The Fanatical Swordsman

There was a new Developer Diary released Tuesday on Freep rewards. Several months ago, Jared “Kelsan” Pruett, a developer in charge of PvMP in LOTRO, set up several feedback threads for Creeps and Freeps alike. One of the threads was on Freep rewards.

The first thing Kelsan talks about are the Freep quests. The following changes are intended:

• All quests are now Dailies.
• All quests reward the player a combination of Destiny, Glory, and Coin.
• Quests to kill Tyrants or Chieftains now reward the player with Tyrant Crests and/or Chieftain Brooches on completion.

• Freep consumable potency has been increased to be comparable to top tier crafted potions.
• Barter cost for consumables have been reduced & unified: all potions now cost 10 Dull Spirit Stones for a stack of 5.

As I don’t want to see the Delving be completely abandoned all the time, this is okay with me, as that is a cheap cost and requires a minimal amount of PvE for a good stack of pots. I hope comparable costs are implemented on Creepside.

“The following changes were made to the Ranger to help him fulfill his role on the battlefield; that of a single target assassin that focuses on key targets.

• Damage output increased across the board (roughly 25%)
• Critical Chance increased by 10%
• Fly True
  • Cooldown reduced to 10s
  • Removed Stealth requirement
  • Removed Dunedain Mark requirement
  • Induction reduced to 2s
  • Increased Critical and Devastating Critical damage
• Dagger Throw
  • Cooldown reduced to 15s
• Mark of the Dunedain
  • New FX added to help fellows recognize marked targets
  • Added Parry Rating debuff

Additionally, the Ranger now has map skills for all of the key locations in the Ettenmoors. This will allow him to more easily traverse the landscape.”

This is really cool, as I like the Ranger (except when I am playing my Creep haha). I would like to see both the Ranger and the Troll playable more often.

Armour Sets

• As was mentioned earlier, the PvMP armor sets are moving off of the Delving of Fror stones barter system and onto the Tyrant’s Crests and Chieftain’s Brooches system.
• The cost will be 20 Chieftain’s Brooches and 20 Tyrant’s Crests per piece. This means 120 of each total. That is a whole lot.
• Current armor sets will be barterable for the new armor sets, so the hard work players have been putting in isn’t wasted.
• The new armor sets will reflect itemization and stat changes though.

Jewelry and other equipment

There are some very sweet items available, including ring sets for hunters/burglars, champs/wardens/guards/captains, and lore-masters/runekeepers/minstrels. It was interesting though, Kelsan apparently didn’t get the memo on captains getting their primary stat changed to might, as he grouped the captains in with the tactical classes. The rings are not restricted by class, though, so captains will be able to use them.

Some other items that were available were off-hand weapons for appropriate classes, shields for guards, minstrels, and wardens, a new captain banner that looks pretty much awesome, and a riffler for runekeepers that will clear movement speed debuffs with Prelude to Hope, which is very interesting.

Veteran Rewards

Finally, Kelsan mentioned that there will be special cloaks available for rank 10+ freeps for a limited time, as the quest will expire on October 31st, 2011. There will be quests that grant titles to both freeps and creeps that are r10+, and they will be a reward for the veterans of the Moors, to help differentiate who has been there “for the long haul.”

I actually got to see the cloaks in the Beta, and they are pretty awesome looking. I wish I had taken a screenshot. The cloaks will also be featuring a new technology that allows the stats to change based on rank. I imagine that technology will be implemented with other items too, as new updates roll in.

Personal comment

Creeps have always had one purpose: to fight player-vs-player. That is why you play a Creep. Freeps, on the other hand, could PvE if they wanted to, but instead come to the Moors to try their skills on the ultimate enemy: human players. This was the only draw for a long time, and it was sufficient for most. There are some “rewards for PvP” available, such as armor sets (which require rank AND PvE in the Moors), jewelry (which require rank and PvE) and now special relics that enhance Freep skills (also gated behind rank and PvE).

The number one complaint that Freeps and Creeps alike have about the Moors is the amount of PvE required for Freeps to get rewards. The Freeps don’t like it because it limits the amount of fun they can have ranking and PvP’ing. The Creeps don’t like it because it makes the Freeps sometimes avoid Creeps and go into the Delving of Fror for the Delving stones needed for the armor. This makes it hard for Creeps to have fun PvP’ing too.

With the removal of Delving stones requirement, there will be more moving around the map, more PvP, which will be great. I am not fully convinced that the devs didn’t just give freeps more reason to farm Tyrants, but we will see. I am greatly looking forward to the changes, and I hope to see more freeps come out to meet the billions of reavers coming with the opening of PvMP to free players.