Zombie Columbus has released another Developer Diary - Skirmish System Part 2 that we can expect with new Lotro digital expansion Siege of Mirkwood. This time the main discussion is about skirmishes and battles for Middle-earth. Some of the main points are:

• Skirmishes will  have pre-existing locations around Middle-earth (like The Prancing Pony)
• The Control Point is identified by a banner flying over them: Red banner indicates the control point is in the hands of the enemy while green banner means the point is controlled by the Free Peoples
• Skirmishes can be replayed
• New Skirmish-join UI
• Some skirmishes will be a part of the Epic book

Find out more

Latest Developer Diary is dedicated to Legendary Item System that was introduced in Mines of Moria. This revision of the Legendary Item system incorporates most of the feedback Turbine team has received about Legendary Items from Lotro community.

Continue reading Developer Diary: Legendary Item System Updates

• For starters, there will be a horse available to players at level 20 (level 15 for founders with a Bree Horse). It's slower than the level 35 horse, but far less expensive as well.
• The Lone Lands are being revamped completely.
• And the current plan is to make Skirmishes accessible at level 30.

[Source]

Last news for today is related to new Lotro Harbinger's Cloak. The cloak is exclusive to the pre-order. You'll get it in game, immediately, when you pre-order. But it also has a bug -you cannot dye it. According to floon it will be fixed. We would like to thank jayspeed for the screenshot.

Cloak

Harbinger's cloak

All players can pre-order the new LOTRO Adventurer’s Pack which contains:

• 2 character slots and one shared storage slot that allows players to share items with all of their characters on the same server for $19.99
• the Harbinger’s Cloak which provides 8% speed boost and the Dusky Nimblefoot Goat mount for FREE!

If you're not sure what is free and what's not, and what should do multi-month and life time subscribers, take a look at the answers that we collected on the forum:

• The cloak is exclusive to the pre-order. You'll get it in game, immediately, when you pre-order.
• The Goat in the $39.99 package is the same goat included in the Adventurer's pack in the $19.99 offer. [source]

• Does a person with a life time subscription get SoM free automatically or do they have to buy the Adverturer's Pack?
  You'll need to pre-order the Adventurer's Pack to get SoM for free, or you can buy it separately. But it does not come with a lifetime subscription on its own.[source]

• You'll get SoM for free if your multi-month plan is active when Mirkwood goes live. [source]
  If you are already on a 3 month plan and renew it, you'll get Siege of Mirkwood for free. Then you'd just pay $20 for the Adventurer's Pack! [source]

• Something about goat:
  You will need riding proficiency to use the Goat. That means you must have done the Level 35 mount quests. If you've done that, you can use the goat immediately.
  The goat is for all characters on your account. Even if you make a new character a year from now, that character will get it. [source]
  Goat: You get this when SoM Launches.[source]

Lotro mount system gets better and better.The new mount system will allow you to use certain skills and emotes while riding as well interact with NPCs! As Turbine team has announced in the latest Developer Diary this update focused on making mounts more enjoyable to use rather than adding all new functionality.

Find out more about new mount system 2.0

While information about Skirmishes System are still coming, Zombie Columbus has unveiled most of details in the latest Developer Diary: SoM Skirmishes: Overview.

Skirmishes are short, accessible, randomized, scalable, story instances with incremental rewards. Why Skirmishes became this can best be explained by discussing what the designer's goals for the system are. Everything we added to Skirmishes was done with a high level "vision" in mind.

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Turbine announced that The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood the new digital expansion to the 2008 MMO of the Year will launch on December 1st in North America. Turbine also unveiled The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) Adventurer’s Pack which contains what every player needs to survive in the chaos of Mirkwood! Siege of Mirkwood and the LOTRO Adventurer’s Pack are scheduled to launch on December 1, 2009.

SIEGE OF MIRKWOOD PRE-LAUNCH OFFERS
Starting today, players can take advantage of several special pre-launch offers to celebrate the release of the second expansion to LOTRO:

• The LOTRO Lifetime Membership is now available for $199.
• Any current or former player who renews or upgrades their subscription to any multi-month plan by October 31st gets the Siege of Mirkwood digital expansion for FREE!
• All players can pre-order the new LOTRO Adventurer’s Pack which contains 2 character slots and one shared storage slot that allows players to share items with all of their characters on the same server for $19.99 and get the Harbinger’s Cloak which provides 8% speed boost and the Dusky Nimblefoot Goat mount for FREE!
• Starting today, existing Lifetime Members who pre-order the LOTRO Adventurer’s Pack get the Siege of Mirkwood digital expansion plus two in-game items (Harbinger’s Cloak which provides an 8% speed boost and a new mount) for FREE!

These special offers will be available for a limited time

Source

Over the last few days Turbine team has been announcing new Developer Diary that will explain all of the changes and improvements to the system that we can expect in new digital Lotro expansion Siege of Mirkwood. In the meantime some of details have been unveiled.

Find out more...

Hall of Mirrors is one of the most challenging instances for Lotro players. If you have troubles with this instance you should read this guide based on tips and tricks collected by Ragnborg. We have also added the loot list in this guide. If you have any  tips or tricks, let us know and we will share it with Lotro community.

Hall of Mirrors Instance Tips by Ragnborg.