Update 17 Release Notes

New Region: Old Anórien
Explore the besieged city of Minas Tirith, ancient seat of the Kingdom of Gondor. Outside the fortress city, the Enemy has broken through the walls of Pelennor Field, and their forces now assemble and prepare for the assault to come. North of those broken walls, in the countryside of Talath Anor, yet more hosts of the Enemy bear down upon Gondor. It is from here that Gondor hopes and watches for the coming of the Rohirrim. And while they wait, a young lord of Caer Andros finds himself beset by fierce bearded Easterlings, known as the Suhalar.

Two New Epic Battles
Experience Sauron’s first assault on Minas Tirith through two new Epic Battles. In The Defence of Minas Tirith (solo/duo and three player), the foes make their first foray, marshalling great siege towers and the elements of fear and dread against Minas Tirith’s seemingly impenetrable walls. Then, in The Hammer of the Underworld (solo/duo and six player), fight to hold the city gates against the great siege ram Grond—and the Witch-king of Angmar himself!

These Epic Battles feature thirteen exciting secondaries, including Epic Foes, with “soft” failure conditions that end only when the wave ends. Victory boxes for these battles contain roughly 50% more Supreme essences than prior Epic Battles and, for the main quests, grant three times as many Stars of Merit. With this update, Epic Battle Promotions have been raised from 236 to 256.

Epic Volume IV, Book 4: Siege of the White City
The city of Osgiliath has fallen to the enemy, and now you must flee with its defenders across the plain to Minas Tirith. Prepare for the coming siege with Gandalf the White, Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth, and Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, as the armies of Sauron move to destroy Gondor. This thirteen-chapter Epic Book is a new on-ramp to the story, so you can play through it without having played the previous Books… but it is recommended that you play the adventure to this point for maximum context.

General

Hope Tokens now have a 3-minute cooldown, instead of 15 minutes.
Fixed a problem which would cause many instances' drama to pause for 5 minutes before restarting again. This should resolve a number of frozen instances throughout the game.
In the III.3.7 instance, 'Attack on Zudrugund' Corunir began floating. Now he's a little more down-to-earth.
The III.2.15 instance, 'An Echo of Days Past,' has been added to the Enedwaith Reflecting Pool
Fixed a long-standing issue with the obelisks in the I.5.8 instance 'Fire and Ice.
The Dome of Stars, The Ruined City, and The Sunken Labyrinth now all give 1 Morgul Crest upon completion of the tier 2 instance. This is in addition to any Morgul Crests from the tier 2 Challenge chest.
Epic Battles - fixed merit progress display for some of the secondary quests which used to not show any progress at all.
The victory boxes for the Defense of Minas Tirith and Hammer of the Underworld Epic Battles have roughly 50% more Supreme Essences, on average, than the victory boxes for other Epic Battles.
The class item traders in Glan Vraig now trade Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment for Commendations. Check the Legendary Items (Level 100) section on your class trader to find them.
The cap on Epic Battle promotion points has been raised from 236 to 256.
The main quest reward boxes for the Minas Tirith Epic Battles give three times as many Stars of Merit as other reward boxes.
Morgul Crests can now be exchanged for Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment, at a rate of 5 Crests per Scroll.
The mark and medallion acquisition rates for the Sambrog and Glinghant instances were unintentionally high. The mark and medallion acquisition rates for these instances have been sharply reduced.
Level-scaled players should no longer lose their scaling buff when teleporting between Ettenmoors and Osgiliath.
In the Battle for Osgiliath, Creep NPCs have less Morale and Freep NPCs have more.
Sometimes Bingo was trying to climb the Stocktower and getting stuck inside it. Now he should do a better job staying on the ledge!
Bingo will no longer float when he's standing on the Brandywine Bridge.
All 6-man and 12-man Roving Threats now have a chance to drop Morgul Crests.
Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment and Star-lit Crystals have been added to the Merit Commitee barter NPCs for 250 and 500 Stars of Merit, respectively.
Monsters from level 99 and up may now drop tier 9 and tier 10 crafting materials.
There's a new option that allows you to control the opacity of floating names on the UI Settings options page.
Added an audio option to disable combat music. When checked, landscape music plays uninterrupted by combat.
You should more consistently be able to hear in-game music (music will no longer go silent when crossing into a new zone).
A handful of tweaks have been made to the player music system: Bagpipe notes should no longer clip, the Misty Mountain Harp has had its note lengths slightly shortened, and the Theorbo's seven highest notes should now sound more like a Theorbo.
The store now has a minimum width of 600px to prevent the scrollbar from disappearing.

Cosmetic Weapons

You can now turn off your weapons when they are sheathed by clicking the new eye icons in the cosmetic outfit page. In combat, the weapons will reappear.
Cosmetic weapon visibility rules have been loosened. We have set up a number of categories of items that can be interchanged with each other: all one-handed weapons (including cosmetic-only items), all shields, two-handed clubs/swords/implements, and two-handed hammers/axes/halberds. All other categories (such as Staff, Spear, etc) can only be interchanged with other staffs, spears, etc.You can no longer waste a dye trying to dye shields in the wardrobe.
Shields and weapons should again appear at their normal size.
When using a fishing pole, you now can only have another fishing pole cosmetically equipped.

Crafting

Crafters now have access to a tenth crafting tier: the Anórien crafting tier. Crafters of this tier can use Poplar, Anórien Skarn, Zircon, and Tattered Anórien Parchments to craft items for level 100 characters.
All crafting nodes can now be harvested while mounted.
All crafting materials stack to 500.
There is no longer a distinction between Vegetable, Grain, and Pipe-weed Farmlands. There is now only one kind of Farmland.
East Gondor craft nodes have been replaced with the tier 10 craft nodes also found in Old Anórien.
Monsters from level 99 and up may now drop tier 10 crafting materials. This affects the loot drops of landscape monsters in the older regions of Belfalas, Central Gondor, and Eastern Gondor.
Crafting nodes in the Ettenmoors have been upgraded to tier 10.
Tier 10 crafting materials now drop from various level 99+ containers and mobs

Imbued Legendary Items

DPS / Main Item Legacies have been granted 4 more available tiers and can unlock an additional 4.
Imbued stat Legacies have been granted 6 more available tiers and can unlock an additional 3.
All other imbued legacies have been granted 3 more available tiers and can unlock an additional 6.
Imbued Burglar Tools and Champion Runes have significantly more Incoming Healing Rating.

Class changes

Beorning

Beornings now have access to Bows.

The Beorning Club-damage trait now applies to axes as well.
Beornings with more than 100 Wrath should gain +15% Crit Chance from the Wrathful trait, instead of +0%.

Burglar

Burglar's Gamble Chance Legacy now gives Cash Out Damage after tier 35.

Captain

Muster Courage Fear Resist now grants Shield/Song/Blade-brother Critical Defence after Tier 35.

Champion

Champion Horns can no longer miss. They can still be resisted.
Swift Strike/Swift Blade Power Cost has a maximum tier of 38.

Guardian

Guardian's Pledge Cooldown now gives Retaliation Damage after Tier 35.
Guardian's Pledge Magnitude now gives Shield Swipe Damage after tier 35.
Turn the Tables Cooldown now gives Turn the Tables Damage after tier 35.

Hunter

Strength Quick Shot Slow now gives more chance to get extra Focus after tier 35.
Quick Shot Critical Chance now gives more Quick Shot critical damage after tier 35.

Loremaster

Signs of Power Durations now grants Signs of Power Debuff Rating after Tier 35.

Minstrel

Call to Ioreth now grants +5% critical magnitude to healing skills, in addition to making the next healing skill automatically a critical hit.
Cry of the Chorus Cooldown now grants Ballad Critical Magnitude after Tier 35.
Triumphant Spirit Cooldown now grants Triumphant Spirit Critical Magnitude after Tier 35.
Rally Cooldown now grants Major Ballad Healing after Tier 35.
Anthem Duration now grants Melee Skills Critical Rating after Tier 35.
Still as Death Cooldown now grants Song of Distraction Cooldown after Tier 35.
Call to Ioreth Cooldown now grants Call to Ioreth Healing Skills Critical Magnitude after Tier 35.

Rune-Keeper

Healing Attuned Power Cost now grants Revive Morale and Power Restoration after Tier 35.
Battle Attuned Power Cost now grants Chill of Winter Target Resistance penalty after Tier 35.
Steady Attuned Power Cost now grants Armour of the Elements Tactical Mitigation after Tier 35.

Warden

Wardens will now animate properly when using the Taunt skill when unarmed.
All Warden bleeds can now be cured with Wound or Cry potions, as appropriate.