Hey everybody. This is Joe “jwbarry” and in this, the second in a series of Dev Diaries about our new Scaling Instance systems, I’m going to be talking about the structure of the rewards system, what you can get from playing Scaling Instances, stat tracking, and the quality bar.

Rewards
Adding scaling to instances presents some tricky reward problems. The way we commonly itemise instances is with a collection of items that are the level of the instance. These items will drop off of the boss or through barter systems. While no “new” instances are part of the Classic system, the full matrix of levels and instances would require us to make a prohibitive number of items. For example, the Great Barrow scales from level 20 to 65. That’s a tremendous range of levels for unique loot to design and create and a very painful amount of setup within the dungeon space to get the correct loot dropping. We struggled with this question, and once again looked to the Skirmish system for the answer.

The Skirmish reward system is based on three categories of tokens or currencies. Skirmish Marks are the totally liquid currency that roughly represents time spent playing Skirmishes. The level band tokens represent the level you’ve played at, and campaign tokens are the specific Skirmishes you have been in. Between these three currencies, we decide where to place rewards so players can work towards the rewards that are appropriate for their level. We decided this structure would work great for Classic instances. So, instead of implementing the same reward system twice, Classic instances will use the Skirmish reward system with some modifications and additions.

What does this all mean in plain English? Classic instances will use the Skirmish reward system. All normal item drops from monsters and bosses have been replaced by Skirmish marks. Any spaces, like Annúminas or Helegrod, that had barter systems in place have had their item drops and barter NPCs removed. However, have no fear – many of the unique items that could be acquired from all instances have been added to a new Skirmish camp vendor: the Classic vendor. New unique tokens are also awarded for Classic quests and Challenge mode. In addition, we’ve put Legendary Item jackpots on end bosses, and even small chances to drop Tomes that permanently increase your character’s base stats!
To sum up, Classic instances will give you everything they did before, except now they share a unified reward system. Instances that do not yet level-scale have had no change to their loot. They will still drop items just as they do now and they don’t drop any Skirmish Marks. Once a space is upgraded to level-scale, it will have its loot structure adjusted. With that background and overview done, we can tease some more details!

• “Trash” monsters will all have low chances of dropping various tokens. Since Classic instances have no Lieutenants, we wanted to have “sparkly” moments during play.
  
• A new token (much like the old Fourth Mark) is being added for the Challenge modes. These tokens will allow access to 2nd Age components!
  
• Level 65 versions of the Annúminas and Helegrod sets with updated art and Radiance! It is important to note that while you can barter for Radiance armour from these instances, they do not require Radiance to play them.
  
• A new level 30 set for the Great Barrow.
  
• Various new cosmetic rewards added for all instances.
  
• Cosmetic versions of the Annúminas and Helegrod sets.
  
• And more!

Stat Tracking
One of the cooler things that Skirmishes do is to keep track of important and interesting stats collected through playing the spaces. This was the final aspect of Skirmishes we decided was worth bringing to the upgraded instances. But there are some important differences in elements involved, thus the list of stats we’re keeping track of is shorter and more relevant.

1 – Monster Kills
2 – Boss and Mini-boss Kills
3 – Skirmish Marks earned from bosses
4 – Boss Resets

The Quality Bar
One of the most important things involved in upgrading the spaces was taking a long hard look at the gameplay and the quality of the experience within each dungeon. Are the trash fights interesting, do the dungeons feel different from each other, are they challenging, are the bosses memorable, and, most importantly, are they fun? After each area was converted to scale, they were run with full groups at their initial level and at cap to see how the scaling held up to judge the overall feel of each instance. Notes were taken and feedback was provided as to what worked, what didn’t, where things were confusing and what could be improved as compared to the other upgraded instances, and our most recently released instances. Changes were then drafted and discussed with those who played the space to see if the proposed changes would be positive and if they would be enough or too much. Only then were those changes made. While the intent was to keep the spirit and initial design intent of each space intact and change them as little as possible, if something wasn’t good enough it was taken apart, examined, and rebuilt to be better. Some of the upgraded spaces have seen little to no change; the majority saw some moderate alterations, and a few have seen some significant alterations. We’d like to pull back the curtain a little bit and show you some of those changes across the variety of upgraded instances.

Coming Next Time
Part the third! We’ll be chatting specifically about the Annúminas and Eregion Instances and details of the changes and upgrades that were implemented. See you then!