Skirmishes, first hand reports.

[Mrbloodworth]

So, last night I tried a full group set to 60, tier one.  The group (kinship) has its ass handed to it. A few times. It was quite exciting, and the challenge level was high, I can only imagine that on tier three, how insane this would be, or fuck, 65/III/Raid. That has got to be insane.

Anyway, we played a few times, trying to figure out the lieutenants, needless to say, this was a bit tough, as when you reset the skirmish everything changes. Some of the lieutenant are ROUGH, but they all seem to have a trick to them, and the tactics seem to be rather varied.

Later, Rattran and I attempted to do a 55/I/3 man (but with only two of us, Duos are quite viable with the right settings and marks output expectations). The lowering of the level (we are 60's) seems to help greatly with survivability, however under your level skirmishes mean that the % of marks you get goes down, I  think at those settings we were getting 54% marks. It ended up being about 50 marks each for us. The skirmish we did was the same one I attempted with a group, with the settings above, it was greatly different experiences in the make up of the mobs and positions (including randomly spawned optional bosses).

The system is rather fun, and is definitely designed not to be simply run though, the objective are rather tactical, and every time you take a point (Note here, not all skirmishes have the same goals/mechanics) there is a chance that the opposition may counter attack, and that force may even contain a lieutenant. Exciting to say the least.

The system drops out skills, or consumables that are usable by anyone, but are removed when you leave the instance. Some of them are rather useful, such as DOT, or HOT circles.

Rewards, are vast. Like, really really vast. Not only do your soldiers "level up" using the skirmish marks (the currency if you will), but you can customize just about everything about them, from skills, to traits, to training and weapon use, to what hair color and what race they are, even what they are wearing. The rest of the rewards range from crafting critical items (Optional components) to faction barter items, to level 45 class quest items, to armor for you, to weapons, to legendary items to cosmetic items to housing items.

It is extremely vast what you can use those skirmish marks for.

This system, is awesome. I can see many people really enjoying this. The instances and scripting (and full voice overs!) are extremely immersive. The system being scalable as such, in one swoop seems like it would satisfy the hardcore (Good lord can you make it difficult), and casual (Perhaps at the cost of marks output) in one swing.  With that first group attempt, we even brought a level 35 (Starring Arthur_Parker) with us, other than we failed the objective, he survived and was STILL useful in the skirmish.

Over all I only ran into one bug in 3-4 attempts at doing skirmishes, and that was my little dwarf guy getting stuck running into a wall. Thankfully, all I needed to do was re-summon him, and he was back at my side.

Out of 10, I give them, at first impression a 9/10. I also, happen to think this may bring back the culture of grouping as a side affect, it is so assessable, even to casuals, "Time to find group and content" seems to be a removed factor for grouping.

I hope others post first hand experiences as well. (Oh, apparently there is a survival mode for the barrows, it has no solo option. I look forward to trying this one)

[Arthur_Parker]

I didn't know anything about the new system, stumbled on it yesterday and think it's great.  Except, no cash rewards means I'm still way behind saving for my horse.

[Numtini]

I thought there were cash rewards at the final boss?

The way to cash is to put in the time at the AH. The crafting special ingredients mostly sell for junk, but there's some that go for 100+ Also prospecting for copper and silver in particular.

[Mrbloodworth]

I thought there were cash rewards at the final boss?

We didn't get that far when he was with us. lol.

I didn't know anything about the new system, stumbled on it yesterday and think it's great.  Except, no cash rewards means I'm still way behind saving for my horse.

You should be able to get a horse at 20 now, from a quest... I have yet to track this down yet though.

[Stormwaltz]

I didn't know anything about the new system, stumbled on it yesterday and think it's great.  Except, no cash rewards means I'm still way behind saving for my horse.

They dump a huge pile of cash on the final boss, and there are "bounty" items on some lieutenants that can be sold for cash.

I played the Skirmishes quite a bit in beta, but don't have the time to give a lengthy review. I will offer a few pointers:

• Stand at Amon Sul is my favorite, but you absolutely must keep those bonfires lit.
• In Ford of Bruinen, put the arrows in a basket near the right-hand archer. I noted in beta that this was poorly explained, but they did nothing to improve it.
• In Siege of Gondamon, once the gate NPCs are dispatched to the camps, get to Mathi. They don't explain this well either, but the final wave is an attack directly on his position.
• The Daywalker troll puts up a shield that prevents it from taking any damage whatsoever (easily visible thanks to a particle effect of GIANT ROTATING SHIELDS). If its in tank mode, stun it and focus on the little guys.
• Shepherd of Filth summons fast-moving crawlers that explode when they reach their target, sliming it and reducing attack rate. The crawlers have minimal hit points. As an LM, when I see him dig, I start warming up my AoE Gust of Wind. By the time they spawn, its off and wipes them all out.
• The Stormcrow looks silly. Also, it gets stronger the more allies it has within that garish particle effect, so try to lure it away from the pack.

EDIT: Got the name of the "filth" guy over lunch.

[Mrbloodworth]

• The Daywalker troll puts up a shield that prevents it from taking any damage whatsoever (easily visible thanks to a particle effect of GIANT ROTATING SHIELDS). If its in tank mode, stun it and focus on the little guys.

We fought a few with this effect (not just the troll), I was attempting to figure out its trick. It was, usually our downfall. Of course, when he is a 60 elite master, the stun option becomes a bit more..... inconsistent. :)

[Numtini]

You should be able to get a horse at 20 now, from a quest... I have yet to track this down yet though.

The 20 horse is 220sp without a quest. I haven't heard of any quests that give one to you. It's really not that fast, probably not worth getting if you're concerned about cash. And you're still going to want the one at 35.

[Mrbloodworth]

You should be able to get a horse at 20 now, from a quest... I have yet to track this down yet though.

The 20 horse is 220sp without a quest. I haven't heard of any quests that give one to you. It's really not that fast, probably not worth getting if you're concerned about cash. And you're still going to want the one at 35.

Oh, ok. Thought it was buy quest. And you are right, you will want a faster one at some point. but hay, its something, and its early. Faster than walking =)

[Ard]

The biggest non-obvious thing I've run across that'll lead to group wipes is that most people don't realize their soldiers start off at level 30.  You need to dump some skirmish marks into leveling up their class to get it up to 60 and be on par with what you're doing at max level, which means you may need or want to start at a lower level skirmish.

[Yegolev]

Apparently this is also about horses... the quest, if I read correctly, gives you a discount on buying horses.  I don't remember what the lv20 horse cost, but I went to Hengstacer and looked: the regular lv35 horses were all under 2 gold to my lv 42 where previously they had been over 4 gold.  I was tempted to blow a couple gold on some new horses because I like collecting (moneysink!) but came to my senses.

I'll be taking Fatwing (lv24) over to Hengstacer ASAP and can then give a firsthand report of any changes to the horse quest.

Slightly related, the fields north of Hengstacer are now infested with lv19 orcs.  More of note, Oddvar's pack is now guarded by two live orcs instead of one dead one.  Interestingly, lv19 orcs means that you will be in the right place for both horses and orcs.

[Arthur_Parker]

I thought there were cash rewards at the final boss?

We didn't get that far when he was with us. lol.
.........
You should be able to get a horse at 20 now, from a quest... I have yet to track this down yet though.

Yeah that was pretty crazy, all those 60 level purple mobs, I was just running around lighting the bonfires and didn't have a clue what was happening until that boss we couldn't kill.

well I'm 35 now so don't want a slow horse.

They dump a huge pile of cash on the final boss, and there are "bounty" items on some lieutenants that can be sold for cash.

Didn't seem that much to me, I'm mostly in purples so the repair costs hit me pretty hard, I'm probably gaining cash but not as fast as normal.

[rattran]

On my 58 hunter, I'm still using the slow horse. It's not THAT slow. And saved me over 4 gold.

As for skirmishes, some are more fun than others, the one last night with MBW was amusing, the one where you have to keep the baddies from burning down the Prancing Pony? Not fun. And I expect quite a few more to show up that didn't make it from the beta. Healing in skirmishes seems to do okay if everyone takes herbalist pets, but dps and especially tanking needs pcs. As a guard, solo skirmishes were fun and relatively easy, as a chimp or huntard they were hours of frustration. Small fellowship seemed to go the same, the pets just can't tank worth a damn.

Overall, skirmishes are fun, but for the already 60s it's going to mean some grinding to get your soldier pet up to speed.

[Mrbloodworth]

As for the pet tanking, and all that. I think the 60+ are at a disadvantage. Because our soldiers are "under level". Looking at the skills I picked up for my little dude before I logged off, seems there is great room for improvement as a companion for my 60. I think that is the main thing that we felt last night.

[rattran]

I had already beefed up my pet when we started. But I was referring to fully buffed pets in the beta, decent healing, okay dps, crappy tanking.

[Stormwaltz]

Zombie Columbus' Skirmish Public Service Announcements (hints and tips).

[HaemishM]

I did the tutorial and the Gomandong (dwarf settlement under attack) skirmish at lunch, but I did them solo. I didn't get my pet leveled up before I went in there and the default Warrior pet get hammered. Which meant I got hammered soon after. It got so bad that before the NPC I was supposed to protect died, I was weaponless and mostly naked, swinging empty fists at the mobs. Had I had the tanking pet that I'd spent marks on, it might have been different. And I had set the difficulty up to tier 2, so there was that. The lieutenants were pretty cool, but I didn't have much of a chance to see any weaknesses. Overall, I like the system a lot.

[Rishathra]

I'm pleasantly surprised at the range of improvement possible with the soldiers.  They start out hugely crappy, but become pretty awesome once you upgrade their profession and skill traits.  They are smarter than I expected them to be, too.  It's inconsistent, deliberately I think, to illustrate their commoner-not-hero heritage, but it works well, and they are smart more often then they are stupid.  I like when I start attacking a lieutenant with my hunter, and as its companions close in, my warrior drops an AOE and pulls them off me, letting me focus on just the boss.

I'm not exactly a lore-nerd, but smashing orc face with the sons of Elrond in the middle of the Ford of Bruinen, with Mordor's siege engines looming above you, while the archers on the bank yell out, "we can't fire through this rain!" is pretty epic.

[HaemishM]

I did the Gondamon instance on solo, Tier 1 difficulty last night and succeeded. Goddamn, is the fucking pet of the end boss loads of awesome. Then a buddy of mine tried the same instance with me today, at 44, tier 1, but set to small fellowship. Holy shit, we got our asses handed to us. The first set of attacks we took down fine, but then they sent a lieutenant after us, and he kept ass-pounding us so badly that we couldn't finish his wave before a second and third wave with lieutenants showed up. It got really ugly. They overran us, soldiers or not.

Can you still an instance with a group even if you have it set to solo?

[Mrbloodworth]

I did the Gondamon instance on solo, Tier 1 difficulty last night and succeeded. Goddamn, is the fucking pet of the end boss loads of awesome. Then a buddy of mine tried the same instance with me today, at 44, tier 1, but set to small fellowship. Holy shit, we got our asses handed to us. The first set of attacks we took down fine, but then they sent a lieutenant after us, and he kept ass-pounding us so badly that we couldn't finish his wave before a second and third wave with lieutenants showed up. It got really ugly. They overran us, soldiers or not.

Can you still an instance with a group even if you have it set to solo?

No. You can only have less than the setting.

I still really want to do more kinship full group runs of this stuff.

[Nebu]

I still really want to do more kinship full group runs of this stuff.

What level do you have to be?

[Mrbloodworth]

I still really want to do more kinship full group runs of this stuff.

What level do you have to be?

30 to start them.

Other than that, we can set what ever level we want. I have a 35 as does my girlfriend (32-35?), and I am sure some others. So, even running something on a middle of the road setting level wise would be good, as all the 60's in kinship may not realize how much we need to buff our dudes up.

[Soln]

skirmishes are pretty impressive.  I mean, it captures the OCD Achievers to level up their pets, the Socializers who want to customize their pets as pets...  it just works.  Honestly, I'm really surprised so far how good and challenging they are.  And it's breathtaking what they could do with this technology via the War of the Ring.

[Numtini]

Not to sound like some kind of treadmill whore, but is there XP from these? And how is it?

[HaemishM]

You get XP from killing the mobs. For the skirmishes I went into, there was a good bit more XP than I expected simply from all the mobs I had to kill. All the mobs are set to the level you set the skirmish as, so everything I killed in the ones I went into were white and worth decent XP.

[Ard]

You also get a daily quest from each one that rewards xp as well.

[Soln]

my wife dinged 61 last night and is 6-7 bulbs ahead of me just from doing skirmishes solo.  She was 60 and only did the skirmishes tutorial and solo's.  We did the same Bk9 quests and she is that far ahead.  Great XP.

[Numtini]

Sorry for the twenty questions, I started from scratch and just hit 26, so I haven't had a chance to check them out yet.

[Tarami]

Don't forget to ask your Friendly Local Skirmish Vendors about the gear rewards, too. They're pretty damn worthwhile if you aren't capped.

[Tannhauser]

Skirmishes are cool, wish they had made it easier to figure out how to use them.  My 41 Cappie has  been doing lvl 39 skirmishes; got annoyed dying so much.  So far I leveled up my follower to 39 and bought some sweet purple pants. 

I have two Attribute slots, but can only slot my warrior?  Can't figure that out.  Thought we could have more than one soldier. 

Skirmishes are a great idea and the implementation seems good, but I can't help but wonder if they have taken the MM out of MMO.

[Mrbloodworth]

Skirmishes are cool, wish they had made it easier to figure out how to use them.  My 41 Cappie has  been doing lvl 39 skirmishes; got annoyed dying so much.  So far I leveled up my follower to 39 and bought some sweet purple pants. 

I have two Attribute slots, but can only slot my warrior?  Can't figure that out.  Thought we could have more than one soldier. 

Skirmishes are a great idea and the implementation seems good, but I can't help but wonder if they have taken the MM out of MMO.

At any one time, you can have only one "role" (essentially the class of your pet), the rest are for cosmetics and appearance stuff. Skills, training ETC.. are rather self explanatory.

[Tannhauser]

Thanks Blood, that answers a lot of questions.  What solider type do you recommend me using as a cap?

[Mrbloodworth]

Thanks Blood, that answers a lot of questions.  What solider type do you recommend me using as a cap?

I have no clue. I am using a protector with my Hunter. I know Rattran is using a Herbalist on his champion, and Issa is using a banner man on her Burgler.

You can switch your pets role when ever you want by switching his "role" attribute, just keep in mind other roles have its levels too so you will need to build that one up as well.

[Tannhauser]

Thanks Blood, that answers a lot of questions.  What solider type do you recommend me using as a cap?

I have no clue. I am using a protector with my Hunter. I know Rattran is using a Herbalist on his champion, and Issa is using a banner man on her Burgler.

You can switch your pets role when ever you want by switching his "role" attribute, just keep in mind other roles have its levels too so you will need to build that one up as well.

Thanks.  I have two open Attribute boxes; the warrior is in the first box.  What's the second box for?  I tried putting an Archer in it and it didn't take.

[Mrbloodworth]

Thanks Blood, that answers a lot of questions.  What solider type do you recommend me using as a cap?

I have no clue. I am using a protector with my Hunter. I know Rattran is using a Herbalist on his champion, and Issa is using a banner man on her Burgler.

You can switch your pets role when ever you want by switching his "role" attribute, just keep in mind other roles have its levels too so you will need to build that one up as well.

Thanks.  I have two open Attribute boxes; the warrior is in the first box.  What's the second box for?  I tried putting an Archer in it and it didn't take.

You can only have one role at a time. The rest seem to be for cosmetics.

[Arthur_Parker]

You can slot a different race for your pet, with another slot at higher levels you can customise appearance further.  I'm using a warrior with my guardian.