Joe "jwbarry" Barry has written more about the upcoming changes to Lord of the Rings Online instances when the game goes 'free to play' later this fall. Barry takes a look at instance rewards, stat tracking and details how devs are working to improve the overall quality of each instance in the game.

Barry begins the article with a discussion of the rewards players gain from completing an instance. Given the unique nature of most instances and the fact that many instances are scaled to a player's level, the idea of 'drops' became overwhelmingly complex. As a result, developers have decided to implement a skirmish-style reward system for the new iteration of LOTRO.  All normal drops from monsters and bosses will come in the form of 'skirmish marks' that can be used to barter for items outside of the instance in a Skirmish Camp. A new classic vendor NPC will be added to the camps where players can barter for items.

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!

Read more about instances, stat tracking and quality overhaul.