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 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 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.

We just wanted to let you know that our Rare Components Recipes List has been updated with the latest components including the ones from the latest patches. It is still one of the best resources for those crafters out there so be sure to check it out and bookmark it because we will keep updating it in the future.

Codemasters Online and Turbine, Inc. announced the details of the third free content update for subscribers to The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™. Book 11: Defenders of Eriador continues the epic story of The Lord of the Rings Online adding over 100 new quests, a new 12-player raid, two new areas in Middle-earth and introduces the player housing system. Book 11: Defenders of Eriador will be available to European subscribers of The Lord of the Rings Online on October 25, 2007.

"The Lord of the Rings Online has quickly become the hottest online game of the year," said Jeffrey Steefel, the Executive Producer. "Book 11 is our most ambitious update yet. We continue to define the standard in interactive storytelling with the next chapter of our epic story and introduce a wealth of new content including the housing system, which will give players the opportunity to live in their own home in Middle-earth!"

NEW FEATURES:

• The Epic Continues! - Amarthiel has lost the Palantir, but not before using it to discover a clue to the location of Narchuil, the ancient Ring she lost at the Battle of Fornost. She turns her gaze eastward seeking to recover the Ring while the Dunedain find themselves with only one way to halt her advance. Calenglad believes that Mordrambor, the Black
  Numenorean held prisoner by the Dunedain, may be the key to ending Amarthiel’s ambitions.
• Player Housing - Players can now live in their own home in Middle-earth! Housing choices from four different neighborhoods - be it a majestic home overlooking a waterfall in Ered Luin, or a cozy hobbit-hole in the Shire. Kinship Halls provide plenty of space for groups to gather after a long day of adventuring. All homes provide the option of additional storage and can be customized inside and out with hundreds of unique items.
• Two New Areas - Players can now explore even more of Middle-earth. Tâl Bruinen is an extension of the Trollshaws where players can see Gollum for the first time in The Lord of the Rings Online. Players can also trek to the High Pass in the Misty Mountains to combat fierce snowstorms and visit Goblin-town, the famous site where Bilbo Baggins was captured in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
• Raid-"The Rift" - The Lord of the Rings Online’s second raid will be introduced in Book 11. This 12-player epic takes you through many new dangers in the Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu to face a fearsome Balrog.
• New Musical Instruments - Book 11 brings more enhancements to our popular music system. Players can now entertain others with one of three new instruments including the Bagpipe and Cowbell.
• Over 100 New Quests - The story continues for players as they aid the Fellowship and encounter new adventures.

Welcome to the Month of the Minstrel! It’s the Minstrel’s turn in the spotlight, as we reach the latest part of our continued updates and additions to all of the classes in LOTRO. To identify the aspects of the Minstrel class we should focus on, we referenced player feedback, data collection, and our own experiences, and decided on the high-level goals of increasing a Minstrel’s ability to play solo, diversifying a Minstrel’s buffing/support role, examining and improving healing, and adding some fun treats for our players. These goals were addressed by adding new skills, modifying existing skills and traits, and by adding new items to the game.

Solo Play:

Minstrels have always been most effective while supporting other players, but haven’t been at the top of their game when playing alone. We gave them some abilities that will let them solo better.

• New Skill: War-Speech - This skill is the first in the new "Words of War" skill category. It is a toggled stance that powers up both "Piercing Cry" and "Chant of the Oathbreaker", but decreases a Minstrel’s ability to heal. In addition, it limits usage of two other powerful skills. The overall intention of this skill is to give the ability to defeat monsters faster to those players who are comfortable with the amount of damage they are taking. While in Fellowships, most Minstrels will want to keep this power toggled off, but if there are multiple healers available, the Minstrel may wish to begin chanting words of war!
• New Skill: Call to the Elder King - Gated behind War-Speech, this call to the chief of the Valar will damage your foes and make them more susceptible to further attacks.
• New Skill: Call to the Second Age - Gated behind War-Speech, this call to ages past will greatly damage your foes and increase the movement rate of your Fellowship.
• New Skill: Chant of the Oathbreaker - This skill calls upon the spectral weapon of an Oathbreaker to harry a foe. It will deal damage and decrease the foe’s resistance to Songs and Cries. While in War-Speech, the damage and resistance debuff will increase. This skill is intended to be a new hallmark of a Minstrel. Using it in solo play will increase the speed at which you can defeat foes and make more of your Ballads connect. In group play, your tanking allies will appreciate the resistance debuff, which will make their taunts fail less frequently.
• New Items: Damage-type Instruments – New instruments have been added to crafting and reputation which will change Chant of the Oathbreaker’s damage type.

Buffing/Support:
The buffs of a Minstrel are strong and varied already. We wanted to provide more options without turning the Minstrel into a primary buffer, so the new skills added tend to have longer cooldowns and very potent effects. This way, while the skills are strong, they cannot be used often.

• Trait: Strength of Voice - This trait now increases the duration of all ballad buffs.
• Skill Revamp: Song of Aid - The combat events that this skill triggers now only show up on a class if it benefits that class. No longer will Guardians gain critical events, nor will Burglars gain block events.
• Skill Revamp: Tale of Heroism - This skill was made into a proper aura toggle skill, and is joined by two new aura skills, only one of which may be used at a time. A power upkeep cost was added to the Tales to emphasize that the Minstrel, while a strong buffer, must work more than other classes to maintain such effects.
• New Skill: Tale of Battle - A new aura in the Tale family, this increases Vitality and Wound Resistance.
• New Skill: Tale of Warding - A new addition to the Tale family, this aura increases Armour and Hope.
• New Skill: Call to the Fellowship - A shout to your whole Fellowship that increases the effectiveness of your next Fellowship Manoeuvre.
• New Skill: Call to Greatness - A word of power that bestows a class-specific buff on a target. Each class gains 15 seconds of benefit in a way that helps them. For example, a Call to Champions gives an immediate defeat event (to activate skills like Red Haze) and two Fervor pips. For the next 15 seconds, a point of Fervor will be granted every 5 seconds.

Healing:
Minstrels are, without a doubt, the kings of healing in LOTRO. We’re very happy with the amount of morale a Minstrel can restore and the amount of time it takes them to restore it. No new heal-over-time skills will be added, since the Captain is more focused on morale-over-time, and the Minstrel up-front heals. We also feel that the power cost of that restoration is too low at higher levels.

• Skill Revamp: Healing skills – We’ve increased the cost of healing skills at higher levels. No change has been made to lower-level players, but at a high level, the costs increase.
• New Skill: Chord of Salvation - The Minstrel now has an instant cast heal! Chord of Salvation heals more than Raise the Spirit but less than Bolster Courage. However, the price for being an instant cast skill is higher power usage, and a 30-second cooldown.
• New Skill: Gift of the Hammerhand - Minstrels can now put a shield on an ally, similar to their own Lay of the Hammerhand. This skill makes incoming damage reduce Power instead of Morale. The shield is instant cast, so combined with Chord of Salvation, a Minstrel can very quickly save a fellow who is about to fall.

Fun Stuff!
It's fun stuff, and it’s full of surprises! We’ve also made the following non-combat additions:

• New Skill: Irresistible Melody – Playing a melody of such beauty, a Minstrel can now inspire those nearby to break into dancing.
• New Instruments: Bagpipe, Cowbell and Moor Cowbell - Minstrels can now play the bagpipe, cowbell (because too much cowbell is never enough) and the Moor Cowbell. All players will be able to learn the Cowbell, but the Bagpipe and the Moor variety of Cowbell will be Minstrel exclusives. Until they use the next skill that is...
• New Skill System: Mentor system – A Minstrel will now be able to teach other players how to play any of the Minstrel-specific instruments. Yes, you read that right: now anyone can be taught how to play any instrument in the game! Once a Minstrel has acquired the ability to teach an instrument (keep in mind, this will require more work then just going to a trainer), they’ll be able to teach it to any other player, but with a very long cooldown. All Mentor skills share the same cooldown, so once you’ve taught someone an instrument, you won’t be able to do so again for five days.

Conclusion:

Well, these are the big things you will likely notice in Month of the Minstrel. There are more changes, but none as big as those described above. We think this will make an already fun and functional class even more interesting!

It's that time again! Autumn is here and now it's time to update your desktop with the latest LOTRO desktop calendar wallpapers, now available in Wallpaper Gallery ! Enjoy!

Simply the best commercial I've seen! Turn your speakers on and enjoy!

WESTWOOD, MA - October 5, 2007 - Turbine, Inc., one of the largest privately-held online game companies in North America, announced today changes in its management team designed to position the company for long-term growth. Jim Crowley has been named president and CEO. The move is one of many that Turbine has recently made to invest in new talent that will drive the next wave of the company’s growth including the addition of industry veterans Craig Alexander as Vice President of Product Development and Walt Yarbrough as Executive Producer.

...

Crowley had been working with Turbine’s management team for a number of months on a long-term strategic plan designed to build on the success of the company’s most recent hit The Lord of the Rings Online™ before being named president and CEO.

...

Crowley brings a wealth of operational experience to Turbine. As Chief Operating Officer of m-Qube, Crowley helped turned m-Qube into one of North America’s largest mobile media companies. Prior to m-Qube, Crowley was Chief Operating Officer of Network Plus, Inc., one of the country’s largest publicly traded competitive telecommunications and data providers. Crowley is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Connecticut College.

You can read the full press release over on the Turbine's official web site.