• Siege of Mirkwood will have a base price of $19.99. As with Moria last year, we're going to have a set of early upgrade offers that are very compelling. We're not quite ready to unveil those details yet, but we'll keep you posted.
• The epic story continues on in Volume 3 as a regular content update early next year. Sounds like a standard free book update, but hasnt been confirmed.
• Some of the improvements to the game coming with Mirkwood will benefit everyone, but the key features will require the Mirkwood upgrade.
• Skirmishes are PvE, and should not be directly competing with PvMP.
• Skirmishes are not session play.
• The new raid is not a one-boss raid. Nuff Said.
• 100+ hours of new content
• Level cap increased to level 65 with access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests
• Legendary items will now be maxed at level 60- no word on if this includes existing legendaries or only new ones.
• Legendary items will gain a 4th runic slot, new legacies and new titles.
• Craft and customize 3rd and 2nd Age Legendary items. We can already craft them, so its the "customize" part that is of interested- no word on what it means yet, but there is a Dev Diary about this coming soon.
• Skirmishes reward experience-points, complimenting the level up experience, and can be accessed as low as level 30.

The Skirmish system will allow all players -- raiders, casuals, mid-level, high-level -- access to the same content.

Twelve new Skirmish instances will be available in addition to a pair of tutorial instances designed to introduce players to the system. Each of these instances is scalable based on the number of players; they each accept one, three, six, or twelve players at a time, with the deficit made up for by player-created NPC soldiers- to make a grand total of 24. Additionally, many of the instances are scalable by level; for instance, one skirmish which features an assault upon and defense of Weathertop will accept players from level 30 to 65. Each instance has nine optional challenges, each of which awards skirmish points -- more on those in a moment. These challenges are randomized, as are the enemies inside the instance (within certain logical limits, of course), so you will not likely have the same experience twice.

For example, Jeffrey Steefel demoed the opening of one of these Skirmishes in which a number of NPCs have been locked within the Prancing Pony, and Sharkey's men are threatening to burn it down. Your job is to defend the Bree-town landmark. The Pony itself has hit points during this Skirmish, and you are awarded Skirmish points based upon how well you defend the Pony. Let the building's hit points fall to zero and you fail your primary objective.

Now, Skirmish points: These are your rewards for completing your challenges -- primary and optional -- in each instance. They can be used to customize and advance your soldiers. Soldiers are quite customizable: You can assign them traits, just like a player character, and you can alter their cosmetic appearance. The Skirmish point system will even be tied into MyLOTRO, where there will be leaderboards on which you can compare yourself to your friends.

You can enter a Skirmish from anywhere in the game world, as can your friends from their own locations in the game world. When you're done with the Skirmish -- each of them is designed to last thirty to forty minutes -- you will be transported back to your prior location in the world. [source]

Each player has 1 Soldier. A group of 12 doing an instance would have 12 Soldiers total. So the player group would be leading the equivalent of a second raid group in the 12 mans. Though each player would only have control of their own soldier. And yes, you can still use any pets/banners you would normally have in addition to your soldier. [source]

Skirmishes reward experience-points, complimenting the level up experience, and can be accessed as low as level 30. [source]

Skirmishes are PvE, and should not be directly competing with PvMP. [source]

Skirmishes are not session play. [source]

Here is a quick explanation from Floon:

Autoattacks will not delay firing a skill. What this does mean is that animation have a chance to preempt autoattack anims in such a way as to produce a pop in the anim transition that isn't there right now. [source]

Zombie Columbus goes in to details about what it is, and what it will actually be called:

World-join is a bit of a misnomer. The name of that part of the overall Skirmish system is likely being changed to the more informative "Skirmish-join." Remember the way half the community calls Fellowship Maneouvers Conjunctions because that's what it was in beta? This is one of those situations.

Well, what IS Skirmish-join? There will be a dev diary on it (I'm working on it now) but the short version is it will be how players can enter the new Skirmish spaces. It's a UI that will allow players to select the group size, level, and difficulty of a Skirmish, and then be instantly transported to the Skirmish. Emphasis on "Skirmish", the system does not, as of now, interact with Instances, PvMP, Battle Instances or anything else. [source]

Under the command of Celeborn and Galadriel, players will fight through vast armies of Orcs alongside the Elves of Lórien in a battle that will take them to Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths. This update includes Book 9, which will have the most chapters of any book to date, and the Epilogue to the sweeping epic tale begun with the Mines of Moria expansion. No word yet on just how many chapters, or possibly books, the "epilogue" will contain. [source]

The epic story continues on in Volume 3 as a regular content update early next year. (Sounds like a standard free book update, but hasnt been confirmed) [source]

NEW! Epic Book 9 and much of its Epilogue take place in Mirkwood, so you'll need 'Siege of Mirkwood' for it. [source]

NEW! Epic Book 9 will be able to be started without having completed Book 8 (or presumably any of the other books excluding Book 1 which you need to get in Mora). [source]

NEW! There's a lot of meat to Epic Book 9: instances, skirmishes, monster-hunting, and a few surprises. [source]

Legendary items will now be maxed at level 60- no word on if this includes existing legendaries or only new ones.

Legendary items will gain a 4th runic slot, new legacies and new titles.

Craft and customize 3rd and 2nd Age Legendary items. We can already craft them, so its the "customize" part that is of interested- no word on what it means yet, but there is a Dev Diary about this coming soon.

Mounts are being changed over to skills, not items. This means you will no longer be required to carry a mount in your inventory. In your skills panel, there will be a "mount" tab, which will list your current stable of mounts -- your horse, your other horse, your goat. And, because of mounts becoming skills, a number of issues with mounts will simply cease to exist: You will now be able to pass into instances and new zones while on your mount; you can now interact with NPCs (including vendors) from your mount; and you can now use emotes on your mount. In other mount news, there's a brand new goat, the Wild Goat. [source]

You can have multiple horses. Each is a seperate skill, but there is no limit I am aware of on the number you can have. There will be a Dev Diary on the new system, so that should give you a ton of info when it's published. [source]

Also on the list of changes is the addition of shared storage space for accounts. Currently, shared storage space appears to be limited to 50 items, though this was likely to increase over time in a similar manner to purchasing further storage space for your character's Vault. [source]

It is unconfirmed if this is a sign of "bind on account" items being on the horizon. [source]

NEW! And just like vaults, what's put in at one vault NPC can be taken out at another. As long as the characters are all on the same account. [source]

The burning question I am sure on everyones mind, radiance, has not been addressed- so no word on if and how much is required. The primary raid will be in Dol Guldur, and will feature a multi-boss instance culminating with a fight featuring both a battle against a Fell Beast and, finally, the Lieutenant of Dol Guldur, second-in-command among the Nazgul. [source]

NEW! The new raid will also contain a cluster of smaller instances with both 3-man and 6-man spaces. [source]

It was hinted that we should all make sure we are signed up for the Turbine Beta Rewards program. You can sign up over at http://myaccount.turbine.com/