It’s time to make for the Hornburg. Closed beta for The Lord of the Rings Online’s (LOTRO) upcoming Helm’s Deep expansion has begun. Several of the beta invitations have already been sent out and the testing will be under an NDA. The Helm’s Deep expansion will include new content, story, and class changes, one of which is detailed in a new developer blog for the Burglar class.

Turbine also announced compensation plans for players affected by the recent connectivity problems. By extending VIP subscription time for players that were subscribed during that time by 2 days. Lifetime accounts will receive 250 Turbine Points instead. You can read the full message below.

Additional compensation details for players of Turbine's Dungeons & Dragons Online and Asheron's Call have also been revealed on the on the Facebook pages for each game.

Sources: LOTRO Helm's Deep Beta, Compensation Announcement

Thank you for your patience

As a special thanks for your patience during the recent service outage, we will be extending VIP subscription time. For any VIP accounts that were subscribed during the outage, we will be extending the subscription by 2 days. Lifetime accounts will receive 250 Turbine Points. Please note that these subscription extensions will be applied by the end of the month (September), and we will announce once the grants are complete.

Note: You must be an active VIP at the time of the grants in order to receive the subscription extension. We cannot extend expired VIP accounts.

Thank you so much for playing LOTRO, and we’ll see you in game!