Calengwen

Hey, it's been a while. Myndariel got bored in Gundabad at level 140 so I took a break from the game. Recently there has been lots of discussion about the new 64-bit servers and 18th anniversary which piqued my interest and here I am, back in the game again.

First off, I decided to transfer Calengwen, my level 26 high elf hunter from Evernight [EU] to Meriadoc [EU-RP]. I chose her because I already had a hobbit hunter on Evernight (Robinya). I wanted to see what the server was like, if performance or community is better, etc. So far I don't see any difference with performance and the community is nice, but the community on Evernight was nice too.

I was looking into the Corsairs of Umbar expansion options on LOTRO-Wiki and I saw they mentioned a redeemable coupon code "THANKYOU2025" that was still valid. It included some mithril coins, lockbox keys and a pick-a-mount box among other things. I used the code for Calengwen and got her a new mount - the Pale Golden Summer Horse matches her outfit pretty nicely.

Calengwen and her Pale Golden Summer Steed

I am rather disappointed with my experience purchasing the Corsairs of Umbar expansion. I wanted to buy it with LOTRO points, but after buying about AUD$60 worth of LOTRO points (4400 with the bonus points deal currently available), I realised that would only get me the Corsairs of Umbar quest pack and didn't include the Mariner class or any other bonus items. So I went to the website and purchased the Standard version of the expansion, which cost roughly AUD$60 as well. I got the Mariner class, an extra character slot and a title. But I didn't get a Valar upgrade so I could boost a character (i.e. Calengwen) to take part in the Corsairs of Umbar content. I checked the price of the Valar upgrade to boost to level 140: 5022 LOTRO points on special! I've just spent AUD$120 on the game and it's still not enough to try out the latest expansion. Ouch! That is so expensive and I'm very sad. Maybe I should go back to playing Elder Scrolls Online - much cheaper and it also has a lot of content and lore. 

I did check out the 18th anniversary rewards with Myndariel, but I wasn't really interested in the "Baker's Delight" costume or mount. So I'll skip the rest of the event. I hear Midsummer's Festival is being updated this year with a new zone? Maybe I'll check that out.

Do I want to try the Mariner class or unlock River Hobbits with the LOTRO points I got? Not now. I was excited to get back into the game, try a new server and send a character I haven't played much to visit Umbar for the first time, but now my enthusiasm is gone and I just want to log out.

Developer's Letter: Beyond Mordor

We've just got a letter from the Executive Producer of LOTRO and I'm excited. We're going to Northern Mirkwood and Dale and Erebor and Laketown and Thranduil's Court! There's all these places on the map of Middle Earth we've heard about but never seen and maybe next year, we'll get to see some of them. I can't wait! I love exploring and visiting new places.

Also, I have a burglar from Dale who got caught stealing jewellery and brought shame to her family, so she got sent to live with an aunt in Bree. She's been trying to make up for her past but she never thought she'd get to see her hometown or family again. Now I'll have to level her up so she can go home a hero!

It's great to hear there will be new additions to the Anniversary event and Summer Festival and the quest-line that began with Bingo Boffin at Harvestmath will continue. I love holiday events but they need to keep updating so they don't get boring "been there, done that". It sounds like we'll be able to get an elk mount at the Yule festival, and if so, that will definitely be on my wish-list. First horses and goats, then reindeer and now elks - mounts are slowly getting more variety.

There's a new raid coming out before the end of the year, The Abyss of Mordath. I haven't raided for a long time, but it sounds like it has a really interesting story behind it that makes me want to see it.

One disappointment is that there are lots of new housing decorations being added, but many will be locked behind the raid and Gorgoroth lootboxes. Grrr. I'm grateful that housing is getting more attention, but I wish nice decorations were more readily available - they're mostly either gated behind limited time holiday events, high level content or the LOTRO store. Why can't low level characters enjoy decorating their houses too? The Housing Furnishers in the housing neighbourhoods have a very limited range. We don't all have the patience of elves for slowly collecting one piece of nice furniture now and then over years and years. I think I've been spoilt by housing dimensions in Rift, as no other MMO housing system I've seen has been anywhere near as comprehensive or accessible.

Musicians will finally be able to play the fiddle! Imagine the concerts as bards all over Middle Earth embrace the instrument and compose new songs! Will it have any special effects for minstrels? Will woodworkers be able to craft fiddles? Will this be the beginning of a new golden age for Middle Earth music?!?

Oh and Dwarves and Hobbits will be getting their avatar makeovers. Some of my women and elves weren't very happy with their new look, but I've either got used to it now or visited the barber to make small adjustments. Overall I don't think the makeovers were worth it; it's not like the characters went from looking awful to looking amazing. More appearance options would have been just as good as changing the base avatars. I guess it was something that players demanded for a long time and the developers felt like they had to do it.

Well, it seems there is a lot planned for 2018. I really need to get a few characters through Mordor so they can continue the journey beyond. And I need to level up my burglar - she's only 30. Maybe I can do a levelling marathon over the Christmas holidays? I can't believe this year is almost over!  

Walked into Mordor

The Black Gate is open!

Hooray! The Mordor expansion is here!

I bought the Collector's Edition - I wanted a special mount and the high elf, and the extras in the Ultimate Fan Bundle would be nice, but too expensive.

Steed of the Alliance of the Third Age

Alliance of the Third Age cosmetic armour

So far, Myndariel my Lore-master, Tyravorth my Beorning and Letycia my Captain (who used the Aria of the Valar to get boosted to 105) have entered Gorgoroth and are questing in Udûn. I've also created a new High Elf champion.

Mordor First Impressions

Session play was used quite well to show us key moments in the final stage of Frodo's journey, especially Gollum with Shelob and the battle between Gollum and Frodo for the ring. The Field of Cormallen looked stunning in glorious colours. Radanir was funny with his speech about an important to decision to make (which inn will the Rangers meet at for drinks?).

Gollum and the Ring

Field of Cormallen

Walking into Mordor (yes I did originally try walking into Mordor from The Wastes - not recommended - you'll die!) by taking the horse from the Field of Cormallen to the Black Gate, it's dark, but not as bad as I expected. I like the purple shadows around the player when they leave the beaten track; they emphasise the sense of potential danger. The soot-smudged pages to find and audio lore excerpts are nice - if I could be patient enough to stand still and listen to them fully. I read them though. Briefly. Then rush off to explore some more. So much to see and do.

The introduction of new NPCs with their own goals in Mordor is interesting and I look forward to journeying alongside them and seeing what mischief they get up to. I love crafting so I'm happy to see new resources and recipes and less reliance on essences. I'll have to wait and see whether the disenchantment system (breaking down unwanted gear into Ash of Gorgoroth) is good - will we get enough excess gear drops? Other than quest rewards, I've only had one piece of gear drop in the wild and I can't wait to use it (it's for level 107). I've found lots of chests that apparently contain Gorgoroth Crafting Bundles - but you need level 106 to open them. I hope they will be worthwhile.

Udûn

The mobs have been difficult because my characters aren't that well geared. Myndariel has had the easiest time so far, but the mobs still take a while to defeat. I feel like I'm hitting them with wet noodles and they avoid so many of my attacks. Once I get new gear with the stats balanced appropriate for the zone I'm sure it will get better.

So far I'm enjoying it. It's tough but it should be. I'm looking forward to new gear and exploring new regions and learning more about the allegiance system and the Black Book of Mordor.

High Elf

Taurileth in the Second Age

I created a High Elf champion and played through the starting area. After having just been through the finale of the War of the Ring on Myndariel and Tyravorth, it gave me goosebumps and that déjà-vu feeling playing through the High Elf intro set in the Second Age during the last battle against Sauron. It was awesome!

High Elf Intro - Second Age

And Elrond's house! Oh my! It looked amazing compared to the version we are familiar with, and that was pretty good to start with.

Tham Send in Elrond's Last Homely House

Taurileth in Tham Send

I'm so glad we get the beautiful armour to keep. I love how you get sent to Celondim in Ered Luin with Elrond's sons - and a pile of books to catch up on a couple thousand years of history that occurred while you were sleeping! It's hard to imagine what that would be like. I've decided to make her a scholar as a result. Imagine poking around ruins and remembering them as beautiful buildings like it was yesterday - maybe she'll find "ancient" artifacts that were created by her friends or family, or even by her!

I almost wish I had used the character boost on her, but from reading the Patch Notes, it looks like there are quite a few quests that have minor variations for High Elves, and it might be fun to experience those.

Aria of the Valar

When I logged in after the expansion launched, I was missing my Aria of the Valar package. There was an announcement that it was a known issue, and would be fixed soon. I transferred crafting materials to my bank to make room in my bags for Mordor stuff, and my bank was nearly full, so I bought some more shared storage, and then my Aria of the Valar Package arrived. So I used the Aria of the Valar character boost to take my level 18 Captain to level 105 so she could head into Mordor. I'll have to level her crafting skills later.

It included (all character-bound):

• Aria of the Valar (instantly boosts character to level 105 and transports you to Camp of the Host in The Wastes so you can pick up the Epic Quest Volume IV, Book 8 from Aragorn that leads you into Mordor; you also get 12 tiers of each virtue, trait points, promotion points, over 300 marks, a Westemnet Iron Coin, at least 10 LOTRO points from auto-completed deeds, an Anórien lootbox and a sturdy key).
• Aria of the Valar Armour Pack (contains a full set of item level 294 armour and jewellery appropriate for your class, but no pocket item).
• Aria of the Valar Weapon Pack (contains a item level 294 weapon set appropriate for your class (e.g. a sword and shield), plus 3 Unidentified Third Age Legendary Item Boxes so you can choose a weapon, a class item and a war-steed bridle).
• Aria of the Valar Item Pack (contains 25 Dale-men's Crams, 25 Rejuvenation Potions, 25 Mithril Coins, Map to Eastfold - Aldburg, Map to the Sutcrofts - Snowbourne, an Anfalas Star-lit Crystal, Trait: Riding Characteristic (gain riding skill), Steed of the Citadel and war-steed appearances). 
• 3 Giant Piles of Silver Scraps (worth 5 gold 400 silver).
• 5 Tomes of Extraordinary Experience (XP boosters).
• Map to Rivendell.
• War-steed.
• Trait: Mounted Combat (can use war-steeds).
• Trait: Legendary items (can use legendary items).

Camp of the Host, The Wastes

Steed of the Citadel

Captain boosted to level 105 wearing equipment from Aria of the Valar Package

Update 20.1.2, the store and game launcher drama

The latest update on May 31 was intended to fix the in-game store, but had some serious side effects for a lot of players, with both Windows and Linux affected.

Basically, from what I understand, the in-game store uses some third-party software and the third-party changed their code to comply with some new legal requirements and Standing Stone Games had to change their code to maintain compatibility. While they worked on the changes, they implemented an external store for LOTRO in the web browser, but when they switched to the new in-game store using a Chromium Embedded Framework, older operating systems, such as 32-bit Windows XP and Vista as well as Linux systems using 32-bit Wine, did not support it, which caused critical errors and crashes upon launching LOTRO and clicking the Play button.

At the same time, there was also a problem with 64-bit Windows 7/8/10 systems that seemed to have the same outcome - the game crashed on launch - but a different cause. It was found to be due to a conflict with a third-party graphics utility called SweetFX, and removing SweetFX fixed the issue for many. Some people suggested ReShade (which works with LOTRO) as a replacement for SweetFX.

While ideally these issues would have been caught in QA testing before launching the Update, SSG started investigating the issues pretty quickly and kept providing feedback and suggestions in the forums, but the community was also great at trying to narrow down the root cause (although there were a few who decided to ridicule people using older operating systems which wasn't helpful).

Suggestions for fixing the issue included:

• renaming/relocating the UserPreferences.ini file (didn't work)
• restore default settings in the launcher options (didn't work)
• run game as admin (didn't work)
• reinstalling the game (didn't work)
• removing d3d9.dll from the LOTRO game directory (worked for some people with Windows 7+, probably as it was a dependency for SweetFX)
• changing Wine version to 2.7-staging or later and OS from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1, and using OpenGL (worked for some people using Linux - but not for me)

Within 48 hours of the Update, the developers had new launcher and client files for affected players to download and copy into the LOTRO game directory (also recommended to backup the original launcher configuration file first). Reports started coming in pretty quickly that it worked for most people with Windows and Linux (worked for me).

So LOTRO worked for a few days until June 6, then they did server maintenance to implement some bugfixes and the game launcher crashed again - this time with an error message saying "You don't have the current version of the client." The solution was to download and install a newer version of the launcher and client files from the same place as before (but clear your internet cache/use incognito or private mode/use different browser to make sure you don't re-download the old versions). This worked, but I hope we don't have to do this every time they update the game.

Also, I'm still having to use the external browser to visit the store with no option to choose between the in-game store or the external store in the UI Settings or the UserPreferences.ini file. I'm using Linux Mint 18 and PlayOnLinux with Wine version 2.8, Windows 7 compatibility and DirectX 9. I've also tried Wine 2.7-staging, Wine 2.9-staging (with OpenGL, CSMT or default rendering settings) and Windows 8.1 compatibility but it made no difference to the store. DirectX 11 support in Wine is improving (I can play Elder Scrolls Online now, but with graphics glitches) but not complete yet, and I don't think changing to DirectX 11 will fix the store issue. I would like to have a working in-game store soon.

LOTRO is playable again, but they really need to get a permanent fix for these issues. It's putting me off playing LOTRO at the moment because I don't know if the game is going to work or if I'm going to have to go hunting for work-arounds, or if I'll have to wait for the next patch.

*Update 22/6/17: Tried to log into LOTRO and there has been a patch. First it told me that it could not save the data files, so I reset the launcher options to default. It patched ok and logged in, then crashed with the error message about "You don't have the current version of the client." I re-downloaded the launcher and client files (I've put shortcuts to the download links on my browser toolbar - looks like I might need them frequently), put them in the LOTRO folder, restarted the launcher and then the game worked.

*Update 29/6/17: Another patch, another crash and error message about not having the correct version. This time I only downloaded the lotroclient_awesomium.exe file and moved it to the LOTRO folder, then restarted the launcher and the game worked.

*Update 3/8/17: Update 21 and the Mordor expansion released and the game worked fine straight away, but the store still opens in the external browser. However, I ended up reinstalling LOTRO on my other computer and it crashed to desktop after clicking the Play button. I downloaded the launcher and client files from the website, then the game automatically patched them (apparently they weren't up to date), then the game worked on that computer too. So those files are still critical for linux players and we're still stuck with the external game store.

May Update

Good news! I got a new computer and now LOTRO is better than ever. On my laptop I was getting 10-30 fps, on my new PC I'm now getting over 100 fps! The graphics look amazing and animations are so smooth. I'm still using Linux Mint - I think I'm truly converted now and can't imagine going back to Windows - and now have a SSD and a 2TB HDD (lots of room for screenshots!), and a nVidia GTX 1070 8GB graphics card.

I've been pretty busy trying to complete all the scavenger hunt quests. They've been a lot of fun but they do take a while. I'm still updating my LOTRO's 10th Anniversary article as more quests become available, with tips on where to go and pictures of the rewards as I get them.

The view from Wellinghall (Year 5 Tales: Merry)

I really like the Fishing Creel backpack (Year 5 reward)

With levelling a champion to 20 and writing about the experience, I've been enjoying the class so much I'm now working on levelling one of my champs to 50 so she can get some legendaries and head into Moria. I've also been really enjoying my free-to-play (F2P) hunter and I have been inspired by a kin member who has a F2P character who is almost level 105 and is farming Moria deeds on an alt to get enough LOTRO points for the next quest pack. It's encouraging to be reminded that you can get to max level for free if you really want to.

My goal for the rest of this month is to keep up with the scavenger hunts, finish my scenic tour of Mirkwood and get my champ to 50. Hopefully I can also level a guardian to 20 for my Introducing X Class series. Which reminds me, I still need to install TitanBar and CombatAnalysis plugins on the new computer.

Bye for now. Have fun in Middle Earth!

Work in Progress

While Myndariel relaxes in the gardens of North Ithilien, I have been playing a few other characters.

My second Beorning has just got her starter legendary weapon and is eager to head into Moria. I think she expects it will be a nice cosy cave to hibernate in after questing in the cold Misty Mountains and Forochel.

My minstrel has finally left Moria and is trying to earn the respect of her distant kin in Lothlórien. She's not fond of the "run to the orc camps and back" over and over again, but she thinks her instruments sound purer and more poetic in the Golden Woods. Or maybe everything just seems brighter and better in the sunlight.

My little hunter-scholar has been out and about hunting for artifacts and recording how many and where she found them. Her results so far are shown in the Scholar Artifacts page. It's a work in progress and it means exploring pretty much all of Middle Earth, but she's enjoying it, even if there are a lot of giants involved (some of the best places for T4 and T5 artifacts are in Giant Valley and Giant Halls respectively). She's found a few treasure caches along the way too which is a nice bonus.

My free-to-play characters are feeling the TP (or I guess LP for LOTRO Points now) grind to unlock more content. My captain has quested through the Lone-lands and done the Epic Quest in North Downs but isn't high enough level to do the Epic Quest in the Trollshaws, so she will have to go back and do slayer deeds etc. in the starting zones. Or I could start a new character on another server, do the Ered Luin deeds which are fairly quick and easy, delete them and rinse and repeat. It's going to be a looong journey.

My characters on Arkenstone are all in one kin, and when I was visiting my house there the other day I noticed the kin house next door was up for sale - in fact the neighbourhood was looking rather empty (I hope my former neighbours found nice new homes in Cape of Belfalas). I hadn't planned on getting a kin house, but what an opportunity! So now my kin have a mission to collect more housing decorations. I guess Bingo Boffin adventures, and Hytbold, Dol Amroth and Minas Tirith dailies are on the schedule for the foreseeble future ...

Update 19.2, Yule Festival and the future of LOTRO

News

It's a big day for LOTRO - update 19.2 has launched along with the Yule Festival and then we find out that LOTRO is no longer to be operated by Turbine and instead now belongs to Standing Stone Games, a new indie game developer, and will be published by Daybreak Games.

Already changes have begun when I logged in just a short while ago - there was the Daybreak Games End User Agreement to accept, the Standing Stones Games splash screen when the game loads and Turbine Points have already been renamed LOTRO Points in the in-game store.

From what I've seen so far, most people seem to be surprised but optimistic that this is good news for the future of LOTRO. I hope so too. Quite a few questions have already been answered in a FAQ that confirms the current development team are still working on LOTRO, that the license for the LOTRO IP (which was due to expire in 2017) has been updated and that game accounts and privileges such as lifetime memberships etc. will remain the same.

Update 19.2 won't affect me much - it mostly relates to additions to North Ithilien, premium housing, PvMP and some general bug fixes. Hunters are getting some significant changes (Blood Arrow becomes a general hunter ability available at level 40 with a self-heal effect) so trait trees have been reset. And the Yule Festival has launched with some new mounts and cosmetic items. I can't wait to see the reindeer-like mount!

Update (Dec 22): Steed of Winter's Light

My Adventures in Middle Earth

I've been pottering around on my free-to-play (F2P) account lately, finally having enough Points to remove the gold cap so I don't keep getting reminder messages and so my characters can get faction mounts and buy things from the auction house if they want. Now I just need to get riding abilities for my new characters and then I can start working towards unlocking extra zones. Plenty for them to do at the moment and I do enjoy the low level zones the most.

I've been playing LOTRO via Linux Mint and levelling up a couple of new characters on a new server - my original F2P characters were excited for Spring Festival and got some nice cosmetic outfits and mounts and now my new Linux-only F2P characters are looking forward to Yule Festival for their turn to get some nice things. I do get lower frame rates and more stuttering effects in Linux, but it's mostly working quite well. It will be interesting to see if there are any changes in its performance or to the launcher and compatibility with Wine with Standing Stone Games taking over.

Myndariel is still neglected and waiting to continue her journey to North Ithilien. I think I shall have to set a goal to motivate me - to get her there by New Year's Day. That means my Linux characters have a few days to enjoy the Yule Festival then Myndariel must make a move towards Mordor! You know what? The next couple of weeks in LOTRO should be a lot of fun!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

To everyone out there, I hope you have a wonderful and safe Christmas and all the best wishes for the New Year.

Executive Producer's Letter - December 2015

Thanks to Level Up Haffle, I just found out about the latest Executive Producer's Letter before I even got the news from Turbine. There's some explanations about the delays with the server transfers and some news about what's coming in 2016 - namely, an increase in level to 105 and a new instance cluster and a 12-man raid associated with the Battle of Pelennor Fields.

That should make a few people happy.

Here's the full news:

Hello all!

2015 was a great year for LOTRO, and we hope you agree! We had many large beats to cover this year as we built out more of Gondor including the two great cities of Osgiliath and Minas Tirith. Additionally we took on major service upgrades including building a brand new store and consolidating our servers to a core ten worlds which are buzzing with activity these days.

Unfortunately we also missed a beat this year with our plans to move into a brand new Datacenter. We wanted to have this new center launch by the end of this year, and while all of the hardware is up and ready to go. However, this upgrade in hardware also came with an upgrade in operating system from 32-bit to 64-bit. When we started load testing the new hardware, we learned that our chat system does not function properly on the new OS. As a result we have to architect a new solution for chat which will delay us into 2016. Updates to come as we work through the problem.

Our story continues in 2016 with Riding with the Rohirrim to the Battle of Pelennor Fields and then taking the battle to the enemy as we push towards the Black Gates! It is going to be an exciting year to be sure.

Major 2016 Initiatives:

Level Cap increase to 105: Build on your heroism and power with 5 more levels of character advancement. Your Imbued Legendary Items will not need to be replaced, but will continue to grow and level with you.
New Fellowship Challenges: The Battle of Pelennor Fields will contain a new instance cluster as well as a long awaited 12-man raid!
New Collections: We will be adding UI elements to help you see and catalogue many of the items you can already find in game. Our first collection system will be around emotes. Ever wondered what emotes are available to you, what they look like or where you can get them? Now you will know!
Quality of Life: Much like last year, we will continue to make quarterly patches that focus on bug fixing and general improvements to Quality of Life.

Thank you for your continued commitment to this team and to our game. We look forward to seeing you in Middle-Earth as LOTRO enters its 9^th year!

Athena “Vvyvanne” Peters
Executive Producer- Lord of the Rings Online

Update 15: Central Gondor and Steed of the Ship-Kings

Update 15:Gondor Aflame has arrived and it includes the new level 100 area of Central Gondor, the Beorning class and the offensive Big Battle "Retaking Pelargir".

The new quests in Volume IV, Book 2 of the epic quest helps explain why we're going to Central Gondor nicely but involves a lot of running back and forth through Dol Amroth.

So far every time I've been to Central Gondor it's been night time in-game (although the looming cloud of the Dawnless Day probably makes everything darker too) so I still haven't had a good look around. I found one of the new treasure chests so it'll be fun to try and find the others to complete the deed. Who doesn't like a good treasure hunt?

The first town you encounter in Ringló Vale is Ethring. It straddles a river and has crafting facilities and quartermasters for two new factions: Men of Ringló Vale (which mainly offer new class-related essences such as Essence of the Sharp Claw for Beornings) and Pelargir (which offers legendary item titles and consumables). After completing the local quests, to earn rep with the Men of Ringló Vale you'll probably need to do tasks, repeatable bounties and find rep tokens that drop off mobs occasionally: Ornamental Skulls are worth 50 points and Weathered Gondorian Relics are worth 250 points.

The Pelargir Quartermaster also offers the lovely Steed of the Ship-Kings for 200 Central Gondor Silver Pieces at Kindred. I'd definitely like to add this one to my collection.

There are also new warbands and rare mobs to hunt down: watch out for the spiders!

Scythe-jaw: rare arch-nemesis south of Ethring

Level 100!

Myndariel finally reached level 100 this morning at around 1am. She was just fighting her way out of Abedec's Watch in Havens of Belfalas when it happened. I'm glad now that she spent a little longer in West Rohan until she was level 96 because I've heard quite a few people mention that if they started in West Gondor at level 95, they ran out of quests about halfway through level 99 and then had to do skirmishes or hunt warbands to get the rest of the way.

Entrance to Abedec's Watch

Just after she killed the corsair that made her level 100

This is my first character at max level in LOTRO. I'm looking forward to getting her some of the Dol Amroth slotted gear (the class gear looks like a rehash of lower level gear, so not as interesting) and getting her first First Age legendaries. Now she'll also have time to go back and complete some of the zones she missed while levelling. I'm trying to decide between Great River or finishing off her rep grind in Lothlórien.

I have some alts I'm also keen to level up - my captain (metalsmith) is in Moria at the moment while my warden (woodworker) and minstrel (tailor) are in the Trollshaws. I mostly want them to level up for their crafting abilities - I like my characters to be self-sufficient - but they also have very different playstyles and it's nice to have a change. So you might see some of them popping up in the future.

Here's a quick peek at them:

Captain

Minstrel

Warden

Update 14: Paths of the Dead Patch Notes

14 July 2014: Update 14 is now live. Here are the Patch Notes by Sapience:

Of Special Note

Welcome to West Gondor
West Gondor is a beautiful new area in LOTRO, but the peace of the lands surrounding Dol Amroth has been threatened by the landing of Corsair ships along the coast. These violent, brutal invaders have brought with them a tide of fear and unrest in the fair stone cities of Gondor’s noble people. The Blackroot Vale, Lamedon, and the Havens of Belfalas are home to a number of friends of the Free Peoples as well as enemies allied with Sauron, and there is much to be done to help the good folk of West Gondor.

Epic Story Volume IV
A New Volume of the Epic Story begins! With the threat of Saruman ended, adventurers throughout Middle-earth must now prepare for the full onslaught of Sauron, the Great Enemy! The Rohirrim muster for war and Aragorn enters the Paths of the Dead, bound for his destiny… and you must follow behind, to safeguard the lands through which he must pass. Volume IV is free to all players!

The Essence System is here!
New gear found throughout the world can be upgraded and enhanced by placing Essences into available slots.
A quick overview:

• You will find armor with open slots that can accept essences.
• Both the armor and essences drop in a wide variety of areas and content; some can even be crafted.
• By slotting essences into this new armor you can customize the stats of the armor to your liking.
• With this update, the essences will be exceedingly rare. We don’t want to flood the market before we get some good feedback on the live servers. Don’t worry, if you don’t see many of these initially, we’ll be increasing the drop rates some time soon once we see how they play. The intent here is for players to have access to customization options, not to create a new grind. The essences are unbound until used so they can be freely traded amongst players.

The level cap has been raised!
You may now level your character to level 100! All classes have seen the addition of new skills and additional trait points to allow players to further enhance their characters.

Join the City Watch of Dol Amroth
Upon reaching level 100 you’ll receive a summons from Beriaudur, head of the city guard of Dol Amroth. He has heard of your travails through West Gondor and wants to see if you are interested in joining the watch. The city of Dol Amroth is broken into 8 districts, each focusing on a different important building. Only once a watch-man has earned the trust of the residents of a district, are they allowed to patrol and be responsible for that section of the city.

The people of Dol Amroth have much that needs to be done and each day you can aid them in their tasks. These tasks range from threats in the Paths of the Dead, to corsair camps on an island, to a 3-man instance, to fishing, and more. Two of these sections, the Paths of the Dead and the caves and tunnels beneath Emyn Ernil will be need to cooperatively unlocked by the server before any trust may be earned with some of the districts. Upon completing a quest you’ll be rewarded with Silver Tokens of Dol Amroth or tokens for a specific district. Using the token will provide rep with that district. The tokens can also be bartered for armour, essence, and housing rewards. The tokens may also be freely traded with other characters.

Upon completing your quests for the day, Beriaudur will ask if you wish to join the watch-men in some training exercises. Returning from these exercises, you discover corsairs have snuck into the city under cover of night. You are able to select which district you wish to free, based on those you have earned the trust of, and together with the watch you may attempt to retake the city. This is an instance that can be done once daily and rewards Gold Tokens of Dol Amroth and tokens for the various districts.

By Player Request

Log out Changes
It now takes 30 seconds for players to log out if they are in combat (while out of combat, the 10 second timer remains unchanged): preventing the log-out mechanic from being abused in certain situations.

Inventory Sort

• Slotted Legendary Items are now sorted before others.
• We will now group together all your food and all your potions. Within each group, the items will be sorted by level, then quality.
• We now sort items in order of increasing instead of decreasing quality for consistency

Inventory Bags No longer auto resize.
Due to player feedback, inventory bags no longer resize themselves proportionally when the size of your client changes. The only thing that can change the width of your bags now is manual manipulation of their size. There are some caveats that come along with this:

• The first time you log in after this change, you will have to change the width of your bags via the drag bar on the right edge once again since the sizes had to be reset
• If you play on multiple machines, your changes in width on one machine will not impact the other (the up side of this is that if you play in different resolutions on different machines, you can have each machine use different bag widths without having to manually change it back and forth)

Player Council Contributions to Update 14
The Players Council has brought a number of quality of life issues to our attention and we’re happy to announce that the following changes and additions are being made to the game based on the feedback of both the 2013 and 2014 Players Council members.

• The maximum number of friends you can have on your friends list has been increased to 100.
• The maximum number of characters allowed in the Kinship Message of the day has been increased. (Currently 80, increased to 132)
• A new global chat channel has been added. This channel is /world or /wd. You are automatically added to this channel when you log in and it is active throughout the game world. Monsterplayers have their own version of this chat.

We would also like to thank the council for their contributions, insights and feedback on the Essence System, Beornings, level cap increases, and Legendary Items. Some of these changes are present in this update, others have had an influence on the future of the game and are reflected in Executive Producer Aaron Campbell’s latest Producer’s Letter.

Release Notes

General

• Fixed a bug which prevented fellowship members from being able to see each other’s emote text and hear each other’s' music under certain circumstances.
• Chest slot items that affect both the upper and lower body are now only affected by dyes applied to the chest slot.
• Shield of the Hammerhand once again stacks with Derudh's Stone and the Outrider's Token.
• The Welcome Back Weekend effects have been updated to now grant a % bonus to Experience Gain on Monster Kills, Crafting, Quest Completions, Legendary Item and Mounted Combat XP. Updated the effect description.
• Over-time effects applied by always-crit skills no longer always crit on each pulse.
• Retreating from an interior space should now bring you to the proper defeat circle.
• Crippled effect, usually put on the player by wolves, has been converted to a true wounding effect. Along with decreasing your run speed, it now also decreases might and expires out of combat. Wound healing potions will now cure it, regardless of how many of these effects are stacked on the player.
• Certain players who were not automatically bestowed Tier 2 versions of some deeds (e.g., "Orc-slayer of Wildermore (Advanced)") should check their Deed Logs, as that oversight should now be rectified.
• You can no longer slot a conflicting set of skirmish traits

Classes

All Classes

• Traits that granted primary stats have been increased to be more competitive.
• Might contributions to tactical mastery were not mentioned in the text of the might tooltip on the character panel of the Champion, Guardian, or Warden. Agility contributions to tactical mastery were not mentioned in the text of the agility tooltip on the character panel of the Warden.

Burglar

• New Trait – Sharp Eye – Burglars gain a Passive 2.5% Mitigation buff which is suppressed when your crit chain is active.
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - Roll the Dice - New rank adds +5% Tactical Damage
• Traits - New Trait - Sneak Attack (The Quiet Knife) - Increase Damage from Stealth by 100%
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - Strike from Shadows - Potency increased from 5% Crit Chance from Stealth to 10% from Stealth. New rank adds +20% Critical Damage from Stealth.
• Traits - New Trait - Cover Your Tracks (Mischief-maker) - Gain 5% Max Morale, +2.5% Physical Mitigation and +2.5% Tactical Mitigation
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - Comedic Timing - Resistance Penetration increased from 2%-->5% per rank. New rank increases the bonus by a further 15% Resistance Penetration.
• A Small Snag, Quite a Snag, Exposed Throat, and Blind bet should now increment "Finish What You Have Started" deed in addition to Flashing Blades.
• Fixed bug that was causing Coup De Grâce to not properly consuming Aim buff.
• Improved Feint will no longer pass along damage bonuses that apply to Stealth Damage.

Captain

• Fixed a bug that was causing Rallying Cry to not stack properly with other captains and in some cases have a weaker version override a stronger version.
• Resolved an issue with the Improved Standards not hitting enemies who were within range but not in Line of Sight of the banner.
• Traits - Lifting Words - Bonus increased from 3%-->4% per rank
• Traits - Skilled Hands - Tactical Damage Bonus increased from 2%-->3% per rank
• Traits - Enhanced Traits - Astute Hands has a new rank which increases Tactical Critical Damage by 20%
• Set Bonus - Tactician's Prowess Critical Healing Magnitude balanced down from 50%-->25%
• Traits - New Trait - Valour - Healing skills have a 20% chance to build Valour. At max stacks, an AoE healing pulse emanates from the Captain and your next Valiant Strike is guaranteed to crit.
• Traits - Standard of Honour - Standard of Honour and Improved Standard of Honour have been condensed into a single trait. Ranks 1-4 will improve the potency of Standard of Honour, and rank 5 will make it Ground Targeted.
• Traits - Reform the Lines - No longer enhances Incoming Healing
• Lead the Charge Specialization - Passive Bonus 2 - Critical Hits cause the enemy to take 2% increased damage for 10s. This effect stacks with Telling Mark
• Traits - Martial Prowess - Attack Duration bonus balanced down to 3%/6%/10% over 3 ranks
• Traits - Standard of War - Standard of War and Improved Standard of War have been condensed into a single trait. Ranks 1-4 will improve the potency of Standard of War, and rank 5 will make it Ground Targeted.
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - Arterial Strikes has a new rank which grants +20% Melee Critical Damage
• Traits - New Trait - Elite Companions - Heralds and Archers have a 20% chance to reduce enemy armour.
• Traits - Situational Awareness - Ranks now increase proc chance by 10% per rank. Evade bonus is fixed at 8% across ranks.
• Traits - Noble Mark - DoT effects can no longer trigger Morale Return
• Traits - Turning Point - The Incoming Healing bonus now caps at 25%
• Traits - Standard of Valour - Standard of Valour and Improved Standard of Valour have been condensed into a single trait. Ranks 1-4 will improve the potency of Standard of Valour, and rank 5 will make it Ground Targeted.
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - Strength in Numbers has a new rank which causes 2 HoTs to be returned for each Fellowship Member affected.
• Traits - New Trait - Elendil's Fury. On any Block, Parry, or Evade, gain a stack of Elendil's Fury. At 5 stacks, your next Blade of Elendil deals significant damage and opens up a Defeat Event.
• Fixed a bug that was causing Rallying Cry to not stack properly with other captains and in some cases have a weaker version override a stronger version.
• Fixed a bug with Exemplar not properly proccing its heal when a shield brother was hit.
• Exemplars heal skill proc now has an internal cooldown of 8 seconds. This cooldown applies to the Captain’s proc and the Shield Brothers proc separately.

Champion

• True Heroics – Lowered cooldown to 2 minutes (Lowered legacy to be 60 seconds maxed out to compensate for this change).
• The Deed Heroic Resolve now only requires 50 uses of True Heroics, down from 750.
• Wild Attack is now properly tagged as a Strike skill.
• Resolved issue with the effect of Champion's Advantage only counting towards the first hit of a Blade skill when it was intended to be all hits.

• The Martial Champion
  • Riposte damage increase trait has been raised from 15% to 20% per rank. New rank on trait that grants: Sweeping Riposte – 20% Chance to unlock sweeping riposte instead of riposte. Deals damage up to 3 targets.
  • Critical Defence trait has been converted to a percentage based trait.
  • Aggressive Exchange trait has been moved to Tier 1 of the Martial Champion tree.
  • New Trait – “Quick with a Blade” Merciful Strike has no health threshold requirement.
  • Horn of Champions – Increased debuff duration to 10 seconds.

• The Berserker
  • Hamstrung should now properly display the effect it gives Hamstring.
  • Set Bonus Renewing Strikes – Reduce chance to 15% and heal to 3% of max health, but can now trigger on every attack hook
  • Set Bonus – Precise Strikes – Bonuses from trait apply every attack hook.
  • New Trait – Weapons Master – Dual wielding weapons gives you +10% damage and +3% Parry Chance. Wielding a single weapon gives you 5% Attack Duration +10% Critical Damage
  • Enhanced Trait – Merciful Minded –Max Rank: Merciful Strike is now guaranteed to crit.

• The Deadly Storm
  • Passive – Flurry – Increase proc chance to 30%, up from 20%.
  • Exchange of Blows no longer reflects damage over time effects.
  • Bladestorm critical hits now proc Flurry.
  • Champion’s Advantage – Increase duration of buff to 12 seconds, up from 8 seconds.
  • New Trait – The More the Merrier Blade Skills have a 15% chance to generate 1 fervour for every target hit
  • New Rank of Ardent Rage. This rank reduces the cooldown of Battle frenzy by 30 seconds and changes the fervour regeneration effect to be 1 fervour every second for 10 seconds.

Guardian

• Bash Legacy should now properly increase the damage of bash.
• Traits - Disorientation application chance balanced down from 20%-->5% / rank
• Traits - New Trait - Break Ranks (Defender of the Free) - Shield-swipe will cash out max fortification stacks for a 20% damage buff for 15s. You will not be able to start rebuilding Fortification until 5s after this buff ends.
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - Stoic - Stoic has a new rank which will cause your bubble to heal you for 10% of your Morale when it expires.
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - To the Rescue - New rank causes your next skill play to be a guaranteed Crit
• Traits - New Trait - Honourable Combat (The Keen Blade) - Gain a skill which removes all bleeds from a foe and heal yourself for 2% max Morale for each tier of bleed removed.
• Traits - New Trait - Singular Focus (The Fighter of Shadow) - Parry response skills have a chance to break enemy armour, reducing its effectiveness for 30s. This debuff cannot be refreshed by other traits.
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - Strong Bursts - New rank increases AoE damage by a further 10%

Hunter

• Resolved an issue with Erebor Huntsman 2 piece set bonus not properly applying to Improved Fleetness.

Huntsman

• Exsanguinate now has no Focus Cost.
• New Trait – Moving Target – The Hunter gains +5% Evade chance whilst moving. This bonus disappears after standing still for a second, but will resume thereafter.
• Enhanced Trait – Strong Draw – New rank that gives the hunter a +15% chance for focus consumers to consume 1 less Focus

Bowmaster

• New Trait – Plant Feet - The Hunter gains +5% Evade Chance after standing still for 1.5s. This bonus breaks upon movement.
• Enhanced Trait – Draw Weight – Increased bonus from 2% to 3% per rank
• New Max rank grants +15% Critical Damage for Induction Skills
• Set Bonus – Archer’s Mark – Crit Defence debuff has been increased for all ranks.

Trapper of Foes

• Enhanced Trait – Trait - Survival Gear – New max rank that increases Max Bonus to 8% Mitigation
• Elusive – Change bonus to give Evade Chance instead of Partial Evade Bonus
• New Trait – Emergency Preparations – Evading allows you to instantly place a trap within 10m of yourself. This trap is the equivalent of a Set Trap and can only appear once every 8 seconds.
• Trait – Endurance – Ratings have been buffed to be more competitive.

Lore-master

• Traits - Prepare for War - Ratings have been increased significantly
• Traits - Inner Flame - Now gives a significantly stronger Fire Damage buff. Base cooldown reduced from 90s-->60s
• Traits - Hearty Diet - Ratings have been increased significantly
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - Hearty Diet - now has a 6th rank which increases Physical and Tactical Mitigations by 2.5% each.
• Traits - Ring of Fire - debuff has been significantly increased
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - "Ring of Fire" has a new rank which increases the radius to 10m
• Traits - New Trait - Fire Shield - Fire skills have a 25% chance to place a protective shield around you which increases mitigations and returns Fire Damage to attackers
• Traits - Fire-lore - Melee Damage Reduction increased from 3%-->5% per rank
• Traits - Frost-lore - Tactical Damage Reduction increased from 2%-->4% per rank
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - Ancient Craft has a new rank which increases your own armour by 5%
• Traits - New Trait - Enfeeble - The effects of Ancient Craft, Sign of Power: See All Ends, and Sign of Power: Command are doubled for the first 10s of their duration
• Skills - Sign of Power: Command now uses its updated icon for all versions of skills and effects
• Skills - Ring of Fire fx should now more accurately reflect the radius of the attack.
• Traits - New Trait - Feral - Gain a passive buff based on which pet you have active. Does not apply to pets summoned by Sic’ em. Bear - +5% Max Morale, +5% Each Mitigation, Raven and Eagle – +50% Gust of Wind damage, +5% Crit Chance, Cats - -10% Induction Duration, +15% DoT Damage, Spirit - +15% Incoming Healing, +15% Outgoing Healing, Bog-guardian - +10% Tactical Damage and +2s Stun Duration
• The Loremaster set for the Tradition now increases your tactical damage by 20% for 10s rather than reduce your target's Tactical Mitigation

Minstrel

• Traits - Inspiring Cries and Calls – Proccooldown reduced from 25s-->15s
• Skills - Song of Aid now allows Hunters to use Improved Focus in-combat
• Traits - Inspiring Cries and Calls – Reduce skillproc cooldown from 25s --> 15s
• Skills - Soliloquy of Spirit – Cooldown reduced to 1s. This effect may stack up to 3 times
• Specialization - Watcher of Resolve Fate and Will ratings increased
• Traits - Song of the Hammerhand - Now has 3 ranks. Increases Bubble potency by 10%/15%/20%
• Traits - Resonant Piercing Cry - Now has 1 rank. When triggered, Resonant Piercing Cry places a hotspot. Bolster Courage and Raise the Spirit are more effective on allies within the hotspot.
• Skill – Bolster Courage – Healing balanced down by ~25%
• Skill – Raise the Spirit – Healing balanced down by ~20%
• Skill – Chord of Salvation – balanced down healing by ~20%
• New Trait (Watcher of Resolve) - Inner Strength - Soliloquy of Spirit adds 1% to mitigations.
• Enhanced Trait (Watcher of Resolve) - Chord of Salvation – New Rank heals primary target for every fellowship member nearby
• Traits - Anthem of War – No longer increases Anthem Duration. Now increases Critical Damage by 10%
• Traits - Enduring Morale – Morale bonus increased
• Traits - Finesse – Ratings value increased
• New Trait (Warrior-skald) - Echoes – All damaging cries and calls have a chance to apply a harmful DoT
• Enhanced Trait (Warrior-skald) - Herald’s Strength – New Rank steals 2.5% Mitigations from the enemy for 10s
• Traits - Tactical Mastery – Ratings increased
• Traits - Strength of Helm Hammerhand – Mastery Ratings increased
• Traits - Shielding Cry – Duration bonuses increased to 5s / rank
• Traits - Sharing a Story - Trait removed
• Traits - Exposing Weakness – Now has 2 additional ranks which increase the debuff bonus by 10% / 25%
• Traits - Extended Anthems – Bonus increased from 2s-->5s per rank
• New Trait (Protector of Song) - Strike a Chord – In Melody Stance, your Ballads debuff the enemy with flipped values of the buffs you gain.
• Enhanced Traits (Protector of Song) - Tactical Mastery – Gain 5% Tactical Mitigation at Rank 6

Runekeeper

• Riffler of Writs items should now properly remove the attunement shift of a Writ as intended.
• Words of Exaltation had old tooltip text that referred to the duration of the bubble being increased per tier of writ of health on a target. This functionality was removed in update 12 but the tooltip was not updated. It is now.
• Do Not Fall this Day skill can now work on players not in the runekeeper's fellowship.
• Fixed a bug with Frost Armour that was giving a reduced amount of incoming damage if the player already had reduced incoming damage. It should now apply the proper -10% incoming damage to any target.
• Hastened Determination should now lower the cooldown of Self Motivation instead of increase it.
• Branded Marks was intended to have only one rank. It does now.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the cooldown reduction of Epic Conclusion when used with Closing Remarks was not properly applying to the character if they killed their target with the skill.
• Glorious Foreshadowing Incoming Healing bonus should not properly tier down with Writ of health instead of dispelling when it expired.
• Volcanic Runestone should now be properly affected by the Fire Damage weapon legacy.
• Steady Hands useable while moving
• Scribe a New ending – Skill is useable even when disarmed.
• Do Not Fall This Day – Reduce cooldown to 5 minutes. Can be casted on a target out of combat.

Benediction of Peace

• Our Fate’s Entwined – Runestone can’t die for duration of runestone.
• Master of Allusion – Also reduces the induction time of Frost skills.
• Bombastic Inspiration – Increase duration to 12s.
• Prophetic Word – lower to 3 ranks, from 5.
  • Each rank now Increases Mending Verse healing by 10% per rank.

• New Trait– Prolonged Verse – 3 ranks
  • Increases the pulse of Mending Verse by 1 per rank.
  • Max rank: Lowers the induction of Mending verse by 1 second.

• New Legendary Trait – Overture of Hope
  • Words of Exaltation and Essay of Exaltation now grant +10% inc. healing and -10% incoming damage reduction.
  • In addition, Words of Exaltation applied on a target will trigger the expiration heal of Bombastic Inspiration if present on a target.

Cleansing Flame

• Trait – Conflagration of Runes – Increased bonus from 2% to 3% / rank
• Scathing Retort – No longer grants a tactical mastery buff, instead Smouldering Wrath is immune to interruption.
• Seething Truth – Lowered Smouldering Wrath damage increase to 30%.
• Guile and Subtlety – Removed Trait. Replace with 2 new traits
  • New Trait – Thick Skinned – 3 ranks
    • Increases Physical Mitigation by 2/5/7%.

• New Trait (Includes Enhanced Trait) Hastened Determination- 3 ranks
  • Reduces the cooldown of Self Motivation by 5 seconds per rank.
  • Max rank: Removes the induction of Self Motivation and can be used on the move.

• New Trait – Branded Marks – +2 pulses to all Fire DoTs

Solitary Thunder

• Set Bonus – Master of Tragedy – Add internal cooldown of 10 seconds.
• Trait – Critical Defence - Increase Max bonus from 5% to 7%
• Enhanced Trait – Perfect Imagery
  • New rank – Reduces the cooldown of Vivid Imagery by 30 seconds.

• New Trait – Flashing images – After using Steady Hands, if you use a cashout skill within 6 seconds, you will be returned to your previous attunement level before Steady Hands.

Warden

• Traits - All traits which provide ratings bonuses have been significantly increased.
• Traits - Critical Protection - Max Critical Defence bonus increased from 5%-->7% Critical Defence
• Traits - For the Free Peoples - Mitigations given to fellowship are increased
• Traits - New Trait - Fellowship Protector - Conviction gives you Mitigation ratings for every Fellowship member affected by the skill.
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - "Stand your Ground" has a new rank which grants +2% Block chance and +2% Parry Chance
• Traits - Way of the Spear - Trait now offers 3%/6%/10% Spear Gambit Damage over 3 ranks
• Traits - Recklessness - Skill grants more Critical Rating when triggered
• Set Bonus - Sharpened Spears - Spear Gambit Damage increased from 5%-->10%
• Set Bonus - One After Another - Morale restored increased from 1%-->5%
• Traits - New Trait - Honed Spikes - Shield Spikes now give your shield skills +20% Critical Damage
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - Lasting Impression has a new rank which causes a DoTs final pulse to deal significant burst damage to the target
• Traits - Momentum - Melee Damage buff after swapping into melee stance increased from 2%-->4% per rank
• Traits - Shattered Javelins - Burst damage increased by over 20%
• Traits - Battering Strikes - Debuff Duration increased from 12s-->15s
• Traits - New Trait - Seize the Moment - Critical Hits with Gambits have a 50% chance to remove cooldowns from masteries for 10s. This effect cannot be triggered more than once every 10s.
• Traits - Enhanced Trait - Bulls-eye - New Rank grants +20% Ranged Critical Damage.
• Fixed the tool-tip for the Agility stat as it did not include the fact that Agility also increases Tactical Mastery.

Mounted Combat

• Fixed a case where class stances didn't fully activate if you changed trait specs while mounted.
• Mounted Combat: Mounted Enemies will hit harder and more frequently.
• The Root effect was causing mounted players to accelerate rather than affecting their mount's acceleration rate. Now when the effect is active, your acceleration rate will be decreased for the duration of the effect.

Legendary Items

• All Heritage Runes now stack to 200.
• The Legacy Replacement items are now usable while riding a horse.
• Reduced the induction time for using IA upgrades and legacy replacements.
• The First-age Legendary class items (non-weapons) were not getting the full benefit from legacies (as one could see when they compared the Might legacy added to a class item and weapon, for example). This change will only affect newly identified First-age class items.

Epic Battles, Skirmishes, Instances, & Raids.

• Various shouts inside instances should now show up over npc's heads
• The vast majority of the Epic Battles promotion benefits have been rebalanced to provide larger benefits earlier on. The tier 5 values have not changed.
• Notable increases have been made to the stat boosts monsters get on tier 2 and 3 skirmishes and tier 2 scaling instances.
• Notable increases have been made to the base stats for elite masters, nemesis, and arch-nemesis in skirmishes.
• Vanguard skill Incite Foe will now be automatically added to the auto skill bar when acquired.
• Added Instance: Lords of the Eastemnet &Instance: The Battle for Hytbold to Snowbourn reflecting pool
• Instance: Direfirel - Half-orc archers now throw spears. Half-orc warriors are always in Melee
• Fangorn Forest: Crafting Instances now contribute to West Rohan Slayer Deeds
• Vanguard skill Incite Foe will now be automatically added to the auto skill bar when acquired.
• Deeping-coomb, the "Prepare" secondary objective will now generate slightly more enemy soldiers
• Deeping-coomb "Darkwater" secondary objective, the Darkwater Spirits speed and spawn rate has been adjusted to make defeating them on the water much easier
• Some visual and icon effects on the Epic Battle "smite zones" have been fixed
• For the Hornburg secondary, Final Blockade, added a guard, weakened attacks of enemies, and made them come out into the main area before hitting the ballistae, in order to make the secondary more soloable.
• Deeping Wall - Securing the Culvert: Gamling will drop his arms when he's done carrying a rock.
• Deeping Wall - Vanguard Defilers: fixed formatting typo in totem tooltip
• The barter NPC that sells Legendary item accessories has been updated so that the legendary item titles are displayed in their own list.
• You can no longer slot a conflicting set of skirmish traits

Helm’s Dike

• Guarding the Watchtower: placed clubs & torches in the hands of the attackers
• Fixed “Enemy Archer” zones that were missing or badly placed
• Powder at the Gate: attempted fix for issue where last wave of sappers would just stand still
• Stone Obstruction: archers fire longer each time you tell them to shoot

Glittering Caves

• Spider boss Scrimgrit hits a little harder than before; we gave her some extra skills
• Bombs & Bats: fixed but where killing multiple sappers at once could prevent quest from completion
• Touched up appearance and placement of several “Enemy Archer” zones

The Hornburg

• Ladders: fewer trolls and they only show up later, reduced HP of hooks by roughly 20%, slowed spawn rate of sappers coming up the ladders

Monsterplay

• Level 100 pvmp armour, weapons, and jewelry can now be purchased in Glan-vraig.
• Potions and insignias should now work for level scaled characters starting at level 20. (Food not included)
• Creep Mastery Corruption bonus was misleading and referring to only melee skills when all types of skills proc the effect.
• Reaver and Stalkers auto attacks should now properly use their new damage types on all attack hooks.
• Toxic Carapace should no longer reflect periodic damage from bleeds and other types of damage over time effects.
• Improved Vital Target now applies a healing debuff for 20 seconds to its target.
• Resolved issue that was Guardian's Fearless 4 set piece bonus to not properly disarm creeps.
• Fixed a bug that was allowing the free People to use the Blood of The Fair Folk potions.
• Resolved an issue that was making some mounts appear to be useable in the Delving of Fror, even though they were not.
• Resolved issue that was Guardian's Fearless 4 set piece bonus to not properly disarm creeps.
• Crumbling Insignia should now work on all slowing effects, not just some.
• Resolved issue with Warg's Flayer bubble sometimes not properly re-applying to the player.
• Weaver hatchling's stealth is now broken when it moves.

User Interface

• UI: Switching between in-game maps should be a bit more responsive.
• Quests listed in NPC selection UIs are now listed alphabetically.
• There's now a search box on the reputation panel

Items

• Item set bonuses now properly handle duplicates of the same item, such as two identical bracelets equipped in both wrist slots. The duplicates only count as one item for the purpose of set completion, and in cases where the bonus effect strength depends upon the average levels of set items, the item with the higher level will be used.
• The Token of the Hornburg pre-order item now works through level 99
• Stats for Helm's Deep pre-order cloaks will continue to grow past level 94.
• Lootboxes now contain a "Pick a Mount" box which allows you to select one of over 25 different mounts, including the Lootbox exclusive Red Painted Skeletal Steed.

Hobnanigans

• Adjusted costs of Red Chicken, Dorking and Scrapper Hats
• Adjusted physics on fields to prevent some stuck and boundary issues
• Hatching is now a daze instead of a stun
• Chickens behind the Pet Vendor now name what they are
• The bonus reward effect no longer clears on logging out or death

Cosmetic Pets

• Floaty names for Hobnanigans Chicken Rewards will now be the right color for their rarity
• Names for Huorns have been changed to be more lore appropriate.

Chat and Social

• There's a new "World" chat channel. You can talk on it to other people on the same server no matter where in the world you are. It is turned on by default, you can turn it off by right-clicking on the chat tab and unchecking the "World" checkmark. The command to talk on the channel is /world or /wd. Monster Players have their own version of the world channel.
• You now get appropriate usage reminders when using chat channel commands with no text to send
• You can no longer make user chat channels with the same name as one of the existing chat channel commands.

Kinships

• You should more consistently see the correct fellowship icons in the kinship panel.
• The maximum number of characters allowed in the Kinship Message of the day has been increased (Currently 80, increased to 132).

Quests

• Fixed a number of issues where tooltips over monsters wouldn't correctly indicate the quests/deeds that they would advance.
• Typos fixed throughout Volume I, II, and III.
• Typos fixed throughout Bree-land, Angmar, North Downs, and West Rohan.
• Greetings added to several festival vendors.
• Reliability fixes for ‘The Horn of Gondor’ session.
• The Restless Orcs of the Crack's Edge - Orders no longer go into pending loot.
• North Downs - Fields of Fornost - Quest: Niels' Bounty: Morrafn, the Flame of Hate now give xp
• West Rohan - Slayer Deeds: Set Rewards are now visible in the Deeds tab
• Typos and text in Volume IV Book 1 fixed.
• Icons plugged in for Volume IV Book 1 items
• Swan-knights involved with Epic Volume IV Book 1 now have correct appearances.
• Adjusted the destination for when you leave the IV.1.12 instance.
• More typo fixes, especially in IV.1.10.
• Changed the Calembel Farmer's penchant for running away and breaking IV.1.6.
• Dorthaneth now have their real appearances.
• Changed the distance at which you can see the walls of Isengard. Didn't help too much.
• Visibility fixes for the Wall of Isengard.
• 'Interlude: Those Who Are Dead' should now be repeatable on a daily cooldown.
• Fixed a bug where all the trainers in the Nan Curunir ox-clan merchant camp had the wrong class requirements.
• Fixed minor typos in The Best Defence (Entwash Vale) and The Riders Four (The Wold).
• There is new, corrected intro audio for the Battle for Erebor.
• The North Downs warg, Gloomfang, no longer drops Raugzok's Ear as a trophy.