A Letter from Orion – January 2024

The calendar turns, and 2023 moves behind us. We welcome the New Year with grace and humility. We are about to celebrate LotRO's 17th year with no sign of slowing down on the horizon.

At the outset of 2023, we provided our first roadmap for the game and the lofty goals we dreamed of achieving. It was an aggressive set of objectives preparing the game for a long and fruitful future. We did well getting to the core elements of the roadmap. In some areas, our ambitions overreached our ability. In other areas, we surpassed our expectations. It was also a successful year as we sang shanties aboard our ships as we sailed to Umbar.

For 2024, our approach is providing more content and an additional hobby to continue your exploration and enjoyment of Middle-earth.

We want to ensure that our communication is clear and open as it can be. In the image below, you will see our quarterly roadmap with clever and tantalizing verbiage to whet your appetite for the coming year!



Winter of 2024 sees the conclusion and release of all content related to Corsairs of Umbar, the addition of delvings to the Elderslade missions, and an enhancement to the Delving system we are calling Epic Malices. Gives you the chills just reading it, right?

As we move into the revelry of spring and the celebration of 17 years of The Lord of the Rings Online, we return with a content pack featuring time-released quests as you become further embroiled with the Kindred of the Coin and their plans. We'll also make some of the landscape creatures a little more compelling to encounter and fight.

As spring turns to summer, we introduce a new hobby and provide updates to classes, monster play, and introduce the fourth profession. We are also planning an update to Elf avatars and a refresh of our VIP systems.

In the autumn, we will release a new expansion pack that takes us east of Umbar Baharbêl visiting four new zones, encountering a new culture, exploring the waste and a vast complex that serves as the staging ground for the instances and raid included with the expansion pack. Outside of the expansion, we intend to make some crucial changes to the kinship system expanding the role, importance, and value of kinships.

It is a New Year! We are all very excited about the future, what lies ahead, and how we carry this cadence of releases into the future.

As always, I remain Orion.

Here are the release notes for Update 38.0.1, released on Wednesday, November 15th, 2023.


Adventurer's and Traveller's Steel-bound lootboxes contain new "Harmonious" cosmetic items including avatar cosmetics, a steed, and matching war-steed appearances, a falcon cosmetic pet, plus new housing items including a falcon perch, miniature tree, miniature tree in winter, and planter in spring. These items are also available on Rowan Raspberry for Figments of Splendour!

Adventurer's and Traveller's Steel-bound lootboxes also now contain a Sea-side Sand-lurker cosmetic pet and three macaque-themed housing items. These items are not available to barter with Rowan.
Some older avatar cosmetics and steeds have been moved off of Rowan Raspberry and onto the Curator.


New rewards and a reset track have arrived! Rewards include a Sculpture Garden with Elvish Pavilion, a Tome of the Young Moose, a Tome of the Frost Tusk Youngling, and a Red Painted Skeleton Mount.

• The red line version of "Catch a Breath" now properly advances relevant deeds.

• Ingredient requirements for many Umbar crafting recipes have been adjusted. In most cases this reduces the amount of ingredients required for crafting. This change also removed the requirement for Red Sea-stones to craft uncommon gear, and standardized the number of Red Sea-stones required for rare gear across professions.
  
• The Crafting category for instruments is now "Instruments" instead of "Minstrel Instruments" since there are now Mariner instruments.
  
• Craftsfolk Branda Rumble, Birrungur Blacksteel, Tralli Hammerfist, and Giles Chadwick have remembered their names.
  
• Crafted Umbari Crossbows are now using their proper DPS tables.

• Adventurer's Lootboxes opened at level 141 and higher now correctly give their proper level 141 Sea-faring Adventurer's Humble Essence Box instead of level 140 Delving Adventurer's Lively Essence Boxes.
  
• The following cosmetic pet tomes can now properly be acquired via barter, even after you have learned the cosmetic pet skill they grant: Tome of the Light Grey Goat, Tome of the Coffee Goat, Tome of the Burgundy Goat, and Tome of the Dark Grey Squirrel.
  
• Umbari scholar battle scrolls are now available from the Umbar reputation faction Quartermaster.
  
• Older items now disenchant for their proper rewards.
  
• Overseer, the Hiddenhoard Raid Reward Vendor now accepts Motes of Enchantment rather than Embers of Enchantment to exchange a piece of Hiddenhoard gear for a piece from a different set.
  
• Skirmish soldiers have had some of their broken scaling progressions fixed that caused them to have abnormally low stats in the mid-levels.

• Malavin, the Angmarim Emissary to the Ettenmoors has leveled up to match the baddies around her.
  
• The new Ettenmoors food and buff scroll effects are now properly removed when leaving the Ettenmoors. Note they should not be removed if you simply relog or lose connection within the bounds of the Ettenmoors.

• Fixed an issue with Umbar Task quests so they are available again.
  
• The Interlude quest in Chapter 7 of "The Song of Waves and Wind" is once again available.
  
• The Quest Guide now properly shows you how to reach the Hall of Lady Vanyalos in Chapter 2.1 of "The Song of Waves and Wind".
  
• Fixed an issue with the Bounty: Proto-Huorn quest so it is once again available.
  
• Mariners can now properly open rewards from the Minas Tirith Epic Battle.
  
• Some missing voice over audio has been added.
  
• Characters across King's Gondor West, Outer Gondor, Shield Isles, and Umbar who were using random appearances have been fixed.
  
• The Sure-striding Ram in Pinnath Gelin will now be level 144 and drop appropriate materials. Some other mobs in King's Gondor West have also been adjusted to level 141 or 142 (up from level 140).

• Translations have been updated.

Here are the release notes for Update 38: Corsairs of Umbar, released on Wednesday, November 8th, 2023. 



Face the Rising Tide of the Kindred's Power! Unfurl the sails and brace yourself for the intoxicating rush of adventure as you approach the enigmatic shores of Umbar! Feel the sea's salt kiss your face and the promise of untold tales beckon from the horizon. Here, in the heart of the City of the Corsairs, dark-bannered vessels whisper of legendary raids alongside the Kindred of the Coin's power plays. With King Elessar's mandate in your heart, rally a crew of old friends and newfound allies. Dive headfirst into the dangerous shores of Umbar, find your sea legs with the new innovative Mariner class, and reclaim the spirit of discovery in lands that LOTRO has never ventured before!

• Find Your Sea-legs With The Mariner
  
• Chart your own course with the Mariner, slashing through foes with slick swordplay, belting out rousing sea-shanties, and pulling off crafty moves that'll have enemies spinning in confusion.
  
• Explore the Shores of Umbar
  
• Discover the bustling Corsair haven, where sun-kissed shores meet the shadows of dark-bannered ships, and tales of legendary raids echo through its vibrant ports.
  [*[b]] Fight Fierce New Enemies

[/b]

From the striking coastlines of Outer Gondor to the sandy stretches of The Shield Isles, untold dangers and formidable adversaries lie in wait!

Over 350 Unique Quests

Venture deep into Umbar's heart, navigating political intrigues and ancient mysteries, as the formidable Kindred of the Coins rise, threatening the fragile peace King Elessar and Queen Arwen have fought so hard to achieve.

Unique End Game Content

Charge into an increased level 150 cap, dive into pulse-pounding instances, and gain access to an exciting new raid; prepare for an adventure like no other!

Get More with Collector’s and Ultimate Fan Bundles

Unlock the ultimate seafaring experience with unique cosmetics, pets, and extra expedition supplies today!

[/list]

Learn more about Corsairs of Umbar on LOTRO.com!

Corsairs of Umbar features content for level 140 to 150 characters and continues the story of "The Song of Waves and Wind"! Players can start the previously-released Chapter 1 of "The Song of Waves and Wind" or acquire the newly-released Chapter 2 of the story by speaking with Glindor in Minas Tirith (Midsummer). Completion of Chapter 1 is required to begin Chapter 2. Access new landscapes and other content in Corsairs of Umbar by traveling through Linhir, in Dor-en-ernil, in King's Gondor. A dock-master network is available between all of the major harbors of King's Gondor (Pelargir, Dol Amroth), Outer Gondor (Lond Cirion), Shield Isles (Halrax) and Umbar Barharbel. 

• Player melee skill ranges have been normalized. This means most damaging melee skills should now have the same range across classes, though there are some exceptions.
  
• In light of this change, many persistent, harmful ground effects throughout the game have been reduced in size.
  
• In general, targeted melee skills should now have a max range of 4 meters.
  
• Area of Effect melee skills should have a max range of 5 meters.
  
• The tooltips for Critical Results in the Crafting Panel are not displaying properly for all items.  This is a display issue only.  A critical success result of a recipe will have a higher item level and stats than the base result. Beornings now gain 1 meter of extra melee range in Bear Form, down from 2 meters.
  
• Brawler's Melee Range tracery has been changed and now increases Aggressive Posture's Damage bonus.
  
• Some Area of Effect skills have had their base number of targets increased.
  
• Beorning
  
• The Beorning barter vendor has been returned the the Ox-clan Merchant Camp to trade for Orthanc instance cluster equipment.
  
• Updated Beorning rewards in older instances to replace existing medium armour rewards with heavy armour and relevant jewellery rewards.
  
• A number of Beorning skills had errant knockback effects on them. Only Final Strike and Savage Knockdown should now have knockback effects.
  
• Composure is now affected by the blue-line trait Animalistic.
  
• Counterattack now consumes the 'recently evaded' effect gained from Evades while Counter is active. This will allow you to re-gain that effect thereafter, rather than timing out after a fixed duration.
  
• Counter increases Evade chance by 15% while active (increased from 10%).
  
• Burglar
  
• Provoke's cooldown has been reduced by two seconds.
  
• Brawler
  
• Battle flow description fixed to show the correct bonus, and indicate that it applies to all skill damage.
  
• Captain
  
• Most damaging Captain skill now generate additional threat while specialized in the Leader of Men.
  
• Impactful Blows once again increase weapon damage by up to 10%.
  
• Shadow's Lament's cooldown has been reduced by five seconds.
  
• Champion
  
• While specialized in the Martial Champion, most damaging Champion skills will now generate additional threat.
  
• Hunter
  
• Emergency Preparation traps now deal their correct damage when triggered.
  
• Lore-master
  
• Some tracery titles have been changed to refer to 'Air Lore' rather than 'Charged Air' for clarity.
  
• Burning Embers can now deal partial pulses, so you won't lose damage when upgrading or downgrading Embers.
  
• Mariner
  
• Flèche no longer moves your player character. Ultimately, the movement was simply not smooth enough on the live servers.
  
• Increased the potency of traits which impact your healing potential.
  
• Increased the potency of the Critical Defence debuff from the North Wind.
  
• When traited in the Rover line enough to access 'Explosive Lunge' the cooldown of Lunge has been corrected so that it only increases to a minute when used directly after Debilitating Strike.
  
• Salt-sea blade no longer erroneously benefits from bonuses to 'Advance' damage.
  
• Resistance chance now works as expected for Mariner thrown/potion skills.
  
• Fire Potion damage over time pulses now have their correct critical chance.
  
• Rune-keeper
  
• Concession & Rebuttal is now a combat-only skill.
  
• Concession & Rebuttal description no longer states that it has an attunement requirement.

• Generic monster ranged attacks now have no minimum distance from the player that they are allowed to execute.  
  
• Finesse now modifies partial b/p/e damage reduction.
  
• Fix for monster power scaling -- Low level monsters were running out of power too quickly.

• Vocations have been removed in favor of allowing players to train professions individually. Existing professions should not be impacted by these changes. Players will retain currently trained professions, as well as any progress and guild memberships associated with those professions. See a Profession Trainer to train a new profession or swap an existing profession.
  
• Hard Biscuits and Superior Hard Biscuits now correctly share the same out of combat Morale regeneration rate. 
  
• Trout and other fish used as crafting ingredients can now be put into crafting carryalls. 
  
• Crit crafted heal potions had heal values similar to non-crit, these have been improved.
  
• Crafted Mariner Instruments and their recipes have been added to appropriate recipe scroll cases and vendors throughout the game.
  
• Housing and Decorations
  
• Adding Angmarim Greenhouse Decorative Walls to Angmar Reborn Barter Vendor.
  
• Adjusting prices of all Angmarim Decorative Walls to match (15 tokens).
  
• Instances and Skirmishes
  
• Player morale is now fully restored on login or on entering/leaving instances.
  
• The Featured Instance rotation has been updated to include: Glinghant, Haudh Valandil, Woe of the Willow, Agoroth, the Narrowdelve, Stoneheight, and Ost Dunhoth - Gortheron Wing.
  
• Draigoch's health has been increased by about 3x. Despite most values being reduced in the stat crunch, Fellowship Maneuvers actually gained potency, and Draigoch's stat crunch health reduction did not take that into account.
  
• Items
  
• Gear Essence Slotting
  
• As of U38 gear may feature a Primary essence slot, a Vital essence slot, and regular essence slots.
  
• A Primary essence slot can accept 'Main Stat' essences, allowing you to adapt a piece of gear to provide Might, Agility, or Will as needed to suit your build. If present, it will generally be replacing the existing main stat on a gear piece.
  
• A Vital essence slot can accept Vitality, Fate, Morale, or Power affecting essences. If present it will usually be replacing the Vitality score on a gear piece.
  
• Regular essence slots accept all the standard gear Essences. Their frequency/number should be similar to current gear.
  
• The goal of the Primary slot is to make it possible for players to easily customize gear to use whatever mainstat they feel they require to suit their build, regardless of armor type.
  
• The goal of the Vital slot is to allow flexibility in how players weigh vitality and power outlays, while also limiting Vitality stacking - it also ensures that Beornings in particular should never be stuck with Power related stats they cannot use.
  
• Essence Values
  
• The stat value of a standard essence slot, as well as the value of an essence itself, is being reduced. This means that more of the overall value of the gear will appear on its inherent stats, and a smaller percentage of the overall gear value will be found in its essence slots.
  
• Critical Rating
  
• The Critical Ratings of gear/traits/effects have been increased.
  
• The cap on Critical Rating increased.
  
• Critical Magnitude cap was reduced.
  
• This has the effect of making it a little more difficult to achieve the Critical Chance cap, but will increase player's Dev Crit, and Crit Magnitude rates and make capping those easier if you choose to pursue that goal.
  
• Armor Values
  
• Base armor values on gear in the level 150 band will be somewhat lower than prior ones, as heavy armor characters in particular could quickly cap their Physical Mitigation even at modest gearing levels.
  
• Shields have been dinged more than the rest of the gear, as they had a particularly high value - though shield tanks should be able to ultimately cap their physical mitigation values on armor alone, it will be at a significantly higher average ilevel.
  
• The benefits granted to any given class from Agility, Fate, Might, Vitality, and Will have all been updated to help balance classes and itemization.
  
• The primary stat for each class (Agility/Might/Will) should still provide the most benefit for the class, but the other two stats should still be appealing for some roles available to the class.
  
• With the changes to all classes in the utility of agility, might, and will, stats on the following items have been adjusted accordingly: 
  
• Leather Riding Leggings, Dorchol, Earring of the Dead City, Fateful Gundabad Earring, Flowing Silver Stone, Flowing Silver Stone of the Tortoise, and the Fleet Merchant's Earring
  
• Stats on many Wayfarer's and Traveller's gear items were adjusted to align with current standards.
  
• Adventurer's gear at level 141 and higher also has new statting.
  
• A few cosmetic and functional improvements to the tracery and essence socketing user interface have been added.   Legendary items sockets now show their levels when a tracery is not socketed.  The UI is now scalable in the horizontal direction to help with crowding of tracery names and descriptions.  Some erroneous messaging regarding traceries has been corrected.
  
• Potion vendors have been updated with level 150 PDFW removal draughts and salves.
  
• In light of changes to enhancement runes, many scaling instances now reward less rare enhancement runes than before.
  
• The level 50 class armour sets available from class trainers in the Last Homely House for Marks are now bound to account, rather than bind on equip.
  
• The currency cap for Marks of Renewal has been increased to 750.

• Fixed a typo in Mission: The Zhelruka Clan.
  
• Mission Weekly Quests have been updated to go up to level 150.
  
• NOTE: Upon the release of "Corsairs of Umbar", all Mission Weekly Quests that are underway will be reset.

• Monster players now have a trait slot for Tribe Traits.
  
• The Incoming Damage reduction from Akúlhun's Challenge and Lainedhal's Call to Arms has been significantly reduced.
  
• Troll and Ranger session player characters in the Ettenmoors now have an inherent -50% Incoming Damage effect.
  
• Orc Defiler:
  
• Sticky Feet and Improved Sticky Feet debuff durations have been increased by 5 seconds.
  
• The Improved Sticky Feet debuff no longer stacks; it can now only be applied once per target, and will refresh its duration if reapplied early.
  
• Sticky Feet's Fire Mitigation debuff has been reduced from 5% to 2%.
  
• Sticky Feet's Tactical Mitigation debuff has changed from a rating value to a 5% reduction.
  
• Uruk Warleader:
  
• The radius of Uruk banners has been significantly reduced.
  
• Monster Play characters can revisit Tribe representative NPCs at Gramsfoot to obtain Blessing traits.
  
• PvMP Essences are now correctly Bound to Account.
  
• Ettenmoors bartered consumables (food, hope, scrolls) now require Tracker's Badges or Soldier's Patches in addition to commendations, but provide effects with equivalent potency to matching consumables obtained outside of the Ettenmoors.
  
• Ettenmoors stun- and root-breaking potions bought for gold now cost 3% of your max morale, rather than a fixed cost of 500.

• Rohan Housing Stable-masters are now properly displayed on the Radar and Maps again.
  
• The turn in for quest "Of Stars and Blossoms" now has the correct quest guide and map rings.
  
• Physics have been removed from the chests for the Sant Lhoer 3-man instances. Players will no longer be displaced by chests showing up.
  
• The Sant Lhoer 3-man boss Tarkka-oka will no longer sit idly by while you attack his Keeper.
  
• Kholnedak's appearance has been fixed so that she looks correct.
  
• Applying salve to scarred trees during the quest "The Ravages of the Taurgrim" will now say, "Applying..." instead of "Examining..."
  
• Fixed a typo in the skirmish "Siege of Gondamon."
  
• Floating crates and NPCs in the quest "Marked for Export" have been grounded.
  
• During quest "Delivery to Meregrot North-took" Rosalinda will no longer tell you the basket is on a table next to her.
  
• Physics have been removed from Orkish Weapon Caches in Tharbad.
  
• The location for Sterkist has been corrected for the turnin for the quest "Scattered in the Forest."
  
• Kholnedák and Dingási are no longer wearing the same outfits and looking similar.
  
• The map guide for the quest "Release the Hounds" has been fixed.
  
• Patrols for healers in the House of Healing during the wedding season have been fixed.
  
• A quest objective for the quest 'Fortifying Crithost' has been moved out from underneath a rock for better access.
  
• Lossi in Annak-khurfu's VO has been changed to reflect his Iron Hills background.
  
• The Poisoned Dwarves in Azanulbizar have been given proper lines to express thanks for the antidote.
  
• Fixed a T-posing irritated Zhelruka Dwarf.
  
• Physics has been removed from numerous grub and mushroom quest objects in Mattugard.
  
• Uluithiad will now say one less "the" than the "the"s he was "the"ing before.
  
• Increased player damage and ally health slightly in the session play 'Remembering Thrymm'.
  
• Orcs in the Moria Halls of Crafting instance are no longer excited about falling into the abyss.
  
• Door naming issues in Midsummer Minas Tirith have been resolved.
  
• Problematic Fish in the Brandy Hills are no longer problematic. They know what they did.
  
• Misc Floating Objects have been grounded.
  
• Misc Missing Physics issues have been resolved.

• Adds a higher quality "DX10 Dynamic Shadows" setting. The current "VeryHigh" will be renamed to "High" and a new "VeryHigh" option will replace it with the following improvements:
  
• Increases distance that shadows are rendered to bridge the gap between the dynamic shadows and farview baked shadow maps.
  
• Adds terrain to the shadow casters list.
  
• Increases shadow map resolution to reduce pixelization.
  
• Stat tomes now offer a smoother progression of bonuses from level to level.
  
• /listen is now useable while mounted.

Update 37.2 Release Notes

Here are the release notes for Update 37.2, released on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023.

Of Special Note:


Face the Rising Tide of the Kindred's Power! Unfurl the sails and brace yourself for the intoxicating rush of adventure as you approach the enigmatic shores of Umbar! Feel the sea's salt kiss your face and the promise of untold tales beckon from the horizon. Here, in the heart of the City of the Corsairs, dark-bannered vessels whisper of legendary raids alongside the Kindred of the Coin's power plays. With King Elessar's mandate in your heart, rally a crew of old friends and newfound allies. Dive headfirst into the dangerous shores of Umbar, find your sea legs with the new innovative Mariner class, and reclaim the spirit of discovery in lands that LOTRO has never ventured before!

• Find Your Sea-legs With The Mariner
  
• Chart your own course with the Mariner, slashing through foes with slick swordplay, belting out rousing sea-shanties, and pulling off crafty moves that'll have enemies spinning in confusion.
  
• Explore the Shores of Umbar
  
• Discover the bustling Corsair haven, where sun-kissed shores meet the shadows of dark-bannered ships, and tales of legendary raids echo through its vibrant ports.
  
• Fight Fierce New Enemies
  
• From the striking coastlines of Outer Gondor to the sandy stretches of The Shield Isles, untold dangers and formidable adversaries lie in wait!
  
• Over 350 Unique Quests
  
• Venture deep into Umbar's heart, navigating political intrigues and ancient mysteries, as the formidable Kindred of the Coins rise, threatening the fragile peace King Elessar and Queen Arwen have fought so hard to achieve.
  
• Unique End Game Content
  
• Charge into an increased level 150 cap, dive into pulse-pounding instances, and gain access to an exciting new raid; prepare for an adventure like no other!
  
• Get More with Collector’s and Ultimate Fan Bundles
  
• Unlock the ultimate seafaring experience with unique cosmetics, pets, and extra expedition supplies today!

Learn more about Corsairs of Umbar on LOTRO.com!

• Mariners are confident melee fighters who wield swords deftly to challenge the forces of evil. Mariners have an innate sense of the flow of combat, and use their balance to adjust their fighting style to best fit the moment. Mariners also know how to use combinations of individual movements to create powerful skill chains. In fellowships, Mariners can use shanties to coordinate and motivate their allies, as well as craft strange concoctions to confound and disrupt foes.
  
• Balance - Mariner's use a forward-backward system called Balance. In that system, your three main states are 'Aftward' 'Steady' and 'Foreward.' You will default to a 'Steady' state, and the skills you use will push your balance Foreward or Aftward. Watch out, though! If you find yourself too far to either end of the balance spectrum, you become unbalanced, and will need to quickly move back towards Steady, lest you find yourself penalized for remaining off-balance.
  
• Swordplay - Mariners are practiced melee combatants, and their swordplay skills can be used to create chains of skill combos. Every individual swordplay skill will give you a short buff of your 'last used' swordplay skill, which will enhance one or more other swordplay skills. For example, using 'Thrust' will improve Step-back or Advance, if you use one of those directly after Thrust. On the Thrust skill tooltip, you'll also notice that it says 'Advance applies a bleed' in red text. That indicated that there is a trait in the red-line tree which will give Thrust that swordplay combo effect. Swordplay effects only impact your 'next used' swordplay skill. So if you use Riposte then Blade Shield, the Blade Shield swordplay combo effect will overwrite the one gained from Riposte. However, non-swordplay skills will not overwrite these effects, so you can use Haversack skills or Shanty skills without breaking a Swordplay combo chain.
  
• The Mariner has 3 trait specializations: The Shanty-caller, The Duellist, and The Rover:
  
• The Shanty-caller - The shanty-caller is a group-support specialist, with a focus on maximizing group damage. This line is built as a direct counterpart to the Captain's Master of War red-line. Specializing in the Shanty-caller tree gives you access to a number of otherwise-unavailable shanty skills, and will make all of your shanties more potent. Skills like the West Wind and Guided by the Stars will benefit your group, while skills like Marked Foes and the Breaking of Thangorodrim will cause your enemies to take more damage from all of your allies.
  
• The Duellist - The duellist is a flexible melee fighter, focused on maximizing your own damage output, while retaining a flexible kit of skills to help you avoid damage and escape unwinnable engagements. A duellist sacrifices most of the group-support potential found in other specializations, but gains much-improved swordplay damage and effectiveness.
  
• The Rover - The Rover is a group-support specialist, with a focus on controlling and debuffing enemies, and helping to keep the group alive. This line is a direct counterpart to the Lore-master's Ancient Master and the Burglar's Mischief-maker specializations. Specializing in the Rover tree will give you access to a number of potent debuffing and CCing skills which are otherwise unavailable. Though the Rover still gains several unique swordplay combos, most of their unique skills and effects are gained from Haversack skills.​

• Buff Interactions:
  
• Oathbreakers Shame, The Breaking of Thangorodrim, and Murder of Crows Incoming Damage debuffs no longer stack with one another. The 'Oaths Fulfilled' effect has been renamed to 'Renewed Defences' and will prevent another potent debuff from being applied for 45 seconds.
  
• Caustic Brew, Ancient Craft, and Trickster each apply 'Major Rent Armour' and will not stack with one another.
  
• Pitch Pot and Sticky Tar each apply 'Minor Rent Armour' and will not stack with one another.
  
• Beorning
  
• Improved Nature's Wrath should now correctly give 10 Wrath while dual wielding.
  
• Greater Bee Swarm should leave the regular bee swarm DoT behind when it expires.
  
• Beorning armour is now correctly bartered from heavy rather than medium armour vendors in skirmish camps.
  
• Burglar:
  
• Trickster tricks now apply Major Rent Armour, reducing all enemy mitigations by 10% for 20 seconds.
  
• Location is Everything now increases Critical Chain Skills Damage rather than causing those skills to ignore some enemy Mitigations.
  
• Champion:
  
• Champion's Advantage now increases Blade Skills Damage rather than causing those skills to ignore some enemy Mitigations.
  
• Damage for Champion Blade skills has been increased by 8%.
  
• Damage for Champion Strike skills has been increased by 20%.
  
• Guardian:
  
• Bolstering Blocks can now only proc once per second. This entirely passive heal was capable of generating more HPS than intended for the guardian, and was not in line with reactive healing available to other tank specializations.
  
• Damage for most Guardian skills has been reduced by 5%.
  
• Rupture has been corrected to a 10 second duration at slightly reduced potency (10% max).
  
• Negative combat states will no longer remove the Guardian's Protection by the Shield toggle skill.
  
• Hunter:
  
• Bodkin Arrows now increases Induction Skill Damage rather than causing Hunter skills to ignore some enemy Mitigations.
  
• Damage for most Hunter skills has been increased by 15%.
  
• Lore-master:
  
• Murder of Crows debuff is now 10% Miss Chance but 20% Incoming Damage, and does not stack with Oathbreakers or the Breaking of Thangorodrim.
  
• Ancient Craft now removes 5% of all enemy Mitigations, rather than Armour rating. Enfeeble will increase this amount to 15% for 10 seconds and 10% thereafter.
  
• Forester Event:
  
• All movement bonuses are now suppressed as they should be.
  
• The synching issue with the event should be solved.
  
• All of the forester tools that can be made and upgraded as part of the event have been made account bound.
  
• The forester event will now run, regardless of participants, every 21 minutes.
  
• The quest for the forester event will no longer invoke the mithril coin reset on failure or cancelling.
  
• There was an odd race condition in the quest that could cause the quest to fail in the second step. This has been rectified.
  
• Guardians were able to bypass the speed restrictions in the forester event with Sprint. This has been remedied.

• The Pure Seagull cosmetic pet now sounds like a seagull.
  
• Several avatar clothing models that had missing textures and were displaying as white are now fixed.
  
• War-steed combat fidgets now correctly play only in combat.
  
• Level 130 Shrews should no longer be able to sneak into 'Instance: Humble Beginnings'.
  
• Sarabeth Lowbanks has found her name again.
  
• The following emote animations have been updated for River Hobbits to use hobbit versions of these animations: Cheer, Laugh (lol), Mock, Wave.

• The French language version of the Mariner introductory video in character generation has a freezing issue. The video will transition back to character  creation or players can cancel the video without issue.
  
• Mariner Known Issues:
  
• Mariner Pot Skills list incorrect effect durations (Caustic Brew, Fire Pot, Pitch Pot and Sludge Pot).
  
• There are currently some tooltip issues with the traits 'Test Defences', 'Rare Ingredients' and the skill 'Belly of Brine' not displaying properly.
  
• Mariner Class Deed 'Spitting Techniques' is not properly advancing when 'Breath of Ice' is used.
  
• Mariner skills 'Advance' & 'Sweeping Advance' display "Dramatic Flourish Critical Magnitude Buff" but should display "Dramatic Flourish Critical Buff Potency".

Here are the release notes for Update 37, released on Tuesday, August 29th, 2023.



A new starting race is now available! The last of their kind remaining east of the Misty Mountains, River Hobbits are a lithe and silvan folk, steeped in wood-lore and attuned to the mountains where they remain hidden. Dwelling among the dells of the Misty Mountains, the River Hobbits of Misthallow are a rustic folk, quick-tongued and nimble-fingered. Known mainly in old tales and songs, they seldom venture outside their secret vales. 

River Hobbits are now available to purchase in the LOTRO Store! When creating a new River Hobbit, you may select any class to play except Beorning. River Hobbits may start their journey in a new unique tutorial by selecting the "Shadows of Angmar" tutorial option during character creation, or River Hobbits may choose to start "Before the Shadow" in the town of Mossward. Access to quests and deeds in Swanfleet as well as the Before the Shadow Prologue, Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, and Afterword will be included with any River Hobbit Bundles for those who do not already own the Expansion: Before the Shadow.

Read more about the River Hobbit bundles on LOTRO.com!


For what seems like ages, the speculation on what lies behind the closed gates south of Lyndelby has been wild. Many of those speculations have been on the mark! Since its creation, we have always planned to introduce a neighborhood beyond the gate and were just waiting for the right time to do so. That time is now!

Each Lyndelby Homestead neighborhood includes:

Four Base Premium Smials
Six Deluxe Premium Smials
One Stately Base Premium Smial
One Stately Deluxe Premium Smial
One Premium Kinship smial.

This valley will also be supported by a suite of town services and a handful of social spaces to gather as a community (as the Holbytlan love to do!). Decorative fencing debuts alongside this neighborhood, allowing you to pick and choose what you want your property bounds to look like. This feature joins ambient environment and music hooks to round out the yards of your home. Learn more about player housing and tour or purchase a home by visiting the Housing Broker's Office in Bree-land! Speak to Almetha Sitchel to get started.


We have added our first Crafting Event to the game! The event takes place at the Combe Lumber Camp and, when active, the Camp is decorated by flags, new hide stretchers, craft tables, wood piles, and bears for skinning. If you are in Breeland, you will get an announcement alerting you that the event will begin in 15 minutes. Contestants can make their way to the lumber camp and acquire the quest from Wilkin Thorne, Mason Thorne's son. As the event coordinator, Wilkin will bestow the quest to any forester, regardless of their proficiency. https://www.lotro.com/news/lotro-forester-crafting-event-en.

Get the quest and then register with the Judge, Aldith Bauman, Old Bauman's daughter. The first contestant to register with Aldith begins a hidden count that provides a failsafe for when there are not enough players around to normally kick off the contest. If three players register for the event, there is another announcement that alert all players that there are 2 minutes before the event begins. Players then follow the quest, as normal, and complete the tasks to place, 1st, 2nd, and consolation in the event. All participants who complete the "race" portion of the event will get wither a 1st place, 2nd place, or participation award. All players who complete the quest receive a participation award and advance the competition based deeds! Old Bauman has a new role in the camp as a barterer! you can see the list of the many, many, rewards available through the event by looking through his wares.

The event will begin at 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on September 1st and run until 3:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on September 11th. Once the event is closed it will remain off-line for about 2 weeks and then return for 10 days and continue in that cadence for the immediate future. While active, the event is on a standard daily reset timer that you can bypass with Mitrhil.


Read the full release notes on LOTRO.com!

Update 36 Release Notes

Here are the release notes for Update 36: Gondor Renewed, released on Wednesday, May 31st, 2023. 

Of Special Note:

A New Story Begins in A Renewed King's Gondor!

After the defeat of Sauron, King Elessar and Queen Arwen seek to bring peace to their kingdom, but the danger is not gone and new foes seek to threaten Gondor. Adventure awaits in the new zone of King's Gondor East, set after the War of the Ring when fresh breezes have dispersed the fumes of the Dawnless Day and allowed the sun to shine again! Discover the beginning of a new Epic-style storyline, 'The Song of Waves and Wind,' and team up with Legolas, Gimli, and friends both old and new to investigate the continuing threat of the Heirs of Castamir!

The Song of Waves and Wind

A new story debuts with Gondor Renewed called "The Song of Waves and Wind"! For characters level 140. Start the first chapter by speaking to Glindor in Minas Tirith (Midsummer)! This new story is available to anyone who is VIP, purchases the "Gondor Renewed" quest pack, or who purchases quest packs associated with the story that are released in the future.

King's Gondor Awaits

Gone are the gloomy dark skies, replaced with bright and sunny fields and hills. Players familiar with the original Central and Eastern Gondor regions will be familiar with King's Gondor from a navigation standpoint, but there are new additions, and places players previously could not go are now open to allow for further exploration!

The Quest Pack "Gondor Renewed" unlocks more than 80 quests and Deeds for level 140 characters. Includes King's Gondor East and The Song of Waves and Wind. Free to VIPs! 

How do I get to King's Gondor?

Go to Minas Tirith (After Battle) and head South through the Pelennor Fields. Exploration is now possible beyond the point where there previously stood an impassable! Questing begins in this area of the Pelennor Fields and in the under-construction version of The Harlond. From there, you can explore Gondor up to Linhir, where the gates are currently closed.​

Landscape Difficulty: The Paths of Valour!

We have reworked the Landscape Difficulty setting system introduced with Treebeard and are now opening it to the general game worlds as an option! Read full details about this new Landscape Difficulty option in the release notes below.​ A new Faction and new rewards are now available by playing these higher difficulties. Activate your difficulty and adjust it in the future by speaking with a Hardened Traveller, which can be found in major hubs and new player zones throughout Middle-earth:

• Outside of the Prancing Pony in Bree
  
• Near the Stable Masters outside of the 21st Hall
  
• Just inside of the exit of Post-Raid Archet
  
• Just outside of Mossward
  
• Along the road Northward out of Celondim
  
• Just outside the door to Thorin's Hall
  
• Down the road from the Hobbit starter area exit waypoint

There are titles available for activating a difficulty of 3 or higher and keeping it there from level 10 to level 50, and then to level 130 respectively. The title granted depends on the class you play, but can be used by any character on your account. Make sure to select your Landscape Difficulty prior to achieving level 10 to be eligible for these titles! In order to earn these titles, you must keep the difficulty system active for the entire leveling span from level 10 thru 50/130. Entering areas of the game world where it is temporarily suppressed will not invalidate your title attempt, however turning it down or off via the Hardened Traveller will.

More Delvings!

More Delvings are now available! The Annúminas instances Glinghant, Haudh Valandil, and the Great Barrows instances Sambrog, Thadûr and The Maze have been converted to be playable as Delvings! Find them in the Instance Finder (Control+J by default).​

News and Notes

Classes

• Several player stun-removal skills were inappropriately flagged as 'Immediate' causing them to occasionally cancel themselves and fail to free you from stuns. These skills are now correctly 'Fast' rather than 'Immediate' skills.
  
• High Elf, Beorning, and Stout Axe Dwarf racial recall skills can now be used while mounted on any steed.
  
• Beorning
  
• The Beorning Trait "Battle Born" now correctly gives additional critical damage for off-hand weapons.
  
• Brawler
  
• The Brawler mounted combat skill "Take Breath" will now properly update the incoming healing rating when active.
  
• Innate Strength: Raw Power
  
• Fixed description of the trait to state that it grants +2.5/+5/+7.5/+10%.
  
• No change was made to the actual bonus granted by the trait, This is purely a tooltip change to have it reflect real values.
  
• Tracery Innate Strength: Damage/Threat
  
• Skill bonus has been modified [+10%->+5%], but is now added directly to the value of Innate Strength: Raw Power buff, which makes it considerably more effective than it was previously.
  
• Burglar
  
• Aim skill now works with 'Throw Knife'.
  
• Captain
  
• Fighting Withdrawal can now be used while rooted to free yourself.
  
• The class deed "Fear the Darkness" should now properly advance even if "Courageous Convocation" is traited.
  
• Captain skill "Defensive Strike" is now properly affected by the tracery "Single Target Attack Damage".
  
• The buff from Inspire: Self-motivation should now correctly overwrite itself rather than failing to apply when you still have a few seconds of duration remaining from your previous skill use.
  
• Champion
  
• Blood Rage and Continuous Blood Rage are now both correctly labeled Fast, rather than Immediate, skills. This prevents you from accidentally double-clicking the skill and putting it on cooldown without gaining the CC-removal effect.
  
• Tracery Swift Strike: Damage & Power Cost
  
• Renamed to Swift Strike/Blade: Damage & Power Restore
  
• Tracery now increases the Power restored by Swift Strike rather than reducing the (now non-existent) Power cost. Magnitude changed from [-33%->+20%].
  
• Guardian
  
• The Cardolan Essence of Retaliation effects' durations no longer benefit from the War-chant duration legacy.
  
• Lore-master
  
• Clever Escape is now a Fast skill. This prevents you from accidentally double-clicking the skill and putting it on cooldown without gaining the CC-removal effect.
  
•  Rune-keeper
  
• The skill "Do Not Fall this Day" no longer breaks the target of the skill out of Stealth.
  
• Warden
  
• "Forced March" will no longer be toggled off when you enter combat. It still only applies a bonus to your out of combat Run Speed.
  
• Seared Flesh now appropriately benefits from bonuses to your Fire Damage.
  
• Readied Blade's buff now provides Disarm Immunity for its duration.
  
• The trait 'Movement Training' now correctly increases Mitigation ratings from the Conviction and Dance of War buffs.
  
• Damage dealt by the trait 'Taking Advantage' increased.

Crafting

• The crafting ingredients "Tuft of Torahammas' Fur", "Great Hoary Aurochs Hide" and "Speckled Shell Fragment" can now all be stored in crafting carryalls.
  
• Beasts in the Ettenmoors that drop crafting hides will now correctly drop Gundabad Hides instead of Eorlingas Hides.
  
• Crafters can now make two new tiers of selectable craftable essence boxes.
  
• Gundabad Skarn Deposits have been renamed to Brilliant Skarn Deposits.
  
• Frost-rimed Black Ash Branches have been renamed to Heavy Wind-swept Black Ash Branches.
  
• Items & Rewards
  
• The Homestead Steed can now be correctly placed on a hitching post by hobbit, dwarf, and Stout-axe dwarf characters.
  
• Might-based selection boxes no longer reference or contain medium armour.
  
• Many medium Might-based armour pieces obtained from quests from levels 1-75 have been updated from medium to heavy armour.
  
• Enemies in Moria no longer drop obsolete Legendary Item rewards.
  
• The Distillation set now properly identifies itself as a Distillation set and not a Crock Pot.
  
• Incomparable Earrings received from the 3-stack instances from Return to Carn Dûm have had the names of their set bonuses changed to reflect the stats given by the items in their groups.
  
• The "Dwarf-make Helm" cosmetic has been renamed to "Dwarf-make Circlet".
  
• The Champion Legendary Item Tracery "Brutal Strikes Damage" now only appears in The Berserker barter profiles.
  
• The decorative band on the Sightseer's Straw Hat will now correctly display dye colors.
  
• The weapon Candelleth's Hammer is now categorized correctly in the Auction House.
  
• The Veteran of Helm's Deep Quartermaster now offers items for Beornings and Brawlers.
  
• The Homestead Steed can now be used in Zirakzigil as well as in Caras Galadhon and other appropriate areas in Lothlórien.

Landscape Difficulty

• We have reworked the Landscape Difficulty setting system introduced originally to Treebeard and made it available as an option to the general game worlds!
  
• We've added a new Faction and reward structure called The Paths of Valour that can be advanced by playing on higher difficulties.
  
• You can activate your difficulty setting by speaking with the Hardened Traveller that can be found in major hubs and new player zones who will offer you an array of quests representing the different difficulty levels.
  
• Upon accepting and completing one of these quests, your challenges on the roads of Middle-earth will increase substantially.
  
• The difficulty system turns itself off in group instances (3+), in the Ettenmoors, and any time the Delving system is activated. It will reactivate when you leave any of these areas.
  
• There are titles available for activating a difficulty of 3 or higher and keeping it there from level 10 to level 50, and then to level 130 respectively. The title granted depends on the class you play through with, but can be used by any character on your account.
  
• In order to earn these titles, you must keep the difficulty system active for the entire leveling span from level 10 thru 50/130. Entering areas of the game world where it is temporarily suppressed will not invalidate your title attempt, however turning it down or off via the Hardened Traveller will.
  
• Existing characters above level 10 will not be able to earn the titles themselves, but will be able to use those titles if they are earned by another character on your account.
  
• When playing at Fearless or higher, enemies of your own level or higher may drop Tokens of Heroism.
  
• These can be turned in to complete weekly tasks from the Hardened Traveller, which will increase your reputation with the Paths of Valour faction.
  
• At Fearless difficulty (3-6), these tokens can drop for up to 3 members in a Fellowship.
  
• At Heroic difficulty (7+) they can drop for up to 6 members in a Fellowship.
  
• The drop rate of these tokens increases somewhat with higher difficulties.
  
• The difficulty settings and effects are pretty much the same as they were on Treebeard, though we've changed up the names a bit, and added a few variations to the hotspot effects you can encounter under the Eye of Sauron.
  
• The Hardened Traveller has a menu of barter rewards that include a small set of Reputation accelerators for the faction and Morale/Power potions. More importantly, he also offers an array of 8 new Epic variations of familiar emotes which you will be able to find on the Collections panel.

General Landscape Changes:

• Court of Celeborn now has a map.
  
• Floating objects in the Allegiance Halls and in Mordor have been grounded.
  
• Incorrect textures in Minas Tirith has been resolved.

Localization

• Stablemaster map text has been updated for the German game client.

Missions and Delvings

• Delving Barter Vendors and Mission Givers have also been added to all our Skirmish Camps. We did this to make it easier to turn in delving quests no matter where players are. Delving Mission Givers have also been given that title as a role to make it easy to spot them.
  
• Created a Selectable Delving Extraordinary Box that only drops in instances at tiers 7+. While still rare, new instances have a significantly higher drop rate for this item.
  
• The Delving Tracery Archive Travel Skill no longer has any reputation requirements.
  
• Mission: Jorthkyn and the Hounds
  
• The Mission now appropriately identifies that you need to kill 8 wargs along with the 8 Jorthkyn to advance the quest.
  
• The Mission had some pesky low-level monsters that really wanted to get in on the fight. They have been reprimanded to stay in their lanes.
  
• Fixed an issue with the mission "Dangerous Deliveries" where the player would pick the pie up twice upon completing the induction to pick up the pie.
  
• The bridge in the mission Patrol the Township that was bereft of physics has found its physics and will now support your character as it should.
  
• Before the Shadow missions that referred to previous mission givers have been updated with references to current mission givers.
  
• The mission "The Nettinglade" had a single cocoon that decided it didn't want to sparkle. The spider responsible has been admonished and though it pledged to swallow all Light in the world, it relented and allowed it's cocoon to sparkle once again.
  
• Delving Reward Changes:
  
• Delving Selectable Crafting Boxes that drop at tier 7 and above can now be disenchanted instead for 20 Delvings Writs. These boxes now have a six hour expiration timer on them. These changes do not affect existing Crafting Boxes.
  
• Changed how many writs completing Delving quests give. Tier 1-3 now give 10 writs, Tier 4-6 give 20 writs, Tier 7-9 give 30 writs and Tier 10-12 give 40 writs.
  
• Two new cosmetic pets added to Delving Barter.
  
• Delving armour will now be disenchantable for more Delving Writs. Common armour will disenchant for 10 writs, rare armour will disenchant for 20 writs, incomparable armour for 30 writs.
  
• Added Tier 1 and Tier 2 Essence Boxes to the Delving Barter for Writs, and removed Tier 0.
  
• Added Morale and Power Potions to the Delving Barter for Writs. Morale and Power potions also drop as rewards from high tier instance Delving Chests.
  
• Delving Mission Givers in Skirmish Camps now give Weekly Delving Quests.
  
• Mission - Defilers in the Dale - Corrected a visual bug where the cauldron's contents and bubbles could become visibly offset after being destroyed.
  
• Rewards that drop from Delvings have been updated with new Delving-specific icons.

PvMP

• We have adjusted the distribution of Infamy/Renown while grouped. In the past, there was a modifier that increased the value of player kills when more than 6 kill contributors were involved. This resulted in the value of a single kill, while in a raid, to be valued over 2x what the kill should have been worth.
  
• We have adjusted this modifier to make these values - in the absence of any other modifiers - equivalent to equal distribution of the infamy value of the kill.
  
• We have adjusted the bonus modifier to infamy/renown gains when killing ranked players. This change rewards a higher contribution bonus for killing players of a higher rank.
  
• The War-spoils Carry-all icons have been updated and no longer display a bottle of liquid
  
• Lootboxes found by monster players now always drop 3 items from three specific tables:
  
• Table 1 includes potions, barter lockboxes, and the potential for 500 commendations with weighting toward the barter box, and then equivalent draws for the remaining items.
  
• Table 2 includes an equal chance for random perk items from a pool of 5 items.
  
• The 3rd table has an equal chance to drop a single Audacity upgrade scroll, 2 Audacity upgrade scrolls, Lord's Symbols, Captain's Marks, 1k Commendations, 1.5k Commendations or a new Cosmetic Selection Box.
  
• The Cosmetic Selection Box contains 2 new skins for each class. Previews are available on NPCs present near the Gramsfoot retreat circle.
  
• The Selection Box also contains several new cosmetic weapons: Thrâng's Sword, a silvered scimitar, a spider-clan trident, an off-hand Gundabad mace, a Spider-clan staff, an Easterling Ghost Bow, and a new Dunharrow Shield.
  
• The Box also contains a new cosmetic type that can be slotted into appearance Corruptions to change the style of your 'March!' skill emitted effects. These include: a white glow, fire trail, acid trail, and a "blue-foot" trail.
  
• The eggs around Grodris in the Isendeep Mine will now hatch if disturbed during the battle against the matron.
  
• Fixed an issue with the first and second marshal rewards not providing keys to the chest. The quests for First and Second marshal now correctly reward the key to the chest.
  
• Tokens of Valour will now go into the War-spoils Carry-all.
  
• Updated the new Monster Play tutorial to reference using skills on training dummy Kelsen, Jalessa, or Light training-dummy Orion. If you choose the other training dummies you are locked in combat for the full duration of the spawn - which is five minutes. This is bad. Please use the safety dummies. Use those initial skill training dummy Kelsen, Jalessa, or Light training-dummy Orion.
  
• First Marshal An and Tyrant Uzulthrang are back in action and ready to rush Tol Ascarnen when the opposition is in control. The rewards on the quests to use these two is increased significantly. Each has also been buffed appropriately.
  
• All values and costs for Lainedhal's Insignias were reduced. You can now purchase the old versions for nostalgia, but the tier 15 version is available to all rank 1 players and better for 2000 commendations and has a 1m cooldown just as the monster player brand.
  
• The Rank 9 mount available in monster play now has a full +68% movement bonus because it should have been upgraded along with all other mounts that are this hard to get.
  
• We adjusted the damage done by Spider Hatchlings to be more in line with creatures that are level 140.
  
• There was a bug introduced when we lowered the cost of monster play potions where we did not lower the amount purchasable from the barter NPC. This has been corrected and now you can only purchase in stacks of three.
  
• Mazauk and Old Goldhead have been refreshed and stand ready to help you capture Lugazag or Tirith Rhaw.
  
• Old U21 gear was using old Audacity values. This has been reduced to 1.
  
• Freepside Ettenmoors quests now award considerably more IXP when completed.
  
• The Freepside weekly quest, 'Battle Across the Ettenmoors' now gives slightly improved rewards.
  
• Many monster player skill power costs have been adjusted. In particular, several healing skills cost substantially more power.
  
• The base critical heal multiplier for most Creepside heals has been reduced from 1.5 to 1.2.
  
• Increased damage of ranger session play skills.
  
• Orc Defiler
  
• Cooldowns reduced for Fertile Slime and Fungal Spores.
  
• Fungal Spores initial heal potency reduced.
  
• Enhanced Fungal Spores now rolls for a critical heal on each pulse, rather than following the critical outcome of the initial skill use.
  
• Fertile Slime no longer has an initial heal.
  
• Healing from Improved Blessing of Darkness now occurs every 1 second, rather than every 2 seconds.
  
• Constant Pain now pulses healing every 2 seconds, and will restore some power to the defiler when it does.
  
• Orc Reaver
  
• Blade Toss now only applies its slow and/or knockdown effects to targets facing away from you.
  
• Spider Weaver
  
• Several spider animations should no longer slow down when you gain attack speed buffs.
  
• Trapdoor Sanctuary now lasts 10 seconds; when traited, it will heal 5% of your max health each second.
  
• New Potions (of Bravery and Essence) are now correctly usable by the Free Peoples. 
  
• Insignias now have a 3 minute cooldown and provide 15 seconds of combat state immunity (Tyrant Brands still have a 1 minute cooldown and only provide 5 seconds of immunity for now).
  
• Alwuld the Item Trader now carries the updated Morale and Power potions.
  
• Potions of Essence now correctly restore different amounts of Power, according to their quality and rank requirements.

Quests, Deeds and Instances

• Tier 4 of Gwathrenost, the Witch-king's Citadel is available.
  
• All slayer deeds in the Wells of Langflood, will now properly reward players with LOTRO Points.
  
• Gwathrenost, the Witch-king's Citadel - The final Objective of 'The Storming of Gwathrenost' now functions similarly to 'Into the Hiddenhoard, allowing the Player the choice of whether or not to abandon the quest after completing it. The option to complete the quest via the Quest Actions panel was causing some players to mistakenly erase their progress in a given reset cycle, so this has been removed.
  
• Azanulbizar - Quest: Death in the Dale - The quest guide for this quest has been corrected to highlight the proper area.
  
• Azanulbizar - Quest: Elusive Prey - The quest guide now properly highlights the general locations of all the Rare foes in Azanulbizar.
  
• Sagroth - The Sewer Water debuff that can be applied to players during the Gárvadach encounter now carries the resistance type "disease" instead of "corruption".
  
• Several fading or overlapping combat music bugs have been fixed in the Race of Man and hobbit tutorials, the Archet raid, and the Trouble at Tuckborough skirmish.

Miscellaneous

• The Allegiance panel can now be resized an additional horizontal distance.
  
• Certain Brawler Belt Buckles were appearing under the Lore-master class in searches in the Auction House. That has been fixed.
  
• Upgraded the compiler used to compile the 32 bit game client to make it compatible with upgraded OpenAL.
  
• Clydesdale mounts can now be used in Thorin's Hall and the Hall Under the Mountain
  
• The Assistant Stable-master at Elrond's Stables in Rivendell douses the horse less frequently.
  
• Facepaint rewards acquired from Hobnanigans now correctly shows on Human avatars.
  
• The Draught Horse cosmetic pets received in the Homesteads and Harvests Coffers have been renamed to "Miniature" Draught horses.
  
• Matching full size Draught horse cosmetic pet tomes have been granted (account-wide) to everyone that purchased the Homesteads and Harvests Coffers.
  
• The Homestead Steed mount scale has been increased to match the expected size of a draught horse. Many animation issues have been resolved for the Homestead Steed mount as well.
  
• Updated the icon for the Stoorvales/Clegur Milestone and for the Clegur travel skills.
  
• Several Run Speed buffs and debuffs were overwriting effects of greater potency. Player-applied Run Speed Effects should now only overwrite effects of the same kind (out of combat speed buff, in combat speed buff, or debuff) and the most potent effect should always be the one which is actively applied.

Known Issues:

• In French and German the Tokens of Heroism may display as Tokens of Valour. 
  
• The Stable-master panel in Collections has not been updated to include King's Gondor.
  
• The Deeds "Boar-slayer of Lower Lebennin" and "Boar-slayer of Lower Lebennin (Advanced)" are not bestowing/advancing properly.

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 soon a new Raid, for Level 140 Players set in a re-imagined Carn Dûm! 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 other options for Swift Travel are available for barter from the Stewards of the Iron-home.

• Small Fellowship:
  
• Sant Lhoer, the Poison Gardens - (Available for tiers 1-3)
  
• Thaurisgar, the Vile Apothecary - (Available for tiers 1-3)
  
• Fellowship:
  
• Sagroth, Lair of Vermin - (Available for tiers 1-3)
  
• Raid (COMING SOON):
  
• Gwathrenost, the Witch-king's Citadel

The Last Homely House in Rivendell has had a beautiful makeover!

Read the entire Update 35 Release Notes on LOTRO.com!

Here theease notes for Update 34: Before the Shadow, released on Tuesday, November 8th, 2022.  

Of Special Note:

Before the Shadow has arrived! 

Before the shadows lengthened in Angmar, forces of evil threaten the safety of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth! Delve into the mysteries of the One Ring as you embark on a perilous journey through Swanfleet and the remnants of the kingdom of Cardolan, encountering new friends and old foes. Adventure with Boromir of Gondor and combat the rise of the villainous Grey Fear before bringing word of the growing threat to Elrond of Rivendell, where a Fellowship of heroes will be formed... 

Adventure through a new early leveling experience, take on old foes, and reunite with old friends. Fight for victory against those who wish to restore the kingdom of Angmar in the latest Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Before the Shadow!

Delvings debut!

Delvings are a new mechanic debuting with Before the Shadow's Missions! To get started, log into the game on any character that has reached the level cap after purchasing Before the Shadow and you’ll receive an item through the in-game mail that begins a quest to start Delving! Speak to any of the new Missions NPCs in Before the Shadow to access Delvings. You can find Before the Shadow Mission NPCs at the Camp in Andrath, Clegur, Herne, Lhan Garan, Tharbad, and South Downs. NOTE: Characters must be at the world’s level cap in order to access the Delving system.

New Starter Instance!

A new starter instance is available to newly-created characters for players who have purchased Before the Shadow! Create a character, Select starting tutorial ‘Before the Shadow', and run the new Instance: Mossward, the Border Village. 

New Skirmish!

A new skirmish is now available to players who have purchased Before the Shadow called "Doom of Caras Gelebren"! Experience the Second Age and the fall of Eregion and aid Celebrimbor in repelling the forces of the Enemy! This Skirmish is available to players level 20-140, and can be played Solo, Duo, Small Fellowship, Fellowship, or Raid. The new Skirmish is accessible via the Instance Join panel once you have completed the general Skirmish Tutorial. To run the Skirmish Tutorial visit any of the Skirmish Captains in Skirmish Camps located throughout Middle-earth. 

Coming Soon - New Scaling Instance! 

A new Fellowship scaling instance will soon be available to players who have purchased Before the Shadow called "Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave"! Explore one of the oldest barrows of Tyrn Gorthad and face off against a powerful foe roused by the passage of the Witch-king of Angmar! This scaling instance is available to players level 20-140, and can be played Solo, Duo, or in a Fellowship. Once you have discovered its entrance in the hills of Cardolan,  Sarch Vorn will be accessible via the Instance Join panel. "Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave" opens through Tier 3 difficulty at noon server time on Thursday December 1st. The deed, "Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave -- Tier 3 -- Leading the Charge" will be available to complete through 3am server time on Thursday February 16th, 2023.

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

News and Notes:
The full list of release notes can be found on LOTRO.com: https://www.lotro.com/update-notes/lotro-update-34-release-notes-en

Update 33.1 Release Notes

Here are the Release Notes for Update 33.1: The Further Adventures of Elladan and Elrohir, release date Wednesday, July 20th, 2022. 

Of Special Note

The Further Adventures of Elladan and Elrohir have arrived! 

Soon after Frodo's rescue from the Ford of Bruinen, the scouts of Rivendell venture forth, seeking news on the Enemy and his servants. Lord Elrond has given his sons, Elladan and Elrohir, a secret errand. Join the twins on their journey from Rivendell to the distant land of Lothlórien!

Players can start Further Adventures by talking to Elrond in his library in Rivendell. Rewards can be exchanged with Celeblír outside the Last Homely House.

Updates from the PvMP Front!

Experience the thrill of player versus player combat with new PvMP Options. You can become a monster player after your main character reaches level 2. If you wish to fight on the side of heroes, you can ride your character into the Ettenmoors at level 20, where you will be scaled up to better handle the carnage. Audacity is now essential for survival in the Ettenmoors. As you reach level 140, you will acquire more Audacity and gear to better handle the fight!

For a full list of changes and updates to PvMP in the Ettenmoors, please see the PvMP section.  

News and Notes

The dynamically scaling stats on the following items have been adjusted to be more appropriate across all levels and increase above level 130: "Shields of the Hammerhand", "Earrings of the High Elves", "Earring of the Dead City", and "Fateful Gundabad Earring".

The stats granted by the following traits have been adjusted to be more appropriate across all levels and increase above level 130: "Man of the Fourth Age", "Hobbit-stature", "Fateful Dwarf", "Friend Of Man", "Emissary", "Unwritten Destiny", and "Those Who Remain".

Some player-level based stat progressions were tweaked a bit to smooth out values below level 105.

Events

• Treasure Bugan
  
• The Treasure Bugan’s base spawn chance is now 75%, an increase from 25% - 33%.
  
• The "Theodore Gorse’s Lucky Feather" item has been changed:
  
• Now guarantees that a Treasure Bugan will spawn when used in a qualifying instance.
  
• Still lasts 90 minutes, but expires in real-time.
  
• Can no longer be purchased for "Coins of the Bugan".
  
• Now costs 10 Mithril Coins, an increase from 5.
  
• Daily Quest “Seeking the Treasure Bugans!” has been updated:
  
• Now requires you to slay 3 Treasure Bugans instead of 4.
  
• Now offers the following rewards:
  
• 400 VXP
  
• Picker Box of basic crafting Materials
  
• 1 "Treasure Bugan's Cache", which offers a choice of the following:
  
• "Enhancement Runes" x3, Incomparable
  
• "Sealed Tracery": Incomparable
  
• "Universal Optional Ingredient"
  
• "Universal Solvent"
  
• Picker Box of crafting shards
  
• The once-per-event quest “Thwarting the Treasure Bugans” now offers the following rewards:
  
• 2000 VXP
  
• "Crate of Crafting Materials"
  
• 1 "Treasure Bugan's Cache", which offers a choice of the following:
  
• "Enhancement Runes" x3, Incomparable
  
• "Sealed Tracery", Incomparable
  
• "Universal Optional Ingredient"
  
• "Universal Solvent"
  
• Picker Box of crafting shards
  
• Classes
  
• Brawler
  
• Brawlers now have a visible proficiency skill in the Skills Panel for battle-gauntlets.
  
• 'Fist of the Valar' base damage increased to be more in line with other mettle spenders.
  
• 'Follow Me!' is no longer an attack speed buff, it is now a group combat run-speed buff, increasing speed by 20% for 15s.
  
• 'Come At Me' has several updates:
  
• Now 'fast' rather than 'immediate', to mitigate a skill cancellation issue encountered during periods of lag.
  
• Taunt duration increased [5s->10s].
  
• Base target count increased [5->10].
  
• When 'Bellicose' is utilized, "Come At Me" will now generate Mettle even if no targets are hit.
  
• 'Weather Blows' has several updates:
  
• Now an incoming damage set effect that will no longer stack with other incoming damage buffs. 
  
• Base value has been set to 35%, -6% for trait, -9% for Mettle (Max 20%).
  
• Lasts 15s with a 75s cooldown. 
  
• Note that this still acts as a separate multiplier from standard armor damage mitigation.
  
• The instant heal component has been moved to 'Bracing Guard'.
  
• 'Gut Punch' no longer reduces the target's outgoing damage, but now increases incoming damage by 20% for 20s. The skill has a short cooldown, but a given target cannot be affected by it for 70s after the effect wears off.
  
• 'Innate Strength' buffs use shorter animations [1.5s->1.0s], several other buffs have had their animations shortened or reduced to FX only.
  
• Many Brawler buffs were still using placeholder effect icons, many of these have been replaced with a more diverse set of effect icons for clarity.
  
• Most Brawler group buffs now have a radius of [10->15m].
  
• Most Brawler group buffs will now affect raid members.
  
• 'Vulnerability' has had its base debuff increased [1%->3%]. Item set bonuses to the effect have been increased similarly.
  
• 'Brash Invitation' has had its range increased [25->40m].
  
• The 'Iron Will' skill was redundant to "Weather Blows". It has been replaced by "The Best Defence". This skill buffs the fellowship's damage by 30% for 15s, and has a 120s CD.
  
• "Strong Jaw and Nimble Feet" no longer refer to "Iron Will".
  
• Using 'The Best Defence' now overwrites previous active instances.
  
• The 'Armour of Nature's Striker' 2-set bonus has been changed to +5% Melee Damage.
  
• Other Brawler's 'Share Innate Strength' skills should no longer overwrite your own.
  
• Champion
  
• The 'Hiddenhoard Storm' 4-set bonus buff "Increased Critical Ratings" duration should no longer be affected by the "Great Cleave Duration" tracery.
  
• Lore-master
  
• Pets can no longer be renamed many times in a short period of time.
  
• Blue-line capstone trait set bonus 'Tutelage of the Brown Wizard' no longer references 'Sic 'Em'.
  
• 'Essence of the Beast' no longer affects 'Sic 'Em', now reduces cooldown of 'A Murder of Crows' by 5 seconds on procs.
  
• Hunter
  
• The 'Upshot Damage' tracery no longer erroneously double-applies to devastating hits.

PvMP

• Beginning at level 20, all Free People classes can ride into the Ettenmoors. 
  
• Free People players entering the Ettenmoors from level 20 through 129 will scale to 140 and have 25 Audacity until level 120, then that Audacity is reduced by 1 rank until level 130 where it reaches 0.
  
• Four new tasks have been added to the Ettenmoors for Free Peoples and Monster Player players, including a base task to defeat five members of the opposition and three meta tasks to complete the base task a number of times for a greater reward.
  
• To obtain these tasks you must purchase the Task Starter from barter vendors at Glân Vraig for Free Peoples and Gramsfoot for Monster Players.
  
• The "Commendations" cap has been increased to 20,000.
  
• Monster Players
  
• All monster player classes are free to all players and available once a player completes a new player experience or increases a Free Peoples character level to two within the game world.
  
• In an effort to provide newly minted monster players with more survivability in the Ettenmoors, we've made changes to the starting skill loadouts for Monster Player characters.
  
• We have reduced the rank necessary to obtain all monster player skills. All monster players complete their kits at Rank 5.
  
• Acquiring the rank gated appearances remain in place.
  
• Acquiring the first map to Gramsfoot is a necessity in Monster Play - the map is now rewarded on a revised version of the new player quest taking place almost entirely in Gramsfoot.
  
• All Corruption trait slots are now available to Monster Players without an added LOTRO Point cost.
  
• Reduced the cost to slot all monster skills, corruptions, appearances, and racial abilities.
  
• Audacity - Audacity has been revised to improve PvMP player experience.  
  
• Audacity now has 36 levels.
  
• Monster Players gain Audacity by spending 'Commendations' into the virtue.
  
• Free Peoples gain Audacity by spending gold and 'Commendations' to acquire armor and jewelry with Audacity.
  
• Audacity gear for Free Peoples is bound by rank.
  
• Crowd Control has been reduced to 5% at Rank 1 and scales to 60% reduction at Rank 36.
  
• A new item, 'Tincture of Audacity', is available from barter vendors for Monster Players and Free Peoples.
  
• The benefit is 5 Audacity potions which can stack up to 10 with duration of 60 minutes each.
  
• Sold in stacks of 1, 5, and 10. Cost is 200, 1000, and 2000 'Commendations' respectively or 10, 35, 70 Mithril Coins.
  
• Audacity follows a linear progression track along three axis:
  
• Crowd Control Duration Reduction
  
• Incoming Damage Modifier
  
• Outgoing Damage Modifier
  
• LOTRO Store
  
• New appearances are now available for each Monster Player class! Monster Player Class Appearances have also had their cost reduced to 795 LOTRO Points.
  
• The cost of individual Monster Player Class Corruptions, Traits, and Skills has been reduced based on their tier.
  
• Racial, Class, Mastery and Resistance, Mititgation, and Trade-off Corruption Bundles have been added to the LOTRO Store that contain all relevant skills or related benefits.

Combat

• Fixed a bug that reduced player's mastery slightly against lower level foes.
  
• Pets can no longer be in the Aggressive stance, which has been removed. Pets set to the Aggressive stance have been reset to the Guard stance.
  
• Quests and Adventure Areas
  
• Sari-Suma (Instance)
  
• Frozen Wights in a particular area in instance 'Sari-surma' should no longer spawn over level.
  
• The Shire
  
• Frills in the Rushock Bog in have been adjusted to no longer float.
  
• Some riverbanks in Bindbole Wood have been smoothed out to look more realistic.
  
• A few caves in the Bolestones have had their physics adjusted to be more accurate.
  
• Yondershire
  
• Several Yondershire interiors now have more appropriate ambiances for their environment.
  
• The Upset Hobbit in the gazebo in Nobottle should no longer find themselves disappearing under its floor.
  
• The radar now correctly directs players in the direction of local towns.
  
• Grounded the sprung net for "Instance: Springing the Grand Plan".
  
• The quest item in "Tying the Knots" has been corrected to 'Spool of Rope'.
  
• The Red Flag Spots in "The Tale of Ashenfell" now have the correct tooltip.
  
• A land seam present on a mountain has been smoothed out.
  
• A resource node between Long Cleeve and Nobottle that was in a river gorge is now in a more accessible location.
  
• Hobbit children that can be questioned during the quest "The Wayward Child" can no longer be questioned after you complete the quest.
  
• Parts of the landscape that were erroneously changed due to object replacement for Gundabad have now been fixed, reverting them to appropriate appearances for their biome.
  
• Rocks on the Falconer's Tower in the North Downs have been adjusted to use local, native rock.
  
• Fell Beasts can no longer break free of the Roost and spawn in the landscape.
  
• Forsting in Gundabad has been repositioned slightly to no longer fall through the floor.
  
• The "Prologue Emissary" quest has had its reward of a Will bracelet replaced with a Vitality bracelet.
  
• Miscellaneous Z-fighting in Mattugard has been resolved.

Housing

• Bree-land Homesteads
  
• Hooks in 8 Long Street and 6 Chestnut Street now align correctly with the terrain.
  
• The sign and fence of 3 High Road have been lifted out of the ground.
  
• A stretched texture in the garden of 8 Long Street has been smoothed.
  
• Ambient Music now works on the exterior of 5 Cape Road in Belfalas.
  
• Doormat in 1 Filly Lane in Kingstead now aligns correctly with the terrain.
  
• Visiting Bankers and Barbers can now be placed in Yard Hooks in Erebor.

Cosmetic Pets

• The White Goose cosmetic pet now correctly appears in the Collections panel.

Localization

• German
  
• Updated the deed title for completing the Legendary Sentinel's challenge in German.
  
• French
  
• Fixed mistranslation of "close" in the tracking UI for the "Passage of Foes", "Passage of Nature", "Passage of Shadow" and the 'Tome of Tracking', changing 'fermer' to 'proche'.
  
• German and French
  
• Updated the map translations for the Cape of Belfalas and Cape of Belfalas Homesteads in French and German. 
  
• Updated map translations for the Gondor Regional maps
  
• Updated translations that use a character's Ancestry and Class, such as titles, to better function in French and German. 

NPC and Vendor Changes

• The Farmers Faire Cosmetic Categories on Caltha Tunnelly have been rearranged to be in the correct order. Additionally, the Other category will now be listed last.
  
• Festival Vendors now have a profile for "Essences" rather than "Essences and Legendary Items" since the obsolete legendary items were previously removed
  
• Forge-masters and Relic-masters
  
• Relic-masters and their services have been removed from the world as there are no plans to use relics or shards in the future.
  
• Combination Legendary Item services are now only available from Forge-masters.
  
• A few Relic-masters that bestow quests or are related to quests have been turned into Forge-masters so as not to break those quests.
  
• These remaining Relic-masters (now Forge-masters) are near South Bree, in Gundabad, in Rivendell, and in Thorin's Gate.
  
• The Relic-master function has been removed from the town services item.
  
• Relics and shards will not be usable or convertible into LI2 ingredients.
  
• Forge-masters in Rivendell and Thorin's Hall can now be used for reforging outside of the Volume II Book 1 quest sequence.

Miscellaneous

• Minor improvements to reward track messaging for IXP runes.
  
• Instance and Skirmish chests will no longer drop Heritage Runes.
  
• Obsolete Relic Packages have been removed from several instances and raids.
  
• Ill Omens Essence Bounty packages that have not yet been used can now be used by characters above level 130. They will grant a level 130 essence selection package to any characters level 130 and higher.
  
• "Remembered Rivals" Featured Instance gear now binds to account rather than character.
  
• Raid Groups playing on Landscape will no longer benefit from "Open Tapping", and will also no longer receive gold, loot, XP, reputation, quest advancement or deed advancement from monster kills on landscape.
  
• "Sealed Tracery" boxes will once again deliver traceries to level 45 - 49 characters.
  
• The items "Tome of Greater Deed Acceleration" and "Slayer Deed Accelerator (60 min)" now last for 6 hours. "Slayer Deed Accelerator (60 min)" has been renamed "Slayer Deed Accelerator (6 hours)".
  
• The item "Slayer and Skill Deed Boost (90 min)" now lasts for 6 hours. Its name has been updated to "Slayer and Skill Deed Boost (6 hours)".
  
• Name restrictions have been loosened around words similar to "Defender".
  
• "Helm of Crystal Resolve" no longer clips the tops of the followings heads:
  
• Human male
  
• Dwarf
  
• Stout-axe
  
• Beorning male
  
• "Chestplate of Crystal Resolve" has been adjusted to better fit Hobbits.
  
• Using LIXP Runes for the Reward Track now provides better indications of success, failure, and the related reasons.
  
• Added an option to update your graphics display adapter from the v -> Options -> Repair tab of the game launcher. 
  
• If the game client doesn't appear to start, and there is no error of any kind, please take a look at this option. 
  
• For those familiar with the workaround of setting the DisplayAdapter value in UserPreferences.ini, this is intended to be a supported way of setting that value.
  
• Improved messaging for when the worlds are down.
  
• Improved the backend around the chat system, which should reduce frequency of disconnects.
  
• Added an 'Embers of Enchantment' barterer for the Hiddenhoard of Abnankâra. In order to acquire a piece of gear from the barterer, you will often need to have the completion deed for the tier following where the gear is introduced. Below is a breakdown:
  
• T1: Jewelry (Neck, Pocket), Off-hands
  
• T2: Jewelry (Rings, Earrings), Feet
  
• T3: Legs, Chest, Shoulders
  
• T4: Hands, Head, Cloak

Known Issues

• Training Audacity as a Creep from 35 to 36 will offer the player to train to 37. You cannot train beyond 36. If you log out and log back into the game this issue is resolved.

Here are the Release Notes for Update 33: The Yondershire, released on Wednesday, April 20th, 2022. 



This year we are partying in a big way, with all sorts of giveaways, events, and more! The Anniversary Event begins at 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on April 20th, 2022, and runs until 3:00 AM Eastern on May 11th.

Our Anniversary Event takes place inside The Lord of the Rings Online, starting at the Party Tree, located on The Hill in The Shire (location: 29.9S, 71.5W). When you first log in while the event is active you will also receive a message in Available Quests, which will get you a free map to take you there. Once there, make sure to pick up the wrapper quest “Another Lovely Year” by speaking to Waldo Rumble by the Party Tree!

This year we are debuting a new Festivity Instance called “A Flurry of Fireworks!” Help bring about the greatest fireworks display Bree-land has ever seen! Find “A Flurry of Fireworks” in the Seasonal Instances category of the Instance Finder. The Instance Finder can be opened by pressing Shift+F or by navigating to it in the Main Menu.

This year's Anniversary Event features a ton of new items to barter and earn! Among the new rewards are cosmetic items, a steed, and war-steed cosmetics “of Crystal Resolve”, a new Golden Crystal Beetle cosmetic pet, new fireworks consumables, a new housing fire pit and fireplace, and the debut of a new pet: the Corgi! Corgis can be bartered for Festivity Tokens, Anniversary Tokens, or Mithril Coins. Some Corgis are being helpful and hauling a cart while others are running unburdened. Everyone who logs in during the Anniversary Event will also receive a free Corgi pet.

Make sure to log in between 10:00 AM Eastern on April 20th and 3:00 AM Eastern on May 11th to pick up your “Happy 15th Anniversary” gifts!  

Additionally, we will once again have a 15-Year Giftbox available in-game that can be claimed by logging in between April 20th, 2022 after 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) until 3:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on April 1st, 2023.


Welcome to the northern region known as the Yondershire, a sparsely populated region of moor, thicket, and fen that has long been home to Hobbit recluses and troublemakers. Since the time of Bullroarer Took, the Yondershire has squabbled with the more comfortable parts of the Shire. The upstart Lotho Sackville-Baggins aims to bully the local Hobbits, but they’re none too keen on his designs.

Explore the Yondershire, our first expansion of the Shire in years! Fun Hobbit adventures for characters level 20 to 23. FREE to VIPs and available in the LOTRO Store! 

You can get to Yondershire:

• West out of Little Delving
  
• North-west out of Needlehole through Rushock Gate
  
• South-east out of Ered Luin past the Falathlorn Homesteads through the Eastway
  
• South-west out of Oatbarton through Bullroarer's Sward
  
• Quest, explore, and craft your way to level 95 to your heart’s content!

With this update, all quests, areas, instances, and expansions released between the original launch of LOTRO back in 2007 and up to – and including! - the release of Helm’s Deep, the High-elf race, and the Rune-Keeper, Warden, and Beorning classes- will be available for free to everyone.

VIP players will have access to the Standard Edition versions of the Mordor Expansion, the Minas Morgul Expansion and the War of Three Peaks.  VIP players now receive 5 additional active quest slots, up to a maximum of 75. As a 15th anniversary special gift, the  benefits of the Subscriber's Jug (VIP Town Services) will last for two weeks instead of one day. 


We will begin the process of ending support for the 32-bit versions of the game client for The Lord of the Rings Online on May 18th, 2022. The 32-bit clients will continue to be supported until January 1st, 2023. In the meantime, some features may not work fully on the 32-bit clients. We recommend all players change their settings in the game launch to switch to the 64-bit game client. This is done by pressing the down arrow button at the top of the launcher, then selecting Options.

• Beorning
  
• Fixed description of Beorning Greater Swarm Trait. Now correctly indicates that only the DoT component becomes AoE.
  
• The bonus damage from Execute's rage consumption is now a base multiplier rather than a mastery multiplier, and is much more potent.
  
• Brawler
  
• General skill damage bumped, in many cases quite substantially.
  
• Removed text from the Brawler's Mettle tooltip that described functionality it doesn't have.
  
• Updated icon for Brawler trait 'Fulgurant Strike Cooldown' to match its skill icon.
  
• 'Gut Punch' now correctly states that it reduces the target's outgoing damage by 5%.
  
• 'Share Innate Power' skill unlock will not time out if not used within 15s of achieving max buff tier. Should now last as long as the buff itself is maintained.
  
• 'One For All' was only granting 1% mitigation bonus per nearby ally, it now correctly grants 2% per (max 10%).
  
• 'Fist of the Valar' base damage reduced, but its pip mod increased to +15%/pip, and is now a Base damage multiplier (much more potent).
  
• 'Pummel's' duration has been reduced [5s->3s], but it now pulses faster [1s->0.5s]. Damage rebalanced for faster duration.
  
• Fixed multiple bugs with innate strength buff timing and shared innate strength application.
  
• Innate strength personal buffs increased duration [15->20s]
  
• The skill 'Iron Will' no longer consumes any mettle when used.
  
• The effect from 'Iron Will' now correctly matches its skill tooltip. This skill's effect was incorrectly reducing incoming damage more than the skill tooltip stated
  
• if cast while you had 4-9 mettle. This has been resolved, and only reduces damage by 2% per mettle.
  
• Burglar
  
• The Gambler trait 'Swift and Subtle' now correctly increases the potency of the heal from Bob and Weave.
  
• Captain
  
• Fixed bug that the Captain's 'Hiddenhoard' yellow-set bonus was erroneously applying to the skill even if the set was not equipped.
  
• 'Standard of Honour' now scales properly with weapon damage at trait ranks 1-4. It also now gains the listed healing bonus from its trait.
  
• Champion
  
• 'Blade Wall' base damage reduced ~25%.  
  
• Trait "Strong Armed Swings" now correctly applies to all Strike skill hits.
  
• This trait was erroneously applying a buff to off-hand hits made by AoE champion skills, which only occurred if dual-wielding. This has been fixed.
  
• This trait was only applying to second and third hits from strike skills, despite suggesting otherwise. It will now correctly apply to the first hit as well.
  
• Guardian
  
• Fixed 'Catch a Breath' set bonus to work properly with tracery (or other) buffs.
  
• Hunter
  
• Fixed 'Swift Mercy' trait not correctly reducing the focus cost of 'Merciful Shot' with 'Swift Bow' shots.
  
• Lore-master
  
• Lore-masters now advance their level 1-50 damage and healing progressions in line with the Minstrel & Rune-keeper progressions.
  
• Damage of Red Line skills and effects in general has been improved.
  
• 'Sic'em' retired and 'Gust of Wind', 'Burning Embers', and 'Sticky Gourd' reworked due to attempt to reduce or eliminate severe performance issues they were causing.
  
• 'Sticky Gourd' effects are now applied as an immediate AoE that applies its own DoT/Debuff directly to targets, rather than a hotspot. It can also apply tier 1 Burning Embers when improved. The effects themselves now have a 20s duration. 
  
• 'Improved Sticky Gourd' now immediately applies one copy of Improved Burning Embers, but does not continue to apply them thereafter. The hotspot version of burning embers wasn't getting some of the Lore-master's stats, such as crit chance, and would overwrite those cast normally, significantly limiting their damage. This version only applies once, but should work properly.
  
• 'Fierce Lightning' can now be applied by any Lore-master lightning skill. It now directly applies its fire DoT to targets, rather than setting the ground on fire.
  
• 'Fierce Lightning's' pulse rate reduced to every 2 seconds, but damage increased. Duration unchanged.  This effect can stack up to 2x per caster.
  
• 'Sic'em' replaced with 'A Murder of Crows'. This skill summons a cloud of crows around the target for 15s, with a 2m CD. While they persist the crows inflict enormous damage and disorient their victim, reducing hit chance and increasing the damage of other attacks made against the target. Enemies within 7m of the main target also take constant morale damage from the cloud of circling crows, but are not debuffed.
  
• 'Burning Embers' is now a single effect with 4 tiers (smouldering->burning->searing->blazing).
  
• Successive casts of 'Burning Embers' will upgrade the DoT.
  
• Each caster may have one copy of it on a given target.
  
• All other variants (crossfire, sticky version etc.) are gone.
  
• Each tier now has its own variations in visual FX and icon.
  
• Damage of the single instance of 'Burning Embers' has increased greatly.
  
• When Lighting skills trigger 'Burst of Flame' on a target 'Burning Embers' is only downgraded one tier rather than being consumed, unless it was tier 1, in which case it is removed.
  
• 'Gust of Wind' can now only spread burning embers from its main target to others in the AoE- it no longer tries to spread from every target, to every target - this was a big performance issue.
  
• 'Gust of Wind' can upgrade embers one stage on any targets it hits.
  
• Chance of spreading/upgrading has been increased.
  
• Resolved issues with the interaction between 'Kindred Flame' and the 'Hiddenhoard' set bonus. 
  
• Minstrel
  
• Base skill damage increased for most skills.
  
• 'Song of the Hammerhand' base bubble value reduced [80%->35%]. 
  
• 'Enduring Morale' now scales properly with level. At its third tier 'Enduring Morale' grants 'Call of the Second Age', a 2s stun effect that increases to 3s by tier 5. To help counter some of the loss of survivability, we've fixed scaling on this morale trait, and added a new CC source for the Minstrel for when they over pull.
  
• Fixed racial animation discrepancy for 'Call of the Second Age'.
  
• 'Call to the Second Age' animation has been adjusted and can now be affected by speed multipliers. The skill will also blend with locomotion animation.
  
• Traits 'Inspiring Finish' and 'Emboldened Finish' now each scale to a 100% application chance at max tier (25%->50%->100%) was (10%->20%->30%). 
  
• Base damage of 'Echoes of Battle' increased by ~50%.
  
• 'Echoes of Battle' damage bonuses from 'Cacophonous Timeless Echoes' (red trait) and 'Weakening Echoes of Battle' (yellow trait) have been swapped.
  
• 'Echoes' tick rate sped up from 5s-3s (this should offset the damage per tick, but not the actual DPS).
  
• 'Finesse' trait becomes 'Song of Arda', which grants up to +25% light damage.
  
• 'Piercing Ballads' trait now includes the Finesse buff that 'Song of Arda' replaced.
  
• 'Concentration' trait changed to a -10% attack speed passive.
  
• 'Coda of Fury' cry reset chance increased [30->50%] chance.
  
• 'Emboldening Finish' damage bonus improved [15->25%]. 
  
• 'Bracing Finish' damage bonus increased [7.5->15%].
  
• 'Coda Finishing' buffs extended [10->12s].
  
• 'Echoes of Battle' base damage increased substantially. Tweaked 'Echoes of Battle' to tick faster (3s) and to allow partial ticks, as playing ballads frequently causes it to reset, interrupting its ticks.  (This is a partial fix for a known issue where changes to tactical damage bonuses will cause 'Echoes of Battle' toggle to refresh, interrupting its pulse timer and substantially reducing its damage potential.)
  
• Warden
  
• Determination skill 'For the Free Peoples' buff now reduces incoming damage by 2.5% per stack, up to a maximum of -25% incoming damage.

• Brawler Zircon Belt Buckles will have enhanced stats when they are crafted with a critical success.
  
• The crafted headpieces for the Beorning Abyss armour sets now correctly count towards their set bonuses.
  
• T9 Cook reputation trail food recipes will now display their names correctly when multiples of the recipes are stacked.
  
• Fixed extraction recipe for Bit of Pure Anórien Ore, so you can no longer use a Bit of Pure Anórien Ore or Universal Optional Crafting Ingredient to boost crit chance of extraction.
  
• The master jeweler "Beryl Belt Buckle Recipe" icon and description now correctly identify the recipe as being part of the master tier.

• New and Changed Word of Craft Set bonuses:
  
• Perfect Accuracy renamed to Heroic Alacrity and now provides a set bonus of -3% Attack Speed.
  
• Perfect Precision renamed to Heroic Precision and now provides a set bonus of +3% Crit Chance.
  
• Grand Armour now provides a set bonus of +1.5% physical mitigation.
  
• Grand Willpower now provides a set bonus of +1.5% tact mitigation.
  
• Perfect Healing now provides a set bonus of +3% outgoing healing. - Perfect Recovery now provides a set bonus of +3% Incoming Healing.
  
• New Beorning Traceries:
  
• Counter Dodge & Counterattack Damage (+5% dodge, +50% dmg)
  
• Shake Free Cooldown (-10s)
  
• Slash Damage (+35%)
  
• Thrash Damage (+35%)
  
• Nature's Mend Healing (+20%)
  
• Encouraging Roar Instant Heal (+15%)
  
• The following Beorning Traceries have been updated:
  
• Slam Bonus Wrath Chance tracery now also adds damage to that skill (+25%)
  
• Bonus DoT Pulse tracery now also extends the Swarm debuffs by a similar duration so they match.
  
• One specific effect change to complement the tracery changes:
  
• Crippling Stings base duration extended [8->12s] to match the other swarm debuffs, but its base slow magnitude was reduced [-30%->-15%]. Now maxes at [-50% -> -35%].

• The Angle of Mitheithel will now act the same as other regions do regarding Event-based and Festival-based effects/bonuses.
  
• Fate of Gundabad
  
• Pit of Stonejaws - Dwarf-wights that appear during Tombs of the Old Lords will no longer spawn inside their sarcophagi and have updated entrance animations.
  
• Black Book of Mordor Chapter 13.8 'Guardians of the Tower' will now have billboards that update with each monster kill.
  
• The deed 'Quests of Azanulbizar' was only awarding a single package of "Enhancement Runes, Incomparable" instead of two. Beginning with Update 33, this deed will instead award 2x "Enhancement Rune, Lvl 121". Players who have already completed the deed will be retroactively granted these Enhancement Runes upon logging after Update 33 goes live. Thank you for your patience on this matter.
  
• Welkin-lofts - Instance: The Tipping Point - Corrected an issue where Gorgar's Orcs were sometimes not appearing at the conclusion of the instance.
  
• The Hiddenhoard of Abnankâra
  
• Brittle Chains and Hobgoblin Totems can no longer become Scions on Tier 4+.
  
• Dushtalbúk's 'Absolute Clarity' now tiers up every 7 seconds on Tier 4+, up from 5 seconds.
  
• Monster stat mods have been adjusted slightly downward for Tier 4. Health is now multiplied by 3.5, down from 3.75. Damage is now multiplied by 3.25, down from 3.5.
  
• Mordor
  
• Gorgoroth - Continue the Conquest: If you have completed the Deed: Tales of Gorgoroth and are at least Level 115, but did not receive this quest, you can now obtain the quest by travelling to any of the Mordor Allegiance Halls, the Udun Foothold, the Ruins of Dingarth, or Magh Ashtu in Gorgoroth.
  
• A variety of Doomfold, Ironfold, Minas Ithil, and Gundabad Draughts and Salves have been added to appropriate Healer and Tavern Keep vendor NPCs.
  
• The Coldfells vendor has been updated with new Poison, Disease, Fear, and Wound potions as well as new rations.
  
• The exit portal for Mission: Clearing a Path is now clearly marked with the customary visual FX. This should reduce the frequency of players going "Hmm I wonder what's back here?" and accidentally leaving the mission.
  
• The Zhelruka Clan - Quests for the Zhelruka Clan that allow use of Mithril Coins to swiftly travel to certain Objectives now properly place the player at the proper location instead of outside the Hall of Vérnozal.
  
• Urugarth - Deed: The Orcs of Urugarth - This Deed and its 'Advanced' variant now advance from defeating Goblins in Urugarth. If you previously had either of these Deeds underway but not completed, their progress will be reset at the time of this Update. However, they will be much quicker to complete. If you have previously completed these Deeds, you will see no change.
  
• Adjusted a Hungry Hobbit patrol in Little Delving.
  
• One of the drakeling eggs in Kordh Gurat needed for the Deepscrave quest "Drake's Cradle" is now reachable.
  
• Bee's Big Business: Challenge: Flower Power - Players can now complete the Small Fellowship and Fellowship versions of this quest on Legendary Servers.
  
• Bee's Big Business: Challenge: Bee's Big Business - Players can now complete the Small Fellowship and Fellowship versions of this Deed on Legendary Servers.
  
• Deed Vanguard of Central Gondor now rewards players with a Cracked Rohirrim Tracery rather than an obsolete Blemished Symbol of the Elder King.
  
• Missions: Bonus Legendary Item Boosts will now award players with an incomparable tracery, rather than heritage runes which are unusable by any players below level 115.
  
• Removed obsolete travel route from Hrimbarg.
  
• Dug out hobbit hole in Breeland.
  
• Added Mailboxes to Belfalas and Eastfold Housing Social Spaces.
  
• Adjusted placement of Forsting

• The word Gundabad has been removed from the Legendary Items Reward Track panel title.
  
• For the remaining 2022 Festivals, the dyes that were bartered for mithril coins last year can be acquired for the appropriate festival tokens this year, while the dyes available for festival tokens last year are now available for mithril barter.
  
• Akúlhun's Brand of the Tyrant and Lainedhal's Insignia of the Captain-General now correctly apply immunity to slow, disarm, and silence effects for 5 seconds, rather than 10 seconds.
  
• Fixed typos in Great River, Gondor, Mordor, Rohan, Vales of Anduin, Evendim, Warden Class quests, Bingo quests, food items, Urugarth, Weathertop, Wildwood, Great River, and Big Battles.
  
• Shimmering Dust and Monstrous Scale item descriptions incorrectly stated that they could be turned in for tasks. Their descriptions now correctly state that they can only be sold to vendors.
  
• LUA: Fixed an issue where using the "Subscriber Town Services" would not clear LUA bank data between character logins.
  
• The Subscriber Buffs and Town Services item granted by the VIP Rewards daily quest will now last for two weeks.
  
• The "Valar 130 trait points - Minstrel" item will, going forward, now give the correct amount of class trait points, and stack with previous Valar level boost 120 use.
  
• When using the Flame of Ancalamír, the confirmation dialog now correctly states that it will deconstruct the entire stack of target items at once.
  
• All relic of Gundabad items now correctly state that they are only sought after by the Zhélruka, and cannot be used to advance other allegiances.
  
• Yondershire: Corrects mistranslation of "Huge Wings" During the Thorin's hall Questlog
  
• Symbols of Celebrimbor and Symbols of the Elder King should not be disenchantable for ancient script. The 'Blemished' level 100 versions of these items can no longer be disenchanted. They may still be used to craft obsolete legendary items for their cosmetics.
  
• Forge-masters will no longer offer to tell you about imbuement.
  
• Fixed stat scaling on several Captain standards. In particular, Anórien standards were providing too much morale, and have been corrected down to what they should be. Gundabad-tier standards were providing morale that didn't scale properly, and now provide the correct amount of Vitality instead. Captains using Gundabad-tier standards should see their maximum morale increase slightly as a result of this fix.
  
• The size of the housing decoration item 'Hrímil Frost-heart in Effigy' has been appropriately increased.
  
• The spear's innate bleed "Spear-pierce" now correctly scales with item level.
  
• Future world shutdown messaging should be more visible.
  
• The launcher will now ask you to switch to the 64-bit game client if you are still using a 32-bit one.
  
• Updated several typos and mistranslations in the French and German, including in titles, quests, and maps.
  
• Updated localization for a number of strings in the launcher,  making the text clearer for indicating and selecting which game client being used.
  
• Fan Bundles - Some of our fan bundles granted LI2 tokens that could not be bartered properly at Rivendell.
  
• The broken tokens' description has been updated to reflect their status and let owners know where to trade them in. 
  
• Existing 'bad' tokens from already opened packages can be bartered at the Rivendell Archive for packages with working tokens.
  
• These now grant packages that will give character bound tokens that will work correctly. These tokens will scale to the level of the character opening the sub-package.