Player Guide: Class Changes Summary: Captain

[Almagnus1]

The other thing you need remind of:

Turbine owes us nothing.

LotRO is Turbine's game, and they will do with LotRO exactly as they see fit, regardless of the approval of the player base.

[aardnebby]

The other thing you need remind of:

Turbine owes us nothing.

LotRO is Turbine's game, and they will do with LotRO exactly as they see fit, regardless of the approval of the player base.

Actually that's not true.

Under various consumer protection laws the merchant has a variety of obligations to the customer. The exact details depend on your country, the product, how you paid for it (different laws for credit vs debit card etc). But those are more financial and legal rather than game related.

More importantly however, Turbine is obligated to get the best return on investment for its investors (IE the shareholders of WB). This usually means by running a successful business etc. A successful MMO business usually means a game that is as popular as possible while monetizing that enjoyment.

See where I am going with this? Don't make declarative statements without evidence to back them up or at least thinking them through, the above should have been obvious.

[Elrantiri]

Also, it's less than 3 months since Turbine was given a grave warning about just how little power they have when it comes to "their game".

[aardnebby]

Also, it's less than 3 months since Turbine was given a grave warning about just how little power they have when it comes to "their game".

Well, at least I can say I have tried to point out the issues, and on numerous occasions made recommendations as to solutions. If the game sinks then it sinks, but I did my best.

[Elrantiri]

Well, at least I can say I have tried to point out the issues, and on numerous occasions made recommendations as to solutions. If the game sinks then it sinks, but I did my best.

Indeed. My point is rather that they can only "do what they want with their game" to some extent. The part of the playerbase that don't approve of those decisions (or at least some of them) will stop supplying the money that keeps WB happy, and WB has the power here.

[Almagnus1]

Indeed. My point is rather that they can only "do what they want with their game" to some extent. The part of the playerbase that don't approve of those decisions (or at least some of them) will stop supplying the money that keeps WB happy, and WB has the power here.

And if WB says "though shalt have trees", guess what....

On the plus side, at least now we're more likely to actually see Hobbit content.

[Elrantiri]

And if WB says "though shalt have trees", guess what....

On the plus side, at least now we're more likely to actually see Hobbit content.

Of what Turbine has said of WB's involvement in the actual development (or rather, the lack of), I don't see that happening.

[furtim]

Also, it's less than 3 months since Turbine was given a grave warning about just how little power they have when it comes to "their game".

Food for thought:

Bioshock Infinite was the most successful game of 2013. It was a critical darling that topped most of the major Game of the Year Lists. It also took in an awful lot of money. Even though it must have cost a huge amount of money to make and market, I'm sure it was profitable.

Irrational Games shut down operations and laid off all but a dozen or so of its several hundred employees.

Which is merely to point out that business decisions involving layoffs and restructuring frequently have very little to do with the quality of the product that's being put out by a given studio.

[Elrantiri]

Food for thought:

Bioshock Infinite was the most successful game of 2013. It was a critical darling that topped most of the major Game of the Year Lists. It also took in an awful lot of money. Even though it must have cost a huge amount of money to make and market, I'm sure it was profitable.

Irrational Games shut down operations and laid off all but a dozen or so of its several hundred employees.

Which is merely to point out that business decisions involving layoffs and restructuring frequently have very little to do with the quality of the product that's being put out by a given studio.

Your point being what? It's still surely WB who has the power to shut down LotrO (or Turbine altogether) or put LotrO into maintenance mode for whatever reason - and considering it's WB, profit surely has a huge influence on such decisions.

[HeirOfNumenor]

Food for thought:

Bioshock Infinite was the most successful game of 2013. It was a critical darling that topped most of the major Game of the Year Lists. It also took in an awful lot of money. Even though it must have cost a huge amount of money to make and market, I'm sure it was profitable.

Irrational Games shut down operations and laid off all but a dozen or so of its several hundred employees.

Which is merely to point out that business decisions involving layoffs and restructuring frequently have very little to do with the quality of the product that's being put out by a given studio.

Not to mention, that Blizzard had serious layoffs a couple of years ago, Sony Online Entertainment also recently, as well as Disney and a few other gaming companies...

The problem is NOT the product (for the most part) - it's the world-wide shakiness of the global economy and financial structures, with some countries dancing along the precipice more often than others...

[Elrantiri]

Not to mention, that Blizzard had serious layoffs a couple of years ago, Sony Online Entertainment also recently, as well as Disney and a few other gaming companies...

The problem is NOT the product (for the most part) - it's the world-wide shakiness of the global economy and financial structures, with some countries dancing along the precipice more often than others...

WoW started their massive loss of subs like 3 years ago, so a skeptic could easily draw a line of consequence there.
SoE have had several projects failing/dying on them? http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/...down-four-mmos

[Almagnus1]

Something else to keep in mind, often layoffs happen almost immediately after a product is canned internally, but when that information becomes available to the public can lag behind, sometimes by months, so what we're seeing as the gaming populace may be months delayed from what's actually happening. Then there's other things like headcount swell to get a project out the door and other fun things.

So going by what's going on with the hiring laying off isn't as accurate as many would think it would be.

[Giseldah]

Trait tree/skill stats:

Hands of Healing:

-Cry of Vengeance
Main stats bonus = 1.6 * lvl ?
-25% Attack Duration
Armour value bonus = 39.39 * lvl ?

-Brother skill: Song-brother
number of slices of current player level:
Critical Defence bonus: 0.6
Physical Mastery bonus: 0.6
Tactical Mastery bonus: 1.0

-Tactic:Focus
-5% Attack Duration
5% Incoming healing
2% Tactical Mitigation

Lead the Charge:

-Brother skill: Blade-brother
number of slices of current player level:
Critical Defence bonus: 0.6
Physical Mastery bonus: 1.0
Tactical Mastery bonus: 0.6

-Tactic:Relentless Attack
Critical Hit bonus = 24.24 * lvl ?
Physical|Tactical Mastery bonus = 40.4 * lvl ?
5% Outgoing Healing

Leader of Men:

-Brother skill: Shield-brother
number of slices of current player level:
Critical Defence bonus: 1.0
Physical Mastery bonus: 0.6
Tactical Mastery bonus: 0.6

-Tactic:On Guard
Parry bonus = 14.274 * lvl ?
5% Defence (-5% Incoming Damage)
-10% Power Costs

-Defensive Strike
Armour Value bonus = 12.12 * lvl ?

Notes:
1) ? = not yet verified for all levels
2) about slices see: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...he-stat-system

[Kalivah]

Thanks Giseldah, for info and getting us back to Thread: Player Guide: Class Changes Summary: Captain

[lightknight33]

Are there any plans to scale herald damage? It doesn't feel like it has scaled since 85 (lvl cap).

[aardnebby]

Are there any plans to scale herald damage? It doesn't feel like it has scaled since 85 (lvl cap).

Good luck with that, herald damage has been irrelevant since... well... always. Maybe they can just delete it and give us a buff banner instead.

[WhiteGoliath]

Indeed the lack of challenge is a serious problem, but I predict that if the game's content were to become more challenging, the problems with the trait system will become more obvious. Before the trait trees, it was relatively simple to swap a couple traits in a given build. With 65 points to spend each time a tree needs to be tweaked, however, this exercise is much more tedious. Having 2 free saved specs is small compensation for this, in my opinion. And if the developers introduce content challenging enough to require careful traiting, the price of the 3rd saved spec will provoke much wailing* in these forums.

One solution to this would be to allow players to subtract spent trait points without resetting the entire setup, but the developers seem to be opposed to this (at least that's the gist I gleaned from beta). I don't know whether the motivation is the difficulty of producing this feature, or whether it is to encourage players to spend more turbine points on saved specs.



*I also predict that making the content more challenging will cause other flaws in the trait trees to become more obvious, such as the crude over-specialization of certain classes' roles (e.g. champions' ST vs. AoE trees and inability of captains and champions to off-tank while not specced for tanking), and the extreme constraints in the trees' topology. I'm all for challenging gameplay, but if the challenge includes careful optimization of the trait budget, I might find something more fun to do with my spare time.

the captain class wasn't a disaster at all mate, it was the most heavy class of all. In that time, a dmg cpt could get capped mits at 85. It's self heals in combination with some descent dps was great, it was hard to kill on in etten. I've played w/ a fully capped mit build in the times of 85, if I did put out the muster courage self heal w/ valiant strike, you needed 3 good wargs to bring that down.( even more deadly with the war-cry buff) Watch down w/ armour stats.

It was able to withstand a lot of dps and it still does today in red, but you should know the old class for such stuff. Not knowing the class in old days, means that it's gonna be hard finding builds who did feel like old cpt. I myself run in etten a dps build with 23k morale, at lv 100 /U17 ya needed around 4 wargs to bring that down, guess what? It were its selfheals, cpt is still able to generate self heals. Not just by focusing heavily on its dps for puttin out more dpsheal, but also going into blue taking muster courage self heal with you. It's heals are fine, heals for me mostly around 1,4/2,2k. (This was while being red)

Another build for example is going main blue, but mixed with some red. Take away morale essences or jewells and put in might (morale should be around 16-18k), bring up crit w/ both crit boosts (blue and red) and make a dps weapon, fitted with all battle state legacies and healing-area affect for rallying cry. Output to heal will be around 15/16k on rallying cry for example. Why going that low in morale? Well, with the state legacies you know a captain has less inc dmg and more healoutput on holding hardened state open. This means a captain ALREADY has enough survive ability from its own skills, fitting a red or blue cpt with morale is BAD. Unless you don't want to make damage in blue, wouldn't recommend it though. This because a blue cpt heals through hittin enemy, so why not making dmg at the same time? I hit 10k in blue on T2 featured instances, remember that when they showed us the class changes, they said that blue should be able to do some respectable dmg aswell. So, I recommend going with low morale, tank should be able to hold aggro on instances. If he doesn't hold aggro, don't let him blame you for having low morale, but blame him for failing to hold aggro. Tanks are supposed to protect the group, unless you're a hybrid tank, which means you tank through a line that doesn't focus on aggro (blue cpt for example).

- Alltair

[Vanyaerunanethiel]

A very low Demonstration/Gude of the Captain class. The potency level is very high in particular against foes which are 5-6 levels above the player. Vanyalanthriel vs Red Mobs {Enemy difficulty} A Captain is a immensely powerful due to self heals ,defence , damage and pet, buffs



Vanya Sulie!

[hfe]

i still very much dislike the concept of 'blocking' with a two handed weapon. For one it makes little sense, as it should be a parry. Second, it kills half the consideration of going for a shield.

For yellow line, i would propose to include heavy shields, in addition to two-handed blocking, making both pathways worth considering.

[Elrantiri]

i still very much dislike the concept of 'blocking' with a two handed weapon. For one it makes little sense, as it should be a parry. Second, it kills half the consideration of going for a shield.

For yellow line, i would propose to include heavy shields, in addition to two-handed blocking, making both pathways worth considering.

IMO It depends on how you define blocking and parrying.

As I understand them, parrying is mainly when you redirect/deflect an attack rather than fully stopping it. Blocking on the other hand is when you stop an attack completely.