Here are the Release Notes for Update 41.2: Year of the Dragon, released on Thursday, August 29, 2024.
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! https://www.lotro.com/news/lotro-before-the-shadow-free-and-coupon-en.

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[www.lotro.com]!

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.[www.lotro.com]

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.