Mordor: Update 21.1

 

This Monday LOTRO has had a curious update to the game. I think most of us were expecting a patch of some sort, a 21.0.3 or something like that. But we have had a full on dot update – 21.1 – you can read the release notes here. It’s not that there isn’t enough in the update, there is, update 20.1 has been a lot poorer in what has been done if we’re going to compare those. But the expectations, especially with this being an expansion people have spent a lot of money on, have been a little bit greater.

Which would be my outtakes from this update as the best ones?

• Tooltips in the Crafting Panel now properly reflect the increased item level on critical results for Doomfold tier Armour, Jewellery, and Weapons.

• All Battle Lore and Warding Lore scrolls will stack up to 50.

• Now once you have completed Chapter 1 of the Kingdom of Gondor Allegiance storyline, you can use the Black Lebethron Casket on the top level of Minas Tirith (After-Battle) to enter the Hall of the King (Elessar, not Theoden lying in state). To enter the original version and see Theoden, you will use the original door as normal.

• The exit door from the Hall of the King now leads to the top tier of Minas Tirith (After-Battle).

• The quest ‘Mysteries of the Ghâshghurm’ is now playable as part of the endgame content in Talath Urui.

 

• All Doomfold armour, Weapons, and Jewellery now Bind on Equip as they always should have.

This one here just shows how fast SSG reacts when something is not so good for the company, but eventually beneficial for the player. I do not mind this fix, but what I do mind is that other things that needed to be fixed haven’t been. Metalsmiths still cannot craft shields, Scholars still cannot craft Shadowed essences. Similar thing happened with the crafting in the Wastes never being fixed, but what made gearing up easier was quickly taken away.

 

• Scourges of Gorgoroth have now appeared for you to find and defeat. Quests for defeating the scourges will automatically become available when you approach these foes.

This would be the newest content. The Mordor rowing threats. We got new bugged RTs without even having the hidden threats we already had fixed. The hidden threats from Dor Amarth and Agarnaith are still missing in action. And the new rowing threats, or as they like to call them now, Scourges, have bugged locations and loot. Dor Amarth RT appears in both Udun and Dor Amarth, Udun RT appears in Lhingris. The Udun one is even a Warg. Talk about something being out-of-place. No wargs in the whole new area, but there is this one. Each and every one of these RTs has the same so-called mechanic – kill the adds or the main boss takes next to no damage. The loot from Spoils Box – Scourge of Gorgoroth: 69 marks, Major essence of Fate (t7), East Gondor Silver pieces.

Everyone, doesn’t matter if for or against Mordor and its pricing and such, can agree that Mordor was a rushed release. Now that it is released I guess it is not too much to ask to not even rush out new dot update content, especially if it is something as mundane as another set of rowing threats, which could have been a part of 21. Even the deed for these threats doesn’t show correctly. It says that it is a slayer deed, but it is a quest deed – meaning, if you kill these without having a quest, you do not advance the deed.

 

The Fushaum Bal area and players having issues with completing the quest deed or the resolution quest is the reason I wrote a short guide to it. Now, to fix this the SSG has done following.

• Fushaum Bal: Upon completing the instance ‘The Fushaum Resolution’, 18 additional quests will unlock in Fushaum Bal. These one-time quests are similar to the repeatable quests in Fushaum Bal that disappear after completing ‘The Fushaum Resolution’. They will allow players to complete the Talath Urui quest deed and gain additional rep for the Fushaum factions.

Sadly, after running around and checking, there are no 18 additional quests. There are the same quests you had before, but now they are on the resurrected bosses you killed, now without a name. Game of Thrones, anyone? We can now get some reputation back if we lost it during the Black Book, so that’s good, but I really have something against overselling it as something that it is not. I guess you can now count the gold and get fast 2 coins.

 

Mordor release was postponed because of the pathing in some old areas, but it is acceptable to have these issues in the new one, which wasn’t cheap? The new RT has some crisis of identity and thinks it’s an ostrich, putting its head into the ground, not moving and hoping nobody will see it and kill it. The Zavar Hai in the caves in Lhingris are hitting objects in the cave, so they need to port beyond them eventually. The merevail in Seregost can skip a long way like a deja vue in Matrix. There is probably more examples.

 

 

The ground in Ghashgrum still doesn’t have the proper look to see where we would be taking damage while collecting the treasure caches or doing the new RTs. It is probably considered a fix that tactical classes when maxing out their LIs do not get any change in dps or that minstrels heals didn’t scale. Some of the dailies still do not give a Black Steel Key.

But this was an important one to do

• The saddle on the Steed of the Eldar has been adjusted forward to more comfortably fit both mount and rider.

And not to forget the Tarkrip shield, a very important addition to Mordor.

• The Anniversary Year 4 reward, Tarkrip Clan Shield, now has its correct appearance.