Volume 2 Mines of Moria Launch - February 23, 2009

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Volume 2 Mines of Moria Launch - February 23, 2009

Welcome to Moria!

Welcome to The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria! These release notes cover many changes to the game, but because so many new systems have been introduced in Moria, we've tried to limit them to what's changed from Shadows of Angmar. For overviews of the new systems, please read the associated developer diaries, which are linked in the overview!

Download the Moria Manual!

The Mines of Moria manual is now available for download in .pdf format (~45Mb). Click here to download it! You will need Acrobat Reader to view it.

Overview

Of Special Note

  • Quest Bags are here!
To help with inventory management, we’ve modified most quest items so that they are no longer stored in your inventory, but are instead stored in the Quest Journal. This means that those boar hides you are looking for will no longer be cluttering up your inventory and will now be found in the journal. If you are curious about those quest items and would like to examine them, you still can. You’ll just need to navigate to the quest in the journal and hover over the item there, just like you would with an item in your regular inventory.
By the way, you may have noticed we ’ve said that “most ” items have been removed from your inventory. A few quest items cannot since they are usable in some fashion. Items that cannot be removed from your inventory are:
  • Letters or other readable objects
  • Quest items given for Crafting Quests
  • Items that can be traded to other players or listed on the auction house.
  • Items that must be used as part of the Quest.
  • Quest starter Items
All other items should be no longer be stored in your inventory.
  • Key rings are in! Permanent keys can now be clicked on to be added to a Key Ring section of your traits. Doing so will delete the key, and any doors that were opened by the keys now look for the trait.
  • A new, never-before-seen mount waits to be discovered!
  • The cooldown on Edelharn Tokens has been reduced from 60 to 15 minutes!
  • Once any of your characters has reached level 20, all characters on your account will be able to use the cosmetic outfit system! You will need to log in with one of your 20+ characters to open the option up for the rest of your characters.
  • Hope has been replaced with a new Radiance value; its benefits remain the same, however.
  • Scrollcases that reveal tool recipes can now be found in loot.
  • One-shot recipe scrolls can now be stacked in groups of 10.

Two Important Notes

  • All Kinships must now maintain a membership count of 8 or more. If your Kinship membership count drops below 8, it will be disbanded if you do not recruit enough members to meet the minimum within five(5) days.
  • A special ring icon and an error are shown to a player if they try to access Mines of Moria content but have not purchased the expansion.

Release Notes

Gameplay

  • Reduced the time and likelihood that many mobs will burrow or phase-out or otherwise become unattackable. In addition, most such skills have had an induction added that allow them to be interrupted.
  • Increased the length of the shortest mob inductions.
  • Increased the responsiveness and speed of induction interruption skills for both players and monster players. The interruption now applies to the skill's target as soon as the interruption skill begins to execute. Other effects of the skill, such as damage or debuffs, will still occur at the normal time in the skills animation. This affects the Burglar's "Addle", the Champion's "Clobber", the Captain's "Kick", the Guardian's "Stamp", the Reaver's "Gut Punch", the Blackarrow's "No You Don't", and the Warg's "Pounce" and "Eye Rake".
  • Skill plays on down-level characters are capped at a nine level max. This is to prevent cases of giving points in excess of the allotted amount per level. Example: Giving an effective 2% rating bonus at level 50 translates into 30% rating at level 1. In many cases, the player still receives a greater benefit than in Shadows of Angmar.
  • Decreased the magnitude of the Burglar's "Addle" debuff to a 25% increase in induction duration.
  • Power Costs and Power Effects have had their rounding changed, which could cause a slight increase or decrease in power costs.
  • The Effects of Hope have been changed to be less effective. Your Hope value is now generated by an increase in Radiance values, rather than modifying Hope directly. Approximate conversion in most situations is +10 Radiance = +1 Hope.
  • Armour now contributes to non-standard damage ratings (such as Shadow, Fire, etc.)
  • The spider summoned by the Wrathful Plague fellowship maneuver will now properly auto-assist on the target.
  • Increased the amount of in-combat morale regeneration given by the Health Regeneration passives.
  • Combat Target Forwarding works with pet skills.
  • No longer can turn around from stun, mez, and so on…
  • A new inventory slot has been added for class specific items. If you had a class-specific item, such as Champion runes, equipped in your range slot, they'll be moved to your bags as they can no longer be equipped in the range slot. You can re-equip these items in your new class slot, leaving your ranged slot available for a new item.

Skills/Classes

General

  • Skills with cooldowns that are not in whole seconds will now display 10ths of a second in their tooltips.

Champion:

  • The tooltip for Battle-Frenzy will now show the Fervour change correctly when you have the "Fervent Rage" trait slotted.
  • The cooldown of Frenzy has been decreased to 90 seconds.
  • The special buffs from Ardent Flurry and Glorious Exchange will no longer continue when the Champion goes into Controlled Burn stance. There is a new class feat that will activate both of these skills while in Controlled Burn.

Guardian:

  • Guardian's Shield Wall now protects the target from Induction Setbacks.
  • Changes to Catch now restores less power in its traited form, heals additional morale, and has had its cooldown reduced by 15 seconds (from 60 to 45).
  • Guardian's Threat legendary stance no longer deactivates when the player is disarmed.
  • Guardian Legacy “Overpower Evade Chance” now correctly increases “Overpower” evade chance.

Hunter:

  • While in PvMP areas, the Hunter's Desperate Flight skill cannot be used in combat.
  • Created three new travel skills for the Hunter:
    • Suri-Kyla in Forochel (48, skill training item, Lossoth reputation)
    • Echad Dunann in Eregion (50, skill training item, class quest)
    • 21st Hall in Moria (56, skill training item, dwarf miner's reputation)
  • Cleanse the Poison, the Hunter's Poison cure, has been brought into line with the rest of the cures.
  • Hunter Stance: Fleet and Stance: Improved Fleet will now display a buff icon under the player's vital bar.
  • The Hunter's “Find a Path” movement speed increase should no longer get overwritten by lesser speed increase modifiers.
  • Increased the placement duration on the hunter lure traps from 1 minute to 3 minutes.

Minstrel

  • The Minstrel skills “Echoes of Battle” and “Timeless Echoes of Battle” will now place two separate buff icons beneath the target's vital bar. One displays the damage over time component while the other displays the resistance debuff.
  • "Minstrel's Dagger of the Third Age" can now only be used by Minstrels.
  • “Song of Aid” skill description now details the effects it has on Rune-keepers and Wardens.
  • Minstrel skill - Lay of the Hammerhand: corrected animation so that character correctly sheathes weapon and shield while playing the Lay of the Hammerhand.
  • Minstrels using Cure Fear will now sheatheir shields as with other instrument based skills.

Captain

  • The Captain’s Dwarf Heralds will now show the correct race on the tooltip.
  • Telling Mark now has the correct tooltip.
  • Captain Skill Noble's Mark will now increase the Captain's threat every time it pulses for damage.
  • Noble Mark no longer does upfront damage before dealing Damage Over Time.
  • Battle Shout will now always Battle-ready, regardless if it hits. *Telling Mark will now increase the amount of damage dealt to the target, from all sources, by 5%.
  • Heralds have had their maximum power increased.
  • Inspire and Blade of Elendil have had their power costs reduced significantly.
  • Increased the damage of Blade of Elendil.

Burglar

  • The induction slowing effect of "Addle" is now called "Addle." It was called "Befuddle" before. No gameplay change.
  • Riddle is once again happening at instant speed.
  • Burglar 4-set trait bonuses now apply the appropriate buff to the Burglar upon Devastating Critical.
  • The Burglar skill Share the Fun can no longer be used on mounted targets.

Lore-master

  • Leechcraft will now properly advance the 'Healer' deed when slotted with an enhancement trait.
  • Improved Wound and Disease Curing Skills for the Lore-masters now have unbounded targets for your Fellowship and are PBAE. This enables more predictable placement for the novice Lore-masters. With the old way, it would place a 10 meter area of effect around the selected target; however, if it reached its target limit it might not have actually cured the selection, since it was random in its determination of eligible targets. Example: Click on your tank and find everyone BUT your tank was cured if the area selected contained more than the target limit of the skill.
  • The critical versions of the Lore-master crafted class items have had their name changed. These items are now called Tome of Beasts, Tome of Nature, and Tome of the Dúnedain
  • Rift Lore-master armor now dye washes to its original color.
  • Lore-master's “Friend of Feline Hunters” skill description has been reworded to more accurately describe the benefits of this pet.

Monster Play - General

  • A population balance mechanic is now in place in the Ettenmoors. When one side's force becomes smaller than the other, a defensive bonus effect will be added to characters on the underpopulated side. This defensive bonus increases as the difference in population between the two sides grows bigger and decreases as the difference in population between the two sides grows smaller. The population balance mechanic actively counts players and monster players that are logged into the Ettenmoors (it does not count player population outside of the PvMP area).
  • All Monster Players will now be able to access a basic destiny point perk inventory. The perks available to them are as follows:
    • Resolve (4 tiers): Provides a temporary increase to your maximum morale.
    • Vigour (4 tiers): Provides a temporary increase to your maximum power.
    • Fortitude (4 tiers): Provides a temporary increase to the effectiveness of your armour.
    • Regain Confidence: Restores a defeated character to full health. Usable once every 24 hours.
  • Free Players will now have the following new destiny point perks:
    • Rouse Spirit: Removes dread effects caused by death. Usable once every 24 hours.
    • Regain Confidence: Restores a defeated character to full health. Usable once every 24 hours.
  • Removed stars from the target player's portrait in the Ettenmoors.
  • Monster Player barter and vendor food items have had their out of combat regeneration stats adjusted so that higher level barter food is more desirable than vendor food.
  • The Spicy Toad Biscuit has been added to the Monster Player Quartermaster. This food item restores 150 power even 30 seconds for 300 seconds, heals 202 health every 30 seconds for 300 seconds.
  • The cooldown on Odorous Salts, Solvent of Painful Freedom, Vial of Gundzor’s Breath, Vial of Burzgorth’s Strength, and Phial of Mazauk’s resolve has been increased to 2 minutes.
  • Free Peoples can now barter for new class specific equipment using Chieftain’s Brooches and Tyrant’s Crests. These new barter tokens are gained by killing Tyrant and Chieftain guards in the Ettenmoors.
  • Fixed a bug with the Phial of Mazauk not removing fear.
  • Free Players will now be able to barter for a Phial of Conhuith that removes fear effects received in PvMP play.
  • Dying Rage will now last the full 15 seconds before the Orc is defeated.
  • Monster Players will now be able to purchase Frost Mitigation and Lightning Mitigation corruption traits.
  • The effects from Banner of Terror and Command Post will now have their appropriate icons.
  • Players will no longer see rating stars on the vitals UI or character panel.
  • Free Players entering into a PvMP area will have a buff effect placed on their character that will prevent item damage from occuring via combat hits, blocking, or parrying. *Please note that this effect does *not* prevent item damage from skill use, crafting, or harvesting.
  • Free Players will now have access to new cure potions. Salt of Hartshorn and Solvent of Release are available for purchase from the Coldfells Provisioner in Glan Vraig. Vial of Aromatic Spirits and Vial of Unbinding can be received from the barter Item Trader in Glan Vraig. These items can only be used in PvMP areas.
    • Salt of Hartshorn grants recovery from stuns or dazes and costs morale to use.
    • Solvent of Release grants recovery from roots and costs morale to use.
    • Vial of Aromatic Spirits grants recovery from stuns or dazes.
    • Vial of Unbinding grants recovery from roots.
  • Free Players will be able to barter for a fear cure potion, called Phial of Conhuith, via the Item Trader in Glan Vraig. This potion can only be used in PvMP areas.
  • Fixed an issue with the Ranger's Fly True skill draining Tyrant power to 0.
  • The slow portion of Dust in the Eyes will no longer stack its effects on the target. Slows from different classes will no longer stack with each other. If multiple slows are applied to a target, only the highest value slow will be applied.
  • The Crude Map to Gramsfoot can now be destroyed.
  • Resilience will now only remove dazes, stuns, and knockdowns.

Monster Player Classes

  • All monster player characters will now be granted an additional class trait slot. This brings the total number of class trait slots to 6.
  • Using /munch or /eat on a monster player character will no longer cause bread to appear in the character's hand.
  • All monster players will now have an additional race trait slot.
  • The cost to slot traits has been reduced for all monster player classes.
  • Smoke and Smoke1 emotes will no longer cause a pipe to appear in hand/foot for Monster Player Characters. (These characters do not have smoke animations)
  • Newly created Monster Players will now have an Odorous Salts potion in their inventory to assist them for their initial combat experience.
  • Spiders will now animate when performing /rude and /angry.
  • Wargs will now animate when performing /angry.
  • Uruks will now animate when performing /angry.
  • Common Mitigation Boost corruptions will now have modifier penalties to frost and lightning defence.

Spider Weaver:

  • Weavers will now have access to the following Skills and Traits.
  • The Spider's Lie in Wait skill description has been updated to reflect the root aura of the burrow.
  • Clinging Webs can no longer be missed or evaded. This skill is now set to Wound resistance.
  • Entangling Webs can no longer be missed or evaded. This skill is now set to Wound resistance.
  • Hatchlings can no longer be blocked.
  • Latent Poison has had its resist category removed.
  • Poison Spray can no longer be blocked or evaded.
  • Tainted Kiss can no longer be missed, blocked, parried, or evaded. This skill can be resisted (Poison resistance type).

Orc Reaver

  • Reavers will now be able to access the following new Skills and Traits.
  • The tooltip for the Orc Reaver's "Lacerate" ability will now display the proper amount of damage.
  • Reaver - Blinding Dust is now set to wound resistance. - Gut Punch can no longer be blocked, parried, or evaded.
  • Gut Punch will now do fire damage when the Burning Blades trait is equipped.

Uruk Blackarrow

  • Blackarrows will now be able to access the following new Skills and Traits.
  • Blackarrow - Puncture can now be blocked.
  • Enrage will now only affect a small portion of the Blackarrow's ranged attacks. The skills affected are: Strong Pull, Punctured Target, Vital Target, Headshot, Revenge, and Steadfast Barrage.
  • The Blackarrow skill, No You Don't, will no longer state that there are 2 attacks on the skill.
  • The Blackarrow's Fire Trap will no longer affect friendly NPCs.
  • The Blackarrow's Death Blossom skill animation has been fixed.

Warg Stalker

  • Stalkers will now have access to the following Skills and Traits
  • Wargs can no longer use the Disappear skill while Eyes of Unnerving is active. This change is to prevent issues where Wargs popped out of stealth after using Disappear if they had Eyes of Unnerving active.
  • The Warg's Rabit Bite skill has had its power over time effect increased.
  • The cooldown of Scratch and Snip has been decreased to 30 seconds.
  • The cooldown of Snap has been decreased to 60 seconds.
  • The cooldown of Flea Bitten has been decreased to 2 minutes.
  • The damage over time effect from Bloody Maul will now stack with the damage over time effect from Maul.
  • Sense Prey's cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes.

Uruk Warleader:

  • Warleaders will now have the following Traits
  • The Warleader's Banner of Horror skill will now work appropriately on enemy players.
  • Snap Out of It! will now only remove dazes, stuns, and knockdowns.

Orc Defiler

  • Defilers will now have the following Skills and Traits
  • Defiler - Silence will now disable the following Defiler skills: Curse of the Cowardly Soul, Curse of Deadly Sorrows, Curse of the Lethargic Heart, and Curse of Sticky Feet
  • Curse of the Cowardly Soul can no longer be missed.
  • Curse of Deadly Sorrows can no longer be missed.
  • Curse of the Lethargic Heart can no longer be missed.
  • Curse of Sticky Feet can no longer be missed. This skill is now set to Disease resistance.
  • Plague Gourd has had its resist category removed.
  • The Defiler's Blight skill has undergone some changes. It is now has a 50% healing suppression effect and a 10 minute cooldown. (Monster Play) The trait, Enhanced Skill: Blight, will now increase the duration of the Blight effect by 30 seconds. Additionally, it will also increase the healing supression effect by 25%.


Traits/Titles/Deeds

  • All Line Bonuses have been removed from Traits to make room for the power of the set bonuses.
  • When displaying set rewards for deeds in the Deed log, Virtue ranks will now reflect either the rank to be earned or already given, based on the deed completion status.
  • Items that are rewarded by Deeds will now have their names appear correctly in the rewards list of the Deed UI.
  • Journeyman, Adept and Master Trait requirements have been removed from deeds and replaced with minimum level requirements, as we are phasing this system out.
  • Maximum level difference for quest bestowers now caps at 6 (used to be 7 for quests over level 40).
  • The Advanced portion of "The Ancient Evil of Carn Dûm" deed now displays it is Advanced.
  • The Evendim Deed "The City of Kings" now awards Wardens of Annúminas reputation instead of Council of the North Reputation.
  • There is now a tutorial hint when the deed log is opened for the first time.

User Interface

  • New panels and graphics are skinnable in Moria! Thanks to our friends at LOTRO Interface for hosting the files.
  • UI displays will not go below zero for Armor, Common Defense, Fire Defense, Frost Defense, Shadow Defense, Fear Reduction, Wound Reduction, Disease Resistance, Posion Resistance, Melee Critical chance, Ranged Critical chance and Tactical Critical chance. The tooltips remain unchanged for calculations so players can see just how negative they are in each property.
  • Floaty text will stay consistent in widescreen and standard resolutions.
  • Items being used in crafting actions cannot be moved in the mail, Auction Hall, Bank, and housing storage. There will be an error message if this is tried warning the player. While not crafting (no progress bar), the items can be used in those places as normal.
  • A new map note type has been added which adds the option to toggle “Fellowship leader” in the filters. The leader is separate from the Fellows filter. When leadership changes, the map notes also switch. This filter is on by default for players
  • We have updated many of the regional chat broadcasts triggered in Bree-land, the Shire, Evendim, Angmar and the Ettenmoors to go to a specific regional broadcast channel. This channel can be filtered out if you choose to do so.
  • Tooltips for trait rewards now display over the space of the entire trait name, instead of just the icon on the Deed log and on the quest panel.
  • Any vital transfer skills that were multiplicative or not harmful were not showing any effect information in their tooltips. Both cases will now show information appropriately.
  • The pet bar is now affected by turning the quickslot lock bar on/off (i.e.- when it is locked, you cannot drag the pet commands from it to another slot).
  • Channeled and Induction skills now include their default channeling/induction durations in their tooltips.
  • Effects no longer show their application probability when they are already affecting a target.
  • Mount items now show the red item outline when you are in an area where that particular mount cannot be used.
  • Examination of in-combat and out-of-combat regeneration buffs for Morale and Power are now shown per-minute instead of per-second so they will be consistent with the character journal display.
  • Improved examination of effects which react to combat hits, e.g. items which reflect or absorb damage and skills which apply buffs which react to hits by applying other effects to the attacker.
  • Improved examination of skills and items which induce various states on the target, e.g. roots, dazes, stuns and/or knockdowns.
  • Updated examination for some weapons and skills to show chance of target effect application, i.e. "proc chance."
  • Fixed a bug which was causing skill quickslots to vanish when you trained an upgraded/improved skill instead of updating to use the new skill.
  • Tooltips: Standing has been replaced with Reputation.
  • Fixed a problem with Aim, Fervour, Rampage, and Attunement related skills not ghosting properly.
  • You are now able to right-click your cosmetic companion's selection vitals to open a menu to dismiss.
  • Examination of a companion skill will result with correct damage.

Chat/Social/Emote

  • Players can now remove deleted players from their Ignore lists.
  • The generated chat spew when someone is promoted in a kinship/tribe now accurately displays the new rank's label.
  • The emote "Away" now functions correctly instead of giving an Unknown Command error.
  • The /smoke1 emote (coughing) now behaves better with the standard smoking emote /smoke.
  • Jumping will now interrupt all dancing emotes.
  • AFK messages will now show up in the IM window and any window that filters Tell chat.
  • All chat windows should now sit flush with the bottom of the screen if you move them there

Raids/Fellowships/Kinships

  • Added sounds to fellowship/raid invite, leave, and leader changed actions.
  • Captain Rift Armor Shadow mitigation will remain on the players when the captain is moved between groups in a raid.
  • All Kinship ranks labeled as "Member" should now show "Kinsman/Kinswoman" as appropriate (including promotion/demotion messages and tooltips).
  • If you share a quest while the other player has a quest dispenser window open it will no longer lock them out of receiving shared quests, they will auto-decline it.
  • Your kinmates will no longer incorrectly appear to be in a fellowship on your kinship panel when they were in a fellowship that has been disbanded.
  • Fixed Vile Maw Raid Locks.

Auctions

  • Auction house searches now ignore any diacritics on search terms. You should be able to search for "dunedain" and find "Minor Book of the Dúnedain."
  • Auction House: "Cloak" category is now listed under Light Armour. "Shield" category is now listed under Light Armour. "Shield - Heavy" is now listed under "Heavy Armour"
  • The Class Items section of the auction house now includes Lute Strings for Minstrels.
  • You can now search auctions for items with a particular stat!
  • Auctions are sorted across pages!


Crafting

Crafting Guilds

Crafting Guilds provide additional paths of advancement for many professions. Membership in a crafting guild is exclusive - you may only be a member of one crafting guild at a time. You may choose to join a different crafting guild, but bear in mind that you must abandon all guild recipes and progress gained from your current guild in order to join a new one.
Crafting Guild Halls can be found in the following locations around Middle-earth:

  • Cook's Guild - Michel Delving
  • Jeweller's Guild - Esteldin
  • Metalsmith's Guild - Thorin's Hall
  • Scholar's Guild - Rivendell
  • Tailor's Guild - Esteldin
  • Weaponsmith's Guild - Thorin's Hall
  • Woodworker's Guild - Esteldin


In each crafting guild hall you will find the crafting guild leader, the guild's recipe vendor, and the guild's reward vendor.

Joining a Crafting Guild
Crafting Guild Trainers can be found in various crafting halls and locations throughout Middle-earth -- typically near a Master or Mistress of Apprentices. Speak with a Crafting Guild Trainer to choose a guild from the list of available guilds (based on your vocation). Note that to meet the requirements for membership in any crafting guild, you must be at least an Expert in the related profession.

Crafting Guild Advancement
Once you have joined a crafting guild, you can track your progress within the guild by opening the Character Journal and selecting the Reputation tab, where you will find a progress bar displaying your current standing within the guild.

By purchasing and executing recipes available from your crafting guild's recipe vendor, you can create craft items that your guild's leader will accept in exchange for increased standing within the guild's ranks.

Crafting Guild Rewards As you increase your standing within the guild, you can purchase and use the recipes sold by your guild's reward vendor. Some crafting guild reward recipes allow you to craft a stack of items for a fraction of the normal ingredients needed, while other reward recipes provide a fool-proof method to craft a critical success item.

The highest tier of crafting guild reward recipes allow crafters to produce Legendary weapons and class items, as well as items that can augment the accrual of item advancement experience points!

General

  • When you select your craft tool, the number of items you want to craft stays the same instead of resetting to 0.
  • A more descriptive warning is now shown about what will be lost when changing vocations.
  • Updated the names, descriptions, and tooltips for all crafting-related proficiency and mastery characteristics.
  • Reorganized and renamed many crafting UI categories. Finding the recipe you are looking for has never been easier!
  • Greatly improved the variety of items sold by Crafting Suppliers. All vendor-sold recipe ingredients should now be available from your local Crafting Supplier!
  • Some craft recipes were erroneously showing their default crit chance percentage as 1 more percent than they actually were. This is now fixed.
  • The "Make" crafting button now starts crafting when you release the mouse button, rather than when you first push the button down.

Farmer

  • Removed the word "flower" from the display names of the following farming products: Lily-of-the-Valley, Iris, Bluebottle, Amaranth, Saffron, and Bloodwort.
  • Slightly adjusted the values and quality levels (uncommon, rare, etc.) for all farming products.
  • Corrected the spelling of the word "colours" in the description for Iris flowers.
  • Golden-Fire Pipe Weed and Golden-Fire Pipe-Weed Seeds scrolls now grant the appropriate recipes.

Scholar

  • All armour dyes now display the line "Consumed on Use" in their tooltips.
  • Renamed the "Green Dye Recipe" to "Dark Green Dye Recipe."
  • New Hunter class item recipes have arrived! Journeyman, Expert, and Artisan Scholar recipes can be purchased from Hunter and Scholar trainers. These recipes can make "Book of the Wind-rider" (reduces power cost of Hunter skills) and "Book of Whisper-draw" (reduces threat generated by Hunter skills). The existing Artisan Scholar recipes "Bow Chant: Wind-Rider" and "Bow Chant: Whisper-draw" have been renamed to "Major Book of the Wind-rider Recipe" and "Major Book of Whisper-draw," respectively. These recipes now create the new Hunter class items, and will no longer produce the consumable Bow chant scrolls. Existing bow chant scrolls may still be used, but will be always overridden by an equipped hunter class item.
  • Items that can be used to craft dyes and house paints should now clearly state what color dye and house paint they can be used to make.
  • Updated the descriptions on scholar resource nodes.

Cook

  • Changed the Artisan Cooking recipe "Smooth Honey and Oats" to require a clay pot instead of a large clay pot.
  • The Forochel reputation recipes Flounder with Bacon Recipe, Baked Flounder Recipe, and Flounder Fillet Recipe are now correctly classified in the crafting UI as Trail Food recipes.
  • Increased the duration of non-combat and in-combat regeneration effects on all superior "Cooked Food" items (such as Superior Hard Biscuits, Superior Beef Stew, Superior Lembas, etc.)
  • The Artisan Cook recipes, "Spiced Apple Pie" and "Shire Rations" now require the Superior Oven facility effect.

Weaponsmith

  • Fixed an issue where many of the crafted throwing axes were not using the proper plural names when stacked
  • Using optional ingredients to craft superior weapons has never been easier! Weaponsmiths will now find that all Weaponsmithing recipes (with the exception of one-shot and speciality recipes) exclusively use Claws for their optional ingredients. The following claw types are used in Weaponsmith recipes: Torn Claw, Blackened Claw, Dusky Claw, Flawed Claw, Yellowed Claw, Grey Claw, White Claw, Great Claw, and Deadly Claw.

Prospector

  • Ancient Nickel Ingot recipe now requires 2 ore instead of 1.

Jeweller

  • Single-use Jeweller recipes for creating Lore-master amulets now award 10 points of crafting experience (was previously 6).

Tailor

  • Heavy Cotton Armor craftable sets now have additional stat bonuses to distinguish them from the Cotton Armor sets.

Metalsmith

  • Fixed some older recipes that were named differently from the items that they produce. Older recipes for "Forge-crafted," "Defender's," and "Elven Knight's" heavy armour and shields should now be named accurately.
  • Ancient Steel crafting tool recipes can now use the Grand Master Metalworker's Journal as an optional ingreident to boost critical success chances.

Woodworker

  • The crit versions of the Smooth Black Ash weapons have had their damage types changed to differentiate them from the non-crit versions.
  • The following had their damage type changed to Fire: Polished Black Ash Bow, Polished Black Ash Crossbow, Polished Black Ash Staff, Polished Black Ash Spear, Polished Black Ash Hammer, Polished Black Ash Javelin
  • The following had their damage type changed to Beleriand: Polished Black Ash Club, Polished Black Ash Great Club

Music System

  • ABC Music: When a note is in a chord and re-sounds before the chord ends, the ABC file parser would report the error and refuse to play the song. We now resound the note, allowing the song to play.
  • Music System: Using /play while an ABC song is currently being played will stop the old song more abruptly, eliminating the overlapping notes between songs.
  • Music System: The /play command now supports fellowship syncing and a part at the same time.

Items

  • Removed a reference to crafted dyes from the description for Neekerbreeker Ichor. This item can now be traded to Taddyn for one Juicy Strawberry.
  • Some uncommon gold rings that are distributed through loot were using identical or incorrect icons. The following rings now have new icons: Sapphire Ring of Might, Crystal Ring of Fate, Gleaming Garnet Ring, Gleaming Crystal Ring, Opal Ring of Fleetness, Garnet Ring of Fate, and Gleaming Diamond Ring.
  • Shields no longer display dye colors or patterns in their tooltips. Items that should have been displaying patterns now will.
  • The recovery time of Edhelharn Tokens has been reduced from 60 to 15 minutes.
  • Warding Lore Scrolls and Battle Lore have been rebalanced to 1% at Tier 1, 3% at Tier 2, and 5% at Tier 5.
  • "Skotrand" has been given a different appearance.
  • Fixed a grammar error in the name of the "Vestments of the Grove."
  • Slight adjustments were made to bow and crossbow weapon-speeds. Bows and Crossbows with Extremely Slow, Very Slow, and Slow speeds were adjusted so bows will always be slightly faster.
  • Meals, not to be confused with trail food, can now cure 1 Wound/Poison effect or 1 Disease/Fear effect.
  • Revised the usage description on the Dragon-bone Splinter pocket item to read: "Your ability to heal others is increased by 15%." The functionality of the item has not been changed.
  • Craft recipe scrollcases are no longer bind-on-acquire and now stack to 10.
  • Trinket of Swiftness will no longer stack with other run speed buffs.
  • "Warden's Shield," a heavy shield usable only by Guardians, has been renamed to "Shield of the Steward."
  • The Annúminas Medium Helmet is now dyeable.
  • Fixed the appearances of Rift helms on non-human classes.
  • [Jewelled Bell] goes jingle jangle! Special shout-out to Elendilmir gooc!
  • Artwork changed for "Candelleth's Hammer" to use a 2-handed hammer rather than a 1-handed hammer.
  • Art for "Garbert Family Club" has been updated to use a 2-handed model.
  • Thick Leather Overshoes can now be used in combat and acts as a free "Hide in Plain Sight" skill usage.
  • Archer's Lance re-added to the "Archer of the Council" set
  • Updated the 6th set bonus on the Lore-master's "Feldskyn Armour". The bonus magnitude has not been adjusted, just the wording.
  • Visual effects on "Tongannel's Joy" were incorrect and have been fixed.
  • The vendor price of the Simple Lute has been reduced.
  • The curing salves can be used while moving.
  • Equip cooldown time on "Gwatham" has been reduced to 5 minutes
  • Jewelry items that can be used to cure debuffs are now usable during combat.
  • Rift reward item "Othdring" now has the correct scale.
  • Salves got new icons.
  • Mirror of Mordirith decoration name changed to match the name of the boss who drops it.
  • Introductory Bree-land light armor was discovered to have duplicate appearances in-game, instead of the two unique appearances it was originally designed to have. The missing appearance has been introduced, as it should have been originally. This may cause characters wearing low-level Bree-land light armor to see a change in their armor's appearance.
  • Festival masks should now interact with all other headgear correctly.
  • Splintered Warg Claw has the correct icon.
  • Purchasable reputation recipes that were bound to the player previously listed a sell value, but could not be sold. All purchasable reputation recipes now display no value to correctly reflect the fact that they cannot be sold once purchased.
  • Crossbows are now correctly labeled as “crossbows” instead of “bows” in both name and description.
  • Dusty Egg Sacs dropped by spiders of level 13-17 no longer state they can be used in crafting. They have had their icon background color changed to represent this.
  • All of the cloak rewards for "Book 14 Chapter 1: The Heraldry of Lindon" quest now have unique appearances.
  • A new version of the Heavy Cast Iron Frying Pan is now available from Maneser Goodbody of the Mathom Society. The Frying Pan can be used to attack creatures and will appear sheathed when equipped. Players who already have the cosmetic item will not have it changed, so they'll need to buy another from the Mathoms vendor.
  • Satakieli, the Lossoth reputation harp reward, will now have a unique appearance.
  • The sword "Remmenaeg's Fall" from the quest "The Shadow Falls" has had its damage increased.

Loot System

  • When a stack of items appears in the loot window, the name will be pluralized.
  • Fellowship loot rules and the tutorial hints describing them will now show up at all appropriate times again.
  • The loot quality type "Legendary" has been changed to "Epic"

Character Creation/Selection

  • Two new character slots have been added to the client. These are only available if you have purchased the Mines of Moria expansion!

Graphics/Animation/fx

  • Many textures were processed with incorrect settings, leading to memory issues and sub-optimal dye appearance: this has been fixed.
  • 'Fake' fullscreen mode is currently disabled by default. To force it on, ensure that 'AllowFakeFullScreen' and 'ForceFakeFullScreen' are set to true in the UserPreferences.cfg file.
  • Fixed an issue with many objects not rendering landscape shadows and glow effects when they should have been on some video cards.
  • The sun lens flare effect could potentially be visible even if the sun was hidden behind terrain or clouds (DX9 only). This has been fixed.
  • Made a change that should reduce hitching in some cases (for the technically curious, decals now finally load asynchronously).
  • The selection reticle will now appear on the surface of water when selecting an object that's in it.
  • Reflective surfaces will no longer look like white blobs in low detail.
  • Low-detail shadows will no longer flicker.
  • Lake Mirrormere no longer flickers and distorts wildly.
  • Objects were invisible in some areas when running in DX10 mode when they shouldn't have been. This has been fixed.
  • Players will no longer appear black in the distance (DX10).
  • Users with some ATI hardware should no longer experience weird beam-like visual corruption coming from objects in the world.
  • Alt-tabbing out of the game while in DirectX 10 mode will now minimize the window.
  • Major upgrades to our particle system that will allow for better effects.
  • Removed the Induction FX from eating food and Monster Players.
  • We have removed the fancy Induction FX from non-monster inductions. These FX are ONLY intended for monsters to use.
  • Some Female Elves and Human Males may find their boots changed. What used to be short shoes are now tall boots. This was an error in consistency across the Avatars that went undiscovered until now.

World

  • The Shire Association of Equine Racing has restructured the horse track in Michel Delving to run in reverse.
  • Fixed various stuck locations, lighting issues, and texture fighting in Forochel.
  • Tinnudir: The Minstrel Trainer is actually playing music now.
  • Fixed some broken crawlers in the Tomb of Elendil.
  • Buth Luikh: The aurochs will not wander all around town.
  • Rivendell: The bard has been moved slightly so his mapnote will display.
  • Esteldin: Doors missing their shimmeries now have them.
  • Haudh Iarcith: Moved 2 monsters out of the stairs.
  • Trollshaws: Arifael's mapnote displays when he has a quest.
  • Defeat in Gath Forthnir now sends you to the Myrkworth rally point instead of the Gabilshathur rally point.
  • Defeat in the Tomb of Maenadar now sends you to the rally point at Bombadil's House instead of to the Bree-fields rally point.
  • When defeated in Annúminas, players will now rally right outside the gate.
  • Various terrain issues in Angmar have been resolved.
  • Adjusted the destination of the Ancient Lair exit in Angmar.
  • Kurth, a rare Gorthorog in Angmar, has had his scale reduced to allow him to better navigate the landscape.
  • Pathing issues in the Book 14 Chapter 15 instance have been resolved.
  • Pathing issues in Carn Dûm have been resolved.
  • Resolved a pathing issue with Bethad in the Ancient Lair instance.
  • Pathing issues with the Carn Dûm and Urugarth Gatekeepers have been resolved.
  • Various floating asset issues in Angmar have been resolved.
  • Fixed pathing issue in Barad Gularan.
  • Resolved various pathing issues in Western Angmar.
  • The exits from the Sewers of Carn Dûm now have appropriate portal effects.
  • A random invisible physics obstruction in Carn Dûm has been removed.
  • Players should no longer fall through certain sections of catwalk in Carn Dûm that appear to be walkable.
  • The tracking window will now drop when you enter combat.

Town services

  • Town Services: Suppliers no longer sell curing potions and salves. Healers still provide these items.
  • Rivendell: There is a new notary in Rivendell.

Travel/Maps/Radar

  • Neighborhood entrances have new mapnotes
  • All player summoning times have been standardized to 30 seconds across the various devices (Summoning Horn, Guardian Acorn, and Captain).
  • Travel destinations are granted when right-clicking on a travel NPC, even if they have more than one item in their action list.
  • Travel routes with a minimum level greater than level 1 will now display the required minimum level in their examination dialogs.
  • NPC radar map note icons now reappear on the radar after all associated quest rings have been removed.
  • The map note "Forge" has been renamed to "Crafting Facility."
  • The map note "Craft Resource" has been renamed to "Crafting Resource."


Fishing

  • Leech, Nightcrawler, and Red Wiggler bait now have a one minute cool-down timer that prevents the use of another piece of bait for sixty seconds.
  • The fishing bobber is now placed with some randomness if the water volume is large enough. If the scatter fails we force placement in the same manner as before, where the original hit occurred.
  • Fishing instruments updated to better capture Middle-earth vernacular - in other words, they now say fishing rod instead of fishing pole.

Miscellaneous

  • Added Sex to the list of things tracked. (ed. note. We don’t know what this means either, but it was too awesome to take out.)
  • Forochel: Brrrr! Moose will have cold breath now.
  • Orcs will no longer randomly mention Saruman.
  • Fixed a bug in the Barber Shop window that would cause your avatar to turn briefly in the opposite direction.
  • The mighty Gauradain War-mammoths now look even more mighty with their new rage animation, shaking their head wildly and knocking the Gauradan Mammoth Rider from his saddle.
  • The Midge's "Distracting Cloud" Aura no longer affects other monsters. (Known Issue: Player pets will also not be affected.) Also, the "Distracting Cloud" will now only affect you if you remain near the midge (the duration has been removed).
  • Reduced the size of the area of effect (by half) of the Bear's "Terrifying Roar" and "Chilled to the Bone" attacks.

Questing

General:

  • Horse swap: Added My to the names of the all the horse swap quests to indicate the quest is for turning in a horse, not getting one.
  • If NPCs have comments for quests, they are now viewable from the "Quest Comments" section of the NPC's quest window.
  • Laerden's Healing has been increased slightly; the elf session play characters have had their healing increased to a HoT every second for 15 seconds.

Player quests:

  • The reward for the Arnmórth the Exacting quest, Arnmórth's Foe, has been improved to make it comparable to the other two reward options and a bonus to the Will stat has been added to the item.
  • Do you enjoy logic puzzles? Seek out the Carver's Stash!
  • Shadow, flame, a strange torch, and a secret chamber await your discovery, if your mind is as quick as your blade!
  • Talk to Gamli at the Dolven-view about the bugs in his bed -- now with extra gross-out!
  • Those who enjoy riddles will now have a chance to follow the clues of Falgeirr Twisttongue all the way to their conclusion.
  • The quest "Keep It From Enemy" is now advanced for the entire fellowship when one player finds the correct corpse. The corpse is also destroyed on successful use.
  • Urugarth: The south gate from Lagmas Court is no longer openable from inside the Court, and the door to the arena fight now closes.
  • Remmenaeg is fighting fair again, but he has learned some new tricks!
  • Evendim: Impure Waters now gives you feedback when you enter and leave the appropriate locations.
  • Evendim: Fighting in the Streets: The Angmarim inside the Palace, Tombs and Gardens will count for this quest.
  • Evendim: Byrchan the Bald and the guards will stay away from each other.
  • Evendim: Fixed a typo in Vengeance in the Ruins.
  • Fair Fight: This quest has been changed to allow you to speak to the NPC and try again if you fail the first time. This required the quest to be versioned. If you had this quest underway when Moria launches, you must speak to the bestower and start it again.
  • Evendim: The Lost Statue and The Corrupted Statue are no longer shareable.
  • Evendim: The Bounty Hunter poster will now appear on the wall as opposed to floating off of it.
  • Ered Luin: The Puzzle Vault line chests will now glow when you are supposed to use them. The clue notes have been moved from inventory items into quest text and descriptions on the gears. This required all quests in the arc to be versioned. If you had any of these quests underway when Moria launches, you must speak to the bestower NPCs again to start them over.
  • Esteldin: Fixed directions in Mother of the Valley.
  • Book 10, Chapter 13: Laerdan's Note should be easier to select
  • Northdowns: A Collar for the King: The collar will not remove itself upon using it to summon the warg. Instead, Amarion will collect it when you return to him. This required the quest to be versioned. If you had this quest underway when Moria launches, you must speak to the bestower NPC and start it again.
  • The Rift: When Narnulubat dies, any remaining darklings will melt away and not turn into another World-eater.
  • Carn Dûm: Barashel will stop his pounding animation when he enters combat.
  • Eavespires: Erchiel has a mapnote.
  • Forochel: Fisherman's Foe displays progress numbers again.
  • Forochel: Three Sheets to the Wind has had its directions updated for sheet 2.
  • Forochel: Three Sheets to the Wind: The Peikko Cave has a mapnote now.
  • Forochel: Feeding the Need: Added Riki's location.
  • Forochel: Fixed a sabertooth who would respawn oddly.
  • Forochel: The Angmarim Sorceror will agro. Look out!
  • Forochel: When killing the Den Mother the other wolves will now respond to your actions.
  • Forochel: Some of the men that weren't skating now do.
  • Forochel: Raw Materials: The quest has been updated to indicate you are looking for sinew, not rawhide.
  • Forochel: Kylma-Sari will no longer count towards the quest "Undisturbed Rest."
  • Forochel: Guaradan traps will be easier to use, and will animate and collapse on use.
  • Carn Dûm: Tarlakh will reset if you drag him beyond the first gate.
  • Helegrod: A New Queen for Deepest Helegrod shows as a raid quest once again.
  • Helegrod: Corcur Talismans can be placed in the vault once more.
  • The Rift: Fruz will not use the Execute skill until at least 15 minutes into the battle
  • Book 5, Chapter 5: The Key-stone is now on the ground and will glow.
  • Book 5 Chapter 6: The directions have been improved.
  • Book 8 Chapter 5: This has been marked as a full fellowship quest.
  • At the end of the quest for Book 10, Chapter 14 Calenglad will take the palantír from the player's inventory now (kthxbye!).
  • Book 11 Chapter 2: The drama sequence at the top of the stairs now has sound.
  • Book 12 Chap 9: Narucham will no longer display vitals.
  • Book 12 Chap 9: The Barghest summoned by the Angmarim will follow them.
  • Book 13, Chapter 3: The items you are using now have proper names.
  • Book 13 Chapter 6: The Heraldry book has a name and description.
  • Book 13 Chapter 9: Improved the logic at the end of this instance to make sure you can't get locked out without getting the ring half. This required the quest to be versioned. If you had this quest underway when Moria launches, you must speak to the bestower NPC and start it again.
  • The Book 14, Chapter 1 boss will now reset if he leaves combat.
  • In Pickthorn's Treasure, quest objectives now direct players to look for the "treasure" rather than "boots."
  • Friend of the Wild: The targets for this quest line have been moved to the solo-friendlier swamps of Harloeg. Instead of using the inventory items to summon the small swampland creatures, you now need to have the items in your inventory and use the dens. The dens will flash to indicate you should use them.
  • Bounty Hunter: All monsters will engage at all times.
  • Attention, Servants of Process: A Formal Complaint now has a sound when you ring the doorbell.
  • Garth Agarwen: The banner wights at the top correctly hold their banners.
  • The Lore of the Cardolan Prince quest has been updated with better functionality. Simply picking the items up will now advance the quest, so you will not have to use them in your inventory. To do this, the quest has been versioned. If you had this quest underway when Moria launches, you will need to speak to the bestower NPC to start it over.
  • Cleansing Draught: Improved the ability to select the damp fragrant herbs.
  • The level of the bears in the Shire’s “Honey Bear” quest has been reduced.
  • Angmar: The Watching Stones now give better feedback when they kill you.
  • Northdowns: Defending the Bridge: The crate you need to use will glow.