LOTRO "Riders of Rohan" Expansion

On April 24th, 2007, Lord of the Rings Online - LOTRO - officially launched and now in 2012 developer Turbine and publisher Warner Bros. are celebrating the MMOs fifth anniversary. But even after five years, LOTRO is still far from being finished.

LOTRO is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game (MMORPG, or MMO in shorthand), following in the successful footprints of World of Warcraft and EverQuest. While LOTRO is not as well-known as WoW or EQ, it is still a beautiful, wonderfully built game. From everything I've seen and read, LOTRO looks like one - if not the - best MMO on the market at the moment.

And no worries, Tolkien fans. LOTRO stays very true to the Middle-earth that Tolkien created so many years ago.

The first LOTRO expansion, "Mines of Moria," launched in 2008, followed closely by Seige of Mirkwood and Rise of Isengard (which was released last Christmas). But Turbine and Warner Bros. are not done with the expansions just yet.

Edoras, coming soon to LOTRO

You've battled through Angmar, Moria, Mirkwood, and Isengard, now LOTRO players will soon be heading to the plains of the Horse-lords themselves as they make their way to Mordor (where Turbine promised the game would officially end). "Riders of Rohan" will offer a lot of new stuff for LOTRO players, so let's take a quick look at what you can expect to see in the new expansion.

The first point of interest is that "Riders of Rohan" is the biggest LOTRO expansion to date, supposedly "nearly twice the size of Moria" (Eurogamer). "You'll see Amon Hen, where Boromir is slain and where the Fellowship breaks up. You'll go into Fangorn Forest, and you'll go into Rohan and help defend the townspeople against Saruman's forces" (Eurogamer), and that's just the eastern half of the country of Rohan! A lot more Rohan content will be released after the initial launch of "Riders of Rohan" including Helm's Deep.

Yes, you read that right.

Helm's Deep.

That iconic battle will not be available in the initial "Riders of Rohan" release, but it will be coming, LOTRO players.

The second big thing that players have to look forward to is the instigation of mounted battles. LOTRO has offered mounts for quite a while, but in "Riders of Rohan" you will finally be able to battle on your mount. The War Steeds will have their own armor (which can be upgraded), skills, abilities, and customizations. Trample is the only War Steed that has been mentioned so far, but "there will be class-specific mounted combat skills, too" (Eurogamer).

Thirdly, "Riders of Rohan" pushes the level cap from "Isengard's" 75 up to 85, and will include new character skills. No bosses have yet been mentioned, but I'm sure that they will be more than epic.

More information about the expansion will likely surface closer to the launch date, but I'm sure that's enough to wet your whistle for now. :D

"Riders of Rohan" will be released on September 30, 2012, and will be available exclusively for the PC (sorry, Mac users).

DISCLAIMER!: "Riders of Rohan" has been rated T for Teen by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, and Violence.


What about for those of you who don't play LOTRO but still think that this sounds pretty cool? Then head on over to https://signup.lotro.com/lotro.php?ftui=LOTRONOV2011&abrs=351_1335448489 and do some research on the game. It's completely Free to Play (f2p) - though you can pay the $9.99 VIP monthly fee to get some extra content - which I think sounds like a really good deal.

Mordor is in sight, but there's still a few more expansions to go! :D

LOTRO trailer




 - Edessa, signing off