Bullroarer is open today for the Lord of the Rings Online with a fresh character wipe for the testing server and the first chance to explore the new Yondershire. The recently announced extension of The Shire covers the mysterious section known to be home to loners and Hobbits with a secret.
In addition to being able to step into the first expansion of the Shire in years, there have been several class changes covering the Beorning, Brawler, Guardian, and Champion, but the highlight to class changes are the extensive changes to Minstrel. While the changes to Beorning and Brawler are description and text changes as well as fixed skill icons, Minstrel has extensive mechanical changes in what looks like a long overdue overhaul.
Song of the Hammerhand base bubble of value has been reduced from 80% to 35% because the bubble was excessively strong. There are changes to base skill damage for most attacks, Changes also come to several traits including Inspiring Finish and Emboldened Finish, as well as Finesse. The latter gets a new name, to Song of Arda, and grants up to 25% light damage. Overall, the changes to Minstrel look to make the class more viable within the current game and to remove redundancies and make everything just make more sense. The overhaul should definitely help and the community seems to be excited to test this out
The rest of the beta update features changes to crafting to improve bonuses, practical things like stacking correctly, and some text updates as well. Quests and Adventure Areas are also among the bulk of the updates in these beta notes, with fixes like the Pit of Stonejaws Dwarf-wights as part of the Fate of Gundabad expansion having updated animations and will spawn out of their sarcophagi now.
With much of the content in the Lord of the Rings Online soon to be accessible to many more players without restrictions, the upcoming changes and additions are looking to add some additional polish. If you’d like to test this beta, the server is open from today through Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern and there are updated beta notes available as well.
