Here are the Release Notes for Update 40: Beneath the Surface, released on Wednesday, May 15, 2024.
The latest Legendary Items Reward Track has arrived with new rewards! See some of the new rewards on LOTRO.com. The 10th Legendary Items Reward Track begins at 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on May 15th and runs until 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on August 14th. Make sure to claim your rewards before the 11th Reward Track begins!
It is a new dawn for Umbar. At the request of Hármelak, the Golden Queen, the Kindred of the Coins has reopened the great meeting-hall of Dâr Laja so they can better hear the voices of their people. And yet, beneath the city in Umbar-môkh, there are some who feel threatened by this new order, working in the darkness until their plans bear fruit.
Speak to Jaith outside the Meeting-hall of Dâr Laja in the Upper Ward of the City of Umbar to begin Chapter 9 of "The Song of Waves and Wind", a new on-ramp for the story! We recommend you complete chapters 1 through 8 of "The Song of Waves and Wind", but it is not required to begin Chapter 9.
There are also new side quests in each of the five sections of Umbar-môkh. Each side quest chain is started by a member of the Kindred of the Coins inside of Dâr Laja.

• Tâkhdar; the Cellars, where shady business deals and black market sales take place.
  
• Ilmabiri; the Wells, where the sewers beneath the city are filled with a variety of dangers.
  
• Kamrabezûr; the Vaults, where it is rumored that escaped gladiators dwell.
  
• Khabârkhad; the Crypts, where the ancestors of Umbar's past rest - or do they?
  
• Dil-irmíz ; the Berths, a flooded area that is deemed so dangerous that adventurers are discouraged from travelling there alone.

These quests are for players at level 150.

• Beorning
  
• Wrathful was incorrectly increasing Beorning crit chance by 4% starting at 1 Wrath rather than 21 Wrath. It now correctly increases your Critical Chance by 4% every 20 wrath, starting at 21 wrath and maxing out at 81 Wrath. The Wrathful trait tooltip has also been updated so that it correctly reflects this effect.
  
• Ferocious Roar now interacts correctly with Trample, Nature's Wrath, Rush, Sacrifice, Vicious Claws, and Hearten.
  
• Captain
  
• The Lend Courage tooltip now displays the correct value for Morale restored.
  
• The Lend Resolve tooltip now displays the correct values for Morale and Power restored.
  
• The Oathbreaker's Shame tooltip now has a disclaimer that its effect will not stack with other potent Incoming Damage debuffs.
  
• Captains could end up in a temporary state where Rallying Cry and Rousing Cry were both disabled after using Time of Need and subsequently defeating a monster, This has been fixed so that Defeat Events from kills correctly refresh the 15 second duration even when following the use of Time of Need.
  
• Champion
  
• The tooltip of the Umbari Armour of a Thousand Blades now clearly states that it only changes the effect applied by Great Cleave.
  
• Guardian
  
• Bastion of Light, when modified with both Radiate and Flash of Light, failed to spread debuffs applied by the guardian. This has been fixed.
  
• We fixed a string error that was reintroduced to the Protection by the sword skill.
  
• Shield-swipe now correctly reduces the cooldown of Pledge while wearing the Umbari Armour of the Protector.
  
• The Umbari Armour of the Protector's bonus to Max Morale should no longer reset momentarily when you would have earned a new tier of Fortifications while already sitting at the max Fortifications tier.
  
• Lore-master
  
• Shield of the Raven's Wing buff reduced to 1/5 its current value. The Mitigation Rating from this buff was erroneously increased too much when it was fixed recently so that it scales with player level correctly. It now scales correctly and has the intended potency.
  
• The Ancient Craft Duration Legacy no longer increases Ancient Craft's duration by 1 second longer than its tooltip suggests.
  
• The Murder of Crows tooltip now has a disclaimer that its effect will not stack with other potent Incoming Damage debuffs.
  
• The Trait 'Ancient Craft' now clarifies that it gives Ancient Craft bonus damage for your next Lightning Storm or Lightning Strike, but does not apply bonus damage for any Lightning Skills other than those two.
  
• The skill tooltip for Deep Lore now refers to the fact that affected enemies may summon tentacles which will heal you and your allies.
  
• Mariner
  
• The trait 'Relaxing Wind' now displays the correct information on rank 1 of its tooltip.
  
• The trait 'Keen Sight' now clarifies that it improves only your Melee Damage.
  
• The trait 'Rare Ingredients' now displays the correct number of additional Diseases cleansed per tier.
  
• The trait 'Test Defences' now more clearly states how many times its effect may tier up per trait rank.
  
• The skill 'Rummage: Scrap of Music' now gains the bonus healing from the trait 'Enheartening Songs.'
  
• Rune-keeper
  
• The tracery 'Self-motivation Cooldown & Power Restore' now correctly improves Self-motivations Power Restore by 10% (it was only improving it by 5% prior to this).
  
• Combustion now benefits from Master of Connotation
  
• Armour of the Graven Word now correctly increases Ceaseless Argument damage, and no longer suggests that it lowers Ceaseless Argument's Power cost.

• Monster Power Use: Monsters with skill power costs were using significantly too much power per skill play. These power costs have been adjusted to a more appropriate scale.

• The Umbari Crafting Daily quests were not bestowing properly for characters that had left and then rejoined a Profession. This has been fixed.
  
• The description for the word 'Luck-stone Socket' has had a typo fixed.
  
• Umbari Guild Earrings of Bright Sea Star as well as its recipe have had their names fixed.
  
• When you leave a profession in which you have achieved access to the Umbar guild you will now only need to level that profession back to Tier 15 to regain access to the Umbar Dailies.
  
• Eastemnet Oaken Mariner's Flute no longer has an extraneous, duplicate recipe output.

• Five new level 143 quests have been added to Lond Cirion. They can be obtained from Lindil, near the entrance in upper Lond Cirion as well as others within the city.
  
• 'Forged Anew' no longer requires you to reforge your Legendary Item to progress. Players who reforged their Legendary Weapon too early or have an old LI are no longer blocked from completing this quest. This fix required the quest to be versioned, so if you had it underway you'll want to pick up the quest again from Dithalion at the Forges of Rivendell.
  
• Forester Event
  
• Carry Caber slow now properly allows players to carry the caber at a walking pace.
  
• Beornings can now use Carry Caber - Fast and Carry Caber - Slow while not in bear form.
  
• Beornings can now use the logger emote. This only functions while not in Bear form.
  
• There is now a message letting players know that there are two minutes before the forester event begins.
  
• Forester event now appropriately states the Combe Lumber Camp.
  
• You should no longer drop the caber before passing through the final gate in the forester event. Unless, of course, you run out of time.
  
• The Posted Notice involved with the quest 'The Isles: The Knight Nauriel' should now display properly on the outskirts of Mar Naphra.
  
• Fixed some assorted typos in Umbar quests involving specific crew members.
  
• U40: Updated the name of the competitive forester trait 4 accomplishment to Competitive Forester IV.
  
• U40: The objective counter should no longer exceed the number needed in Continuous Supply.
  
• "Continuous Supply" and "Burgeoning Business": The counter for tracking crab meat, shells, and claws continued to advance beyond the requirement. This has been fixed.
  
• King's Gondor West -- Added a sound effect for ringing the bell in 'Stalking to Gaerland'.
  
• Completing the Cryptic Note quest will now correctly prevent the Cryptic Note from appearing for you again on the Cape of Umbar.
  
• Revised some text to make it more clear what you need to do to complete two of the Volume II Epilogues (specifying that you need to complete 'The Paths of Caras Galadhon' quest).
  
• Adjusted the Orders From Magith for 'The Valley of Ghosts' so they won't go into Pending Loot where it's easy to overlook them.
  
• Circle of Wrath - Gothmog's Captain was spawning in the wall, but now he won't and can be successfully attacked.
  
• Grami and Belg will no longer fall through the floor at Maergrind, the Noble Gate.
  
• Expanded the Quest Guide area for 'Surely Almost There' in Evendim.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Hytbold quest 'The West Gate: Defenders'
  
• Removed some of the skills that Arifael didn't have corresponding animations for in "The Further Adventures of Bilbo Baggins, Chapter 3".
  
• Adjusted the animations for the boss in "Trouble At The High Crag" so they will display properly.
  
• Reduced the chance that "Mission: Trouble At The High Crag" might become stuck after defeating the boss.
  
• Adjusted the timing for when the boss spawns during the instance "Honour and Treachery".
  
• The honey pot will now display properly during "The Stinging Harvest."
  
• Now the Dourhand allies of Arnmorth the Exacting in the Icereave Mines will attack you no matter your level.
  
• Adjusted "Instance: Whispers of the Forge" to clarify what you're supposed to be doing to progress.
  
• If you're defeated at the Rusted Gate during the Stout-axe introductory experience, you will no longer be stuck in a blackout.
  
• The Elderslade quest "Letter From Léothred" now requires the "Introduction: Elderslade" quest to be at least underway before bestowing. 
  
• Fixed an issue where Léothred did not appear in the "Letter From Léothred" quest.
  
• Pages 1 and 5 for Lost Lore of Gorgoroth: Naerband Prison are now easier to pick up inside "The Dungeons of Naerband",
  
• The daily quest "Claws for Excitement" now has updated directions in the quest comments.
  
• A typo in "A Price to be Paid" has been corrected.
  
• Instances and Skirmishes
  
• Thaurisgar, the Vile Apothecary: Players can no longer be knocked out of the instance by the Thaurisgar Troll Knockback attack.
  
• The Depths of Mâkhda Khorbo
  
• Belondor's Exultation of Battle potency increased.
  
• The likelihood of two crushing tentacles spawning during the "Head-up" phase of the Boss 3 fight in the Raid is reduced on tiers 1-3.
  
• The time that it takes for the next boat to be crushed has been increased to 30 seconds to allow players more time to recover and deal damage to the kraken's head in the final boss fight of the Mâkhda Khorbo,
  
• Small adjustments have been made to the timers on adds that arrive when boats are destroyed or tentacles take too long to kill.
  
• Active tentacles wrapping boats in the final boss encounter of Mâkhda Khorbo are now disabled when the kraken submerges so the head cannot be struck when it is underwater.
  
• Dulgakhó's Hungering Flame can no longer be a scion.
  
• Belondor's chest no longer gives a greater chance at earning his shield, Varnëvëa, from soft-lock chest pulls. The soft-lock chance now matches the chance of receiving the shield from the favoured chest pull.
  
• Corrected the tooltip descriptions on B1 Jadazin's 'Focused Enemy' effects.
  
• In the final encounter with Umshûra on tiers 1-4, Greater Crushing Tentacles were errantly appearing 30 seconds after an emergence phase. We fixed this issue and additional Crushing Tentacles only appear after a boat is destroyed, or when Umshûra returns from being submerged.
  
• The final boss should no longer reset if you leave the room completely and then return to the room after defeating Umshûra.
  
• The skill reset at the outset of Umshûra should no longer reset each time you step outside of the battle arena.
  
• Crushing tentacles on tier 5 should now always spawn 2 at a time.
  
• The billboard for the Foetid wave in the fight against Umshûra is now replicated to the chat field.
  
• Billboards for tentacles crushing boats will cease when there are no more boats to crush.
  
• Corsair adds in tiers 4 and 5 are now more consistent in their appearance after failing to eliminate the slapping tentacles quickly enough.
  
• Shadow Tendrils deal more damage when they are killed.
  
• Fire Arrow now correctly deals much more damage on Tiers 4 and 5.
  
• Players can no longer interrupt Vile Scream or Deep Scream with Fellowship Manoeuvres.
  
• Umshûra's Ancient Hide now reduces Incoming Damage by 130%.
  
• Lesser Crushing Tentacles now die after 45 seconds rather than despawning directly. This prevents players from becoming stuck in the 'grabbed' state if they were incapacitated by a tentacle that despawned.
  
• Players are no longer required to have the Mâkhda Khorbo - Tier 4 deed completed in order to barter Menacing Tentacles for equipment.
  
• The Streets of Râhal Bakh
  
• Entombed in Ichor now has a 5 second immunity grace period after it expires or is removed. This should prevent you from immediately being re-Ichor'd when you are freed while still standing in or adjacent to an Ichor puddle.
  
• Hounding Fear's tooltip no longer has incorrect, extraneous descriptive text.
  
• Rothog may no longer use Heavy Stone, Leaded Stone, or Get Over Here on player pets. (Get Over Here will still affect pets, but they will not be considered when Rothog is evaluating targets to decide whether or not to use this skill)
  
• Ulanor should now correctly use Word of Flame more slowly.

• New Mission: Securing Salvage - Malthak, in Umbar Baharbêl's Bloody Eagle Tavern, has a new Mission available for players levels 20-150. Delvings are also available for this mission.
  
• The Ritual Obelisk in 'Mission: The Bloody Ritual' should now behave properly.

• "The 'Doorbell' housing item has had it's name changed to 'Hanging Bell'"

• Captain trainers will now allow you to barter mithril coins for hobbit herald appearances.
  
• Lore-master trainers will now allow you to barter mithril coins for a small bog-lurker appearance.
  
• The minimum level to use Umbari Greater Athelas Essence has been corrected to level 150.
  
• Fixed an issue where Petrified Essences displayed an incorrect maximum socket level.
  
• Legendary Items now indicate if they are ready to be reforged in the examination tooltip.

• German voice over audio has been added for Rothog and other areas of Corsairs of Umbar where it was missing.
  
• The layout of the Class Traits screen has been adjusted to correct an issue where the German description of the Loremaster traits would be cut off at the bottom of the screen.

• Errant terrain texture issue in the Ettenmoors has been resolved.

• New Travel Destinations have been added in and around Umbar Barharbel: Swain's Guild-hall, The Bloody Eagle Tavern, the Gate of Sorrow and the Fleet-gate, Aradâr Hunter's Expedition Camp (plus a milestone at the camp)
  
• The landmark for the Fleet-watch Tavern in the Fleet-fast of Umbar Baharbêl has been moved to its correct location.
  
• Great River - Parth Celebrant and Atburg now have ambient sound effects.
  
• Misc floating objects have been grounded
  
• Misc z-fighting have been resolved
  
• Misc Physics/Stuck Spot issues have been resolved

• Players may now apply custom names to their Carry-alls. These names will not appear when stored in the Vault.
  
• Store: Open store sessions will now be terminated at character logout to prevent confusion about what character purchases are delivered to
  
• Bill Rosewood and Bert Goldenleaf, Stable-masters in Bree-town, now have consistent appearances.
  
• Removed deprecated Legendary categories from the Auction House.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused female avatar ears to always display flattened against the head as if wearing a helmet.

Here are the release notes for Update 39.2, released on Wednesday, April 17th, 2024.


Instances can no longer award legendary (gold) traceries unless the instance is set to a level cap, and also require players themselves to be at that level cap, or up to 3 levels below it, in order to receive legendary traceries. This means that instances such as The Doom of Caras Gelebrin will henceforth only award incomparable (teal) traceries when the instance is set to level 141-149, but can award legendary traceries when set to level 150. If the instance in question is set to level 150, players present when the chest is opened must be between the levels of 147 and 150 if they want to receive legendary traceries. This is true for any historical level caps as well: you can run instances at level 130, for example, to earn legendary Morgul traceries, but the players present must be levels 127-130.

• The Streets of Râhal Bakh
  
• Khâshap's Chest now has a chance to drop a Legendary tracery on tiers 4-5.
  
• Isle of Storms
  
• Raghârik's Chest now has a chance to drop a Legendary tracery on tiers 3-5.
  
• The Arena Dahâl Huliz
  
• Arena Champion's Chest now has a chance to drop a Legendary tracery on tiers 3-4.
  
• The Depths of Mâkhda Khorbo
  
• Well-worn Corsair's Chest now has a chance to drop a Legendary tracery on tier 3-4.
  
• Forgotten Smuggler's Chest now has a chance to drop a Legendary tracery on tier 2.
  
• Azagath's Sea-shadow and his crew are now more aggressive and responsive to players who enter the arena to face them.
  
• Slapping Tentacles will now throw stones at random players if left alive too long (exact time depends on the instance tier).
  
• Hâkraph's Static Shock is now much more damaging, and will correctly damage players near the Crackling Conduit.
  
• The Arenas of Conflict meta Deed 'Deeds of the Arena of Conflict' will now bestow and complete properly.
  
• The Algraig, Men of Enedwaith, have erected a Task Board in Lhanuch where five new level 60 task quests can be found that award reputation with their faction. These tasks are also available from the Neighborhood Task Boards.
  
• Monsters with skill power costs were using significantly too much power per skill play. These power costs have been adjusted to a more appropriate scale.

• Beorning's Umbari Armour of the Razor Claw (red set) once again restores Wrath over time as intended.
  
• Fixed issues with Beorning's Bond of Trust, Honey Cleanse, and Desperate Shouts, which were not functioning correctly or consistently due to incorrect skill-type flags on many of their skills.
  
• Brawler's Umbari Armour of the Iron Fist's 4-set bonus will no longer proc off of Auto-attacks.
  
• Burglar's Sudden Diversion no longer inappropriately resets the cooldown of Touch and Go.
  
• Captain's Telling Mark should no longer toggle off when its target is temporarily debuffed by a Mariner's Marked Foes effect.
  
• Rune-keeper's Fulgurite and Molten Runestone damage is now correctly classified as Tactical, so it will not bypass Incoming Damage modifiers.
  
• Blackarrow's Explosive Arrow once again deals its intended damage.

Here are the Release Notes for Update 39.1.2, released on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.
The Depths of Mâkhda Khorbo Tier 4 unlocks at Noon Eastern (-4 GMT) on April 11th, 2024. The Leading the Charge deed remains available to complete until 3:00 AM Eastern on June 6, 2024.

• The Depths of Mâkhda Khorbo
  
• Crocodiles now correctly tail swipe players standing behind them.
  
• Lightning Strike in Belondor's Encounter damage increased ~60%.
  
• Sturdy Tentacle morale reduced ~50%.
  
• Slapping/Sweeping Tentacle Health reduced ~10%.
  
• Thunderous Roar is no longer dependent of players having pets actively summoned in the encounter space.
  
• Lesser Crushing Tentacles should no longer spawn below Tier 4.
  
• Lesser Crushing Tentacle health has been reduced dramatically.
  
• Lesser Crushing Tentacles can no longer spawn on player pets.
  
• Greater Crushing Tentacles should no longer be able to attack players, since they are busy crushing boats.
  
• Modified the deed list for the tiered Makhda Khorbo deeds to call out the bosses and in the correct order.
  
• Fixed an issue where Belondor and his crew could potentially become locked out of entering combat.
  
• Crushing tentacles that wrap boats in the space between a head down phase will now submerge with the head and re-emerge with the head. This prevents the launching of derelict boats at Umshûra's head during the head down phase.
  
• There was an issue in the Makhda Khorbo raid where Azagath might fail to engage if his crew was engaged. This has been fixed.
  
• Azagath's crew now call out specific players to target slightly less frequently.
  
• Sallax's battle-wary effect now clearly state that it restores Morale when Sallax is struck.
  
• Frigid Squall now deals some damage to players.
  
• Corsair Shades now have Adaptation on Tiers three through five.
  
• Dahal Huliz, the Arena
  
• Rothog's low cut arrow volleys are now smaller and shorter than Shaidal's.
  
• Reduced Hammer Down and Rupture damage significantly.
  
• Reduced Pooling Blood Initial Hit Damage.
  
• Shadow Burst Damage reduced 25%.
  
• Shadow Burst is now a distributed hit with a small radius.
  
• Word of Frost has had its damage reduced slightly, but it now has 10% Mitigation penetration.
  
• Beorning
  
• Trample's debuff should now be refresh-able without waiting for it to first expire.
  
• With Umbari Armour of the Razor Claw equipped, Call to Wild no longer suggests that it restores morale.
  
• Brawler
  
• The Umbari Armour of the Iron Fist's Sinister Cross bonus effect no longer stacks with itself if Sinister Cross is used repeatedly without using a Finisher skill.
  
• Burglar
  
• The Mischievous Glee Healing tracery should now correctly improve the healing from Mischievous Glee.
  
• Captain
  
• Several Captain skill effects have been incorrectly stacking with similar effects from other classes that are meant to be mutually exclusive. These have been cleaned up, and should no longer stack, as expected. This includes Telling Mark & Marked Foes (Mariner), as well as Oathbreakers Shame, which was able to stack with The Breaking of Thangorodrim (Mariner) or Murder of Crows (Lore-master).
  
• Champion
  
• Thousand Blade Cleave now correctly reduces cooldowns of Rend and Born for Combat while active.
  
• Punishing Blow procs now have a seven second internal cooldown to prevent moments where you get a proc that fully elapses while Punishing Blow is on cooldown.
  
• Lore-master
  
• Deep Graspers can no longer knock back enemies.
  
• In the Elderslade mission "Hunting the Hunters" Warg corpse quest items now last longer before they despawn.
  
• The following crafting recipe scrolls have had their name's corrected; "Expertly Carved Performer's Instrument Recipe" "Expertly Carved Sailor's Instrument Recipe" "Expertly Woven Umbari Standards Recipe" "Expertly Made Umbari Signals Recipe".
  
• Delvings - Epic Tempest: Delving Storms now spawn every 2 minutes and last 60 seconds, instead of spawning every 45 seconds and lasting 90 seconds.
  
• Forester Event
  
• Removing the territory call spamming that the event is going to begin in 15 minutes.
  
• The size of the last gate in the forester gate is smaller to force players through a tighter window and ensure that they complete the event.

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![www.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![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".