Bullroarer Update 28 - Preview #3 CLOSED

[LordOfTheSquids]

Bullroarer is CLOSED
Thank you for your participation and feedback!

Server Closing Time (EXTENDED): Friday, 10/09 10:00 AM EDT (Subject to change)

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

War of the Three Peaks
Prince Durin, son of King Thorin Stonehelm, leads his armies to reclaim Gundabad, the Mountain-home of his people! As the Longbeards, Zhélruka, and Stout-axes assemble to lay siege to the great fortress, Orcs led by Gorgar the Ruthless, son of Bolg and brother of Mazog, meet them in battle -- the War of Three Peaks begins!

Amdân Dammul, the Bloody Threshold
"The final battle of the War of Three Peaks has begun. Prince Durin Stonehelmson of the Longbeards leads the Gabil'akkâ, a great host of united dwarves, to the very gates of Mount Gundabad. But Gorgar the Ruthless, son of Bolg, has one last surprise in store for those who would seek to usurp him...."

• Multi-tiered, 12-man Raid
• Discovery Deeds can be found through Javatar in the Eyes & Guard Tavern
• Tier 4 now available!

Shakalush, the Stair Battle
"It is on the stairs of Bagûd-mekhem, the Gate of Winds, that a decisive battle of the War of Three Peaks is to be fought. There, caught between those loyal to Gorgar the Ruthless and Hrímil Frost-heart, the Gabil'akkâ hope to deal a devastating blow to both of these forces in a single stroke."

• Multi-tiered 6-man instance
• Discovery Deeds can be found through Javatar in the Eyes & Guard Tavern
• Duo Mode is now properly bestowing

Elderslade: Missions
"You have received a summons from Agátur the Boastful to join him at the fortress of Skarháld in Ered Mithrin. The Longbeard Dwarves have called for all their friends and allies to proceed to Skarháld as soon as they are able. The time to retake Gundabad is at hand."

• Short, solo or duo scaleable instances
• Accessed through the Introductory Remote Bestowed quest or travel straight to Annâk-khurfu from several Stable-masters in major hubs
• Durin, the Dwarf in the basement of the Eyes & Guard Tavern, will also take you straight to Annâk-khurfu

Release Notes:
Instances:

• Shakalush, the Stair Battle - New 6 Player instance is now available for a first look.

Launcher:

• A checkbox marked 'Stay Logged in for 8 hours' can be found on the login page of the LOTRO Launcher. This feature preserves your user credentials between server logins, so you do not have to enter your username and password each time.

Classes:

• Fixed a bug that was preventing grayed out skills from being queued in rotations. Skills that were previously able to be queued regardless of their active state should once again be able to do so.
• Guardian
  
  • Cooldown for Thrill of Battle heal reduced to [20->8s].
  • Stoic bubble now provides damage reduction during its effect rather than a heal on expiration.
  • "Bellow" trait reduces Challenge cooldown by 5s per rank. Trait tooltip has been updated to reflect this.
  • Break Ranks now applies a group-wide buff rather than individual.
    
  • The skill is now triggered by Shield-taunt rather than Shield-smash.
    
  • This buff can only be triggered once every 60 seconds.
    
  • Fortification can now begin rebuilding immediately after being cashed out.
  
  
• Champion
  
  • Horn of Champions trait now has two tiers - the first grants the skill, the second makes it taunt.
  • Deafening Horn trait now only has one tier, which grants the full effect bonus to the skill (+40% dmg, +4 targets).
  
  
• Minstrel - Skill tooltip for Major Ballad (Resonance) fixed.
• Warden
  
  • Light-type Damage DoTs from the Warden Trait Set-Bonus "Martial Fury" have been re-worked to scale properly with the player's primary weapon.
  • Warden Skills Marked Target, Diminished Target, and Fire At Will are now categorized as Javelin Skills instead of Javelin Gambits
  • Warden Trait Set bonus "Makeshift Caltrops" will no longer affect enemies who are normally immune to Slowing effects.
  
  
• Rune-keeper
  
  • The Rune-keeper deed "The Prophetic Word" can now be advanced by the skilll "Scribe a New Ending".
  • Rune-keeper skill 'Scribe a New Ending' may be used while moving
  
  
• Lore-master: Tooltip for Lore-master trait set bonus "Fellowship Friend" has been updated to detail which buffs are offered by which pets. Additionally, the Eagle now gives the same buff as the Raven.
• Hunter: Trait "Strong Draw" affects only bow-skills, and its tooltip has been updated to reflect that.

Items:

• Slade-wrought (Tier6) and Lesser Slade-wrought (Tier 5) essences are now available from the Adventurer's Quartermaster and Adventurer's Steel-bound lootboxes.
• Filbert Fig has returned and has a new emote and several new housing decorations available for Figments of Splendour. Myrtle Mint has retired for the season. The cosmetics found in Steel-bound lootboxes have also rotated to those available from Filbert.
• The Legacy Replacement Scroll "Chill of Winter Damage" actually affects Frost damage. The item's description has been updated to reflect this
• The following Beorning armour sets have been converted from medium armour to heavy armour. Their appearances are unaffected. Armour of the Stag, Armour of the Beast of Glân Vraig, Armour of the Bulwark of Glân Vraig, Armour of the Thunderous Roar, Armour of the Osgiliath Claw, Armour of the Osciliath Hide, Armour of the Osgiliath Roar.
• Elderslade Supply Packs are now properly bound to account. Additionally, if you have the upgraded barter wallet, Elderslade Supply Packs will automatically go into your barter wallet, in the crafting category.
• Beorning Armour Set "Armour of the Stag" is now heavy armour. Its appearance is unaffected.
• Bubble effects (morale or power) applied by skills should now have priority over item applied bubbles, such that a bubble applied by a player skill can replace an existing bubble, but a bubble applied by an item (including consumables, usable items, and item set bonus triggers) will not replace a skill applied bubble (but can replace another item applied bubble). The Guardian Stoic bubble has been given an even higher priority, so it should not be replaced by any other bubble
• Tarnished Sigil of Gondor now goes in the Barter Wallet.
• Elite Wilderland Skirmisher's Helms have been renamed to Coifs to match their recipe name.
• Armour and Jewellery from Traveller's and Adventurer's Lootboxes will have a maximum of +2 possible item level bumps.
• Adventurer's gear, when opened at level 130, is now base item level 424, with the chance to create at up to item level 426.

Quests & Adventure Areas:

• Vales of Anduin: A phasing issue on the Carrock has been fixed between the quests History Etched in Stone and The Pact of Paws and Wings
• Fixed terrain texture issue in Cirith Ungol.
• Defeat in the Glimmerdeep will no longer send players to far east side of Ered Mithrin.
• A typo has been fixed in the quest, To the Last Drop.
• One of the dwarves became a little too buoyant during 'Instance: An Echo in the Mountains' and he has now been tethered to the floor.
• One of the Frost-horde drakes in Legacy of Durin Chapter 1 was using fire attacks instead of frost attacks. He has now cooled down.
• Lowered the hills surrounding the tower in the Eastfold neighborhood to improve the view.
• Avan Brocktull no longer looks like a monstrosity/partial invisible horror. His fellow townfolk are quite relieved he's on the mend.
• Z-fighting in Towers of the Teeth has been fixed.
• The front door of 8 Ridge Road in the Eastfold Homestead is no longer always open.
• Floating tree in Tal Bruinen has been removed.
• Visual issue in Durthang has been fixed.
• Floating rock in Imlad Balchorth has been removed.
• Town person buried in a planter in the Midsummer Houses of Healing has been removed.
• Milestone in Minas Tirith (Midsummer) no longer has custom text indicating it's in a different area.
• Door to the Great Southern Guesthouse in Minas Tirith (Midsummer) is now labelled.
• Physics added to reflecting pools in the Houses of Healing (Midsummer).
• Inaccessible quest item in Carchost is now accessible.
• Inaccessible resource node in Old Forest is now accessible.
• Grounded floating plow in the Shire.
• Cords of Love quest level has been set to 1 from 10.
• Sapphire Firefly Lanterns now has correct bug catching location name.
• Typo fixed in Amethyst Firefly Lanterns.
• Players will no longer be defeated by the invisible Smite Monster in Dar-garzag.
• Players can now escape an inescapable section of the River Isen.
• Death spot in Elf Allegiance Hall has been fixed.
• Stuck spot in northern Dor Amarth has been fixed.
• Death spot in Breetown has been fixed.

Misc:

• Property guards in the Rohan neighbourhood, Eastfold Hills, should no longer immediately disappear.
• Subscribers have access to a new War of Three Peaks VIP Rewards quest from Wenda Cranesbill. This quest will award a housing decoration that teleports to the Elderslade when used.
• Login times for characters with a lot of completed deeds should be significantly faster.
• Race and class info have been added to the character panel.
• For characters at level 130, your virtues can now go up to tier 72.
• Added binding warnings to essence socketing dialogs, and made the dialogs modal and non-suppressible.
• The Curator now offers for barter Pet Bridles and Steed Harnesses for creating housing decorations from your skills.
• The Embers of Enchantment received for disenchanting armour and jewellery dropped in Minas Morgul Instances, War of Three Peaks Instances, and Askâd-mazal, the Chamber of Shadows has been halved.
• Removed a red-berry bush from inside of a mallorn tree for quest Stark Colours, Fixed a typo in quest Chief of the Invaders.
• Added a toggle button to the Trait Configuration panel for displaying Trait Specialisation information.

PREVIEW ONLY:

• DocOctoport in the Eyes & Guard Tavern basement will now teleport you to Rushgate, at the border between the Wells of Langflood and Elderslade.
• Trotter in the Eyes and Guard Tavern has some new housing decorations.
• Dust in the Eyes and Guard tavern will now barter carry-alls in exchange for mithril coins to facilitate testing. The "Junk" carry-alls are new, should hold non-task trophy drops from defeated mobs, and we would appreciate bugs and feedback on them. The IXP rune carry-alls are an experiment and not ready for bugs or feedback, but you may use them for testing convenience at your own risk.
• Budgeford in the Eyes & Guard Tavern now sells an E&G Tavern War of Three Peaks Relic Pack. When deconstructed, you will receive 21 assorted relics (Settings, Gems, Runes, and Devices) appropriate for level 130 characters. This includes Elderslade Devices, Elderslade and Threshold DPS/HPS Runes, and Darkened Remmorchant Settings, Runes & Gems.
• Javatar in the Eyes & Guard Tavern now has instance discovery deed completions for the Boody Threshold and the Stair Battle.
• Penfold in the Eyes & Guard Tavern
  
  • Will now complete Bloody Threshold Raid deeds and offer Bloody Threshold Raid gear for barter. Note: gear, when bartered, will be at its base ilevel (and does not receive the ilevel bumps from higher tier instance runs).
  • Has gear from Shakalush, the Stair Battle available for barter once you have completed tier 2 of the instance. Note: gear, when bartered, will be at its base ilevel (and does not receive the ilevel bumps from higher tier instance runs).
  • Has a few more Bloody Threshold barter lists, including some tier 3 deed gated lists. Various pieces of raid gear have been redistribued amongst those lists, and the tier 1 lists have gained some items cross-listed from the 6 person instance rewards.
  • NOTE: Any characters that already did the Threshold Raid Deeds Levelup quest probably won't have the tier3 deed (and that is not a repeatable quest) to barter for the gear. Since it is bind to account - players can make a Tavern leveled up alt to do the raid deed quest and then barter for the gear on their main.

[Rimenuir]

The Embers of Enchantment received for disenchanting armour and jewellery dropped in Minas Morgul Instances, War of Three Peaks Instances, and Askâd-mazal, the Chamber of Shadows has been halved.

This is a joke right?

[gildhur]

• Race and class info have been added to the character panel.

Can you add Outgoing Healing next? It's the only stat still not listed in any way.

[Bragolos]

'War of the three peaks - Coming soon!'

Yeah, I know, impatience because BR has not opened yet, and yeah, I know, continuation of the Epic Dwarves quests won't be on BR just as Black Book wasn't on BR, but with all of the release notes not mentioning anything new: are there Missions, or new Landscape content, in this BR Update 28 build? Or will this be the smallest first BR build from an official update to the game ever?

UPDATE: I now see the name 'Elderslade' pop up somewhere in the notes. Guess there'll be the expected landscape region after all. And 'Bloody Treshold' will be the new raid. But I guess that one won't be in this first build.

[Bragolos]

So, this one is new (after playing for 10 years): I start the updated cliënt and try to log in the usual way, and the cliënt then just exits. No sign, no backlog in Windows processes, nothing.... anyone else having this problem?

[wispsong]

May I ask why we have another virtue level increase. We had a nice number up to 130 (half of cap) Since the last update it is getting out of hand again. This is getting as ridiculous as the ILI. Just when I thought I'm done with my 5 and can concentrate on secondaries on my main. None of my other characters at cap are even close. In case you don't know, some of us like to play different races and classes without having to do every deed and weekly to be able to play.

[Elmagor]

'War of the three peaks - Coming soon!'

Yeah, I know, impatience because BR has not opened yet, and yeah, I know, continuation of the Epic Dwarves quests won't be on BR just as Black Book wasn't on BR, but with all of the release notes not mentioning anything new: are there Missions, or new Landscape content, in this BR Update 28 build? Or will this be the smallest first BR build from an official update to the game ever?

UPDATE: I now see the name 'Elderslade' pop up somewhere in the notes. Guess there'll be the expected landscape region after all. And 'Bloody Treshold' will be the new raid. But I guess that one won't be in this first build.

Map of new location already leaked. Yes, it's elderslade

[zaboch]

Release Notes:
Classes:

• Guardian - Cooldown for Thrill of Battle heal reduced to [20->8s].
• Guardian - Stoic bubble now provides damage reduction during its effect rather than a heal on expiration.
• Guardian - Break Ranks now applies a group-wide buff rather than individual.
  
• The skill is now triggered by Shield-taunt rather than Shield-smash.
  
• This buff can only be triggered once every 60 seconds.
  
• Fortification can now begin rebuilding immediately after being cashed out.
• Guardian - "Bellow" trait reduces Challenge cooldown by 5s per rank. Trait tooltip has been updated to reflect this.
  

What? Is this really it?

Thrill of Battle is the worst heal self-heal in the game, far too conditional and way too insignificant. Remove the cooldown entirely.
Stoic Bubble changes are a step in the right direction, but what's the magnitude? Is it directly tied to the bubble or is it a separate buff applied alongside the bubble?
Break Ranks:

• Please, no. Not on Shield Taunt, make it a separate skill as it was asked, Shield-Taunt (and Smash) are very useful in a rotation and it's far too detrimental to exclude them from it. We'd basically end up as RK 1.5 during C&R with this.
• Cooldown of 60 seconds is way too long. 30-45s would be a lot better.
• Fortification stacks is amazing change, however. Means that we won't be without stacks for too long.
• What's the buff magnitude?
• And once again, make it a separate skill, please. It can't be that hard.

"Bellow" currently doesn't reduce CD like that.

• Rank 1: 10 seconds (60 -> 50)
• Rank 2: 5 seconds (50 -> 45)
• Rank 3: 5 seconds (45 -> 40)
• Rank 4: 5 seconds (40 -> 35)
• Rank 5: 5 seconds (35 -> 30)

With this change, Guardian's Challenge CD would gain an extra 5 seconds. Not complaining, I welcome the change actually, just something to keep in mind and might have to update tooltips accordingly.

IPlease, look into Red and Yellow traits, there have been plenty of suggestions over the past few months and would be nice we get an actual rework rather than....just this.

[TexanHobbit]

So, this one is new (after playing for 10 years): I start the updated cliënt and try to log in the usual way, and the cliënt then just exits. No sign, no backlog in Windows processes, nothing.... anyone else having this problem?

I was having same problem - are you set to 64 bit? I can not get 64 bit to work - 32 is fine

[Naranor]

For characters at level 130, your virtues can now go up to tier 72.

It's wonderful change, we all like virtues system, but please remove game advantages from it. Stars(or something like this) near character portrait will be ok.

[Bragolos]

Map of new location already leaked. Yes, it's elderslade

Ahh found it, thanks. Looks a bit small?? Gues we'll see.

[Bragolos]

I was having same problem - are you set to 64 bit? I can not get 64 bit to work - 32 is fine

Thanks for the tip, now I'm in! Guess this is our first bug report then, 64 bit cliënt not working .

[SuperPowers]

I hope you guys are thinking of a stat cap increase with all this new gold jewellery and gear that is coming with the new expansion and the insane values from the new maxed virtues - I assume its bugged because the values are insanely high-, otherwwhise you really have no idea what you are doing.

[OghranNasty]

May I ask why we have another virtue level increase. We had a nice number up to 130 (half of cap) Since the last update it is getting out of hand again. This is getting as ridiculous as the ILI. Just when I thought I'm done with my 5 and can concentrate on secondaries on my main. None of my other characters at cap are even close. In case you don't know, some of us like to play different races and classes without having to do every deed and weekly to be able to play.

But you don't have to.
I capped my five on three cap or near cap toons by completing explorer deeds and maybe a few nearly completed slayers and similar low hanging fruit.

[Elmagor]

May I ask why we have another virtue level increase. We had a nice number up to 130 (half of cap) Since the last update it is getting out of hand again. This is getting as ridiculous as the ILI. Just when I thought I'm done with my 5 and can concentrate on secondaries on my main. None of my other characters at cap are even close. In case you don't know, some of us like to play different races and classes without having to do every deed and weekly to be able to play.

Because many players already have virtues on cap (they complete daily/weekly quests)

[Gorikon]

Guardian - Cooldown for Thrill of Battle heal reduced to [20->8s].

Thrill of Battle is the worst heal self-heal in the game, far too conditional and way too insignificant. Remove the cooldown entirely.

Thrill of Battle got an internal cooldown because Whirling Retaliation could proc it multiple times (if three hits crit, three times the healing). God knows why it got an 20 seconds cooldown, that change totally destroyed it. Someone suggested 0.5 seconds internal cooldown, so it could proc once per skill, I'd vote for that. I agree 8 seconds cooldown are still too long.

Guardian - Break Ranks [...] is now triggered by Shield-taunt rather than Shield-smash.

Break Ranks:
Please, no. Not on Shield Taunt, make it a separate skill as it was asked, Shield-Taunt (and Smash) are very useful in a rotation and it's far too detrimental to exclude them from it. We'd basically end up as RK 1.5 during C&R with this.
[...]
And once again, make it a separate skill, please. It can't be that hard.

Fully agree here. It is bad design to tie an effect that is only wanted in certain situations to a skill you wanna use freely.

[MaxHunter]

No race changes yet??????

[Moskva]

And where is the improvement of racial skills? + 100 rage and to heal yourself with this up to 6k is somehow ridiculous when I have 350k on a bear ... You completely forgot about these skills !!! Why have they forgotten about LM again? Can't you give him anything new? Petomtsev new for example ... and new problems with the update will be? You can not change traditions, each new update with new lags and bugs)

[wispsong]

Because many players already have virtues on cap (they complete daily/weekly quests)

Most players have all virtues capped? Good for them, then they don't have to worry about that for an update.

I think you don't understand the concern here. New content already is harder without maxed ILIs, virtues and essences. It is impossible if the ILIs didn't get any enhancements. Now virtues are added to the mix with tremendous growth. How big of an advantage do capped players need to have compared to those of us who just want to play through the landscape story and not be stuck in repetitive, boring content.

[cbfan14]

So the damage reduction from stoic is apparently -20% incoming melee, ranged, and tactical damage for 15s; it's not bad, but I think the buff needs to last longer. I agree with others that break ranks needs to be its own skill so it doesn't interfere with our tanking. Thrill of Battle to 8s is pointless, I almost wish the trait would just be replaced entirely with something else.

[zaboch]

Thrill of Battle got an internal cooldown because Whirling Retaliation could proc it multiple times (if three hits crit, three times the healing). God knows why it got an 20 seconds cooldown, that change totally destroyed it. Someone suggested 0.5 seconds internal cooldown, so it could proc once per skill, I'd vote for that. I agree 8 seconds cooldown are still too long.

I am well aware, and guess what? It was still completely useless as it made very little impact on the healing potential of the 95-115 Guardian. I have some parses in the back that I'd have to dig up, but overwhelmingly it was POTW and Thrill of Danger, followed by a very small amount by TOB and old CAB.
Compare it to Champs Kill Streak/Blade of Courage, it's completely outmatched. Hence, even if they removed the CD, it's pretty terrible.

Just make it a 5% critical chance trait and be done with it.

[Elmagor]

Most players have all virtues capped? Good for them, then they don't have to worry about that for an update.

I think you don't understand the concern here. New content already is harder without maxed ILIs, virtues and essences. It is impossible if the ILIs didn't get any enhancements. Now virtues are added to the mix with tremendous growth. How big of an advantage do capped players need to have compared to those of us who just want to play through the landscape story and not be stuck in repetitive, boring content.

It's not harder. If players don't care about their LI, gear, essences, virtues, developers want to make them care about it. Because if they never change any caps in favor of slackers, they lose all active players who have nothing to do and don't have any reasons to buy new content

[Laurelinarien]

Any chance you guys can sweeten the Missions Deed rewards? 2k VXP and a title seems lackluster for completing all 80.. even tho I've noticed so far they're very short... Unless I'm missing something.

Also, the (motes - hope it's embers) rewards values from the dailies & weekly missions wrapper, imo could use an update too..

[ApacheBrave]

Is there any work being done on Monster play Characters? The WarLeader for one still does 2k damage auto-attacks to slugs with a 41% boost to attack damage

[wispsong]

It's not harder. If players don't care about their LI, gear, essences, virtues, developers want to make them care about it. Because if they never change any caps in favor of slackers, they lose all active players who have nothing to do and don't have any reasons to buy new content

Content is not easier with maxed everything? Really? So I can do as much dps, have as many mitigations and as much morale as you with free level IlIs and virtue values around 50? And soon I won't have any reason to buy new content because I can't play it. Easy solution to all this dilemma, reinstitute new weapons every update, then everybody has something to go for and nobody is disadvantaged due to gear.