Tournaments & Events are new community features coming to LOTRO this fall. Similar to a public quest system or challenge system, Tournaments will offer a variety of events and competitions for those who wish to participate. Players who participate in Tournaments may win community renown, badges for display on player profile pages at mylotro.com, or even in-game items, gold, or Skirmish Marks!

How Do I Join?
Keep an eye on mylotro.com/tournaments for a list of upcoming events along with the information you’ll need to participate. Every event will have at least one round with a start and end time, along with an activity that players must complete to qualify for the round. Once the event begins, simply do the action required and we’ll automatically enter your character in the event – there’s nothing else you need to do.

[More details]

Turbine released a set of new screenshots about upcoming F2P model. If you are waiting for a sneak peak on a character creation or locked quests take a look at the new screenshots.

Elf	Elf	Dwarf
Dwarf	Hobbit	Locked Quest
Locked Quest	Locked Quest	Locked Quest
Vip Account

This Friday Codemasters Anniversary Raid winners will be making their way to Codemasters HQ to take part in a live raid with the Codemasters team – the daunting and intensely challenging Lieutenant of Dol Guldur raid!

Codemasters will be live streaming the raid out to the internet so you can come and watch in glorious victory or crushing defeat. There will be live commentary too to help you follow the action.

To watch, you’ll need to visit Codemasters special live stream web page. Raid coverage will commence at approximately 2.00pm, (GMT+1/UK time).

Codemasters 'll also be taking comments and questions during the raid. Codemasters'll be taking the questions via LOTRO Europe Twitter channel.

For those who have been wondering about the amount of content being released with Enedwaith, here are a few highlights:

• New contiguous landscape moving south from Eregion.
• More quests than the North Downs (previously holding the record for most quest content outside of Moria), many heavily influenced by Old Welsh folklore and Tolkien-lore.
• More deeds than the North Downs.
• Twelve almost completely revised instance dungeons/raids from Shadows of Angmar, level-scaled and added to Instance Join with new rewards available at higher levels (effectively making these completely new experiences).
• More new and unique art per square meter than Moria (relative to the space, mind you!).
• Two new Reputation factions.
• Small Fellowship quests.
• A large Epic Book, including some very special instance quests.

Amon Min	Cuthraul	Druggavar
Dunlendingscout	Elhudan	Fordirith
Gwiber	Harndirion	Kings Way Gate
Nars Peak	Shadow-wolf	The Lich Bluffs
Uch-luth Clansman	Whitestag	Lotro Vol3 Book2 Map
Oldwoman

Fordirith: The first division you will enter from Eregion is named Fordirith, the Northern Watch (is named in Sindarin). The primary theme of Fordirith is the passage of the Grey Company into the South, scouting the most secret route possible. Completely new art for Dunlending Deserters and Shadow-wolves. Besides the standard landscape quest fare, Fordirith boasts two instance quests featuring the Dunlendings and Shadow-wolves.

Windfells: As players come down from the hills of Fordirith, they will find themselves in a windswept valley. New monsters in Windfells: Cuthraul, Druggavar, Cun Annun. The entire story of the Windfells leads up to a capstone instance quest beyond Gwyllion’s Gate. Besides the Draig-luth, ordinary wolves, and crebain, players will encounter several new creatures in the Windfells, complete with new art and abilities

Gloomglens: The North-South Roads runs north from Dunland through Enedwaith and into the Windfells, where it turns somewhat westward into the Gloomglens. The Gloomglens features two instance quests, including a new boss monster.

The Mournshaws are a vale of strange and gloomy trees and marshy lands, fraught with mystery. The Mournshaws are a forest haunted by the savage Cun Annun and great Wood-trolls, but also by the ghostly Elhudan. The Mournshaws feature several instance quests revolving around the Wild Huntsman and the Lords of the Forest.

Nan Laeglin: The rolling hills of Nan Laeglin are home to the Uch-luth and the now extinct Turch-luth. Nan Laeglin features a story-based instance which culminates in the success or failure of the Grey Company’s efforts in Lhanuch.

The Lich Bluffs: This grim place is a great burial ground, not unlike the Barrow-downs of Bree-land. There are three instance quests in the Lich Bluffs, two of which deal with the tragic story of the Oathbreakers who dwell here, and a third that brings forth a previously unrevealed member of an ancient order intent upon raising his terrible army.

Thror’s Coomb: In the eastern reaches of Enedwaith, nestled in the snowy arms of the Misty Mountains, lies Thror’s Coomb
From deep within the Misty Mountains, a fearsome breed of drake known as the gwiber have come forth to nest among the crags of Thror’s Coomb.
Thror’s Coomb features both solo and small fellowship content, including an instance which pits players against the Draig-luth in an effort to free the captive Algraig people.

[Source]

A few days ago casualstrolltomordor.com had a special guest on Stuncast episode 5 - Meghan "Patience" Rodberg. In this interview Meghan announced implementation of LUA scripting in Lotro. This script will allow players to create add-ons for the game. Immediately after this information was publicized, Lotro Fans started a discussion about this idea on the official lotro forums . Since the reaction was very diverse, Frelon has decided to throw some light on the subject:

We wanted to clarify a few things about the potential implementation of LUA scripting. As it stands right now, the LUA scripting ability is completely controlled by us and its use is limited.

The Framework API, which controls what can and cannot be done, is separated into two main functional areas. The Framework API provides the basic structure of the scripts (classes), UI creation (windows, buttons, images, etc.), and a controlled setting to receive input, events, and actions generated by the game. The Gameplay API provides access to internal gameplay systems. The first pass of the gameplay API includes access to your own character's vitals, the ability to interface with quickslots, and the methods for interacting with items in your inventory.

So what does this all mean? Right now, given the limitations we have in place, the “plugins” players can create are restricted to the above Gameplay API areas. They can change some of your UI elements, add built in HUDS and allow for things like a travel panel or a single window inventory bag. Our intent is to not allow players to make “plugins” that will give them any kind of advantage over other players. The main idea here is that LUA allows the players the ability to customize their user interface the way they want to.

We are going to handle things very carefully as we move forward; to be very clear, LUA Scripting is still in the early stages of testing and we don’t yet have a date for when the system will go live.

[Frelorn]

Keep in mind it might NOT launch with Volume III if it's not ready!
[Meghan]

Keeping my eyes on the recent Lotro videos I came across this awesome HD video - Collection of mounts. This video includes 27 horses and goats currently available in LOTRO. As Eldarond stated in the video description: all graphic settings are the highest possible, antialiasing 8x, DirectX10, on Windows7 64-bit.

[Eldarond]

Some of you might be aware that for the past month there was this little thing called the World Cup in Football that was held in South Africa. Some of you might also be aware of the final game being played last night, thus ending a month long production of the most annoying sound in the universe - the one produced by Vuvuzela horns. To celebrate this occasion (and the win of Spain - well done) I present you with:

Via senorgif.

The Haunted Cellar is a new feature that we can expect in the Shire during the fall festival. Several quests will be associated with it. The ghostly atmosphere will be enhanced with hidden doors, scared hobbits, treasure chests and scary decorations.

[Massively]

This weekend if you log in to my.lotro.com and visit your character page to sign up you have a great chance to win a Symbol of Celebrimbor, Medallions from across Middle-earth, Skirmish Marks or other great items. Lotteries start at random times all weekend long, so check back often. If you need any help check out Russeldog's Visual Guide to the Lotteries.

Every Lotro player has his favorite class that fits him perfectly. If you are also creative and not afraid to try different things you'll be able to discover amazing moments of this beautiful game which will help you to completely understand your class. When you reach experience of thousands of hours of gaming it's time to share your tips and tricks with new players. Today, we talk about Burglar class through several tips and tricks:

1. Don't just run in and melee. You need to set up your attacks before you strike
2. Use provoke as much as possible when a target is on the tank, especially in the beginning of the battle.
3. Don't forget to HIPS every 10 minutes to get your leafwalker trait
4. Try to educate yourself on Fellowship Maneuvers
5. Provoke and counter defense are good low cost skills to fill out a rotation.
6. Traited counter defense is also a huge dps boost. Not only does it leave most enemies unable to block/parry/evade, it also raises your chance to crit that enemy
7. Watch out for the animation times.
8. Use judgement with your bleed skills.
9. Most of your crit response skills eat a lot of power.
10. Exploit Opening is not just for starting FMs. When playing solo it is also a useful stun to let you get behind your target for a couple seconds.
11. Cooked food and trail food are your friends, along with power and moral potions
12. Use two weapons at all times.
13. Craft or buy at AH throwing daggers or axes.
14. Enter mischief if you expect to be in a prolonged battle. Riddle and mischief mode combined are one of the most potent combos available.
15. Read the forums and learn from the experience of the Burglars that have come before you. Some of these people have answers to questions you'll never even think to ask.

[Source]