(Note: These notes will receive an update on June 4th by the end of the day to reflect a few changes that did not make it into this version of the notes.)

Update 22.2 Release Notes

Here are the Release Notes for Update 22.2, released on June 4th.

Of Special Note

New Seasonal Instances

This year's Summer Festival will feature two new Seasonal Instances: The Perfect Picnic and Boss from the Vaults: Thrâng! These instances will be available for the duration of the Summer Festival, and completing them will allow you to earn additional Festival Tokens in addition to unique gear and cosmetic items. These Instances arrive with the Summer Festival, which begins June 28th starting at 10:00 AM Eastern.

Class Updates

We have taken steps to improve the power, gameplay, and overall enjoyment of numerous classes throughout the game, as part of a longer-term effort to optimize class balance. See the full detailed notes below.

The Lay of Rust and Rime

The Lay of Rust and Rime continues with eight new weekly episodes to conclude its story! Earn unique rewards, titles, and tokens and get a sneak peek of Update 23! If you have completed the first eight episodes, return to King Thorin III in Erebor to start the new weekly quests!

News and Notes:

General Class

• Any classes with Trait changes will have their Trait points respecced when this update goes Live. This includes Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Lore-master, Minstrel, and Warden.
• Traits - Traits which offer bonuses to primary stats are more potent from levels 106 - 115.
• Physical Mastery from class traits has been increased.
• Tactical Mastery for class traits has been increased.

Tactical Relic Rebalancing

• We have rebalanced recent changes to Tactical Relics, necessitated by some issues that arose during their initial implementation for the Mordor expansion.
• The relics with the new tactical bonuses had two serious balance issues:
  
  • They were never intended to be equipped in class Legendary Item slots.
  • They weren't scaled correctly compared to the base bonus ratings on the weapons. They were scaled the same as Physical DPS Relics, but tactical and healing bonuses on Legendary Items should be substantially lower than the physical bonuses.
  
  
• This necessitates two corresponding changes that we need to implement:
  
  • Tactical DPS relics will only slot in the primary weapon, and will see their bonus reduced to ~70% of their current value.
  • Tactical HPS relics will only slot in the Class item, and will see their bonus reduced to ~45% of their current value.
  • We recognize that this will impact some players' current Legendary Item layouts. To manage this, those existing Tactical bonus relics will be removed from your Legendary Items and Relic inventories, and be replaced with barter tokens that can be exchanged at a Gorgoroth raid vendor for an equivalent relic (either DPS or HPS). You can then rebalance your Legendary Item.

Burglar

• Clever Retort's Enrage trick bleed is now increased by the trait Honed Wit.
• The trait Double Down now accurately advertises that Provoke and Diversion have a chance to provide a Daze instead of a Gamble.

Captain

• Captain armament armour bonuses have been slightly reworked so they properly scale with item level.

Champion

• Champion skill damage is being increased across the board.
• The skill Bracing Attack has had its healing increased.
• Morale healing has been increased from 200% of power consumed to 400% of power consumed.
• The Rend Armour value has been increased.
• Blue Line:
  
  • Champion Blue Line Set Bonus "Glory" is being changed to a flat 10% melee damage reduction.
  • Morale Bubble from the Blue-line spec skill "Sudden Defence" is being converted to a % bubble covering ~15% of the player's unmodified Max Morale.
  • Sudden Defence's morale bubble bubble grants +10% melee damage while active.
  • “Riposte” now grants “Sweeping Riposte” by default.
  • Some Blue Line traits have been rearranged in the tree to address balance issues when buying traits outside specialization
    
    • Sweeping Riposte: Row 3 -> Row 2
    • Placed Strikes: Row 4 -> Row 3
    • Tactical Mitigation Increase: Row 1 -> Row 3
    • Vitality Increase: Row 2 -> Row 1
  
  
• Yellow Line:
  
  • Blade Wall’s inherent damage has been increased dramatically. The bonus damage from the trait ‘Barbed Wall’ has decreased in proportion. This was done to make ‘Barbed Wall’ less of a “must-have” trait.

Guardian

• Guardian Keen Blade (Red Line) has been re-designed.
  
  • Overall skill damage for the Guardian has been increased. The Blue and Yellow lines will see some benefit from this through their base skills, but the Red line will see the bulk of this benefit through their tree-specific skills and Bleed effects.
  • Bleed tiering has been eliminated due to bugs and performance issues, in addition to not being adequate for landscape play.
  • The new version has three separate Bleeds associated with Sweeping Cuts, Thrust, and Brutal Assault, and the primary skill rotation revolves around keeping these up as efficiently as possible, while weaving in other skills as feasible. There are still some skills that play off of existing Bleeds (such as Overpower), or cash them out (such as Honorable Combat), but otherwise the Bleed structure is simpler, fewer in number, and more explicit.
  • Red line Bleeds no longer benefit from the Yellow line Radiate talent.
  • Guardian Bleeds are no longer applied or renewed by crits.
  • Several talent names were changed to reflect adjustments to their functionality necessitated by the redesign of the Bleed skills.
  • Several other skills that had accumulated too many modifiers were streamlined a bit, such as Hammer Down and To the King.
  • Base bleed damage and Legendary Item Bleed bonuses have been decreased.
  • Base bleed duration has been reduced for some bleeds.
  • Bleed damage has been added to Deep Wound and Terrible Wound.
  • The number of base targets has been increased on several area of effect skills.
  
  
• Shield Smash and War-chant are no longer tactical skills, and draw their damage from the character's primary weapon.
• Warrior's Heart bubble is now based on a percentage of max vitality.
• Catch a Breath Legendary Item bonuses now properly affect the skill. Their percentage change is now additive, and has been adjusted.
• Prey on the Weak now procs additional damage when any skill crits against a target with Slashing Wound.
• Overpower now converts Deep Wound to Terrible Wound.
• Challenge has had its area of effect targets reduced, and its cooldown has been increased.
• Non-imbued area of effect Target's legacy has been updated to match imbued area of effect DPS legacy, so it grants additional damage rather than additional targets.
• Guardian's Demoralizing Anthem now properly reduces Thrust cooldown.
• Smashing Stab now applies a standard 'Deep Wounds' bleed that should do meaningful damage.
• The tooltip for the trait 'Stoic' now properly describes the rank 6 effect.
• The trait 'Bolster' was simplified. Each rank now properly increases the magnitude of the critical defense bonus. The Sting stun interaction reduced tanking effectiveness and has been removed.

Hunter

• The Hunter's Red line has been reworked to solidify it as the dominant group DPS trait line, while the Blue line is being adjusted to become a more solo-friendly trait line.
  
  • Some induction time bonuses found in the Blue line have been moved over to the Red line.
  • Blue line has received improved survival tools.
  
  
• All Hunter skills have been normalized to new general damage progressions.
• The traited Precision stance now generates less Focus than previously.
• Deadly Precision is now further up the Red line.
• Quick Shot inductions have been shortened to .5 seconds, and Swift Bow's induction has been shortened to 1.8 seconds to allow for a faster cadence of manual Focus generation.
• Penetrating Shot now applies a ten second debuff to the target's increased physical damage, and True Shot now traits it to add an additional ranged critical vulnerability.
• Penetrating Shot's base damage has been decreased.
• Upshot's damage and damage multiplier per Focus has been increased considerably. Its cooldown has been reduced to 15 seconds.
• Barrage now has a 2 second cooldown per shot, and a 15 second reset cooldown.
• Exsanguinate can now be traited to a 100% application chance. Its cooldown has been lowered to 25 seconds, and it now has a higher damage initial hit.
• Quick Draw and Press Onward/Perserverence have been swapped between the Red and Blue lines.
• Red line's Tier 1 bonus has been replaced with the Blue line Swift Release bonus.
• Blue line's Swift Release bonus has been replaced with Hunter's Voice, a cooldown and run speed buff to Cry of the Hunter.
• Press Onward has been converted to a percentage heal to both Morale and Power. Trait and Legendary Item bonuses have been adjusted accordingly.
• The Hunter Legendary Item Bleed damage bonus has been reduced from 150% to 50%. The base bleed damage of all Hunter skills has been increased by a similar or greater margin in most cases.
• Both Blue and Red lines have undergone skill tree adjustments to keep their respective specialties intact.
• Increased the base proc chance of Needful Haste to 15%.
• Heartseeker's armor set bonus now has a 30 second cooldown, and a reduced proc chance.
• Heartseeker now has a long-term bleed effect.
• Heartseeker now consumes 3 Focus if you have it, but it does not require Focus to fire, and does not benefit from it.
• Damage from Explosive Arrow now adjusts with increasing physical mastery in addition to the DPS of your equipped bow.
• Damage from the following traps now adjust with increased physical mastery: Set Trap, Triple Trap, Piercing Trap, and The One Trap. These traps now also require a main hand weapon equipped.
• Barbed Hindrance now only affects the Barbed Arrow bleed as described.
• The Sure-footed Huntsman's Battle-gear armour set bonus now properly buffs Penetrating Shot debuff. Its magintude has been reduced.

Lore-master

• The Red line trait Empowering Fires has been removed.
• Flanking bonuses for Wizard's Fire have been improved.
• Wizard's Fire no longer has a damage over time component, nor interacts with Burning Embers.
• Gust of Wind can now be traited to upgrade 2 Embers 100% of the time, and its induction has been reduced.
• Many damage over time and ground effects have had their damage upgraded.
• Rapid Fire now scales to a 25% induction reduction for 5 points and has been moved to Tier 4.
• The 5th Red line set bonus has been renamed to Hasten, and now grants a cooldown bonus to Sticky Gourd, Lightning Storm, and Ents go to War when the Staff Sweep ability strikes at least one target.
• Fierce Lightning now scales to a 100% chance of ignition.
• All skills and effects have had their damage normalized.
• The base damage of most battle skills and effects has been Increased.
• Lightning Strike's cooldown has been reduced to 10 seconds.
• Gust of Wind is now an area of effect.
• Power of Knowledge is now a shorter, high intensity lightning damage effect and self-Power restoration ability. The Power drain component has been removed.
• Water-Lore, Light of Hope, and Beacon of Hope have had their base and heal values Increased.
• Share Power now has a cooldown of 10 seconds, and its magnitude has been reduced.
• Share Power - Fellowship now has a cooldown of 30 seconds, and its magnitude has been reduced.
• Pleasant Breeze is now a Heal rather than a Power restore.
• Water-lore's healing buff now has a base percentage of zero, but the buff gains 5% when Traited.
• Hasten skill buttons have been removed, and now occur when you use Staff Sweep.
• Ring of Fire is now a targeted skill, and only generates one ring of fire. Damage has been increased by 25%. This change addresses a game performance issue caused by the skill.
• Ancient Master's power restore component has been removed from the skill.
• Enfeeble now increases the potency of certain debuffs in their opening moments instead of doubling them.
• The Ancient Craft initial debuff is now more powerful.

Minstrel

• General:
  
  • Anthem of the Third Age is now given out at specialization.
  • Anthems now have a default duration of 60 seconds.
  • Anthem cooldowns have been reduced by 10 seconds.
  • Anthems now stack with one another by default.
  
  
• Raise the Spirit has had its cooldown removed. Its induction length has been increased from one to 1.2 seconds.
• Chord of Salvation has had its healing increased.
• The Minstrel Imbued Legacy Anthem Duration has been increased from 1 second per rank to 2 seconds per rank.
• The Classic Legacy Discordant Ballads Stance Swap Buff is now a Light Damage Legacy to match its corresponding Imbued Legacy. The first rank now provides +5% Light damage, and subsequent ranks increase the damage by an additional +2.5%.
• The buff from the trait "Follow Up" no longer stacks. Follow Up has had its rank 2 induction reduced from 20% to 15%, and its effect duration increased from six seconds to 20 seconds. This effect will no longer stack.
• Blue Line
  
  • The Set Bonus Open Ears is now Resolute, and provides a potent block rating buff.
  • Fate and Will stat bonuses previously received upon specialization have been removed.
  • Soliloquy of Spirit’s healing has been increased.
  • Coda of Resonance now grants +5% incoming healing to the fellowship for 30 seconds.
  • Improved Chord of Salvation's Heal over Time has been converted to a Fellowship instant heal, which properly scales with your implement. Traiting increases the Fellowship healing by 10/15/20/25%.
  • Inspiring Cries and Calls has had its application chance increased by 10/20/30/40% in ranks 2 through 5. Its cooldown has been increased to 30 seconds.
  • Follow Up has had its rank 2 induction reduced from 20% to 15%, and its effect duration increased from six seconds to 20 seconds.
  
  
• Red Line
  
  • Coda of Fury now grants 5% outgoing damage to the Fellowship for 30 seconds.
  • Discordant Ballads now grants a constant 5% Tactical Damage instead of its previous Fresh Voice component.
  • Anthem of War is no longer given out via levelling.
  • Echoing Anthem of War is now Anthem of War, which grants the skill, and includes the trait’s former +10% Tactical Damage bonus.
  
  
• Yellow Line
  
  • Extended Anthems now increase Anthem duration by 10 seconds per rank, and no longer require a previous trait to access it.
  • Vocal Stamina has been removed.
  • A new trait has been added called Shield Focus, which earns the Shield Focus skill, and allows a Minstrel to trade movement speed for block chance.
  • Hero’s Strike healing has been improved, and now scales with class item strength.
  • Coda of Melody grants +2.5% to all partial avoidances to the fellowship for 30 seconds.
  • The trait Bracing Finish has been replaced with Raise Our Spirits
    
    • Raise Our Spirits grants a fellowship-wide Heal over Time to Raise the Spirit.
    • Further ranks increase the heal over time strength.
    
    
  • Anthem of the Third Age – Melody now grants incoming healing and outgoing damage to the fellowship instead of its previous power cost reduction.
  • The Set Bonus Perfect Ballad is now Improved Anthem of the Third Age
    
    • The Damage bonus from Anthem of the Third Age - Melody has been increased by 5%.
    • Incoming Healing bonus from Anthem of the Third Age - Melody increased by 2.5%
    
    
  • The Set Bonus Harmonious Anthems is now Ascendant Anthem of the Third Age.
    
    • The damage bonus from Anthem of the Third Age - Melody has been increased by 5%.
    • The incoming Healing bonus from Anthem of the Third Age - Melody has been increased by 2.5%.
    
    
  • The trait Exposing Weakness is now Of All Trades, which increases outgoing damage by 3/6/10% and outgoing healing by 3/6/10%.