Questions for @Devs / @Cordovan

[Hephburz-2]

I did a similar thing not long after the legendary servers were announced, and I managed to compile a pretty comprehensive list of questions, many of which @Cordovan, @Tybur and @SSG_RedPanda were able to answer in the Cord of the Rings Stream that Friday.


Below I think is a comprehensive list of questions that the current player base would like the answers to – please feel free to add more, and please could we get Cordovan and/or other Devs to comment where possible or even perhaps another Q&A stream?


I really hope to get some form of a response.


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(Questions/Issues for the Live Servers)


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1. Is it supposed to be WAI that you can only run the most difficult / challenging instances (tier3) once per week and be ‘rewarded’ for it?

(I don’t want to sit here and argue over favoured/unfavoured loot pulls, I think I speak on behalf of all the community when we agree this is a bad system and a LOT worse than what we had under the daily locks in Mordor. It is also very much a slap in the face given how hard we worked on the Bullroarer forums to persuade you to remove daily locks – to instead theoretically be given weekly locks).

2. Are you aware skirmishes are not dropping seals, and the loot that they reward is still level 105 stats / ilevel? Including Helegrod, and other scaled raids, which up until level 120 all used to drop seals.

3a. Are you aware that of the 41 scaling instances, only ‘potentially’ 9 (The Osgiliath, Pelennor and Mordor clusters) are dropping ‘useful’ loot?
3b. Will we ever see a return to similar loot tables such as we had when level 85 was the cap? Or is it now impossible to re-implement/scale those old loot-tables?

(The loot in the other clusters has been totally disregarded by the player base. People love unique loot, people love being able to farm instances, no matter how long it takes for BiS unique loot).

4. Can we please have more favoured chest pulls per week but offering a reduced amount of loot on the favoured pulls?

(No, this is not the unfavoured system, I don’t want to misconstrue the two, please keep a high drop chance + embers on favoured pulls, but less than they are currently, but allow us MORE favoured pulls). So not 100% chance on the gold pocket item for example, and not giving 250 embers every time (In regard to tier 3), but more like 20/25% chance and around 100/150 embers every time but allow us to complete it 5 times a week, similar for Caverns and Glimmerdeep T3).

5. Is there a revision coming to the ILI system? If so, when? And can you give us anymore information about it?

(Currently it is probably one of the biggest turn-offs for new players, requiring close to 500 Anfalas Empowerment Scrolls, 50-75 Anfalas Star-Lit Crystals, and millions of IXP for TWO new legendary weapons. It is both unreasonable and a joke. Especially for non-instance-based players who are not even likely to get half of the aforementioned items).

6. Can we have a more linear progression on the dps rank on our LI's?

(The dps increase on the ranks we unlocked during Mordor increased our weapon dps rank an extraordinary amount, and made Mordor significantly challenging for the more casual players who were unable to unlock these new ranks due to having relied solely on free-rank unlocks in the past. A more linear dps progression would resolve this).

7. Will the new raid have ‘Challenges?’ or because of the introduction of tier 3, the only things that are changing in tier 3 are numerical - the morale/damage of the mobs? Or can we expect to see extra mechanics?

8a. What was the reasoning behind moving away from class specific set bonuses for raid armour?
8b. Is there a chance for us to have some input on the current set bonuses, or are these set-in-stone?
8c. Will we see a return to class set bonuses or are they now completely removed?

9. In general, what was the reasoning behind re-adopting a currency-based system for bartering raid gear (such as we had during Orthanc and Erebor) as opposed to a coin-based system?

10. Can you please limit the amount of lootboxes people can open per week?

(It is pretty much agreed that lootboxes do no longer drop BiS gear, for which we are thankful for, however the amount of ember currency they can drop is still beyond reasonable – why are you allowing people to open endless amounts of lootboxes to acquire Embers, a currency for which and I quote ‘you want to be able to control how much people have, and control the rate of acquisition for, so that embers can be used for a long time’, however only allow people to earn… 3150 embers from completing 24 instances a week? But an unlimited amount from lootboxes?).

11. We are still missing a deed from Thikil-Gundu, is this intended? Will the missing achievement ‘Where death lies in wait’ be added to the instance with the upcoming update?

12. Do you have any plans to look at Captains or Runekeepers following on from your most recent class changes?

(These classes have pretty much not been touched in 3-4 years. If so, can you give any further details about the potential changes – and if you aren’t looking at these classes, can we please have some information about any upcoming work to any of the other classes that are ongoing?).

13. New crafted Relics. Our current best crafted relics are level 95 in nature, and have not changed since then, the current best ones offer +40 main stat +740 crit +740 mastery OR +370 crit defence +740 phys/tact mitigation. Can these PLEASE be brought into line with our newer stat progressions or enable us to craft new/better ones?

14. New legendary weapon titles – same issue as above.

15. Is it possible to have some revision to main stat essences? So that they might be brought into line with the new stat progressions.

(Main stat essences are currently the most UNUSED essences (Except for Vitality) due to your recent changes surround stat/mastery contributions. You would have to slot the equivalent of 6-7 main stat essences to gain the same mastery contribution as a mastery essence).

16. Are there plans to revisit blue hunter?

(The most-recent changes make the line feel very clunky. Hunters have since reverted to red line. Can yellow-line hunters ever expect to see any changes, many claim the line is currently broken).

17. QoL change – is it possible to allow Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerments to stack beyond 10 (Preferably to 100), and also so that we can apply more than 1 at a time to our legacies?

18. Are you going to introduce a new Level 120 PvMP Audacity Armour set, essence-based or otherwise?

19. Can we ever look to expect a new Monster-Player class? Perhaps a Merrevail / Angmarim / Goblin type class?

20. Can we expect any further upcoming changes to PvMP? Especially of note with regards to War-Leaders healing / buffs, which are somewhat significantly underpowered.

21. Is there a plan to ever implement a new hobby alongside fishing?

22. Where are we headed after Ered Mithrin? Towards Gundabad? Or are we finally going to deal with Shelob and what remains in Minas Morgul?

23. Legendary item passives did not scale with Mordor, such as on 2-handed weapons, nor did stat legacies - will we ever see a revision to these?

24. There is also no current way to acquire non-character bound legacy replacement scrolls other than by running Throne of the Dread Terror (Lv105). Can we please have a new way to acquire them?

25. The amount of materials required to craft current level 120 gear is also relatively high – any revisions to this?

26. Can you please review the loot tables associated with lootboxes? Currently things like ‘Token of overcoming setback’ are being rewarded, which removes dread from defeat, which has not existed for years.

27. Will there be any more upcoming changes to minstrels to address several of the bugs created with the most recent balance pass?

28. Any plans to address the length of the trash pulls in the tier 3 instances?

(Preferably reduced mob morale but make them more difficult, currently they are seen as too much of a time-sink).

29. The current binding status on loot from the new instances, (If you are online when the 1hr fellowship trade timer expires OR put an essence in it, the item becomes bound to account. If you miss the timer or log off – it becomes bound to character?) is this WAI?

30. In one of the recent updates, you reduced the ilevel on scaling instances loot from ilevel 360 to 355, what was the reasoning behind this?

(Are there any planned changes to the essence system we are slowly creeping back to the way the system was under throne with full focus on essences and less focus on actual gear stats (mostly because of the recent main stat changes). In short – is essence gear ‘always’ going to be BiS?).

31. Can we have a more reliable method of acquiring the lower tier of essences which DOESN’T require 2000/4000 embers, random mob drops, or loot drop from instance chests?

(It is appreciated you are introducing craftable essences for the newest tier though).


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Please feel free to comment below if you can think of anything else to add.

[Hephburz-2]

(Questions for the Legendary Servers)


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1. We understand you said no PvMP at launch, does this mean, no PvMP at all? Or is there some intention to release PvMP further along? If so, is there a potential timescale for when we can expect it?

2. Are you aware people are spending countless and I really do mean countless hours farming for essence gear and essence drops despite the extremely low drop chance?

(There are players with almost full essence gear / rare-drops. This takes away the point of using instance-based loot or farming instance-based loot given that essence gear is still BiS and more stat-valuable at each level cap, until perhaps Level 75).

3. It is possible to disable such essence / essence gear drops when the level cap goes to 60.

4a. Are there any plans to add tier 2 and tier 3 to Dar Narbugud and the Watcher and potentially the other Moria/Lothlorien instances?
4b. What other plans / if any are there to make sure the Moria instances will be equally challenging and we won’t see similar issues that have occurred with the SoA instances?
4c. Are there already plans to normalise the stats on Moria/Lothlorien instance/raid armour and crafted items (Similar to what has been done with the SoA armour/gear sets)?

5. Are you aware of the fact that we are unable to open the ‘Challenge Chests’ from the various Helegrod wings on the Legendary Servers – claiming we do not meet the requirements (The quest for the challenge chest is level 95)?

6. Will we receive better or higher scaled loot from running Rift/Helegrod at tier 2 and tier 3, or is the loot going to be the same as Tier 1?

7. Are you aware we can only acquire 34 trait points on our characters on the legendary servers (Except for Beornings who can acquire 36)?

(This locks every other class out from our trait-line cap-stone, can it be made possible to acquire 1 extra trait point on these servers (As an example, auto-completing the first big battle promotion point deed (however not actually giving us 100 promotion points – similarly in the way the Aria of the Valar works))).

8. Level 65 will see us being opened to Barad-Guldur and Ost-Dunhoth. Are these raid clusters going to have scaling instance loot? Or are they going to have ‘traditional’ loot?

(I hope you are aware the chances of people wanting to / actually running these instances are significantly lower if you keep their loot-tables in line with the scaling instance loot. GIVEN that how else are we meant to acquire level 65 end-game loot? Barter the raid gear for marks/meds in Ost Galadh or the Thror’s camp barterers?).

9. What are your thoughts on allowing the community to vote on whether the legendary server progresses to the next level cap? Either via email, in-game system or the forums?

10. If/when legendary servers catch up to live servers, what will happen?


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(Questions regarding the game systems)


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1. Is there any ETA on the 64-bit client?

2. Are there any plans for a UI update? Mostly on an aesthetic level, the UI doesn’t particularly fit well on high-resolutions.

3. Several quest texts have had typo’s for quite a number of years now, despite continuous bug reports to have them addressed.


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Please feel free to comment below if you can think of anything else to add.

[Pfeifenkraut]

When Mordor launched a year and a half ago, stats basically tripled. But the passive stats (or headstats) on legendary 2H weapons was not tripled to compensate, nor were legacies that were basic stats (some classes, like Wardens, would use a lot of these). So in any case where a class could choose between 2H or dual wield, dual wield suddenly gave a lot more stats, and anyone that had stat legacies on their legendaries was screwed. It is very expensive/difficult to change legacies on imbued legendaries. This is a part of the Mordor expansion that wasn't finished.

Is that going to stay unfinished forever?

[Macdui]

Can we get an acknowledgement that crafting tiers over the last few years has been awful and it's on someone(else's) radar to be fixed.


Mac

[Hephburz-2]

When Mordor launched a year and a half ago, stats basically tripled. But the passive stats (or headstats) on legendary 2H weapons was not tripled to compensate, nor were legacies that were basic stats (some classes, like Wardens, would use a lot of these). So in any case where a class could choose between 2H or dual wield, dual wield suddenly gave a lot more stats, and anyone that had stat legacies on their legendaries was screwed. It is very expensive/difficult to change legacies on imbued legendaries. This is a part of the Mordor expansion that wasn't finished.

Is that going to stay unfinished forever?

Added, nice question

[Macdui]

Can we have a review of loot box loot tables so that long redundant items are not included. Token of Overcoming Setback for one, it removes dread from defeat which has not been part of the game for years. If it's such a big part of the game at least make it worthy and not show us how poorly the game is understood.

Mac

[Hephburz-2]

Can we have a review of loot box loot tables so that long redundant items are not included. Token of Overcoming Setback for one, it removes dread from defeat which has not been part of the game for years. If it's such a big part of the game at least make it worthy and not show us how poorly the game is understood.

Mac

Updated, with this and your other question.

[Banionn]

I would like to hear, when there will be a new workover of the Minstrel. The latest workover left us with more broken and useless skills on the classtrees than ever, and did not fix the skills there were already broken. There is still no fix to Song of Aid, Call to Greatness and Raise the Spirit HOT. The new Skill Shield focus added to the yellow tree is useless. The entire yellow tree is so broken, that it seems almost beyond repair. It used to be quite fun to trait yellow and heal instances, but that is not the case any more.

Will there be more interaction between developers and players regarding classes in the future? There has been many good suggestions on class forums over the years on balancing classes- please consider listening to some of them and interact more on the forums to that regard.

Will there be a rebalancing of minstrel heals? We were told, that the reasons for balancing the minstrel heals with the last workover would be to increase the use of other skills. That is a lovely sentiment, but it is not quite working that way. in effect it was a nerf of Bolster Courage and a buff of Chord of Salvation. Skills like Inspire Fellows, Trimphant Spirit and Fellowship Heart seems underwhelming considering their CDs. A further rebalancing would go a long way of making the minstrel more interesting to play.

[djheydt]

Hephburz, I'm going to comment only on your choice of text colors.

It is well-nigh impossible to read dark-blue text against a black background.

If you want to put the names of SSG employees in blue, which is a nice idea, choose a lighter shade of blue, one that can be read without mousing over it.

Thanks.

[Hephburz-2]

Hephburz, I'm going to comment only on your choice of text colors.

It is well-nigh impossible to read dark-blue text against a black background.

If you want to put the names of SSG employees in blue, which is a nice idea, choose a lighter shade of blue, one that can be read without mousing over it.

Thanks.

I think it's because I typed this up on my phone, the colour doesn't look as bad from a mobile device, but I've changed the shade of blue.

To everyone else thanks for the questions - keep them coming.

@Cordovan, still hoping to get some kind of response - I did also PM you + other devs.

[Arnenna]

Are there any plans to tone down the time sink of trash pulls in the new level 120 t3 instances. They take an extra-ordinary amount of time to get through, which makes running t3 tedious - not harder. I'd much rather see these trash mobs with half their current health, but a bit more dangerous, than what they are right now.

[Hephburz-2]

Are there any plans to tone down the time sink of trash pulls in the new level 120 t3 instances. They take an extra-ordinary amount of time to get through, which makes running t3 tedious - not harder. I'd much rather see these trash mobs with half their current health, but a bit more dangerous, than what they are right now.

Updated - ty.

[Arnenna]

Sorry. I should have added this at the same time as my other post, but it slipped my mind.

Do we have an ETA for a fix on the Bind to Character rewards in the level 120 instances if logged out when the fellowship trade timer expires (from Bind to account which is on the tooltips)? That is of course, presuming that the way it works now, isn't working as intended (which I hope is the case).

[Hephburz-2]

Sorry. I should have added this at the same time as my other post, but it slipped my mind.

Do we have an ETA for a fix on the Bind to Character rewards in the level 120 instances if logged out when the fellowship trade timer expires (from Bind to account which is on the tooltips)? That is of course, presuming that the way it works now, isn't working as intended (which I hope is the case).

Again, updated.

Still waiting for a dev response also.

[djheydt]

I think it's because I typed this up on my phone, the colour doesn't look as bad from a mobile device, but I've changed the shade of blue.

Much better! Thanks!

[Oelle]

Will the ilvl nerf to scaled instances be reverted soon? On u23 launch, those dropped ilvl360 stuff, after some time only 355, which makes them far worse.

Will the essence system get a rework to make non-essence-items more viable?

Is there a plan to make bad essences easily available to have less annoying grind?

Is there an estimated time on when someone at SSG might find the time to fix more than two year old and many times reported typos in questtexts?

[Hephburz-2]

Will the ilvl nerf to scaled instances be reverted soon? On u23 launch, those dropped ilvl360 stuff, after some time only 355, which makes them far worse.

Will the essence system get a rework to make non-essence-items more viable?

Is there a plan to make bad essences easily available to have less annoying grind?

Is there an estimated time on when someone at SSG might find the time to fix more than two year old and many times reported typos in questtexts?

Updated!

The essences... I wish I could pretend they'll get easier, but no, it seems like they'll be pushing ahead with the 1 shard + 1 solvent + x crafting mats for obtaining them, then back to the system of destroying them and using the malleable's for better ones.

[Scirocco]

Updated!

The essences... I wish I could pretend they'll get easier, but no, it seems like they'll be pushing ahead with the 1 shard + 1 solvent + x crafting mats for obtaining them, then back to the system of destroying them and using the malleable's for better ones.

Crafting is a substantial improvement over random drops. I can get exactly the essences I want far more quickly.

[Oelle]

Updated!

The essences... I wish I could pretend they'll get easier, but no, it seems like they'll be pushing ahead with the 1 shard + 1 solvent + x crafting mats for obtaining them, then back to the system of destroying them and using the malleable's for better ones.

Yea, and thats exactly why my question is here.
I'd be fine if that essence-crafting was the way for higher tier essences, all I want is easy access to low-tier-essences.
And no, 2000/4000 embers and random droprates for random essences is NOT easy access.
Just a permanent recipe with near zero costs, no solvent, no shard for the "old" yellow ones.
And one-time-recipes bartered with coins with no solvent and no shard ingredient for the "old" purple ones, which cant be converted to malleables.
If we cant get those easy recipes, then give us a barter that sells them for like 100 embers or 10 coins or 1g or some marks/meds or whatever... as long as its really cheap for the bad essences. Bad essences should be easily available, not hidden behind ridiculous grind.

[Hephburz-2]

Crafting is a substantial improvement over random drops. I can get exactly the essences I want far more quickly.

I don't think anyone is disputing that adding craftable essences is a good thing - it just serves no purpose that the lower tier of essences requires either 2000/4000 embers, relies on random mob drops or getting lucky on chest loot in the instances. Lower tier essences need a more reliable acquisition method.

Yea, and thats exactly why my question is here.
I'd be fine if that essence-crafting was the way for higher tier essences, all I want is easy access to low-tier-essences.
And no, 2000/4000 embers and random droprates for random essences is NOT easy access.
Just a permanent recipe with near zero costs, no solvent, no shard for the "old" yellow ones.
And one-time-recipes bartered with coins with no solvent and no shard ingredient for the "old" purple ones, which cant be converted to malleables.
If we cant get those easy recipes, then give us a barter that sells them for like 100 embers or 10 coins or 1g or some marks/meds or whatever... as long as its really cheap for the bad essences. Bad essences should be easily available, not hidden behind ridiculous grind.

Agreed + updated with the question.

Hoping to get @Cordovan to address some of these questions on his stream this evening if possible.

[CaerArianrhod]

Below I think is a comprehensive list of questions that the current player base would like the answers to – please feel free to add more, and please could we get Cordovan and/or other Devs to comment where possible or even perhaps another Q&A stream?


I really hope to get some form of a response.

You will get a response. It is calling silence.
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...-company-motto

[Hephburz-2]

Per some feedback, many of the questions have been revised and shortened, some of which however have some 'extra' information below to give context to the question.

[Cordovan]

It's challenging to respond to suggestion-based question lists, particularly when they are followed by demands, but here's my best take on it:

1. Is it supposed to be WAI that you can only run the most difficult / challenging instances (tier3) once per week and be ‘rewarded’ for it?

(I don’t want to sit here and argue over favoured/unfavoured loot pulls, I think I speak on behalf of all the community when we agree this is a bad system and a LOT worse than what we had under the daily locks in Mordor. It is also very much a slap in the face given how hard we worked on the Bullroarer forums to persuade you to remove daily locks – to instead theoretically be given weekly locks).

It is possible to run the most difficult and challenging instances more than once per week and be rewarded for it.

2. Are you aware skirmishes are not dropping seals, and the loot that they reward is still level 105 stats / ilevel? Including Helegrod, and other scaled raids, which up until level 120 all used to drop seals.

High level skirmish raids are supposed to be dropping seals. If they are not we will need to look further into it.

3a. Are you aware that of the 41 instances, only ‘potentially’ 9 (The Osgiliath, Pelennor and Mordor clusters) are dropping ‘useful’ loot?

We appreciate your feedback on the value of loot in Instances.

3b. Will we ever see a return to similar loot tables such as we had when level 85 was the cap? Or is it now impossible to re-implement/scale those old loot-tables?

(The loot in the other clusters has been totally disregarded by the player base. People love unique loot, people love being able to farm instances, no matter how long it takes for BiS unique loot).

"Will we ever" questions typically require the same response: Nothing is ever permanently set in stone. If we decide to return to older loot tables, we will let you know.

4. Can we please have more favoured chest pulls per week but offering a reduced amount of loot on the favoured pulls?

(No, this is not the unfavoured system, I don’t want to misconstrue the two, please keep a high drop chance + embers on favoured pulls, but less than they are currently, but allow us MORE favoured pulls). So not 100% chance on the gold pocket item for example, and not giving 250 embers every time (In regard to tier 3), but more like 20/25% chance and around 100/150 embers every time but allow us to complete it 5 times a week, similar for Caverns and Glimmerdeep T3).

At this time we have no plans to increase the number of favoured chest pulls. Appreciate the suggestion.

5. Is there a revision coming to the ILI system? If so, when? And can you give us anymore information about it?

(Currently it is probably one of the biggest turn-offs for new players, requiring close to 500 Anfalas Empowerment Scrolls, 50-75 Anfalas Star-Lit Crystals, and millions of IXP for TWO new legendary weapons. It is both unreasonable and a joke. Especially for non-instance-based players who are not even likely to get half of the aforementioned items).

We would like to do additional Legendary Item work in the future, but no timeline has been announced.

6. Can we have a more linear progression on the dps rank on our LI's?

(The dps increase on the ranks we unlocked during Mordor increased our weapon dps rank an extraordinary amount, and made Mordor significantly challenging for the more casual players who were unable to unlock these new ranks due to having relied solely on free-rank unlocks in the past. A more linear dps progression would resolve this).

Thank you for the suggestion.

7. Will the new raid have ‘Challenges?’ or because of the introduction of tier 3, the only things that are changing in tier 3 are numerical - the morale/damage of the mobs? Or can we expect to see extra mechanics?

The current plan is to continue with Tier 3 instead of the time-consuming older method of T2C. By shifting to a tiered system it allows us to provide more content to you. That said, we appreciate your feedback.

8a. What was the reasoning behind moving away from class specific set bonuses for raid armour?

I don't have a specific answer, but will speculate that this was due to our wider efforts at both item, class, and game balance, and to have those items have more value to more players.

8b. Is there a chance for us to have some input on the current set bonuses, or are these set-in-stone?

Yes, you will continue to be able to have input on itemization, including set bonuses.

8c. Will we see a return to class set bonuses or are they now completely removed?

Another "will we ever". Nothing is set in stone.

9. In general, what was the reasoning behind re-adopting a currency-based system for bartering raid gear (such as we had during Orthanc and Erebor) as opposed to a coin-based system?

We try to offer the best upgrade path for the content it is being built for, and try to balance everyone's wants and needs.

10. Can you please limit the amount of lootboxes people can open per week?

(It is pretty much agreed that lootboxes do no longer drop BiS gear, for which we are thankful for, however the amount of ember currency they can drop is still beyond reasonable – why are you allowing people to open endless amounts of lootboxes to acquire Embers, a currency for which and I quote ‘you want to be able to control how much people have, and control the rate of acquisition for, so that embers can be used for a long time’, however only allow people to earn… 3150 embers from completing 24 instances a week? But an unlimited amount from lootboxes?).

No.

11. We are still missing a deed from Thikil-Gundu, is this intended? Will the missing achievement ‘Where death lies in wait’ be added to the instance with the upcoming update?

No, this is not intended. I am not clear on when this will be fixed.

12. Do you have any plans to look at Captains or Runekeepers following on from your most recent class changes?

(These classes have pretty much not been touched in 3-4 years. If so, can you give any further details about the potential changes – and if you aren’t looking at these classes, can we please have some information about any upcoming work to any of the other classes that are ongoing?).

Yes. Class work is never done. Next update will have Beorning and Burglar changes.

13. New crafted Relics. Our current best crafted relics are level 95 in nature, and have not changed since then, the current best ones offer +40 main stat +740 crit +740 mastery OR +370 crit defence +740 phys/tact mitigation. Can these PLEASE be brought into line with our newer stat progressions or enable us to craft new/better ones?

Thank you for the suggestion.

14. New legendary weapon titles – same issue as above.

Thank you for the suggestion.

15. Is it possible to have some revision to main stat essences? So that they might be brought into line with the new stat progressions.

(Main stat essences are currently the most UNUSED essences (Except for Vitality) due to your recent changes surround stat/mastery contributions. You would have to slot the equivalent of 6-7 main stat essences to gain the same mastery contribution as a mastery essence).

Thank you for the suggestion.

16. Are there plans to revisit blue hunter?

(The most-recent changes make the line feel very clunky. Hunters have since reverted to red line. Can yellow-line hunters ever expect to see any changes, many claim the line is currently broken).

See 12.

17. QoL change – is it possible to allow Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerments to stack beyond 10 (Preferably to 100), and also so that we can apply more than 1 at a time to our legacies?

This has come up quite a bit. Hopefully we can do this someday.

18. Are you going to introduce a new Level 120 PvMP Audacity Armour set, essence-based or otherwise?

Unknown at this time. Maybe, maybe not.

19. Can we ever look to expect a new Monster-Player class? Perhaps a Merrevail / Angmarim / Goblin type class?

At this time we do not have plans to release a new Monster Player class.

20. Can we expect any further upcoming changes to PvMP? Especially of note with regards to War-Leaders healing / buffs, which are somewhat significantly underpowered.

Yes, we will continue to work on PvMP when we can.

21. Is there a plan to ever implement a new hobby alongside fishing?

This comes up quite a bit on the team side as well, but so far we have not had the time to make it a reality.

22. Where are we headed after Ered Mithrin? Towards Gundabad? Or are we finally going to deal with Shelob and what remains in Minas Morgul?

We will have more information about our future plans (hopefully) relatively soon with a new Producer's letter.

23. Legendary item passives did not scale with Mordor, such as on 2-handed weapons, nor did stat legacies - will we ever see a revision to these?

Not sure. If I hear more, I will let you know.

24. There is also no current way to acquire non-character bound legacy replacement scrolls other than by running Throne of the Dread Terror (Lv105). Can we please have a new way to acquire them?

Thank you for the suggestion.

25. The amount of materials required to craft current level 120 gear is also relatively high – any revisions to this?

Thank you for your feedback.

26. Can you please review the loot tables associated with lootboxes? Currently things like ‘Token of overcoming setback’ are being rewarded, which removes dread from defeat, which has not existed for years.

That does sound like something we should look at.

27. Will there be any more upcoming changes to minstrels to address several of the bugs created with the most recent balance pass?

See 12.

28. Any plans to address the length of the trash pulls in the tier 3 instances?

(Preferably reduced mob morale but make them more difficult, currently they are seen as too much of a time-sink).

I have not heard of plans to do this.

29. The current binding status on loot from the new instances, (If you are online when the 1hr fellowship trade timer expires OR put an essence in it, the item becomes bound to account. If you miss the timer or log off – it becomes bound to character?) is this WAI?

This is under investigation.

30. In one of the recent updates, you reduced the ilevel on scaling instances loot from ilevel 360 to 355, what was the reasoning behind this?

(Are there any planned changes to the essence system we are slowly creeping back to the way the system was under throne with full focus on essences and less focus on actual gear stats (mostly because of the recent main stat changes). In short – is essence gear ‘always’ going to be BiS?).

Again, my speculation is that this is part of our wider balancing work, but if I hear more, I will pass it along.

31. Can we have a more reliable method of acquiring the lower tier of essences which DOESN’T require 2000/4000 embers, random mob drops, or loot drop from instance chests?

Thank you for the suggestion.

[Olebenny]

1. Is it supposed to be WAI that you can only run the most difficult / challenging instances (tier3) once per week and be ‘rewarded’ for it?

(I don’t want to sit here and argue over favoured/unfavoured loot pulls, I think I speak on behalf of all the community when we agree this is a bad system and a LOT worse than what we had under the daily locks in Mordor. It is also very much a slap in the face given how hard we worked on the Bullroarer forums to persuade you to remove daily locks – to instead theoretically be given weekly locks).

It is possible to run the most difficult and challenging instances more than once per week and be rewarded for it.

Yes you are right, but the rewards in unfavoured loot pulls are rather non-existant. You answer is 100% accurate but in practicality the unfavoured pulls are a waste of time and rarely ever reward any loot at all. For example, last night I did a TG T3 with my kin and 2 of us had unfavoured while the other 4 had favoured. On boss 2 and 3 all 4 of the favoured pulls got a teal jewel piece, boss 1 saw 2 drop and boss 4 saw 3 chests drop for them. I and the other guy with unfavoured got nothing, no Emp Scroll, no purple gear, no teal gear. Absolutely nothing.

Is this an outlier? Sure as hell is not. This happens all the time. Ill run multiple TG T3's a week with my kin and in the several unfavoured that I do, I might get 1 piece of jewellery total out of 3-4unfavoured runs. Emps never drop for me with unfavoured and maybe only 1 purple piece as well.

This is the issue with the loot system and the SSG team's response to it, we say its bad, you say it isnt and then point to the unfavoured pulls as the reason why it is not bad 'Oh you can still run them for loot tho!' yeah right. Bring back daily locks

[Macdui]

Well that was a surprise.

I read through it looking for my point to do with the woeful crafting to then find it had been removed in editing the question list. I'd hazard a guess to the reply, the same thanks for YOUR opinion.

See 12 doesn't quite encapsulate the difference between some engineers able to jump on obvious issues immediately and others being seemingly oblivious to issues for years.

I was hoping for a bibliography of contributors but perhaps none were sought. But who cold he listen to? Many a time he's been steered wrong.

I'm left with a feeling of a "nothing to see here" response gazing into the distance, when the street shows the utter carnage of a bloodbath.

"No": It's amazing what you can read between the letters. I had to delete those thoughts, the last knuckle slap was too recent.

It must be tough when you have fans "who just love everything you do" to take that leap that everything might not be tickety-boo.

Props for having a slab at it though.


Mac