Concerning The Lord of the Rings Online

This is written The Lord of the Rings Online in mind, but several things also concern for other MMORPG's aswell.

Level caps

I don't like idea of raising level caps with every expansions. It hurt the game more that it helps. People will stop running old non-leveling content because new loot is better. It isn't players fault, but developers. This is how MMORPG usually works: Release game -> add content patches, which usually have fair deal of raid content -> add more content patches (raids)... After that comes expansion, which instantly makes those old content patches useless.

Fixed level cap would fix that problem and adding more raids, more leveling zones, more gear with expansion. Maybe different way to improve character, like completing new quests and get new skills/abilitys that way. Maybe new expansion is fire themed and you need some +fire resistance gear from old raids before venturing to new ones.

Classes

Lotro need way more ways to develop character, now everyone is just copy of same classes. Hunters running with same traits and gear. Trait system need much more depth and i think World of Warcraft talent model would work nicely for lotro too. There are thousands of different variables that you can make in talent trees, but only few different ways to take traits.

I like how Legendary Item's are random (maybe little too much random) and it makes finding perfect weapon fun task. I can't say same thing about armors and jewelry. Everyone knows where to get/earn that loot for your class. "Okay i'm gonna raid that place because i know that last boss drops that nice chest armor with +40 agility for my hunter". What if that boss would drop chest piece, but with random stats? Like ~40 points worth of stats, let's say it could drop armor that has +15 agility, +20 vitality and +5 might; or +35 might +5 vitality... That system can easily made more random, instead giving fixed number of stats, maybe it could be 30-50 random stats points, maybe even some negative stat points to some items? I can't remember last time i saw negative numbers in gear. Same system could be used for crafting too.

Crafting

Crafting

Raising crafting tier is too big money/time sink. I read somewhere from message boards great idea how to improve crafting system. Instead of crafting items you could have option to not actually craft any item, but just raising more your crafting experience. Ie. i use 2 bronze ingots to craft armor that gives me 6 experience points, or i could use 2 bronze ingots and crafting "nothing" but earning 8 experience points. Usually Auction House is flooded with items that are used for raising crafting tiers.

Game mechanics

There are some very annoying game mechanics that should be removed from game, or changed. Stun is very annoying feature when killing normal mobs. It's like pause button "Hey you can't do NOTHING for 5 seconds!" yeah that is fun mechanic. I don't say they should remove stun completely, maybe leave it to more dangerous mobs, like elite ones... Making them more "unique".

Other not fun mechanics are norborg's burrowing ability. Basicly you have few seconds to cancel/stun them from stop burrowing underground, if you fail they stay like 10 seconds below ground... Doing nothing. You just wait them to pop back and beat them. It's just stupid mechanic.

Wights have same kind of ability, but they go "invisible", you can target them but can't hit them and they don't hit you. Sounds like pause mechanic to me.

-25% run speed wounds, these are just one more timesink for game, already slow characters are even more slowed down. If these wounds are there to stop kiting, then those wounds should go away when not in fight anymore. Having then running 30sec on character and it's tedious. Ever tried to do Warg quests? Every single warg giving that leg wound.

Group content

Shadows of Angmar book quests should be solo now. It isn't fun trying to find group for 2 hours for those old book quests. Many players miss great story, because they don't have time or chance to find groups. Level 60 characters can help run those books fast, but it isn't very fun. There is more and more space in middle-earth and population way more scattered than it was in SoA, it's very hard to find groups for SoA group content.

Instances should remain as they are, but increase and change reward system. Even old instances should have that token reward system, so that everyone get tokens for boss kills and can change them with npc's for gear.

About tokens, they should change them work same way as money works, so it doesn't take inventory slots.

Deeds

Deeds should be more rewarding when doing them with on-level character, now the xp bonus when completing deed is a joke. Xp reward for completing first part of slayer deed should be something like same amount xp you would get from 10 on-level mobs, and when finishing advanced part it should be more like 30 on-level mobs.

Travel

Remove mount quests (quests that you need to complete before able to use mounts), i can understand doing them first time, but doing them with every alt... Or atleast give option to pay extra to skip those quests.