Here are the Release Notes for Update 44: Crown of Hamât, released on Wednesday, April 23, 2025.



The Lord of the Rings Online is celebrating its 18th Anniversary with free gifts, the return of the Anniversary Event with new missions and Delvings, and new rewards! Even our Character Select screen (on non-Legendary Worlds) is celebrating our anniversary with a new track celebrating the game's musical journey!

The Anniversary Event begins on Thursday, April 24th starting at 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) and continues until 3:00 AM Eastern on Monday, May 12th.


The Anniversary Festival Barter includes:

• Tome of the Baker's Delight Cub
  
• Steed of Baker's Delight
  
• Shoes of Baker's Delight
  
• Hat of Baker's Delight
  
• Jacket and Leggings of Baker's Delight
  
• Baker's Delight Garments - Gift-wrapped Selection Box
  
• Dining Table of Baker's Delight
  
• Dining Chair of Baker's Delight
  
• Banner of Baker's Delight

The Festivity Anniversary Barter includes:

• Ceremonial Staff of the Searcher
  
• Ceremonial Spear of Battle
  
• Ceremonial Boar-tooth Dagger
  
• Ceremonial Sword of the Mountains
  
• Ceremonial Bow of the Hills
  
• Ceremonial Cleaved Halberd
  
• Ceremonial Great Hammer of Runes

The Anniversary Steel Token Barter includes:

• Baker's Delight Fireworks - consumable
  
• Luck-stealer Fireworks - consumable

Players who received the 17-Year Giftbox last year will get the 18-Year Giftbox this year! Players will get the next yearly gift based on the prior year claimed.

The 18-Year Giftbox includes:

Free People of Middle-earth:

• Baker's Delight Fireworks
  
• Eighteen-Year Frame
  
• Title: , Luck-maker

Monster Players:

• Luck-stealer Fireworks
  
• Eighteen-Year Frame
  
• +5% Attack Damage x5 - consumable
  
• Title: , Luck-stealer

The 18-Year Giftbox can be claimed by eligible players until 3:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) on April 1st, 2026 by logging into the game.


A new Quest Pack is available and FREE to VIPs! Crown of Hamât unlocks 50 quests and deeds, 10 new missions, a 6-player instance (arriving May 7th) for level 150 characters, and more. Explore the Ikorbân Valley and fight for the Crown of Hamât!

The Ikorbân Valley is under threat from a new evil. Learn the story of Mizâdi, Shâra of Hamât Renewed, as she fights for her people and attempts to bring peace to Shagâna. Bring the fight to the Ekhamâti invaders with 10 new missions in Iridír in Ambarûl. Then fight evil Ekhamâti leaders in a new 6-player instance in Dun Shûma, the King’s Fortress in the deserts of Khûd Zagin! The Dun Shûma instance arrives on Wednesday, May 7th, 2025. The starting quest "A Message from Mizâdi" is available upon log in with a notification in the "Quest Actions Available" panel. Once acquired, players can reach Mizâdi in Urmâkh, in Imhûlar in the Ikorbân Valley. Also, visit the new Hamâti Quartermaster in Iridír in the Ikorbân Valley for new rewards, including housing items, Tome of the Evergreen Sickle-fly and Tome of the Russet Corgi, available from completing Crown of Hamât quests and missions!


Lalia’s Market has received a major renovation and update! Not content with the close and claustrophobic halls, Lalia has employed Robb Thornley to help with sprucing up her humble market (hence why his worksite remains incomplete after 18 years!). Within, you’ll find a more distinct layout and a variety of vendors offering cosmetics, including brand new housing items, replicas of no-longer-available Legendary Weapons, and many of the items previously only available on the LOTRO Store. With these changes, Lalia’s Market is well positioned to grow and introduce new or rotating items for players to obtain.


In addition to all the changes in Lalia’s Market, Update 44 introduces Homesteading Coins. This new currency is intended to be more flexible than Premium Housing Writs and will eventually completely replace the currency for the purposes of Premium Housing purchase, refunds, and LOTRO Store Bundle purchases. For the launch of Update 44, players can exchange their Mithril Coins and Premium Housing Writs and can use Homesteading Coins to purchase the new housing bundle packages found in the housing wing of Lalia’s Market. In a future patch, the Homesteading Coins will completely replace Premium Housing Writs as an alternate Premium Housing purchase currency, refund currency for Premium Houses, and in the LOTRO Store. 

• The release of Legacy of Morgoth in 2024 brought a new VIP feature for players, and that feature is now being expanded to nearly all of the Reputations throughout the game. The Favored Reputation System grants all characters on a VIP account a bonus to earned Reputation once at least one character on your account has achieved at least Friend rank within a Reputation Faction. Newly-added Reputation Factions in Update 44 are:
  
• Men of Bree
  
• Council of the North
  
• Thorin's Hall
  
• The Wardens of Annúminas
  
• The Eglain
  
• Rangers of Esteldín
  
• The Mathom Society
  
• Elves of Rivendell
  
• Defenders of The Angle
  
• The Eldgang
  
• Lossoth of Forochel
  
• Iron Garrison Guards
  
• Iron Garrison Miners
  
• Galadhrim
  
• Malledhrim
  
• The Grey Company
  
• Algraid, Men of Enedwatih
  
• Men of Dunland
  
• Théodred's Riders
  
• The Riders of Stangard
  
• Heroes of Limlight Gorge
  
• Men of the Wold
  
• Men of the Norcrofts
  
• Men of the Sutcrofts
  
• Men of the Entwash Vale
  
• People of Widlermore
  
• Survivors of Wildermore
  
• The Eorlingas
  
• The Helmingas
  
• The Ents of Fangorn Forest
  
• Dol Amroth (This does NOT include the sub-factions)
  
• Pelargir
  
• Men of Ringló Vale
  
• Men of Dor-en-Ernil
  
• Men of Lebennin
  
• Rangers of Ithilien
  
• Defenders of Minas Tirith
  
• Riders of Rohan
  
• Host of the West (This does NOT include the Sub-factions)
  
• Conquest of Gorgoroth
  
• Men of Dale
  
• Elves of Felegoth
  
• Dwarves of Erebor
  
• Grey Mountains Expedition
  
• Wilderfolk
  
• The White Company
  
• Reclamation of Minas Ithil
  
• The Great Alliance
  
• March on Gundabad
  
• The Gabil'akkâ
  
• The League of the Axe
  
• Woodcutter's Brotherhood
  
• The Habban'akkâ of Thráin
  
• Kharum-ubnâr
  
• Reclaimers of the Mountain-hold
  
• The Yonder-watch
  
• Dúnedain of Cardolan
  
• Stewards of Iron-home
  
• The Renewal of Gondor
  
• and The Citizens of of Umbar Baharbêl

• A change to the Thorin's Hall Hard Tack event now provides an uncooked version of the Dish, Brew, and Snack before using the ovens. You will not get the final
  
• product until the item is successfully delivered to the tables.
  
• We have re-worked the Combe Forester Event as follows:
  
• The event will begin every hour on the hour.
  
• A call will go out to Bree-land when the event starts recruiting; recruiting lasts 10 minutes.
  
• Axes still need to be collected.
  
• Using the Wood Piles, while you have the Axe, grants you Unrefined Wood.
  
• Using the competition workbenches, while you have the event Axe, grants you Refined Wood.
  
• Aldith will collect the Axe and the Refined Wood before you move to the next stage,
  
• You must have a tool that allows skinning, universal or a Foresters Axe equipped, to skin the bears.
  
• You must have a tool that allows skinning, universal or a Foresters Axe equipped, to refine the bear hides.
  
• The event countdowns, cooldowns, and statuses should no longer fall out of synch with the servers.
  
• Whetstones obtained from the Forester Event now appear as Crated Items in the Auction House.
  
• Whetstones obtained from the Forester Event can now be removed from Mail.

• Guardian
  
• Retaliation now has extra verbiage explaining that it cannot be used while specialized in 'The Keen Blade.'
  
• Lore-master
  
• Lore-master The aurochs pet should now interact correctly with all Lore-master traits and skills.
  
• "Don't You Touch Him" is no longer erroneously cleansable
  
• Rune-keeper
  
• Rune-keeper Static Surge now has a 10 target cap limit. It will now correctly benefit from traceries and other bonuses to target counts.
  
• Combat & Monsters:
  
• Goblin Sappers in the Vales of Anduin no longer stay in an over the head pose after throwing their firepots.
  
• Applying a new Daze to an already Dazed target will no longer cause the Daze visual effects to be removed.
  
• Gundabad Bat-riders now use bat-specific animations for their special attacks.

• All versions of the Umbari Feasts have been standardized to a minimum level of 141, with no maximum level.

• Talagan Silvertongue will no longer turn to face you when he is kneeling in the Elf tutorial Instance: "The Refuge of Edheliona".
  
• The Lothlorien quests "Malbrethil Saplings" and "Songs for the Saplings" should now function correctly.
  
• The quests "On a Mission (Weekly)" and "On a Continuing Mission (Weekly)" have been updated to accept new Crown of Hamât missions.
  
• The quest "Forging a Path in the Ikorbân Valley (Weekly)" has been updated to remove bounties and accept new Crown of Hamât missions. Completing either existing Ikorbân Valley or Crown of Hamât missions will progress the quest. Note: this will version these weekly quests upon release, causing weekly progress to reset.

• Hot spots have been visually updated for clarity.
  
• Tul Zakana, The Well of Forgetting
  
• Ordakhai Sorcerers in the Well of Forgetting no longer attempt to use a shadow skill for which they do not have appropriate animations.
  
• Consuming Fire now has a slightly longer delay before it activates.
  
• Consuming Fire damage has been reduced by 20%.
  
• Temple of Utug-bûr
  
• Dhorgruth
  
• The Death Grip skill used by crawling arms on tier 3 now has the correct AoE size and shape: 120 degree angle and 3m range. 
  
• Thur Hin
  
• Weeping Poison now deals Acid damage.
  
• Frenzied Axe now correctly tiers up a bleed.
  
• Shield of Blood now prevents Blood Rupture.
  
• Plague Aura damage reduced on Tiers 2 and 3.
  
• Reduced the number of mobs that can apply the targeted Purge Hope effect.
  
• Adjustments to Boss 2 all tiers:
  
• Nodules reaching blisters will now apply a stun to players for 5 seconds and apply a tier of true despair to players in a slightly larger area.
  
• Nodules reaching blisters will now explode and deal raid-wide damage.
  
• Nodule damage from exploding is increased.
  
• If no blisters or fragments are available for nodules to attack, they will now default to attacking players or pets.
  
• Adjustments to Boss 2 Tier 3:
  
• The skill Drain Reason will now Randomize targets when it is multi-cast. This should reduce a single target being hit by all of the skill plays simultaneously.
  
• There was an effect appearing on players that should not have been visible in Temple of Utûg-bur Wing 3, this effect is now hidden.
  
• Setting an instance to Duo will now be based on Solo difficulty and rewards rather than 3-person values.
  
• Note that Duos can still freely play 3-person mode if they desire the additional challenge.

• Endgame group content has been updated for the release of Mirkwood on the legendary servers Angmar and Mordor. Base Health and Damage have been increased for most monsters found within level 65 endgame instances, including those from the Mirkwood and In Their Absence content clusters. These changes should help make those instances harder to complete without full groups when played on-level. In particular, the level 65 instance tiers have been updated so that the Tier 2 Enhancement buff has values more similar to Tier 2 mods found in later instance clusters. Tier 1 should likewise provide an easier stepping stone for any groups that struggled with level 60 instances after they were updated.
  
• Warg Pens
  
• Statistical changes only at this time.
  
• Sword-hall of Dol Guldur
  
• Statistical changes only at this time.
  
• Dungeons of Dol Guldur
  
• Statistical changes only at this time.
  
• Sammath Gul
  
• Statistical changes only at this time.
  
• Barad Guldur
  
• Knockbacks from Mace-wielding armours are now less likely and have longer cooldowns.
  
• Shadow Seed's damage has been renamed so that it is more clearly associated with its source skill.
  
• The corruption auras applied by the Lieutenant of Dol Guldur once again correctly debuff different damage types:
  
• Slowing Shadows reduces Ranged Damage.
  
• Draining Shadows reduces Melee Damage.
  
• Corrupting Shadows reduces Tactical Damage.
  
• Stoneheight
  
• All of the corruptions that bosses gain over time are now more potent.
  
• Backstbber goblins now have backstab and bleed skills.
  
• Gundul
  
• Gundul's Ally Buff skill now has an interruptable induction and heals allies.
  
• Bubhosh-grat
  
• Morale bubble potency has been dramatically increased.
  
• Pull skill now only targets players at range.
  
• Grinding Bones damage now has a small amount of resistance penetration.
  
• Bubhosh-grat will now wait 5 minutes before using Champion's Rage.
  
• Dale Truitt
  
• Flashing Knives is now a much smaller AoE that does some base damage to any player hit (and still deals bonus damage to his current target).
  
• Flashing Knives is no longer interruptable on Tier 2.
  
• Dale Truitt will now stun his target only if that target is at range.
  
• Dale Truitt can now periodically daze any player at range.
  
• Northcotton Farm
  
• Legbarthil
  
• Legbarthil's hatchling heal potency has been significantly impacted.
  
• Legbarthil's Egg will hatch after 5s, rather than 10s.
  
• Legbarthil can now lay more eggs on low health.
  
• Legbarthil now gains power each time she lays an egg.
  
• Thadur
  
• The Dark Thorn skill should once again work as intended.
  
• Umheryn
  
• On Tier 2, spiders and goblins will be summoned periodically throughout the fight.
  
• The time allowance before Thadur's brew is complete has been reduced by 2 minutes.
  
• Sari-surma
  
• Coldbear
  
• Removed a few inductions to speed up Coldbear's overall skill usage.
  
• Significantly altered both shout skills so that coldbear now gains power as intended until using roar of the damned.
  
• Coldbear's reflect now has an induction and the reflect only lasts 5s.
  
• Osan
  
• Fixed a couple key skills and renamed a couple effects so that it's clearer which skills are gained from which auras.
  
• Removed aura skills from shared cooldown.
  
• Set different cooldowns for key skills based on instance tier.
  
• Essence of Blood DoT now has a name which matches its skill.
  
• Essence of Frailty now has a unique debuff effect (named appropriately).
  
• Lesser wight reflects only return 5% of incoming damage to the player.
  
• Drugoth
  
• Fixed a few issues with Drugoth's class-specific skills. Specifically, the Brawler and Mariner skills now play only when the corresponding class is being locked down by spirits, and all class-based skills should be used more consistently. the spirits also gain short buff when they spawn to help improve their defenses and give a little more breathing room for Drugoth to use a stolen skill before the spirits are killed.
  
• Several Guardian and Drugoth skills were adjusted to reduce the number of knockbacks in this encounter significantly.
  
• Frozen Floor now deals damage and applies a permanent debuff to players hit.
  
• Lost Temple
  
• Virulent Plague happens 33% more frequently, and the time before Ferndur fills the room with poison has correspondingly been reduced from 11 minutes to 7 minutes 30 seconds.
  
• Ost Dunhoth
  
• Gortheron now reaches maximum power much more quickly, and his power effects are less potent and more clearly named.
  
• Gortheron should no longer benefit from player group buffs and heals.

• Rubble Piles in the Gundabad Mission "Clearing a Path" can no longer be forced to turn with the Burglar Diversion skill.
  
• Mission banners, catapults, and siege towers, destroyed in the missions in the Before the Shadow missions now have burning effects when they are being destroyed.

• The Long Umbari Marble Ramp decoration item can now only be used in enormous yard hooks, interior wall hooks, and interior furniture hooks.
  
• All Premium Neighborhood Brokers, and the Umbar/Ikorban Furnishers now exchange Housing Writs and Mithril Coins for Homesteading Coins.
  
• Umbar/Ikorban Furnishers now accept Homesteading Coins instead of Writs for their barter purchases.

• Barter costs have been adjusted for many pieces of generic uncommon and rare skirmish equipment bartered with marks and medallions.
  
• Many pieces of level 60 equipment were giving invisible stat benefits beyond what their tooltips suggested. This has been fixed, so your character stats should update in accordance with the values seen on your equipment.
  
• The Mariner's epic Helegrod armour set now correctly has a set bonus effect.
  
• Level 65 Rewards: Equipment for level 65 has been revised, and some items now have slightly different stats to better reflect current class designs.
  
• Completing instances from the Mirkwood cluster at level 65 will once again award you with Medallions of Dol Guldur.
  
• Completing instances from the In Their Absence cluster at level 65 will once again award you with Medallions of the North Men.
  
• Note: not all barter vendors are updated to give you more items on which to spend these medallions.
  
• Raid armour sets can no longer be acquired with marks and medallions - you will need to earn the corresponding raid barter tokens by completing the raids at level 65 in order to barter for these equipment sets.
  
• As with level 50 and 60 this past year, sets are in the process of being revised with current class designs in mind. In particular, heavy armour classes are likely missing raid set bonuses entirely in this build, so don't worry if you try to check those out and find them mysteriously blank at the moment.
  
• Level 60 set bonuses were erroneously capped at a max level of 69, and have been corrected to have max levels of 64.
  
• Mirkwood and In Their Absence instance chests have been reconfigured to drop their original loot for instances run at level 65, with a few changes:
  
• Items should now be fellowship tradeable for one hour if they were not previously.
  
• Raid chests can now only be opened once before you are locked, and locks reset 3x weekly (Monday, Thursday, and Saturday).
  
• Instance chests can now only be opened 10x daily before you are locked (with the exception of challenge chests, which are still 1x daily).
  
• A handful of chests are not finished being updated - this includes non-final-boss chests in Stoneheight, Northcotton Farm, Sari-surma, and Lost Temple.

• Monster Player damage and healing have been increased by ~7.5%.
  
• Monster Player traits and effects have been updated to item level 525 equivalent values.

• The mailbox and mustering horn will no longer appear in the "Sigileth in the Dark" instance.
  
• Various terrain texture issues in Eriador have been corrected.
  
• Various decorative and floating resource node issues in Khud Zagin have been fixed.
  
• Various pathing issues in Utug Bur have been resolved.
  
• Wildermore now displays as Wildermore when entering the region, and on the Stable-master panel.

• FRENCH:
  
• Secure the Landing of Kur Anzar - turn-in dialogue now displays properly.
  
• Translations for Light damage in French have been updated.

• The command in the tooltip on the Grant the Epic Coin Flip Emote item has been corrected to read /coinflip_epic.
  
• Fixed a bug with guards carrying lit torches to cause terrain lighting to flicker.

• The virtue cap has been increased to 96 for level 150 characters.
  
• NPCs inside the House of Craft, Minas Tirith [Midsummer] will no longer use incorrect pre-battle voice over audio.
  
• All Banker NPCs can now repair items.
  
• Lórien now displays properly in 'The Basics of Birding' guide.
  
• Gamma, Brightness, and Contrast adjustments are now available in Windowed mode.

• The French titles "Luck-Maker" and "Luck-Stealer" have the incorrect translations in game as : "Lame cachée" and "Lame voleuse".  They will be updated to "créateur/créatrice de fortune" and "voleur/voleuse de fortune" in a subsequent update.

Here are the Release Notes for Update 43.4, released on Wednesday, April 9, 2025.

• Pets summoned in encounters on the Orcrist server will once again be able to follow you when you leave the encounter.
  
• The Stable-master travel route to the Ettenmoors will no longer appear when the Ettenmoors has reached its Free Player population cap.
  
• There were a number of skills not splitting the damage correctly on area effect damage. They have been updated to share the damage with those in the radius of the attack/damage.
  
• Temple of Utug-bûr
  
• Wing 1 Dhórgruth
  
• Tamâkh and Bashâru no longer present as spirits.
  
• Ground effects in both the Kulkorth and Maluchon encounters will now dissipate when the fight is reset.
  
• Wing 3 Inner Sanctum
  
• Alterations to Boss Fight 2
  
• The explosive range on nodules was reduced by half.
  
• The explosive damage on nodules was increased by ~120%.
  
• The explosive daze effect is replaced with a shorter duration stun.
  
• The frequency of nodule summoning was reduced.