Patch: Armies of Isengard

[WondaWoman]

The LOTRO Game Servers will be brought down on Monday, December 12th from 6:00 - 10:00 AM Eastern (-5 GMT) to launch the latest game patch - Update 5: Armies of Isengard.

Not sure how big it is yet - will let you peeps know when I do

[Org]

WW, you linked to update 4's release notes which was about 1 month ago. Today is update 5. I think its going to be biggish as it contains the instance cluster for Isengard.

[WondaWoman]

Oh... that's the link they had with the downtime announcement :/ Will search for the Update 5 then. Thanks Org.

---------- Post added at 11:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:01 AM ----------

Ok...this seems to be a more accurate link.

[WondaWoman]

Ok. I have done some reading while my game patches up (yes you can patch up already ) Basically the biggest changes are as follows: (I have bolded the basic changes for lazy readers like Punky )

SKIRMISHES
Skirmish marks/Classic instance marks have all changed to a different type of currency system. Apparently it is to make things better and they have also made items more affordable

So...all the various marks and tokens that appear in Skirmishes and Classic Instances are being collapsed into three new currencies; Marks, Medallions and Seals.

Marks: your 'old' skirmish marks that you use to buy normal stuffs and upgrade your soldier

Marks replace Skirmish Marks in many ways. They are primarily gained from Skirmishes, though a decent amount will appear in Classic instances. All Skirmish traits will now cost Marks to upgrade. Much like before, Marks can purchase the widest variety of items from the Skirmish vendors, though more potent rewards will often cost some Medallions or Seals in addition.

Medallions: A bit more rare...basically have replaced your campaign marks that drop off the encounters and some of the 'bosses' in skirms.

Medallions are found from a variety of sources. They take the functional place of Campaign marks, Instance marks and the "level band" marks (First, Second, Third, Fourth mark). More potent rewards will cost some amount of Medallions in addition to Marks, much as they currently cost Marks and the some kind of special token (Veteran's Third Marks, Great Barrow Marks, Cannuilan Campaign Marks, etc.) They are awarded primarily for completing Encounters while in Skirmishes, from beating bosses in Classic and playing in the new Isengard cluster.

Seals: are your rare drops that were the 'old' superior 3rd and 4th marks - usually dropped in more difficult 3/6 mans and in 12 man raids. You need these to get your lvl 75 armour sets now.

Seals are the top end, rarest currency. In value, they are somewhere between "Superior" marks and the endgame instance currencies (like the Medallions of the North-men.) They will appear primarily in the endgame instance cluster, but some can be found completing challenge quests in Classic instance or the Raid quests in Skirmishes and Draigoch. Seals are the currency for purchasing the new Raid sets, as well as other high end items. In addition, there will be some items that have a second price point that includes Seals.

Other interesting tidbits about Skirms that have changed:

• The challenge quests no longer have a daily cooldown. (I'm happy about this )
• The daily Skirmish quests are now grant only reputation and have no daily cooldown. The bonus experience and Marks they provided have been factored back into the Skirmish and Instance Finder bonuses respectively.

That's about it on Skirmishes that I found interesting and important.

REPUTATION ITEMS
You can now double click on all rep items and they will automatically be converted to rep points and added to whatever faction you are trying to gain kin with. So basically you won't have to go and barter rep items with a NPC and carry rep items around in your bag. You pick up a rep item, double click on it and wala - rep earned.

THE INSTANCE FINDER
The only 'new' content from the update.

Instance Finder, a new feature in Update 5, is a tool to both help find groups to run instances and provide rewards for playing random content. You can use it to join instances with your friends (much like Instance Join) or to find new friends to fill a Fellowship. When you are put into an instance by Instance Finder, you will earn more of our new Instance Currency (Marks/Medallions/Seals), and have a small power and morale buff. In the near future (likely for Update 6), we plan to allow you to further customize your "random" experience by opting out of instances you'd rather not play.

Looks like they want us to use this new tool as you get better rewards if you do You'll use Shift+F to open up the interface panel, and then it's pretty straight forward as to what to do:

1. Choose your role (Defence (tank); Healer; Support (Capt/Buffing/CC etc) and Damage (DPS) --- roles you cannot play with your char will not be optional (so I cannot tank as I am a hunter, although I think I am a tank )
2. Select the type (Skirm, Isengard, Instance)
3. Select size (solo, 3, 6 or 12 man) *not sure why you need to select solo to find an instance...seems odd.
4. Select your tier
5. A box will then tell you what rewards you can expect from the specs you have put in (quite nifty I think)

Initially I thought this would make it difficult to fellow with friends - but nawt. If we create a fellow the leader will use the instance finder to create the instance and all peeps in their existing fellow will be able to join by pressing the "join" button. How handy. For more detailed reading you can go look here.

[j0nny]

Thanks, WooWoo, cool post.

[Sabre]

Nice!! I should go explore isengard again in the hols

[Org]

Anybody have an idea how big the patch is?

[WondaWoman]

Tried out a new 3 man fellow using the Instance finder. Got into a group quicksticks (but later found the group dynamic was wrong as we actually needed a healer - was me, burg and Guard). Instance was haard - never finished it coz i had to go do sups (and we had all died like 3 times).

[Org]

Yah that was one of the main concerns on the forums regarding the IF - group makeup