Update 16.2 Beta 3 Release Notes – PRELIMINARY AND NON-FINAL - BULLROARER ONLY

[Frelorn]

The following release notes are for the Bullroarer public test server only and may not reflect the final list of changes or updates included at release.

These notes are not final and should be viewed as a work in progress and subject to change.

The Eyes and Guard Tavern is now open!

Important Note: Please be aware that the build you are seeing here is a work in progress and is by no means the finished Update 16.2 product. There are items that are not yet complete. There may also be items missing from this initial list, this is not intentional and will be added as we progress.


Changes for this build:

General

• The Fellowship Departs instance has been added to the Reflecting Pool in Rivendell.
• Fixed an issue where various NPC's would forgot their lines. Animals will also now correctly tell you when they are threatening to attack.

Monster Play

• Armour of the Unseen:
  
  • Fixed an issue where the set bonus was not applying to movement speed.
• Monster Player cosmetic weapon traits have been added.
• Greater Essences are now available from the Item Trader in both Glan Vraig and Osgiliath.
• Monster Play foods have had a balance adjustment.
• Monster Player Battlefield Promotions have been granting roughly +1% Outgoing Healing per rank for several years, but the tooltip saying so has been hidden. This tooltip is no longer hidden. Additionally, Incoming healing is again granted by battlefield promotions (no more power cost reduction).
• Audacity now reduces damage to free players by 30% and damage to monster players by 40%.
• Most Monster Player buff items have had their cooldowns reduced to 1 second.
• Osgiliath Free Peoples Point Defenders have had their health reduced, and their damage increased.
• Osgiliath Monster Point defenders have had their health, mitigations, and damage increased.
• Added new waypoints into Osgiliath from the home bases. They can be found to the north and south of the main gate.
• Changed waypoint usage to not be allowed while in combat.

[robbie1435]

Monster Play

Monster Player cosmetic weapon traits have been added.

The most important change of all >.<

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

• Greater Essences are now available from the Item Trader in both Glan Vraig and Osgiliath.

I hope these are available only in RNG box form like the ones from Dol Amroth. Having direct barter for what you want would seem a bit unfair.

[MithrilMinded]

The most important change of all >.<

..they make it so hard for me to not rage in @/$*$ frustration. ....nothing about the sizzy tickle dps , mastery problem in osgi...ect ect ect ......mail & cosmetic ftw.......you know what's next ? Monster player music...drums made from shire folk hide

[siipperi]

I hope these are available only in RNG box form like the ones from Dol Amroth. Having direct barter for what you want would seem a bit unfair.

Why? Dont you need to purchase western gondor as well if you want dailies? so both ways require you to purchase something in order to get it (unless you lifetimer). And as new map there needs to be decent rewards, greater essences seems ok especially considering you need way better gear for pvp than pve. Now they need to add new mordor specific creep skins and some freep jewellery there that's better than BB trash.

[Nouri]

Several good changes in this build. Most importantly, creeps losing inc healing bonus from BFE was going to cause problems, imho.

[Sezneg]

Several good changes in this build. Most importantly, creeps losing inc healing bonus from BFE was going to cause problems, imho.

I still don't like it being tied to BFPs, as that causes its own problems. It causes low ranks to become raid liabilities, since they require 30% more healing output to match the survivability of a ranked creep. It's just too large of a gap, and I would rather this bonus be lowered and applied to all creeps regardless of rank.

[PKCrichton]

Greater Essences are now available from the Item Trader in both Glan Vraig and Osgiliath.

I have to greatly disagree with these being added as direct barters for PvMP. There is no PvE equivalent to this not even the DA Essence Barter where you get a roll of dice if you get any one of 4 different essence types and they vary between Purple/Major and Teal/Greater in quality. This 'easy road' to gaining Teal essences also hurts the potential crafting of essences.

As it stands they get to barter 1.5k Comms for any specific essence.

If no equivalent is being added to the PvE side of the game then this barter should be a direct copy of the DA Essence Barter system where they have to pick between Box types for random Essences. Or make this be an alternate way to earn the Essence Recipes that already exist in the game. There should be no direct barter for Teal Essences!

[Thaelon]

I still don't like it being tied to BFPs, as that causes its own problems. It causes low ranks to become raid liabilities, since they require 30% more healing output to match the survivability of a ranked creep. It's just too large of a gap, and I would rather this bonus be lowered and applied to all creeps regardless of rank.

It being tied to rank is a good thing, it gives worth to rank, it gives people reasons to get a higher rank than simply cosmetic/1% damage/morale. If lower ranked players want the inc healing, go and earn it by ranking up, ranking up is the easiest it has ever been. The real problem with these notes is that nowhere does it say creep damage was buffed significantly.

[arcaiv]

Nice to see that at least some of what people say is being listened to. There's a long way to go yet, though, and a lot to make up for. Keep it up lads.

[pittcrew1]

I have to greatly disagree with these being added as direct barters for PvMP. There is no PvE equivalent to this not even the DA Essence Barter where you get a roll of dice if you get any one of 4 different essence types and they vary between Purple/Major and Teal/Greater in quality. This 'easy road' to gaining Teal essences also hurts the potential crafting of essences.

As it stands they get to barter 1.5k Comms for any specific essence.

If no equivalent is being added to the PvE side of the game then this barter should be a direct copy of the DA Essence Barter system where they have to pick between Box types for random Essences. Or make this be an alternate way to earn the Essence Recipes that already exist in the game. There should be no direct barter for Teal Essences!

I agree. If they only worked for PvP then I would be fine with that (pvp does need min-maxing, so making it common for them makes sense), but that would be terrible design, so don't do that. Balance needs to remain for both PvP and PvE to earn these relatively equally, in quantity, type, and ease. If they are equal, then that will give 2 ways for people to earn them, which I'm fine with, but I don't want to be forced to PvP just to get essences I want when it should have been like this for PvE from the start.


As for the other stuff, most of it seems to be what I've seen asked for on the forums (even a podcast), and I love the recent attention to details that have been being worked on.

[siipperi]

I have to greatly disagree with these being added as direct barters for PvMP. There is no PvE equivalent to this not even the DA Essence Barter where you get a roll of dice if you get any one of 4 different essence types and they vary between Purple/Major and Teal/Greater in quality. This 'easy road' to gaining Teal essences also hurts the potential crafting of essences.

As it stands they get to barter 1.5k Comms for any specific essence.

If no equivalent is being added to the PvE side of the game then this barter should be a direct copy of the DA Essence Barter system where they have to pick between Box types for random Essences. Or make this be an alternate way to earn the Essence Recipes that already exist in the game. There should be no direct barter for Teal Essences!

Uhm, you could just go play pvp if you want rewards as easily, couldnt you? DA system is already outdated and its good they are bringing new system for new areas, where actual end game is, maybe add morgul crests for essences barter tho.

[MithrilMinded]

well they only greater essences .......so i dont see much of a problem there ....i feel like a nice extra vip perk for pvprs...

[pittcrew1]

Uhm, you could just go play pvp if you want rewards as easily, couldnt you? DA system is already outdated and its good they are bringing new system for new areas, where actual end game is, maybe add morgul crests for essences barter tho.

No, that is not an acceptable request, for PvE players to be forced into PvP all of a sudden because it has better drop rates for things that are useful to both PvE and PvP. Don't get me wrong, PvP'ers should be able to get essences through PvP as it is needed, as much as/more so than in PvE, but they should be balanced options. I'm assuming you enjoy PvP (or don't care a ton about min-maxing); imagine hating PvE (which you may) and having to do that to get gear for stuff you want to do. I'm sure you have had to, but you probably haven't enjoyed it. That's how strictly PvE players will feel.

[Stephen1981]

I have to greatly disagree with these being added as direct barters for PvMP. There is no PvE equivalent to this not even the DA Essence Barter where you get a roll of dice if you get any one of 4 different essence types and they vary between Purple/Major and Teal/Greater in quality. This 'easy road' to gaining Teal essences also hurts the potential crafting of essences.

As it stands they get to barter 1.5k Comms for any specific essence.

If no equivalent is being added to the PvE side of the game then this barter should be a direct copy of the DA Essence Barter system where they have to pick between Box types for random Essences. Or make this be an alternate way to earn the Essence Recipes that already exist in the game. There should be no direct barter for Teal Essences!

actually i have no problem with the teal version being like this and if your gonna do let us start bartering directly for teal versions in DA and remove all this major essence junk we get from the barter guy in DA from the RNG boxs heck i go do moors if its the only way to get the greater morale essences without having to depend on luck from BBs or those random boxs

[spelunker]

[*]Monster Player cosmetic weapon traits have been added.

WTB a grill for my warg. Nail polish as well.

More seriously, you revert to the unranked skin to get the weapon choices, doesn't seem remotely worth it unless you can do both.

[*]Greater Essences are now available from the Item Trader in both Glan Vraig and Osgiliath.

Haven't seen the implementation, but fantastic in concept.

[*]Monster Play foods have had a balance adjustment.

These are much better, but so long as tomes of defense exist (which is dumb in and of itself), the damage reduction food is a poor choice.

[*]Monster Player Battlefield Promotions have been granting roughly +1% Outgoing Healing per rank for several years, but the tooltip saying so has been hidden. This tooltip is no longer hidden. Additionally, Incoming healing is again granted by battlefield promotions (no more power cost reduction).

So one of the best balance decisions made so far in beta, has now been reversed because actively adjusting creep heals and adding skill tweaks or corruptions to allow creeps to actively control their incoming healing was too much work?

[*]Audacity now reduces damage to free players by 30% and damage to monster players by 40%.

why is the carriage leading the horse again?

[*]Most Monster Player buff items have had their cooldowns reduced to 1 second.

I was thinking of filing a bug report about effect removal consumables also being given this 1 second cooldown, but in light of the effect removal skills most classes were given with HD, I'm assuming this is intended, as its actually quite balanced.

[*]Added new waypoints into Osgiliath from the home bases. They can be found to the north and south of the main gate.[*]Changed waypoint usage to not be allowed while in combat.

Well done, in concept.
Having played around with this though, its far from a finished product. the 1-shot range appears to be well under the standard 40m range, without having a ranged class I can't really tell how they will respond to certain things, but i was killing npcs 25m away from the 1-shots without any repercussions. While these changes are incredibly welcome to me, and nearly as good as one could hope without entirely removing the 1-shots, there is 1 serious flaw. We have to 'port' into the Osgiliath map, meaning we can't see what we're walking into going through the side exits or even the main gait. Might I suggest something like a iron bar gate AFTER taking the port into the map (that is only usable in combat, by a respective faction) that people can go through a given port, see if there is a gank/camp waiting for them, then decide whether to leave or seek a new exit. Walking through the main gate or any side one and getting nuked while you load in blindly doesn't sound like much fun.

[spelunker]

Round 3, lets try this again:

It being tied to rank is a good thing, it gives worth to rank, it gives people reasons to get a higher rank than simply cosmetic/1% damage/morale. If lower ranked players want the inc healing, go and earn it by ranking up, ranking up is the easiest it has ever been. The real problem with these notes is that nowhere does it say creep damage was buffed significantly.

I strongly disagree, all this does is basically say "ok, if you want inc heal to be able to match freeps, you must have this class, if you don't have it or want to solo, LOL bad luck". Overall all creeps should have access to inc healing and BFP was by far the best place to give that, I really don't understand why it is that people have(had) hate for it being on there, maybe you can help me with that...

What? if freeps want to 'inc heal' their way out of creep debuffs, they must take certain classes and trait specs, its no less a choice that has to be made than creepside. The difference is merely that freeps have many more options, as there are 10 x 3 sets of build types freeps can select compared to essentially 6 for creeps (maybe 7 as flayer warg is a sufficiently different spec to fulfill multiple roles). When you have more than 4 times the build diversity, of course there are going to be more options, and more options to stack a given thing.


It was a massive penalty to low and mid-ranked players, in a system that was already pitted against them considerably. It meant a player who could have been just as skilled/knowledgable, had all skills/corruptions would be a liability to a group if they'd only been playing on a given class/server/whatever for a shorter period of time and were mid-ranked, compared to someone who was a significantly more important member to their group simply for having been active on a specific character for a longer period of time to have r12+. As I've said many times, rank rewards should exist, but they should be in terms of minor buffs (the 1% dmg/morale/etc buffs fall here), convenience, and prestige items like skins. Making PvP essentially make or break in tough scenario's on a basis that has nothing to do with ability to play is silly.

Easiest way to rectify the problem is to add 10-15% to aura of protection (and buff the already significantly worse Aura of Command while you're at it), and give defilers a traiting option to add another 10-15% buff to Fertile Slime, or maybe +5% incoming healing on the target for every active defiler HoT on them (non stacking from multiple sources)

[PKCrichton]

actually i have no problem with the teal version being like this and if your gonna do let us start bartering directly for teal versions in DA and remove all this major essence junk we get from the barter guy in DA from the RNG boxs heck i go do moors if its the only way to get the greater morale essences without having to depend on luck from BBs or those random boxs

You may have no problem but I know a lot of others who avoid PvMP like the plague. This devalues three aspects of the game at once Crafting, DA Barter and Epic Battles.

[siipperi]

No, that is not an acceptable request, for PvE players to be forced into PvP all of a sudden because it has better drop rates for things that are useful to both PvE and PvP. Don't get me wrong, PvP'ers should be able to get essences through PvP as it is needed, as much as/more so than in PvE, but they should be balanced options. I'm assuming you enjoy PvP (or don't care a ton about min-maxing); imagine hating PvE (which you may) and having to do that to get gear for stuff you want to do. I'm sure you have had to, but you probably haven't enjoyed it.

Oh you hit nail on the head! There always been like that for pvp players, must pve if you want any kind of competent gear. But now you dont need to pvp to get exact same gear in pve, actually since you can only barter greater ones you still need pve to get best essences, so this is only workaround for people who like to get OK gear and arent too much into min maxing.

Getting 1,5k comms takes about 1h, depending on the action, buffs etc. So to balance this for training instances, it should take up to 50-70 gold tokens to barter one and keep it in line of time spent, since training instances take just 5-10min depending on the class. But as I wrote DA content is old and we should have morgul crests for supremes option for pve players. RNG is good enough as solo option.

[Stephen1981]

DA daillies are still good for scrolls of empowerments specially if you do it on like 6 characters for example

[MithrilMinded]

DA daillies are still good for scrolls of empowerments specially if you do it on like 6 characters for example

yeah , but , i hear rummors that those dailis are being exploited by a bug ..so in one toon you can do it over and over again, and get all tokens you want in a day .....if this is true , i hope those ^&*s get banned...and ban for real if they were also banned before for exploiting essences

[Thaelon]

What? if freeps want to 'inc heal' their way out of creep debuffs, they must take certain classes and trait specs, its no less a choice that has to be made than creepside.

Really? Can you tell me a single freep healing class that is drastically affected by creep -inc healing debuffs(while in an optimal build)? Can you tell me a single freep healing class that has to go out of their way to trait to "inc heal" out of creep debuffs? Now can you tell me a single creep healing class that can do the same or have the same choices/tradeoffs to make?

It was a massive penalty to low and mid-ranked players, in a system that was already pitted against them considerably. It meant a player who could have been just as skilled/knowledgable, had all skills/corruptions would be a liability to a group if they'd only been playing on a given class/server/whatever for a shorter period of time and were mid-ranked, compared to someone who was a significantly more important member to their group simply for having been active on a specific character for a longer period of time to have r12+.

This sounds amazingly like LOTRO pvp back when rank meant something, back when people strived to rank up because it meant something, how exactly is this a problem? You spend more time on your character, you earn better combat advantages(morale/damage/inc heal/finesse), the only downside I can see is that new players have to work harder to achieve the same results but again, it all comes back to earning rank. Those players on r3 toons who are exactly the same skill as the players on r12 toons will get to r12, they will earn it and they will feel better for it, I feel like the only players who think that this is a bad idea are the ones who want to roll r0 toons and feel as powerful as their r12+ toons, which makes no sense to me, that casual logic, the sense of entitlement, as if just by logging onto a r0 toon, they have earned the ability to have everything in the game, MMOs don't(shouldn't) work like that, not in terms of the end game rewards.

As I've said many times, rank rewards should exist, but they should be in terms of minor buffs (the 1% dmg/morale/etc buffs fall here), convenience, and prestige items like skins. Making PvP essentially make or break in tough scenario's on a basis that has nothing to do with ability to play is silly.

You act as though 10% incoming healing is such a game changer than anybody below r12 can't get kills because of the struggle of incoming healing, this is not the case at all. Incoming healing is basically the same(albeit, different potency, same basis) as the morale/damage/finesse buffs on BFP yet I haven't seen you saying about how they should be removed from BFP because 10% morale and damage is too much of a difference between r3 and r13(I know that is not exactly the difference but you get my point), it seems that you(among others) only have a hate for inc heal being there, which I don't quite understand.

Easiest way to rectify the problem is to add 10-15% to aura of protection (and buff the already significantly worse Aura of Command while you're at it), and give defilers a traiting option to add another 10-15% buff to Fertile Slime, or maybe +5% incoming healing on the target for every active defiler HoT on them (non stacking from multiple sources)

Not only would this ruin most(warg being the only exception even though it would still be impacted) creep classes soloing ability but it would also put total reliance on using aura of protection in almost every group fight, effectively removing 25% damage(and -10% AD if it ever gets fixed, which I wouldn't see happening if this change went through) from melee creeps in those same group fights, so basically a nerf to creeps overall group effectiveness in order to give them a stat buff that they should have had already(on BFP).

[Stephen1981]

bigger issue with this change is how easy the greater essence of morale is obtain now vs. doing bbs and DA

[Almagnus1]

PvP Greater essences are fine as is, as that's the teal essences. These can't be upgraded with the crafting recipes (at the current point in time), so it's basically a way to get the gear built out with pure PvMP activity (which is how the audacity armor should work).

Orange Essences are PvE only, so if a PvMPer really wants to have the best gear possibly, they have got to go PvE for it.

It's fine as-is, and all you PvMP haters need to put a sock in it.

[pittcrew1]

PvP Greater essences are fine as is, as that's the teal essences.

Orange Essences are PvE only, so if a PvMPer really wants to have the best gear possibly, they have got to go PvE for it.

It's fine as-is, and all you PvMP haters need to put a sock in it.

Difference between teal and gold is extremely minimal, yet from purple to teal it's quite large, in comparison. Purple is the most common from DA trading, so it should be the same for PvMP. If you want to do T2C raids, you need as good stuff as PvP, and there's no good reason why it should take more effort to get the same stuff in either situation. We need more real testing in osgiliath, on live, to see how long they will actually take to get, we can only speculate currently, but it seems like it will be undoubtedly the easiest way to get morale essences, along with other valuable things, which are very desirable.

You seem like a PvE hater though, not respecting PvE needs. (I'm not approaching this as being entitled, I'm simply saying PvP'ers are seeming to be taking advantage of overcompensation for their gamestyle by not requesting it being nerfed. I request PvE stuff to be nerfed when it's an OP mechanic, and I will the same for PvP.)