99 instances – Page 5 – LOTRO Players

[CC] 99 instances – An epic big battle

How do you write a story when you know you will be mostly defeated? Such is the meeting that happened at Turbine when they came to the moment of the Attack on Helms Deep. The players can’t really play a role where they will fail by default. This article will follow the players as they fight the battles of Helms deep, Pelagrir and defend Minas Tirith

A new type of instance

What Turbine decided in that meeting was what came to be the Epic or big battle system. Each part of the battle is played out by NPC’s where the player itself will fulfill a support role and earn points and gear based on his involvement in that and side quests. Developers diary

History – an expansion without a raid or instance cluster
While Riders of Rohan had a group of instances and raids that didn’t center around the expansion itself, but took us on a Road to Erebor. The Helms Deep expansion came with the big battles. This meant that for the first time a lotro expansion didn’t come with is considered a classic instance or raid. Turbine at the hand of the community manager Sapience had the development time needed for a raid vs the number of people who would use said raid was pretty lobsided. These resources could better be used in other places. This “drought” would last for several years during what could be described as the Gondor expansion and The battle of Pelenor mini expansion.

What do we do ourselves?
In each big battle we play the part of the defenders of the fortress of Helms deep or the city of Minas Tirith. In the battle for pelagrir we support Aragorn and the oathbreakers as they assault the city of Pelagrir to lift the siege and free up the soldiers for the battle of the Pelenor fields. The difference between offensive and defensive actions is what separates the big battles vs the instances and the skirmishes in the middle ground.
The bread and butter of our part is the sidequests, while in the group version the player certainly has to support the main fights for the best rewards, where you and others use your roles as an engineer, officer or vanguard to supplement your normal skills. Developers diary

Away from the battle
In the side quest you will counter an enemy attack on a culvert, goblins attacking the cisterns or a battering ram assaulting the main gate for example. You will get support from soldiers that you can boost with your officer skills or use friendly catapults to batter the enemy forces. Depending on which big battle you do this will take you away from the main battle or you play a role that isn’t what your class normally does. In the end this is one part people often complained about. You have the choice of what to do, but you never feel like it’s what you want to do with your character.

The 3 different big battles eras
Instead of a start, then and now part, the big battles themselves came in 3 separate moments and each time they evolved a little with what the developers learned and adjusted for the new updates.

The battle of the 5 engineer armies – Helms deep
When Helms deep launched people were confused. It was a system like we never had. It was very technical, very buggy and a mess. Over time when people got the hang of the new roles it all seemed to boil down to putting your points you earned in Engineer and use the catapults, ballistas and barricades. Officer roles and Vanguard never felt like they really lived up to what Turbine had in mind. Most of the bugs and issues have been patched. But in the end the Helms deep big battles are still a great source of frustration and annoyance for anyone playing them solo, scaled up from anything below level 80 or any class that doesn’t use instantaneous skills like a loremaster, runekeeper, burglar or warden.
Other classes, higher level players on rank 6 engineers have a lot of time on their hand while they wait for the main quest to catch up with the finished sidequests.

Retaking pelagrir by dps
One of the forgotten battles in the books was there. Right to be retaken by us. An offensive big battle where we sidetrack the corsairs so that Aragorn can arrive with the Blue man group. After a welcome by the sons of Elrond we defend 1 lonely guy cranking his heart out while we charge up our kill streaks. And use our engineer and officers skills to stop them from battering the poor guy.

The addition of side objectives as the back gate, balista and the Epic foe bosses in the middle part is one of the best additions to the technical battles from Helms deep. Depending on the gear and ranks of the rowdy crew it can be easy, but hardly is there a time to sit around in the 6-man. You can always attack some mobs, use skills or get ready for one of the side quests. Removing hooks to delay the epic foe or trusting your dps is enough to do the treasure seekers and the trolls at the same time adds a little dynamic to the runs.

Over-whelmingas-tirth
Over time the tactics of Helms deep were perfected and pelagrir became the preferred big battle to do due to the number of side quests and boxes to be gotten. Then the defence of minas tirith had arrived. Time was given to Turbine to make the perfect mix of epicness, story and engagement by the players. For the last two-thirds of the battles they succeeded in it. Gone were the wait times from pelagrir and the all or nothing ballistas from helms deep. The timing of the epic foes, side quests and the added siege towers mix great.
Alas the straight into action and the fact that the catapults can’t be used in Defence or of much in Hammer make s you wait for a while till the battle goes into overdrive on the first side quests. Specially the epic foes or side quests in the cistern being overwhelming in even the best setup for them. The final trolls in Defence are pretty big sponges of dps, but with the 1 extra player to be dealt a three-fold morale pool is really just too much.

The perfect mix
Each era of big battles builds upon their pFredecessor and knowledge the developers gotten after them. Would we get a 4th set of big battles soon? I’m not sure since Standing stone games already stated that it was an instrument in their arsenal they might use if they feel it would fit the best. For me the perfect mix would take the difficulty in groups of Minas tirith with the objective timing of Pelagrir. Do i find the Helms deep battles to be that bad? No, but nearly all of the battles has different flaws with a bad number of objectives and loot to be gotten. The best Helms deep ones don’t have any group versions. The perfect Helms deep would be a bigger version of Hornburg or deepening comb.

The best instances possible?
With the tweaks in the perfect mix i think big battles might be the best instances for grouping. The scaling loot, every level able to team up with your kinnies and having a version for 2-3 people is what keeps me bringing back to them. Every time and everyone that joins gets something out of it. Does that make it best instance? No, but the systems build inside are near-perfect motivation for repeatability as long as the barter items remain valid. And not be shoved to the side as with the Featured instances

[CC] 99 instances – The angmar experience 1/2

Barad gularan, Carn dum, The rift and Urugarth. As classic as instance go thesedays these can hardly be beaten. When people go nostalgic, they linger in the memories of Mordrith and Thaurlach. Urugarth and Barad gularan are usually thrown in with the other two. But they do deserve a spot in the limelight. Good thing that there isn’t a story about revamps, wings and scaled instances to talk about in here. For now we’ll talk about Urugarth and Carn dum and in a next article about Barad Gularan and The rift.

Launch, revamp and today
We’re in 2007, we’re slowly making our way across the smaller world of lotro. We’ve managed to get past the Seeing stones in Book 6. We’ve said farewell to the dwarves in Gabilshatur and finished Book 7. Golodir has send us out to retake the fortress area of Angmar which holds the instances of Urugarth and Carn dum.

Over 10 years later we do the exact same thing, but a lot faster in a different world. Angmar isn’t the final objective for travellers anymore. But it’s still there. And we still go. Class items, memories, a special loremaster staff for cosmetics, deeds or for an entire evening on your level 50 group.

Getting around
Both places are immense. Without a higher level or some nice legendary weapons to give you a nice boost in damage these instances and their denizens take hours to cut through. The game guides you on 3 different travels inside them by giving you 3 deeds to kill a set of bosses before having you move to the next group. After killing the last of the bosses you will be given a key that will allow you to bypass these guys/things on the next night.

Historic – key rings
Bag space was at a premium and the keys being a bind of character drop. The time your tank had to leave and finding yourself that he had won the key, fun times. Standing in front of a closed gate scouring /ooc or /lff for that rare combo. Turbine gave us key rings. A special bag that would store all your keys you’ve found. Saving you the chance to forget them in your vault and valuable bagspace for all that loot that (still) drops in both places.

Class items and last boss loot
The main reason you wanted to get around? Each boss dropped a special quest item. These were the final objectives in your level 45 class quest. Where the level 15 and 30 class rewards were good you’d still find a better reward in the end. Not for the level 45. Those rewards were the best thing you’d find for along while without going raiding. The Watchers cousin Helcham was the bane of every hunter (and we’re plenty). Same goes for the final bosses in Carn dum and urugarth. The most challenging, best rewards and bragging rights were given out by these guys.

Big? How big?
Describing each boss or instance would give enough words for another article. I’ll leave you with a few numbers. Urugarth will get you 15 bosses to kill, Carn dum has 13. Combined they involve around 40+ quests. A full run will still take you about 60 to 90 minutes with a high level or a nice 2-4 hours if you’re doing it on level.

Third age fortresses
The area of north Angmar is a massive urbanized evil area with 2 strongholds at the end of the road. Uru- is a Sindarin word meaning “to be hot”, as in Uruloki (the Great Worms). Which is one of the larger bosses you will find. Where as Carn Dum is the seat of the witch king founded in 1300 of the Third age. Both were used as staging grounds in the war against the kingdom of Arnor around 1970 TA. After its defeat we get our taste of both when the steward of the witch king takes it as his little house on the angmarim prairie to enslave us in 3018 TA.

So far they have failed. Ever since they added the legendary weapons in Moria the clearing of the thrash mobs has been a lot faster. Ofcourse having a 115 with you makes it a cakewalk.

An eye for an eye, but we got laser sights build in these days

Classic lotro aka cap group
When people speak of classic lotro or Shadow Of Angmar as it was called people usually refer to the times that Carn Dum was the end game. The rift and Helegrod were the only raids in the game. Several times a year you will see a call for a level 50 only run or a classic run. Nostalgia is almost as powerfull as Sauron, but as we know Saurons power never grew as immense as they once were.

We’ll cover this part more in part 2 of the Angmar instances. When we talk about Barad Guldur and The rift.

Angmar is a silly place and it smells of elderberries?
What is Carn dum and Urugarth to the hobbits that weren’t around for the last 10 years? Angmar, fellowships, Volume 1 is just one of the area’s that is a bit of a dead-end. You ‘re 50, curious for Moria and the legendary item. Hold your goats for a second. Angmar and the sub-51 Eriador storyline is still one of the best story lines around. You have the chance to experience it without having to wait for new updates or a hunter to port you around.

It’s the one place early in the game to experience difficult and group based quests that’s not an instance. Depending on the time and server there wil still be groups forming for Blood Wing or Himbar. The dun covad fellowship, elite ttolls and drakes will scour you if they get a chance. You wont need a group fo 6 to complete them, but solo or with a small group there is still the sense of dread when you get caught by a patrol or pull the wrong group.

The Angmar experience
Angmar is one of the biggest quest area’s where each little town or quest hub will pull you further in the dark evil that looms further inside. The earthkin you might remember from the lone lands will get you to Esteldin where the vanguard of the Angmarim roam in Dol dinen. Heading into one of the entrances to Angmar you will be greeted by a massive encampment or the territories of the Drake matron. If you choose door number 2 it’s the safe haven of the earth kins again. Soon you will find the human encampment of Aughaire and the struggles of these guys being part of the force of the with king.

The epic quest will get you across the instagib barrier across the Malenhad swamp and the hidden town of Gabilshatur. The dwarfs have chosen wisely to stay hidden with orcs, uruks, trolls and drakes around the corner. Tales of another hidden safe spot further up north lead you towards Garth Forthnir. Hidden isnt overstated, but this will function as the quest hub for the latter part of east angmar. From here you will venture on a plethora of quest to disrupt the forces of evil.

Having assembled the key to the gates Carn dum or finding the hidden passage you will find yourself in the last bastion of hope. Quests for the area before Carn dum and Urugarth are here. And eventually the quests for instances itself.

So what is the Angmar experience? A multi-stage quest line that ramps up into what is still one of the biggest nonraid instances around. Nearly 2 years of story found inside one questpack and instances.

[CC] 99 instance – Fornost

Leaving Radagast and his critters to fend for their own (they can take care of their own). We’re following the epic book towards the North downs. This will take us on the doorsteps of Fornost. It’s big, scary filled with evil. The rest will go towards Esteldin, but we’re heading into the instance.

The instance area itself is an ancient fortress taken over by the by the forces of Angmar in the middle of the Third age. Retaken a year later, but it fell into ruins soon after. In lotro the city is still in ruins and the surrounding area inhabited by all kind of ghastly creatures. Inside the instance you fight the four elements of water, earth, shadow and fire. Each area has a wraith centered around that element and challenges like defeating the shadows by lighting brziers or not falling into the tainted water. Fornost gives a great look into the focus of Angmar and historic evil set afoot in middle earth again.

Launch
When the game launched Fornost was focussed on level 40. But fornost always felt a little bit at odds with North downs being an area for level 25-35. Back in those days you had to physically walk into the entrance of the instance. Not once for a discovery deed, but every time. The fact their neither Thestlebridge or Amon raith had no swift travel (and still don’t) didn’t help alot.

History – Entering an instance
Ctrl-F, look for your instance, set the level and difficulty. Get a pop-up and everyone can begin. How simple it is in this time of convenience. Alas that’s not how it has always been. Lotro wasnt the only game, but the journey towards defeating that evil bag of loot started with a travel to the physical entrance of the instance. Dark delving or Carn dum quest and entrance were a good 15 mins journey from the usual major cities where people dwelled. Each place had a summoning horn, but bless the poor soul that had to go there. One milestone, hunter camps and alts were your only hope.
With the release of the instance finder we can remain in our own corner of ME where we quest, do auctions or kill 5000 trolls until the instance starts. Just don’t mention it to any hunter or old raidleader or he might get vietnam flashback to these times.

Gear drops from Fornost wernt good enough to pull in players. When Evendim got added to the game most people skipped the level range in the North downs that Fornost was made for.By the end of Evendim you would go for the first Armour of fem from Aughaire. It didn’t have the zinger that other areas had. Neither the epic story or enough normal quests to make it an entertaining and good place for xp.

Four bosses inside the old map of Fornost

Scaled revamp
If one instance got a good deal in the scaling it was Fornost. The quest areas level was decreased to level 30 making it more align with the North downs. It went from a maze of thrash mobs you had to navigate to find each boss with the multiple heights and paths toward them to 4 wings that each had their end boss and 1 or 2 sub bosses. And everyone’s favourite old gal was still there to escort, Sara oakheart. There was a very linear unlock of each wing where you had to do 1 after each other if someone in your party didn’t have it unlocked. But the length, difficulty and challenges are still fun to this day to do. Fornost shadow with his 3 brazier,adds and the challenge that limit the time you have is still pretty complex for a classic instance.

Later revamps
While the great barrows has remained the same since mirkwood, Fornost has gotten 3 more boosts in attention. After the Sambrog marks and medaillions were reduced earth and water wing were about the same level of rewards. And not being run into the ground by the free people of middle earth it quickly became a good alternative.
The second time was after the overhaul of the North downs as a quest area. The prequests to most Fornost quests were now aligned with the quest flow. By this time lotro was f2p and a lot more people used north downs as an alternative to the Lonelands/Evendim combo.
The most recent influx came from the Featured instance system. In short, a 6 week rotation that introduced an extra reward to the instance being run by level 100+ players. Fornost earth and water were included in multiple cycles.

The ancient kingdoms of men (http://themadhobbit.weebly.com/blog/previous/3)

History of Middle earth in lotro (Eriador ruins)
The fortress of Fornost takes an important place in the history of Shadows of Angmar. The original game was focussed on the witch kings seat in Angmar. Before you could venture into Mordor we would have to lay siege to Angmar itself. The fortress of Fornost was build and maintained by several kingdoms (including Arnor, Arthedain and the reunited kingdom) to protect the lands between angmar and the watchtower of amon sul (The weathertop). These kingdoms of men had a vast empire west of the Misty mountains of which the ruins are still scattered across the landscape. Esteldin, Fornost, Amon sul and the Cardolan (barrow downs) all were part of effort to network of forces to keep the witch king in check.

Today
The instance could hold a special place in any regular group that has a nice mix of casual and more experienced players. Each wing has their own set of mechanics of which a lot of them make their first appearance. Compared to the great barrows it’s a step up in difficulty. Fonrost water with his silence effecting all casters and tanks taunts. It’s a great practice in positioning. Fires challenge having everyone on their toes with the lights that do a massive aoe when killed near you and movement to let the entire room fill up in flames. The braziers in shadow introduce the off-tank and doing as much damage in a specific time. It being in the same range as Evendim still hurts its chances with Evendim still being superior questing for a first time character and such that being the suggested buy from the store.

A full run of Fornost with a group that’s on level still feels special and every time you can accept Sara oakheart and just let her run and let her meet her maker still give each player that has done volume 1 that special tingle.

[CC] 99 instances – Agamaur

We’re continuing our tour of free instances while we enter the Lone lands. Towards the north-east you’ll find Garth agarwen or agamaur as some know it. It has been an oddball in lotros instances ever since it inception. It has always been popular with the leveling characters, never had much of revamp and always been separate instance for the two 3 mans and the 6 man fortress itself.

The instances
Garth agarwen is a set of 2 small fellowships and one 6-man instance. This setup we’ll encounter more during our travels across Middle-earth. Each instance has their own theme with a big boss at the end and some quests along the way. Each end boss will have a challenge from which you can earn extra Eglain tokens. 5 of which will give you the chance to get one of the best weapons for a level 32 that will stick with you till the late 30’s.

Eglain reputation
The lanky looking guys south of Ost Guruth you brought warg fur and boar parts as a peace-offering are called the Earth kin, but will in turn give you eglain reputation. As opposed to the earlier reputation factions you wont reach kindred as easily as Bree or the shire. These ancient hunters are in-game later on in Angmar and the North downs. A daily run a day will make sure the rep boogies will stay away. Bring along your reputation accelerators cause the eglain don’t hand out items to use.

Launch
When the game launched you met Radagast for the epic book and he will take you for a little tour around the outside of agamaur. Nearly all the quests in the lonelands lead up to the different parts of the area. The bog lurker and norbogs let you towards Grimbarks the Huorn, the wights in the ancient ruins to Ivar. These two would have an item you would need to find in the landscape before the instance entrie of the two 3-mans. Each area with its own theme and large amount of elites. Heading towards the portals you would run into the barter guy and several hill man and a new red swamp that has the source of the corruption centered in the 6-man.

It presented the first combined quest, small fellowship and instance area that would recur in later parts of lotro. Working your way up the difficulty ladder and slowly finding the source of the evil that presented itself to you earlier.
This still remains present and being run by plenty of players. The river lady and ivar remaining relevant far later in lotro then you would have thought back then.

History Instance area
Having an entire area events accumulating to a climax in either an epic story or instance was more prevalent in the early years. Over time the instance have had their own quest chains or were build right into the epic story. While the great barrows had some pre-quests that would result in quest with item inside fornost and agamaur have several quest chains that would start as a solo quest to kill wights, then signature gaunt lords for small fellowships leading you to the urn that’s needed for the full fellowship quest in the Fortress.

Today
While the entire area of the Lone lands had his quests streamlined. The area of Agamaur and Garth agarwen had remained relatively untouched. They added a set of auto-bestow instead of the normal quests. But not much has changed over the years. The reputation, story and great weaponry you can is still there. Just remember to let the Creoths sacrifice themself on the altars. They are just really eager to give you the challenge rewards.