Welcome to The Lord of The Rings Online: Mines of Moria™ Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dûm Preliminary Release Notes! Please be aware that these notes are for the Bullroarer test server ONLY and are not complete or final. They will be revised and updated when Book 8 goes live on the LOTRO servers in June. Enjoy! Updated: 6/9/2009
The plans of Gorothúl, sorcerer of Dol Guldur, begin to be made clear as ancient evils stir again in the depths of Khazad-dûm. Small fellowships must form to combat this emerging threat before the hopes of the Iron Garrison and the Elves of Lothlórien are ended by the darkness. The story of The Mines of Moria continues with new quests and challenges!
Of Special Note
Summer Festival
The Summer Festival, coming in Book 8, now has two new events -- one in the Shire, on The Hill, and the second on the approach to Thorin's Hall.
Certain crafted equipment items had their minimum level usage requirement changed for Book 8. However, bound items in the player's possession which were changed to exceed the player's level will instead match the player's level. Non-bound and banked items are not versioned in this way.
Lothlorien Gift Box Changes:
There is no longer a chance to receive First-age items.
There is no longer a chance to receive Tier 4 Runics.
The Heritage Runes have significantly increased in value.
The lowest value is now 75k.
The highest value is now 250k.
There is now a chance to receive Level 58 and Level 59 Second-age items (you can still get Level 60 Second-age items as well).
The odds have been tweaked, the most significant of which is that there's now a slightly higher chance of receiving a Second-age item, but a lower chance of that Second-age being Level 60 (due to the inclusion of Level 58 and 59 Second-age items).
The costs of the gift boxes have been significantly reduced: they now cost 15G 30S.
The descriptions of the gift boxes have been changed to more accurately reflect the potential rewards.
The gift boxes are no longer class restricted for those who mistakenly purchased the wrong box.
Please note that there will be no compensation for those who have already purchased a gift box: when you opened that gift box you had a chance to get a Level 60 First-age item.
Explanation of Changes:
The gift boxes have been changed from a high-risk / high-reward design to a more friendly middle-ground design. The high-end rewards have either been removed (First-age) or had their chances reduced (Level 60 Second-age), while the low-end rewards have either been removed (15k Heritage Rune, Tier 4 Runics) or increased (250k Heritage Runes are now available). Because the high-end rewards have been removed/reduced, the cost of the giftboxes has been reduced as well.
First Age Legendary Items
First Ages are now dropped via a barter system.Each raid now drops barter tokens that can be saved up to use to trade for the First Age item of your choice. Vile Maw, Strange Happenings, and Dar Narbugud will all drop multiple tokens. Go visit the barter traders at the Hythe docks to see all the possibilities.
Level 59 First Age's will cost 4 tokens
Level 60 First Age's will cost 6 tokens
Currently First Age Legendary items are Bind on Acquire on Bullroarer. This change will be reverted and will not go live when Book 8 ships.
It's the Little Things That Count
The impending war between the Light and the Dark has caused many of the vendors in the world to fear for the stability of their livelihood. In an effort to retain business the vendors have now learned to sell stackable items in quantities other than "one" and "a full stack" in order to better serve you! While you have the vendor UI open you can now buy single items by default, or use…
SHIFT to purchase a full stack,
ALT to purchase a quantity that you specify in a pop-up dialog
TAB to fill all stacks of the selected item type in your backpack.
Boat Keepers have arrived in Evendim!
There is a new aquatic swift-travel route between Tinnudir and The Eavespires for 25 silver!
BULLROARER ONLY
Added Reputation bestowers for Moria Miners, Guards, and Lorien Elves in the Eyes and Guard Tavern. Also opened up a new Crafting hall wing.
Full Release Notes
Skills/Classes
General
We’ve removed knockdown as a conjunction starting event. All conjunction starts will now use a conjunction stun event.
The buffs "Hope Unlooked For" (received from Glorfindel after returning a broken chain link) and "Mirdanant's Inspiration" will no long be dispelled on log-out or disconnect.
Corrected several skills that were not playing attack animations when the character was disarmed.
Guardian skills
Bash
Shield Smash
Shield-blow
Improved Shield-blow.
Champion skill
Hedge.
Champion
In response to changes made to the Champion class, all legendary points on champion items will be reset so that players may adjust legacies accordingly.
Clarified tooltip for Champion's Fight On skill
The Champion’s skill Fervour will now have a -30% penalty to incoming healing. Champion skills that restore morale are not affected, nor is the Man skill Strength of Morale. This incoming healing penalty is not in effect in any PvMP area, though Champions will need to re-activate Fervour on entering or leaving such an area.The Incoming Healing penalty from Continuous Blood Rage will overwrite the Incoming Healing penalty from Fervour resulting in only -90% penalty when both skills are toggled on.
The Champion Legendary skill Controlled Burn will no longer last for the duration of combat. Instead it has a fixed duration of 2:30 minutes. The only in combat activation and the 20% morale restrictions have been removed. In addition, activating Controlled Burn applies the effects of Ardent Flurry and Glorious Exchange to the Champion.
The Champion Trait Controlled Fury has been changed. It will now increase the duration of Controlled Burn by 1:00 minute and add the Red Haze effect when Controlled Burn is activated.
The descriptions for the Champion Traits Deadly, Vicious and Deep Strikes were updated to include Feral Strikes in the list of skills affected. This is a text change only. Feral Strike has always been modified by these traits.
The third attack from Savage Strikes and Brutal Strikes will now be modified correctly by the two-trait bonus in the Berserker Trait Set.
The stun effect from the crafted warhorns can no longer be evaded.
Guardian
Guardian skill, Thrill of Danger, should no longer cause friendly mobs to attack the player.
The debuff effects from Guardian Stagger skill have been separated into an Attack Speed Debuff and a Runspeed debuff. Each effect can be removed separately. There is no other change to the functionality of the Stagger skill.
The Guardian trait Litany Master will now trigger the threat over time effect on critical hits from the 2nd attacks of Shield Swipe and Sweeping Cut.
The corruption removal countdown effect from the Guardian skill Improved Sting will now stack when applied by multiple Guardians.
The Guardian's skill Protection will now require a shield to be equipped as mentioned in the skill's description.
The Guardian skill Fray the Edge will now work correctly while untraited. In addition, once the Fray the Edge effect has reached its maximum value it will have its duration refreshed by additional applications of Fray the Edge.
The Guardian skill Turn the Tables no longer requires the Guardian to face the target. All other restrictions still apply.
Hunter
The legacy "Strength Quick Shot Slow" is now properly buffing Quick Shot's slow.
Fire bolts will no longer remain in the Hunter's hand after using Improved Swift Bow - Ablaze.
Minstrel
The Minstrel skill Call to Greatness will now apply level appropriate versions of Shields Up and Guardian's Ward to Wardens and Guardians respectively.
As expected in Book 7, we've had to tone down the IA damage progressions for the Minstrel to keep his IA contribution to DPS in line with his class role. This will allow us to maintain the 1-50 experience we want to see from the class.
Captain
The tooltips for two of the Captain's trait set bonuses were incorrect. There were no changes in the functionality of these bonuses; the tooltips were just corrected to match their effects.
The 3 trait bonus in Hands of Healing reduces the power cost on ALL healing skills.
The 3 trait bonus in Lead the Charge reduces all Melee skills power costs. There were no changes in functionality of these bonuses.
The Captain's trait Composure will now allow Time of Need to reset the cooldown on Shadow's Lament as per the trait's description.
Captains can once again rename their banners.
The Captain’s skill Cry of Vengeance will now have a 10 second window to be used as well as a slightly longer range.
The Captain's class trait Loyalty now has an expanded description that mentions all of the bonuses for the trait. In addition, the trait's bonus to Herald's armour was increased slightly.
Captains can once again use the Gleaming Striker, Flashing Bane, and Shining Star scrolls that add the bonus Light damage title to their legendary class item.
Captains will now perform an attack animation when using their Kick skill while unarmed or disarmed.
Burglar
Quite a Snag now reduces attack speed by 10% and increases incoming damage by 3%.
Small Snag still reduces attack speed by 5% and now increases incoming damage by 2%.
Gamblers Strike no longer is guaranteed a tier 4-6 damaging Gamble. It's odds are better than other Gamble application skills, but not as consistent as it was. Existing Gambles on your foe will still be upgraded to max tier (including Damaging Gambles applied from other sources)
All trait lines have had their bonuses re-ordered and modified.
The 3 traitline legendary traits grant additional passive bonuses.
Cunning Attack’s recovery is increased to 5s.
Disable now recovers in 5s and lasts for 30s.
Hidden Knife now increases damage from stealth.
The IA legacy for Share the Fun has been removed. The +Stalk speed legacy now increases Share the Fun speed.
Track Treasure can now be used in conjunction with other resource tracking skills.
The tooltips of all Trick Removal skills now displays the effects they will apply.
Gamblers Strike has its base damage reduced.
Small Snag has its base damage increased.
Cruel Odds has its application chance increased.
Flashing Blades has its damage increased.
The Even Odds buff increases gamble chance by 50%.
Stick and Move now increases partial parry chances and magnitude.
Little Annoyances, Dealings Done, and Practiced Bluff now reduce cool down by 140 seconds (was 120 seconds).
Devastating criticals of Cunning Attack now apply even stronger Damage over Time.
The "From Stealth" version of Cunning Attack has had its damage increased.
"Well-placed Strike" has its Recovery reduced to 3 minutes.
"Strategic Planning" now decreases Location is Everything’s recovery by 3 minutes.
"Strike from Shadows" now increases stealth critical chance by a flat percentage.
Lore-master
The Lynx's attacks "Feral Strike" and "Slashing Claws" will now properly / more consistently hit the targets in front of the Lynx. (A special thanks to the bug reporter, Valridan, for sending this issue in. This was tough to spot in game, but very blatantly wrong on my end.)
Lore-masters will now sheathe their staffs on their backs with the staff head over their shoulder instead of near their feet.
Lore-masters using Staff and Sword will now have attack animations during Fellowship Maneuvers.
Lore-master squirrel pets will once again be able to follow their masters around Middle-earth.
Lore-master Skill, Knowledge of the Lore-master, should be more accurate at determining monster fellowship skill immunity.
Rune-keeper
Lightning Critical damage legacy was reduced.
The Rune of Restoration has it’s unsummon distance reduced.This should help with it randomly pulling mobs after you are leave it.
The Thunderous Words buff was erroneously claiming it reduced the Rune-keeper’s ability to bypass resistance. It now reads properly.
Conflagration of Runes was erroneously claiming it reduced Induction time by .5. Its power reduction was also removed.
Weapon of X skills debuff is no longer permanent. Debuff now lasts for 10 seconds. The rate at which the debuff applies was greatly increased.
Fall to X skills no longer add damage to the skill that triggers them. The damage Fall to X deals is now treated as though from a separate source.
Rousing Words has been slightly reworked. It will no longer pulse double on the RK. The initial pulse has been moved back slightly and the duration extended to maintain a pulse count of 6. This should cause minimal gameplay changes.
Enamels now share cooldown.
Inlays now share cooldown.
Armour of Flame: Slightly reduced damage. Duration of Damage over Time decreased.
Epic Conclusion: Base damage increased. "Closing Remarks" damage buffs decreased from 75% to 50%. Critical damage decreased. Net DPS of this skill should only be mildly affected. The highs will not be as high and the lows not as low.
Ceaseless Argument: Damage and power cost decreased.
Wrath of Flame skills: Slight increase in power cost.
"Martial Training" now increases morale by 300.
The rock centering the Rune-keeper's Rune of Restoration will no longer sink under the waves when used in deep water.
Warden
Corrected typo in Warden's Reversal gambit description.
Warden Damage over Time and Morale Transfer effects will now stack per caster. That is, each Warden can apply one of each of these effects to every monster.
Elf Male Wardens will no longer constantly make odd noises while engaged in combat.
Male elf wardens will now use the correct animation for Warden's Taunt.
The Warden Legendary Weapon legacy for Exultation of Battle Threat Up was adding much more threat than was intended. This legacy has been brought in line with other threat-enhancing legacies.
Corrected Warden combat animations while disarmed.
The Warden skill Critical Strike will no longer have a delay before activating after a using a Gambit.
The Heal over Time effect from the Warden Safeguard Gambit will now be displayed in the Buffs section of the UI, not Debuff.
Warden gambits should no longer fail with "You cannot harm yourself." messages when executing gambits quickly after queuing the last required skill to perform the gambit
Gambits that required slotted traits will no longer appear in the Gambit panel if the necessary traits are not slotted.
Traits/Titles/Deeds/Virtues
Trout Master can now be advanced while in a raid.
All tentacles in the Vile Maw now count for The Arms of the Watcher (Advanced).
The Accomplishment "Seven Swords" is now properly displayed.
The racial trait Balance of Man will no longer show as Earning when An Ancient Story of Evil is underway or completed. It is now properly shown on the correct accomplishment Enmity of the Hillmen.
The Virtue Tolerance has had its bonus to in-combat morale regen corrected. Previously the virtue gave its maximum bonus at every level of Tolerance. Now Tolerance gives an in-combat morale bonus that increases to its maximum value at rank 10.
The Expert Attacks deed will now properly update with devastating criticals.
The Call of the Wild deed will now properly update with devastating criticals.
The Strong Draw deed will now properly update with criticals and devastating criticals.
Monster Play
General Monster Play
Monster Player health and power potions will now stack to 50.
Monster Player food items will now stack to 50.
Seeking charms and tracking talismans will now stack to 20.
Cure fear potions (barter) will now stack to 20.
Delving spirit stones, Tyrant's Crests, and Chieftain's Brooches will now stack to 100.
Quest collectibles found in the Ettenmoors (such as Hobbit Legs, Barrels of Oil, Slabs of Troll Stone) will now stack to 100.
Items with root duration reduction will once again affect root skills from Monster Player characters.
Resilience (Reaver) and Snap Out of It! (Warleader) will cure root crowd control effects.
Player channeled skills can now be used in water. Monster Player channeled skills were also updated.
Pets will now properly attack when in guard mode and the master is attacked by a monster player.
Players and monster players must now ensure that the tower bosses are dead to attempt to capture the tower locales.
The level on Ranger and Troll quests offered when the population is unbalanced in the Ettenmoors are now level appropriate. The population mechanic is working correctly after investigating some reports.
Goblins and Hobbits were confused at Tirith Rhaw - they would stay and defend the opposition. This has been addressed at the cost of a few toes and a lot of mushroom pie.
Controlling their artifact and the players’ artifact will now give monster players a small bonus to all infamy earned in the Ettenmoors. Controlling both their artifact and the players’ artifact and all locations in the Ettenmoors will increase this bonus.
Fixed an issue where Lainedhal's Insignias could still be used outside of the Ettenmoors and the Delving of Frór.
Fixed a bug where in some cases, two Ranger session quests would become active instead of one during tracking for population balance.
Rating is no longer visible to other players via the PvMP rank tooltip.
Skills and Items no longer prevent/cure Conjunction Stuns.
All player skills that cause a Fellowship or War Band Conjunction now use the Conjunction Stun animation/visual.
The Warband Maneuver, Fell Spirit's Terror, will now give back the appropriate amount of health from the health transfer effect.
Creeps
Spider Weaver
Increased the damage over time components of the following Weaver skills: Tainted Kiss, Mephitic Kiss, and Piercing Attack.
The Weaver skills Mephitic Kiss and Tainted Kiss will now do Acid damage to targets.
Uruk Blackarrow
The damage over time effect from Flaming Arrow can now be cured (and is a wounds effect).
Warg Stalker
Rend Flesh and Rabid Bite's target icons will no longer be reversed.
The Stalker's Rallying Howl heal skill has had its initial heal and heal over time components readjusted and increased.
Uruk Warleader
Increased the amount healed by the Warleader's Crack the Whip and Quit Whining and Fight! skills.
Defiler
The Defiler's Fell Restoration skill has had its induction time decreased to 2.5 seconds.
Increased the damage over time components of the Defiler's Fire Gourd and Headbreaker skills.
Increased the damage dealt by the Defiler's Plague Gourd and Tenderize skills.
The Defiler's Plague of Flies skill can no longer be missed, blocked, parried or evaded. Instead, this skill can be resisted.
The Defiler's Gooey Gourd and Plague of Flies skills no longer share the same cooldown timer.
The Defiler's Plague of Flies swarm has been increased in level by 1.
The Defiler's Plague of Flies skill cooldown has been increased to 30 seconds.
Increased the heal over time components of the following Defiler skills: Fertile Slime, Fungal Bloom, Fungal Spores.
Auctions
Warden Carvings will now be searchable in the Auction House under Class Items - Warden Carvings
User Interface
Item roll displays are now limited to 2 rows of 5 items each. Any available items beyond that will appear as you act on the visible items.
More UIs can be skinned, several fixes have been made.
The client now has a /ui command that can be used to save the current layout of windows to an xml file and then load this layout.
To save a ui layout type: /ui layout save <name>
To load a previously saved layout: /ui layout load <name>
In both cases the name is optional and if not specified it will just save to a file called Default_ appended with your current game window resolution. (e.q running in 800 x 600 results inDefault_800_600.layout)
The error message and broadcast message UI boxes are now moveable via the "Ctrl+\" UI mode.
Fixed a bug that was preventing the display of the queued skill border on quickslots for disabled skills. This was especially apparent to classes with reactive skills which they may have queued knowing their executing skill would fulfill the requirements of the queued skill.
More UIs can be skinned, several fixes have been made.
UI Skinning reorganization of panels (backed by the SkinDefinition.txt file) has been fixed. You can now reorganize the elements within panels.
Fixed a memory leak with skinned assets
Fellowship invite messages will now expire on teleporting or entering an instance.
Items will no longer erroneously be bumped from your inventory into the item overflow.
The Ornate Yew bow will now update skill duration tooltips properly.
Effect icons will once again pulse when they are running out of time.
Elements in a Barter NPC's list will no longer stop graying out once they are selected.
When examining an Item Advancement class item, the view of your equipped class item will now display title effects on it properly.
Housing furniture will no longer have their names erroneously truncated in their tooltips.
Fixed an issue where the housing maintenance UI seemed to not be updating properly.
Partial mitigation tooltip values from block, parry, and evade found in the character journal now include the values gained through additional modifiers, such as legendary item relics.
The tutorial hint for traits now blinks on the trait menu button.
Quest Guide
Quest Guide indicators that are highlighted on the map (by mousing over the associated quest in the map's mini quest tracker) will now show up above any of the non-highlighted indicators. Also, the "ring" indicators will no longer be covered by shaded area indicators that are not highlighted.
The Quest Guide map indicators will now visibly "pulse" when mousing over the associated quest.
The Quest Guide quest list on the map will now save its position once you close the map or log out.
Rummings Rants and Riddles now displays the entire isle of Tyl Ruinen instead of just one part.
The Grand Stair - Igash's Lair: Correctly guides you back to the NPC.
Several Helegrod quests now point to the entrance.
Freeing the Forge now directs you to the entrance.
Goblin-Town Tabbards will direct you to the entrances of goblin town.
Elf Class Training quests will now display rings at the locations of the training dummies.
Rangers and Rogues will no longer highlight the imprisoned Southern Leader in Bree.
Flying the Coop - Trollshaws will display a ring.
Silent Surprise will now shade its location.
Foreman of the Great Wheel shows the entrance locations of the Chamber of Wheels.
Way of the Pack will display correct locations.
Dwalin's Plight: Sand piles will glow now.
Never Far From Home now correctly points and gives directions to the vineyard.
Puzzle of the Carvings will no longer only glow with the one you need.
Chat/Social/Kinship
Kinship charters will now correctly indicate that at least 8 members must be registered, or the kinship will be disbanded in 24 hours.
We no longer spam your chat window with all the passive skills you earn when entering the world as a new character.
There was an occasional bug where dying would generate a "string table error" in the chat window. This is now fixed.
Fixed a client crash that occurs when dragging a separated chat tab into the text entry box on the main chat window.
The name of kinship is now shown in the dialog to the player being recruited
Housing
Housing lockout fees will now increase according to a schedule every week that the house is in lockout. The initial fee is the same as the existing lockout fee. Every week that the house remains in lockout, the lockout fee will increase until it reaches 90% of the house purchase price.
The Housing Authority will also send an in-game mail to players with locked houses alerting them to the change in the unlock fee schedule.
