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.