By: Joe “jwbarry” Barry

Instance Scaling Part 2: Rewards & Quality

Hey everybody. This is Joe “jwbarry” and in this, the second in a series of Dev Diaries about our new Scaling Instance systems, I’m going to be talking about the structure of the rewards system, what you can get from playing Scaling Instances, stat tracking, and the quality bar.

Rewards

Adding scaling to instances presents some tricky reward problems. The way we commonly itemize instances is with a collection of items that are the level of the instance. These items will drop off of the boss or through barter systems. While no “new” instances are part of the Classic system, the full matrix of levels and instances would require us to make a prohibitive number of items. For example, the Great Barrow scales from level 20 to 65. That’s a tremendous range of levels for unique loot to design and create and a very painful amount of setup within the dungeon space to get the correct loot dropping. We struggled with this question, and once again looked to the Skirmish system for the answer.

The Skirmish reward system is based on three categories of tokens or currencies. Skirmish Marks are the totally liquid currency that roughly represents time spent playing Skirmishes. The level band tokens represent the level you’ve played at, and campaign tokens are the specific Skirmishes you have been in. Between these three currencies, we decide where to place rewards so players can work towards the rewards that are appropriate for their level. We decided this structure would work great for Classic instances. So, instead of implementing the same reward system twice, Classic instances will use the Skirmish reward system with some modifications and additions.

What does this all mean in plain English? Classic instances will use the Skirmish reward system. All normal item drops from monsters and bosses have been replaced by Skirmish marks. Any spaces, like Annúminas or Helegrod, that had barter systems in place have had their item drops and barter NPCs removed. However, have no fear – many of the unique items that could be acquired from all instances have been added to a new Skirmish camp vendor: the Classic vendor. New unique tokens are also awarded for Classic quests and Challenge mode. In addition, we’ve put Legendary Item jackpots on end bosses, and even small chances to drop Tomes that permanently increase your character’s base stats!

To sum up, Classic instances will give you everything they did before, except now they share a unified reward system. Instances that do not yet level-scale have had no change to their loot. They will still drop items just as they do now and they don’t drop any Skirmish Marks. Once a space is upgraded to level-scale, it will have its loot structure adjusted. With that background and overview done, we can tease some more details!

• “Trash” monsters will all have low chances of dropping various tokens. Since Classic instances have no Lieutenants, we wanted to have “sparkly” moments during play.
• A new token (much like the old Fourth Mark) is being added for the Challenge modes. These tokens will allow access to 2nd Age components!
• Level 65 versions of the Annúminas and Helegrod sets with updated art and Radiance! It is important to note that while you can barter for Radiance armour from these instances, they do not require Radiance to play them.
• A new level 30 set for the Great Barrow.
• Various new cosmetic rewards added for all instances.
• Cosmetic versions of the Annúminas and Helegrod sets.
• And more!