Featured Instances

Hello, I'm Kevin "EdgeCase" Nolan, and I'd like to talk to you about Featured Instances, launching in Update 18.  Featured Instances allows you to get new rewards for playing some of the classic instances from LOTRO's past.

Every week, a scaling instance (or raid) from LOTRO's older content is featured in the Instance Join panel.  Once per day, when you complete this instance at level 100 or above, you will get a box filled with extra rewards, above and beyond what you normally get from that instance.  From level 100 to 104, this extra reward will primarily be Scrolls of Empowerment.  However, if you run an instance at cap, you also get a chance to loot a piece of gear exclusive to the Featured Instance system!

Each instance has a chance to drop one of three or four different gear pieces.  Each gear piece is dropped by at least two instances.  For example: The Ost Dunhoth Wound and Fear Wing box can give you a chest piece, boots or a necklace.  Sammath Gûl could give you that same chest piece, or gloves, or an earring, or a bracelet.  If there's a particular instance that you don't want to run, you never have to; all rewards will drop from at least two different instances.

Featured Instance boxes have a very high chance of dropping one of the new level 105 Essences.  All 14 new Essences can be upgraded using new crafting recipes.  Major Essences can be upgraded into Greater Essences, and Greater Essences can be upgraded into Supreme Essences.  To further support these Essence upgrades, you'll have a chance of getting a Universal Solvent from all Featured Instance boxes as well.

Each Featured Instance box will also give you a few Long-lost Coins, which can be traded for the Essence upgrade recipes.  In the next few dot updates, this will be expanded to let you trade in extra Featured Instance gear that you don't want with a few Long-lost Coins to get the pieces that you're missing.

If you're having trouble getting what you want from your Featured Instance box, you'll have two options: Challenge chests in all Featured Instances will have a small chance of dropping any of that instance's Featured gear, whether or not it's currently the Featured Instance.  In addition, for the cost of a few Mithril Coins, you can reset the daily quest that gives you the Featured Instance box, run the instance again, and get another reward!

The following six instances are the first six instances that will be a part of this system.  In future updates, we'll occasionally change up which instances are represented here, and we hope to eventually have all of the best instances in LOTRO be Featured.

• Halls of Night
• Inn of the Forsaken
• Ost Elendil
• Sammath Gûl
• The Bells of Dale
• Ost Dunhoth - Wound and Fear Wing

I hope you enjoy this chance to get exclusive new rewards from classic LOTRO content.

 

See you in game!

-EdgeCase