I want to weigh in a little bit on the way that end-game loot is distributed. I'm greatly concerned that the current systems are inconsistent with each other, and if the trend continues, will become very confusing for new players who get exposed to multiple systems all at once. Forgive the length of this post.

Level 1 - 58: Characters are accustomed to acquiring loot as quest rewards, crafted, and some barter tokens for completing fellowship quests. This level range is pretty smooth, but things fall off the tracks immediately afterwards.

Moria "Fellowship" Gear: These pieces are acquired by collecting Moria medallions from the six 6-man instances. Depending on the instances run and the piece desired, you need to run between one and four instances to get each piece.
Moria "Raid" Gear: This includes the Head/Shoulders from the Watcher. Kill the Watcher, get a chance for the barter item.

Lothlorien "Fellowship" Gear: Consistent with Moria. Collect medallions, get armor pieces. 1-4 runs per piece.
Lothlorien "Raid" Gear: Consistent with Moria. Kill a boss, roll on a barter piece, get the armor.

Mirkwood "Fellowship" Gear: Inconsistent. Mirkwood Medallions can be used to get Lothlorien armor (not Moria). Still takes 1-4 runs per piece though.
Mirkwood "Raid" Gear: Consistent. Kill a boss, chance to get the barter piece for the armor.

So far so good...a pattern emerged on how to end game gear. Mirkwood was a bit goofy because you could get Lothlorien gear. It made sense with Radiance in the game so people could easily get enough to run BG, but now it's a bit weird. From this point on, each update seemingly adds a completely new end-game gear system to the game, with no rhyme or reason.

Classic Instance Fellowship and Raid gear (Annuminas/Helegrod): Need to collect marks to get the gear. Superior third marks available from any instances challenge mode. Special Annuminas/Helegrod marks can be obtained from running under-leveled instances. Bosses drop nothing special, and are usually best skipped. Still on pace to get your gear in a few runs per piece though.

This system seems completely bonkers. The complete 12-man gear set could be obtained without killing a single raid boss! In fact, the raid set could be obtained without killing a single level 65 enemy in the raid. 3-man and 6-man instances for superior third marks plus level 50 helegrod quest runs = armor piece.

Now the current system:

"Fellowship Gear" is the purple set. This is obtained by collecting medallions. Medallions can be obtained (very slowly) from a solo quest, and slightly faster from doing 3-man and 6-man instances. Challenge mode increases the medallion acquisition. Purple piece can be obtained a bit faster with the Tier 1 Raid Drop. Medallion acquisition on 3-man/6-man instances are limited through raid locks. Each piece of gear ends up requiring 10+ Challenge Mode Runs, or up to 50 Normal Mode Runs. This is about 10 times as much grind as the other systems!

"Raid Gear" is the teal set. Need to get a barter token from the Tier 2 raid plus a number of medallions above. Requires much more grind after receiving the barter token than the other systems.

There is a huge jump in the level of grind required for the purple gear. In Mirkwood, 9 runs of Sword Halls easy mode yielded 27 medallions, enough to get the most expensive piece of gear. It now takes 10+ runs of Challenge mode instances to get the new gear. Sword Halls you could run repeatedly...the first time challenge mode gave you bonus medallions, each time after you got fewer medallions. But you could take a weekend off and achieve something. The current system locks you out of medallions twice a week, so you cannot grind out the purple gear.

So we have:

1. Moria medallions for Moria loot. 1-4 instances needed per piece. No medallions needed for raid gear.
Loth medallions for Loth loot. 1-4 instances needed per piece. No medallions needed for raid gear.
Mirk medallions for Mirk OR LOTH loot. 1-4 instances needed per piece. No medallions needed for raid gear.
Various skirmish marks, acquired from various instances for Hele/Annuminas gear. Number depends on bonus marks dropping and challenge modes, but probably about 3-5 runs per piece.
North marks for In Their Absence loot. 10+ challenge, 40+ normal instances per piece. Limited number of runs per week. Medallions needed for raid gear.

The concern I have now is for the future.

1) Are existing loot systems going to be changed for consistency (different medallions per cluster, but the same mechanic)?
2) Will new instance clusters use one of the existing systems (with different medallions of course) or will each new instance cluster introduce another different system?
3) What is the desired ratio for instances completed per armor piece? We strayed from 1-4 completed challenge runs to 10+ completed challenge runs.
4) Will raid locks continue to be put on 3-man and 6-man instances?

I believe Turbine is still trying to find a system that they like, and each system had some faults. I'm hoping that feedback in this thread will give Turbine an idea of what the players prefer, so that the system rolled out for Isengard works for as many players as possible.

As for me, I would like the In Their Absence system (I like the idea of raid locks for 3-man/6-man) with:
1) Less runs needed per armor piece obtained
2) No medallions, or very few medallions, needed for raid barter tokens.