Rune-Keeper Class Suggestions

INTRODUCTION

In recent months, developers have been approaching the forums asking for ideas on class changes. In advance of the Rune-Keeper’s turn, I wanted to offer some ideas for this class, which I think would put us in a position that 1) is more fun to play, 2) provides greater utility to groups, and 3) ensures we preserve a unique playstyle. As a caveat, most of these suggestions are coming from the perspective of a healing Rune-Keeper; however, I believe that many of them would add unique utility to damage lines as well.

WHAT MAKES RUNE KEEPERS UNIQUE

Debuffs

Where minstrels have traditionally held the spot as healer with group buffs, I feel Rune-Keepers filled a spot for healing with more debuffs. I am glad that the developers have kept Flurry of Words relevant in recent vintage. However, the elimination of Write of Cold and Frozen Epilogue and relegating Writ of Lightning to Yellow Line means the only other debuffing skills are Essence of Winter and Chilling Rhetoric, two skills with very limited application outside of PvP. I think reintroducing skills or reworking skills to bring back a few extra relevant debuffs will better position Rune-Keepers as a healing class with more to offer than just pure heals, without leaking over into the identity of Minstrel gameplay.
However, despite my desire for more debuffs, I also recognize the issue with Rune-Keepers failing to have damage buffs—while making a boss more difficult to defeat is useful, it is hard to pass on a minstrel who can heal, increase DPS by at least 17% and reduce attack speed and induction times.

Damage Reduction

Rune-Keepers were the original damage reduction class, with Minstrels being forced to play catch-up. I’m glad that we have largely retained this aspect, and I believe when faced with a decision to provide extra heals or damage reduction, the latter should be chosen.

Affinity Skills
We no longer have true affinity skills, but I believe turning back to a differentiation among Frost, Fire, and Lightning skills would encourage more interesting gameplay. While not based on affinity, I like the direction we have gone with Concession and Rebuttal. The skills it affects could arguably have more desired effects; however, the idea that some skills change based on the previous skill used is a mechanic requiring a bit of planning, which fits with the feel of the Rune-Keeper.

Vision and Foretelling

Rune-Keepers always thrived on heal-over-time skills, making them less reactionary than Minstrels, which traditionally had fewer heal-over-time options. When this non-reactionary style is applied to other areas besides healing, we have Vision and Foretelling skills. Today, the only remaining Vision and Foretelling skill is Do Not Fall This Day. It is a perfect example of having to plan ahead during a fight in order to maximize effectiveness. This area of Rune-Keeper gameplay was more expansive in the path and if brought back, would add more uniqueness to our arsenal.

Attunement

If one had to name the biggest difference between Rune-Keeper gameplay and another class’s, Attunement would likely be a common answer. However, when healing I feel there is little need for attunement management. Essay of Exultation and Word of Exultation consume attunement and Flurry of Words attunes 3 red; however, I believe that widening the Middle Path skills beyond situational interrupts and corruption removals, which other classes can also do, would provide a more unique gameplay experience.

SUGGESTED CHANGES

Taking all this into account, I believe the resurrection and reworking of the following skills would address the points above and make the Rune-Keeper a more engaging and desirable class to group with.

Skills to Reintroduce

• Writ of Cold
o With Writ of Healing, Writ of Fire, and Writ of Lightning, I believe we should bring back Writ of Cold. While Writ of Lightning has mostly retained the +24% All Skills Inductions and +15% Attack Duration debuffs, this is now gated behind the Yellow line and diminishes debuff capabilities in Blue and Red. Even if the debuffs are altered, bringing back this skill would increase our utility, attention to attunement, and ultimate damage reduction.

• That Which Does Not Kill Us
o This was one of my favorite skills. It granted everyone in the fellowship a +20% outgoing damage buff, but if a player suffered damage it reverted to a relatively strong heal over time. Minstrels offer much in the way of damage buffs, something that can be difficult for a Rune-Keeper to overcome. By providing sizable damage output but putting a unique Rune-Keeper twist on it, I believe bringing back this skill would aid in our utility.

• Do Not Fall to Fire/Frost/Lightning
o This skill was put to great use in Tower of Orthanc and Barad Guldur when known spike damage was going to occur. It granted everyone a buff that negated the next Fire, Frost, or Lightning damage that a player received, with the elemental nature determined by the previous damage skill the Rune-Keeper cast (Fire, Frost, or Lightning). If a boss is winding up for a large frost-damage attack, casting this skill under the Frost Affinity would effectively negate that attack. This skill would add to the uniqueness of Affinity skills, Vision and Foretelling, as well as damage reduction.

• Their Weapons Shall Not Harm Us
o While most classes have their poison, wound, fear, and disease curing skill, Rune-Keepers had one that was very unique. This skill applied an effect on fellowship members that negated the next poison or wound (and fear or disease if traited) each individual player received, replacing this buff with a +10% poison and wound resistance buff. Bringing back this skill would provide a group effect removal (Minstrels already have one in Story of Courage and Fellowship’s Heart for fear) with a Rune-Keeper twist. While Rune-Keepers do have a strong single target cure with Scribe a New Ending, that skill is reactionary and does not mesh with the Vision and Foretelling feel of the class as the only cure available.

Skills to Change Based on Affinity

• Rune-sign of Fire/Frost/Lightning
o In the past, this skill provided the target various buffs depending on what the Affinity was of the previous skill cast. The target received under Fire a + Finesse Rating and -5% Miss Chance buff, Frost a + Mastery and +3% Damage buff, and Lightning a + Critical Rating and +4% Critical Hit Chance buff. Today, we have a Frost version that provides -10% incoming damage. I believe reintroducing differences in affinity would provide greater options. For example, reintroducing an outgoing damage buff to Rune-Sign of Fire and/or Lightning would give the Rune-Keeper more options on whom to cast it than it stands now.

• Armor of Fire/Frost/Lightning
o In the past, our self-bubble provided various effects depending on what the affinity was of the previous skill we cast. When attacked by melee damage Fire reflected Fire Damage, Frost reflected a -30% Run Speed and +30% Attack Duration debuff, and Lightning provided a 30% chance to mez the target for 5 seconds, the last of which is preserved today. While some of the effects may need to be reworked (and the bubble preferably a bit larger to compensate for larger morale pools), I believe reviving the Affinity aspect of this skill could make for more engaging gameplay and a more useful survival skill than what we have in its current iteration.

A WORD ON SKILL-BLOAT

Many players may think this is a simple attempt to resurrect skill bloat and nostalgic desires for a time long past. I believe skill bloat is a problem when a skill must always be cast when off cooldown or has no increased utility when used in high-stakes situations compared to low stakes. One example of this skill was Fall to Fire/Frost/Lightning.

Fall to Fire/Frost/Lightning

This skill was an Affinity skill debuff cast on an enemy target. It provided -5% Fire, Frost, or Lightning mitigation debuff (depending on affinity) and then had a 20% chance on any Fire, Frost, or Lightning damage (depending on affinity) of being consumed by a larger attack. The issue with the skill was little incentive to cast it except as a moderate damage skill with a 30s cooldown. By providing -5% elemental mitigation, it was only useful when being attacked with that specific damage, and a constant barrage of attacks would quickly consume its effect, thus rendering the -5% mitigation of ephemeral importance. Cast it on a boss, cast it on trash, it made little difference.
If this skill were reintroduced, I believe it would need some reworking. If kept as a debuff that lasts for a fleeting moment, there’s little incentive to cast it, but if kept as a useful, permanent debuff, it would fall into the always-cast-when-off-cooldown conundrum. I believe that the other skills I have mentioned above would not meet the same fate. For example, Vision And Foretelling skills could be cast whenever off cooldown, but (with the admitted exception of Do Not Fall This Day) are most useful when cast situationally. Similarly, affinity-based skills that can provide either “healing” or “damage” bonuses provide some situational choice between buffing the group or keeping players alive.
Without entering the fray of discussing the change in play style of the recent Minstrel updates, one area that I have not seen discussed was the Developer’s attempt at keeping Minstrel skills without consolidating and eliminating them. This is something I thought they did well and definitely appreciate. For example, Anthems were retooled, and we maintained a similar number—the Developer could easily have merged Anthem I, II, and III skills into three anthems only. Call of Greatness was kept but altered, and Song of Aid was kept but substantially altered. Similarly, key buffs provided from Cry of the Valar and Inspire Fellows were eliminated, but the skills kept and slightly altered. I believe in each case, Developers could have made the argument to either eliminate or consolidate these skills but instead kept them, some under new guises. As discussed, I am not going to speak to whether I like or dislike the effect these changes had in play style, and I intend this thread to remain squarely targeted to the Rune-Keeper class. However, I simply wanted to make the point that I appreciate when Developers update a class without eliminating skills, despite whatever effect these retooled skills have on gameplay.
For Rune-Keepers, I believe past updates to the class made the mistake of defining skill bloat to mean too many skills as opposed to meaning too many ineffective, mundane skills. For a skill like the previous iteration of Fall to X, I would agree that being sidelined was appropriate. For a skill like Do Not Fall to X, I strongly disagree that it added to skill bloat because it was a very effective and unique, albeit situation, skill.

CONCLUSION

I believe the Rune-Keeper has an engaging playstyle with some very unique attributes compared to other classes. However, I believe that the elimination of some skills unintentionally eliminated key mechanics (such as affinity-based skills and vision and foretelling) that have since been forgotten. If there is one suggestion I would have for the Developers, it is to take another look at these mechanics and what makes the Rune-Keeper unique so as to avoid an update that brings it one step closer to homogenization of playstyle among classes.