Survival Instincts in Draugardh

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.” 

Bilbo’s warning feels especially true in the bleak reaches of Mordor, where danger is constant, and survival is not guaranteed. In Draugardh, however, those who live and travel there have learned how to endure its harsh conditions and avoid its greatest threats, and they welcome your arrival not as subjugators, but as potential allies. With little hesitation, they share the knowledge that has helped them survive. 

When The Wolves of Mordor expansion launches, you can view Survival Instincts in a new tab within the Trait panel. These augmenting traits offer new skills, triggered and activated effects, and enhancements tied to your adventures in Draugardh. Early in the first zone, emissaries from the Khemozêl, Scouts of Draugardh, and Têtikir introduce you to their approaches to survival, explaining the abilities they teach, and revealing how those abilities can be strengthened. 

Before discussing how Survival Instincts advance, let us first look at what they provide. 

The Skills They Share 

Each cultural group teaches a trait that can be slotted to unlock three skills that can only be used in Draugardh. These skills reflect the methods each group uses to survive against the enemies they face, and every class can learn and use the abilities taught by the Khemozêl, Scouts of Draugardh, and Têtikir. 

The Khemozêl draw on the natural world for survival, allies, and defence: 

• Khemozêl Survival instantly restores morale and provides a short pulsing morale restoration. 

• Khemozêl Wolf-hunters summon wolfhounds to weaken enemies. 

• Khemozêl Defence heightens your awareness of incoming attacks, reducing damage taken for a short time. 

The Scouts of Draugardh rely on battlefield discipline and practical knowledge: 

• Scout Herbs restore open wounds over several seconds. 

• Scout Whistle targets a ground location where scouts unleash a volley of arrows. 

• Scout Strikes allow your next several skills to critically strike. 

The Têtikir’s teachings draw from the desert, wind, and sky: 

• Têtikir Cry calls down thunder and lightning against nearby targets. 

• Têtikir Ancestors instantly restore morale and power. 

• Têtikir Guidance increases critical damage to your next several skills. 

The Tactics They Employ 

In addition to skills, each cultural group teaches tactics designed to evade, engage, or enrage enemies. When slotted, these tactics provide your skill-based attacks with a chance to apply bonus effects. Unlike skills, there are nine tactics in total. Three from each cultural group and you may slot and activate any three tactics you have improved. 

The Khemozêl tactics focus on nature, ferocity, and toxins: 

• Weaken Foe applies an effect that reduces the target’s damage for a short time. 

• Twisting the Blade gives your skill-based attacks a chance to deal additional damage. 

• Infection Strikes reduces incoming healing on a target. 

The Scouts of Draugardh bring tactics forged by their fighting experience: 

• Scout Sunder gives skill-based attacks a chance to apply a cleave effect on a target. 

• Scout’s Dagger gives skill-based attacks a chance to apply a damage-over-time effect. 

• Scout’s Defence bestows a chance to increase your partial avoidance for a time after being struck. 

The Têtikir tactics take a more mystical approach: 

• Reprisal causes attacks against you to have a chance of damaging the attacker. 

• The Tempest gives your skill-based attacks a chance to inflict lightning damage. 

• Tactical Exposure gives your skill-based attacks a chance to increase the tactical damage your target takes. 

The Lessons They Teach 

The lessons taught by the Khemozêl, Scouts of Draugardh, and Têtikir each grant an activated skill. You can improve all three lessons, but only one can be slotted at a time. Each lesson offers a different style of benefit, whether that means dealing extra damage, drawing powerful foes into battle, or finding hidden treasure while hunting in the wild. 

• Wulf-hounds, taught by the Khemozêl, applies a triggered effect to your skill-based attacks, giving you a chance to summon a pack of wolfhounds to attack your current foe. 

• Bait the Enemy, taught by the Scouts of Draugardh, gives you a chance to draw out a powerful enemy encounter after defeating a lesser creature. These encounters may include elite groups, a singular nemesis, or an even greater foe, and they provide enhanced treasure drops. 

• Têtikir Insight, taught by the Têtikir, grants a chance to find additional treasure unique to the Draugardh region. 

Each Lesson has a long cooldown and a limited duration, so choosing when to activate one is part of using the system effectively. 

Enhancing Your Survival 

The broadest category of Survival Instincts is not tied to any single cultural group. Many enhancements improve cultural skills, lessons, and tactics, while most of the 16 Enhancement traits provide or improve triggered effects driven by your active class skills. Of the sixteen enhancement traits available, you can slot up to four at a time. 

Learning to Survive in the Wild 

Because Survival Instincts is a new system, it is designed as an integrated part of the end game with room to grow over time. Acquisition and improvement of the traits are built around account-wide access, shared progression, and player choice. 

With The Wolves of Mordor, all characters on your account gain access to Survival Instincts in Draugardh. Skills and Lessons each have one rank, and the first character on the account to complete the short tutorial will gain access to them for all characters on that server. Other characters who complete the tutorial quests will instead earn points for a shared pool that can be applied to improve Enhancements and Tactics. 

Enhancement and Tactic traits points are earned in several ways, and every improvement is shared across all characters on the same server. Quest rewards from the cultural groups may grant items that increase specific Enhancement or Tactic traits or add points to the Survival Instinct pool. Beyond the targeted rewards, you decide how to spend the points in your pool and which traits each character slots and activates. 

Survival Instincts offers many ranks, and additional ways to earn points will be available at the release of the system and potentially added over time. Alongside quests in The Wolves of Mordor, you will find items that improve traits or the add points to the shared pool through landscape chests, weekly missions, reputation barter, special encounters, instances, the raid, and more. 

Not Just Surviving 

Survival Instincts also connect directly with the content of The Wolves of Mordor. Beyond supporting general questing and exploration, the system includes hooks into crafting, instances, and the upcoming raid. Crafters will be able to create new essences that enhance Survival Instincts, while instances will reward special items that alter Survival Instinct skills, assisting in some of the more dangerous encounters. While none of these items will be necessary to complete the encounters, they surely will help. 

Summation

The addition of Survival Instincts provides new alternate advancement to The Lord of the Rings Online, giving your characters more ways to adapt, experiment, and grow throughout their journey in Draugardh. 

We look forward to seeing the builds, combinations, and strategies you create as you take on The Wolves of Mordor.