Lore-master Changes

By: Ken "Graalx2" Burd

Hail and well met to all masters of lore! This missive will bring you up to date on the various changes we are making in the November Update for the well being of Lore-masters everywhere. This is not a massive revision of the class; just some tweaks to playability here and there, primarily to address those issues that have been discussed on our forums.

New Skills

So, what have we done? First of all, let’s go over the new skills we’ve added to fill out the repertoire of all Lore-masters.

Staff Sweep

Available at level 30, Staff Sweep is a frontal arc staff attack that will hit up to three targets. As a bonus, the skill gains an additional attack when the Lore-master is equipped with a sword in addition to a staff. When attacking a Flanked target the Lore-master will gain a moderate Power-over-time restoring effect.

Frost-lore

To round out the debuffing abilities of the Lore-master we have added “Frost-lore” at level 40. This skill applies a debuff to the Tactical damage abilities of the target and is affected by the same traits that modify the behavior of the other “Lore” skills.

Combat Summoning

To further improve the lives of Lore-masters that concentrate on their companions we have added “Combat Summoning” to the skills granted for taking the legendary trait Nature-friend. This skill will allow the next summoning skill used by the Lore-master to ignore the not-in-combat restriction of a normal summons.

Companion Teleport

This new ability allows summoned companions to teleport to their master. This skill appears on the pet’s skill bar immediately to the left of the triggered skills. While this skill may not be used while the pet is in combat, its usefulness should be readily apparent to anyone who ever fell off a cliff without dismissing their pet. Note: Captain Heralds and Archers will also get this ability.

While we were making changes to companions, we addressed some of the other issues Lore-masters have brought to our attention, including changes to the visual indicator that displays when a companion successfully flanks an enemy. This effect is now only visible to the Lore-master whose pet initiated the flanked event. In addition the sound effect from the Flanked event is now controlled by the combat sound volume, not the Voice Over sound volume.

Companion Appearance Changes

We have completely re-worked the way we are handling the Lore-master’s companion appearances. All of the necklaces that previously granted a new pet appearance have been converted to single use Talismans. These new Talismans will grant the Lore-master a new skill that will summon a raven, bear, or other pet with the new appearance. Unfortunately, this means that anyone using the old necklaces for their stats will have to find new neckwear.

As part of this change we’ve created additional Talismans for entirely new appearances, even for those companions like the Sabercat that did not have any alternate appearances. Talismans will be crafted by jewellers from recipes found in loot. Plus, for those who don’t want to hunt down these new Talismans, they are all available in the LOTRO Store. We have also added a few bonus Talismans that are store exclusives.