...these are some highlights?

Skirmishes are scalable technology, they have claimed it's as easy to scale an encounter from one person to a raid in the past, that's pretty light in terms of content, and reusing existing assets, that's pretty lame, what about folks who don't want the 'popcorn' games and signed up to explore Tolkien's world?

A few crafting recipes?

The quality, content and frequency has gone south with this game, it's a bit sad. We used to get new zones, that was great, but post Moria, we either get very little, or have to pay for 'mini expansions'

Also I think the Massively proof-reader missed a word in the article :

Volume 3:Allies of the King, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers is on the way, bringing with it plenty of new additions to the game.

Should read :

Volume 3:Allies of the King, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers is on the way, bringing with it few new additions to the game.

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I'm usually a fan of the game, but I must admit this announcement struck me as distinctly uninspiring.

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I love this game and I love Turbine. More free content... yea! It's definitely worth the $10/mo. I always feel as if all of my senses are receiving a virtual hug whenever I log in.

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The lack of new zones and content is disconcerting, but in my opinion, the quality of the content has improved. I think people are looking back through rose-colored glasses here. I'm hoping they announce more new content than a few quests and one (1) new skirmish, as much fun as it sounds.

There's a large inaccessible landmass that appeared out of the blue and unannounced when the last expansion was released. Many people, including myself thought we would be moving south in that direction, but alas it is not to be.

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Yeah, it makes me wondering what the people at turbine ARE doing all day :-(

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Jesus, I mean it's only been 7 weeks since the expansion came out. Please tell me a game that gives loads of quality content that soon after a big update.

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Well they had to churn something out because I doubt I'm the only one who finds skirmishes as a bad joke. As while these instances (most of then) are the works of art you expect from Turbine they are horrible as grind, and I normally don't mind a few hours grind. They are not even quick play on the whole and no replacement for half an hours relaxing dumb PvP. And the Ettermores are now beyond broke.

The PvE aspect of Mirkwood was fantastic though, but that hasn't helped the too high ratio of group quests in Moria. It was hard enough last time to get a 'main' levelled and I'm not spending weeks at a time again in LFF trying for endless group quests or being ping pong between zones to finish solo quests with fifteen minutes rides between each stage. Good for the story BAD to play.

The game needs a real expansion, not these slices.

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I am waiting for the day that CRAFTED gear (weapons, armour) will finally matter again. With the Radiance Armour and the Legendary weapons.....anything outside of that turns into just a hassle of switching out weapons and armour all the time. Perhaps soon! Oooooor, maybe they will allow us to craft Radiance Armour...but that might undermine some of the instances then because there would be no need to run them. Who knows...but RAD armour is getting annoying!

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I personally dont have a lot of trouble finding groups espeacially at weekends . I guess it really depends on the server your on . Being part of a friendly kinship helps as well as there is always someone willing to lend a helping hand when its needed . One of the best things about lotro is its community . This patch seams ok to me . Mind you I m still leveling up in the game and have yet to enter Moria so my boredom threshold is a long way from being hit and given I got a half price lifetime subscription for me its a game I dont play intensivly . What i would love to see is more pvp options . Maybe something akin to the skirmishes which allow you to play against other people rather than mobs . For people who like traditional fantasy games ( elves dwarves orcs etc ) this is debatably the only decent option outside of Warcraft (which for me offers no real challenge anymore because of changes made by Blizzard to make the game easier). I like Lotro its not perfect but it is enjoyable and its something i will be playing untill they close its doors which hopefully is many many years away .

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While I don't regret my lifetime sub to Lotro I was rather dissapointed with what I felt was the content lite addition of Siege of Mirkwood. Overpriced, undervalue yet necessary if I wanted my sub to still be viable in future. Oh well. Should've seen it coming when I handed them all that money up front.

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LotRO was a pretty decent game except for the overabundance of group quests and instances which, too often, I was forced by circumstance to skip altogether.

Unless and until this game adjusts and adapts the core story/quest line dungeons and makes them doable for grouped OR solo players, I am just not going back to it. Period. I don't care how matter how many expansions they add.

I really wish Turbine would offer one -- just ONE -- "solo-adapted" server. By that I mean instances (story line and dungeons) with the option of AI assistance to help you complete them and reworking the rest of group quests and areas to make them at least remotely soloable. If Turbine was to offer anything like this, I'd resubscribe to the game in a heartbeat.

One just spends way too much time spamming LFF in this game and that's just not very fun.

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