It’s a smaller edition of Dev Snippets to go through this week, but there’s still some little things you might want to know. So with no further delay, let’s get started.   Scaling Instance Loot List As promised last week, Verizal has posted a complete list of all loot from all the scaling instances in LOTRO. He also notes that some of the...

So we just had a mighty big bombshell dropped on us today. The yearly Executive Producers Letter, normally a brief summary of the year’s achievements and an incredibly vague hint at the next year to come, has, among other things, stated that there will be no expansion release for 2014. Take a moment for that to sink in, folks. Indeed, this news is so big...

Welcome to the first edition of Developer Snippets! In this set of articles I will be perusing the forums for any interesting Dev posts made that week and referencing them here. This week there’s a fair bit to go through, so let’s get started.   Gold HD Loot The reason I’m posting an entire thread here is because the Developer in...

NOTE: This article comes with a spoiler warning for the Helm’s Deep content. While I attempt to be as vague as possible, certain things may slip through your consciousness. Especially if you’re telepathic.   So it’s been a few days since Helm’s Deep launched. As I type this my main character, Ethelros(Surprise!) is at level 92 and...

The release notes for the downtime announced recently have been…. released. Notable changes for this patch are the return of some side objectives to the Deeping Coomb Epic Battle, Housing Chests will no longer devour Unique items(already lost items will be returned at a later date) and the interface issue of people being directed to buy HD when they...

Today Turbine announced a server hotfix tomorrow on the 22nd November: The LOTRO servers will be brought down on Friday, November 22 from 7:00AM – 10:00AM Eastern time (-5 GMT) for a hotfix to the game. Release notes will be made available during the down time.

When the Riders of Rohan expansion was announced, one of the major things that got me excited about it was the music which was to be composed by Chance Thomas(the man behind a lot of other music in LOTRO). With Helm’s Deep he was not invited to compose again, for whatever reason, Turbine instead electing to have the music created in-house. Having heard a...

We’ve had a lot of community generated videos lately. In this article is a list of Helm’s Deep Beta preview videos created for each class, and their respective authors: Burglar: http://lotroplayers.mymiddleearth.com/2013/11/09/helms-deep-burglar-a-first-look/By Pineleaf Captain:...

Here we have the next in the line of class preview videos being created by the LOTRO community. This one is done by LOTROChris, and in it he covers the changes and the trait trees for the Guardian class! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPr-YxWbHZo

Having seen others making preview videos of their own class changes for Helm’s Deep, I decided to take a crack at it myself. Bear in mind this is the first video I’ve ever made by myself, so don’t expect incredible quality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJyA8wXqN24

Today Turbine has released their latest Dev Diary; this one covering the landscape and story of West Rohan as a whole. In this edition the devs talk about the ‘Big T’, that is to say getting involved with major Tolkien characters, locations and events. When it comes to West Rohan they are more in sync with the books than they have ever been before,...

Today IGN released a video containing an interview with some of Turbine’s developers.  They explain how the Epic Battles system started out, the thought process and the technology behind it. Later on they run through a couple of the Epic Battles, explaining the various aspects of them. If you’re still unsure of how Epic Battles function and how they...

The superb LOTRO community has been produced yet another video today talking about the major class changes coming with Helm’s Deep. This one is by Cithryth, and covers the changes affecting the Captain class. She compares the Live version of the Captain to the one currently in Beta and walks you through the new trait tree...

Today the  LOTRO YouTuber known as Kazcovall released a video detailing the Rune-Keeper changes for the upcoming Helm’s Deep expansion. He covers all three pure builds(Healing, Lightning and Fire), testing them out in the small group area of the Great River, the Limlight Gorge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La3GUUHVdsc

Today Turbine has posted another community update on their Youtube channel:   In the video Sapience thanks everyone who attended his Extralife livestream, including his gameplay on Crickhollow and Elendilmir. He also announces that Team Turbine has raised over $55,000 in donations for Extralife, their largest amount ever! He then goes on to talk about the...

Today Turbine has posted a thread in the forums detailing which LI legacies will be discontinued on the launch of Helm’s Deep. As the Blue name points out, this is done to avoid people buying legacies in the Store that may change to something undesirable a few weeks later. They also state that all to-be-discontinued legacies will be automatically...

Turbine has made yet another attempt to get people leveling, as we come ever closer to the launch date of Helm’s Deep. This time, they have come up with an interesting contest. How it works is that from 28th October up to 10th November, every level your character(s) achieves between 60 and 85 will give you one entry. Characters that are level 85 before...

As is Turbine tradition, every year they open up a contest for all of their games, giving rewards to the best entries that send in a photograph of a pumpkin carving with the theme of their particular game. This includes a contest for LOTRO, which will be running from 24th October up until 3rd November. There some requirements to compete in this contest, which...

Today Turbine released their usual desktop wallpapers for this quarter of the year. Focus this time around is on the upcoming Helm’s Deep expansion, as you might expect. Below are the three wallpapers created for this quarter. They come in various resolution sizes, as well as with or without calendars.

Turbine has released another of their Community Updates, this one with Sapience in full Dwarf helm and beard:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drOdJPVU3V0   In this edition Sapience goes on to thank everyone who has donated to Turbine’s Extralife campaign, which recently broke $20,000 in donations. He also talks about the Fall Festival, which...