Mines of Moria is bringing changes to the Player Versus Monster Player game for LotRO, and the changes have been outlined in the newest Dev Diary !

Introduction

Welcome, fellow Freeps and Creeps, to a brand new day in the Ettenmoors! This dev diary will give you a brief glimpse into the mechanical changes we have made for PvMP in The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™ expansion. So grab a bag of popcorn, find your desk chair, and come along with me for a wild reading adventure!

There are lots of changes, including population balances, the removal of stars, and bonuses for monster armour!  It's going to make PvMP much more enjoyable!  Read on for the whole diary!

Population Balance

The Ettenmoors and PvMP is a tremendously enjoyable experience when battles are evenly matched. However, evenly matched battles may be infrequent. Though there’s merit to the underdog overcoming the odds and a feeling of superiority when your side crushes the meager opposition, frustration and boredom continue to grow if there is no shift in population balance.

In order to address this, we have introduced a population balance mechanic in the Ettenmoors that will help even the odds between the two sides and provide a more interesting PvMP experience.

This mechanic continually tracks population in PvMP. When one side’s force becomes dramatically smaller than the other’s, a defensive bonus is added to the characters on the underpopulated side. The bonus increases if the difference in population between the two sides grows bigger and decreases if the difference in population between the two sides grows smaller.

The defensive bonus boosts melee, ranged, and tactical defenses. When your side has this bonus applied, it will be shown as an icon in your vitals window.

    * For Creeps, this bonus is known as “Akúlhun's Challenge”
    * For Freeps, this bonus is known as “Lainedhal's Call to Arms”

Session Play

Troll and Ranger session play is now tied into the Population Balance mechanic. You will now only be able to start up a session if your side is overwhelmed. Like the defensive bonus above, if the difference between the two sides continues to increase, more session slots will be unlocked for the underpopulated side to use.

No More Stars

To encourage active participation in PvMP combat, we have decided to remove ratings stars from the character panel, vitals window, and target window. You will still be able to see your rating number in the character panel, but your rating will not be displayed to anyone else while inside the game.

Raid Renown/Infamy

We’ve heard your cries for change! To respond to the desires of wanting to focus on group play, rather than raid play, in the Ettenmoors, we have made the following change to renown/infamy gains:

Renown/Infamy rewards have been modestly decreased for raid contributions and increased for group contributions.

Freep Lovin’

Free Peoples, get your Ettenmoors goodies right here! We have a lot of new things in store for you:

Repairs Vs. Creeps

We’ve read your letters, answered your calls, pored over your posts, and heard from your mothers. Get ready to spend less and save more!

When entering into any PvMP area, a buff will be placed on your character. This special buff, shown as an icon on your vitals window as “Monster Play”, does the following:

    * Prevents item wear from combat hits.
    * Prevents item wear from blocking.
    * Prevents item wear from parrying.
    * Prevents item wear from using skills.

While in PvMP areas, you will also be protected from receiving item wear when defeated by a Creep player. Please note though, the following cases are NOT covered by the new buff: crafting/harvesting, and defeat by PvE monsters/guards.

In addition, the presence of this buff allows you to use special PvMP-only items (see the New Potions section below!).

Earning Destiny

Destiny is in your hands! Free Players will now be able to earn destiny points by killing Creep players, by completing PvMP quests, and by completing daily instance quests in Moria.

New Potions

The Items Trader and the Coldfells Provisioner in Glan Vraig have gotten their hands on some prime ingredients for special potions that can only be used in the Ettenmoors. Experienced Ettenmoors Freeps will be able to purchase these new potions to dispel a variety of CC effects.

From the Coldfell Provisioner:

    * Vial of Aromatic Spirits (Rank 3) – cures Stun and Daze effects at the cost of Morale.
    * Vial of Unbinding (Rank 3) – cures Root effects at the cost of Morale.

From the Items Trader:

    * Salt of Hartshorn (Rank 5) – cures Stun and Daze effects.
    * Solvent of Release (Rank 5) – cures Root effects.
    * Phial of Conhuith (Rank 5) – cures Fear (CC) effects.

The above potions all have a 5 minute cooldown timer. Please note that the Phial of Conhuith does not cure effects of Fear resistance type; it cures the crowd control version of Fear.

New Gear

Explorers into the Delving of Frór discover a new spirit stone, far more brilliant and rare than the Luminous Spirit Stones.

Collect the new Brilliant Spirit Stones and new tokens from Tyrants and Chieftains in the Ettenmoors and barter them for a new suite of level 58 class-based armour sets, weapon sets, and jewelry sets!

Creep Lovin’

Gather ‘round the Warleader’s banner, as we discuss Mines of Moria updates for Creep Players:

Level Up

All Creeps will be automatically leveled to 60 when the Mines of Moria expansion launches, regardless of whether you purchase the expansion! You’ll be fully prepared for Freeps who dare to enter into the ‘Moors!

Attribute Changes

Monster player attributes have been rebalanced with Moria to be more like Free Player attributes:

    * Monster players will now have higher armour values.
    * Mitigations, avoidances, and resistances have been brought in line with Free Players’ counterparts (in terms of caps). These attributes will be noticeably lower than they were pre-Moria.
    * Health and power pools have been readjusted.
    * All monster players now have a base in-combat health regeneration rate.
    * Damage capabilities for all classes have been slightly increased.

The above changes will shift combat dynamics in PvMP fairly significantly. The old rule of “many Creeps to a Freep” has been put into the recycle bin. The new goal with these changes is to put monster players on par with Free Players, which we hope will result with a more entertaining combat experience and less reliance on needing high population in order to compete.

New Stuff!

To fully flesh out class roles, we have added a slew of new class abilities for all monster player classes, from Rank 0 to Rank 15.

    * New Skills: A bevy of wondrous new skills to use against your Freep foes!
    * New Passives: Starting at Rank 5, Creeps will be able to purchase new passives that can increase in-combat Health Regeneration, in-combat Power Regeneration, Melee Critical Chance, Ranged Critical Chance, and Tactical Critical Chance.
    * New Traits: New passive, enhanced skill, and advanced skill traits are available to help further customize your character!
    * New Corruptions: Two new sets of Corruptions will be available to counter the Frost and Lightning effects from the Rune-keeper class.

Make sure to check out the upcoming extended Dev Diary on monster player classes for more details!

Destiny Point Perks

Don’t know what to do with the rest of your destiny points? Are you worried that they’ll go stale? Well, worry no more! Now you can use them to purchase perks!

The destiny point perk purchase button is now enabled for all Creeps. You can purchase the following types of temporary buffs:

    * Swiftness – Increase your movement speed
    * Recovery – Increase your out of combat morale and power regeneration
    * Resolve – Increase your maximum morale
    * Vigour – Increase your maximum power
    * Fortitude – Increase your amour effectiveness

Traits: Slots and Costs

Are your favorite traits costing you more than a hobbit arm and leg to equip? The Corruptors of the Ettenmoors have decided to slash prices on equipping all traits. We hope that this helps both new Creeps to the Ettenmoors and old veterans with minimal cash flow.

As a result of all of the new trait additions, we have also increased the number of trait slots available to use. Monster players will now be able to equip 6 class traits and 4 racial traits.

Conclusion

We hope that you will enjoy the new mechanical changes to the Ettenmoors and Delving of Frór. We’ve been working hard to incorporate your feedback into the new face of PvMP. Don’t forget to read through the other PvMP Dev Diaries for Mines of Moria for more information on monster player class changes, keep and outpost changes, and more! See you on the battlefield!