Update 33.1 - Wednesday July 20, 2022

Update 33.1 Release Notes

Here are the Release Notes for Update 33.1: The Further Adventures of Elladan and Elrohir, release date Wednesday, July 20th, 2022.

Of Special Note

The Further Adventures of Elladan and Elrohir have arrived!

Soon after Frodo's rescue from the Ford of Bruinen, the scouts of Rivendell venture forth, seeking news on the Enemy and his servants. Lord Elrond has given his sons, Elladan and Elrohir, a secret errand. Join the twins on their journey from Rivendell to the distant land of Lothlórien!

Players can start Further Adventures by talking to Elrond in his library in Rivendell. Rewards can be exchanged with Celeblír outside the Last Homely House.

Updates from the PvMP Front!

Experience the thrill of player versus player combat with new PvMP Options. You can become a monster player after your main character reaches level 2. If you wish to fight on the side of heroes, you can ride your character into the Ettenmoors at level 20, where you will be scaled up to better handle the carnage. Audacity is now essential for survival in the Ettenmoors. As you reach level 140, you will acquire more Audacity and gear to better handle the fight!

For a full list of changes and updates to PvMP in the Ettenmoors, please see the PvMP section.

News and Notes

The dynamically scaling stats on the following items have been adjusted to be more appropriate across all levels and increase above level 130: "Shields of the Hammerhand", "Earrings of the High Elves", "Earring of the Dead City", and "Fateful Gundabad Earring".

The stats granted by the following traits have been adjusted to be more appropriate across all levels and increase above level 130: "Man of the Fourth Age", "Hobbit-stature", "Fateful Dwarf", "Friend Of Man", "Emissary", "Unwritten Destiny", and "Those Who Remain".

Some player-level based stat progressions were tweaked a bit to smooth out values below level 105

Events

• Treasure Bugan
  • The Treasure Bugan’s base spawn chance is now 75%, an increase from 25% - 33%.
  • The "Theodore Gorse’s Lucky Feather" item has been changed:
    • Now guarantees that a Treasure Bugan will spawn when used in a qualifying instance.
    • Still lasts 90 minutes, but expires in real-time.
    • Can no longer be purchased for "Coins of the Bugan".
    • Now costs 10 Mithril Coins, an increase from 5.
  • Daily Quest “Seeking the Treasure Bugans!” has been updated:
    • Now requires you to slay 3 Treasure Bugans instead of 4.
    • Now offers the following rewards:
      • 400 VXP
      • Picker Box of basic crafting Materials
      • 1 "Treasure Bugan's Cache", which offers a choice of the following:
        • "Enhancement Runes" x3, Incomparable
        • "Sealed Tracery": Incomparable
        • "Universal Optional Ingredient"
        • "Universal Solvent"
        • Picker Box of crafting shards
  • The once-per-event quest “Thwarting the Treasure Bugans” now offers the following rewards:
    • 2000 VXP
    • "Crate of Crafting Materials"
    • 1 "Treasure Bugan's Cache", which offers a choice of the following:
      • "Enhancement Runes" x3, Incomparable
      • "Sealed Tracery", Incomparable
      • "Universal Optional Ingredient"
      • "Universal Solvent"
      • Picker Box of crafting shards

Classes

• Brawler
  • Brawlers now have a visible proficiency skill in the Skills Panel for battle-gauntlets.
  • 'Fist of the Valar' base damage increased to be more in line with other mettle spenders.
  • 'Follow Me!' is no longer an attack speed buff, it is now a group combat run-speed buff, increasing speed by 20% for 15s.
  • 'Come At Me' has several updates:
    • Now 'fast' rather than 'immediate', to mitigate a skill cancellation issue encountered during periods of lag.
    • Taunt duration increased [5s->10s].
    • Base target count increased [5->10].
    • When 'Bellicose' is utilized, "Come At Me" will now generate Mettle even if no targets are hit.
  • 'Weather Blows' has several updates:
    • Now an incoming damage set effect that will no longer stack with other incoming damage buffs.
    • Base value has been set to 35%, -6% for trait, -9% for Mettle (Max 20%).
    • Lasts 15s with a 75s cooldown.
    • Note that this still acts as a separate multiplier from standard armor damage mitigation.
    • The instant heal component has been moved to 'Bracing Guard'.
  • 'Gut Punch' no longer reduces the target's outgoing damage, but now increases incoming damage by 20% for 20s. The skill has a short cooldown, but a given target cannot be affected by it for 70s after the effect wears off.
  • 'Innate Strength' buffs use shorter animations [1.5s->1.0s], several other buffs have had their animations shortened or reduced to FX only.
  • Many Brawler buffs were still using placeholder effect icons, many of these have been replaced with a more diverse set of effect icons for clarity.
  • Most Brawler group buffs now have a radius of [10->15m].
  • Most Brawler group buffs will now affect raid members.
  • 'Vulnerability' has had its base debuff increased [1%->3%]. Item set bonuses to the effect have been increased similarly.
  • 'Brash Invitation' has had its range increased [25->40m].
  • The 'Iron Will' skill was redundant to "Weather Blows". It has been replaced by "The Best Defence". This skill buffs the fellowship's damage by 30% for 15s, and has a 120s CD.
    • "Strong Jaw and Nimble Feet" no longer refer to "Iron Will".
  • Using 'The Best Defence' now overwrites previous active instances.
  • The 'Armour of Nature's Striker' 2-set bonus has been changed to +5% Melee Damage.
  • Other Brawler's 'Share Innate Strength' skills should no longer overwrite your own.
• Champion
  • The 'Hiddenhoard Storm' 4-set bonus buff "Increased Critical Ratings" duration should no longer be affected by the "Great Cleave Duration" tracery.
• Lore-master
  • Pets can no longer be renamed many times in a short period of time.
  • Blue-line capstone trait set bonus 'Tutelage of the Brown Wizard' no longer references 'Sic 'Em'.
  • 'Essence of the Beast' no longer affects 'Sic 'Em', now reduces cooldown of 'A Murder of Crows' by 5 seconds on procs.
• Hunter
  • The 'Upshot Damage' tracery no longer erroneously double-applies to devastating hits.

PvMP

• Beginning at level 20, all Free People classes can ride into the Ettenmoors.
• Free People players entering the Ettenmoors from level 20 through 129 will scale to 140 and have 25 Audacity until level 120, then that Audacity is reduced by 1 rank until level 130 where it reaches 0.
• Four new tasks have been added to the Ettenmoors for Free Peoples and Monster Player players, including a base task to defeat five members of the opposition and three meta tasks to complete the base task a number of times for a greater reward.
  • To obtain these tasks you must purchase the Task Starter from barter vendors at Glân Vraig for Free Peoples and Gramsfoot for Monster Players.
  • The "Commendations" cap has been increased to 20,000.
• Monster Players
  • All monster player classes are free to all players and available once a player completes a new player experience or increases a Free Peoples character level to two within the game world.
  • In an effort to provide newly minted monster players with more survivability in the Ettenmoors, we've made changes to the starting skill loadouts for Monster Player characters.
  • We have reduced the rank necessary to obtain all monster player skills. All monster players complete their kits at Rank 5.
    • Acquiring the rank gated appearances remain in place.
  • Acquiring the first map to Gramsfoot is a necessity in Monster Play - the map is now rewarded on a revised version of the new player quest taking place almost entirely in Gramsfoot.
  • All Corruption trait slots are now available to Monster Players without an added LOTRO Point cost.
  • Reduced the cost to slot all monster skills, corruptions, appearances, and racial abilities.
• Audacity - Audacity has been revised to improve PvMP player experience.
  • Audacity now has 36 levels.
    • Monster Players gain Audacity by spending 'Commendations' into the virtue.
    • Free Peoples gain Audacity by spending gold and 'Commendations' to acquire armor and jewelry with Audacity.
    • Audacity gear for Free Peoples is bound by rank.
    • Crowd Control has been reduced to 5% at Rank 1 and scales to 60% reduction at Rank 36.
  • A new item, 'Tincture of Audacity', is available from barter vendors for Monster Players and Free Peoples.
    • The benefit is 5 Audacity potions which can stack up to 10 with duration of 60 minutes each.
    • Sold in stacks of 1, 5, and 10. Cost is 200, 1000, and 2000 'Commendations' respectively or 10, 35, 70 Mithril Coins.
  • Audacity follows a linear progression track along three axis:
    • Crowd Control Duration Reduction
    • Incoming Damage Modifier
    • Outgoing Damage Modifier
• LOTRO Store
  • New appearances are now available for each Monster Player class! Monster Player Class Appearances have also had their cost reduced to 795 LOTRO Points.
  • The cost of individual Monster Player Class Corruptions, Traits, and Skills has been reduced based on their tier.
  • Racial, Class, Mastery and Resistance, Mititgation, and Trade-off Corruption Bundles have been added to the LOTRO Store that contain all relevant skills or related benefits.

Combat

• Fixed a bug that reduced player's mastery slightly against lower level foes.
• Pets can no longer be in the Aggressive stance, which has been removed. Pets set to the Aggressive stance have been reset to the Guard stance.

Quests and Adventure Areas

• Sari-Suma (Instance)
  • Frozen Wights in a particular area in instance 'Sari-surma' should no longer spawn over level.
• The Shire
  • Frills in the Rushock Bog in have been adjusted to no longer float.
  • Some riverbanks in Bindbole Wood have been smoothed out to look more realistic.
  • A few caves in the Bolestones have had their physics adjusted to be more accurate.
• Yondershire
  • Several Yondershire interiors now have more appropriate ambiances for their environment.
  • The Upset Hobbit in the gazebo in Nobottle should no longer find themselves disappearing under its floor.
  • The radar now correctly directs players in the direction of local towns.
  • Grounded the sprung net for "Instance: Springing the Grand Plan".
  • The quest item in "Tying the Knots" has been corrected to 'Spool of Rope'.
  • The Red Flag Spots in "The Tale of Ashenfell" now have the correct tooltip.
  • A land seam present on a mountain has been smoothed out.
  • A resource node between Long Cleeve and Nobottle that was in a river gorge is now in a more accessible location.
  • Hobbit children that can be questioned during the quest "The Wayward Child" can no longer be questioned after you complete the quest.
• Parts of the landscape that were erroneously changed due to object replacement for Gundabad have now been fixed, reverting them to appropriate appearances for their biome.
  • Rocks on the Falconer's Tower in the North Downs have been adjusted to use local, native rock.
• Fell Beasts can no longer break free of the Roost and spawn in the landscape.
• Forsting in Gundabad has been repositioned slightly to no longer fall through the floor.
• The "Prologue Emissary" quest has had its reward of a Will bracelet replaced with a Vitality bracelet.
• Miscellaneous Z-fighting in Mattugard has been resolved.

Housing

• Bree-land Homesteads
  • Hooks in 8 Long Street and 6 Chestnut Street now align correctly with the terrain.
  • The sign and fence of 3 High Road have been lifted out of the ground.
  • A stretched texture in the garden of 8 Long Street has been smoothed.
• Ambient Music now works on the exterior of 5 Cape Road in Belfalas.
• Doormat in 1 Filly Lane in Kingstead now aligns correctly with the terrain.
• Visiting Bankers and Barbers can now be placed in Yard Hooks in Erebor.

Cosmetic Pets

• The White Goose cosmetic pet now correctly appears in the Collections panel.

Localization

• German
  • Updated the deed title for completing the Legendary Sentinel's challenge in German.
• French
  • Fixed mistranslation of "close" in the tracking UI for the "Passage of Foes", "Passage of Nature", "Passage of Shadow" and the 'Tome of Tracking', changing 'fermer' to 'proche'.
• German and French
  • Updated the map translations for the Cape of Belfalas and Cape of Belfalas Homesteads in French and German.
  • Updated map translations for the Gondor Regional maps
  • Updated translations that use a character's Ancestry and Class, such as titles, to better function in French and German.

NPC and Vendor Changes

• The Farmers Faire Cosmetic Categories on Caltha Tunnelly have been rearranged to be in the correct order. Additionally, the Other category will now be listed last.
• Festival Vendors now have a profile for "Essences" rather than "Essences and Legendary Items" since the obsolete legendary items were previously removed
• Forge-masters and Relic-masters
  • Relic-masters and their services have been removed from the world as there are no plans to use relics or shards in the future.
    • Combination Legendary Item services are now only available from Forge-masters.
    • A few Relic-masters that bestow quests or are related to quests have been turned into Forge-masters so as not to break those quests.
      • These remaining Relic-masters (now Forge-masters) are near South Bree, in Gundabad, in Rivendell, and in Thorin's Gate.
    • The Relic-master function has been removed from the town services item.
    • Relics and shards will not be usable or convertible into LI2 ingredients
  • Forge-masters in Rivendell and Thorin's Hall can now be used for reforging outside of the Volume II Book 1 quest sequence.

Miscellaneous

• Minor improvements to reward track messaging for IXP runes.
• Instance and Skirmish chests will no longer drop Heritage Runes.
• Obsolete Relic Packages have been removed from several instances and raids.
• Ill Omens Essence Bounty packages that have not yet been used can now be used by characters above level 130. They will grant a level 130 essence selection package to any characters level 130 and higher.
• "Remembered Rivals" Featured Instance gear now binds to account rather than character.
• Raid Groups playing on Landscape will no longer benefit from "Open Tapping", and will also no longer receive gold, loot, XP, reputation, quest advancement or deed advancement from monster kills on landscape.
• "Sealed Tracery" boxes will once again deliver traceries to level 45 - 49 characters.
• The items "Tome of Greater Deed Acceleration" and "Slayer Deed Accelerator (60 min)" now last for 6 hours. "Slayer Deed Accelerator (60 min)" has been renamed "Slayer Deed Accelerator (6 hours)".
• The item "Slayer and Skill Deed Boost (90 min)" now lasts for 6 hours. Its name has been updated to "Slayer and Skill Deed Boost (6 hours)".
• Name restrictions have been loosened around words similar to "Defender".
• "Helm of Crystal Resolve" no longer clips the tops of the followings heads:
  • Human male
  • Dwarf
  • Stout-axe
  • Beorning male
• "Chestplate of Crystal Resolve" has been adjusted to better fit Hobbits.
• Using LIXP Runes for the Reward Track now provides better indications of success, failure, and the related reasons.
• Added an option to update your graphics display adapter from the v -> Options -> Repair tab of the game launcher.
  • If the game client doesn't appear to start, and there is no error of any kind, please take a look at this option.
  • For those familiar with the workaround of setting the DisplayAdapter value in UserPreferences.ini, this is intended to be a supported way of setting that value.
• Improved messaging for when the worlds are down.
• Improved the backend around the chat system, which should reduce frequency of disconnects.
• Added an 'Embers of Enchantment' barterer for the Hiddenhoard of Abnankâra. In order to acquire a piece of gear from the barterer, you will often need to have the completion deed for the tier following where the gear is introduced. Below is a breakdown:
  • T1: Jewelry (Neck, Pocket), Off-hands
  • T2: Jewelry (Rings, Earrings), Feet
  • T3: Legs, Chest, Shoulders
  • T4: Hands, Head, Cloak

Known Issues

• Training Audacity as a Creep from 35 to 36 will offer the player to train to 37. You cannot train beyond 36. If you log out and log back into the game this issue is resolved.

Source

• English
• French
• German