The Lord of the Rings Online team has announced major changes to currencies, sparking community concerns . These changes affect the Embers of Enchantment, Motes of Enchantment, and Figments of Splendour The changes are coming in update 32 and the team is receiving plenty of community feedback over the announcement so far.
Each of these currencies will get a cap increase. Embers of Enchantment will now have a cap of 100,000, but you will no longer be able to barter Embers into Figments of Splendour or Motes of Enchantment. While the end game currency will still continue to be Embers of Enchantment, the loss of the flexibility to barter Embers, even with a high new cap, is still significant. The only gear in game that you will be able to disenchant into Embers will come from Adventurer’s Lootboxes, though it has been confirmed you’ll still be able to get them from weeklies.
Another change to Embers means that it update 32 and in any other large item level jumps, they will transform all Embers of enchantment in your wallet into Motes of Enchantment. when that happens, all gear that you would exchange for Embers will now also be obtainable through Motes.
Motes also get a cap increase, this time to 500,000, but they will also no longer convert into Figments of Splendour. You will be able to disenchant gear dropped in-game as well as in Traveller’s Lootboxes. Figments will still trade for cosmetics, but cosmetics featured on the vendors will rotate, and newly added items will be more expensive for a time. Raising the caps on all three currencies also sparks fear that the costs will also skyrocket for getting new items with them.
Reliance on lootboxes is a point that is repeatedly cited in community reaction, especially when it comes to endgame gear. With the cap on Embers being increased by 10 times, some are hoping this means there will be new ways to earn them. Otherwise, the fear is, as Reddit user UnkoalafiedKoala says, “unless there’s some new ingame embers-gaining system the blog post doesn’t mention, it’s going to make LOTRO’s famously grindy endgame even more grindy”.
Grinding in MMOs is not unexpected, but it’s the limitations and flexibility loss, and fears of P2W mechanics, especially manifest in concern about demanding more reliance on lootboxes. While these initial announced changes have been met with community concern, the team is asking for feedback.
You can read the list of changes in full over at LOTRO.
