The Lord of the Rings Online Developer Diaries
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On Captain advancement past 50:
Buffs, banners, heralds, off-tanking, DPS, and healing: the Captain class has many strong playstyle options and a broad range of abilities which allow him to be flexible when soloing and make him invaluable to fellowships.
For the Captain's 50+ advancement, we've focused on 3 different aspects of the class: DPS & Off-tanking, Healing, and Utility & Pets. Because buffing is such a core component of the Captain class, it wasn't limited to a single path but appears in different aspects of all 3 of the Captain's Trait Sets.
On Guardian advancement past 50:
Guardians have always had the highest levels of damage mitigation, and in Moria that continues to be the case. Though changes to the combat system have shifted the overall balance of the game, Guardians still reign supreme when it comes to their ability to take hits. To maintain this dominance over the tanking role, a number of familiar traits and skills have been updated to take advantage of elements in the new combat system to keep the Guardian on top.
With the level cap increasing to 60, a new set of Guardian skills and traits enters into the mix. These skills and traits fall into the following three categories: boss tanking, group tanking, and damage dealing. These three categories also generally describe the three Trait Set paths in which Guardians may choose to specialize. We hope that these options will provide you with the toolset you need to create a Guardian that best fits your style of tanking.
On Warden advancement past 50:
Since the Warden is a new Class for Moria, the Warden's development for levels 50-60 is much more of a smooth continuation. All of the new Moria game features were already mostly designed before Warden development even began. So while the class benefitted from co-development with Moria, the drawback has been the less feedback than the live classes have had to guide the development of the class up to level 60. It might be a good idea to read the Warden dev diary before looking through the rest of this article; there are some unique features of the Warden that I am not going to go into detail about here, but have spoken to in the dev diary.
On combat changes:
Our data has shown that on the whole, the core player base interacts with our system in expected ways. Heroes of Middle-earth large and small are winning the war in Eriador against the servants of the Witch-king of Angmar.
When the game began, we aimed at making it as understandable as possible to the average player. One thing that meant was trying to keep the numbers as simple as possible. Nothing is simpler then percentages: if you have 100% of a pie and you eat 50%, you are left with half, right? It's easy to understand. Well, the funny thing about trading simplicity for extensibility is that it becomes a tricky thing to navigate in a successful MMO. Why is it tricky? We'll get to that later on in the article.
On class trait sets:
...characters now have the ability to create Class Trait Set pairings that build upon class themes, allowing players to specialize and making them more effective at a chosen class role. As such, Trait Sets represent a way for players to shape their gameplay and enhance their character's performance. If you want to focus on the Hunter's secondary ability to crowd control their enemies, Trait Sets enable you to focus on that aspect of the Hunter gameplay and bring it to the fore-front.
On the legendary item system:
When Bilbo set out from Bag End, he was but a simple Hobbit with potential. There was no aura of legend surrounding him, yet through his actions and deeds he became a legend of Middle-earth. The Legendary Item system works in much the same way. Each Legendary Item contains the possibility of greatness. While they're typically less impressive than comparable items of their initial level, they have the potential to grow into the most powerful items in the game. The power of your Legendary Items will depend greatly on the effort you put into them and the story you build around them.
Legendary Items contain more components than any other type of item in The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Mines of Moriaâ„¢. These components (and the multitude of ways in which they interact) allow the players to find and customize unique items that may never be duplicated. In this developer diary, we'll be going over the various elements that make up a Legendary Item, some of the history behind their development, and the rules that surround them.
On the Ettenmoors re-vamp:
Glân Vraig and Gramsfoot are meant to be safe havens for players and monster players. As time has progressed, it has become apparent that one lane of egress from the bases is not sufficient to give players and monster players an avenue to enter the fray. To alleviate camping of the exits, we have added another access point from each of these locations leading directly to the main keeps of Ost Ringdyr and Dâr-gazag. The pathways run along the mountainous borders of the Ettenmoors and feature an open face to the interior of the Ettenmoors. This means that players and monster players using these pathways can slide down into the Ettenmoors proper at any point along the paths. Additionally, the paths are blocked in the same manner as the main gate of Glân Vraig and Gramsfoot at their conclusion and a small set of elite archers watches over these new locations.
On PvMP enhancements:
The Ettenmoors and PvMP is a tremendously enjoyable experience when battles are evenly matched. However, evenly matched battles may be infrequent. Though there's merit to the underdog overcoming the odds and a feeling of superiority when your side crushes the meager opposition, frustration and boredom continue to grow if there is no shift in population balance.
In order to address this, we have introduced a population balance mechanic in the Ettenmoors that will help even the odds between the two sides and provide a more interesting PvMP experience.
