Lets just say that with this expansion, things have well, expanded!
So where to start?
Skirmishes: Instances that are started anywhere in the game world, via a new button on the UI. They are repeatable, randomized and customizable, choose solo, 3, 6 or even 12 man, choose how hard it is going to be and random mob spawns. You will get daily quests for randomized events, you will also get lieutenants that randomly appear (thing a mini boss) (there is a very big opportunity to add monster play into these), you all get a customizable soldier (only usable in skirmishes) that you can choose the role for (healer, dps, tank buffer...) choose skills and traits (pet classes will still use there own pets), these soldiers you don't directly control but are controlled by the AI.
This is defiantly the biggest and most expandable new feature, they take place in existing places in middle earth, such as Bree and the Shire (and alot more), there will be more added every free book update.
Level increase to 65: They listened to the players, people said that 10 would be to many and would make Moria content obsolete and this way it is all still relevant.
Mirkwood: fantastic!, it may only be a corner of the vast Forrest, but what is there is fantastic!
Dol Guldur: Is the old fortress of Sauron and is now under the command of one of the Nazgul! there are several instances here: three man's, 1 6man and 1 12 man (with a fight with a fell beast and Nazgul at the end). The 3 men instances all have a very nice twist, one is a prison where you have to rescue prisoners and sneak around, you end up in jail if you are found and the more you rescue the more there are to help you on the end boss, another is an arena that you choose the difficulty of the fight, from easy you fight one boss with some adds and hard fighting 3 BOSSES AT ONCE!.
Combat improvements: Things have been speed-ed up in combat, a annoyance to new players not used to the game, now skills will instantly interrupts auto attacks.
Horse change: they have been changed from an item in your bag, to skills, this may be a test for when we get into Rohan and horse combat.
More customization for the UI: you can change the position of buttons and there is a new main menu.
People said before all the developer diaries came out that this was not a full expansion, they have now been silenced + the Dev's said that we will be getting the start of Vol 3 in a free book update in the 1st quarter of 2010.
Two small annoyances that i do have:
Not many improvement to PVMP, i do like to have a go on the monster side, but they haven't really added much, just balanced some things and gotten rid of some bugs (this is good news though), i don't mind too much because this is a PVE game and that's what they have focused on. They may be working on something very big for the next expansion.
Not much character advancement: Yes they have raised the level to 65 but only added a skill improvement to each class at lvl 62 (given hunters and wardens a new travel skill), i don't mind this much either, because its not a full 10 lvl's and there is room to add new skills in book updates.
I HAVE PROBEBLE MISSED SOME THINGS OUT BUT:
For full details check out the release notes:
http://lorebook.lotro. com/wiki /Release_Notes_Volume_2_ Siege_of_ Mirkwood_Launch_Official (put all of this together when you past it in the browser, GS wont let me put a word with 25+ charas in)
For more info on specific features check out the dev diaries: http://www.lotro.com /gameinfo /devdiaries (put all of this together when you past it in the browser, GS wont let me put a word with 25+ charas in)
The ones about Skirmishes are split into 5 diaries, THATS HOW BIG THEY ARE! lol.
See you in Middle-Earth!