The latest free content update, Volume II, Book 7: Leaves of Lorien is live! For an overview of the Known Issues click here.

New Lothlorien area, Crafting instances,  12-man raid and Galadhrim horse are just some of the things that we can expect  to see tomorrow (US players) or few days later on 26th March (EU players). In the meantime take a look at the new mobs and bosses in Book 7. We would like to thank Hellfanger for all screenshots.

In Official  Release Notes Volume 2 Book 7 we've find out about new Self-revive Mechanic:

Players may now revive themselves in place, via a button on the user interface window when a character is defeated, instead of retreating. This feature is disabled in instances, during Monster Play and after instant defeat.

• At levels 1 through 9, characters will have a 30 minute cooldown (shown via a "Revived" effect) that prevents them from reviving again.
• At level 10, when the character receives the "Journeyman" characteristic, the revive cooldown increases to 1 hour.
• At level 40, when the character receives the "Heroic" characteristic, the self revive cooldown increases to 2 hours.

Also,  Jalessa has pointed out:

You'll come back with 20% power and morale. You'll also have the standard dread/item wear applied per a normal death.

The downloadable updater means you can download our latest content update before it goes live on the Turbine servers, saving you time when they come back up on March 17th. It also means you can download the patch on a computer that you don't have LOTRO installed on (i.e. your work computer), transfer the patch to a disk or device, and then run it on the computer with a LOTRO client to update it.

The downloadable updater will download the files needed to update your client to Volume II, Book 7: Leaves of Lorien. After you've updated your client, when the servers go live with Volume II, Book 7 your client will apply the patch and update itself.

Additional notes:

• This patch will only work for those whose clients are current as of today (March 13).
• New players will need to install the game and patch through the normal patching process before applying this update!
• TDM users do not need to install this update. Your client will automatically patch on launch day.
• This file will ONLY patch the North America/AU/NZ version of the LOTRO client. If you try to apply it to the EU version, you'll get an error message.

The full patch is approximately 925MB in total. It's available via the following methods:
Direct Download (.exe)
Dowload via .torrent

Turbine has announced a new 12-man Raid:

Daring players will be drawn down into the depths of the Waterworks of Moria to investigate "strange happenings" there. Once you have unlocked the gate, it will take teamwork and strategy with eleven of your friends to defeat the corrupt creature within!

We have exclusively, thanks to Hellfanger again, some more information about this raid from Beta Book 7:

"They will be releasing a 12-man Pre-Watcher raid against the giant turtle Nornuan - 700k HP turtle. This raid rewards second ages, and so far some radiance pieces (non-set pieces, but still give +1 hope regardless). Basically, a transition raid into The Watcher raid".

Turbine has officially announced that Book 7: Leaves of Lorien will be launched on their live servers on 17th March, 2009.
Codemasters is currently anticipating a release date of 26th March, 2009.

Read Official Release Notes Volume 2 Book 7

During the last few days we've been talking about Burglar, Minstrel and Lore-Master changes and armours. Now is time for the new class Rune-Keeper. Find out more about upcoming changes for Rune-keeper in Book 7 and take a look at new Rune-keeper's armour.

• Book 7 Rune-Keeper Changes
• Book 7 Rune-Keeper Armours

Latest US Dev Chat March 11 2009

• Any chances that 2nd Age weapons could go into a barter system like Khuzdul Tablets and Rusted Dwarf Tools?
• Are 1st Age weapons going to be available anywhere besides the Watcher in book 7?
• Are we gonna get any new uses for the crafting mats we can collect with the new craftinstances that we get in book 7?

Continue reading

Few days ago Turbine has announced Volume II: Book 7: Leaves of Lorien release notes, and today we can read new Bullroar Patch notes

Gameplay

• Based on player feedback we’ve rearranged the level spacing between our four gradients of weapons, enabling our highest tier of weapons to gain a larger slice of the DPS pie.
• Boss monsters in Moria are now immune to slows. This does not include the Hunter Quick Shot effect while in strength stance.

Continue reading ...

Today, we've got something new for Lore-Masters

• Book 7 Lore-Master Changes
• Book 7 New Lore-Master Sets