Update 23.3 Release Notes

Here are the Release Notes for Update 23.3, released on Monday, February 4th, 2019.

Of Special Note:

The Anvil of Winterstith Tier 3 Difficulty

Tier 3 Difficulty will soon be available for the Anvil of Winterstith raid! Tier 3 of the raid will unlock at 10:00 AM Eastern (-5 GMT) on Thursday, February 7th. The Lead the Charge Deed is now available for Tier 3. Both the Tier 2 and Tier 3 deeds will be available through March 6th, 2019.

Skirmish Event

February 7th brings a new event: ‘Ill Omens’ to Skirmishes throughout the game! Evil stirs in Minas Morgul, and harbingers of the Dead City spread across Middle-earth! Each day, your characters will have the chance to participate in a Skirmish Assault, which will send them to specific sets of existing Skirmishes in search of dangerous new foes. Characters who complete a Skirmish Assault will earn a special currency that can be exchanged for new equipment and cosmetic rewards. As for the most dedicated Skirmishers of Middle-earth, there are several new Deeds and titles to be earned during ‘Ill Omens’. In addition, characters who complete twelve Skirmish Assaults while the event is active will earn a powerful cap-level statted reward.

News and Notes:

Classes

  • Beornings:
    • Beornings can now use crossbows starting at level 1.
    • Encouraging Roar's healing over time component has been reduced by 15%, and its tier magnitude has been reduced from 1, 2, and 3 to 1, 1.5, and 2.
    • Beorning Abyss' set bonus now distributes Encouraging Roar's healing over time component at a reduced magnitude 33->20%.
  • Burglar:
    • Most burglar skills have received a moderate damage increase. This was the increase intended for release in a previous update. We will also be making more significant burglar changes in a future patch.
  • Minstrels:
    • Many Minstrel skills and effects that had not been previously normalized have been updated. This should result in a more even experience as you level. Most significantly, this reduces low level Minstrel DPS to bring it more in line with other classes.
    • Animations on several skills have been shortened.
    • Healers/Heroes/Dissonant Strike damage has been significantly increased, and now draws its base damage from Tactical implements. Dissonant Strike now does Light damage.
    • Healers/Heroes Strike's healing has been increased significantly.
    • Major Ballad group heals have been increased significantly, and this skill can now be used prior to combat.
    • Improved Chord of Salvation's group healing component has been increased significantly, but its cooldown has been increased from 10 to 12 seconds.
    • Fellowship's heart's base healing and group healing over time has been increased.
    • Raise the Spirit's base healing has been increased, its animations have been shortened, and its base induction has been increased from 1.2 to 1.4 seconds.
    • Raise the Spirit's yellow line trait now properly applies a Fellowship healing over time effects.
    • Raise the Spirit now has a 1s cooldown.
    • Code of Resonance and Coda of Melody's healing has been increased.
    • Inspire Fellows healing has been increased, its cooldown increased from 5 to 6 seconds, and its base induction has been reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds.
    • Perfect Ending's healing has been increased.
    • Bolster Courage's direct healing and group healing have been increased, its animation times have been reduced, its cooldown has been increased to 3 seconds, and its base induction has been increased from 2.5 to 2.7 seconds.
    • Triumphant Spirit's healing has been increased.
    • Legend of Hammerhand's expiring heal is now 2% of each Fellowship member's Max Morale per bubble that expires
    • Song of Hammerhand's bubble magnitude has been increased from 10% to 30% of Max Vitality.
    • Soliloquy of Spirit is no longer Immediate, and will not interrupt other skill animations.
    • Spirit of Freedom is now immediate, and has a very short animation.
    • Story of Courage no longer has an induction, and is now a Fast skill with a short animation.
    • Gift/Legend of Hammerhand bubble magnitudes have been increased from 10% to 20% Maximum Vitality.
    • Echoes of Battle now does Light damage.
    • All Ballad damage has been increased.
    • Successive heals will now maintain the Perfect Ending buff once you have achieved a full stack, rather than having it expire if not used.
    • Fellowship's Heart cooldown has been reduced from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.

Items

  • Adventurer's and Traveller's Lootboxes now contain the same cosmetic items.
  • Wayfarer's Armour Coffers can now be opened at level 20.
  • Crafted Shields of Grárik's Armouries will now consistently display the correct Item Level for the crit output.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause items taken from pending loot to not receive their bonus item level adjustment.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause bonus item level adjustments to reward one level higher than expected.
  • Arrows that are deflected will now correctly display their arrow in flight, and show the appropriate deflected arrow after reaching its target.
  • Additions and changes have been made to items available in Aventurer's Steel-bound Lootboxes and vendors in-game. Among the changes:
    • Adventurer's Lootbox essence drops will be item level 372 and 378 (rare), up from 366 uncommon and 372 (rare).
    • Adventurer's Steel-bound Lootboxes will drop item level 376 gear when opened by a level 120 character, up from item level 370.
    • The following cosmetic and housing items have been added to lootboxes and vendors:
      • Boots, Gloves, Hooded Masks, Masks, Shoulderguards, and Breastplates of the Golden Forest Defender.
      • Brilliant Forest Defender's Boots, Gloves, Hooded Masks, Masks, Shoulderguards, and Breastplates.
      • Cloak of the Golden Forest Defender and Brilliant Forest Defender's Cloak.
      • Alabaster Garden Chairs and Tables
      • Alabaster Planters with Sunflowers
      • Corked Bottles
      • Goats of Ered Mithrin
      • Tomes of the Golden Barn Owl
  • The Tome of the Black Mastiff now properly Binds to Account on Acquire.
  • The Tome of the Black Mastiff, War-steed of Isengard Cosmetics package, War-steed of Ered Mithrin Cosmetics package, Visiting Banker, and Visiting Barber now have their appropriate Disenchant values.

Quests and Adventure Areas

  • Anvil of Winterstith
    • Players will no longer be able to retreat while their Fellowship is engaged in combat with a boss monster. Players can still accept revives from other players.
    • Feeding Frenzy is no longer permanent.
    • Isvítha will now wait until certain health thresholds to summon her drakes and whelplings.
    • Isvítha's Well-fed buff has been increased.
    • Isvítha should use Weight-throw less often.
    • Decreased healthpools of Isvítha's summoned drakes and whelplings.
    • Fury of the Zhélruka now affects Ranged Damage.
    • Cruel Strike now correctly reduces Incoming Healing.
    • Mini-bosses are now immune to conjunctions.
    • Rust and Rime ground effects will now turn off when you end combat with the boss.
    • The chests from the two mini-bosses have been renamed to reflect which tier they are.
    • The Anvil of Winterstith quest objective to "Talk to Hórin" after completing the Hrímil encounter can now be completed by talking to any version of Hórin inside the instance.
    • The Progress Quest checkpoint for Hrímil has been moved to the same location as the Karazgar checkpoint. They are both in the small tunnel after the Thirteen Kings encounter and before the Ice Maze. There is no longer any checkpoint before Karazgar's room.
  • The non-cap Featured Instance quests will no longer award credit if you complete the Instance 9 or more levels below your level.
  • Legendary Servers: Feature Instance cap level and challenge quests for Helegrod and school will no longer erroneously bestow. The Featured Instance system will become available at level 100.

UI

  • A new option has been added called Enable Texture Cache. When enabled, textures will be cached in system memory, which may improve texture load times at the cost of increased memory usage. This only affects textures loaded after this setting has been changed.
  • A new option has been added called Release Texture on Upload. When Texture Cache is enabled, this option releases textures after they have been uploaded to graphics memory. This will reduce the memory usage of the Texture Cache, while potentially reducing its effectiveness. Enable this option to free up system memory. This setting only affects textures loaded after the setting has been enabled.
  • The /pet skill4 command has been fixed.
  • Fixed an issue with the housing decoration Return to Owner button so that bound items can be returned to housing chests and escrow, and added a tooltip.
  • Fixed Cosmetic Pet and Mount Collection initialization issues.
  • Fixed an issue where the Quickslot bar would fail to display empty slots when the Collections panel was first opened.

Known Issues:

  • Minstrel - Several skill animations have been shortened, leaving the instrument in your hand after using a skill (such as Raise the Spirit, Bolster Courage, and Chord of Salvation); using a Melody/Resonance stance skill or many of the damage skills should remove the instrument from your hand.