LotRO Book 8 launches today in the US; Thursday 25th slated as tentative European release

by William Dobson Jun 23rd 2009 at 10:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches

The time has finally come for players of the US/Oceanic version of Lord of the Rings Online to experience Volume 2 Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dûm, as the large patch makes it to the live servers today. The information-packed official update notes are long and dense; here is a small sample of the changes and additions:

The Epic Book 8 quest line, involving the thwarting of Gorothúl, sorcerer of Dol Guldur
The Summer Festival, including two new events, located at The Shire and the area outside Thorin's Hall
A huge crafting revamp
Numerous class tweaks
A barter system for First Age Legendary Items
Changes to Lothlorien Gift Boxes
A boat NPC for Lake Everswim... er, Evendim!

Of course, to get the full scoop on these changes and more you'll want to sift through the actual notes, or for a more visual take, you can check the dev tour we were given late last month that looks at some of these things.

The other good news is that we now know that Thursday the 25th is the tentative release date for Book 8 on the European servers. It was first spotted on the LotRO-Europe Twitter, and later backed up by Community Officer Faya on the forums. We're expecting official confirmation of the European launch date within the next 24 hours.

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8 Dev Tour

Gallery: LotRO Volume 2: Book 8

Tags: breaking, codemasters, launch, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, patch, scourge-of-khazad-dum, summer-festival, turbine

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Claw said on 10:53AM 6-23-2009

OMG... at last... a boat on that stupid lake!!!

Thursday for Europe? Ha... as if. We'll see this one next month. Maybe.

HexDSL said on 12:38PM 6-23-2009

lol Thursday it may arrive on Codemasters desk, and then the Thursday after that it will go on beta, then maybe the Thursday after that we may see it... lol

Jack said on 12:44PM 6-23-2009

Hey everyone lets have a Summer Festival the world is about to go in darkness and all the faith is in the hands of some hobbit. Ringwraiths show up everywhere and killed lots of people! woot!

Lateris said on 12:45PM 6-23-2009

I remember when people were asking for a boat for Lake Evendim last year. I am really impressed that they are doing this little detail.

Now how can I ditch this wow icon? Nothing seems to work!!!!

Jess said on 12:55PM 6-23-2009

You must embrace the power of the One Ring!

Robertson said on 6:32PM 6-23-2009

the boat will probably be used by champions to leave the game :p

Jay said on 6:11AM 6-24-2009

Yay bug city today. The instances were mostly bugged and unplayable the lag was through the roof, the summer festival is meh.

Servers down tomorrow for a bug fix that might make the instances work.