Update 9: Against the Shadow PRELIMINARY Release Notes - SUBJECT TO CHANGE
The following release notes are for the Bullroarer public test server only and may not reflect the final list of changes or updates included at release.
Please be aware that everything listed here is subject to change. These notes are not final.
Bullroarer Update 9.0 Release Notes
Of Special Note
New instances
Three new 3 man instances are now available in the instance finder: Iorbar’s Peak, Seat of the Great Goblin, and Webs of the Scuttledells. These instances scale from level 20 – 85 (no, 20 is not a typo). Look for a full developer diary closer to the release of Update 9.
The Scaling of Dol Guldur
We have scaled the entire Dol Guldur instance cluster. All of these instances now scale from level 65 – 85. Please note not all of the rewards are in this build. They will be added prior to Update 9 release.
Open Tapping & Remote Looting
Open Tapping and remote looting are now available across Middle-earth! We look forward to hearing your feedback.
Remote Looting on Chests
We’ve added the ability for chests to support the Remote Looting tech introduced in Rohan. Within the new update, chests in scaling Dol Guldur and the new 3-mans will automatically create rewards for each member of the group’s pending loot-list as soon as the chest is opened by someone. Each person will get their own loot at their own odds, independent of everyone else in their fellowship. This completely bypasses the standard loot rules currently seen in game, such as Master Looter, etc. In addition, equipment rewards will be based off of your class. All equipment within your personal loot-list will be something your character can potentially use. As a result, most rewards will be Bind on Equip, to allow trading between players to still occur.
Moria Revamp Part II
The second half of our Moria revamp is now complete! A full developer diary will be available prior to release.
Combat Revisions
Deflection
NPC Monsters that are 4+ levels higher than their attackers have a chance to negate incoming attacks. When this happens the player will be notified that their attack has been 'Deflected'.
Interruption Revision
We've altered how Interrupt skills function in the game to give them more impact. When an induction is now interrupted by an Interruption Skill, the induction will be canceled and the skill will go on cooldown.
In PvE, we have adjusted many monsters so that they will generally not hit a player with an interrupt more than once every 15-20s.
Miss Chance Revision
1H and 2H Swords now grant bonus Parry chance instead of Hit-chance. 1% for 1Hand Swords and 2% for 2H Swords.
Base Miss Rate
We have removed the base miss rate for all classes (freep & creep) and pets. This means, when fighting an on-level or lower level monster, you will not miss. It's important to note that Miss Chance can still be debuffed, so in some cases missing will be possible. Due to this change, the following have been altered:- Champion: Deadly Storm 2-set bonus no longer reduces AoE Miss Chance.
- Burglar: Hidden Dagger trait no longer reduces Miss Chance.
- Hunter: Precision Stance no longer reduces Miss Chance.
Induction Setback
To ensure that Induction Setbacks are applied equally to all skills, we are adjusting the policy so that when a player is hit during an induction the induction will be extended by .5s. This penalty is only applied once. These changes have been made to all player and monster player skills that are usable in combat.
It’s the Little things…
Graphical updates to Bree and Archet
Bree-town and Archet have received some graphical improvements! Be sure to visit your favorite landmarks and see how they’ve changed.
Experience Added to Craft Nodes and Recipes
Use of craft nodes and crafting recipes now awards characters with experience upon use for nodes or completion for recipes.
Fast Travel Stable-master System
The Stable-master system underwent a structural and functional change. The UI will look very different and is not entirely finished. You will now see ALL available travel options, regardless of any restrictions on going to each location. You will be able to travel to locations for gold/silver/copper as usual, with all restrictions applying, or use a specially made writ to go anywhere, regardless of restrictions.
Travel to Quest NPC tech
You will now see little check marks next to your quests at the quest tracker if your final quest objective is to go talk to an NPC to complete the quest. You should be able to use these check marks to get the option to fast travel back to the Quest NPC.
Festival Currency Unification
If you use a character previously present on Bullroarer, or copy a character in, you’ll notice that your festival currencies from the different festivals transforms into a single festival currency. It should convert on a one to one basis (one old token for one new unified token). Race tokens obtained from running festival races in Bree and the Shire will also convert into this new unified token, but at a higher rate.
Release notes
General- Hytbold Armour can now be placed in shared storage and be accessed by any character on your account.
- Players will no longer be able to equip Mounted Combat bridles until they have completed the quest "Devastation in the North"
- Picking up items in the world while mounted will now auto-dismount you.
- Fixed a bug that caused Sticky Gourd, Sticky Tar, Warding Lore, and Press Onward skills to be interrupted when setback. These skills will now suffer setback penalties, but the induction will not break.
- A number of NPCs and Monsters have had a good talking to and will now show up where they were intended to show up and not wherever the heck they darn well pleased.
Classes
Burglar- The Gambler 5 Set Trick Resist Rating trait bonus now properly reduces the target's Trick Removal resist chances
Champion- Rune of the Second Age - Incoming Healing Rating now increase properly when going up to Rank 5.
Guardian- Several skills in Overpower were not properly incrementing deeds. They should work correctly now.
- Salt the Wound skill description now properly reflects that it interacts with the bleeds from both Thrust and Sweeping Cut
Hunter- The hunter legacies “Induction Bow Threat Down” and “Focus Bow Induction Down” should now have a Rating 19, as well as a reasonably priced rank up cost for Rating 20.
- Books and Tomes of the Wind-rider now reduce the Power Cost of Split Shot and Improved Split Shot.
- Mounted Combat: Seeking Arrow, Noble Arrow, and Spread of Arrows now maintain the appropriate stance bonuses when using oils.
- The “Intent Concentration recovers all Archer's Art skills” set bonus will properly reset Archer's Art skills again.
Minstrel- Fixed a bug that was preventing 'Anthem of the Third Age' from changing to the 'Anthem of the Third Age (Warspeech)' when traited 4 into Protector of Song.
Rune-keeper- Mounted Combat: Fixation of Flame now properly displays the Damage Over Time information on skill examination
Warden- The 5-piece bonus from the Warden's Lady's Favour armour set should now appropriately grant a 10% increase to Tactical Mitigation while using Shield Tactics
- The Boot, Onslaught, and Wall of Steel share a single interrupt effect which can only be triggered once every 12 seconds.
- “Muster in...” skills will no longer be usable in combat.
Mounted Combat- The 3 discipline skills (Red Dawn, Riddermark, and Rohirrim) are now usable outside of Rohan and areas not supporting mounted combat.
- Burglars can no longer stealth and ride a war-steed.
- Slightly changed the wording of the War-steed level increase string.
- Revised the wording of the warning seen when changing character traits at a bard to reduce confusion around legendary traits
- The 20% steed speed buff sold in the LOTRO Store will no longer work on war-steeds. The speed increase is only to affect standard horses & goats.
- The buff provided from the mounted relic “Insignia of Ending” should now accurately provide the next Resolution cast with an additional 25% crit chance.
- The “Break Free” Mounted Combat skill should now work on all movement impairing effects.
- The “Knocked Down” and “Stunned” Mounted Combat debuffs should now accurately describe their effects.
- Warsteed jumping should be smoother.
The Ettenmoors- Removed the 80 meters distance check on PvMP kill credit. Now grouped players anywhere in the Ettenmoors will receive credit for PvMP kills, in the form of Commendations and/or Infamy/Glory.
- The Weaver's Scytode Brood Hatchling will now properly respect the 1s cooldown on its default attack. No, really.
- Potions and Consumables no longer drop from bosses and other mobs in the Ettenmoors.
- Set Trap for Black Arrow's will now give information on what the trap does instead of nothing...
- Improved Punctured Target for Black Arrows should properly keep the armour debuff from Punctured Target.
- Eye Gash should now properly gain the additional 20% chance to apply its Brute Bonus from the skill Brute.
- Penetrating Arrows Trait for Black Arrows should no longer reference the hunter skill Penetrating Shot.
- Continuous Blood Rage's Morale cost should now scale appropriately.
Several skill adjustments have been made to Player and Monster Player interrupt skills:- Burglar Addled cooldown has been increased from 15s to 20s.
- Champion Clobber cooldown has been increased from 5s to 10s
- Hunter Blindside cooldown has been reduced from 20s to 12s.
- Reaver Gut Punch cooldown reduced from 15s to 10s.
- Warleader Fracture cooldown increased from 10s to 15s. Brawler Stance now reduces Fractore cooldown by 5s.
- Stalker Pounce and Sudden Pounce cooldowns increased from 10s to 15s. Raking Claw Brute bonus has been replaced with a 50% Induction Duration debuff.
Freep Off-hands, Shields, and Class Items- Level 85 versions of the PvMP Off-hands, Shields, and Class Items have been added to the class vendors. The new items cost 4000 Comendations each, but players can turn in the level 75 versions for a 10% discount.
Troll & Ranger Sessions- Removed the Min Range requirements from the Troll's ranged attacks and the Ranger's ranged auto-attack.
Stalker- Eye Gash brute bonus BPE debuff now scales with level.
Defiler- Fixed a bug that was granting the Reaver's Relentless buff to existing Defilers.
Raids, Instances, Skirmishes- You are now able to start the Helegrod Dragon Raid with more than 12 players in the raid.
- Players can no longer join instances that have been scaled to more than 10 levels above their current level.
- The original Barad Guldur sets are now available from the Classic skirmish vendors. New level 85 versions, with updated stats and different appearances are also available.
Legendary items- Players will be unable to use Experience Runes on IA weapons until they have completed all quests in Volume II Book 1.
- Crafted class insignias for IA Bridles will now denote that they can be equipped to any relic slot.
- The “Spears Will be Shaken Slow Duration” legacy replace scroll should now work with heavy bridles, not medium ones.
- The names of various class legacies have been updated. The legacy, legacy replacement scrolls, and store offers should all reflect the same name now.
- The Heavy Hytbold armoursmiths have decided to stop making the sets they were awarding out of paper. They are now more durable.
Crafting- Clicking the “Make” or “Make All” crafting buttons when mounted will now dismount you automatically
- Players can expect to receive xp while gathering from Farmer, Forester, Prospecter, and Scholar nodes and will also receive varying amounts of xp through the completion of all crafting recipes.
- Bulk crafting recipes should now be on the Crafting skirmish vendor and on the Eastemnet Miscellany Quartermaster.
- Added a heavy shield option to the auto-granted and vendored metalsmith recipes in tiers 3-5. These recipes have been converted to multi-output.
- The medium armor outputs on the Wayfarer's Recipes (Tier 7 Raid) have had their name changed from "Wayfarer's" to "Ranger's" to distinguish them from the light armor outputs.
Items- The stats on Leofmar's Broad Axe have been adjusted to make it fall in-line with other weapons of the same level and quality.
- Some Store-purchased perks have had their durations increased to 90 minutes.
- A small number of heavy shoulders had far too much armour. Those have had their armour values reduced to a more expected amount. Also adjusted the armour values of rare and uncommon heavy shoulders slightly.
- The Silver Box of Sutcrofts Spoils will now call the correct relics.
- The Entwash Iron Necklace will no longer have the same stats as the Entwash Brass Necklace. It will now give Incoming Healing in place of Physical Mastery.
Quests- New auto-bestow quests are now available as you level up through the game (pre-moria).
- Some of the quest rewards in the Redhorn lodes have been updated/changed.
- Patching Friendships now has “Brunstan's Copper Ring” as a potential quest reward, in place of the “Failed Assassin's Ring.”
- 'The Corrupted Matrons' will reward players with the Light Halter of the Norcrofts. Those who have already completed the quest will be given the appearance as well.
- The quest rewards from “The Tourney Field: Mounted Combat Tutorial” can now be used at Level 71
- Langhold - quest flow fix: “An Unnerving Display of Confidence,” crucial to the quest chain of Langhold, is no longer a remote-bestowed quest. It has switched places with “Brigands of the Wold”. Unnerving Display is now offered by Dala, and Brigands is remote-bestowed.
Three changes have been made to quest items for better use with the war-steed in Rohan:- Quest items can now be used while mounted.
- Quest items no longer require that you face them in order to use them.
- Quest items now have a broader usage range.
The following quests have been removed as part of the second half of Moria's revamp, replaced as new quests.- The Carver's Stash
- Gredbyg in the Camp
- Thoughts Left Behind
- Piercing the Walls
- Expulsion
- Balin's Camp in Nud-melek is ready to reward those brave enough to explore!
- For the later zones that previously had little organized content, much of the content will be exploration-based. Quest chains won't vector there, but quests can be discovered using the new Remote Bestowal tech by finding interesting locations in the second half of Moria.
- In case you want to visit Balin's camp in Moria, it will be a bit easier to get to now. The monsters have been thinned out along that path.
- The quest “Back and Forth” from the 21st Hall has been removed. This quest was a prerequisite for part of the Moria instance cluster, and this content will now be open without the trip from the 21st Hall to the middle of the Redhorn Lodes. No rewards were associated with this quest.
- Some quests in Zelem-melek are being deleted and replaced with similar versions of themselves so that new quest arcs are not confusing to players who have already completed the quests. Affected quests took place in the monster camp Gazatu-ru in Zelem-melek. Quests that have been replaced are as follows: “Giving the Durub a good Drubbing,” “A Multitude of Durub,” “The Killing Blow,” and “Death to the Puny Mine Dwellers.” Some titles have been retained in the replacement quests, but others have been changed.
- Limlight Gorge rep will now have deeds and titles associated with it.
Tasks- Great River tasks can now be turned in through level 80, and can be started at level 68.
User Interface- The objective information for the second stage of the quest 'The Cat's Meow' will no longer disappear automatically unless the player moves out of range.
- The experience bar on the main toolbar has been updated to show experience gained and required relative to the player's current level, rather than the overall total.
- The XP bar tooltip was showing information that overlaps with what was already displayed by the bar itself. This duplicate information has been removed from the tooltip.
- Attempting to use an item or NPC which is outside usage distance will now trigger autonomous movement into range This will work for mounted or dismounted players.There is a new game option which can be used to toggle this functionality called Move To Use, which you will find on the Misc section of the UI Settings Option page.
- When a skill is re-learned it will attempt to go back to it's last known quickslot bar location.
- Encounters within Instance Finder are now sorted alphabetically.
- If you are in an Instance Finder queue and attempt to join a session play you will now be warned that doing this will kick you from the queue.
- The escape key now functions properly when a browser window is open
- Fixed a problem that would sometimes cause Quest Guide colors on the map to all become red.
- “Next/Previous Item” keyboard shortcuts will now start over with the nearest item when you have a non-item selected.
- You can now see up to four escort vital UIs in instances
- Fixed an issue with the keyboard shortcuts like “select next item” where there was potential for them to not cycle through all the available choices
- “Track Nearby Quests” no longer adds trivial quests to the quest tracker if the option “Show Trivial Quest Icons in Radar” is turned off.
- When you first open up the Mounted Combat panel, the player should have the correct weapon displaying,
- Players can now map a new action key to Follow Selection. This works exactly the same as /follow. The new mapping is present on the Key Mapping portion of the Options Panel, under the Miscellaneous header.
- Clicking on the New Title alert should properly open and scroll to the new title in the Titles panel
- Milestone skill names will now include the region name of the destination, e.g. “Return to The Prancing Pony (Bree-Land)”
- We now have a track mounted XP button on the mounted combat stats page which will give you an floating XP bar.
A new radar mapnote which tracks nearby enemies, the Enemy mapnote, is now available.- Any nearby character (player or non-player) which is a valid combat target will be tracked in this way. Stealthed enemies are handled correctly - the mapnote will disappear as the enemy enters stealth, re-appear when the enemy is detected, and disappear again when the enemy re-enters stealth.
- This new mapnote has ONLY an on-screen indicator. When the tracked character moves off the radar screen, thee is no arrow pointing to it.
- Note: The track enemy mapnote is not shown in the instance clusters and any other private encounters without instance quests. Public instances and private enounters with instance quests (such as skirmishes) retain the track enemy mapnote.
- Note: The track enemy mapnote is not shown for enemies that will not aggro on you (trivial or neutral mobs).
Town Services- The Bartenders in Ered Luin, The Shire, Breeland, Evendim, The Trollshaws, and Rohan should now all offer draughts and salves for all levels.
- The Eastemnet Shields, Weapons, Jewellery Quartermaster will now offer Silver Necklaces and Baubles for each of the 4 major areas.
- A Relic-master, Forge-master, and Healer can now be found in Feldburg.
- A cooking fire has been added in Harwick, located between the crafting hall and mead hall.
Maps, Travel, and Travel Steeds- Festival mounts no longer require Documents of Mount Ownership or Race Tokens for purchase. The current festival mounts will, however, require a new currency - the Golden Festival Token which can be achieved through completing new festival related deeds. Our mount vendors, Will Peartree in Hengstacer Farm and his new associates Dawson Berwick and Amanda Browning in Frostbluff, have updated their inventory to reflect the new pricing. The festival horse races will still be present, but now will only award normal festival tokens.
- The Steed of the Captain's coat has been changed to match the color shown in promotional material. It is no longer a blonde-sorrel, and has been changed to a rich brown color.
- You can now ask the stable-masters to take you somewhere while you are mounted. This will dismount you and mount you on the stable horse.
