src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/253965">

When the Lord of the

Rings Online's next expansion, Helm's Deep,

launches in November, it will introduce some major changes to the game's

nine character classes. It is easily the biggest class system revamp since

the Mines of Moria expansion five years ago, and possibly even more

ambitious than that one. While the Mines of Moria class revamp mostly just

changed the way a character organized his traits, the Helm's Deep revamp

will potentially alter the way the character is played.

The staff at Turbine gave us a guided tour of the new system, with

in-depth looks at the Warden, the Captain, the Hunter and the Guardian.

But before they got into the real specifics, they addressed the whole need

for a revamp in general.

Why Now?

"That is the big question," said Matt Zimmitti, Lead Systems Designer.

"There are several good reasons. First off, so many of our classes over

time, with expansions and 'Month of This Class or That Class' and what

have you, have gotten so many skills that were adding utility at the cost

of potency. We were starting to get crossover abilities between the

classes and we didn't actually have really strong archetypes anymore. So

philosophically, we wanted to get back to the core."

In other words, skill bloat accrued over the past six years had made many

of the classes feel sort of "generic" and not unique. The revamp trims

away the fat and strips the classes down to their essentials, making them

more focused and therefore better at what they do.

"We wanted the characters to feel like they had really defined roles,"

Matt explained. "That's not to say that there won't be any

mixing-and-matching or hybridization, but we wanted it to feel like, if

you chose a DPS build, you really felt like it had a bunch of punch. If

you picked a tank build, you really felt like you could step in the pocket

like no one else and really soak up a lot of damage."

But it wasn't just a matter of potency. The changes are designed to allow

for future development as well.

"Functionally, it's harder and harder to write up new, potent skills when

each class has such a variety of different abilities," Matt continued. "We

had a lot of skill bloat, a lot of people are running around with

four-plus full bars of skills, and we know for a fact they weren't all

getting used. We finally got to a point where we wanted to look at all the

classes all at once, with the goal of more potent skills even if that

means fewer of them."

So not only do these changes allow for more focused combat roles, but

they also allow for a more streamlined, less-cluttered game interface. Or,

alternately, much more room on the skill bars for consumables, macros,

gear swaps and other non-standard clickies. As the game moves forward

towards Mordor, streamlining now leaves room for later.

The UI

To accomplish this revamp, the team had to build a new user interface,

which is organized similar to Mounted Combat trait tree system. At level

6, the character picks a specialization - essentially, picking which trait

tree will be the main focus of that build. Level 6 characters have no

points to spend yet, but they can pick the blue, red or yellow trait tree.

Picking a specialization determines a couple of things. Firstly, it

determines the point-cost of the all traits. The traits within the

specialization tree cost one point per pip, and the traits in the other

trees cost 2 points. Characters get one trait point every two levels, and

additional points for completing the deeds that used to reward traits. At

level 95, characters can top out at 60 - 65 points to distribute among

their traits (since it's still in beta, this number is not yet final),

which allows for a full specialization in one tree, plus a number of

pick-up traits in the other two trees. Level 85 characters who have done

all their class deeds will start with 55 when the expansion goes live.

Secondly, each specialization bestows a unique set of specialist skills

and bonuses, separate from but dependent on the specialization traits.

Each specialization comes bundled with a small group of skills that

automatically get added to the toolbar, and which are removed when a

different specialization is chosen. Additionally, further skills are

unlocked by spending points within that trait tree, or improved by

spending more points. Spending your points in the specialization traits

unlocks more of the passive specialization bonuses. The deeper you go into

your specialization, the more bonuses you unlock. Once you hit the cap,

you can effectively hybridize by spending points outside the

specialization without sacrificing the build. A hybrid build will have far

fewer traits overall because of the cost of traits outside of the

specialization, and will unlock fewer of the specialization bonuses.

Players will start with two specialization tabs, allowing for two

different setups that can be swapped on-the-fly as long as the character

is not in combat. More slots can be purchased through the LotRO Store.

Like the Mounted Combat trait tree setups, each spec can be renamed and

can focus on a different trait tree, allowing the character to swap combat

roles mid-adventure as easily as switching weapons.



The Classes

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/253970">Warden

Wardens have long had the benefit of being able to adapt their combat

role on-the-fly, generally by using different gambit rotations depending

on whether they are tanking or DPSing. With the new setup, they should

prove to be more effective and focused in those roles. Determination spec

replaces Way of the Shield and focuses on tanking and self-heals,

Recklessness replaces Way of the Spear and focuses on damage-dealing, and

Assailment replaces Way of the Fist and focuses mainly on ranged

skills.





src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/253971">Captain

The Captain is in a unique position, already having three fairly distinct

combat roles. Much of the Captain's buffing ability has been condensed and

consolidated, and is now mostly combat-generated rather than requiring a

refresh every 30 minutes or so. The Leader of Men line should prove to be

more effective for endgame off-tanking now, while Hands of Healing and

Lead the Charge continue to do what they have always done.

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/253972">Hunter

Hunters are arguably one of the more "fragile" classes when it comes to

this kind of build-tweaking. They are essentially one-trick ponies whose

only real combat role is to dish out ranged damage, and anything that

affects their damage numbers can have a significant impact on the class.

To that end, the three lines have been given more distinction from one

another. The Huntsman spec allows for movement while using induction and

Focus shots, with no Focus loss from movement, making it a run-and-gun

line. Bowmaster remains focused on Strength stance and hitting big damage

numbers while standing more or less still at extreme range. Trapper of

Foes is the big winner here, giving the Hunter the ability to lay an

alarming number of more-powerful traps simultaneously. A lot of players

have voiced concern about some survival skills going missing, but these

missing skills are offset by increased damage output.

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/253973">Guardian

The Guardian is still a "main tank" class, and the Defender of the Free

and Keen Blade lines remain largely unchanged as far as how they affect

gameplay. However, Helm's Deep comes with another sort of "hidden" revamp

to how threat is generated and how aggro is calculated. The simplification

of the threat/aggro system made the Fighter of Shadow line, which focused

on threat generation, redundant, and it is now designed around tanking

with 2-handed weapons and debuffing target-marked enemies. Guardians and

Wardens will now rely more on forced-attack taunts and off-tank swapping

than on building or leeching threat. But, essentially, anyone running a

tank spec, regardless of class, will simply generate more threat.

LoTRO's NGE?

A question that was asked of the team, and one that has been tossing

around on the forums for a while, is: "will this be LotRO's 'New Game

Enhancement'?" The NGE was a major game-changer in Star Wars Galaxies that

upset a majority of the game's players and lead to a huge drop in

subscription numbers, primarily because a) it made fundamental changes to

the basic systems that stripped the game of its original uniqueness, b)

left a lot of existing characters crippled or obsolete by eliminating most

of the professions, and c) was unleashed on the game with almost no

warning.

The short answer is, "no, this is not LotRO's NGE."

Let's be frank: this revamp will not appeal to everybody. There will

always be a few very outspoken critics whenever a major change comes down

the pipe, and especially when said changes affect the way the critics have

been playing the game for six years running. Some players will get

disgusted, complain very loudly and leave - that always happens when

change is introduced. Other players will eagerly embrace the new system

because it gives them the opportunity to play exactly how they have always

wanted to play. Turbine is banking on the idea that there will be way more

embracers than detractors.

A lot of skeptics are won over by the new system after seeing it in

action, even veterans who have been around since pre-Moria days. Though

they may take some getting used-to, Helm's Deep's class changes are not

gimping anyone like the NGE did. Yes, it is a major change to a core

system that will make characters feel sometimes very different from how

they used to be. But most players will find it to be different in a good

way. DPSers will have more punch, tanks will feel tankier, healers will be

able to spam green easier. Characters should feel more potent and

streamlined.

The developers are well-aware of this comparison to Star Wars Galaxies'

much-reviled NGE, having read it on the forums and fansites many times

over now. When asked this question directly, Matt Zimmitti admitted, "The

answer in terms of fear is yes. I don't get a lot of sleep at night. But

we had finally gotten to a point where so many different bits of feedback

were funneling towards really needing this fundamental change. This isn't

just about paring down the number of skills - if we were going to do that,

we would have left the system intact and just taken a bunch of skills

away. We really wanted combat to have more impact and have more critical

character choices depending on how you build your character, and it really

required doing all the classes at once. So, in changing things this

dramatically, the actual core skill rotations are very similar, but it's

how you choose to build that is very different. You really have to take

the whole engine off the block and make a comprehensive change."

"Every step of the way, as our group of players have been giving

feedback, there's been a two-week period each time where there has been a

flat-out revolt against the concept. And then people play for a bit and

they start to get it, and they start realizing that their feedback is

getting rolled into these changes. And then after about two weeks, okay,

people start to grok it. We've had three or four phases of this, and it's

given us a degree of confidence that we are on the right path. It's not a

knee-jerk decision, a lot of work has gone into it, and we've gotten a lot

of feedback that it does play better. "

The Helm's Deep expansion launches on November 18, and is currently in

closed beta.