Update 28.2 - Thursday December 10, 2020

Update 28.2 Release Notes

Here are the release notes for Update 28.2, released on Thursday, December 10th.

Of Special Note:

War of Three Peaks - Tier 5 now available!

Tier 5 difficulty of Shakalush, the Stair Battle and Amdân Dammul, The Bloody Threshold will become available on 12/10/20 at 12PM Eastern. The Leading the Charge / Ahead of the Curve deeds and titles will be available for both instances through 1/20/2021 (turning off 1/21/21@3:00 AM Eastern).

New Yuletide Hobbit Gifts!

Special winter gifts have been added to Hobbit Presents for the Yule festival season. Silver Hobbit Presents in the Boosts category and Gold Hobbit Presents in the Advanced Supplies category will come packaged with a special winter cosmetic. These seasonal gifts include housing decorations, cosmetic pets, and mounts. Rarely, your seasonal Yule gift will be a selection package of Yule Hobbit Present items from 2019. All special winter Hobbit Present gifts can now be disenchanted into 2 Yule Festival Tokens each using the Flame of Ancalamír, should you receive an unwanted or duplicate gift.

The Yuletide Festival begins on December 10th, starting at 10:00 AM Eastern, and the festival runs through January 4th, until January 5th at 3:00 AM Eastern.

Legendary Worlds: Gondor!

The Legendary Worlds of Anor and Ithil will have their level cap increase to 100 on December 16th, opening access to the regions of Western Gondor, Central Gondor, Eastern Gondor, and Old Anórien. This content includes The Paths of the Dead, Gondor Aflame, Ashes of Osgiliath, and The Siege of Minas Tirith. Read more about our Legendary Worlds on LOTRO.com! Arrives to the Legendary Worlds of Anor and Ithil on December 16th starting at 10:00 AM Eastern.

News and Notes:

Classes

• Reference values have been fixed for the Loremaster Analysis skill.

Items

• Statted Legendary Titles have been buffed across all level ranges. LI Titles will better reflect the content that gives them out.
• Fellowship Tradeable items now show whether they're Bind to Account or Bind to Character in examination tooltips.
• Fixed a bug where Fellowship Tradeable items would always Bind to Account when the owner is still logged in.
• New Legendary Item Titles, a new portrait frame, housing items, and more have been added to the March on Gundabad Quartermaster. The new Legendary Item titles and portrait frame are available at Kindred for Supply Pack barter, and the new housing decorations are available at Kindred for Copper Coins of Gundabad barter.
• New housing items have been added to the Gabil'akkâ Quartermaster.
• A new Legendary Item title has been added as a reward for Tier 3+ completion of the Remmorchant raid.
• Cosmetic pet huorns now have more appropriate sounds while moving.
• Crossbows will remain sheathed during the Stoic Pose emote.
• Traveller's Steel Bound lootboxes now have a selection of Yuletide-appropriate items for a limited time, including two new hobby horses, a goat wearing a sweater, a cask-laden donkey pet, and a mount.
• A Cask-laden Donkey cosmetic pet has been added to Adventurer's and Traveller's lootboxes as well as being barterable from Filbert Fig for Figments of Splendour.
• Universal crafting ingredients have been added as a possible consumable item drop from Adventurer's and Traveller's lootboxes.
• A Rare Crafting Component selection box (crafting tiers 2 - 12) has been added as a possible crafting resource drop from Traveller's lootboxes.
• An Elderslade Supply Pack has been added as a rare crafting resource drop from Adventurer's lootboxes.
• Adventurer's lootbox gear, when opened at level 130, will now create at item level 428, with the chance to create at up to item level 430.
• Boar mounted Jump animation is smoother for all races. Boar mounting animation has been fixed for all races.

PvMP

• Update 28.2 brings some behind-the-scenes work to PvMP in the game that will allow us to better control balance in the future.
• Creeps now receive a generic multiplier to base HP and Damage to help keep pace with player itemization, this multiplier can also be quickly updated to let us bump creeps whenever new content is released with higher item level itemization for Free Players.
• Lots of tweaking to specific Creep base rating values as well as trait and skill ratings values.
• Creeps will now generally start with significantly better ratings even before they add corruptions.
• Physical Mitigation corruptions now also give B/P/E boosts.
• Tactical Mitigation Corruptions now also give Resistance.
• Resistance corruptions still exist, but they will probably be replaced/altered when we have a chance to expand the corruption tray and do a more deliberate pass on corruptions.
• Updated a lot of morale/power regen sources, including monster player skills/traits, and many consumables for both freeps and creeps.
• A number of area of effect abilities are now non-Fellowship dependent.
• Upgraded guards, keep defenders, and landscape mobs in The Ettenmoors:
  • All guards/defenders get an increase to general mitigation/finesse stats.
  • Creep guards/defenders gain a larger HP increase and a medium damage increase.
  • Freep guards/defenders gain larger damage increase and a medium HP increase.
  • Landscape mobs gain a more modest increase to morale and damage.
• Teleportals are no longer usable in combat:
  • Center Keep backdoor.
  • Creep/Freep entrances to the Ettendeep.
• General tweaks to Creep stats:
  • Modestly reduced Creep vitality bonus.
  • More signifcantly reduced Creep healing.
• Random Bugfixes:
  • Balanced out the damage on some Reaver multi-hit skills.
  • Blackarrow snare damage reduction.
  • Gash and Steadfast Barrage traits no longer conflict.
  • Steadfast barrage damage and range reduced.
  • Steadfast barrage toggle now cancels past 30m (this checks infrequently, so your exact distance may vary).
  • Upper Hand trait now properly increases block/parry reduction.

Quests and Adventure Areas

• The mount restriction for picking up various item nodes (e.g. blueberries, honey, and taters) has been removed.
• The French and German Breeland maps have been updated to include the Breeland Homesteads.
• Mithril travel and quest guides have been fixed for quests What Ales You and Emerald Fireflies.
• All mount types can now be used in Thorin's Hall.
• Missions
  • Characters of different levels in Fellowship Duos no longer need to acquire every quest in the “Available Quests” category on an NPC in order to be able to see the “Available Private Encounters” category.
  • Cancelling mission quests will no longer incorrectly apply the daily reset timer. Cancelled mission quests can now be picked up again after waiting a few seconds.
• Frostbluff
  • For players who have access to missions, a new quest has been added to Frostbluff. See Mara Sandydowns for an additional opportunity to earn Yule festival Tokens.
  • A new music track by Bill Champagne has been added.
• Annak-khurfu
  • Thetmarr and Likmund will now properly keep their game of 'Hammers and Bones' out of your chat log when you are visiting.
• Kingstead
  • Fixed a flow issue with 'Instance: The Road To Dunharrow' where players could get stuck if they followed Ur into the Paths of the Dead.
• Midsummer
  • Firefly Mithril travel and Quest guide locations fixed.
  • Lightning in a Bottle - Quests will no longer erroneously say 'Completed' in the dialogue window before placing the lanterns.
• Moria
  • Consolidated four Moria tabs into a single tab on the Rhovanion page of the Deed Log.
• Mirkwood
  • Saebereth, Queen of the Saewethil, will no longer display her name before she jumps down to fight during 'Instance: Mazog in the Web'.
• Misthallow
  • Adjusted several Mithril Travel destinations.
• Shades in the Swamp
  • Addressed some Quest Guide issues with the shades in 'Ghostly Figures'.
• The Shire
  • Fixed the missing Quest Guide for 'Eggs for Gammer Tunnelly'.
• Vales of Anduin
  • The Crumpled Note can now be read from the quest tracker during 'Grimbeorn's Interruption'.
• War of Three Peaks
  • Shakalush, The Stair Battle
    • The Boss 3 gate now opens.
    • Duo Reward Chests will now spawn correctly.
  • Quest - Pilfering Orkish Orders - has been grounded. Orkish Orders will no longer be floating in the air.
  • Fixed a typo in quest "Routing the Spies".
• Wildermore
  • Banners for the quest What Waits at Byre Tor will now respawn more slowly.
  • The Search of Gársig's Farm - players who were stuck on this quest should be able to complete it now.

Misc

• French Map Updates: Breeland, Ered Luin, la Porte de Thorin, Eregion, le Val-d'Aïeul, la guerre des Trois Sommets, Ered Mithrin et la Lande desséchée, les résidences de l'Estfolde, les résidences des prairies de Terre-du-Roi, Rohan Ouest, Dor Amarth, et Torech Ungol
• German Map Updates: Breeland, die Mauren von Moria (mit Hulstentor), Ered Luin, Thorins Tor, Eregion, Eriador, Ältestental, der Kreig der Drei Gipfel, Seidlung Ostfold-Hügel, Seidlung von Königsstattweiden, West-Rohan, Minas Morgul, Belagertes Mordor (3440 Z.Z), Dor Amarth, und Torech Ungol
• English Map Updates: Ered Luin, Thorin's Gates
• French: Updated text, corrected typos throughout the game
• German: Updated Text, corrected typos throughout the game
• German: Updated the term '‘Auftragsanschlagtafel’ to 'Aufgabenbrett' for improved display. Updated and unified terms for 'Poinsettien' and 'Rufstufe'. Updated and unified 'Bestechungsgold'.
• You will no longer hear rain and thunder on the character selection screen when logging out of a stormy area.

Source

• https://www.lotro.com/en/content/update-282-release-notes