LOTRO: Proposed Changes to Scrolls of Empowerment in Update 28.3
2020 was a tumultuous year for Standing Stone Games and their MMORPG, The Lord of the Rings Online. The initial success they enjoyed at Easter through offering so much free content was tempered by the server outages over June and July. Their systemic communication failure throughout this period did not help matters. However, the news regarding Enad Global 7 and their acquisition of Daybreak Game Company in December was well received by fans. A graphical overhaul and a console port were both mentioned in an investor presentation. The New Year started well with the news that the first six expansions for LOTRO have been bundled together for the bargain price of £47 (including VAT). However, matters have taken a turn for the worst after a post on the official game forums caught players attention.
It would appear that the latest test build on the Bullroarer server also includes some changes to both Reputation Accelerator Tomes and Scrolls of Empowerment. If these alterations are carried over to the live game they will not be well received. Here are the details as they currently stand.
Physical Mastery and Tactical Mastery values on Legendary Item Titles are being increased across all tiers.
Scrolls of Empowerment from the Rangers of Ithilien Quartermaster now cap at max-tier 35.
Scrolls of Empowerment from the Dol Amroth Quartermaster now cap at max-tier 35.
Scrolls of Empowerment from Narnaith in Minas Tirith now Cap at max-tier 44.
The quest "March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily)" now awards 2 Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier cap of 83.
The quest "The War Effort: Threats to the Battlefield" now awards 3 Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier cap of 83.
Note: These changes will not affect items that are already in the player's possession, be they in the inventory, vault storage, housing storage, mail, or elsewhere.
Tradeable, unbound reputation granting tokens now have appropriate region quests gating their usage.
Small Reputation Accelerator Tomes offered on Skirmish Vendors now Bind to character on acquire and have a Max Usage Level of 100.
Scrolls of Empowerment are essential in levelling your Legendary Items. I cannot easily explain the esoteric nature of this game system because it is an utter mess in its present state. Let it suffice to say that SoEs boost the legacies on your weapon, increasing stats that the player has chosen, through 83 tiers. Obtaining SoEs has always been a chore in LOTRO. Despite new content being regularly added there is seldom any that offer these items in any respectable quantity. Hence most players farm older content from Minas Tirith to gain these. However, in Update 28.3 (which is currently being tested on the Bullroarer server), the SoEs that are currently gained from Ithilien, Dol Amroth and Minas Tirith are to be gated at specific tiers. If the legacies on you Legendary Weapons fall within these parameters you can use them. If not then you cannot. It is this issue that is the potential problem. As it stands at the moment, due to the chaotic state of the entire LI system, players use an expedient workaround to gain a resource they need. This change will cut that resource off for many players whose legacies on their LI are over halfway towards the cap.
It would appear that these proposed changes are due to SSG trying to manage LI progression on the two Legendary Servers. Content is released at a slower pace and as they stand at present, the level cap on both Anor and Ithil is 100 where it is 130 on the live standard servers. From a development point of view it is not cost effective to have to maintain two systems, so I can see why SSG have gone down this route But once again we are presented with something potentially being taken away and not replaced with something comparable. SSG are proposing to make the required SoEs available via repeatable content but that is only available in their latest “mini expansion”, War of Three Peaks. If you do not own this, then you cannot access it. Naturally there are store based alternatives available to unlock legacy tiers. If these changes are made to the live game then players will have to purchase War of Three Peaks or look to the store. This is far from a benign incentive.
With regard to the proposed changes to the Small Reputation Accelerator Tomes, this is another example of removing a benefit without an equitable replacement. The barter currencies used to acquire these items are accessible across your account. Therefore a player could use marks earned by a high level alt to buy a rep booster for a newer, lower level alt. Making these items bind to character diminishes their benefit. Again, there is naturally a store alternative. This proposed change is not as potentially damaging as the one regarding SoEs. But ultimately the degree of inconvenience, be it big or small, is not the point. There is a fundamental principle of quid pro quo at stake here and it is being eroded. Hopefully, the feedback on the forums will alert SSG to the PR disaster that potentially awaits them. However, given their track record, I suspect they may well just blithely walk into it.
Update:
As of Thursday 14.01.21 SSG have revised their plan regarding SoEs and made the following statement via the official forums.
Regarding Scrolls of Empowerment:
We really do want to make the process of acquiring these scrolls more varied and more meaningful at a given end-game, but we also want the acquisition process to be appropriate to the level of the content. We'll be fixing a math error quickly discovered by the community regarding how we set tier limits on scrolls from Gondor, which makes them largely useless for Imbued items unless your character is on a Legendary World with a level cap below 115. We also intend to address a gap in available scrolls for solo landscape players at level caps 105, 115, and 120.
Here are our current 28.3 plans for Scrolls of Empowerment:
Scrolls of Empowerment available to barter from the Dol Amroth Quartermaster will cap at max-tier 44 (since this content predates imbuement).
Scrolls of Empowerment available to barter from the Rangers of Ithilien Quartermaster will cap at max-tier 59.
Scrolls of Empowerment available to barter from Narnaith in Minas Tirith will cap at max-tier 59.
Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier of 59 will be added to daily and weekly quests on the Quartermaster (Host of the West).
Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier of 69 will be added to the Restoring the Three Kingdoms quest in Northern Mirkwood.
Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier of 79 will be added to the Protecting the Beornings, Elves, & Woodmen quests in Vales of Anduin.
The quest "March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily)" will award 2 Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier cap of 83.
The quest "The War Effort: Threats to the Battlefield" will award 3 Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier cap of 83.
