Thread: Update 5: Armies of Isengard Release Notes - Bullroarer Only (B1)

The following release notes apply only to the Bullroarer Test Server. All changes and updates listed are subject to change before being released to the live servers. These release notes should be considered incomplete and subject to change at any time.

Please note: Bullroarer release notes are provided in English only. The final live release notes will be provided in English, German, and French.




Of Special Note

Isengard Instances are here!
Five new instances have been added, rounding out the challenges of the Rise of Isengard Expansion. These instances are free to all players who purchased the Rise of Isengard Expansion. If you have not purchased the expansion pack, these instances will also be available a la carte in the LOTRO Store.

The Epic Story Continues
The time has come for you to part ways with the Grey Company. Update Five will see the Rangers continue with their mission while steering clear of the coming war for as long as possible. You, however, will be taking on the tasks set forth in, Volume III, Book 5: ‘The Prince of Rohan.’

Instance Finder
Instance Finder is a new tool that will help players form and fill Fellowships to tackle the various instances, raids and skirmishes found throughout Middle-earth. With Update 5 the first phase of the Instance finder will be available to players. This initial implementation does have some limitations and restrictions. We’ll be improving the system in future updates and look forward to hearing your feedback and input on ways to make Instance Finder better. We’ll also be releasing a developer diary in the near future that explains the tool as it will ship with Update 5 and outlines our development goals for the system going forward.
Currently, Instance Finder allows you to set the following options:

• Content: Skirmishes, Isengard Instances, and/or Scaled Instances
• Scale: Solo, 2-man, 3-man, and/or 6-man
• Difficulty: Tier I, II, and/or III difficulty
• Role: Defence, DPS, Healer, Support

Once a player or partial group places themselves in queue, the system will intelligently match them with other players for a random instance within their selected parameters. Once a match is found, the system will notify the player who can then accept the match and travel immediately to the instance. In addition, while using the Instance Finder, players can take advantage of additional bonuses and rewards!

Track Nearby Quests
A new option has been added to the Quest Tracker and the Radar called “Track Nearby Quests.”
Track Nearby Quests works by finding up to five quests in your quest log with nearby objectives, and attempting to add them to the Quest Tracker. Only unlocked quests in the quest tracker will be replaced in this way. If all the quests in the tracker are locked, you will receive an error message.

• Additional notes:
  • Track Nearby Quests doesn't work when you are within an interior location (a dungeon) or an encounter. The options are hidden in this case. If you trigger Track Nearby Quests via an input action while in a dungeon, you'll get an error message.
  • Track Nearby Quests only looks for nearby quests, not for deeds.

Unified Currency - Skirmish, Classic and Instance reward systems

All the various marks and tokens that appear in Skirmishes and Classic Instances are being collapsed into three new currencies; Marks, Medallions and Seals. These three currencies will also be used in the new Isengard instance cluster, as well as future instances.

Wait, what?
In practice, this should change little about how Skirmishes, Classic Instances and Instance Clusters are played. Enter an instance, collect currency for beating bosses and taking control points, than spend it at barter vendors. The big change is that now all instances share three main currencies, instead of a wide variety of special marks. This will greatly simplify things and draw a strong line between the gameplay styles.

What about all my stuff?
When Update 5 launches, all of the various marks will be converted into Marks, Medallions or Seals automatically. Skirmish Marks will become Marks, though acquired Skirmish traits will be unchanged.
To be specific, the following items will disappear from the game and be replaced with some amount of the new currencies:
• Eruilan Campaign Mark
• Adlan Campaign Mark
• Naillan Campaign Mark
• Cannuilan Campaign Mark
• Lefnuilan Campaign Mark
• Enguilan Campaign Mark
• Odothuilan Campaign Mark

• Annúminas Mark
• Eregion Mark
• Helegrod Mark
• Great Barrow Mark
• Inn of the Forsaken Mark
• Halls of Night Mark

• Superior Fourth Mark
• Veteran's Fourth Mark
• Fourth Mark
• Superior Third Mark
• Veteran's Third Mark
• Third Mark
• Veteran's Second Mark
• Second Mark
• Veteran's First Mark
• First Mark

It’s the little things that count
Coffee is here! After much lobbying by players and quoting of various passages in Tolkien’s works, coffee is now available! Westfold Famers will have new recipes to grow the aromatic beans for Westfold Cooks who wish to concoct this stimulating beverage!

Release Notes

General

• We have re-balanced a few of the ratings granted by some items to increase their impact. This primarily affects avoidance ratings (block, parry and evade) but some critical ratings and incoming healing ratings are also affected.
• All items that currently have Melee Offence, Ranged Offence, Tactical Offence or Outgoing Healing ratings have been changed to have either Physical Mastery (Melee Offence and Ranged Offence) or Tactical Mastery (Tactical Offence and Outgoing Healing). These Mastery ratings function in all ways like the replaced ratings only the Mastery works for both at the same time.
• Players can now revive properly in Mirkwood Landing
• The Butcher in the warg caves should now spawn properly.
• Multiple barter item currencies have been consolidated down into 3 new currency types. There is now a tutorial hint which describes the conversion process and only appears if the conversion has affected you.
• When earning the new item currencies that are placed in your Barter Wallet, you will receive overhead text showing you how much you just earned.

Classes

Burglar

• With the Opportunist trait slotted, the Trick from Counter Defence can now once again be overwritten by any other Trick from the Burglar.

Captain

• The Captain's tactic skills are now usable while riding.
• Captain trait Alert Guard now displays the bonus to Parry Rating granted by Defensive Strike
• Tactic: Relentless Attack will now display its buff on the character panel instead of in the critical rating tooltip.
• In Defense Middle-earth Duration Legacy scroll descriptions are now fixed.

Champion

• The 4-set trait bonus of Ardour no longer references Deathstorm, it now references Improved Great Cleave
• The Martial Champion set trait line now correctly states that the morale bonus is only obtained while in Glory.
• Improved Great Cleave will now reset AoE skills when it is activated.
• True Heroics should now apply all of the beneficial effects when it is activated regardless of an enemy being affected or not.
• The (Glory) Hedge Armour Rating legacy no long references the outdated sudden defence legacy.
• Fight On! will now drain power from nearby enemies when activated.
• Hedge will now correctly enable parrying in Fervour stance.
• The Bersker trait line will now apply the damage bonus to merciful strike while in fervour. (Ultimately, this was a display issue and not a functional issue.)
• Corrected a tooltip issue that existed with the trait Time of Need. The trait was referenced instead of the skill.
• Cleaned up the tooltip on Adamant and Invincible to include the bonus values added by each fervour point.
• Cleaned up the description of Vigour of Champions to show that there is a benefit to the trait.
• Fixed an issue with the Trait Controlled Fury where the skill Controlled Burn was not named as the skill modified.
• Champions can no longer use Merciful Strike without a cooldown when four deep in The Berserker Trait line and not in Fervour stance.

Guardian

• Challenge the Darkness now grants Tactical Mitigation as Guardian's Ward Tactics at all levels.
• The display of the Guardian legacy Reactive Block damage has been corrected.

Lore-master

• The Lore-master's Spirit of Nature companion has been upgraded. Its Flashing Flank skill now has a 45 second cooldown. Its Nature's Gift healing skill no longer requires the Spirit's sacrifice. The Spirit of Nature will no longer accumulate threat for any action that it takes nor from any threat transferred to it. The Physical and Tactical mitigations of the Spirit have been much increased. Finally, and most importantly, the Spirit is now a Creature of Nature.

Minstrel

• Anthem of the Third Age, now works on criticals regardless of spec depth in Power of Song.
• Sheet music should once again stop induction intertuptions
• Improved Story of Courage now only applies the beneficial buff once to targets
• We have made the delay between codas and the action of other skills a little more tolerable.
• Enhanced duration and removal of the buff now work correctly on Anthem of War applied to fellows. The buff is removed from all members of the fellowship when the coda is activated.
• Anthems that are overriden by more potent minstrels will not quash the ability of the minstrel to activate the bonuses to the coda - anthems will still be overriden.
• Call to Greatness reduced to 5 minutes, the bonus trait from Power of Song 2 deep increased to 60
• Anthem of Sympathy now affects Coda by producing negative threat when the coda is used.
• Melody of Battle now uses a sound scheme that is more appropriate
• Fixed a typo in tooltip for Enduring Morale
• Fixed a typo in tooltip for Absolute Pitch
• Fixed a typo in tooltip for Call to Fate
• Fixed the text for Improved Cry of the Chorus (War-speech)
• Bolster courage is once again affected by the Song of the Hammerhand bubble.
• Song of Distraction and Improved Song of Distraction no longer generate threat. If the skill is resisted by a target that target will not become immediately aggressive to the player.

Warden

• Shield tactics now properly increases tactical mitigation.
• Aggression now properly uses aggression in potent and non-potent states. It also provides the correct information in its tooltip.
• Never Surrender and the associated debuff version now have the correct icons.
• Way of the Warden now includes a bonus to Critical Defence equivalent to the benefit gained with Determination.
• Never Surrender has been changed: The ability is activated by the Warden and will last for five minutes. During those five minutes the Warden cannot be defeated unless their health drops below 10%. At this point, they are healed for 50% of the Morale and Power (Both based off of maximum power) and they can now be defeated as normal. Cool down on the skill is 15 minutes.
• Shield Tactics will now apply the stun immunity buff when the skill is activated.
• Improved Javelin toss now gains the javelin being used.
• Iconography for Never Surrender has been updated.
• Deflection now benefits from the trait A Keen response
• Deflection now has the correct FX when used against a target.
• FX and animations have been adjusted for all the new double builders, Deflection, Aggression and Shield Tactics.

Monster Play

General

• Monster players can now open their Traits panel with the same hotkey (default: 'J') as Free Peoples.
• Existing monster player characters logging in for the first time in Rise of Isengard will now see trainable traits on the Monster Player Trainers without having to relog.
• New Creep Skill “March!” A new skill has been added to each Creep's starting skill set: “March!”. This skill increases Creep out of combat movement speed by 32%- enabling them to traverse the map more efficiently. This skill toggles off the moment the Creep enters combat.
• The existing Root Duration modifier on items has been replaced with a new (functional, I swear) property that reduces the duration of roots applied to the target by a percent.
• Hotspot effects (Traps, Blight, Banners, etc) now work on the Troll and Ranger
• Troll & Ranger auto-attack damage significantly increased
• Ranger quest is now removed on log-out.
• Delving of Fror: Boss monsters now have a chance to drop Creep consumables.
• Chieftain Fimfash: Chieftain Fimfash's health has been increased to match that of his Freep counterpart.
• Battlefield Promotions: Icons now match the rank they unlock at.
• Lainedhal's Insignias and Akulhun's Brands have had their usage cooldowns reduced. These now range from 120 minutes for the Rank 1 version of the insignia/brand to 5 minutes for the Rank 15 version of the insignia/brand.
• Burglar PvMP Armour -Boots, Legs, and Helm have had their stats revised to include Agility.
• Containers now have particle effects to help distinguish them from the landscape.
• Auto-attack Super Critical Damage multiplier increased by 30% (Both Freeps & Creeps)
• Pet Ranged skills can no longer be Parried (Both Freeps & Creeps)

Creeps

• • The cost to slot traits has been normalized
  • 1 Silver 60 Copper per Corruption
  • 22 Silver 50 Copper per Class and Appearance
  • 45 Silver per Racial & Appearance

Uruk Racial Skills

• Imposing Presence now increases the targets Health and Power pools by 10%

Warleader

• Mobilize speed buff increased to 50%, power cost increased by 100%, shares the same recovery channel as “March!”

Weaver

• Hatchling attack damage type changed to Acid.
• Strong Brood: Mandible Strike's Devastating Critical Multiplier increased from 1.7 to 2.5
• Scytode Brood: Auto-attack cooldown reduced from 3s to 1s.
• Toxin tooltip no longer says it's uncurable.
• Clinging and Entangling Webs no longer share the same cooldown.
• Mephitic Kiss DoT now named "Mephitic Kiss" and icon matches the skill (all other functionality remains the same)
• Enhanced Trapdoor Sanctuary now restores 5% of Max Morale every 2s for the duration of the skill

BlackArrow

• Steadfast Barrage now does fire damage when “Feel the Burn!” is traited
• Steadfast Barrage combat log revised to state “Steadfast Barrage” instead of “Deadly Common Damage”.

Warleader

• Mobilize now dispels and blocks stealth for all fellowship members, while active.
• Fracture now interrupts and dismounts Freeps.
• Purge now usable while under the effects of “Knocked Out” crowd control
• “Get A Grip!” no longer applies the heal to pets.

Warg

• “Rend Flesh” now properly consumes the Critical Response when used.
• “Rend Flesh” and “Sudden Pounce” base damage increased by 50%.
• “Rend Flesh” power cost reduced
• “Bloody Maul” base damage increased by 60%
• Skills that do bonus positional damage are now called out in tooltips.
• “Bestial Claws”, “Sudden Pounce”, and “Bloody Maul” damage increased
• “Sudden Pounce” & “Bloody Maul” power costs increased
• “Claws” power cost reduced
• “Flea Bitten” fixed a bug that caused the effect to be applied to the Warg instead of enemies.

Reaver

• “Enhanced Skill: Upper Hand” tooltip corrected to state that it reduces Block and Parry ratings, not Evade.

Defiler

• “Blessing of Darkness” no longer usable while moving.

Raid, Skirmishes, Instances

• Draigoch's body and limb health has been reduced
• All raid skirmishes will wait 10 minutes before sending you out after completion
• Instance: The Foundry: Dark thorn effect no longer being given to players when effected by the acolyte or room molten slag effect. It has been replaced with a fire effect.
• Instance: The Foundry: Hotspots now have the corresponding tier 2 equivelents. This should make environmental hazards much more dangerous.
• Instance - Inn of the Forsaken - Challenge: The Perfect Fellowship no longer being provided when not at Max Level

Items

• Items - Hunter - Draigoch Set - The 5-set Hunter bonus “Intent Concentration recovers all Archer's Art skills” will now reset Split Shot.

Legendary items, Relics, Legacies

• Relics: All non-unique Settings (tiers 1-8) now increase both Tactical Mastery and Physical Mastery, instead of either offence or healing, depending on relic.
• The following item advancement titles have had the melee defense and tactical defense changed to Physical Mitigation and Tactical Mitigation:
  • Stout Defender
  • Steadfast Protector
  • Stalwart Guardian
  • Firm Resolve
  • Iron Will
  • Resolute Heart
• Legacy replacement scrolls that say they were In Defense of Middle-earth Duration legacies were lying. They now correctly identify themselves as Words of Courage Pulses legacies.
• Several legacies with higher than expected values have been normalized.
  • Burglar
    • Pulse Modifier for Glee
    • Stealth Level
    • Trick Range
    • Riddle Range
  • Captain
    • Pressing Attack Max Targets
    • Words of Courage Pulses
  • Champion
    • Ardour/Glory Pip Interval
    • Rend Pulses
    • Hamstring Range
  • Minstrel
    • Soliloquy of Spirit Pulses
    • Story of Courage Range
    • Call of the Second Age Targets
  • Lore-master
    • Cracked Earth Range
    • Burning Embers Range
    • Ancient Craft Targets
    • Fire-lore Targets
    • Bane Flare Targets
    • Wizard's Fire Pulses
    • Burning Embers Pulses
  • Hunter
    • Endurung Quick Shot Threat Down
    • Stealth Detection
    • Maximum Targets for AoE Skills
  • Guardian
    • Shield Wall Range
    • Targeted Melee Skill Range
    • Guardian Area Effect Melee Targets
    • Guardian Bleed Pulses
    • Challenge Targets
  • Warden
    • Dark Before Dawn Power Restored
    • Exultation of Battle Threat Up
    • Javelin Skills Max Range
  • Rune-keeper
    • Pulses Prelude to Hope
    • Vivid Imagery Targets

Crafting

• An issue where greater crafted relic recipe scrolls became unusable after obtaining Westfold mastery has been fixed.
• New Lore-master parable recipes are now available for the Scholar profession. Novice Scholar trainers sell the Journeyman recipe while higher tier versions can be found in treasure.

UI

• Quest reward items with very long names now get more space to show the name in. If they have to be truncated with a “...” anyway, the tooltip will now be the correct item examination tooltip instead of just the name.

Items

• Scaling items from instances are no longer marked as Unique, allowing multiple versions of them to exist in your vault or pack.
• Housing Decorations - The firework launchers for exterior housing decorations have been updated with bigger and more impressive firework fx.

Quests & Deeds

• Carreglyn -- Punishing the Wicked: Previously, if someone spawned the boss fight, but a second player actually tagged and killed the boss, the first player could not complete the quest. The boss now can be respawned.
• Carreglyn -- Munfaeril's Warning: There was a bugged that caused a player to not be able to get their quest rewards upon completion. If two players used the same copy of Munfaeril to complete the wrapper, the second player's events got switched so that they spoke to Munfaeril first and used the shrine second, which broke the rewards screen. Now multiple players can complete their quest off the same copy of Munfaeril (if she is not present, the shrine must still be used to summon her, but completion will happen correctly.)
• There was a further complication with Punishing the Wicked, which caused the boss to remain stuck in NPC mode. This is being resolved by causing the entire encounter to despawn immediately if combat ends (due to player death, Hide in Plain Sight or other combat-ending skill). The detection hotspot also now has a cooldown of three minutes before it resets the encounter.
• The two hostile mobs in Lower Barnavon that were put there due to overwhelming player feedback have been removed due to overwhelming player feedback.
• Starkmoor Quest Completion deed quest count has been brought down a little bit more since the patch to match other Dunland/Gap/Isengard zones better.
• Quests: Book 14, Chapter 6: Laerdan now holds his bow properly.
• Forochel - Quest: “Cold as Death” - Frost-rimmed Braziers can only be used to summon Delucheleg when you have the quest.
• Moria - The Forgotten Treasury - Deeds can now be started by players of level 50 and above (down from 55).
• The three level 75 repeatable quests in Galtrev, “The Defense of Galtrev”, “Glinting in Forgotten Pools” & “The Forges of Isengard”, now give Legendary Item titles, relics and runes as rewards. Also, the quest “The Forges of Isengard” now gives reputation with Theodred's Riders.

What happens to old relics like the Ancient Rune of Thunder that give Melee Defence? Are these converted to Physical Mitigation as well, just like the LI scrolls?

Loved the overwhelming player feedback bit.

Props to Kelsan for his ongoing work on monster play.

Originally Posted by Sapience

Once a player or partial group places themselves in queue, the system will intelligently match them with other players for a random instance within their selected parameters.

(emphasis mine)

I'm sorry to comment on something I haven't seen yet and this isn't the best place for such feedback, but if it works as described putting you in a "random instance", then it will be an ineffective finder. That means you'd have to use it, bail on the people/leave instance, use it again, bail, repeatedly until you got into the instance you wanted to do! :/

Really??

However we need some, ANY tool to find groups (not the secret hidden one in the social panel nobody uses 'cause they don't even know it's there), I'm worried that if this becomes yet another unused tool, development won't continue and it'll not get improved to become helpful.

Heck, this entire game runs on computers, devices specialized to process data and match it. :-)

I do thank and appreciate the developers working on something, but please let the game needs be the basis of design, an example would be what the users created to workaround the limited software, the GLFF channel.

First attribute, global reach.

Next, a typical message, "3/6 75 GB Maze" or "11/12 Dannenglor, need tank".

Second attribute, user selectable instance.

Third attribute, what seems to be covered here, broad roles (with the ability to select multiple).

(I know this has been provided in the suggestion forums previously, but if we find a way to improve this, perhaps a new suggestion would be warranted. On the other hand, if this description is inaccurate, the point is moot!)



"Sometimes survival comes down to not being hit. Actually, most times." -the chicken skill, Bob and Weave

It's why I'm hoping they have added a cooldown to the finder so people will not essentially abuse the system as much.

I also think they will have the option to manually select specific dungeons as well as the ability to join random otherwise that is really just poor design.

I have multiple questions regarding the finder but I feel as though these forums and topic aren't currently the place and would be better suited to the developer diary once it's out but if a staff member says it's ok for me to ask them, I will.

Originally Posted by WhitewolfUK

the option to manually select specific dungeons as well as the ability to join random otherwise that is really just poor design.

very much agreed. without the ability to choose a specific instance, this tool will have fairly limited use. and the one place it might've had use as a random chooser -- doing any random 12-man skirmish -- seems not to be an option atm, because other feedback indicates that the tool is limited to 3-/6-man content.

there should absolutely, definitely, positively be a checkbox option to manually select which instance(s) the group would do. the default could still be set to random/any, but people should have the ability to modify that and choose a specific instance or subset of instances.

I noticed that my improved of strength of the earth major leg on my legendary sword is not working.
I have it up to 1020 but on the skill it only shows 160. Are you going to fix the improved strength of morale skill?

wow this update adds alot, and fixes alot too. Love the mini changes

Cant wait to try the new instances

Originally Posted by WhitewolfUK

It's why I'm hoping they have added a cooldown to the finder so people will not essentially abuse the system as much.

There is a cool down.

Originally Posted by WhitewolfUK

I also think they will have the option to manually select specific dungeons as well as the ability to join random otherwise that is really just poor design.

Not at this time. You get to select size model, role for your character, tier and classic, skirmish or isengard for the type. I tried it with my Hunter - I was allowed to select support or DPS for a role out of the four roles - I picked Skimrish - Tier 1 - Size 1 - Ended up in Tuckbourgh. I believe the other two roles are tank and healer.

Originally Posted by Sapience

Currently, Instance Finder allows you to set the following options:

• Content: Skirmishes, Isengard Instances, and/or Scaled Instances
• Scale: Solo, 2-man, 3-man, and/or 6-man
• Difficulty: Tier I, II, and/or III difficulty
• Role: Defence, DPS, Healer, Support

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but what is the design intent for allowing the Instance Finder to work for skirmishes or instances scaled to the Solo size? Could more than one player even enter the instance in this case?

Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

There is a cool down.Not at this time. You get to select size model, role for your character, tier and classic, skirmish or isengard for the type. I tried it with my Hunter - I was allowed to select support or DPS for a role out of the four roles - I picked Skimrish - Tier 1 - Size 1 - Ended up in Tuckbourgh. I believe the other two roles are tank and healer.

At least a cooldown is there but it's disapointing that you can't select dungeons from the finder at this moment in time. I would ahve thought it would have been considered but guess I was wrong.

"Once a match is found, the system will notify the player who can then accept the match and travel immediately to the instance."

Once you are given a choice to accept the match, are you told which instance/skirmish you will be sent to? Can you decline, remain in the queue and wait for one you like better? This would be acceptable, for now at least.

Originally Posted by Fredelas

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but what is the design intent for allowing the Instance Finder to work for skirmishes or instances scaled to the Solo size? Could more than one player even enter the instance in this case?

My question exactly.

Why do we need a Solo option in the instance finder?

Originally Posted by Sapience

Relics: All non-unique Settings (tiers 1-8) now increase both Tactical Mastery and Physical Mastery, instead of either offence or healing, depending on relic.

An issue where greater crafted relic recipe scrolls became unusable after obtaining Westfold mastery has been fixed.

What's all this about Tier 8 relics?

Am i missing something because I was under the impression that there were no new crafted relics?

Just out of curiosity...does a group leader get to define how many of each roll they want in their group? How does the Auto-picker-thingamabob know which classes are needed for which content? i.e. Ost Elendil needs one tank and one off-tank minimum. Champs and Cappies work fine, and two tanks works beautifully, but if I get Hunters and Burg/LM as support the instance will be well-nigh unfinishable (namely the nazgul boss, where you need one to kite the nazgul and one to pull armor to the windows).

Low odds of something like that happening? Yeah, but still I dont like the loss of control. Without better options/filtering I will still be hitting up GLFF for 6-man spots that the kin/friends list dont fill.

Originally Posted by jchudz

What's all this about Tier 8 relics?

Am i missing something because I was under the impression that there were no new crafted relics?

They are referring to old pre-LI revamp in update 3 relics (when there were 9 tiers and you didnt need relic removal scrolls).

On that note, were T9 relics changed as well?

That's it! Coffee! I now am a happy player. *.* I just wish I hadn't traded my Eruilan Campaign Marks the other day. Anyways, thank you!

Hi folks,

I'm working on the Dev Diary for Instance Finder this week. Meanwhile will try to answer at least some of the questions.

Originally Posted by Fredelas

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but what is the design intent for allowing the Instance Finder to work for skirmishes or instances scaled to the Solo size? Could more than one player even enter the instance in this case?

Two different scenarios:
1. I'm a player that wants to run a random solo skirmish and get bonus power/morale/currency - open Instance Finder, select solo size only, hit join - be put into one instantly
2. I'm a player that wants to run an encounter of some size - with others or by myself, but am not willing to wait forever if noone else on my server is interested / in my level band. Open it up, select 1, 2, 3, 6. After 90 seconds, I *will* be placed into a solo encounter, but meanwhile, it will look and see if it can put me into a bigger size first.

Note that you can also enter as a complete fellowship - if you select the size that your fellowship is at (for example for a 3-man fellowship, if you select 3), then you will be put into that size encounter if a bigger size cannot be found. If you don't select a bigger size, you'll be put into an encounter instantly.

Originally Posted by WhitewolfUK

At least a cooldown is there but it's disapointing that you can't select dungeons from the finder at this moment in time. I would ahve thought it would have been considered but guess I was wrong.

It was very much considered and something that we intend to do for the next update.

It turned out that the feature was too big to do whole for one update, and we really wanted to get some player feedback / see the system in action, so that our next release will be that much better.

Being able to select specific instances presents significant design challenges, particularly with regards to UI, so instead of not having anything ready for Update 5 so that we could have both in Update 6, we instead chose to try to get the "random" experience closer to done and leave the "specific" for the next update. We hope that the players will find value in what they get in Update 5, even without having any of the "specific instance" features.

Originally Posted by Mutteringmonk

"Once a match is found, the system will notify the player who can then accept the match and travel immediately to the instance."

Once you are given a choice to accept the match, are you told which instance/skirmish you will be sent to? Can you decline, remain in the queue and wait for one you like better? This would be acceptable, for now at least.

You are not told what instance/skirmish you are sent to. The current Instance Finder is for finding random encounters (if an encounter is a particularly bad match for Instance Finder, then we can explicitly exclude it - for example, at the moment we have excluded the Survival in Barrow Downs skirmish). If you are looking to run a particular encounter, Instance Finder is not for you - wait for next update.

At the moment there are three categories of encounters that we can launch you into:
Skirmishes
Scaling Instances (these are instances that can be run at different levels, such as IoF)
Isengard Instances (the new level 75 instances).

At the moment, it cannot launch you into the nonscaling noncap instances, such as Carn Dum, or Grand Stairs.

Originally Posted by Seedly

Just out of curiosity...does a group leader get to define how many of each roll they want in their group? How does the Auto-picker-thingamabob know which classes are needed for which content? i.e. Ost Elendil needs one tank and one off-tank minimum. Champs and Cappies work fine, and two tanks works beautifully, but if I get Hunters and Burg/LM as support the instance will be well-nigh unfinishable (namely the nazgul boss, where you need one to kite the nazgul and one to pull armor to the windows).

Low odds of something like that happening? Yeah, but still I dont like the loss of control. Without better options/filtering I will still be hitting up GLFF for 6-man spots that the kin/friends list dont fill.

At the moment, the role rules are as follows:
A 3-man will always need either a tank or a healer
A 6-man will always need both a tank and a healer

In both cases, if you come in with a pre-made fellowship, those rules are suppressed - if you want to run some random instance with the group you are with.

You can also enter with a group of 5 just to find one more - or if you are just missing a healer to pick up a healer.

I imagine we will make some nonviable groups - but then so can glff .

I think that GLFF will still have plenty of traffic - for now, it will have plenty of people looking to do a particular instance. Also, if you want to handpick the kind of people you accept into the group. And for now we can't handle raids. The kind of message that may go away is "<x> looking to do any 6-man skirmish" - that person will probably just use Instance Finder instead.

Why no word of word/essay of exhaltation bubbles being fixed on RK? I really hope it's fixed in Update 5 or tomorrow's patch which the notes aren't available yet. It's one mechanic that was working amazing and then changed to be utter ####.

When using the instance finder, will it check to prevent a match for people that may be on your ignore list?

The random nature of the instance finder leads me to believe that many players will be placed into one of the few skirmishes and scaleable instances that are free to all players.

The lowest common denominator seems likely to become the most common random outcome, even for players who have purchased all the content.

Originally Posted by ransroth

Hi folks,

I'm working on the Dev Diary for Instance Finder this week. Meanwhile will try to answer at least some of the questions.



It was very much considered and something that we intend to do for the next update.

It turned out that the feature was too big to do whole for one update, and we really wanted to get some player feedback / see the system in action, so that our next release will be that much better.

Being able to select specific instances presents significant design challenges, particularly with regards to UI, so instead of not having anything ready for Update 5 so that we could have both in Update 6, we instead chose to try to get the "random" experience closer to done and leave the "specific" for the next update. We hope that the players will find value in what they get in Update 5, even without having any of the "specific instance" features.

Thats not a problem, I was just curious that's all as to why it wasn't in at the beginning but if it's a major thing then no worries

I have more questions as I say, it just depends if you want to answer them :P

On the Character Select screen is a new option for Manage Plugins.

You can choose which plugins to start automaticly for each character or all characters.

I just noticed that and tested it. It works.

What servers can do Character Copy or will the Green Dragon be available today?

Thanks

Originally Posted by Jurri0017

On the Character Select screen is a new option for Manage Plugins.

You can choose which plugins to start automaticly for each character or all characters.

I just noticed that and tested it. It works.

What servers can do Character Copy or will the Green Dragon be available today?

Thanks

Oh nice thats pretty awesome. Definately feel that should be added to the notes when it's released.

What about warden heals and leeches? I didn't see anything explicit about that, and if they haven't scaled, we're still busted. Did I miss something?

Any news on when this bug will be fixed and if not could you please inform your GMs to pass us through the instance? It has been done for one or two people so it does seem to be possible.
-Esty

Originally Posted by Fredelas

The random nature of the instance finder leads me to believe that many players will be placed into one of the few skirmishes and scaleable instances that are free to all players.

The lowest common denominator seems likely to become the most common random outcome, even for players who have purchased all the content.

Good point.

Since I don't see it on the list, I assume that Update 5 does not include scaling for previous "end game" instances that are no longer "end game" content?

Originally Posted by Azerog

When using the instance finder, will it check to prevent a match for people that may be on your ignore list?

This is a feature that sadly fell out of update 5 timeframe. Looking to get that to work for update 6.

Any hunter love coming in a future build?

Originally Posted by Sapience

Warg

• “Rend Flesh” now properly consumes the Critical Response when used.
• “Rend Flesh” and “Sudden Pounce” base damage increased by 50%.
• “Rend Flesh” power cost reduced
• “Bloody Maul” base damage increased by 60%
• Skills that do bonus positional damage are now called out in tooltips.
• “Bestial Claws”, “Sudden Pounce”, and “Bloody Maul” damage increased
• “Sudden Pounce” & “Bloody Maul” power costs increased
• “Claws” power cost reduced
• “Flea Bitten” fixed a bug that caused the effect to be applied to the Warg instead of enemies.

Thank you. Am I right to assume though, that "March" will work in stealth? Since breaking stealth was only mentioned with regards to Mobilize?

Originally Posted by ransroth

It turned out that the feature was too big to do whole for one update, and we really wanted to get some player feedback / see the system in action, so that our next release will be that much better.

Thank you very much for two things. One, starting work on this tool, as you can tell by all the interested responses, it's much appreciated! Two, sharing these insights.

May I suggest something for the Developer Diary? (Since this feature has already been announced, postponing release until it's useful obviously isn't going to happen.)

Therefore, highlighting the future capability in the Diary might go a long way toward adjusting player's expectations. (Albeit without making specific promises obviously.)

Yes, I know many players don't read the forums, or diaries, or announcements, or release notes, and will ridicule Turbine regardless; but if there are some players who know this feature might become useful in update 6, socially that will be significant to acceptance in the meantime.

(There's nothing more crushing than something like this missing the mark initially, causing it to be ill received and unused, only for that result to justify not completing the initial goal down the road.)



"Sometimes survival comes down to not being hit. Actually, most times." -the chicken skill, Bob and Weave

I see that there is no fix for farming. Is the 1:1 crop to ingredient ratios for Westfold farming WAI or have you just not gotten around to making it right (1 crop producing 4 ingredients)?

Originally Posted by Sapience

Unified Currency - Skirmish, Classic and Instance reward systems

All the various marks and tokens that appear in Skirmishes and Classic Instances are being collapsed into three new currencies; Marks, Medallions and Seals. These three currencies will also be used in the new Isengard instance cluster, as well as future instances.

Please tell me they are also going to the barter wallet. In fact, please tell me all things that should be there are going there!

Ok two questions.

Were the Draigoch bugs fixed?

Were the tier 7 multi-output minstrel instrument recipes added?

Also just a comment about the instance finder for future consideration. I know it's just the first implementation but I'd like to see the option to select the instance/raid/skirmish rather than it being so random. Allow people to select School, Library, Helegrod, Great Barrows, etc. Also allow us to select which skirmish we want to join for. I'm not gonna stay in group for a skirmish I'm on cooldown for.

Someone else asked this earlier and it's a great question. How does the instance finder tool know if I'm Premium and what instance/raid/skirmish content I have unlocked. I'd hate to wait in queue for a group then added to an Annuminas group if I don't own the Evendim quest pack and can't do Annuminas instances.

Originally Posted by Sapience

[...] In addition, while using the Instance Finder, players can take advantage of additional bonuses and rewards! [...]

Originally Posted by ransroth

[...] 1. I'm a player that wants to run a random solo skirmish and get bonus power/morale/currency - open Instance Finder, select solo size only, hit join - be put into one instantly. [...]

Why is the use of this feature being subsidized? I don't understand why players who use this system will receive bonuses that others will not. Is there a need to promote the use of this system over the instance / skirmish join panel?

Is there any news on whether the Rune-Keeper skill That Which Does Not Kill Us will get its cooldown properly reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes as promised on two different patch notes here and here?

Just curious because I couldn't help but notice the lack of Rune-Keeper notes.

Originally Posted by paebrain

What about warden heals and leeches? I didn't see anything explicit about that, and if they haven't scaled, we're still busted. Did I miss something?

^This, as it stands now wardens are broke, please tell me you have fixed our HOTs and leeches!

Is Hunter Find the Path getting bumped up to 150%!?!?!?

Sure we have horses... but we cant fight from them and have to stop and use an induction to get on them (and im all for restricting them in the moors)

If you are going for balance - you can remove maps while you are at it or give freeps maps.

Otherwise you continue to give creeps more and more advantage.