Are skirmishes instances? Skirmishes have filled a hole that in Middle-earth since they got introduced back in 2009. What that hole would be is different for each player. Some might not even know they exist these days. Before we go over the history and the lore of each skirmish. A quick overview of skirmishes in general.
Article 1 – History and overview
Article 2 – Skirmishes of Bree and Ranger
Article 3 – Skirmishes of Eriador
Article 4 – Skirmishes of the underground
Article 5 – Skirmishes of Mirkwood
What is a skirmish?
When the skirmishes launched they really sticked to their Oxford or Vandale definition. In the large scale of the War of the Ring the trouble in tuckborough or the defense of the prancing pony wasn’t a tipping point. But for the ones involved it was still an important battle that would still influence the major factions in Middle-earth. If Bree would have fallen there would be less defenders to guard the borders of Rivendell or less rangers of the Grey company to head south.
For the players themselves it was a great alternative to level. Even when the game was around for a while there were still points where an extra level or a few extra marks and medallions were very welcome.
Scaling and replay ability
For the long term it was Turbines first venture into scalable instance and loot. For how important i think this has been i’ll refer you to some earlier articles. But it also added an alternative to questing in the game. If you wanted you could skip an entire expansion with the experience rewarded by them. This might seem irrelevant, but is imperative to any player on a tight budget. Up till level 50 it’s all fun and games, but after that it’s expansion, VIP or bust for a more then 0% percent of the players (especially Helms deep still being $40).
Skirmishes have always provided a great alternative to players looking for options. They become repetitive, but when there is no other option or if you really like the methodical approach to the offensive skirmishes. They are your go to place.
Tiering up responsibly
Skirmishes have 3 possible difficulty settings with Tier 1, 2 or 3. Each one gives a slight better drop chance for scaled loot. But mostly it’s for a higher difficulty. Although you do get 10 or 25 % more marks/medallions the bigger morale pool of the mobs will mean you will have to skirmish a bit less responsible.
The fourth age
Sauron hasn’t been defeated yet, but its still the fourth age. The age of the Fourth mark was a time where this was the one of the most important barter currency you could get. The best gear you could get would use these and scale-able daily quest were the big rage. Since there were only so many instances and a lot more skirmishes. Everyone would run skirmishes.
As long as there is a number going up players can be very forgiving in what they would do. Be it marks, ash or gold if you set a goal you can achieve you can do a lot more instances then you’d like. I still remember the days where me and a kinnie decided to go for 1 million marks. He made it, technically if i converted everything i would have as well. Still rocking those marks as my lower limit.
Current days
This brings us to the 2018 and skirmishes. It still a really important to anyone below level 65 and players on a quest to limit their expenses and/or interested in an easy quick xp fix. The allegiances have filled some story plots that would have made really interesting skirmishes. Standing stone games seemed to have decided that it’s an old system that has been surpassed by time and development options.
One can dream and have them introduce the Epic battle scaling to skirmsihes so that everyone can once again team up to fight these battles for the denizens of Middle-earth. For now we’ll take a look at the skirmishes and their history in the world of lotro.
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