Rohan: 85 skirmish solider Herbalist

One of my most visited non-Rohan posts on the site is herbalist-is-my-skirmish-friend in which I detailed the traits of my skirmish soldier, the Herbalist. Now at level 85, I brought my Herbalist up to speed. She is a potent soldier!

Also important though is that I once again used the “Scroll of Skirmish Refund” from the lotro store. It costs 295 TP. If I thought ahead I might have even gotten it with a discount coupon (but I think I paid full price because I wanted it right then). This is the other post I want to reflect on for Skirmish Refund best-295-tp-ever.

Why would I use this scroll, and what did I get for my 295 TP this time?

Let’s start with “why”. The cost of leveling a soldier is directly related to your level. Meaning, at level 85, a rank of a soldier costs less than that same rank would be at level 75. As you get the soldier closer to your level, the cost goes up.

And “What”. From the link, the first time the Scroll of Skirmish Refund arrived in the store, I was level 75 and Dr. Quinn was the equivalent of a level 75 Herbalist. I used the Scroll and had a savings of 29,158 marks on the exact same rebuild to level 75.

But, now I am 85, with the herbalist having been built using my level 75 related costs. Now, it should be cheaper to do the same thing at 85. To the test!

I used the reset scroll… and voila! It returned exactly 9,571 Marks, the same number I spent before (see previous link). To get the Herbalist exactly back to the equivalent of level 75 was a cost of 5,884 Marks. In total, it was a savings of 3,687 Marks at the cost of 295 TP.

If you have never used a skirmish reset scroll, you are possibly in for a big refund (hence the 29k marks I received last time). As for me, having used one before at level 75 and only leveling the soldier as a Herbalist, the gain was not as much for a second use. If you have never done it, and you have points in your soldier, I would recommend doing the reset when you reach level 85.

For interest, I leveled Dr. Quinn to equivalent level 86. The cost to get from level 75 to 86 with the traits I chose was 8,529 Marks. Also of interest, one cannot level a soldier to equivalent level 85; the levels come by twos. She could be equivalent level 84 or 86 (and the next up is 88).

She is da bomb! With a morale of 12,907, she can tank it all, heal through the damage and keep going. In all my days of skirmishing, I have only been threatened a couple of times on my first visits to The Icy Crevasse. Needless to say, I always feel secure with my Herbalist. Someday, I will revisit the Fastest Skirmishes post, fastest-skirmishes-marks-per-minute  (though I suspect the relative time results to be similar, but would find a comparison data set to be interesting).

Fastest Skirmishes – marks per minute

This page has been updated with Methedras data (07/26/12). 

Hi there! I have been talking about this topic of skirmishing for marks for a while. I had been waiting until I collected a good enough representative sample of skirmishes to build my tables. There are some sites that are masters of knowing the lore behind what is going on in a skirmish. You won’t find that here.

When I am skirmishing, I cathartically release worries out through the lightning in my fingertips and think less about what I am fighting. “See it & Kill it (& sometimes take its picture)” is my skirmish motto. What I never turn off is my mental math processors though. So, I took these notes and data about which skirmishes were the fastest to beat, and which awarded the most marks per minute, and a few other notes along the way as to why those skirmishes are paced as they are.

Qualifiers:

• Runekeeper/Herbalist: Your mileage may vary but the table below is built on my average statistics. I am a level 75 Runekeeper, lightning traited, reasonably-well-but-not-best-end-game geared, with a Herbalist (soldier build @ Herbalist) that is doing no damage but keeps me alive while I kill enemies. At least ideally, your statistics comparing one skirmish to another might be similar. These data were generated at Update 5 (prior to RK revamp of U6 which helped the RK to get a bit tougher though I doubt it will change this table noticeably).

• Encounters: I do every encounter (there are two per skirmish) which adds to the time. In some situations, like “The battle in the Tower”, some encounters require doubling back to areas that have already been passed. Depending on the encounter, it could add a couple of minutes to the skirmish time. While soloing, as most of the “Medallions” (not marks) come from the encounters, it is worth the time to do the encounters.

• Instance Finder: All of the stats in this post were generated while using the Instance Finder (IF). Why? The IF has a setting for “1 person”, “skirmish”, “Tier 1” and it will randomly choose a skirmish for you. By letting the IF choose the skirmish, you are awarded 50% more marks and medallions. Yeah, that is huge. Don’t leave home without it. Also, notice that you get +5% morale and power if you let the IF choose the skirmish. That's a lovely chocolate frosting for an already tasty chocolate cake. ***Note: Update 6 (03/12/12) changed the IF somewhat, but it should become even easier to use.

• Tier 1: All of the skirmish data are generated for Tier 1. Tier 2 skirmishes give +10% marks and Tier 3 gives +25% marks. However, T2 takes more than 10% more time than T1 (and T3 is much longer). For certain, T2/T3 foes hit harder and have more morale so if you have any problems at T1, then T2/T3 is probably not for you.

T1/T2/T3 Comparing start to finish… I chose to clock Nurz Ghashu because the skirmish is very consistent. On T1, it always take me about 9 min 55 sec start to exit, +/- 20 seconds. So, T1 Nurz data = 10 min. T2 Nurz data = 13 min (+10% marks @ +30% of the time). T3 Nurz data = 24 min (+25% marks @ +140% of the time). The truth is I hit and run the same speed regardless of the tier. If the T3 mobs have twice the morale, I have nothing to speed up my kill rate to compensate.

Sure, if you want a serious challenge, go for T3. But the time isn’t worth the reward in terms of marks. Here is a shot of one of the encounter foes in Nurz Ghashu. Snagtalun T3… soloing (with a herbalist) a 52k morale troll that hits for more than 2k damage isn’t something I want to do for fun every day. (For comparison, his T1 morale is about 28k.)

Fastest Skirmishes

What are the fastest skirmishes?

Here is my data table.

Yeah, that is still a lot of data so I will break it down.

There are three sections: around 12 minutes, around 15 minutes, around 20 minutes.

This table has been updated with "Storm of Methedras".

Offense/Defense: There are 10 Offensive skirmishes and 8 Defensive skirmishes. Offensive skirmishes let you plow through the enemies at your pace; some have stopping points where the enemy is “counterattacking an area” that you just took. Defensive skirmishes have enemies periodically running toward and attacking an area that you are “defending”, always with the assistance of an NPC (whom you are not allowed to let die lest you often fail the skirmish automatically).

Top 7 fastest (above average speed): Of the top seven fastest skirmishes for me, 5 are Offense and 2 are Defense. Like I said, this post is not the end all of lore knowledge, but here are a few quick notes to guide us.

(1) Strike against Danneglor: Offense (#1 Speed, #3 Marks/min) – This skirmish is the shortest skirmish; it is almost too short. There are various courtyards with control points. You go, you kill, the enemy counter-attacks, you move on. It doesn’t offer many marks, but it is so fast that it is good in terms of Marks/minute.

(2) Rescue in Nurz Ghashu: Offense (#2 Speed, average Marks/min) – Similar to Danneglor, Nurz Ghashu is quick. It is set in the Rift and offers +700 Rift reputation for completion. If I complete it another 58 times, I will finally be at Kindred with the Rift people (the Eldgang). Kindred doesn’t get me anything except a stamp in my list that says I am kindred, but it is far easier to build Eldgang rep via solo skirmish than it is to get a raid team together to go run a level 50 Rift raid (which is the only other way to get Eldgang rep).

(#) Storm of Methedras: Offense (Fast Speed, Great Marks/min) – Methedras is the "new one" for 1H12, and the reason I am updating this page on 07/26/12. It is a slugfest. At the two gates, the mob roll toward you so it has both an offensive and defensive feel. A key is to not bite off more than you can handle as there is opportunity to aggro additional mobs inside the gate. Other than that, it is well laid out and straight-forward. Good for racking up marks quickly.

(3) The Icy Crevasse: Offense (#3 Speed, #1 Marks/min) – The Icy Crevasse is notoriously the hardest of the 17 skirmishes. When I win without defeat, it takes about 12 minutes to complete. Fortunately, since it is the hardest, the payout is the best. There is no comparison when it comes to Marks/minute. The Icy Crevasse = 29 M/min, and the next closest is the Strike against Danneglor = 17 M/min. The Icy Crevasse has unique mechanisms for extra damage because of the cold environment and has occasional healing spots (the green spots) during the boss fight where you don’t die quite as fast.

(4) Defense of the Prancing pony: Defense (#4 Speed, average Marks/min) – The Prancing pony is the fastest defensive skirmish. You mostly stand in one place out in front of the tavern and whack every enemy that comes along. There are enemies carrying fire to burn the tavern; kill them before they get to the Pony. Second watch Heathraw, a melee NPC, is out there helping. It is quick and easy with average marks. Here is Heathraw preparing us for the fight.

(5) Attack at Dawn: Offense (#5 Speed, #4 Marks/min) – This skirmish is an offensive race through an orc camp in Mirkwood. There are some orcs, wargs, trolls, catapults dropping destruction in certain areas. It is fairly easy, fast, and one of the best for Marks/minute.

(6) Thievery and Mischief: Offense (below average Marks/min) – This fight around Bree is a typical offensive skirmish. Kill stuff, counterattack, etc. It is offense driven, and fast, but the marks are on the low side. Kill the pig! Here is a shot of Goretusk, one of the encounters in Bree skirmish Thievery and Mischief.

(7) Stand at Amon Sul: Defense (below average Marks/min) – With the Prancing Pony, Amon Sul is the other fast Defensive skirmish. Amon Sul is very busy and has a hectic feel. Your task is to light fires, the NPC Calenglad range kills most things, and when you are not lighting fires, you get to help kill. As long as the fires are lit, it is hard to lose. It is relatively short but the marks are poor.

Next 6 Skirmishes (average speed): These next six skirmishes are not the fastest, but have a couple of high performers for Marks/minute. There are two Defensive and the remaining four Offensive skirmishes in this grouping.

(8) Assault on the Ringwraith’s Lair: Offense (below average Marks/min) – It is another typical offensive skirmish. It is a race around Dol Guldur (open air, so not claustrophobic), kill stuff, counterattacks, kill the Ringwraith at the end. The length takes a bit longer since you are physically running across DG; the marks are poor.

(9) Battle of the way of the Smith’s: Defense (average Marks/min) – The Smith’s is a defensive battle. You defend the east forge, the west forge, or the north forge and are alternating areas every couple of waves. There are several rounds of this defense. Then, you go upstairs and beat the boss troll Sadauk. The area is within the mines of Moria; as an elf, I am not meant to be underground that long. It moves along ok; you have banners to help (offers extra damage, healing, power, etc, not that they are really needed); and the Mark payout is Average. Of course, when Stothkell get knocked back by the troll and gets stuck to the wall and the instance cannot be completed, that doesn’t help at all.

(10) Breaching of the Necromancer’s gate: Offense (#2 Marks/min) – I often get this one confused with Assault on the Ringwraith. Both are open-air Offensive fights in Mirkwood/DolGoldur and take about 15 minutes. The Necromancer’s gate has much better marks though, ranking #2 for Marks/min.

(11) Ford of Bruinen: Defense (below average Marks/min) – Defend the fords of Bruinen in the Trollshaws with Elrond’s boys. It is a lovely fight, defending from the left or the right, and has help from two elven hunter types. Takes an average amount of time, but the marks are low.

(12) The battle of the Tower: Offense (below average Marks/min) – For the most part, the offensive battle of the Tower is really fast! Where this one breaks down is the very long monologue by Mazog at the end. He seems to go on and on in his villain monologue until Broin cuts his throat and makes him stop talking. Marks are low for its length.

(13) Trouble in Tuckborough: Offense (#5 Marks/min) – Tuckborough is the fight in the Shire. It is a plow-through. It is #5 on my chart for best marks/min, but takes longer than most skirmishes since you effectively have to circle the Tuckborough/Great Smials area of the Shire. Interesting dynamic, the fight starts in near darkness and the sun rises by the time you end. (I always turn my lamp on with Alt+F10 when fighting in the dark.)

The Last 4 Skirmishes (takes so long...): Given the choice, these four Defensive skirmishes are not my favorite skirmishes.

(14) Battle of the 21st Hall: Defense (average Marks/min) – The Marks are not that  bad, but at 18 minutes and lots of dead space between defense positions around 21^st Hall, the Battle drags by comparison to some of the other skirmishes. You get bonus banners and typical NPC defenders.

(15) Protectors of Thangulhad: Defense (below average Marks/min) – The basic fight of this skirmish is the easiest of all the skirmishes. You shoot catapults at the enemy as they run to Thangulhad. If you hit them, they are nearly dead when they arrive at Thangulhad camp and are one-hit knockouts. If you miss, the fight is still easy, especially with the melee NPC assistant. The encounters are out of the way and many of the encounter foes do not stick around… they are walking and you have to know where they are to get to them in time. With its long length and low marks, even though it is easy, the skirmish ranks worst for Marks/min.

(16) Battle of the Deep Way: Defense (average Marks/min) – Like the 21^st Hall and the Smiths, this defensive battle of the Deep Way is in Moria. You defend the south tunnel, north tunnel, or middle area, and you get NPC helpers and banners. At 20 minutes, I could have finished Strike against Danneglor twice and felt more fulfilled with better marks.

(17) Siege of Gondamon: Defense (below average Marks/min) – Oh Gondamon. Before I even started tracking how long this skirmish was, I was keenly aware that it was very long. “I am still in Gondamon??” At approximately 24 minutes, it is by far the longest skirmish of the 17 available. Its marks are not bad, but it is not at all proportionate for the length of the skirmish.

Relic Extras: I almost forgot! In addition to Marks and a few Medallions, you also often get LI relics as drops and rewards. I noticed no obvious difference for relic reward by skirmish. On average across all skirmishes in the data set, I received 1 tier 3 relic, 1.5 tier 2 relics, 3 tier 1 relics, and 8% of the time I received a 40k ixp rune. The variance was wide from no extras at all to 2 t3, 5 t2, and 10 t1 for a single skirmish.

Favorites? Do I have favorites? I would have to say I tend to like the offensive ones better, especially the first Seven of Nine. Besides the fact that they are longest, Mazog in the Battle in the Tower annoys me and Trouble in Tuckborough is very dark so those two are my least favorite. The only defensive ones I could say I really like are Defense of the Prancing Pony and the Ford of Bruinen. Given a choice, I don't go fight underground in Moria. 

With the new IF for Update 6 (03/12/12), as I understand it, the "Advanced" IF tab will allow certain skirmishes to be removed from the random select and you will still get the 50% mark bonus and +5% morale and power. If so, I may never go to Gondamon skirmish again. :) ***UPDATE to Post, 03/16/12: The new IF does have an "Advanced" tab and is very friendly to use. Read my comments on it here (old-halls-of-crafting-new-galtrev).

The Herbalist is my skirmish friend

Skirmishes can be a lot of fun! True, I was older by the time I ever experienced my first skirmish. But, when I got there, I enjoyed this part of the game as much as I did while questing… just different.

The first thing I needed to learn was what a soldier was, what I wanted from a soldier, how do I develop a soldier, etc. I started off with the soldier I was assigned by the Skirmish Captain. It was some man warrior guy. I barely remember him; I think his name was Stud. I tried to recall the story to Danaszar and she sent this shot of her going out with her inept level 1 Soldier. He improved to a level 1 Warrior after their first skirmish, but he isn’t much about which to get excited.

So, there I was at level 65, with my basic warrior and did not know beans about anything until Menelchol taught me about the Skirmish Captain and the Skirmish Trainer. Until then, I had skirmished a half dozen times at Amon Sul. My warrior was always running off getting into trouble and was quick to die (he was, after all, a level 1 warrior with no skills in a level 65 skirmish since I had not figured out how to train him).

First thing, the Trainer allows you to train up your skills, and the Captain lets you slot those skills. You need to visit both to get your soldier to be productive. Good to know. J Here is a picture of the skirmish camp in Galtrev; the other camps should all have people covering these jobs in each camp.

You have the option of training up several different types of soldiers:

·         Warrior – melee, like a Champion,

·         Archer – ranged, like a Hunter,

·         Sage – tactical, like a runekeeper/loremaster,

·         Bannerguard – buffs, like a captain’s herald,

·         Herbalist – heals, a healer, 

·         Protector – aggros, like a Guardian.

After reading about all of the soldiers, I chose the Herbalist. I am sure the others are all nice in their own ways, but Herbalist fits me best. When I play solo, I unleash the Fury and Wrath and am looking to cause the most devastation possible as fast as possible. I do still move and kite some and work to sharpen my skills, but the Herbalist lets me unload the damage with no recourse of needing to worry about my morale bar. Think about that; I am a light armor wearer and am never concerned about getting hit since the Herbalist always has my back. Healing is her job; it is all she does. She heals me, she heals herself, she heals our allies. She never attacks. She never runs off in the wrong direction. She just stands there, sometimes in the middle of the fray if necessary, and heals. Bold. Powerful. Awesome.

I did have to train her though. Once you know about the Trainer and Captain, it isn’t too bad and it isn’t that expensive. The previous post (best-295-tp-ever) gave some insight into soldier training cost. By the time you get the hang of skirmishing, marks wil be rolling in and leveling the soldier feels really cheap. Here is what I chose for my Herbalist traits (That which I was taught, I pass on to anyone who wants to know).

Attribute: Attribute training is easy enough. She is a Herbalist. The other slots under “Attribute” are for changing the way your soldier looks. For example, I have slotted an elf, with long hair, red hair, red dress. (Hint, the skirmish “Cosmetics” barter can sell you all kinds of different looks for your soldier. You can see the Cosmetics guy in the background of the skirmish camp picture above.)

Skills: The Herbalist is skilled to heal me and all allies with the skills: Herbs of Boundless Endurance, Nature’s Cure, Refreshing Herbs, and Ultimate: Words of Healing.

Training: She is trained to heal better (more tactical mastery), have more morale and power, and never run out of power (ICPR) with the training: Boundless Morale, Boundless Resolve, Tactical Potency, and Resurgent Power.

Personal: I don’t just “feel” better by having a wonderful Herbalist, I AM better. The personal trait section is for boosts to the player because “You are more powerful while leading a Soldier in Skirmishes”. I chose Battle-master, Defender’s Bane, and Tactical Artistry. All three improve my ability to unleash Fury and Wrath, which is something I really enjoy while skirmishing.

Please do feel free to copy the skill choices of this Herbalist. I have nearly never lost a Skirmish with her (only Icy Crevasse a few times early on) and we always have a good time!

“It looks like we are having some roast bear tonight Quinn!”

Best 295 TP Ever

I had been trying to amass more skirmish marks recently. I even built a spreadsheet for marks/minute, etc to know which skirmishes were the biggest bang for the time. I’ll share that data table in a future post.

However, I stumbled across a post in the Casual Stroll to Mordor site (casualstrolltomordor.com/) discussing something in the Lotro store called a “Scroll of Skirmish Refund”, available for 295 TP. The discussion centered on how many marks one would get back for using the Refund scroll and then re-leveling your skirmish soldier.

Historically, I haven’t skirmished as much as some people. Because I am a quest-hawk, I didn’t enter a skirmish until I was level 65, then I leveled Dr. Quinn, my Herbalist, up equal to me. Then when Rise of Isengard was released, I quested forward to level 75, then leveled Dr. Quinn again up equal to me. Needless to say, my skirmish mark spending was about as optimized as I could have possibly made it, choosing only the traits to build a great Herbalist. However, all of this happened before one of the 4Q11/1Q12 Updates changed how much leveling a soldier should cost.

I was very skeptical, but I gave it a shot and bought a “Scroll of Skirmish Refund”. The refund gave me 38,729 marks, and turned my equivalent level 75 Herbalist back to the beginning. Now, I had to respend the marks and get her back equal to me, and hopefully it would cost less than 38k marks.

Everywhere I go, I bring my herbalist Dr. Quinn. The only place we have ever been defeated while soloing is The Icy Crevasse (prior to the speculated 2012 changes to Icy Crevasse). I think that we typically underestimate it since it is a step more difficult than any other skirmish.  Proportionally, The Icy Crevasse gives the best marks of any solo skirmish. That said, I have never even considered needing another soldier other than the Herbalist. As the enemy, you would have to hit faster than I can hit and Quinn can heal, and that just does not usually happen. For group skirmishing, the herbalist heals the group and is one of the best soldiers for grouping, so there is no need to switch soldier when grouping either.

Ok, back to the mark reset math. So, I got back the previously-thought frugally spent 38,729 marks and was respending them. I could break down the various costs by level, but I will fast forward to the answer. Final cost = 9,571 marks to reset the herbalist as an equivalent 75 (solider level 31).

Bottom line = 29,158 marks for the price of 295 TP. Now that is a very good deal. I highly recommend this purchase if you leveled your soldier to 31 before January-2012. At a rate of 210 marks per skirmish, that was equivalent to 139 skirmishes to accumulate 29k marks, and at 15 minutes per skirmish, that is about 35 hours of skirmishing (math to be accounted in another post about the excitement of skirmishing marks/minute.... UPDATE skirmish marks/minute link is fastest-skirmishes-marks-per-minute).