URGENT DONT RELEASE THE BEORNING CLASS ON 5th NOV

[Frishia]

I sincerely hope this does not go live next week. With a new class, you really need to have it right. Its a difficult class for me to play, never was much of a melee fan, but aside from that, I'm a mouser not a keyboard player and changing man to bear form has my fingers fumbling all over trying to find the number key without looking at my keyboard while steering with the mouse lol. Eye hand coordination isn't all there I guess

I went thru the tailor recipes checking for crafted gear with might, and yes, its been added to a lot of levels, but not all, and not all recipes are correct. (I had also hoped for a different look to their armour than the purple pj stuff all the classes get. I get the feeling someone nailed it when they said it was old warden gear resurfacing. I did submit bug reports on recipes that were wrong. Quest gear for them is still an issue from what I'm hearing in world chat, end game testing as mentioned has not happened yet, so many things.

Yes there have been some great improvements from build 1, the new epic battle is actually soloable now, and the Leroy twins are under control again. Sort of. I've been thru the EB with my copied over hunter and champ, a racked up decked out RK and duo with my bf's guard/my rk combo, and a few other combos, but to be fair, none of them have been in (wow my word was censored?) gear either. And its not always a piece of cake. Or even close.

My guess is the Nov 5th date is to trump out the other games with new releases, but to do so with an unfinished class/battle/end game content is in my mind, akin to shooting yourself in the foot with 50 more miles to walk. Gamers are notorious for getting to level cap, finish new content, whatever, before anyone else, to show they can, so I expect some will have it completed in less than a day (give or take), I wouldn't doubt the first live level 100 beorning will be within a few days/to a week, less with gift of the valar, and if its not a smooth trip, look out. Better to let the other games get the first rush, and have a later release with a highly polished new class and area to go to.

[Gilean-EU]

I'm really hoping it isn't official. But the fact that they've not replied suggests that either they've not bothered to come and read these forums (a pretty poor show considering the sizeable amounts of feedback that get put here), or this is the correct release date. And if the latter is the case, then we really do have a problem, due to 1) poor mounted combat, 2) no 6 man BB, and 3) untested Beornings at the cap. While the Helm's Deep expansion doesn't exactly rank highly in LOTRO's history, there was one correct decision made, and that was to postpone the launch. It wasn't a popular decision outside of the beta community at the time, but we could see that the extra time was really necessary, and the devs agreed with us. If it is the case that Nov. 5th is the release date, then I hope they consider pushing this back, because from what I saw in build 3, update 15 is NOT ready. It won't be popular with WB, but then their influence has never exactly been positive for the game in the past.

Everything is possible of course. I think the silence is because they are in the process of making decisions at the moment. Or, I don't know. Maybe it's that flu that is causing the silence

Anyway, I would hope there would be at least beta round 4 still to see that Pelargir battle is fully working, to have proper lvl 100 tests for Beornings (with auto-level in E&G), to see even some changes in class essences, to see vault-keeper in Central Gondor etc... It's Thursday and Bullroarer is still online, so it's possible that this is the final beta build (although who knows about that either, BR seems to be online and offline based on no official schedules they set for 2014). I hope we'll get Beta round 4 tomorrow.

[Frelorn]

November 5th is the release date. We have not been posting as much as I would like in the past couple weeks due to several factors including getting the update ready to go, getting prepped for the Council visit this week and of course the death flu that has been traveling through the office.

[Rozalinde]

November 5th is the release date. We have not been posting as much as I would like in the past couple weeks due to several factors including getting the update ready to go, getting prepped for the Council visit this week and of course the death flu that has been traveling through the office.

*sends Minstrel heals to the Turbine office*

*BOLSTER COURAGE*

[Dernudan]

November 5th is the release date. We have not been posting as much as I would like in the past couple weeks due to several factors including getting the update ready to go, getting prepped for the Council visit this week and of course the death flu that has been traveling through the office.

Will there be another build out tomorrow that we will be able to test?

[Jillymala]

Double Post

[Valamar]

Will there be any Dev Diaries on the Beorning?

[dannypl]

Remember, BR is more of a preview server then an actual beta server. Turbine will release the update when they want to, not when the "beta testers" think they should. Also turbine is probably working a few builds ahead of what is on BR. So it is possible that they have already polished things up for live.

This is simply not true, clearly you don't have much experience with LOTRO betas. By and large the last build on bullroarer is a good representation of the update.

[Leixy]

Though I suspect Turbine's going for the RELEASE THE BEARS NOW and beat the bugs and issues out afterwards (seems pretty on par with releases lately)

This has been turbine's way of doing business for years. I'm surprised some of you haven't figured that out yet. Making threads like this.

Maybe I'm just callused and it doesn't affect me now when they do this, lol.

[Leixy]

This is simply not true, clearly you don't have much experience with LOTRO betas. By and large the last build on bullroarer is a good representation of the update.

I agree with this. usually the last beta on bullroarer is the live version. And turbine takes any bugs found during it and applies it to the first patch a few weeks after an update goes live.

[Nimrinoth]

This is simply not true, clearly you don't have much experience with LOTRO betas. By and large the last build on bullroarer is a good representation of the update.

I have a depressing amount of experience with lotro betas and i am well aware of how often bugs and feedback from players either goes unheard or are out of the scope of the beta. It's so cute watching people leave feedback and knowing that in most cases it won't even matter.

Sure major things don't change between the last beta build and live, but small things typically do, such as minor bug fixes and polish. And those small things seem to be what most people are concerned aren't going to be changed before this goes live. And if you are concerned about something larger, well sorry but it is probably not in the scope of this update. Deal wit it, yo.

[CaerArianrhod]

November 5th is the release date.

Oh nooo, without a chance to test the translation? What a cruelty

[dannypl]

I have a depressing amount of experience with lotro betas and i am well aware of how often bugs and feedback from players either goes unheard or are out of the scope of the beta. It's so cute watching people leave feedback and knowing that in most cases it won't even matter.

Sure major things don't change between the last beta build and live, but small things typically do, such as minor bug fixes and polish. And those small things seem to be what most people are concerned aren't going to be changed before this goes live. And if you are concerned about something larger, well sorry but it is probably not in the scope of this update. Deal wit it, yo.

minor bug fixes and polish is not what you said. Implying that "turbine is probably working a few builds ahead of what is on BR" is false and if you have as much experience as you claim which I doubt, you would know that.

[Nimrinoth]

minor bug fixes and polish is not what you said. Implying that "turbine is probably working a few builds ahead of what is on BR" is false and if you have as much experience as you claim which I doubt, you would know that.

How much has changed from build 1 of BR to build 3? Minor bug fixes and polish. It's not like I'm implying that turbine already has a build of u16. Or they might, i don't know.

Typically in game development, the developers aren't working with the build that the public is seeing. Either way, this thing is going live on the 5th, like it or not.

[Rowan]

I think it's worth pointing out that U15 going live on November 5th is not official yet. Yes, Massively reported it like as they heard the date from Turbine, but we haven't seen any official announcement here on forums yet. So, until we see an announcement, I am not taking this rumoured release date too seriously.

Massively reported it because that's the date I gave them. So yes, this is the date.

We feel confident in the class as it's built. I'm sure there will be some balancing to do in our first patch, but the design team has already left space for additional feedback and changes.

And yes, our current build is ahead of what you're seeing on Bullroarer now. We'll try to get a final build out to BR before the weekend, the team is currently tying up the final bug or two.

[CM-Amenophis]

Its a little offtopic but Class interaction is a big balancing Deal in a MMO Game.
Does that mean we can look forward for more Dev Conversations about other Classes too or will only the Beorning get some Love? For e.g the Warden Forums fells like the unloved Stepchild. Has been a long Time since we heard something from Deviled_Egg.

[matalan]

Hi Rowan

Just out of curiosity, why did Massively break the news to us, the players? I think similar happened with U14 IIRC. It just seems a little strange that you would decide to tell Massively, and then let us players stumble upon the news, instead of telling Massively, while at the same time posting to the forums with the good news. I think it's the indirect way of us hearing the release date which distances Turbine from their players and that's exactly what you don't want to do - we should be the first to know!

AFAIK apart from these confirmation posts there is still no official announcement? Say loading screen or launcher info?

A lot of your players currently have NO IDEA that this is going live on Nov 5th, EG I broke the news to my kin through in game mail, otherwise, they would be none the wiser.

Why launch so silently? I'd be putting the news out in every direction possible so people can be ready to spend money


Hope that all makes sense! Just my thoughts and ramblings lol

[Nimrinoth]

Its a little offtopic but Class interaction is a big balancing Deal in a MMO Game.
Does that mean we can look forward for more Dev Conversations about other Classes too or will only the Beorning get some Love? For e.g the Warden Forums fells like the unloved Stepchild. Has been a long Time since we heard something from Deviled_Egg.

Doubtful. We are long past the point of classes being balanced against each other. Just enjoy your class for what it is capable of because any major changes just will not happen.

[Leixy]

Hi Rowan

Just out of curiosity, why did Massively break the news to us, the players?

Turbine holds a private press overview ahead of time with those media outlets that are interested.

They probably throw them an exclusive item or two for announcement to maintain good media relations and drive traffic to their publications as a thank you.

[Rowan]

Why launch so silently? I'd be putting the news out in every direction possible so people can be ready to spend money

We talked to about 10 different press outlets, so I hope it doesn't remain silent. We also announced the date in our live stream today with some of the principal developers.

I expect you'll see more formal announcements soon, along with patch notes etc.

[Rowan]

For e.g the Warden Forums fells like the unloved Stepchild. Has been a long Time since we heard something from Deviled_Egg.

The Beorning was a really ambitious project, so we've been "all hands on deck" to get it ready.

The overwhelming feedback I've heard recently is that Wardens are a little squishy but still tremendously powerful. So I do hope you feel the love.

[Gilean-EU]

Massively reported it because that's the date I gave them. So yes, this is the date.

We feel confident in the class as it's built. I'm sure there will be some balancing to do in our first patch, but the design team has already left space for additional feedback and changes.

And yes, our current build is ahead of what you're seeing on Bullroarer now. We'll try to get a final build out to BR before the weekend, the team is currently tying up the final bug or two.

All right, Massively reported it as "On a developer call this afternoon, Turbine announced that Lord of the Rings Online's Update 15 is scheduled for release on Wednesday, November 5th." So I thought maybe some developer gave his best guess about the date Thanks for confirming the date anyway!

It's good and reassuring to know that there will be one more beta build coming still, so maybe we will see that some of the remaining bugs are fixed. It seems to me that there is not anything major even in beta build 3 anymore that would be gamebreaking, so to speak (especially if those two broken Pelargir battle sidequests are fixed), so in that regard Update 15 is more or less ready for launch. Central Gondor quests are working, both the new Epic Battle and new Epic book can be completed, and beorning class is more or less working at least what comes to low levels. Maybe we are able to test high levels more during weekend.

[Giliodor]

The overwhelming feedback I've heard recently is that Wardens are a little squishy but still tremendously powerful. So I do hope you feel the love.

This makes my wonder..........
Do the devs play this game? "A little squishy" isn't exactly how I would describe a warden, when we have hunters, RK's and burgs are just exploding when fighting in PvP. Wardens on the other hand, can easily get up to 50*1.4=70% mits, have self heals, good BPE, crit d from shields, incredible DoT damage...

Oh, well. Keep on making those pet collections

[Yula_the_Mighty]

AFAIK apart from these confirmation posts there is still no official announcement? Say loading screen or launcher info?

I suspect it is a lack of resources. Lotro does not have the people. Even years ago there was never much in the way of advertising for Lotro.

Turbine had a layoff on October 15, 2014 which will have disrupted plans and work in progress. The focus for Turbine is going to be Infinite Crisis. The legacy products like Asheron's Call, Asheron's Call 2, DDO and Lotro are not going to highest priority for getting access to common resources.

[Nimrinoth]

The Beorning was a really ambitious project, so we've been "all hands on deck" to get it ready.

The overwhelming feedback I've heard recently is that Wardens are a little squishy but still tremendously powerful. So I do hope you feel the love.

Wardens are very powerful but the issue with wardens runs much deeper then that. But really what i and i think other wardens want is just a little developer interaction. Just having a dev stop in the warden forums to say whats up would go a long way in not feeling totally forgotten.

This makes my wonder..........
Wardens on the other hand, can easily get up to 50*1.4=70% mits, have self heals, good BPE, crit d from shields, incredible DoT damage...

Literally every single thread. It all comes back to wardens op, nerf!!

Also easily get 70% mits? You need to use essence armor to cap mits otherwise no way you are getting close to the OC/FW mit cap. And really any class can cap mits with essence gear. I would take yellow line hunters passive 58% mits over wardens 50% and occasionally more depending on how many things are around you.

Don't reply to this Giliodor, its pointless. We all know you are in constant pain every day that wardens remain op and nothing will change that.