If one is the loneliest number and three is a crowd. . .

We’ve read the feedback and we’ve scoured the data, and it’s been overwhelming to see how much a two-player duo option is desired and how often it is currently being attempted. Nearly 40% of all Small Fellowship Skirmishes have been run as duos. With that in mind, we put our heads together to come up with a way to create a duo group size option for Skirmishes. That catch, of course, was that it must be stable, efficient to implement, balanced, rewarding, and fun. We believe we’ve succeeded in finding that sweet spot.

Duo will be listed as a new option for appropriate Skirmishes within the scalar options on Skirmish Join. When you enter the Skirmish, if you have played a Small Fellowship Skirmish, you will notice the monsters, lieutenants, boss-fight, and layout are identical to the 3-man setup. We used 3-man as the base starting point for creating duos. Digging a little deeper, you’ll discover that all of the monsters have less health, deal less damage, take more damage, block less often, etc; similar to going from a Tier I Skirmish to a Tier II Skirmish, but in reverse. Additionally, within defensive Skirmishes or spaces where you have multiple counterattacks back-to-back, you’ll notice that they behave like solo waves do. The next one waits for the first to be defeated, as opposed to group waves which arrive when the first is defeated or X seconds after the first is launched, whichever happens first. We felt this offered a good level of challenge without being overwhelming.

You will also find your Skirmish Stats Panel and your my.lotro.com page have both been updated to support Duos. The data for Duos will appear in new rows and sections.

Through extensive play testing and balance, we believe these settings provide for a satisfying, fun, challenging, and rewarding play experiences for a pair of players.