Just wanted to let everybody know that the EU servers are up and the Book 11 patch is live for the EU customers. The house hunting is still not at full swing - not that many people verified their files still and a lot of prime property is still available. Silriel and me already bought a house and we almost missed it though - the first neighborhood we went to was completely empty and all the houses were for sale so we went house browsing and by the time we decided we wanted the first house we saw - it already got taken. We rushed to another neighborhood and luckily it was still available so from now on you can find us at Ornen, 1 Twinfall path on the Evernight (EU) server. Pics incoming soon...

We have added a new section to our Housing Guide entitled Top Properties. While looking at what house we would like to buy for ourselves we came across a plethora of property scouting information from other players on the forums and thought it would...Click here to read full

We have added a new section to our Housing Guide entitled Top Properties. While looking at what house we would like to buy for ourselves we came across a plethora of property scouting information from other players on the forums and thought it would be nice to have them all in one place. Hope it helps you snag that hot property you always wanted. We also added some new pictures and links to interactive maps. Go check them all out here.

In other (housing) news:

As you may be aware kinship houses have Huge Yard enhancement slots. It turns out you can buy your very own kinship Stone Tower and have all those lesser kinships gasp in awe at your might. The screen has been grabbed from this forum thread here.

Silriel is very excited about the new housing feature in Book 11 so she set down and compiled an article with as much information as she could dig up. First she put it in the news, but as the information started piling up she just decided to dedicate...Click here to read full

Silriel is very excited about the new housing feature in Book 11 so she set down and compiled an article with as much information as she could dig up. First she put it in the news, but as the information started piling up she just decided to dedicate a whole page to it. You can find our housing guide from now on at http://www.lotrolife.com/lotro_housing_guide/. If you have suggestions or additions to the guide please post on our forums in this topic here.

Additional Housing Brokers Provided! Due to the high level of interest in the new Housing feature of Book 11 there will be additional Housing Brokers available to help you to find and purchase your new property! These extra Brokers are in addition...Click here to read full

Additional Housing Brokers Provided!
Due to the high level of interest in the new Housing feature of Book 11 there will be additional Housing Brokers available to help you to find and purchase your new property! These extra Brokers are in addition to the Housing Brokers that are located near the entrances to the neighborhoods. There will be two additional Housing Brokers available for each neighborhood, and they will be at the following locations:

• For the Bree-land Homesteads you will find a Housing Broker just outside of The Comb and Wattle Inn in Combe, and also in the center of Staddle.
• For the Shire Homesteads you will find a Housing Broker at the Post Office in Waymeet, and also in the center of Tuckborough.
• For the Falathorn Homesteads in the Elvish lands of Ered Luin you will find a Housing Broker near the docks in Celondim and also near the Scholar's Enclave in Duillond.
• For the Thorin's Hall Homesteads in the Dwarvish lands of Ered Luin you will find a Housing Broker in the courtyard of both Noglond and Gondamon.

NOTE: These additional Housing Brokers are temporary and may depart at any time.

Are there enough houses?
As Denour (Game Systems Engineer)said:
"Just to cut the panic off at the pass, there are plenty of houses. The system is set up to roll out more houses as they are needed; this is the beauty of instanced neighborhoods.
So take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy patch day!

Prices
The small houses are about 1g to purchase, with a 55s upkeep.
The deluxe houses are about 8g and 71s per week upkeep
The Kinship houses are 15-17 gold  but purchasing limited to Kinship Rank 7 .

How to buy a house?
If the house is for sale you click on the for sale sign and buy it on the spot.
Or you can go to the vendor that is outside of the instance entrance and buy it from the vendor without seeing it first.

Where:
Dwarf housing is outside Thorin's Hall, just follow the road south of the stables.
Elf housing is just off the road between Duillond and the portal that leads to Needlehole, across the great bridge.
Man housing is south of the gobbie swamp between bree and the forsaken inn
Hobbit housing is in south farthing ... remember the shrew holes, just go a little more south of that.

Where to purchase:
Brokers can be found close to the housing areas, just outside of it, though the bree one is a bit more of a walk than the rest. Also you can enter a neighborhood and scout one. Some may have a "For Sale" sign in front of it, detailing costs and upkeep and how much stuff you can put in.

24 hour cooldown timer:
Please be aware that there is a 24 hour cooldown timer between when you first purchase a house and when you can purchase your next one. Additionally, houses are not immediately released for sale when you choose to abandon a dwelling.
Players who are in the cooldown period must simply wait for the timer to expire prior to trying again.
You can only by 1 house per account, alts could not own a house!

Additional house usage
One of the useful features is storage. A 30 slot chest. Only non-quest items can be place in the storage. You are restricted from placing BOUND items in the chest.
You also get a travel skill to map right to the door of your house. So you get another travel skill for your main character (alts might get it too at some later date).

Permissions
You can set permissions for

• Entering the home.
• Paying Upkeep.
• Accessing the storage chests.
• To manage the permissions.

This just in from Meghan Rodberg - the US community manager: "We're excited to announce that The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar' Book 11: Defenders of Eriador is now live on the LOTRO servers! Book 11 launched right on time and...Click here to read full

This just in from Meghan Rodberg - the US community manager:

"We're excited to announce that The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of
Angmar' Book 11: Defenders of Eriador is now live on the LOTRO servers!
Book 11 launched right on time and all servers are up and available. "

'nuff said

We dug this video up on YouTube. After seeing it Silriel immediately demanded from me to buy her a new house. I just wonder if she'll be letting me live in the house as well or is it just for her. Click here to read full

We dug this video up on YouTube. After seeing it Silriel immediately demanded from me to buy her a new house. I just wonder if she'll be letting me live in the house as well or is it just for her.

The patch is 1.2GB - some games are that big. Anywho, you can grab the patch through torrent and the instructions on how to apply it are here. Please note that: Once Book 11 goes live, the following step will apply: 6b. Once the files have...Click here to read full

The patch is 1.2GB - some games are that big. Anywho, you can grab the patch through torrent and the instructions on how to apply it are here. Please note that:

Once Book 11 goes live, the following step will apply:

6b. Once the files have been verified by the Launcher (around 3700 - 4000 files, which takes on average around 30 minutes) you will be presented with the login screen and then you will be able to enter your ID and password and log into the game.

It's a huge update (whooping 1.2 GB in size) and so are the patch notes. Here are some of the things I found most interesting and for the full patch notes you can go here. Introducing Housing! Houses are more than an apartment interior floating...Click here to read full

It's a huge update (whooping 1.2 GB in size) and so are the patch notes. Here are some of the things I found most interesting and for the full patch notes you can go here.

Introducing Housing!
Houses are more than an apartment interior floating in the ether. Houses in LOTRO live in gorgeously landscaped neighborhoods, complete with yards!

• Four different racially-styled homesteads, with distinctive architectural styles and environs. (A "homestead" is a style of neighborhood – Elf, Dwarf, Man, and Hobbit.)
  
• Neighborhoods can be accessed through a gateway located near Duillond, Thorin’s Hall, Michel Delving, and Bree.
  
• Options abound! Up to 250 neighborhoods are available per homestead so you can settle down near your friends!
  
• Thirty different houses per neighborhood: 4 kinship houses, 10 deluxe personal houses, and 16 standard personal houses.
  
• Over 250 decorations to mix-and-match, including paint for walls and floors, rugs, bookshelves, welcome mats, scenic paintings, even background music!

New Content:

• Continued the epic quest arc!
  
  • 13-quest arc for Book 11
  
  
• More musical instruments!

Introducing a new level 50 epic 12-player raid: The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu

• In the far northeast corner of Angmar, the Angmarim in their desperation have opened a long-sealed door and begun mining for obsidian and iron in a place simply known as The Rift. They have uncovered long since forgotten tales and evils. The Rangers of Gath Forthnír, led by the Elf-lord Iorelen, are now keeping tabs on this expedition and need your help!

Month of the Lore-master and Minstrel. Both classes get their lvl 40-50 skills filled. Lore masters get a new pet and 8 critter pets (they don't attack - just stand there and look cute - some say they are chick magnets)

- The camera position when mounting or dismounting will no longer return to its default setting. Using a mount, while mounted, will now dismount you.
- You will no longer open corpses when auto-looting if the only visible remaining items are being rolled on or assigned to someone in your Fellowship. (yay)

- Roll/Pass has been re-added as an option for fellowship looting! This is in addition to Need/Greed. The default for a new fellowship is Roll/Pass. (comment by Beleglin: now this just goes to show that if you whine enough about something the developers will surrender and go against all logic to provide you with a useless feature)

- Fixed "Feign Death" so now monsters that happen upon you while you’re playing dead will not attack. (!!!)

- Boar intestines, used for some crafting recipes, were dropping too frequently and will now drop less often. In other news, pork belly futures are through the roof! (sneaky developers with their funny comments ...)

Metalworker and Tailoring

• Over 400 new armor recipes for Dwarven, Elven, and Westernesse variants of existing craftable armor can now be found in treasure. These new recipes add a ton of visual variety to the already large list of craftable armor types.

- Avast! The hat, eye-patch and combo from "The Tale of the Shipwrecked Mariners" quest can now be dyed to be more col-arrrr-ful
- There were two rings named "Coblaiths Folly." The one from Book 10 has been renamed to "Strange Ring." No other aspects of the item have been changed. (comment by Beleglin - an original item name for sure)

- Frame rate display! Press CTRL-F to see your current frame rate. Use ctrl- and drag the display around.

- The character-generation UI now has a 'Movie Library' option. This can show all possible movies, or only those that are unlocked. Movies are unlocked whenever any character on that account views a new movie. Existing player accounts will be updated with unlocked movies (based upon previously completed quests) upon logging in.
- You can now try on items that are linked through chat in the Dressing Room. Ctrl-left-click on an item description in chat window.

- Deeds can now be added to the quest tracker. On the Deed Log, there is now a button to manually add or remove a deed from the quest tracker; and from the Main Menu, under Options, choose UI Settings, and in the Panels section there is now an option to automatically add deeds to the quest tracker.
- If you are in a fellowship, we now show the quests that are shared among other members of your fellowship in your quest journal. An icon will appear for each person that has the quest and if you mouse over the icon you will see the name of the player. If you see 5 icons, that means everyone in your fellowship has that quest underway.

- Some existing emotes have been enhanced! /look will now have you peering forward into the distance, and /lookaround will have you looking to the left (to the left) and to the right.


And the nomination for the best patch fix evah goes to:

-Our NPCs have recently attended a group therapy retreat, and you will generally find the voice-over used by our Vendors, Stable-masters, etc., to be a bit less gloomy/angry/scared.

Finally I will not get chronically depressed when speaking to NPCs.

Dear visitors, we continue our "famous" series of walkthroughs with a brand new one: Book 4 - Chasing Shadows - Walkthrough. As usual you will find all the directions, quest givers, maps, little trips and tricks and loot familiar to our...Click here to read full

Dear visitors, we continue our "famous" series of walkthroughs with a brand new one: Book 4 - Chasing Shadows - Walkthrough. As usual you will find all the directions, quest givers, maps, little trips and tricks and loot familiar to our LotRO walkthroughs.

Hope you enjoy this addition to our site and find it useful!

Our effort to create a hand drawn epic comic ground to a halt. We seriously salute the web comic community and artists out there publishing their art on a daily basis - we now know how much effort it takes. This doesn't mean we can hold back on some of the comic ideas we have and the casual comic form is a lot less demanding and fun to make. So we'll stick to what we're good at. Hope you enjoy this "comeback" comic :).

Click here to read this comic.

Our effort to create a hand drawn epic comic ground to a halt. We seriously salute the web comic community and artists out there publishing their art on a daily basis - we now know how much effort it takes. This doesn't mean we can hold back on some of the comic ideas we have and the casual comic form is a lot less demanding and fun to make. So we'll stick to what we're good at. Hope you enjoy this "comeback" comic :).

Click here to read this comic.