Skirmish Raids

Again, apologies for having been away for so long. I wish I could say I have an excuse: I just keep writing posts, saving them off, and never bothering to actually publish them. I'll try to do better.

 

I've been concentrating on leveling Mizosi, my Dwarf Champion. He just reached level 49, has his legendary items, and is currently questing in Eregion. 

 

I've never been a big fan of the Skirmish System. My main issue is that I really don't like to repeat content - which also accounts for why most of my alts are still relatively low-level. I also feel the same way about running the instances in Moria, Dol Guldor, and Enedwaith. Once or twice is enough; more than that, and the instance becomes a chore.

 

First, a bit of background: the Skirmish system is billed as an alternate and optional means to level. It opens at level 20 with a few basic Skirmishes, and every 5 levels or so, additional Skirmishes open up. By end game, there are 18 Skirmishes available.

 

Unfortunately , it quickly becomes rather obvious that the system is not so optional. 

 

In fact, you're pretty much required to run skirmishes, because:

1. You can purchase your level 45 class quest items from the Curiosities Vendor in each Skirmish Camp. These items drop in Carn Dum and Urugarth, but getting groups to do those instances on-level is extremely difficult.
2. The Helegrod and Annuminas Raid Armour sets require a certain number of Skirmish Marks as well as the instance marks. While this situation is changing in the upcoming Update 5, the sets will still require some form of Skirmish currency.
3. Many Skirmishes are directly involved in the Epic story: Battle of the Deep-Way, Battle of the Twenty-First Hall, Battle of the Way of Smiths, Protectors of Thangulhad, Rescue at Narz-Ghashu, Strike Against Danneglor, Breaching the Necromancer's GAte, Assault on the Ringwraith's Lair, and Battle in the Tower.
4. With Rise of Isengard, jewelry, an armour set, and Superior Fourth Marks (S4Ms) were added as rewards for raiding in skirmishes. You can run the skirmish daily for basic Skirmish Marks, and weekly for the Teal gear and marks. 

To be clear, there are two separate Isengard Armour Sets: The Skirmish Set and the Whitehand Set. In general:

• The Skirmish set is earned by finishing the weekly raid quest; it is not class-specific; there are generic sets for tanks (Guardians and Champs), DPS classes (Hunters, Rune-Keepers, and Burglers), and caster classes (Lore-Masters and Minstrels), and it does not offer any bonuses for equipping multiple pieces in the set. 
• The Whitehand set is earned by bartering S4Ms to the Adventurer's Quartermaster in Galtrev. It is class-specific and offers bonuses for equipping multiple pieces in the set. In addition, the Helmet and Shoulder Guards can only be obtain from the Draigoch Raid. Draigoch also drops scales and a recipe that can be used to tailor one of the best cloaks available in-game.

Since Isengard launched, Skirmish Raids have become all the rage, and I've been participating in them in order to get the Spellweaver's Armour Set (the Lore-Master Whitehand Set). So far, I've obtained all the pieces except the shoulder guards.

 

S4Ms and jewelry also drop in scalable instances, including the four wings in Helegrod, the School and Library, the three wings in the Great Barrows, and Hall of Night (I'm not sure if the items drop in the Inn of the Forsaken instance; this instance was broken, with the T2/Challenge mode disabled, for quite some time. I haven't seen any calls for this run). I was quite surprised to learn that the instances in the In Their Absence cluster (North Cotton Farm, Stoneheight, Forgotten Temple, Sari-Suma, and the Ost Dunhoth wings) were not scalable.

 

Most of the Skirmish Raids have been Pick-Up Groups (PUGs); and, as with any PUG, the instance can be amazing, or it can be a nightmare.

 

For example, I have run Attack at Dawn twice (I've never tried this instance solo except in a failed attempt on Bullroarer during testing). The first time was excruciating: no one would listen to the raid leader, MoBs were not being targetted properly, and people were running all over the place. I died half a dozen times, mostly because the MoBs were too spread out for the tank to maintain aggro; every time I rezzed, anything that was aggroed on my came running back after me. We managed to complete it, but it was not a very satisfying ending (though this is where I got the gloves).

 

The second time, the group was completely focused. We didn't lose a single person, and the raid leader gave clear instructions. It was almost so easy so as to be unremarkable.

 

So, now you have to spend time in skirmishes, but I've actually been enjoying it.