If you have been following this series, then you could likely guess my opinion of the warrior. I don’t get along with melee soldiers and I don’t mix well with soldiers that perform area attacks. Therefore, combining the two attributes in one soldier is unlikely to win me over. Attributes Pros: If you can pack the mobs together, the warrior will tear them...

  Role:                        Damage Group Settings:     Fellowship and Raid In an earlier post, we looked at the Bearer of Blight, who had some nasty effects relating to the various debuff types. That was just a warm-up for the Chaos Fiend. And when you consider that this lieutenant only appears in fellowship and raid skirmishes, “chaos” is definitely...

Most skirmish soldiers inflict common damage. The one exception is the sage. The sage’s basic attacks inflict light damage while most of their skills inflict fire or frost damage. Attributes Pros: Inflicts non-common damage. Has the highest power rating of any skirmish soldier. Can be traited for area damage. Cons: Sages have the lowest morale of any soldier...

Role:                               Damage Group Settings:            Duo and higher You are in a raid that is fending off a counterattack in Assault on the Ringwraiths’ Lair and everything appears to be going fine. Then you see sixteen giants running straight for your group. The Brothers of Destruction are giants (well, the game says “ogre” but they look like...

I was once tanking the final boss in Trouble in Tuckborough and a protector latched on the boss and grabbed his attention. Now what was I going to do? I didn’t dare get into a threat fight with the protector, since the last thing you want to do in Tuck is to burn the boss down too fast during a raid. The raid leader decided that I should switch to the...

Group Settings:                Duo and higher Do you have a severe case of arachnophobia? If you do, then you don’t want to face the Brood Queen. What could be worse for an arachnophobe than facing a gigantic spider? How about facing a pregnant giant spider? The Brood Queen is most noted for breeding in combat. Every once in a while she will implant an egg into...

The herbalist is a favorite soldier by raiders. Why? Because a raid generally has sufficient offensive power but could always use a little extra healing. In addition, they also prefer the safer soldiers. The herbalist is the safest of soldiers of the soldiers.They follow behind you and they do no damage. As such, they are the least likely soldiers to get you...

Skirmishes:         All except Trouble in Tuckborough and Storm on Methedras Group Settings:  All Today we will look at the most gregarious of lieutenants: the Blood Rook. The more friends a Blood Rook has nearby, the more powerful it is. By this, I mean its outgoing damage is increased and its incoming damage is reduced. With enough friends (such as in a solo...

A few months before the release of Isengard, I ran a test with all the skirmish soldiers. During this test, I ran a series of four skirmishes with my warden using each soldier in turn: Trouble in Tuckborough at Tier 1, Ford of Bruinen at Tier 1, Thievery and Mischief at Tier 2, and Stand at Amon Sûl at Tier 2. The fastest time (and the only series where I never...

Introduction One of the peculiar features of LOTRO skirmishes are the lieutenants. During the course of a skirmish run, you will face a number of lieutenants. Unlike the mini-bosses in other instances, each lieutenant you face will be selected at random from a pool of available lieutenants. The key is that all skirmishes share the same pool of lieutenants...

  It should be no surprise to those who have read my earlier posts that I have a preference for the archer. When I look for a soldier whose primary purpose is damage, I generally turn to the soldier that carries a bow. Why? Because of the way soldiers tend to behave. Soldiers act in a similar manner to monsters in that they will generally attack whoever is...

Skirmish Soldiers One of the features that distinguishes skirmishes from other types of instances is your skirmish soldier. Each player character is allowed to summon a companion who fights along with them during the skirmish. There are two areas where you may normally summon a skirmish soldier. The first is within a skirmish, which is the location for which...

How Do You Start Skirmishing? You have reached level 20 and you are ready to skirmish. Now just open the Instance Finder and…. Wait a moment, why won’t it let me run any skirmishes? Oh, that’s right, you need to run the skirmish tutorial first. Soon after you reach level 20, you will receive a letter in the mail asking you to report to one of the skirmish...

What is a skirmish? In short, a skirmish is an instance that is scalable on three dimensions: level, difficulty, and group size. Types of Instances Before we can discuss what sets skirmishes apart from other instances, we need to discuss just what an instance is. Instances are areas set apart from the main world for various purposes. Most instances are private...