Rune-keeper Rumination has been out of commission for a while. Previously I wrote about my experiences playing as a Dwarf Rune-keeper named Risalin. Now I play as Eluveril, an Elf Rune-keeper. In addition to the race and gender change, I’m also on a new server. You can find me on Brandywine now.
Taking on a troll during a Skirmish.
Eluveril recently passed Risalin in level and is currently in the high 40s. This has meant some new skills compared to Risalin, which has been great. I really love the class. It was fun when it was first introduced, but direct and indirect (specifically the combat change recently, which has sped things up for her) patches have made a greater difference.
It also means I’ve been working on my Level 45 class quests, none of which I have actually managed to finish yet. As with every class, you’re stuck collecting some relatively hard to find materials for new weapons and armour. I was a little disappointed that, at least at this point, the weapon you receive is frost-based and not lightning-based.
I’m a big fan of the lightning based rune-stones in the game. While frost and firebased attacks include more debuffs, lightning skills are instantaneous, which is a plus. Any enhancements a lightning-based rune-stone could offer are helpful in this case. In addition to this, a few Rune-keeper skills change based upon your currently equipped rune-stone.
This actually winds up making the Rune-keeper a somewhat effective crowd-controller on a small basis. No one is going to claim you’ll be able to match a Lore–master in this regard, but in smaller battles (and particularly on a solo-scale), it can be a lifesaver.
I wasn’t expecting to write Volume 4 of this column so soon, but the XP curve change bumped me up a couple of levels. Several quests later I found myself at Level 30. I figured this was a good time for an update.
As you may or may not know, Rune-keepers have seen a bit of a bump in their damage output. Some of this was specific to the class, but some of this is related to a change in melee/ranged DPS that left tactical damage alone. While I’m sure there are those with other classes that aren’t too pleased, as a Rune-keeper I’ve been pretty happy with the change. Are we overpowered now? I’m not quite sure, but as I was getting closer to 30 it was obvious that we were definitely underpowered. It was difficult to even take out a couple of enemies below my level simultaneously, which seemed kind of odd for a class with so many attack skills and even a couple of area of effect abilities.
I didn’t spend too much time playing around in Book 7. I don’t want to ruin too much of the experience when it launches to the live servers.
That said, I noticed some things I thought were exciting that I thought I could comment on.
You can access the Lorebook from in-game now. There’s a new icon on your radar that opens it up in a small, floating pop-up. This will definitely be useful.
Quest rings that float over the heads of NPC now have a silvery glow to them. This isn’t too big of a deal, but it definitely makes them more noticable. I thought it was a nice change.
The Elf and Dwarf introductions are significantly better. The early portions of the Elf intro are completely different and finally give the Elves more of their own identity.
Introductions ease you into the game far better than before. Not too important for those rolling alts, but for new people or those newer to MMORPGs I feel the whole thing has been smartly adjusted. It flows at a much better pace.
Only important to other Rune-keepers out there, but our attacks have seen a significant boost. Ceaseless Argument is now earned very early on, which makes a huge difference. (OK, maybe this doesn’t really qualify as “small.)
The Rune-keeper’s sound effects are noticeably turned down. Instead of constant sounds of thunder, most of the lightning-based attacks now feature more of a crack or boom sound that is far more subdued. It might not have bothered Rune-keepers much when they were playing, but trust me that it drove everyone else within hearing distance crazy. I’m glad they did this.
The graphics options now contain a slider to change the brightness of ambient light. Not a big deal, but it’s helpful for people like me who can’t always strike a nice balance between the brightness, contrast and gamma selectors.
Much to my chagrin, I’ve not had a lot of time to play LotRO in recent months. At least not as much time as I used to have. When I do log in, it’s been to spend time with my Rune-keeper, Risalin.
I finally reached Level 20 the other day. This took longer than it needed to, largely because I found myself compelled to spend time running about the Shire completing deeds. I found all of the farms and electrocuted more beasts than I could probably count.
Last I wrote, I was only Level 12. 8 levels later, Risalin has found himself more powerful and capable of more skills.
It’s certainly arguable that the Rune-keeper is underpowered in terms of attack power. Turbine has admitted this and the class is getting what sound to be decent buffs for the upcoming Book 7 update. That said, it’s not been much of an issue for me thus far, but it can be difficult to do things alone. Many of the Rune-keepers attacks stack and this is their real strength, in my opinion. You can lay many attacks on an enemy that build up and finally take it out. The class also has a dedicated stun and other abilities stun or slow down enemies. I find myself changing targets as needed to manage this and keep as much damage off of me as possible.
Part of the difficulty is the dual nature of the class. It’s similar in nature to Greenskin Shamans in Warhammer Online in a basic sense, but instead of attacks raising your healing, your attacks raise your attack power. As it gets higher, you’re unable to use some of your better healing skills. This is probably well known to many by now, but it bears repeating. It makes it difficult to reverse your attunement so that you can heal after attacking for a while. There are skills that neutralize your attunement, which can be lifesavers … but often I find myself using these beforehand simply because they provide useful benefits (one restores some Power, for example).
The other day I received a Belkin n52te in the mail. I managed to find it used at a good price and decided to go for it.
For those unfamiliar, the n52te is a gaming controller. It’s goal is, really, to replace a keyboard with a simpler, single-handed device. Its design emphasizes speed and its software, I feel, emphasizes macro use. Its layout follows the coutour of a human hand, although your mileage may vary there depending on the size of your own hands.
So why get this device? The most honest response is that I felt it looked interesting. I figured there was little risk to boot. If I disliked it, I could sell it on eBay without a loss. The other reason was for LotRO, which as of late is the only game I play regularly on my computer beyond Spelunky.
Most MMORPGs force you to fill your screen with icons and LotRO is not reinventing the wheel in that regard. I don’t have any significant trouble with this, but I’d be lying if I said it was intuitive. I memorize my key layouts eventually, but I find myself jumping between mouse and keyboard selection for the same skills. When you have skills on screen requiring you to jump between ctrl+shift+1 and ctrl+shift+0, it’s simply not possible to do anything without moving your hand from the mouse to the keyboard and back again. The whole process just seemed silly to me.
