no longer immune to Song and Cry attacks. Gameplay > Realism. While this isn't quite realistic, it was unfairly punishing Minstrels. {Thank you finally, this will help a lot in certain areas}
Anthem of Compassion can now be transformed into a tier 3 Ballad {since this can already be turned into a tier 3 balled by using the Watcher of Resolve trait line, I wonder how this will work now!}
Ballads have had their action duration lessened; this means they can be fired more quickly, and thus threaded in between healing more often. This also means pure ballad-use DPS will be raised by removing the ”animation cooldown.” {Not bad I suppose, but does this mean that there are no animations period for using any of our dmg-based ballads of which there are quite a few. Are we just gonna be standing there inanimate and not playing our instrument anymore?.....blah}
Call to Fate is now accessible at level 56 while Soliloquy of Spirit is now a level 60 skill. {SoS is still pointless and useless and needs to be upgraded to being something worthwhile, replaced by something better or flat out removed from the game. Even using the Legendary Triat to enhance this skill or having all 6 pieces of radiance gear its still useless and does very little. While on that topic...a -50% reduction to SoS power cost which is only 54 power atm without 6/6 radiance need to be removed and something better made instead! No reason to get 6/6 radiance for this horrible stat!}
Ballads now add a small amount of healing magnitude for each tier played. With the now-faster animation cooldown of ballads, players will not only be able to deal damage faster, they'll be able to raise their ability to heal at the same time. This also affects Song of Vigour and Song of Balance (at an enhanced duration), so use this to wring every ounce of healing out of your Minstrel's resolve. {this is pretty nice and will help with healing}
The Mentor Cooldown legacy has been removed from legendary class items. {Seriously, so having to wait 5 days for each PC mentor cast and 10 days for Manuals casts isn't enough you gotta take away the only thing that allows us to reduce the cooldown a little! Heck I even did the mentor moor cowbell on someone last week and it didn't credit my deed for the cast but still put the 5 day cooldown on!}

Auction House:

The craft recipe section of the auction house has been updated to display each tier of a crafting profession. This allows you to see only those recipes of a certain tier. You can still search all recipes by selecting the "Recipes" category and typing in the name of a scroll. The sorting functionality has been carried over into vendors selling recipes as well. {Finally this is much better, but I'd still like a check box to not display/include recipes you already have and don't need option as well....so many recipe pages to sift through all the time...its annoying!}

Crafting:

Crafting Guilds: Reduced the cool-down timer from 7 days to 3 days for all 7-day expert and artisan crafting guild recipes. {A little better, but that doesn't solve the issue with 7 day cooldowns on the Master and Supreme Master recipes...thus enforcing that the radiance gear is still top dog and are the ones to get instead of waiting for someone to make a full set of this crap...}
The Forochel armor sets have been updated so that the reputation requirements to use them are tiered. The new requirements are:

* Hands/Feet: Requires Acquaintance standing with Lossoth of Forochel

* Chest/Shoulders: Requires Friend standing with Lossoth of Forochel

* Legs/Head: Requires Ally standing with Lossoth of Forochel {Not that many still use these crafted sets anymore, but having them all at Kindred instead was a nice distiguishing reward to the players that took the time to get Kindredwith Forochel}

The broken pieces of the Bridge of Khazad-dûm were backwards, with the longer piece on the west side of the chasm and the shorter one on the east. They have now been reversed. This could cause people who logged out while standing on the broken bridge to log on in midair and plummet to their dooms. This should teach them not to log out on precarious bridges! {This was enough ROFL to note!}

[Deleted User] · February 2009

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Papadam · February 2009

Originally posted by Khrymson

DPS and Mob Difficulty Rebalanced ~ So in other words they've reduced mob difficulty and the amount in which we can hit them for, so not much change at all in the leveling curve from 50-60. Sounds like it'll take us longer to kill them, but they won't hurt us as much either making it easier and longer at the same time!

Good post Khrymson but I just have comment this part. Doesnt this mean t(after reading the explanation) that classes that rely on dps from weapons will get their damage output lowered such as Hunters and champions (they needed a dps nerf). Classes like minstrels, Lore master and Rune keepers will get a higher dps since they are not much affected by this but their attacks will not get resisted as often so they will get more damage,

Khrymson · February 2009

Originally posted by Papadam

Originally posted by Khrymson

DPS and Mob Difficulty Rebalanced ~ So in other words they've reduced mob difficulty and the amount in which we can hit them for, so not much change at all in the leveling curve from 50-60. Sounds like it'll take us longer to kill them, but they won't hurt us as much either making it easier and longer at the same time!

Good post Khrymson but I just have comment this part. Doesnt this mean t(after reading the explanation) that classes that rely on dps from weapons will get their damage output lowered such as Hunters and champions (they needed a dps nerf). Classes like minstrels, Lore master and Rune keepers will get a higher dps since they are not much affected by this but their attacks will not get resisted as often so they will get more damage,

I'm really not sure, but how I explained it is how it sounds and everyone/everything is getting a nerf, but ultimately it'll take longer to progress and be less dangerous. This is kinda nice for a Minstrel though cause starting out in Moria was really tough at first and I was 54 when I first got in there.

Now once I got 60, 6/6 radiance and all the new skills it got much easier and not as dangerous but starting out was. I've spoken with many other Minstrels I know and they too experienced the same.

APRAurore · February 2009

Not sure I like some of these changes, but I guess we'll just have to see how it goes...

Lobotomist · February 2009

Quite conterversial ...

Reducing exp needed to lvl 50 is good for me. Since Turbine killed Burglar class , and refuses to fix it.

So perhaps their fix is the fact that we can roll other class to lvl 50 much quicker ?

But seriously

Melee DPS nerf for all classes - this is good since some classes like Hunter or Champion were doing insane damage and simply melting mobs in seconds.

But self revive ?

I mean LOTRO is not known as most difficult ? And now you will not even need a healer in group anymore

Quest assistance ?

Why? Up to now you actually had some adventure element. You needed to read the quest and figure the location yourself. It was pain in the butt , but it also made it more challenging.

Oh well

Still , kudos on huge update ..as always.

Lets hope it will work better than it sounds right now

BigMango · February 2009

Originally posted by Lobotomist

But seriously
Melee DPS nerf for all classes - this is good since some classes like Hunter or Champion were doing insane damage and simply melting mobs in seconds.

Melting mobs in seconds???

My champion is currently level 48, I have already grinded a lot of the deeds to get faster attack speeds, vastly improved criticals, etc... and also have a legendary heroic trait (or whatever it is called) after grinding 1 of the books. I am also always equiped with the latest top gear with sharded master crafted or top PVE items and the same goes for the weapons; equipment full with +strength and +destiny for damage and criticals,... . After partying a lot I think my champion is in the upper class of the strong champions on my server.

With all of this, I find combat to be EXTREMELY SLOW and boring. Compare this with an AoC barbarian (equivalent of a champion combat wise) that is furiously ripping through the mobs in 2-3 seconds, taking on 5-6 mobs easily with fatalities and blood splitting everywhere... RRRAAAAWWWRRRRR (ok the lotro champion also takes on several mobs, but geezz is he slow and boring ; and anyway the number of mobs is not the problem here)

I am sorry to say, but the slow (is there a word slower than slow?) Lotro combat SUCKS BADLY. If you think this is impressive, I can't even imagine the crap the other classes must be....

For christ's sake, combat is the no 1 feature, this is what we are doing 90% of the time in these games (ok lotro also has a lot of crafting and rpg), don't they have the brains to think that this should be fun to play????

If you tell me it will now be even slower I think it will be time for me to cancel my sub, this won't be enjoyable anymore...

edit: Holly crap, and you are telling me that your Burglar (this is an assassin with daggers in cloth/light armor right?) is even slower than this ???

Lobotomist · February 2009

Originally posted by BigMango

Originally posted by Lobotomist

But seriously
Melee DPS nerf for all classes - this is good since some classes like Hunter or Champion were doing insane damage and simply melting mobs in seconds.

Melting mobs in seconds???

My champion is currently level 48, I have already grinded a lot of the deeds to get faster attack speeds, vastly improved criticals, etc... and also have a legendary heroic trait (or whatever it is called) after grinding 1 of the books. I am also always equiped with the latest top gear with sharded master crafted or top PVE items and the same goes for the weapons; equipment full with +strength and +destiny for damage and criticals,... . After partying a lot I think my champion is in the upper class of the strong champions on my server.

With all of this, I find combat to be EXTREMELY SLOW and boring. Compare this with an AoC barbarian (equivalent of a champion combat wise) that is furiously ripping through the mobs in 2-3 seconds, taking on 5-6 mobs easily with fatalities and blood splitting everywhere... RRRAAAAWWWRRRRR (ok the lotro champion also takes on several mobs, but geezz is he slow and boring ; and anyway the number of mobs is not the problem here)

I am sorry to say, but the slow (is there a word slower than slow?) Lotro combat SUCKS BADLY. If you think this is impressive, I can't even imagine the crap the other classes must be....

For christ's sake, combat is the no 1 feature, this is what we are doing 90% of the time in these games (ok lotro also has a lot of crafting and rpg), don't they have the brains to think that this should be fun to play????

If you tell me it will now be even slower I think it will be time for me to cancel my sub, this won't be enjoyable anymore...

edit: Holly crap, and you are telling me that your Burglar (this is an assassin with daggers in cloth/light armor right?) is even slower than this ???

I am amazed

that it took you 48 levels to realize that LOTRO is plainly obvious completely wrong game for YOU.

Man ... talking about wasting your time.

I could recommend you more arcade like MMOs - like WOW, even great AOC (why did you leave anyway)

BigMango · February 2009

Originally posted by Lobotomist

I am amazed

that it took you 48 levels to realize that LOTRO is plainly obvious completely wrong game for YOU.

Man ... talking about wasting your time.

Maybe because I am not the type of players who play a game for a couple hours or 10 levels and says it's crap?

Maybe, because in mmorpgs, you have character progression and you are supposed to get more powerfull as you level? Combat was so unbelievably slow and boring (well, it's ok as this is expected at lower levels) that I couldn't believe that the no 1 feature of an mmo would still be so at the higher levels? Even more so as when at the lower levels I see you have faster attack speed deeds, etc..., and even more so as I was seeing that I had a masterpiece of an mmorpg in front of me, ...... so I went on?

Gesus, where is the character progression? Ok, gear progression is nice. But at level 48 I don't fell more powerful against level 48 mobs with fully maxed out gear and deeds, than how I felt at level 5 agains level 5 mobs...... Well, the only difference is the number of mobs I can take on as the champion gets AOE skills, but that's it.

(edit: well, somehow the skills feel "a little" more powerful at level 48, especially the legendary traits, but it's not enough. The combat is still so sloooowwww....)

And also maybe because lotro has a nice story and lore lined RPG world with some nice crafting and beautiful environments which I enjoyed?

Originally posted by Lobotomist

I could recommend you more arcade like MMOs - like WOW, even great AOC (why did you leave anyway)

I have resubed to AoC a few days ago after a 2 months break, I often play more than one MMO at once; and I also play them on and off, trying new things from time to time. DF is also on the list (well, at least as soon as I can order lol).

edit: .... what? WOW? .... no thanks, I am not into cartoon games. Played that game 2 or 3 years ago and couldn't stand it past level 25. It's a good game though, just not for me.

Lobotomist · February 2009

Ok , fair enough

But combat in lotro is slow as it is ... its the old MMO style. And dont expect it to change (at least not until some next major expansion)

The game is more about quests, lore, story ...

daeandor · February 2009

I'll say that I never liked it when EQ, EQ2, DAOC, L2, WoW, etc "dumbed down" their games to make it "easier" to level. I've always felt that was a cheap way of saying, "exit polls from level 10 newbs to our game said they didn't want to grind to 60, so we decided to make it easier." Of course they fail to recognize that they just made it easier for them to get to 30 and quit rather than 10.

I don't like the resource instances at all, even as an idea. Whoever said resources were hard to get, haven't been trying very hard. Sure, silver is a pain if you don't know how to farm it, but seriously there are only a few areas in game that are consistently farmed. I think this is nothing more than an attempt to satisfy the people who have multiple crafting alts that want to be SM at level 10.

Lastly, I don't really like the proposed changes to mob's and dps. There are a ton of hunters and champs, but just dropping <normal> mob morale and in turn nerfing the two dps classes will make encounters no different or even harder. Want to make people happy? Don't nerf the 2 dps classes, make the other classes actually do damage. Scale damage table up for non-dps classes and then adjust mob morale to the desired <typical encounter> duration. Oh, and don't cater to support classes who want to solo like dps classes. Play a minstrel solo and guess what, it's going to take a while to kill a mob.

BigMango · February 2009

Originally posted by daeandor

but just dropping <normal> mob morale and in turn nerfing the two dps classes will make encounters no different or even harder. Want to make people happy? Don't nerf the 2 dps classes, make the other classes actually do damage.

What they need to do is increase damage and/or speed by at least 25% for all of the classes (progressively depending on the mobs levels, you don't want to 1 shot a mob only a few levels lower). At least for the dps classes, and then also for the others to keep it balanced (I don't know all of the classes well, so maybe you will tell me it should be less for some others classes; that would be fine with me as I don't know).

This also means increasing the damage done by the mobs in the same way, we don't want to make the game easy, do we? We only want to make it faster.

Make the combat fast and furious for christ's sake, make it fun to play (at least a dps class must be fast and furious, otherwise there is no point in it).

But you will tell me, no, because if the fights are faster you will level too fast? Ok, so lower the xp per mob or add more mobs to the quests or whatever.

Make it fun to play. Thanks.

Originally posted by daeandor

Oh, and don't cater to support classes who want to solo like dps classes. Play a minstrel solo and guess what, it's going to take a while to kill a mob.

Absolutely.

Mrbloodworth · February 2009

Before you guys fly off the handle, you should really

1) Read all the patch notes before screaming about the sky falling. (As classes did get adjusted, AND so did the mobs , what they really did was make things scale, and smooth out better as you go along, its not necessarily "Easer")

2) Log into the test server.

3) Recall how much content was added to the game sience launch, and now moria. (in refrence to XP change)

4) Rember how many people DID want a quest tracker. (Not me, but whatever)

daeandor · February 2009

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Before you guys fly off the handle, you should really

1) Read all the patch notes before screaming about the sky falling. (As classes did get adjusted, AND so did the mobs , what they really did was make things scale, and smooth out better as you go along, its not necessarily "Easer")
2) Log into the test server.
3) Recall how much content was added to the game sience launch, and now moria. (in refrence to XP change)
4) Rember how many people DID want a quest tracker. (Not me, but whatever)

1. I agree, and my comments were based entirely on what they said there. Partly my response is based on what has happened to other games that have said similar things, especially in reference to #3 below. Although Turbine is not Blizz, SOE, Mythic, etc, they operate similarly.

2. I'm downloading the client.

3. Actually, at this point all that extra content means that there are many more options to maximize your experience gain. The funny thing is though, the same anal retentiveness that makes achievers want to reach 60 ASAP, makes them unable to drop those light blue and green quests. With all the added content now days, you can nearly continuously do white, yellow, and orange con quest, resulting in level advancement speeds which are unrivaled in most mmorpgs. One gold says the same people complaining about xp gain, will be complaining about how hard reputation, LI exp, or whaterver it is in the expansion that is moderatly difficult in a few months.

4. I don't care about the quest tracker. Many people do though. My only beef with quest trackers is when they highlight unexplored areas. I really don't like it when a quest tracker / map shows me something my character should not have known about. It's an immersion thing with me. In the end though, I don't care. I too have been known to look online for object locations.

APRAurore · March 2009

Originally posted by daeandor

I'll say that I never liked it when EQ, EQ2, DAOC, L2, WoW, etc "dumbed down" their games to make it "easier" to level. I've always felt that was a cheap way of saying, "exit polls from level 10 newbs to our game said they didn't want to grind to 60, so we decided to make it easier." Of course they fail to recognize that they just made it easier for them to get to 30 and quit rather than 10. You are touching on something that I am 'worried' about with the description of Turbine's plans. I don't want LotRO to get easier. I would prefer it to get a bit more challenging, especially the higher I get. I got bored with WoW this time round because Blizz have been dumbing down the game even more from its already fairly simplistic playstyle. As an LM I find the game to be moderately challenging at times since my dps is pretty low. But that's is good, because my class is supposed to be a crowd control class and I do have to use my crowd control abilities quite a lot of the time.

I don't like the resource instances at all, even as an idea. Whoever said resources were hard to get, haven't been trying very hard. Sure, silver is a pain if you don't know how to farm it, but seriously there are only a few areas in game that are consistently farmed. I think this is nothing more than an attempt to satisfy the people who have multiple crafting alts that want to be SM at level 10. I want to see how they implement it. It might be really cool if the way they put in this content makes it interesting and fit the storyline. It's too early to say if it's geared only for soloers or if there will be kin content or fellow content, etc.

Lastly, I don't really like the proposed changes to mob's and dps. There are a ton of hunters and champs, but just dropping <normal> mob morale and in turn nerfing the two dps classes will make encounters no different or even harder. Want to make people happy? Don't nerf the 2 dps classes, make the other classes actually do damage. Scale damage table up for non-dps classes and then adjust mob morale to the desired <typical encounter> duration. Oh, and don't cater to support classes who want to solo like dps classes. Play a minstrel solo and guess what, it's going to take a while to kill a mob. I agree with you, why hate the dps classes for dps'ing? I don't want to see another rehash of WoW where Blizz made hybrids so strong that it has pushed the pure dps classes out of the game picture. I don't want my LM to do as much damage as a Hunter. I don't regret the Hunter's ability to kill things quickly at range. My LM can usually outlast equal level Hunters in fights that go wrong, as long as I play intelligently. Hunters go down like a ton of bricks. Minstrels: they might not be able to kill quickly, but they can get out of scrapes that the dps classes usually die in. If we nerf the dps classes, then what will we offer them to replace the damage they've been doing for the past 2 years?

Khrymson · March 2009

Its too late APR, these chages are coming and I can almost guarantee its gonna get even easier this year alone. It is alot more simple to down enemies now, but as a Minstrel not much has changed cause I'm just doing less dmg to an enemy that doesn't hit as hard which to a Mins still hits pretty hard. Feels identicle to me so it wasn't needed.

All these simple mode ideas are ruining LOTRO and fast....sure lets copy WoW even more than we already have. Just cause WoW recently added in the slower inductions then so should we...BS. I still really enjoy LOTRO and more than likely will continue to play it since I've put so much time into this character. Still all this ease to allow new players a chance to catch up is pointless if there is nothing to catch up too...since there is no end-game yet. They batter be adding in a ton of new content for these changes to allow then.

Heck most of my Kin are all extreme casuals and many have never set foot in any of Moria's instances yet and its not cause its too hard for them....they just don't have the time and patience to do it like others and as often. They enjoy playing out the individual stories you get from each quest instead at a very slow pace!

I'd prefer Turbine go back to Shadows and add in a bunch of new smaller instances for new players and alts to enjoy instead of focusing on end-game like yet again all MMOs are doing. Add in some 1-3 man instances and some crafting stuff back there too, and it really needs like 6-10 smaller, 6-man instances like Moria has as well.

With as easy as all MMOs are becoming and the urge to get players to basically skip everything before end-game, why don't they just continue to make these huge worlds full of content, but then; also add an "I Win Button" on the char creation screen that instantly makes your character level capped and just play end-game!

daeandor · March 2009

Just found out my server isn't in on this test...

The preliminary stuff I am seeing is not exciting to me though. Yes, my two mains are a Hunter and a Champion, so I am going to be more defensive. However, I am not saying that people should just play the support classes and suck it up with the current system. There is a reason I play the two dps classes. I don't like slow combat. Playing a captain, mistrel, loremaster, or rune-keeper (haven't played a burg or warden) are all slow to me. I'd be perfectly happy with Turbine increasing the non-dps classes capabilities, just don't do it at my expense.

On to the facts as I have read them:

The way I understand the changes, they are decreasing the ramp-up in dps that moria introduced. As in, 1 through 50 is going to remain relatively unchanged, it is 50+ that is taking the big hit. At the moment it appears that physical dps has taken a 20% nerf (or slightly more) coinciding with the, now confirmed, 20% drop in mob morale. The good news here is that tactical damage indirectly gets a nice boost in dps. Not because they bumped up the tactical numbers, but through morale drop of mobs and no nerf of the current tactical damage. *IF* this works out as it appears, it probably won't be all doom and gloom. There are some other problems which are troublesome in regards to changes in buffs, stances, and such, but they aren't as major as the dps and morale changes (to me).

wickedpt · March 2009

Originally posted by Khrymson

1 - Quest Guide ~ No thx, its already too easy to do quests as is and this is just another shot at making it silver platter material now.
2- Crafting Instances ~ {There are six instances; two each for prospecting, forestry, and scholar materials.} Seriously, why no love for any of the other crafts, like say Tailoring which is a bitch to get high end mats for, but I guess ultimately it doesn't really matter anymore since Tailoring has been deemed pretty useless because of the new Radiance gear. ...and of course the 1 week cooldown not only on the mats, but also for each high end recipe even when you're a supreme-master{SM}
3 - XP Curve Change ~ Goes along with the Quest Guide above...just more silver platter material and why do they think players need to rush to the end-game and catch up anyway when this game isn't designed around end-game!? This tells me that in the coming months/years to look forward to end-game style of instance grinding for armor sets which have already started with the radiance gear!
4 - DPS and Mob Difficulty Rebalanced ~ So in other words they've reduced mob difficulty and the amount in which we can hit them for, so not much change at all in the leveling curve from 50-60. Sounds like it'll take us longer to kill them, but they won't hurt us as much either making it easier and longer at the same time!
5 - New Self-revive Mechanic ~ Now I can understand that this kinda nice at the early parts of the game where there are no raises available often, but then again its so easy early on why does having the ability to raise where you died needed...its a short run back in most areas. As far as high end this is really dumb and even though its got a 2hr cooldown its a /hard slap to the classes that can raise, as well as make many boss fights super easy....just save your raise when doing a really tough boss if there isn't a battle-raise available!
6 - Induction Times Reduced ~ Once again more silver platter material and a follow in WoWs footsteps as Blizzard did the same not too long ago also....why the emphasis on rushing?

Since I only play a Minstrel, I'm only gonna talk about that class here:

7 - Inanimate creatures (Mushrooms, Totems, Fumaroles) ~ are no longer immune to Song and Cry attacks. Gameplay > Realism. While this isn't quite realistic, it was unfairly punishing Minstrels. {Thank you finally, this will help a lot in certain areas}
8 - Anthem of Compassion can now be transformed into a tier 3 Ballad {since this can already be turned into a tier 3 balled by using the Watcher of Resolve trait line, I wonder how this will work now!}
9 - Ballads have had their action duration lessened; this means they can be fired more quickly, and thus threaded in between healing more often. This also means pure ballad-use DPS will be raised by removing the ”animation cooldown.” {Not bad I suppose, but does this mean that there are no animations period for using any of our dmg-based ballads of which there are quite a few. Are we just gonna be standing there inanimate and not playing our instrument anymore?.....blah}
10 - Call to Fate is now accessible at level 56 while Soliloquy of Spirit is now a level 60 skill. {SoS is still pointless and useless and needs to be upgraded to being something worthwhile, replaced by something better or flat out removed from the game. Even using the Legendary Triat to enhance this skill or having all 6 pieces of radiance gear its still useless and does very little. While on that topic...a -50% reduction to SoS power cost which is only 54 power atm without 6/6 radiance need to be removed and something better made instead! No reason to get 6/6 radiance for this horrible stat!}
11 - Ballads now add a small amount of healing magnitude for each tier played. With the now-faster animation cooldown of ballads, players will not only be able to deal damage faster, they'll be able to raise their ability to heal at the same time. This also affects Song of Vigour and Song of Balance (at an enhanced duration), so use this to wring every ounce of healing out of your Minstrel's resolve. {this is pretty nice and will help with healing}
12 - The Mentor Cooldown legacy has been removed from legendary class items. {Seriously, so having to wait 5 days for each PC mentor cast and 10 days for Manuals casts isn't enough you gotta take away the only thing that allows us to reduce the cooldown a little! Heck I even did the mentor moor cowbell on someone last week and it didn't credit my deed for the cast but still put the 5 day cooldown on!}

Auction House:

13 - The craft recipe section of the auction house has been updated to display each tier of a crafting profession. This allows you to see only those recipes of a certain tier. You can still search all recipes by selecting the "Recipes" category and typing in the name of a scroll. The sorting functionality has been carried over into vendors selling recipes as well. {Finally this is much better, but I'd still like a check box to not display/include recipes you already have and don't need option as well....so many recipe pages to sift through all the time...its annoying!}

Crafting:

14 - Crafting Guilds: Reduced the cool-down timer from 7 days to 3 days for all 7-day expert and artisan crafting guild recipes. {A little better, but that doesn't solve the issue with 7 day cooldowns on the Master and Supreme Master recipes...thus enforcing that the radiance gear is still top dog and are the ones to get instead of waiting for someone to make a full set of this crap...}
15 - The Forochel armor sets have been updated so that the reputation requirements to use them are tiered. The new requirements are:

* Hands/Feet: Requires Acquaintance standing with Lossoth of Forochel

* Chest/Shoulders: Requires Friend standing with Lossoth of Forochel

* Legs/Head: Requires Ally standing with Lossoth of Forochel {Not that many still use these crafted sets anymore, but having them all at Kindred instead was a nice distiguishing reward to the players that took the time to get Kindredwith Forochel}

1 - You can turn off the quest guide completely or just some parts of it. Having options is not a bad thing.

2 - Too bad there are no Hide's crafting instances. But hides are already much more easier to come by since you dont need a specific craft to collect them.

3 - The curve was rebalanced. At the end it will only shave off 55k XP from 1-60. It'll be faster at lower levels but a little slower at the final levels.

4 - No, mob health was too high in Moria because they had to scale it with the new DPS from LI's. Tactical classes (such as the minstrel, LM or RK) have no direct way to improve their DPS so they scaled down Weapon based DPS along with mob health, making it so that Tactical classes in comparision are hitting a little bit more. Mobs will still hit for the same amount.

5 - Self revive will be greyed-out in Instances. So there will no messing with the Rez classes (LM, RK, Captain and Minstrel). Its a good think to use once in a while, while questing very far from the rez spot (remember the Circle of Despair? Foundations of Stone?) and it'll still have all the drawbacks from defeat like Dread and full Repair cost. The long cooldown also makes it so it dosnt get spammable.

6 - I haven't tested all the induction timers but i made a newbie hunter and their inductions where still long. The only inductions i noticed that where severly reduce where the pickup inductions.. and i welcome that change.

7 to 9 - Nothing too much to say here. Minor improvements are welcome but not game changing.

10 - Call to Fate at 56 will be awesome for leveling Minstrels. Having your most powerfull solo attack at lvl 60 didnt made any sense. The new 6/6 radiance bonus was changed from -50% SoS power to +20% SoS healing. It could be worse but i guess a fully traited and with LI's could make SoS not so bad as a maintenance heal.

11 - With the reduced ballad animations and a buff to healing according to your ballad tier it should a little more fun to heal instead of BC spamming.

12 - Nothinh to say here. Never used mentoring skills.

13 - This is welcome change. There are literally thousands of recipes in-game and can be frustrating to find what you need. The filter checkbox would be very nice.

14 - It's a change. The purple sets (barters from copper/silver/gold coins) will be BoA in book7 so it should bring armour crafting up a bit.

15 - I actually welcome this. The rep needed to wear the set made it that you would outlevel the set WAY after you left forochel, making it useless or only good for cosmetic reasons.

But this book will be know has the big In Harms Way nerf. IHW was nerfed from 100% to 50%... i wonder what will this change the game.

Howdy, Stranger!

LotrO gets New Test server with Book 7 release notes!

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

LotrO gets New Test server with Book 7 release notes!

Comments