@SSG New Landscape Difficulty - Testing Feedback Report

[Eowene]

Intro:
I want to thank the SSG Dev's for listening to the feedback of players who have long been asking for a more difficult landscape experience. Players have long wished for an experience that they enjoyed from LOTRO 2007, an age when LOTRO felt like an MMO full of life, and grouping requirements on landscape quests. For a long while now for those veteran players. Landscape has felt simply un-enjoyable and more of a chore to level through due to the ease of landscape difficulty.
I have spent pretty much all day testing various different level areas level 0-75 and harder content areas on Difficulty Tier 9: Deadly+6 with a friend of mine and have had quite a lot of fun testing this out.
I think that this is a very nice feature, and though I am aware or believing the intention for this to be on a server akin to Anor/Bombadil (a themed server) I would actually like this on Live (since its optional), but if its on a side server, would hope it to be permanent, not temporary. This Landscape difficulty however comes with quite a lot of flaws, or oversights, or some intentional features I believe to be mistakes if they are intentional. However I have a lot of positive things to say also.


I will set this out with the Negatives, the Positives and then followed up by my overall opinion and features I would like to see, or some things I would like to see changed. So hopefully this feedback is taken well and not as complaints and thus ignored? Anyway.


Negatives/Issues with having tested so far.

The biggest issue immediately noted upon testing was the finesse nerf. For example, stood inside the Eyes n Guard Tavern, having 4.5k finesse to leaving and entering the world with Deadly+6 having 1k Finesse. Now, you might not think this an issue but when corruptions are a 100% Must remove or you instantly die, or deal no damage. My Beorning was running around with 300 Finesse at level 65 while having maxed out virtues for finesse and having 1-2 finesse items. I was having a good 80% of my attacks avoided, and resisting 9 out of 10 corruption removals, and 9 out of 10 bee's. Now I believe there is a difference between difficulty, and frustrating features such as not being able to deal damage or use my skills. I'm not sure if this finesse feature was intended. But I believe this could kill the enjoyment for a lot of players even those like myself who want to exclusively play on deadly+6 (the hardest difficulty). Its simply just not fun not being able to hit things.

The second biggest issue was heal threat due to low damage on DPS classes. What I mean by this is the fact that our damage is reduced so significantly, for example my level 32 champion on testing was dealing 50-100 damage per hit and a maximum crit of 300 (compared to around 3k crits on live) was never able to keep aggro from a level 32 hands of healing captain. This is because our damage is too low to generate threat over heal aggro. This forces players to have a tank, or the healer will permanently have aggro because it is simply impossible to generate enough threat over them. I feel this is another feature that might cause people to give up if it were to go live in a state where without a tank healers have permanent aggro.

The third biggest issue is the mechanics of the corruptions. I really love the corruptions and I don't want to see them go. However I feel like they apply too instantly. for example, if an npc gains a corruption on the tail end of an attack animation before the wind up of the next animation and we are in an animation already and unable to remove the corruption; If the mob gained the red corruption giving it 100% attack damage. Its next attack is guaranteed to do 80-100% of the players health, and we cannot remove it due to the speed of it. Thus 1 shots start happening. I believe there needs to be a timer on the corruptions effect. For example (the corruption appears on the mob, but the mob does not gain the effect for x time, like 1 second) 1 second isn't much, but it is enough for no weirdness such as back to back fast attacks and the second having 100% damage leading to weird and instant 1 shots that you cannot react to.

The fourth and final big issue is the regions ranging 75-95. Mounted combat regions when fighting mounted mobs are literally impossible to fight. They dismount you from your horse in 1-2 hits and then 1shot you on foot (basic mounted mobs, not warbands) I think you would need to provide some buff to the war-steed in order to make these regions work. This region would 100% have to be skipped in its current form.

Minor Issue: Some damage over times from landscape mobs are not scaled up. Mobs are hitting 500-1500 at level 22 but their dots are dealing 50 damage for example.

Minor Issue: Some mobs simply 1 shot. While testing level 22 area's in Lonelands, the Goblin Sappers that appear in the ruin slightly south east of Forsaken Inn, literally 1 shot us. The Sapper Bomb is instant death, 2.1k damage aoe.

Minor Issue: Some healing classes are too underscaled to heal Deadly+6. For example, those who do low level content a lot like myself. Beorning is by far the strongest healer (it isn't overpowered), its just. The heals from other healers are so prehistoric and left behind in their scaling. For example a level 20 Beorning is healing 900 and a level 20 Minstrel is healing 300. I'm afraid, that this server will literally just be a meta pick server if older healers don't have their early game heals corrected and scaled properly. You will find minstrels & runekeepers & Captains completely unable to heal this. (Already tested some of this, Beorning is currently the only class that can heal in a duo)

Minor Issue: There is a lot of options for griefing in this mechanic. So the way it works is. If a player on Deadly+6 is fighting a mob, they are taking insane damage from a mob and dealing almost no damage. but a player on normal can run up and pretty much instantly kill your mob, and they take no damage from it also. This will basically ruin the experience for those wanting to enjoy deadly+6 if theres a bunch of people in the same area killing the same mobs, because your difficult experience will be shut down by those playing on normal. (I talk about how to fix this later in the opinions section)

Minor Issue: The Saurons Eye thing bugs a lot, leaving a permanent eye on your head which is kinda frustrating.


Positive Feedback after testing so far.

This difficulty is simply the most fun that I have had in a very very long time on LOTRO. Without a shadow of a doubt this mode will make a lot of people really happy, and having shown screenshots around on discords and made 2 and soon more Youtube video's for this testing. There is currently a lot of positive feedback and hype for this. This is exactly the step players have wanted for a very long time. I look forward to streaming a leveling series and hardcore challenged on Deadly+6

I really love the difficulty, and I love being punished for mistakes, I love the game playing on Deadly+6, it feels right.

Promoting group play and encouraging people to play together is exactly what an MMORPG should be. I want to group outside of my raiding, but currently there's no reason to group, logging on for raids and then logging back off with nothing to do. But this is something I could really sink my teeth into.


Overall Opinion/Things that need to change.

Currently my biggest concern is the difficulties. Let me elaborate. Currently there is 10 difficulties (including normal) and I feel like their need only be 4. Normal, Hard, Dangerous, Deadly. I feel like Dangerous's scaling should be put onto Hard. Deadly+1 Should be put onto Dangerous and Deadly+6 Should be put onto Deadly. Then there should be 4 layers with ways to teleport between the layers to help friends if they get stuck (playing on their difficulty while in their layer before returning to yours to continue your journey). That way you can also fix the next issue. I feel like the -95% damage or whatever the damage drop is is somewhat not needed. You have done this to make mobs last longer, which is 100% needed, however. If you layer the difficulties, you can then scale the mobs health pool and keep the damage the same as live. So for example (blood wing level 44 angmar boss has 20k health) on Deadly (deadly+6) it can have 150k Health. it has the same effect as us having 0 damage. The reason I say this is because of 1 thing that annoys me and that's instancing. So, this is a landscape only difficulty, meaning. I'm on Deadly+6 and I want to now do an instance, I instantly go from dealing no damage to dealing insane damage again. That feels really really weird. I think raising mobs health and leaving our damage consistent throughout the leveling experience is the better way of going. Or, on the other hand. Allow our landscape difficulty to follow us into our instances meaning we can go into the rift of nurz ghashu with deadly+6 active. (my preferred option) however, allowing our damage to be normal and mobs health to be higher also fixes the heal threat issue.

If it is left in its current form I would like to see a reward for reaching 50-130 on Deadly+6. My experience is much much harder than those playing on Deadly+1 and I feel like I get nothing extra for leveling that way. I would like a title for 50-130 on Deadly+6

I would also like to see portrait frames added to this mode. Because I think the landscape difficulty thing is really interesting and frames could be very desirable.

I would like to think that this mode can also introduce some much needed early game re-balancing issues to instances that even Anor/Ithil did not fix. Instances/Raids are still solo'able by most classes on t1-3. I know because I have done this on many different classes, even raids that are close to mechanically impossible. I really hope that SSG now that you are showing a lot of interest into game difficulty that you might review the old instances/raids.

As a player who always tests the limits of every class, and always tries to solo instances/raids. If you need help with this, I am more than happy to offer you my input and research. I have a lot I can say on the balancing of low levels both through classes, and through mob scaling in instances. If you would like my opinions/thoughts simply reach out to me.


Overall opinion of the mode. Truly fantastic, however it does have quite a few issues. but lots and lots of promise. I hope this feedback helped. Again, thank you so much for offering us players this mode. I really really look forward to it, and its potential. I look forward to streaming it and creating guides for it, and look forward to completing Deadly+6 with friends.


Blood of Loki
~ Want to get in touch for any reason - Blood of Loki | Sam#7737 (Discord)

[Vastin]

Some great feedback there!

I think we can probably address a most of those core issues you raise, regarding finesse, threat, corruption triggers, and warsteed morale - hadn't even thought about that last one...

Separating the various difficulties off into their own instanced layers would be fascinating, but I'm not sure we can realistically do that.

Hmm........

It's an interesting thought so I'm curious to see if its even possible within our current implementation - certainly that would be a longer term project if so.

Feedback regarding which mobs are insta-gibbers, and the harsh realities of class balance when even basic landscape mobs can maul full tank builds in a few seconds will be very interesting to take - I suspect it will help us find and iron out a lot of the mid-level difficulty ranges where things have gradually drifted to being far too easy or in some cases a bit too hard over the years.

-Vastin

[Eowene]

Some great feedback there!

I think we can probably address a most of those core issues you raise, regarding finesse, threat, corruption triggers, and warsteed morale - hadn't even thought about that last one...

Separating the various difficulties off into their own instanced layers would be fascinating, but I'm not sure we can realistically do that.

Hmm........

It's an interesting thought so I'm curious to see if its even possible within our current implementation - certainly that would be a longer term project if so.

Feedback regarding which mobs are insta-gibbers, and the harsh realities of class balance when even basic landscape mobs can maul full tank builds in a few seconds will be very interesting to take - I suspect it will help us find and iron out a lot of the mid-level difficulty ranges where things have gradually drifted to being far too easy or in some cases a bit too hard over the years.

-Vastin

Will continue to test it and try to find any further issues or things that might cause problems for people. and post them again here if i spot any new unmentioned problems

I do think an option to transfer this into an instance/raid would be nice for the hardcore players though (really no idea if thats possible) but the thought of running the rift on deadly+6 would be literally heaven for me, and a lot of other old schoolers from 2007

[Eowene]

-Vastin

All pre level 20 mobs can gain the corruption, however we don't get our corruption skill till level 20
Meaning mobs can get insane dmg buffs or take 0 damage and you cannot remove them.

Guess need to make corruption removal a starter skill
Or make it impossible for mobs prior to north downs and lonelands unable to gain the corruptions.

Would rather see the level 1 corruption removal so you don't lose the hard instant pressure of level 5-20
But not sure how much work that is.

But either way this is another issue currently.

[Boraxxe]

I am very happy to see this being developed.

Anxiously waiting for a live release...

Bo

[istvana]

So many people are happy with the prospect of more difficult landscape adventuring (and properly so it is a great idea) that I want to remind you that there are also many casual players who still miss their blue hunters and blue LMs that were so devastatingly nerfed and enjoy going around without much challenge at all. In other words the game as it is or even easier to make up for the nerfed classes. I am not one of them but I am married to one - gave up on the game after the blue hunter nerf. Many more serious players may sneer but their money helps support the game too and LOTRO remains more of a story game than a game for serious raiders.

So please try and make sure that the lowest difficulty is tailored for people like this and doesn't inadvertently creep up to the point where it is challenging.

[Boraxxe]

So many people are happy with the prospect of more difficult landscape adventuring (and properly so it is a great idea) that I want to remind you that there are also many casual players who still miss their blue hunters and blue LMs that were so devastatingly nerfed and enjoy going around without much challenge at all. In other words the game as it is or even easier to make up for the nerfed classes. I am not one of them but I am married to one - gave up on the game after the blue hunter nerf. Many more serious players may sneer but their money helps support the game too and LOTRO remains more of a story game than a game for serious raiders.

So please try and make sure that the lowest difficulty is tailored for people like this and doesn't inadvertently creep up to the point where it is challenging.

I may be wrong on this, but it seems to me (after reading Eowene and Vastin above) that this "mode" of character modification is intended to be completely voluntary.
That is, it won't "inadvertently" do anything. It looks to me like it is completely a choice that each player can choose or reject. And it looks like you will be able to "try" it and if you don't like it, you will be able to (with a click or two) completely disable it.

[istvana]

Boraxxe I agree - as things are now.

But I have found that pointing something out before the developers go too far works far better than waiting. And the developers hear a lot from the serious players - here and on Discord - and sometimes seem to overlook the less serious players (that still pay for subscriptions and cosmetics and mounts so they are serious to the game's finances).

[Seregthol]

Boraxxe I agree - as things are now.

But I have found that pointing something out before the developers go too far works far better than waiting.

Truer words have NEVER been spoken on these Forums.

[Baelrog]

Some great feedback there!

I think we can probably address a most of those core issues you raise, regarding finesse, threat, corruption triggers, and warsteed morale - hadn't even thought about that last one...

Separating the various difficulties off into their own instanced layers would be fascinating, but I'm not sure we can realistically do that.

Hmm........

It's an interesting thought so I'm curious to see if its even possible within our current implementation - certainly that would be a longer term project if so.

Feedback regarding which mobs are insta-gibbers, and the harsh realities of class balance when even basic landscape mobs can maul full tank builds in a few seconds will be very interesting to take - I suspect it will help us find and iron out a lot of the mid-level difficulty ranges where things have gradually drifted to being far too easy or in some cases a bit too hard over the years.

-Vastin

Hi Vastin, can you clarify whether this option will be available on live servers or is intended for 'unique' servers only?

This would be amazing to liven up the levelling experience and it would be great to get it on live!

[Evodius]

I would also like to see portrait frames added to this mode. Because I think the landscape difficulty thing is really interesting and frames could be very desirable.

I don't know why, but I would also love portrait frame rewards for this mode.

[Arabani]

Hi Vastin, can you clarify whether this option will be available on live servers or is intended for 'unique' servers only?

This would be amazing to liven up the levelling experience and it would be great to get it on live!

I believe it was said in one of the interview that developers wanted to test the feature on a dedicated server first, and then bring it to live servers if the feature would be popular, technically stable, balanced and so on.

[Raninia]

I believe it was said in one of the interview that developers wanted to test the feature on a dedicated server first, and then bring it to live servers if the feature would be popular, technically stable, balanced and so on.

That was probably me? Anyways, that's currently the plan - we'll see how things go with it before we decide whether to roll it out more widely. We'd certainly like to though!

[Crell_1]

That was probably me? Anyways, that's currently the plan - we'll see how things go with it before we decide whether to roll it out more widely. We'd certainly like to though!

Just please make this server open to all players like DDO's hardcore server has become.

[Joedangod]

Been screwing around with some lowbie characters in the 1-20 range to test Deadly +6 so without further ado here's my feedback:

~ The Good ~

• Enemies actually feel threatening, I found myself constantly trying to judge exactly how many mobs I'd be pulling. In some cases I even gave up trying to take a path with too many mobs and went looking for an alternate route.
• Corruptions are cool, it's definitely interesting to see varied buffs randomly pop up on the mobs.
• The AoE damage effects are entertaining. Sudden spawns of an exploding pillar of flame are fun to watch out for in tight spaces.
• The titles are nice although I'm not sure how much I really want to level a bunch of characters of classes I already own to 130.

~ The Bad ~

• DoT's are an absolute death sentence. With the -800% incoming damage debuff applied via Deadly +6 a single DoT effect being applied to you will kill you, there is no counterplay here unless you actually have the appropriate pots for the bleed level as the durations of these effects tend to be pretty damn long. (Admittedly only really a problem at low levels before you have good PDFW removal).
• Enemy damage is a bit too high overall at low levels. Generally speaking I have to try kite every single mob I come across, if ranged mobs exist I had to burst them down as fast as I could or they would rip me to shreds in about 5 seconds flat. A group of archers is a bit of a nightmare here unless you can reliably use line of sight intelligently. The burst is the main issue I have, I'd rather my own damage lower so fights take longer than just dying to 3-4 hits.
• Can't really counterplay corruptions at low levels as I simply don't have corruption removals.
• The finesse penalty feels awful, this is another case where I'd prefer to reliably be able to hit but do less damage than have massive RNG over whether or not I hit.

~ The Ugly ~

• Class Balance issues are definitely slapping me in the face here. Guardian can burst things to death in 4 hits or so whilst Warden has to constantly kite and reapply the single decent damage gambit it has at low levels. Non-mobile induction based specs are probably going to have it pretty damn rough compared to the mobile ones. Melee doesn't have it too bad as you can usually hit mobs at a larger range than they can hit you in lowbie zones.
• The titles aren't really going to be earned. Craft XP up to 50 is pretty damn solid so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people just afk farming to get there. Beyond 60 warg pens farms are likely to come into play.

[Eowene]

Further Testing Bugs

• As stated above in another post - Corruption Removal Skills are obtained at level 20, meanwhile mobs level 5-19 can gain corruptions
• Loremaster's can summon the bog lurker inside of instances without the challenge mode buff and their pet will have normal real world damage, they can then leave the instance and abuse that boosted damage on landscape (this is an enormous damage boost)
• Runestones from the Runekeeper are not being reduced by the effects of the server. Fire Runekeeper stone is doing 1.9k damage and (1-2shotting mobs) at level 50. Lightning stone is doing 950 damage (the average skill is doing 200-800) 800 being crits. so this is a bug.
• Guardian Flash of Light is insanely broken on this mode. I dont think it is being reduced at all by the system. You can pull a group of 10 mobs, and deal 80k dmg over the fight (level 50) the next highest dmg was 2k. (so this is a bit of an issue in terms of balance)
• Reflects - Reflecting is working completely as intended however.. With there being 3 classes off the top of my head that can apply a reflect (guard/minstrel/loremaster) This is currently the highest dps combo in the server. You reflect 65% damage and melt mobs in around 10 seconds. 60k health mobs outside of Barad Guluran are reflecting 1-3k damage upon themselves meanwhile Im doing 100-400 damage per hit. (just a bit of a balancing issue) This can be abused by simply letting really high health mobs gain corruptions and watch them instantly kill themselves and then simply revive the guardian.

Further Balancing Tests

• Minstrel has proven itself insanely weak at healing on this game mode. The minstrels early game healing is simply non existent and not capable of solo healing Deadly+6
• There is simply too much emphasis on Block/Parry/Evade & Partial Block/Parry/Evade on this mode. It is simply the best way to avoid damage over mitigation (it should of course be this way, I miss the old B/P/E Meta over this health sponge rubbish at end-game) However, it creates an issue in the meta classes and also the itemization.

Further Opinions/Suggestions (There is balancing suggestions, and lastly suggestions regarding things that could attract more people)

• If this is to be a special server, I think I would like to see it as a mini small progression server. Similar to Anor/Ithil (however) Since this server is clearly tailored to those who are looking for that bit more from their LOTRO experience, then make it 2 months at each cap. 4 months was way too long, and the server mostly died for the raiding side of things after the 2nd month. So, Maybe 2months at each cap. That way its simply not just a speed run to 130. But an enjoyable landscape leveling experience into raiding and fun with friends for a time period at each cap.
• Buffs to Instances/Raids at each cap to further enhance the journey. (Currently almost all older raids are insanely lackluster in their balance. Here is my suggestions) Because I spammed a lot on these forums before about balance, and managed to get a T3 rift, and a buffed Moria. So, let me suggest my opinions on the balancing of early instances with a simple method to achieve this.

Great Barrows - Add tier 2/3/4/5 (and titles)
Gath Agarwen - Add tier 2/3/4/5 (and titles)
Fornost - Add tier 3 (and title)
Urugarth/Barad Guluran/Barad Guldur - Add tier 2/3/4/5 (and titles)
The Rift of Nurz Ghashu - Add tier 4/5 (and titles)
Helegrod - Add tier 4/5 (and titles)
Moria/Lothlorien Instances - Add tier 2/3 (and titles) (these were already buffed so no need for a tier 4/5)
In their Absence Cluster - Add tier 3 (and titles)
Siege of Mirkwood Cluster - Add tier 3 (and titles)
Rise of Isengard Cluster - Add tier 3 (and titles)
Erebor Cluster - Add Tier 3 (and titles)

^This will help to further balance the needs of those looking for a fun grouping challenge early on. As all of these instances really lack something. Everything prior to 65 feels like a joke and it has done for around 10 years now. The tier 3 Rift was not enough, and the Moria instance buffs were not enough. Everything prior to 65 is solo'able (raids & instances on level, including tier 3). Even 65 instances/raids are solo'able to a part. And it really sucks that this is the case. Would really like to see all of these options made possible. or at least this content to be buffed. but adding these tiers is likely easier.

• Add class loot back into the game starting from level 20, and make it scaled (all the way to 130+) Class loot (the gold class loot from 85-95) was one of the best times on this game after the golden age of 50-60. It gave people a nice enjoyable farm and a nice feel to their builds. I feel like adding these back into the game, or creating new ones has been long long overdue, and I would very much like to see such things appear on a challenge server like this.

• Add Frames at level 50&130 for those who complete Deadly+6 (only Deadly+6) that way that tier has a reward, after all it is the most challenging

(my opinion) ~ Add class frames that are silver at level 50, and gold at level 130 (for example, beorning claws surrounding the frame, or the frame being a shield, and an axe on one side for guardian)
that way you are creating an element that would make people want to play ''gotta collect them all'' leveling multiple characters, and investing lots of time into collecting these unique and desirable frames. which could be a good selling point for the mode.

Blood of Loki

[utcorryredding40]

I love the difficulty and am talking to close friends in game about running a fellowship for this. The OP covered all my concerns about this but wanted to reiterate the issues that would keep me from actually spending game time levelling a new toon since I already have 8 at lvl 130 and do end game content. The finesse issue really ruined the experience for me. I really want hard levelling content but not being able to apply skills makes the experience feel pointless. A lot of the issues feel like they can be addressed by creating layers specifically for the difficulty tiers. I also had one question that I did not have time to experience. Since lotro has changed over time for solo landscape questing, how can things like quest items disappearing or npc's running off be addressed when you're grouped and then have to wait for respawns for the next person if the quest will not update for everyone? I hope to see some changes so I can run through lotro again with a fellowship.

[Vastin]

I do think an option to transfer this into an instance/raid would be nice for the hardcore players though (really no idea if thats possible) but the thought of running the rift on deadly+6 would be literally heaven for me, and a lot of other old schoolers from 2007

One option I considered (and am still considering) would be to only deactivate the landscape difficulty mods if you're in a T2+ instance, rather than doing it based on group size - but for the time being the group size one still seems to make the most sense in the majority of situations.

The problem comes in that there are all kinds of possible use cases you can legitimately come up with for various groups and their personal goals, but its a bit hard to finagle controls and options that enable those without getting pretty damn complex and confusing - just see our current actual UI options panels....

At some point maybe I'll see if I can get in instance finder check-box that flags an instance to allow personal difficulty or not.

-Vastin

[0987654321]

this is all very interesting, and i hope that i can make its way to instances in top of the landscape. If this does make it onto general servers instead of a special server, it would make level capped kinships actually be quite interesting, instead of being able to solo/duo a lot of older content on level. I am very much looking forward to leveling a character again

[Evodius]

this is all very interesting, and i hope that i can make its way to instances in top of the landscape. If this does make it onto general servers instead of a special server, it would make level capped kinships actually be quite interesting, instead of being able to solo/duo a lot of older content on level. I am very much looking forward to leveling a character again

I wonder if it could be added like Mythic dungeons in WoW. At the beginning of each instance, you can pick how difficult that instance is, so you would only get the debuff (as above) when you set the difficulty at the beginning.

It would actually work exactly how they have it now, just they would have to add an NPC or interactable object at the beginning of whatever instance.

[Saruman_Of_Numbers]

One option I considered (and am still considering) would be to only deactivate the landscape difficulty mods if you're in a T2+ instance, rather than doing it based on group size - but for the time being the group size one still seems to make the most sense in the majority of situations.

The problem comes in that there are all kinds of possible use cases you can legitimately come up with for various groups and their personal goals, but its a bit hard to finagle controls and options that enable those without getting pretty damn complex and confusing - just see our current actual UI options panels....

At some point maybe I'll see if I can get in instance finder check-box that flags an instance to allow personal difficulty or not.

-Vastin

Sorry but... the last thing this game needs is another layer of windows, checkboxes, and configurations to wade through.

Remember back 10-12 years ago when the game had various areas with varying difficulty?


aside from that note, TBH I think you have your whole implementation backwards.... instead of trying to do some weird mob buffing implementation, why not just put a debuff on the player reducing their stats, and just toggle it off inside instances?

[Vastin]

A few questions/comments:

1) I believe the current plan is to introduce this system in upcoming legendary servers, and then once we've kicked the tires and polished it some more, probably make it available in general servers, assuming the response is positive.

2) Would you folks prefer to see the finesse penalty removed, or just reduced substantially?

3) Do you think there should there be a (minor) corresponding penalty to other ratings like BPE/Resist?

4) The reflect thing is interesting. I wasn't aware that different reflect sources stacked actually. I may have to take the time to make sure they don't, because balancing that kind of combinatoric effect is gross.

Regarding the titles, There are certainly several ways to achieve level 50 or 130 without necessarily facing the full brunt of the difficulty system - say by being carried by higher level fellows or - just perhaps - by baking pies. Some people will see how high a difficulty they can manage to solo on, while others will use it a good excuse to fellow with their partners or kin on landscape.

The titles are there mostly for your own personal sense of accomplishment, so how you get there when playing on higher difficulties is up to you. Frankly the pie thing sounds pretty damn hard to me.

Then there are some known issues we're looking at:

AoE Template Skills:
- There's a pretty significant known issue regarding skills that use an AoE damage template not respecting most damage modifiers. While most AoE skills don't have this problem, certain ones like Runestones and Blinding Flash use these templates, and as you can see they aren't reduced. This is part of a broader long-standing issue that needs fixing. Not sure what the time-frame for that will be.

Pets:
- Regarding pets, I can't force them to recalculate themselves when you enter or leave an instance - so I may need to dispel them, sadly.
- I think I should be able to do this in a way that only affects players running with the difficulty mods.

-Vastin

[Vastin]

aside from that note, TBH I think you have your whole implementation backwards.... instead of trying to do some weird mob buffing implementation, why not just put a debuff on the player reducing their stats, and just toggle it off inside instances?

That's exactly what it does currently.

-Vastin

[Saruman_Of_Numbers]

That's exactly what it does currently.

-Vastin

[Vastin]

Those are secondary effects that occur occasionally when fighting at higher difficulty. They are removable corruptions that players and fellowships need to deal with - they are not the primary difficulty mods, which live on the player.

-Vastin