Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, I managed to grab word of this right as Turbine announced it. Basically, Turbine has announced a new digitally downloadable expansion for LotRO which ought to round out the story of Volume II, and it’s called Siege of Mirkwood.
Here’s the features list straight from the press release:
NEW FEATURES:
The Epic Conclusion to Volume II: Mines of Moria™ – Under the command of Celeborn and Galadriel, players will fight through vast armies of Orcs alongside the Elves of Lórien in a battle that will take them to Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths. This update includes Book 9 and the Epilogue to the sweeping epic tale begun with the award-winning Mines of Moria expansion.
Increased Level Cap — Players will be able advance their characters up to level 65, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests.
Answer the Call of War! – Jump into the heat of battle with the new Skirmishes feature. Skirmishes offer endless action in repeatable, randomized instances where players can create and lead customizable soldiers into battle, training them to greater skill as they earn victories against the forces of shadow. Answer the call of war wherever violence erupts with the new “World Join” function that lets players and their fellowships band together to fight in various locations throughout Middle-earth.
Take up Arms! – Infiltrate the dark jails, deadly arenas and savage stables of Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths, and strike a blow against Sauron’s forces in new 3 and 6-player instances. Call upon your fellows to adventure into the most deadly 12-player raid yet and face the ultimate challenge – the Nazgûl Lord!
Major Gameplay Enhancements – Turbine continues to improve the award-winning experience of LotRO with major improvements to the combat and Legendary Items systems. Players will experience improved responsiveness when in the heat of battle. Players will also be able to create and craft their own customized Second and Third Age Legendary Items from raw materials and grow their weapons’ power to level 60. Achieve new Legacies, new titles, and a fourth Runic slot that will make Legendary Items even more unique and powerful.
Personally, I’m not even level 60 yet, and I’m still excited for this release. I hope to hear impressions on the announcement from my fellow writers soon, as well as some additional information on pricing and any potential beta testing.
Update 1: Official Site for the Siege of Mirkwood expansion is up. Make sure to watch the opening flash animation. It has some awesome music.
Beat me to it!
What’s funny: I was sitting here when I wrote about the horse contest thinking “when the heck are they going to announce the ‘yearly’ expansion?”. I even thought about writing a post about it! haha
And here we are. Certainly came out of nowhere.
“Answer the call of war wherever violence erupts with the new “World Join” function that lets players and their fellowships band together to fight in various locations throughout Middle-earth.”
I have to say that excites me most out of what’s been mentioned thus far.
I have 22 levels to go to 60, so I’m in no rush to see the expansion. Still, I just hope the expansion won’t be too costly (if there’s a price), and that they allow people from everywhere to purchase it with their credit cards.
Anyway, I wasn’t sure if you’d be up, as I didn’t notice the horse entry, so I took a leap of faith and did a “breaking” announcement.
Hopefully PAX will have more info.
I bought the digital version of Moria for $29.99, I believe. You could pre-order it and get some bonuses too.
I’d imagine this would be around the same price, although it’s interesting there’s apparently not a retail release planned as of yet.
If my credit card would arrive already, I’d have this pre-ordered in a jiffy, just to get some nice extra stuff.
WOuld actually be my first pre-order ever, if that was the case.
Really exciting news. Was just about to post it too! Crazy crazy… surprised that the conclusion to the MoM expansion is something we have to pay for… very intresting. Look forward to hearing more about this soon (perhaps from the Ask The Devs session in mid-September).
I especially look forward to new class quests (they come at L15, 30, 45… we sorta got them at 58… but logically we need them at L60).
I note, surprisingly, the Internet domain siegeofmirkwood.com is not yet registered. Surprising since a domain name squatter could register ahead of Turbine and hold the name ransom.
Looks like The Saul Zaentz Company snapped it up in time: http://who.godaddy.com/WhoIs.aspx?domain=siegeofmirkwood.com&prog_id=godaddy
I am pretty excited! I am new to LOTRO and hope the “radiance” endgame does not drive me away, as I like the game a lot so far!
I think they do not need the domain, they will just link to lotro.com and \ add all future expansions as subdomains.
Hopefully, they’ll address the radiance endgame further with the help of the expansion, which may not only update our levels, but also improve upon the radiance system.
Great news!
And I’m still psyched for book 9 to come out. Revamped Lonelands!
oh yes
my l25 warden is parked in bree ready to go to lone-lands and kick some bog-lurker butt 
[…] expansion this fall titled “Siege of Mirkwood!” Victor of Mmeow was quick on the uptake and had a post up on this almost right away, so thank you to him for the tip. I have to tell you though, the timing […]