Mounted combat is coming to The Lord of the Rings Online with the upcoming launch of the game's fourth expansion, Riders of Rohan. Fortunately for those impatient folk out there, Turbine has just kicked off the closed beta for the expansion. Get ready to ride!

LOTRO: Riders of Rohan is available for pre-purchase and is set to launch on September 5th, 2012.

Check out the new trailer below for some great footage of mounted combat!

Sadly I think Lotro's ship has sailed...

Funny how through the majority of the trailer Turbine rarely showed any actual mounted combat animations other than the Loremaster. The rest of the characters' combat was shown very quickly without enough time to see how poor it is. 

Even if Turbine found a way to make their mounted combat better, it doesn't make up for the game being a pay-to-win money-grab with outdated character models.

Really looking forward to this expansion, not surprisingly it's won the 2012 E3 award for Best Expansion and the 2011 E3 award for best expansion for it's previous expansion.  Been playing this for a couple of years, and it's the only mmorpg that has had me coming back after trying other mmorpgs.  The only thing it lacks is a strong PvP orientation, but the co-op missions and raids are one's I've enjoyed over every other mmorpg I've played.  Each to their own of course, but it's my favourite mmorpg and I'd recommend it to any co-op RPG fan.

I'm looking forward to this expansion since Rohan is my favorite area of Middle Earth.  Mounted combat will hopefully be interesting and a new twist to combat and tactics.  Also looking forward to all the new pvmp changes they just announced.

Also this game is not a pvp game so the term pay 2 win is really pretty stupid to use.  How do you win a pve game??  You play it and have your own personal experience with it.  Now if it was a pvp focused game... then you could argue pay 2 win.

Originally posted by GeezerGaz82

Really looking forward to this expansion, not surprisingly it's won the 2012 E3 award for Best Expansion and the 2011 E3 award for best expansion for it's previous expansion.  Been playing this for a couple of years, and it's the only mmorpg that has had me coming back after trying other mmorpgs.  The only thing it lacks is a strong PvP orientation, but the co-op missions and raids are one's I've enjoyed over every other mmorpg I've played.  Each to their own of course, but it's my favourite mmorpg and I'd recommend it to any co-op RPG fan.

[mod edit]

Expansion without instance/raid and is just a quest pack does not seem to be worthy of the title best expansion...i'd like to know wtf their competition was. 

ok been a player of lotro from release and love it.being a lifer i guess i,m really lucky..looking forward to expansion and i have cancelled every other mmo and deleted them out the system in anticipation of this..my only problem with this game is that why oh why does it take 10 mins to get in the f'kin game..the load times are disgusting..now before someone says its my  crappy pc..its top of the range pc.i am not the only one that suffers from this.so why dont they do something about this?.dont know if its where i live or what but it really pisses me off.GET IT SORTED!

I'd take Helms Deep and Edoras over mounted combat any day.

I think this may be their last expansion if the sales aren't decent.  They've already made the lowered the bar drastically on what encompasses a AAA "expansion".

I was considering getting this expansion (although I was disappointed with ROI) until GW2's release date was announced as 8/28 (for me 8/25!).  So... that means no LotRO for me, possibly ever.  Sorry LotRO, it was fun while it lasted but the younger, hotter girl just moved to the neighborhood and I can't resist her!

will wait 9months after RoR launches when it goes on sale 50% off (like RoI). mounted combat isnt worth the full price of an expansion.

meanwhile i will be playing GW2 by Aug25 (RoR launches a week after)

Originally posted by Gaborik
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You obviously miss the point about what pay-to-win implies. It doesn't imply that items on the market are better than in-game, it's the fact that allowing players to use RL money to gain an item or xp increase, etc. making the game easier than can be accomplished in-game. This is exactly what Turbine offers. Turbine has armor, mounts with faster speed than in-game mounts, xp boosters and tons of other such items available on their cash shop. (woops, more than 1 example)

This in no way says there arent other pay-to-win mmo's out there, this is about Lotro. I played Lotro since alpha testing all the way until shortly after Rise of Isengard launched(was in that beta as well). So my opinion is based on several years of hoping the game would not go down the road it has. 

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I've played Lotro since closed beta,but not much over the last year, and am a lifer, but this will be the first expansion i wont be buying. It'll be GW2 for me from the end of August

Originally posted by Czanrei

Originally posted by Gaborik
[mod edit]

You obviously miss the point about what pay-to-win implies. It doesn't imply that items on the market are better than in-game, it's the fact that allowing players to use RL money to gain an item or xp increase, etc. making the game easier than can be accomplished in-game. This is exactly what Turbine offers. Turbine has armor, mounts with faster speed than in-game mounts, xp boosters and tons of other such items available on their cash shop. (woops, more than 1 example)

This in no way says there arent other pay-to-win mmo's out there, this is about Lotro. I played Lotro since alpha testing all the way until shortly after Rise of Isengard launched(was in that beta as well). So my opinion is based on several years of hoping the game would not go down the road it has. 

[mod edit]

 Your examples are not accurate mounts in the the store have a speed of 62% mounts you get ingame ie from deeds, gaining reputation from multiple faction, another words playing the game are 68% so ingame mounts are 6% faster then store bought.  The only armour you can use from in the store is a level 20 set that is not close to a crafted level 20 set.  This game is in no way P2W not close.  So woop you had one accurate example!  Yes it has XP boost, crafting boosts but in no way does that or anything else in store give you an advantage of people who dont use them.   

After the garbage that was Star Wars: TOR, TERA, The Secret World, and Diablo 3, and with how horrible Mists of Pandaria looks to me, and after playing in the Beta Weekend Events for GW2, I really honestly think Turbine is the ONLY good MMO maker left. And there are new raids and instances coming with RoR by the way, it's not just mounted combat being added as some have suggested. LotRO is in NO WAY a Pay to Win game. Yes you can buy accelerators that reduce the grind, and even tomes that give you a rediculously small stat boost, but it's just that -- rediculously small. People calling LotRO pay to win 1.) don't understand that LotRO is not about the race to level cap like most MMO's, it really isn't. and 2.) Have probably never played real Pay to Win games like Atlantica Online or many of the other, mostly Asian based games that launched as Free to Play. As for the person who wanted the trip to Mount Doom shortened, I'd suggest you not be in a rush. Once we get there, it's going to be hard to add anything else Big T to the game. LotRO is going strong and not bleeding subs like Blizz, and they want the game to be around for a very long time.

I have to agree, there is nothing remotely pay-to-win in Lotro.  The best items are all crafted and use in game materials.  Sure you can level a bit faster if you purchase some of the items in the shop, but that is really not that big a deal.  Never spent a dime on a mount and have several 68% mounts on multiple avatars.

IMO, it is one of the best MMO on the market right now and they just keep adding more content.  I have purchased a lot of the content with points earned in game.

Originally posted by kevjards

ok been a player of lotro from release and love it.being a lifer i guess i,m really lucky..looking forward to expansion and i have cancelled every other mmo and deleted them out the system in anticipation of this..my only problem with this game is that why oh why does it take 10 mins to get in the f'kin game..the load times are disgusting..now before someone says its my  crappy pc..its top of the range pc.i am not the only one that suffers from this.so why dont they do something about this?.dont know if its where i live or what but it really pisses me off.GET IT SORTED!

A defrag and file optimisation after a game update does wonders for load times.

People throw that play to win lingo around because they think it is cool to be negative about things, but they have no clue to what it really means or even where the term came from.  I cannot think of one american devloped game that has anything that would be a true puchase that would let me win, the term came from asian f2p games because allot them you can indeed buy things that give you a huge edge over some poor guy who does not have a rich daddy..LOL

I am glad to see lotro coming out with a big expansion long over due in my book, I been around lotro since early beta, and have a lifetime account, I did get a bit burned out on it and have taken a break, but I pop in from time to time and play a bit.  I have met allot of the staff at Pax, and they have all been cool people.  I do hope to see Helms deep at some point, lotro still has allot of growth it can do and has proven it has the player base to maintain after all these years.. looking forward to Riders..

These comments kill me lmao - pay to win...too funny.  LOTR is arguably the best and most successful (as well as one of the first) f2p cash shop models there is.  Other games dream of being as successful as LOTR and whats funny is-the community is so established-so under the radar that these crap-tastic negative comments really have zero impact.  I personally cant wait for the release of this expansion and apparently from the sales I'm not alone.  So glad I finally made LOTR my main mmo after so many years of playing casual while chasing the carrot with the rest of the masses trying to find in new releases what LOTR had all along and was just too blind to see.

Keep your gw2, your tsw, wow, swtor, rift, ps2 and every other 3 month mmo endeavor; I'll be riding the plains of Rohan.

Being able to use RL money to buy tomes to increase your character skills & stats faster than any in-game character can is literally paying to win. Also, as far as the mounts go, Garabar(sp) the mounts in the store get rotated month to month when Turbine offers new or previously offered steeds only available in the store. And there are at least a couple I have seen that have faster movement speed than regular mounts.

Yes, they are usually equal to the faction steeds, but the point isn't that, its allowing people to use RL money to gain items faster than players who can't afford to waste money on digital items. The ability to use RL money to raise stats so quickly can also adverse a player's ability to get invited to quest runs if it comes down to who has higher stats for tanking, dps, etc which is an unfair advantage. Which, like I said is pay-to-win by defintion. 

Just because some don't agree with my view, doesn't unmake the definition of something or make it any less true. 

Originally posted by Eldelas

I've played Lotro since closed beta,but not much over the last year, and am a lifer, but this will be the first expansion i wont be buying. It'll be GW2 for me from the end of August

I regretted buying the last expansion after they dumbed down the crafting to try to compete with WoW regardless of us beta testers complaining about it during testing. I can't imagine what else will get watered-down next. These newer mmo's need to learn from SWG's mistake and quit trying to be clones and stay original and true to their fanbase.