The Lord of the Rings Online — Update 49 Release Notes

Update 49 Release Notes

Here are the Release Notes for Update 49: In Good Company, released on Wednesday, July 22, 2026.

As Mizadi's forces march across Harad to restore order, warriors and wanderers alike find rare moments to reflect, celebrate, and share laughter among old friends and trusted companions. Yet within the iron walls of Carn Dûm, the masters of Angmar muster fresh armies and forge new plans for war. Beneath the Ettenmoors, an Ancient Evil stirs anew, reclaiming the forgotten depths as new champions flock to its banner. With each passing day, the enemy's strength grows, threatening to drive back the Free Folk and carry the conflict far beyond the Ettenmoors. Will you answer the clarion call and take up arms in the coming struggle, or seek refuge in the fading peace of home and hearth while you still can?

Of Special Note:

The Angmarim Sorceress has arrived!

The Angmarim Sorceress is our exciting new Monster Play class! The Angmarim Sorceress is available for purchase in the LOTRO Store, and purchase is required for access. VIPs get 30% off all Angmarim Sorceress bundles through August 5!

Ettenmoors Updates and Enhancements!

Update 49 brings big changes to your PvMP experience:

• Earning Infamy and Glory has been updated: We have made a change to the formula used to determine the amount of Glory and Infamy earned while in larger groups of players in the Ettenmoors. This will reduce the value of a kill while players and monster players are organized in raids.​

• Artifact Capture has been enhanced:

NOTE: Artifacts will become available with our next game update. See Known Issues for more information.

The battle for control of the Crown of Mordírith and Gift of the Carrock capture is shifting. While the core objective remains the same, players can now seize the opposing artifact from Ost Ringdyr of Dar-gâzag and deliver it to your keep or recover your own Artifact from the enemy keep.

• Artifacts now have a drop-and-recover mechanic, allowing players and monster players to manually drop their artifacts by using a unique skill granted upon pickup, or drop the artifact immediately on death.

• The 30-minute reset cooldown has been removed and replaced with a 2-minute timer when the artifact is dropped. After two minutes the artifact returns to its last location.​

• Carrying an artifact is safe while holding your aligned artifact, but dangerous when carrying the enemy artifact. An escalating damage effect becomes more lethal to the Artifact bearer every 90 seconds and without support, could force them to drop the Artifact too soon.

• Carrying an artifact makes the bearer immune to movement modifying effects and the ability to enter stealth.​

• **Relic Capture: **Relics are moving to The Delving of Frór. The visage of Sauron at Rottenroot, and the visage of Gil-gâlad at Gwaelug. Claiming a relic grants a modest boost to your movement speed, damage output, Commendation earnings, and your Glory or Infamy gains. Controlling both relics simultaneously doubles the potency of these buffs.

• Siege Warfare Updates​: At the towers of Tírith Rhaw and Lugazag, the siege has begun. Defenders now have three options for the ballista they can deploy to defend a tower; the traditional ballista, a new ballista that launches explosive blasts, and a third that launches a sticky substance to coat the ground and slow enemies. In addition to these new ballistae, defenders can deploy more of these defensive siege units, as the distance restriction between them is reduced to 12 meters.​

• Attackers facing a fully reinforced gate at a tower can now choose from two variants of battering ram, and they can deploy as many rams as they desire. The new battering ram deals more damage but is more easily destroyed.​

• **Rediscover the Delving of Frór: **Find new entrances into and out of the Delving, allowing for rapid travel across the Ettenmoors for those who don't fear the denizens of the deep. In addition to the original entryways, players will find new paths in and out of the Delving scattered about the Ettenmoors, especially near outposts.​

• Delving bosses return with new abilities and renewed strength: Geargoth's forces have returned with renewed vigour and have pushed back the armies of the Coldfells and Gramsfoot. Though outpost control will still help your allies gain footholds in the Delving, you will no longer be able to prevent Gaergoth's strongest lieutenants from entering the fray.​

• Enemies in the Delving of Fror return as sources of powerful potions and salves for both Players and Monster Players alike. Additionally, Free Peoples entering the Delving can recover rare ore and use it to forge powerful new pieces of equipment designed specifically for combat in the Ettenmoors.​

• **Delving of Frór Questing: **The War-tyrant at Gramsfoot and Captain-General at Glân Vraig provide four new quests each to fight back Gaergoth, its forces, and the enemy while within the Ettendeep.​ These new quests assist Monster Players to advance their reward track and three quests targeting enemy players, the lesser creatures in Gaergoth's menagerie, and Gaergoth's lieutenants are available daily. The quest to target and eliminate Gaergoth is available weekly.​

New and returning items are now available from Myrtle Mint and Lootboxes!

• Filbert Fig, Myrtle Mint, and Rowan Raspberry have new dyes available to barter in exchange for Figments of Splendour.

• Adventurer's and Traveller's Steel-bound Lootbox cosmetics have been refreshed and now include Azog's Sword, Tattered Cosmetic Clothing and Cloaks, Cardolan Adventurer's Cloaks, Painted Skeleton Steed, Mountaineering Donkey, Cave Slug, and Red Salamander cosmetic pets, Floating Lantern, Nautical, Pot and Skillet, Goose House, Small Dwarf-made Tapestry, and Ceremonial Runner housing decorations, and new dyes. These items are also available on Myrtle Mint for Figments of Splendour.

• Adventurer's and Traveller's Steel-bound Lootboxes now contain the Hornburg Defender Cosmetic Armour, Reading and Hobbit-dance3 emotes, Spotted Hamster cosmetic pet, and Cuthstan Statue housing decoration. These items are not yet available for barter.

• Myrtle Mint now offers the Pack of the Able Angler and the Desk of the Able Angler for Figments of Splendour.

• Adventurer's Steel-bound Lootboxes now also have a chance to drop Sun-kissed Adventurer's Essence Boxes.

Other News and Notes:

Customer Support:

• Help panel support links now open in your system web browser instead of an in-game browser. This ensures you can access support and submit tickets with full captcha support. A confirmation dialog will appear when you click a support link to let you choose whether to proceed.

Festivals and Events:

• Ringwraith Event

• Issues have been fixed with higher level barter profiles.

• A pocket item has been added for barter with Amelia the Harried Scholar in Esteldin that can increase lesser wraith encounter frequency. (~7 min -> ~4 min)

• The amount of Tattered Shadows granted for defeating lesser wraiths has been increased. (~+50%)

• An additional tier of Reputation for the top levels of the barter system is now available.

• Amelia's Level 105 cap light potions have been rescaled to match their barter level.

• Ill Omens

• This event has a refreshed reward for defeating the Harbingers of the Dead. Completing the event's climactic quest now grants an Essence Bounty tailored to your level, including full support for level 160 characters and our level 105 legendary-server characters.

• The event's cosmetics vendor has also added three new rewards: two new cosmetic companion pets and a new housing decoration.

• Featured Instances

• The Featured Instance rotation has been updated to include: Great Barrow - The Maze, Sarch Vorn, the Black Grave, The Court of Seregost, Halls of Night, The Ruined City, and Ost Dunhoth - Disease and Poison Wing.

• Featured Instance quests will now grant XP and Legendary Item XP.

• The cap level featured instance packages, Azure, Crimson, Malachite, Marigold, Amethyst, and Obsidian Boxes of Ancient Treasures, when opened by a level 160 character, now have a chance to drop Mûr Ghala Craft or Heraldry Recipe selection boxes containing your choice of a recipe to craft special level 151+ Words of Craft or Heraldries.

• The Azure, Crimson, and Obsidian Boxes of Ancient Treasures awarded from running 6-player and 12-player featured instances at the level cap also now have a chance to drop additional Virtue XP in the form of a "1,000 Virtue XP" item.

Classes:

• Burglar

• Mischievous Glee skills will no longer cause targets to animate as if they were hit by an attack.

• Captain

• Armour of the Battle Cry sets now correctly display both effect values for the 3-set bonus.

• An issue causing the Yellow Line Captain to not be able to complete 'Deed: Renewed Voice' and 'Prologue, Chapter 2: Skills of an Adventurer', has been fixed.

• The item which grants you the "Temamir Archer" appearance now correctly states the appearance will be that of a hunter and not a guard.

• Champion

• Sprint's PvMP-variant: potency has been increased from +40% to +70%, but its duration has been reduced from 3s to 2s and its cooldown has been reduced from 45s to 20s.

• Guardian

• Whirling Winds will now sustain less damage from most sources.

• Stagger now correctly applies debuffs only when attacking from behind your target.

• Prey on the Weak now has a one second internal cooldown and its damage has been increased by 50%.

• Hunter

• Hunters should now properly generate pips while moving if their pips are currently zero.

• Mariner

• The Mounted Combat skill "Wounding Knife" skill now applies damage over time rather than healing over time.

• Minstrel

• The Armour of Triumphant Song no longer erroneously causes the echo heal from Triumphant Spirit to play more than once per player.

• Rune-keeper

• The Western Gondor Rune-keeper essence “Essence of the Storm” was incorrectly scaling by player level rather than by its item level, making it deal inappropriate damage. Essence of the Storm now scales properly by item level.

• The bubble from ‘Word of Exaltation’ now shows detailed damage reduction instead of 0% once taking Overture of Hope.

Combat and Monsters:

• Imhûlar bog-lurkers are once again named correctly rather than using Ambarûl names.

• Hawks and scorpions within the Hatokáli Fells now drop level-appropriate trophies.

Quests:

• Updated many "pick up" and "gather" quest items in Mûr Ghala to be usable for Beornings in bear form.

• Fixed a typo in the Isengard quest instance "The Gates of Isengard". NOTE: This quest instance will be versioned on release. If this quest is underway but not completed progress will be lost.

• In the Hobbit Allegiance "Deeper In", the Enraged Troll no longer dies in a single blow, breaking quest progress.

• In the Gundabad quest "Surveying Glittengrof", off-center quest rings no longer appear for crystal shards.

• Adjusted Mithril Travel locations for I.15.3, 'Proof's Burden'.

• Made some adjustments to 'Instance: Signs and Portents' to make it more reliable.

• In the Hatokali Fells quest "The Dragon and the Boxer", the Dragon can now be defeated at range and the quest will advance normally.

Deeds and Reputation:

• The tutorial quests "Introduction to Forestry" and "Introduction to Prospecting" can now be advanced and completed by speaking with Áfast in Gondamon, Bachwen in the Vineyards of Lórien and Naerelen in Emyn Lûm in Mirkwood.

Missions and Delvings:

• Delving mission rewards have been updated and are now award players with incomparable armours and other improved rewards at level 160.

• The Elderslade Mission "Invasion at the Redhorn Pass" is no longer marked with a Delving icon.

• Delving pets in Delving Missions no longer display that they benefit from Delving Malices.

Instances and Skirmishes:

• Pagru-kirít, the Garden of Corpses

• Imposing Banners should no longer fail to reset the Deadly Presence effect when healed to full.

• Echoes of Nuzêru are now correctly immune to healing.

• Removed an erroneous one second activation delay from the Song of Nuzêru protection area.

• The Song of Nuzêru protection area is now slightly larger.

• The pulsing damage from Song of Nuzêru has been corrected to only apply within 3 meters of each player rather than 5 meters.

• Song of Nuzêru damage has been reduced considerably.

• The Dread Power effect is now applied in a larger area around Ushkudâsh.

• The Dread Power effect now correctly increases player Outgoing Damage.

• Total morale on Ushkudâsh has been reduced.

• Great Barrow treasure has been revamped! The final boss chests in each wing now drop level scaling armour, weapons, and jewellery. The new items can also be purchased from the Classic skirmish barter vendor.

• Fixed an issue in the "Storm on Methedras" skirmish that caused Gwyllion to get stuck or despawn, blocking skirmish progress.

• A gap in the walls during 'Instance: The Foe Resurgent' was allowing players to get up-close-and-personal with the pixel fighters of Pelennor Fields. It has now been sealed.

• Within the public dungeon "Dungeons of Barad-dûr" in Dor Amarth, rubble piles have been reduced in size to allow for easier traversal. Additionally, the quest "Lost Lore of Gorgoroth: Dor Amarth" is no longer blocked by an offending rubble pile.

Items and Rewards:

• Legendary items for characters at level 160 can now advance to item level 565.

• Clean versions of Mûr Ghala raid armours bartered in Sul Madásh now require 20% fewer Blight-tainted Cloth Scraps and Armour Plates.

• Classic Skirmish vendor offerings are more alphabetized and the redundant Helegrod Mariner filter has been moved to Medium gear.

• Mariner players at level 10 to 99 can now open Treasures of Rohan and Treasures of Pelargir victory boxes.

• Mariners are now able to receive gear from Big Battles boxes from level 10-99. They are also able to purchase gear for merits from Merit Committee (Battle Decorations (High Honors)) NPCs.

• Monster Play Reward Track:

• Fixed an issue with Asachal's staff clipping through the ground.

• Fixed the icon on the translucent bow.

• The description on the new warg skin has been updated to be more reflective of what it is: Tawny-fringed Hyena appearance.

• The description of the new shield available on the reward track has been updated to High Chieftain Claghórd's Shield.

• Fixed a typo in the Albino Adagím Blight-crawler appearance description.

• Several essence-based heal effects have been converted from absolute-value heals to max morale %-based heals. Affected essences include the Cold-iron Cloak Clasp, the Gem-laden Cloak Clasp, the Petrified Essence of the Moon, and the Petrified Essence of the Viper.

• The Mûr Ghala Quartermaster at the Nagakhêdi Foothold camp will now exchange cloth scraps and armour plates for blighted relics and will also exchange cloth scraps for armour plates or vice versa.

• The Sack of Petals Bauble now properly applies to other players.

Crafting and Hobbies:

• Several single-use crafting recipe scrolls that require reputation to learn will no longer bind on acquire.

• Several clubs are now under the mace category instead of swords for storage purposes.

• Usage level for T5 Light, Medium and Heavy armours have changed to be more in line with other armour levels.

• Burglar Tricks and Throwing Weapons for T15 and T16 have had their crafting requirements reduced.

• Critical crafted morale and power potions from Tiers 1-6 are now appropriately boosted.

• The critical crafted Malledhrim Sword of Tactics now creates a new weapon called "Malledhrim Sword of Tactics"

• Crafted Armaments can now be disenchanted for Receipt of Armament Exchange barter tokens or sold to a vendor for silver. We have corrected a bug that prevented Tiers 11 - 14 Armaments from being disenchantable.

• Scholars can now craft Beorning Grisly Potions of Rejuvenation starting at Tier 5 and Rage from Tier 11. Recipes for Tiers 5-9 can be found in treasure. Recipes for Tier 10 onwards are auto granted.

• Crafted Mariner and Minstrel instruments now have different names.

• Tier 12 Crafted relic recipes now give you a Word of Craft Tracery Box.

• Umbar crafted items that were missing a description now have one.

• Jewellers will see a slight reduction in ingredient costs for Tiers 13 and 14 stickpins and belt buckles.

• Crafted Buckles and Stickpins at Tier 12 require fewer ingredients.

• Added recipes for Sun-kissed Flickering Essences to all Crafting Professions for Tier 16 Sul Madásh.

• Level 141+ special tracery recipes have been removed from the Delving barter. For now, level 151+ special tracery recipes can be found only in featured instances.

Housing and Decorations:

• Increased the default movement range of non-mobile yard hooks. Standard movement rules still apply to these hooks, but the range at which they can move within those rules has been improved.

• New housing decorations have been added to the barter for "The Tale of the Shipwrecked Mariners".

• If you have completed The Song of Waves and Wind, extra housing decoration sketches of the Kindred can be obtained via barter from Hamâti Quartermasters or Lumgâna.

• River-folk housing decorations now have an increased render distance.

• The Rivendell Kitchen Set can now be used to cook campfire foods.

• All Hitching Posts in Rivendell Housing have been replaced with Mobile Hitching Posts. NOTE: Any items slotted in the non-mobile Hitching Posts will be returned to their owner's housing storage or escrow.

• Yard Hooks using new, smaller artwork should now appear as expected at a distance.

• Tall Stone Wall property fence item now displays properly in Eastfold property fences.

• Ceiling Paint hooks now have their correct names.

• The Heraldry of Anórien and of Anfalas bundles in Lalia's Market now have the correct descriptions

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