LotRO's February Update Includes New Zone, 12-Player Instance, Erebor Housing, Legendary Item Track

A new Producer's Letter for The Lord of the Rings Online has been released into the wild, but it's not from the producer you know: Severlin is taking a break this time around, leaving it to Producer Raninia to get everyone hyped for the next year's worth of releases and updates.

Update 32 is on track for mid-February, and it will be highlighted by four major features. There's the Hiddenhoard, a "grand treasury housing the golden coffers of Durin the Deathless," that's a 12-player instance. If you can't get enough dwarven motifs, you'll also be able to set up housing in Erebor, the Lonely Mountain. The Legendary Item reward track will go live with the update, providing yet another revision to the long-running system. And a new level 40-45 area, the Angle of Mitheithel, a wild land stretching from the Trollshaws to the junction of the Bruinen and Mitheithel rivers, will be added.

The February update will also bring the set the stage for the game's 15-year anniversary, bringing the annual spring festival with new rewards. Prior to that, on January 5, the legendary realm of Treebeard will be making the leap to Mines of Moria, while Shadowfax will hop ahead to Isengard, a brief stop before heading to Rohan on March 2. Producer's Letters like this one will be arriving quarterly, Raninia said, so look forward to another one in about three months.