Today Turbine released a developer diary about the new instances coming with Update 16. Most of the information was not news but there was one thing that stood out:
“There will, of course, be rewards. The first thing you should know is that for these instances, we’re returning to group loot mode. We like the sense of, well, group it gives us. We like seeing what everyone’s got on their plate.”
The article continues on, talking about loot and chest specifics:
“Here’s what we’re serving up: Tier 1 chests hold a pile of armour, necklaces, and off-handers that should keep you in business in this region of the world. In Tier 2 chests you’ll find “picker boxes” of set-bonus equipment. We’ve given you options for a large number of slots in these so that there will be plenty of ways to shuffle things around to maximum effect. The brass ring, of course, lies in the Challenge chests, where you’ll acquire Morgul Crests that can be traded for blank items with five essence slots.”
This section of the diary ended with a vague message:
“We think you’ll want some of those–for the next good challenge coming up the road.”
Are you glad about the return to group loot mode? What do you think the ‘next good challenge’ means? Let us know in the comments below.
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I thought we left the group “roll/pass” for a reason – so that everyone would get something. That’s like saying, “We’re gonna take away auto-loot, because it was good when you had to pick stuff up.” If there is something needed in these chest that only one person will get, that sounds very much like a precursor to a RNG grind – the worst kind of them all. Hopefully, the items will not be BoA and can be traded or sold on the AH. However, it would be a good guess that they would go straight into the barter wallet.
On a similar vein, here we go with another kind of barter token and more essence grind. Passed on the essences the first go around – as the new zone will be lvl 100, will pass again.
They will be BoA and only one per challenge chest. Each piece of armour will take 20 crests. So let the new grind begin. The good news is that they wont be flooding the AH with 5000g a piece crests. That’s 120 crests for a full set of armour.. good luck.
It really is quite excessive. Almost as excessive as the marks cost for scrolls of empowerment. Whats the running total for marks to max out an imbued but pre maxed out LI ? over 500K?
Group loot doesn’t bother me one way or another, I’m more annoyed that 5 essence pieces are now locked again behind T2C.
Then again I don’t do max level stuff much at the moment in Lotro and don’t plan to do so any time soon so no skin of my back I guess.
Locked again behind T2C only I meant to say.
The thing is, the current set of essence gear available in DA should still be viable once this 5 slot essence stuff is released, so even if you don’t have the DA set and don’t want to bother with the new grind, you should still be able to do the DA grind just fine.
That is very true. The Dol Amroth set as 4 essence slots and a boost to your main stat of +119. The new armor has 5 essence slots, but no innate boost at all.
Comparing +119 to a Supreme essence (for stats, it is +139/+17), the difference is only +20 to the main, and +17 to the other, which is usually not very good. The entire 6 piece armor set, given full Supreme essence armor, will only be about +220 stat-wise over the Dol Amroth armor.
GIven the effort to earn 6 more Supreme essences and earn the armor… 🙂
Essence removal scroll now in skirm camp though
As things stand now, there are Challenges (notably the T2C Challenge in the Sword Halls) that require a minor miracle to successfully complete with a Burglar in the group. And, if you do find a way, it says far more about the quality of the other two involved.
With the coming changes and Imbuement, there are multiple Champion legacies that, singularly, will be more powerful than the best seven legacies a Burglar can put on their items.
With two skills, a Champion will soon be able to tear 7,100 mitigation from up to 10 foes at once, increasing all damage done to these foes by ~25%. The Burglar’s Reveal Weakness skill will cap at 14%, but only in a trait line that cuts their own damage by around 80%. After mitigations, the Reveal Weakness benefit will fall to around 5-10%.
Currently, Champions can stay in their DPS lines, while also providing comparable defensive debuffs to Burglars in the Burglar trait line devoted to such things, and do so to 10 foes at a time rather than just one.
If the goal is to make these instances challenging and ‘hard’ for Champions, will they even be possible with a Burglar in the group?
Don’t worry they’ll get cold feet soon enough and nerf champs even more. Don’t be surprised it you see new champs running around with nerf bats for weapons.