Book 13 Dev Diary Feedback: The Orc Defiler

[Saffron]

Beginning in Book 13, LOTRO players can now play the newest monster class, the orc Defiler! Hailing from lands filled with toxins and disease, the orc Defiler uses his knowledge of these virulent fungi and slime to aid his foes and hamper his enemies. Join Content Designer Orion as in introduces us to this new monster class!

Read the developer diary, then post your comments below!

[Dinara]

Wow! The Defiler sounds pretty cool! Kudo's to you guys and your imagination!

[gildhur]

Curse of the Deadly Sorrows: "Douse opponent with corrosive liquid that weakens their armour and releases a soporific gas that reduces Will, Fate and Might." This is a medium-cost poison-based curse reducing the target's fate, will, might, and armor by a crippling amount. It has a three-second casting time and a thirty-second cooldown and is available at Rank Seven.

FTFY

[absoluum]

whens bk13 released? Hopefully this will be enough of an enjoyment to play as to warrant me paying two different game subscriptions. regardless, sounds fun!

[a99barnsey]

That looks pretty fun, an interesting class that will shake up the moors.

Now get to work making a goblin warg-rider

Seriously, we need a goblin class. And warg-riders would be so awesome.

[gildhur]

whens bk13 released?

It's on Roheryn, the preview server, as of yesterday (but that's currently down). It goes Live toward the end of the month. Probably the 28-30th.

[ChampionSword]

If Akuhuln is telling everyone to treat Defilers with respect, does that mean that the NPCs will speak a bit nicer to Defilers?

Long shot but...I had to ask.

[Dinatius]

sounds cool I'm a very part-time creep, but it will be nice to be a little more balanced.

Maybe I didn't read carefully enough, but are any of the skills going to be fellowship/raid only?

[Calimmacil]

I have no desire to ever play a Creep, but this will make PvMP more exciting. So thanks to the dev staff! I'm impressed with the way you've tried to keep all the skills based on science (materials, chemicals, pharmeceuticals, flora) rather than anything "magical." I wonder whether the bear skull is permanent, or whether you can have other headgear options.

[HavelockVetinari]

Fell Restoration: "When finished casting Fell Restoration instantly restores a huge amount of morale to target." This is a low-cost three second cast heal with a long ten-second cooldown healing a great deal of health instantly. This becomes available at Rank Three.

On roheryn the cooldown is 30 seconds. What gives?

[NYSEguy1970]

Defilers come from the Sofa Swamps? Pretzel? Where are these Sofa Swamps?

Also, the lower rank appearances have what appears to be Deer Skull Helms...where do they get the deer from. Bears and cows in the ettens yes, but deer? Perhaps, cave claw skulls would have been better helm models? LOL

OH! I see, hostile deer will also be introduced into the ettens right? Sweet!

[Hijynx]

Looks awesome. The defiler should round out the creep side nicely. Now to do something about the session play mechanic...

[dee_fruz]

I was unaware of any need for a second healing class creepside. Can't speak for the balance between creeps and freeps on other servers, but on mine, this is going to mean that no creep is ever going to die again.

Come out with something for freeps for a change, like increased resistances as you rank? maybe pvp-only traits as you rank etc? similar tot he creeps?

We're gonna get slaughtered!

Edit: What's the difference between a long 30-second cooldown and a regular 30-second cooldown?

[tlear]

On roheryn the cooldown is 30 seconds. What gives?

Behold power of the pre-emptive freep whine

[Salome]

Fell Restoration: "When finished casting Fell Restoration instantly restores a huge amount of morale to target." This is a low-cost three second cast heal with a long ten-second cooldown healing a great deal of health instantly. This becomes available at Rank Three.

On roheryn the cooldown is 30 seconds. What gives?

Behold power of the pre-emptive freep whine

Reading Comprehension, tlear.

[HorkeOME]

...uses his knowledge of these virulent fungi and slime to aid his foes and hamper his enemies...

There's a typo in there. I think the writer meant to say the Defiler aids his friends and hampers his foes.

[KainXI]

...uses his knowledge of these virulent fungi and slime to aid his foes and hamper his enemies...

There's a typo in there. I think the writer meant to say the Defiler aids his friends and hampers his foes.

No you've just discovered the devs secret plans. The defiler helps freeps and hurts creeps, who would have suspected?

[Orion]

On roheryn the cooldown is 30 seconds. What gives?

Score one for not revisiting the diary after balancing the skills.

Playtests proved that the skill at 10 seconds was too powerful. We changed the cool as a result.

[a99barnsey]

Score one for not revisiting the diary after balancing the skills.

Playtests proved that the skill at 10 seconds was too powerful. We changed the cool as a result.

So Orion... about that warg-rider. You soooo HAVE to make that the next class for the creeps. It would be so freaking awesome. Might be a challenge for the animators, but it would be worth it. You would have ranged attacks via the rider, and some melee attacks for both rider and warg. Wow, i'm geeking out just thinking about it.

[Kayel_Natas]

Ok maybe it's just on meneldor, but the freeps on my server never win longer then an hour or two, typically we get slaughtered due to the raid and a half of creeps + troll to our 1/2 to maybe a raid of freeps.

I'll be all for the defiler class if you remove trolls. Sure they're no problem if you dite, drain, lore them and it's only 3/4 to a raid of creeps. But if you miss it by a second then it's game over. Lets not even go into when we finally get control of the moors and two trolls come out to play.

BTW out of curiousity, there a reason burglars can't use all of our skills in the moors? Defilers better not be able to rez/heal trolls is all I'm gonna say.

[Wisdomandlore]

Ok maybe it's just on meneldor, but the freeps on my server never win longer then an hour or two, typically we get slaughtered due to the raid and a half of creeps + troll to our 1/2 to maybe a raid of freeps.

It's the opposite on Elendilmir. Usually there are 2-3 raids of Freeps versus 1/2 - 1 1/2 raid of Creeps. I don't think they will be able to achieve balance just by classes; they need mechanisms to help offset population differences.

[Felamid]

what they need to do is when you go to ettenmoors you go to one server that only runs ettenmoors. You head to ettenmoors you move to another server...Might be a small delay but who would care....No more imbalance...Plenty of action always 24x7

And it would help if it was useful/purposeful to kill a troll/ranger, then folks wouldnt be so blatant about how they play them.....

just my two coppers

[DaSpug]

It's the opposite on Elendilmir. Usually there are 2-3 raids of Freeps versus 1/2 - 1 1/2 raid of Creeps. I don't think they will be able to achieve balance just by classes; they need mechanisms to help offset population differences.

Yeah, they need NPC-like attackers for when the population is low on one side... kind of like TR, only cooler.

[gildhur]

what they need to do is when you go to ettenmoors you go to one server that only runs ettenmoors. You head to ettenmoors you move to another server...Might be a small delay but who would care....No more imbalance...Plenty of action always 24x7

Yes, because 8 raids of Freeps against 6 raids of Creeps is much better than 2 v 1.

[Amoryn]

So Orion... about that warg-rider. You soooo HAVE to make that the next class for the creeps. It would be so freaking awesome. Might be a challenge for the animators, but it would be worth it. You would have ranged attacks via the rider, and some melee attacks for both rider and warg. Wow, i'm geeking out just thinking about it.

And maybe implementing something like this would allow them to advance their concepts and ideas on how to implement mounted combat in the eventual Rohan expansion... not that your warg-rider would be able to dismount from his warg... or would he?