Bullroarer Update 28.3 - Preview #1 - CLOSED

[LordOfTheSquids]

Bullroarer is CLOSED

Server Closing Time: Thursday, 01/14 5:00 PM EST (Subject to change)

• Report A Bug
• Character copy is AVAILABLE. This can be accessed through the 'Transfer' button on the Bullroarer Launcher.
• Guide to the Eyes and Guard Tavern

Performance Improvements and Monster Play Balance
Bullroarer is available for an early look at some performance changes intended to help during raids, as well as some Monster Play balance tweaks.

Release Notes:
Quests:

• Elderslade: March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily) now properly specifies that only completing 4 of the 7 quests is required to advance it.
• Elderslade: March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily) no longer auto-advances upon accepting the quest after completing it for the first time.

Items:
Many of the following notes will be adjusted in a future update based on player feedback. Please review Tybur's responses starting here

• Physical Mastery and Tactical Mastery values on Legendary Item Titles are being increased across all tiers.
• Scrolls of Empowerment from the Rangers of Ithilien Quartermaster now cap at max-tier 35.
• Scrolls of Empowerment from the Dol Amroth Quartermaster now cap at max-tier 35.
• Scrolls of Empowerment from Narnaith in Minas Tirith now Cap at max-tier 44.
• The quest "March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily)" now awards 2 Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier cap of 83.
• The quest "The War Effort: Threats to the Battlefield" now awards 3 Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier cap of 83.
• Note: These changes will not affect items that are already in the player's possession, be they in the inventory, vault storage, housing storage, mail, or elsewhere.
• Tradeable, unbound reputation granting tokens now have appropriate region quests gating their usage.
• Small Reputation Accelerator Tomes offered on Skirmish Vendors now Bind to character on acquire and have a Max Usage Level of 100.

Monster Play:

• General ratings for creeps toned down slightly to bring them more in line with the average Freep player until we can address Freep gearing in the Moors.

Misc:

• Patching via the launcher should go much faster, especially when you haven't played in a long time.
• Client performance update related to targeting that hopefully will be helpful during raids.

[Laerthan1997]

Bullroarer is OPEN

Server Closing Time: Thursday, 01/14 5:00 PM EST (Subject to change)

• Report A Bug
• Character copy is AVAILABLE. This can be accessed through the 'Transfer' button on the Bullroarer Launcher.
• Guide to the Eyes and Guard Tavern

Performance Improvements and Monster Play Balance
Bullroarer is available for an early look at some performance changes intended to help during raids, as well as some Monster Play balance tweaks.

Release Notes:
Quests:

• Elderslade: March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily) now properly specifies that only completing 4 of the 7 quests is required to advance it.
• Elderslade: March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily) no longer auto-advances upon accepting the quest after completing it for the first time.

Items:

• Physical Mastery and Tactical Mastery values on Legendary Item Titles are being increased across all tiers.
• Scrolls of Empowerment from the Rangers of Ithilien Quartermaster now cap at max-tier 35.
• Scrolls of Empowerment from the Dol Amroth Quartermaster now cap at max-tier 35.
• Scrolls of Empowerment from Narnaith in Minas Tirith now Cap at max-tier 44.
• The quest "March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily)" now awards 2 Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier cap of 83.
• The quest "The War Effort: Threats to the Battlefield" now awards 3 Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier cap of 83.
• Note: These changes will not affect items that are already in the player's possession, be they in the inventory, vault storage, housing storage, mail, or elsewhere.
• Tradeable, unbound reputation granting tokens now have appropriate region quests gating their usage.
• Small Reputation Accelerator Tomes offered on Skirmish Vendors now Bind to character on acquire and have a Max Usage Level of 100.

Monster Play:

• General ratings for creeps toned down slightly to bring them more in line with the average Freep player until we can address Freep gearing in the Moors.

Misc:

• Patching via the launcher should go much faster, especially when you haven't played in a long time.
• Client performance update related to targeting that hopefully will be helpful during raids.

Hey so you are level-locking the skirmish camp rep accelarators ? Nice way to force people to purchase them from the store. You'll not get me, I'll purchase a lot of them so I have all I need for the foreseeable future, but congrats on being a ####ty company always searching for ways to milk as much money as you want from your customers.

[kudurru1]

1. That leaves a gap from tier 74 to current max tier 83 if you do not own the latest content.

2. The only source of reputation accelerators for levels 100 - 130 is the store.

Am I missing something here?

[HolyDuckTape]

Where are the guardian update notes? It's the most useless and dead class in the game.

[Freenen]

Please give us Vendors for the new raid jewellery, at least let us change tank items into dps itmes and vice versa maybe for T4 Completion. Not needed but a nice to have would be if we could just get the jewellery with motes for the T5 completion as it was done with any other previous raids no matter how expensive it actually is.

[Aeganir]

Please give us Vendors for the new raid jewellery, at least let us change tank items into dps itmes and vice versa maybe for T4 Completion. Not needed but a nice to have would be if we could just get the jewellery with motes for the T5 completion as it was done with any other previous raids no matter how expensive it actually is.

+1
It is a joke that we get 10 tank pieces per dps/heal piece. Please give us barters like every other raid, endless grind is just boring.

Additionally, please nerf creep B/P/E and resistance. It is just to much at the moment. Rest is balanced in my opinion. Having 360k finesse on champ and still get 40% partial B/P/E on Brutal Strikes "attacks are difficult to parry or evade" (a partial b/p/e hit does like 1-2k dmg, lol) is a bit frustrating. Why can wargs even BLOCK?

[Oddessia]

Erm...I'm confused.

So currently I can do MT dailies and barter at the burgsmans etc barterer for an average of 7 SOEs per day per toon. I have 4 alts at cap, so roughly 28 SOEs per day. (This takes 2 hours of gameplay, I then funnel to 1 character to use on their 4 LIs each...so if youre saying 28ish per day is a lot, this is still a many-months grind)

Am I correct in reading Cord's post saying, "Certain vendors in Gondor will no longer carry Anfalas scrolls and will instead carry scrolls within that level of content..." meaning those MT barters will now have tier caps on their SOEs? If so, you're removing literally the easiest and fastest way to get through a ridiculous grind??

What about all those players that haven't purchased the most recent expansion? They what....just cant level their LIs anymore? REALLY?!

"To improve reliance on continually grinding lower level content." If that were true then why not just add the end-game things you added and leave the rest alone!? Let us CHOOSE. Why bar us from engaging with lower content? Instead now we're being forced to rely on end-game grind...for way less scrolls. I'm baffled. Like actually. Have I missed something? Am I misreading something? (Please tell me I am.) If anyone else understands this differently than me, please enlighten me.

You guys are well aware of how insane the SOE grind is. We've been asking for revamps now for years. You've been telling us now for a long time (Producers letter anyone!? TWICE!?) that an LI revamp was coming. And yet now I'm reading that its suddenly even MORE grindy and longer and harder to get SOEs?? I can't actually believe this is a thing....I MUST be misunderstanding. *Sniffs coffee to make sure its not laced.

The only thing I can think of for logical reasoning behind this is if perhaps a very near future change to LI system is coming, in which the required SOE amount is slashed by 50%. Or a change to SOEs where you get a 3 rank increase instead of 1.

Screw it, I need a drink.

-Ods

[Aeroniel]

So currently I can do MT dailies and barter at the burgsmans etc barterer for an average of 7 SOEs per day per toon. I have 4 alts at cap, so roughly 28 SOEs per day. (This takes 2 hours of gameplay, I then funnel to 1 character to use on their 4 LIs each...so if youre saying 28ish per day is a lot, this is still a many-months grind)

Am I correct in reading Cord's post saying, "Certain vendors in Gondor will no longer carry Anfalas scrolls and will instead carry scrolls within that level of content..." meaning those MT barters will now have tier caps on their SOEs? If so, you're removing literally the easiest and fastest way to get through a ridiculous grind??

"To improve reliance on continually grinding lower level content." If that were true then why not just add the end-game things you added and leave the rest alone!? Let us CHOOSE. Why bar us from engaging with lower content? Instead now we're being forced to rely on end-game grind...for way less scrolls.

You guys are well aware of how insane the SOE grind is. We've been asking for revamps now for years. You've been telling us now for a long time (Producers letter anyone!? TWICE!?) that an LI revamp was coming. And yet now I'm reading that its suddenly even MORE grindy and longer and harder to get SOEs??

The only thing I can think of for logical reasoning behind this is if perhaps a very near future change to LI system is coming, in which the required SOE amount is slashed by 50%. Or a change to SOEs where you get a 3 rank increase instead of 1.

-Ods

Ods hits it on the head! Making the LI system way more grindy with less choice -- to what end?? Please, please have a good hard re-think about these changes...and make the right decision for the sanity of your player base!

[Tullkas]

Where are the guardian update notes? It's the most useless and dead class in the game.

Agree 100% ALL Guards can do is Tank (or use to) Please address ASAP and RK Damage Inc. AS Well They are useless for DPS in higher Tier Content

[Hallandil]

1. That leaves a gap from tier 74 to current max tier 83 if you do not own the latest content.

2. The only source of reputation accelerators for levels 100 - 130 is the store.

Am I missing something here?

Just the continued efforts of a systems designer for LOTRO that fails to fundamentaly undestand basic aspects of the game.

[Omen_Kaizer]

1. That leaves a gap from tier 74 to current max tier 83 if you do not own the latest content.

2. The only source of reputation accelerators for levels 100 - 130 is the store.

Am I missing something here?

Yes, you're missing throne and skirmish camp and MM 3mans.

[Hallandil]

Yes, you're missing throne and skirmish camp and MM 3mans.

So... it still leaves farming Throne. Doesn't that entire defeat the ####ing point #1 in Cordovan's announcement? lol

[kudurru1]

Yes, you're missing throne and skirmish camp and MM 3mans.

Thanks for pointing that out. So uncapped scrolls would be(without 3peaks):

BBs - 90 Stars of Merit per scroll
RTs - 10 Gift-giver's Brands
Skirm camp - 2,523 Marks and 289 Medallions
Relic-master - 42,660 Shards
Instance drops
Throne - 4 Ancient Ithil-coin
Osgiliath/Pellenor T2 - 3 Morgul Crests

The only feasible explanation for the absurd caps on scrolls that I can think of, has to be the Legendary Servers.
And those servers should have zero impact on life ones.

[LotroVidz]

The only feasible explanation for the absurd caps on scrolls that I can think of, has to be the Legendary Servers.
And those servers should have zero impact on life ones.

No, it has nothing to do with Legendary servers.. The legacies are capped depending on character level now, so this would not have been needed for LS in the first place. This is because they want to force players into the store.

[Braer]

1. That leaves a gap from tier 74 to current max tier 83 if you do not own the latest content.

2. The only source of reputation accelerators for levels 100 - 130 is the store.

Am I missing something here?

1. As these changes are once again designed to further impact the "new" player they'll have to choose store gouging or AH price gouging for their scrolls. Hope they'll have the sense to buy MC rather than go for the offensive scroll prices that are more expensive than MC even when on sale.

2. Chat will be full of calls for Pony/Seals this week. Sounds like a nefarious trade.

Can't decide if I should put in a line break or two before that last sentence...

The one good thing about reaching level 100 was that you just had just one Crystal and one Empowerment to deal with; Anfalas. Several more levels of confusion can't please anyone that plays the game. Have they not had enough of the spurious reps to harvest our accelerator already. It positively encourages us to delay content purchase, enough of the "Grief" development methodology already!


Anyway, it's time to liquidate.

[wulgarw]

Soooo, Let me get this straight the player base is having the worst grinds in the game made more difficult. Players that have been around for years and years are now going to have to grind like a newbie to get the worst parts of the game completed to play end game content.

Pure Genius shaking my head.

The scrolls available in the older content are going to be capped to where someone who valars at toon cant even use them. Looks like you found a way to kill the sale of Valar's. Up until now we have bought the ultimate fan packs of expansions. If this grind goes into place we would only consider the bargain basement version. This move will only cost you money in sales.

I can even see the player base boycotting buying the scrolls or reputation items from your store.

IF your goal is to drive away your loyal player base then you are on the right path otherwise this move looks like one executed by a Fool of a Took

[Laurelinarien]

IF your goal is to drive away your loyal player base then you are on the right path otherwise this move looks like one executed by a Fool of a Took

Indeed.. my sub is up for renewal soon too.. I usually pay yearly.. but I think I'm just gonna leave the Legendary Servers for good, prolly stop raiding on Gladden beyond my main toons, and just use LOTRO for my beloved Decoration contests & House tours.

Yup... endgame fluff for me... and finding another MMO to actually play.

[ItaOperor]

IF your goal is to drive away your loyal player base then you are on the right path otherwise this move looks like one executed by a Fool of a Took

Indeed a Dev should know better! There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of men for this treachery.

(ok it's a bit of an exaggeration but your Fool of a Took line made me smile and think of this so I thought I'd share )

[Lillira_of_Gladden]

1. That leaves a gap from tier 74 to current max tier 83 if you do not own the latest content.

2. The only source of reputation accelerators for levels 100 - 130 is the store.

Am I missing something here?

I guess the intent to hobble VIP players who having been waiting to buy three peaks when it reaches the LP store?

Sad.

Also severely disincentives anyone from using a Valar ever again, since your new level will block you from using what you will need to have a functional LI for endgame.

[Hallandil]

Bullroarer is OPEN

Server Closing Time: Thursday, 01/14 5:00 PM EST (Subject to change)

• Report A Bug
• Character copy is AVAILABLE. This can be accessed through the 'Transfer' button on the Bullroarer Launcher.
• Guide to the Eyes and Guard Tavern

Performance Improvements and Monster Play Balance
Bullroarer is available for an early look at some performance changes intended to help during raids, as well as some Monster Play balance tweaks.

Release Notes:
Quests:

• Elderslade: March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily) now properly specifies that only completing 4 of the 7 quests is required to advance it.
• Elderslade: March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily) no longer auto-advances upon accepting the quest after completing it for the first time.

Items:

• Physical Mastery and Tactical Mastery values on Legendary Item Titles are being increased across all tiers.
  
• Scrolls of Empowerment from the Rangers of Ithilien Quartermaster now cap at max-tier 40.
  
• Scrolls of Empowerment from the Dol Amroth Quartermaster now cap at max-tier 40.
  
• Scrolls of Empowerment from Narnaith in Minas Tirith now Cap at max-tier 44.
  
• Added Scrolls of Empowerment to the Pelargir Quartermaster in Pelargir, Linhir, Ethring and Ost-Angelbed with a Cap at max-tier 44.
  
• Added Scrolls of Empowerment to the Herbalist (Host of the West) NPCs found in March of the King for 100 crimson/verdant/umber phials with Cap at max-tier 54.
  
• Scrolls of Empowerment from the Master of Battle Lore (Pelenor Rewards Vendor) now cap at max-tier 54.
  
• Following the Completion of Minas Tirith After-Battle Quest "Hands of a Healer" - Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier 54 may be bartered for Minas Tirith Silver Pieces.
• The quest "March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily)" now awards 2 Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier cap of 83.
• The quest "The War Effort: Threats to the Battlefield" now awards 3 Scrolls of Empowerment with a max-tier cap of 83.
• Note: These changes will not affect items that are already in the player's possession, be they in the inventory, vault storage, housing storage, mail, or elsewhere.
• Tradeable, unbound reputation granting tokens now have appropriate region quests gating their usage.
• REDACTED: Small Reputation Accelerator Tomes offered on Skirmish Vendors now Bind to character on acquire.
• Large Reputation Accelerator Tomes are now offered on Skirmish Vendors that now Bind to character on acquire for 1000 Marks and 50 Medallions.

Monster Play:

• General ratings for creeps toned down slightly to bring them more in line with the average Freep player until we can address Freep gearing in the Moors.

Misc:

• Patching via the launcher should go much faster, especially when you haven't played in a long time.
• Client performance update related to targeting that hopefully will be helpful during raids.

Fixed it for you.

And if you're going to blatantly copy suggestions that have posted to the forums by myself and others. At least implement them correctly.

[HolyDuckTape]

To improve relevant level-appropriate rewards and reduce reliance on continuously grinding lower level content, we will be making the following changes to barter and quest acquisition of Scrolls of Empowerment in Update 28.3, currently expected to be released next week.

We grind lower level content cause the upper level content does not provide us with any scrolls at all, wow u just completed t1, t2, t3, t4, and t5 amdan dammul? Nice, here are a grand total of 3 scrolls.... So now this means that a huge source of scrolls will disapear with nothing in return for it..... Really bad.

1. We are adding additional Scrolls of Empowerment rewards to the War of Three Peaks endgame. Completing the daily repeatable quest March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily) and the weekly roving threat quest The War Effort: Threats to the Battlefield will now award Scrolls of Empowerment. These scrolls will work up through tier 83 on an imbued legacy, or on any legacy on a non-imbued legendary item.

Wow endgame dailies and weeklies will give scrolls now that only work up untill level 83 not even maxing our LI....

2. Certain vendors in Gondor will no longer carry Anfalas Scrolls of Empowerment, and instead will let you barter for Scrolls of Empowerment with tier limits appropriate to the level of that content.

It has already been shown that the level of these scrolls are lower than the base level imbued LI's start with aka they cannot even be used to begin with lol.

Additionally, we will be making a change to the Skirmish barter Small Reputation Accelerator Tomes. Any tomes acquired after 28.3 release will have a maximum usage level of 100 and be bound to character. Existing tomes that you have already received will remain unchanged.

What in the world is this for? Nice way to push people to pay for rep tomes for lv 101+.


Honestly these changes are absolutely horrible and should not happen at all. It should be reverted as this is just crazy.

[Tartash]

the rep tome change is a very bad idea

[aljbookworm]

What in the world is with scrolls of empowerment lower level than the min imbued legendary item legacies which are level 46 by default??? Are these dol amroth scrolls only meant for unimbued items, well then mark them as such, do not fake like it can be used by imbued items. Doesn't make any sense because that is when imbued items kick in and people need those scrolls to start leveling up. Same with the the minas tirith dailies ones. Can't use a capped lvl 44 item on an li that starts at a higher legacy tier.
If SSG wants to cap the legacy levels because of the legendary server, this is not the place to do it, and a better way needs to be found which does not unfairly punish players for where they choose to do content.
Feels like a push to get people to get the missions content as a way to get their scrolls instead and means many people have no way to finally cap their weapons if they do not do raiding or instances. And yes, they don't need to cap if they don't raid but that still doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to.
Do better SSG.

[Laurelinarien]

If SSG wants to cap the legacy levels because of the legendary server, this is not the place to do it, and a better way needs to be found which does not unfairly punish players for where they choose to do content.

This is sadly a spill over from the requested changes to the LS LI imbuement, since leaving them cap-less over there would've been a mistake, but they did say it would NOT be transferred over to the regular servers. So they are again going back on their word.

LIs on the normal servers start at a higher tier due to the "free" unlocks received from having a higher lvl cap. It's not about the scroll but about the unlocked content. So why impact the normal servers like this? Not to mention this is a nightmare to remember and a nightmare for our already collapsed storage.

On the Rep Tomes notes: god, just no. I will not go to the store for this. Fluff, not gameplay. You sell them as a convenience to ppl who don't group. Leave the skirmish camp alone, there are already very little reasons to play skirmishes in the normal servers.

And stop going back on your word.

Edit: for those who don't know - nowadays on the LS we have unlocked up to Minas Tirith (Pre-Battle) and our LIs are tier 44 capped (we can use any scrolls on them, no matter the source) but they start out in their lower 30s - so we were "given" a grind of 12-14 SoEs per legacy. The cap has been implemented already without requiring changes to the Anfalas Scrolls.. so WHY do this now? Talk about creating a breach between your players...

[Arkanur]

One thing I don't understand is why someone would suggest adding tier caps on Scrolls of Empowerment obtained through "low"-level quests and dailies. I mean, okay, there are other ways of getting these. Marks. Stars of Merit. Featured instances. Morgul Crests (I don't know if they even drop anymore or if it's at level cap). Roving Threats. Ancient Ithil-coins. Commendations. Motes or Embers. But you still have to play the game one way or another to get them and you still have a tremendous amount of these scrolls to get.

For new players, this is horribly confusing ("Should I use these first?" "Oh nooo I shouldn't have, now I have useless Scrolls"), and for older players, if they suddenly decide to get a new Imbued item at level cap, these easy ways disappear. For players who don't own all the content, if these three (or more, if you feel like you're not cutting down on enough scroll sources like suggested above) sources were their only or preferred ways of getting some Scrolls, they will have to buy the latest extension or something else to keep grinding more Scrolls, and less than they would have gotten if the sources didn't get cut down.

If this is just so that the people on the Legendary servers have an artificial legacy cap because they can't get Scrolls for higher tiers, just do a special cap for Legendary servers and leave the other players out of it. If players wish to do another LI grind on the Legendary servers, let them have their fun, but don't punish all of the other players.

And while adding scrolls on endgame dailies is welcome, why not do it when the extension launched? In my personal experience, I tend to do the dailies right at the start, keep going for a few weeks or a couple months, then do them irregularly or not at all if I have everything they give or got deeds done or whatever. I'm not really sure many players do them actively from day one until the next extension launches.

And about the change for the reputation scrolls, why? What's the reason behind it except make us play longer or pay scrolls from the store? The longest reputations are almost all located just after level 100 except the Crafting Guilds if you level them quick enough.

You've been making things easier on a lot of things at lower levels over the years, why are you making things more difficult on one of the worst grinds of the game when everyone is asking for the opposite?