Thread: No Great Barrows instance drops? No yellows, no junk?

I'm not a new player, but ran an instance for the first time today so I have a newb-ish question.

My lvl 33 Warden entered GB's Maze solo using the instance finder, set to level 20. I wanted to see how far I could get. I had freed up some bag space, expecting to get a ton of junk drops and the occasional yellow item. However, I didn't get anything other than coin loot and the occasional recruit mark from the mobs. I would occasionally get a skirmish mark for defeating a boss or completing a quest.

Is this the way all instance runs work in LOTRO - that the kind of loot you usually see in the main world doesn't appear on instance mobs? Or was something else at play, due to my entering solo or from out-leveling the content?

BTW, I barely survived the Wight Caller with sloppy play, but went down hard on Gaerdring.

you'll find the majority of instances don't drop much trash loot (moria instances drop tons of rep items tho)

As far as I can tell, GB generally does not drop items of any sort, except for coin and bounties (which are essentially coin). However, you recieve marks and Medallions which can be bartered at Skirmish camps for a wide variety of items. I think this is because GB is a scaling instance, like a skirmish.

Non-scaled instances, such as GA and Moria do not give marks/medallions. Mobs there drop normal items, including reputation on about the same level as open world mobs. However, as the main reward there are tokens and other barter items that can be exchanged with certain NPCs for gear.

Okay, thanks for the information. I get it now - because GB is scalable, it rewards more like a skirmish than a normal dungeon run. I suppose that coming up with loot tables for a variety of level ranges wasn't something the designers wanted to solve.

All scaled instances no longer drop any trash or yellow items - just coin, bounties and maybe an item or two in the last chest. This applies to Great Barrow, Fornost, Annuminas, Helegrod, School, Library, Forsaken Inn and Hall of Night. As other instances get scaled eventually, they won't be dropping any useless items either and I am only happy for it.

And don't that in any Fellowship, the Loot rules are determined by the Fellowship Leader, and those can vary widely.