Kalex's Tome

Turbine has announced that the Rise of Isenguard expansion will be released on September 27, 2011. Pre-orders will be handled directly thru Turbine at this link. This is a digital exansion only and there will be no boxed copies available. Special in-game items will be given to those who pre-order. You can views pictures of the pre-order cosmetic items here.

• The expansion does not come with the VIP subscription, so even VIP and Lifetime members must purchase it. Pre-order period lasts until Septmember 26, 2011. It will not be put into the LOTRO Store for purchase with points until sometime AFTER September 27.
• If it’s prompting you to create a new account when you’re purchasing the expansion (and not applying your product key), that’s the creation of a Digital River store account, and is unrelated to your Turbine account.
• Pre-order codes are sent to you via email and you must login to you account on the Turbine account page and add the code to your account there. Make sure you are logged in to your account BEFORE you add the code or it will create a new account instead of adding it to your existing account.
  • Log into https://myaccount.turbine.com/
  • Enter your key in the box. (I suggest you use Copy and Paste from the email.)
  • Select “YES” to upgrade.
  • If you are on a reoccurring VIP subscription, simply select that plan again, agree to the TOS and submit.
  • If you are Premium or Free and don’t want to upgrade to VIP:
    • Select “Game Card or Other Payment Option”
    • On the next page, check off “I don’t have one now, I’ll give you one later.”
    • Agree to the TOS and submit!
  • If you accidently put your key onto the wrong account or mistakenly make a new account, submit a ticket to Account Management.
• You get the bonus items  for all existing characters and all future characters as soon as you add the key to your account.
• The cosmetics come in boxes (one for each color set) but opening will release the 5 items into your inventory. The cloaks were separate items from the boxes. The cosmetic items cannot be dyed.
• The first horse is auto-granted as a skill. The other 2 will be  in your inventory and you have to click/right-click  on to convert it into a skill.
• The bonus XP is granted via a pocket item, so you don’t have to use it if you don’t wish to. This bonus seems to stack with rest XP. It only works for characters under level 65.
• Steed of the Gap: 200 morale, +62% speed

Expansion Highlights

• New areas: Dunland, Gap of Rohan, and Nan Curunir
• New 24-man raid
• Class changes
• Area “phasing”
• Mobile questgivers
• Level cap raised to 75
• Virtues cap raised to 12
• Instances will scale up to level 75
• Tier 7 crafting
• F2P PvMP access
• Creep LOTRO Store access
• 400+ new quests