Bullroarer Update 34 - Beta #3 - CLOSED

[LordOfTheSquids]

Bullroarer is CLOSED

Server Opening Time: Tuesday, 11/08 ~7:45PM ET (time subject to change!)
Server Closing Time: Thursday, 11/10 ~5:00 PM ET

• Report A Bug
• Guide to the Eyes and Guard Tavern
• Character Copy is AVAILABLE. This can be accessed through the 'Transfer' button on any LOTRO Launcher.
• NOTE: The player database was wiped at the beginning of Beta on 10/19.
• NOTE: While Berthadan, the Legendary Server Difficulty NPC, is available on Bullroarer, we ask that he only be used to set copied characters from Shadowfax and Treebeard back to Normal Difficulty.

Update 34
This preview focuses on the following features:

Delvings:

Delvings are a new mechanic debuting with Before the Shadow's Missions. When you complete your first new Before the Shadow Mission you'll get a special Delving gem called an Unnerving Zircon, which sets you on your path to additional challenge for additional reward! Check your inventory for a quest starting item that will send you toward Delvings. You can find Before the Shadow Mission NPCs at the Camp in Andrath, Herne, Clegur, and Lhan Garan. NOTE: Characters must be level 140 in order to access the Delving system. Read more in our guide on LOTRO.com! There is also more information in the release notes. Please provide us with feedback about your experience in this thread in the Bullroarer forums.

Guide: https://www.lotro.com/guides/lotro-guide-to-delvings-en

New Starter Instance:

A new starter instance is available to newly-created characters on Bullroarer! Create a character, Select 'Use Before the Shadow', and run the new Instance: Mossward, the Border Village. Feedback thread here!

New Skirmish:

A new skirmish is now available called "Doom of Caras Gelebren"! This Skirmish is available to players level 20-140, and can be played Solo, Dui, Small Fellowship, Fellowship, or Raid. The new Skirmish is accessible via the Instance Join panel once you have completed the general Skirmish Tutorial. To run the Skirmish Tutorial visit any of the Skirmish Captains in Skirmish Camps located throughout Middle-earth. Get us your feedback here!

NOTE: All class trait trees have been reset for Update 34. Please re-spend your class trait points and save your preferred specs.

Release Notes - Beta #3:

New release notes are in violet.

Delvings:

• Once you have a valid delving gemstone trophy, access a Delving Stone within missions part of the Before the Shadow expansion and a malice will spread through the mission if you so choose. The malice will increase the overall difficulty of the mission and reward you with a new bartering currency that can be exchanged for armor, jewelry and other items that are roughly on par with Raid level rewards.
• Of course, earning enough of this currency will take time or will take greater risk. Every completed mission you undertake while delving rewards you with a new Delving Gemstone that further increases the difficulty. Risk it all or trade these gemstones in to return to the previous level of difficulty. The choice is yours.
• Delvings are a new type of quest that currently are used to enhance the difficulty in the mission system. With this increased difficulty come greater rewards and each time that you complete a difficulty tier you can then attempt the next difficulty tier.
• Delvings have a max count of ten per day.
• Choosing one delving quest locks out access to any of the delving quests until the first is completed or failed.
• Delvings will fail when leaving the instance at any point before the mission is complete, not just dying.
• Descriptions on the cracked gems are properly referring to them as cracked and likely worthless, though you can barter them for a new delving gem with your cracked gem.
• The effects applied in Delvings will rotate so that there is a different set of effects and skills applied on a rotating basis.
• Monsters in Delvings may display the ability to sense your presence at a greater distance and may call friends from a greater distance when they are engaged.
• Dread now spreads through any area that is affected by a malice greater than tier 2.
• All Delvings should now share with Fellowship members appropriately.
• All Delving initial quest can now be turned into any mission giver found in the Beyond the Shadow expansion.
• The Delving Zircon is no longer indestructible and unsellable.
• Delving quests should no longer increment against your daily task limit and vice versa.
• Delvings: The tier 9 version of Sauron's Defence is now a removable corruption. The effect is reduced significantly in the amount of damage that is reflected back to the player to a 15% base with a 50% variant. When the effect is remove either through corruption removal or defeat, the effect is applied to all nearby enemies and stacks accordingly.
• The Damaging Clouds, Sapper Bombs and Slime Puddles Malices all target the player now. On the Poison Puddles Malices, the monster should target itself.
• All delving quests now reward IAXP on completion.
• Delving gear, at min level 140, will be item level 470.
• Changes made to Delving Package Rewards:
  - Raised percentage for some drop items, including essence selection boxes.
  - Lowered percentage drop chances on some less desired rewards.
  - Raised number of common crafting material rewards.
  - Motes and Figments now drop the correct amount (150).
  - Added +5 Hope Tokens to the drop pool.
• Armour from Delvings has had its disenchant value increased. Uncommon Delving armour now disenchants for 5 Delving Writs, Rare for 10 and Incomparable for 15 Delving Writs.
• Added the Travel to Cardolan (Herne) and Travel to Swanfleet (Lhan Garan) travel skills to the delving barter.
• Added Level 140 uncommon essence boxes to the delving barter.

Skirmishes:

• Doom of Caras Gelebren is a new Defensive Skirmish available to players levels 20-140, featuring a suite of new Deeds and unique rewards!
  - Doom of Caras Gelebren is playable Solo or in a Duo, Small Fellowship, Fellowship, or Raid.
  - Once you have completed the Skirmish Tutorial, Doom of Caras Gelebren will be accessible via the Instance Join panel, but it is recommended that you seek out Tarandir at the ruins of Caras Gelebren in Swanfleet before playing this Skirmish.
• Hooked Up Cosmetic Rewards for the Caras Gelebren skirmish.

Character Creation:

• You may now select the new First Time User Experience from Before The Shadow in character creation.
• An option has been added to character creation to allow the user to select their preferred tutorial experience. This UI replaces the checkbox that allowed the user to skip the tutorial - this has been added as an option in the new UI along with the original Tutorial and the new Mossward experience.
• Character list re-ordered slightly so that Burglars are again the default class creation option for most races. Having Brawler alphabetically be the default for most races unintentionally placed a premium character as default class which was unintended.
• Randomly generated Stout-axe names will now be substantially different from randomly generated Dwarf names.
• "Beorn" Prefix and Suffix no longer used for Dwarves and Stout-axe Dwarves.
• Original Gear of each class except Brawlers has had their scaling changed to their correct values, lowering their overall DPS.
• Brawlers will now begin the game with 'Cracked Battle-Gauntlets'.
• Stout-axe - Players who purchase Veteran Status will no longer have quests from the Stout-axe intro stuck on them.
• Players who begin their adventure in Swanfleet will now have their default home location set to Mossward.
• The Character Select music has changed; in addition to a new theme, if you spend enough time in Character Select you'll now be able to hear previous versions of the login music.

Classes:

• Class Trait Points have been moved off of quests and deeds, and are now granted directly by leveling up. You will start earning trait points at level 2. You will still have 98 total points at level 140, and will no longer be able to have more points than are usable.
• Vital over time effects will now display the interval (every X seconds) with a decimal point of precision in all tooltips. This corrects an issue with the Brawler Pummel skill tooltip which applies damage every 0.5 seconds.
• With the change in the way class trait points are acquired, all class trait trees have been reset for Update 34: Before the Shadow. Please re-spend your class trait points and save your preferred specs.

Beorning:

• Blue Line Beornings can now block while wielding a Spear as a primary weapon.
• Beornings now properly support dual wielding across all damaging skills.
• Skill & Effect Damage between Dual Wielding and 2H weapons is now much more similar for all skills.
• Beorning's skill 'Greater Bee Swarm' will now be affected by 'Beorning DoT Pulses & Swarm Debuff Duration' traceries.
• Bee Swarm could apply a 'blank' Critical Defense debuff on targets unless the appropriate tracery to enable the effect was equipped. This effect will no longer appear unless the tracery is active.
• Bee Swarm will now advance skill deeds while dual wielding.

Brawler:

• Pummel's channeled damage was not benefitting from the Dextrous Strike or Finishing Attack tracery bonuses. This has been fixed.
• Latent Light should properly benefit from trait buffs to Light Damage.
• Fixed descriptions for Gut Punch and Follow Me!
• Several skills had their attack type redefined as ranged so that they would not erroneously trigger movement when Movement Assist is enabled in game options. This should not change the base damage done by skills or what tracery bonuses they are affected by, but it will change the type of incoming damage mods and avoidances that are checked.
• Fixed typo in the description for the Brawler skill Get Serious.
• Brawler trait tooltip Well Fed now says "Incoming Healing from Cooked Food" instead of "Cooked Food Bonus".
• The Brawler trait tooltip for Hasten Powerful Techniques now lists the correct skills.
• The 'Share Innate Strength' skills for the Brawler now properly display its range and that it affects both Fellowship and Raid members within their tooltips.
• Brawler skill 'One for All' can now have its duration refreshed and tier boosted by another cast of 'One for All'.
• One for all will now only take fellowship members into account when determining number of allies nearby for the purposes of applying the proper tier effect. The tier effect however will still affect all fellowship and raid members within range. This change is now noted in the tooltip text.
• One for All now has the proper range of 15 for determining number of allies within range to affect the tier of the buff placed on players.
• Brawler Skill 'One for All' now only displays the range of its effect once in its tooltip.
• 'Greater Armour of the Erebor Custodian', 'Greater Armour of the Erebor Striker', 'Armour of the Hytbold Custodian' and 'Armour of the Hytbold Striker' now have the proper 4 piece armour set bonus.
• 'Armour of the Erebor Fighter' and 'Greater Armour of the Erebor Fighter' now have proper stats for a Brawler.
• Pummel no longer has an initial damage pulse prior to its first punch being thrown, but all following pulses are now more powerful to compensate. In most cases this should result in a small DPS increase. This prevents the case where pummel fails to animate if the initial pulse killed the target.
• Follow Me! should no longer incorrectly stack with other classes' move buffs.
• Brawler Hytbold set armour now has the correct icons and binding status.
• The Brawler "Weather Blows" skill has had its tooltip updated to say "Reduces all incoming damage to 35%" to avoid confusion. There is no change to the skill.
• Brawler's Throne of Dread Terror Advanced Pieces now have proper set bonuses for them.
• Sentient monsters from levels 1-49 now will have a chance to drop Brawler Battle-gauntlets when killed.
• Remmorchant Quartermaster - Added in the Profile for the Brawler for the armor that was missing, and slotted in the Brawler armour into the Heavy Tier Class profiles in the Motes exchange. Also fixed the order for the profiles so that things appeared alphabetically.
• Skirmish Camp vendors now sell brawler weapons.

Burglar:

• HIPS can no longer be used while in CDG stealth, or shared stealth. Previously HIPS would trigger, but fail and go on CD due to the nature of these other stealth effects.
• Several skills had their attack type redefined as ranged so that they would not erroneously trigger movement when Movement Assist is enabled in game options. This should not change the base damage done by skills or what tracery bonuses they are affected by, but it will change the type of incoming damage mods and avoidances that are checked.
• Burglar Word of Mastery 'Mischievous Glee Initial Healing' will now properly display the correct bonus to healing on the skill 'Mischievous Glee'.
• Burglar skills, traits and traceries now work as intended with Critical Multiplier bonuses.
• The Critical Response Skill Damage Tracery for Burglar now provides a damage boost to the Blind Bet skill.
• The "Clever Retort Damage and Healing" Tracery now accurately scales healing amounts when working with Clever Retort and Self Adulation.
• Updated the level-scaling of the heal value from Clever Retort when it consumes ‘Trick: Disable’.
• Many Burglar skills are once again 'Fast'.
• Red Gamble DoTs and Gambler's Advantage DoTs will overwrite themselves from the same burglar, but will stack with multiple burglars.
• When you consume gambles, you can consume another burglar's blue or green gamble, but only your own red gambles.
• Cunning Attack Bleeds will now correctly apply to targets even when another Cunning Attack Bleed is about to expire.
• Surprise Strike Positional Damage tracery now clearly states that its bonus applies regardless of whether or not you're stealthed.
• Coup de Grace now benefits from positional damage, and has had its base damage increased slightly.
• Purge Corruption now benefits from critical magnitude & positional bonuses.
• AoE Burglar skills are now a frontal arc AoE centered on your target, and will always hit your target.
• The Burglar Mounted Combat skill "Burglar's Treat" no longer requires a critical hit before use. The cooldown has been increased to 60 seconds.
• The Heal over Time effect from the Burglar trait set bonus 'Relish Battle' now shows up with the proper icon when active.
• Double-edged Strike is now earned at Level 2.
• Stealth effects have been unified, and all versions of stealth will now benefit from skill, trait, or item bonuses which improve 'Stealthed' skills or skills used 'from Stealth.'
• 'Sneak' and 'Hide in Plain Sight' will both toggle on your regular, out of combat stealth, which has a limitless duration. These should function the same as they did up to now.
• Coup de Grace, Cash Out, and Clever Retort can be used to enter 'Combat Stealth.' Combat Stealth is essentially the same as normal Stealth, except that it has a fixed duration of 3 seconds, and will not be broken when you take damage. It won't stop NPC enemies from targeting you, but it will also benefit from Combat Stealth movement speed, which is now a part of the 'Footpad' and 'Leafwalker' traits.
• Coup de Grace will cause you to enter Combat Stealth when used. It no longer places a target on your enemy or requires your target to die in the next few seconds; it simply causes you to enter Combat Stealth directly.
• Cash Out will cause you to enter Combat Stealth when it consumes a blue/debilitating gamble. Cashing out a blue gamble will still stun your target as it did before; the stealth is an additional effect.
• Clever Retort will cause you to enter Combat Stealth when it consumes 'Trick: Dust in the Eyes.' Like Cash Out, this is in addition to its previous/existing effect.
• The 'Feint' effect from 'Improved Feint Attack' now gives you all the same bonuses as Combat Stealth, except for the visual disappearance. Since Combat Stealth doesn't prevent NPC enemies from seeing or targeting you, this effect will be functionally identical to Combat Stealth in PvE situations, but should be much less frustrating for opponents in PvP who would otherwise lose their targeting every time you use Improved Feint Attack.
• The baseline movement speed penalty from Stealth has been removed. Any version of Stealth (without additional bonuses) will have normal, 100% movement speed.
• The potency of the tracery 'Sneak Movement Speed' has been reduced slightly, from 38.5% to 27.5% max, since your baseline stealthed movement speed is 10%-50% higher than it was before.
• 'Leafwalker' now also gives up to +20% Combat Stealth movement speed.
• 'Footpad' now has a max rank of 4, and at max rank gives +5 Stealth Level and +10% Combat Stealth movement speed.
• You only need to purchase 3 ranks of 'Footpad' in order to start spending points on 'Hidden Dagger.'
• 'Reveal Weakness' traits now each give an additional effect:
  - Reveal Weakness (blue) will give you +3% Mitigations.
  - Reveal Weakness (red) will give you +10% Melee Damage.
  - Reveal Weakness (yellow) will add -3% Physical Mitigation to your target.
• 'Focused Strikes' - This trait will turn Double-edged Strike and Flashing Blades into single target skills, dealing slightly more single-target damage at the cost of targets.
• Purge Corruption is now a part of the critical response chain. It has a 5 second cooldown, and will be unlocked by using Double-edged Strike. Purge Corruption is also faster to use, and deals less damage than it did previously. This will allow burglars to dispel corruption effects much more quickly and effectively on a single target, but at a significant cost to your personal DPS.
• Malicious Wound damage increased.
• Find Footing is no longer an Immediate skill.
• While the Reveal Weakness debuff can only affect a single monster once, multiple burglars can now toggle Reveal Weakness on the same monster simultaneously, so they can each gain the benefits of the unique effects from Reveal Weakness traits.
• Improved Feint Attack, Gamblers Advantage, and Aim should no longer cause skill delays or hitching when used in sequence with one another.
• Improved Feint Attack once again correctly allows the use of Trip in combat.
• Improved Feint Attack description updated so it no longer implies that it doesn't give you normal stealth combat benefits.
• Purge Corruption now correctly benefits from buffs to 'Critical Chain Skills'.
• Reduced damage of Purge Corruption considerably.
• Increased damage of Exposed Throat considerably.
• Single-target Double-edged Strike and Flashing Blade skills now correctly benefit from Single-Target Word of Power traceries on their first attack.
• Fixed an issue with a few skills not appropriately benefitting from Positional Damage.
• AoE versions of Flashing Blades and Double-edge Strike are now circular AoEs centered on your target, rather than an arc which was based on the target's position and orientation.
• Trick Removal skills will now properly advance Resistance is Futile.

Captain:

• Banner of Honour should now correctly reflect stat mods such as outgoing healing.
• - Note, there is a known issue where a pinned tooltip for Banner of Honour will *immediately* change to reflect changes to your stats. This is unusual for pinned tooltips, and may make it look like it isn't changing in before/after gear comparisons, even though it is.
• Advantageous Attack light damage effect now scales properly with weapon damage and is considerably more effective.

Champion:

• The Champion essence "Essence of the Resolute" will now reset Fight On skill cooldown with AOE melee attack skills as well as single target melee skills.
• When Horn of Champions applies a force taunt, it will now also copy threat, like most other tank taunt skills.
• Bracing Attack was erroneously able to critically hit, causing it to occasionally heal for much more than intended. This has been fixed.
• Added the Fight On Critical Chance Tracery for all rarities and levels to the Champion tracery profile.
• Champions now earn the skill 'Fear Nothing' at level 18.

Guardian:

• Fixed tooltip for break ranks to indicate that the effect itself now has a cooldown, rather than Shield-Taunt.
• Litany of Defiance will now properly prevent the building of fortification stacks when it is active as its tooltip stated.
• Updated the icon for the Guardian Tenderize Crit Rating buff.
• The tooltips for 'Charge' and 'Brutal Charge' now clearly state that the slow immunity effect only lasts for 10 seconds.
• Shield Taunt & Vexing Blow no longer advance Grim Challenge.
• The Guardian Tracery Guardian's Ward Duration & Block Chance is now listed in the Rivendell Word of Mastery Guardian barter profile for all levels and rarities.

Hunter:

• The Hunter's trait "Archer's Mark" now lists the correct debuff on target: "Incoming Damage Debuff" instead of "Critical Defense Debuff."
• Traceries will now affect Merciful shot even after the Swift Mercy Trait-Set Bonus is active.
• Distracting Shot skills will no longer advance Quick Shot deeds.
• Upshot will now advance ranged critical hit deeds.
• Swift Bow no longer advances Rapid Fire.

Lore-master:

• Fixed Inner Flame trait damage buff & description.
• Damage radius of improved Ring of Fire now matches its increased debuff and visual radius.
• Fixed the Molten Flames debuff icon showing Distracting Flames icon.
• Enfeeble now doubles Sign of Power: Command and Sign of Power: See All Ends skill percentages for the first 10 seconds.
• 'Critical Coordination' will now only be consumed by skills which heal or deal damage.
• 'Wizard's Fire' has been split into two skills: Wizard's Frost and Wizard's Fire.
• 'Wizard's Frost'
  - A brand new Lore-master character will now begin with Wizard's Frost instead of Wizard's Fire.
  - Wizard's Frost deals small damage and can consume a pet's 'Flanked' effect for a small heal. This is essentially the effect that Wizard's Fire had prior to this.
• 'Wizard's Fire'
  - Wizard's Fire is now earned by specializing in the 'Master of Nature's Fury' trait tree.
  - Wizard's Fire now deals a small amount of damage over time in addition to its initial damage.
  - Wizard's Fire can now consume a 'Flanked' effect to restore power and grant you a short buff to your damage over time effects.
• 'Eagle-friend' is now earned by specializing in the 'Keeper of Animals' trait tree.
• The trait 'Don't You Touch Him!' now has four ranks.
• Updated effects for the Cardolan Essence of Nature and Knowledge.
• Ring of Fire no longer advances Tactically Adept.

Minstrel:

• Changed the wording from saying '+% Anthem of War Damage (Physical)" to just '+% Anthem of War Damage' as the actual effect buffed both Physical and Tactical damage of the ability.
• The Minstrel trait Discordant Cries no longer refers to "Dissonance Cries and Calls" in the tooltip, but instead just "Cries and Calls".
• The Minstrel trait Discordant Ballads no longer increases all skill damage passively, it now only increases Ballads.
• The Minstrel trait Emboldening Finish now has a clearer tooltip for its buff effect.
• The armour set bonus 'Unmatched Prowess' from Remmorchant now correctly improves the Prowess Attack Speed buff, rather than worsening it.
• The Minstrel trait "Raise Our Spirits" tooltip and "Raise The Spirits" skill tooltip (with "Raise Our Spirits" traited) have been changed to be more clear and accurate following Minstrel changes.
• Minstrel skill 'Call to Ioreth' now properly displays as a 'Buff' skill type in the abilities tooltip.
• Updated the "Major Ballad - Resonance" skill tooltip to better state that anthems and codas are only unlocked by ballads while in combat.
• Entering Resonance stance will now correctly toggle off Timeless Echoes of Battle and Echoes of Battle
• Stance-skill inductions reduced significantly.
• Base Anthem duration increased from 30 to 45 seconds.
• Melody stance now increases Anthem durations by 15 seconds.
• Perfect Ending now advances Enduring Morale, Life-singer, Power of Song.

Rune-keeper:

• Changed description on the Rune-keeper capstone trait Our Fate Entwined to more accurately reflect abilities.

Warden:

• The 'Careful Step Duration and Movement Speed' tracery title has been updated to reflect the actual effects of the traceries, as well as the tooltip stat descriptions now displaying 'Careful Step Movement Speed'.
• The Warden Armor of Dúngarthadir 4 Piece set bonus now provides the correct 2 additional DoT pulses.
• The 'Recklessness' effect no longer transforms your gambit builder skills into their old "Reckless" variants.
• Gambit skills are now labeled with a visible skill type according to their first gambit builder.
• The skill 'Hampering Javelin' is now earned at level 2.
• Battle Memory versions of several skills will now properly advance skill deeds.

Monster Play:

• Tirith Rhaw, Lugazag, and Tol Ascarnen now have 36 defenders when controlled.
• All defenders in the Ettenmoors are significantly tougher.
• Old PvMP rank 10 gear updated to have slightly increased stats.
• Elf Camp and Orc Camp are now back to the opposite sides of the bridges of Tol Ascarnen.
• Forward camps are depopulated and access to the Ettendeep is closed.
• New emissaries from Angmar arrive in the Ettenmoors. The War-tyrant wants a word with all combatants sworn to Angmar. (This new introductory quest is part of the starter experience for the Monster Players, but available to all monster players.)
• A new quest in monster play given by the war-tyrant. Visit him and follow the story to earn Clan Blessings from the newly arrived emissaries to the Ettenmoors. These blessings provide a semi-permanent enhancement to your monster character giving them a boost in stats no longer available in corruptions.
• Tier 1 through Tier 3 armour for players now provides 3 Audacity per piece. When worn in conjunction with Jewelry the total yield for baseline gear is now 26 Audacity. For Tier 3, players can achieve the 36 cap.
• Defiler - Boon skills will no longer break allies out of stealth.
• Stalker - Flayer skill damage lowered slightly (Claws, Raking Claws)
• Stalker - Shadow skill damage increased slightly (Stealthed Pounce, Eye Rake, Shadow Fangs).
• New MP Blessings should no longer be removed on defeat.
• Angmar's forces in towers, keeps, and control point locations grow weaker. We overturned them too much - we want them roughly the same as their Free People counterparts.
• Orc Reaver - Devastating Strike morale threshold is once again 50%, rather than 40%.
• All Free People Armour earned through PvMP is no longer restricted to use only in the Ettenmoors (This no longer includes Jewellery).
• All map skills to locations in the Ettenmoors for Monster Players now share a 10m cooldown.
• The skill March! has been increased to a 45% increase to out-of-combat movement to help in getting across the Ettenmoors.
• Creep out of combat morale and power regen have been improved.
• Updated values of most creep traits which give statistical ratings.
• Updated corruption trait set bonuses.
• Updated stats awarded by blessings:
  - No blessings grant negative stat values.
  - In general, stats values from Blessings have increased.
• Floating objects at Orc Camp should no longer be floating.
• Warleader Purge, Reaver Resilience, Akulhun's Brand, Lainedhal's Insignia of the Captain-General, should now all apply their immunity effects after dispelling combatstate effects.
• Map to Gramsfoot Skills are back to a 1m timer.
• Flags at the bridges have been removed. They will return someday.
• Adjusted the health and power of one more defender on the creepside.
• Instant kill spots surrounding the swapping defeat circles is extended to account for increased skill ranges.
• Access to the Ettendeep removed from the Bases at Dar-gazag and Ost Ringdyr.

Quests & Instances:

• The quest tracker and quest guide now accommodate up to 10 quests (increased from 5).
• Quest in Misthallow - 'Who Would Live In Grazadh-gropor' can now be canceled.
• Quest in Strongholds of the North - 'Restoring the Three Kingdoms' can now be canceled.
• The Deed: "Eglan" has been renamed to "Kindred to the Eglain"
• The quests 'Warg-riders Loose in the Floodfells' and 'Culling the Hunters' can now be canceled.
• Goblin Drums in Moria - Drums of War now have a proper animation after use.
• The quest dialogue for instance 'Shakalush, The Stair Battle' now properly displays correct boss locations.
• In certain cases, defeating Crumgam in 'Instance - Honour and Treachery' too quickly could cause the instance to hang. This has been fixed and the instance should play out normally, allowing players to complete it.
• Frozen Wights in a particular area in instance 'Sari-surma' should no longer spawn over level.
• Far Anorien Quest: Treating with Scoundrels - Updated quest rewards to fit new LI system.
• The rewards for March on Gundabad: Additional Steps (Daily) are now all usable on level 130.
• Many Sessionplay quests throughout the Epic Story have been made optional. When you arrive at one of these quest steps, you can choose to complete the Sessionplay as normal, or you can interact with a 'Shortened Account' book located nearby. This will advance the quest beyond the Sessionplay, and you can resume the Epic Story. The following formerly-mandatory quests have been given this treatment:
  - Volume IV, Book 8, Chapter 1, 'No Other Way'
  - Volume IV, Book 9, Chapter 4, 'The Precious, At Last'
  
  • Also included
    
    • 'Daughter of Strife' (I.15.6)
    • 'We Cannot Get Out' (II.3.9)
    • 'The House of Isildur' (III.2.3)
    • 'At the Stone of Erech' (III.3.2)
    • 'The Wizard's Vale' (III.4.23)
    • 'The Point of Decision' (III.7.2)
    • 'The Breaking of the Fellowship' (III.7.8)
    • 'The Horn of Gondor' (III.7.8)
    • 'Two Hobbits' (III.7.8)
    • 'The Prisoner of Sammath Baul' (I.14.4)
    • 'The Fate of Laerdan' (I.14.6)
• Classic Instances and Epic Battles - While this has been the case in many instances for several years, the following skills are now uniformly barred from use in Classic Instances and Epic Battles:
  - Still As Death
  - Hobbit-silence
  - Desperate Flight
  - Hide in Plain Sight
  - Improved Hide in Plain Sight
• In addition, the following skill is now barred from use in Classic Instances and Epic Battles set to group sizes of 12 players and higher:
  - Roaring Challenge
• Adjusted the text in 'Instance: Zigilburk Returned'.
• New missions are now available to play and test.
• Into the Netting Glade has received a minor polish pass to have the interaction free the captives in the cocoons.
• Changed the name of The Silent Street instance effect "Feared" to "Terrorize" to prevent confusion and better communicate that this effect is not curable.
• The quest, 'A Little Extra Never Hurts -- Part 2' now grants the Riding Skill and A Little Extra Mount instead of a Battered Horn of Disruption. While 'A Little Extra Never Hurts -- Part 1' can only be completed once per world, A Little Extra Never Hurts -- Part 2 can now be completed on every new character in the Archet, Ered Luin, or Mossward starting character areas.
• A Little Extra Mount can also be acquired from Mithril Traders in Archet, Celondim, Little Delving, and Thorin's Gates.
• Clovengap - Quest "Reclaiming the Gap"- Angmarim will no longer increase the Warg kill count for this quest.
• On A Mission (Weekly) and On A Continuing Mission (Weekly) have been updated to advance when completing Missions in Before the Shadow. As a note, any weekly progress in these quests (for both their level-cap and non-level-cap variants) will be reset when Before the Shadow launches.
• Quest 'Weapons of the Wose' - A spear shaft has been moved out from under some branches, in order to make it more easily accessible.
• The flame dousing animation for the Quest 'Saving the Wilds' has been fixed.
• Fixed a typo in quest 'Angmarim in Skarashulg'.
• Many quest items involved with 'Before the Shadow' have been made usable while mounted.
• "Skills of an Adventurer - Burglar", this quest will now advance property when Gambler's Surprise Strike is used, as well as a standard Stealthed Surprise Strike.
• Mission: Bridge to Caranost - The barricades along the bridge now have destructible gates and are no longer ethereal to players.
• Mission: Steps of Caranost - The barricades along the steps up Caranost are no longer ethereal to players and proper destructible gates were added.
• Mission: Steps of Caranost - When aggroing a group of orcs you should no longer aggro all of the orcs in the mission space.
• Mission: Siege of Sirlond now spawns a manageable number of enemies that will move throughout the space and hunt you down if you try to hide.
• Missions: Swanfleet missions bestowed out of Clegur now appear closet to the mission giver.
• All Missions out of Herne, Clegur, and Andrath now have a final step of Finding the Scout.
• Adjusted the position for 'Scout the Gates of Tharbad' to not take you inside the city, which proved too dangerous for many people.
• Mission: Into the Pits - Warg matrons are now signatures.
• Mission: Patrol the Township - You now need to defeat the summoned mobs at each patrol location.
• Mission: Terrible Turtle Trouble - Ironback is no longer so iron like.
• Mission: Dol Ernil - blocked an area that could have been used to exploit mobs.
• Mission: Down on the Farm - The boss monster now summons in a wave fight that you must clear in order to complete the mission.
• Mission: Down on the Farm - Boss goblin is now stronger to fit a boss profile.
• Mission: Patrol the Town now requires you to defeat the mobs that appear at each patrol point to get the scout to arrive.
• Mission: Before they Bond - Proper kill count and objective is now displayed as you progress through the missions, additionally the persnickety scout will speak to you. They were reprimanded for being so snobbish.
• Mission: Jaws of Death - The dead can burn and the hobbit victims are no longer so scared that they will actively accept your assistance and saving. Silly Hobbits, these people are here to save you.
• Mission: Siege-breaking - All catapults are accounted for. They know burn, fall down, sink into the swamp and the siege towers do something similar. The scout also appears at the end of the mission so you can complete the delving option and leave the instance too.
• Mission: Haunting at Dol Ernil - Even though the supply of the dead does seem endless the spawns in the instance will no longer be. Endless, that is. There are still spawns.
• Mission: Siege of Sirlond should now correctly direct orcs to seek you out where you may hide. Stop being cheeky!
• Mission: Siege of Sirlond - Requires you to move toward the middle of the camp and the monsters should now patrol better around the space to engage the player.
• Mission: The Bridge of Caranost - Orcs should no longer "pile-up" and overwhelm the player. They should be staggered more reasonably.
• Mission: Jorthkyn and the Hounds now extends into the landblock where the last two Jorthkyn are stationed so that they can be accessed.
• Mission: Signs and Sigils Scouts now properly advance and complete Delvings and the mission.
• Mission: Bite the Hand when the scout spawns they will complete the delving and the mission properly.
• Resolved a bug where text from "The Silent One" was not displaying in German.
• Gundabad - Stonejaws - Fixed a typo for the quest item "exposed crystal".
• Mission: Bridge of Caranost overwhelming spawn was removed.
• Mission: Dangerous Deliveries Scout now completes the quest.
• Mission: The errant triggers that sometimes made the Dangerous Deliveries mission impossible to complete have been addressed.
• Missions: Siege of Sirlond, reduced the number of mobs in each wave and in order to get the scout to appear, you must defeat the bosses that appear at the end of the battle.
• Hooked Up Cosmetic Rewards for the Grey Fear instance.
• The 6-player instance "Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave" is available (FIRST TWO BOSSES ONLY!).

General:

• Reward Track Season 4 will be available.
• Auto attacks can no longer advance skill deeds. This is part of a much broader optimization regarding how skills interact with the quest system.
• Barbershop costs have been significantly decreased across all character levels.
• Ranged Extension tracery description now indicates that it works on skills with a base range of 15+.
• Reorganized all Word of Mastery class-specific tracery barter profiles so that they were by utility and role, rather than by rarity.
• Edhelharn Token recipe in the Ironfold, Minas Ithil and Gundbad tiers now require Polished Gems instead of raw Gems.
• Crafted minstrel instruments now display the correct ilevel on the critical version tooltip.
• Items that disenchant to Crafting Materials no longer show a string table error.
• Ithilharn tooltip now indicates it can be crafted into a polished gem.
• Added max level values to some older set bonuses, and reduced the max levels for set bonuses on low-level jewellery obtained in epic battles. Note, this only affects set bonuses, not the items themselves.
• Added max level values to trigger essences and class essences. Like gear set bonuses, essences for a given level range will no longer be effective once your character has exceeded that level range.
• Housing Items: The Singing Bowl of Tauralindalë once again plays music.
• Wedding Fireworks and Golden Wedding Fireworks now play sounds each time you use them.
• Tall variations of the Yondershire Decorative Walls can now be purchased from the Yonderwatch Quartermasters
• The Durin's Day ambient environment will no longer break when hooked during server-determined cloudy, rainy or stormy weather times.
• Level scaling Medium and Heavy Gloves of Fate have had their Will and Tactical Mastery stats replaced with stats relevant to Medium and Heavy armour wearers.
• Reputation Pets in The Angle are now able to be bartered after learning the skill.
• Added in new barter profiles to the Legendary Weapons/Class Items Barter NPC in Rivendell to have all the Barter Profiles condensed and separated by class.
• The Host of the West Herb-Master now has armor upgrades for the Brawler for Throne of Dread Terror raid tokens.
• The icon for "Oar in Hand" from the Farmers Faire has been updated.
• Some lower to mid-level gear have now had their stats updated.
• Word order on Smial Wall deco items is now consistent.
• Pitch on some Orc combat VO is back to what it previously was.
• Critters in Gundabad can no longer be attacked by Elves/High Elves.
• Several Yondershire interiors now have more appropriate ambiances for their environment.
• Red Aster Flower in Great River - Wailing Hills, previously stuck inside land has been moved and is now accessible.
• Vales of Anduin - Beorning Guards will no longer attack low level players.
• Cliffs and Rocks in the eastern pass from Trestlebridge now match each other
• Rock appearances from "Deep Beneath Gundabad" should no longer escape into the rest of the game world.
• Rocks surrounding Garsfeld should no longer take on different appearances.
• The Wild Spotted Donkey cosmetic pet is now listed and visible in the Collections Panel.
• Changed the name of "Virulent Disease" to be "Virulent Cloud", as well as gave the tooltip descriptive text saying "A miasma so potent it cannot be cured." to better convey the effects of the debuff to players.
• Removed the barter profile for "Relics - Ally Wilderfolk" from the Wilderfolk Rewards Quartermaster.
• Blood Craban and Formal Corgi pets now appear in Collections panel.
• Fixed a typo in the tooltip for Blazon of the Last Alliance in Mordor Besieged.
• The Stormhammer Goat mount now has the correct description in the Collections Panel.
• The Toffee Goat Kid pet now has the correct acquisition information in the Collections Panel.
• Malledhrim barter NPC in Mirkwood no longer duplicates categories and items.
• Krumpug, an elite goblin boss in Azanulbizar, no longer drops obsolete Legendary Item loot.
• The People of Wildermore Barter Vendor no longer has outdated LI Items and Profiles.
• Obsolete Relics no longer drop in The Abyss of Mordath Raid Chests.
• The War-steed skill granting item is now indestructible.
• The War-steed skill granting item now requires level 70 to consume.
• Obsolete Legendary Item rewards will no longer drop from Epic Battle reward packages.
• The Wildermore Rep Vendor no longer lists a Rune-Keeper only tracery.
• Changed Falling Injury effects to be less punishing. Changed Run Speed Debuff from 40% to 30%. Changed duration of effect from range of 6-60 seconds to 5-15 seconds.
• The Gloomingtarn Frame from the Zhelruka Clan barter list no longer can auto-consume endlessly.
• The Mount Appearance Item "Sea-Ward Legs" no long gives a string table error in its description.
• Changed "Steed of the Gundabad Vanquisher" to "Gundabad Vanquisher Steed". Steed now has proper description and will display in collections panel before you acquire it.
• The Woodcutter's Brotherhood Token now says that it also can award reputation points in the tooltip.
• The cosmetic item Ceremonial Great Club of the Delver now has the behavior, usage and text of a 2-handed weapon as intended.
• The Crystal Grim attack "Jagged Shards" is now fixed and does the correct amount of damage.
• Low to Mid-level Jewelry have had their stats updated.
• Low to Mid-level Shields have had their stats updated.
• Low to Mid-level Weapons have had their stats updated.
• The Gloomingtarn Frame from the Zhelruka Clan barter list is no longer auto-consumed.
• The Golden Cave-claw Mask item from the Buried Treasure Event has had its sell price updated to better reflect its rarity.
• Yule Festival cosmetic caparison, head and saddle appearances now cost the same for each barter vendor.
• The obsolete NPC Legendary Traders have been removed from Bree, Twenty-first Hall, Dolven-view and Lothlorien. They will no longer have map notes on the mini-map.
• The Normal Weapon Aura is now bound to account rather than character.
• The White Company Quartermaster no longer barters for obsolete relics, but instead for level appropriate traceries.
• The barterable fish earnable in the Farmers Faire Festival are not able to be affected by the Fateful Toolkit. These fish have had their category changed from "Festival" to "Misc" to better reflect their status. The fish still go in the barter wallet and can still be bartered for appropriate tokens.
• The Farmers Faire Festival Steed "Steed of Summer's Night" now appears in the collections panel whether you own it or not.
• The Volume III Giftbox no longer awards players with obsolete Flawed Symbols of Cerebrimbor. Instead it will award a level-appropriate incomparable Shattered Tracery Token.
• Fixed a typo in the barter token item "Golden Token of the Riddermark".
• Added some text to help prevent accidental early reforgings of a new Legendary Item.
• Housing: In the Erebor housing neighborhood, property guards summoned from housing decorations will stick around to visit and defend your property instead of immediately disappearing again.
• Fixed the icon for the Formidable Mace of the Wayfarer to show the correct weapon. Several other Spears and Daggers of the Wayfarer have been fixed in the same manner.
• Updated the description of the package items Enhancement Runes x3, Incomparable, Rare and Uncommon to denote that sometimes these packages drop an additional rune.
• The Sleeping Brown Cat offered through barter during Harvestmath Festival now has the same price on both barter profiles.
• Made changes to the German language UI for the reward track, it should now display the title and countdown timer labels correctly.
• FRENCH: Updates a typo on the War of Three Peaks map. It now reads. "Portes de Gundabad".
• Enemy power drains now scale in line with player power at higher levels.
• Race changing to high elf after having achieved Friend reputation with the Galadhrim will no longer prevent you from earning the Virtuous High Elf trait.
• Gundabad Craft Recipe Selection Box and Gundabad Heraldry Craft Selection Box rewards are now openable/selectable on Legendary Worlds. Please note, the recipes inside still create level 131 traceries.
• Fixed errors appearing in the tooltips for the Fall Festival War Steed Appearance: Tattered Feathers of the Harbinger and several other items.
• New Adventurer's lootbox gear, for level 140 characters, will now scale to item level 470 - 472.

PREVIEW ONLY:

• Rock's quest, "For Rohan", in the Eyes&Guard Tavern, now grants Golden Tokens of Riddermark in addition to the previous quest rewards.
• When choosing to start Before the Shadow in Mossward, the Veteran Status: Intro Skip offer will no longer appear in the LOTRO Store (as it did not function properly).

[Spilo]

Haven't tested much, but man is it nice to see some cool patch notes. The trait points rework, fall damage, champ essence cheese fixed, the LM Wizard's Fire rework- love all of this stuff!

[WeirdJedi]

There are a lot of good changes here. A few I do want to point out:

[*]Class Trait Points have been moved off of quests and deeds, and are now granted directly by leveling up. You will start earning trait points at level 2. You will still have 98 total points at level 140, and will no longer be able to have more points than are usable.
[*]The quest tracker and quest guide now accommodate up to 10 quests (increased from 5).
[*]Many Sessionplay quests throughout the Epic Story have been made optional. When you arrive at one of these quest steps, you can choose to complete the Sessionplay as normal, or you can interact with a 'Shortened Account' book located nearby. This will advance the quest beyond the Sessionplay, and you can resume the Epic Story. The following formerly-mandatory quests have been given this treatment:
- Volume IV, Book 8, Chapter 1, 'No Other Way'
- Volume IV, Book 9, Chapter 4, 'The Precious, At Last'
[*]The quest, 'A Little Extra Never Hurts -- Part 2' now grants the Riding Skill and A Little Extra Mount instead of a Battered Horn of Disruption. While 'A Little Extra Never Hurts -- Part 1' can only be completed once per world, A Little Extra Never Hurts -- Part 2 can now be completed on every new character in the Archet, Ered Luin, or Mossward starting character areas.
[*]Added max level values to some older set bonuses, and reduced the max levels for set bonuses on low-level jewellery obtained in epic battles. Note, this only affects set bonuses, not the items themselves.[*]Added max level values to trigger essences and class essences. Like gear set bonuses, essences for a given level range will no longer be effective once your character has exceeded that level range.

I wonder how 98 points are dispersed while you level. The math seems a bit off.

The "Shortened Account" option is great, but I guess there's only two points where it is available right now.

So that little quest you get at the start to spend lotro points in the store is now going to give everyone the Riding Skill... for free.

I guess adding max levels to the various bonuses and essences was inevitable.

[OldMadeOfLions]

The "Shortened Account" option is great, but I guess there's only two points where it is available right now.

I'm not sure why the notes didn't include the others I made, but it's more than just those two. It's also these:

'Daughter of Strife' (I.15.6)
'We Cannot Get Out' (II.3.9)
'The House of Isildur' (III.2.3)
'At the Stone of Erech' (III.3.2)
'The Wizard's Vale' (III.4.23)
'The Point of Decision' (III.7.2)
'The Breaking of the Fellowship' (III.7.8)
'The Horn of Gondor' (III.7.8)
'Two Hobbits' (III.7.8)

MoL

[Strider5548]

Great to see such extensive notes, thank you guys for all the work going into this update!

[*]Bracing Attack was erroneously able to critically hit, causing it to occasionally heal for much more than intended. This has been fixed.

Is this going to apply to all DPS classes and their self heals? Press Onward, Never Surrender, Blood Arrow, Fight On Heal, etc. etc.?

Notes indicate only bracing attack was changed, but it seems inconsistent if this is the only skill affected...unless this was specifically to target champ self heals for PvMP purposes?

[Galuhad]

Lore-master:

• 'Wizard's Fire' has been split into two skills: Wizard's Frost and Wizard's Fire.
• 'Wizard's Frost'
  - A brand new Lore-master character will now begin with Wizard's Frost instead of Wizard's Fire.
  - Wizard's Frost deals small damage and can consume a pet's 'Flanked' effect for a small heal. This is essentially the effect that Wizard's Fire had prior to this.
• 'Wizard's Fire'
  - Wizard's Fire is now earned by specializing in the 'Master of Nature's Fury' trait tree.
  - Wizard's Fire now deals a small amount of damage over time in addition to its initial damage.
  - Wizard's Fire can now consume a 'Flanked' effect to restore power and grant you a short buff to your damage over time effects.

Please change Wizard's Fire back to a morale boost on flank rather than a power boost. It's a pointless change that won't benefit the class.

[ScionofAngmar]

[*]Added max level values to trigger essences and class essences. Like gear set bonuses, essences for a given level range will no longer be effective once your character has exceeded that level range.

Can anyone report on whether this change impacts the War of the Three Peaks trigger essences? I've been working towards collecting motes to barter for one, but don't want to continue doing so if they can't be used at level 140 after this expansion goes live.

[l6rp24e57]

[*]Class Trait Points have been moved off of quests and deeds, and are now granted directly by leveling up. You will start earning trait points at level 2. You will still have 98 total points at level 140, and will no longer be able to have more points than are usable.
[*]With the change in the way class trait points are acquired, all class trait trees have been reset for Update 34: Before the Shadow. Please re-spend your class trait points and save your preferred specs.

Will this affect the previously-earned trait points? As in, i am afraid this will affect non-140 characters by lowering the amount of trait points available at a given level.

[rodin12]

The beta is closed, isn't it open today?

[deadwoodd]

The Champion essence "Essence of the Resolute" will now reset Fight On skill cooldown with AOE melee attack skills as well as single target melee skills.

Added max level values to trigger essences and class essences. Like gear set bonuses, essences for a given level range will no longer be effective once your character has exceeded that level range.

So does SSG really want to just delete level cap Champs at this point or what

[Cordovan]

The beta is closed, isn't it open today?

It will be, we are in the process of getting the world open.

[Eeshen]

Any chance for Brawler sound effect changes? Right now sounds like Im punching pillows not orcs !!

Also, please consider changes for Blue Captain, currently not wanted in raids.

Great changes on fall damage, trait points and quest tracker !!

[Quenton_1]

I'm not sure why the notes didn't include the others I made, but it's more than just those two.

Any chance you'll be including more in this list over time? A couple others that would be a good example for inclusion are 1.14.4 and 1.14.6 .

[Theozor]

I wonder how 98 points are dispersed while you level. The math seems a bit off.

Yeah, this part confused me too. If it's every 2 levels, that'd only be 70 points at lvl 140. Adding in every level ending in 5 would be another 14, but that's still only 84.

[OldMadeOfLions]

Any chance you'll be including more in this list over time? A couple others that would be a good example for inclusion are 1.14.4 and 1.14.6 .

Ask and ye shall receive!

[X] Sessionplay Detour created: 'The Prisoner of Sammath Baul' (I.14.4)
[X] Sessionplay Detour created: 'The Fate of Laerdan' (I.14.6)

Actually these were done with the other batch -- I just didn't realize I didn't include them in the list I just posted.

MoL

[Cordovan]

Yeah, this part confused me too. If it's every 2 levels, that'd only be 70 points at lvl 140. Adding in every level ending in 5 would be another 14, but that's still only 84.

In general, players now earn 1 point every level from 2-22, then 1 point every other level thereafter. Bonus points are given at level caps, and content releases that only raised the level cap by 5 distribute a point every level through that range.

[Cordovan]

Bullroarer is now open! Please do report your experiences to us either in this thread or in one of the preview threads set aside to discuss Delvings, the Skirmish, and the new starter Instance!

[istvana]

Hooray.

For more years than I can remember I have hated the system of mind-numbing grinding with class deeds that weren't actually used in normal combat to get class skill deeds needed for traits. That system has met its end at last. Hooray!

For more years than I can remember I have enjoyed the session plays but found it annoying to have to do them on every single character to advance important quest lines. That system will be either gone or mostly gone now. I applaud that change greatly, as well.

[Brethwyn_EU]

Where to download the Bullroarer client?

[Theozor]

In general, players now earn 1 point every level from 2-22, then 1 point every other level thereafter. Bonus points are given at level caps, and content releases that only raised the level cap by 5 distribute a point every level through that range.

Thanks for the explanation. That makes more sense for how it'll get to 98 points.

[Cordovan]

Where to download the Bullroarer client?

https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...DOWNLOAD-LINKS

[Theozor]

So far I'm seeing good things for my capped characters who had less than 98 trait points on live, as they all have 98 now. On the other hand, my characters in the 120's who had 98+ on live saw their totals drop significantly. I expected as much. Guess I know which characters I'll be playing in the next 3 weeks on live...

[gildhur]

• Class Trait Points have been moved off of quests and deeds, and are now granted directly by leveling up. You will start earning trait points at level 2. You will still have 98 total points at level 140, and will no longer be able to have more points than are usable.

• The quest tracker and quest guide now accommodate up to 10 quests (increased from 5).
• Many Sessionplay quests throughout the Epic Story have been made optional. When you arrive at one of these quest steps, you can choose to complete the Sessionplay as normal, or you can interact with a 'Shortened Account' book located nearby. This will advance the quest beyond the Sessionplay, and you can resume the Epic Story.

• Changed Falling Injury effects to be less punishing. Changed Run Speed Debuff from 40% to 30%. Changed duration of effect from range of 6-60 seconds to 5-15 seconds.

Quality of life updates FTMFW!

[l6rp24e57]

As i see the work to kill any incentive of playing outside current cap continues

Earlier levels get -10 trait points of what was on live. Cool SSG. If this releases, deleting the game.

[Elflord410]

I'm not sure why the notes didn't include the others I made, but it's more than just those two. It's also these:

'Daughter of Strife' (I.15.6)
'We Cannot Get Out' (II.3.9)
'The House of Isildur' (III.2.3)
'At the Stone of Erech' (III.3.2)
'The Wizard's Vale' (III.4.23)
'The Point of Decision' (III.7.2)
'The Breaking of the Fellowship' (III.7.8)
'The Horn of Gondor' (III.7.8)
'Two Hobbits' (III.7.8)

MoL

This is great news! If I had to grind through 'We Cannot Get Out' (II.3.9) one more time... lol Thank You MoL