‘Lord Of The Rings Online Riders Of Rohan’ Expansion Debuts October 15

Perhaps no other MMORPG puts as much effort and attention to detail into every expansion as Lord Of The Rings Online. The proof of the pudding lies in the fact that the game’s publisher, Turbine, was willing to face the heat, and delayed the launch date from September 5, 2012 to the new launch date of October 15, 2012. The launch was delayed in order to allow the developers more time to fine tune and perfect the expansion. While some players were impatient and annoyed, the vast majority of the LOTRO community reacted with great understanding and appreciation.

Turbine was aware of positive attitude of their players and released the following statement about the delay, highlighted by the announcement of a grab bag of rewards for everyone who pre-purchased the expansion:

“Riders of Rohan news from Kate Paiz, Executive Producer”

“We’ve had a very successful Beta program with some of the largest and most active beta player populations we’ve seen since Moria. The amount and quality of feedback on our largest expansion ever has been fantastic.”

“Thanks to some great efforts from beta players, we’ve identified issues that we think need to be addressed before we can launch. In order to address those issues and meet our expectations for quality we’re going to need more time. As a result, we’ve elected to delay our launch to October 15th.”

“We understand that many players have been looking forward to joining us in Rohan as soon as possible and will be disappointed by this news. As a token of our appreciation for your patience we are granting a gift to all pre-purchasers of Riders of Rohan.”

“The goodie bag will contain the following items:”

• “100% XP Boost (1hr)”
• “Slayer Deed Accelerators x1 (60 min)”
• “+20% Renown (3 hours)”
• “+20% Mount Speed (1 hour)”
• “Tome of Defense”
• “Scroll of Finesse”

The Riders Of Rohan expansion will raise the level cap to 85 and introduce an exciting new feature to LOTRO; mounted combat. Players will be called upon to use their newly acquired ability to fight from horseback in the struggle against roving warbands of Warg riding Orcs, who are terrorizing the inhabitants of Rohan.

To aid players in their fight against the savage warbands, Turbine added a new mount to the game; the War-steed. This powerful new mount comes equipped with a legendary bridle that will allow players to improve their attributes, acquire new skills, and improve their mounted combat ability.

The expansion will greatly expand the size of the game’s environment. The new region of Eastern Rohan is twice the size of Moria and contains a wide range of challenging terrain. Players will meet fearsome new enemies, explore a vast landscape, complete dozens of new quests, and conquer dark, treasure filled dungeons.

Much to the credit of the game’s developers, Riders Of Rohan remains faithful to the source material created by the beloved author of The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien. Every area, every quest, and every character in the game is anchored in the rich legendarium of the story’s creator, and even when it expand’s on the original material, the game never deviates from the author’s original universe.

Riders Of Rohan arrives on Monday, October 15, 2012. As always, The Inquisitr will be on hand to bring you up to date with all the latest information as we begin our in-game look at the new Lord Of The Rings expansion. See you in Rohan and happy adventuring.