Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria. Pt 2

MoM Combat Changes.

By now everyone has heard *something* about the changes that MoM introduces to the combat system. Changes to resistances, changes to stats, changes to Block/Parry/Evade(BPE)scores, and changes in the exact function of armour.

I can hear it already. The screams of "nerf" resounding around the forums by the uneducated, who will take one look at their stats and start posting frantic rants in the LOTRO forums.

Once the hysteria settles and people actually try playing the changes, they'll discover something interesting. Nothing really changed. :-)

When you first look at your stats, you'll see that we now have a rating based system. This is a good thing - more later. You'll also see that when you mouse over the stat, it still reports your percentage value...and that those are about half of what they were pre-Moria. THIS IS NOT A NERF. Let me repeat myself - not a nerf.

Why not?

While it appears that your percentage score are now half of what they were, really what's happened is that what *was* 100% has been raised. 100% of a stat in Moria is equal to 200% of a skill in Shadows of Angmar. It makes more sense if you think in terms of the new rating score system. Assume that in SoA, the highest rating in Agility, Morale, etc. that you could achieve was, say, 500. That number applies to everything in the game, mobs, characters, etc. A rating of 500 was the same as a stat level of 100%.

Note that the ratings numbers I'm using aren't the Moria numbers, just numbers I pulled out of a hat. For purposes of illustration.

Now comes Moria. Obviously, the devs want to make tougher mobs, better items, higher bonuses, etc. They have to use numbers greater then 100% - or ratings like 550, 600, 1000, etc. So, say they made the new highest score for a stat equivalent to a rating of 1000. That gives them 500 more points to award to players as bonuses, level improvements, and the like. A Moria stat score of 1000 is equivalent to 200% of what you could score in SoA. Look at it from the other direction and you'll see that your SoA stat of 25% crit, in Moria terms, is 12.5% They haven't reduced your crit chance against mobs your level - because those mobs resistances have *also* been converted to the new system. They now appear to be half of what they were.

Why change to rating numbers rather then percentages? Because they'd have to go through this same adjustment and screams of nerf every time they put out an expansion. With a rating system, using numbers the size of those they've chosen, means longevity - they can probably go a couple expansions before they even need to think about raising the maximum rating. BPE scores are capped - but those caps can be altered when they change level caps, or as quest rewards, as expansion features, etc. They're not permanently fixed ... just capped.

Just for interest sake ... Another Screenshot. :-)

Here's a better analogy - SoA is a 1 gallon bucket. You have 1 quart of agility. Or 25% of a bucketfull.
Moria is a 2 gallon bucket. You *still* have 1 quart of agility. But now it's 12.5% of a bucketfull.
Mobs in SoA have 1 gallon of armour, resists, buffs, BPE. Or 1 bucketfull.
Those same mobs, in MoM, have 1 gallon of resists, etc...or 50% of a bucket.

There's no functional difference.

So to wrap up, as the cover of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy states: Don't Panic.