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

[Tilting_at_Turbines]

*** Everything is subject to change ***

How can you justify releasing an expansion without any raids or 6-mans?
The expansion will be released with 12-person and 6-person instances.

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.
Twitch TV is designed to be a platform for eSports (electronic sports). I'm not saying it is useless for other game types, but we should at least consider that World of Warcraft has less than 10% as many viewers as League of Legends, and WoW is quite popular among MMORPGs. It is exciting to watch people playing eSports, but boring to watch someone playing an MMORPG. This is probably why MMORPG developers do not post to Twitch TV (although players do).

Will the changes have an impact on how the current classes are set up, is the impact good or bad?
Yes, any change makes an impact. Each class developer believes it will be a good impact (after all, why implement a bad one?) There will always be those that disagree, no matter what the change is.

Will there be a new class added to the game?
No.

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.
Yes.

Can you please clarify if it is the skill system or trait system that is changing (or both)?
Both. Skills will be consolidated and adjusted. The Trait System will get revamped.

How will the new system provide the freedom to adjust to the different instances and class roles (for instance RK & LM)?
You are able to select the appropriate traits for your intended instance and class role. You can change them when you want to change roles.

Will we be able to save different trait set-ups?
Yes.

Using all of their points, on average how many active skills does a 85 toon have?
About 50-70, depending on the class and not including mounted skills.

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)
Yes.

ICPR - Fate is not the solution - will be more possible with better skills to keep my power? Also for Hunter
This will be balanced if need be. It appears to be balanced at this time.

Did the hunter blue-skilltree will be changed?
Yes.

Can minstrels still switch 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?
Yes.

And will the skill trees start at the beginning of a character's life or is it something we won't see until we hit a certain level?
Once a character unlocks skill trees, they will be the same throughout the life of a character. There will not be a confusing change.

How long after these planned freep class changes have been made, will you begin to look at and then implement PROPER and MEANINGFULL creep changes? If any changes takes too long towards creating more balance in the Moors for the creeps, then maybe the Moors will be empty to even warrant any creep changes.
The next set of Moors changes will be some time after Helm's Deep. As creeps will have a superiority over freeps soon after Helm's Deep is released (since Freeps need to obtain new equipment, etc), we cannot in good conscious buff creeps when HD first launches.

Will there only be skills/traits/class etc that can only be earned from each rank and not bought from the store.
No.

With the revamp we'll see classes doing new roles at raids or Turbine will mantain the essence of each class?
Classes will maintain their advertised rolls. The intent is to encourage more players to view secondary roles (Champion and Captain Tanks, etc) as viable.

With the class changes we can expect new class quests at Helms Deep?
No.

Are all characters going to have stances (such as with mounted combat) that will change what a skill does based on that stance?
No.

Will we have "active" skills and "passive" skills (traits) for the different lines?
Yes.

Will there still be freedom to equip a legendary that is not part of your trait tree like the ones not linked to a color, e.g. To the king?
Yes.

Will Monster players get trait trees as well or will they stay with the old system?
At the launch of Helm's Deep, monster players will not get trait trees. This may change in a future update.

Is there an intended hybrid tax for secondary class roles, or are all the roles of each class intended to meet certain levels of effectiveness on par with that of other class primary roles?
There is a hybrid tax.

Will our war-steeds gain new levels and/or skills in Helm's Deep?
Yes.

Looking forward, how long do you think that the new system is sustainable? If we gain trait points as we gain levels we'll some day (very very far away in the future) hit a point where we can rank up all traits in all trees. Are there plans (today) on how to handle these extra points? How far in the future (level 105, level 125, level 200) have you planned for? A tree system where you can spend points to rank up traits can be indefinitely expanded by simply adding more ranks that unlock at higher levels.
The system is sustainable if no trait "points" are added in the future. No trait slots have been added since Moria. Subject to change.

Will there be detailed dev diaries on the upcoming class/system changes before HD release? With detailed I mean like the dev diary Orion did with the RoI champion changes, the RoR dev diaries have been rather shallow in comparison.
There will be Dev Diaries. Their amount of detail is, naturally, up to the individual developers.

Will you consider balance issues for the pvmp while you´re working on the class changes OR will this happen after you see the impacts live?
Balance issues are constantly being considered, both before and after any changes are made.

Will there be skill revamps as well as "trait revamps" so that we have to kind of learn a new class to play?
There will be minor skill revamps, but nothing that would mean learning a new class (unless you want to take advantage of a newly-augmented secondary role).

Will we see new itemization that reflects class changes or just the same old loot drops with scaled stats? Virtually every expansion is rebuilding the same way all over again. Thanks.
Itemization will not change significantly.

With the changes to the classes, has there been any thoughts on cooperative skills between classes? An example would be if a Lore-Master were to through down Improved Sticky Gourd (AoE hotspot for those who dont know) and a hunter shot through it could add fire damage to their skill?
Interacting skills appears to be too difficult to balance at this time. Even Fellowship Maneuvers proved to create too wide a gap between well-coordinated groups and ordinary groups.

Considering how threat makes an impact to classes, will we be getting more information on how threat works, and will there be any changes?
No additional information on the mechanics of threat will be released. The upcoming trait and skill changes will affect threat.

Will class items, types of LIs (Hunters and Wardens using 2 LWs compared to the other classes) and legacies be looked at (and changed)? (Hunters' tomes (why do Hunters get to read books anyway) compared to RKs' chisels, for example)?
No.

what about the moors? Will this get evened out so I dont have to listen to the griping about which side is more OP then the other?
People will always complain, even if things were somehow miraculously balanced.

Will the update allow us to use 4 legendary traits at the same time?
No.

Will Burgs be able to pick pocket keys/lootboxes? PLEASE!!! :-)
Sorry, no.

In the new system, will hunters be able to off-heal or off-tank in exchange for a lower dps trade-off?
Hunters will be able to augment their crowd control, debuffing, kiting, and survivability enough to be able to take the place of an off-tank in many circumstances.

are you going to revamp combat animations too?
Not in the immediate future.

Since there is no change in lotro that doesn't benefit the store how will the lotro store enhance the tree? Will we be able to buy profile slots?
Yes.
Buy points?
No.
Unlock skills?
Not directly.


*** Everything is subject to change ***