Has the excitement for the Mines of Moria release made you consider coming back to Lord of the Rings Online? Well, Turbine is happy to welcome you back with open arms, free access and some bonus experience!

From November 6-10, we're offering free LOTRO access to our former players! Returning players are invited to patch up, jump in, and start playing on their old characters to get them ready for Moria. And from November 6-17,  there's +25% bonus experience gain on mob kills for everyone who logs in and plays!

If you're an old player deciding whether to come back, check out our news archive and read a few of the dev diaries outlining some of the major additions and changes in store with Mines of Moria. Also, head over to our forum for more information and discussion.

Art Director Harry "Floon" Teasley has yet another dev diary (two in one day...we're getting close to Moria people!) for us, this one focused on The Art of Middle Earth !

Thus Middle-earth has grown. Our Epic Story has finally brought us to Eregion and the Hollin Gate, to the entrance of the greatest “dungeon” ever imagined: the Dwarrowdelf, Khazad-Dûm, Moria. Greatest work of the Dwarves, this once magnificent city is now in ruins, overrun by Orcs and the evils released by “delving too deep.” Nothing that we have developed to date had begun to scratch at what we wanted Moria to be: the greatest dungeon adventure you have ever seen and played.

Just reading these epic words makes me want to not only reread the books, but hop into game and see everything I can do!  There's lots of Moria discusson going on in our forums, so be sure to join in!

Amlug has wonderful information availble regarding the MoM updates coming to instances in the newest LotRO dev diary: Anatomy of a Cluster !

One of the things we haven’t had a chance to do with our instances in the past is establish a sense of progression. The instances got more difficult, yes, but they also lacked the ability to train players to become better, and they did not encourage players to use the skills they learned to defeat the next bosses. We also simply did not have enough of them at the highest levels to support people who were capped. Being able to create a sense of what’s next and help guide players from one instance to another is really important. We’re going to be doing this in Mines of Moriathrough progression, clustering, “hard mode,” and yes, loot.

He covers both progression through instances as well as storyline, and what we can expect to see change in Mines of Moria!  Check it out!

Mines of Moria is bringing changes to the Player Versus Monster Player game for LotRO, and the changes have been outlined in the newest Dev Diary !

Introduction

Welcome, fellow Freeps and Creeps, to a brand new day in the Ettenmoors! This dev diary will give you a brief glimpse into the mechanical changes we have made for PvMP in The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™ expansion. So grab a bag of popcorn, find your desk chair, and come along with me for a wild reading adventure!

There are lots of changes, including population balances, the removal of stars, and bonuses for monster armour!  It's going to make PvMP much more enjoyable!  Read on for the whole diary!

Today Turbine unveiled a new developer diary video for The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, the first expansion for the award-winning massively multiplayer online game, which will release on November 18th. In this new video Cardell Kerr, Creative Director, and Ryan Bednar, Lead Game Systems Designer, discuss the two new classes to be added to the game with Mines of Moria – the Warden and the Rune-keeper.

You can view the dev diary here, and we also have the Rune-keeper and Warden class videos available for you!

We got an email from one of your fellow players over at MSNBC today and it seems they had a rather unique opportunity to interview none other than Jeffrey Steefel, the Executive Producer for Lord of the Rings: Online about the newest expansion coming to the game. While the interviewer declined to give his in game name, I have to say that this video he shared with us is beyond awesome and shows quite a few details of the vast and extensive new zone of Moria. Loosen those swords, get your bows ready and read on!

Hopefully you've been paying attention to the Legendary Item System being implemented come Mines of Moria!  Turbine has explained it in great detail now, and after reading it, well, I went ahead and pre-ordered the expansion!

Weapons of eldritch power and memorable names are sprinkled throughout the lore of The Lord of the Rings . They are legendary creations of such arcane might that tales of their greatness are spread across all the lands of Middle-earth.

Consider these—

The sword Narsil , the blade wielded by Isuldur that was shattered by Sauron and Men and was used to cut the One-Ring from the finger of the Dark Lord.

For the entire article (be warned, it's long!) read on, for screen shots you can find the original article here !

The newest Lord of the Rings Online developer diary entry devotes 10 pages to the Legendary Item system as we wait for the Mines of Moria to open on Nov. 18.

Chris "Hakai" Clay leads us through numerous aspects of Legendary Items, including terminology, leveling and identification, and well as re-forging and deconstructing the items.

Each Legendary Item contains the possibility of greatness. While they’re typically less impressive than comparable items of their initial level, they have the potential to grow into the most powerful items in the game. The power of your Legendary Items will depend greatly on the effort you put into them and the story you build around them.

The full entry can be found here. The terminology section is after the jump to give you a crash course in Legendary Items.

If you're curious how exactly the new Class Trait system will work in Mines of Moria, then you'll definitely want to read the newest entry in the already full developer's diary on the official Lord of the Rings Online Web site. The newest entry completely details the Class Trait system.

Characters now have the ability to create Class Trait Set pairings that build upon class themes, allowing players to specialize and making them more effective at a chosen class role. As such, Trait Sets represent a way for players to shape their gameplay and enhance their character’s performance.

The full entry can be found here or below.

There are lots of changes coming to LotRO, and the combat changes being worked on affect more then just the first expansion!

So why did we change it? It was frustrating for people to not be able to aspire to truly epic gear, since we had to account for flat percentages everywhere you went. We were literally giving out tiny bits of effectiveness for our characters, and generally, although some may disagree, tiny fractional percentages just aren’t fun.

Remember, the tricky part about percentages and a successful MMO? You can’t give out more than 100%!

Read on for the entire devlog, or view it here on the official site!