LotRO Enedwaith

This is a reedited compilation of some of my kin-forum-posts. I started this on September 2nd 2010, so a lot of this is outdated:

So, lots of people have asked, where we will go from Mirkwood, or rather Southern Mirkwood as it is called ingame.

Some were hoping, for a trip north. I sure hope, this will happen someday, but if they are wise, they will release that part with the movie releast of The Hobbit in 2012ish.

According to an interview in a Finnish GameZine, Jeffrey Steefel said " Mr. producer does not tell in which direction Lord of the Rings Online's story is heading next, but hints that the next major area expansions name will begin with "E"..."

Could it be Enedwaith?

Originally Posted by dinkydino666
"I think your guess is spot on.. Just finished Vol 3 Book 1 on Bullroarer and there's a mention of Enedwaith and the rangers heading south, also, the video at the end of the book is quite suggestive of where we will be going next."

Further evidence of this, is a new area south of Eregion which is shown on some maps (This part is out of date, as it was later announced, that the map we saw, was not the map we would get).

I like the town in the southeastern part, which seems to be quite big. Anyone know, which town that could be? It seems to be on the banks of the river Glanduin, Echad Mirobel being where the two arms meet. Hm is Mirobel identical to Ost-in-Edhil? Did they have to rename it, because it was not part of the Movie and they didn't have the rights to the name? Strange...

What would I like to see in Enedwaith? Some say, the ocean. But I don't care that much. Would be fun thought, to be able to get some salt water fishes ;)

Tharbad was destroyed by a great flood in 2911, 107 years before the ring left the shire. I like old ruins and therefore, I'd like to go there. Lond Daer, the Great Haven lies also in ruins, however it is still featured on 'todays' maps.

Who live here? Dunlendings, enemies of the Rohirrim, humans but on a lower cultural level than those from Bree and Rohan and much further away from Gondor. Bronze and Iron Age? Picts and Celts? Then close to the mountain, some Goblins possible, but no Orcs or even Uruks. Masses instead of quality, I'd hope.

As the forests here were cut down by the Númenóreans, grassy plains should be dominant. Borders to east with mountains, west the river Gwathló, north Eregion, Southwest the ocean, South the river Isen and Southeast the Gap of Rohan, guarded by the forces of Saruman.

I just did a recheck of the map, as it has taken some minutes to load (I didn't think it would load at all.

The city (blue circle, lower right part of above picture) I was talking about is actually very small, about the size of Othrikar, even though it seems to be human, not dwarven. Of course there could be some dwarves, as it is close to the mountains (some might have fled from Moria), but not many. So at least it is not lore-breaking (as there is no big town there on the maps I checked).

There are two rez-circles (marked in red), one near the village, one near a small ruin, marked yellow, in the left part of the above picture.

The other yellow blob is a larger elven (?) ruin with a road leading to it.

Actually there is a third rez-circle in the topmost left corner across the river of the orc camp south of the school of Tham Mirdain.

In the center, there is a swamp, so yeah, some bog-lurker killing deed ftw

Now what is the green blob? The usual answer would be, it is a border. It starts as a mountain border in the east, but then it seems to change into a chasm (also a useful border). The amout of shades indicate, that it is very deep ad steep, so crossing it might be impossible. They seem to be even deeper then the Eregion border in the West.

The pile of boulders at the western end is quite big. I wouldn't be suprised, if it were an entrance to an underground area.

If what we see is what we get, then we get only little. My guess is, that the pile of boulders is the bottleneck to the next part and if we are going to Tharbad, then it should be further west.

So new information have been found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uQL8uUl6-w

"We are on the road to Isengard ... soon" and "our next game region will be Enedwaith later this year"

Quick Facts (from the Lorebook)
Location: Between the Rivers Gwathló to the north and Isen to the south
Race: Men
Pronunciation: e'nedwaith ('ai' rhymes with English 'eye')
Meaning: '(Land of the) Middle-folk'1

The wide and empty land between the kingdoms of the Dúnedain
The wide lands that lay between Arnor in the north and Gondor in the south. Originally deeply forested, the great forests of this region were cut down by the Númenóreans during the Second Age.

Footnotes
1 In the years after their founding, Enedwaith lay between Arnor to the north and Gondor to the south, and so the people who lived here were known as the 'middle-folk'. Though Enedwaith did not belong to either Kingdom, it was jointly administered by the Dúnedain, and the Wild Men who lived here ultimately did so under their control. Tolkien goes so far as to hint that, in the earliest days of the Two Kingdoms, Enedwaith was considered to fall within the boundaries of Gondor.

I also like his thoughts about exploring "all of Middle Earth" and his mention of Forochel as well as the abilities to travel from one place to the other (fasttravel FTW). I hope this will mean we will revisit some old places and that they get some more content. We had some of this already, Vol. 3 Book 1, for example as well as the Skirmishes and the IXP-runs of old.

With all the Lifetimers and the licence running till 2017, they will need some other business model in the next years. Probably move it to free to play in a year or so and get income by paid Expandions and Micro-Transactions?

The wardrobe will be a shared by all chars on the same account. If there is nothing added, there seems to be little reason to get this, at least if you already have a shared storage. I got two mules with cosmetics, so there won't be enought space to share everything anyway (even if I buy all the 50 slots possible).

They are thinking about reducing the amount of trash-loot and increasing the size of their stacks. A good one.

Best news I've heard in a long time. After all, do I really need a separate spot for Boar Ears, Boar Tusks, Tufts of Boar Fur, and Boar Tails? Just call it Generic Boar Parts ;^)

I wouldn't go that far though ;)

Question: If one, like myself has purchased all 3 game packs SA, MoM & SoM, and ends up dropping the sub during the F2P phase - What happens to my current trait slots? Do they drop from the current lvl65 amount of slots to 1-2 trait slots?

Answer: I am fairly certain that yes, the additional slots will be locked if you downgrade. You'd need to unlock them again via the LOTRO Store.

Even though some won't like it, it is reasonable from a business-view.

If someone from Turbine is listening, I have an idea for a Mirkwood expansion:

I would like to see Central Mirkwood as a instanced region which changes each time you go in. Of course, there would be some landmarks, that were more or less at the same place all the time (a big tree, a bold hill, etc,) but the vegetation would grow so fast, that the way to the exit would be different each time. The dark forest would have few enemies, spiders, goblins, lights and such, and they wouldnt' be that hard at the beginning. But time after time, the dread would get bigger and bigger so that even the mightiest warrior would be slain after a certain time.

To hinder people from just running through, some monsters have slowing attacks, other stun and sometimes monsters need to be killed for a passage to open. Once you have passed through, it becomes a bit easier the next time and after, say three successfull runs, you could fast-horse through it.

Lord of the Rings Online going to Isengard in 2011

The Hobbits are going to Isengard! Speaking to PC Gamer on the show floor of E3 this week, LOTRO’s Executive Producer Kate Paiz told us, “We’re definitely planning to get players to Isengard next year”.

Isengard is the tower of Sauramon the White, Gandalf’s former friend who works for Sauron (the bad guy), and the setting for one of the most epic wizard battles in the entire LotR series. A central figure in several key moments in the storyline, it hasn’t been decided yet how involved the players will be in with Sauramon’s plight – but there is precedence for players taking control of central lore figures to act out these types of big moments.

Paiz also told us that they’re going to wait and see how players react to content packs (as opposed to expansions) before deciding if Isengard will be part of a content pack purchased through the in-game cash shop, or a full expansion.

Not too much information to be honest, this was to be expected.

So we have the first screeny of the map:



What do we see? And how does it look like the earlier posted map from the lore-book?

The general set-up is the same. But there are also a lot of changes and the maps don't fit. Therefore I think they will change it and what we see now on the lore-book-map will be very different. Thoro's Coombe is on this map, as suggested. A small village lies east to it, I still think, this will be the main hub.

There are two exits to the south going to the Dunlands and one to the north-west, without a name. But as we know from, say, the Shire, even if there was a name (Southfarthing there) this means little. Between the two exits to the south, there are some ruins (or a castle).

If we compare it to the earlier posted map from the lore-book, we can recognise the small island in the river being the border to Eregion. Using this as a reference, I fear Enedwaith is quite small, smaller than Southern Mirkwood, smaller then Eregion, but probably with a similiar amount of quest (or at least quest hubs) as Eregion. Size does not mean anything, but I would have liked Enedwaith to be bigger, maybe going to the sea, with a large town (about the size of Bree). Again, size is not everything, and lotro shines with lots of details, but I also like riding over sunny fields without hitting a wall after a few paces.



I just love this map. One thing I noticed. Enedwaith is, at least on that map and according to wikipedia, almost a region, much larger than what we get now. Dunland on the other hand seems to be a part of Enedwaith. Why Turbine changed this, I have no clue.

So what else do we get? The above interview mentions scalable instances with according loot. I think this is a mixed blessing. On one hand, it is great to get some new loot (at least I hope we get something new and shiny) and it is a waste not to go back to Fornost and such. Helegrod with a mighty dragon could really be fun, no more popping eggs though. It will make some legendaries harder again. We'll see, if there will be enough people going back to do those instandes.

Of course it could also mean, that you could solo Thorog, if they also scale down the instances, or even LT on hard mode... Nah, not going to happen (I hope).

"Another feature will involve new Session Play content that will allow players to experience the game as a Ranger and learn about Aragorn’s forefathers. Previously, Rangers could only be used in PvMP, so the new Session Play missions will offer a chance to experience one of the Rangers in PvE and learn more about the lineage of one of LotRO’s most notable characters."

I love this. Epic win! One of my most favourite moments in the whole game is the last battle of the Dwarfs in Moria, where you write the last lines in the chamber of Mazubul (sp) north of 21st Hall.

"Enedwaith will introduce four new dungeons to the game that will be associated with the new epic storyline. Three of those dungeons will be solo instances and the fourth will be an open world dungeon, much like the Bree reputation dungeon of Haudh Iarchith. While there won’t be a focus on the group instance game with this update, Turbine representatives ensured us that new instances are on the books for the following update."

Meh, no new raid, probably similiar to what we got with the last book. But better than nothing.

"For fans that have been concerned about mounted combat possibly being cut, Kate Paiz confirmed that it is still on the table for the Rohan expansion. Along with that will be more we were also told that Rohan will be set post-orc work camps, so much of the Ent forest around Isengard will already have been destroyed, but players will have the chance to experience the forest in its full past glory through Session Play."

Mounted combat seems still to be planned. I am really looking forward to the Session Play (please, let me play as an Ent!).

"The new content certainly looks interesting and the new land mass will provide between 80 and 200 new quests."

Yeay, should get my last two chars to 65 and ease the path of others too.

And, from an other source:

"Players will be glad to hear that both Housing and Hobbies are getting some love. No specifics were given other than Housing getting an "upgrade" and a new Hobby is in the works. These plans are long-term and not for the upcoming patch."

"New skirmishes are being worked on, just not for this patch."

"The last feature coming with the new patch is DX11 support. We weren't shown the shininess of Middle-earth using DX11 technology, but were promised screenshots soon."

Time to get a new PC!

"Due to player feedback on their official forums, Turbine will make the old world raid instances available through the Skirmish interface for any group size, from solo to 24-man raid. These aren't technically Skrimishes so you will receive no Skirmish Marks, but they use the Skirmish technology to set the instance difficulty, port you there and then drop you back into the world when you are done."

So, they are listening to the forums and no more races up to Helegrod from Rivendell.

This could mean, that you get marks, just not skirmish marks, if you want to do the old raids. I don't understand, why they do not use the skirmish-mark system. And they should remove skirmish-marks from bags and put them in a seperate location (like the runes and relics for the legendaries).


About Thror (source Wiki):

Thrór (T.A. 2542 − 2790) was a King of Durin's folk, the son of Dáin I, father of Thráin II, and brother to Frór and Grór. In 2790 he journeyed with Nár to Moria, upon entering it, he was killed by Azog the Orc who chopped his head off with an axe and fed his body to the ravens, which started the War of the Dwarves and Orcs.


"Regarding the size of Enedwaith: I don't actually know in terms of square miles. However, I can give you this; in terms of content, Enedwaith is larger than the North Downs. (North Downs had almost 140 quests, plus the 10 in Fornost, Mirkwood has almost 160 quests)."

"Scaled Instances
To clear up any misunderstandings; Instances will be scaled by the player, not automatically. It works like the level setting for Skirmishes. So for something like Helegrod you could choose to run it at level 61 if you wanted. I know some are worried about a ’solo raid’. The instances will not scale in terms of group size. Fighting Thorog is still going to take 24 people."

Also, not every instance will be scaled at launch. The team is working hard to get as many in as they can, but time is finite. The plan is to revist them all, but they’re not all going to happen in Book 2.
To give you some idea of how major this change is, JWBarry is currently writing his first novel, also called the Instance Scaling Dev diary. Seriously, it’s a book.

It’s a level 62-65 area with a lot of new content. Berephon is really excited about this area! So much so he’s going to write a Dev diary all about it. Enedwaith, not his excitement.

More information concerning the upcoming update is starting to show on the internet, even with some pictures.

One new thing is quest-tips with pictures. nothing too great for those playing since a long time, but for those just starting, an advantage:

Like GA, Helegrod too is split up:

So there is a Helegrod: Dragon Wing, a Drake Wing, a Giant Wing and a Spider Wing. Shown also is the Library at Tham Mirdain.

An other picture shows, that Finishing the Troll Slayer in Misty Mountains (not the Advanced, 80 Trolls) give 5 Turbine Points. Of course, these numbers might change.

Instance interface and scaling

As seen above, the instance scaling interface looks similiar to the skirmish interface. This allows "you and a team of friends to jump into the action right away, no matter where everyone is in the world."

Turbine will add more scaled instances and will also add new monsters, monster skills, polish and other general tweaks. "Not all of the dungeons have received this treatment yet; as of right now, four hubs' worth of dungeons (Helegrod, Annúminas, Great Barrows and the Eregion group dungeons) are upgraded, with more to follow." So, no Rift to start with.

"Turbine clarified that while the instances and raids do not scale to group size, they will scale up to your level. For example, you can first access Great Barrows at level 20, and from then on scale it up so that you never out-level it."

"Another cool change to these dungeons is that they're being chopped up into wings where appropriate so that players won't have to sit through a four-hour instance to finish the whole thing. You can jump into any of the four wings of Helegrod, for example, depending on how much time you have and where your interest lies. The team have also abolished raid locks and lowered the raid size (from 24 to 12) to make this raid more accessible."

"When an instance is scaled up in levels, players receive proportionate rewards for the increased difficulty including marks and custom tokens. Similar to skirmish campaign marks, these instance marks are used as unique currency for gear and other items. Turbine are also making sure that these upgraded instances have a challenge mode, similar to what they started in the Mines of Moria expansion, so that players willing to undergo a unique challenge will receive a superior token for their efforts."

Sounds good. Bad part is, even more bagspace will be filled with Tokens....

"You'll also have more to do in these upgraded dungeons. LotRO will automatically hand you a number of quests for whatever dungeon you're running, on an average of five to six new quests, including a mission to slay the end boss. Additionally, there will be new deeds and daily dungeon quests available to prompt players to try a wide range of instances. Turbine's currently working on a dev diary to go into more details for this system."

Enedwaith

"As Lothlórien was to Moria, so too Enedwaith is to Mirkwood -- a return of a cheery, open zone after a long stretch in the gloomy dark. Enedwaith is essentially an extension of Eregion in terms of atmosphere and landscapes, although its dearth of official details gave the developers a longer leash when creating its content. From snowy vistas to red cliffs to pastoral scenery, Enedwaith covers a large spectrum of visuals, not to mention an even larger spectrum of quests. Over 160 quests for the zone are currently in the game, giving players a lot to do when it opens up to the public this fall."

Nothing new here.

"Enedwaith's theme might as well be "Forgotten Country." The zone is a buffer between the more populated lands to the north and the kingdom of Gondor to the south (Gondorian ruins can be spotted here), but its inhabitants lack the civilization of either. Many of the humans are Dunlandings who are deserters from the failed Eregion invasion campaign, and now are squatting on this remote piece of land. The inspiration for these wilds is being drawn from Wales and Welsh folklore, especially when it comes to some of the monsters and culture players will encounter. It is, for sure, a very beautiful zone."

I am not too sure about the Gondorian ruins, they look like the Elven ruins of past... At least the Welsh will feel at home here ;)

"I was surprised to discover that Enedwaith is no stranger to the little folk. In one corner lies the isolated hobbit settlement of Maur Tulhau, where hobbits have developed quite differently than in the Shire. They are a group of Stoors who decided to plant roots here instead of continuing north, and as a result have become a bit more bumpkin than their Shire relatives. (These hobbits are actually mentioned in the prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring.) Their backwoods nature is reflected in the little details, from the facial hair on the men to rope belts to the modified look of their buildings. Turbine said that they're trying something interesting with Maur Tulhau, in that there's only one quest to pick up as you enter the town -- and that quest (well, quest chain) will change depending on your race. So dwarf characters will experience a different story than elves, and so on."

As said before, interesting to find other Hobbits. I don't think it is too lore-breaking, as long as the settlement is small and secluded. I also like, that there will be different stories depending on your race. I always thought it a bit strange, that a Lothlorian Elf needed to do the same quests like a dwarf to get into CG.

"Seeing as how most Enedwaith-bound characters will be level-capped already, I asked the team what incentive there would be to proceed through this new content. While the team didn't think it was the right time to increase the level cap (chances are that will come with Isengard), they listed quite a few reasons for players to explore this zone. The first was to not only see the sights, but to continue the epic story in Volume III Book 2. At this point in the game, the Fellowship is about to be broken as they head down the Great River Anduin, but the rangers and characters will be doing everything to help Frodo's quest succeed. On top of that, Enedwaith has a host of goodies for high-level characters, including new legendary item upgrades, cosmetic items and faction horses. Plus, all of the post-50 quests in the game are guaranteed to give item XP, so the 160+ additional quests will be a great boon to players leveling up their legendaries."

Item XP will help to cut the grind on leveling our LIs, thank you, Turbine. I hope we not only get some IXP but also IXP runes.

No mention of a new raid. Would have hoped that the Rift was one of the newly made instances. Do hope they add special bags for Tokens.

In one picture, a Hobbit says: "Enaid-helgi carried away my cousin’s nephew’s sister’s daughter!"

Which of course reminded me of a famous Spaceballs conversations:

Dark Helmet: Before you die there is something you should know about us, Lone Star.
Lone Starr: What?
Dark Helmet: I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
Lone Starr: What's that make us?
Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing! Which is what you are about to become.

I took some more time to look at the screenies and even though the quality of them are not that great (settings seem to be quite low) I really like the look of Enedwaith. It is diverse and seems to be big. I also like the new bulls (or ox?) and wolves. Besides them we have some wargs and tribsmen. As said before, the settings are quite low but Turbine has made a good job up till now with the human characters and I am looking forward to see them in all their beauty.

There seem also to have added some new cosmetics but I am no expert here.

I hope the challenge modes will be challenging and keep top-raiders on their toes.

Yay, it was a long week, but massively has kept its promise and has further updates.

Near the festival tree, a new door is being added. For the fall festival, we weill be able to visit the haunted cellar of Bilbo ;) Sounds fun!

"It features several themed wings (such as the cobweb wing), hidden doors, scared hobbits, treasure chests and loads of cool decorations. Bookshelves slid apart to reveal new rooms, and a fake wall of kegs unfolded to show a chest full of spooky goodies. Take a wrong turn and -- bam! -- you're blind, stumbling through the halls until your vision returns. The fact that everything here is hobbit-sized makes it feel a bit claustrophobic, and that certainly works in the Haunted Cellar's favor to evoke a more personal experience."

This sounds great, I am really looking forward to this and might even go through it before I enter Enedwaith. It has also be confirmed, that special decorations will be available for the player's house as well as some new cosmetics (no word yet about a new horse though, tbh, I do not mind that much).

There are some more inside picture on that site, even darker than Moria. Hm, that Bilbo was up to no good, it seems ;). Again I like a bit of halloween coming to the shire to join the pumpkins!

Further pictures are from the shop. You now can buy emotes, like the firebreath for 50 TP. Horses, even the rep ones are for sale too. Hm. The price is high though, it costs more (as the prices are now) than the Rune-Keeper. Let's see the real shop, before I will say anything more.

There hasn't been that much more news and sadly/luckily no more pictures (about half of the 29 pictures posted are of the Haunted Cellar, the rest from the shop).

The future of the game

Isengard will come next year with a level-cap increase. Content update should come on a regular basis and faster (couldn't be much slower tbh). Virtues will stay at 10 for the forseeable future.

Some more character customization options are not out of the question. But no dolphins, dragons eagles and such to ride (Oliphant please, War-Oliphant would be even greater and not lorebreaking ;)

"New cosmetic models are in the works (not just re-skinned versions of old models)."

No currency bag for tokens in the short-term, long-term they got a probably....

If you have a Dwarf of the White Mountains (South of Isengard, West of Minas Tirith, you could be able to visit your brethern (and bring some of your elven friends of course). "One of the possibilities for the future is to visit the dwarves in the White Mountains." As I want to visit all of Middle Earth, I like devs talking about new (and unexpected) content.

"Future updates will address and streamline itemization." Not too sure what to make of this. Maybe I don't understand the word well enough. Are they talking about easier LIs or will LIs be able to level too (so that a lvl 60 First-Age-Weapon can somehow become a lvl 65 or even 70 First-Age-Weapon?).

LOTRO Executive Producer Kate Paiz answered some questions at Mordor or Bust.

Most has been talked over loads and loads of times. I just want to cover some, partly new, points:

Q: Will content continue to be released on a regular basis?

(not exact quote) DDO F2P had five updates since September 2009. I expect that LOTRO will have a similar frequency of patches and updates, "as we have a lot of world to cover to get to Mordor".

Q: Will the content updates be similar to what we have seen in the past? Is a major expansion like Mines of Moria a thing of the past?

We are not sure how expansions fit into the Free model. This is something we are actively exploring in Beta, and we’ll have more clarity around closer to launch. But it is our goal to have expansion-sized content going forward.

Q: Can you share any changes that are a direct result of player feedback in the Beta?

We have increased the drop rates and the number of mobs that drop the new stat tomes that are also available in the Store. We’ve also revised the Vault UI to include more chests and to preserve players’ current chest organization as a direct result of player feedback, as well as fixed a wide variety of bugs and usability issues in ways players have recommended. (So it seems that we also get world-drops for the new stat-rising tomes which also can be bought).

Q:Wickedpt asks: Will there be new classes added to LOTRO in the near future, 2010-11?

While we have a lot of ideas for new classes, nothing has entered production yet, so I really can’t give a timeline right now for them. (Nice. We got some fun to play new classes and I do think we should get Shapeshifters and Corsairs.)

Q: Taltn328 asks: Will the move to F2P mean the end of open Eriador/Moria world design in favor of “instanced” zones eg. Lothlorien/Mirkwood?

Enedwaith has been added to Eriador in an open world way, and we will continue to provide the landscape experience that is such a hallmark of the game. It is very likely that Lothlórien and Mirkwood will be joined into the rest of the world as we develop content east of the Misty Mountains.

1. I am always a bit puzzled, why the First Hall does not connect with Dimrill Gate. According to the map, there is quite a lot of distance between these two places.

2. Hopefully we will go to Gladden Fields where we (again hopefully) will be able to play Isildur and loose the ring and with some luck also will be able to play Gollom and kill Deagol, who is he to take my birthday present ;) More Hobbit-country FTW!

The new dev-diary was about Enedwaith.

Fordirith, the north-most part of Enedwaith has some Dunlendings and Shadow-wolves.

In the Windfells we will find the Uch-lûth, one of two clans of Dunlendings derogatorily known as the Algraig – or Outliers – to the inhabitants of southern Dunland. There will also be more rangers (Saeradan of Bree-land) at Amon Mîn, the ruins of a great Gondorian watchtower now claimed by the Draig-lûth to watch the North-South Road.

Already some information was leaked about:

"Cuthraul

The Cuthraul (derived from the Welsh Cythraul) are fell spirits which appear at night, spreading terror among the hunters and herdsmen of the Uch-lûth. Unlike other fell spirits in The Lord of the Rings OnlineTM, these creatures fall into the category of Ancient Evil, rather than Dead . . . a theme which will quickly become apparent in Enedwaith. However, never fear: the Reputation vendors of the Grey Company will offer you special Westernesse damage scrolls for your Legendary Items which will improve your capabilities against them!"

as well as Demonic Goats:

This lady seems to play a big part in the expansion:

In the Gloomglens, we can find this beauty:



"the Rangers have also seen majestic stags, shining white in the forest gloom. There is something unnatural about these creatures, and they hesitate to hunt them."

"The Gloomglens features two instance quests, including a new boss monster."



Isn't this beautiful! Could this be the new DX?

"Volume 3, Book 2 F2P update introduced several new emotes to LOTRO. They are available in store and from barter NPCs through normal play. In order: Feathers, Drunk, Spin, Golf Drive, Golf Chip, Golf Putt, Tickle and Jump."

In Enedwaith, if we ever get there..., there is a time where you can choose either to "Feeding the Company" or to "A Matter of Doubt".

"If you take the option to “Feed the Company” you’ll miss out on some valuable repeatable quest reputation with the Algraig, which is by far the harder reputation to grind. In addition you’ll miss out on a repeatable gold token quest which is the more valuable barter token needed for ports, horses, etc. The quest dialog does indicate the choice but not so much on the long term impact so it is easy to miss.

If you’re not concerned with reputation this isn’t a big deal, but if it weren’t for this forum thread I would’ve made my reputation grind much steeper."

I somehow even like the Skeleton horse. I will use that one for Blueruby, my hobbit burgler. I really would hate to miss the Haunted Burrows. Waiting for that for a year just because of Codies? I will not buy a game distributed by that company in the next time (certainly no mmorg).

The rest of the informations Artim provided seems to be a collection from differnt sources.

Familiar villains? Who could that be? Some new instances in the "Old World"? I hope they put one instance in Forochel, the North-West corner with the Angmarian Fortress. Always annoyed me, that I could not venture further...

Then wie have the giant animals which we have seen lurking, but could never fight. The huge glow-worm in the Mirkwood-Caves. There are two other biests in Moria which we can see, but not fight...

PS: The horseshoe is pure genius. Add an item to the game which might give an advantage or not. Have fights in the forums exploded between believers and agnostics ;)