We are the Champions: New LotRO dev diary outlines upcoming Champion changes

My first character was a Champion, and I quit playing him because he felt more like an AOE sort of guy than being able to do well on single targets. Yet here he is, going to come back bigger and badder than ever, applying constant melee pressure while the Hunters sit back and make pewpew. I will definitely be reinstalling LOTRO, and throwing myself through the new content. I'm salivating as I type this... so much deliciousness in Fall!

I am a new player in Lotro (I just got to level 24) but champions can tank?

On one hand these changes do look nice, but on the other LOTRO is starting to have the same problem I ended up having with WoW. I take a break, come back for a major update, and I practically have to relearn all of my characters due to massive changes. How many times is this now that we've gotten a stat rework? Plus we're supposed to be getting (another) change to legendary items, so I'll probably have to set those up again. I remember last time I came back they had overhauled the character screen UI and I had to open up two separate menus just to see how much gold I had.

I'm sure these changes are for the best for the game in the long run, but it makes things very frustrating for me as a returning player.

Ugh, I've been enjoying having my champion tank with a shield for the past few months. I changed out his traits and got him a nice shield and it worked. Ah well back to blood, screaming, gnashing teeth dps beast for him.

You mean the champion will finally have coherent mechanics and gameplay ?

Woah.

I've been a champion player since the official release of LOTRO. Our class suffered a lot of drama due to the Champion designer's wish to force Ardour on us players that didn't want it, and even since SoM(which saw little changes), Turbine hasn't been willing to touch us.

First impression, the glory redesign looks incredible. I've already been parry tanking (Dual-wielding parry rating weapons and use Raging blade to AoE tank 3-man/6-man, crazy aggro and still great damage), and this should push Champion in an actual tanking position.

Ardour, although I hate it with the might of a thousand suns, is being confirmed as the solo AoE grind stance. I've got nothing against this and that means Turbine can finally focus on Fervour being the DPS stance. I am truly happy with this as it resolves the age old dilemma of making Ardour effective as a DPS stance (See: the second raid set from MoM with hte Ardour damage bonus lol).

The final Fervour changes? FUCK MOTHERFUCKING YEAH.
First of all, -30% healing penalty REMOVED and instead they're gonna ramp up the threat generated by tank classes across the board (This was the main community supported idea of fixing Champion tank, nerf their threat, make it hard to keep threat).

Another nice change, one of the main complaint by Champion for ages is that our 2 "ultimate" skills, Raging Blades and Ferocious Strikes, gave a huge threat bonus per hit, which was ridiculous for DPS skills. Using Raging blade twice in a row on CD could easily steal the aggro from any tank, no matter how good he is. Flurry is now a passive to the Fervour stance, nothing wrong with that. Continuous blood rage is finally gonna be a bit more viable. They removed the -90% received healing penalty so we should be healable in parties, and it should be a nice skill to use in PVP.

Also, many more skills will have different effect depending on the stance, which imho will make each stance feel like playing a new champ, just like it should be.

The controlled burn nerf is sad, but the buff across the board makes it worth it imho.

Seriously can't wait and I just creamed my pants if anyone is wondering.

Its nice to see the champ changes finally making the champs happy. I quit mine after the 30% healing penalty way back when. Even with the changes I do not want to play a champ - just not my bag.

RoI is causing quite a stir on other fronts. Take a gander at the Isengard forums and the top few threads are real concerns with the update or lack of. Many are unhappy that they paid for such a LITE expansion.

*NO NEW 3/6/12 man instances
*3 New Regions size questions
*No New Features
*No New Skirmishes
*1 long book instead of 3 new chapters
*Monster Play skills purchaseable for Rank 0's

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?414688-Rise-of-Isengard-....-No-new-3-man-6-man-or-12-man-gamescom-confirmation

Ye go visit and give them hell!

Why not make everyone a tank so that Wardens can go on to doing what they do best.......solo leveling....and standing around in 21st Hall doing squat...