Bullroarer Update 35 - Beta #4 - CLOSED

[LordOfTheSquids]

Bullroarer is CLOSED

Server Opening Time: Tuesday, 03/14 ~4:00 PM ET
Server Closing Time: Friday, 03/17 ~3:00 PM ET (subject to change)

• 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 for Beta #4 on 03/14.

Update 35 - The Return to Carn Dûm!
Welcome to our third preview of Update 35, Return to Carn Dûm, on the Bullroarer Public Preview server! This preview includes the following features and more:

• Damage and Mastery changes
• Power Revamp
• Warden class changes
• Captain class changes
  
  • Any characters copied to Bullroarer to test Class changes should respec their Trait trees
  • Skills may not autobestow as expected, even after a respec. Please visit your Class Trainer if you believe you are missing any skills.
  
  
• The Last Homely House in Rivendell has had a beautiful makeover! Please give it a visit!
• Delvings have been added to the School and Library at Tham Mirdain. You must loot the last chest in the instance to receive Delving rewards.

The Return to Carn Dûm! (Angmar Reborn Instances)

After suffering countless setbacks and defeats, the last remnants of the Iron Crown have returned to Carn Dûm, hoping to wield a lost artifact of the Witch-king of Angmar to win dominion over the Free Peoples of Middle-earth. Aid the Hill-men of the North and their allies in the fight to cast off the Iron Crown once and for all!

This Update features 3 new Instances and a new Raid for Level 140 Players set in a re-imagined Carn Dûm.

Swift Travel to Bail Avarc from Esteldin, Rivendell or Gath Forthnir to Discover the Angmar Reborn Instance Cluster

Angmar Reborn: Carn Dûm

• Small Fellowship:
  
  • Sant Lhoer, the Poison Gardens - (Available for tiers 1-3)
    
    • Please post feedback here: Sant Lhoer, the Poison Gardens
    • Known Issue: It is possible for Oganuin to become unattackable ('green bar' but remains hostile), leaving the instance incompletable. If this happens you must leave instance or allow defeat so the encounter resets.
      
      • This issue should be corrected.
    
    
  • Thaurisgar, the Vile Apothecary - (Available for tiers 1-3)
    
    • Please post feedback here: Thaurisgar, the Vile Apothecary
    • Known Issue: Please do not use the Mithril Travel offered as part of the quest 'Remedies for Maladies' as this is not teleporting to the proper location.
  
  
• Fellowship:
  
  • Sagroth, Lair of Vermin - (Available for tiers 1-3)
    
    • Please post feedback here: Sagroth, Lair of Vermin
  
  
• Raid:
  
  • Gwathrenost, the Witch-king's Citadel - (Available for tier 1)
  • Please post feedback here: Gwathrenost, the Witch-king's Citadel
  • Known Issue: This is very much a first look at this space and many of the mechanics and skills are in an unfinished state. The space is only accessible up to Boss 3. Please explore the space and get a general feel, and please post feedback about where things break down.

Players who wish to aid in the fight against the Iron Crown should travel to Bail Avarc in Angmar. Bail Avarc can be reached via the stable-masters at Esteldín, Gath Forthnír, and Rivendell. Bail Avarc can initially only be accessed via stable-master routes, but in the future, other options for Swift Travel will be available for barter from the Stewards of the Iron-home.

Please follow the links above to provide feedback about these changes!

Release Notes - Beta #4: New release notes are highlighted in violet.

• Additional release notes for deploy today (3/16) are in turquoise.

Beorning:

• The trait Desperate Shouts is changed as follows: Tier 1 reduces the cost to execute the next wrath consuming skill by 50%. Tier 2 reduces the cost to execute the next wrath consuming skill by 100%. This does not include Execute. This no longer only affects your healing skill; any skill that would normally consume wrath now consumes the Desperate Shout buff.
• Grimbeorn's Strength now appropriately increases the potency of Hearten when used on a marked ally.
• Leveling Roar no longer reverts to Takedown when dual wielding.

Brawler:

• The Brawler Mounted Combat skill Reckless Attack now references the Brawler, not the Beorning as the affected class.
• Low-strike setup now results in a substantial power restoration effect if it is used with a finisher. This is in addition to the existing vulnerability effect, if you spec for it.
• Slightly reduced power cost on some of Brawler's more expensive skills.
• Reduced power return from low strike finisher.
• Gut Punch debuff reduced from 20% to 10%.
• One For All now reduces Incoming Damage rather than increasing Mitigations. It reduces damage by 10% to 20% depending on how many allies are hit. This should make the skill stronger for players with low armour and mitigation values, and slightly weaker for players with very high mitigation values
• Innate Strength tracery potency has been returned to its original value. This tracery is a multiplicative effect on the Innate Strength buff, which had already been reduced in light of the overall Mastery changes.

Burglar:

• Fixed an issue causing stealth effect tooltips to incorrectly state that you received +100% critical chance for Surprise Strike and Cunning attack even if you had not earned the 'Improved Sneak' trait.
• Subtle Stab now restores Power on a critical hit.
• Double-edged Strike and Flashing Blades are now frontal AoEs with 5 base targets.
• Subtle Stab now restores power even without a critical hit.
• Slightly tweaked up costs on some of the burg's main rotation skills.
  
• Pelennor Ambusher's armor set bonus now grants +33% critical magnitude bonus while Aim is active, rather than automatic devastate. The old version didn't synergize well with the Burglar's other skills and bonuses.
• Double Edged Strike and Flashing Blades traited with Focused Strikes should now reset properly with Ready & Able. Previously they would sort of appear to reset, but not actually do so.

Captain: (See Captain Thread for previous changes!)

• Specializing in Lead the Charge once again correctly grants you the skill 'Shadow's Lament'.
• When specializing in the Hands of Healing, Valiant Strike should now correctly heal your Fellowship when you have no active Shield-brother.
• Grave Wound and Cutting Attack bleed potencies increased. Bleed pulse rate doubled from 2s > 1s.
• Cry of Fury will always apply its heal without needing to hit an enemy.
• Bleed damage has been improved, and you can stack multiples of the same bleed from the same captain on an enemy.
• Inspire (Blade-brother) now correctly applies its enhanced bonuses to your Blade-brother.
• Power costs have been adjusted.
• Captains who are Standing Alone can now be the recipients of another Captain's Blade-brother.
• Cutting Edge now correctly increases critical chance for all of your skills.
• Routing Cry now executes faster for all player types. (Note: this also affects some other class skills, such as Ignore the Pain).
• Blade of Elendil now gives your fellowship a buff rather than a chance for bonus damage.
• Blade of Elendil's damage reduction from the Leader of Men specialization now lasts for 4 seconds, rather than applying only to the next hit you receive.
• Noble Mark no longer applies a Damage over Time effect. It now debuffs your target's critical chance, and causes your target to apply a heal and buff to you or your allies when struck.
• Herald & Archer Damage has been adjusted at lower levels.
• Reform the Lines cooldown reduced to 2 minutes. Reform the Lines now heals the user.
• Valiant Strike no longer changes depending on whether or not you have an active Shield-brother.
• Words of Courage now heals more initially, and the duration of its HoT has been reduced.
• Strength in Numbers range increased to 15m.
• At the Fore base cooldown reduced to 3 minutes.
• The Exemplar effect now triggers on normal hits, rather than critical hits.
• Exemplar's heal is now 2% of your maximum Morale.
• Courageous Convocation's self-heal is now applied by Defensive Strike, rather than Muster Courage.
• The Battle-readied and Battle-hardened buffs now have more innate value, and gain less value from traceries.
• Noble Mark Tracery description updated.
• Noble Defence is now a multiplicative effect, so its damage reduction will not stack additively with other sources of Incoming Damage reduction.
• Reduced the potency of Master of War's Critical Chance buff from 50% to 25%.
• The damage buff from Blade-brother's Inspire has been reduced slightly.
• Cry of Fury targets and radius increased.
• Captain damage reduced slightly.
• Damage reduction from the In Harm's Way tracery increased slightly.
• Damage reduction from Noble Mark's 'Noble Battle' effect reduced.

Champion:

• The stun gained from Athletic now only applies when you use a damaging melee skill.
• Fervour no longer increases power regen in Red Line.
• Continuous Blood Rage now reduces power costs by [-75%->-20%], as the old reduction was too impactful.
• Blue Line Trait Second Wind moved to tier 1 for easy access to other lines, its upgrades were moved up to t4 to make those more expensive for non-tanks to access.
• Mighty Roar Now inflicts physical damage and has been scaled up considerably.
• Fixed Fervour tooltip display of skill damage bonus.
• Bracing Attack is now a ratings-based heal, which scales in potency with your character's level.
• Resolved skill execution delay after some skills.
• Swift Strike and Swift Blade now restore a small amount of Power when used.

Guardian:

• Brutal Charge now only stuns enemies when you use a damaging melee skill.
• Guardian's Ward now restores a small amount of power when used.
• Power costs have been reduced for most basic offensive skills.

Hunter:

• Archer's Mark will no longer overwrite the Master Trapper incoming damage debuff.
• Heart Seeker incoming healing debuff can no longer be cleansed.
• Several changes made mostly to redistribute their power recovery mechanics to make them more accessible across their build options.
• Endurance Stance now reduces power costs by [-10 -> -20%]
• Press Onward heal is no longer a % of max health, but scales with level instead.
• It should be significantly more powerful for hunters with a lower Max Health, not as powerful for those with very high max health.
• Press Onward no longer grants power, but instead grants a runspeed buff for 10s (similar to the hunter itemset bonus).
• Perseverance Trait increased: [2.5/5/7.5/10%] -> [10/15/20/25%].
• Burn Hot now increases power costs rather than reducing them.
• Bow of the Righteous trait has moved from the blue tree to the red tree (at a similar level).
• Bow of the Righteous now grants an active skill rather than a passive ability. It is now a 15s buff with a 90s cd that causes all hits with ranged attacks to restore a substantial amount of power.
• Red Trait 'Draw Weight' max rank reduced by 1. Maximum benefits unchanged, just reached 1 rank earlier.
• Improved Intent Concentration has been moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2 to improve its accessibility to Red/Yellow trees. Power restore value rebalanced to be significantly better.
• Strength of the Earth is no longer a channel effect, but a 5 second Power Over Time restore. Upon expiration, it provides a +10% damage buff for an additional 20s. This trait can now be ranked up to Rank 2 for an additional 15% damage bonus on the buff.
• Fixed bug where traited SotE could do damage instead of healing.
• Improved Beneath Notice power over time restore duration shortened to match the duration of the threat buff, values rebalanced.
• Barrage Final CD reduced [15s -> 12s].
• Press Onward heal potency increased.

Lore-master:

• Water-lore now has an initial healing component.
• Light of Hope base CD reduced [30->10s].
• Share the Power cooldown increased to 30s.
• Share the Power (Fellowship) cooldown increased to 45s.
• Power costs and power restoration values have been adjusted.

Minstrel:

• The Supreme Armour of the Vigilant Watcher no longer allows you to go past tier 5 of Snowball, which locked Perfect Ending.
• Increased power costs and healing for Bolster Courage and Triumphant Spirit.
• Coda of Fury now restores a small amount of power when used.
• Power restore from improved Anthem of Composure has been improved.
• Power costs have been reduced for most basic offensive skills.
• Cry of the Wizards inflicts damage earlier in its skill execution.
• Chord of Salvation is no longer an immediate skill.
• The echo from Thunderous Codas applied by Coda of Fury now deals the same damage that the skill tooltip displays.
• Major Ballad - Resonance now restores a small amount of Power when used.
• The trait 'Pause for Breath' now increases the power restored by Major Ballad - Resonance.

Rune-keeper:

• Rune-keeper skills can no longer be affected by both Disarms and Silences. Skills will now be affected by one or the other (or neither in rare cases) but never both.
• Fire skill damage increased 10%.
• Lightning skill damage increased 10%.
• Frost skill damage increased 10%.
• Epic Conclusion damage increased considerably.
• Vivid Imagery damage reduced slightly.
• Fulgurite Runestone damage reduced slightly.
• Volcanic Runestone damage increased.
• Scribe's Spark damage increased, and attunement generation increased from 1 to 2.
• Ceaseless Argument cooldown reduced to .3s.
• Ceaseless Argument skill execution sped up slightly.
• Static Surge base proc chance increased from 10 to 20%.
• Static Surge AoE size increased to better match the skills VFX. If it looks like the skill hit an enemy, it should now deal damage as you'd expect.
• Frost skills now have no attunement cost rather than building battle attunement.
• Attunement now increases frost damage as your attunement moves away from neutral, on both sides of the attunement spectrum.
• You can no longer proc Harsh Debate, Thunderous Words, or Closing Remarks while Aftershock is active. These buffs are meant to build into one another, and there was a tendency for Harsh Debate and Thunderous Words to proc soon after using Epic Conclusion, combining into Closing Remarks and overwriting Aftershock entirely.
• The 'Harsh Debate' effect granted by the Cardolan Essence of Debate can now correctly combine with Thunderous Words into Closing Remarks.
• Essence of Winter effect debuff can no longer be cleansed.
• The power cost reduction effect has been removed from the Overflowing Confidence trait.
• Self-Motivation's morale heal is now a ratings-based heal rather than a percentage of your max morale.
• Rune-sign of Winter is now correctly classified as a Tactical skill.
• Static Surge gives 1 battle attunement when used.
• Frost skills no longer change your attunement.
• Writ of Lightning once again builds 3 battle attunement when used.
• Self-motivation heal increased ~60%.
• Power costs have been adjusted.
• Prelude of Power now only restores power to the Rune-keeper casting Prelude of Hope.
• Scribe a New Ending now attunes 2 pips towards neutral (down from 3).
• Shocking Touch now attunes 2 pips towards neutral (down from 3).
• Glorious Foreshadowing now correctly tiers up rather than overwriting at tier 1 when applied by different Rune-keepers.
• Updated icons for several HoTs to differentiate them from Writ of Health.
• Closing Remarks now increases the critical chance of Epic Conclusion.
• Vivid Imagery now attunes 3 pips towards center.
• Shocking Touch attunes 1 pip towards center.
• Armour of Storm attunes 4 pips towards center. Armour of Storm bubble improved considerably.
• Self-Motivation now restores either Power or Morale. If traited to restore Morale with Overflowing Confidence, the skill gains a power cost.
• Sustaining Bolt now always restores Power.
• Sustaining Bolt now restores additional Morale when used with Concession & Rebuttal.
• Concession & Rebuttal now causes Shocking Words to become a small AoE.
• Concession & Rebuttal no longer reduces your incoming damage; it now gives a small Lightning Critical Chance bonus.
• Concession & Rebuttal now causes Vivid Imagery to deal more damage and build, rather than consume, Battle Attunement.
• Seething Truth causes fire skills to restore power per battle attunement.
• Vivid Imagery once again builds 3 Battle Attunement, and no longer interacts with Concession and Rebuttal.
• Sustaining Bolt power restore increased.
• Sustaining Bolt Morale restore now works correctly with Concession and Rebuttal.
• The Self-motivation tracery will now increase the amount of morale restored, if you have traited the skill to restore morale rather than power.
• Vivid Imagery radius increased by 1m, so it should hit targets that appear to collide with the visual effect.

Warden: (See Warden Thread for previous changes!)

• Persevere healing has been reduced to its intended value.
• Celebration of Skill healing increased.
• Exultation of Battle damage and healing increased.
• The Boot damage reduced.
• Range Resounding Challenge correctly deals initial damage.
• Power costs and initial damage adjusted for several Assailment skills.
• Spear of Fate Damage increased. Spear of Fate's DoT now pulses 11 times (up from 10).
• Shield Tactics will no longer reapply Stun Immunity if you already have active Stun Immunity from using Shield Tactics in the last 10 seconds.
• Power costs lowered for builders and Mastery skills.
• Gambit Chains now tier up regardless of gambit type or order. Except for potency gambits, any gambit will contribute to a gambit chain.
• Gambit chains now require 4 gambits used before you receive an Advanced Technique.
• When a full stack (3) of Advanced Technique is spent, you will receive a short defensive buff.
• Adjusted some skill bonuses from cashing out Advanced Technique.
• Adjusted some skill animations and VFX to improve skill differentiation and parity in skill execution times.
• Defensive Shield-work no longer consumes Advanced Technique. It now applies at what was previously max potency. Defensive Shieldwork also increases your Partial Block Mitigation by 25% while active.
• Javelin damage values now correctly match other one-handed weapon values.
• Javelin Legendary Items now give Incoming Healing Rating rather than Tactical Healing Rating.
• Gambit chains and Way of the Spear are now unlocked at lvl 30.
• Masteries now earned at level 39.
• Gambit Chains and 'Way of the Spear' are now earned automatically at level 30.
• Damage Reduction from Proactive Defence has been corrected.
• Damage Reduction from Fellowship Protector is now a multiplicative effect.
• The Warden version of Mossward quest "Prologue, Chapter 2: Skills of an Adventurer" has been updated to reflect changes in skill availability from recent class updates. The quest should be completable by level 2 Wardens once more.
• Warden Legendary Javelins have had their DPS values updated.
• Traits and Traceries which increase 'Fist Gambit Damage' now correctly affect DoTs applied by Fist Gambits.
• Gambit Healing and Morale-tap potency reduced ~5-10%.
• Offensive Strike no longer suggests that it is a Morale-tap.
• Rapid Techniques is now only usable in combat.
• The Lifetap Gambit Damage and Healing traceries now improve Morale-taps as expected.
• Bonuses to 'Spear - Fist Damage' now correctly apply to Reversal, Adroit Manoeuvre, and Warden's Triumph.
• Stout Axe wardens now correctly play an animation when using the 'Warden's Taunt' builder.
• Resounding Challenge while 'In the Fray' is now correctly a non-targeted AoE centered on yourself, hitting up to 10 targets.
• Ranged Resounding Challenge now has a radius of 10m around your target.
• The Recklessness Hiddenhoard armour set now increases Spear Gambit Initial Damage while Recklessness is active (because the Martial Fury proc no longer exists).
• Cauterizing Steel cashout damage reduced slightly.
• Unseen Strikes cashout damage increased slightly.
• A new trait in Determination will cause Deflection to generate, rather than reduce, threat.
• A new trait in Determination will cause Resounding Challenge to generate additional threat rather than deal Damage over Time.

Crafting:

• Craftable Traceries will now appear in a separate category marked "Traceries" instead of appearing under "Essences" in the crafting menu.
• The craftable Draigoch Armour pieces have had their stats updated so that critical versions are always superior to normal versions, and have had their stats updated to reflect modern class roles and statistical needs.
• 'Practice Makes Perfect' Crafting Tutorial Quest will now give Universal Ingredient Packs as a reward instead of Apprentice Ingredient Packs.

Delvings:
Delving Variants will rotate daily: Tuesday: 3, Wednesday: 6, Thursday: 4 Friday: 5

• We have fixed an issue where the delving quest would report 'Completed' after turning the gem over to the Delving Stone. The quest now properly reflects the next steps of quest.
• Delvings are now somewhat easier on tiers 5-9. - The difficulty modifiers for enemy damage and health have been reduced for Delving tiers 5-9. - Enemies have had their range for when they are "alerted" to the player and the max range they can "call for reinforcements" greatly reduced at Delving tiers 5-10.
• Removed the Rotten Fruit and Lumps of Coal from all Delving treasure tables.
• The Delving Malices Virulent Discharge, Stab At Thee, Lingering Fear, Creeping Doom and Festering Wound now have caps of 2 stacks per player.
• The Delving Malice effect "Daunting Disease" from "Diseased Foes" is now capped at one instance of the effect per player.
• Fixed an issue with the Delving Malice "Diseased Foes" that caused it to remove less than a point of the player's morale pool, instead of a third of the player's total morale pool.
• We made updates to the School and Library at Tham Mirdain. The quests inside of the 3-player instances now reflect what must be done in order to complete the delving.
• Moved the trigger point for spawning the monsters inside of the School and Library to the edge of the entry vestibule. This will eliminate the chance to inadvertently spam Delving abilities onto the creatures. This will, however, also mean that the delving will fail to be enabled if the stone is not used before leaving the vestibule to kickstart the instances.
• The Delving Malice Fire-storm II has been made less damaging.
• The Delving Malice Sauron's Defence II has been made a two-tier corruption, down from three. The second tier has had the reflect percentage greatly reduced.
• The Delving Malices Sauron's Touch I and II have been made stronger, but also have been made corruptions, making them removable.
• The Delving Malices Disease Cloud II and Explosive Detonation I and II have been made more damaging.
• Quest rewards for 'The Gates of Carn Dûm' have been changed to have proper stats for each helmet.
• Delving Gems:
  - The number of Delving gems has been reduced. Going forward, there will only be 4 Delving Gems: Zircon (Tiers 1-3), Garnet (Tiers 4-6), Emerald (Tiers 7-9), and Amethyst (Tiers 10-12).
  - We are removing the cracked for whole gem conversion - Delvings will take and give whole gems only.
  - Upon successful completion of a Delving, you will be awarded with the gem for that Tier of Delving.
  - On Delving Tiers 3, 6, and 9, you will be awarded with the gem for that Tier of Delving and the Tier above (two gems).
  - Other, now unused gems can be sold.
  - Cracked gems can be discarded.
  - Delving Gem Barter Profiles have been updated to remove the cracked for whole gem conversion.
• There is now a weekly wrapper quest for Delvings that awards Virtue XP and Delving Writs for completing 10 Delvings at tiers 6 and above. This quest is obtained from Baglan, the Mission giver in Andrath, in Gerwyn's Convoy.
• Added Epic Monster Skills, Delving Malices which currently appear on Tier 5 of Delvings. These Malices are powerful induction effects that need to be interrupted. The Malices are:
  - Sauron's Wrath - After a brief induction, buffs all nearby monsters to do extra damage.
  - Sauron's Blessing - After a brief induction, heal all nearby allies to full health.
  - Sauron's Ire - After a brief induction, releases a powerful flame attack.
  - Sauron's Army - After a brief induction, the Enemy calls upon their allies to join the fight against you.
  - Sauron's Grasp - After a brief induction, create a damaging whirlwind that targets the player.
  - Sauron's Word - After a brief induction, a strong fear consumes you, causing you to lose control of your limbs.
• In Patrol the Township we adjusted the number of enemies that spawn at each of the patrol locations. Previously, there would always be three enemies. This is reduced to two. Additionally, we fixed the issue where you could access the bridge without physics at the outskirts of the town.
• In Leadership Direction, we adjusted the boss fights slightly to reduce the number of adds spawned when the boss heals, and the number of times that the boss heals during his fight.
• There was an issue in the tier 1 version of delvings that did not display the objective correctly. This has been addressed.
• The mission, A Day on the Farm, was pretty difficult to complete in its second stage. The total number of crebain to kill is reduced to 8.
  
• The Delving Variant will now change daily rather than weekly.
• We have condensed the Cardolan and Swanfleet missions onto three mission givers:
  - Baglan, in Gerwyn's Convoy in Andrath.
  - Hithriel, in Herne in Cardolan.
  - Irvo Church, in Clegur in Swanfleet.
  - The other four mission givers and their delving quartermasters have been removed.
• Missions will now rotate in a way that allows each mission to be experienced in each variant of delvings.
• A travel skill to Clegur has been added to delving and mission barters. The Lhan Goran travel skill has been removed from delving and mission barters, but can still be bartered for with the Cardolan Reputation Quartermaster in Sírlond.
• Into the Pits - delving stone will now despawn properly if players leave the starting area.
• The Ruins of Amon Firn - normal landscape mobs should no longer appear in the instance.
• The Tombs of Gond Orchal - Wights spawned by delving difficulty effects will no longer count towards and bug mission objective to kill wights in the instance. Quest directives now specify Gond Orchal wights.

Monster Play:

• Monster Play - Quests in monster play have been revised to reduce the number of required items for turn in and to increase the commendation rewards on all quests. Additionally, quests for targeting players in the Ettenmoors have increased their reward significantly. We also fixed a long standing issue where killing Beornings, Rune-keepers, Wardens, and Brawlers would sometimes not count toward specific kill objectives at the locales in the Ettenmoors.
• We have added three new carry-alls called War-spoil's Carry-all for both players and monster players. These will be available for purchase on the LotRO Store. Additionally, monster players can now use the trophy and potion carry-alls.
• Player quests in the Ettenmoors now reward IAXP for each quest that is completed.
• The first time that you enter the Ettenmoors as any monster player character, you will be presented with a brand new tutorial experience that better prepares you for battle in the Ettenmoors.
• The skill 'March!' will now activate an overhead icon to indicate to players that March is toggled on. While not quite as large as a true mount, this should help convey to users, allies, and enemies when a monster player is Marching.
• Orc Defiler:
  - Flies summoned by a defiler no longer have an initial hit on their power drain. This means quickly stepping in and out of their aura should no longer rapidly drain your power. The power drain from flies has also been reduced in potency.
  - Curse of Deadly Sorrows now has a significantly reduced Fate debuff.
• Orc Reaver:
  - Glory in Victory can now be used for a lesser heal without a defeat response.
  - Reavers are now properly immune to roots when executing Resilience or Improved Resilience.
  - Blade Toss range is now 10m.
  - Glory in Victory now correctly changes when you have a defeat event.
• Spider Weaver:
  - Toxin power drain has been reduced in potency.
  - Tainted Kiss, Lethal Kiss, Poison Spray, Feast, Shelob's Gift, and Drink Deep will all execute slightly faster now.
• Uruk Warleader:
  - The ICPR debuff from Banner of Terror has been greatly reduced.
• Warg Stalker:
  - The Rabid Bite debuff has been reduced to +10%/25% power costs.
• Updated the mines to now have Grodris patrolling the skies when she is not angry. To get her angry you will need to kill between around 30-40 drakes, drakelings, or hatchlings within the deepest heart of the Isendeep mine. Once angry, Grodris will move to the spot formerly controlled by the Free Folk or Angmarim forces.
  - She will require a full raid to defeat.
  - Grodris fights in 3 phases.
  - Grodris now behaves more like a real raid monster with correct transitions between her phases.
  - In Phase 1, she fights rooted to the ground and does a potent fire breath in a 180 degree arc in front of her. This occurs every 23 seconds. Her second major attack is a wing buffet that will knock players back, every 15 or so seconds. There is also a tail swipe attack that will occur. If you are knocked into or run over her eggs they will spawn hatchlings, so positioning is important.
  - Phase 1, she is rooted to the ground and will randomly target opponents within melee range and outside of melee range with appropriate skills.
  - In Phase 2, Grodris will start to move and will sometimes randomly choose a target in the raid to attack that is not in melee range. Then there is fireball. Then there is wing buffet. Then there is a spinning pounce.
  - Phase 2, she will lift into the air with a fiery flourish, then hover and blast targets randomly around her until beaten to Phase 3.
  - In Phase 3, Grodris returns to breathing fire in a cone and doing a significantly powerful AoE pulse attack.
  - Phase 3, she gains completely mobility and will attack with savage bites, wing buffets, fire breath, and the fiery flourish all over again.
  - On death, the group (players or monster players) scoring the kill gains a buff in the Ettenmoors for 1 hour. This will likely need to be modified. After the hour expires, Grodris will return and the sequence begins again.
• Players visiting the Ettenmoors can now obtain a weekly quest to complete battle-altering, kill, and support quests within the PvMP zone. Completing 5,10, and 20 of these quests respective rewards the player with a very large amount of Legendary item XP that contributes to the reward track, a large sum of Virtue XP, a good amount of renown, gold, a selection box to claim Ettenmoors consumables, and a random tracery up to legendary in rarity. There are two tiers to this weekly quest, each rewarding players for completing the efforts.
• The status of the Isendeep mine is now correctly displayed on the map.
• When players or monsters control the Isendeep mine they now receive a 35% increase to infamy/renown and commendation earns. Additionally, two flags appear at their home bases that allow them to fast travel to a random location around either Lugazag or Tírith Rhaw.
• Defeating Grodris award the benefits of controlling the mine for 6 hours.
• Weekly rewards in the Ettenmoors now properly include a chance at traceries for your class all the way up to legendary.
• Added new target dummies into Gramsfoot to allow for monster players to parse damage more effectively. These mimic the targeting dummies used on the Free People side of the game.
• Updates to Monster Player power pools and regen scaling.
• Audacity Changes:
  - Incoming Damage Reduction and Outgoing Damage bonuses from Audacity have been adjusted.
  - Audacity for the Free Peoples (beyond the 27 Audacity breakpoint) will now reduce damage multiplicatively by 50%, so it should no longer inflate the value of effects that reduce Incoming Damage.
  - Audacity for Monster Players similarly now gives you a damage multiplier and a damage reduction multiplier (50%). Damage reduction should no longer be disproportionally affected by Incoming Damage effects, while the Outgoing Damage effect will be more impactful.
• The tier 4 pocket item for healers in the Ettenmoors now, properly, provides physical mitigation.
• Lainedhal's Insignia should now function correctly removing negative effects from the user in the same manner that the monster player item, Akulhún's Brand works.
• Updated Mordiríth's Brand to function the same as Akulhún's Brand.
• Bestowers formerly in the Isendeep are now back in the world. Free People bestowers are at the western entrance of the Isendeep mine in the static dwarf miner camp.
• Captain-General Meldún now wanders the streets of Hoarhallow. Be careful Monster Players - he still packs a punch!
• Monster player bestowers now live in Grothum and the burly Bûrzgoth wanders the pathways in the goblin village. Same warning to you Free People, be cautious!
• All Creep skills were reviewed for power expenditure and adjustments were made.
• Bûrzgoth now properly patrols around Grothum.
• Grodris is now more deadly. Grodris now spawns correctly and should also reset correctly.
• Lainedhal's Insignias should now all function correctly and prevent further combat effects - specifically slows - from taking place for a short duration after use.
• Free People quests in the Ettenmoors now provide the proper commendations for quest completions.
• Audacity, modified through the use of tinctures, now properly scales with the changes to the mastery statistics.
• Set the new target dummies to be friendly to the monster guards in the Ettenmoors.
• An errant string in the new free people tutorial in the Ettenmoors was addressed.
• Commendation costs have been reduced for free peoples Audacity equipment.
• Audacity for free peoples now requires you to equip PvP gear in each armour and jewelry slot, including cloaks.
• PvMP Cloaks now give 1 Audacity.
• Damage bonuses from Audacity have been reduced slightly.
• New Ettenmoors dummies now have a usage cooldown.

Quests & Instances:

• Quest barricades in Lothlorien are now correctly nestled between their trees.
• Floating Braziers in the Houses of Lore have been grounded.
• Misc Zfighting in Hall of Vernozal has been fixed.
• The Archet quest "The Courageous Farmhands" now offers rewards for Brawlers.
• The Bree-land quests "Disease Among the Boars","Dangerous Boars","Healing Stores" and "Trophies for the Walls" now offer rewards for Brawlers.
• The Epic quests "Narchuil Goes South","Skin of Bregmor","Thror's Hammer","Cutleaf's Good Intentions","The Barrows of Haudh Iarchith","Journey to Combe" and "Into the Barrow Downs" now offer rewards for Brawlers.
• The Ered Luin quests "In Defence of the Forest","Protecting the Hunt" and "The Lost Tool" now offer rewards for Brawlers.
• The Evendim quests "A Formal Complaint" and "Northcotton Farmer's Market" now offer rewards for Brawlers.
• The Introductory Quest "Intro: The Ritual Stones" now offers rewards for Brawlers.
• The Shire Quests "Wolves at Waymeet" "Flare for Danger" and "Belco's Writ" now offer rewards for Brawlers.
• Brawlers now have rewards to choose in the Helogrod Raid Quest: "Storvagun the Traitor".
• Brawlers now have appropriate rewards for Epic Battles.
• The Evendim quests "The Twilight Estates","Sanctity of the Sovereigns" and "Monuments of Angmar" now offer rewards for every class.
• Fixed the pickup animation playing twice in Volume III, Book 6, Chapter 7: 'Enemies of Old'.
• Gundabad - The quest category containing quests for Den of Pughlak, Houses of Rest, and the Hiddenhoard of Abnankara in Fate of Gundabad was previously named 'Gundabad', which could cause confusion in the Quest Log with another quest category that shared that name. It has been renamed 'Gundabad: Depths of the Mountain-hold'.
• Adjusted the Quest Guide parameters for 'Ruffians In Ruddymore' so it no longer points to the wrong location.
• Fixed the confusion an extra quest ring could cause when looking for Muildir at the beginning of 'Instance: Prisoner of the Free Peoples'.
• 'Singing to Saplings' has been made less confusing: removed the always-on glow for the saplings, removed the misleading billboard, made the Quest Guide highlights more specific, and made the distance from which you can sing to the saplings bigger.
• 'The Roads Near Herne' had a duplicated text string, but now it's been replaced with the correct one.
• Quest: Fornost: A Leader Unveiled - This quest's level has been reduced from 30 to 26 and it now has a minimum level requirement of 21.
• Mithril travel to NPCs in the Last Homely House should now take players directly to that NPC rather than to the door of the Last Homely House.
• Scaling quests will now award legendary item xp starting at level 50 (down from 51).
• Level 45 class quest items now show up under "Class Quest Item" in searches in the auction house.
• Level 45 class quest trophy items are now searchable in the Auction House under the Class Quest Trophy category.
• Orcs in Hytbold instances no longer drop obsolete components for Legendary Items.
• The readable items for Legacy of Durin Chapter 6.3, 'Life on the Bridges' should no longer hide out in Pending Loot.
• The dwarf Wafi is no longer involved in 'Volume II, Book 1, Chapter 11: Forged Anew' so the references to him have been removed.
• Saeradan was stuck in a tree during 'Interlude: Many Worries.' Now he's not!
• One of the Elves involved in Volume III, Book 7, Chapter 1, 'The Land of the Elf-queen' wasn't using the correct plural for 'mellyrn'.
• Poison Garden's Polish:
  - Cleaned up the physics everywhere in order to play nice with the knockbacks/pulls happening in the space.
  - Added a physics ceiling to the space for further shenanigan prevention.
  - Made the path from Boss 1 to Boss 2 more clear, added Angmarim Braziers to further indicate the path.
  - Fixed a bunch of cross-server physics boundary issues by adding an extra landblock to the PE.
  - Added decorative pipes in the last two glass houses. - Resolved a bunch of bugs stuck spot and deco bugs.
• This year's Spring Festival offers new cosmetic cloaks, a cosmetic pet puppy, and a variety of new housing decorations available for barter. The Festivity vendor offers a new cosmetic shield and Sickle-fly cosmetic pet.
• Some additional dialogue has been added to 'Instance: The Ties That Bind' to better wrap up the conclusion of the story.
• Instances - Festival consumables/skills and Cosmetic Pets are no longer useable in Instances.
• The Spring Festival wrapper quest, "The Splendor of Spring", now has a "Tracery Token, Legendary" added to its rewards.
  
• Sarch Vorn, The Black Grave:
  - Luilloth and Astoryn's undead ally now gain more defense stacks.
  - Slightly increased damage of various damage-over-time effects in Fladach's and Luilloth's fights.
  - Slightly increased Fladach's damage while enraged.

General:

• The sails of the boats at Trader's Wharf in Wildwood no longer clip into each other.
• Floating Garden bed in Minas Tirith (After-Battle) has been grounded.
• The two-handed weapon vendors in Esteldin, Ost Guruth, Budgeford, the Vendor Hall in Michel Delving, Celendim, Gondamon, Aughaire and Thorenhad now offer battle-gauntlets for sale to Brawlers.
• The weapons vendor in the new player zone in Ered Luin now offers battle-gauntlets for sale to Brawlers.
• The weapons vendor in pre-raid Archet now offers battle-gauntlets for sale to Brawlers.
• There is now a Brawler vendor in Echad Andestel in Lothlorien.
• There are now Brawler Trainers at the Training Hall in Michel Delving, the Twenty-first Hall in Moria, the Training Hall in Galtrev, Gondamon and Celondim.
• Moria light, medium and heavy armour set vendors now show armour by class.
• Moria heavy armour vendors now offer Brawler and Beorning class armour sets.
• Durub Archer and Moria Defiler enemies now have updated and correct heal induction spell titles instead of placeholders.
• The weapon Shadepaw's Defeat now properly goes into the "Clubs" section of the wardrobe.
• Harthalin in Agarnaith was posed awkwardly. Now she's carrying a halberd so the pose makes more sense.
• Patrician of Rivendell, Gallant of Rivendell, and Exemplar of Rivendell are now correctly classified as Event Titles.
• The War-Steed skill granting item is now destroyable.
• The level 50-59 Epic class armor sets now have added text that clarifies that their set bonuses end after level 59.
• NPCs in Mirkwood who were labeled as barter vendors but didn't have anything to barter have now had their barter title, icon and dialogue removed to reduce confusion. No change to current barter vendors.
• Defeat in parts of Yondershire will no longer send players to Western Eregion.
• Players should no longer fall through the floor when leaving the Erebor Homestead Provisions.
• Misc Stuck spots have been fixed.
• Misc buried/floating resource and treasure nodes have been fixed.
• Radar seam in Entwash Vale is fixed.
• Chickens can now travel between Shire Cardolan, Angmar Car Bronach, Car Bronach Pits of Stonejaws and Welkinlofts Clovengap.
• DirectX 10/11 water now has soft edges again. Water now also accepts shadows.
• The Mordor Beorning Mote Raid Gear available for barter is now heavy armour, rather than medium armour.
• Nain the Slakeless's appearance has been corrected in several locations in the Ironfold, Elderslade, and Mount Gundabad.
• The Beorning Old Great Axe weapon now appears properly in the "Axes" section of the Wardrobe rather than "Swords".
• Sets of armour that have a max effective level at which bonuses apply now always display that level in their description.
• Added a Brawler pocket item to the faction reputation items available for sale in Eglain in the Lone-lands.
• The Mossward healer NPC Iach now is interactable and has potions for sale.
• Monster's moderate basic attacks now deal more damage.
• Fixed an issue where Brawlers were getting an error when opening Epic Battles Platinum boxes.
• Brawlers can now barter with Epic Battles vendors for brawler jewellery with brawler-specific set bonuses.
• Brawler weapons and jewellery are now available for sale from the Evendim reputation vendor Celegdes.
• Beorning jewellery is now available for sale from the Evendim reputation vendor Celegdes.
• Brawlers now have armour available for barter in Tinnudir in Evendim.
• All armour available for barter in Tinnudir in Evendim is now consistently statted and has been brought up to modern standards (stats have been increased).
• High-Enchanter vendor will no longer barter for obsolete relics.
• Disarm effects can no longer be chained together to extend their duration. When a disarm effect first expires or is removed, it will apply an invisible 15 second immunity period, which will cancel any existing disarm effect.
• Silence effects now have an invisible 15 seconds immunity period, like disarms, which begins when an active silence effect is removed or expires.
• Base healing increase from level 131-140, LIs providing HPS values have had those values increased by ~25%. This is intended to improve general healing throughput, and help counteract any direct impact from the power changes.
• There was an errant invisible wall spawning on the bridge to Caranost. This has been removed.
• The Stout-axe starting armour now have the correct names for the heavy and light armour sets.
• The following barter vendors have a few additional housing items available: Bert Bartleby in Enedwaith, Elves of Felegoth Rewards Quartermaster, The White Company Quartermaster, and Reclaimers of the Mountain-hold Quartermaster.
• Any level 140 characters with an Ill Omens Essence Bounty from the deed "Skirmish Assault: Ill Omens (Tier 3)" can now use that item to receive a level 140 Delver's Lively Essence Box.
• Power Updates:
  - Rescaled base value of +Max Power items to better match new scaling.
  - Updated most Celebrant (power) potion values to better match the new scaling.
  - Added new traceries for power management, one Word of Power and one Word of Craft (with power related set bonuses).
  - Increased power drains from their initial rescale values, as they seemed rather light.
• One of the guards at Lake-town, Varthrek, had an incorrect appearance where his hands were bursting through his gloves. His appearance has been changed and now he's less gruesome and more comfortable.
• Misc floating deco has been grounded.
• Physics issues in Minas Morgul fixed.
• Select items from Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave are now available for barter at the Cardolan Reputation barterer in Sírlond. These items can be bartered for Embers of Enchantment and require completion of Sarch Vorn at various difficulty tiers.
• Mounts available from the 'Pick A Mount' selection box have had their collections information updated to reflect this.
• Several mounts have had their collection information updated to reflect accurate methods of acquisition: Steed of the Eastemnet, Faltharan's Steed, Grey Horse, and Hobby-horse.
• The Heavy Great-axe of the Wayfarer now has a correct 2-handed model, instead of a 1-handed model. Several other Great-axes were similarly corrected.
• The Legendary Coffer of the Ukhrash Portrait Frame's description has been amended to reflect that it also gives Ancient Script and Legendary Enhancement Runes.
• Removed a markup on Blackened Feathers in Mossward that suggested they might be associated with a task.
• Updated a string on the Monstrous Wing trophy indicating that it can also be used to satisfy tasks in Angmar.
• Rebalanced food power regen values.
• The Court of Celeborn now has a map.
• Physics issues in Minas Morgul have been resolved.
• Misc floating objects have been fixed.
• Misc stuck spots have been fixed.
• Misc terrain texture issues have been fixed.
• Misc missing physics issues have been fixed.
• Female Human Guard NPCs now have the correct name.
• Misc buried/floating resource nodes have been fixed.
• FRENCH: Updates translation for the Forge-worker in Gorgoroth.
• FRENCH: Updated French translations for the Delving Missions.
• GERMAN: Updates several typos, updated translations for "Featured Instances", Corrects the plural stacks of the Gundabad Lhinestad Potion and the Gundabad Milk Thistle Potion, Updated text for the Instance: Nothing for Nothing.
• GERMAN: Corrects stringtable error for the "Willow Fireworks" Item.
• GERMAN: Makes updates to the translation of "Race" in the game.
• GERMAN: Resolves several typos and coding errors.
• GERMAN: Updates translations for the "Rächer von Helm., Rächer von Abnankâra" titles, adding proper gender terms.
• Sárskilinnan are now an account-wide currency with a cap of 1000 that can be found in the Instances category in the barter wallet.
• The Flowing Silver Stone and Flowing Silver Stone of the Tortoise should now correctly give a bonus to earnings of Himbar Tokens of Exchange.
• Added Burglar and Captain Trainers to Gondamon in Ered Luin.
• GERMAN: Instance: The Howling Pit - intro VO now plays in German instead of English.

Preview Only:

• Added a door to the Eyes & Guard Tavern accessible in Mossward when the tavern is active for testing. The door can be found by Eleri after the starting instance is complete.
• Sarch Vorn rewards have been added to the Gundabad barter NPC 'Drachyn' in the Eyes & Guard Tavern.
• Chiver Me Timbers in the Eyes & Guard Tavern now offers quests to complete Return to Carn Dûm instance cluster deeds and quests, and also offers for barter some of the instance rewards for testing purposes.
• DocOctoport in the Eyes & Guard Tavern will now teleport you to the Return to Carn Dûm travel hub.
• Ransroth in the Eyes & Guard Tavern now offers a reputation advancing quest for the Dúnedain of Cardolan.
• Rock in the Eyes & Guard Tavern basement now offers quests for Sárskilinnan (Return to Carn Dûm), Iron Coins of Cardolan & Greyflood Marks (Before the Shadow), Delving Writs & the Threads & Silver needed to upgrade items (Delvings), Tokens of Ill Omens & Positive Portents (Ill Omens), Coins of the Bugan (Treasure Bugan), Thrâng's Vault Token (Seasonal Boss from the Vaults: Thrâng), and Silver branches & Gold Leaves of Lothlórien (Lothlórien).
• Drachyn in the Eyes & Guard Tavern now offers a quest to bypass Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave discovery and barter requirements.

[Maedol]

Finally new carry alls. This makes me happy. But will the old ones be returned to the store?

[Beltharas]

Holy Smokes this is an ambitious update. I hope y'all can pull this off!

[gildhur]

Small Fellowship:

• Sant Lhoer, the Poison Gardens
• Thaurisgar, the Vile Apothecary

Fellowship:

• Sagroth, Lair of Vermin

Raid:

• Gwathrenost, the Witch-king's Citadel

I know it's a small thing, but I want to commend the team on consistently coming up with instance names that have unique acronyms. With dozens and dozens of instances, battles, and skirmishes now, and a large number of them regularly run via PUGs in /LFF, it's so helpful. I think there are only 1 or 2 duplicated acronyms for instances over the 16 years of development, and that's something to celebrate.

[Elmagor]

Removed the Rotten Fruit and Lumps of Coal from all Delving treasure tables - 6 months after suffering that in rewards...

[DoRonRon]

War-spoil's Carry-all being exclusive to PVMP we presume? And the three; Small, Medium and Large?

I guess it's one you can have a good idea on how large you want to go with it, based on existing stores. Unless they come with substantially more items arriving into the game.

[Elmagor]

War-spoil's Carry-all being exclusive to PVMP we presume? And the three; Small, Medium and Large?

I guess it's one you can have a good idea on how large you want to go with it, based on existing stores. Unless they come with substantially more items arriving into the game.

They can introduce XL carry-all...

[DoRonRon]

They can introduce XL carry-all...

I already got something that professes to carry-all. It should at least attempt to.

The guy or gal in charge of it should be sent to the archive and count them all...

[CloudCastle]

Are there no solo versions of the new instances? I've really enjoyed how the last few years have always offered solo versions and was looking forward to seeing the new instances.

[Thorandril]

will you please consider changing gundabad weekly rewards to 2x 1k virtue experience potions instead of just straight VXP? my only real suggestion for QoL


......other than gear carry alls

[blacknazgul13]

But the real question is, what will they do to commemorate Dwayne?

[TobiasEstForte]

I'm seeing more good than bad here. The power adjustments are intriguing, only testing will show the true outcome. I especially like the healing improvements, I was less excited to play beo once the class essences got disabled and I would like to bring back my mini after it's been gathering dust for the past year. Beo is just more fun and mobile.

[Ludiklovn]

What will be gear requirement for new cluster? Considering there is no level increase, will it require gear from current raid cluster?

[Onno]

Guardian:

• Brutal Charge now only stuns enemies when you use a damaging melee skill.

Oh great, another red line Guardian nerf.
I guess those are really necessary for game balance and an important factor for improving playability.

On the one hand, you always talk about how every class should be able to deal decent damage, yet our only work on guardian class is reducing the usefulness of his skills. Again.
(the last one being to time-limit the brutal charge effect.)

Well done. Please continue to remove all the fun out of playing this game. sigh.

[Elmagor]

What will be gear requirement for new cluster? Considering there is no level increase, will it require gear from current raid cluster?

Maybe it will work like Fall of Khazad Dum, where we have just one new vendor with new set of gear and HH gear enough to complete it. We don't have new location, we don't have new faction, so where we can get gear to complete new raid?

[Ludiklovn]

Maybe it will work like Fall of Khazad Dum, where we have just one new vendor with new set of gear and HH gear enough to complete it. We don't have new location, we don't have new faction, so where we can get gear to complete new raid?

I just started playing again so i dont quite understand the order of raids. I see people run HH day and night so i thought that was the last raid in the line. I hoped new cluster would come with new levels and not continue on gear of old one but i was wrong. Oh well, until next level increase.

[Elmagor]

I just started playing again so i dont quite understand the order of raids. I see people run HH day and night so i thought that was the last raid in the line. I hoped new cluster would come with new levels and not continue on gear of old one but i was wrong. Oh well, until next level increase.

Level cap increase only in november. Before that, we will get instance cluster in march, and probally new locations in may and june. In 100, 115, 120 and 130 level cap SSG follow that setup

[cbfan14]

When update 35 goes live, will the Return to Carn Dum instance cluster be considered part of the Before the Shadow expansion or will it be a separate quest/instance pack?

[Kehleyr_SSG]

Based on further internal testing we are going to hold off opening the first instance with this build.

We are working on getting some issues resolved and hope to have it ready for Bullroarer soon.

[Cya_EU]

Based on further internal testing we are going to hold off opening the first instance with this build.

We are working on getting some issues resolved and hope to have it ready for Bullroarer soon.

When will it open up?

[Cordovan]

When update 35 goes live, will the Return to Carn Dum instance cluster be considered part of the Before the Shadow expansion or will it be a separate quest/instance pack?

Return to Carn Dum is a separate Instance Pack that will be able to be purchased in the LOTRO Store, and is free to VIPs.

When will it open up?

We are working on it! We'll announce in this thread when the world is open.

[cdq1958]

Patch server is up.

[Cordovan]

Bullroarer is open!

[BjarnIronside]

Bullroarer is open!

Yay about time. As a beorning with still no power I look forward to our SSG overlords'
new patch.

[Elmagor]

Last Homely House in U35 totally revamped and looking very cool (not in patch notes)