Greetings, companions of Edain!
We've long been looking forward to sharing the Lorien spellbook with you - but there's something else we need to tell you first. Lorien's will probably be the most complex spellbook in version 4.5 and has received the most changes. One of them is that Galadriel will now play an even more important role in it, having two spells completely dedicated to her. That's why we took the opportunity to also rework Galadriel herself while developing the spellbook.
For a while now, we felt her old design was lacking. There wasn't any clear focus in her abilities, and they lacked that feeling of power other heroes in her category like Gandalf convey. Furthermore, they didn't incorporate anything we've seen from her in the Hobbit movies yet. We wanted to creative a more cohesive Galadriel that captured her essence and most important traits and moments while also being fun and interesting to play. This is what we came up with:
Galadriel's abilities
- Rank 1: Light of the Golden Wood. After a brief duration, a blazing light breaks through the heavens near Galadriel or any hero with Gifts of Lorien on the map, driving enemies in the area to flee in fear.
Similiar to her old Gaze of the White Lady, this is a disruption ability that can throw enemy forces into disarray. At her core, we still wanted Galadriel to be a support hero. However, she now causes enemies to flee rather than stunning them in order to differentiate her ability from Haldir's Golden Arrow which also stuns.
More importantly, the ability gains a new twist: It can now be cast across the entire map if you have a hero with Gifts of Lorien nearby. In the story and in the movies, one of Galadriel's most defining characteristics was that she was a powerful source of aid to many heroes of Middle-earth, even appearing to Frodo in a vision from afar to help him in his task. This is what she will be doing in Edain as well, watching over your heroes and bolstering them in many different ways. Key to his are her Gifts:
- Rank 3: Gifts of Lorien. Target hero receives a precious gift, allowing Galadriel to reach him with her abilities.
* Orophin and Rumil: Elven armor that drastically increases their defenses.
* Haldir: Blessed Arrow with more damage and a larger radius than Radiant Arrow
* Celeborn: Lordly armor that increases defences and damage
* Thranduil: Royal armor and an additional row of Palace Guards for his shield wall
* Legolas: Bow of the Galadhrim that increases damage of Hawk Strike and Arrow Wind
This ability remains largely unchanged, but all of Galadriel's other abilities now interact with it.
- Rank 5: Radiant Aid. Any hero with Gifts of Lorien on the map is immediately fully healed and all his abilities are ready to be used again.
Even when a hero is near death and completely exhausted, the voice of Galadriel can reach him from afar and grant him new strength. This ability is based on the movie scene where she helps up Frodo to continue in his quest.
- Rank 7: White Lady's Banishment. Throws all nearby enemy units to the ground, deals heavy damage and robs them of all leadership effects for a medium duration. Additionally, if a hero with Gifts of Lorien is nearby, enemy heroes are blown away and deal no damage for a medium duration.
This powerful magic is based on the Dol Guldur scene from the Hobbit, with Galadriel coming to Gandalf' aid, destroying a lesser Orc outright with her magic and later even sending Sauron and the Nazgûl away powerless. To unleash its full potential, however, it has to be used near an allied hero with Gifts. It's the ideal ability to save a hero surrounded by powerful foes, decimating armies and rendering heroes harmless for a while.
- Rank 10: Nenya's Cleansing. All allied units and buildings on the map are continously healed for a long duration. Units in the vicinity of heroes with Gifts of Lorien additionally become fearless and can't be knocked to the ground. Buildings in the vicinity of heroes with Gifts are immune to fire.
This may be the most controversial change. We didn't feel Galadriel's old invulnerability spell really fit the gameplay of Lorien. This is meant to be a fragile faction relying on trickery and speed to win, not march through any and all damage with an invincible army. If anything, that sounds more like a Dwarven thing! However, we still wanted to showcase Galadriel's healing and protective influence on her realm, safeguarding it from the forces of the evil through the power of Nenya.
Nenya's Cleansing felt like a better way to do this. It still gives you quite a bit of staying power, but you do still need to take care not to run into more damage at once than its healing can handle. This emphasizes that Lorien should be a skill-intensive faction to play, which it hasn't always been in the past. More changes in that direction are coming in Edain 4.5 as well - stay tuned for the full spellbook!
Galadriel, the Blessed
Not only did we retool the basic Galadriel, we also took a look at her Ring forms. As before, Galadriel will be able to choose between using the Ring, becoming the Queen of Twilight, or only keeping it safe, earning the blessing of Earendil. However, until now, the "good" Galadriel especially was actually less interesting than the regular one because she lost one active ability in favor of a passive button!
We decided instead to let this Ring form emphasize the new Galadriel's most interesting play patterns. All of her abilities now gain an extra effect: When used, they spawn a blessing light for one minute that increases the damage, range and speed of all allies (including Galadriel herself) in a wide radius. Keep in mind that while some abilities like White Lady's Banishment will always bless Galadriel's current location, others like Radiant Aid can be cast across the map! This means Galadriel can support several armies on different fronts at the same time, encouraging multi-pronged attacks and hit&run gameplay.
However, we also decided to cut a mechanic: The Blessed Galadriel will no longer spawn Frodo and Sam to safeguard the Ring. This is mainly because the two Hobbits didn't serve any useful gameplay purpose: What good are two additional scouting heroes when you already have your Ring Hero? Instead, Galadriel herself will now safeguard the Ring without using it and drop it upon her death. This makes for better gameplay and Frodo and Sam are still represented in the Fellowship of the Ring in Rivendell, where they fit much better. Though we may reintroduce them to Lorien some day if we come up with a better purpose for them.
The Queen of Twilight
Galadriel at her most powerful, the Queen of Twilight openly wields the One Ring. She too has received new abilities patterned after her famous speech in the movies:
- In Place Of A Dark Lord You Would Have A Queen. As Queen of Twilight, Galadriel unleashes tremendous power. Her magical attacks damage all enemies around her. Her attacks against buildings also hit other buildings in the vicinity.
- Not Dark But Beautiful And Terrible As the Dawn. All enemy units near target location cower in fear. Enemy units, heroes and buildings deal no damage for a medium duration.
- Treacherous As the Sea. Calls down a magical flood of rain in target area.
These are the old tears of the Valar. They used to be Lorien's ultimate spell but have now been moved to Galadriel. What's the new ultimate spell instead? You'll see!
- Stronger Than the Foundations Of the Earth. Cracks open the earth in target area and deals heavy damage to enemy buildings.
- All Shall Love Me And Despair. Enemy units in target area briefly fight for Galadriel and have 25% less armor for the duration.
As you can see, these abilities all err on the simpler side of things and focus on raw power instead. We thought this was a fitting contrast to the regular Galadriel, who is much more focussed on cleverly helping others. With the One Ring, she abandons such niceties. We had great fun patterning her destructive abilities after her speech to Frodo and hope you will enjoy wrecking your foes with them!
Now you know everything you need to know to fully appreciate Lorien's spellbook, which we will present to you soon.
If you enjoyed this update, we'd be grateful if you could give us your vote for Mod of the Year!
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Let us know what you think about the new Galadriel in the comments!
Your Edain Team
I like this rework of the Lady of Lorien! Both ways really do feel more befitting the faction's fighting style.
The rework looks great! Although, that level 5 power of Galadriel sounds extremely overpowered. Keep it up nonetheless!
Just imagine if it could restore the powers of all allied heroes in a large radius, even from other factions so an ally could use Gandalf's Word of Power twice in a row! Oh wait, ... ;)
So gift of Lorien can receive allied hero too?
Only the heroes named in the ability can receive the gifts.
Very nice guys!
Looks promising :) but does her basic attack stay the same? Is she still a ranged hero?
Yes, her basic attack remains the same.
Also dark version is the same? Melee against units x ranged against buildings?
Why not make her first primary ranged as well?
Because her melee attack rocks.
A Galadriel overhaul is something that befalls the Edain Mod once in an age! Yet, when revolutionary changes do come, at last, they're really the solemn and extraordinary improvements that they are exactly supposed to be. In this case, not only will the heroine prove more effective in combat, but her new design shall also live up to the standards of a 8000-year-old Elven princess from the Undying Lands, who was in dire need of a different portrayal. Furthermore, not everyone probably knows or remembers that many crucial aspects of the update had been the topic of vast essays and infinite discussions on the forum, of which some were incredibly old proposals that trace back to the time of the now-deceased Edain forum of ModDB. Namely, in order to cite the most memorable ones, Ancient Might, Nenya, the Gifts of Lórien, Glance in the Mirror, and the general thread on her Ring forms. The majority of the points we had addressed have finally found their way in the game, either in the same fashion we had proposed them or re-interpreted as the Edain Team deemed it wise.
So, I definitely feel that all our efforts have eventually been rewarded for the good, flourishing in a majestic new concept, worthy of the mightiest Elf of the Third Age, as the very Professor had stated. Hence, I would like to thank the team for making this needed addition possible and all those who have been staunchly following the related forum debates until now, contributing to cement the arguments hitherto mentioned. Thank you very much, from the depth of my heart ;)
Great and well thought as always! You will never stop surprising me ^^
Perfect, but where is the tornado? I hope you haven't deleted it completely.
It wasn't deleted, don't worry. It will be re-used for another purpose. You'll soon find it out yourself :)
Thanks for great updates! I have a suggestion for a new purpose of Sam and Frodo: if Galadriel accepts the Ring, Sam and Frodo are spawned immediately (similarly as fellowship by Elrond). Frodo should act as a bearer and Ring would be spawned upon his death. Therefore, Lorien armies would have to protect weak Frodo. There may be nice mechanic with visibility to enemies when Frodo uses Ring carelessly. Thanks again and pardon my English.
the problem with this mechanic (which is the current mechanic for lorien should galadriel refuse the ring), is that frodo and sam are useless when you have the ring hero, AND not hard at all to protect (at least in the games I've made so far), but I'm not an expert player.
The more I am thinking about that Frodo will be gone, the more I would like to see "Phial of Galadriel" animation implemented in her.
There is great chance in first skill, she could use that animation while using that skill, it would be really cool and suitable.
Of course it should be renamed. "Light of Eärendil/Light of the Two Trees/Star-glass whatever and if such name/s will be used in different context, then simply "Light of the White lady." Current "Light of the golden wood" sounds strange especially when you have woman in white in the picture. :o)
Overall Galadriel rework is simply amazing and mainly playable! Great combination of movies and books in her skillsets. ;o)
Level seven in her normal form represents solely inner strenght of Galadriel, she simply moved her hand and white blast decimated orc. Phial would be completely redundant there.
So why use it in her normal form when we have completely reworked dark version?
- "Not Dark But Beautiful And Terrible As the Dawn."
(Ironically she can use her phial for dark purpose - in order to emphasize and make visible her dark beauty even more) ...
"All enemy units near target location cower in fear. Enemy units, heroes and buildings deal no damage for a medium duration."
And this is exactly what happened in BOTFA DG banishment scene which reminds me this thread Modding-union.com
So there is no need to rename or invent something new, only implement Phial of Galadriel animation in third dark skill (maybe add little more light).
Mermaid Galadriel using phial and Walküre will have Christmas present. xD
You're right. In the end, this seems to be the most suitable place for the phial to be finally returned to its legitimate owner: the Lady of Light.
The other alternatives present a few flaws and overall problems.
1. The first ability of her normal form spreads radiance all across the map, in a defined diffused way. It would not be reasonable to have Galadriel use the phial in so general a case. Moreover, the power refers to the Golden Wood.
2. The level-7 ability is undoubtedly one of the best candidates, in order to mirror the events of the Hobbit trilogy. Nevertheless, as you pointed out, there's already a formidable blast that will sweep the battlefield clear from enemies; the phial would then be redundant. Also, it's better to stay true to the actual scene where she disintegrates that vile Orc. Just like your picture.
Media.moddb.com
Therefore, I agree with you. The Twilight Queen's terror-infusing ability is the choice which would serve the purpose better. It also ensures that the whole display of magic is as sublime as the sorceress that casts the spell.
Yes, that would be a very fond and appreciated Christmas side-gift ;)
And if not - nevermind. Phial could be part of mission map, because I suppose that Light of Earendil now has different purpose. But Dol guldur single player map dedicated to your drowned Galadriel with her phial would be great. :o)
Do you have an estimated time for when 4.5 should be released?
Before the sun collapses into a black hole
The biggest lost of this rework is the disparition of the Mallorn seeds owned by Sam... It was offering a projection capacity to lorien who was pretty unique. This makes me sad... The rest seams good but... Wait & see.
Frodo and Sam have never really fit any faction, have they? The problem is that they're two special characters, not bound to a particular realm. It is no surprise that, in BFME1, both were only available through the good campaign. Also, apart from a couple of unique abilities, their role in Lothlórien did not fulfil any particular need. Let's say that they were more iconic features, as a pleasant candy for every sweet-tooth LOTR fan, rather than actual vital characters.
They're gone, it's true. Their departure, though, paved the way for greater changes involving the Elven Queen, who's the real preponderant heroine of the Golden Wood ;)
Is it possible to add a gift for elven CaH heroes? Something simple, generally beneficial
Grimbeorn first
So how will Dark Queen units attack be displayed? As old or something whole new?
hello! where is Thranduil from the game? isnt he is in the lothorien faction? i cant see him anywhere. but i saw he ws in older versions. where is he now? removed?
You need to capture an outpost from map and build there Mirkwood Outpost. He will be recruitable alongside with Legolas, Mirkwood Units and Tauriel (Tauriel in 6 players Mirkwood Map though)