So, we don’t do a lot of raiding. Well, truth be told we barely raid at all. In fact, in the past year I think we’ve done 2 raids which have been Helegrod and The Rift; and that was at level 65. So why am I doing a post on Radiance now? Has everything changed? Are we tossing aside the word “Casual” in A Casual Stroll to Mordor? No, of course not.
Nothing has changed for us except for maybe a heightened curiosity into what exactly is Radiance Armour, how do you get it, and what is it good for? (absolutely nothing, say it again y’all!) So I thought the best way to get it straight was to go ahead and do some research and write up some posts! I’d also like to credit Through the Palantir and LOTROCast for having some really good podcasts on the subject which really lit the fire for me to a) learn about radiance b) post about radiance. I highly encourage everyone to go listen to their podcasts on the subject and to subscribe to them in iTunes if you haven’t already! (TTP 1, TTP 2, LC)
So, back to radiance. Radiance is a stat added with the release of the Mines of Moria expansion that exists on certain pieces of armor that counters gloom; an aura-like property that is generated by certain locations or creatures within LOTRO. Some examples locations and NPC’s that generate gloom are:
- The Watcher (140 Gloom)
- Dar Narbugud (110 Gloom)
- Dar Narbugud Bosses (50 Gloom + 110 from the instance, equaling a total of 160 Gloom)
- Frodo Baggins (10 Gloom)
So while Frodo’s gloom is there for the sake of lore, the rest as you can see is used primarily for instance and raid bosses. Radiance is basically anti-gloom. Originally when radiance first came out, every 10 Radiance a player had translated into 1 Hope. However, this was eventually deemed to be too overpowering as people with 50 Radiance were walking around with a permanent 5 Hope (which increases morale, damage output, etc.). This was eventually changed to its present state as solely a counter to gloom. Hope however still gives radiance accordingly (i.e. 1 Hope = 10 Radiance) as well as other benefits. It’s also important to note that anything that adds pure Dread instead of Gloom cannot be countered with Radiance. So if you die, or if you run into a mob or area that adds Dread instead of Gloom your Radiance will have no affect whatsoever.
The equation to determine your resulting dread is:
![clip_image002[4]](/files/2010/05/clip_image0024.gif){kind=small}
with the result being rounded down. If the number is zero or less, then all gloom is countered.
Example:
Meredoc decides to step into Dar Narbugud while touring Moria. For argument’s sake let’s pretend he has 5 radiance on one hypothetical piece of gear. What is the result?
![clip_image002[6]](/files/2010/05/clip_image0026.gif){kind=small}
It is at this point that any Hope that you have is taken into account. So since Meredoc has the Horn of the Dwarrowdelf which grants 1 Hope, he would have a total of 9 Dread left. What’s the result?
As you can see from the picture above, a heavy decrease in morale, a lot of other debuffs a heavily distorted screen, and although it’s not clear from the picture above, a lot of cowering. Needless to say, I won’t be raiding Dar Narbugud anytime soon.
In my next post we’ll be discussing the affects of Hope and Gloom and why they’re important..
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May 5, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Thanks for posting these. I’m finally nearing 60 and this really helps. It’s amazing how much of the game is still totally new to me after all of this time.
May 5, 2010 at 2:59 pm
hehe, no problem Tony. We’ve been 65 for a little while and we still had no idea what it all was for either.
May 5, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Thanks for this pretty sweet summary, will bookmark for reference.
May 5, 2010 at 4:03 pm
You’re welcome, and thank you for the bookmark!
May 5, 2010 at 3:46 pm
What UI is that?
May 5, 2010 at 4:17 pm
LOL, way to stay on task Azz!
It’s Ray’s UI:
http://www.lotrointerface.com/downloads/info270-RaysUIwithCapLMbar.html
May 5, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Thanks
And now back to your regularly scheduled comments.
May 5, 2010 at 7:19 pm
I was going to ask the same thing…
May 6, 2010 at 6:18 am
Me too…
May 5, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Just a small correction, Thaurlach doesn’t “generate” gloom, it’s a pure 10 dread so it can’t be countered with radiance. That’s why we need hope tokens, the mini skill and the DP perk to fight him.
Aye, the big one is really nasty indeed.
May 5, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Ah, that makes sense especially since it came out before Radiance! That’s what I get for using LOTRO Wiki as a source.
May 5, 2010 at 8:12 pm
YES! Feel free to drop the word “casual”, and discuss raiding! Actually, you can still raid casually
May 5, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Also the problem is there are so many different sets of radiance gear, sets of 10 rad, 15 rad, 25 rad and 30 rad. There maybe a 20 rad set as well. My bags just cannot carry all the different sets and so time consuming getting enough tokens for the pieces. They all have different defences, like 3 pieces of the 10 rad pieces give you acid defence, 3 pieces of the 25 rad pieces give you fire defence etc.
May 5, 2010 at 11:29 pm
I’m still waiting for them to make a +30 set with RP defence :O
May 6, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Ivaneaus and the others have a good guide to that in their podcast, but I’ll be following up with information on those and their uses.
May 5, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Awesome article! Very good resource. Added to the LNPR project!
May 6, 2010 at 7:04 am
Just a minor point about Radiance rounding which isn’t necessarily clear from the formula above.
Without making it overly complex – a lower value number ending in 5 has the same effect as the next 0 ending number.
So for example 115 Radiance will have the same effect on dread (and therefore Morale, skill level etc) as 120 Radiance…..
Cheers
Hal
May 6, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Right, which is what you’ll get if you follow the formula, which granted, is fairly complex. Maybe there’s something I can do about that… Hmm… Thanks Hal.
May 6, 2010 at 10:28 am
Radiance has gotten a lot of knocking over its lifespan, some of it deserved. The most common gripe is that radiance is “Gear Gating’–that is putting gear in the way of content. Also, complaints that radiance is a horrible grind that forces repetitive PUGs. These two things may be true, but I think it puts it in perspective if you think about the purpose of the system.
In my opinion, the purpose of the Radiance system is to make you practice raiding before you raid. You cannot get your radiance gear solo for a reason–it forces grouping practice. Only after you’ve done about 20 6-man and 12 man dungeons can you take on the uber-tough endgame content. Many games have an implied gear/skill gate into these toughest of the tough instances. If you aren’t geared in the best equipment you will die. LOTRO makes this curve near the endgame much steeper by imposing big penalties for not having all the appropriate gear. Gear that can only be acquired through group content.
Personally, I think they should have tied radiance to a virtue or deed system so that you would still be required to do the grouping grind, but wouldn’t be locked into a particular set of gear once you go there. It also makes more sense–your experiences with facing evil in a variety of situations makes you more resistance to its effects. Rather than special bravery pants that you got off a random dwarf in Moria.
–Harperella
May 6, 2010 at 11:51 am
I’ve always argued against the “Grouping practice” idea and I’ll explain why.
In my experience, unless someone has never grouped before, instances and raids come down to learning that praticular instance. Being forced to repeat an instance 20 times does very little to teach you about your class and more to teach you how to get through that praticular instance in the quickest way possible. Which in the end only a very little bit of what you learned in the previous instance is used in a future instance.
I would like to take your idea of a virtue or deed one step further and make it pure content gating (far better IMO). For example in the first radiance group (moria) 6 fellowship instances are tied to the 1 raid, make it so you have to complete each of the 6 fellowship instances once in easy mode and once in hard mode to get the radiance boost (via a virtue like trait or something). That way it still teaches players the basics of learning instances to complete them, or how to work in a group if thats your opinion, and not tying the stuff to a piece of gear. This would solve the issue of everyone running Grand stair 80 times to get their T1 radiance set and make people actually do them all. It would also remove the overly grindy aspect of the system.
May 6, 2010 at 2:36 pm
I don’t think that’s a good idea as it would gate the content even more harshly.
There aren’t a lot of people who have completed Dark Delvings in Hard Mode even after Mirkwood.
In fact, there aren’t a lot that have completed it in normal mode.
Players currently choose to run one instance multiple times and make it “grindy” themselves, especially if when they choose only to run one of the most exploit bug riddled instances in the game.
That trend is probably also a major factor in putting in a Mirkwood Radiance set since the Mirkwood instances are no where near as exploitable as GS.
May 6, 2010 at 3:41 pm
I tend to agree with Ivaneus since this is a bit similar to what WoW did with their dungeons until about halfway through the Burning Crusade expansion; except that they also required you to put together keys (which sometimes required you to repeat the dungeon/raid depending on the item’s drop properties). Actually, I think they still did that in in Northrend as well… But regardless it’s a huge pain in the butt. Especially since you then need everyone who completed those raids to show up continuously, which rarely ever happens. So then you have to go back and run others through all the other dungeons and raids again, rinse, repeat.
Regardless, I’ll probably post my thoughts and feelings on radiance in a future post.
May 6, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Agreed. Radiance is a good concept, but it was implemented poorly. And those of us that ground out the first set already know how to play as a group, we shouldn’t have to go through it all again time after time to see the “new” stuff.
May 6, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Gee, thanks a lot for posting that formula – now I’m going to spend my entire lunch hour number crunching every possible combination of rad gear I have to see what I can get away with in DN tonight.
Seriously – great post!
May 6, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Thanks Moramoth
May 10, 2010 at 11:02 am
Sorry I didn’t read all the responses, and I’m not sure if someone mentioned this yet, but from what I’ve experienced, the radiance rounds up, not down, if there is net gloom/dread.
In other words, 115 radiance > 110.
May 10, 2010 at 2:11 pm
The post actually says the formula rounds down the calculated dread (the radiance isn’t the one doing rounding)
115 gloom – 110 radiance / 10 = .5 which is rounded down to 0 total dread.