A venture into figuring out what lotroplayers play. Instead of going by the largest forum post or the most asked question in Cordovans stream I started collecting numbers about what level, class, race etc are online at a given time. And perhaps find out some interesting facts or answer questions such as “are captains as OP?” or “I always quit when I reach Rohan or level 100”.
Number source
All numbers are acquired by using the fellowing panel ingame. These numbers will show the sum total of all non-anonymous players online on the server Evernight around 20-21 Cet (EU primetime) or weekend afternoons around 12-13 Cet. Total entries make them reasonably accurate up to a few % difference.
For full numbers you can view https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_pLXJA0fvn3DaphoIn_JAsnJ4u9ZL2-ppVgA55IuViA/edit?usp=sharing
Weekday evening numbers
An evernight evening usually involves around 1000 to 1200 people online. With for EU server a larger raiding scene then other servers. About 40-45% of all online players are active in the level ranges of Minas Morgul.
Weekend numbers
On a weekend afternoon there are about 800 players online which isn’t that much lower then a prime-time evening. However what is surprising is the larger number of people playing mid-level characters. Level 50-119 takes up a decent chunk of players at the cost of 120+. The number or level 50- is about the same.
Class ranges bullet points
- Hunter and champions take up 45% of all online characters
- Beornings, burglars and wardens are the least played
- “Good” high level classes such as wardens and captains have more 120+ online compared to other classes.
- Guardians are the only class the has a large drop in 130’s. But a lot of leveling 50+ compared to others. There is merit to saying 130 guards are less desired at this moment.
- Other favoured leveling classes are runekeeper and loremaster.
Detailed level ranges
For a more zoomed in look at what level ranges people are playing. Stuck to level ranges of about 10 to get a reasonable number of entries.
It starts high as expected and mildly tapers towards level 60. Then a continuous dip in the level 70-100. With an uptick for level 100 to 129. I wouldn’t say that the dip is Rohan being avoided. Neither is there a clear sign of people quitting their characters at level 95 for Epic battles, level 100 for Imbued weapons or essences. What is surprising to me is the overall spread across all levels.
Leveling vs Max level
How many people are playing their max level character vs a lower level character? A zoomed in look at 1-129 vs 130. The results are 35% are 130 and 45% on evenings. Not that much difference compared to the class ranges.
Did the start of Ill-Omen skirmishes drive a lot of people to play their max level characters on the 1st evening? It was 47% on a friday and 43% the 11th of february.
Favourite class
For a 1-time experiment I manually ran through some class and race combinations. Checking up if the “best race” is visible in the numbers.
These numbers come from level 30-130. To emphasize on “regularly played” characters.
- Even for a premium race there is no love for stout-axes. High-elfs are relatively low for Guardian, Loremaster and Captain. But average among Hunters and champions. And top for Wardens.
- Man is at the top for every class.
- Fantasy tropes are really visible among Elf-hunters, Hobbit burglars, Dwarf Guardian and man champion.
- Odd combinations are there and low on the numbers. Dwarf hunter, hobbit guardian, Dwarf minstrel or hobbit warden.
Grouping up per class and level
What’s your chance to find a group and/or do people group up? Is it hard to find a group for whatever reason on lower levels?
*These numbers come from 1 check on a weekend afternoon (no raid time)
It’s clear that players in lotro group up a lot more at level 130 then other level ranges. It’s expected for them to find full size groups for instances, but these numbers are based on any 2+ sized group.
Total grouping
Burglars are less likely to group up on average. Same goes with guardian and loremasters to a lesser extent in both level ranges. Especially the guardians are surprising to me. Dps classes such as hunter, runekeeper and champions are above average to team up. The odd one out is captains, above average being far the most grouped up.
Difference in level range grouping
Beorning roams solo, but shoots to a top grouper at level 130. Same as with wardens. With Runekeepers dipping slightly below average on 130. If this is a clue to their state of grouping is hard to say without diving deeper.
Loremasters go from slightly below to average with minstrels going the opposite way.
Closing remarks
While there might be more conclusion to be drawn all these numbers are from 1 server over 1 week of lotro. Might be interesting to see how these change over time. Details such as how many of the 130’s are in a raid would be needed to support claims that guardians really bad atm. There are twice as many captains as guardians. But then again a guard has 1 spot for tanking and cappies have 2 spots with either tank or red captain. And were there more guardians at other times when guardians were in a “good place”?
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Guardians are a broken tank class at the moment 🙁 Prob why fewer play it
How are Guardians broken exactly?
What’s wrong with Guardians?
In simplest terms, the latest raids and dungeons have been designed in such a way that the most important stat for tanks by a huge margin is their maximum morale. Captains excel at having a ton of morale. Meanwhile, Guardians get their survivability from their block/parry/evade stats, which are currently very weak stats in the latest content and end up giving them much lower survivability than Captains.
Guardians can still tank, but they have to work much harder, as do their healers. And even then, with maximum effort, they still fall very short compared to Captains.
Exactly. And also Guardian are good just for tanking. So “classic” playing is reeeealy boring(Red guardian is totally useless and weak.), and takes lot of time.. And who want in raid red guardian as dps for getting a gear? Because without a gear guardian is not able to tank it.