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A foundation for future growth: Examining LotRO's class restructuring
Let's start out with the elephant in the room: The comprehensive and radical class changes that are coming to Lord of the Rings Online with Helm's Deep have a portion of the community rattled. After all, we are protective of our characters and concerned about changes that affect them, and this looks to be a doozy. You want to hear a secret? Turbine's a little scared too. When asked if this might become LotRO's NGE -- the reviled shift in Star Wars Galaxies' gameplay structure -- the devs said it's something they've been asked a lot these days. They know that there's a part of the playerbase that's fearful, and in all honesty, the devs have had a few sleepless nights over the changes too. But past the fear is the certainty that this is the course the game needs to take right now, and that certainty grows by the day as they continue to test the changes on the beta server. The team told us as such during a class tour today, going on to show us the scope of what's going to happen. What we're looking at here is the old class trait system thrown in the trash to be replaced by specializations and trait trees, as well as the paring down of many class skills into a more manageable number. It's going to impact everyone all at once, so if this is your game of choice, you'll want to read on.
LotRO's new trait trees to 'stand out' from each other
It's safe to say that Lord of the Rings Online players have many, many questions concerning the upcoming class overhaul coming to the game with Helm's Deep. Turbine's devs took to Twitter and the forums to answer a few of these and give us a better idea what to expect when the expansion hits. Replacing the current trait system will be trait trees in much the same vein as the mounted combat trees. Players will get a point to spend every other level, although they will be able to get additional points through deeds. Early on, players will choose a specialization that will affect how points are spent, such as a Hunter's Bowmaster or Huntsman specializations, and by fully investing in a tree will a player be able to purchase a legendary skill. Players can save multiple builds; the studio is providing the first two saved build slots for free with additional ones available for purchase. So why the decision to overhaul the trait system? Turbine explains: "We wanted to design the trait trees in such a way that as soon as you leave the intro, your trait line starts to play as it was envisioned instead of later on down the road when you began to collect traits. We really wanted each trait line to sort of stand out from the rest and reduce some of the class homogenization that had slowly occurred over the years."
