Xfire recently got a chance to toss their questions at the developers of Lord of the Rings Online. The Q&A, now posted on the official LOTRO website, manages to cover a wide range of topics including the new 12-man raid, the opening of Lorien, new minstrel instruments, and upcoming changes!

Q: Tactical damage currently does not scale well past level 40. On top of that resist rates are too high and the current system of "hit or miss" makes playing a tactical damage class handicapped. What changes can we expect to see made to the combat system that will allow for Rune-keepers to do the damage they were advertised to do? Will Rune-keepers ever be a viable main DPS class like Hunters and Champions?
Turbine_Constant Gardener: The Runekeeper will be getting some buffs shortly. Though it’s worth noting we didn’t make any changes to DPS form 40-50, they are the same as they were in SoA. As always we’re keeping an eye on monster strength.
schneevs (schneevs67): I just love the new addtions to the game...any plans for new monster classes to be added?
Turbine_Jalessa: Not at the moment We've got our hands full with the warg, spider, orc, and uruk classes we currently have.

BaByBooM- Freak (babybodom): when moria came out you made many new outfits (for general items, not just "outfits") many look cool and interesting.... will there be more of those sets with diferent and unique style? specially for light and medium armour (to look more serious and not to colourfull)
Turbine_Floon: We love making outfits. They're pretty time-consuming, which is why we don't make gobs and gobs and gobs of outfits every book. But the outfit system has proven to be one of the most popular additions to the game, so we are always adding at least a couple new outfits every update. There's a nice Lorien-style dress in Book 7, and some new armor textures for the Lorien armor.
(toktic): Ganoderma (ganoderma): I'd like an adress book for people. I keep forgetting what exact neighborhood or house people live in
Turbine_Jalessa: That's a very cool idea

Draimen (only1war): will any earlier instances that not many people do anymore, be Revamped to get people back into them?
Turbine_Amlug: This is definitely an idea that has been tossed around. Stay tuned...

(garian07): Will there be kinship cloaks in the near future
Turbine_Floon: That's hard. We don't have the ability to take on player-generated content in the form of textures, so that means we need to add new cloaks. We're always adding new cloaks. But enough to keep up with all the kinships out there? I *do* like to leave the office and see my family on occasion....

wickedpt (wickedpt): What do i have to do to go work at Turbine? =)
Turbine_Floon: turbine.com, we have a jobs page.

SPC Burris [3rd ID] (ltnightmare): A lot of time was put forth in the creation of the minstrel class. How did you ever find such an idea and add onto it to make it a fun and enjoyable class to play?
Turbine_Constant Gardener: Ultimately this is a good time to clarify how class creation works. We’ve got a team of people that work on the classes, no one person is responsible for every aspect of class development. It’s a team effort, from art to design. We’ve got a team of people who review all the changes. The minstrel as a songster, was a great idea that was around before I came on the team, and it has evolved from there. It was born out of the desire of being able to “heal” players without using “true” magic.
Thanks for the compliment, we’ll pass it along.

sageofsaria: Newer players have complained of the tough beginning to the games, and many a time give up before they get to higher levels; what do you plan to do about this?
Turbine_Rowan: We want the game to be approachable and fun, especially to new players. This is something we'll be taking a look at in the near future. Thank you for the feedback!

(boak): any plans to allow players who can only wear light armor, to cosmetically equip medium or heavy armor?
Turbine_Floon: That sounds like it would just create a weird, confusing situation. Preserving *some* distinction between classes seems valuable to me.

hankt354: I still have left over tokens from the seasonal games. Will those ever be useful again?
Turbine_Jalessa: By all means, if you have the bank space, hold on to them! The tokens are re-used when the festivals reopen each season. Keep coming back to spend them. We also add new things to each festival, so it pays to come back and check out what we've added!

Hankyone (hankyone): Any word on the possible "Month of the Kinship" mentioned in a previous dev chat?
Turbine_Rowan: Patience gives me daily beatings for that comment now. As always we're balancing all the great ideas that are in progress for the game. It's important to make the right trade-offs. We're definitely tossing around options and ideas... until then, the beatings shall continue!

(toktic): I among many would love to have the ability to cosmetically equip weapons/shields. Is this something we can hope to see? Is this something that needs background tech changes to see [and if so, what are they]?
Turbine_Floon: You: preacher. Me: choir. I too want this: gaurdians getting to pick the appearance of their shields, that seems pretty obvious to me. Unfortunately, things aren't structured in such a way to let that happen. Things you wear, they go through one system. Things you hold, they go through another. We did a lot of work to allow the appearance system for things you wear to permit outfits. There is much work to do if we want to get into shields and weapons. Many folks want it, many of us want it, but it's a big task. For now, we must commiserate together.

(thompir): Who onthe team found it necessary to increase the bust size for elves and how can I get him on my Christmas card list? :0
Turbine_Floon: Cards may be sent to me, c/o Turbine.

ryswald55: Are there any plans to buff Fellowship Maneuvers? They have received much neglect in recent months it seems. Damage didn't scale well at all (just like the tactical scaling issue question you answered earlier) and there is no benefit to doing a complex FM (like BRGYBR) over a relatively simple one (GGGBB or RRRRRG).
Turbine_Constant Gardener: It was a known issue, that made content very sad (points at Amlug) that conjunctions were a bit overpowered in SoA. Effectively expert players were working our poor creatures over and it made both casual players upset (about how much better coordinated groups seemed) and it made designing challenging content tough. So the changes here were deliberate, however, we are constantly evaluating our changes, we want it to be rewarding, but not game breaking-ly so.
Turbine_Amlug: I agree!

Ragter (ragters): Will you guys consider adding a volunteer from the community to help bridge the coummnity to the devs... i.e. a community rep for each class?
Turbine_Sapience: This is a great idea. We're always looking for new ways to interact with our players and collect useful feedback. We have some things in mind that we hope will address this. Hypothetically.

Aries (ariesofdoom): Will we see mroe emotes in the future? I sure miss my /lick
Turbine_Jalessa: We have a couple coming! (Including a few for monsterplay!)

For more of this developer interview, please click here!


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Lord of the Rings Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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