Bullroarer Update 19 - Preview 3 and Phial collection question

[NeebPlayer]

All while wondering around on foot with my Hunter and "Floaty Names" turned on. Flora are invisible otherwise, unless you specifically mouse over them.

[Pavlosh]

3. The upgrade will be more significant than only 5 main stat and 25 morale.

Really this low. I won't be picking many flowers if this is the bonus! I could get more stat on my Champ by spending 30 mins optomising my build for PvP than 50 hours of flower picking. As for cappy, given the new raid armour sucks in all lines already, no grind there.

[NeebPlayer]

Really this low. I won't be picking many flowers if this is the bonus! I could get more stat on my Champ by spending 30 mins optomising my build for PvP than 50 hours of flower picking. As for cappy, given the new raid armour sucks in all lines already, no grind there.

Whatever you do, just don't start whining that there is nothing to do in the new update cuz the response to that will be another despicable LI tier grind.

[cdq1958]

I spent three to four hours questing yesterday. I stopped when I had an issue with the quest "A Massive Problem."

Flowers were found in most of the area around Bar Aroth. Flowers were found in most of the area around Aelin Veren. Some flowers were found in Henneth Annun on the east side and up toward Cirith Negen. Few to none were found along the Anduin. I did not go into the area around Bar Tarnaher or Torngroth.
From questing and picking flowers as I wandered through the landscape, I got 1 Phials of Amber Extract, 34 Phials of Crimson Extract, 4 Phials of Sapphire Extract, 41 Phials of Umber Extract, and 34 Phials of Verdant Extract. No one else was picking when I was, as far as I know.

[Oelle]

I spent three to four hours questing yesterday. I stopped when I had an issue with the quest "A Massive Problem."

you got an issue with a quest?
thats weird... i could finish all quests for the first time in b3. everything worked for me. sure, there were bugs... but everything could be finished without problems.
what was it? just interested.

(i dont bother about flowers, they dont give me anything i'd like to get)

[cdq1958]

you got an issue with a quest?
thats weird... i could finish all quests for the first time in b3. everything worked for me. sure, there were bugs... but everything could be finished without problems.
what was it? just interested.

(i dont bother about flowers, they dont give me anything i'd like to get)

A Massive Problem had a problem when I reached the last Mossy Stone. Clicking on it summoned the Mumak, but the quest did not advance when I clicked on the Mumak. I logged out. When I logged in, the quest advanced and completed when I repeated clicking on the last stone then the Mumak after a few seconds. Other quests have had their scripts hang like this, so I reported it. This may not happen every time. This was the only bug that I've noted in B3.

[Osglinthor]

I didnt even bother colecting flowers nor will i do it on live.And i think i wont be the only one.Instead of fixing countless bugs along side this update and adding maybe one or two 2 man and 6 man instances we get flower picking.No words for this kind of thought process.Its like you want to push away customers.Maybe with u19.x you add something better but i doubt it.

[PKCrichton]

I spent a hefty chunk of time tonight running around North Ithilien mapping out what areas I found flowers and what areas I didn't and the VAST majority of the map has 0 flowers. About 20-25% had flower nodes totally at around 80 give or take 10, its a little hard tallying exactly as you run around on horse back.

I broke the map into sections from the south on up breaking it at every river breaking the landmass.

I'll add my map showing exactly where in each section I found the flowers after I make a clean version of it. I"ll edit this post for it.

Section 1 - Crossroads

• Oxlip - 11
• Rockrose - 1
• Horsetail - 14
• Vetching - 7

Section 2 - Aelin Veren

• None

Section 3 - Just north of Aelin Veren

• Oxlip - 1
• Rockrose - 1
• Dwarfsbeard - 1

Section 4 - Henneth Annun

• None

Section 5 - Cirith Negen

• Oxlip - 8
• Southeron's Crown - 3
• Drakewart - 4
• Elespear - 2
• Bel-o-Dale - 1
• Horsetail - 3
• Vetching - 2

Section 6 - Bar Tarnaher

• Bell-o-Dale - 1
• Horsetail - 2
• Rockrose - 1
• Oxlip - 2
• Vetching - 2

Section 7 - Islands with no name

• None

Section 8 - Aragorn's Camp

• Oxlip - 4
• Horsetail - 2
• Dwarfsbeard - 2
• Bell-o-Dale - 3

[Samanator]

I found while testing for drop rates that the best area by far to farm for flowers (especially the good ones) area through Cirith Negen and around Torngroth and the Uya Hujum camp. Anyway here's a summary of what I found since I hadn't spent any time getting flowers in the previous builds:

* Bar Aroth - one of the best places to farm Verdant, Umber and Crimson. In about 30 minutes I got 46, 55 and 55 of these respectively, but I only saw 1 person for a short time also going after flower. Other than the base flower types, I found 2 Larkspurs and 4 Rock-roses which most of the time yield lots.
* Aelin Verin - probably the worst area to farm flowers as the area they can be found is pretty small. In 30 minutes I only got 29, 29 and 21 Verdant, Umber and Crimson, including 3 Larkspurs and 3 Rock-roses. I saw 1 person farming, but I only saw him a few times.
* Cirith Negan - the best place to farm for Amber, as lots of Drakewort flowers grow here. In 20 minutes I found 40, 3 and 46 Verdant, Umber and Crimson (Horsetail appears to be almost non-existent here). I also got 17 Amber, plus 1 Sapphire that dropped from a Vetchling. There were 2 Rock-roses but no Larkspur. There were no other people here during this time.
* Torngroth & Uya Hujum - This is the best place to farm for Sapphires, as lots of Bell-o-Dale flowers grow along the river banks here. In 20 minutes I found 32, 40 and 13 Verdant, Umber and Crimson (very few Vetchlings here, and no Rock-roses, but there were 4 Larkspurs). I also got another Sapphire from a Vetchling flower. There were no other people here during this time.
* Bar Tarnaher - There weren't many flowers here, but some Bell-o-Dale can be found along the river to the east and also to the south-east between the river junctions and waterfalls. In 15 minutes I found 7, 9 and 11 Verdent, Umber and Crimson. I also found 3 Sapphires from Bell-o-Dales. There were also 3 Rock-roses, but no Larkspur or Drakewort flowers.

In regards to what seems to drops what:

* Elfspear, Dwarfsbeard and Southron's Crown - drops only one of each of Verdant, Umber and Crimson. Were less common than ones that drop more.
* Oxlip, Horsetail and Vetchling - drops 2 of each of Verdent, Umber and Crimson. By far the most common types of flower I found in general over the whole map. The only (maybe) exception to this is possibly Vetchling, which appears to have a super rare crit drop in which a Sapphire is dropped (I found 1 in Cirith Negan and 1 in the Torngroth area - both from Vetchlings). So it's possible that Horsetail and / or Oxlip also have a rare crit version but more testing would be required.
* Larkspur and Rock-rose - typically has a high output of multiples combinations of Verdent, Umber and Crimson. Larkspur seems to give out a high number of Umber plus some of the others, and Rock-rose appears to do the same with Crimson. I haven't yet seen a high output of Verdent on any flower unless it's super rare and I haven't seen it yet. Rock-roses seem (obviously) to grow on rocky areas and around cliffs.
* Drakewort - drops 1 of Amber only. Seems to only spawn at the base of cliffs in Cirith Negen and Torngroth, but it quite common in these areas.
* Bell-o-Dale - drops 1 of Sapphire only. Only spawns beside the rivers in Torngroth and in areas south and east of Bar Tarnaher.

The the roughly 2 hours I was farming flowers, I only saw a few people, so obviously these results are going to be different when everyone's going crazy over them. I think in the areas that flowers can actually be found there's quite a lot of them and I probably wouldn't make them any denser or there would seem too many, but they definitely need to be added to more areas. I had a quick look around most of the other parts of the map, but the general consensus is that these areas are the best / only ones that flowers can be found in (unless there's other areas I missed). As has been mentioned, there's none around Henneth Annun or the Field of Cormallen, where there probably could be some added. Also there's a lot of area around Aelin Veren in every direction that doesn't have any flowers. I suspect perhaps that the area west and south-west of Bar Tarnaher doesn't have much of anything done to it yet as riding through I didn't find any nodes of anything, so I wonder if perhaps flowers will end up being added here anyway with ore and wood etc. As it is, when there's hosts of people fighting over flowers in North Ithilien, there won't be enough, and people most likely will likely get frustrated both with the devs and probably with other people "stealing" their flowers because of mob spawns.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.

[Pontin_Finnberry]

In and around Bar Aroth seems fine to me when picking flowers good spawn rate i mean by time i go all around an back to same spots more plants have spawned by then. but north of Bar Aroth across the river i think that large area should have plants as well between Bar Aroth and Aelin veren i found no plants should add some then it be spread out a bit more so can pick flowers and not be crowded in one or two areas by players just my opinion should be spread out more, Other then that spawn rates in areas with plants seems to be good to me, alslo think should add few extra plants in areas.

[siipperi]

"Ninjaing" has always been a problem for crafters. However today, that tends to only be true in the lower level areas. Once players hit the 40s and 50s, they spread out and the "stolen node" problem tends to resolve itself.

This same problem existed with specific Quest targets --people hanging around a spawn-point waiting to be the first one to hit the Mob.

Remember -- that problem was what "Open Tapping" and "Remote Looting" were created to solve; way back in about Update 7 around 2012. (I didn't look up the relase notes to see.)

Today, we are going to confront this problem amongst the PvMPs and Raiders - who are the ones who are going to go gaga over the ability to upgrade their Dread Terror Armour.

It is true, by the simple fact that this is a level 105 area, the absolute number of players present will be low -- but the ones present will be the ones who always complain the loudest on the forums!

And yes, at least at the moment, Flora nodes do appear to disappear when someone else grabs the node. So far, I haven't found anybody else harvesting while I have been, so I can't say for certain which game mechanic is being used. I assume it is the same one as used for crafting nodes. However, Flora does appear to re-spawn consistantly in the same place eventually, not being rotated with some sort of place-holder, like a creature. Some nodes just sit there "looking pretty" until they light-up again sometime later. There are in-fact, a few situations where Flora types do rotate. You harvest the node, it disappears and the re-spawn in that location will be of a different type.

Do you even have level 105 character? Always when new update hits new areas are swarmed by level cap players, there will be absolutely no flowers left.

[pittcrew1]

I haven't done any research on collecting the flowers (yet), but I would still recommend you change flower-gathering to the following mechanic, so reduce issues that will likely come up on live:

I really like the idea of flowers working like the ingredient crates. My issue is it makes it hard to quickly go around and collect them because you may target one that you've already gotten, and unless you hover over the item for long enough to see the CD, you won't know you already got it until you get to it, at which point you may be fighting/dismounted.

Ideally, the flowers would spawn as phased items, separate for each player, and once obtained, they would go away for the player that got it. I don't know if they fully have the tech for this, but Hytbold did many things, so they might. Main issue may be the flowers not being NPCs, and they didn't do much phasing with items.

Another solution could be to have a quest that players need to have in their quest log to be able to interact with the patches. They could then use the quest item usage mechanic where each player can interact with each item, even at the same time, and they won't despawn (if they don't despawn, a player also can't farm the same spawn points picking the respawned ones); not sure if they have done it where the used quest items actually give loot (rather than quest items, that go into the quest summary), but I'm sure they could. There could be a Flower Basket quest item, or something similar, that is given to players after completing a quick intro quest (and can be re-obtained if you need it), from the Herb Traders. You could use the basket to infinitely start/restart the repeatable flower-picking quest. The quest might be to pick like 25 flowers throughout Ithilien, and once you finish that, you could either get a North Ithilien token, or a box that you can open for a decent chance at a rare phial (if not, several common phials), or rep, ixp, or nothing. No cooldown if you finish it, 5m cooldown if you abandon it. The one issue with this is that the flowers would likely all be located at the same place every time, so you could know where to go for certain flowers, but so long as they are spread out well, it shouldn't matter, since you couldn't just farm the rare ones easily (if they're spread out well); you'd need to finish/drop the quest to be able to pick the same resource twice in a row, which would have a cooldown. Ideally, just make each flower drop random items so no one would want to farm any given area.

The quest approach would also have the benefit of not distracting players who don't want to worry about the flowers at the moment. You could just drop the quest if you want to focus on harvesting wood or whatever, and you'd have fewer items to cycle through and item names (if you have them on) to see.

Also, might be nice to have a resource instance for the flowers, which could give maybe North Ithilien silver tokens, and some other stuff. But this may be too much work. I'd like it though, if you stick with the resource node approach, as opposed to a quest item approach.

[Beastnas]

Today, we are going to confront this problem amongst the PvMPs and Raiders - who are the ones who are going to go gaga over the ability to upgrade their Dread Terror Armour.

It is true, by the simple fact that this is a level 105 area, the absolute number of players present will be low -- but the ones present will be the ones who always complain the loudest on the forums!

I am not sure what singling out PvMPers and Raiders have to do with this at all. The flower barter is the primary progression system in U19 for everyone. There are housing items, slotted armor, upgrade armor, jewelry, pets, and all kinds of other items bartered with flowers.

Regarding it being a level 105 area, I think the opposite is true. The population congregates at the level cap, especially with this much time since the cap was raised. It is going to affect everyone participating in the U19 advancement/collecting, not just the ones who "complain loudest".

[DanteIL]

I'm sure there's been information about this already in the forums, but can someone point me to a link describing the rewards for doing this flower collecting? Thanks in advance!

[ShireDweller]

Do you even have level 105 character? Always when new update hits new areas are swarmed by level cap players, there will be absolutely no flowers left.

Definitely. It's going to get ugly. It'll be like the treasure hunt berry bushes before they adjusted the respawn rate.

[Bragolos]

Spreading the flowers across the whole zone should really be priority: it encourages people to fully explore this beautiful region and more importantly: it prevents people from stalking the few flower hubs there are right now. Maybe its a bit exaggerated, but reading some of the posts here makes me visualize an almost empty zone in launch week except for those 5 or 6 spots where dozens of people are queing up, trying to be the fastest clickers in the world to be able to loot some phials...

[Valamar]

Definitely. It's going to get ugly. It'll be like the treasure hunt berry bushes before they adjusted the respawn rate.

Turbine does not release population profiles, but it is clear that the number of players in the areas below level 40 is much larger than the number of players in the Level Cap areas.

The Treasure Hunt and other events are also available to players at any level -- however the flower picking will only be available to level-cap players.
That fact alone is going to limit the number of people going after the flowers.

Are the respawn rates too low? Yes, from everything I have seen so far, they are much too long -- aparently on the oder of 30+ minutes, maybe much longer.
I have not timed them, but when I have been on flower picking, there has been nobody else around, and I can easily clean out say Cirich Negen or Aelim Veren then twiddle my thumbs for 15 or 20 minutes waiting for them to respawn.

And so far, there have only been trash-mobs (Bears, Prowlers, Mountain Lions, Hawks) in the flower areas.
Only in Build 3 did I encounter a couple of random "Searchers" and they were not really in the main Flower areas.
My Hunter had no problems doing them in.

[Valamar]

I'm sure there's been information about this already in the forums, but can someone point me to a link describing the rewards for doing this flower collecting? Thanks in advance!

I've begun collecting the basic info on the WIKI: https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Category:North_Ithilien_Flora

[siipperi]

Turbine does not release population profiles, but it is clear that the number of players in the areas below level 40 is much larger than the number of players in the Level Cap areas.

The Treasure Hunt and other events are also available to players at any level -- however the flower picking will only be available to level-cap players.
That fact alone is going to limit the number of people going after the flowers.

Are the respawn rates too low? Yes, from everything I have seen so far, they are much too long -- aparently on the oder of 30+ minutes, maybe much longer.
I have not timed them, but when I have been on flower picking, there has been nobody else around, and I can easily clean out say Cirich Negen or Aelim Veren then twiddle my thumbs for 15 or 20 minutes waiting for them to respawn.

And so far, there have only been trash-mobs (Bears, Prowlers, Mountain Lions, Hawks) in the flower areas.
Only in Build 3 did I encounter a couple of random "Searchers" and they were not really in the main Flower areas.
My Hunter had no problems doing them in.

You can do simply search on this. You can search 0-20 players then 21-40 players. and then search players per classes at minimum level of 105. At any given time you get very similar number of players. However many high level players are more likely to be anonymous than low level players. So I would say high level players (105) are at any given time a bit more on numbers than bellow level 40. And we have to remember many of these lower level players have capped character.

Accounts that have at least one capped character are without a doubt majority of active accounts.

[Spilo]

Copy and pasting because squeaky wheel


@Devs, necessary PvP patch with U19/19.1 POTENTIALLY VERY SIMPLE TO APPLY, MASSIVE MONEY INFLUX FROM THIS.


yone who has any major expectations for PvP in this game is kidding themselves, however PvP remains a substantial part of the game, fueling a large amount of subscriptions, and provides a lot of revenue for in-store purchases as well. For me it's been the only reason I've been subscribed for the past year- I'm sure hundreds of others fall into that same category. That being said, as the game has diminished, so has PvP, but I still believe it still deserves a little attention from the devs, even if to apply a minor band-aid.

I am not a developer or coder, so I do not know if these updates are too much, but I attempted to keep them simple in the hopes that Creepside gets a badly needed buff, especially after 105's massive increase in stats, removal of the stat cap, an Imbued LI increase (which was an easy 20-30% DPS increase for Freepside alone), and now significant buffs to two Freepside classes with U19.



IMPORTANT CHANGES FOR CREEPSIDE:


1. Increase damage reduction from Audacity/PvP from 40% to 50%.

2. Scale corruptions (especially mitigation corruptions) as detailed here: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...ing-Suggestion

AND/OR simply give Creepside 2 additional Corruption slots. To compensate from over-stacking against specific Freep classes (using the remote Corruption item), you could put a 3 minute cooldown timer for using the Remote Corruption Item.

3. Buff the damage for specific creepside skills, skills that are either little used, or require strategy to use.

Reaver: Double bleed damage of both Jagged Cut and Mutilation
Defiler: Doesn't really need a damage boost as much as it needs a damage stance, but if anything, buff Curse of Rotten flesh from +5% incoming damage to +10-15%
Spider: Don't buff anything. Damage/CC/Healing/Escape Opportunities are high as it is
Blackarrow: Buff Screaming Shafts and Fire Trap.
Warleader: Needs an AoE skill, possibly make all shouts AoE? Makes sense.
Warg Stalker: Double damage of both Scratch and Snip and Swipe

If mastery corruptions are scaled along with mitigations corruptions, these damage boosts may be unnecessary. I chose skills that I thought might buff creepside damage without making things too easy (such as the stupid boost that Bestial Claws and Sudden Strikes got for Wargs and Reavers, respectively).


NOT SO IMPORTANT CHANGES FOR CREEPSIDE:

A few annoying things that should be adjusted by a perfect, diligent Dev

Blackarrow: Skirmisher stance should not allow Hindering Shot on the move
Defiler: As mentioned before, badly needs a damage stance. No class should have equal access to both healing and damage
Warleader: Shieldbash stun duration or Shieldbash skill cooldown needs adjustment. A 10s stun for the low cooldown that skill has? Give me a break.
Spider: Burrow needs to have its regen removed and/or duration lessed. It's a free combat log and/or a free full heal, in addition to all things stupid powerful for spider.
Reaver: Remove Improved Sudden Strikes Wrath Cooldown reduction, or lessen its reduction to 1 second.
Warg: Give HIPs a 3 minute cooldown, period. Make Enhanced Skill Hips the possibility to reduce its cooldown to 90s if a damaging skill is used within the 10s unbreakable stealth window.


ETC:

Remove Mastery buffs from Outposts and give them small infamy multipliers- no person should have a direct combat disadvantage because some noobs want all the Outposts Blue.
Double the Morale of all Creep NPCs in the Ettenmoors, especially including the Krahjarn Fellarrows (next update Hunters can easily wipe out 1 shots).
Make Backdoors of Keeps unusable in combat.



Like I said, I don't expect much, but the 3 basic changes at the top of the list seem reasonable enough. Buff audacity, slap on 2 more slots (if it's as easy as that), and increase the numbers on several skills. Even the idea that Creepside is getting love is going to bring people back.

[kohkohpuffs]

yone who has any major expectations for PvP in this game is kidding themselves, however PvP remains a substantial part of the game, fueling a large amount of subscriptions, and provides a lot of revenue for in-store purchases as well.

How do you know?

Spilo you're beginning to worry me. Try to take it easy, this game ain't worth it.

[Suza]

Copy and pasting because squeaky wheel

I just throw squeaky wheels away and get new ones... nice off-topic post there Spilo.

[Spilo]

I just throw squeaky wheels away and get new ones... nice off-topic post there Spilo.

This is a Beta server, I am offering Beta suggestions.

[Ethrildar]

IMPORTANT CHANGES FOR CREEPSIDE:

3. Buff the damage for specific creepside skills, skills that are either little used, or require strategy to use.

Reaver: Double bleed damage of both Jagged Cut and Mutilation
Defiler: Doesn't really need a damage boost as much as it needs a damage stance, but if anything, buff Curse of Rotten flesh from +5% incoming damage to +10-15%
Spider: Don't buff anything. Damage/CC/Healing/Escape Opportunities are high as it is
Blackarrow: Buff Screaming Shafts and Fire Trap.
Warleader: Needs an AoE skill, possibly make all shouts AoE? Makes sense.
Warg Stalker: Double damage of both Scratch and Snip and Swipe

If mastery corruptions are scaled along with mitigations corruptions, these damage boosts may be unnecessary. I chose skills that I thought might buff creepside damage without making things too easy (such as the stupid boost that Bestial Claws and Sudden Strikes got for Wargs and Reavers, respectively).


NOT SO IMPORTANT CHANGES FOR CREEPSIDE:

A few annoying things that should be adjusted by a perfect, diligent Dev

Blackarrow: Skirmisher stance should not allow Hindering Shot on the move
Defiler: As mentioned before, badly needs a damage stance. No class should have equal access to both healing and damage
Warleader: Shieldbash stun duration or Shieldbash skill cooldown needs adjustment. A 10s stun for the low cooldown that skill has? Give me a break.
Spider: Burrow needs to have its regen removed and/or duration lessed. It's a free combat log and/or a free full heal, in addition to all things stupid powerful for spider.
Reaver: Remove Improved Sudden Strikes Wrath Cooldown reduction, or lessen its reduction to 1 second.
Warg: Give HIPs a 3 minute cooldown, period. Make Enhanced Skill Hips the possibility to reduce its cooldown to 90s if a damaging skill is used within the 10s unbreakable stealth window.


ETC:

Remove Mastery buffs from Outposts and give them small infamy multipliers- no person should have a direct combat disadvantage because some noobs want all the Outposts Blue.
Double the Morale of all Creep NPCs in the Ettenmoors, especially including the Krahjarn Fellarrows (next update Hunters can easily wipe out 1 shots).
Make Backdoors of Keeps unusable in combat.



Like I said, I don't expect much, but the 3 basic changes at the top of the list seem reasonable enough. Buff audacity, slap on 2 more slots (if it's as easy as that), and increase the numbers on several skills. Even the idea that Creepside is getting love is going to bring people back.

BUMP. These changes need to happen. Particularly Back-door fix, being able to spam this is utterly gamebreaking, especially when massive groups abuse this as a tactic to make killing smaller groups even easier.

1. Increase damage reduction from Audacity/PvP from 40% to 50%.

2. Scale corruptions (especially mitigation corruptions) as detailed here: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...ing-Suggestion

AND/OR simply give Creepside 2 additional Corruption slots. To compensate from over-stacking against specific Freep classes (using the remote Corruption item), you could put a 3 minute cooldown timer for using the Remote Corruption Item.

Really can't get behind this, this would allow creeps with the ranked buffs, a tome of D, and ON buff to achieve what... -80% inc dmg or more with 100% uptime? My RK with the same buffs would be able to achieve over -100% incoming damage with this for long periods of time, it'd clash with cappy buffs and various other things, really not a good idea.

Also can't get behind a corruption boost for mits (other stuff fair enough), since stacking 6 mits of a particular type on some creep classes makes incoming damage drop to ridiculous levels. As it is, the difference between traiting mits and not traiting mits is phenominal on creepside, making this "gap" a chasm is not a great idea imho.

[Spilo]

BUMP. These changes need to happen. Particularly Back-door fix, being able to spam this is utterly gamebreaking, especially when massive groups abuse this as a tactic to make killing smaller groups even easier.



Really can't get behind this, this would allow creeps with the ranked buffs, a tome of D, and ON buff to achieve what... -80% inc dmg or more with 100% uptime? My RK with the same buffs would be able to achieve over -100% incoming damage with this for long periods of time, it'd clash with cappy buffs and various other things, really not a good idea.

Also can't get behind a corruption boost for mits (other stuff fair enough), since stacking 6 mits of a particular type on some creep classes makes incoming damage drop to ridiculous levels. As it is, the difference between traiting mits and not traiting mits is phenominal on creepside, making this "gap" a chasm is not a great idea imho.

40-45/50% I think would be reasonable. What exactly do you mean by ranked buffs?

This is a difficulty I ran into. I think we could overcome it by simply reducing 6 of each corruption to 4 or 5. There simply is no need to have the ability to stack 6 of each corruption.