Daily Archives: April 14, 2010

Take a chance on me.

My Captain in Lord of the Rings Online has an ability called Light of Elendil which has the following as part of its description:

This melee attack has an increased chance to critical and inspires your fellows to invoke the Light of Elendil.
[…]
Your attack applies a buff to your fellowship that has a chance of invoking the Light of Elendil.

Essentially the Light of Elendil skill is a normal attack which has a chance to do critical damage, and applies a buff to yourself and your fellows for a short while which gives each of you a chance to apply the Light of Elendil damage-over-time effect to an enemy any time you damage them.

My Captain has another ability called Improved Defensive Strike which has the following as part of its description:

When attacking an opponent under the effect of the Light of Elendil you have a 25% chance of restoring some of your Power.

So if I’ve attacked an enemy with Light of Elendil and the chance to miss has not occurred, and I’ve made another attack of any sort and the chance to apply the debuff effect has occurred, and I’ve made yet another attack with Improved Defensive Strike then there’s a chance that I’ll restore some power.

Are we starting to lean a little too heavily on the Kismet Crutch in MMOs, perchance?