출처 - http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/devdiaries/1830-update-6-developer-diary-rune-keeper

 

 

Update 6 will see quite a number of changes to the Rune-keeper.  Some of these changes affect long standing aspects of the class that are getting shaken up; others are addressing the changing power balance between the classes.  The main thrust of this update is to continue keeping the Rune-keeper true to his original design goals.  While on the squishy side, he should be capable of filling the role of a main damage dealer or a main healer, depending on customization.

 

 

Rune-keepers are the most fragile class in the game.  This is not an accident, it is their design.  Their fragility should be sufficiently mitigated by a number of defensive skill plays and careful kiting.  However, the changes in Rise of Isengard made the differences between fragile and tanky classes more pronounced, pushing the Rune-keeper a little too far.  In this update we give the Rune-keeper a few more options to increase their survivability.  These options will require tradeoffs however, much as before this update one could enhance survivability through gear choices.

 

 

The damage Rune-keepers can deal has never really dropped, but other classes (who either have access to a variety of utility skills or are harder to kill) have increased their damage dealing capabilities.  This puts the Rune-keeper in an awkward position: he is intentionally fragile and lacks deep group utility in exchange for damage proficiency.  In this update we will be both increasing the Rune-keepers damage dealing capabilities and attempt to add more variety and utility into what they bring to the table.

 

 

Similar to damage, healing Rune-keepers have not so much been weakened. Instead, the class has stood still while other healing classes evolved around them.  Their healing throughput and power efficiency is top notch, but the utility they bring to the table is not.  In this update we will be adding a significant amount of utility to healing Rune-keepers.  Dread removal, group damage buffs, spike healing and unique abilities like critical hit immunity will be added to their already top tier healing.  To compensate for this, power efficiency is being toned down a bit.

 

 

The Rune-keeper does have one strength that stands head and shoulders above all other classes: Power sustainability (most notably while healing).  In exchange for the various buffs that are going in for this update, some of this efficiency is being reduced.

 

Without more talk, let’s jump right in!

 

 

 

All Writs (Health, Fire, and Cold) now have no attunement requirements.  This means they will be usable at all attunements, for all spec lines.  The Master of Writs skill is being removed from the game, as it is no longer needed.  Rune-keepers should now be able to provide some adding healing while dealing damage or some damage/debuffs while healing.  The difference between an average and a skilled Rune-keeper will be in utilizing these and other new abilities.

 

 

I have never been happy with the Affinity mechanic.  Tying it to rune-stone was thematically interesting, but forced Rune-keepers to keep multiple stones in Legendary Item slots to be effective.  It also required the gameplay to focus on swapping these stones out mid combat.  In Update 6, Affinity has been removed from all Rune-stones.  Now, using your elemental skills (frost, flame or lightning) will change your affinity.  This change will persist outside combat.

 

 

This change makes the changing of affinity an integral part of combat.  Combined with the changes to Writs above, you will always have a skill play that will let you change affinity.  Other implementations for changing affinity were considered, but they had various problems we disliked.  It will take a little getting used to, but should quickly become second nature.

 

 

Calming Verse is a skill I’ve never been very happy with.  The Linnod traits combined with this skill to encourage using it every time the cooldown was up.  This made it a fairly stale skill, though potent.  I do not like stale skills.  So, I gutted it to make it a skill you want to use when it’s useful, not all the time:

 

Calming Verse – Reworked.  Instant cast, 1 minute cooldown.  Puts a 10 second duration buff on the Rune-keeper that reduces perceived threat by 25% (this means you have a chance will drop agro on monsters currently attacking you) and reduced all power costs by 10%.  In addition, each of the three trait lines has a 4-set bonus (see below) that will enhance Calming Verse.  The two Linnod traits have been reworked (see below) to no longer modify Calming Verse.

 

The 10% bonus healing and damage the skill provided (when traited) should be more then covered by the other changes this update.  Effectively, Calming Verse has gone from a button you should press every minute, to one you should press when it is helpful!

 

 

The affinity changes mentioned above made a toggled skill problematic.  In addition, Weapon of X was not very exciting and of questionable potency.  Since I’d already gutted Calming Verse and killed Master of Writs outright, I felt like I was on a roll.  Check it out:

 

Weapon of X – Reworked.  Renamed to “Rune-sign of X”.  This skill is now a healing skill.  Requires 6 healing attunement.  Instant cast, 30 second cooldown.  Places a small heal over time effect on an ally for 30 seconds.  Also places a buff on that ally for 30 seconds, based on affinity.  The Improved version of the skill adds an additional buff (listed after the / ):

 

    Storm - Critical rating / flat critical bonus

    Flame - Finesse / reduced miss chance

    Winter - Physical and Tactical Mastery / % bonus damage

 

 

More details on these will be listed in the skill line sections below, but I wanted to call this out here.  The passive bonuses that the Master of X traits gave are all being rolled into the 3 set bonus of their traitline.  The traits will now grain a stack of Master of X for each skill you use of the correct element.  When at 5 stacks, your next Writ will be instant cast and have an additional bonus based on which Master of X trait was used.  This, plus the affinity change to writs, will allow Rune-keepers to have ample access to Writs at all times!

 

 

Lightning is in the best place of the RK’s three traitlines.  It is as potent as it ever was, perhaps only suffering slightly from repetitiveness or from watching other traitlines/classes get buffed.  In this update, we focus on making a few under-used traits more relevant, making set bonus a little more exciting and tweaking the Charged state.  This is done by re-ordering a few bonuses, changing the Frost synergies again and adding some variety.  The potency of the line shouldn’t change much, but some more interesting choices should be introduced.

 

 

There are some minor changes to the Charged buff.  Its passive critical damage bonus is being removed.  It was very small, barely noticeable, and not very exciting.  In its place, the effect will now interact with Essence of Storm in addition to Sustaining Bolt.  It will grant +50% bonus damage on critical strikes from Essence of Storm.  In addition, the application rate through the 4-set bonus has decreased slightly, but a new trait allows you to gain the buff automatically. 

 

 

2 Equipped: 

  Chilling Rhetoric useable at all Attunements and -10s Cooldown

 

3 Equipped: 

  +25% Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier 

  -5 Shocking Words Cooldown

 

4 Equipped: 

  Occasionally become Charged, granting increased critical damage making Sustaining Bolt free. 

  +40% Sustaining Bolt damage

  +2% lightning damage for each Solitary Thunder trait equipped

 

 

2 Equipped: 

  Chilling Rhetoric useable at all Attunements and applies a -30% movespeed debuff after its target takes damage

 

3 Equipped: 

  +25% Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier

  Increased critical hit chance

 

4 Equipped: 

  Occasionally become Charged, making Sustaining Bolt free and Essence of Storm criticals deal 50% bonus damage.

  +3% lightning and frost damage for each Solitary Thunder trait equipped

  Calming Verse increases movement speed by 20%.

 

Sustaining Bolt - Increased damage, compensates for the removed traitline bonus.

Shocking Words - Reduced cooldown from 25 to 20 seconds, again compensates for the removed traitline bonus.

Ceaseless Argument - Reduced power cost.

Epic Conclusion - Small damage increase, removed the 50% power penalty, increased power cost.

 

Icy Discourse – Changed to “When you use Chilling Rhetoric, you gain the Charged buff.  When in the Charged state Sustaining Bolt is free and Essence of Storm critical hits deal +50% additional damage.”

Winter-storm – Each use of a Frost skill stacks a tier of Winter-storm buff on you.  When at 5, your next lightning skill is an automatic crit.

Confounding Principals – Now also increases Chilling Rhetoric’s up front slow by 20% and reduces Distracting Winds cooldown.

Master of Tragedy – Removed passive bonus, they are now the 3-set bonus of traitline.  Lightning skills put a stack of “Master of Tragedy” on you.  When at 5 stacks, your next Writ is instant cast and has no cooldown.

Tale of the Storm – Duration reduced to 10s.

Perfect Imagery – Now also passively increases lightning damage by 5%.

 

 

Fire has gone from a weak spec line, to a strong but slightly monotonous one.  Improved Essay of Fire allowed incredible burst damage, but overly compressed the skill rotations and made the rotations kind of boring.  In this update, we will be reducing and redistributing the potency of this monolithic skill, breathe new life into under-used skills and continue to reassess under-performing traits.  Smouldering Wrath will come into its own as the bone-crunching damage dealer it should be, additional AOE options will open up and Self-motivation will be buffed (see the Other skills section below for more details.)

 

 

2 Equipped: 

  Fiery Ridicule useable at all Attunements and its induction is not knocked back by damage

 

3 Equipped: 

  +30% Essence of Flame Damage 

  -10% Wrath of Flame Power Cost

 

4 Equipped: 

  -4.5s Essay of Fire Induction 

  +Finesse Rating 

  +2% fire damage for each Cleansing Fires trait equipped

 

 

2 Equipped: 

  Fiery Ridicule useable at all Attunements and its induction is not knocked back by damage

 

3 Equipped: 

  +Finesse Rating, values increased

  Self-motivation is now an instant cast, usable while moving.

 

4 Equipped: 

  -4.5s Essay of Fire Induction 

  +3% fire and frost damage for each Cleansing Fires trait equipped

  Calming Verse makes all your inductions not able to be knocked back.

 

All skills – Small power cost increase.

Essence of Flame - Increased damage.

Improved Essay of Fire - Now only removes the induction from your next fire skill.

Distracting Flame - Cooldown now 30 seconds.  Duration reduced to 15 seconds.  Damage pulses sped up and increased.  Initial damage pulse removed.

Smouldering Wrath - Duration reduced to 6 seconds.  Damage increased.  Pulses can now crit.

 

Scathing Retort – Reworked.  Smouldering Wrath provides additional effects based on fire effects active on the target.  Cooldown is also reduced by 15 seconds.  

Writ of Fire: Increase damage by 5% per tier.

Fiery Ridicule: Returns Power to the Rune-keeper.

Mystifying Flame: Reduce Tactical Mitigation.  

Master of Connotation – Removed passive bonus, they are now the 3-set bonus of traitline.  Fire skills put a stack of “Master of Connotation” on you.  When at 5 stacks, your next Writ heals you 3% of max morale and is instant cast.

Overflowing Confidence – Now also heals you for 10% of max morale, duration of power cost reduction reduced to 20s from 30s.

Linnod of Subtlety – Essence of Flame becomes a three target AOE.  Scathing Mockery induction reduced by 1 second.

Mystifying Flame – 15 second cooldown is now an instant cast that can be used while moving.  Also passively increases fire damage by 5%.

 

 

Healing Rune-keepers do not bring enough support utility to the table relative to other healing classes.  Changing this is the main focus of the update.  A common complaint about rune-keeper healers has been that they heal plenty, but do little to make fights go faster.  A number of the buffs in this update will focus on increase the damage output of the fellowship.

 

Improved Prelude of Hope is being changed a bit.  Stacking bonuses and scalar changes in Rise of Isengard made the skill grant more power then it cost, a place we did not want to be.  The skill will now provide a lesser amount of power to both the Rune-keeper and his target, providing more much asked for utility: power restoration.

 

Glorious/Wondrous Foreshadowing is also being greatly modified.  Much like Calming Verse, the skill was played correctly when used every time the cooldown was up.  This made for a not very exciting skill that was basically mandatory.  It has changed to become a very potent single target damage shield with a healthy amount of increased incoming healing.  Its cooldown and duration are also greatly reduced.  It not will allow an observant Rune-keeper to mitigate an incredible amount of damage when used correctly.

 

Our Fates Entwined deserves a call out too.  With the aforementioned increase in tank health, and the comparable increase in damage that instance bosses deal, Our Fates Entwined could be a death sentence for the Rune-keeper!  We’ve changed it to be a morale drain that is steady and predictable, instead of the damage redirection, which would be cripplingly hurtful.

 

 

2 Equipped: 

  Rune of Restoration useable at all Attunements and heals 20% more

 

3 Equipped: 

  -10% Healing Attuned Skill Power Cost 

  +2 Mending Verse Pulse Count 

 

4 Equipped: 

  -5% Threat Generation 

  +2% healing for each Benedictions of Peace trait equipped

 

New Set Bonuses

 

2 Equipped: 

  Rune of Restoration useable at all Attunements and heals 20% more

 

3 Equipped: 

  -10% Healing Attuned Skill Power Cost 

  +2 Mending Verse Pulse Count 

 

4 Equipped: 

  +3% healing and frost damage for each Benedictions of Peace trait equipped

  Calming Verse allows Mending Verse usable while moving with no induction.

  Their Weapons Will Not Harm Us now protects against all 4 debuff types.

 

All Skills – Small power cost decrease.

NEW SKILL - Scribe a New Ending - Removes defeat dread from your party.  10 minute cooldown.

Improved Prelude to Hope – Now grants power to you and your target if the target has Writ active.  The power bonus has been reduced.

Epic for the Ages - Cooldown now 15 seconds, increase healing, reduce induction to 2.5 seconds and increase Power cost.

Word of Exaltation - Increase bubble amount, mitigation buff removed.

All Fates Entwined – No longer redirects damage to the Rune-keeper.  Instead reduces the incoming damage of the whole fellowship.  Now costs health over time in addition to Power.  Greatly reduced initial power cost.

Rousing Words – Can now crit.  Power cost reduced.

Essay of Exaltation – Removed 50% power penalty, increased power cost.

Glorious Foreshadowing – Reworked.  This skill is now an immediate skill.  Now provides a +25% incoming healing bonus to a single target for 8s. Lower power cost.  3 minute cooldown.

That Which Does Not Kill Us – Reworked.  Now increases the damage of your fellowship by 20% for 20 seconds.  If an ally so buffed is struck by an attack, the attack is negated and the damage bonus is replaced with a morale over time effect.

 

Memorable Prose - No longer provides bonus morale, now provides Physical and Tactical Mastery.  Power reduction increased to 10%.

Author of Exaltation - No longer adds to mitigation, now adds critical hit immunity for duration of the bubble.

Terse Narrative – Renamed to “Public Narrative” - Changed to: Epic for the Ages heals your fellowship in addition to the main target for a lesser amount. This amount is increased based on the tier of Writ of Health on the target.

The Prophetic Word – Also increases the Morale/Power granted when an ally is recovered with Do Not Fall This Day.

Master of Allusion – Removed passive bonus, they are now the 3-set bonus of traitline.  Healing skills put a stack of “Master of Connotation” on you.  When at 5 stacks, your next Writ costs no Power and is instant cast.

Linnod of Peace – Reworked.  Now increase incoming healing by 5%, evade by 5% and in-Combat morale regen by 10%.

Wondrous Foreshadowing – Reduces cooldown to 1m, increases healing bonus 50% and also reduces incoming damage by 30%.  Still single target.  Passively increases Rune-keepers healing by 5%.

 

 

All Frost skills – Small Power cost reduction.

Essence of Winter - Power cost debuff has been reduced to -50%.  Damage increased.

Chilling Rhetoric - Initial slow magnitude reduced from 70% to 50%.

The Blade Shall Not Wound AND The Fang Shall Not Poison - Combined into a single skill: “Their Weapons Will Not Harm Us”. 30 second cooldown, 30 second duration.

Self-motivation - Changed to restore 10% of max power.

Fall to Storm/Flame/Frost - Damage increased.  Duration reduced to 30 seconds.

Distracting Winds - Increased detaunt amount.

 

 

Martial training - Melee damage and critical hit bonuses removed.  Max Power bonus changed to a flat bonus from % modification.  Morale bonus increased.  Added bonus armour and critical defense.

Fall to Our Wrath - No longer provides a new skill.  Now enhances Fall to Storm/Flame/Frost to provide an additional debuff on your foe, based on Affinity:

  Storm - Increased incoming critical hit chance

  Flame - Increased incoming damage

  Frost - reduced Block, Parry, Evade and Resistance ratings

Steady Hands - Instead of setting your attunement to 0, now puts you at 9 in the opposite direction you were in.  Increased induction to 2. Removed silence protection. Damage will now knock back the induction.

 

 

Ceaseless Argument Power cost - Changed to Damage increase.

Self-motivation Power Restore - Changed to cooldown reduction.

Glorious Foreshadowing Duration - Reduced to 9 seconds.

Distracting Flames – Cooldown reduction reduced to 15 seconds.

 

 

Of the twin goals “improve variety and utility” and “improve damage/healing throughput” we have focused most on the former.  While this does not mean we ignored the latter, we are much more confident that the variety and utility of the Rune-keeper is where we want it.  This is a good place to be, as making a few scalar adjustments to damage and healing numbers in future updates is an easy change.  As stated at the beginning of this diary, and in every one I’ve ever written, the Rune-keeper is to be a main damage dealer and a main healer.  This will continue to be our driving goal.

 

This update has a number of new toys to play with.  The toolbox the Rune-keeper has is deeper than it ever was before.  Experiment.  Try new things.  Change your skill orders.  Try new traits.  Dust off old skills.  And above all else, have fun!