I would say the combat is quite slow compared to, say, anything else except EQ, and hasn't developed much at all since launch. The abilities are more responsive than at launch, that's about it. Its not furiously mashing buttons, more of a slow poking at alot of buttons. The PvP still sucks, but some people seem to love the shit out of it. There is a shit-ton of grindiness, the endgame is pretty sketchy (though the rebuilding of a town through dailies in Rohan is pretty damn cool in my opinion), and plenty else to poo-poo if you really want to tear this shit down.
It remains something that you can only truly love if you love LOTR (which I do, so I love this game perhaps more than any other MMO); you aren't going to play this for scintillating gameplay or a deep and varied endgame...its more about being a badass in a beloved world. The community is solid; the mid-level zones aren't exactly overflowing with people but there are a few folks everywhere I've been, and the beginning and endgame zones seem as full as can be expected. Really, the most maddening thing is that there is a group finder for instances that isn't that bad, but that everyone seems to not use. Not sure why the hell that is, perhaps I haven't been back into long enough to discover why it sucks or something.