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Developer Diary: Lore-master Advancement Beyond Level 50! |
As we prepare to enter the Mines of Moriaâ¢, the Lore-masters of Middle-earth continue to reveal new secrets about their abilities while recovering lost knowledge.
The Lore-master is already an extremely flexible class and has a wide breadth of abilities which can quickly swing conflicts to their favor. In Mines of Moria, the Lore-master gains more abilities that continue to widen their flexibility.
Examining the current use of the traits, coupled with the roles that the Lore-master fills in groups, weâve designed three Trait Sets that offer up new abilities that can be used on a wider array of creatures and allow him to put his knowledge to a more⦠aggressive use.
THE KEEPER OF ANIMALS
Lore-masters are a friend of most of the natural creatures of the wild. They preserve the natural balance of the world, knowing that they are part of nature, and that man and nature must coexist; but sometimes when that balance becomes disturbed, Lore-masters will need to call upon the aid of creatures of the wild and nature to right it.
TRAITS IN THE SET:
The traits that are in this set are largely familiar to the Lore-master, as the focus of this set is to increase the fortitude of your animal companion, restore morale, and give your companion bonuses in combat to drive off the Shadow that is creeping over Middle-earth. The addition of âThe Wild and the Wardâ trait enables your animal companion to better stand against some of the non-common damage types in the game.
TRAIT SET BONUSES:
The bonuses of the Keeper of Animals set focus on enhancing the capacity of animal buffs and their magnitude. Chances are if a Lore-master is going to focus on their relationship with their animal companion, they are familiar with their abilities to buff and enhance their petâs performance in all situations. The set bonuses focus on enhancing these bonuses in both duration and magnitude.
CAPSTONE SKILL: FRIEND OF CATS
This skill enables the Lore-master to summon a saber-tooth cat to aid in The War of the Ring. The saber-tooth is not a fan of careful crowd control, however. Its default attacks injure multiple opponents at a time and thus halve the chance of kicking off fellowship manoeuvres in group situations.
LEGENDARY CAPSTONE TRAIT: FRIEND OF NATURE
The current crop of Lore-master companions donât attack at a range, leaving the Lore-master without any ranged attacking pets. This is particularly an issue in high end instances. The new Bog-guardian pet will enable the Lore-master to attack at range with his walking plant friend, fulfilling a much-needed ranged pet role.
THE MASTER OF NATUREâS FURY
The Lore-master possesses a few tools in his arsenal that allow him or her to do direct damage to the foes of Middle-Earth.
Master of Nature enables the Lore-master to focus on the power of nature, and his knowledge of the ancient secrets of Middle-earth to enhance the potential for damage dealing with the Lore-masterâs chosen element of fire.
TRAITS IN THE SET:
This set includes several of the direct damage enhancements that Lore-masters had access to before, including Improved Staff Strike and Harmony of the Body. This line also includes Improved Storm Lore and Improved Sign of Power, both of which raise the effectiveness of these damaging skills.
TRAIT SET BONUSES:
The Master of Natureâs Fury focuses on giving enhancements to one of Natureâs most powerful elements: flame. This raises the damage potential of many of the Lore-masterâs fire skills, at the cost of some of the blasting powder from Blinding Flash, causing the latter to have a shorter duration.
CAPSTONE SKILL: STICKY GOURD
This skill is a direct damage attack that deals explosive fire damage to your enemy.
LEGENDARY CAPSTONE TRAIT: IMPROVED STICKY GOURD
This enhancement enables your Sticky Gourd to become an AOE hotspot that burns enemies who linger within its radius, while doing no damage to allies.
THE ANCIENT MASTER
The Ancient Master trait line focuses on enabling Lore-masters to raise the effectiveness of debuffs the ancient lore provides. This line provides increases in magnitude and reliability to the skills in their portfolio.
TRAITS IN THE SET:
This line includes a larger slice of the new class traits, including magnitude increases with "The Study of the Lore of Wind" and "The Study of the Lore of Fire" as well as increasing the reliability of blinding flash with Explosive Force.
TRAIT SET BONUSES:
The Trait Set bonuses of this line focus on enhancing the power of some of your already existing debuff skills, such as reducing the time before the root for Cracked Earth takes effect, or increasing the type of targets your Warding Lore skills effect.
CAPSTONE SKILL: SIGN OF POWER: SEE ALL ENDS
This skill enables players to reduce the enemy critical chances for a short time, creating a zone of very predictable damage output from their enemies.
LEGENDARY CAPSTONE TRAIT: FORCE OF WILL
Force of Will duration and magnitude are increased with this capstone trait, giving Lore-masters unparalleled control over enemy critical chances. This enables the Lore-master to ensure that his Fellowshipâs Tank wonât be wiped out by an unexpected devastating strike.
The Lore-master in the 50+ arena also gains access to Sign of Power: Wizard's Fire. This Sign uses Fire instead of Light to deal damage to the foes of Middle-earth, enabling the Lore-master to take advantage of his fire affinity with another skill. The Lore-masters also gains access to Dispel Corruption, a powerful skill that dispels some of the more horrific monster abilities on demand. The Lore-master is one of the more-powerful classes with removing these monster corruptions, being able to do so at will and removing most in one shot.
Lore-masters as always will have access to Legendary Books and Staffs that will continue to bolster the power of their skills. Many of the new modifiers on weapons will focus on the reliability of skills and increases in the damage output of the Lore-master.
The focus of the Lore-masterâs updates were to truly refine some of the options they had before, so they could become very focused categorically, and dominate the area they are focused in. Ultimately, the true power of the Lore-master exists in the smart tactical execution of skills that can shut down enemies or force them to face the Lore-master on his or her own terms. As with all things, weâll be making tweaks all the way through release so some of these things may change, but this is a snapshot of where the class is headed.
