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« on: July 04, 2008, 08:37:13 PM »
Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion
PLEASE NOTE: These Release Notes are for the Roheryn Public Preview Server ONLY, and should not be considered final. Book 14 is currently scheduled to go live in July, 2008.
Welcome to the latest free content update for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar! Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion brings a wide array of changes to LOTRO, including the addition of Eregion, the continuation of the epic questline, and preparations for Moria! The team has also been hard at work adding even more player-requested features to the game!
[edit] Highlights:
* Eregion: Journey to where the Elven Rings were forged!
* Epic Quest: The epic quest continues with world events that open up the adventure to every player across all servers!
* Moria Prelude Quests: Aid the Fellowship of the Ring as they prepare to leave Rivendell and make their way toward Mordor.
* Dungeons: The loot dropped in all instances and raids is being upgraded, and bosses and mobs are being adjusted to make for even better play experiences! Now is the time to prepare for the dangers that dwell in Moria!
* Animation Improvements: LOTRO continues to polish the experience!
o Animations and sounds for each Minstrel skill using their equipped instrument (no longer just the Lute!)
o Monster play emote animations for Orc, Uruk, Spider and Warg
o New animations for 12 emotes – plus three new animated emotes!
[edit] Of Special Note:
* Monster Play - New racial specific emotes for Monster Player characters are now available!
o Spiders now have animations for the following emotes: agree, bother, bow, calm, cheer, dance1, laugh, salute, no, yes, and talk.
o Wargs now have animations for the following emotes: agree, bother, bow, calm, dance1, laugh, rude, salute, scratch, no, yell, yes, and talk.
o Urukhai now have animations for the following emotes: agree, bother, bow, calm, charge, cheer, dance1, flex, laugh, pose, rude, salute, shrug, no, yes, and talk.
o Orcs now have animations for the following emotes: agree, bother, bow, calm, cheer, dance1, flex, laugh, pose, rude, salute, scratch, shrug, no, yes, and talk.
* New collection-based fishing deeds are here! Be sure to catch'em all!
* The Dressing Room UI now supports dye color previewing! You can alter the color of any visible equipment slot to preview how you will look once you've applied Dye items to your gear.
* New dyes for clothing available: Orange, Grey, Burgundy, and Turquoise!
[edit] Gameplay
* There is now an effect iconic representing the period of time that characters are in the recovering state after exiting a negative combat state.
* Auto-attack will be disabled automatically if you select a new opponent while in combat which is in a state that you might break, e.g. Loremaster's "Blinding Flash" or a Hunter trap.
* You will now see "INTERRUPTED" over the head of the target of any attack which interrupts a skill warm-up or channeled skill that is in progress.
[edit] Skills/Classes
[edit] Burglar
* Targets of "Share the Fun" now have an effect icon on them. No gameplay change.
* The Damage over Time aspect of “Well Placed Strike” will now stack with other Burglars.
* “Find Footing” was erroneously removing all combat states, not just the listed ones: Daze, Stun and Knocked down. It now properly only removes, and can only be used during those states.
* “Find Footing” no longer removes Dread Stun.
* Caltrops slow effect now properly has the same duration as the bleed, 30 seconds. Tooltips have been updated.
[edit] Captain
* The Captain's Dwarf Heralds now run as fast as the other Herald types. We swear we didn’t do that one on purpose!
* The Captain's Rift armour set no longer suppresses bonuses from other items granting additional shadow mitigation, like Helegrod pots.
* The Frozen Commoner Herald Armament will now change the appearance of the Captain's Herald to a Lossoth Herald.
* The Captain trait “Defy Corruption” will now grant temporarily increased ability scores to any fellowship member revived by the Captain's “Escape from Darkness” skill.
* Captain Skill changes: “Pressing Attack” now will hit 2 targets in front of the Captain. “Devastating Blow” has a minor increase in damage. “Strength of Will” now has more appropriate animations and special effects. “Withdraw” visual effects will now play correctly. “Cutting Attack” now does somewhat less initial damage but the bleeding damage as been greatly increased. “Noble's Mark” has greatly increased in damage.
* Captains using their Rallying Horn will now actually blow a horn to summon their fellows.
* Fixed a problem with Pressing Attack dealing erroneously low damage on critical hits.
* Fixed the Captain’s banners following the player.
* Fixed the Captain companion skill "Lend Will."
[edit] Guardian
* “Thrill of Danger” now properly counts monster players as valid targets.
[edit] Hunter
* Hunters may now use Crossbows starting at Level 7!
* Hunters using “Scourging Blow” were removing all Barbed Arrow Bleeds on their targets. Now, a Hunter’s Scourging Blow will only interact with and remove the Barbed Arrow Bleed applied by that Hunter.
* Backgrounds added to bow chants’ effect icons.
* The tooltip for Endurance Stance has been updated to accurately reflect that it makes “Quick Shot” into a detaunt, not just a no-taunt skill. There has been no gameplay change.
[edit] Lore-master
* The Lore-master Beast-Lore deed has been updated to match the skill it needs to have used.
[edit] Minstrel
* The instrument you have in the ranged slot will now modify the look and sound of your skills based on what instrument is used.
* Minstrel Tale skills will again show how much they buff by when mousing over.
[edit] Monster Play
[edit] Diminishing Returns
* Root and daze effects will now share diminishing returns. This means that dazes and roots will be considered the same effect in terms of consecutive applications for diminishing returns. As an example: When a player dazes another player, then roots him, the root will be considered the second application in terms of diminishing returns.
* The new root/daze diminishing return duration progression for each application of root/daze is as follows:
o
+ First application = 50% of the root/daze's duration
+ Second application = 25% of the root/daze's duration
+ Third - Ninth applications = 5% of the root/daze's duration
+ After the 10th application, the root/daze will no longer affect the target
* Diminishing return durations for stun effects have been reduced to address issues with crowd control in PvMP combat. The duration progression for each application of stun is as follows:
o
+ First application = 100% of the stun's duration
+ Second application = 50% of the stun's duration
+ Fourth - Ninth applications = 1 second stun duration
+ After the 10th application, the root/daze will no longer affect the target.
* Diminishing return durations for fear effects have been reduced to address issues with crowd control in PvMP combat. The duration progression for each application of fear is as follows:
o
+ First application = 100% of the fear's duration
+ Second application = 50% of the fear's duration
+ Fourth - Ninth applications applications = 1 second fear duration
+ After the 10th application, the root/daze will no longer affect the target
[edit] General
* The Renown and Infamy meters now have tooltips that spell out your current progress in achieving the next available rank.
* In monster play, various instances of the word "Fellowship" for grouping should now be replaced with "Group."
* The output menu or filter menu for the chat window will no longer display Tribe as an option for players or Kinship as an option for monster players.
* Monster players will now see an appropriate stack icon in the vendor UI when they choose to buy items in stacks.
* The dressing room now uses your main inventory appearance while in the Ettenmoors.
* The group chat for Monster players is now labeled "Group" appropriately instead of "Fellowship." Also, Monster players can now use "/g" to talk in the group channel as well as "/f."
* Monster players can no longer get kinship titles when they are not supposed to.
* Icons for rank restricted items will now update usability state immediately upon your character reaching the appropriate rank.
* The three reward containers in Glan Vraig have been updated slightly to give out more money. The Second Chest of the Marshal will now reward around 25-silver. The First Chest of the Marshal will reward around 45-silver. Chest of the Glain Vraig will reward more than 200-silver.
* Tirith Raw now takes 20 seconds to flip sides after beating the boss. This should prevent a fringe case where Goldhead would maul freep guards. He will now complete his actions and disappear once the boss of Tirith Raw is defeated.
* The “Little Folk Harvesters” quest will now fail if the freeps lose control of the Lumber Yard.
* The Quartermaster will now sell a greater variety of health and power potions to Monster Players. The new potions are: Lesser Stinking Poultice, Refined Stinking Poultice, Pure Stinking Poultice, Lesser Bubbling Potion, Refined Bubbling Potion, and Pure Bubbling Potion.
* Orcs no longer speak when using maps.
* All appearance traits have been renamed. Additionally, appearance trait tooltips will include a detailed description of what the appearance for the monster player character will look like.
* Newly created monster player characters will now begin the game with a Crude Map to Gramsfoot. This map has a 60 minute cooldown.
* The Lainedhal's Insignias will now display an effect icon for the duration of the immunity when the item is used.
* The “Lost Fellowship” quest rewards will no longer share a cooldown with disease/wound/fear/poison potions.
* Fixed a bug where disarm was not properly disarming monster players.
* The main inventory's slot toggles will now be used instead of the selected outfit's toggles while in the