Turbine has announced that they are holding another hireling preview weekend for Dungeons and Dragons Online which runs until this Monday. They also posted details of the next hireling preview in December.

We'd like to thank the community for all the feedback that's been provided during the recent Hireling previews! Your participation has been very helpful to the developers as they make revisions to the Hirelings! Curious about future Hireling changes? Here is a sneak peak at some of the changes coming to Hirelings in the next patch, thanks to the help of the player base! These changes will be part of the next Hireling event in December:

Remember that the below changes will not yet be available for this weekend's Hireling festivities.

* Hireling contracts will no longer work on a timer system. Instead, all Hireling contracts will be one-use, and you can carry the contract for as long as you want until you need it! Once summoned, your Hirleing will stay with you until you enter a public area. You will still only be able to summon one Hireling between rests, and if you dismiss your Hireling or enter a public space, you'll need to rest before you can summon the next one with another contract.
* Contract prices will also be significantly reduced. Hiring your Hireling will be more affordable than ever before!
* High level Hireling vendors will be available in more locations
* Hirelings will support a "Defensive" command, in addition to "Passive" and "Aggressive" commands. Defensive mode will be the new default for all Hirelings when they enter your party. In Defensive mode, Hirelings will remain Passive until enemies attack them or their master first, at which point they become active to heal (if applicable) and engage in the fight.
* Improvements have been made to Cleric Hirelings. They will be more concerned with healing both themselves and their master. They will also be more responsive to explicit Healing commands.
* Many bugs were able to be fixed related to Hirelings; the full list will be available in patch release notes.

Read more here.