Remember the bad old days in href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro">the Lord
of the Rings Online
when you could be working on
Volume
I Book 7 for days, even weeks, without being able to find a group for
the Gates of Carn Dum 6-man instance?  Remember how awesome it
was when they made all of the Volume I instances soloable and you no
longer needed to wait? Well, according to href="http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/devdiaries/1075-update-2-epic-volume-2-solofication-pass-">Bob
"Maurath" Hess in his
first-ever developer diary, Turbine has worked similar magic
on Volume
II, making all of the Moria epic book instances soloable.

When we first began to look at a 'solofication' pass
of the Volume 2
epic, our team knew that it would be quite the undertaking. We ended up
breaking the task into two parts, with Jonathan “Berephon” Rudder
changing the battle instances in Chapter 5 into Skirmishes, and with me
working on the rest of the Volume 2.


Following the breakdown of tasks, we then went about gathering
feedback from internal and external sources regarding specific points
in the epic which are particularly difficult to solo. To add to my own
experience in attempting this content, the QA Department was kind
enough to lend a good deal of feedback regarding the 'soloability' of
the content using a wide array of classes and character compositions.
This feedback was invaluable for evaluating problem points within
Volume 2 and became indispensible as we proceeded to implement changes.

The newly-soloable instances are:

  • Book 4, Chapter 7: Drowned Treasury - Inspired Greatness
    and some modified mob stats are at work here.
  • Book 6, Chapter 8: New Devilry - Now with fewer trolls for
    the solo path. And they've kept the Cloak of Shadow and Flame, one of
    the best cloaks in the game, so players who have beaten this instance
    before and never won the roll can go back in and get it without needing
    to coordinate a group and risking another failed roll.
  • Book 8, Chapter 3: A Relic in Lumul-nar and Book 8, Chapter
    4: A Relic in Nala-dum - The 3-man instances, Hall of Mirrors and the
    Waterwheels, have solo paths. The solo instances have no chest loot,
    but the 3-mans still do.
  • Book 8, Chapter 6: Return to Azanarukar - AKA New Devilry
    2: Revenge of the New Devilry

Note that Book 5, Chapter 5 is not included in this list.
That's because the three parts of this chapter have been converted to
skirmishes instead. These new skirmishes can be completed in a variety
of group sizes, from solo to 6-man, and can be replayed at will via the
Skirmish Join panel. Turbine has released a number of official
screenshots of these skirmishes, with a specific focus on the Battle
for the 21st Hall.

alt="Battle for the 21st Hall Official Screenshot"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/96206">

Battle for the 21st Hall Official Screenshot src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/96207">

alt="Battle for the 21st Hall Official Screenshot"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/96208">

alt="Battle for the 21st Hall Official Screenshot"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/96209">

alt="Battle for the 21st Hall Official Screenshot"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/96210">


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Lord of the Rings Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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