So the preliminary patch notes for Volume 2, Book 8 are up on the Lorebook. As mentioned before, these aren’t the full or even final patch notes. There have been a few posts from Turbine staff members on the forum recently reiterating that Bullroarer is a “true” test server, meaning things can still change between now and the final notes.
Additionally, they purposely don’t contain any new features, just changes. This is why neither the new raid or the updates to Bree-land are in the notes currently. Both are scheduled for Book 8’s release, which is supposedly set for sometime during June.
As expected, there’s the usual class changes, bug fixes and new epic Book quests. I’m sure some will be happy and some will be less so. Beyond that, there were some things I thought were interesting:
- First-Age Legendaries are now acquired through a token bartering system. I’ve never even gotten a First-Age Legendary (hey, I do have “casual” up in the banner!), but I still am aware that many people were not happy with the original system. I hope this is a good step for them. Each raid now drops barter tokens that can be saved up to use to trade for the First Age item of your choice. You can visit the vendor at Hythe Docks and trade 4 for a Level 59 and 6 for a level 60.
- The Summer Festival for Book 8 has two new events, one of which is on the way to Thorin’s Hall. This makes me happy because I feel like a lot of these Festivals really focus upon Bree and, to a lesser extent, the Shire. Still, just to annoy me one of the new events is in the Shire too. Either way, I’m excited … there’s only so many years you can do the same things and not be a little disappointed. I think that limit is one year?
- We will finally have more control over how many things we can buy from a vendor at once. It defaults to buying one at a time, but you can also:
- SHIFT to purchase a full stack,
- ALT to purchase a quantity that you specify in a pop-up dialog
- TAB to fill all stacks of the selected item type in your backpack.
Thanks especially for the ALT option!
- Lots of items have seen their stack numbers go up. All Reputation tokens stack to 100. Fast Travel Rations stack to 100. All crafting resources stack to 100, too! There’s more in the notes about this. All I can say is “finally!”.
- Housing lockout fees now go up the longer your house is “abandoned”. The max is 90% of the original cost of the home. Ick.
- Crafting is getting a revamp, which in general seems to mostly focus on optional resources and levels/tiers. You can read more about that in the notes too, including details for specific professions. I do like that there is finally a “make all” button, to boot.
- There’s also a command to save or load your GUI placement as well. Yay!
There’s more of note in there, but I’m always happiest with the “smaller” changes given my play style. I can roll with class changes for the most part, whether they’re good or bad.
How do you feel about the notes so far? Is there something you’re hoping they’ll change their mind on or add before time is up?
“Housing lockout fees now go up the longer your house is “abandoned”. The max is 90% of the original cost of the home. Ick.”
Ouch. Does the clock stop when your subscription is lapsed? (Doesn’t affect me personally, just curious.) If not, that would be one heck of a “welcome” for the next welcome back weekend.
Overall i’m afraid to say I find these patch notes a little underwhelming, and they worry me. With the last patch, as great as it was to see things like the questing system polished and other refinements made, I was concerned Turbine are trying to copy Blzzard a little too much.
It started in the Mines of Moria expansion, with its almighty PEW PEW class and ten extra levels. Then the last Book, now this one…did not Turbine used to release entire zones (not necessarily level cap ones) and brand new gameplay innovations like the music/housing systems in their updates?
Having been a long time WoW player i’ve seen Blizzard get lazier and lazier with their updates, only giving big things to the players at level cap and uninspired things at that. I really hope Turbine stop following suit.
Turbine has released *plenty* of zones to level up lowbies in. There’s really no reason for them to waste their time appealing to a smaller audience at the lower levels rather than introducing stuff at the level cap. The vast majority of players do reach the level cap, and if you don’t… Turbine shouldn’t care about you because you evidently don’t play the game much anyway.
Turbine introduces the Legendary Item system with Moria, which was a major update, and better than fishing, music, and housing put together. These stupid updates only occupy the majority of players for a tiny percentage of their time in-game.
I have been playing regularly since beta and I don’t have a single character at the level cap. My 58 LM hit 50 just a week before MoM was released.
Some of us aren’t in all that much a hurry to get to the end. I for one do not want to be part of the crowd that skips everything on the way up and then complains that there is no more to do.
So, Turbine, feel free to create plenty of lowbie zones for those of us who’d appreciate them. I’d particularly like to see South Farthing and the Far Downs.
Erirdar, I hope that you’re wrong, or just ignorant and Turbine cares about me too.
Well, there are also 2 new 3-man instances, 1 new 6-man instance, a new 12-man multi-boss raid and a new epic book. And I believe the Bree-land quests get an overhaul (to be from lvl 16 – 25, so people can quest in Bree after being done with Ered Luin or Shire).
All those are not mentioned in the patch notes.
So plenty of new content.