Surprised there's no post about this expansion yet, guess I get to start one.

  • 3 new world zones, 10 new character levels (the cap is now l75)
  • significant mechanic changes for most classes
  • Monster Play now available for F2P players
  • Tier 7 crafting
  • Draigoch 24 player raid
In the coming months additional skirmishes and instances will also be launched.

The official patch notes are here.

I'm still chipping away at Mines of Moria content, but I pre-purchased the expansion for the rewards (particularly the +25% XP bonus)...its nice knowing that I have the entire game to play pretty much indefinitely for free.

LOTRO will never be my primary MMO, but I really enjoy how expansion middle earth is... you can spend hours just exploring a single zone. Mobs are hard, quests are difficult, crafting takes a long time, travel is long... its a very immersive game.