Ethelros

Determined Defense of Helm’s Deep – Massively article(Updated)

We finally have some huge info on our upcoming xpac! Coming from Massively, the article discusses what will be coming, a look at the new trait trees, Big Battles and an overview on the storyline of the region to come.

Firstly, here is a specific list of what we will be getting:

5 new zones; Eastfold, Westfold, Broadacres, Kingstead and Stonedeans(yes, deans).
300 quests; lower than revamped Moria(~350), Isengard(~375) or East Rohan(~400)
3 new Epic Books(same as East Rohan)
10 level jump(obvious)
new crafting tier(again, obvious)
Big Battles system
Class revamps

Story

Turbine will be making an effort to further intertwine the overworld story with the Epic, presumably in a similar way they did with Wildermore. There will be more interaction with major lore characters, notably Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf and Theoden.

It is confirmed that we will indeed be returning to the Fords of Isen, which has clearly not had a fun time since we were last there. I am not certain whether the landscape shown in the image is simply phased(would be a huge amount of phasing if so), or whether there will be two ‘versions’ of the Fords, ala Archet. Personally I hope for the former, but we shall see.

Trait Trees

At long last we have a visual of the mysterious trait trees! Shown in the image above is an early version of the Lore-master’s trees. The three lines appear to be the same themes as on Live, Keeper of Animals is the pet line, Master of Nature’s Fury for DPS, and Ancient Master for debuffs and CC. Only two of the icons are recognisable to me, the two top ones in the KoA line are current used for the defensive and offensive pet buff skills. It would seem they work at least kind of similarly to SWTOR’s, where you can tier up the respective abilities.

It is interesting to note that the character was able to reach the bottom of the tree and get the capstone skill without having to invest fully into it(some of the abilities are not maxed out and there are leftover points remaining). Naturally this is still early in the design process, but since we will be getting a point every other level, that would mean you should have more than 40 points to spend at level cap. Whether the character is not yet at 95, or if you stop getting points at some level, I cannot say.

We are also given an example of a brand new capstone skill, presumably replacing the Bog-guardian; Sic ‘Em! This skill unleashes all of your pets on the target, presumably doing some heavy damage. That sounds incredibly awesome to me.

Personally this makes me quite excited for the new system, as hopefully it will make being a pet centric class more viable than it currently is(not).

Big Battles

We also got a bunch of details about the Big Battles system, the important ones I have bulleted here:

We will be fighting at the Dyke and Glittering Caves, among other places.
There will be three possible roles for the participants in the battle;
- Vanguard, who focuses on direct combat
- Engineer, who fires the siege weapons and takes care of various non-combat tasks
- Officer, who gives orders(to NPC Defenders?)

What I found notable about this is that two of those roles appear to lack a direct fight with the enemy. Perhaps this is what the upscaled characters could be assigned to do, considering their lower effectiveness in combat? This could work out great, and avoid the complaints from level capped players.

Overall this article has made me very hyped for the new expansion, and according to the footnote we should expect a whole bunch of new info in the form of Dev Diaries and other methods coming down the pipe in the following months.

Update: The LOTRO Twitter feed just posted a different version of the trait tree image shown in the article. Here it is:

http://ow.ly/i/3337W/original

Something *very* interesting to me here is the ‘tree’ on the far left. I am not quite sure what it is, but most of the traits seem to be pet oriented.

Pet Menagerie – The Bog-guardian

And after an incredibly long break; we’re back again! The second to last installment of Pet Menagerie is here, and this time we’re examining the walking moss heap, the Bog-guardian. Of particular note for this article to determining, similar to the Eagle, whether the requirements to use this pet are worth it. The answer may surprise you.

Or it may not.

Either way, let’s begin.

Skills

The first skill given to the Bog Guardian is Angry Bees. This skill does a bit of up front damage, and then an even smaller damage over time, ticking every 2 seconds for 10 seconds, with a 30 second cooldown. Although it does have an admittedly cool animation, that’s pretty much the only good thing about it. The damage output is pathetic, really. Leave it on autofire unless you want to be careful about breaking CC.

The second skill is called Root Strike. This ability does a little damage, but more importantly it hits the target with a +5% Incoming Ranged Crit chance debuff, lasting 30 seconds, with a 30 second cooldown. This one has its uses, obviously if you’re running with a Hunter pal, but also because the Bog-guardian’s primary damage dealing comes from range. It is unfortunate that it only increases the crit chance of ranged skills, but beggars can’t be choosers, and it’s okay considering you can keep it up almost continuously.

The third and final skill learned by Bog-guardians is Bursting Root. The effect is quite simple. It does a bit of up front damage and has a 20% chance of setting off a Fellowship Manoeuvre. Nifty when solo, as those types of stuns override normal stuns present on the target(but does not punch through the immunity), but especially helpful in group content. This one does have a 1 minute cooldown however, so don’t count on it happening too often.

The Stats

As I indicated above, the Bog-guardian’s DPS is very disappointing, specifically because by having to trait 5 blue to actually use it, you lose a ton of DPS yourself. It does come out at the top half of the pet damage scale, but this is including the various pet buffing traits and set bonuses that come with the 5 blue, so if you insist on going blue line, you’re actually better off with the Lynx or Bear if you want your pet to do damage.

On the upside though, is Flanking. And oh boy, does this guy have it. Exactly how good is dependent on whether he is attacking at range or melee, but in either case the Bog-guardian is almost unrivalled. The sole challenger to his title is the Eagle, and even then only when the Bog-guardian is at range, where he flanks slightly less often.

The Verdict

And here we are. Is the Bog-guardian worth the restricted trait options? Well… no. Not at all. Not even close.

Considering a large chunk of the blue traits are for buffing your pets(who suck stat-wise as a base, so the increase is very little), and the rest are group focused, using him solo is not recommended. If you want to have the high flank rate, I suggest using the Eagle, as it only takes up one Legendary slot, and you’re free to blow stuff up with the red line. While the blue line may have once been considered the ‘survivability build’, that was less viable after the pets stopped scaling, and became utterly redundant with the addition of Water-Lore. While he may have some okay group utility, it is far overshadowed by having to waste precious trait slots just getting to 5 blue.

My advice? At this point in time, don’t use it, or the blue line beyond the healing oriented ones, for that matter. The sacrifices you make just aren’t worth the benefits, period.

The final edition of Pet Menagerie will be coming up soon(hopefully with less of a delay than this article), featuring everyone’s favourite lightbulb, the Spirit of Nature!

Helm’s Deep Leaked Maps?(Updated)

If you don’t wish to be spoiled, LOOK AWAY NOW!

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So some of you may be aware of what appear to be a leaked set of maps for the upcoming Helm’s Deep expansion. Currently viewable over on Contains Moderate Peril(linked here: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/helms-deep-map/), the maps are in various states of ‘TBD’.

After taking a look at these maps, I decided to use what would appear to be the main map for the Westemnet(where we shall be going) and edit in various points of interest, as well as the names for the various regions. However, this does require me to make some very important clarifications.

Firstly, these are by no means confirmed by Turbine. They *could* be complete fabrications, although I very much doubt that is the case.

Second, even if they are legit, they are very obviously not complete, and therefore may well see some very major changes before they go live.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the labels for the third image were added in Microsoft Paint.

By me.

So yeah.

The more ‘complete’ looking maps:

The partially done ‘main map’, with labels added by myself in white:

Let me know what you guys think!

Amendment: So it turns out somebody managed to get hold of a similar TBD image of the East Rohan map, and merged it with my edited version shown above. It gives a good idea of the size of the zone to come.

Monster Menagerie – The Wight

Hello and welcome! This is going to be a brand new series of articles, done in a similar way to my Pet ones, but focusing more on the fearsome critters, beasties and other assorted monstrosities you may find and confront in your travels through Middle-earth. Of particular note will be the various abilities each creature can have and use against you.

To begin, I decided to go with an enemy we face all too often in these bleak days – The wight. To be specific, I will look at each of the different forms a wight can take, and what tactics they have at their disposal.

Note: These names are completely unofficial, completely inappropriate for the lore, and completely hilarious(at least to me).

The ‘Belcher’

http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q674/Tillion_Magnet/cb587dd5-f6ba-45de-ba40-d323cc65831d_zpsf8b05c7d.jpg

This first brand of Wight is in my opinion the most annoying, and also one of the toughest you encounter. This guy has two big skills that make him easily noticeable amongst his brethren. The first is his namesake, called Diseased Roar in the combat log. This skill does moderate damage to you and inflicts you with Diseased Frailty, a debuff that reduces your maximum vitality by hefty amount for a upwards of five minutes(the amount of vitality and duration of the debuff vary depending on the level of the mob).

THIS THING USED TO ANNOY THE HECK OUTTA ME. While it is easy to tell when he’s going to use it(there’s an audio cue and he will lean backwards to yell at you) there is no induction to interrupt him with, and the range of the thing is quite large so there’s no backing out of it either. Way back when, these stat debuffs used to not get removed after leaving combat for a few seconds, so if you didn’t have a way of removing it you were stuck with a crippled Morale pool and Morale regen.

http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q674/Tillion_Magnet/dc59b49f-10df-4c8c-9cf8-46210ade2cd2_zpse73e7d2d.jpg

His second iconic skill is known as Virulent Disease in the combat log, although I like to refer to it as the ‘Screw you from beyond the Void’ skill. This ability triggers when the Belcher dies, and consists of an effect ‘patch’. For as long as you are standing in it, your Power will be constantly drained, and there will be a strong chance for you to receive an additional debuff called Diseased Feebleness. This one works similarly to Frailty, except it reduces your Might AND Agility. Not as dangerous an effect in my humble opinion, but still something you want to look out for.

A final note on this guy, he does posses the same Shadow Aura ability as all other wights, which will hit you with Shadow damage while in the vicinity of the wight.

The ‘Sumo Wrestler’

http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q674/Tillion_Magnet/ae3258f5-6a5a-4ceb-8b03-6c313f3cb4fa_zpsc888f080.jpg

This next one is also quite irritating to fight, especially if you don’t happen to posses good burst DPS. The signature move of this guy triggers when the wight’s Morale drops to a certain point(my experience suggests that it happens around 50% and lower). What will happen is that every so often he will do an animation as if he’s going to throw up and he will ‘throw up’ a swarm level worm. He can and will do this multiple times, and each time he does it will cost him a little of his Morale.

Yes, he can in fact kill himself by using this ability too much, and I have seen it happen often when you don’t make sure to kill him off completely. By the time he died he had summoned about four of the things, and at low levels when your gear isn’t so great, that many mobs hitting you can be quite perilous. If you see a Sumo at low Morale, be sure to finish him off or you’ll have a swarm on you before you realise what’s going on.

Once again, this guy has Shadow Aura.

The ‘Skeleton Crew’

http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q674/Tillion_Magnet/8e1a3944-37f6-4cd8-b5a2-4c6adf0bb06b_zps8ad414e8.jpg

http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q674/Tillion_Magnet/9af53c5e-7c7a-43c9-a60c-8b0c37e0aa09_zps7eeaead8.jpg

http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q674/Tillion_Magnet/720f871f-ae6f-4548-9652-b3ad29596592_zpsdcd1af07.jpg

I grouped these because none of them appear to have any unique abilities of note. Aside from their types of attacks(the top is Ranged and the bottom Melee) they are identical. These also have the Shadow Aura effect. These are the common forms of wight you will encounter, and are generally the weakest. The very bottom Wight is on average the toughest type of wight you can encounter. They are usually signature or above, and they have the same abilities as the Belcher.

Conclusion and Notes

Be aware that these are only rough groupings. The Devs have on occasion given abilities to types of wights that normally do not possess them.

I know there are wights with unique abilities inside instances like Great Barrows, but because they are not regularly encountered on the landscape they will not be covered here.

As always, please comment if you have any corrections or suggestions for something I may have overlooked. Thanks for reading!

Pet Menagerie – The Eagle

eagle

Aaand we’re back! Out of the cold, barren, desolate wasteland that is the Sabertooth’s skillset*, and into the bright, warm, soothing glow of the Eagle. The big thing we will be talking about in this edition is this; Is the Eagle worth the legendary trait slot it takes up? To begin, let’s take a look at the Eagle’s abilities.

Skills

The first skill available to the Eagle is Fan the Flames. How it works is that when used on a target that has at least one Burning Embers DOT on it, it will remove all of them and apply a fifteen second fear. Fan the Flames has a one minute and thirty second cooldown.

Now until the writing of this article I personally had not made much use of this skill. Having played around with it some though, I can conclude that it has a huge amount of potential. As dodgy as fears can be(what with the mob running off and bring a bunch of his friends back with him), having that extra bit of CC in reserve is a huge benefit, particularly since it is not affected by the period of immunity caused by stuns.

On a additional note, it may be quite useful in the Ettenmoors, as fears have their own category of diminishing returns along with the fact that a good amount of creeps will not be carrying fear pots due to the only method of buying them being with Commendations. It could be a very nasty surprise for those not familiar with the Lore-Master, getting feared would be most unexpected. Naturally this skill cannot be set on autofire, you must activate it yourself.

The second skill the Eagle gets is Beak Rend. Unfortunately this one is rather lackluster in comparison to the first. It’s on the same cooldown, but is instead an AOE damage skill that also heals the pet for each target it hits, up to three. Not very enthralling when you consider that the LM can easily heal the eagle themselves if they get low, on top of the flank heals that you should be getting continuously. Overall, not very good. Leave on autofire or don’t, either way there isn’t much benefit from it.

The third and final skill is probably the one the Eagle is most famous for, Sacrifice. This is a very nifty ability. What it does is, upon its master being defeated, the Eagle will sacrifice itself(hence the name) and allow you to be revived where you fell. This is *amazing* for when you die in a hard to reach quest objective, far from a rez circle. This even works in the Moors, meaning that you get a second chance to bring down the enemy that defeated you.

However, there are requirements to get this skill to fire off correctly. Firstly, the Eagle itself must be in combat otherwise it won’t do anything. Second, the Eagle must be within 40m of your crumpled, humiliated body. Last, getting revived this way places an effect on you that prevents you from getting Eagle-vived again for a whole ten minutes, so it cannot be used continuously. It is advisable to leave this on autofire, because why the heck wouldn’t you?

Aside from its skills, the Eagle also has an aura similar to the Raven, Nobility, that provides a small(+120 at level cap) boost to your In-combat Power Regen. With the changes to how Power works, this is less enticing than it used to be. Still, a buff is a buff, and it applies to your entire group as well.

The Stats

Enough of the fancy pants skills, how is the Eagle on a statistical level? Well, in terms of damage it’s not great. Coming in near the bottom of the pack, it’s higher than the Raven and slightly lower than the Sabertooth. When taking damage in return it’s tougher than the Raven and Sabertooth, and just below the Bog-Lurker. This is somewhat offset by the Eagle’s higher than normal Morale pool, however(fully buffed it tops out at 16k).

But where the Eagle really excels is in its flank rate. It comes out as either the highest or second highest, depending on where the Bog Lurker is at range or in melee. From a personal point of view I would say it is definitely more reliable as a source of flanks. You should expect a flank around every fifteen seconds, give or take a few.

The Verdict

And so we come to the end, and we answer the original question; is the Eagle worth the trait slot? Well, I would say it depends heavily on how you trait. With some wrangling, you can make space for it without giving up too much(I will talk about this in a future article). If it’s flanks you want, then I definitely suggest it, as it’s less painful to get than the Lurker, and is far and above the Raven. The fear ability is quite nifty and for those who tend to die a lot the rez may be a very good time saver in the long run.

Where I would recommend using it is for single boss mobs especially, where the flanks will be pivotal and a better option for survivability than the bear or raven. As mentioned earlier it could be good for the Moors, provided you can make up for the Tact Mit you lose by not having the Raven out.

In short, yes. Maybe. Sort of. Kinda. Possibly.

Isn’t that a cop out answer, I hear you ask? Well…

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Bog Lurker next!

*I read you guys’ points on the Sabertooth, by the way. You made some good arguments, but I still can’t see myself using it much, if at all. Besides, it’s so much fun verbally abusing the thing. It’s like the Baldrick of LOTRO.