Monolith Productions’ Middle-Earth: Shadow of War has received its tenth major patch till date which prepares the game for the upcoming Blade of Galadriel expansion out tomorrow. The update itself contains some pretty nifty features though including enhancements to the Nemesis System.
What this means is that Orc Captains will have new traits and behaviours like Tunnel Rat that allows an Orc to dig into the ground and bring Ghûls to the fight or Sniper Shot which gives archers better accuracy across greater distances. Another interesting feature is Gifts of Treasure which allows Followers to gift Treasure Orcs for even more Gems and Mirian.
There are also new filters and frames for Photo Mode; the ability to upgrade Followers with a Training Order in the Garrison; a player stats page to track the number of enemy kills, dominations, fortresses conquered and whatnot; and options to customize the field of view. That’s on top of numerous balance changes and bug fixes which players can see below.
Patch 10 Notes
- Nemesis System Enhancements – Orc Captains (whether friends or foes) can exhibit new traits and behaviors, adding further depth to combat encounters and player interactions, such as:
– Tunnel Rat – Orcs can burrow into the ground and summon Ghûls.
– Sniper Shot – Archers can fire from great distances with pinpoint accuracy.
– Tremor – Ologs can pound the earth with tremendous force, staggering nearby threats and heavily damaging structures.
– Gifts of Treasure – Followers can now bring players the gift of a Treasure Orc, providing even more ways to earn Gems and Mirian. - Photo Mode Upgrades – New filters, frames and styles, along with adjustable expressions and added stickers, giving players more options for customizing in-game action shots.
- Player Skins – Choose to appear as Talion or Eltariel in the main story campaign.
- Training Orders Update – Players can now upgrade their Orc Followers with Training Orders while in the Garrison, saving time and offering more flexibility in deployment.
- Player Stats Page – New menu for players to track a variety of in-game statistics, including the number and type of enemy kills, dominations and betrayals; fortresses conquered and defended; gear pieces collected and upgraded; and many more.
- Field of View Options – More ways for players to customize the user interface and scale their field of view.
Additional Fixes
General Stability:
- Fixed various crashes.
- Fixed numerous movement and out-of-environment issues.
- Improved A.I. pathing when summoned into tight spaces and when commanding a bodyguard to kill a target from Stealth.
- Fixed an FX issue where bright white squares could be seen when fighting Nazgûl or Wights (undead humans).
- Fixed an issue where some Orcs could remain floating in the air after a fortress wall underneath them was destroyed.
- Fixed an issue where performing a ledge domination and trying to climb onto the ledge immediately afterwards could cause the player to get stuck.
- Fixed an issue when using triple monitors where shadows and dark textures would display darker and exaggerated on the side monitors.
- Fixed an issue where using Stealth drain against an Olog from a ledge below could cause the player to be thrown out of the environment.
- Fixed an issue where the arrow FX from a wraith execution could get overblown if performed at night.
- Fixed an issue with the Rune of Vengeance challenge failing to unlock.
- Fixed an issue where the Olog harpoon could send mounted Captains out of an environment.
- Fixed an issue where Zog could fail to die if the final blow was from a freeze pin attack.
- Fixed an issue where summoning a drake could cause it to spawn inside of a grond, if the hellfire upgrade is active.
- Applying a mount or dire mount contract to a Captain with the decoys trait will no longer consume the Training Order and fail to grant the mount.
- Fixed a misleading message from WBPlay saying “unable to connect to Hydra.”
- Fixed an issue where a fortress’ towers could become invisible after completing a fortress assault or Defense mission.
- Fixed an issue where the Slaughter tribe gear set bonus could drain Carnán to death when mounted.
- Fixed an issue where some dialog would imply a region was falsely controlled by Sauron when it was player controlled.
- Fixed an issue where player controls could become unresponsive when dominating and mounting a Siege Beast.
- Fixed an issue that could result in misaligned animations when clashing with a mounted Orc on a slope.
- Fixed an issue where rewards were sometimes not granted for the Siege Beast bonus objective.
- Fixed an issue where an enemy Captain could take a Warchief spot in a player-owned fortress.
- Fixed an issue where closing the game (via a means other than the menu) right after applying a Training Order would cause the player to lose the Training Order, and the Orc would not keep its upgrade.
- Fixed an issue where the last Captain could fail to spawn during The Arena mission.
- Fixed an issue where The Chosen mission could fail to advance properly.
- Fixed an issue where some confrontation missions during Shadow Wars could fail to show up.
- Fixed an issue where resuming a paused game sometimes ignored immediate player action for a matter of seconds.
- Fixed an issue in Photo Mode when HDR is enabled on a 4K screen where some lights appeared with incorrect colors.
- Fixed an issue with the Ice Stalker’s armor failing to award Focus.
- Fixed some unusually long load times when reloading certain mission checkpoints.
User Interface (UI):
Layout and messaging improvements to the Inventory screen:
- Added icons next to Legendary gear helping players identify the tribe of equipped pieces.
- Added messaging to highlight the difference between ammo counts when comparing gear pieces.
- The “equipped” visual is now more noticeable.
- Added messaging on gear pieces to communicate how many times it can be upgraded.
- Cleaned up the layout of the Legendary set pane for easier readability.
- Cleaned up the locked message for challenges.
- Legendary gear gained from chests no longer display an Orc’s name as the source.
- Added support to switch between campaigns from the Expansions tab within the Quests menu.
- Fixed an issue where the Track Challenge button must be pressed twice to function.
- Fixed an issue in the Legendary gear screen which resulted in no confirmation sound effects when equipping new gear.
- Fixed a scenario where the player could have extra skill points that could not be spent. The menu will no longer prompt players to spend these points.
- Fixed an issue where battle reports would fail to display rewards that the Orcs earned (e.g. level up, gained mount, etc.).
- Fixed an issue where the quest rewards would display incorrectly when completing an Online Conquest or Online Vendetta.
- Console settings will now default the render preference to favor quality.
- Fixed an issue where outpost regions in Minas Ithil could display blue on the mini map in certain scenarios.
- Fixed an issue where the warning message would get cut off if you start a fortress assault without a full team.
- Fixed an issue where fort defense battle reports could incorrectly show caragor kills.
- Fixed an issue where applying a Legendary Training Order could sometimes incorrectly grant the Legendary title.
Nemesis System:
- Talion will now speak during domination sequences once players have reached Act III.
- Marksmen Orcs will now try to surprise players more often from high vantage points.
- When Uruks ambush players after calling a Caragor, they will now correctly ride atop the mount instead of appearing next to it.
- Fixed an issue where Orcs would sometimes generate without a tribe or role.
- Fixed an issue where a Follower who failed a power struggle could end up captured but not get placed in a Rescue or Bash mission.
- Fixed an issue where Orcs would sometimes fail to go on a Vendetta mission after killing you.
- Baz and Gaz will no longer go on power struggles against each other.
- Fixed an issue where your Followers sent to reinforce a power struggle would sometimes fail to attack the enemy.
- Fixed an issue where Ologs could sometimes spawn mounted on a caragor.
- Fixed an issue where you could not identify Captains during the introduction of Tribal Showdown missions.
- Orcs with the Humiliator role will no longer kill you with No Last Chance.
- Fixed an issue where you could resurrect a dead Follower after a Fight Pit match, but they would fail to enter the hierarchy.
- Tricksters will now behave more appropriately when they want to fight you after a surprise ambush.
- Fixed an issue where spies in Infiltration missions would sometimes forget their target master if the game session was restarted.
- Captains who are thrown in a Slaughter tribe meatgrinder can no longer cheat death.
Balance:
- Your Summon Bodyguard/Mount abilities will now reset their cooldowns when starting a quest.
- Ologs no longer grab you when dashing over them from behind.
- Fixed an issue where some Captains would display Dazed above their head but still fight back after certain attacks.
- Fixed an issue where you could take unfair damage when dismounting, which manifested in a lot of sad deaths on Gravewalker Difficulty.
- Fixed an issue where you could sometimes take fatal damage due to unavoidable hits after a presentation ended.
- Fixed an issue where mounted bodyguards would not keep fighting if they were attacked.
- Fixed an issue where a large number of Orcs could spawn very quickly in a small area.
- Fixed an issue where Legendary Followers could inadvertently end up with four Epic traits when using contracts.
- Fixed an issue where the Celebrimbor’s after-images from Elven Rage could block your own projectiles.
- Fixed an issue when the last Elf-shot is used to throw a hammer while mounted, nothing would actually be thrown while the Elf-shot is still used.
- Fixed an exploit where a Captain is kept in a permanent flurry state when using certain gear.
- Fixed an issue where deploying Followers into the lowest row of the Minas Morgul hierarchy would always give them Iron Will.
- Fixed an issue where slayers would not perform their triple strike attack against other Uruks.
- Fixed an issue where traps (e.g. tracker snares) would inherit immunities.
- The Slaughter tribe cleavers now transfer Poison, Curse and Fire effects to their targets.
- Fixed an issue where Followers in Fight Pits were benefiting from the four-piece Outlaw set bonus.
- Fixed an issue where the dark strikes attack would deal too much damage on the second attack.
- Fixed an issue in which removing certain pieces of gear would cause other, similar gear traits to stop working.
- Fixed an issue where freeze-on-crit weapons would work against frost proof Captains.
- Fixed issue where carved and polished life Gems used the same value when slotted in weapons.
- Fixed an issue where wealth Gem Mirian rewards on daggers and ranged weapons were swapped.
- Fixed an issue where Recover Health/Might/Wrath on Dominate rune properties were only activating on brand attacks and not other Drain attacks.
- Fixed an issue that could prevent an Overlord from gaining levels when winning a ranked Online Fight Pit match.
- Reduced the likelihood that new Captains entering the Army menu will replace Followers purchased from the market.
- Fixed a market issue where the Olog Destroyer’s Chest was sometimes not properly getting consumed when opening.
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