Instance

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Instances are sections of the game separated out of the main world for quests or story-telling as public dungeons, private fellowship, solo dungeons, skirmishes or massive raids.
  • Many may be entered via the Instance Finder window.
  • Instances are a separate copy of a building's interior, a dungeon, or some piece of the game's landscape. Instances are created when certain quests are activated or players pass through an instance portal, and allow an individual, Fellowship or Raid to participate in a private adventure. Generally, instances can only be entered by the individual or group that triggered them, and no outside help can be rendered to those within an instance by other adventurers.
  • Instances allow game developers a greater ability to customize the details of an adventure, including things like weather, events and terrain. The use of Instances means that multiple groups can enjoy highly immersible adventures at the same time without interfering with each others' completion of the quests, or triggering conflict over scarce resources or monsters needed to complete them.

Instance Types

The instanced types found in the game can be summarized by this wiki into several categories. An instance could be more then one of these.


Crafting Instances

Introduced in the Mines of Moria 2009 expansion these special instances contain loads of crafting Resources and usually creatures that drop crafting resources. There are three instances for each higher crafting teirs (Forester, Scholar, Prospector). These can be found in Moria(T6), Hytbold(T8) and Entwood (T9).

Epic Battles

Epic Battles, which were first introduced in the Helm's Deep expansion, are different from other instances in that any player levels 10 and up can start them, provided they own the expansion. This type of Instance automatically levels the player up to level 100, along with their current skills, temporarily. These Instances are designed for large-scale battles and require the player to take on different tasks such as commanding a group of soldiers or firing artillery. Epic Battles will automatically assign you a random quest or two during the battle, though it does consider whether you are playing solo or in a group when it assigns the quest.

Featured Instances

Featured Instances were added with Update 18 aimed at a player's characters of level 100 and above.
Every week, a scaling instance (or raid) from LOTRO's old favorites is featured in the Instance Join panel.
  • For characters level 100 and higher, the Featured Instance can be accessed through the Instance Join panel Specific Tab and will award extra rewards once daily for completing the listed instance.
  • For those at level cap, there are special loot rewards available.
  • Featured Instances are not available to those under level 100.

Interiors

Middle-earth: Starter Area, Lands, Regions, Areas, Settlements, Landmarks, Dungeons, Interiors, Maps

Interiors use the same gated game mechanics as instances but are not typically considered instances. Interiors are buildings, halls, and other inside locations in Middle-earth that are populated by friendly NPCs. Characters can usually enter interiors by opening a door and passing into a separate instance from the outside world though in some cases are entered by interacting with an NPC and being transported to. Most interiors are located within a settlement such as the Scholar's Enclave in Duillond or the Prancing Pony in Bree.

Public Dungeons or Public Instances

While they may at first appear to be world instances, this type of instanced location is open to anyone to enter. This means that the separate players and groups that enter will end up in the same instance. Due to the large amount of players that can enter, these are not scalable, mob respawn rates are exponentially faster than in a different instance type. Bosses tend to respawn at a very slow rate, and fighting them usually requires less coordination than a world instance boss.

Quest Instances

These instances are only accessible when one or more members of the Fellowship have the corresponding quest. (They do not appear in the Instance Finder although they may be accessble via a Reflecting Pool). They are usually short (5 minutes to 1 hour), very scripted and linear, typically have minimal random encounters, and the bosses that may be found there do not drop any loot above the uncommon quality (except at higher quest levels). Most are oriented to solo play, and in fact many are restricted to solo play and are indicated as "Solo Only". But many can be played with up to a full fellowship (six players). Some are scaled by level of the player, but not all. The real reward for completing these is from the quest.
For a list of instance quests, see Instance Quests.

Raids

The larger counterpart of World Instances, they are designed for two to four full fellowships of players, and are historically raid locked. Completing a boss encounter almost always yields at least one teal-quality item.

Seasonal Instances

Introduced with Update 22.2, these instances are only available during certain festivals beginning with the Summer Festival. These instances range from completely new instances with a more recreational feel, such as The Perfect Picnic (Instance), to reimagined content, such as Boss from the Vaults: Thrâng, in which a boss from an unscaled raid is turned into a scaled single-boss instance. The rewards for these instances are typically cosmetic in nature, but also feature end-game armour, jewellery and currency.

Skirmishes

Introduced with the Siege of Mirkwood expansion, skirmishes allow players of levels 20 and above to instantly enter into combat from anywhere in Middle-earth alongside their Soldier. Level, location and difficulty of the skirmish are all predetermined by the player (scalable), and can be adjusted for solo, duo, small fellowship, fellowship and raid group sizes. The battles usually have five different phases and take between 30-90 minutes per completion. The rewards are primarily Marks, which can be traded in to NPCs at Skirmish Camps for a variety of rewards.

World Instances

Found in the Instance Join panel. This type of instance is not found as often in LOTRO as its quest counterpart, and requires a small or full fellowship if everyone is within the recommended level. World Instances have many quests that lead within, deeds, can be completed and repeated, and contain boss encounters that generally drop rare quality and better loot.


For a complete list see Category:Instances.