The Month of the Guardian
Each new book for Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar takes a look at two of the game's classes for the purpose of improving and re-balancing the class. Here we present the changes that are on the horizon for the Guardian in Book 12.
Overview
The Month of the Guardian is here! Guardians are receiving attention to both their primary tanking role and secondary damage-per-second role. We hope you'll enjoy these changes and the new depth they bring to the role of the Guardian.
Already the hardiest class in Middle-earth, the Guardian is able to withstand relentless onslaughts. Capable of maintaining a high level of threat generation, only the foolish and overly aggressive dare try to outpace them. Where this class is weakest is the ability to actually kill their foes.
We do believe that Guardians perform their core tanking role well. The changes in the Month of the Guardian are largely designed to provide interesting and viable alternative playstyles for the class while addressing core concerns such as repair costs and offensive stances.
Tanking - In the Line of Fire
We've added some new tools to the Guardian's tanking toolbox, the first being Shield Wall: the ability to protect a single target from incoming attacks (though leaping in front of attacks doesn't allow the Guardian to mitigate any of the damage on himself!). The goal of Shield Wall is to allow the Guardian to save someone in trouble by standing in harm's way.
We also wanted to add a single-target ranged taunt to the Guardian's repertoire. This comes in the form of Fray the Edge, which also increases the chance of random conjunction opportunities on signature (and above) monsters with each successful application.
Shield Taunt's functionality is also going to be changing, since due to some technical limitations this skill wasn't functioning as we expected. It will now provide a large threat add; previously it had a negligible threat add, but would bump the Guardian to the top of the threat list. Shield Taunt will now be much more effective at letting the Guardian generate additional threat, but will be less effective at digging the Guardian out of a deep hole.
We know that some changes to tanking are sure to be controversial, and we'll be keeping an open dialogue on them in the Guardian forums.
The first of these changes is to Deep Breath. A miscommunication during development led to the skill's reset being faster than the traited resets of the skills it refreshes. To address this we've increased the base reset of both the skill and the traited version. We are fully aware that Deep Breath's fast reset has become a key component of strategies to defeat some of the higher end instance bosses, and we are closely monitoring the impact this change will have on some of the very difficult fights on Isengard and will continue to do so on the live servers. It is not our intent to make these fights more difficult, but we understand that the Deep Breath change may have this result. It is our expectation that the new and updated skills in the Guardian's repertoire will greatly compensate for this reduced frequency of use. After we have additional feedback from players and data gathered from live we'll decide what if any future changes need to be made.
During Book 12's development, Catch a Breath was changed to have a faster action time and to deliver its attack hook at the beginning of the animation instead of the end. This change was made to improve the usability of the skill. However, it also revealed that players were previously able to use both Catch a Breath and Shield Swipe after a single block event. All of our combat event skills remove the event they require, and now Catch a Breath is functioning correctly in that regard. We understand that this will decrease the utility of Catch a Breath, but Guardians still have more healing in Book 12 than they did previously -- as Warrior's Heart now completely heals all the morale it adds to max morale.
We've been through extensive discussions both internally and with the Isengard testers about the potential issues associated with these changes and are confident that these changes will result in a more rewarding and enjoyable play experience. We will of course continue to monitor their impact as time goes on.
New Skills
- Shield Wall - With Shield Wall we're introducing a different type of panic button for the Guardian. Instead of another force taunt, Shield Wall allows a Guardian to protect someone in an evolving situation. This skill does have a number of downsides as it's an extremely powerful tool; it's meant to be used as an emergency tool, not something that's always on.
- All damage is transferred from the target to the Guardian
- The Protected target cannot block, parry, or evade
- Target receives no Item Wear from hits
- 5m Range
- Costs power over time to maintain
- Fray The Edge - Fray the Edge is a ranged taunt with a twist. Against Signature monsters and higher, it will increase the chance that a random conjunction opportunity will occur. This skill should aid Guardians in pulling back single monsters that have left their melee range.
- Strong Ranged single-target Taunt
- Increases the chance for a Random Fellowship Manoeuvre Opportunity on Signature and above monsters.
- This effect stacks exponentially with multiple applications
Skill Changes
- Shield Taunt - Shield Taunt will now generate more threat than it did previously, and will no longer provide a variable threat catch-up.
- Catch A Breath - The Action Duration has been reduced to 1.5 seconds from 2.5 seconds, freeing you up to perform another action more quickly after using the skill. We've also moved the heal effect from the end of the skill to the start. This change fixed a bug that was allowing players to use both Catch a Breath and Shield Swipe from a single Block event.
- Deep Breath - The skill reset timer for Deep Breath has changed from 5mins/2.5mins to 15mins/7.5mins.
- Thrill of Danger - The traited version now properly resets in 5 minutes instead of 7.5 minutes.
- Warrior's Heart - The traited version now properly provides Block and Parry response events on use. It now heals the Guardian for the amount of max morale it adds.
DPS - Cleave and Hew
We've created a new stance for the Guardian, called Overpower, that focuses on 2-handed weapon use. This stance is mutually exclusive from the Guardian's other stances, and increases the Guardian's melee damage output at the cost of power and defensive abilities. While in this stance the Guardian also gains access to several new skills. Force Opening does damage and opens up a parry response event on a successful hit. Stagger does damage, and slows a target's movement and attacks speeds on a critical hit and when used from behind.
In addition to these, Guardians will also receive a new skill called Salt the Wound. This skill can be used at any time to do a small amount of damage, but when it is used directly after the Thrust skill it turns the weak Thrust Bleed into a very strong bleed.
New Skills
- Overpower - Overpower is a new offensive stance for Guardians that lets them put more effort behind their attacks at the cost of defense and power.
- +15% to Melee Damage
- Increases the power cost of all skills played by 20%
- Reduces Evade by 5%
- Disables Block
- Mutually exclusive with Guardian's Threat, Guardian's Defense, Guardian's Parry.
- Force Opening - Force opening is a medium-damage attack skill.
- Requires player to be in Overpower Stance
- Opens up a parry response opportunity on a successful hit
- Stagger - Stagger is a low-damage skill that applies a debuff when used to attack from behind or on a critical hit
- Requires player to be in Overpower Stance
- Slows target's attack speed
- Slows target's movement speed
- Salt the Wound - Salt the Wound turns the mild Thrust Bleed into a much more powerful gusher. It also does low melee damage.
- Strong Damage over Time effect if Thrust is present on target
Skill Changes
- Sweeping Cut - Sweeping Cut previously had a long delay after use, preventing you from using additional skills. This delay has been removed, but as a result of you spending less time in the skill the damage per hit has been decreased even though the DPS has remained the same
- Shield Swipe - The second attack hook was not properly pulling the weapon's damage type. This has been fixed.
- Thrust - Thrust now has double the number of damage pulses on its damage over time effect.
Utility
Repair costs have always been high for Guardians. When they're doing their job correctly, they're getting hit more than anyone else in a party, and since they also take a long time to kill monsters they're hit more during solo battles as well. To address this we've taken a few steps to reduce the Guardian's overall burden. Heavy shields now cost a little more than half of what they previously cost to repair. In addition each of the Guardian's stances now reduces the number of item wear events that the Guardian receives. Guardian's Ward also reduces item wear events from hits when its effect is active, with the traited version reducing the number of events by 10%. Overall these changes should reduce the amount Guardians are spending on repairs, while at the same time Overpower should allow Guardians to generate income more quickly.
While not as cost effective, Guardians will receive the ability to summon a tinker to the campsites located near major instances. This travelling tinker will repair items at a price that reflects the higher value of the service he provides.
New Skill
- Summon Tinker - This skill allows a Guardian to summon a Tinker to any Campsite (the same ones that Hunters can recall to). A Tinker is an NPC that will allow players to repair their gear at a premium.
- Engage - This skill is designed to let a Guardian slow down a runner, and to potentially snap back single targets that he's lost aggro on while slowing their trip to whoever pulled the aggro.
- The Guardian may choose a single target within 5m to Engage.
- The Engaged Target moves at 75% of its normal movement rate.
- The Guardian moves at 85% of its normal rate.
- Engage brings you to the top of the target's threat list.
Item Wear
- Heavy Shields now cost as much to repair as normal shields; they'll cost roughly half as much to repair as they did previously.
- When the Guardian's Ward trait is slotted, the Guardian's Ward effect will prevent 10% of all incoming hit item wear events. Untraited, it will still prevent 5% of all incoming hit item wear events.
- Guardian's Defense will prevent 5% of all incoming block item wear events.
- Guardian's Parry will prevent 5% of all incoming parry item wear events.
- Guardian's Threat will prevent 5% of all incoming hit item wear events.
- Overpower will prevent 5% of all incoming parry item wear events.
