Many of the classes in Lord of the Rings online are going through some changes, as mentioned both in the forums, and in the Beta Players Journals released a few weeks ago. One of the classes that is going through a drastic change is the captain class. This class is having it’s Class Traits re-worked to make each of the three options viable in game, and is having a pretty significant change to Standards.

Ken “Graalx2″ Burd wrote a great Dev Diary about these upcoming changes, mentioning all of these changes, and summarizing the reasons for theses changes.

Standards are currently a 10% bonus to Moral and Melee offence, with some specific Standards giving specific bonuses. With the launch of Volume 3 Book 2, the Standards will be changed to a flat amount, as you can see below.

While I can see, as Graalx2 mentions in his diary, how some Captains could see this as a nerf, I agree with his reasoning that the change was needed for continued balance of the game. If the bonuses where kept as a percentage, then as players became more and more powerful, both through gear and through leveling, then these bonuses would become more than they where intended to be.

The Captain’s Class Traits also got a look, and they are being changed in quite drastic ways. Graalx2 mentions that most captains rarely traited into anything other than Hands of Healing. The are moving some of the traits to different lines, and also changing some of the bonuses to Leader of Men and Lead the Charge.

Leader of Men

  • Two Trait Bonus – Retains the removal of the cooldown for all Mark skills. The same as before.
  • Three Trait Bonus – This becomes the 10% chance for “Kick” to initiate a Fellowship Maneuver. This is the same as the previous 4 trait set bonus.
  • Four Trait Bonus – Makes “Grave Wound” a Force Taunt. This is the same as the previous Four Trait set bonus from “Lead the Charge.”

Lead the Charge

  • Two Trait Bonus – +15% Critical Magnitude. Same as before.
  • Three Trait Bonus – +5% reduction in Melee skill power costs. Same as before.
  • Four Trait Bonus – +5% increased chance to critical with a Melee skill. Note that is +5%, not an increase to the critical ratings so it will go over the cap.+

He goes into some great detail in the diary, but in the end, what it comes down to is that it looks like each of the three trait lines will be viable for players, which I think is important. The more choice that you give to player, the more variaty you have, and the more likely a player is likely to find a build that fits their play style, rather than having to change their play style to fit the only viable build. By having the traits lines be the way that they where, most players tended to go with Hands of Healing, as it was the best build for the class. Hopefully these changes will give players more flexibility in what they choose as traits for their Captains.

You can find the diary here. I’d say that it’s mandatory reading for all you Captains out there, as it outlines the major changes to you classes come September 8th.

See you in-game.