Thread: LM - Revamp of the Keeper of Animals pleeeease!

Well, I've played LM for a long time now, and I still love the class. I see the benefits of the Master of Natures Fury trait line, and also can understand traiting Ancient Master for a raid...
But for a change, i've decided to trait Keeper of Animals and found that the trait line is of no real use I mean, i like the Bog-lurker, its a cool cosmetic pet and has a nice flank rate. But traiting 5 blues to get it? It doesnt seem worth it to me.
The main problem that I see is that the trait line bonuses dont really benefit me in any way. IMO, it should be a trait line focused on 1 thing: either pet buffs or healing. So, I have a few ideas for each set of bonuses. Not sure what people will think but here goes anyway:
HEALING:
2 traits: +10% healing from healing skills, -5s cooldown on Light of Hope.
3 traits: +15% healing from healing skills, -1m cooldown on Inner Flame.
4 traits: Flank heals are now AoE from LM (10m radius perhaps?) Light of Hope no longer has a morale cost.

PET BUFFS:
2 traits: +1 level to all pets, +150 max morale
3 traits: Sign of the Wild: Rage +10% outgoing damage, -5% attack duration, Sign of the Wild: Protection -5% incoming damage, provides a 30s bubble to the pet (gotta love those bubbles )
4 traits: In-combat summoning of pets (no skill, no cooldown) Sign of the Wild Rage now grant an armour buff to your pet.

I'd also change the Bog-Lurker capstone trait... Much as i love this guy, he seems pretty dull for a legendry pet
So, for healing, how about Wisdom of the Council becomes a full self-heal with a heal over time to your fellowship?
And for pet buffs.... well, i suppose Bog-Lurker could stay with a couple of tweaks? such as he could have 1 extra skill similar to Eagle.... Maybe something like Loyalty: When your morale is depleted, your Loyal bog-lurker will restore you at the cost of its life.

Anywy, not too sure what people think of these ideas, but any feedback is welcome. Criticism is welcome too, but make sure its valid please and back it up too Thanks all, love to hear people's thoughts on this.

I think they need to get CC back to what it use to be in Shadow of Angmar and mom.

Nice ideas. I feel the same way.
I've been using the bog lurker for a little while now since I just got it. It's just okaaaay. I'm no way an expert, but I was always under the impression that KoA was supposed to be a type of healing line, but it's so underwhelming. I would've loved to be a good backup healer in a group, but that went to the runekeeper when the RK came out. And people love the captain as a backup healer. So here I am deeply traited in KoA, and in a group I feel lesser than others (lesser in heals, lesser in DPS, lesser in crowd control, lesser as tank via pet). Oh right, I'm just support.

It's great that they've modified and simplified the Loremasters over the years, but it just feels like I'm getting slight updates to keep up with the times while the other classes are getting some major updates.

And nothing for LM Proof Against All Ills? That -5s cooldown in the trait set now is quite useful.

Yeah I would love to have more of healing skills as a LM. Most we can heal as LMs are some 3 mans. Thing I would also like would be another healing skill perhaps? Or an actual healing pet? And yeah the -5s to proof against all ills was great.

Originally Posted by Celt_Ainvar

I think they need to get CC back to what it use to be in Shadow of Angmar and mom.

Agree, I wish more 3,6 mans had a useful place for cc rather than the current its all MONF ... and RK/Hunter/Champ > Red line LM as far as fellowships go.

I actually really like the Bog Lurker. He can handle himself for quite some time on level while I deal with other things. He can deal quite a bit of damage at long range, and is capable of completely drawing aggro when there's only one mob, and decently drawing aggro with multiple mobs. That being said, it is a big sacrifice to have him. BUT...I think the Keeper of Animals fits in well with certain strategies. While it may be improved, somewhat, I don't think it needs to be truly revamped.

I think it does need a revamp. What role can a koa lore master play in a group? I would tend to characterise koa healing and dps as third tier. Pet damage has not scaled at all well to level 75, the bog guardian does very little damage in relation to the trade off in traiting koa. I would like to see the limfran being made the koa capstone and its power greatly boosted and the bog guardian relegated to regular pet or the capstone making pets much more powerful e.g. bear has aoe taunt on short cooldown.

Well, as I said at the start of this thread, I have recently traited KoA....
Thought i would post on here to say that i tried 4 or 5 groups, and no-one would take a KoA LM for foundry, which I found very bad....
So i think this merits the trait line being changed

Originally Posted by Geindir

Well, as I said at the start of this thread, I have recently traited KoA....
Thought i would post on here to say that i tried 4 or 5 groups, and no-one would take a KoA LM for foundry, which I found very bad....
So i think this merits the trait line being changed

My LM got taken for a foundry run while traited KoA. Nobody commented on my traits at all.

While they are at it revamping some of the LM' skills would be great to. I know its a bit off topic but skills that have no induction should be usable on the move. We are the only class that has to stand still to use no induction skills.

I'd like to see the KOA line with the combined improved LM healing & the buffed pets to actually turn the pet into a truly viable tank for 3-mans and maybe some 6-mans.

A pet alone wouldn't be anywhere close to replacing heavy or tank classes, of course. But what the KOA LM would bring to the table as a whole (Pet + LM), should be as good as what those classes bring.

I would love for it to be possible for a skilled LM to have the pet *maintain aggro* and survive difficult 3-man and maybe even some easier 6-man bosses/ standard "tank & spank" fights. A KOA LM should not have to kite any 3-man bosses -- the pet+ improved healing should make it so kiting is not absolutely necessary.

If say, a KOA LM was grouped with hunters, burgs, minis or rks, the pet would clearly be the best option for tanking. This is definitely not the case at present. I haven't seen any pet capable of maintaining aggro for more than the duration of the bear's force taunt and they likely wouldn't survive even if they could maintain aggro longer.

With that in mind, here are some initial ideas for blue-line buffs:

1. seriously beef up Inner Flame - substantially decrease cooldown, increase healing, and each pulse would also transfer some threat from the fellowship to the player or pet that has the air-lore buff. Let's face it, this skill is almost entirely useless at present and is a good choice for some serious tweaking.

2. Bonus to improved flanking: Flank heals will also transfer threat from the fellowship to the pet or player that has the air-lore buff.

3a. Revamp bog-lurker to give it an AOE taunt and other more threat-focused skills.

3b. Or better yet, make a different pet the blue capstone & give it solely tanking-focused skills like taunts and a bubble, and threat-generating auto attacks. Maybe make it so that it couldn't be summoned in-combat, but instead make it much sturdier with improved morale/ mitigations/ critical defense. Maybe an big armadillo or porcupine-like pet? Or just an improved bear.

So if a tank class is in the group, a KOA LM would still have something to add to the group besides some extra healing & the standard LM utility skills -- substantial buffs to a tank's threat generation.

That might even make KOA desirable for some raids. It would give some interesting new options for groups to consider, at least.

This suggestion might be too OP and would be a tough balancing act for the devs, though.

TLDR: revamp the Blue line to add decent off-healing and significant tank support / a true tanking pet to the LM's core skillset. Again, just make the tanking pet barely good enough for the pet to tank the most challenging 3-man content (with focused heals), but not good enough to handle main tank duties in most in 6-mans.

..hmmm... can a pet be set as a raid-assist target?

I just have to say "be careful what you wish for!"
I'm not against change and I wouldn't mind if they balance the LM in such a way that every trait line would be a reasonable choice to make. But DON'T just make the LM simplier. After they totally revamped the mini I had three strong dps chars. I had the feeling that every char did the same, simply hitting attack skills until the enemy is dead. I got myself a LM because I needed and wanted a challange!! He's only 44 now, but I'm pretty content with the way he is.
I mean I can't say I complained when I found that my mini got a whole lot more dps, but in the long run I find that it just made him more boring :/ . Please don't do the same to LMs. I'm sure he needs some changes here and there, but please really consider what is needed and what you wish for.