Lord of the Rings Online

Well nvm. I just finished the quests in Langhold that rewarded me with a war steed and riding skill.

Onwards and upwards.

Vinjin said:

Finished out Myrkwood even though I was a tad overleveled for it by the end at 68. The skirmishes toward the end of the epic series quest chain was pretty cool though.

Decided to head to east Rohan and The Great River after that. Not bad and I liked that it was more open than previous zones. I just finished that area up yesterday and moved into The Wold just as I hit 74. I'll have to go back to GR for some dailies though as Riders of Stangard has some nice items and upgrades at kindred. I'm about 6K away though so might take a few days to finish that out.

It seems crafted gear has suddenly become a bit more complex to make but also, worth the effort too. Unfortunately, it seems I need a good bit of Marks to buy some of the rarer crafting mats and it just so happened that I blew a ton of mine to finally upgrade my skirmish dude right before starting GR. Figures.

Also, I see war horses in the town of Harwick as well as a riding instructor. Is this where I buy one? They didn't vendor up for me though so not sure if I need faction, levels, etc before I can talk to them.

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You will get a war steed by following the epic story line.

I will warn you that you are about to go in to the most controversial part of the game among Lotro players because of the war steeds. Its a system that you either love or hate. There is little middle ground on this system lol.

To put it bluntly, the war steed system is clunky as fuck and the laggy servers make it just that much worse.

When they work and the server isn't being a laggy mess, its great. They move very fast, and the mounted combat can be pretty entertaining (for a while).

When it is not working good and the server decides to be it's laggy self, you rubberband all over the place and can get super frustrating.

Here's the thing... the content is still really good in the Riders of Rohan expansion, so it's worth putting up with mounted combat. And... the mounted combat stops being a thing in content shortly after you get out of that expansion. So, just power through the expansion, focus on the great story lines, and have fun. Try not to let the stupidest game mechanic ever introduced in to a MMORPG ruin the experience for you.

The icing on the cake is that you eventually get to Helms Deep and then move on towards Minas Tirrith and get to live out all the really big moments in the movies. There's some great content just beyond the mounted combat content, so hang in there lol.

Information about Update 41.2 going live today

Update 41.2 Release Notes​

Here are the Release Notes for Update 41.2: Year of the Dragon, released on Thursday, August 29, 2024.

Of Special Note:​

Before the Shadow is now free - and a free coupon!​

Before the Shadow content is now free to play! All players now have the Before the Shadow content that had been available to purchase in the LOTRO Store. There is also a free coupon for steeds! Read more on LOTRO.com.

We're celebrating the Year of the Dragon with a new free Instance - and a free coupon!​

Opens at 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on Thursday, August 29th!

A new instance called "The Dragon and the Storm" is now available for all players! This instance is available for up to six players with level 150 characters. Kindred of the Coins member Rothog sent the hunter Shaidal to acquire a fearsome "dragon", and this story from the Tales of the Kindred story line culminates in witnessing the conclusion of Rothog's quest to entertain the people of Umbar! The Instance Finder is available by default by pressing Control+J. Read more on LOTRO.com and get a Coupon Code for a Green Drake Portrait Frame and Golden Drakeling pet!

Lootboxes and Filbert Fig have been updated!​

Sea-faring Adventurer's Lively Essence Boxes are now available for barter with the Adventurer's Quartermaster and have a chance to drop from Adventurer's Steel-bound Lootboxes! Adventurer's and Traveller's Steel-bound Lootboxes also contain new "Sophisticated Birder" cosmetic items including an avatar cosmetic outfit, a war-steed accessory, a chaffinch cosmetic pet, plus new songbird housing items featuring the magpie and finch. These items are also available on Filbert Fig for Figments of Splendour. Additionally, the Spotted Jerboa pet and Steed of the Eldar are now available on Filbert Fig for Figments of Splendour. Adventurer's and Traveller's Steel-bound Lootboxes also now contain a Sophisticated Birder's Pack and magpie cosmetic pet. Myrtle Mint has retired for the season. Read more in this article on LOTRO.com.

News and Notes:​

Classes and Skills:​

• For all classes, the inherent threat multiplier for non-tank specializations has been reduced slightly.
• In update 41, a change was made to Force Taunts to prevent players from chaining taunts together. However, without broader changes to the threat system overall, this had a net negative impact, and has been reverted. Force taunts should once again overwrite one another as you are accustomed to.
• Brawler
  • Strike to the Sky no longer knocks enemies upwards in PvMP.
• Captain
  • Reform the Lines no longer has an uncapped target count. It is now a fellowship-wide effect, in line with other group heals.
  • In the U41.1 healing adjustment, Valour heals were not compensated. The missed ~11% compensatory bump has now been added to Valour heals.
• Champion
  • The Rend bleed and the Punishing Blow bleed will no longer overwrite one another.
• Hunter
  • Trait 'Pathfinder' now properly displays it's percentage increases inside it's tooltip.
• Lore-master
  • Corrected an issue with the Spirit pet's 'Nature's Bounty' effect description.
  • Call to the Valar no longer erroneously resets the cooldown of Gust of Wind/Burning Gale.
  • Lore-master pets now take a further -20% Incoming Damage when summoned while specialized in the Ancient Master.
  • Sticky Gourd no longer reapplies the Burning Embers DoT for its duration: it will apply or tier up an existing Embers DoT once, when applied. Sticky Gourd's uptime was greatly overshadowing Gust of Wind, which was less efficient and requires non-trivial trait investment to help spread the Embers DoT in AoE situations.
  • Deep Graspers can heal once again.
  • You may now safely use the skill 'The Ancient Master' while you currently have one 'Ancient Master' charge. Using the skill while you had a single charge was breaking the skill and leaving you with 5 charges but without your skills being modified by them. This has been corrected, so the Ancient Master should function as intended regardless of the status of your current Ancient Master charges.
  • Ring of Fire's 'barrier' Damage has been reduced in PvMP.
  • Nature's Fury is now a cleansable Wound effect.
  • The Eagle's major skill 'Fan the Flames' no longer tries to tier up any existing Burning Embers DoT on the target. This effect was experiencing issues and at times applied a version of Burning Embers that dealt 0-1 Damage. Where it previously tried to tier up an Embers DoT, it now deals bonus instant Damage each time it pulses when a Burning Embers DoT is present on its target.
  • The Raven skill 'Distraction' once again applies a version of the enrage effect that includes a 10% reduction to the target's Ranged Damage.
  • Lightning-charged Staff Strike no longer erroneously benefits twice from the 'Staff Skill Damage' tracery bonus.
• Warden
  • Warden's Desperate Combat is once again correctly disabled when your last charge is used up.

Crafting:​

• Recipes for crafting Sea-farer's Crafted Essence Boxes, allowing selection of an item level 520 Sea-farer's Essence, has been automatically granted to Umbar tier Cooks, Jewelers, Metalsmiths, Scholars, Tailors, Weaponsmiths, and Woodworkers.

Events:​

• Hard Tack Event
  • There is now a message in Ered Luin that the Hard event starts in 10 minutes, and another message that the event begins in 5 minutes.
  • There is now a message in the event space that the Hard Tack Event has begun.
  • There is now a message in the event space that the Hard Tack Event will end in 15 minutes.
  • There is now a message in the event space that the Hard Tack Event will end in 10 minutes.
  • There is now a message in the event space that the Hard Tack Event will end in 5 minutes.
  • There is now a message in the event space that the Hard Tack Event has ended.
  • Accomplishment completions for the competitor rewards for Prospectors and Cooks reduces to 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 for each tier.
  • Mining nodes now require the use of a mining pick in the event space.
  • Recipes should now all execute at 1 second.
  • Using the oven now requires the use of Cooking Supplies in the event space.
  • Using the oven now has a 25 second induction reduced by eating the foods crafted in the event space as with other inductions in the event.
  • Duration of effects granted by all crafted food is now 4 minutes to match the cooldown on using the food.
  • Ore extracted from the nodes now remains available for collection for 120 seconds instead of 90 seconds.
• Forester Event
  • The final reward on the Forester event has been increased to 20 Participation Ribbons.
• The Veil of the Nine
  • Nazgul will no longer reset their vitals on leaving combat.

Monster Play:​

• Reward titles for monster players and for players now have purchase restrictions blocking players from errantly repurchasing a title they already acquired.
• Lainedhal's Insignia should no longer remove beneficial effects from store purchases when used, the effects should instead be briefly suppressed.
• Lainedhal's Insignia now has a cooldown timer equal to the Tyrant's Brand.
• There were a number of quests in the Ettenmoors allowing players to use Mithril to travel. The Mithril travel has been disabled.
• Increasing Monster Player health by 5%.
• Increased the mitigation bonus for almost all blessings (more offensive blessing receive a greater benefit - Ongburz mitigations technically reduced a very small amount).
• Increased damage bonus for Scara and Krahjarn blessings by 5% and 10% respectively.
• Increased DoT Damage bonus of Shelob blessing by 5%.
• Increased Physical Mastery bonus from the Ongburz blessing.
• Corrected Lugazag and TR ingress/egress flags so that only the appropriate side may interact with their banners.
• Glory-seeking should no longer allow stealth.

Questing and Adventure Areas:​

• The Eryn Lasgalen quest Mending the Mirkwood can now once again be completed. PLEASE NOTE: Players who logged out with Mending the Mirkwood in progress will need to re-accept the quest and start it over due to the required versioning to address the issue.
• The following quests in Cardolan have had their level changed from 20 to 25: Dousing the Flaming Farm, Farmer Hove's Tools, Goblins in Haudh Narui, and A Report for Taeras.
• The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu
  • Some Rift Iron and Obsidian barter items have been added to Rift chest containers. This is so raid groups (where you can not earn these items from defeating enemies) are still able to earn some of these currencies.
  • Thrang's Sword and Thaurlach's Broken Chain Link now drop from their corresponding chest containers, so you will only receive one of each per victory, which will also be obtainable by raid groups.

UI:​

• Custom names for Carry-alls now display properly in shared storage, vault, and housing storage. Note that alphabetical sorting will continue to sort according to the default carry-all name.

Miscellaneous:​

• Rivendell level 50 consumable potions now have their intended Shadow and Fire Mitigation typing.
• Added public layering to several of the early regions of our game that were not previously covered. This should help prevent severe mobbing and perf issues during Nazgul encounters or other crowd events in these areas.
• There were a number of quests in the Ettenmoors allowing players to use mithril to travel. The mithril travel has been disabled.

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Also, they have a coupon code you can claim right now that gives you a cool character portrait frame and a pet drake.

Here is the link to that information

The Dragon and the Storm​

A new instance called "The Dragon and the Storm" is now available for all players! This instance is available for up to six players with level 150 characters.

Kindred of the Coins member Rothog sent the hunter Shaidal to acquire a fearsome "dragon", and this story from the Tales of the Kindred story line culminates in witnessing the conclusion of Rothog's quest to entertain the people of Umbar!

The Instance Finder is available by default by pressing Control+J.

Free Coupon​

We’re celebrating the Year of the Dragon in The Lord of the Rings Online with the release of this free instance along with the release of a free Coupon Code that gets you a Green Drake Portrait Frame and Golden Drakeling Pet!

The coupon code is: SMAUGSSPOILS

This Coupon Code is available to redeem 1/account through September 25th, 2024. Redeem this code by entering it through Redeem Code in the LOTRO Store inside of the game.

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Even with the quest revamps the Breelands, etc. have received, Before the Shadow is probably still the best beginner content, and nice to see that's now free.

I just hit lvl 89 on my hunter and still largely enjoying it. The story has been pretty cool as I make my way through Rohan. I'm on the last step of Vol 3, book 12 which has me heading towards Helm's Deep. Looking forward to that. And the music in Rohan was always some of my favorite, so there's that. too.

Regarding the earlier discussion of the war-steed feature and mechanics, I didn't like it at first. The faster movement speed is nice but it's a bit of a pain if you're frequently stopping to harvest nodes, which I am. Having said that, I will say it's grown on me a bit. With so many quests and mounted combat kill requirements, I finally decided to start using my war-steed more instead of my regular horse and dismounting prior to combat. Plus, I like that I can fire shots in 360 degrees on my war-steed versus only at things in front of me normally.

Onwards and upwards.

Vinjin said:

I just hit lvl 89 on my hunter and still largely enjoying it. The story has been pretty cool as I make my way through Rohan. I'm on the last step of Vol 3, book 12 which has me heading towards Helm's Deep. Looking forward to that. And the music in Rohan was always some of my favorite, so there's that. too.

Regarding the earlier discussion of the war-steed feature and mechanics, I didn't like it at first. The faster movement speed is nice but it's a bit of a pain if you're frequently stopping to harvest nodes, which I am. Having said that, I will say it's grown on me a bit. With so many quests and mounted combat kill requirements, I finally decided to start using my war-steed more instead of my regular horse and dismounting prior to combat. Plus, I like that I can fire shots in 360 degrees on my war-steed versus only at things in front of me normally.

Onwards and upwards.

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One of the things that annoyed the heck out of me about the mounted combat was that I had to get within range of attacker to do damage because I was playing a non-ranged class (Champion). This basically meant I had to joust every single mounted combatant I faced. I can see where this could be a lot more enjoyable on a class that has ranged abilities.

I need to finish up Rise of Isengard on my loremaster and move on to Riders of Rohan, so I can try out mounted combat on him seeing as he is all ranged combat basically.

I hit 50 (max level) on Angmar the other day. Now to wait around for Moria to open up. I'm maxing my crafting and then I'll work on deeds.

I'm really enjoying the random wraiths now that I can handle them. Given how easy combat is at higher levels even on increased difficulty, it's fun to periodically get very challenging fights.

Going to load this back up. Forgot that I have a Lifetime Sub to it. Haven't played in fucking forever. Probably need to look up the Classes, too, since I can't remember shit. Is there an actual Pet class?

Rabbit_Games said:

Going to load this back up. Forgot that I have a Lifetime Sub to it. Haven't played in fucking forever. Probably need to look up the Classes, too, since I can't remember shit. Is there an actual Pet class?

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Blue Lore Master and Captain are you're two pet classes.

They made massive changes to the Lore Master class recently. This made the blue Lore Master have to do more micro managing of their pet. Some people like it while some hate it.

The red Lore Master no longer has permanent pets. The red Lore Master's pets are now short duration spells. You cast the spell, the pet shows up for like 10 seconds, an effect is applied of some sort (like massive damage for example), and the pet goes away. Red Lore Master became a major pew pew class and is hella fun.

Yellow Lore Master has permanent pets like blue, but it is more your typical CC version of the Lore Master.

I'm not proficient in the Captain class, but they had a major redesign about a year or two ago. From what I could tell, most liked the changes made to it. I have yet to play one up past level 20 to say one way or the other.

Gotcha. Guess I'll check out the Lore Master, then. I think the last time I played was 2009? I have zero characters on any of the servers. I would have thought they'd still be there like other MMOs, so I'm definitely starting over, regardless.

Rabbit_Games said:

Gotcha. Guess I'll check out the Lore Master, then. I think the last time I played was 2009? I have zero characters on any of the servers. I would have thought they'd still be there like other MMOs, so I'm definitely starting over, regardless.

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I can make you some gear on Gladden if you're on there.

I was thinking about jumping on the new server (NA). I have zero idea what population ( ability to group ) is like on each server, just figured a new server *should* have people trying to group at low levels.

The new NA server is Angmar. I am on there as well on a 48 Red Lore Master.

The server has a huge population, so you shouldn't have trouble finding people there.

Note that the two new servers have the brand new event called Veil of the Nine running on them.

Basically, it means that when you kill any monster, there is a chance a wraith will spawn on you and attack. This starts happening at level 20.

The wraiths that spawn can be any of 3 ranks with the lowest being the easiest and highest being a real challenge. The key is to remove the wraith's corruption buff as quickly as possible in order to have a fighting chance against it. This is why it was changed to level 20 and above because all classes have a corruption removing ability by level 20.

At the high end (45+), there are rare GM events where a Nazgul will spawn somewhere in the world. They are like a public raid basically.

Cool. When I get a chance to log on, that's where I'll start my toon then.

So my level 91 Hunter finally reached Helm's Deep yesterday. Going in, I was pretty excited given how epic those scenes were from the movies but I was also very curious to see how they would handle it from a mechanics POV. I thought for sure it would be a skirmish, which are generally kinda cool, but my biggest concern was that the system just wouldn't do that event justice.

Holy. Fucking. Shit! Hello epic battle system.

When I got to the part in the quest chain where they present you with a tutorial of the system, my initial thought was "Wow! This could be really cool". Truth be told, I was still expecting little more than a glorified skirmish of some sort.

Damn was I wrong. In fact, this might be one of the coolest implementations of a mechanic that I've ever seen in any MMO, period.

There's a lot to pay attention to and interact with. There are different ways to approach each outcome. From a difficulty perspective, the two that I've tried so far are neither too trivial nor over-the-top too hard.

Additionally, the first battle felt like it took forever to complete while doing it because it's much longer than anything else to this point in the game. In hindsight, the 15 mins-ish long instances seem commensurate for an epic event such as this. Hell, even the rewards feel in line with the effort required to complete these.

I'm kinda blown away by it, tbh. Standing on top the wall in the second one, overlooking thousands of orcs and urak in front of you, mobs scaling the walls to reach you, them firing trebuchets at you and taking out your own siege equipment. Cool AF.

Epic indeed!