Checking those patch notes, the Dread system is being revised again. I think of it as something that has never worked well, but is again one of those features that someone thinks needs to be made to work. Suzina addressed the issue a few months ago, but the system gets another wrinkle in the expansion. So here we go. Ready?
Gloom and Radiance are now subsets within Dread and Hope. Radiance has no purpose except to counter Gloom. (For the non-LotRO players, this is what we mean by “Radiance-gating”: recent content has thrown massive amounts of Gloom at the players to force them to get Radiance gear to be able to visit those areas.) Un-countered Gloom converts to Dread, which can be countered only by Hope. You can also have Dread independently, which again demands Hope. Radiance gives no benefit beyond countering Gloom, but Hope will continue to give the bonuses that Radiance/Hope did before.
And what does all this do? Suzina’s post has the specifics. Having up to 5 Hope (or, formerly, 50 Radiance) gives you some small bonuses to health and damage. Having any un-countered Dread gives you massive debuffs: small debuffs for inbound damage and healing, moderate debuffs to the damage you deal, large debuffs to your health cap, and then some effective level-lowering starting at moderate Dread. And then you start cowering (effectively stunned) at high levels of Dread.
Major effects of separating Radiance and Hope: Moria Radiance gear no longer gives bonuses in most fights and no longer counters Dread from dying. Encounters that give Gloom are largely unchanged, and Gloom itself seems toned down a bit. Encounters that give Dread are relatively harder, as there is only so much Hope available. Dying in raid fights with Dread is now really really bad, but Minstrels now get group rez sickness clearing. Raid Radiance gating has fewer effects on the rest of the game.
: Zubon
Some quick math on how those debuffs stack. Let’s say you’re fighting a Balrog that gives 10 Dread. Is there a sane way to get past 5 Hope? Let’s say you’re fighting at 5 Dread.
– No cowering.
– All your skills hit as if you were 3 levels lower and for 20% less damage.
– -30% morale, -8% inbound healing, +6% inbound damage. This is the part I consider interesting, because these effectively stack. If you have 1000 morale and receive 100 damage, that would normally be 10% of your life. Under 5 Dread, you have 700 morale and take 106 damage, which is 15.1% of your life. You are effectively taking 50% more damage.
One thing they did knock down quite a bit was the point at which you cower – essentially a stun. I believe it used to be 5 dread, but is now 8. This will really help lighten the radiance gating problem as you can now function at higher gloom levels.
I think the main issue they wanted to counter was that radiance gear was always better and the idea was to make it a raiding only benefit.
But you are very correct in that dying will be a bit more painful in Mirkwood and I actually think that’s a good thing.