Epic Battles

Overview

Epic Battles are instances that use level scaling and can be played by different size groups. Epic Battles require strategic maneuvers across large battlefields to complete objectives. There is always one main objective and several random side objectives each time you run the instance. Objectives change the larger your group size. Rewards are based on how well you accomplished the objectives and how large the group size. Epic Battles allow the player to choose three roles that can be promoted by acquiring and spending promotion points awarded by Medals.

Storied Tales

Introduced in Update 27, there is now an alternative to having to do the Epic Battles as part of the epic questline: You can do the Storied Tales quests instead. See the release notes for more information.

Basic Training

At Level 10, the deed Epic Battles Await will be auto-bestowed and auto-completed and you will receive a letter from Erkenbrand's Messenger, An Epic Battle Awaits, which will lead you to the tutorial, if you need a basic introduction to how epic battles function.

• The completion of Epic Battles: Basic Training is not required.
• Players must have purchased the Helm's Deep Expansion Pack to access Epic Battles, and can access the content from level 10 or above.

Road to Battle

Main article: Road to Battle

The Road to Battle screen allows players to select the battle and group size. Initially three battles are available: Helms Dike, Retaking Pelagir, and Defence of Minas Tirith. Each battle must be completed successfully before the next one in the group becomes available to play.

There is no difference in difficulty between group sizes Solo or Duo, but bringing another player makes it significantly easier to gain higher Merit ratings. Instances designed for Small Fellowships, Fellowships or Raids take place on a larger battlefield, with additional side objectives to complete offering better rewards and higher Merit.

Instance Finder

The same Epic Battles can also be found within the Instance Finder and are divided into 2 clusters Defence of Rohan and War for Gondor.

Defence of Rohan

Name	Size
Helm's Dike	Solo/Duo, Fellowship (Six)
The Deeping Wall	Solo/Duo, Raid (Twelve)
The Deeping-coomb	Solo/Duo
The Glittering Caves	Solo/Duo, Small Fellowship (Three)
The Hornburg	Solo/Duo

War for Gondor

Name	Size
Retaking Pelargir	Solo/Duo, Fellowship (Six)
Defence of Minas Tirith	Solo/Duo, Small Fellowship (Three)
Hammer of the Underworld	Solo/Duo, Fellowship (Six)

Level Scaling

Main article: Level Scaling

Epic Battles take advantage of Level Scaling to allow any character level 10 or higher to participate alongside other characters regardless of level. Upon entering the instance your character stats, equipment and weapons are scaled to level 100 for the duration of the battle.

Epic Battles will scale all players down to 100 or upto 100. Max level for loot is 100 as well.

Roles

Players can choose one of 3 Roles during an Epic Battle. A good group will have all roles. Players use promotion points to upgrade their Role traits:

• Engineer: Places, operates and upgrades traps, barricades and siege weapons
• Officer: Commands the Rohirrim on the battlefield, issuing orders and controlling their strategy.
• Vanguard: Fights from the front, unleashing devastating combination attacks and inspiring others to fight harder.

Role Promotions

Main article: Promotions

Completing objectives within an instance, including side objectives, earns Merit. If sufficient Merit is gained during an instance, medals and promotion points are awarded. Role promotion points are spent on the Promotions page. Promotions unlocks special skills, abilities and bonuses.

Medals

Completing objectives within an instance, including side objectives, earns medals. The higher the medal, Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum, the more Role promotion points and other loot is rewarded. The Life-time highest medal earned and the total number of medals earned for each objective is recorded. Only the highest level medal will reward Role promotion points but each time an objective is completed (higher or not) all other rewards are given, including the Rewards box.

Earning Merit

Main article: Merit
Merit is earned from completing primary and secondary Epic Battle objectives. Merit is used for two purposes, (1) its used to determine what Medals are awarded at the end of the instance and (2) Merit is collected in the Rewards bars displayed at the bottom of the Battle History page. Each objective within the Epic Battles has a number of factors which contribute to it positively or negatively to your Merit total; fulfil labeled green requirements to earn Merit while avoiding red labeled requirements. Successful completion of primary and secondary objectives will reward one of four Medals (Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum) which can provide Role Promotion points. The Merit points are also added to the collected total for Jewellery rewards.

Rewards

Rewards are based on the Medals achieved during the instance. There are four medals; Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum. Higher medals offer better rewards. Most Epic Battles will have a main objective and several side objectives. Each objective completed will give a medal. Players will receive at least 2 medals per instance (2 pool of rewards) but can earn far more. Larger size Epic Battles have more objectives and reward more medals.

There are five rewards given for each Medal:

• Epic Battle Promotion Points for first time Medals or when a higher level Medal is awarded for an objective already complete
• Epic Battle Reward Points to fill the rewards bar for a Jewellery Reward
•  Mark,  Medallion and  Star of Merit for bartering
• Reward boxes (one for each objective you complete) that include more Jewellery, Marks, Medallions, Stars of Merit, Universal Solvent, Stat Tomes, Supreme Essence, Symbols for crafting Legendary Weapons, Steeds and many more items.

Jewellery

Main article: Epic Battle Rewards
Jewellery is awarded two different ways, (1) Jewellery is awarded when you cash-out your Reward bar and (2) Jewellery is found in Reward boxes. Merit from all instances is collected and totaled, filling the Reward bars at the bottom of the Battle History page. There are Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum reward bars. Select the reward level to cash-out and earn a piece of jewellery. The longer you wait to cash-out the better the reward, including a special set of class jewellery which can provide powerful bonuses when worn along with other pieces of the set.

Reward Boxes

Main article: Epic Battle Rewards
Reward Boxes are earned by completing objectives during the instance. Competing objectives with a Bronze, Silver or Gold Metal will earn the same rewards box but completing objectives with a Platinum metal will earn a much better rewards box. Reward boxes can have many items inside them including; Jewellery, Marks, Medallions, Stars of Merit, Universal Solvent, Stat Tomes, Supreme Essence, Symbols for crafting Legendary Weapons, Steeds and many more items.

Barter Rewards

Main article: Epic Battle Rewards
Incomparable Platinum Rewards and Legendary Weapon Upgrades are obtained by trading Marks, Medallions and Stars of Merit

Quartermaster (Veterans of Helm's Deep) (Level 95)

Merit Committee (Battle Decorations (Standard Honors)) (Level 95 + 100)

Epic Rewards are obtained by trading Stars of Merit at the barterers.

Merit Committee (Battle Decorations (High Honors)) (Level 95 + 100)

Guides

On this wiki, the fastest way to find information about side quests and objectives in any Epic Battle from Helm's Deep is to go to: Westfold#Quests
You can find walk-throughs for all three of the Gondor Epic Battles from the category page: War for Gondor Instances

In addition several guides have been written for epic battles:

• Away Shall Fade: (Little) Big Battle Guide
• Layanor's Mind: Promotion Points Chart
• Lord of the Drinks: Big Battles Guide
• LOTRO Forums: Deeping Wall Full Platinum Run Guide
• LOTRO Forums: Glittering Caves Maps
• LOTRO Forums: Epic Battle Plugin
• Side Quest Guide
• Proudcdn: Epic Battle Basics
• Proudcdn: Catapults Guide
• Proudcdn: Deeping Wall Raid
• Proudcdn: Helm's Dike Solo/Duo

References

• The Lord of the Rings Online: Helm's Deep -- the original Press Release, Pre-Order FAQ and supplemental information
• Helm's Deep -- the Official Release Notes

History

Epic battles are a combat system introduced in November 2013 as part of the Helm's Deep expansion. Although epic battles are similar to skirmishes or raids in that they are special instanced battles, the latter focus on small scale tactical combat, while epic battles are more concerned with strategic combat across the whole battlefield. They introduce a number of new game mechanics, including siege weapons, leading Rohirrim soldiers and death streaks, the efficiency of which is improved by acquiring and spending trait points in the three new roles.

Note: players can access Epic Battles from level 10 or above.

A new Epic Battle, called Retaking Pelargir, set in Gondor, has been added in Update 15.

With Update 17, two new epic battles were made available, The Defence of Minas Tirith and Hammer of the Underworld.

With Update 18, the level cap was increased to 105 but epic battles were scaled to level 100. This is still the case.