LOTRO changes I'd love to see in 2017

In the beginning of the year, I wrote a post called SWTOR changes I'd love to see in 2017. What about the other MMO I play, though, Lord of the Rings Online? At first I decided against writing such a post, because I am sure (contrary to SWTOR) none of my suggestions would see the light of day and that's a depressing thought. But then I read LOTRO Legendarium: My LOTRO wishlist for 2017 on Massively OP and it was so radically different from my own list that I decided to go with it after all.

The Massively OP article suggests some nice quality of life changes, such as a virtue and currency overhaul, that would make life easier for the everyday player. Some proposals will definitely be addressed this year: Standing Stone Games has already revealed that the developers are discussing where to go with the story after Mordor, claiming it's a new beginning for player characters rather than an ending. We also know that player character models will get attention (hopefully with new hairstyles becoming available). However, no pressing gameplay matters were addressed.

In this article, I will feature things I'd love to see changed in LOTRO that are of vital importance to me as an endgame group player. I'm going to keep it simple and restrict myself to three. You are warned: they are absolutely unsexy and not easy to sell to the playerbase (as in "hey guys, look what we're working on now!") - hence I'm not believing they'll ever happen. However, I cannot overstate the impact these three changes would make.

1) Class balance

Balancing the combat output of classes is a challenge for every MMO, but even more so for LOTRO than others. Increasing levels and stats (especially the introduction of legendary items) have more effect on some classes than others, magnifying class imbalances over time. A recent example (2016) is the difference in sustained DPS between the best (rune-keeper) and the worst (hunter) performing DPS class at the time: ~50% (!). For the most of 2016, one rune-keeper dealt as much damage as two hunters together - guess which class had a hard time getting in tier 2 groups. This was eventually fixed by buffing the hunter's overall raw damage output rather than looking at the underlying problem. As a result, it is now (2017) best to spam a single skill (barrage) as a hunter, with a lore-master feeding you power. There is no use trying to do a rotation, as you will just be performing worse. When leveling up a hunter you will one shot everything because the class is so strong. After the buff, the roles are reversed: hunters now deal more than double the DPS of the second highest damage dealer (rune-keepers), and they do so by just using one skill! This is honestly the worst class balance I've ever seen in an MMO.

LOTRO desperately needs a competent developer that is familiar with all classes to look at the base formulae and adapt them so all profit from the steep power creep (caused by legacies, imbued items, essence gear etc.) equally, or class imbalance will only get worse when new levels and gear are introduced.

2) Reduced barrier of entry

LOTRO is a great game for the casual Tolkien fan who likes to explore Middle-earth. However, it is less so for new players that want to participate in endgame. Through time, so many systems have been introduced that the learning curve is sky high. Even if players are persistent enough to grasp the legendary item system, the imbued item system and the essence system, a huge grind awaits them before they are able to head into the latest tier 2 raid. In this age, the young high school students that could pump so much time into their games have grown up. They have jobs and kids; they don't have that much time to invest anymore, especially not since there are so many other games out there that you can easily hop in and out of to get a comparable experience. I get it, grind is an efficient tool to keep people playing, and it works for some, but it is also a great tool to keep people from playing. I still play together with the friends I made in LOTRO: a team of highly skilled players that conquered many server first titles back in the day. All these people love the game to bits: it's their first MMO and they would love nothing more than to get back raiding, but they simply don't have the time or will to get into it. The recent constant release of new gear levels is another factor that makes gearing up feel like a huge treadmill and puts players off from participating. If the barrier of entry would be lowered by reducing the grind (not skill level, flower picking is something that puts skilled individuals off rather than on), the new raid would get the audience it deserves.

3) Correct instance scaling

The power creep between level 1 and 105 is not linear; it takes jumps at certain levels (those at which new expansions were released), for instance with the introduction of legendary items and imbued LI's. However, instance scaling is done linearly: it does not take power creep in regard at all. Hence we have ended up in a situation where old instances that are leveled up to new level caps are ludicrously easy (e.g. Tomb of Elendil), whereas instances that have been scaled down to lower levels are virtually impossible to beat. For example, Fornost tier 2 on level 30 is harder than a tier 2 raid on level of release. The damage dealt by mobs is way out of line with what characters of low levels (restricted by both stats of gear and defensive skills & trait points) are capable of dealing with. The tier 2 scaling system that is in the game now is based on stats of essence geared characters, while the 95 levels of characters not having access to min maxing stats with essences is completely disregarded. In effect, I avoid playing scaled instances altogether, even those that I used to love, because the experience does not even come close to the original.

If you're not extremely well versed in LOTRO's combat and scaling system, it's hard to predict what experience you're signing up for when entering a scaled instance; in most cases, it will be a disappointing one. This is a great shame, because LOTRO has many high quality instances that I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on. Rescaling these instances so they properly take into account the available stats, damage/healing output and abilities of characters at various levels would make them shine again.

Conclusion

LOTRO is a beautiful game with amazing group content, even ten years after release. However, core elements have been neglected that prevent it from reaching its full potential for group play. You can add as many cool new features as you like, but if the base mechanics of a game are inherently broken, this will ruin the rest of the game. I believe LOTRO deserves better and can, also gameplay wise, again be the star quality game it once was. So, without getting my hopes up, this was it: my three deepest wishes to make LOTRO my most beloved MMO ever again.


Many thanks go to Conrad for his extensive testing of instance scaling and insights into class balance and power creep.