LOTRO Twitter Developer Chat – Class Changes. August 21, 2013 3PM Eastern.

[EyeSlayer600]

Question: What changes are coming specifically to Dwarf Champions?

P.S. I happen to like the "Vote for Sapience!" sig. All I did really was change the color to my liking and add the link..

[Mawane]

Will the Captain have actually a chance to keep aggro when traiting yellow? Because now the only way to keep aggro against DPS is to use forced taunts.

[Zombielord]

#1st Question:
Will retraiting still require our character visiting a bard/class trainer? (Hope not)

#2nd Question:
If the new character skilltrees work similar to the ones we saw with warsteeds (which I'm pretty sure they will) will there be the option to buy additional points and further increase skillslevels just like we can with our warsteeds?

[ferrariroger]

The list goes on and on.... I still believe a lot of people playing LOTRO enjoy the classes it has to offer over previous games, I know I certainly do... I just see this as change for change sake. They say if it aint broke don't fix it.... I'd say if it aint broke don't try to fix it as you'll probably break it in the process!

I really hope Turbine prove me wrong and work an absolute miracle here, I just don't see it and can envisage lots of angry players come patch day.

Agreed, I must say I am very afraid of these changes =(

Dont wanna have to stop playing lotro =/


Also, the great captains in the game play hybrid or Red Capstone, and on Red Capstone we are able to DPS some (about 1.4k ~ 1.7k DPS in L85 T2 instances) and still have great heals (about 1k ~ 2k HPS) so on Red Capstone we are still hybrid class. It was said that all classes will lose hybrid ability, is that true? man it really would sux! I mean the very essence of the captain is a warrior that give his soldiers more morale thru hitting the enemies (melee healing and critical dependent healing) and would be awesome if we could keep at least the not-so-good DPS we have, or be able to hit even more! (if thats not too much asking)

[AllySanders]

Agreed, I must say I am very afraid of these changes =(

Dont wanna have to stop playing lotro =/


Also, the great captains in the game play hybrid or Red Capstone, and on Red Capstone we are able to DPS some (about 1.4k ~ 1.7k DPS in L85 T2 instances) and still have great heals (about 1k ~ 2k HPS) so on Red Capstone we are still hybrid class. It was said that all classes will lose hybrid ability, is that true? man it really would sux! I mean the very essence of the captain is a warrior that give his soldiers more morale thru hitting the enemies (melee healing and critical dependent healing) and would be awesome if we could keep at least the not-so-good DPS we have, or be able to hit even more! (if thats not too much asking)

I agree--the ability to make hybrid characters is what really allowed a player to make unique toons--especially one like myself who plays with a lot of alts. I don't want to be forced into one trait line or the other as I like mixing and matching. Some of the straight line legendary traits don't appeal to me on some of the classes, so I ignore them and pick out the traits I like best from each area and end up with a nice versatile toon that fits my needs and the character's background and my playstyle as a solo player. I don't want to lose that ability!

[Silmelin]

My most important question is about Minstrels as that is my favourite class due to being good at soloing and healing in groups. Will that all go away?

Can minstrels still switch (with in game silver) between being as strong as possible War-speech minstrels who can enjoy all the solo content of the game, and as strong as possible healers who'll get invited to Instances and Raids?

Or will we have to sacrifice doing quests and leveling by ourselves so people will want us in a fellowship/raid, or never be able to get invited into groups due to not being the best healers since we chose the way of the war-speech Minstrel?


This skill change is a huge worry to me because I only have real fun in game while playing a minstrel and if this forces me to choose between being able to solo and getting invited into a group, then my minstrel will be broken :/

[bandodir]

That changes has the tree of dps of the mistrel how they will be the new skill, the book will be of dps, skills can be bought in the store of the type of those of the rune?, since it will be in general the class mistrel to dps

[DerKetzer]

Question 1:

#I realy like tanking with my champion. Will it be more possible to change blue-skilltree to better aggrokeeping and self-preservation? (Stronger selfheal and better Aggro)

Question 2:

#There will be also better way with amory/set bony to keep us alive and aggro on us?

Question 3:

#ICPR - Fate is not the solution - will be more possible with better skills to keep my power? Also for Hunter

Question 4:

#Did the hunter blue-skilltree will be changed?

Question 5:

#Wonderful can be that our champion skill to push/take aggro can be permanent in blueskilling, the same like - reflexion. (Like AoT - Aggro-over-Time-keep from fellowship)

Question 6:

#What seriously we can expect as a direction of changes? Looking of skilltree? Visible better class? stronger? etc.

Question 7:

#What definitely we can expect from champion and hunter changes?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

! IMPORTANT !: #Champion shield - pls give us our shield back - #can we get one of the most cool things back pls????????

[Laire]

1. Will we be able to save different trait set-ups? If so, how many?

2. Will this tree system be affecting class/skill traits only? Are virtues going this route?

3. How are class deeds, which currently have to be completed to unlock traits, being factored in?

4. Using all of their points, on average how many active skills does a 85 toon have?

[andracy]

Very true, the minstrel changes were well handled but I understand the upcoming changes will go further with the ditching of the trait-lines and moving to a tree-based mechanism. I suppose we will just have to wait to see just how sweeping the changes are.

Despite being the first to complain about class-based issues relating to my main I do still love the essence of the class and would hate to lose all the things that (to me) make the class unique and play-style enjoyable. While 'multi-spec' will be appreciated by all I still have reservations with regards to what a big gamble this will be from Turbine... Get just one class wrong and you have already annoyed a large portion of your playbase, lets face it, Turbine aren't well known for getting things right the first time so god knows how many mechanics or classes they will get wrong or outright break... If not done well such changes could be the straw that broke the camels back for a lot of loyal players... A very big risk indeed, which does beg the question, what exactly is the pay-off?

This work has clearly 'sucked up' a lot of dev-time which could have gone in to producing one (or more) of the following:

Kinship Overhall
Updated Housing
Crafting Revamp
Reputation rewards revamp (heirlooms etc)
Legendary Item revamp part 2
A traditional raid-cluster
More skirmishes
North Downs/Angmar revamp
Scaling of Angmar/Moria/Lothlorien/Garth Agarwen Instances and raids
A group-centric landscape area

The list goes on and on.... I still believe a lot of people playing LOTRO enjoy the classes it has to offer over previous games, I know I certainly do... I just see this as change for change sake. They say if it aint broke don't fix it.... I'd say if it aint broke don't try to fix it as you'll probably break it in the process!

I really hope Turbine prove me wrong and work an absolute miracle here, I just don't see it and can envisage lots of angry players come patch day.

That make me sad. But this is the truth my friends. No one complained except some bad or not scaled skills. But no one asked for an skill tree. But let face it, we know why this is happening. Turbine want to make Lotro even more casual. WoW type. Dual spec and here we go, every class will be god. Tank died? Spof, you press one button and sudenly your minstrel is using his dual spec an take the mobs on him. Doh.

About "Turbine aren't well known for getting things right the first time so god knows how many mechanics or classes they will get wrong or outright break... ", i think we have nothing to worry because there are NO raids, forgot? So 5 skills are not working, 2 have broked animation and 10 are useless? Who cares, you will to the EPIC BIG BATTLES with lvl 10 friends so you are safe.

So many things to rewamp in this game, so many. Instead of this, we are breaking one of the greatest feature in this game, diferent from other games. Who's ideea was this?
Turbine, no offence please. You forgot something. Please put in the new skills/traits/virtues/tree/whateverwillbe the instant aggro and instant healing like other MMORG's.

And please, dont even want to hear about trolling, trolling bait, not constructive post etc. I can show you step by step each stuff broked in this game with EVERY update/patch/fix/expansion. At the end i pay for this game and we have the right to express our opinions. But dont worry, i will not be alone. Dunno if HD will be launched at the end this year, but I bet that we will have lot of unhappy players at the the lauch date.

[Brya]

Q: Can you explain how trait trees work? Will we be forced to pick unwanted Trait A just because it's gating wanted Trait B?

[Wisp7011]

Although I like the current skill and trait system and the thought of changing a major game mechanism is scary, I'm going to choose to believe that the dev's are aware of the current grumblings and have a great plan ahead. However, I'm reading all the comments about a skill, or trait system revamp, I keep coming back to the same thoughts and questions...

To set the tone, we have a huge number of instances and raids available to us and part of the fun part is figuring out how to adjust each of the class to make the raids work. I am constantly retraiting my RK and LM to tweek my abilities for a particular run, often even changing between wings/sections. I love the multiple functions the different classes can play. Even my guard is retraited based on different runs, same with our hunters and burgs, etc... In turn with that I am also levelling another 85 in this current "lull" and am grinding traits and paying for accelerators...

So here are the short questions:

1) Can you please clarify if it is the skill system or trait system that is changing (or both)?

2) Will our current deed/virtue grinding become a waste of time (and money/TP)?

3) How will the new system provide the freedom to adjust to the different instances and class roles (for instance RK & LM)?


Thank you!

[helgamarie2013]

1st-)Any plans about revamping&fix the issue related to the actual limitation of adding more than 50 players to the friend list (while in the ignore list u can add as many as u want)?. Many players have been complaining about this for quite long, friend list needs an urgent fix (update).
2nd-)Any news about letting players dying the hairs of their players in whatever colors they would be interested in (why there isnt a chance for elves to have Blonde hair, when tolkien wrote most of the elves used to have blonde hair!!!!)? The same goes for eye colors.
Thnx!

[Roger56]

Bah totally disagree. What was not correct with current system ?

[Cadd_EU]

(why there isnt a chance for elves to have Blonde hair, when tolkien wrote most of the elves used to have blonde hair!!!!)

Tolkien actually specified very few elf haircolours, and I think most of those were dark-haired. A quick search tells me that Thranduil (or more precisely The Elven King of the Hobbit, only later actually developed into a named character) is blonde, but Legolas hair colour for instance is never actually specified.

However, elves can be blonde i the game, if they are from Mirkwood I believe.

[DerKetzer]

Tolkien actually specified very few elf haircolours, and I think most of those were dark-haired. A quick search tells me that Thranduil (or more precisely The Elven King of the Hobbit, only later actually developed into a named character) is blonde, but Legolas hair colour for instance is never actually specified.

However, elves can be blonde i the game, if they are from Mirkwood I believe.

If you look exactly he specified blonde for elves. Later in movies they add new colors.

[helgamarie2013]

Tolkien actually specified very few elf haircolours, and I think most of those were dark-haired. A quick search tells me that Thranduil (or more precisely The Elven King of the Hobbit, only later actually developed into a named character) is blonde, but Legolas hair colour for instance is never actually specified.

However, elves can be blonde i the game, if they are from Mirkwood I believe.

Have been in the barber shop of the prancing pony today, and the range of dying colors the NPC was offering didnt include real blonde colors...just chestnut or Auburn hair...but not the true blonde hair...now when is about tolkien he modeled his vision of the elven based on the nordic (including british, icelanders, scottish, irish etc...) people, and as u should know the % of blonde or even red hair people among those populations is quite high. That lead me to not understanding Turbine policy about dying hairs...why humans can be blonde and the elven not???? That doesnt make any sense at all. and they should be fixing it, plus the friend list is quite annoying to see that the ignore list doesnt have any limit while the friend list has, another nonsense thing...

[samuraipanda]

we don't need class changes it works great. it seems to me another way to deflect us away for stuff that people keep asking for and want to see. now granted class traits could be changed. but its not as urgent as about five things i can name of the top of my head.

1. actually coming up with a proper revamp to housing, not just claiming one is on the way or in the pipelines.

2. making all raid/instance content for area's like angmar, moria and isengard. scaleable to level 85. these are some of the funnest, and most sort after raids still in game. also uping the scale so that you can run most with 12. but if extra people wanted to join you could have upto 24 people if they were available and so wished.

3. make the rewards in the festivals a little more worthwhile again, there are some mediocre rewards. which could do with a slight revamp (cosemetics specifically need a wider range).

4. make a suggestions box (if there is one already this needs to better advertised) where players can leave comments. oh what they find not to be working so well and what elements they truly love about this game. and about anything they would like to see in a new area or revamped with coming updates.

5. keep doing the amazing job you are doing with your frequent updates and patches to any errors that occur. this is a very good thing and shows that you do actually care about the gamer community.

hope fully some of thes e points have already had the "why shouldnt we" and "lads ive had a great idea" answer to them.

keep the awesome service, thou and hope to see a few small revamps. Rincewindus of windfola

[Rugba]

for those of us who don't really use twitter is this going to be posted on the forums with the questions and answers? Thanks.

[Moochi]

Q1: The current system affords players a great amount of flexibility, in that it allows us to swap out one or two traits for a small amount of silver in preparation for a particular instance or raid to maximize our effectiveness for those particular challenges. How will the new system afford us the same flexibility without buying many trait sets through the store?

Q2: To respec for silver, will we have to refund all points at a hefty silver cost as in the current mounted combat respec system? Cannot we instead build a new spec, and the system then calculates the cost difference for only those parts changed, as with the chats we currently have with our bards?

[Judi]

Ok since the thread started I have been watching this thread for the type of questions people would want to ask the developers, however I see a lot of postings about the class changes that I have not seen posted anywhere. If the is a post that shows these changes please tell me where they are, I would like to read it. If there isn't a posting then why is everyone commenting on changes that have not been posted?
Here's my questions:
1. Will the changes have an impact on how the current classes are set up, is the impact good or bad?
2. Will there be a new class added to the game?

[Judi]

Q1: The current system affords players a great amount of flexibility, in that it allows us to swap out one or two traits for a small amount of silver in preparation for a particular instance or raid to maximize our effectiveness for those particular challenges. How will the new system afford us the same flexibility without buying many trait sets through the store?

I would also like to know the answer to this question as well.

[Ragekiss]

1. How can you justify releasing an expansion without any raids or 6-mans? Why is WB/Turbine unable to afford to make these features?
2.How many Big Battles will there be?
3. Why doesn't Turbine use Twitch TV to show the game to new players? Other MMOs are using twitch and this is an important gaming site.

[spelunker]

Ok since the thread started I have been watching this thread for the type of questions people would want to ask the developers, however I see a lot of postings about the class changes that I have not seen posted anywhere. If the is a post that shows these changes please tell me where they are, I would like to read it. If there isn't a posting then why is everyone commenting on changes that have not been posted?

There hasn't been a descriptive post in regards to the upcoming changes. All these questions are based off of wild speculation based around 3 general statements. (all of which begs the question: why are we doing a 20 questions segment when we know next to nothing about what the class changes actually entail? The pessimist in me says they're getting the questions out of the way before any relevant info is passed along so they can both avoid the tough questions and stand up and say they've been interacting with the community.)

1) The current trait system is being overhauled and moved to a tree-based system (with no explanation for what type of trees)
2) Traiting will play a more significant role in what your character is capable of and not capable, with the general intention being players will be more strongly penalized for trying to do things they aren't traited for, and hopefully more rewarded for doing those things they are traited for.
3) Every class is getting a complete overhaul with the intention of streamlining their gameplay and skills.

[Abbiati]

i cant chat but i would like to do a question.

What can we expect for RKs? Today we are the squishiest because of our versatility. Should we expect nerfs on dps/heals or just "RKs are good where they are"?