Bullroarer Update 25.4 - Preview #1 - SERVER CLOSED

[LordOfTheSquids]

Bullroarer is CLOSED. Thank you for your participation!

Remmorchant, The Net of Darkness
"Far beneath the Ephel Duath, in the deepest caverns of Torech Ungol, lies the Remmorchant, the Net of Darkness. There, wreathed in webs of shadow only the Light of Earendil might hope to penetrate, lies the lair of Ungwetari, the last child of Ungoliant."

This update includes the new Remmorchant raid, changes to itemization for lower levels, some stat tweaks, numerous bug fixes and more. Please yell at us about any bugs, balance feedback, or issues other you encounter!

News and Notes:

• The player database has been wiped.
• Character Copy to Bullroarer will be available. Please let us know if you encounter any issues.
• Account Services are also available for copy. Please let us know as soon as possible if any of these services fail to copy properly.
• Bullroarer will remain open until Friday afternoon (02/14). Time subject to change.
• This update is a work in progress and the patch notes are not intended to cover every change. If you find something we left out you think is important, let us know and we can add it to the notes.

Instances:

• Remmorchant, The Net of Darkness - A new 12 person raid is available for preview. This is still a work in progress!

Items:

• Low Level Itemization Revamp:
  
  • We've updated most of the low level (1-50) gear to use modern itemization schedules.
  • This means that the gear will generally have more complex statting (3-5 stats per item), and that these stat layouts will conform more to the modern style of statting.
  • In particular Light, Medium, and Heavy armor at low levels will now almost always conform to the proper main stat for the classes that can equip them. They may still include off-main stats for color or to allow more creative off-type gearing, but they will now almost always include the class mainstat and some vitality/health in order to make it scale more effectively.
  • As a rule of thumb, most low level pieces will improve, some quite substantially. Monster statting at low levels will be tweaked to accommodate the change in player effectiveness as a result.
  • Because many pieces of low level gear featured only 1 or 2 stats, while the new versions generally have at least 3, you will often find that the points are distributed differently than before. Some existing stats may drop as a result, but in general the overall value of the pieces should improve.
  • Reworked the stats for most low level crafted jewelery to more modern stat budgets, etc.
  
  
• Certain shields will now display smaller due to a bug fix that was causing them to double their scale increase from their smaller versions.
  
  • Some examples of shields affected are Elven Soldier’s Heavy Shield, Hardened Elven Knight’s Heavy Shield, and Superior Heavy Shield of the Golden Host.
  
  
• Adventurer's gear will now be base item level 412, with the chance to create at up to item level 417. This will coincide with the Raid release which includes item level 426-430 incomparable and legendary gear.

Stats:

• Tweaked the balance of defensive stats vs. vitality to encourage more variety of itemization in defensive builds.
  
  • Partial avoidances are now ~12.5% cheaper to cap.
  • Itemization budget for avoidances and incoming healing increased slightly (~5-10%).
  • Itemization budget for tactical mitigation reduced.
  • Itemization budget for vitality & health reduced by about 5% (you'll see your morale drop somewhat).
  
  
• Fixed a bug that reduced certain ratings in the later game.

Crafting:

• Craft Guild recipe cooldowns can be reset using Mithril Coins.
  
  • KNOWN ISSUE: The Mithril Coin Recipe Reset will refund the Mithril coins spent. This will be corrected in a future build
  
  
• Ithilharn Shards are now awarded for completing the following weekly quests:
  - Imlad Morgul: The Reclamation
  - Imlad Morgul: Vale of Sorcery
  - Imlad Morgul: Continued Threats
• Essences disenchant for a quantity of Malleable Essences equal to the tier of the essence.
• Minas Ithil T3 & T4 Essence crafting recipes can accept Malleable Essences in lieu of the normal ingredients list. Quantity needed is equal to their disenchant value + 1.
  
  • Essence boxes crafted this way will be bound to account. This is accessed by clicking the 'Use Ingredient Pack' checkbox. The text for this mechanic will be updated in a future build.

Quests and Adventure Areas:

• Another invisible towns person near Brockenborings has been given her body back, and is once again visible.
• The VO for the bestowal of Chapter 6 of the Court of Lothlorien Allegiance has been corrected.
• Changed the art for the Wart-blooms in Nan Curunir since they were difficult to select, and also moved them out of the weeds so they're easier to see.
• Adjusted the draw distance for Saebereth in 'Mazog in the Web'.
• The incomparable bracelet and chest gear drops from tiers 4 and 5 of the Halls of Black Lore and the Houses of Lamentation will now properly drop at item level 418 on tier 4 and item level 419 on tier 5.

Misc:

• The jingling bell sound was removed from several travel steeds where it was not appropriate: Steed of Elessar's host, Ice Flower Steed, Hunting Steed, Sea-ward Steed, Steed of the Moon Moth, Steed of the Alliance of the Third Age, Rescued Steed of Agarnaith, Sunflower Steed, Farmers Feast Steed, Picnic Steed, and the Perfect Picnic Steed.
• Performance improvements have been made to client-side landscape loading.
• DX11 Interactive Water will now work properly in 64bit clients.

PREVIEW ONLY:

• Jinjaah in the Eyes & Tavern now offers a selection of weapon auras that will cause your weapon to glow in the presence of a specific enemy type. Please try out these weapon auras in main hand, off hand, and ranged aura slots.

[HolyDuckTape]

Bullroarer is OPEN.
[*]Tweaked the balance of defensive stats vs. vitality to encourage more variety of itemization in defensive builds.

• Partial avoidances are now ~12.5% cheaper to cap.
• Itemization budget for avoidances and incoming healing increased slightly (~5-10%).
• Itemization budget for tactical mitigation reduced.
• Itemization budget for vitality & health reduced by about 5% (you'll see your morale drop somewhat).
  [/

So partial avoidances and tmit is buffed but morale and bpe/inch is nerfed?

That's a very bad trade off. Just nerf morale while keeping inch/bpe the same and buff partials to balance it much better. Our inch and bpe has always been very bad these last few level caps and morale way too high. I would say tmit is definitely already in a great spot and doesnt need a tweak to it. U can cap it with only a few essences

[Lord.Funk]

So partial avoidances and tmit is buffed but morale and bpe/inch is nerfed?

That's a very bad trade off. Just nerf morale while keeping inch/bpe the same and buff partials to balance it much better. Our inch and bpe has always been very bad these last few level caps and morale way too high. I would say tmit is definitely already in a great spot and doesnt need a tweak to it. U can cap it with only a few essences

Hmmm, I read that as the opposite. That we get less Tactical Mitigation per essenece/gear piece etc (or the bonus we get for it from will etc gets lowered, same with vitaly for morale). Then I read it as we get more bpe and incoming healing per piece. Then also easier to cap partial avoidance. Either by the cap being lowered, or we get more points in it per stat that raises it. Could be that I'm reading it wrong, not sure.

[Lord.Funk]

[LIST][*]Minas Ithil T3 & T4 Essence crafting recipes can accept Malleable Essences in lieu of the normal ingredients list. Quantity needed is equal to their disenchant value + 1.

• Essence boxes crafted this way will be bound to account. This is accessed by clicking the 'Use Ingredient Pack' checkbox. The text for this mechanic will be updated in a future build.

I'm sorry, but what does this practically mean exactly ??? "in lieu"/instead of ??? Will we simply be able to use ingredient packs on not need malleables anymore to craft essences ???

However basically the text says we can use Malleable Essence instead the normal ingredients needed ??? So we could use only malleables and no normal mats ??? Who would use an extra malleable rather than a normal ingredient ??? I must be reading it wrong.

[Hephburz-2]

Hmmm, I read that as the opposite. That we get less Tactical Mitigation per essenece/gear piece etc (or the bonus we get for it from will etc gets lowered, same with vitaly for morale). Then I read it as we get more bpe and incoming healing per piece. Then also easier to cap partial avoidance. Either by the cap being lowered, or we get more points in it per stat that raises it. Could be that I'm reading it wrong, not sure.

I read it as you did - nerfs to Tactical Mit and Morale contributions but buffs to BPE and Incoming Healing on gear.

[WhiteWolf21x]

I'm sorry, but what does this practically mean exactly ??? "in lieu"/instead of ??? Will we simply be able to use ingredient packs on not need malleables anymore to craft essences ???

However basically the text says we can use Malleable Essence instead the normal ingredients needed ??? So we could use only malleables and no normal mats ??? Who would use an extra malleable rather than a normal ingredient ??? I must be reading it wrong.

There are 2 ways to craft essences. Using normal ingredients or 4 malleables. If you use malleables the essence will be bound to account.

As I was crafting the new essences, I got a few that crit but not into what I wanted. So I broke them down into malleable to craft essences again. I also have a bunch of t3 essences to break down into malleables as well. So lots of reasons to craft both ways.

[Lord.Funk]

There are 2 ways to craft essences. Using normal ingredients or 4 malleables. If you use malleables the essence will be bound to account.

As I was crafting the new essences, I got a few that crit but not into what I wanted. So I broke them down into malleable to craft essences again. I also have a bunch of t3 essences to break down into malleables as well. So lots of reasons to craft both ways.

In the past essences required both normal craft mats and malleables. You would need more the higher the tier. Only way to get them was to break down old essences. So You got a T2, break it down, get a malleable and use that plus mats to craft a T3. Break down the T3, get malleables, use those plus mats to craft a T4 etc. If You now only use malleable they will cost one more, but that means You can craft less etc. Normal mats area alot easier and cheaper to come by.

Edit: Oh wait, I get it now as I read another thread:

New unique essences are a scam

So u got the options to craft them with 3 solvents, 15 mat, 1 shard each or 4 malleables. but you have to CRIT in order to get the unique ones which is fair i would say. But get this.. The unique box is complete rng and gives u a random essence of your Mainstat of choice. So far i opened 20 CRITTED boxes and i got 18 normal vitality essences and only 2 unique essences. That's an insanely low droprate. A total rng scam. That's 60 solvents + 20 shards worth or 80 malleables for pretty much nothing. Pls fix this

Ofcourse you can use the normal ones you get by turning them into malleables again but it's still a massive loss of malleables with such a small chance)

This sounds insane. Totally gambling RNG essence crafting if that is correct.

The ablitity to replace both solvents and shards though is nice.

[Elverior]

You forgot to mention Rohan Housing

[Sindhol]

Stats:
[LIST][*]Tweaked the balance of defensive stats vs. vitality to encourage more variety of itemization in defensive builds.

• Partial avoidances are now ~12.5% cheaper to cap.
• Itemization budget for avoidances and incoming healing increased slightly (~5-10%).
• Itemization budget for tactical mitigation reduced.
• Itemization budget for vitality & health reduced by about 5% (you'll see your morale drop somewhat).

I fully support your goal, but you've not done nearly enough to make block/parry/evade/incoming healing viable. Nor are resistance/crit def worth much, let alone outgoing healing/crit for an alternate captain build, for example--tanks are morale-bags with some mits and a tiny bit of finesse to avoid the most embarrassing missed interrupts/corrupts/taunts.

Here's the situation in a nutshell:

(1a) The block/parry/evade caps are way too high individually. Mainstats do not appreciable contribute and a single essence provides only a tiny increase.
(1b) Block/parry/evade/resist often do not work against attacks, especially boss attacks. If they do, they aren't reliable.

(2a) The mitigation caps are much lower than the BPE caps.
(2b) Mitigations do work reliably against most attacks. So does morale.

(3a) Morale and mitigations are a much higher priority than block/parry/evade/resist/inc heal/crit def/all other stats (the "luxury" stats).
(3b) We're short on stats. Equipment is poor in quality and stat caps are very high. In many cases (dev chance, crit magnitude, outgoing healing, block/parry/evade), the caps are too high.
(3c) We never get to the luxury stats.

(4a) If I have less mitigation and morale because of an update, I need to get more morale and mitigations.
(4b) Now I'll definitely never get to luxury stats.

Overall, you need perhaps 2m points in block/parry/evade to get it the point where it's about as valuable defensively as 200k-300k points of physical mitigation, and even then, the more reliable defence is mitigation. That is, I would trade physical mitigation for block at a rate of 1:10, perhaps 1:7, depending on the fight, and only if I already had enough mitigation to survive any hit that gets through my b/p/e, and my overall damage taken wasn't mostly unavoidable special attacks. As of 120 cap, this includes basically no situation at all (and few enough cases at 115 cap), and small changes like this aren't going to change that.


If you really want to "encourage more variety of itemization in defensive builds"--that is, balance tank stats--you can do the following:

(1) Halve the partial block/parry/evade chance and mitigation caps. Reduce the full block/parry/evade/resist/inc heal caps by a third.
(2) Grant 5 points block from might/vitality, 5 points parry from might/agility, 5 points evade from agility/will, 5 points resist from vitality/will, 5 points inc heal from fate. This ensures a somewhat more solid base to add buffs and essences to.
(3) 50% of armour applied to tactical/orc-craft mitigation (instead of 20%) and critical defence (instead of nothing at all--crit def isn't affected by anything, though it's a bonus stat on shields, of course).


If you implement changes that big, we might actually start favouring block/parry/evade for some fights. It'd be a welcome change, for sure.

[BlitzKr1eg]

Still no way to get solvents doing current content?

[Emaldiom]

The in-game store is content (?)

Solvent CAN drop from skirmishes and CAN drop from various low level instances but is not something that can be farmed or even obtained in a good way.
This needs to be addressed pre raid (or the raid needs to drop em)

[Lord.Funk]

You forgot to mention Rohan Housing

Is that on BR during this preview/test ???

[NeebPlayer]

I fully support your goal, but you've not done nearly enough to make block/parry/evade/incoming healing viable. Nor are resistance/crit def worth much, let alone outgoing healing/crit for an alternate captain build, for example--tanks are morale-bags with some mits and a tiny bit of finesse to avoid the most embarrassing missed interrupts/corrupts/taunts.

Here's the situation in a nutshell:

(1a) The block/parry/evade caps are way too high individually. Mainstats do not appreciable contribute and a single essence provides only a tiny increase.
(1b) Block/parry/evade/resist often do not work against attacks, especially boss attacks. If they do, they aren't reliable.

(2a) The mitigation caps are much lower than the BPE caps.
(2b) Mitigations do work reliably against most attacks. So does morale.

(3a) Morale and mitigations are a much higher priority than block/parry/evade/resist/inc heal/crit def/all other stats (the "luxury" stats).
(3b) We're short on stats. Equipment is poor in quality and stat caps are very high. In many cases (dev chance, crit magnitude, outgoing healing, block/parry/evade), the caps are too high.
(3c) We never get to the luxury stats.

(4a) If I have less mitigation and morale because of an update, I need to get more morale and mitigations.
(4b) Now I'll definitely never get to luxury stats.

Overall, you need perhaps 2m points in block/parry/evade to get it the point where it's about as valuable defensively as 200k-300k points of physical mitigation, and even then, the more reliable defence is mitigation. That is, I would trade physical mitigation for block at a rate of 1:10, perhaps 1:7, depending on the fight, and only if I already had enough mitigation to survive any hit that gets through my b/p/e, and my overall damage taken wasn't mostly unavoidable special attacks. As of 120 cap, this includes basically no situation at all (and few enough cases at 115 cap), and small changes like this aren't going to change that.


If you really want to "encourage more variety of itemization in defensive builds"--that is, balance tank stats--you can do the following:

(1) Halve the partial block/parry/evade chance and mitigation caps. Reduce the full block/parry/evade/resist/inc heal caps by a third.
(2) Grant 5 points block from might/vitality, 5 points parry from might/agility, 5 points evade from agility/will, 5 points resist from vitality/will, 5 points inc heal from fate. This ensures a somewhat more solid base to add buffs and essences to.
(3) 50% of armour applied to tactical/orc-craft mitigation (instead of 20%) and critical defence (instead of nothing at all--crit def isn't affected by anything, though it's a bonus stat on shields, of course).


If you implement changes that big, we might actually start favouring block/parry/evade for some fights. It'd be a welcome change, for sure.

I can't wrap my mind around this. First they elect to make avoidances useless by making all the highest-hitting attacks unavoidable in everything they've done since... a long time ago. Then, they do this. So what is this if not a nerf masqueraded under the guise of "we are trying to allow more versatiliy in character builds". Guess what, this is not the game where that's possible. SSG made sure of that.

Like I can imagine the new raid having situations where they try to make bpe more important than mits and morale stacking. If they swarm you with a truckload of tiny adds, bpe might become essential. Bosses will still have their unavoidable attacks where mits and morale are essential. So you need to do double the gear grind to be equipped for both situations through gear-swapping. This is what it really is about.

[HolyDuckTape]

Hmmm, I read that as the opposite. That we get less Tactical Mitigation per essenece/gear piece etc (or the bonus we get for it from will etc gets lowered, same with vitaly for morale). Then I read it as we get more bpe and incoming healing per piece. Then also easier to cap partial avoidance. Either by the cap being lowered, or we get more points in it per stat that raises it. Could be that I'm reading it wrong, not sure.

That sounds quite good then, i would be up for such a change!

[Freenen]

I would like to get to choose the raidset I want if I get to be lucky and get a drop, just like in abyss and not get a random piece.

[zaboch]

Change the Red Guardian bonus, Bleed Pulses is useless because, unlike a Warden that can cycle a lot of skills in a rotation, Red Guardian will always have Terrible, Haemorrhaging and Slashing up and a good rotation allows them to keep refreshing them just as they expire.
Change this to something else, I have already made suggestions in another thread, but will repost here:

• Bleed Damage
• Bleed Crit/Dev Magnitude
• Hammer Down Crit chance on low morale target
• Hammer Down ignores some % mitigations on low morale target
• Hammer Down cooldown
• Terrible Wound reduces incoming healing (an idea that was tinkered by Vastin during reworks)
• Bleeds ignore some % mitigations
• Parry Response skills critical chance
• Overwhelm reduces mitigations on Crit
• To The King/Blind Rage gives crit chance

Also, Yellow is apparently missing a set bonus completely.

[Hephburz-2]

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...id-Set-Bonuses

Throwing a link to the set bonus discussion thread for anyone who hasn't seen it + hopefully for the Devs to take some notice and start interacting with us about the upcoming set bonuses (Yes, we know, it's early, and everything is subject to change / not finished / needs polishing, but there's some good discussion going on).

[Pewpewmidget]

[*]Low Level Itemization Revamp:

• We've updated most of the low level (1-50) gear to use modern itemization schedules.
• This means that the gear will generally have more complex statting (3-5 stats per item), and that these stat layouts will conform more to the modern style of statting.
• In particular Light, Medium, and Heavy armor at low levels will now almost always conform to the proper main stat for the classes that can equip them. They may still include off-main stats for color or to allow more creative off-type gearing, but they will now almost always include the class mainstat and some vitality/health in order to make it scale more effectively.
• As a rule of thumb, most low level pieces will improve, some quite substantially. Monster statting at low levels will be tweaked to accommodate the change in player effectiveness as a result.
• Because many pieces of low level gear featured only 1 or 2 stats, while the new versions generally have at least 3, you will often find that the points are distributed differently than before. Some existing stats may drop as a result, but in general the overall value of the pieces should improve.
• Reworked the stats for most low level crafted jewelery to more modern stat budgets, etc.

What I would LOVE to see is some love for light armors, as well as better primary and secondary stats.
I like the options with critical rating or physical/tactical mastery but please do not pair them with mitigation, fate or outgoing healing.
Oh, and no one needs Finesse until around level 85.

Also, if it's not too much of a hassle, can you look into lvl 70/75, 80/85 and 90/95 sets for light armor please? I believe those are the worst shape out of everything else.

[Scenario]

You forgot to mention Rohan Housing

Housing wasn't the point or purpose of this Bullroarer. You're welcome to check it out but the plan is have a more focusedc preview/test experience on it later once it's new features have been implemented.

[Druidsfire]

Housing wasn't the point or purpose of this Bullroarer. You're welcome to check it out but the plan is have a more focused preview/test experience on it later once it's new features have been implemented.

Well, it caused a stir amongst the housing fans in the community, to be sure. The new lighting hooks and options were a pleasant surprise, and the views from certain locations were amazing. Can't wait to see the next iterations.

[Pewpewmidget]

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...id-Set-Bonuses

Throwing a link to the set bonus discussion thread for anyone who hasn't seen it + hopefully for the Devs to take some notice and start interacting with us about the upcoming set bonuses (Yes, we know, it's early, and everything is subject to change / not finished / needs polishing, but there's some good discussion going on).

Most of those set bonuses seems like a joke IMHO.
Especially the hunter's Press Onward granting +25% running speed for 10s.

[Laurelinarien]

We've updated most of the low level (1-50) gear to use modern itemization schedules.

This is a welcome change but it comes too late.
After seeing you haven't touched the 85 endgame sets, I felt really sad you've opened RoR for the LS. And knowing that items crafted or obtained before you introduce any changes to the 75-85 lvl range won't update to a "new version", like it happens on EVERY new update you release, makes me feel even worse.
You're gonna end up creating on the new servers, the same disparities and gaps you've allowed to fester on the regular ones.

[darthi]

will the itemlevel for the 3 man instances also be adjusted upwards? Loot boxes are also constantly moved upwards, this would only be fair

[abrahamL]

With the low level gear bring added stats isn't this going to even more trivialize those level 50-60 instances. It's already really easy to do the Balrog/ Carn Dum on level which is something that the Slowtro type kins are dealing with. We don't need those instances being even easier.

[Nannybots12]

I'm sure I am in the minority here, but please make either a solo version of the Shelob raid (with no gear) or let it scale to level 20 or 30 something (with pathetic gear) so that we can still experience the story even if we rarely have time to group up or kin. That would be much appreciated.