MMORPG.com's Keith Cross spoke recently with Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel about the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online expansion and the upcoming update!

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Lord of the Rings Online Executive Producer Jeffery Steefel about a diverse array of topics, from The Mines of Moria, their upcoming paid expansion, to Book 13: Doom of the Last-king, their upcoming free content expansion and even a small peek over the horizon at Book 14. Turbine has been keeping up a good pace in terms of content expansion since the game’s launch a year ago, and they don’t have plans to slow down. Steefel says that on top of the free expansions, they also plan to launch one paid expansion per year, the first of which will let players explore the lost and deadly depths of Moria under the Misty Mountains.

Most of the announced features in the expansion have been spoken about already. Players will be treated to a level cap increase from level 50 to 60 and will also get two new classes to play, the Rune-Keeper and the Warden. All of this will come in handy when players face off against the Watcher in the Water, the Balrog, and the hoards of dark creatures who now call these tunnels home. More help will come to players in the form of Item Advancement. The new expansion will add a whole new advancement path for players in the form of improvable weapons. Steefel described these weapons as being sort of like a pet, which gain experience and advance along their own advancement path. The weapons also have slots for upgrading and also have specific weapon related quests. Players get these quests from their weapons, so the items act like a mobile quest hub which you carry around with you. Now that’s convenience. The advancable items will also be available at relatively low levels, and although Steefel didn’t give a specific level, he said advancement will be very accessible at first and will require a higher degree of effort and skill at higher levels, describing it as the fat path, narrow path approach.

Read it all here.