Aloha and welcome to Ost Dunhoth

By: Joe “jwbarry” Barry

Hey everybody,

I wanted to take some time to tell you about the new raid in Update 2, Ost Dunhoth, what makes it unique and some of the things we're trying out with our instances.

The Design Goals

My guiding focus with this raid was twofold. First, I wanted to make fights that are challenging and require a lot of communication and coordination (both within members of the raid, and also the two groups that make up the raid). That's what sets a raid apart from landscape quests and even most group content. You can't be 12 people running around doing whatever. You have to be a unit and act with a cohesive plan where everyone is doing their job. This allows your dozen organized characters to perform better than an unorganized group twice your size.

Second, I wanted to remove the arbitrary mechanics. I played Demon's Souls a while ago, and while the learning curve is harsh (“Will it kill me?” = “The answer is always yes.”) they did an amazing thing that really stuck with me. Every time I died, not only did I feel like it was my fault, it actually was my fault. I used the wrong spell, didn't dodge, didn't block, swung my sword too late, should have used my bow, shouldn’t have been fighting this guy yet, etc.

I didn't die because the game rolled a 20 twice-in-a-row. My deaths were never arbitrary, the result of a randomly generated number. I died because I did it wrong; I wasn’t good enough, yet. Once I learned from my mistakes, got better at the game and did it right -- I succeeded! The taste of victory was sweet because I earned it. I was better at the game than I was before; I had won.

This heavily influenced the design of Ost Dunhoth. You will wipe many, many times but it will be because the minstrel didn't heal in time, the hunter stole threat, the tank didn't back up out of the fire, your DPS didn’t coordinate on targets, someone broke a crowd control (CC), etc. It will be because of something you did wrong. You can then analyze this, learn from it, and avoid repeating the same mistakes. You can get better, not lucky.

That's the design goal, and going from play tests (we've had more on this raid than any other to date) we've achieved our objective. Many times, what was initially thought of as arbitrary in play tests turned out to be something that required a change of tactic; a newer and unique approach with an infrequently used skill. If there are fights or mechanics you think have arbitrary random number elements, let us know. We'll either explain how you're misinterpreting things or agree with you and try to change it. Losing because of random numbers isn't fun. Losing because you screwed up and can learn to do better next time is the path to fun. Overcoming a challenge because of your determination to learn and grow into a better player -- that’s the definition of fun.

Story and Setup

Players who've ventured into the Lich Bluffs in Enedwaith have met our ultimate foe, at least for this raid. He is the fifth (and final) Gaunt-lord, Gortheron the Doom-caller. In the Lich Bluffs story, you interrupted Gortheron while he was attempting to place Ferndur into a new body.

Unfortunately you didn't harass him enough, and Gortheron has managed to bring back all of the other Gaunt-lords to wreak havoc in Middle-earth. Their return has been heralded by relics spewing filth into several areas. That's the focus of the three and six person content. Once we get back into Enedwaith with the 12-man, it's time to find and take out Gortheron.

Who exactly is Gortheron?

Gortheron is both the leader and the most powerful member of the Gaunt-lords. The Gaunt-lords are the creations of Sauron, built as twisted mockeries of the wizards of Middle-earth. As Ivar the Bloodhand is the analogue to Radagast the Brown, Gortheron is the opposing force to Gandalf the Grey. Each Gaunt-lord has a unique power over Poison, Disease, Fear or Wounds -- Gortheron is expert in all four.

Yeah yeah, story stuff is nice and all, but get to the meat...

The stats

Ost Dunhoth features:

• Six bosses
• 15 trash fights
• Two Difficulty Tiers
• Six challenge quests
• 17 Deeds
• Zero radiance required
• 46 different trash and boss monsters
• Over 150 new skills
• Hundreds of effects
• Millions of little player deaths
• Some of the most epic story and drama moments in all of LOTRO.

The layout

Ost Dunhoth is broken out into 3 wings: A, B, and C wing. When you walk in the front door, wings A and B are open, but C is closed. Each wing features two sequential bosses and themed areas. Wing A is Wounds, then Fear. Wing B is Disease, then Poison. Wing C is the Crypt, then Gortheron himself.

Each sub-wing has its own trash monsters, boss, and raid lock. When you've defeated the Wounds boss and put it on raid lock, the Fear portion of the wing will open up. When both raid locks in Wing A and both raid locks in Wing B are engaged, Wing C will open up. The raid locks are on a one week timer and reset on Thursday morning.

Each of the trash fights have been hand-designed and customized to be a unique mini-boss level challenge. All of the trash skills are unique to this raid and we've put nearly as much time into the trash as we’ve put into the boss fights. There are only two or three trash fights before each boss. The goal of the trash in Ost Dunhoth is not to be a time sink. The goal is to present unique little puzzles and prepare your group for the communication and coordination necessary for the boss fights. If you can't manage the trash fights, boss fights will not go well.

Upgrades and Tidbits

There are three new systemic upgrades we're trying out in this raid – Difficulty Tiers, Automatic Raid Markings, and Class Skill Cooldown Resets.

Difficulty Tiers

Difficulty Tiers are something we're implementing across the cluster that Liu-Tsieng will be talking about, but I wanted to touch here on what it means for the raid. In skirmishes, going from Tier 1 to Tier 2 means that monsters have more health, damage, armor, and a general stat increase. In the raid, Difficulty Tiers effects more than just that. Trash monsters get new skills, bosses get new skills and mechanics, timers get shorter, windows of error get smaller, and the communication and coordination required for success takes a big step up.

An example of a way mechanics upgrade: look at what happens when you fight a trash pull. If you kill a trash monster in Tier 1 and wipe, he stays dead. In Tier 2 a trash pull needs to be defeated as an entire pull. In Tier 2, if even one monster remains alive after you’ve wiped, the entire pull will respawn.

Further challenges sit above Tier 2 difficulty. These are the tasks that are asked of the players on the highest level of LOTRO. You’ll be asked to do it faster, better and harder than anyone else. To beat the challenges, perfection is expected of you.

Automated Raid Markings

Raid markings are overhead icons that players can use to help assign kill order and keep track of monsters. This is particularly useful when there are multiple creatures with the same visual profile in a pull. Normally, the raid leader has to spend several minutes doing this before each pull, and even then, your raid leader may not keep the marks consistent across different raids or the same raid. We've simplified this by marking all of the trash in Ost Dunhoth for you.

Why are we automating them?

1 - Time. Waiting around for the raid leader to spend five minutes marking each trash pull as they try to maneuver their camera around and select all of the monsters without triggering the fight is not exactly thrilling game play.

2 - Consistency. Now, the wight on the left is always the moon no matter which time you come into the raid or who your leader is. The strategy and the guides are all the same; everyone can speak a consistent language when it comes to the trash fights and tactics.

3 - Level the Playing Field. We’re not sure how many casual or pug players even know that Raid Marking exists -- it’s not one of our most advertised features. However, there's no doubt that it's extremely useful and one of the communication aspects that separates the good players from the OK players. It's no longer knowledge of a UI mechanic that marks a difference; it all comes down to skill.

There was an initial concern about Automated Raid Markings when we first announced it on the test server. However, after playing the game with this system for a while, it came to be very well-liked and appreciated. It's currently only deployed within Ost Dunhoth, but the system may be expanded to future instances and raids.

Class Skill Cooldown Resets

One of the things that dramatically adds to time in a raid (and difficulty of any given attempt at a boss) is the state of your class skill cooldowns. In Ost Dunhoth, we're giving you full access to all your class skills every time you attempt a boss fight. We're doing this by resetting the cooldowns on all of your class skills. There are three situations in the raid where we will reset all the cooldowns on all of your class skills: when you first approach a boss, when you wipe on a boss and when you defeat a boss.

Why are we resetting your skills at the boss fights?

1 – Time. Sitting around waiting for cooldowns is not an exciting gameplay experience.

2 – Difficulty. It lets us make the raid and the boss fights harder and more challenging. This initially seems counter-intuitive. If we’re letting you use all of your skills every time you attempt the boss, wouldn’t it be easier? It would, but now we can balance the boss knowing that you're coming in to every boss fight with every gun blazing. This means we know that your fifth attempt is the exact same as your first attempt. We don't have to make it easier so you can handle your fifth attempt with fewer skills. All attempts at a boss fight are rendered equal.

3 – Heroic Moments. You get to use all of your skills in every boss fight. Now you don’t have to fear not using that 30 minute cooldown. Before the scenario would be, “I might need it next attempt on this boss. I'm close to wiping during this attempt, and I don’t want to waste it just in-case but- oh shoot I just won the fight.” Now you don’t have that worry hovering over your head. You can experience enhanced heroic moments via full use of your character's array of skills and more fun.

In addition to the three new raid systems, we’re also introducing two new forms of CC defense on monsters.

Anger

Anger is a new style of CC “defense.” Think of it like a CC “shell.” Monsters with Anger will now carry a buff that gives them a set of red floating shields around their body. When the monster is CC'd, the CC will stick for a moment before being broken as the Anger buff is dispelled. This is how the CC “shell” is broken. The monster can then be CC'd at your leisure. 50 seconds later, the Anger buff will return. When Anger returns the monster will remain under whatever CC he has until it expires. The next CC cast on the monster will then be broken in the same manner as the first, and the cycle will continue.

Bloodlust

Bloodlust is a new style of kiting defense. A monster under the influence of Bloodlust desperately wishes to attack players. If it goes too long without being able to make an attack, it will go into a frenzy mode and gain large bonuses to run, attack speed and damage. Please note that the monster does not have to land an attack to keep out of frenzy, it only has to attempt it. If you do wish to kite a mob with Bloodlust, make sure you slow down every now and again to let it attack. Otherwise, things might go very badly for everyone involved…

In Closing

Ost Dunhoth has been an adventure and a journey for me personally. I’ve spent eight months and almost two thousand hours on this raid. As with everything in LOTRO, I am far from being the only one here who is personally invested in this raid. Both of the previous numbers go up dramatically when the contributions of the rest of the team are totaled. Fantus, Liu-Tsieng, Gubtug, Pinion, 7ofSwords, Sleepy, and many others all played large parts in the design and implementation. I’m just the one lucky enough to write this diary.

From all of us, we are proud to bid you welcome to Ost Dunhoth!