Book 10 (Hunter) (2007-08-17)

Book 10: The City of Kings - Hunter Summary

There’s a lot going in for the Month of the Hunter; here’s the big picture and a few tantalizing details of what’s new for the #1 ranged damage class.

Travel

Fast travel has always been a specialty of the Hunter. Anyone can learn the way home. For the right price, a very fast horse can take you from point A to point B. However, no class but the Hunter has such broad and versatile knowledge of the land of Middle-Earth—or the ability to guide his fellows on their journey.

With the Month of the Hunter, this staple of the Hunter class improves with new and improved skills.

  • Return to Camp
    • A new, floating bind point group travel skill
    • Get your group to (and out of) instances and major landscape camps fast
    • Look for new map notes to locate these camps around the world
  • Group Travel Changes
    • Several of the existing Group Travel skills are available at lower levels
    • Five new Group Travel Skill Locations have been added
    • Four of the new travel skills are learned through class quests… find the quests!
  • Find The Path
    • The bonus only applies when you are out-of-combat, but the skill is always on
    • Press the button once, and never worry about toggling it back on after combat
  • Traveling Ration stack size increased to 50

Tracking

Hunters (and through them, their fellowship members) know the joy of tracking to find just the target you want. New improvements to the experience of tracking give the Hunter more information about their quarry… and even allow them to share that information more readily with their fellows!

  • We now display more information on tracked creatures, and you can sort by any column
    • Monster name has level-relative conning coloration (like you’d see over its head)
    • The challenge level of the monster, such as Normal or Elite, is now displayed
    • The approximate distance at the time of tracking is displayed in a third column
  • Sharing Tracked Targets
    • Advanced Hunters can share the location and name of their tracked targets with other members of their fellowship on their mini-maps
  • “Passage of Nature” can now track Dragon-kind
    • Now, find your worms, salamanders, and drakes… in addition to beasts, insects, and creatures of nature!
  • “Passage of Foes” can now track Giants
    • They may not be as evil or mean as Orcs, but they can still be trouble…. Oh, and they leave really big tracks!

Traps, Oils, and Bow Chants

Ever resourceful, the Hunter can make use of many different tools wrought by the hands of skillful craftsmen. Improvements and new additions to the line up of consumable items allow the Hunter to push harder and focus their skills.

  • The duration of Fire and Light Oils has increased dramatically
    • The shortest duration oil now lasts for 5 minutes (yes, minutes!) not 10 seconds
    • Oils will now last for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, up to 15 minutes at the highest tier
  • The clever Weaponsmiths of the world have devised new kinds of traps
    • The Quick Trap drops without any induction
    • The Strong Trap doesn’t trap as long, but it isn’t broken by damage
    • The Lure Trap draws the aggro of animals until the trap is destroyed
    • The Tripwire gives you a chance to open a Fellowship Maneuver on a target (it won’t do it every time, and it will only be usable out of combat)
  • There are also new tiers of existing traps
    • Lower tier traps have always had a higher chance of being resisted by monster of higher levels, the new tiers give you a better chance of success against higher level monsters
  • A new kind of Hunter-only consumable item crafted by Scholars: Bow Chants
    • 5 new items which empower your ranged weapon in different ways—pick the right Chant for the right job!
      • Foe-finder – Reduced chance for targets to evade bow skills
      • Shield-bane – Reduced chance for targets to block bow skills
      • Breach-finder – Bypass some of target’s damage mitigation
      • Wind-rider – Reduced power cost of bow skills
      • Whisper-draw – Reduced threat generated by bow skills
    • These buffs last for 20 minutes so each one goes a long way

Bows and Crossbows

Long has the debate raged over which implement was the superior weapon. With the Month of the Hunter’s changes, we have decided to make the crossbow a weapon with consistent damage and the bow one with more variability but with the possibility of bigger numbers. What does this mean in game terms?

Damage:

  • Bows have a greater variance in damage: the highs are higher, the lows are lower
  • Conversely, crossbows have a narrower variance

Speed:

  • Bows now exist at both extremes of speed, both the fastest and slowest ranged weapons are bows
  • Conversely, crossbows have a narrower range of speeds

The biggest damage numbers will come from bows rather than crossbows—call it the power of the archer’s art. However, if random number generators hate you, the crossbow limits your lows as much as it does your highs.

If you want the fastest possible weapon, or the slowest possible weapon—both will now be bows. This represents that bows may be fired very fast, or that you can take your time. Crossbows are simple to use but are less flexible, and therefore have speeds more toward the middle range of bows.

Ultimately, you may find the special properties of a particular weapon out weighs preferences you may have for speed or damage variance. Then again, maybe you’ll steer clear of one or the other because of personal preference.

New Skills

As mentioned above, the Hunter is getting a bunch of new travel skills:

  • Return to Camp – Travel with your fellowship to your current campsite bind point
  • Guide to Michel Delving – Instant fellowship travel to Michel Delving in the Shire
  • Guide to Ost Guruth – Instant fellowship travel to Ost Guruth in the Lonelands
  • Guide to Evendim – Instant fellowship travel to Evendim
  • Guide to West Angmar – Instant fellowship travel to a safe haven in Western Angmar
  • Guide to East Angmar – Instant fellowship travel to the Eastern reaches of Angmar

In addition to the travel-skills mentioned above, we’ve made new combat-oriented skills:

  • Heart Seeker – A large damage, long cooldown, long induction “mega-nuke” attack
  • Strength of the Earth – An In-Combat Power Regen Channelling Skill
  • Set Snare – A new “free” trap skill which slows and applies sizable damage over time

Tweaks and Changes

We also made a number of smaller changes to existing skills, traits, and more:

  • Lowered the level where Hunters acquire the Dual-Wield trait (from 20 to 15)
  • Increased power restored by Intent Concentration when the relevant Trait is slotted
  • Increased the duration of the Beneath Notice skill when the relevant Trait is slotted
  • Train “Rapid Recovery” grants a greater reduction time to your recovery (from 1.2s to 2s).
  • Normalized the “Focus” point costs of skills, Rain of Arrows went from 4 to 3, Merciful Shot went from 5 to 6
  • Reduced the frequency that the “Enduring Precision” trait allows you to gain Focus pips from one every 5 seconds to one every 10 seconds
  • Some traveling skills now require more rations than others. Traveling to Angmar is a more perilous and taxing journey than visiting the Shire!
  • Updated category listings in the Auction House to put “Oils and Chants” in a category under class items, also moved the “Traps” category under the class items group
  • Placing a crafted trap whose effect breaks on damage will now disable the Hunter’s auto-attack to help avoid freeing newly trapped targets!

Book 10 Crafting Summary

  • Changes to One-shot Recipe Scrolls
    • New one-shot recipes are identical to the existing one-shot recipes in every way, except use different rare required ingredients than the old recipes.
    • Old one-shot recipes continue to exist, however they can no longer be found in treasure. Every one of the old rare required ingredients used in these old recipes can still be found on the creatures that have always dropped them.
    • The new rare ingredients needed for the new one-shot recipes can be found on a variety of unique creatures (as opposed to just one named creature). The new rare ingredients have a 100% drop rate.
    • Changed the display names for all pre-existing one-shot recipe scrolls to include the word "(Old)," to help differentiate between existing and new one-shot recipe scrolls.
  • Increased 'Effective Level' of Crafted Weapons, Armor, Jewellery
    • Increased the effective level (or power level) of most tier 2 - tier 5 crafted armor, weapons, and jewellery pieces.
    • Minimum level requirements remain the same, effectively providing a boost to the stats of crafted gear
  • Earring and Bracelet recipes for the Jeweller profession
    • 38 new recipes
    • Total of 72 new jewellery pieces
  • Artifact Tracking
    • Added "Artifact Tracking" skill to the Scholar profession, which allows scholars to see their resources nodes on the radar.
  • New recipes for Hunter-only items
    • 20 new Weaponsmith recipes (Traps)
    • 5 new Scholar recipes (Bow Chants)
  • Reputation Recipes
    • Cooking - 3 recipes
      • (Tier 3) Seasoned Beef with Cauliflower Recipe
      • (Tier 4) Strawberry Dessert Wine Recipe
      • (Tier 4, rare) Honey-roasted Chicken Recipe
    • Farmer - No new recipes, but a new rare item can be found while harvesting blackberries that is used in Cooking rep recipes
      • (Rare ingredient) Blackberry Honey: Used in the tier 4 rare cooking recipe
    • Forestry - 2 recipes
      • (Tier 5) Woven Gossamer Thread Recipe
      • (Tier 5) Treated Black Ash Heartwood Recipe
    • Jeweller - 4 recipes
      • (Tier 4) Dwarf-jewel Recipe
      • (Tier 5) Dwarf-ring Recipe
      • (Tier 5, ingredient) Polished Moonstone Recipe
      • (Tier 5, rare) Dwarf-necklace Recip
    • Metalworking - 3 recipes
      • (Tier 4) Crest of Vigilance Recipe
      • (Tier 5) Crest of Valor Recipe
      • (Tier 5, rare) Icon of Heroes Recipe
    • Prospecting - 1 recipe
      • (Tier 5) Smelt Ancient Nickel Recipe
    • Scholar - 3 recipes
      • (Tier 4) 'Scholar's Writ' Recipe
      • (Tier 5) 'A Study of the Unknown' Recipe
      • (Tier 5, rare) 'Of Mysteries Most Profound' Recipe
    • Tailor - 3 recipes
      • (Tier 4) Ranger's Sash Recipe
      • (Tier 5) Ranger's Cloak Recipe
      • (Tier 5, rare) Tapestry of Deeds Recipe
    • Weaponsmith - 3 recipes
      • (Tier 4) Ceremonial Dagger Recipe
      • (Tier 5) Ceremonial Blade Recipe
      • (Tier 5, rare) Warden's Scepter Recipe
    • Woodworker - 3 recipes
      • (Tier 4) Wood Figurine Recip
      • (Tier 5) Viol Recipe
      • (Tier 5, rare) Bree-spear Recipe
  • Improved Craft Tools
    • Restatted the newbie (inferior) tools so they no longer penalize critical chance or induction times - they now simply wear out faster than all other tools
    • Removed tools from vendors and replaced with new set of vendor-only tools - vendor tools are now unique, better than the newbie tools, but not as good as craftable tools
    • Rebalanced the durability on all crafted tools - non-critical tools now have a durability of 45 and have normal wear, while critical tools have a durability of 60 and have tough wear.
  • Recipe Rebalancing
    • Cooking
      • All ' ingredient ' recipes have had their craft experience rewards reduced from Low (6) to Simple (4).
      • All Artisan & Master Cooking recipes that previously required the Oven facility effect now require the Superior Oven instead.
      • All recipes that exclusively use ingredients sold by vendors were changed to award Low (6) craft experience instead of Medium (8), or High (10).
      • All beer and ale recipes were changed to award Medium (8) craft experience instead of Low (6).
      • Changed all three Cooking reputation recipes to award Simple (4) craft experience instead of Easy (2).
      • Some cooking recipes have had their ingredients requirements reduced.
    • Farming
      • Adjusted craft experience rewards for all farming recipes to compensate for the increased productivity and lower costs of farming
        • All 'seed' recipes will now award simple (4) craft experience.
        • All 'crop' recipes (recipes that produce useable pipe-weed or vegetables) will now award simple (4) craft experience.
        • All 'hybrid pipe-weed field' recipes will now award medium (8) craft experience.
        • All other 'field' recipes will now award low (6) craft experience.
      • In an effort to increase the usefulness of crafted Farmer's Tools (and to reduce the amount of time farmers spend "watching the grass grow"), induction times for all Journeyman, Expert, Artisan, and Master farming recipes have been changed to match the induction times used by Apprentice farming recipes
        • All "field" recipes now have inductions lasting 20 seconds (Examples: Blueberry Field recipe, Southern Star Pipe-weed Field recipe)
        • All other recipes now have inductions lasting 10 seconds (Examples: Cabbage Seed recipe, Old Toby Seed recipe)
    • Forester
      • Changed both Forester reputation recipes to award Simple (4) craft experience instead of Easy (2).
    • Jeweller
      • All ' gemstone ' recipes have had their craft experience rewards reduced from Low (6) to Simple (4).
      • All Artisan & Master Jeweller recipes that previously required the Workbench facility effect now require the Superior Workbench instead.
      • Changed all four Jeweller reputation recipes to award Simple (4) craft experience instead of Easy (2). Reduced required ingredients for the following recipes:
        • All Artisan necklace, ring, bracelet, and earring recipes (Slightly reduced required ingredients)
        • All Master necklace, ring, bracelet, and earring recipes (Slightly reduced required ingredients)
    • Metalworking
      • All ' component ' recipes have had their craft experience rewards reduced from Low (6) to Simple (4).
      • All Artisan & Master Metalworking recipes that previously required the Force facility effect now require the Superior Forge instead.
      • Changed all three Metalworking reputation recipes to award Simple (4) craft experience instead of Easy (2).
      • Rebalanced many Heavy Armor recipes across all tiers to reduce the number of required ingredients:
        • Example: A full suit of Dwarf-craft Armour previously used a total of 42 Dwarf-iron ingots, 18 Dwarf-steel ingots, and 6 pristine leather braces .
          • The same full suit of armor will now use 36 Dwarf-iron ingots, 12 Dwarf-steel ingots, and 6 pristine leather braces .
    • Prospecting
      • Changed the one Prospecting reputation recipe to award Simple (4) craft experience instead of Easy (2).
    • Scholar
      • Changed all ' Battle Lore ' recipes to award High (10) craft experience instead of Medium (8).
      • All Artisan & Master Scholar recipes that previously did not require a facility effect now require the Superior Study instead (Except for dye recipes, which never require a facility effect).
      • Changed all ' Dye ' recipes to award Low (6) craft experience instead of High (10). This was done because "Dye" recipes now require 1 rare ingredient (previously 3).
      • Changed all three Scholar reputation recipes to award Simple (4) craft experience instead of Easy (2).
      • Slightly reduced required ingredients for all ' Crafting Lore ' recipes.
    • Tailor
      • All ' component ' recipes have had their craft experience rewards reduced from Low (6) to Simple (4).
      • All Artisan & Master Tailor recipes that previously required the Workbench facility effect now require the Superior Workbench instead.
      • Changed all three Tailor reputation recipes to award Simple (4) craft experience instead of Easy (2). Rebalanced many Light and Medium Armor recipe across all tiers to reduce the number of required ingredients:
        • Example (Light Armor): A full suit of Travellers' Armour previously used a total of 54 Boiled Sturdy Leather, 18 Bolts of Cloth, and 6 Polished Rubies
          • The same full suit of armor will now use 36 Boiled Sturdy Leather, 12 Bolts of Cloth, and 6 Polished Rubies
        • Example (Medium Armor): A full suit of Galadrim Armour previously used a total of 96 Boiled Exceptional Leather and 12 Polished Elf Stones
          • The same full suit of armor will now use 72 Boiled Exceptional Leather and 6 Polished Elf Stones
    • Weaponsmithing
      • All ' component ' recipes have had their craft experience rewards reduced from Low (6) to Simple (4).
      • All Artisan & Master Weaponsmith recipes that previously required the Forge facility effect now require the Superior Forge instead.
      • Changed all three Weaponsmith reputation recipes to award Simple (4) craft experience instead of Easy (2).
      • All "Hunter Traps" recipes have been rebalanced to use less ingredients. These recipes now award Simple (4) craft experience.
      • Slightly reduced required ingredients for some weapon recipes in each tier to improve ingredient consistency among weapons of the same family
    • Woodworking
      • All 'component' recipes have had their craft experience rewards reduced from Low (6) to Simple (4).
      • All Artisan & Master Woodworking recipes that previously required the Workbench facility effect now require the Superior Workbench instead.
      • Changed all three Woodworking reputation recipes to award Simple (4) craft experience instead of Easy (2).
      • Slightly reduced required ingredients for some weapon recipes in each tier to improve ingredient consistency among weapons of the same family

Book 10: The City of Kings - Captain Summary


Overview Welcome to the Month of the Captain. Here’s an overview and a few details of what’s new for the #1 buff class -- our very own Swiss army knife of the battlefield.

Standards

Heralds?! Why Heralds? Well, to be perfectly honest, we like Heralds, and we know that a lot of you do as well. However, with that said, we also understand that some of you had envisioned the Captain as a non-pet class. So we’ve decided to give you a choice.

Beginning at level 20, Captains will now have access to Banner Standards. Basic Standards will be sold by your Trainer, and more advanced versions can be crafted by Tailors.

Equipping these Standards will give you a number of stat bonuses. Once they’ve been equipped, using them will allow you to place a Banner on the ground in front of you. This Banner will give the same type of buff that your Herald would normally provide to everyone in your fellowship, but there is one caveat.

If you have a Standard equipped, you won’t be able to summon a Herald; equipping a Standard will dismiss your Herald if you already have one in tow. The choice is ultimately up to you and your preferred play style. You can be a Herald Captain, Standard Captain, or a mix of both. Now that the mechanics are out of the way, here are some examples of the types of Standards you’ll be able to find:

  • Simple Standard of War
    • +10% Damage Dealt
    • +10% Maximum Morale
    • Minimum Level 20
    • Usage: You place a Banner of War on the field of battle.*
  • Finely Woven Expert Standard of Victory (crafted)
    • +10% Damage Dealt
    • +10% Maximum Morale
    • +5% Maximum Power
    • Minimum Level 35
    • Usage: You place a Banner of Victory on the field of battle.*
  • Intricately Woven Grand Master Standard of Hope (crafted, crit success)
    • +10% Damage Dealt
    • +20% Maximum Morale
    • Minimum Level 50
    • Usage: You place a Banner of Hope on the field of battle.*

Standards with higher level requirements apply higher level Banner Buffs, so it’s generally a good idea to upgrade as higher level versions become available.

Herald Armaments

Book 10 also introduces some new types of Armaments. These function just as the old ones did – er, more like, just as the recently-fixed old ones do

  • Female Armaments
    • Shield-maiden
    • Swordswoman
    • Maid-at-arms
  • Other Armaments
    • Rumor has it that there may be other Armaments to be found…

Shield-brother

The Shield-brother mechanic is intended to further reinforce your primary class role as a “Buffing God.” Designating a fellowship member as your Shield-brother will allow you to both buff and heal that player without having to retarget them. You can only have one Shield-brother chosen at a time.

  • Captains will get 3 skills that target their Shield-brothers for Book 10:
    • Inspire – a melee attack that applies a HoT (Heal over Time) to your Shield-brother
    • To Arms – a very powerful, but short duration, offensive buff to your Shield-brother
    • Strength of Will – a buff that increases the amount of Morale your Shield-brother recovers from healing effects

Healing

One of our primary goals for Month of the Captain was to increase the over-all healing capabilities of the class. Here’s a rundown of the healing abilities you’ll have available, and how they’ll function:

  • Words of Courage (WoC) – This skill received some significant updates in Book 10.
    • WoC is now insta-cast. This will help to keep you in the action even while you’re trying to fill a healing role.
    • WoC can now be cast on the run. Again, this will help to keep you mobile.
    • WoC now has a 3 second cooldown.
    • WoC now costs a moderate amount of Morale to cast.
      • This can be offset through the use of other skills in your healing arsenal, such as Rallying Cry and Revealing Mark. Equipping a crafted Standard of Hope will also help to increase your Morale pool.
      • That said, standing in the back ranks of your fellowship spamming WoC is still a viable strategy - its just going to soften you up a bit now.
  • Inspire – (NEW) A melee attack applies a HoT directly to your Shield-brother.
  • Rallying Cry – No change, but still useful. This will help you recover your Morale from WoC.
  • Revealing Mark – No change, but still also useful. This will help you recover your Morale from WoC if you’re active in melee.
  • Strength of Will – (NEW) A buff that increases the amount of healing your Shield-brother receives. This will increase the effectiveness of all of healers in your group, including yourself.

Combat Revives

For Book 10 we’ve made a few changes to the Captain’s combat revival abilities to both enable us to balance and expand on them in the long run, and to bring them more in line with Captain’s response-driven play style.

  • Cry of Vengeance – In addition to providing the buffs that it did previously, Cry of Vengeance will now revive 1 defeated fellowship member.
  • Escape from Darkness – Functions just as it did previously.
  • Defy Corruption (formerly “Escape from Corruption”) – The “Escape from Corruption” Legendary Trait has been changed to “Defy Corruption”. Defy Corruption does two things:
    • Lowers the cooldown on Escape from Darkness by 10 minutes
    • Allows you to revive an additional fellowship member with your Cry of Vengeance

Summoning Horns

We made some changes to the way Summoning Horns work to address the long-standing feedback that it was weird that they were consumed on use. Boromir’s horn probably didn’t break when he used it, and yours shouldn’t either!

Here are the specifics:

  • New “Finely Carved Rallying Horns” will be available from Captain Trainers
    • These horns will not be consumed on use.
    • These horns will consume 5 Traveling Rations from the person doing the traveling (not the Captain).
      • For what it’s worth 5 Traveling Rations (~10s) costs less than the horse ride from Bree to Trestlebridge (15s).
  • All existing “Hewn Rallying Horns” will remain in game and will function as they have previously; they just won’t be sold anymore.
  • Both “Finely Carved Rallying Horns” and “Hewn Rallying Horns” will be usable at level 40 (it was 45 previously).
  • Please note: All Racial Trait travel skills require Traveling Rations as well now, so the likelihood of a player having rations on them will go up significantly in Book 10.

New Skills

In addition to the skills mentioned above, Captains can also learn the following abilities in Book 10:

  • Blade of Elendil – A melee attack that has an increased chance to critical and that inspires your fellows to invoke the Light of Elendil (a Light Damage Damage over Time). This skill can only be executed after you’ve used Devastating Blow or Pressing Attack.
  • Grave Wound – A melee attack that generates additional threat. When dealt to a foe bleeding from your Cutting Attack, your overall threat is also raised.
  • Kick – A weak melee attack that interrupts your opponent.
  • Withdraw – Lowers your threat to the opponents around you, but reduces your damage output for a short period of time.
  • Time of Need – You sacrifice some of your morale to gain the same effect as defeating an enemy and to put yourself in a Battle-readied State.

Tweaks and Changes

We also made a number of smaller changes to existing skills, traits, and more:

  • The Fear Resistance buff that Muster Courage gives you has been reduced from 50% to 20%. All other functionality of the skill remains the same.
  • Reduced the Power Regen buff of the Banner of Victory slightly. It’s still good. In fact it’s still really good - just not as good.
  • We now have new art for the War, Hope, and Victory Banners, and your Heralds even know how to wield the right ones!
  • All of the Herald skills have new icon art.
  • The duration of Motivating Speech has been increased to 30 minutes. That brings it in line with your Tactic buffs.
  • War-cry’s animation is now shorter. You should now be able to loot monsters shortly after using the skill.
  • In Defense of Middle-earth has not been changed. It remains awesome.

Book 10: The City of Kings - Part 4

Graphics/Animation/FX

  • Fixes 'stutter-step' issues when NPCs and monsters stop moving.
  • "Find the Trail" effects will no longer disappear after teleporting.
  • New visual effect for when you bind to a milestone.
  • Sleeping monsters that are killed in one hit no longer continue to play the sleeping ZZZZZ particles.
  • Weapons that are equipped while you are stealthed and out of combat now properly unstealth with you.
  • Monsters now have weapon streaks on their attacks.
    • These streaks will be disabled when monster combat FX are disabled in options.
    • Disabling Avatar combat FX will now also disable streaks for avatars.
  • The Slayer FX appear much more quickly now than they used to when a target creature type is nearby
  • Fixed a race condition that was causing other players' weapons to show up unsheathed and in hand while out of combat.
  • Some FX that included gore were not playing at all after the addition of the FX toggles, these will now toggle on/off correctly
  • Certain FX were not playing even when the gameplay option to show them was enabled, this have been fixed.
  • Fixed a number of animation glitches that occurred when playing a skill after an auto-attack
  • The Blue (Tactics) Fellowship Maneuvers animation will no longer hitch between the pose hold and the actual attack
  • In the quest "Knocking Heads," the stone throwing animation will now play correctly
  • Certain FX were not playing even when the gameplay option to show them was enabled, this has been fixed.
  • Avatars will now sync up properly with their mounts after teleporting while on a travel route.
  • Fixed an issue with walk-strafing while carrying a bucket not animating properly.
  • Fixed an issue that was causing Hobbit instruments to appear at the wrong scale.
  • Fixed an issue with the Bear's combat FX that was letting them play even when toggled off.
  • Certain walls in the Great Barrow Instance would appear whole again if they unloaded and then reloaded on the client. They will now remain in their broken state.
  • Fixed issues with Female Bandit death animations
  • The Giant Arifael will no longer slide when moving
  • Fixed an issue with certain Hobbit Chairs disappearing when players attempt to sit in them.
  • Fixed an issue that was causing death animations to occasionally show the monster as standing for a brief moment.
  • Lore-master FX fixes
    • Fixed an issue with the Visual FX for "Test of Will" that was preventing them from playing properly.
    • Fixed some conditions that were allowing the FX of the Ent for the skill "March of the Ents" to occasionally remain.
    • Fixed an issue with "Wisdom of the Council" for Elf Lore-masters not delivering the effect until the end of the animation. They will now apply the effect when the staff hits the ground.
  • Fixed an animation issue that was causing the Elf Female to drop her arms during archery attacks.
  • Burglars and wargs will no longer swim faster when stealthed. They now swim at the intended speed.
  • Players will no longer get a frame hitch when going to stealth while in motion.
  • Players' weapons should now disappear when crafting, playing music, and when doing most emotes. Some emotes will still show the weapons when appropriate.
  • The Firefly will now stop glowing when it dies.
  • Hit FX will only play on hits and criticals and will no longer incorrectly play on misses.
  • The obelisk for "Fire and Ice" quest can now be more easily selected
  • The Champion's horn item will now play the right FX when used.
  • Water will now splash when you jump into it! CAAANNONBAAALLL!
  • Giants should now throw rocks without a hitch in the animation.
  • Warcry now has a shorter animation.
  • Toned down the hit FX on Tale of Heroism.
  • Added New Darkwater Auras.
  • Celondim guards will no longer be super shiny with specular lighting.
  • Users will no longer clip through Gimli's door in the Silverdeep mine.
  • Avatar animations now blend better while jumping in various directions

Audio

  • You should no longer hear multiple Voiceover scripts when in an instance.
  • Added ambient sound to Rivendell Valley.

Miscellaneous

  • Darkwater Monsters are now lootable when killed while knocked down
  • Fixes an occasional client crash that can occur in The Great Barrow.
  • Fixed a few bugs that might leave players stuck at a loading screen (we're not saying it can't still happen, but it won't happen from these!).
  • The stew pot in the Evendim giant camp will no longer disappear when used.
  • /servertime now properly reports the localtime of the server
  • If you have multiple quests that require you to carry an item (pie, mail, eggs) you will now pick up the correct item instead of a random item.

Quests

General

  • Players can now use the quest NPC to join their fellowship in a private encounter once they accept all available quests from the NPC. For example, if someone in your fellowship has started the Weathertop Instance but you have not done any of the quests, once you accept the first quest from Candaith, you will get the option to enter the Weathertop Instance with your fellowship.
  • We have reduced the retry timer on starting a quest you have cancelled from 20 minutes to 5 minutes.
  • Many generic crate icons have been replaced with real icons for high-level Class Quests
  • Added the number of the Epic Book to the first chapter of each, so when you start a new Book you can tell which one you're starting.
  • Fixed Quest Tracker menu choice to find others on quest. It wasn't always opening the UI to the correct tab.
  • Fixed an issue with NPCs that were showing the pending quest ring and displaying a list of pending quests that had an invalid retry time.
  • Fixed the issue with carrying objects (mail, pie, buckets) and with riding a horse that would randomly cause you to drop the object or be removed from your horse for no apparent reason. This was most commonly seen when doing the Horse Quests.
  • When repairing the breaches on Trestlebridge for Jeweller, Tailor and Woodworker quests, you will once again see the repaired breaches.
  • The Summer Festival quests won't be cluttering up your quest logs anymore. Don't worry, they'll be back again next year!

Specific Quests:

  • Players will no longer be knocked off their mount after the first hit in the "Fresh Steeds" quest arc
  • The phial of water needed for the "Reclaim the Lost Maiden" quest is now collected by Dannasen at the end of the quest. This change has caused the quest to be versioned and it will be removed from your log if you had it underway.
  • We've addressed a few issues with the "A Blade for a Life" escort quest so that it should work more reliably now.
  • Book 9 Chapter 8 has a new purple ring as a selectable reward. This replaces the yellow leggings.
  • Moved the quests "A Sister's Love" and "Vessel of Purity" into the Garth Agarwen quest category.
  • Players can no longer light the braziers in Fornost without starting the boss fight.
  • The Rangers in Amarthiel's Hope are no longer scared and will keep fighting instead of stopping.
  • Sharkey's Lieutenant in Andrath just got some friends to help him.
  • "A Guardian's Duty" - Updated quest description to reduce redundant redundancy
  • "Inspire Postman Oddfoot" - Did you do the mail quests out of order, and now can't find the rest of them? Now Postman Oddfoot has some comments to get you back on track!
  • New and improved directions to Merilos for "The Call of Precious Things, Part IV:" She's not just in Rivendell, she's at the Spire of Meeting, west of the House of Elrond. Whoops, spoiler!
  • You want to know where Barad Tharsir is? It's on the far side of the Brandywine from where you get the relevant quests, and now they'll tell you so.
  • People were really bummed in Rivendell, sometimes. Now they shouldn't be so depressing, even the Bowyer who was always going on with 'Oh, woe is me!' and 'It's terrible, just terrible!' -- brought to you by the 'Rivendell Is A Happy Place!(tm)' tourism bureau. Contact Lord Elrond for free tickets to an Elf Champions game.
  • Dwalin has had his eyes checked, and will no longer call you a dwarf despite any evidence to the contrary, when you talk to him for "Dwalin's Bad Day."
  • When you search the satchel for "A Path to Learning, Part Two," you'll now get a notification that you found something.
  • "A True Friend to Holly Hornblower" has been versioned to help fix the problem with its recipe reward.
  • Frodo now properly has the level of Dread he's supposed to in everyone's favourite "Supply Your Own Captions" quest.
  • "The Bounty Hunter" is now available! If you've completed all of the Ost Forod bounties, speak with Basil Gummidge for the opportunity to pick up the missing piece of the Panthavron set.
  • Placed the wanted posters in Ost Forod on noticeboards so they'll be easier to see.
  • Remember the giant statue of Elendil that you carried in your back pocket while swimming across Lake Nenuial? It's now a little less ridiculously large.
  • Frustrated by Humfrey Rumming's Amazing One-Use Cellar Key? Well, worry no more! Now the Cellar Key can be used an infinite number of times, or at least until he asks for it back.
  • Removed duplicate billboards in "The Quarry in Scary" and "Articles of Harmony"
  • Fixed stringtable error in "An Axe to Grind"
  • No more deja vu! You should now only see Athal once. You should now only see Athal once. (ed. note. MadeOfLions, that was too easy! You should be ashamed. You should be ashamed. -Patience)
  • Added a failsafe to the Tomb of Elendil -- if Crackskull glitches and dies before he wakes up Nornagol, wait for a minute or two and Nornagol should wake up on her own.
  • You asked, and we listened -- Class Quest trophies from Carn Dum and Urugarth are now a 100% drop from the appropriate bosses.
  • "The Scent of Mithril" has been updated in order to fix a problem where you could get into a state from which the quest could never be completed. To receive the quest again, you will need to return to Bothwar in Gabilshathur.
  • "Banishing the Darkness" - if you summon the Spirit Deluches and fail to destroy it, it will re-spawn when you approach the place he was summoned again.
  • Book 9, Chapter 1 is now bestowed by Gandalf since the players are at Rivendell (not Gath Forthnír) at the end of Book 8, and are sent to Golodir in Angmar.
  • Book 1 Chapter 11 will no longer send defeated players to West Bree; instead they will revive outside of Tom Bombadil's house.
  • Fixed a problem with some fellowship members unable to enter "The Hideout" and "Broken Alliance"
  • The Mountain Basil for "A Taste of Skill, Part II" will glow once again.
  • The quest "Treasures from the Fields" has had minor bug fixes
  • Added fixed spawns of snapper turtles for the quest "Snapper Soup"
  • Added color to monsters in "Formal Complaint" instance
  • Fixed an issue with the quest arc "Brotherly Bonds." Some of the quests have been updated and will be removed from players' quest logs if they have not been fully completed. Players should talk to the quest bestower to obtain the quest again.
  • Constable Bolger will now run home after his combat ends
  • The "Fresh Steeds" quests will no longer fail on logout when not mounted.
  • NPC Hithlim has had his title changed to more accurately reflect his goods.
  • Fixed the walking animation for the innkeeper in the Golden Perch.
  • Added a reset to the boss encounter in Epic Book 1 Chapter 11.
  • Under certain circumstances Forvengwath could fail to reappear - this has been addressed.
  • The Castellan's chest in Barad Gularan will no longer lock after it has been unlocked once.
  • The castellan's chest in Barad Gúlaran no longer despawns on loot. You will now be able to obtain the key if the chest closes after being opened.

Carn Dûm

  • We have slightly modified the Epic story:
    • You no longer have to progress through all of Carn Dûm to meet up with Golodir in Book 8 - Chapter 5. Instead, speaking with Golodir will send you into a brand new private instance where you and Golodir encounter Mordirith.
    • The quest rewards for Book 8 - Chapter 5 have not changed. Mordirith's unique loot rewards are not available from completing this instance. This new instance was introduced for players who want to complete Book 8 without going through all of Carn Dûm.
    • Players who have already completed the Book 8 - Chapter 5 quest will be able to help those who have not. Once they have completed it, they can replay the instance later through the Aughaire Reflecting Pool. The changes to this quest required us to version the quest, meaning if you have it underway, it will be removed from your journal. If you currently have Book 8 - Chapter 5 underway and have defeated Mordirth, you will want to turn it in before the update goes live on August 20.
    • Book 9 now depends on Book 8 being completed. (This was originally our intent, but since Book 8 was difficult to complete, we changed this requirement to having completed Book 7.)
  • Mordirith has been practicing some new tricks and since he no longer has to waste time on that silly Ranger, Golodir, he has decided to practice the skills on you, the player!
  • We've revised the Helchgam fight in Carn Dûm to address some of the issues reported with the fallen pillars not being solid and therefore useless. The only noticeable change will be that you can no longer walk in front of a pillar prior to it falling. After the pillar has fallen, you should be able to cross it as would be expected.
  • If you still encounter a problem with the fallen pillar not being solid, move completely away from the fallen pillar and then try to step on it again.
  • We've also tried to address some of the pet pathing issues in this room, but it is recommended you keep your pet in a non-aggressive stance while in this room. Otherwise they may still take a flying leap into the water surrounding Helchgam.

Helegrod

  • This is a special note to all those who have claimed to kill Mr. Thorog. Thorog and Turbine have been talking and he doesn't like the fact that you all think that he is too easy. In fact he complained that he had been keeping his true power back for those that he deemed worthy. Rather than go up to his turret and heal like he was originally planning on doing, he had decided to mock and point. Now that the cries have been heard, he has decided otherwise. Let the pain begin. And for those who proudly wear the titles and claim victory, know that in his heart of hearts, Mr. Thorog has thrown down the gauntlet. No more Mr. Nice Dragon! Beware the wrath of the dragon in his original intended state.
  • Helegrod Epic Sets are now equally shared amongst the Raid and Landscape. All pieces will drop on high level monsters at a very low rate. They will drop in the instance as well, at a much higher rate off of each of the four major bosses. Thanks, Thorog!
  • All Epic Set pieces will only bind when equipped now.
  • All Epic Set pieces have gotten a major stat pass.
  • The Pedestals in Helegrod now simply can be used if the correct Stage has been passed. No longer do players need to do any quests or use any keys. (Ex. if the players kill Zaudru, they can use the Ring Pedestal, if not, they can't!) If you had one of these items in your inventory, it will be removed when you log into Book 10.