With a bond villain having you tied to a table and a laser coming down on you, forcing you to make a decision. Love, marry or kill these 3 instances. Most would have an easy time choosing their favorites from among The sunken labyrinth, The ruined city or The dome of stars.
In 2013 we returned to Osgiligath to look for Faramir and instances came back to lotro. The region of Osgiligath was under siege, when a cloaked figure resembling the fallen captain of Gondor was spotted in the quest chain The ashes and stars.
History – development time for instances
Making instances is time spent you cant use again for a new region or questline. Every bit of your development team needs to be used. From your art department to the system developers creating the boss mechanics. It requires tweaking and a balance to be achieved that takes a lot more effort then a questline.
How much time is normally spent? Instances are planned as core pieces of an update and their work starts from day 1. When the smaller instances are finished it usually takes another month or 2 to finalize the raid that comes with the same instance cluster. Or when an instance isn’t planned such as our new instances between U22 and U23. Update 23 (Minas Morgul) release is pushed back or move over to later patch.
Bring your hardhat for these runs
Osgiligath was one of the first instance that used an existing asset in the world. You fight in the same sewers, streets and dome as where you quest. Having a questline guide you to every location on the map giving you a familiarity with the place before fighting elites and bosses is a nice touch as well.
The shiny carrot at the end of the quest chain was the traitpoint, but what people were really looking for were the new set bonuses on the armour. After Dol amroth and Central Gondor gave us some bare armour slots the set bonuses for some classes were such an improvement you really wanted your rune keeper to have them.
Kill -The sunken labyrinth
With orcs and easterlings flooding the surface the slugs and rats have made their home in the subterranean maze. The enemy won’t set foot in the labyrinth with their friends being mangled into abominations.
The instance itself features a few small puzzles with levers, different mechanics then a “classic” instance and the strange damage type. The instance is a good challenge, but depending on the player you will not like part of it.
Either at level 50 for your quest, finding your class item at 100/105 or trying to clear your deed log at 115. During and after you want to kill the instance.
Each instance has two armour slots that it could drop. Pending on your class you would want the 0, 2 or 4 set bonus over the extra essence slots from Dol amroth or Faramirs camp. And pretty much everyone wanted the 3 slot jewelry if you had the essences to fill them with.
Love – The ruined city
Faramir has climbed up from the sewers and is leading is around the ruined city. It has 3 bosses, but most will only remember the final one. The trick where you could skip every boss and grab as much morgul crests as you could has recently been fixed (after the crests were relevant). It’s not fair to judge the instance in one brush stroke.
Lovely loot. Return with a receipt and morgul crests for alts.
The instance has a lot of thrash mobs is actually pretty hurtful if you have kill them. The first boss uses adds and bleeds to challenge your group. Resistance isn’t futile and you will need a good chunk of it to survive. Nice fight and with preparation and planning it’s pretty good.
After a while the 2nd boss is getting attacked by orcs. Depending on your group setup you change your tactics. Control the adds and have a ranged character attack the troll, kite the adds or tank everything and weather the storm. The 3rd boss is a fight about placement, getting the adds down. Great stable fights where you have options depending on your group and gear.
Personally i’d have to choose Love for Ruined city. It’s had a really intense period of love, but over time it became clear that you two had issues that couldn’t overcome. When it all became normal and you went through the full day together it became a bit of a drag. Once you got used to the quick runs (with or without first boss) the full run is a chore.
Marry – The dome of stars
If ruined city is that crazy fling. Dome of stars is that childhood friend that moved away and you recently ran into again. You remember the fun times and grow closer together.
Trying to explain the parcour proved a little arduous to kins
The dome is the master class for skipping mobs. It’s lotros version of parkour. Without it, it would run aground the same as Ruined city has done. But so far SSG hasn’t decided against it. Rumors has it there is optional boss beyond the sea of mobs. A character you met before in Dunland and other places. Look him up he’ been lonely for awhile.
What makes me choose marry for the Dome of stars are the other bosses. The quick start to your first fight against a Mumakill in lotro. They designed the fight the way you’d fight a mumakill. Use the poison darts (archers) to drug (+300% damage) him. Don’t stand in front of him or you’ll die. And after awhile he’s fed up with you and starts to really stomp you (enrage). A little variation on a dps race with help and movement makes this fight feel different than normal.
The nazgul at the end is all about movement and control. Keeping 1 mini boss around for the challenge or making sure his fellbeast isn’t fearing into places you really don’t want to be. With the tank and healer pre-occupied your melee tries to take down the mini bosses and the ranged picking off the ghosts that take out any character below 50% morale. It starts of slow and easy, but picks up speed and difficulty as the fight progresses.
Dome of stars is the instance you ran at 50, 100, 105 and still do at 115. The challenge comes from the instance and not a mechanic overcome by gearing. Fighting in the streets, on the great bridge or in the dome of stars is great for any normal group setup. It’s a stable lovely instance i’d choose to marry of the 3. Until SSG makes it so cant evade mobs anymore, then i’ll file for divorce.
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