Here are the release notes for Update 39.1, released on Wednesday, March 20th, 2024.
Adventurer's and Traveller's Steel-bound lootboxes contain new "Silent Hunter" cosmetic items including avatar cosmetics, a steed, and matching war-steed appearances, a Sitaka cosmetic pet, plus new housing items including a silent hunter tapestry and pelt. These items are also available on Myrtle Mint for Figments of Splendour. Adventurer's and Traveller's Steel-bound lootboxes also now contain Silent Hunter Cloaks, a Silent Hunter Mask, and Silent Hunter Garden Perch and Settee housing decorations, which are not available through Myrtle Mint.

• Lore-master - Players are no longer able to use Bear taunts in six or twelve player Instances.
  
• Items:
  
• Several new instance rewards used in crafting recipes should now correctly be able to be placed into Crafting Carry-alls: Pieces of Petrified Driftwood, Iridescent Jets, Crackling Opals, Effervescent Moonstones, and Flaming Zircons.
  
• Certain items, designed to catch players up to specific level cap content, will now grant reduced statistical bonuses once your character has advanced beyond the designed catch-up level. These items will remain available for use but apply a diminished statistical benefit at the level cap where experience or currency bonuses end: Shield of the Hammerhand, Earring of the Dead City, Empowering Earring of the High Elves, Focusing Earring of the High Elves, Weightless Earring of the High Elves, Fateful Gundabad Earring, Flowing Silver Stone, Flowing Silver Stone of the Tortoise, and Fleet Merchant's Earring.
  
• The Dagorlad Wastes Frame granting item received from the Legendary Items Reward Track Season 9 has been corrected so that it binds to account.

• The Arena
  
• A number of skills and effects have had their damage tuned slightly - some up, but mostly down. Boss damage, especially from Ulanor and Rothog, was a bit higher than we'd like in the Tier 3 version of this instance.
  
• Crowd Work puddles have been adjusted slightly, and should now give more balanced effects.
  
• Ulanor:
  
• Reduced initial and DoT Damage of Haemorrhage. The Haemorrhage bleed now falls off in potency much more dramatically as it tiers down.
  
• Reduced initial damage of Inferno
  
• Fixed AoE targeting of Haemorrhage
  
• Akhmâr Redstorm will now correctly use Bastion of Light.
  
• All Bosses have had their damage reduced by five to ten percent, had their health increased by ten percent, and had their movement speed increased.
  
• Heart Seeker's Bleed potency has been reduced.
  
• Slam now deals less damage and follows a chat callout.
  
• Inferno now has a chat callout.
  
• Stagger now lasts three seconds per tier and tiers down when each tier expires.
  
• Nakrov no longer chains his horn abilities one after the other.
  
• Isle of Storms
  
• Ground effects in boss fights now clean up when the fight ends.
  
• The Deadly Cyclone is now less likely to follow non-main threat targets.
  
• The Intoxication effects in the second boss fight can no longer stack.
  
• Vengeful Mariners no longer cause the Ape boss enrage to "wrap around".
  
• The Ape boss now kills mariners faster if they are the only targets remaining.
  
• The Ape boss' spinning swipe now properly hits players.
  
• The Crocodile boss no longer cancels septic cloud if the main target moves away from it.
  
• Fire barrels now do considerably more damage over time.
  
• The meta Deed now properly bestows.
  
• The Streets of Râhal Bakh
  
• Khâshap now moves more quickly.
  
• Several Jephai Bombers are now more likely to throw fire on people below.
  
• Jephai Look-outs now use their "Call for Reinforcements" skill only once.
  
• The initial cooldown of Jephai Look-outs' "Call for Reinforcements" skill has been increased.
  
• The "Jephai Volley" and "Fire Pot" skills now pulse every two seconds instead of every three seconds.
  
• Utho, the Grasper now plays the "Stagger" attack skill correctly on targets not within melee range.
  
• The Depths of Mâkhda Khorbo
  
• Umshûra's Thunderous Roar no longer buffs Umshûra's head. It should still affect all tentacles and adds active at the time.
  
• Umshûra's adds when returning to the "head up" phase now spawn correctly.
  
• Completing the raid on all tiers will reward players with a title.
  
• An issue that caused players to sometimes get stuck in combat has been fixed.
  
• The effect to defeat the shades after Belondor is defeated is no longer a DNT string table, and is now called Belondor's Guilt.
  
• A boat being destroyed by Umshûra's tentacles now displays a notification.
  
• The automatic aggro range of enemies in the Iron Stairwell has been removed.
  
• Messages that appear in the instance now also appear in the chat log.
  
• Spring Festival
  
• We have corrected an issue with Bullroarer's Challenge that could cause the challenge to improperly fail.
  
• The travel route from Rakhatâb to Jax Phanâl now ends at its correct destination.
  
• The Umbar mission "Protecting the Sea Lanes" now works as intended and has been reopened.
  
• An issue preventing the Delving Malice "Explosive Devastation I and II" from being cleansable has been fixed.

• Players completing Tier 1 difficulty of "The Depths of Mâkhda Khorbo" are not receiving their proper "The Shadow Chaser" title reward. This title will be retroactively awarded to players who have completed this Instance in a future game update.

Update 39: Arenas of Conflict Release Notes

Here are the release notes for Update 39: Arenas of Conflict, released on Wednesday, March 13th, 2024. 

Of Special Note:

Three new instances and a new raid are now available! All three instances and raid are available to play for anyone who has acquired Corsairs of Umbar. Open the Instance Join Panel by pressing Control+J on your keyboard. Here are some details about these new Instances:

3 Person Instances:
The Streets of Râhal Bakh:

From the apothecaries of Carn Dûm to Langstrand all the way to Umbar, Indagir now known as Khâshap has been transporting a draught of the vilest make. We now grasp at his heels as he makes his final attempt to deliver this substance to his master. We will not fail. We cannot. Khâshap must be stopped, now!

Isle of Storms:

A great winged terror known to the people of Umbar as a Roc has been seen attacking ships sailing off the Cape of Umbar, swamping them with terrible winds and plucking the hapless crew out of the water. The lords of Umbar have requested that you find the nesting place of this monstrous bird and drive it from the Shield Isles. The Roc is believed to be roosting upon a deserted isle in the far reaches of the archipelago, once a haunt for pirates and brigands. Rumours say that they were driven out by strange and monstrous creatures, far greater in size than any beast should be....

6 Person Instance:
Dahâl Huliz, The Arena

The gladiator pits of Umbar Baharbêl are an instrumental aspect of the Umbaran culture. The battles in the arena of Umbar serve many purposes to the city. Foremost, the arena battles entertain the masses. Second, the arena battles serve to mete out justice against the city's greatest offenders. Since taking control of Umbar, the Kindred of the Coins altered the arena's rules. Capital punishment and wanton death are a thing of the cruel past. Combat is now a sport for the masses to engage with and enjoy. Anyone can enter the pit to enhance their glory. The gladiators bound to the arena serve their sentences by entering battle and fighting to the end....

These instances are currently available through Tier 3 difficulty, and will unlock through Tier 5 difficulty at Noon Eastern on March 21, 2024!

12 Person Raid:
The Depths of Mâkhda Khorbo

After the confrontation in the Citadel of Winds, the ship bearing Azagath, Belondor, and Nakási, Reaper of the Waves sails north-west into the shadow cast by the Mâkhda Khorbo. Pursuing the trio, you enter the depths of a long-hidden cavern leading through dank, twisting passages ending at an iron-wrought gate. The smells of the sea, iron, and ash assail you as you press deeper beneath the land and closer to the remnants of the temple ruins.

This new raid is currently available at Tier 1 difficulty, and unlocks through Tier 3 difficulty at Noon Eastern on March 21, 2024! 

The Leading the Charge deeds for these Umbar instances and raid will be available to complete until 3:00 AM Eastern on June 6, 2024. The Depths of Mâkhda Khorbo will have deeds available at difficulty tiers 3, 4, and 5. The other instances offer Leading the Charge deeds at difficulty tier 5 only.

Elderslade Delvings

Seventy one missions available in the Elderslade are now available as Delvings! Get started by traveling to the War Room of Annâk-khurfu! Find Ausma and Horin to get started. Read more about Delvings on LOTRO.com.

New rewards have been added to the Barterer as well, including travel skills to Elderslade and Umbar Baharbel, The Tome of the Grabby Crab, and the Tome of the Adorable Sand Worm! In addition, Delving armour will be updated to level 150 when the new raid reaches Tier 3. 

Epic Malices have also been added to Delvings! Read more in the release notes below.​

News and Notes
Classes and Skills

• All non-immediate combat skills should now have the 'Fast' skill tag.
  
• All offensive, fellowship-wide buffs across classes have been adjusted to apply to the entire raid. For optimized raid groups, this won't make much of a difference to your total possible damage output, but it should make it easier to organize players in groups without forcing a DPS/everyone-else split in order to maximize the power of these buffs. The one notable exception is the Herald of War buff aura, which for technical reasons still only applies to its Captain's fellowship.
  
• As Umbar instances arrive, many classes have had their damage or healing adjusted a small amount (details below). While a few specific classes and skills were overtuned, most of these adjustments are broad buffs to a class's overall damage output. We may need to make some further, even smaller, adjustments in the coming weeks, but the goal is to get damaging and healing output as close together as possible across classes.
  
• Beorning
  
• Beorning skills were incorrectly configured to benefit from an inherent 15% positional damage bonus on initial hits (this did not benefit the second hit of any skill, so it was giving a larger benefit to 2-handed attacks which only strike the enemy once). This has been corrected, and Beornings no longer benefit from an inherent positional bonus on any of their skills.
  
• Beorning damage has been increased 10% in light of the positional damage fix.
  
• Beornings may now wield swords.
  
• Aiding Strike now tiers down rather than disappearing completely if it expires above tier 1.
  
• Encouraging Roar healing increased 10%.
  
• Nature's Mend healing increased 20%.
  
• Aid the Assault (Maul) healing increased 25%.
  
• Bash Bleed Damage increased 50%.
  
• All forms of Thrash now have a 0.3s cooldown.
  
• Expose Cooldown reduced from 6s to 5s.
  
• Wrathful no longer reduces your crit chance as it approaches full. It will max out at 16% and stay there as you gain additional Wrath.
  
• Brawler
  
• Brawler Damage increased 7%.
  
• The mitigation debuff from Shattering Fist is now a %-based reduction, rather than an armour rating debuff.
  
• Set-up skills now grant 2 Mettle when used.
  
• Set-up Skill Cooldowns reduced by 1 second.
  
• One for All Cooldown increased by 60 seconds.
  
• Plant Feet's hotspot duration decreased from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.
  
• Plant Feet's hotspot size increased from 2m diameter to 5m diameter.
  
• Plant Feet now tiers up every 3 seconds, rather than every 4 seconds.
  
• Plant Feet now has visual effects when placed.
  
• The 'Shattering Fist' Legendary Item tracery now only increases the damage dealt by Shattering Fist, and has no impact on the potency of its debuff.
  
• Burglar
  
• Knives Out no longer taunts enemies hit.
  
• Knives Out now increases your Melee Damage for the duration, and does not reduce your Incoming Damage.
  
• The effects of Knives Out now last for 16 seconds (up from 10).
  
• Improved Knives Out now reduces the cooldown of Knives Out by 30 seconds.
  
• When specialized in the Mischief-maker, Reveal Weakness now reduces your miss chance and increases your Evade rating, but does not lower enemy Physical Mitigation.
  
• Cunning Attack now reduces enemy Physical and Tactical Mitigations by 3% for 20 seconds.
  
• Flashing Blades and Subtle Stab Devastating Criticals now correctly receive the same damage bonuses as regular Critical Hits.
  
• Coup de Grace off-hand hits now receive the correct bonuses to Positional Damage.
  
• When specialized in the Mischief-maker, Startling Twist will now apply Minor Rent Armour to enemies.
  
• Revealing Weakness can stack (with at least two Burglars) up to 2x on an enemy.
  
• Captain
  
• Power costs of some basic skills have been reduced slightly.
  
• Herald healing skills 'Lend Courage' and 'Lend Resolve' were erroneously requiring and consuming far too much of the herald's own Morale. These skills now have a much more appropriate Morale cost.
  
• 'Armour Rend' is now called 'Armour Break' and reduces all enemy Mitigations by 3% rather than reducing Armour Rating.
  
• Blade of Elendil will now apply the 'Armour Break' debuff.
  
• Elite Companions now increases Herald Health, Power, and Damage by 25%.
  
• Champion
  
• Power costs of many basic skills have been reduced slightly.
  
• A number of Champion skills had lower-than-intended Critical Magnitude Damage multipliers, especially for secondary strikes and off-hand hits. These issues have been corrected, and all skills should now have the appropriate 50% baseline Critical Multiplier for every hit.
  
• Champion Damage increased 10%.
  
• Blade Wall damage increased an additional 10%.
  
• Fury of Blades Damage increased an additional 5%.
  
• Born for Combat Damage increased an additional 25%.
  
• Born for Combat now gives you a Damage buff (1% per enemy hit, 10 max, 15 second duration).
  
• Born for Combat now has a 15s cooldown, and does not require you to be hit any number of times before it can be used.
  
• Wild Attack now correctly benefits from bonuses to 'Strike Skills Critical Magnitude' such as from the trait 'Deadly Strikes.'
  
• Rend no longer reduces enemy Mitigations.
  
• Blade Wall now reduces enemy Physical Mitigation by 5%.
  
• The Cardolan Essence of Glory now increases Masochism Mitigations by only 2.5%.
  
• Masochism now improves your Mitigations by 5% by default.
  
• Rend Bleed damage increased 10-30% (greater increase for higher tiers).
  
• Battle Frenzy now has a default cooldown of 45 seconds, and its tracery will reduce its cooldown by up to -7 seconds (meaning its lowest-possible cooldown is unchanged at 8 seconds).
  
• The effects of Great Cleave no longer stack with each other when Great Cleave is used twice in quick succession with the help of Call to Greatness.
  
• Several skill cooldowns were reduced by 0.2-0.3 seconds.
  
• The 'Rend' Legendary Item tracery now only increases the damage dealt by Rend, and has no impact on Blade Wall's debuff.
  
• Guardian
  
• Power costs of many basic skills have been reduced slightly.
  
• Guardian Damage reduced 5%.
  
• Specializing in the Keen Blade no longer suggests that you gain a passive bonus to Response Chain skills.
  
• The trait 'Numbed Senses' now increases the cooldown of Ignore the Pain by 2 seconds for each tier. This is to balance the value gained from the additional effect removals and should improve cleanse parity with other tank specs in particular.
  
• Redirect now reflects and reduces less damage when used in the Ettenmoors. This also affects the potency gained from the trait 'Vicious Rebuttal.'
  
• Critical Defence rating from the 'Bolster' effect has been significantly reduced.
  
• Hunter
  
• Explosive Arrow now applies Major Rent Armour when the Hunter is specialized in the Trapper tree.
  
• Lore-master
  
• Lore-master Damage increased 15%.
  
• Lore-master brooches and stick-pins that give Pet In-Combat Morale Regen, Pet Critical Rating and Pet Evade Rating have had these properties removed, as they were not working correctly.
  
• Benediction of the Raven now removes 3% Tactical Mitigation rather than 10% Fire Mitigation.
  
• Catmint now increases the potency of your Raven's Distraction debuff by 10%, and does not impact the Benediction debuff.
  
• Sticky Tar now reduces Physical Mitigation by 8% in addition to its existing 10% Tactical Mitigation reduction.
  
• Major Rent Armour now reduces enemy Mitigations by 12.5% after the more potent (15%) Enfeeble debuff expires.
  
• Ents Go to War damage has been increased.
  
• Mariner
  
• Power costs of many basic skills have been reduced slightly.
  
• Breath of Fire, Fire Pot, and Jagged Knife Damage reduced 5%.
  
• Flick is now an Immediate skill.
  
• Pitch Pot now reduces Physical Mitigation by 8% in addition to its existing 10% Tactical Mitigation reduction.
  
• The Remmorchant set 'Armour of Elegant Shanties' now correctly reduces the Critical Chance of all enemies hit, and correctly shows that it is reducing enemy Critical Chance.
  
• Shanty: Fore with Haste is no longer a toggle skill. When used, it will still ramp up in potency like it currently does, but it will add a steady +3 Fore-ward pips every second.
  
• Shanty: Fore with Haste cooldown increased by 15 seconds, to account for the time it previously spent toggled-on before the cooldown started.
  
• When a Minstrel uses Call to Greatness, The Braking of Thangorodrim will be reset rather than Guided by the Stars.
  
• Minstrel
  
• Piercing Cry (Dissonance) Damage reduced 15%.
  
• Piercing Cry (Melody) Damage reduced 10%.
  
• Raise the Spirit healing increased 10%.
  
• Raise the Spirit's bonus heal given by 'Raise Our Spirits' is no longer a single followup heal; it is once again a short HoT, and will not overwrite itself.
  
• Bolster Courage healing increased 30%; Power cost increased 20%.
  
• Fellowship's Heart Healing over time increased 15%; initial heal increased 5%.
  
• Triumphant Spirit Healing increased 25%.
  
• Chord of Salvation Healing increased 15%.
  
• Power costs increased slightly for Chord of Salvation, Triumphant Spirit, and Perfect Ending.
  
• Call of Orome's mitigation debuff has been changed from a ratings-based debuff to a %-based debuff, and now removes 2.5% Tactical Mitigation (or 3% in Melody).
  
• Rune-keeper
  
• Rune-keeper Fire Damage increased 20%.
  
• Rune-keeper Lightning Damage increased 35%.
  
• Healing from Writ of Health reduced by 5%.
  
• Molten Rune-stone damage is now correctly improved by its associated trait and the 'Rune-stone Healing and Damage' tracery.
  
• Writ of Lightning and Writ of Fire now each apply 'Weakening Writ' which tiers up from -1% to -5% Tactical Mitigation. Writ of Lightning no longer reduces Lightning Mitigation specifically.
  
• Power cost of Static Surge reduced.
  
• Shocking Words damage increased slightly.
  
• Do Not Fall now has a default cooldown of 2 minutes 20 seconds, and its related tracery only reduces its cooldown by up to -33 seconds (with a legendary tracery).
  
• Rune-keepers specialized in Cleansing Flame or the Fury of Storm will only have a Do Not Fall duration of 20 seconds, allowing you to revive an ally, but only if used carefully right before an ally is defeated. (Do Not Fall will still retain its 5 minute duration for Benediction Rune-keepers)
  
• Molten Rune-stone Damage increased and adjusted so that bonuses to its damage give closer to the real impact their values suggest. (+30% Molten Rune-stone Damage still won't give you a true 30% increase, but
  
  Combat and Monst
  

  • Fixed an issue in the "Protecting the Sea Lanes" Umbar Mission wherein portals were usable in combat.
    
  • Mounted Combat - Minstrels and Lore-masters will no longer shout twice when using the Intimidate skill.
    
  • Howling Grey Wolves and Vale-fly Pests near Celondim have been adjusted to spawn at level 6.
    
  • Several named worms in Forochel that were identified as Warm-worms have been corrected to be labeled as Cold-worms.
    
  • The Lion and Saber-tooth monster effect "Festering Wound" has been given more obvious visual effects to indicate this effect should be cleans
    
    Crafting:
    • Several crafted Medium and Light helms and gloves have had their names changed to better reflect their appearance.
      
    • Weaponsmith Polishes have been moved to the Luck-stone category in the crafting panel.
      
    • Umbar crafted Burglar Signals now properly make use of the critical crafting item for tailors.
      
    • 'Fervent Morale' potions crafted by Umbar Guild Scholars have been reworked. They will now increase the healing received by players for a set time, afterwards they will be affected by a debuff that prevents the healing increase buff until it runs out.
      
    • The 141 crafted Heraldries now have level 150 max on the set bonus.
      
    • The following crafted earrings have had their stats fixed: 'Handmade Earring of Tidal Fear' and 'Expertly Handmade Earring of Tidal Fear'.
    Events:
    • Players can no longer exploit the last gate of the Forester Event by going through in the opposite direction.
      
    • Players now need to turn in the quest for the Forester Event to receive their winner and runner-up rewards.
      
    • Axes in the Forester Event now spawn when the event is ready to begin - this should eliminate the exploit where players were getting the axes without an induction.
      
    • Items and Rewards:
      
    • New recipes are now available for barter from the The City of Umbar Rewards Quartermaster: Cloak of Mâkhda Khorbo Recipe, Token of Umbar Recipe, and Serpentine Essence Recipe.
      
    • Newly acquired Adventurer's lootbox gear, for level 150 characters, will now scale to item level 513 - 515.
      
    • Sea-faring Adventurer's Essence Boxes are now available for barter with the Adventurer's Quartermaster and have a chance to drop from Adventurer's Steel-bound Lootboxes.
      
    • The Allegiance armour item Elegantly Woven Shoes of the Eagle have had their stats updated so they are no longer the same as Finely Stitched Shoes of the Eagle.
      
    • Additional cloaks of Elessar may be bartered from King's Gondor Quartermaster NPCs.
      
    • Special Word of Craft traceries no longer allow you to equip Gundabad and Umbar versions simultaneously. You can still equip 1 incomparable and 1 legendary tracery of the same type, but you can not equip a Legendary Gundabad Induction tracery at the same time as a Legendary Umbar Induction tracery, for example.
      
    • Some Ost Dunhoth and Wildermore shields once again display at their intended size.
      
    • Umbari Feasts will now apply over any current trail food and cooked food buffs on the player. Personal-use 2-hour food and Feasts now have the same priority, so you will receive the effects of whichever was most recently eaten between the two.
      
    • Umbari Feasts are now correctly able to trigger both trail food and cooked food buffs for Brawlers.
      
    • The 'Map to Rhosgobel' will now be consumed on use, however it has had it's cooldown lowered to 10 minutes.
      
    • Delving Hope tokens now last 30 minutes and persist through death. Does not apply to fellowship.
      
    • VFX on the Weapon Aura of Elven Blessings was a bit over powering, it has been slightly toned down.
    Landscape:
    • Underground marigolds in the Gloomglens have been brought to the surface.
      
    • Braiglad's Flower in the Old Forest has been moved from the inside of a rock.
      
    • A crate of supplies in Skarháld has been moved from the inside of a wall.
      
    • The Roving Threats Quartermasters in Angmar and Forochel, Cánnakh and Ostasänt, have traded appearances to be consistent with their locations.
      
    • Tegwen Spurry in Trader's Wharf has gotten new hair.
      
    • Beriaudur in Dol Amroth (King's Gondor) will now have a consistent appearance.
      
    • Leri Grudd has put her book away in order to fix her hair.
      
    • Ambassador Spakorth now looks the same inside Instance: A House Forged Anew as he does outside of it.
      
    • Rhiangar's clothes in the Herne Mayor's Office kitchen are now the clothes she was wearing the last time you saw her.
      
    • The Roving Threats Quartermasters in Angmar and Forochel, Cánnakh and Ostasänt, have traded appearances to be consistent with their locations.
      
    • Lizbeth Honeymeade of the Comb and Wattle Inn is no longer sinking into the floor.
      
    • The Defender of Ost Guruth at the Eglain Camp in the Lone-lands is now standing on the ground.
      
    • Sithgar in Ost Rimmon has calmed down a bit and is no longer kicking things.
      
    • Fuirgam in Ost Galadh no longer kicks the table between conversations.
      
    • Baldmund of Stoke in West Rohan how has a consistent appearance.
      
    • Misc stuck spots have been fixed.
      
    • Misc asset placement issues have been fixed.
      
    • The Longbeard Stable-masters have been renamed War Effort Recruiter to reflect their role more accurately.
      
    • Fixed a font problem with displaying instance names in the Outer Gondor Reflecting Pool.
    Missions and Delvings:
    • 71 Elderslade Missions have been converted to Delvings.
      
    • 9 missions have not been converted to Delvings, due to being incompatible in some way with the system. These missions are incompatible:
      
    • “Collapsing the Old Paths”, “Burrowers by the Hadhodiant”, “The Sacrificial Tower”, “The Watchers of Iron”, “The Three Wardens”, “The Goblin-town Gauntlet”, “Invasion at the Redhorn Pass”, Training for Glory” and “Goblins at Stramvárth”.
      
    • The Delving Wight Archer now uses ranged skills at ranged distances and does not default to melee skills.
      
    • Added travel skills to the Bloody Eagle Tavern in Umbar to Delving Quartermasters for Delving writs. These skills can be used from level 20 onward.
      
    • The travel skills available from Delving Quartermasters to Annâk-khurfu in Elderslade have had their item levels lowered to 20, to allow lower level characters to venture on missions there.
      
    • In Mission: Aiding the Bridge Builders, the builders now have hammers in their hands that they also use as weapons.
      
    • Elderslade mission givers can now redeem completed Delving quests and give Delving weekly quests.
      
    • Elderslade missions have been changed from a 10 day schedule to 7 days. This change was made alongside the Delving mission conversion so that each Delving Variant could appear in each mission.
      
    • Epic Malices:
      
    • Epic Malices have been added to Delvings. These are Malices that affect you or the space itself. These Epic Malices will appear on Tier 9 as part of the reordering of Malices. We are launching with three Epic Malices, and more may be added in the future. 
      
    • Epic Fervour - Your Fervour and intensity grows with each enemy defeated. For each enemy defeated, gain a stacking damage buff. Buff stacks up to 10 times.
      
    • Epic Tempest - Storm clouds form in the space, spawning every 45 seconds and roiling through the space. There are 4 possible storms: Storm of Fire, which does fire damage to you and enemies; Storm of Lightning, which does lightning damage to you and enemies, Storm of Healing, which heals you and enemies, and Storm of Protection, which grants an Armour buff to you and enemies.
      
    • Orc Tunnels - Orcs and goblins are digging under your feet! Orc tunnels will pop up in the space every 90 seconds. One tunnel will spawn per player. Destroy the tunnel or it will spawn a random Delving orc or goblin every 30 seconds!
      
    • Delving Malices have been reordered. We aim to do this periodically to keep Delvings fresh and showcase new combinations of Malices. With the addition of
      
    • Delving Epic Malices to Tier 9, Malices previously there have been moved to Tier 11, so every Delving tier now unlocks a new Malice.
      
    • The Adorable Sand Worm and Grabby Crab pets are now available from the Delving Quartermaster for Delving Writs.
      
    • A Delving Quartermaster has been added to the Annâk-khurfu War Room.
      
    • Players can now barter for level 150 essences and crafted tracery recipes from Delving Rewards NPCs.
      
    • Sauron's Defense II now reflects 30% of damage instead of 45%.
      
    • Sauron's Defense II is a corruption and when removed no longer re-adds a lower tier of Sauron's Defense.
      
    • Lingering Fear now subtracts 50% of incoming healing, down from 90%, and has a cap of 2 effects at once on a player.
      
    • The Delving Malices Encroaching Shadow and Slime Puddles II have had their base effects increased slightly.
      
    • The following Delving Malices have had their capped number of effects per player reduced: Disease Cloud I, Disease Cloud II, Fire-storm I, Fire-storm II, Poison Puddles I, Poison Puddles II, Slime Puddles I, Slime Puddles II, Encroaching Shadow, Explosive Devastation I, Explosive Devastation II. Each effect has been reduced from a cap of 3-6 effects to a max of 2 effects per player.
      
    • Gnawing Cold and Persistent Cold attacks with one hour player debuffs have been removed from Elderslade mission monsters.
      
    • "The Throne of Tharrazhâr" Elderslade mission now correctly lists Hrímil's Chosen as the mission twist.
      
    • On A Mission (Weekly) & On A Continuing Mission (Weekly) will no longer bestow twice on legendary worlds like Treebeard. Only the version awarding Motes of Enchantment will be available until the level cap matches other live worlds.
      
    • The Elderslade mission The Sacrificial Tower now correctly lists "Reinforcements!" as its mission twist.
      
    • Delving Mission Givers no longer reference Caras Gelebren or Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave.
      
    • The ballistae in the Elderslade mission "Assault on Ashmâr-zarakh" now show destruction visual effects when destroyed.
      
    • Added polish to Mission: A Life's Work.
      
    • The mission twist "Burning Shield" is now a corruption and is removable by corruption removal. Has a max stack size of 3.
      
    • The portal at the beginning of "The Ill-fated Cave" Umbar mission no longer allows passage while on that mission, as it is only intended for use during the "Dig Deep" Cape of Umbar quest.
    Quests, Deeds, and Adventure Areas:
    • A new chapter of "The Song of Waves and Wind" is now available at the Harbour-warden's Tower in the Sail-Haven. 
      
    • Six new quests are now available in The Angle of Mitheithel. Begin these quests by speaking to Ivoreth, along the road west of Tham Lumren.
      
    • Fixed the graphical glitch that occurred when Legolas dismounts from his horse during 'Instance: Allies Unexpected'.
      
    • Fixed an issue in the Cape of Umbar quest "A Pallid Tide" wherein billboard counter announcements were not appearing for all objectives.
      
    • Ulanor should never have been attackable during 'Blood of My Blood,' either when visible or invisible. Now she's not! There have also been numerous fixes to the drama sequence.
      
    • Adjusted the placement of crates for 'The Stacking Game' in Furukzahar to eliminate some graphical issues.
      
    • Mithril travel to Faeron for 'Agarnaith: The Return to Seregost' should now send you to his correct location.
      
    • Adjusted the phasing for Ayaluk in Rakhatab if you help someone with part of his quest line without having started it yourself.
      
    • Worm and Corsair slayer deeds for the Cape of Umbar will now count more of the enemies in this area.
      
    • The quest-bestowing items for 'Reflections on War,' 'Call of the North,' and 'Angmar Reborn, Prologue' are now destructible, which brings them in line with other similar items.
      
    • The Khundolar boss you encounter during 'Instance: Mists of Anduin' will no longer fight with an invisible sword.
      
    • Ered Mithrin repeatable quests can now be reset with mithril.
      
    • West Gondor repeatable quests can now be reset with mithril.
      
    • Lothlórien repeatable quests can now be reset with mithril.
      
    • Gundabad repeatable quests can now be reset with mithril.
      
    • The Lothlórien repeatable quest "A Revel Too Far" can now be reset with mithril.
      
    • West Gondor fishing repeatable quests can now be reset with mithril.
      
    • Daily and Weekly Mission quests in Gundabad have been made mithril resettable, to aid in Allegiance progression.
      
    • Mithril travel to Faeron for 'Agarnaith: The Return to Seregost' should now send you to his correct location.
      
    • Adjusted the placement of crates for 'The Stacking Game' in Furukzahar to eliminate some graphical issues.
      
    • The Pelargir (King's Gondor) quest A Cure for Weariness now rewards players with level appropriate Lamb Hotpots.
      
    • The drama sequence at the end of Mission: The Zhelruka Clan, Chapter 8 has received some polish.
      
    • Arwen will no longer disappear from Imdolen, above Rivendell, when she departs for the Wedding. Players working on the Court of Lothlorien Allegiance will still need to speak to her in Imlad Gelair, but now she will be more reliably present in the early game.
      
    • The bestowal text and objectives in the quest The War Effort Needs You! have been updated for accuracy and clarity.
      
    • Made some adjustments to 'The Would Be Shanty-man' to make Anyamat's quest objectives more clear.
      
    • Corsairs in Azruthor's Rue and the rest of Tarlang's Crown will now count for the deed Corsair-slayer of Western King's Gondor and Corsair-slayer of Western King's Gondor (Advanced).
      
    • Goats and Deer in King's Gondor West Belfalas were incorrectly classified as belonging to the Blackroot Vale.
      
    • Adjusted the directions to the Crossings of Erui for Epic Volume IV, Book 3, Chapter 3, 'Fearless.'
      
    • Two previously remotely bestowed quests in Harwick, East Rohan, Pushing Back their Advance and Quench the Flames, are now bestowed by Sergeant Hyburt.
      
    • Both require the quest Prisoners of Olghakhósh to be in progress before he will offer them to you.
      
    • Hobbit and Elf Allegiance instance quests that previously appeared in the quest log under Allegiance: The Kingdom of Gondor, will now appear in their correct categories.
      
    • Bounty quests to hunt the Proto creatures is now properly set to small fellowship.
      
    • The Town Crier in the Belfalas housing area now properly allows you to enter the session play for the April Fools Event.
      
    • Boss monsters within "Shakalush, the Stair Battle" can no longer be slowed.
    PvMP:
    • The new Ettenmoors food and buff scroll effects will now be properly removed upon leaving the Ettenmoors.
      
    • Note that they should not be removed if you lose connection or simply relog within the bounds of the Ettenmoors.
      
    • Several Monster Player traits and effects were granting higher-than-intended values for in-combat regen rates. These have been corrected, and now give the intended values. This also impacted Morale and Power values from Imposing Presence, and the Vitality debuff from Curse of the Lethargic Heart.
      
    • The free player morale bonus from 17 Audacity in the Ettenmoors has been reduced from +50% to +40%.
      
    • In-combat Power Restoration from Ettenmoors war rations is now closer to standard food ICPR.
      
    • Many Ettenmoors consumable items now have larger stack sizes.
      
    • Freep Outgoing Damage Bonus from 17 Audacity has been reduced from x1.2 to x1.15.
      
      Miscellaneous:
    • Emotes - River Hobbits now produce trumpet sounds when performing the /trumpet emote.
      
    • "Yule Tunic and Trousers" and all appearances that use the same model now show feet slot cosmetics when worn with shoes for Beorning, Race of Man, and River Hobbits. Boots that are too tall will be hidden and instead the outfit's default shoes will be displayed. Feet will no longer disappear.
      
    • The Brockenborings provisioner Sancho Chubb, in the Shire, has had that title added to his character.
      
    • The disposing of bottles in the Midsummer Festival quest A Cure For All Ills now has an animation.
      
    • Removed the extra sound effect that was playing during 'Instance: The Fellowship Departs'.
      
    • All Beorning traceries should now correctly have a chance of dropping from random tracery packages.
      
    • Certain versions of the damage vulnerability properties had their tooltip descriptions mixed up (melee vs. ranged vs. tactical). This has been fixed.
      
    • Fixed a bug causing Auras to sometimes not display on Axe of the Shadowed King.
      
    • Neighborhood Task Boards have been adjusted. Level 140 tasks are now on their own posting. The placement of some of the postings has been adjusted so that the levels of the tasks align with the Task Collection Box below them.
      
    • The Bloody Tavern Vendor Akálam's map note has been corrected.
      
    • Neighborhood Task Boards now have tasks for levels 141-150.
      
    • Players can no longer rotate while using the Epic Lecture emote, which was previously breaking the effect.
      
    • French and German: Several translations for NPC occupation titles have been updated.
    Known Issues:
    • There are a subset of items that grant statistical bonuses beyond their designated level range, and in the near future we will prevent these items from granting statistical bonuses once their listed level range has been reached: Shield of the Hammerhand, Earring of the Dead City, Empowering Earring of the High Elves, Focusing Earring of the High Elves, Weightless Earring of the High Elves, Fateful Gundabad Earring, Flowing Silver Stone, Flowing Silver Stone of the Tortoise, and Fleet Merchant's Earring. We expect this change to arrive with Update 39.1.

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