Isengard class changes (leaked)

**Psychobabble** Tue Aug 09, 2011 7:46 am

There's been a few leaks of Isengard beta class changes patch notes. No idea if these are accurate or what will and won't make it to release, but a heads up if you're interested anyway. The rune-keeper one is from a different source from the others and is in a different format, I'm not sure if it's a player summary of what they saw or what, but it certainly could be inaccurate in part.

Guardian:

•Improved Charge is now overwritten by Falling Injuries.
•Trait: Selfless Defence - Protection will now add an effect to the protected target that will transfer an amount of threat from the protected target to the Guardian when the protected target is attacked.
•The bleed applied by the Haemorrhage Legendary trait will now be displayed using the Brutal Assault icon.
•Trait: Final Straw: this trait will now increase the bonus chance of a Fellowship Manoeuvre at every stack of the Fray the Edge debuff.
•Traits: The trait Stoic has been switched to the Fighter of Shadow trait line.
•Traits: The trait Threatening Presence has been switched to the Defender of the Free trait line.
•Traits: The Quickness completely replaced with increase the Guardians Parry rating at the expense of Evade rating.
•Traits:To the Rescue will now include the +5% attack speed previously on Quickness.
•Traits: Stoic - the Vitality added will now increase as the Guardian levels up.
•Traits: Haemorrhage - added increase all Guardians bleed damage by 15%
•Skill: Protection is now useable on escorted NPC’s
•Skill: Bash and Shield-smash will now interrupt inductions when the monster is stun-immune.
•New Skill: Protection: By the Sword – a new version of Protection available while in Overpower stance. This new toggle skill will increase the target’s melee damage by +2% and transfer any Parry events to the Guardian while nearby.
•NEW Guardian Skills Level 66-75
•New Skill: Guardian’s Ward Tactics, replaces Guardian’s Ward. This skill will also increase the Tactical Mitigation of the Guardian.
•New Skill: Improved Overwhelm – This skill will now add a debuff to the target’s Block/Parry/Evade ratings.
•New Skill: Improved Whirling Retaliation – This skill is now useable after a Parry event and adds the Retaliation event when used so that the Parry chain can proceed.
•New Skill: Improved Turn the Tables – this skill will now not be Blocked, Parried, Evaded or Miss an on level target.
•New Skill: Improved Guardian’s Defence – this skill will now place an effect on anything that attacks the Guardian that will lower the movement speed of the attacker if it does not continue to attack the Guardian.
•New Skill: Improved Challenge – this skill will now place an effect on a monster that will lower the movement speed of the monster if it does not continue to attack the Guardian for the next 30 seconds.

Minstrel:

•Ballad bonuses for being in War-speech will now correctly state and increase damage done by 25%.
•Harmony now states that it increases damage by 15% when dealt from ballads.
•Echoes of Battle/Timeless Echoes of Battle and Melody of Battle now have enhanced tooltips.
•Cry of the Valar and Cry of the Wizards will no longer require you to have 3 ballads active before the skills can be executed.
•Fixed an issue with the perfect ballads. This was actually increasing the cost of all skills rather than decreasing them.
•Minstrel healing, while in Warspeech will be self only.
•Echoes of Battle, in Harmony, will now correctly reference Harmony in the tooltip. It was stating War-speech before.
•Fixed a typo in the HoT for Chord of Salvation.
•Codas should now be gaining the benefit of the Anthems running on the minstrel once again.
•New Minstrels can now complete their newbie quest with the correctly acquired skill.
•The trait Powerful Voice will now function properly.
•New Minstrels starting out as Elves can now complete their training quest.
•Voice of the West Armour now provides a -3% increase to the power reduction offered by all ballad buffs. This replaces the previous tiered ranking.
•The legacy for Tier 1 Ballad damage has been renamed and repurposed to affect the damage output of Perfect Ballads.
•The legacy for Tier 2 Ballad damage has been reneamed and repurposed to affect the damage output of Minor Ballads.
•The legacy for Ballad of War has been renamed and repurposed to now affect the Anthem of War (Melee) component.
•The legacy for Ballad of Unshakable Will (Ranged) has been renamed and repurposed to now affect the Anthem of War (Ranged) component. Additionally the cost to advance this legacy has been normalized.
•The legacy for Ballad of Flame (Tactical) has been renamed and repurposed to now affect the Anthem of War (Tactical) component.
•The legacy for War-speech tail effect has been repurposed to Increase Anthem durations up to a maximum of 1 seconds.
•The legacy for Still as Death duration has been reduced to a maximum of 12 seconds.
•The legacy Cure Fear cooldown renamed to Story of Courage. Works on both skills.
•The legacy Target Resist Rating(cry of the valar) changed to Target Resist Rating(Invocation of Elbereth)
•Anthem of Prowess no longer uses hit effects or damaging sound effects.
•The legacy Ballad of Unshakable Will Buff Mod has been repurposed and renamed to reflect what it now affects - Anthem of Composure (Resistance)
•The legacy Ballad of Fire Buff Mod has been renamed and repurposed to reflect what it now affects - Anthem ofComposure (Tactical Defence)
•The legacy Song of Restoration Recovery Mod now has a max reduction of 6 seconds.
•The legacy Triumphant Spirit Recovery Mod now has a max reduction of 12 seconds.
•The legacy Anthem Damage Multiplier Mod has been repurposed to affect Cry and Coda damage.

Hunter:

•Dual Wielding and Medium are now available at level 1
•Skills: Quick Shot increased the detaunt amount while in Endurance Stance. Increase the critical chance of Quick Shot while in Precision Stance.
•Skills: Stance Strength – Removed the threat and Power use penalties
•Skills: Stance Precision – Remove the penalty to target’s Block/Parry/Evade ratings. This stance will now add 1 Focus every 5 seconds.
•Skills: Stance Endurance – Added Increase Parry chance +5%.
•Skills: Beneath Care renamed to Improved Beneath Notice.
•Skills: Set Snare – the bleed will now stack from multiple Hunters.
•Skills: Scourging Blow – removed the bonus critical chance of the base skill. Increased the damage when the Barbed Arrow bleed is removed.
•Skills: Press Onwards- the induction is reduced to 4 seconds. Induction is no longer canceled by damage but is knocked back normally.
•Skills: Needful Haste: Reduced the duration to 15 seconds. Reduced the Cooldown to 1m 30s.
•Skills: Blood Arrow: now useable while moving.
•New Skill: Split Shot- costs 3 Focus. This skill will attack the target plus one additional target nearby.
•Skills: Hunter’s Art- Costs 3 Focus. This skill applies a stackable buff to the Hunter dependent on what stance the Hunter was in as well as attacking the target. Strength Stance - +5% Ranged Damage. Precision Stance – increased Finesse. Endurance Stance – increased In-combat Power Regen.
•Traits: Strong Draw – Changed to increase the damage of Penetrating Shot and Blood Arrow by +3%.
•Traits: Graceful Draw – removed from the game.
•Traits: Spring Loaded Traps – replaces Graceful Draw. This trait adds an effect to Set Trap that will increase all damage done to the target for 10 seconds.
•Traits: Heightened Senses – adds -10% power usage.
•Traits: Heart of the Bard – replaced with -20s to the current Heart-seeker cooldown for each use of Bard’s Arrow
•Traits: Stealthy Shot – add -10% threat generation
•Traits: Swift Recovery – change Needful Haste cooldown reduced -30 seconds.
•Traits: Enduring Precision – removed from the game.
•Traits: Earthborn – replaces Enduring Precision- adds +20% to the morale and power restore of Strength of the Earth. Strength of the Earth will also now generate 1 Focus per second.
•Traits: Arrow Storm – changed Scoring a Critical Hit on Rain of Arrows will reset the cooldown of Rain of Arrows and Split Shot.
•Traits: Resolute Aim – removed the restriction on working with Press Onward.
•Traits: Sturdy Traps – added +25% trap damage
•Traits: Strong Intimidations – add -5% chance for Fear skills to be resisted.
•Traits: Improved Fleetness – removed the -10% attack speed bonus. Add +1 Focus every 5 seconds.
•Trait Sets: Bowmaster 3 equipped traits - remove +3% Strength stance power cost. Change +3% Strength Stance Damage to +3% Ranged Damage.
•Trait Sets: Bowmaster 4 equipped traits – remove +7% Strength stance power cost. Remove +7% Strength stance Damage. Add +1% Ranged damage for each Bowmaster trait equipped. Add +10% Penetrating Shot Critical chance.
•Trait Sets: Huntsman 3 equipped traits – Remove Strength of the Earth gives morale regen and increased power. Add +1 Split Shot targets.
•Trait Sets: Huntsman 4 equipped traits – Remove -10% Bow Inductions. Add -2% Bow inductions for each Huntsman trait equipped. Add -30% Penetrating Shot power cost.
•Trait Sets: Trapper of Foes 2 equipped traits- remove in-combat power regen. Add -50% trap skill inductions.
•Trait Sets: Trapper of Foes 4 equipped traits – remove Penetrating shot adds a target root. Remove -30s trap cooldowns. Remove -10% ranged damage. Add Penetrating shot reduces the targets Block, Parry and Evade ratings. The reduction is increased as additional Trapper of Foes traits are equipped.
•Hunter Skills Level 66-75
•New Skill: Improved Focus – this skill will now put a short duration buff on you that increases your ranged damage by +10%.
•New Skill: Improved Penetrating Shot – removed the cooldown.
•New Skill: Improved Strength of the Earth – this skill will now add Moral over time as well as power. The skill is no longer interruptible on damage.
•New Skill: Improved Scourging Blow – a successful use of this skill makes your next Barbed Arrow have no induction time.
•New Skill: Improved Quick Shot – removes the induction time though you must still stand still to use it.

Rune-keeper:

Rune-keepers

Skill changes:
All Damage over time (DoT) and heal over time (HoT) skill have had the formula that determines initial damage changed. They now deal the same damage or healing for the initial pulse as they do for the secondary pulses. At level 1-50, there will be no change. At over level 50, players with on level Legendary Items will see an increase in the initial pulse.
Fiery Ridicule – Induction reduced from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds. Damage reduced to compensate. Power cost reduced to facilitate a higher cast rate.
Essence of Flame – No longer a DoT. The full damage will be applied when the skill is used. Induction reduced by 1 seconds, cooldown reduced by 5 seconds. Damage reduced.
Writ of Fire – Reduced power cost
Ceaseless Argument – Reduced damage.
Shocking Words – Increased damage, increase power cost.
Sustaining Bolt – Decreased damage, though trait set now greatly increases damage, netting higher damage than before this update. Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds from 30 seconds. Power reduction effects added even if the skill is resisted.
Essence of Storm – Small damage increase.
Epic Conclusion – Damage increase.
Do not fall to X (fire, frost, storm) – No longer fully negates the next elemental attack, instead greatly reduces the damage. Now leaves a trailing buff to tactical armor after an attack triggers the resistance. Attunement shift increased to 2.
The blade shall not wound / The fang shall not poision – Resistance rating replaced with a flat % chance to avoid debuffs of the appropriate variety. The skills now stack with each other (can have both active). Attunement shift increased to 3.
Armaments of X – renamed to “Improved Weapon of X”
Master of Writs – Usable outside combat.
Self-motivation – Attunement shift increased to 4.
Do not fall this day – Cooldown reduced to 10 minutes. Can now be used on any player, regardless of fellowship status (though still not on the Rune-keeper himself.) Modifications that reduce the cooldown of the skill have been toned down slightly. Attunement shift increased to 6.
Shall not fall this day – Renamed to “Improved Do not fall this day”. Duration has been changed to the duration of combat. No longer increases defenses of the player.
Essay of exaltation – Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes from 10. Healing amount reduced.
Abrupt words – Renamed to “Final Word”
Final Words – Renamed to “Improved Final Word”
Armour of X – Now provides tactical armour, instead of armour only against the affinity of the skill.
Word of Exaltation – Now provides a bubble (temporary morale). Damage reduction reduced from -40% to -10%. Duration remains the same.
All Fates Entwined – Renamed to “Improved Fates Entwined”
Fall to X – Now increases incoming damage of the affinity (ie: increased incoming lightning damage). No longer reduces resistance chance.
Calming Verse - Attunement shift increased to 3.
Shocking Touch - Attunement shift increased to 3.
Steady Hands – Removed power cost. Induction can no longer be knocked
Essay of Fire – Now usable at all attunements. Power cost has been doubled. While at 6+ Battle attunement, Power cost is halved.
Mending Verse – Healing on initial pulse decreased. Power cost increased.
Prelude to hope – Reduced healing.
Writ of Health – Reduced healing at tier 1 and tier 2. Tier 3 healing remains the same.

New Improved Skills
New at level 66 – Improved Prelude to Hope – If used on an ally who does not have Prelude to Hope currently active, will grant power back to the Rune-keeper.
New at level 68 – Improved Essay of Fire – The next fire skill used will have no induction time.
New at level 70 – Improved Rousing Words – If channeled for 5 seconds on an ally, they will gain a tier of Writ of Health.
New at level 72 – Improved Sustaining Bolt – When used at 9 Battle attunement, restores some power in addition to reducing power expenditures in the future.
New at level 74 – Improved Scathing Mockery – DoT component of the skill has been removed. It now will apply a tier of Writ of Fire to all effected targets.

Trait Changes:
Thunderous Words – Now increases Finesse.
Closing Remarks – Changed from +50% damage per effect, to +15% critical chance and +15% damage per effect.
Master of Tragedy – Now increases critical rating.
Winter Storm – Change to: critical hits of Essence of Storm will reset the cooldown of Essence of Winter. Further, the Power cost of Writ of Cold is reduced 10%.
Frost-burn – changed to: writ of Cold reduces the active cooldown of Scathing Mockery by 5 seconds.
Fall to our Wrath – No longer grants a new skill, now buffs “Fall to X”. All damage types will now trigger the damage. Significantly increases the damage of the skill. Increases incoming damage from all sources while the debuff persists. Reduces the Resistance of the foe while active.
That which does not kill us – Now fully negates the damage of the next skill that strikes an ally effected by the skill (like Do not fall to X used to do). Coodlwon reduced to 5 minutes from 10 minutes. Healing reduced.
Confounding Principles – Reduces the attunement shift on Shocking Touch from 3 to 2.
Conflagration of Runes – Bonus damage reduced to 10% per DoT on the foe. Now makes Fiery Riddicule into an area of effect skill that can strike up to 3 targets.
Master of Allusion – Increased treat reduction to -10%.
The Prophetic Word – All defeat removal skills return your ally with 25% more morale and power.

Trait Sets:
Benedictions of Peace
Current:
2 Equipped: Rune of Restoration usable at all Attunements and heals 20% more
3 Equipped: -10% Healing Attuned Skill Power Cos, +2 Mending Verse Pulse Count
4 Equipped:Master of Writs becomes a Toggle, -5% Threat Generation
New:
2 Equipped:Rune of Restoration usable at all Attunements and heals 20% more
3 Equipped:-10% Healing Attuned Skill Power Cost, +2 Mending Verse Pulse Count
4 Equipped:+1% healing per Benedictions of Peace trait equipped, -5% Threat Generation

Clensing Fires
Current:
2 Equipped:Fiery Ridicule usable at all Attunements and -.5s Induction
3 Equipped:-5 Essence of Flame Cooldow, -1 Essence of Flame Induction
4 Equipped:-4.5 Essay of Fire Induction, -X Penetrate Target Resist
New:
2 Equipped:Fiery Ridicule usable at all Attunements and can’t be knocked back by damage
3 Equipped:+30% Essence of Flame Damage, Scathing Mockery Induction -.5s
4 Equipped:-4.5 Essay of Fire Induction, +1% fire damage per Cleansing Fires trait equipped

Solitary Thunder
Current:
2 Equipped:Chilling Rhetoric usable at all Attunements and -10s Cooldown
3 Equipped:+30% Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier, -5 Shocking Words Cooldown
4 Equipped:-15 Sustaining Bolt Cooldown, +3% Run Speed
New:
2 Equipped:Chilling Rhetoric usable at all Attunements and -10s Cooldown
3 Equipped:-5 Shocking Words Cooldown, +50% Sustaining Bolt damage
4 Equipped:+5% Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier per Solitary Thunder trait equipped, Occasionally gain the “charged” buff, which makes Sustaining Bolt free.
Chisels and Rifflers

All Chisels and Rifflers – All chisels and rifflers now increase both tactical damage and healing rating, no longer one or the other. In addition, they provide the following benefits:

Basic Chisel:
Increases Finesse.

Chisel of Fire:
Increased power regen.

Chisel of Lightning:
Increased Critical Hit rating.

Basic Riffler:
Reduced threat from all sources.

Riffler of writs:
Now makes Master of Writs a toggle.
Power savings reduced to 5% / 10%

Riffler of Hope:
Increase the potency of the initial pulse by 100%

ve +7% Strength stance power cost. Remove +7% Strength stance Damage. Add +1% Ranged damage for each Bowmaster trait equipped. Add +10% Penetrating Shot Critical chance.
•Trait Sets: Huntsman 3 equipped traits – Remove Strength of the Earth gives morale regen and increased power. Add +1 Split Shot targets.
•Trait Sets: Huntsman 4 equipped traits – Remove -10% Bow Inductions. Add -2% Bow inductions for each Huntsman trait equipped. Add -30% Penetrating Shot power cost.
•Trait Sets: Trapper of Foes 2 equipped traits- remove in-combat power regen. Add -50% trap skill inductions.
•Trait Sets: Trapper of Foes 4 equipped traits – remove Penetrating shot adds a target root. Remove -30s trap cooldowns. Remove -10% ranged damage. Add Penetrating shot reduces the targets Block, Parry and Evade ratings. The reduction is increased as additional Trapper of Foes traits are equipped.
•Hunter Skills Level 66-75
•New Skill: Improved Focus – this skill will now put a short duration buff on you that increases your ranged damage by +10%.
•New Skill: Improved Penetrating Shot – removed the cooldown.
•New Skill: Improved Strength of the Earth – this skill will now add Moral over time as well as power. The skill is no longer interruptible on damage.
•New Skill: Improved Scourging Blow – a successful use of this skill makes your next Barbed Arrow have no induction time.
•New Skill: Improved Quick Shot – removes the induction time though you must still stand still to use it. [/quote]

Rune-keeper:

Rune-keepers

Skill changes:
All Damage over time (DoT) and heal over time (HoT) skill have had the formula that determines initial damage changed. They now deal the same damage or healing for the initial pulse as they do for the secondary pulses. At level 1-50, there will be no change. At over level 50, players with on level Legendary Items will see an increase in the initial pulse.
Fiery Ridicule – Induction reduced from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds. Damage reduced to compensate. Power cost reduced to facilitate a higher cast rate.
Essence of Flame – No longer a DoT. The full damage will be applied when the skill is used. Induction reduced by 1 seconds, cooldown reduced by 5 seconds. Damage reduced.
Writ of Fire – Reduced power cost
Ceaseless Argument – Reduced damage.
Shocking Words – Increased damage, increase power cost.
Sustaining Bolt – Decreased damage, though trait set now greatly increases damage, netting higher damage than before this update. Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds from 30 seconds. Power reduction effects added even if the skill is resisted.
Essence of Storm – Small damage increase.
Epic Conclusion – Damage increase.
Do not fall to X (fire, frost, storm) – No longer fully negates the next elemental attack, instead greatly reduces the damage. Now leaves a trailing buff to tactical armor after an attack triggers the resistance. Attunement shift increased to 2.
The blade shall not wound / The fang shall not poision – Resistance rating replaced with a flat % chance to avoid debuffs of the appropriate variety. The skills now stack with each other (can have both active). Attunement shift increased to 3.
Armaments of X – renamed to “Improved Weapon of X”
Master of Writs – Usable outside combat.
Self-motivation – Attunement shift increased to 4.
Do not fall this day – Cooldown reduced to 10 minutes. Can now be used on any player, regardless of fellowship status (though still not on the Rune-keeper himself.) Modifications that reduce the cooldown of the skill have been toned down slightly. Attunement shift increased to 6.
Shall not fall this day – Renamed to “Improved Do not fall this day”. Duration has been changed to the duration of combat. No longer increases defenses of the player.
Essay of exaltation – Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes from 10. Healing amount reduced.
Abrupt words – Renamed to “Final Word”
Final Words – Renamed to “Improved Final Word”
Armour of X – Now provides tactical armour, instead of armour only against the affinity of the skill.
Word of Exaltation – Now provides a bubble (temporary morale). Damage reduction reduced from -40% to -10%. Duration remains the same.
All Fates Entwined – Renamed to “Improved Fates Entwined”
Fall to X – Now increases incoming damage of the affinity (ie: increased incoming lightning damage). No longer reduces resistance chance.
Calming Verse - Attunement shift increased to 3.
Shocking Touch - Attunement shift increased to 3.
Steady Hands – Removed power cost. Induction can no longer be knocked
Essay of Fire – Now usable at all attunements. Power cost has been doubled. While at 6+ Battle attunement, Power cost is halved.
Mending Verse – Healing on initial pulse decreased. Power cost increased.
Prelude to hope – Reduced healing.
Writ of Health – Reduced healing at tier 1 and tier 2. Tier 3 healing remains the same.

New Improved Skills
New at level 66 – Improved Prelude to Hope – If used on an ally who does not have Prelude to Hope currently active, will grant power back to the Rune-keeper.
New at level 68 – Improved Essay of Fire – The next fire skill used will have no induction time.
New at level 70 – Improved Rousing Words – If channeled for 5 seconds on an ally, they will gain a tier of Writ of Health.
New at level 72 – Improved Sustaining Bolt – When used at 9 Battle attunement, restores some power in addition to reducing power expenditures in the future.
New at level 74 – Improved Scathing Mockery – DoT component of the skill has been removed. It now will apply a tier of Writ of Fire to all effected targets.

Trait Changes:
Thunderous Words – Now increases Finesse.
Closing Remarks – Changed from +50% damage per effect, to +15% critical chance and +15% damage per effect.
Master of Tragedy – Now increases critical rating.
Winter Storm – Change to: critical hits of Essence of Storm will reset the cooldown of Essence of Winter. Further, the Power cost of Writ of Cold is reduced 10%.
Frost-burn – changed to: writ of Cold reduces the active cooldown of Scathing Mockery by 5 seconds.
Fall to our Wrath – No longer grants a new skill, now buffs “Fall to X”. All damage types will now trigger the damage. Significantly increases the damage of the skill. Increases incoming damage from all sources while the debuff persists. Reduces the Resistance of the foe while active.
That which does not kill us – Now fully negates the damage of the next skill that strikes an ally effected by the skill (like Do not fall to X used to do). Coodlwon reduced to 5 minutes from 10 minutes. Healing reduced.
Confounding Principles – Reduces the attunement shift on Shocking Touch from 3 to 2.
Conflagration of Runes – Bonus damage reduced to 10% per DoT on the foe. Now makes Fiery Riddicule into an area of effect skill that can strike up to 3 targets.
Master of Allusion – Increased treat reduction to -10%.
The Prophetic Word – All defeat removal skills return your ally with 25% more morale and power.

Trait Sets:
Benedictions of Peace
Current:
2 Equipped: Rune of Restoration usable at all Attunements and heals 20% more
3 Equipped: -10% Healing Attuned Skill Power Cos, +2 Mending Verse Pulse Count
4 Equipped:Master of Writs becomes a Toggle, -5% Threat Generation
New:
2 Equipped:Rune of Restoration usable at all Attunements and heals 20% more
3 Equipped:-10% Healing Attuned Skill Power Cost, +2 Mending Verse Pulse Count
4 Equipped:+1% healing per Benedictions of Peace trait equipped, -5% Threat Generation

Clensing Fires
Current:
2 Equipped:Fiery Ridicule usable at all Attunements and -.5s Induction
3 Equipped:-5 Essence of Flame Cooldow, -1 Essence of Flame Induction
4 Equipped:-4.5 Essay of Fire Induction, -X Penetrate Target Resist
New:
2 Equipped:Fiery Ridicule usable at all Attunements and can’t be knocked back by damage
3 Equipped:+30% Essence of Flame Damage, Scathing Mockery Induction -.5s
4 Equipped:-4.5 Essay of Fire Induction, +1% fire damage per Cleansing Fires trait equipped

Solitary Thunder
Current:
2 Equipped:Chilling Rhetoric usable at all Attunements and -10s Cooldown
3 Equipped:+30% Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier, -5 Shocking Words Cooldown
4 Equipped:-15 Sustaining Bolt Cooldown, +3% Run Speed
New:
2 Equipped:Chilling Rhetoric usable at all Attunements and -10s Cooldown
3 Equipped:-5 Shocking Words Cooldown, +50% Sustaining Bolt damage
4 Equipped:+5% Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier per Solitary Thunder trait equipped, Occasionally gain the “charged” buff, which makes Sustaining Bolt free.
Chisels and Rifflers

All Chisels and Rifflers – All chisels and rifflers now increase both tactical damage and healing rating, no longer one or the other. In addition, they provide the following benefits:

Basic Chisel:
Increases Finesse.

Chisel of Fire:
Increased power regen.

Chisel of Lightning:
Increased Critical Hit rating.

Basic Riffler:
Reduced threat from all sources.

Riffler of writs:
Now makes Master of Writs a toggle.
Power savings reduced to 5% / 10%

Riffler of Hope:
Increase the potency of the initial pulse by 100%

**Anthony** Tue Aug 09, 2011 8:17 am

Man, we are going to be spending the firrst week of RoI, relearning just how to play our class.

So looking at the RK, it seems to follow what they are doing to every class, all the base skills are getting nerfed (both DPS and healing) and you really only get that back if you trait 4 or more deep in the matching trait line.
No such thing as a healing RK that can still do a fair amount of DPS without retraiting.

Given what Turbine have been like it the past, if the above info is what's been seen in the Beta, then it won't matter what the beta testers say or how much they hate it, we will get pretty much the same on RoI release.

**Psychobabble** Tue Aug 09, 2011 8:44 am

Yep, their philosophy across a lolt of classes very much seems to be 'trait deep or go home'. As a LM, I'm already completely used to that and actually appreciate that one of the big changes to LM is to turn the blue line into a pretty decent healing line. However, it's going to be a big shock to the system for a lot of people and I can only hope that they do SOMETHING to improve the bard/trait UI because it's a real pain swapping traits around with the current setup and if they're going to force people to be constantly reswapping to be effective in a particular role even more than they do now then they really need to have the UI to back it up. My ideal outcome would be true, bard-less, dual speccing (with a pretty long cooldown between swaps, perhaps) but even just the ability to save individual trait setups or something would be really appreciated.

**PianoTunaPasta** Tue Aug 09, 2011 5:43 pm

EWWW! plain and simple, play styles WILL change, sometime almost completely removing a certain focus. Goodbye graceful draw Crying or Very sad

u were never really used, but u def had ur purpose (giving us tht extra option to reduce power use and threat generation)... HNTs with no extra power cost + threat generation in str stance???? whos gonna tank trees? whos gonna pull in adds? Granted we can generate threat in precision, but wen its a dps race with hnts tanking, STR is our savior.

Nasda Tue Aug 09, 2011 7:34 pm

You can tank trees just fine in melee, with a slightly different strategy Wink

Still kinda QQ at all the changes. It doesn't seem to be so much as an expansion, as a complete overhaul of all classes.

**Anthony** Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:04 am

The other potential problem will be the impact of any bugs or unexpected outcomes due to all the changes.

If it was just RoI content that had bugs, then one could still continue to play around in all the old content without many issues. But with all this class changes, any stuff-ups there and it no long matters where you go, making everything broken. Frankly, for the first week of RoI release, I'm half expecting total chaos.

**Psychobabble** Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:16 am

Turbine (and I think most MMO devs) has always used level cap increases as an excuse to fundamentally change combat and/or class mechanics, this all isn't that surprising although the scope of some of the changes - particularly the minstrel which just got an overhaul - is a bit more than expected. It's certainly going to take a lot of adjustment.

ptp's right that at the moment the huge burst threat/damage that hunters can bring is a really nice feature of the class and it's a shame that it's being toned down.

Are you worried about the cappy changes nasda? I kind of like the look at them from the outside. Sure, yellow capstone is (basically) useless, but they've taken the good bit of the current capstone and made it available no matter what you trait which is awesome. It looks like either red or green line, or even hybrid, are going to be viable grouping specs and I don't think you actually lose all that much in the wash. Toggle IDOME is a bit of a two-edged sword in raids with only one cappy, but it's not a HUGE nerf.

**Anthony** Wed Aug 10, 2011 4:19 am

I've found a site with even more of the above info: RoI info

Of course things can change in the next 6 weeks, but most likely it will be tweaked, rather then something totally different. Either way, a little info never hurts in some pre-planning for your characters over the next few weeks.

**Psychobabble** Wed Aug 10, 2011 4:47 am

Thanks for linking. Some pretty interesting stuff there. Things which stuck out to me in no particular order:

Rejoice!

•Monsters will no longer drop negative effects when they transition phases.

There was a lot of QQ on the forums initially about Captain's still needing will for healing, that seems to have changed:

•Captain – Offence and Outgoing Healing based off Might

Idk if this was already known, but this fixes probably the biggest complaint of the burg community:

•After being revived by a player, there is a brief opportunity to re-enable "Mischief", "Quiet Knife", or "Gambler" while in combat.

These now all become highly relevant virtues:

-Patience, Wisdom and Confidence now increase In-combat Power regen, instead of out of combat.
-Zeal now increases Max Morale as it's primary stat

I think this allows for the creation of boss-warning plugins, ie pop up instructions on your screen when the boss says something relevant:

Exposed an event for receiving chat messages in lua. Added chat type definitions for chat filtering.

**Anthony** Tue Aug 16, 2011 4:47 am

And we can now have a first look at where we will be spending the next few weeks after 27th Sept, RoI Map

On the surface it does seem a little small, but then it must be at least the size of Mirkwood and you get the feeling that a mass of quests and content is packed into every square cm. Lets face it, we have to go from 65 to 75 and from memory, near the end of the current cap, it was like 200,000-300,000 XP per level.

**Psychobabble** Tue Aug 16, 2011 4:56 am

that's TINY. And I think it's very disingenous of them to advertise it as 'three zones' when it's really one big zone and two sub zones. Not sure how big that city is, but on the face of it it's not much bigger than caras galathon.

I'm sure there'll be a lot of quests, but don't forget that they can always get you to level 85 quickly enough by just boosting quest XP rates.

**Anthony** Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:35 am

True, they could make each quest reward 20k XP, and yes, calling it 'three zones' is a little suss. That would make Loth 2 zones and Moria around 10 or something. What may save them is if there are a number of new or 'hidden' instances (both for solo and groups) within all that. ie. walk into a cave door and step into a area half the size of Loth, with all sorts of stuff to do solo. Which may then also act as a fellowship or raid instance as well.

I guess we will see. Either that, or this is why there's been so little info released and why the Beta has a NDA. Get as many pre-orders as possible before people learn the truth.

Nasda Tue Aug 16, 2011 4:36 pm

I'm not 'worried' per se. By changing the base stats of captains, its going to not just how you play, but how you look at things.

Currently you have offtanky +morale captains with high might or squishy healer captains with capped will/fate. You dont get a huge amount of people in the middle, they go either all one or the other, according to their capstone.

As it stands, if they updated tomorrow, I'd have to change every LI I have, and most of my armour/jewellery, sicne its geared towards stats and skills that no longer matter. So I'm glad its combined with a level cap, so I can put my 75 LI's and gear in that new direction, rather than having to change my 65 ones ... Again.

They're nerfed some of my favourite skills for healing & buffs, but we'll see I guess. Endgame on other servers is surprisingly short of champs, so captains often get pulled into offtanking, no doubt why half the new skills involve threat building. That'll be interesting for sure :/

I'm not jumping down in excitement, or rage quiting, just waiting Wink

Nasda Tue Aug 23, 2011 2:38 pm

"On to the BIG one: instanced content in RoI launch. Sapience confirmed that there will be no new 3/6/12 man instances at launch, nor will any of the instances that currently don't scale be converted to scale to level. He also confirmed that yes, they ARE actually working on an instance cluster at this very moment and that progress is good, but when asked whether that would be released around Christmas or possibly later he simply said "Sure, or maybe even before Christmas."

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?415027-A-friendly-chat-with-Sapience-%28-Gamescom-2011%29

Kinda what we knew already, but posted in public, the confirmed word of dev's.. There's even a dev post somewher else, directing peopel to this thread for questions :/

While I'm looking forward to the new areas, new skills and leveling... it looks like we're going to have a lot of time to spare between then and christmas. Seeing as at 75, all we have to do is farm gb/schlib 75 & a weekly bigger turtle aka the dragon raid.

Good time to get those challenges / symbosl we didnt get in OD before the release, before everyone forgets what everything does in there.

**Anthony** Wed Aug 24, 2011 2:39 am

In theory, the new instance cluster would be very much like the OD set, so lvl75 only. That being the case, I'm sort of OK with it not being included right away, given that it's going to take a good few weeks for most to actually have a character at level and ready to run them anyway.

That being said, they sure as hell better be included 'free' as part of the RoI expansion, becuase if turbine think that after pre-ordering RoI I'm then going to to pay again for instances that should have been included, they can think again.

Other then that, given the other news that any instance which doesn't currently scale, still won't, apart from Skirms, I see a lot of GB/Sch/Lib GLFF requests in our future.

**Psychobabble** Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:00 am

i would be surprised if the instances are included in the expansion price. plesantly surprised, but update 3 has set the expectation for instance content going forward and I doubt they're going to break that model. I could be wrong.

And on the subject of school/lib/GB - I'm going to suggest that we try to break up the monotony by actually learning how to do Annuminas L65 challenge. Those runs look much more fun than facerolling the same stuff over and over again Smile

.

**Anthony** Wed Aug 24, 2011 4:36 am

If they follow the Update 3 plan then I can see server population dropping very fast, but that aside, yes looking more at Annuminas may well be a good idea, given that it's one of the few that will be scaled up.

There's now been an official Champ dev diary and a few things still have me a bit worried. One thing seems clear, if you expect a Champ to be an off tank, then they will need to be set-up for that before starting the content and hence lower DPS. Just to be clear, while I may look at the tank side of my Champ in the future, for a bit of time, I'll be DPS only and even then I'll have to work out what traits, etc are better between my AOE DPS line and my ST DPS line.

The other thing I found interesting from that gamescon chat was:

Asked about Freep access to Ettens for F2P/Premium he gave me a puzzled look and said that this was actually the first time someone had asked him that question (kudos to Crell_1 for that!). He said that while he does have a strong hunch about what the answer would be, he didn't know for sure and therefore really couldn't answer it.

I've been wondering about that all along and if it turns out I can't take my Freep into PvP, then I suspect all can kiss goodbye to PvP play. Since lets face it, if only Creeps are opened up, then the place will be filled with them, meaning any Freeps get killed right away.

Nasda Wed Aug 24, 2011 9:10 pm

Hi all. My first day back in the office and fully recovered and the first thing I wanted to do was get a definitive answer to this question for you. So here we go.

Free and Premium players can participate in PvMP on the creep side (Monster Play). The Reaver will be free to play. If you want to participate in PvMP on the freep side, you'll need to be a VIP.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=5629438#post5629438

It follows the way they've been giving people a small taste of play without cost, trying to encourage them to buy the good bits.

For those of us that only play only creepside, its certainly one less reason to pay vip, just make a 1 off buy of TP and be done with it.

Having creep as the only 'free' option is naturally going to inflate the moors on the creep side a little, but tbh, we could do with the boost :/ With all freeps having 75 armour, 75 LI's and powerful 75 skills.. burgs that can riddle without breaking stealth for one.. we'll need the help.

I can't talk about the moors on imladris, but on snowbourn i don't think the numebrs of freeps will change hugely. Being an old server, the vast majority of people are lifetimers or longterm vips, so its not as if freeps will disappear. If anything we'll see more of them trying to farm the new f2p reavers for renown.

**Psychobabble** Thu Aug 25, 2011 12:33 am

bingo:

Rise of Isengard will be released on September 27 along with a 24 Player raid. There will be 3 Three player, 1 Six player and 1 Twelve player instance released in Update 5, the first update after the release of Rise of Isengard. These instances will be free to any player who has pre-purchased the Rise of Isengard expansion or who purchases after launch via the Turbine Web Store.

i'm not 100% happy but this takes a lot of the sting out of this.

**Anthony** Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:47 am

So not great that we will have to wait for the instance cluster, but at least it will be included, as I always assumed it would be. Anything else would have just resulted in such a massive out cry and drop in numbers, that they really couldn't have done anything else.

And of course, in order to save the ongoing sale of pre-orders (with 1 month to go), they had to announce that now, otherwise orders would have nose dived and many may have left right away. Pitty it's only 1 six man run, but at least we will have more options for 3 man and a new 12 man raid to get our teeth into.

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