I’ve been tossing around my thoughts on this expansion (yes I’m a little slow, but I really only just started this blog so there’s my excuse) and I figured I’d share them.  When Turbine announced the much anticipated expansion (http://www.lotro.com/mirkwood/) and I think some people were upset that it wasn’t Rohan.  I will reserve my judgment on that until I see how long it is before we get to Rohan.  If Rohan is released early next year then I think this is all well and good – however, if it pushes out further then I think there will be issues.  I for one do think it will come sooner as we’ve been told that Mirkwood finished the Volume 2 of the epic line.  So in order to start Volume 3, it makes perfect sense to me at least to align that with a new expansion – Rohan.  For the most part, I’m excited but not nearly as much as I was for Moria but then again Mirkwood was never on my list of places I really wanted to see like Moria was.  So here are my list of things I’m excited about and those that I’m worried about.

So far my excitement centers around the following:

  • Skirmishes, skirmishes, skirmishes 🙂
    • These have the potential to be awesome, I think they will really help tie the story together and make things feel more epic.  We know bad things are happening but to be able to see the effect on other places like Bree, etc will be really cool.  Hopefully the rewards are as cool as the idea and stories.
  • New raids
    • new 3man, 6man, and 12 man dungeons – and who doesn’t want to fight that big massive winged beast!
  • Horse changes
    • while this is more of a bug fix IMO, it is quite welcome
  • Account wide storage
    • I do a lot of item swapping with all my crafters so this will be nice and should free up some
  • more crafting ties to legendaries
    • adding a 4th craftable slot is pure win IMO

And the parts that worry me…

  • combat re-vamp
    • just concerned that something will be hosed, like the flip flops on tactical damage, etc.
  • Bumping the level cap
    • I like the idea but all my legendaries will now be worthless, unless they can grow somehow.
  • New skills and traits
    • just hopeful they’ll be good new ones (or at least useful) or meaningful upgrades.  There were some good ones in Moria, but then again some horrible ones (leader of men trait line for captains as an example)

All sorts of folks have posted the details but I wanted to get some of my thoughts out.  Another good link for info is http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=289448 and the second post there in particular.