Turbine has officially announced the forthcoming update for href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro">the Lord
of the Rings Online, called href="http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/bookspotlighs/1060-update-2-echoes-of-the-dead">Update
2: Echoes of the Dead. While no official date has yet been
set, players can expect it sometime Soon™. This is a fairly major
update, with several big changes already discussed here:

• Minstrel
  Changes
• Hunter
  Changes
• Burglar
  Changes
• Character
  Panel Changes
• LI
  System Revamp
• PvMP
  Changes
• Removal
  of Radiance

A new Dev Diary has been added to this growing list, detailing
a few changes to the Crafting system - specifically the addition of
tutorials for new players and the merging of redundant racial-variant
recipes for Tailor and Metalsmith into multi-output recipes. Read more
about these in the href="http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/devdiaries/1055-update-2-crafting-developer-diary">Update
2: Crafting Developer Diary.

A few new features have not (yet) been revealed in developer
diaries. For example, Evendim has received a big re-working, with new
quests and quest hubs, a new boat to Tyl Ruinen and a major update to
Annuminas, re-leveling all the mobs there to the 35 - 40 range. Volume
II epic books have been given a solo-play option, with the Volume II
Book 5 Chapter 5 instances being converted to soloable skirmishes and
the other book instances allowing players to solo them with the
"Inspired Greatness" buff.

And, of course, there's a new batch of end-game instances in
Evendim, Trollshaws, Forochel and North Downs, and a big new 12-man
raid in Enedwaith, called Ost Dunhoth. Remember those href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/94004">Mysterious
Relics from a while back? Well, those have significance with
the new instance and raid cluster, as you can see in this picture:

alt="Echoes of the Dead - Ost Dunhoth"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/95781">

The Town of Stoneheight in North Downs is a 3-man instance,
and the red-marked relic should indicate that bleeding wounds may play
a specific role in this place - which they surely do. Ivar Bloodhand,
the Gaunt-lord, is up to no good here.

Northcotton Farm, located up the hill from Oatbarton, is also
a 3-man. The relic in Oatbarton had a green mark on it - guess what
happens here? Thadur the Ravager, another Gaunt-lord, has a boiling
green hate for Hobbits.

The Lost Temple, located in Ost Chall in the Trollshaws, is a
6-man instance that looks like it was very heavily-inspired by Indiana
Jones movies. But the yellow mark ont he associated relic indicates
that you may want to take some 'Tussin when you go there. The diseases
are brutal, and Ferndur the Virulent means to spread them.

The Glacier Fortress, which you find by taking the boat just
west of Suri-Kyla. Drugoth, "master of fear and death," is building
himself a terrifying army of undead. The marker for this one is purple,
so fear is a factor.

Ost Dunhoth, located in the Lich Bluffs in the far south of
Enedwaith, is ruled by Gortheron, greatest of the Gaunt-lords and the
ginger-bearded zombie in the picture above. He's clearly up to no good
with his necromantic arts, and his accursed ziggurat has several wings
- each a  different "color."

Anyone wanting to try this new content out in beta form is
welcome to download the href="http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?306795-Bullroarer-Download-and-Installation">Bullroarer
Client, copy their characters over using the href="http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?358207-Character-Copy-AVAILABLE">Character
Copy utility and experiment away. Be sure to leave your
feedback on the official Bullroarer forums.