Author: Ethelros

The second build of testing for Update 15.1 has been added to the Bullroarer server, and includes a new set of patch notes. Check out the link for the full list, below are some choice quotes I found interesting:

Classes

• Relaxed naming restrictions surrounding “-beorn”, which is now a legal character name suffix.
• Lore-master bear pets no longer roar out of combat.

General

• It should now be more difficult for players to become out of sync with their mounts when riding.
• Players should no longer stutter when walking.

The Bullroarer test server is as of this writing up for patching and testing for the newest patch to LOTRO, 15.1, and comes with it’s own set of patch notes. I have listed some of the more interesting ones below, but be sure to check the link for the full list:

General

• You can now use “Track Nearby Quests” in interior locations

Beornings

• Iorelen’s Camp should now have a barter vendor that sells Beorning specific Rift gear.

Armor, Items and Gear

• Beorning Erebor and Greater Erebor armour sets should now be available at all skirmish camps.

Epic Battles, Quests and Instances

• Quartermaster’s Rewards now being granted for ALL Helm’s Deep battles & secondaries.

Pelargir
A fellowship version of Retaking Pelargir is now ready for limited release on Bullroarer, where we’ll be taking important balance feedback from preview players. The timing of its release will depend on the feedback we get about this new version.

The fellowship version of Retaking Pelargir features two new secondaries: The Ship-slaves and The Thrice-blown Horn. Additionally, all Epic Foes have been re-statted for group challenge.

• In Retaking Pelargir, secondary objectives now contribute towards total merit of primary battle. Log messages now display the points at which merit is updated during battle.
• The timing of Kisung Teng’s arrival has been made more reliable
• Time required to earn merit on all Epic Foe secondaries has been significantly reduced.
• A failure objective for Retaking Pelargir has been rephrased from “The Great Gate must open” (a bit vague) to “The Gate Winch must survive” (hopefully much clearer)
• Some bad entrance animations at the end of the battle have been fixed
• The Army of the Dead now glows prettily when they enter Pelargir the same way they do at piers
• Fixed a bug where some enemies in the middle of the city keep spawning after the pillagers are supposed to have been routed
• City guards are a little sturdier than they used to be
• Corsairs bearing torches can be found in the Fellowship version of Retaking Pelargir
• Pelargir Rings have been re-statted so that they are no longer missing some stat value and that they are not identical.
• Siege weapons in Pelargir will now build at a normal & reasonable rate
• Winch no longer (subtly) spontaneously combusts when the great gate is opened

Mac

• The help page and /bug should now load correctly on OSX
• OSX: Drop-down menus now work in the in-game browser
• Upgraded the embedded Awesomium browser for OSX to v1.7.4.2 to fix issues with the store not loading on OSX Yosemite.

Update 15 launched last week, and with a fair number of issues. Turbine responded by applying a hotfix to address some of those problems.  Here is the list of changes:

“We have resolved an issue where Mac Yosemite users were unable to access the store or customer support pages.

Special note for Mac users: Upon Exiting epic battles Mac users may experience a client crash. This only occurs on exiting big battles and we are continuing to investigate the issue.

We have fixed an issue where players dismounting a war-steed would lose whatever stance they were in at the time.

Varthmath lost his good looks when he wandered into Moria. He should have them back now.

The Jacket of the Great Shore should now have the correct appearance.

Many of the Helm’s Deep epic battle quests that were missing the new gift boxes have been updated and will now give out their proper rewards.

During Volume 4 Book 2 – Chapter 2: Two Messengers: some of the Corsairs had rings who shouldn’t have. This should now be resolved.

Volume 4 Book 2, Chapter 3: Balakhor the Scourge: Captain Noreth should now always be waiting for you on the boat.

Big Battles – Pelargir – Quests – Archer Thisarti and Okurauo the Minstrel quests should now complete after killing the required enemies

We have fixed an issue where all of the rings from Pelargir had the exact same stats. They should all have class appropriate stats now and can accept essences.

One of the relics at Edhellond was stuck high up in a pillar. It’s been lowered to the ground

Beornings in bear form now have unique faces that display the painted designs seen in man form

Burglar – Track treasure no longer overrides the displaying of crafting nodes on the radar

Minstrel – Skill – Using Call to Greatness on a Beorning now provides the proper buff.

Music System: We have fixed the squeaky A#4 Clarinet note”

Update 15 launches today, and with it has come its own set of patch notes. This is largely the same as from BR, but I will point out the major features and anything I find interesting below:

Major Features

• Beorning class
• Epic Story Volume IV, Book 2: The Dawnless Day
• New level 100 zone: Central Gondor
• New solo/duo offensive Epic Battle: Retaking Pelargir(with fellowship option coming soon)

Curious Additions

• We have added a new character chat restriction: All new free characters must wait 3 hours of in-game time before they will be able to use world chat and all user created chat channels (such as glff). All other channels will be available to them. Once players have reached this three hour time limit, they will need to relog in order to then join the chat channels. Please note: This change ONLY affects free players and all times and restrictions are subject to change.
• You should now be able to complete the Fangorn (Quieting) daily quests up to five times a day, even if you did some of them while the daily limit was set to 1.

Today Massively posted an article stating that from a developer call Update 15 was revealed to release onto the Live severs on Wednesday, 5th November.

This is unusual, since most major LOTRO updates launch on Mondays(presumably to allow for any possible problems). For those unsure of what is coming with Update 15, here are the main features:

• New Epic Book; Volume 4: Book 2
• New level 100~ zone, Central Gondor
• New Offensive Epic Battle, Retaking Pelargir
• New Class, the Beorning