Hey folks. Figured this looked like a good place to pop in and announce myself.
Tis Vastin, developer of ages long past - back at work on the guts of LOTRO. This time I'll be puttering about in Systems as opposed to Content development, which was my prior haunt.
Just as a heads up, we are certainly looking at tweaking the essence system further as we move into Mordor, and have been actively discussing what shape that will take internally.
I suspect you'll see a more evenhanded contribution from items and essences going forwards. I can't outline exactly where that line will be as we're still debating the particular ourselves, and I'm perfectly happy to let you discover those particulars in game - but probably less overall slots than you see in the current generation of gear, while remaining a major aspect of gearing out your character fully.
To sum it up, we like the customization and the ability to hand out rewards more often that the essence system allows us, but the difficult logistics and lack of unique value and coolness of the actual gear drops has certainly been noted, and we'll be working to improve that, both in terms of the equipment designs and some of the underpinning systems.
I'm looking forwards to exploring Middle Earth with you all once again!
-Vastin
And, his previous account's profile from which you can see his older posts:
Originally Posted by DiogoVP
New name on the forums! Please introduce yourself
Rohirrim Scout
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