The Battle for Moria: 2.5.5

By: Jonathan “Berephon” Rudder

This change has been a long time coming. In response to overwhelming feedback, Volume I of the Epic was revisited to add solo options for previously group-only content; this opened the main story of LOTRO to the entire player base, rather than the small segment that actually completed it before. Now we come to Volume II: The Mines of Moria.

With this coming update, we are finally releasing the long-desired revamp of the Volume II Epic Story. This Dev Diary will focus on a small but significant portion of that revamp: the conversion of the Vol. II, Book 5, Chapter 5 Battle Instances into fully-scalable Skirmishes.

Why make these skirmishes?

Well, the simple answer is that it was the most logical solution for these instances. The Battle system was pretty much a precursor of the Skirmish system, but wasn’t scalable. With the introduction of LOTRO's Skirmish system, it just seemed logical that we should convert the Battles. (No, there is no current plan to convert the Angmar Battles or the Battle of Lothlórien at this time.)

Scalability

Skirmishes, of course, are both level and group scalable, fulfilling the differing needs of the characters involved. If someone wants to run the Skirmishes in a full 6-man or even 12-man format, great! However, players can also opt to play these chapters solo, duo, or in a small fellowship.

The Epic Story at this point is a Challenge Level of 59. However, because the quests can be taken at 55, the Skirmishes will be playable at level 55 and can currently scale to level 65.

Repeatability

The Moria battles were always repeatable through the Sage quests, but as Skirmishes, they will unlock into the Instance Join panel after completing Vol II, Book 5, Chapter 5. Consequently, they will be removed from the Sage of Moria. A few people have asked me why I didn’t leave the old battles on the Sage and the answer is simple – they would not have worked appropriately. The NPCs and Barricades would randomly scale between levels 1-80 … resulting in some very quick failures in most cases.

On the bright side, anyone who has already completed 2.5.5 (meaning that they have completed and turned in the primary wrapper quest) will have all three Skirmishes already unlocked! Completing each individual wrapper (including turning the quests in) prior to the release of the update will result in that particular quest counting towards the Chapter 5 quest, as well as unlocking that specific Skirmish. However, if you complete the instance, but don’t turn in the wrapper, you'll have to do the Skirmish version to complete the quest.

The Skirmishes

Each of the new 2.5.5 Skirmishes takes place in the same space as the original Battle, so these should feel familiar to those who have completed the Battles. One difference is that instead of running the Skirmishes in whatever order you want as part of the Epic, you will now run the Battle of the Deep-way first, the Battle of the Way of Smiths second, and the Battle of the Twenty-first Hall last. Each one becomes increasingly more complex, though none are particularly difficult on Tier 1.

The Battle of the Deep-way

The story for this Skirmish remains fundamentally unchanged from the Battle; the major change is in the mechanic. This Skirmish is fairly similar to the Gondamon Skirmish, only you have two starting control points, rather than three. The first four assaults randomly jump between the two control points, with the final wave assaulting the central camp, forcing you to keep moving. The final assault comes at the central camp, followed by a boss fight.

The Battle of the Way of Smiths

Like the Battle of the Deep-way, the story for this Skirmish remains fundamentally unchanged. This Skirmish, however, keeps you on the move even more. Every two waves of the first two assaults randomly spawn near one of the three forges. The final assault takes place on the Supervisor’s Platform, followed by the boss fight in the Entrance Hall.

The Battle of the Twenty-first Hall

After much deliberation, we decided this one needed to maintain the idea of retreating before the enemy, since we want to make it clear that this expedition is not the one that eventually succeeds in ousting the Orcs from Moria (which happens, if I recall correctly, two years after The Lord of the Rings.) The Iron Garrison is, in fact, doomed to fail in the end.

At any rate, this Skirmish starts off with sequential assaults at the three barricades leading into the main section of the Iron Garrison’s camp in the Twenty-first Hall. After these, you retreat into the Northern Hallway (the hall headed towards Jazargund) where you will defend against enemy waves randomly attacking the northern and southern ends of the hallway. The final assault takes place during the boss fight in the Chamber of Mazarbûl.

Rewards

So, with these Battles being converted to Skirmishes, will we see new rewards? Yes and no. There will be a new Moria Campaign Token, but the rewards themselves will be familiar to those who have run the Sage of Moria quests. Basically, the barter list from the Sage of Moria is being added to the Skirmish vendors with the Moria Campaign Token. Some of these items will be new to solo and small fellowship players, such as the armour barter items. The items will also remain on the Sage’s profile.

In Closing

So there you have it: Vol. II, Book 5, Chapter 5 is being converted to Skirmish mode. The rest of the group content in the Vol. II Epic is also receiving soloable options in various forms. With this revamp, the entire Epic will be open to everyone, as it was originally intended to be.