LOTRO Reporter Podcast

CSTM 2009 - 2013   Chris, Cari and Layanor spend a few minutes saying farewell to Casual Stroll to Mordor.   Listen now: History of CSTM First Episode on Sept 2, 2009 Episode 1 3:01 first mention of something being Poop! @BrandywineFred: "Completely Steal These Mounts" = CSTM. Very classy, @lotro! :) http://t.co/yDWazhEXm9” 20 Roundtables 200th Episode June 29, 2013 Fondest Memories Layanor: Getting to do Murder in Bree with Merric and Goldenstar. My favorite episode. 153: Stab you in the neck! first mention 15:07 - 16:22 second mention 1:06:38 Cari Becoming a founding member of the Bandoras Featherfoot Fan Club with Goldenstar Discovering where baby dwarves come from with Goldenstar Judging a fashion show with Miz Goldenstar Cat fight filming Murder in Bree with Goldenstar I sense a pattern here. Chris First Episode of CSTM, where they mentioned LOTRO Reporter Mentioned in Episode 1 at 17:37 LOTRO Reporter. The hard Core Raiding Podcast ;) From the Show Notes Corrections: When Merric suggested the LotRO Reporter Podcast for raiding information, he really meant the LOTRO Report. Both are fine podcasts but the LOTRO Report is the podcast you need to listen to if interested in dungeon walkthroughs and end game information. Favorite Thing About the Podcast or Blog Cari: The sale news. It reminded me to buy stuff on sale The festival guides Their take on LOTRO as a game and the community as a whole Layanor: Round tables Chris: GUIDES!!!!! Things We’ll Miss the Most Cari: Baby Hobbit Goldenstar’s laugh Their interesting descriptions of people, places and things. Layanor: Chris: Podmoot Our Final Thank Yous and Farewells  

Chris, Cari and Layanor make the best of a slow news week, and discuss LOTRO fashion. Listen now: What We Did in Game Layanor- 66.68% into my next rank. 124,946 more renown needed. Found a night owl to play with in game. Doing a lot of the Wildermore dailies, War-bands, and older content. Like CD and 2 man Turtle just for fun! Cari - Leveled Cyn with Layanor Edited Podcasts  Chris - Working my way through update 11. How many times do I have to run back and forth between the farms and Forlaw anyways?   News Turbine Network Maintenance June 19, 2013 http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=6825073#post6825073 The LOTRO Game Servers and myaccount.turbine.com will be unavailable on Wednesday June 19, while we perform network maintenance. The LOTRO forums may also be unavailable to players for all or part of the maintenance period. Maintenance will begin at 5:00AM Eastern US time (Click here for your local time) and is expected to take approximately 2 hours. Lotteries http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=6824818#post6824818 Remember, we need to make adjustments to character information tracking to support character copy for Bullroarer and Betas. So it's work that has to be done. As far as I know, the beta version of the new lotteries was sent to the QA team. I'll probably get my first look at it today or tomorrow. Tentative Date for Forum Update They are tentatively aiming for late June for a forum Update. Pre-Order Late Last couple of years the Pre-Order dates were in early June. Those dates exactly corresponded to the Thursday of E3. Follow LOTRO on Twitter @lotro Follow us on Twitter, Get 100 Turbine Points Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:32:43 GMT 250 people who start following @lotro before 3:00 AM Eastern Time July 19, 2013 will win a code valid for 100 Turbine Points. This offer is for new followers only. http://bit.ly/11lzfrO Did You Know http://layanor.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/relic-gallery/ This weeks did you know was so huge, I had to make it into its own article! This is a guide that will let you compare relics side by side. The games menus are not well thought out and you have to keep scrolling thru them just to look at two relics. This article will help you look thru them, compare them side by side, and let you see the combined relics as well. Each one of these relics are from screenshots of the game. Each relic is opened first because the closed relic on some have text cut off of them. A lot of the crafted relics are all cut off, and I may need help getting screenshots of them all.   Community CSTM is Ending http://cstm.mymiddleearth.com/?p=73650 June 29 last show. It will be a call in show. https://medium.com/p/583ed7a004ba Crime Story Contest! http://cosmeticlotro.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/mugshot-contest-2013/ To enter the crime story-contest you must first enter the mugshot-contest. Write up a short story or description of the crime that the villain in the mugshot has been accused of and include it with your mugshot entry. The story may not exceed 200 words. Prizes Four prizes will be awarded: - Mugshot First Prize: 1500 Turbine Points - Mugshot Second Prize: 1000 Turbine Points - Mugshot Third Prize: 500 Turbine Points - Crime Story Prize: code for in-game title “The Sociable” + code for account wide “Cremello Mount”. All prizes courtesy of Turbine. What if I'm Three Expansions Behind? http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/06/15/the-road-to-mordor-but-what-if-im-three-expansions-behind/ Talks about entering LOTRO from the beginning. Explains what you may need, and what to expect from questing and the turbine store. Also gives some opinions on if the game is worth playing all the way thru. Elvin Tailor has pics of the Store Exclusive Outfits http://theelventailor.blogspot.com/2013/06/store-exclusive-outfits.html

Cari and Layanor along with the Intrepid Chat Room talk about what little news there was, and generally go off the rails. Be sure to stick around at the end for lots of bloopers. Listen now: What We Did in Game Layanor- I HAVE DESTROYED THE MOORS I am tier 2 on ever creep killing deed I am at 55.68% till my new rank. I need 166,190 more renown Took Roselinda on a Moors date! Cari - Cyn did some leveling in Lorien. I never realized how little actual battle happens in some of those areas. Wildermore and checking in with the Grey Company STO Review News Update 11.1 6/12/2013 http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?514845-Update-11.1-Release-Notes-%96-Official You will no longer be able to complete a quest by talking to an NPC or by using the remote-bestow quest completion button while you are in combat. This will prevent certain exploits. Players can now return to the world select without having to fully exit and restart the client. Returning to Server Select: Open the Launcher Menu (the down arrow) and selection Options – Check “Show the Launcher in the system tray”. After you do this the launcher will not close after you hit play and launch the client. So if you quit the game you will still be at the server select screen. Despite the name of this option it does not run the launcher in the system tray, it just keeps it open. The option below this which says, “Minimize the launcher to only the system tray” can be checked, but currently does not minimize the launcher. An issue preventing multiple clients from running on a single machine has been addressed. Running Multiple Clients: Open the Launcher Menu (the down arrow) and select Options – “Check Allow multiple game instances”. If you have not also checked the “show launcher”, then you just need to hit play, the launcher closes, once the client has started you can run the launcher again and start a new game client. If you have enabled “show launcher” on, then you hit play, the client launches, and the launcher remains open. You then need to open the Launcher Menu and select Logout. Then you can login with another account and hit play. If you do not logout you can still hit play, but this will boot the account from the other client. New travel skills have been added to the People of Wildermore Barter NPCs to quickly take players to Forlaw. Fixed an issue that caused player-made music to be inaudible under certain circumstances. Did You Know Rather than attempt to match speeds with a landscape mob (mounted) on my warsteed using the "W" and "S" keys, I've found a much better method - not using them at all. What I do is map a hotbar button to the "/follow" command.  You can do this by typing the following: /shortcut ## /follow ... where ## is the position in the shortcut bar.  You can always move it once it is created, but it will overwrite a current shortcut if you don't put it in a blank spot to being with. So, at the outset of the fight with a mounted enemy, I will click on them, then click on this shortcut.  If the enemy is at a distance, my steed will approach at max speed.  As soon as the enemy runs, this will keep me at the enemy's speed and I will ride right next to them - until I adjust the speed or the course manually (which will disengage the follow). Hope this assists you with your combat! Tomeoric, Landroval The Lonely Mountain Band Community CSTM Reports that Turbine Purchases Shadow of Mordor.com http://casualstrolltomordor.com/2013/06/turbine-purchases-shadowofmordor-com/ Goldenstar reports that Turbine and the Saul-Zantz company have purchased some Mordor related domain names.   Ask Pineleaf: Skirmish Soldiers http://lotroplayers.mymiddleearth.com/2013/06/05/ask-pineleaf-skirmish-soldiers/ Pineleaf goes over the types of skirmish soldiers.  

Chris is back this week, and joined as always by Cari and Layanor. We rose above adversity which is what all good MMO players do and prevailed over an Explosive Rhun. Listen now: What We Did in Game Layanor- Last few days I had a great moors run. I need 217,590 more renown. Thats 41.97% I am now stalker’s-foe “500” And also warleader’s-foe “500” And I have the very rare Veteran title for getting 3010 killing blows. monster slayer tier 1 10 monster slayer tier 2 500 monster slayer tier 3 2,500 Cari - More Inn League Delivery Quests Got the Spring cosmetics I wanted Cyn is now level 62 - Thank you Layanor Thanks to kin members for crafting and LOTRO Reporter letting me know I now have a Second age Sword and Mini Book. I found Rook the crazy Wizard wanna be, again in Rohan. Tomeoric helped me figure out my issue with not getting those four Inn League Quests. I haven't been Irritating enough. Got my doghouse system. It's sweet!!! Chris - Still recovering from last week. Did get to jump in game with Layanor to work on some Update 11 quests, but got frustrated, and ended up looking for one mob for 10 minutes! Did complete some more of the southern farm quests in update 11. News Point Bundles are Changing Starting June 4 http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?513696-Point-Bundle-Changes-coming-June-4th CSTM Did a comparison http://casualstrolltomordor.com/2013/05/changes-to-turbine-points-bundles-starting-june-4th/ It looks like the lowest US bundle changed from 7.99 to 9.99 the TP points changed from 700 to 750. The middle bundle changed from 34.99 to 39.99 with a TP point change from 3,150 to 3,450. I didn't see any other changes for the US Big changes to the EU costs. VAT included pricing changed to take into account currency conversion and fluctuations. If you are in the EU check it out. Store and log on issues should be resolved. http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?514211-Log-In-and-Store-Issues-(6-4-13)&p=6812600#post6812600 If you are still having issues submit a ticket. Rested XP is Functionally 15% http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=6806704#post6806704 This is working as intended. "In short, the VIP XP bar is working as intended, and as it always had. Before U11, monster kills would consume the increased amount of Rest XP. For example, killing a monster that was worth 100 XP while rested would give 200 XP, and consume 200 Rest XP. Nothing has changed about that." The Spring festival has ended. Steed of Rhun is in the Store http://www.danania.net/2013/06/steed-of-rhun.html FYI: This cosmetic used to drop out of the Warband boxes. Speaking of Steeds Cari was in the store yesterday and the Steed of Minas Eithel and the Steed of Bright days were listed at 1295 TP. I swear they were. Skirmish Barrow downs Survival is down. Nobody seems to know why this is no longer on the list. We can only assume it was a very bad bug, because Turbine does leave skirmishes and raids up if they are mostly working. Draigoch the Jabberwocky! http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?512944-Fun-New-U11-Draigoch-bug Draigoch's body is getting redrawn at the start position during Phase 1, and invisible (but present) at the other positions. This means the head and body are still visible. Most of the other posts are saying other weird things are happening and he will glitch on phase 3. This instance needs to be fixed and we need more bug reports to get it done. Muppet Show: Play at 1:00 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGCJFFxoHJ4 Cari talk. With Cari! TeeHee! Minstrels http://casualstrolltomordor.com/2013/05/lets-talk-about-minstrels/ Vraeden, Alanion and Renani of the Ostgilioth Guard sat down and went over all aspects of the Mini. Community New LOTRO Players Portal from Andang http://lotroplayers.mymiddleearth.com/ Nice Portal for LOTRO Players LOTRO Academy Covers the Types of Accounts

Cari and Layanor are all alone this week. We talk about Inn League Quests, Markets, and fashion. Chris' life was crazy so he couldn't join us. Listen now: What We Did in Game Layanor- Did some moors. Leveled an alt a LM Cari - Thane of Hytbold!!!!!! I’m done now on to Wildermore Ran Webs of the Scuttledells for the first time. Cyn is up to 59. I can use those first age weapons Layanor gave me, finally. Running Inn League Delivery Quests for Badges to turn in for Spring Leaves News Cari had a Twitter conversation with @amlungDev about rested XP Did You Know  From Rorgg To be more constructive, here's a potential DYK based on a comment on upgrading your skirmish soldier traits: The mark costs of skirmish soldier traits are relative to the difference between the "Level" noted on the tooltip and your level when you purchase it. i.e., it costs more to buy a particular trait (Enduring Power rank 10, say) at level 30 than at level 40. The upshot of this is that if you had your skirmish traits all maxed at level 75, if you level to 85, then use the Scroll of Skirmish Refund from the LOTRO store (295 TP), you can then buy your skirmish traits to the new, higher maximum for a net cost of probably less than 100 marks. The difference in cost almost exactly covers the extended ranks. Community Guide to Laila's Market http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?513530-A-Purchaser-s-Guide-to-Lailia-s-Market!&p=6804888#post6804888 Crell wrote the guide. One thing of note: WARNING: Item:Ceremonial Chainmail Jacket of Bree can be purchased for SILVER just a few feet down the block at the Armorsmiths shop in Bree next to the vault. Tri Steed Bundle http://windyacres.mymiddleearth.com/?p=3806 For a few more days, you can buy the Tri-Steed Bundle and take home the Steed of Night, Steed of Bright Days, and Steed of Minas Ithil for 2,995 Turbine Points! The individual steeds can also be purchased for 1,995 points. Guide to the Survivor’s of Wildermore http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?512396-A-Guide-to-the-Survivors-of-Wildermore Mar-Evayave created the Guide LOTRO Conclave 2013 http://www.sonsofnumenor.com/portal/index.php/14-sample-data-articles/295-lotro-conclave-2013 July 26-28, 2013 Cedar Point, Ohio Join with fellow LOTRO fans for fun, frivolity, and fellowship! Bring a Kin or bring yourself, and as we see what life is like under that bright shiny object in the sky! Sons of Numenor are hosts. Letter to the Show from Aralhos My burning desire is to see this current update be a lull in anticipation of a big thing with Helm's Deep. They truly have a prime opportunity with the way they've set up war steeds -- and with the practice they've had on the Moors -- to set up some massive battles, both with hordes of orcs/goblins and some big Nazgul/Wraiths on big battlefields, where to beat them or even hold them at bay, you must have large groups of people to do it, be they solo or in raids to coordinate effort.  I'd LOVE to see a situation, where to be successful, 3 or 4 man raids, maybe more, all needing to coordinate together in some fashion. It could be an instance -- or it could be landscape-based. Solo people could join in the fight, if they wanted.... a la gold tags, in the moors. But, the experience would be best in groups. They could set it up hourly, maybe, where the orcs/goblins/nazguls/whatever attack a particular location. And, the aim would be to protect that location. Earn seals, maybe, if you are present for at least 70% of the fight time. Keep up the great work. I look forward to seeing what the next update holds!  Contact Information:  Email: lotro.reporter@gmail.com Twitter: @lotroreporter Facebook: LOTRO Reporter Voicemail: 616-666-6778 or the widget on the right side of the screen when you visit the site. YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/mmoreporternetwork www.lotroreporter.com   Cari  Twitter: @thecarimac Layanor  Twitter: @Layanor

Listen now: What We Did in Game Layanor- 27% into my next rank Help my friend get her deeds done Random turtle runs have not gone back to finish the new deeds in the new area but plan too  Cari - Warg Pens - Completed Challenge Mode on level. Tried Sword Halls - a DPS Mini, Guardian, and Burg can't handle the ads fast enough. Defense of the Prancing Pony - on Level we won but the wargs liked the taste of elf a lot that run Hytbold - 6 more days. Samuth Gul - Helped the Kin finish up the bosses there. Cyn to level 57 I don't like the new rested XP mechanic. Timed out twice last night again. Went and played with space ships. Chris - Finished the Scylfig quest hub, and working my way through Forlaw. Totally ignoring Hytbold as I work through the new area News Hotfix May 16th http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?512071-Update-11.0.1-Release-Notes-Official Addressed a specific performance issue with the QT launcher Resolved an issue with a specific creature skill effect that would cause severe performance issues. Scylfig: A Celebration Feast is now available to players. The Rescue in Cuthbald's Farm is once again available to players. You should be able to complete the quest normally. Addressed an issue that was causing unexpected behavior with Disturbance at the Gate, Funeral in Forlaw and Thrymm's Farm. Defence of Scylfig Addressed an issue that allowed fellowships to enter the instance causing various errors. This is a solo instance. The Spring Festival is Here May 21 - June 4, 2013 New Cosmetics: http://cosmeticlotro.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/spring-festival-cosmetics-2013/New Steed: http://cosmeticlotro.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/spring-festival-mount-2013/Festival uses Spring Leaves not the Festival Tokens http://casualstrolltomordor.com/2012/05/lotro-spring-festival-guide-2012/Yay more flower picking /sigh Eldar Server Had to Be Restarted Instances were borked. Did You Know In the past, we needed to go into the my documents folder and change the settings in the userpreference.ini file to be able to use two or more clients of LOTRO at the same time. In update 10 we got the ability to just run the client without changing it. http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?511574-Multiclient-Multiboxing-since-new-patch&p=6785875#post6785875 Update 11 they have changed it once again. This time to a new location. In your my documents folder, there is a second userpreference.ini file. This file does not have very many options, but you can change the top option. It is caled “allowmultipleinstances=false”. Change the False to True and that will allow you to open as as many games as you want from one client. Also a second did you know is for the many skin users out there. In the old userpreferences.ini file, you can look for the option “AllowWindowResizing=True” and set that to False. If you're using a skin, and playing in windows mode, all your bars and get all messed up if you resize your window. They will not fix until you close the client. With this option turned off, it stops you from randomly resizing your window. Community Locations of the Warbands https://starandshadow.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/wildermore-warbands-locations/ Syp Likes Lore Masters http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/18/the-road-to-mordor-six-reasons-lotros-lore-masters-rock/ New song: Evening Twilight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPXr_V66pW4&feature=youtube_gdata_player Doc Holiday Talks about the Ups and Downs of Update 11 http://docholidaymmo.com/2013/05/18/the-ups-and-downs-of-lotros-update-11/ I found out that you can individually scale the size of the alerts panel in your UI settings.  Without making it really small like I have, I think the cartoonish nature of the button would really bug me, but since it is now super tiny (yet still findable to click) it is one of those “out of sight, out of mind” updates. Weatherstock Postponed.

Chis is back, Cari and Layanor join him in discussing Update 11 and Ents. Listen now: What We Did in Game Layanor- Finished Update 11. Have a few deeds to do. 22% into rank 12. Need 292k Renown. Cari - Hytbold Dailies 10 more Days Baby Cyn to Level 56 Opened a Hobbit Present and got a Skirt. Re did my LI and War-steed traits. Chris - I played the “take 61 kids on a 5 day band tour” game. I lost my sanity somewhere, has anyone seen it? Finished the first couple of quests for Wildermore. Ooooo, snow. News MMO Reporter Update 11 Preview http://mmoreporter.com/2013/05/12/lotro-update-11-preview/ Update 11 Dropped like its hot http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?511377-Update-11-Treachery-of-the-White-Hand-Release-Notes-Official New Launcher http://support.turbine.com/ics/support/kbanswer.asp?deptID=24001&task=knowledge&questionID=3914 New Region New crafting recipes for every guild and new rep recipes. Epic Story Continues Mounted Combat Update Lailia's Market Hobbit Presents The new Alerts Panel is intended to allow you to see all of your alerts at one time. Housing Upkeep now allows for paying further in advance and adds the option to pay with Mithril Coins. Reputation acceleration, Deed acceleration, Armour and Weapon repair services, task resets, and task limit increases can now be purchased with Mithril. Amongst their standard rewards, Warband Reward boxes should now also provide players with a chance to obtain new warsteed cosmetics and Warband Barter Tokens, which will be used to purchase the legendary pocket upgrades. Whereas the cosmetics will be a very rare drop from each reward box, the barter tokens will drop at a rate relative to the difficulty of the warband. Quests and Deeds that require the defeat of Players or Monster Players will now advance for all contributors, not just the player who dealt the final blow. When you are on a quest which is advanced by emoting, the quest tracker will now contain a quick-slot to trigger the emote. LI Points Refunded You should no longer get a “A failure has occurred in submitting your support request” error message on login. It has been replaced with a more meaningful error message, which will hopefully help us figure out what's going on. Mounted Combat 2.0 http://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/mounted-combat-20-tale-problems-solutions Remove all movement based traits (Max Speed, Acceleration, Turn Rate) from the trees and build them into the base functionality of the War-Steed Replace the removed movement branch with a new branch that is class specific. Ensure this new branch Heavy-Steeds lost 0.5 meter per second off their max speed but gained increased Armour and Endurance to help reinforce their role as a tank. The light steed was given boosts to their max power and power regeneration to help them support our support classes more efficiently. In turn, the medium steed was tuned to provide a good balance of both. we took a long look at DPS and power usage to ensure things were balanced across the board. reinforces the identity of each class through skills and traits. Known Issues Update 11: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?511371-Update-11-Treachery-of-the-White-Hand-Known-Issues The Play button in the launcher will sometimes not work, preventing you from accessing the game. Changing your language setting and then changing it back will allow you to log in properly. Infinite Cowbell! Using a cowbell while in mounted combat will cause the audio to infinitely loop until logout. You did want more cowbell, right? Broken quest. Hot fix incoming. Until then devs can no longer help. https://twitter.com/ehefkae/status/334384123735064576 "The Rescue in Cuthbald's Farm" has been disabled.  LOTRO Store Update http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?511406-LOTRO-%E2%80%93-Store-offer-update-11-5-13-2013 New Items:

Harry and Layanor join PR Guru Leo Tan and Producer Hannah Foell talk about Update 11. They introduce the the new Epic Book, talk about the mounted combat updates, and sneak a peak at mounting fishing! We had problems with the client and recording the video., but we did salvage the audio! If you would like some visuals of update 11, you can check out PvMPAndang's preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYArAeWn9cQ Big thanks too Leo and Hannah for taking the time to demo the new content for our listeners! Listen now:  

Layanor and Cari are on their own this week. Shenanigans are incoming. We talk about Update 11, Winged Horses, and things people want to see changed. Listen now: What We Did in Game Layanor- More Moors. I am 12% into my next rank. It is movin right along. Took Roselinda to the moors for her first rank. Looked at Bullroarer briefly  Cari - Dawning Eclipse 6th Anniversary Party with Goldenstar Hytbold Dalies Envelope Quests LOTRO Hated me on Monday and wouldn't let me log in News Video Dev Diary Update 11 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2VJiDC7HYw&sns=em Update 11 Drops May 13, 2013 http://www.lotro.com/en/u11 The epic story continues as you are called to the remote region of Wildermore! This Eastern Rohan area has been hard hit by an unnatural and deadly winter. A Stone Giant named Núrzum, under the control of Saruman, is rumored as the source of this icy tragedy. Throughout Wildermore, villages have suffered ravage and townsfolk have become refugees. Follow in the chilly footsteps of evil as you attempt to restore this once thriving region. New class-specific traits now enhance your mounted combat skills, while bonuses to mobility have been removed from traits and added to your base steed. NEW! Hobbit Presents NEW! VIP Benefits Custom character portrait frame Bonus experience: +100% xp for 30% of a level (daily upon login) Free weekly Gold Hobbit Present with increased chance of rare rewards New for Mithril Coins Item repair in the field Personal Housing Upkeep Kinship Housing Upkeep Daily Task Limit Increase Task Reset Reputation Acceleration Deed Acceleration Lalia’s Market new in Update 11 http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?510167-Focus-Lalia-s-Market&p=6769792#post6769792 Market Exclusive Items Not available in the LOTRO Store Mitrhil Coins Housing Changes Coming with Update 11 http://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/update-11-developer-notes-housing-foreclosure-and-escrow-changes Here’s the skinny: With Update 11, if you own a home that has been locked for more than 180 days you will be issued a final foreclosure warning. At that point you’ll have 60 days to get your finances in order and pay down the upkeep or your home will be foreclosed and put back on the market. All your items that were stored in the house will be put into escrow. These items in escrow will stay there indefinitely but you will need to clear out your escrow before you are allowed to buy a new home. Later this year we will likely shorten the grace period but seeing as this foreclosure business is new to a lot of players we figured we’d give some extra time when the feature goes live. The hope here is that by putting all of the long-dormant homes back on the market current players will find it easier to build close-knit communities with their friends. We’ll have more info on future improvements to the housing system down the road a bit! Obsidian Warsteed http://www.danania.net/2013/05/obsidian-steed.html?m=1 Looks like wings to me. Forums are being Streamlined http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?510761-Forums-Consolidation-and-Streamlining The German and French Forums will also take on this new format and layout of forums. No posts will be deleted, they will be rolled into the existing or replacement forums. Server forums will be condensed to just the server forum and its PvMP forum. The Trade and Kinship sub forums will be going away and all of those posts rolled into the general server forum. Store announcements will now be included in the Announcements forum with all other announcements. Crafting will now have a single forum instead of a forum for every craft. UI Skinning and Lua Scripting will now share the "UI Skinning and Lua Scripting" forum. Player Events (in and out of game) will share a single forum. Player council was instrumental in getting these changes set up. LOTRO Support is Now on Twitter

This week Cari, Chris and Layanor are joined by Bill himself (that will teach him to join the chat room) as we talk about Helm's Deep, the Council of the Players, cloaks, and the forum changes. Listen now: What We Did in Game  Layanor- Ranked to level 11. Starting the next rank. At 10k a day I should be rank 12 in two and a half months. I average 3 - 8k a day so it will be awhile I did the beer bash game for awhile to get the new teal horse. Cari - Cyn to 55. I can now equip some of my new LI's to level. Hytbold dailies a couple of days. Chris - Dailies for Hytbold PvMP with Layanor. I didn’t die.... Working on Reputations in Rohan. Bill - Maxed his rep with all the factions of Rohan. News LOTRO Announces Helm’s Deep http://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/warner-bros-interactive-entertainment-and-turbine-announce-lord-rings-online%E2%84%A2-helm%E2%80%99s Experience the Battle for Helm’s Deep – Fight to defend Helm’s Deep starting at level 10, as your character enlists as a soldier in the Battle of the Hornburg, the most massive conflict yet in The Lord of the Rings Online.  Earn rewards for your contribution to the war effort – win or lose, your aid makes a difference! Explore new landscapes across Western Rohan - Explore the Westemnet of Rohan and rally each of the five Ridings as Rohan returns to glory. Traverse the capital of Edoras, mysterious Dunharrow, and the fortress of the Hornburg, deep within Helm’s Deep. Advance from levels 85 to 95 - Experience 10 new levels, from 85 to 95, with new skills and completely updated class specializations. Both mounted and un-mounted combat will challenge you as you war against the evil of Saruman. Continue the Epic Story - Encounter beloved characters such as Aragorn, Éowyn, and Éomer. Restore King Théoden to his rightful lordship and defend the peoples of Rohan at Helm’s Deep. New Player Council Members http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?509600-Introducing-the-2013-LOTRO-Player-Council And the forums and social media have blown up. 75 players have been chosen They come from all servers though according to Sapience this wasn't intentional VIP Players Charged Multiple Times http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=6761650#post6761650 CarpeNoctum said that there were a few players who were charged multiple times for their VIP subscriptions. They are aware of who they are and are working to fix the issue and give credits to those affected. You will get a free month of VIP for your trouble if you were affected. FYI this also affected DDO. Important changes coming to the LOTRO Forums and MyLOTRO Forums The forums are going to be upgraded to a slightly newer version of VBulletin. Changes will include: The forum styling/appearance will be updated. We will be adding a new forum home page that includes forum category navigation and feeds of recent turbine announcements/recent player discussions. Forum performance will be improved. Our bug reporting system is being revamped. We will update the bug reporting links as soon as the new system is available. The Character Copy tool is being revamped and migrated to LOTRO.com. The LOTRO referral system is being revamped and migrated to LOTRO.com. Please note that if you currently have active referrals, you will continue to accrue bonus points from your existing referrals, but you will be unable to redeem bonus points from your referral wallet or add new referrals until the new front-end of the referral system is launched.  Discontinued Features The current player blog functionality will be discontinued. We are investigating ways of bringing blogging to players in the community site. The LOTRO Lorebook will be discontinued. The reputation system will be discontinued. PVMP leaderboards data will be discontinued, Character Signatures, and API functionality (data.lotro.com).

Chris, Cari, and Layanor are waiting for Hobbits to bring gifts, and turtle tokens. We are anxiously awaiting Update 11 on Bullroarer. Listen now: What We Did in Game Layanor- More Moors. Agility warden build is a lot of fun. High dps and high morale. Last raid I was in had seven wardens. We wiped the creeps almost repeatedly. Cari - Got a couple of levels on Cyn Level 54 Did Hytbold dailies a couple of times Did some Anniversary stuff. I can't get excited for it this year since there are no new shinies. Chris - Anniversary Quests. Finding the perfect place for fireworks sucks. Hytbold Dailies Got my anniversary stuff. Ho hum... News Sapience lets us in on Update 11 details. http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?507799-Update-11&s=3de581209b44de40f547223e53447ff6&p=6755068#post6755068 Bullroarer could be out next week. Hobbit Presents Epic story New Region Housing upkeep and escrow changes (foreclosure) New launcher tech (say bye bye to .net 1.1) Bug fixes So where is the new moors armour sets? Sapience Tweeted on 4/23 that player council invitation e-mails should be coming out on 4/24 *crosses fingers* Hobbit Presents are Coming http://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/faq-hobbit-presents-2http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=6756124#post6756124 Log in to get your Silver Present ever 24 hours VIP's get gold presents Similar to the DDO Daily Dice? Forum has blow up with questions/comments/hate. Will be on Bullroarer with update 11 to test. Sapience says the Anniversary festival will be extended due to extended downtime. http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=6757439#post6757439 No news on exactly how long it will be extended. Cari talk! With Cari! Tee hee! http://casualstrolltomordor.com/2013/04/help-the-hobbit-altoholism/ One suggestion was to rotate every 10 levels. One suggestion is to concentrate on one alt and if you get burned out try other games. Through Moria there was a high road one round and the low road the next time through. Community CSTM Article how to Export your My.LOTRO Blog http://casualstrolltomordor.com/2013/04/export-your-my-lotro-blog/ Sapience has given a heads up that when the new community site goes live the blogs will be going away. CSTM has given us instructions on how to export those blogs. Weatherstock will be Held on June 15 on Landroval at Weathertop Weatherstock 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCDgr_ySRnE   Contact Information: Email: lotro.reporter@gmail.com Twitter: @lotroreporter Facebook: LOTRO Reporter Voicemail: 616-666-6778 or the widget on the right side of the screen when you visit the site. Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/mmoreporternetwork www.lotroreporter.com   Cari  Twitter: @thecarimac Layanor  Twitter: @Layanor

The Three Amigo's are back again. Chris, Layanor, and Cari are back from PAX, Real Life, and the plague. We get pretty silly and there may be a search for pants. Listen now: What We Did in Game  Layanor- Nothing but the moors! Going for rank 11. Only need 52,293 renown to rank up. Cari - I was out of town most of last week, and had visitors until Tuesday morning. I gave my Mum a tour of LOTRO. It took forever even with quick travel to get from the Shire to Isenguard. I picked up Lottery winnings and paid housing maintenance. Chris - Hytbold dailies Played on my hunter for a little while. Super busy with day job stuff and the whole plague thing. News: Updated 10.1 Patch Notes http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Update_10.1,Official Flight to the Lonely Mountain is Back. Some Fate Adjustments have been done The Spotted War-steed and Orc Head on a Pike mounted cosmetics are back on the Warband lootboxes. Raids will no longer bestow Seals if the player is below cap. It is no longer possible to join an instanced public questing area if you do not meet the entrance prerequisites (e.g. having exceeded the per-hour instance limit). 10.1 Known Issues http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?507214-Update-10.1-Known-Issues The Ceremonial Mark of the West Trousers doesn’t look right. 10.1 Store Updated http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?507230-LOTRO-%E2%80%93-Store-offer-update-10.1-4-3-2013 Bullroarer Took Day Screenshot Winners http://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/bullroarer-took-day-2013-screenshot-contest-winners Fashion Week Screenshot Winners https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/fashion-week-screenshot-contest-2013-winners The Festivals are Coming: http://forums.lotro.com/calendar.php?year=2013&month=4&c=1 According to the Official LOTRO Calendar: Anniversary Festival 4/16/2013-4/30/2013 Spring Festival 5/23/2013-06/04/2013 6th Anniversary is Live http://www.lotro.com/en/6anniversary 6 Year's VIP or Premium get an Azure War-Steed Appearance 3 years get 3-Loot Box Keys April 18-21 Double XP on all Monster Kills The Keg Battle is Back Horse Racing is back!!! Monsters will drop Anniversary Tokens There were some issues with people getting their Anniversary gifts, but @LOTRO reports those issues have been fixed. CSTM has their festival guide up. http://casualstrolltomordor.com/2013/04/lotro-6th-anniversary-festival-guide/ Did You Know This weeks did you know is about multiboxing. This is when you open up more than one client with multiple accounts to do something. In the past you had to go into some setting in my documents and change some options. You also had to copy your entire client over to a new location. You do not need to do any of this anymore. Turbine now allows you to just click the client again and you can run multiple games of LOTRO all the same time. You will need a decent computer to run more than one game. I have never done more than three clients at once. With multiple clients open, you can do a lot of things. You can have alts you made join a kin incase it is about to get disbanded by members who have left. You can have a alt follow you around in group for extra loot. I use a free account character to grind for lootbox keys right now. Cause i'm cheap and do not want to pay for keys! Community Message on our Facebook Page James Ford Hello, I would like to show you what I have made and it would be great of you could mention it on your page. The best place to look at my projects is http://www.facebook.com/myshirehouses Cheers and I hope you can help me get the word out. I am going on TV soon as well. Channel 4 loved it. My Shire Houses Mini Oak timber framed Shire houses From Tarpilion: In my opinion about the recent exploiting and bans, they don't really have the right to ban.

Chris and Cari go over Episode 189 of CSTM. We discuss Merric and Goldenstar talking about Tier 3 Skirmishes and questing together. Listen now: You are listening to CSTM  Reporter on the MMO Reporter Network brought to you by Pine Leaf’s Skirmish Guides, and Andang’s Gaming Commentary. From the March 18 Episode 189 of CSTM: They have been on vacation. Their loyal fan-base misses them terribly. Oh well, let’s go over episode 189 see if we can find nuggets of wisdom from Merric and Goldenstar. It’s Pine Leaf’s Skirmishes on CSTM http://casualstrolltomordor.com/category/guides/skirmish/ Andang's Gaming Commentary http://www.youtube.com/user/PvMPAndang

Chris is back from PAX. Oh that rhymes. He's not quite recovered. Layanor and Cari go along for the ride. Listen now: What We Did This Week Layanor- Power leveled a few friend but mostly planning for my trip. Got a new steed! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7alSI1XH4OU Cari- Power leveled in Moria with Layanor Worked on my epic books Cyn has her first LIs, and on her way out of Moria Chris- PAX! PAX! PAX! Turbine Party! Ent Play Confirmed!!!!!! News Player Council Announced http://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/we-are-very-pleased-announce-lotro-player-council Requirements for Applicants and Nominees Be 18 years of age or older at the time of their application, nomination, or selection for the council. Must be an active player of The Lord of the Rings Online for at least the previous six months. Must maintain an active play style during the council’s term of service. (“Active” to be determined by Turbine at its sole discretion). Account must be in good standing with no significant violations of Turbine’s Terms of Service, End User License Agreement or Community Guidelines. Accounts must remain free of said violations during the period of service. Applicants may be from any geographic region officially supported by The Lord of the Rings Online. Council business will be conducted primarily in English. Therefore we request applicants have the ability to communicate with the team and each other via written and spoken English. The ability to interact with other members of the Council and Turbine employees in a mature, constructive, and mutually respectful manner. Things to Talk About: Council members must agree to the terms of our NDA and agree that any information will not be shared out of the program at any point during or after their service. Members of the press or those acting in a journalistic/editorial capacity are not eligible to participate on the council. - This means us Dev Twitter Chat 3/21 http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?505854-Transcript-LOTRO-Developer-Twitter-Chat-Thursday-March-21-2013 Skill trees are coming U11 is for solo players and has a new epic story There are two new healer rings being released with Update 10.1 – one that is might-based and another that is will-based, both with on-heal procs Player created relic contest staring after PAX EAST Unexpectedly Lose VIP Access? http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=6722683#post6722683 Since our billing system update in February, Turbine has received reports from players with accounts that did not have the correct Free, Premium or VIP subscription status. Yesterday we implemented a fix that makes sure that all players have the correct, up-to-date subscription status. Before yesterday's fix, some players may have received additional VIP access incorrectly. VIP access will be dropped for these players, as it should not have been available in the first place. If you unexpectedly lost VIP access yesterday or today, please check your bank statement and make sure that your most recent VIP payment went through. After checking, if you believe you have the wrong account access level, please contact Account Support and they will be happy to investigate further. Did you Know From Rose: Did you know that there was search functionality hooked up in game to let you search through your bag space? I've played LOTRO for over 5 years...and I JUST discovered that you can search your bag space.  Can't find that item you just picked up or your crafting bit?  Search for it. How do you do it? Just to the left of the X that closes the window for your bag there is a small icon for a magnifying glass...click on it and that triggers the "find items" interface.  Now you can type in the new window the name or partial name of items and you can help find things in your bags. A small did you know this week. I have people logging in my kin.

Cari and Layanor are Chris-less this week. It's not the same thing as pant-less trust us. We talk about herding cats, fashion extravaganza's and hot fixes. Listen now: What We Did This Week   Layanor- Working on my first age. Farming Battle of Erebor Cari-  Seat of the Great Goblin T2 Hytbold - Still Iober's Peak T2 - We beat the challenge mode. Questing with Cyn Level 48 Chris- Packing for PAX   News   PAX East WB Event is Sold Out http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=6717655#post6717655 Don't forget your ticket and get there early.   Dev Twitter Chat March 21 http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?505069-LOTRO-Developer-Twitter-Chat-Thursday-March-21-3-00PM-Eastern-Time Come chat with members of the LOTRO Team! When: Thursday March 21, 2013 at 3:00PM Eastern time. Where: http://www.twitter.com/lotro Members of the LOTRO dev team will be answering your questions live on Twitter starting at 3:00PM Eastern time. To ask a question, just tweet it to us @lotro and be sure to include the hashtags #LOTRO and #DEVCHAT. The following members of the LOTRO Team will be answering your questions. Aaron “Rowan” Campbell - Senior Producer Derek Flippo – Design Director Matt "Hoarsedev" Zimmitti - Lead Systems Designer Lauren “Budgeford” Salk - Senior Content Designer (Region Gameplay and Content) Matt “Scarycrow” Fahey - World Builder Evan "Verizal" Graziano - Associate Systems Designer (Classes, Items, Mounted Combat) Rick “Sapience” Heaton - Community Manager   Game Down http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=6717517#post6717517 The LOTRO Game Servers will be brought down on Wednesday, March 20th from 7:00 - 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) for a hotfix. Hotfix notes will be available during the downtime. Thanks for your patience, and we'll see you back in the game soon! Sapience Reports the Flight to the Lonely Mountain will not be part of this fix.   Update on the VIP Points Award Cari - I got my VIP points for February on March 14. It showed up as steam. There also seems to be an issue where multiple awards are happening. If you put in a ticket or made a call you may get extra points.   Did You Know Did you know you can lock items in your inventory when not at a vendor? Alt-click the item in inventory to target it and use ctrl-t to toggle lock on/off.  You can also lock them at a vendor by clicking the lock on the item. You can equip locked items and when you unequip them they are still locked. Community   LOTRO Reporter Fashion Show http://mmoreporter.com/2013/03/17/lotro-reporter-fashion-show/ Winners: Best Casual Wear Grand: Luicious Second: Cierranior Third: Annarose Best Battle Wear Grand: Mince Second: Mallis Third: Cierranior Worst Dressed Grand: Mellowan Second: Casebrandstone Third: Donnion Thank you to Morrganie (aka www.candicepizzo.com  the store is www.candicepizzodesigns.etsy.com)   The Extra Life Codes have gone out. Sapience reported that all the Extra Life codes for those who donated to him. There were horse codes and forum titles.   Raging Monkey's Article http://raging-monkeys.blogspot.com/2013/03/tunes-of-magic-v-my-top-10-songs-to.html Syl From Raging Monkey's top 10 songs to Play in LOTRO   Comment from Episode 174: Tapkoh The tarnished symbols of the elder king are gated behind 3 deeds. The most expensive requiring completing all 3 new raids on tier 1, the next less expensive for completing them on tier 2, and the cheapest for completing the challenge modes as well. You can see this by selecting the item and then hovering over the barter button. A tooltip will say you are ineligible (if that is true) because you have not completed the appropriate deed/quest and will then list them. Many gated barter items hide their information there.   Please join us on www.mmoreporter.com/live on Tuesday nights at about 8:15 PST.