Looks as if the next Lord of the Rings Online content patch is going to go live next week.
I have only briefly mentioned the patch in my posts for two reasons. First, and mostly, because I don’t have enough experience in the game to really understand how most of the changes will affect me. Second, because my characters are still enjoying content that shipped in the original box.  Though there are a few items in the patch notes that stand out:
New Player Experience
They have gone back and looked at how the tutorial, introduction, and starting area quest and player knowledge all flow together. The biggest changes here are the addition of new quests and the relocation of a few NPCs, which both help with the flow and pacing of these areas. The areas in most desperate need of love, the elf and dwarf zones, happily were the recipients of the most dramatic changes.
Quest Guide
This has been discussed and debated a lot. I don’t think the game needs it, since I don’t mind a bit of “work”. Though I completely understand the desire to make the game less daunting to a new player, and since they allow me to disable/enable it at my whim I say Win-Win for Turbine. If you want to read more details about how this works I suggest this post on MMeOw and this video on Under the Banner
XP Curve Change
Best to just quote the patch notes here.
As a result, the experience curve has been adjusted and the amount of experience needed to level from 1-60 has been reduced. Your level will not be automatically changed but you may see an increase of up to 3 levels upon your next gain of experience when Book 7 goes live.
So the curve has been adjusted, and total XP needed to hit 60 reduced. As a new player to the game I don’t think the current “curve” (at least to level 21) really needed a change. Of course, at this stage in the games lifecycle, I can understand the devs wanting to help boost characters up.
Keep in mind that although the overall experience to reach level 60 has been reduced, it is possible that some players may find they need more experience in their new adjusted level versus the old experience table. This should not be considered alarming as the amount of XP that a quest grants has likely also been scaled up in these cases to fit the new leveling curve.
This is interesting, because it claifys the “curve” adjustment. They lowered the Total XP needed to hit the cap, but in doing so some levels may now take more XP to pass through than they did before.   Of course that extra XP will not translate into more “time played” becuase they also have increased the amount of XP quests reward.
So less total XP needed + more XP rewards = Increased chance that I will actually see some of the later game content; sounds like a win.
Small but much need Change to the Auction house
The craft recipe section of the auction house has been updated to display each tier of a crafting profession. This allows you to see only those recipes of a certain tier. You can still search all recipes by selecting the “Recipes” category and typing in the name of a scroll. The sorting functionality has been carried over into vendors selling recipes as well.
When I fist looked at the auction house a few weeks back, I was shocked that the ability to only see items in a certain tier was missing. I was dumbfounded to the point of asking if a designer had never tried to buy or sell a recipe at auction, because if they had then this would have been fixed.  So I guess one of them finally tried, and so we all benefit and it carries over to vendor. Yay Yay!
Yes there are lots, I mean a ton, of other changes comming next week but these are the ones I expect to see a direct impact with. Of course if once it all goes live if something else jumps out at me I will share.