Here are the Release Notes for Update 42.3, released on Thursday, December 12th, 2024.



The Yuletide Festival brings seasonal fun to The Lord of the Rings Online with new rewards for 2024! Special Hobbit Gifts are also available throughout Yuletide. New rewards for the year include a cosmetic outfit of the Snowy Evening, decorative Snowy Evening walls, a Snowy Evening Steed and more! The Yuletide Festival runs until 3:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on January 6th, 2025.

• Account-based reputation boosts for Legacy of Morgoth factions will now function properly for all types of VIPs. For now, you will still need to log in a qualifying high reputation character before the Favoured Standing activates for alt characters on the world. 
  
• Dozens of fixes have been made to Elf and High-elf armour models to correct clipping and other issues.
  
• Toned down the healing from the Bounty Hunter's Guild potions as they were significantly stronger than intended.
  
• The buff and healing potions from the Bounty Hunter's Guild no longer share cooldowns with each other.
  
• Added a new set of level 60 Essences with a minimum level of 56 that are available through the Moria Bounty Hunter's Guild.
  
• Malgama in Urash Dar can now be travelled to via the Stable-collection panel.
  
• The Annak-kurfu Mission Stable-master now has the new mission destinations that were added as part of the Legacy of Morgoth expansion pack.
  
• Milestones have been added to Shonith and Vartúlin.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause some UI elements including vertical Quickslot bars to become incorrectly scaled.
  
• French + German: Fixed some sizing issues of various buttons on the different collection panel pages.
  
• GERMAN: The term for "Miner" has been consolidated into "Bergarbeiter/Bergarbeiterin"
  
• Task boards for the Adúrhid, the Ikorbâni, and the Phetekâri are now marked on the map.
  
• Nud Melek was overlooked in the list of regions where Moria spawns should occur rather than wraiths, and has been added to the list.
  
• PvMP: Falgashud will now correctly display the barter entry for "Ancient Boons" the defiler trait.
  
• Warring Horse-lords cosmetics (shoulder, chest, and legs) should now equip to the proper slot and display correctly.
  
• Brawler Battle-dancer's and Uncompromising set gear has been corrected. The pieces can once again be equipped by a Brawler, and the stats on the Battle-dancer's items have been increased to be comparable to other classes.
  
• Various pieces of Beorning Stone-hide, Iron-tooth, and Stone-claw set Armour, were accidentally granting agility as a primary stat. These have been corrected to granting might as the primary stat.
  
• Fixed an issue in the Mûkh Bahora fight in Tûl Zakana wherein sometimes the crocodile and serval enemies were not resetting properly upon defeat.
  
• Fixed an issue in the Mûkh Bahora spider fight in Tûl Zakana wherein players could end up in separate areas when retreating.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Imhûlari Spider Shades in the Mûkh Bahora fight in Tûl Zakana not rendering properly.
  
• Fixed an issue with some Imhûlar missions porting players out of their mission instance erroneously.
  
• The Caparison of the Treasured Wellspring has its correct appearance once again.
  
• The Grand Relic of Ikorbân and Large Seed Pod can now really be used while mounted.

• Some characters exhibit clipping of the legs to the sides of the mount when using the milestone_rohan emote.  This will be corrected in a future game update.
  
• The Annak-kurfu mission stable-master will not automatically discover the mission destinations that were added as part of the Legacy of Morgoth expansion pack. Other mission stable-masters will automatically discover those destinations, at which point Annak-kurfu will have access to them. This issue will be resolved in update 43.

Here are the Release Notes for Update 42.2 released on Wednesday, December 4, 2024.



In the deeps of Moria another power lurks, and even the Nazgûl hesitate to intrude upon its domain. The servants of this nameless horror are great in number, and among them particularly vicious hunters and assassins have taken note of the intrusions upon their ruined halls. These skilled enemies now stalk in search of prey, often striking from the darkness without warning, and explorers are cautioned to take care not to fall victim to their cunning. The Iron Garrison has formed a bounty hunter's guild, placing marks upon these goblin and orc assassins, and are offering rewards for their elimination! The representative of this guild can be found in the 21st Hall.

Mines of Moria has arrived to Angmar and Mordor! The level cap on these 64 bit Legendary Worlds is now 60, and further chapters of the Epic Story are now available. https://www.lotro.com/news/lotro-legendary-angmar-mordor-aug-2024-en.


The slow-leveling Legendary World called Treebeard has now reached Far Anorien and The Wastes, including a new level cap of 105! https://www.lotro.com/news/lotro-legendary-worlds-en.


During the Yule season, some Hobbit Presents will come with bonus Yule gifts. These include avatar cosmetics, cosmetic pets, baubles, and housing decorations.

• End game group content has been updated for the release of Moria on the new Legendary Servers. Base Health, Mitigations, and Damage have been increased for most monsters found within level 52-60 endgame instances, including those from the Mines of Moria and Lothlorien content clusters. In a handful of boss fights, more targeted adjustments were made to improve the gameplay experience. This is intended to combat player power creep over the years, and should help make those instances harder to complete without full groups when played on-level.
  
• Moria Instances:
  
• The Forgotten Treasury (6 players)
  
• The Grand Stair (6 players)
  
• The Forges of Khazad-dum (6 players)
  
• Fil Gashan (6 players)
  
• The Sixteenth Hall (6 players)
  
• Skumfil (6 players)
  
• Dark Delvings (6 players)
  
• Filikul (12 players)
  
• The Vile Maw (12 players)
  
• Lothlorien Instances:
  
• The Water-works of Nala-dum (3 players)
  
• The Mirror Halls of Lumul-nar (3 players)
  
• The Halls of Crafting (6 players)
  
• Dar Narbugud (12 players)
  
• We discovered an issue with the new reputation system where the applied bonuses were starting and stopping. We have rectified this issue and the functionality will be restored as follows:
  
• When a character on a VIP account achieves a rank of Friend with any of the new reputation factions in the Legacy of Morgoth release, all subsequent characters on that server will earn a bonus 10% toward that reputation until those characters reach the Friend tier.
  
• When a character on a VIP account achieves a rank of Ally with any of the new reputation factions in the Legacy of Morgoth release, all subsequent characters on that server will earn a bonus 17.5% toward that reputation until those characters reach the Ally tier.
  
• When a character on a VIP account achieves a rank of Kindred with any of the new reputation factions in the Legacy of Morgoth release, all subsequent characters on that server will earn a bonus 25% toward that reputation until those characters reach the Kindred tier.
  
• The way that Faction Account Modifiers are applied has been adjusted so that the characters receiving the bonus always receive the highest bonus unlocked by the lead character.
  
• The Moria Stable-master network has been revamped for Update 42.2.
  
• All Current Stable-masters now have a more robust list of Normal and Swift Travel Routes to help players traverse Moria.
  
• Several new Stable-master destinations are now available in areas of Moria to help support players accessing and returning to out-of-the-way questing destinations.
  
• The Vile Maw, Nameless Places, Hudnul-meden instances and the Twenty-first Hall now form a Moria Instance Cluster Swift Travel Network.
  
• A new Far-Ranging Stable-master has been added to the Twenty-first Hall for all travel routes leading out of Moria.
  
• Items
  
• Most instance and raid armour sets from levels 60-100 will once again allow you to barter for pieces even if your current class is not able to equip them (allowing you to place these items in your wardrobe, despite not being equipable).
  
• Endgame equipment for level 60 has been revised, and some items now have slightly different stats. to better reflect current class designs.
  
• Mariners now have a 6-set of rare instance equipment that you can acquire with Medallions of Moria, since these sets now confer class-based bonuses. The minor, 3-piece rare sets found on the same vendors are still shared with Burglars.
  
• Rare 6-piece instance sets acquired with Medallions of Moria now cost 5, 7, or 10 medallions per piece (previously 4 medallions).
  
• Several new music tracks have been added to the Stories from The Valley of Ikorbân' Themes and The Valley of Ikorbân Landscape' Themes housing music boxes
  
• The new Warden Ikorbani Spear carving now also increases Light Damage and its Bleed bonus is improved to 5% (from 3%).
  
• The new Warden Ikorbani Shield carving now correctly increases Shield Gambit Healing instead of Bleed Damage and also increases Light Damage.
  
• The new Minstrel DPS instrument, Woe-singer, now correctly gives +3.5% Coda crit chance in addition to its existing bonuses.
  
• Burglar Signal's now give more appropriate Fellowship Maneouvre bonuses:
  
• Blue signal gives +Guile
  
• Red signal gives +Strength
  
• Yellow signal gives +Conviction
  
• Dune-hunter leggings now correctly give Tactical Mastery rather than Physical Mastery.
  
• Legendary Server Ringwraith Event
  
• Ringwraith health has been reduced by about 30%.
  
• Ringwraith skill damage has been reduced, particularly for the high spike skills (EG: Umbral Nova and Shadow Lance.)
  
• Wraith Portals now last 30 minutes.
  
• The Wraith Arena will now teleport all players out shortly after victory or time expired.
  
• This is so that players attempting to enter the portal later can reach other still active layers.
  
• There is no restriction to players re-entering the portal after victory/defeat inside one - only that they cannot claim another victory for ~3hrs after a win.
  
• As a rule you should give the portal about 30 seconds to clear out a layer after it empties out or you may re-enter it instead.
  
• Accumulated Dread no longer falls off with death! If you allow them to accumulate you'll become exceedingly fragile as the fight progresses.
  
• Glimmers of Hope no longer have a limit to how many players may use them at a time.
  
• Arena layers no longer reset after victory, but should shut down fairly quickly after players are gone.
  
• Glimmers of Hope now heal 10% morale per second.
  
• The Lesser Rings will now only drop for players within two levels of the current cap level (eg: 58-60.)
  
• Instances
  
• The rarest barter items from the new instances (Carapace Pieces, Glistering Phails, and Burial Tokens) now drop as fellowship-tradeable items which must be opened to add them to your barter wallet. This will mean that groups can choose to redistribute these barter drops among the players who completed the instance, but also means you may need to be on the lookout for these items in your pending inventory. 
  
• The Ikorban Instance barter exchange now trades crafting materials for sand-worn tokens in 1:1 ratio, half the cost they were before.
  
• Ashanug, Fane of the Accursed
  
• Kizurdal's Damage has been reduced slightly.
  
• Increased the frequency at which torches will remove the shadow buff from scorpions.
  
• The Crippling Sting debuff now has a movement slow.
  
• Toxic Clouds no longer tier up their DoT immediately when you enter their area. They will still tier up if you linger in them for more than 2 seconds.
  
• Venomous Sting - 4 can now be cleansed down to Venomous Sting - 3.
  
• Reduced Serrated Strike's damage over time potency.
  
• In the Anakhi Ensemble (boss 2) encounter:
  
• Kizurdâl's damage has been reduced significantly.
  
• Sharâtu's damage has been reduced slightly.
  
• Hashûga's damage has been reduced slightly.
  
• Vicious Scorpion damage has been reduced slightly.
  
• Prowling Scorpion morale has been reduced slightly.
  
• Checkpoints have been added to Ashunug, the Fane of the Accursed before the second and third boss encounters.
  
• Nirgambar, the Restless Tomb
  
• Standard mobs in this instance no longer have baseline crowd control immunity.
  
• All three bosses are now immune to Fellowship Manoeuvres.
  
• Cavernous Shout has been reworked under the hood and should now behave as expected: it will only deal damage while the boss is actively channeling.
  
• Cavernous Shout Damage has been reduced slightly.
  
• Sakhârshag health has been increased 25%.
  
• Imanak-tûr health has been increased 15%.
  
• Cursed Spirit inductions now have an additional 0.5 delay before they begin.
  
• Cursed Spirits should now more reliably start inducting when they're supposed to after they spawn.
  
• Added a warning shout to Sakharshag that occurs right before he begins Cavernous Shout.
  
• Aura of Death radius increased by 0.1m (the corner of the platform is no longer safe).
  
• Tul Zakana, the Well of Forgetting
  
• A one second delay has been added to Consuming Fire in Well of Forgetting B1.
  
• A five second duration has been added to the Consuming Fire hotspot.
  
• Bahadring's health has been increased by 50%.
  
• Gorthorog Devastator's health increased ~15%.
  
• Reduced the damage of Find Enemy slightly.
  
• Reduced the damage of Spear of Shadow slightly.
  
• Gorthorog Crusher Damage mod reduced from x0.7 to x0.6. This does not impact their tankbuster skills.
  
• Memory of Contempt now reduces Bahadring's Incoming Damage more than before. This should make it more imperative for players to remove this Memory via the Waters of Forgetting.
  
• Players should now reliably gain a skill each time they leave the well of forgetting (only once per pull of a lever).
  
• Several fixes have been implemented to prevent cases of players getting stuck on death during the Mûkh Bahora fight.
  
• Several effects are now cleansed properly when enemies are standing in the Well of Forgetting in the Bahadring the Unmindful fight.
  
• Fixed a rare case wherein players could not progress if two groups of players separately restarted the Mûkh Bahora fight and simultaneously defeated the Utûgi version of the Mûkh Bahora.
  
• Corrected an issue with the way Bauko targets players with Sickening Water.
  
• Mûkh Bahora's Utugi form now has a warning induction when using Thrash.
  
• Elf Avatar Update
  
• Some overly exaggerated facial features have been reduced in certain emotes for Human, Elf, and High-elf male and female avatars.
  
• A bug has been corrected that caused High-elf avatars to have a larger physics scale then other races. High elves can now move through the same low ceiling environments as other Elves or Humans.
  
• Classes
  
• Beorning
  
• The new Slam Heal now benefits from Outgoing Healing modifiers.
  
•  Brawler
  
• Fixed a missing connection in Brawler's Fulcrum specialization so they now correctly gain bonus threat generation from damaging skills.
  
• Mighty Upheaval's radius has been increased from 7m to 10m.
  
• Captain
  
• Routing Cry's radius has been increased from 7 meters to 10 meters.
  
•  Champion
  
• Fixed a tooltip display issue with the Dual-wield buff from red-line's Weapon Master.
  
• The Insignia of the Shagâni Blade-wall bonus now gives +7s Invincible/Adamant Duration rather than +10s Invincible Duration. This means the effect now buffs your defensive bonus significantly at the cost of 3 seconds from the original offensive bonus.
  
• Guardian
  
• 'Reactive Parry Damage' has been renamed to 'Parry Chain Skill Damage' to better reflect the skills it impacts.
  
• Hunter
  
• Penetrating Bleed (the Barbed bleed upgrade) now deals ~36% more damage.
  
• Lore-master
  
• Gust of Wind now properly benefits from bonuses to 'Gust of Wind Damage.'
  
• Rune-keeper
  
• Fixed a tooltip display issue with Linnod of Flame.
  
• PvMP
  
• Reaver
  
• Glory in Victory's tooltip now correctly states that it is enhanced by a Defeat Event rather than requiring a Defeat Event.
  
• Warleader
  
• Banner of Terror now correctly reduces Ranged and Tactical Damage by 15%.
  
• Ambush and Marching Orders can now be used while swimming.
  
• Quitters Die now correctly consumes Clinging Fear.
  
• White-hot Whip is now correctly classified as a Melee skill (but still deals Fire Damage).
  
• Custom music has been added to The Dog-catcher, Part 3, The Dog-catcher, Part 4, and Salve for a Ravaged Land, Part 5.
  
• A new landscape track can now be heard in any of the outdoor areas of Ikorban, and Kûgrun, the Golden Sanctuary now also has a custom track.
  
• Improved quest flow and animations for the Imhûlar quest The Dog-catcher Part 4.
  
• The bucket Rook is looking for in 'Natural Refreshment' should once again appear properly.
  
• Fixed text error on Superior Tools of the Umbari Armsman stating an incorrect Forester Chopping Duration.
  
• Fixed a typo on Scholar scrolls for Umbar Guild Recipes that improperly stated they were jeweller recipes.
  
• Gundabad mote worthy crafts now have their recipes auto-granted to players with the Gundabad crafting tier unlocked.
  
• Small stone frills in Moria have been updated.
  
• Stuck spots in Umbar-môkh have been fixed.
  
• Fixed radar in Dil-irmiz
  
• Fixed a painting floating off the wall in Hubo Clayhanger's house.
  
• Made it somewhat easier to obtain "The Lion's Roar". Note: this change will version this Deed, so any progress will be lost.
  
• Bingo's dialogue has been restored to 'Instance: Bingo's Burden' in Week 36 of The Ballad of Bingo Boffin.
  
• Generic voice over audio has been corrected on Shagani and Kintai fishing trainers and furnishers.
  
• Ikorbân Valley tasks are now available from the Neighborhood Task Boards, listed with the level 141-150 quests.
  
• GERMAN: Typos on the German World map have been corrected.   
  
• Mounts - Oryx no longer plays horse sounds, and instead has sounds that are more appropriate for the animal.
  
• Fixed a longstanding bug where sound effects in the Paths of the Dead would get stuck on the player until a subsequent log out and back in.
  
• We made a quality of life adjustment to the new Reputation containers you can find on landscape for the Tale-wardens and Kintai factions. The change allows you to now use the containers while mounted.
  
• Corrected Known Issues
  
• Inaccessible Treasure Caches in Urash Dar can now be reached.
  
• Sellable items found in the reputation containers in the Legacy of Morgoth expansion will now appropriately filter into Junk Carry-alls.
  
• The Battle For Hytbold end drama sequence has been repaired and the instance should once again be completable.
  
• 'Instance: Short of Stature, Great In Deed' is once again completable.
  
• 'Session: The Point of Decision' is once again completable.
  
• Reduced overly exaggerated facial features in certain emotes for Human, Elf, and High Elf male and female.

• Rotating an undocked Quickslot bar and then scaling bars will display properly for that session, but upon subsequent log in the bars will not display their full image.