15.12
This past weekend I got to run a couple more of the instances in the new content.  The first instance I ran on Friday night was the one for book 15.12.  This instance is a huge pain.  One thing I’d like to see is the Epic Book quests available to all players.  I know when I enter a raid instance (Helegrod, The Rift, etc.) that it’s going to be tough going.  I expect the possibility of dying a lot especially if we’re learning an encounter.  The Book quests, imho, shouldn’t be as difficult or as dependent on classes or builds; they are a chance for all players to participate in the storyline and to help out the Fellowship in some way.  So I get irritated when I see Epic Book instances like the one in 15.12.  It’s hard.  Really hard.  The first group I was in wiped four times on the first boss and we had to reset several times along the way as key players died.  For all the good stuff I saw in other instances with regard to class freedom, it all went to hell in 15.12.  You must have a guardian and a minstrel – no other combination for healing or tanking seems to work.  For the remaining classes, players need to balance things out between crowd control and DPS.  Champion tanks in 15.12 are too squishy and are a waste of DPS.  Loremasters should be conserving their power to drain power from mobs or crowd control, not healing or DPSing.  Anything besides an “all-x” conjunction is unreliable due to targeting and the spread of the group.  Groups in my kinship have passed through this awful instance but class balance seems to be the key.

Why do I get so peeved about class balance?  Because players should be able to play the classes they like.  Someone shouldn’t be penalized for wanting to play something besides a minstrel (healer) or guardian (tank).  (And the reverse is true as well: players shouldn’t be penalized for wanting to play a minstrel or guardian.)  I’m tired of games where people take those roles out of a “sense of duty.”  It’s a game.  Play the class you want to play not one you feel you have to play.  I accept the fact that raids require certain classes and certain builds.  Most raiders accept that as well.  I’d prefer that the Book instances were more along the lines of the other instances in game and less like mini-raid instances.  As I saw in WoW, a raid-worthy instance with fewer players puts a greater emphasis on the performance of each player.  A disconnect of a single player in the Rift sucks but chances are the group can still win.  One dead player in 15.12 means a reset or a delay issue as they try to get caught back up to the group and the NPC escort who won’t stop except to fight.

General Strategy for 15.12 (incomplete):
– On the approach to the first boss, stay in front of the NPC and stay off of the glowing coal areas on the side.  Stepping on the glowing coals will spawn a non-elite mob or two.  They aren’t a serious theat, just an annoyance.
– Use crowd control (ideally riddles or mezzes) to lock down archers.  Try to protect the elf lady as best you can.  Typical of many NPCs, she’s a bonehead and will tend to wander off on her own.  Several times, she ran ahead to fight and aggroed another group that happened to be patrolling nearby.  Whenever possible, bring the fight to you.
– One tactic you can use if you need to slow her down is to deliberately jump on one of the coal areas.  The mobs that spawn are no threat to her.  Let her slowly kill them while others are catching up (like after a death in the group).  The last thing you’ll want is to have her charging off into a full group of orcs before you’re ready.
– When fighting the first boss: have one person start tanking her and another back by the NPC to try to help out with the waves of baddies.  When the tanking player gets one of the debuffs on them, the two switch.  The rest of the players hide out of line of sight of the boss behind the pillar on the left.

Unfortunately, that’s as detailed as I can get.  I have yet to down the first boss so obviously the strategy can use improvement.  Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the improvements seem to be the classes involved in the fight.  We had a champion tanking and a minstrel off-tanking when I was there.  When a subsequent group ran it with a guardian, they beat the instance (I’m not sure what the other classes were on that run.)

The Library
The other instance I ran this weekend was the library.  The Library, in Mirobel outside Moria, is a three-person instance.  (The normal group in LotRO is six people.)  Two friends and I got the quests outside the instance and jumped inside.  Our group consisted of a level sixty hunter, a level fifty hunter and my level fifty-seven burglar. We had no minstrels and no guardians.  There are several pick-up-the-glowy type quests and several kill quests in the instance.  We managed to complete the whole thing – all the glowies, all the kills, the two mini-bosses and the big main boss – all without a guardian and or a minstrel.  Healing conjunctions saved our bacon several times and we did have a couple of deaths – two due to a bad pull and one when our fifty hunter aggroed the final boss.  It was a fun and quick run and we got several nice items for legendary item experience.  One of the hunters also got a cool-looking cloak and I got a decent helmet.

Turbine seems to be refining their instance formulas.  Sometimes they do a great job, like with the library or the instances I mentioned last time.  Sometimes though they seem to be stuck in raider mode where class balance and builds supersede player skill and inventiveness when dealing with encounters.