Lore-Master
Early Patch Notes are Revealed!
Oct 30th
So, earlier this afternoon, Turbine showed us the November patch notes. I must remind everyone that these are still temporary and may change before the November release.
The notes are located in the lotro forums, so click here to read them.
There will also be a Developer Diary in the coming weeks explaining the Lore-master changes.
In the meantime, I’ll just paste the Lore-master related notes:
Lore-master & Minstrel Fellowship Manoeuvre changes
Lore-masters and Minstrels will now use the tactical versions of the “Ent’s Strength” and “Spider’s Guile” fellowship skills instead of the melee versions, just like Rune-keepers. This means that any time a Fellowship Manoeuvre is triggered, Minstrels and Lore-masters will no longer need to be in melee range to contribute.
Skills/Classes
General
- Lore-masters and Captains now have a new skill on their Companion’s skill bar immediately to the left of their active skills. This new skill, “Return to Master” for Lore-master and “Rally” for Captain, will summon an existing companion to the character’s location. It is not useable in combat and has a 5 second cooldown.
- Player Pets and Soldiers now get the benefit from the following
- Hunter skill “Find the Path”.
- Minstrel Tales.
- Rune-keeper “Rune of Restoration.”
- Captain’s Banners
- Lore-master’s Raven’s “Shield of the Raven’s Wing” and the Eagle’s “Nobility”.
Lore-Master changes on the way
Oct 25th
Hello everyone.
Yesterday, there was a very interesting post at the oficial LOTRO forums, by Sapience, when someone asked about the next patch contents:
Funny you should ask! There are a lot of great changes coming for the LM in the next update. Graalx2 and I were just discussing the dev diary this morning in fact. You’re going to have to wait a little bit to read it, but we both think LM’s are going to be really happy with the changes (and new skills!).
So now you know two things due in the next patch. Vault updates (you should see the Developer Diary for that on Thursday) and Lore-master changes (Dev Diary probably a couple weeks from now). I’ll even throw you a bone and let you know Rune-keepers will get some attention this update as well.
So, seems like the Lore-master is next in line after the last patch updates to the Hunter and Captain classes. There where already a few tidbits of information flowing out from the devs. This is what’s already planned:
- The diferent Lore-master pet appearances will be changed to a skill. So no more using necklaces for that appearance you love so much.
- Blinding Flash will have an interrupt component to the skill. So even if a creature is immune to mezzing (Bosses, for example) they can still be interrupted. But there is a catch: The regular Blinding Flash immunities will apply, meaning that the Dead and Creatures of Nature will still be immune to the interrupt.
- New pet food. I was digging around the Lorebook and found these little items: Cut of Lean Meat, Handful of Hearty Seeds and Bowl of Fresh Water. I would guess that they will work just like the Honey and Oats work on the Bear pet.
Let’s wait on the Dev Diary in a couple of weeks.
More news on the LM update
Oct 21st
Yesterday the Executive Producer for LOTRO, Kate “Nereid” Paiz addressed the players with an open letter. From that letter there are some news for us Lore-masters. The next update, that will bring the mentioned Lore-Master changes, is slated for aNovember launch! You can read the full letter here.
Also, the developer who’s in charge of the Lore-Master revision, Tim “Raskolnikov” Lang, has hinted a few more on the changes to the class. So, besides the changes i mentioned in my earlier post, it is suggested that the trait “Hardy Bear” could be changed to “Hardy Pet”, although that’s not confirmed there is a strong hint leading to that conclusion in the forums (check the bold letters).
Also, in the recent Warcry Dev Chat, Rask said:
Question: The class revamp month’s will we see buff’s to each class or nerf’s? for example currently I find my Minstrel lacking compared to the rune-keepers ability to keep the group healed for less power usage.
Raskolnikov Mostly buffs! I can’t speak to specific changes for the Minstrel (as we haven’t gotten to that class yet). But having made a lot of changes to the Lore-master, I can say that 90% of those changes have been buffs. Our goal is to polish each class, and nearly all of the time when we polish it’s by buffing a class (because nerfing stinks, even though it is sometimes necessary).
So, 90% are buffs… that leaves 10% for nerfs? This is what Rask answered:
We’re not nerfing Lore-masters because of Cold-bear.
We’re not nerfing “Master of the Staff”.
We’re not nerfing “Sword and Staff”.The only reason I’m not saying “We didn’t nerf anything,” is because I’m sure some people will perceive something as a nerf. “I can’t believe you nerfed ‘Knowledge of the Lore-master’ so that it can’t be used in combat anymore!”
That’s that mean the the Knowledge of the Lore-master skill will be made out of combat only? Or was that just an example? Let’s hope it’s the later, since i use that skill a lot when doing new dungeons.
Also, and maybe more important, there was a hint to new skills in an earlier Sapience post. Ever since the recent “skill upgrades” that came with levels 62 and 64 (which most Lore-masters found to be, at the very least, uninteresting), the forumites took that sentence with a grain of salt. Biggest concern was that the new Summoning Appearance Skills would be the new skills hinted and, as such, would not bring anything new to the Lore-master combat arsenal. This is what Rask had to say:
The “new skills” are not just the pet appearance skills.
Also, if you’re looking for more clues about what will be in the Dev Diary, just read through the “Tell the Community Team – Lore-master Feedback” thread. That’s where we got most of our ideas.
The “Tell the Community Team – Lore-master Feedback” thread is here, if you are interested. There are some good ideas there, so I’m hopeful.
As always, I’ll try to keep you posted if any more news come up.
One more thing. Yesterday i forgot to mention, but you can also follow the Staff-Strike’s posts at the Staff-Strike site.
Lore-Master Skill Level Changes
Sep 14th
As you know the new LOTRO patch launched on September 10th (or 8th for those players in the headstart). This new patch has brought some changes to the levels at which skills are acquired. These changes go all the way up to level 30. I’ve compiled a small chart with the skills that will change in levels:
There are some very welcome changes. Specially the Sign of Power: Wizardry and Raven-lore change, so now young lore-masters can start flanking at level 2! That will bring some much-needed survivability at the early levels. Some group skills moved to higher levels and damaging and healing skills moved down to lower levels.
Good news.
NDA lift – Lore-Master Changes & Addon
Aug 3rd
There are only a few changes coming to the LM class that I’ll mention briefly here, but I’d also like to talk about an add-on that is currently available in beta and will be open to users in live once F2P launches with .lua support.
Lore-Master, Master of Lore?
Jul 6th
I have been thinking a lot lately about the way our characters play us in games like this. “Wait, I think you meant to say that the other way around,” you may say. But no. I mean, how does it change our experience of the world to play a female Hobbit Guardian versus a male Elven Lore-Master? It may be the same person sitting in the chair on Earth, but it’s a completely different character in Middle-Earth.
So, what does it mean to be a Lore-master? More >
Let’s prepare to welcome the new LMs!
Jun 6th
Despite my angry post about the F2P changes coming to LOTRO, I do see positive aspects of this change. One of those is naturally the influx of new players the new system will inevitably bring. I must say I’m thrilled about the chance to help extend the Lore-Master community and embrace new rising-star LMs in the coming months.
We have a few months to prepare for this, so I’d like your guys’ input on how you think we at LOTRO Reporter can help, particularly here in the class columns. It’s been ages since I was a new player and the game experience has changed a great deal since then, so I need your help.
What do you think new players will most have questions about?
What is lacking here right now that you see a pressing need for?
What would you like to see more of in the future?
I apologize for not being more active the last few weeks. Real life came down hard and work was insane, but that is tapering off now and I’m excited to get things ready for the launch of F2P. Help me out! And as reward, enjoy this delightful comic set in Bree from KeenandGraev.com.
Lore-master Trailer
May 18th
Check out this terrific trailer showing the awesomeness of the Lore-master class!
The Lord of the Rings – Online “Loremaster Trailer” from EveNArtworkS on Vimeo.
[Lore-Master] The myth of LM healing
May 15th
Not a Lore-Master
When I first started playing the Lore-Master, I was under the impression that I would be able to do support healing. In my hopeful mind, this meant that I could do a sizeable amount of healing, even though I would never be asked to main heal a group for some place hard. I tend to think of myself as a good healer so I assumed that I’d be able to heal many things, just not the most difficult. This meant, I could both play a hybrid class and not fear that I would constantly pushed into a healing role.
The sad truth is, though, that I can’t heal for beans. I have a pathetic channeled self-heal, a 10-minute cd morale refresh, and a single-target heal, also on cooldown, a heal that crits max for 2k (1/4 of a tank’s health). Sure, I can support heal if by support, one means, basically do nothing except put a bandaid on a gaping wound that quickly gets soaked with blood.
This makes me sad. I think of the LM has a support class in general. We debuff to help the full dps, we CC to maintain order, and we give power to keep the fight going. Why don’t we give health as well? Even if it were a health drain mechanic, similar to power sharing, where we shared some morale to others. This would require another ability, namely to drain morale over time from mobs, but I would LOVE this.
Would it fit with the class? It seems that we should have some knowledge of enough lore to where we could sap the morale of others, if necessary. It sounds a little sneaky, but then we can drain power. Are not the two conceptually connected in some way?
I realize this would have the potential to make us even more a battery in raids, but I think I would like that. Right now, I take care of debuffs, I share power when necessary, though it doesn’t seem needed that much, not nearly as much as it used to. I cast my pathetic heal out once in awhile and it does help, don’t get me wrong, but it’s nowhere near as dependable or supportive as I would like.
Am I the only LM who’d like to be able to heal more? If you respond with, you just need a different class, maybe that’s valid. The problem is, there really isn’t another class that is a range caster-type who debuffs and power shares. One response would be that I’m asking for too much and the class would then be too powerful. I do not really PvP at all so I’m not sure if that would be a valid complaint. If the morale-drain spell were dispellable and the morale cost of sharing morale were sizeable, I think it could be balanced very nicely. Further, a morale-sharing ability would not be able to be cast on one’s self so it wouldn’t make solo’ing even more trivial than it already is.
If they redo the LM traits in any way and/or add new abilities this year (God, I hope so), I’d really love to see some morale-sharing/draining. You?
[Lore-Master] Bare is 4 tank?
Apr 15th
With a nod to dear Alamo, I begin this next post on pets. The first which looked at the raven should have taken you up to level 14. At this level, you will get your next pet – the bear! His summoning skill is called Friend of Bears.
On first appearance, one thinks he is a tank. Solid, sturdy fellow with more morale than a raven and he has a nice Taunt ability (Roaring Challenge). Unfortunately, dear bear is not 4 tank. At least not for very long. His aggro-holding skills are mostly non-existent so as soon as you hit the mob with a spell or hit yourself or Mr. Bear with a heal, the mob will run over to attack you.
So if he is not, in fact, 4 tank, what is he 4?
A solid question with a solid answer. More >
