Update 34 - Tuesday November 15, 2022

Update 34 Release Notes

Here are the release notes for Update 34: Before the Shadow, released on Tuesday, November 15th, 2022.

Of Special Note:

Before the Shadow has arrived!

Before the shadows lengthened in Angmar, forces of evil threaten the safety of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth! Delve into the mysteries of the One Ring as you embark on a perilous journey through Swanfleet and the remnants of the kingdom of Cardolan, encountering new friends and old foes. Adventure with Boromir of Gondor and combat the rise of the villainous Grey Fear before bringing word of the growing threat to Elrond of Rivendell, where a Fellowship of heroes will be formed...

Adventure through a new early leveling experience, take on old foes, and reunite with old friends. Fight for victory against those who wish to restore the kingdom of Angmar in the latest Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Before the Shadow! Read more and purchase the expansion in the LOTRO Market!

Delvings debut!

Delvings are a new mechanic debuting with Before the Shadow's Missions! You can read an overview of the Delving system on LOTRO.com. To get started, log into the game on any character that has reached the level cap after purchasing Before the Shadow and you'll receive an item through the in-game mail that begins a quest to start Delving! Speak to any of the new Missions NPCs in Before the Shadow to access Delvings. You can find Before the Shadow Mission NPCs at the Camp in Andrath, Clegur, Herne, Lhan Garan, Tharbad, and South Downs. NOTE: Characters must be at the world’s level cap in order to access the Delving system.

Guide: https://www.lotro.com/guides/lotro-guide-to-delvings-en

New Starter Instance!

A new starter instance is available to newly-created characters for players who have purchased Before the Shadow! Create a character, Select starting tutorial 'Before the Shadow', and run the new Instance: Mossward, the Border Village.

New Skirmish!

A new skirmish is now available to players who have purchased Before the Shadow called "Doom of Caras Gelebren"! Experience the Second Age and the fall of Eregion and aid Celebrimbor in repelling the forces of the Enemy! This Skirmish is available to players level 20-140, and can be played Solo, Duo, Small Fellowship, Fellowship, or Raid. The new Skirmish is accessible via the Instance Join panel once you have completed the general Skirmish Tutorial. To run the Skirmish Tutorial visit any of the Skirmish Captains in Skirmish Camps located throughout Middle-earth.

Coming Soon - New Scaling Instance!

A new Fellowship scaling instance will soon be available to players who have purchased Before the Shadow called "Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave"! Explore one of the oldest barrows of Tyrn Gorthad and face off against a powerful foe roused by the passage of the Witch-king of Angmar! This scaling instance is available to players level 20-140, and can be played Solo, Duo, or in a Fellowship. Once you have discovered its entrance in the hills of Cardolan, Sarch Vorn will be accessible via the Instance Join panel. "Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave" opens through Tier 3 difficulty at noon server time on Thursday December 1st. The deed, "Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave -- Tier 3 -- Leading the Charge" will be available to complete through 3am server time on Thursday February 16th, 2023.

NOTE: All class trait trees have been reset for Update 34. Please re-spend your class trait points and save your preferred specs.

News and Notes

Delvings:

• Access Delving Stones within any of the 40 new Missions included with the Before the Shadow expansion to increase the difficulty of the monsters in the mission.
• Collect a Delving gemstone, interact with the Delving Stone to affix your gem and begin the Delving. Malice will spread through the mission. The malice increases the overall difficulty of the mission and successfully completing the mission rewards you with a chest of items and a new bartering currency to exchange for armor roughly on par with Tier 3 Raid level rewards, plus much more.
• Every completed mission you undertake while delving rewards you with a new Delving Gemstone that further increases the difficulty. Risk it all or trade these gemstones in to return to the previous level of difficulty. The choice is yours.
• Delvings have a maximum completion limit of ten per day.
• Choosing one delving quest locks out access to any of the delving quests until the first is completed or failed.
• Delvings will fail when leaving the instance at any point before the mission is complete.
• Descriptions on the cracked gems are properly referring to them as cracked and likely worthless, though you can barter them for a new delving gem with your cracked gem.
• The effects applied in Delvings will rotate so that there is a different set of effects and skills applied on a rotating basis.
• Monsters in Delvings may display the ability to sense your presence at a greater distance and may call friends from a greater distance when they are engaged.
• Dread now spreads through any area that is affected by a malice at Tier 2 and greater,
• All Delvings are shared and advance with Fellowship members.

Skirmishes:

• Doom of Caras Gelebren is a new Defensive Skirmish available to players levels 20-140, featuring a suite of new Deeds and unique rewards!
• Doom of Caras Gelebren is playable Solo or in a Duo, Small Fellowship, Fellowship, or Raid.
• Once you have completed the Skirmish Tutorial, Doom of Caras Gelebren will be accessible via the Instance Join panel, but it is recommended that you seek out Tarandir at the ruins of Caras Gelebren in Swanfleet before playing this Skirmish.

Character Creation:

• An option has been added to character creation to allow the user to select their preferred tutorial experience. This UI replaces the checkbox that allowed the user to skip the tutorial - this has been added as an option in the new UI along with the original Tutorial and the new Mossward experience.
• The Character list has been re-ordered slightly so that Burglars are again the default class creation option for most races. Having Brawler alphabetically be the default for most races placed a premium character as the default class, which was unintended.
• Randomly generated Stout-axe names will now be substantially different from randomly generated Dwarf names.
• The "Beorn" Prefix and Suffix is no longer used for Dwarves and Stout-axe Dwarves.
• Brawlers will now begin the game with 'Cracked Battle-Gauntlets'.
• Stout-axe players who purchase Veteran Status will no longer have quests from the Stout-axe intro stuck on them.

Classes:

• Class Trait Points have been moved away from quests and deeds and are now granted directly by leveling. You will start earning trait points at level 2. You will still have 98 total points at level 140, and will no longer be able to have more points than are usable.
• With the change in the way class trait points are acquired, all class trait trees have been reset for Update 34: Before the Shadow. Please re-spend your class trait points and save your preferred specs.
• Damage over time and healing over time effects will now display the interval (every X seconds) with a decimal point of precision in all tooltips. This corrects an issue with the Brawler Pummel skill tooltip which applies damage every 0.5 seconds.

• Beorning:
  • Blue Line Beornings can now block while wielding a Spear as a primary weapon.
  • Beornings now properly support dual wielding across all damaging skills.
  • Skill and Effect Damage between Dual Wielding and 2H weapons is now much more similar for all skills.
  • Beorning's skill 'Greater Bee Swarm' will now be affected by 'Beorning DoT Pulses & Swarm Debuff Duration' traceries.
  • An erroneous "blank" effect will no longer appear when using Bee Swarm unless the appropriate Tracery is equipped.

• Brawler:
  • Pummel's channeled damage was not benefitting from the Dexterous Strike or Finishing Attack tracery bonuses. This has been fixed.
  • Latent Light should properly benefit from trait buffs to Light Damage.
  • Fixed descriptions for Gut Punch and Follow Me!
  • Several skills had their attack type redefined as ranged so that they would not erroneously trigger movement when Movement Assist is enabled in game options. This should not change the base damage done by skills or what tracery bonuses they are affected by, but it will change the type of incoming damage mods and avoidances that are checked.
  • Fixed typo in the description for the Brawler skill Get Serious.
  • Brawler trait tooltip Well Fed now says "Incoming Healing from Cooked Food" instead of "Cooked Food Bonus".
  • The Brawler trait tooltip for Hasten Powerful Techniques now lists the correct skills.
  • The 'Share Innate Strength' skills for the Brawler now properly display its range and that it affects both Fellowship and Raid members within their tooltips.
  • Brawler skill 'One for All' can now have its duration refreshed and tier boosted by another cast of 'One for All'.
  • One for all will now only take fellowship members into account when determining number of allies nearby for the purposes of applying the proper tier effect. The tier effect however will still affect all fellowship and raid members within range. This change is now noted in the tooltip text.
  • One for All now has the proper range of 15 for determining number of allies within range to affect the tier of the buff placed on players.
  • Brawler Skill 'One for All' now only displays the range of its effect once in its tooltip.
  • 'Greater Armour of the Erebor Custodian', 'Greater Armour of the Erebor Striker', 'Armour of the Hytbold Custodian' and 'Armour of the Hytbold Striker' now have the proper 4 piece armour set bonus.
  • 'Armour of the Erebor Fighter' and 'Greater Armour of the Erebor Fighter' now have proper stats for a Brawler.
  • Pummel no longer has an initial damage pulse prior to its first punch being thrown, but all following pulses are now more powerful to compensate. In most cases this should result in a small DPS increase. This prevents the case where pummel fails to animate if the initial pulse killed the target.
  • Follow Me! should no longer incorrectly stack with other classes' move buffs.
  • Brawler Hytbold set armour now has the correct icons and binding status.
  • The Brawler "Weather Blows" skill has had its tooltip updated to say "Reduces all incoming damage to 35%" to avoid confusion. There is no change to the skill.
  • Brawler's Throne of Dread Terror Advanced Pieces now have proper set bonuses for them.
  • Sentient monsters from levels 1-49 now will have a chance to drop Brawler Battle-gauntlets when killed.
  • Remmorchant Quartermaster - Added in the Profile for the Brawler for the armor that was missing, and slotted in the Brawler armour into the Heavy Tier Class profiles in the Motes exchange. Also fixed the order for the profiles so that things appeared alphabetically.
  • Skirmish Camp vendors now sell brawler weapons.

• Burglar:
  • Hide in Plain Sight can no longer be used while in Coup de Grace stealth, or shared stealth. Previously Hide in Plain Sight would trigger, but fail and go on cooldown due to the nature of these other stealth effects.
  • Stealth effects have been unified, and all versions of stealth will now benefit from skill, trait, or item bonuses which improve 'Stealthed' skills or skills used 'from Stealth.'
  • 'Sneak' and 'Hide in Plain Sight' will both toggle on your regular, out of combat stealth, which has a limitless duration. These should function the same as they did up to now.
  • Coup de Grace, Cash Out, and Clever Retort can be used to enter 'Combat Stealth.' Combat Stealth is essentially the same as normal Stealth, except that it has a fixed duration of 3 seconds, and will not be broken when you take damage. It won't stop NPC enemies from targeting you, but it will also benefit from Combat Stealth movement speed, which is now a part of the 'Footpad' and 'Leafwalker' traits.
  • Coup de Grace will cause you to enter Combat Stealth when used. It no longer places a target on your enemy or requires your target to die in the next few seconds; it simply causes you to enter Combat Stealth directly.
  • Cash Out will cause you to enter Combat Stealth when it consumes a blue/debilitating gamble. Cashing out a blue gamble will still stun your target as it did before; the stealth is an additional effect.
  • Clever Retort will cause you to enter Combat Stealth when it consumes 'Trick: Dust in the Eyes.' Like Cash Out, this is in addition to its previous/existing effect.
  • The 'Feint' effect from 'Improved Feint Attack' now gives you all the same bonuses as Combat Stealth, except for the visual disappearance. Since Combat Stealth doesn't prevent NPC enemies from seeing or targeting you, this effect will be functionally identical to Combat Stealth in PvE situations, but should be much less frustrating for opponents in PvP who would otherwise lose their targeting every time you use Improved Feint Attack.
  • The baseline movement speed penalty from Stealth has been removed. Any version of Stealth (without additional bonuses) will have normal, 100% movement speed.
  • The potency of the tracery 'Sneak Movement Speed' has been reduced slightly, from 38.5% to 27.5% max, since your baseline stealthed movement speed is 10%-50% higher than it was before.
  • 'Leafwalker' now also gives up to +20% Combat Stealth movement speed.
  • 'Footpad' now has a max rank of 4, and at max rank gives +5 Stealth Level and +10% Combat Stealth movement speed.
  • You only need to purchase 3 ranks of 'Footpad' in order to start spending points on 'Hidden Dagger.'
  • Several skills had their attack type redefined as ranged so that they would not erroneously trigger movement when Movement Assist is enabled in game options. This should not change the base damage done by skills or what tracery bonuses they are affected by, but it will change the type of incoming damage mods and avoidances that are checked.
  • Burglar Word of Mastery 'Mischievous Glee Initial Healing' will now properly display the correct bonus to healing on the skill 'Mischievous Glee'.
  • Burglar skills, traits and traceries now work as intended with Critical Multiplier bonuses.
  • The Critical Response Skill Damage Tracery for Burglar now provides a damage boost to the Blind Bet skill.
  • The "Clever Retort Damage and Healing" Tracery now accurately scales healing amounts when working with Clever Retort and Self Adulation.
  • Updated the level-scaling of the heal value from Clever Retort when it consumes ‘Trick: Disable’.
  • Many Burglar skills are once again 'Fast'.
  • Red Gamble DoTs and Gambler's Advantage DoTs will overwrite themselves from the same burglar, but will stack between multiple burglars.
  • When you consume gambles, you can consume another burglar's blue or green gamble, but only your own red gambles.
  • Cunning Attack Bleeds will now correctly apply to targets even when another Cunning Attack Bleed is about to expire.
  • Surprise Strike Positional Damage tracery now clearly states that its bonus applies regardless of whether or not you're stealthed.
  • Coup de Grace now benefits from positional damage and its base damage has been increased slightly.
  • Purge Corruption now benefits from critical magnitude & positional bonuses.
  • AoE Burglar skills are now an AoE centered on your target, and will always hit your target.
  • The Burglar Mounted Combat skill "Burglar's Treat" no longer requires a critical hit before use. The cooldown has been increased to 60 seconds.
  • The Heal over Time effect from the Burglar trait set bonus 'Relish Battle' now shows up with the proper icon when active.
  • Double-edged Strike is now earned at Level 2.
  • 'Reveal Weakness' traits now each give an additional effect:
    • Reveal Weakness (blue) will give you +3% Mitigations.
    • Reveal Weakness (red) will give you +10% Melee Damage.
    • Reveal Weakness (yellow) will add -3% Physical Mitigation to your target.
  • While the Reveal Weakness debuff can only affect a single monster once, multiple burglars can now toggle Reveal Weakness on the same monster simultaneously, so they can each gain the benefits of the unique effects from Reveal Weakness traits.
  • 'Focused Strikes' - This trait will turn Double-edged Strike and Flashing Blades into single target skills, dealing slightly more single-target damage at the cost of targets.
  • Purge Corruption is now a part of the critical response chain. It has a 5 second cooldown, and will be unlocked by using Double-edged Strike. Purge Corruption is also faster to use, and deals less damage than it did previously. This will allow burglars to dispel corruption effects much more quickly and effectively on a single target, but at a significant cost to your personal DPS.
  • Malicious Wound damage increased.
  • Find Footing is no longer an Immediate skill.

• Captain:
  • Banner of Honour should now correctly reflect stat mods such as outgoing healing.
    • Note, there is a known issue where a pinned tooltip for Banner of Honour will *immediately* change to reflect changes to your stats. This is unusual for pinned tooltips, and may make it look like it isn't changing in before/after gear comparisons, even though it is.
  • Advantageous Attack light damage effect now scales properly with weapon damage and is considerably more effective.

• Champion:
  • The Champion essence "Essence of the Resolute" will now reset Fight On skill cooldown with AOE melee attack skills as well as single target melee skills.
  • When Horn of Champions applies a force taunt, it will now also copy threat, like most other tank taunt skills.
  • Bracing Attack was erroneously able to critically hit, causing it to occasionally heal for much more than intended. This has been fixed.
  • Added the Fight On Critical Chance Tracery for all rarities and levels to the Champion tracery profile.

• Guardian:
  • Fixed tooltip for break ranks to indicate that the effect itself now has a cooldown, rather than Shield-Taunt.
  • Litany of Defiance will now properly prevent the building of fortification stacks when it is active as its tooltip stated.
  • Updated the icon for the Guardian Tenderize Crit Rating buff.
  • The tooltips for 'Charge' and 'Brutal Charge' now clearly state that the slow immunity effect only lasts for 10 seconds.

• Hunter:
  • The Hunter's trait "Archer's Mark" now lists the correct debuff on target: "Incoming Damage Debuff" instead of "Critical Defense Debuff."
  • Traceries will now affect Merciful shot even after the Swift Mercy Trait-Set Bonus is active.

• Lore-master:
  • Fixed Inner Flame trait damage buff & description for accuracy.
  • Damage radius of improved Ring of Fire now matches its increased debuff and visual radius.
  • Fixed the Molten Flames debuff icon showing Distracting Flames icon.
  • Enfeeble now doubles Sign of Power: Command and Sign of Power: See All Ends skill percentages for the first 10 seconds.
  • 'Critical Coordination' will now only be consumed by skills which heal or deal damage.
  • 'Wizard's Fire' has been split into two skills: Wizard's Frost and Wizard's Fire.
  • 'Wizard's Frost'
    • A brand new Lore-master character will now begin with Wizard's Frost instead of Wizard's Fire.
    • Wizard's Frost deals small damage and can consume a pet's 'Flanked' effect for a small heal. This is essentially the effect that Wizard's Fire had prior to this.
  • 'Wizard's Fire'
    • Wizard's Fire is now earned by specializing in the 'Master of Nature's Fury' trait tree.
    • Wizard's Fire now deals a small amount of damage over time in addition to its initial damage.
    • Wizard's Fire can now consume a 'Flanked' effect to restore power and grant you a short buff to your damage over time effects.
  • 'Eagle-friend' is now earned by specializing in the 'Keeper of Animals' trait tree.
  • The trait 'Don't You Touch Him!' now has four ranks.

• Minstrel:
  • The Anthem of War tracery modifier '+% Anthem of War Damage (Physical)" now reads '+% Anthem of War Damage' as the actual effect buffs both Physical and Tactical damage of the ability.
  • The Minstrel trait 'Discordant Ballads' was erroneously applying an additional 5% Tactical Damage buff at all times, which has been fixed. This has no effect on the trait's intended effect, which causes ballad skills to apply the buff 'War-Speech' when used.
  • The Minstrel trait Emboldening Finish now has a clearer tooltip for its buff effect.
  • The armour set bonus 'Unmatched Prowess' from Remmorchant now correctly improves the Prowess Attack Speed buff, rather than worsening it.
  • The Minstrel trait "Raise Our Spirits" tooltip and "Raise The Spirits" skill tooltip (with "Raise Our Spirits" traited) have been changed to be more clear and accurate following recent Minstrel changes.
  • The skill 'Call to Ioreth' now properly displays as a 'Buff' skill type in its tooltip.
  • Updated the "Major Ballad - Resonance" skill tooltip to better state that anthems and codas are only unlocked by ballads while in combat.
  • Entering Resonance stance will now correctly toggle off Timeless Echoes of Battle and Echoes of Battle
  • Stance-skill inductions reduced significantly.
  • Base Anthem duration increased from 30 to 45 seconds.
  • Melody stance now increases Anthem durations by 15 seconds.
  • The 'Still as Death' channel will no longer be reduced by taking damage after initiating the skill.
  • The skill 'Major Ballad - Resonance' will no longer break allies out of stealth.
  • Players can now benefit from 'Emboldening Finish' and 'Inspiring Finish' traits at the same time. Previously, the first trait you put points into would prevent the other from working.
  • The deed 'Light in the Dark' will now correctly advance when using Minor Ballad: Dissonance.

• Rune-keeper:
  • Changed description on the Rune-keeper capstone trait Our Fate Entwined to more accurately reflect abilities.

• Warden:
  • The 'Careful Step Duration and Movement Speed' tracery title has been updated to reflect the actual effects of the traceries.
  • The Warden Armor of Dúngarthadir 4 Piece set bonus now provides the correct 2 additional DoT pulses.
  • The 'Recklessness' effect no longer transforms your gambit builder skills into their old "Reckless" variants.
  • Gambit skills are now labeled with a visible skill type according to their first gambit builder.
  • The skill 'Hampering Javelin' is now earned at level 2.

Monster Play:

• Tirith Rhaw, Lugazag, and Tol Ascarnen now have fewer defenders when controlled.
• All defenders in the Ettenmoors are significantly tougher.
• Angmar's NPCs have been rebalanced relative to Lainedhel's NPCs in the Ettenmoors.
• Old PvMP rank 10 gear has been updated to have slightly increased stats.
• Elf Camp and Orc Camp are now back to the opposite sides of the bridges of Tol Ascarnen.
• Forward camps are depopulated and access to the Ettendeep is closed.
• New emissaries from Angmar arrive in the Ettenmoors. The War-tyrant wants a word with all combatants sworn to Angmar. (This new introductory quest is part of the starter experience for the Monster Players, but available to all monster players.)
• A new quest in monster play is available that is given by the war-tyrant. Visit him and follow the story to earn Clan Blessings from the newly arrived emissaries to the Ettenmoors. These blessings provide a semi-permanent enhancement to your monster character giving them a boost in stats no longer available in corruptions.
• With the introduction of Blessings, stat values have changed for many monster player traits. Corruptions now give significantly reduced bonuses, while racial and class traits have been adjusted. Most traits now give smaller rating bonuses, though a few have increased.
• Tier 1 through Tier 3 armour for players now provides 3 Audacity per piece. When worn in conjunction with Jewelry the total yield for baseline gear is now 26 Audacity. For Tier 3, players can achieve the 36 cap.
• Orc Defiler - Boon skills will no longer break allies out of stealth.
• Orc Defiler - Herb-tender and Curse-shouter stances are now autogranted to all defilers, and one of the two will always be active. You may only switch stances outside of combat.
• Warg Stalker - Flayer skill damage lowered slightly (Claws, Raking Claws, Swipe, Eye Gash)
• Warg Stalker - Shadow skill damage increased slightly (Stealthed Pounce, Eye Rake, Swipe, Shadow Fangs).
• Orc Reaver - Devastating Strike morale threshold is once again 50%, rather than 40%.
• Orc Reaver - Devastating Strike correctly deals greater damage when enhanced by its improved trait.
• Uruk Warleader - 'Purge' now only applies to allies in your group.
• Uruk heal 'Get a Grip' once again only heals allies in your group.
• All Free People Armour and jewelery earned through PvMP is no longer restricted to use only in the Ettenmoors.
• All map skills to locations in the Ettenmoors for Monster Players now share a 10m cooldown.
• The skill March! has been increased to a 45% increase to out-of-combat movement to help in getting across the Ettenmoors.
• Monster player potions purchased with commendations are now sold in stacks of 3, and weaker potions cost fewer commendations.
• Finesse values from relic and outpost buffs have been reduced. Freeps will now also receive Finesse from outpost control.
• Player buff values from controlling Isendeep, Grimwood, Lugazag, and Tirith Rhaw have been adjusted.
• The Ettenmoors training dummies now have slightly different mitigation values from one another.
• Creatures in the Ettenmoors have grown stronger.
• Monster player skill power drain potency has been reduced.
• Maximum power debuff from Latent Poison potency has been reduced.
• Troll and Ranger session play characters are stronger.

Quests & Instances:

• The quest tracker and quest guide now accommodate up to 10 quests (increased from 5).
• Quest in Misthallow - 'Who Would Live In Grazadh-gropor' can now be canceled.
• Quest in Strongholds of the North - 'Restoring the Three Kingdoms' can now be canceled.
• The Deed: "Eglan" has been renamed to "Kindred to the Eglain"
• The quests 'Warg-riders Loose in the Floodfells' and 'Culling the Hunters' can now be canceled.
• Goblin Drums in Moria - Drums of War now have a proper animation after use.
• The quest dialogue for instance 'Shakalush, The Stair Battle' now properly displays correct boss locations.
• In certain cases, defeating Crumgam in 'Instance - Honour and Treachery' too quickly could cause the instance to hang. This has been fixed and the instance should play out normally, allowing players to complete it.
• Frozen Wights in a particular area in instance 'Sari-surma' should no longer spawn over level.
• Far Anorien Quest: Treating with Scoundrels - Updated quest rewards to fit new LI system.
• The rewards for March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily) are now all usable on level 130.
• Many Sessionplay quests throughout the Epic Story have been made optional. When you arrive at one of these quest steps, you can choose to complete the Sessionplay as normal, or you can interact with a 'Shortened Account' book located nearby. This will advance the quest beyond the Sessionplay, and you can resume the Epic Story. The following formerly-mandatory quests have been given this treatment:
  • Volume I, Book 14, Chapter 4, 'The Prisoner of Sammath Baul' (I.14.4)
  • Volume I, Book 14, Chapter 6, 'The Fate of Laerdan' (I.14.6)
  • Volume I, Book 15, Chapter 6, 'Daughter of Strife' (I.15.6)
  • Volume II, Book 3, Chapter 9, 'We Cannot Get Out' (II.3.9)
  • Volume III, Book 2, Chapter 3, 'The House of Isildur' (III.2.3)
  • Volume III, Book 3, Chapter 2, 'At the Stone of Erech' (III.3.2)
  • Volume III, Book 4, Chapter 23, 'The Wizard's Vale' (III.4.23)
  • Volume III, Book 7, Chapter 2, 'The Point of Decision' (III.7.2)
  • Volume III, Book 7, Chapter 8, 'The Breaking of the Fellowship' (III.7.8)
  • Volume III, Book 7, Chapter 8, 'The Horn of Gondor' (III.7.8)
  • Volume III, Book 7, Chapter 8, 'Two Hobbits' (III.7.8)
  • Volume IV, Book 8, Chapter 1, 'No Other Way' (IV.8.1)
  • Volume IV, Book 9, Chapter 4, 'The Precious, At Last' (IV.9.4)
• Classic Instances and Epic Battles - While this has been the case in many instances for several years, the following skills are now uniformly barred from use in Classic Instances and Epic Battles: Still As Death, Hobbit-silence, Desperate Flight, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Hide in Plain Sight
• In addition, the following skill is now barred from use in Classic Instances and Epic Battles set to group sizes of 12 players and higher: Roaring Challenge
• Adjusted the text in 'Instance: Zigilburk Returned'.
• Into the Netting Glade has received a minor polish pass to have the interaction free the captives in the cocoons.
• Changed the name of The Silent Street instance effect "Feared" to "Terrorize" to prevent confusion and better communicate that this effect is not curable.
• The quest, 'A Little Extra Never Hurts -- Part 2' now grants the Riding Skill and A Little Extra Mount instead of a Battered Horn of Disruption. While 'A Little Extra Never Hurts -- Part 1' can only be completed once per world, A Little Extra Never Hurts -- Part 2 can now be completed on every new character in the Archet, Ered Luin, or Mossward starting character areas.
• A Little Extra Mount can also be acquired from Mithril Traders in Archet, Celondim, Little Delving, and Thorin's Gates.
• Clovengap - Quest "Reclaiming the Gap"- Angmarim will no longer increase the Warg kill count for this quest.
• On A Mission (Weekly) and On A Continuing Mission (Weekly) have been updated to advance when completing Missions in Before the Shadow. As a note, any weekly progress in these quests (for both their level-cap and non-level-cap variants) will be reset when Before the Shadow launches.

Localization:

• GERMAN: Made changes to the German language UI for the reward track, it should now display the title and countdown timer labels correctly.
• GERMAN: The map of the Shire correcting the spelling for the South Farthing, it now reads zum Südviertel.
• GERMAN: Finishing text for the quest “The Silent One” now displays in German
• GERMAN: Corrected instances where “licht” was used instead of “leicht”
• GERMAN: All Minstrel Anthem effects for German now display properly in German
• GERMAN: The "Fires and Shadowfells" Quest in Mordor Besieged now displays properly in German
• GERMAN: The text in Chapter 10: Forgotten Lineage now displays properly in German
• GERMAN: Translations have been updated for "Rune-inscribed Page" in the Deed "Lost Lore of the Morgal Vale: Thuringwath"
• GERMAN: Translations have been updated for "Stark-white Pages" (Reine weiße Seiten) for the Lost Lore of the Great Alliance Deed
• GERMAN: Text in the Warrior-Skald for "Emboldening Finish" now displays properly in German
• GERMAN: Text for the "Forged-Iron Dunlending Paludrons" now displays properly in German
• GERMAN: Text in the "Howling Pit" now displays properly in German
• GERMAN: The translation for "The Midgewater Marshes" (die Mückenwassermoore) has been updated in the German Bree-Land Map.
• GERMAN: Corrected a Quest Log element overlap in the German game client.
• GERMAN: The Legendary Item Box found in Valar Level Boost weapons packages and on the LOTRO Store once again offers War-steed bridles as a selection option.
• FRENCH: Updates a typo on the War of Three Peaks map. It now reads. "Portes de Gundabad".
• FRENCH: The objective text in "Roused Guardians of Amon Amrûn" now displays the proper target (des ombres

General:

• Reward Track Season 4 debuts on November 16th at 10am server time.
• Auto attacks can no longer advance skill deeds. This is part of a much broader optimization regarding how skills interact with the quest system.
• Barbershop costs have been significantly decreased across all character levels.
• Ranged Extension tracery description now indicates that it works on skills with a base range of 15+.
• Reorganized all Word of Mastery class-specific tracery barter profiles so that they were by utility and role, rather than by rarity.
• Edhelharn Token recipe in the Ironfold, Minas Ithil and Gundbad tiers now require Polished Gems instead of raw Gems.
• Crafted minstrel instruments now display the correct item level on the critical version tooltip.
• Items that disenchant to Crafting Materials no longer show a string table error.
• Ithilharn tooltip now indicates it can be crafted into a polished gem.
• Added max level values to some older set bonuses, and reduced the max levels for set bonuses on low-level jewellery obtained in epic battles. Note, this only affects set bonuses, not the items themselves.
• Added max level values to trigger essences and class essences. Like gear set bonuses, essences for a given level range will no longer be effective once your character has exceeded that level range.
• Housing Items: The Singing Bowl of Tauralindalë once again plays music.
• Wedding Fireworks and Golden Wedding Fireworks now play sounds each time you use them.
• Tall variations of the Yondershire Decorative Walls can now be purchased from the Yonderwatch Quartermasters
• The Durin's Day ambient environment will no longer break when hooked during server-determined cloudy, rainy or stormy weather times.
• Level scaling Medium and Heavy Gloves of Fate have had their Will and Tactical Mastery stats replaced with stats relevant to Medium and Heavy armour wearers.
• Reputation Pets in The Angle are now able to be bartered after learning the skill.
• Added in new barter profiles to the Legendary Weapons/Class Items Barter NPC in Rivendell to have all the Barter Profiles condensed and separated by class.
• The Host of the West Herb-Master now has armor upgrades for the Brawler for Throne of Dread Terror raid tokens.
• The icon for "Oar in Hand" from the Farmers Faire has been updated.
• Some lower to mid-level gear have now had their stats updated.
• Word order on Smial Wall deco items is now consistent.
• Pitch on some Orc combat VO is back to what it previously was.
• Critters in Gundabad can no longer be attacked by Elves/High Elves.
• Several Yondershire interiors now have more appropriate ambiances for their environment.
• Red Aster Flower in Great River - Wailing Hills, previously stuck inside land has been moved and is now accessible.
• Vales of Anduin - Beorning Guards will no longer attack low level players.
• Cliffs and Rocks in the eastern pass from Trestlebridge now match each other
• Rock appearances from "Deep Beneath Gundabad" should no longer escape into the rest of the game world.
• Rocks surrounding Garsfeld should no longer take on different appearances.
• The Wild Spotted Donkey cosmetic pet is now listed and visible in the Collections Panel.
• Changed the name of "Virulent Disease" to be "Virulent Cloud", as well as gave the tooltip descriptive text saying "A miasma so potent it cannot be cured." to better convey the effects of the debuff to players.
• Removed the barter profile for "Relics - Ally Wilderfolk" from the Wilderfolk Rewards Quartermaster.
• Blood Craban and Formal Corgi pets now appear in Collections panel.
• Fixed a typo in the tooltip for Blazon of the Last Alliance in Mordor Besieged.
• The Stormhammer Goat mount now has the correct description in the Collections Panel.
• The Toffee Goat Kid pet now has the correct acquisition information in the Collections Panel.
• Malledhrim barter NPC in Mirkwood no longer duplicates categories and items.
• Krumpug, an elite goblin boss in Azanulbizar, no longer drops obsolete Legendary Item loot.
• The People of Wildermore Barter Vendor no longer has outdated LI Items and Profiles.
• Obsolete Relics no longer drop in The Abyss of Mordath Raid Chests.
• The War-steed skill granting item is now indestructible.
• The War-steed skill granting item now requires level 70 to consume.
• Obsolete Legendary Item rewards will no longer drop from Epic Battle reward packages.
• The Wildermore Rep Vendor no longer lists a Rune-Keeper only tracery.
• Changed Falling Injury effects to be less punishing. Changed Run Speed Debuff from 40% to 30%. Changed duration of effect from range of 6-60 seconds to 5-15 seconds.
• The Gloomingtarn Frame from the Zhelruka Clan barter list no longer can auto-consume endlessly.
• The Mount Appearance Item "Sea-Ward Legs" no long gives a string table error in its description.
• Changed "Steed of the Gundabad Vanquisher" to "Gundabad Vanquisher Steed". Steed now has proper description and will display in collections panel before you acquire it.
• The Woodcutter's Brotherhood Token now says that it also can award reputation points in the tooltip.
• The cosmetic item Ceremonial Great Club of the Delver now has the behavior, usage and text of a 2-handed weapon as intended.
• The Crystal Grim attack "Jagged Shards" is now does the correct amount of damage.
• Low to Mid-level Jewelry have had their stats updated.
• Low to Mid-level Shields have had their stats updated.
• Low to Mid-level Weapons have had their stats updated.
• The Gloomingtarn Frame from the Zhelruka Clan barter list is no longer auto-consumed.
• The Golden Cave-claw Mask item from the Buried Treasure Event has had its sell price updated to better reflect its rarity.
• Yule Festival cosmetic caparison, head and saddle appearances now cost the same for each barter vendor.
• The obsolete NPC Legendary Traders have been removed from Bree, Twenty-first Hall, Dolven-view and Lothlorien. They will no longer have map notes on the mini-map.
• The Normal Weapon Aura is now bound to account rather than character.
• The Normal Weapon aura can now be purchased from Seasonal Figments of Splendour Cosmetics barter NPCs. Note that any weapon aura must be actually equipped in order for weapon auras in the cosmetic outfit slots to display.
• The White Company Quartermaster no longer barters for obsolete relics, but instead for level appropriate traceries.
• The barterable fish earnable in the Farmers Faire Festival are not able to be affected by the Fateful Toolkit. These fish have had their category changed from "Festival" to "Misc" to better reflect their status. The fish still go in the barter wallet and can still be bartered for appropriate tokens.
• The Farmers Faire Festival Steed "Steed of Summer's Night" now appears in the collections panel whether you own it or not.
• The Volume III Giftbox no longer awards players with obsolete Flawed Symbols of Cerebrimbor. Instead it will award a level-appropriate incomparable Shattered Tracery Token.
• Fixed a typo in the barter token item "Golden Token of the Riddermark".
• Added some text to help prevent accidental early reforgings of a new Legendary Item.
• Housing: In the Erebor housing neighborhood, property guards summoned from housing decorations will stick around to visit and defend your property instead of immediately disappearing again.
• Fixed the icon for the Formidable Mace of the Wayfarer to show the correct weapon. Several other Spears and Daggers of the Wayfarer have been fixed in the same manner.
• Updated the description of the package items Enhancement Runes x3, Incomparable, Rare and Uncommon to denote that sometimes these packages drop an additional rune.
• The Sleeping Brown Cat offered through barter during Harvestmath Festival now has the same price on both barter profiles.
• Enemy power drains now scale in line with player power at higher levels.
• Race changing to high elf after having achieved Friend reputation with the Galadhrim will no longer prevent you from earning the Virtuous High Elf trait.
• Filbert Fig will has retired for the season (as of November 15th), while Rowan Raspberry has returned to offer new and old cosmetics for Figments of Splendour. New cosmetic items available for figments of splendour, include Hidden Peaks avatar cosmetics, housing decorations, a cosmetic egret pet, and Hidden Peaks steed and matching war-steed appearances.
• New Adventurer's lootbox gear, for level 140 characters, will now scale to item level 470 - 472.
• Virtues may now increase up to tier 84 on a level 140 character.
• The Finely-strung Lute of the Veteran Minstrel and any future socketed instruments can no longer be placed in a carry-all. This prevents any socketed essences from being lost.
• The Legendary Item Box found in Valar Level Boost weapons packages and on the LOTRO Store once again offers War-steed bridles as a selection option.

Known Issues:

• A capstone quest in Cardolan, ‘Doom of Sarch Vorn’, will not be completable until the launch of Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave.

Source

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