All servers are now available following the December 6 patch! The following changes were made to the game:

UI

• Items (like Legendary Book pages) will no longer have truncated names in tooltips.
• Fixed a bug which would periodically cause Housing Storage Containers to become inaccessible.
• Corrected a bug in the Auction House UI where an auction's time remaining could appear to oscillate.

Quests

• The "Aid from the Rangers" quest in the Ettenmoors should be fixed. Ranger and Troll session play are once again available.*
• The "Mushrooms for Rivendell" quest can now be advanced when you are in a Raid group.
• Rift chests will now remain in the world for 1 hour after the chest has first been opened.
• We've addressed an issue where players would be killed on entering Gorthban after the death of the Balrog, Thaurlach.

Misc.

• Fixed a stuck in combat issue when fighting creatures that despawn during combat (for instance, trolls that disappear when day breaks).

Graphics

• Fixed a stability issue triggered by changing graphics settings.
• Fixed a visual glitch that could appear when opening a dropdown menu for the first time under DirectX 10.
• Performance improvements made to DirectX 10 Dynamic Shadows.

* Please note that if you are one of the small number of players who encountered a problem entering Ranger play immediately after the last patch, you may still be unable to access Ranger play. We are still working on a fix for this.

The LOTRO Lorebook is a useful resource for players seeking information about anything in the game, from creatures and items to characters and locations! One way to fully maximize its utility is by using the Advanced Search feature, which allows you...Click here to read full

The LOTRO Lorebook is a useful resource for players seeking information about anything in the game, from creatures and items to characters and locations! One way to fully maximize its utility is by using the Advanced Search feature, which allows you to search by category even if you don’t know the exact keywords for your search Instead of entering text, you can start your search by selecting one of the categories in the Advanced Search panel, which is located beneath the Basic Search box:



Categories include Weapons, Armor, Quests, Deeds, Traits, NPCs, and Recipes. Each category permits you to select and input as much, or as little, information for a query as you like; you don’t even have to enter text into the text fields in order to perform a search!




For example, if you were looking for Tier 2 Scholar recipes you would:

1. Click on Advanced Search
   
2. Click on the Recipe Category
   
3. Click on the checkbox next to Tier 2
   
4. Click on the checkbox for the Scholar profession
   
5. Click Submit!

As you can see, the Lorebook returns a list of 16 different Tier 2 Scholar recipes. To learn more about each recipe, all you need to do is to click on the title. By clicking on "Fire-oil Recipe" you’ll see more information about the recipe:



Keep in mind, searches returning greater than 2000 entries will require you to narrow the scope of your search. If you’re still not sure about the text description, you can further narrow your search by selecting more choices. If your search for Tier 2 recipes for Scholars returned too many articles, you could try selecting one of the Usage options – Unlimited or One time use - to help reduce the volume of entries. Try it for yourself and see!

You know what is the hurting the world economy most? YouTube of course. So go back to work ... right after you see this video. Click here to read full

You know what is the hurting the world economy most? YouTube of course. So go back to work ... right after you see this video.

We attended the dev chat with the members of the LotRO dev team hosted by mmorpg.com. You can find the transcript here: http://www.lotrolife.com/dev_chat_4_12_07/ Here are some more interesting stuff discussed: Beorhtigall  "will...Click here to read full

We attended the dev chat with the members of the LotRO dev team hosted by mmorpg.com. You can find the transcript here:

http://www.lotrolife.com/dev_chat_4_12_07/

Here are some more interesting stuff discussed:

Beorhtigall  "will you expand and surprise us with upgrades to areas we already have? new quests and more areas to enter from the books?"

[LOTRO]Annuvin Well, it's funny you should mention that.  We completely revisited a region of the game for Book 12, and it plays wildly differently.  As for more places/areas from the books, I think it is safe to say that you will be pleased with 2008... oh yes... you will be quite, quite, happy.

TheBob  "What are Turbines plans to minimize game-wide outages such as those that affected LoTRO and DDO last week?"
[LOTRO]Patience Hi Bob - you had to remind me. I was trying to block that out. :D Monday's outage was caused by a problem with our SAN following an upgrade, and yesterday's outage was a hardware failure; also in the SAN, but unrelated to Monday's outage. In both cases we are evaluating our response and recovery procedures to minimize impact on the customers when the unexpected occurs.
[LOTRO]Patience I think most of our players will agree that we take downtime very seriously and will continue to do everything in our power to prevent it, and if it does occur, we'll do our best to make sure we're communicating every step of the way with our players until we're back up.

Verderuso "Yourquestionhere Hello, I wanted to know if we are getting new hairsyles or new faces in book 12. Thanks :)"
[LOTRO]Annuvin Book 12 is all about customization...  and what fun would we have without the "moh-ullet", a vintage Middle-Earth haircut? (punk in the front, party in the back)
[LOTRO]Annuvin So... yes, there will be more haircuts in the future.  ;)

Daesan "I'm curious if we'll be seeing any other large areas like Evendim opening up in further updates, or if the next few updates will only consist of adding small areas with instances. I could assume that Rohan will most likely be released as part of an expansion, but what about Moria?"
[LOTRO]Ringleader You will absolutely see new regions/areas added to LOTRO during upcoming updates.  In fact we are working on such a region as we speak.
[LOTRO]Ringleader To your other question, Moria is someyyrow985-243876-2kndvjali6]n[uwbvgc;xoir7y1-yfvbnaskjhvbhla
[LOTRO]Ringleader [Our sincere apologies - this message has been altered by Turbine MarketBots]

And my favorites:

deth2munkies[LoSS] "Are all the responses that start with "Funny you should ask" prewritten? :P"
[LOTRO]Annuvin Funny you should ask
[LOTRO]Patience Funny you should ask...
[LOTRO]Ringleader Funny U should ask!
[LOTRO]Patience No, they're not :D We're just glad you asked, lol

Dordrac  "Any new zones being released in books 13, 14 or 15? And what about any small instances in book 12?"
 [LOTRO]Annuvin Funny you should ask..
[LOTRO]Patience Funny you should ask...
[LOTRO]Ringleader Funny you should ask!
[LOTRO]Ringleader  YES!

Can we expect to see the release of Book 12 before Xmas? Is it true that warg players are going to be able to carry orc players on their backs, in stealth, in the PvMP zones in the future? If the barber shop will only change the hair of our...Click here to read full

Can we expect to see the release of Book 12 before Xmas?
Is it true that warg players are going to be able to carry orc players on their backs, in stealth, in the PvMP zones in the future?
If the barber shop will only change the hair of our characters?
Do Guardians get some nice skills and whats the situation around hunter? ....

And many more questions and answers you can read in new
Dev Chat!

Our buddy from glenneroo.org informed us of the latest updates to his famous LotRO music guide. Here's what he had to say about it: "I've spent a great deal of time updating the site recently. Added tons of new music as well as a lot of...Click here to read full

Our buddy from glenneroo.org informed us of the latest updates to his famous LotRO music guide. Here's what he had to say about it:

"I've spent a great deal of time updating the site recently. Added tons
of new music as well as a lot of older ones categorized into difficulty
ratings (though i still need help on this!), improved the printer
friendliness a lot and updated a boatload of information with respect to
the latest patches."

Do visit http://lotro.glenneroo.org/music.html to read this excellent guide.

Few days ago I saw this thread. This lovely Axe is rare drop from Steven Cold Bear in Helegrod. Everyone would like to have this Axe, but the most original reply wrote Infares: So how does a giant bear have an axe? Is it like, embedded within its...Click here to read full

Few days ago I saw this thread. This lovely Axe is rare drop from Steven Cold Bear in Helegrod. Everyone would like to have this Axe, but the most original reply wrote Infares:

So how does a giant bear have an axe? Is it like, embedded within its rump region as you're fighting it from a previous victim?

I want this Axe too! :-(

WARNING EXPLICIT LYRICS (not for children of age 7 or so) The geniuses behind this are called Lords of the Rhymes. You can find their web site and CD at http://www.lordsoftherhymes.com/Click here to read full

WARNING EXPLICIT LYRICS (not for children of age 7 or so)



The geniuses behind this are called Lords of the Rhymes. You can find their web site and CD at

http://www.lordsoftherhymes.com/

Champion features in Book12 include but are not limited to: A new stance available at low levels with effects somewhere between Fervour and Glory. Some power and pip generation but no damage bonus. Parry/Evade are penalized but not...Click here to read full

Champion features in Book12 include but are not limited to:

• A new stance available at low levels with effects somewhere between Fervour and Glory. Some power and pip generation but no damage bonus. Parry/Evade are penalized but not de-activated.
  
• Glory moved to mid-level. Threat bonus slightly increased and damage penalty slightly decreased. Pip generation added, but power regen bonus decreased.
  
• Sudden Defence will be useable in Fervour stance. It will suppress the effects of Fervour until Sudden Defense's duration is over.
  
• Melee Critical Passive Traits Tier 3 and Tier 4 added.
  
• Hedge will dispel disarm and grant short term immunity to being disarmed.
  
• The Ire skills are getting an upgrade.

forums.lotro.com/showthread.php

Codemasters Online are pleased to announce that The Lord of the Rings Online has been nominated for Voodoo Extreme’s RPG of the Year award! With the success of the Golden Joysticks behind us – we're absolutely ecstatic to be nominated for...Click here to read full

Codemasters Online are pleased to announce that The Lord of the Rings Online has been nominated for Voodoo Extreme’s RPG of the Year award! With the success of the Golden Joysticks behind us – we're absolutely ecstatic to be nominated for yet another award.

Head on over to the Voodoo Extreme website to cast your vote.
Codemasters Online would like to thank all dedicated gamers for their nominations and continual support.