The skirmish system is probably the biggest addition to LotRO that comes with the Siege of Mirkwood expansion. The size of the adition is reflected in the number of developer diaries that have been written on the system, there are no less than six! Given the amount of developer coverage of this major game mechanic there has been relativity little player comment, but most comments seem to suggest that they are well worth doing! I’ll start by giving you a breakdown of the diaries:
- SoM Skirmishes: Overview
- SoM Skirmishes: Story Instances
- SoM Skirmishes: Randomization and Scaling
- SoM Skirmishes: Skirmish Soldiers
- SoM Skirmishes: Rewards
- SoM Skirmishes: Accessibility
Highlights and links to screen shots and videos of the skirmishes and rewards follow the break.
Skirmishes are short easy to join instances, you can join from anywhere in the world and instantly set them up. They are crafted so that they vary everytime you play them and scale to player level and the number of players in the skirmish.
SoM Skirmishes: Story Instances
Every skirmish tells a story, they are all based in familiar locations in Middle Earth, but as they are played out in an instance and not in the main landscape things have changed. Specifically war has come to middle earth, and the task for you and your friends is to defend the free peoples throughout the lands. Some of the instances will become parts of epic books, whilst others are weaved into other story lines, meaning that they are not disconnected from the world. The combat is straegic and based around control points which either the enemy or the free peoples can control.
SoM Skirmishes: Randomization and Scaling
To keep skirmishes fresh (they are short instances) the encounters within them will be randomised so that players want to repeat them (not just for the loot). You’ll see the same monsters each time, but their locations will change. In addition each skirmish includes two random encounters, these are harder fights (and optional) but give the opportunity for greater rewards. Encounters will be things like NPCs that require your assistance. Lastly lieutenants are named mini-bosses that hang out with normal mobs. They spice up the fights by buffing the mobs and so on. They use normal attacks mostly and you can defeat them will normal tactics, but you might need to do something a little special. We are promised that they have a different look to the mobs and a halo effect so you can quickly spot when they are around. They also vary by group size, as some do need a group to be defeated effectively.
Skirmishes are set up from a new control panel that lets you set the group size, this can be 1, 3, 6 or 12 players, with around half of the skirmishes allowing 12 players and all allowing 1-6. Future updates should unlock the 12 player variations for many of the other skirmishes. As skirmishes are limited by group size, if you select a three player skirmish and want to invite a fourth player to your group you have to exit the skirmish and set up a new one. Once in the skirmish the level and number of mobs will scale both to your groups size and the level of the skirmish set (which is related to the players’ levels).
SoM Skirmishes: Skirmish Soldiers
Unlike a captain’s herald or lore master’s companion soldiers engage the enemy as they see fit with out orders from yourself. Instead you train them over time to act in a way that helps you, in addition you can select the race. role, and physical appearance of your soldier. Both roles and cosmetics are controlled through the soldier traiting system (which is separate from character traits. A list of the traits can be found on the LotRO Vault. Each role has a number of associated skills that allow you to deeply customise the soldiers role to complement you.
Monsters will in the main not drop loot, with only Lieutenants, Bosses, and optional encounter monsters dropping exclusively skirmish marks, and in the case of the main boss a large amount of coin. XP is awarded as normal, with additional XP available on the daily skirmishes on completion. Skirmish marks can then be bartered for various rewards (some of which can be found in the links below). The number of marks awarded is dependant on the difficulty of the skirmish attempted, size of fellowship and selected level but generally a skirmish will drop a large number of these marks. There will also be various other barter tokens that drop less frequently which are required in addition to marks for special rewards.
Each skirmish can be re-entered several times in one day, but each skirmish has an associated daily quest that gives almost as many marks as the skirmish itself, thus making it rewarding to attempt a wide range of skirmishes rather than just repeating the most difficult ones for the most rewards.
Skirmish camps only need to be visited to access the reward vendors, the captain who allows skirmish traits to be changed, and the trainer who allows skirmish traits to be leveled.
The new skirmish join panel allows skirmish instances to be created and joined from anywhere in the world, meaning that there is no need to travel as you will also be sent back to where you came from when you finish the skirmish! This dev diary has a step by step guide showing how to use the new interface. Of interest is the stat tracker which will also allow stats to be shown online (although there is no news yet as to if this will be available in the EU). Lastly skirmishes will be available to all players, but will be somewhat limited to players who don’t buy the Siege of Mirkwood expansions.
Cosmetic rewards
There is a great overview of the cosmetic rewards available from the skirmishes over at LotRO vault, and other items are pictured on a post on the US forums.
Screen shots and video
The skirmish interface was captured by the Mad House Tavern and by Moomur at LotROCast in a video who also demonstrates one of the solo skirmishes.
