99 instances – Page 2 – LOTRO Players

[CC] 99 instances – In their absence, Ost dunhoth

Rooted in lore and expanded by Turbine the instance cluster for In their absence revolves around our favorite undead boy band. Thadur, Fendur, Drugoth, Ivar and Gotheron are gaunt lords created by Morgoth (evil’s upper management) in the First age. Each embodying a facet of evil. Wrapping up the wight-quest lines from Shadows of Angmar

Pre-launch
Before the instance were released 5 mysterious relics popped up around middle-earth. Each of these would have a quest and information about the upcoming instances. Speculation and rumors about what these relics meant. Going around Middle-earth to find these will complete a deed and this or an envelope will send you to Barliman Butterbur to start you on your journey. Alone though, cause in the absence of the Grey Company that have gone south to join Aragorn. Evil has started to stir in the North. And questpacks around Eriador need to be bought.

Even boars like to slap hobbits. They even came to Evendim for it.

Northcotton farms
Slapping hobbits taking to a new record? Well, that and the poison element of Thadur the Ravager. The silence of the Shire has gone through the roof as some hobbits have gone missing. As your party makes its way you will find these hobbits caught in spiderwebs, up trees or in cocoons. Legbarthil and eventually Thadur himself brought out the value pack of evil with spiders, goblins and boars. The mobs are easily dispatched and boss 1 and boss 3 are quite easily done if you follow the tactics. The difficulty in the instance is within the damage taken and timing on Thadur himself. Move out of puddles, follow the instructions from him and run away if he asks.

The real fun comes from the easy challenge and your chance to slap some “mind-controlled” hobbits as they make their way for pies. Meanwhile you need to defeat a named cauldron and control your placement of the puddles. Quick, hobbity scenery and a great pick up instance to do with your friends.

Stoneheight
A town taken over after standing in Angmars way in yonder years. Stoneheight is the only instance that doesn’t have a gaunt-lord in it. Instead you’ll face a trio of goblins (and some wolves if you miss click) that depending on your party can be challenged in plenty a way.

On your way to the Dale Truit you’ll come across Bubhoas-grat with it’s massive aoe damage, but the stars of this part are the sleeping wolves. And as the proverb goes, don’t wake sleepings dogs.

The final boss has a nice twist on tier 2 where you’ll have to face both bosses instead of Dale alone. While Dale goes in stealth it becomes a fight about interruption that can be complicated by Buhhosh running amok. Forget to do this or slowed by caltops he might just kill your healer. An easy to finish, but quick to go sour instance if you don’t pay attention.

Lost temple and Sari surma
Rounding out the element with frost and disease the two 6-mans in this cluster feel a bit more generic then the 3-mans. Each instance has plenty of thematic mobs on their way to their first bosses. While Coldbear is the enemy of every burst dps class and the twins are nightmare fuel for any healer or tank. They fall in the middle of a lengthy instance. Each could make a good boss fight in a skirmish, but in the end they don’t tickle my interest.

The 2nd boss in Sari Surma and all the minibosses in Lost temple are extras. We can make a little quiz
Question 1: What is the name of the second boss in Sari Surma?
Question 2: Name any of the mini-bosses in Lost temple inner temple?

Google said it was Osan and that the minibosses had no names. So we can keep it short, atleast the rooms in the Inner temple prepare you for the adds in the final fight.

The stars of the instances are the Gauntlords. Fendur is fight about precision and patience. Drugoth will pull and tuck you around the arena. Each boss gives you the option to go for a quick and speedy kill for your quest or box run. But with a tier 2 or challenge group, both will have a trick up their sleeve. More loot, more challenge and more ways to mess up. Just as the doctor ordered. Could do with a little trimming around the waist.

Ost Dunhoth
A massive raid when released and later cut up into 3 sets of 2 boss fights. Ost dunhoth got the same treatment as Fornost or Helegrod when it became a scaled instance. With a fresh mechanic for each boss and just a few thrash groups before them it would still require plenty of tries to complete.

Wound wing – 3 deadly piglets
Guaredan and 3 mammoth are poised to ride you over as your group makes it way down the 3 corridors. Having to wait at the gates with them bouldering down upon on your group. Praying to illuvatar the other group got to the levers in time to reach the last room.

Slowly dwindling down the morale of these piglets only to find out that these aren’t the dangermouse. The wardens and adds will overwhelm any overzealous group. Complete chaos with these and 3 mumaks running amok with your group still trying to defeat them within 7 minutes for the challenge.

Fear wing – Durins Bane
Thrash mobs being more difficult then the boss happens, the Fear wing needed as much control on these as the mammoths you just disposed off. Easily disposed of with just more dps. But at launch they weren’t a time to let your guard down.

The boss is Durins Bane. The balrog you find at the bottom of Zirik zigil in Moria. Alas it’s just a figment conjured by Duregoth, but it’s the famous balrog in all of it’s purpose. His wip and sword doing a massive amount of frontal aoe, summoning fire all around him and anyone that dares to face him taking a swat of shadow damage all made it fight to remember.

These days the penalty of wiping the raid if 6 people died and the adds are trivial. The wound wing has survived the passing of time a lot better. A raid even still being run as a box run is amendable, but finding a group for the challenge deed is hard.

Disease and poison wing – Frothmar and the reflect trees
Introducing the platforms before Frothmar the giant was a challenge at the time. The damage done by the water was high enough without the adds themselves. Having your ranged classes hit the spirit, before a tank was near enough, would quickly kill then. But overtime the aura of damage got lessened and the adds and eventually the boss became just a stepping stone to the poison wing.

As with any disease you get a build in immunity. Having a slight relief on the platform was great, but now you wonder what was so bad about those chicken pox you had as a child only to be reminded by the elders in your kin how it truly was back then.

Followed by a classic setup of adds, giving each type a role and a mob group to target on. The beetles doing too much damage to melee them with their shells still intact and the kegrims summoning interrupted or needing to be dispatched as quick as possible. A quick test of coordination and target switching you’d want for the infamous trees.

Dourbark and Baleleaf
Each of these trees has made its allegiance clear. Red and white are their teams. As are their protectors. Choose a team and stick with it or be killed near instantly. Each boglurker will need to be killed before their Huorn will become vulnerable again. Only if you hit the wrong lurker you’ll lose 25% of your morale and switch colours. Offsetting the delicate balance your raidleader made in each group. Not that much fuzz at lower levels, but if you go on level the trees might heal up again and your raid has to be in tight control or start over again to get the trees in sync again. Lots of snickering to be had while it was a box run.

Ivar and Gortheron
The boss with the longest deed list in the game awaits you. Ivar can be a footstep or your destination in this wing. Ivar is protected by 4 guardians. Each of which can feel like a seperate raid boss in itself. Every guardian has an aura/corruption he can put on himself, if anyone hit that boss he will get a unique debuff depending on his effect.

So you just nuke each boss and remove corruptions then? You can on tier 1, but the challenge is to let the auras run their time making the fight more chaotic as it goes on. Once you defeat a champion the buff he gives himself will be transfered to Ivar himself. Going into this fight with a group of tanks and healers means you can outlast the guardians while you kill Ivar or kill the biggest hardships quickly with a dps raid.

Ivars champions
The hardest and most unique deed, title and item you could get was the Ivars Champion deed. With 4 guardians and Ivar you can make 24 different kill orders. Each and every single one was needed to finish the deed. Over time you could set the level lower and lower and run the instance on t1. At level 65, the only way was to find be in a kin that had some heavily invested 12 players to make sure all the kills were done correctly.

Shiny mounts for shiny deeds. Final product may vary.

Gortheron
Right after Ivars buddies there is just one guy remaining. Gortheron will call upon all 4 of his pet projects for reinforcements as you dwindle his morale down to nearly 0. We’ll call it 0, but you will have to wait for the only challenger to Draigochs death speech.

How hard the final raid boss is will depend on the time you were killing him and the difficulty. There are a million adds that each add stacks to to Gortheron for a total of 50 * 10 % damage (500%). Dispatch his adds as quickly as you can. Unless you do the challenge and he needs to be at tier 50 (for the shortest time possible, poor tanks).

Ost dunhoth, the mother of all challenge modes
Where as nearly all multi-wing raids are fixed in their level and their difficulty and challenge can be avoided by using a higher level. The fact that challenges are only an option at max level makes them a different story. Erebor, deepening wall and helegrod might have their difficulties, Ost Dunhoth challenge modes might be the most underrated title you can get.

Isengard, formerly known as the ox-clan camp

Isengard, one of the two towers and home to the white wizard and not a purple floating sphere. After venturing through Dunland and guiding the grey company further south you would reach the area of Isengard. Home to the oxclan camp which hosts the instance cluster of this 99 instances. Coming with 2 small fellowships a 6-man and the home of Saruman and it henceman.

The instance cluster is one of the most complete packages that would grace lotro for a good while. Each instance has it own flavour while still feeling connected. Moria had more instances and mirkwood added many skirmishes and content for all levels. But Dunland and the oxclan cluster still stands above them as a self-contained package.

Dargnákh Unleashed
Dragnakh is one of the instances that has its own small stories inside it. A troll that is too big to attack, but you would love to set loose upon your enemies. Antagonizing your friend with ballistas from above or tickling him with explosive barrels. A fight where the fight is not with the boss with the adds. Trying to take him on yourself will end up with a flat dwarf.

All you efforts were for naught as a sorcerer has subdued your friend. Dispatching said sorc and luring dragnakh with slob buckets will ruin their day for sure. In the end its time to let the troll go. Using his rage against him by collapsing the sunroof above him until his morale gets low enough to kill him or go for the challenge and turn him into a statue.

A 3-man instance that would allow you to forego the classic group setup. Forming a refined blue print for future small fellowships. Tier 2 and the challenge would certainly benefit for a super healer or the tank-heal-dps setup.

Pits of Isengard
Often forgotten and the instance where people would complain about the most. Resembling Skumfill from Moria with its 2 wings of which one would close. Leading you to run back and forth on tier 1. A lackluster first part compensated by two bosses at the end. Each focussing on either fire or acid with some classic mechanics to make you work a little bit harder.

The stable middle brother that would prepare you for the big world out there. Lessons learned that would help you out with the raid later.

Fangorn’s Edge
The players first venture in Fangorn, a scenic instance where you;d forego normal tactics. Trolls that wil kill you no matter your level or gear while you try to cross the road. As a chicken bobbing and weaving to a large opening in the forests edge. Saving a few huorns from lumberjacks on the way

The boss calls his workforce to cut down the last huorns which you of course wont let them do (or you actually want for the deed). Lots of adds and a simple boss will only be followed by an assault from some massive ents. 3 massive trolls will come in help the little critters (orcs). Trying to take these on will turn you hobbit into a pancake. Using your classes to support these ents by defeating the orcs and/or adding a bit of damage on the slugfest to make sure you and the ents survive.

After the normal run you could go for tier 2, the challenge on different modes where all huorns either had to be saved on be killed. Instead of 50 orcs and 3 trolls you’d now have to evade the ents you were trying to help. Hostile as they would be to Sarumans forces they would think the same of you. Instead of just an extra layer the higher difficulty would change the rules and turn the fights around.

The Foundry
With more people available the foundry is more of normal group instance. Each boss having their unique tactics. Boss 1 will make sure everyone is on their tippy toes with fire from beneath, rubble from above and steam from the sides trying to crush or roast you. And boss being the opposite with you trying to stay as stationary as possible with the troll punting you into the overflowing ladles and furnaces

While avoiding being pressed into elf-rebarb, you make your way to the foundry itself. The forge is protected by an uruk and human that take turns into hitting you on the head. If both are licking their wounds you get the chance to destroy the forge itself. Changing the kill order for the challenge makes it a bit more challenging, but if you made it this far you’ll be fine.

The Tower of Orthanc
Orthanc could fill it’s two articles, describing each little nuance in detail would need that much for sure. But near-perfection can also be worded in just a few words. Each part of the raid fullfills its role that i’d expect from it.

Each of the 4 wings has its own feel focusing on the elements the damage spectrum without an endless number of thrash pulls before it. Each wing has about 3 groups that will educate you on the moves the boss will have for that part. Core parts of an mmo where you either spread out or stay together; avoiding areas; debuffing; crowd control or facing bosses (or not) are all utilized.

Relatively easy or hard depending on what you try to achieve, unique loot and cosmetics still sought after. With lessons learned in the other instances culminating in an epic fight in the end. Each player on the tip of their toes facing saruman. A fight in complexity not available since Thaurlach and not repeated till level 105. If only the missing shadow ring could be fixed after 7 years.

While parts of other raids and instance clusters might top Isengard in specific parts, the total package has not been surpassed i believe (yet?).

[CC] A lament of CoS

Surrounding systems can make or break an instance. Even the most basic place can look enticing if you need it’s loot. Everyone needed the loot of Seregrost. Court of Seregrost ins’t your standard basic place. With update 23 the nicest loot will leave our presence. But will Seregrost leaves our minds and hearts?

Hear me out, you will miss CoS.
Each era of lotro has had it’s instance that you ran so much you ended up hating it at that time. Quick, not too hard, enticing loot (in quantities) and a reason to not go beyond this one place. Thorog, Ruined city, Sambrog, Halls of crafting, Silent street and Court of Seregrost are all shaped by world around them. None of them are bad, some are even the best of their clusters. You were just put in them a few too many times

Best all-round 3-mans around?
Over the last year I’ve seen a lot of small fellowships in the 99 instance series. Pretty much every single one has a massive flaw. Ranging from far too easy like School or library; a near impossible challenge in the Forsaken Inn; too lengthy; wiki-needed like Mirrors or taking far too long unless “exploited” like Ruined City. Seregrost begins to drag itself out of the muck you’d wish it on him.

I know, nearly everyone won’t miss CoS for the next few months. Even if it would still drop anfalas crystals and empowerment scrolls. There will be new instances, everyone will be running these and you wont need the extra 105 gear to survive Udun. So why would you still want to run it then?

Near perfect mix without Mordor to hold it back
In nearly all it it forms its perfect in it’s run time. Run it at a lower level to see the instance, grab the lost lore pages and have a fun time with your group. Trying to grab some gear for your hobbit is fine at T1. Even if you might not make it too the end, each boss has some (of the same) loot in a decent time.

If you’re up for it you can take on T2 or the challenge. Scaling pretty well with the gear you’ve and the group your in it can be done in about 30-45 mins. Going in under geared will test you. Offsetting it with dps, kiting, tanking or stressing your healer out. Or are you feeling superior to lhareatth and wanting to farm her? Even that’s up on the table, ash, embers or runes are up for the grab. Never empty handed, but sometimes that extra shiny to keep you coming back with the golden signets or runes.

Bosses for every class
Nearly every combination of classes do work well. Each boss has little tweaks for each group. Two dps with a captain tank using revealing mark. A beorning with two mobile classes for boss 1. Or a guardian using shield wall on a fire runekeeper on boss 2 with some slight heals from a loremaster. Going with an aoe champ for the adds on the cauldrons or warden kiting all the bats. Each can choose their path. Some are better at one part, but it will even out along the way. The only one left out would be a burglar i’d think.No aoe and no need for CC is not that a recipe for thieving success.

Where will Cos land?
In a few months when Cos hate has died down a little, we’d might just look back at it. Slowly new lotroplayers will ask if someone is up for it. Nearly everyone will have it since mordor is hard to skip and might be on sale. It won’t give you as much xp as warg pens, but it has been a while. You’re wondering why you hate it and realize it wasn’t Cos. It was everything surrounding it. The ash isn’t there, no endless scrolls or crystals that make you farm it for hours upon end on every alt. it might even be the only instance you’’d remember in Mordor by that time.

A solid, timely, not too hard if you want to instance that might even have some nice nostalgia for you. If it scales well and has some decent scaled loot you might even want to do it on your level 120.

The best all round 3-man instance? It might just be.

Skirmishes of Mirkwood

Mirkwood was an expansion upon an expansion. Relativley small with only 5 levels after the 10 in Moria, but across the instances in Dol guldur, skirmishes in Mirkwood and the freshness of scaling it felt as the finish of a storyline.

The instances we’ve discussed in … and skirmishes are woven into the epic book. So much that your main problem with them is going to be finding players that A – have them unlocked and B – not run them to death.

After you made your staging ground in the Mirk-eaves you venture east towards the fortress of Dol Guldur. On the way you will strike against Dannenglor and protect your forward base in the reconquered Gathzburz. After the dust has settled it time to assault the gate, lair and tower where your escaped orc now resides. Without giving away to many spoiler about Moria or Mirkwood this

article will be a bit shorter then normal.

Strike against Dannenglor
A classic skirmish surrounding a central plaza where we retake the ancient elven ruins of Dannenglor. Grims, morrovail and bats will have to make place for our encounters and counterattacks.

Some interesting encounters, minimal distance and a relatively easy end boss make it into a quick skirmish that grows difficulty with the number of players in your party.

Protectors of thangulhad
As the elven host made its way east and retook the stronghold of Thangulhad. Just as in the battle of the Ardennes, Saurons forces starts a massive counterattack with groups of mobs you have not seen before in skirmishes

Luckily the engineers have brought and setup their siege engines already in just the right spots. Ballistas take out over ¾ of the morale of any mob you hit them with. Catapults in the back will help you with the final boss. Nothing stops a raging troll like a bolt in the face.

Encounters blend right into the fray and have a few tricks up their sleeve, just shooting them is not enough. As long as Rodelleth survives and you find out that east and west mean something different in Quenya its a fun skirmish to run once in awhile.

Assault the gate, lair and tower
Dol goldur is a massive place and is such a landmark in middle earth that you have 3 skirmishes, 3 instances and a raid in one place. The epic book ramps up and they follow each other in such rapid succession you might even forget they are 3 separate skirmishes.

Attacking the outer defense in Assault on the ringwraiths lair is hindered by the the ringwraith themselves striking fear into your party as they swoop down on any that don’t hide in a corner. The inner defenses of this fortress are guarded by wards that you can only destroy as you try to Breach the necromancers gate. Only to be met with Doraz the troll and spank him as you tank him and you’re done.

After you rescued some of your dwarven mates from the dungeons of Dol goldur you join them in the Battle of the tower. Mazog is at the top, the nasty orc that has meant the death of too many good dwarfs in Moria. Its time to enter the Matrix and not be The One. Dwarfs are better suited to deal a final blow at that height.

Skirmishes
The underlying scaling of skirmishes meant a lot to lotro at the time and continues to do so in 2018. From a one time battle against the brigands of Bree to a major part in the conclusion of an expansion the skirmishes grew in the same way as any other part of lotro. Big battles gotten alot better over time, instances as story telling with osgiligath and minas tirith or the latest Court of seregrost or naerband supplied more then just another instance. Well Naerband tried it’s best.

Fallen past its wayside or past by in other dimensions. What would you like to see as a future skirmish or what moment in lotro would fit well? I feel that the resource instances in Mordor might be the closest we’ve gotten to a skirmish in a while. Orodruin of Bhol rudh would be great places to assault with a bigger group then 2.

Addendum: With update 23 nearly here. Don’t forget the scaled loot from skirmishes. It won’t be the best, but it is on par with the questing and T1 instances. And it won’t require essences. A great budget option for ones not in Dale yet.

[CC] 99 instance – Skirmishes of the underground

Not all battles are fought above ground. After the dwarves delved too deep and we bested our foes inside the Moria instances. The forces of Mazog made their plans clear by clearing out the halls of the 21st hall, the deep way and the smithes. Besides Moria there was an attack on the Rift to free Golodir in the rescue in the rift. We’ll also include the Storm of Methedras in here as another epic story instance skirmish (thats not Mirkwood).

Opportunity for extra grouping
Instances and raids are fixed in grouping size. You will always have to find 2, 5 or 11 other people to fight your bosses with you. Skirmishes give you the option for solo and duo’s as well as the other options. First you’ll have to find a location thats still feels epic, but also provides the room for all group sizes. Turbine found these places in the epic story in the attacks on the dwarven capitals and the Grey companys assault on Tal methedras.

Defences for Moria

The skirmishes in Moria are more entertaining and variable then the first skirmishes. Beside the encounters you have three points of attack in the smiths and first waves of the 21st hall. Luitenants, mobs and encounters are different then just a single mob. Orcs trying to steal the riches of the vault keepers or the archers ambushing you from above.

The skirmishes are defensive and as such suffer a bit from being too lenghty and void of options. All 3 could use an option to advance the waves or shorten the distances you have to run inbetween the points of attack.

Storming Methedras
Mysterious old womans and evil goats feel abit at odds with the rest of Dunland and Isengard. In the region of Enedwaith Gwyllion resides tried to raise an undead army to aid The white hand. What that means for us is an extra opportunity to fight with some friends or our soldier for extra loot and marks.

As an offensive skirmish with 2 extra helpers, extra encounters and 10 meters to walk to the next group of mobs. It’s a quickest and dense packed skirmish for a group of levelers. The story is not widely known or interesting to people. The role of Gwyillion in lotro is not really fleshed out, the same as the huntsman in Enedwaith. A skirmish run for cold numbers and not lore as opposed to another one.

Rescue in Nûrz Gâshu
Taken by madness, Golodir has ventured into the rift and gets you stuck in the volcanic derby for another time. Once for the raid, another few times for the anniversary event, once one more for the summer festival and this time for the skirmish. The venue is a known, but the group boosts to the skirmish are new and unknown to nearly everyone.

Ranging from multiple side attacks, obstacle that you have to (fellowship) maneuver or not kill yourself on the reflect. It all looks easy or even out-of-phase solo, but ramps up in complexity as your group goes.

Crossing the door into Norburs lair where he and Caerogs will make your life miserable. Golodir will most likely kill himself while his ranger buddy is laying traps for your assistance. Avoiding a toasty Golodir is as hard as our elf-healer in the Rift herself against Thaurlach. If they would ever fix his morale it might be a nice place to go back to. For now skirmish responsibly and avoid this one outside of a solo run for your epic book.

Next time we’ll round of the skirmishes at the high tide of them in the recapture of Mirkwood.