Lotro Instances
by Rupture
There are a number of big 6-man instances you will encounter as you level (there are also a bunch of smaller ones from the Epics and group quests but I will just go thru the big instances), I will try to describe most of them in order. If you like instance grouping and this is your first toon I would recommend to try to get a fellowship together and get them done, they are very challenging and can be great fun. If you are really up for a challenge you should try do these without help from a higher level person but sometimes after so many hours and wipes you may need help 
You will get very good XP by doing these and some good loot, the XP from completing large instance quests is usually more than regular quests and this holds true all the way to the Radiance Gear instances in Moria. Keep in mind that most of the best gear lvl 1-40 is crafted crit (most). There are some good armor sets at around lev40 you can get from Tal Brunien quests (Trollshaws) that compare to crafted crit but most of the quest gear is not as good, not untill u get to lvl55+ and can start doing Radiance Gear instances. You will need to have Radiance gear to fight The Watcher, Radiance counter acts Dread effects and almost all instance bosses give off a certain amount of dread, some more than others, so bring Hope Tokens. The Watcher is at present time what you could call âEnd Gameâ (which should soon change because Turbine likes to give us free content (<3 Turbine).
GREAT BARROWS:
lvl20-25 (would recomend min lev23rd) 6-man resetable
Instance in the Barrow Downs in Breeland. full of Wights, Spiders and other nasty things, fun and challenging dungeon. Quests come from outside of the Prancing Pony and other quests come from Barrow Downs chains that start in the Scholar Stair in Bree. -
More details about Great Barrows
GARTH AGARWEN:
Lvl32-35 6man resetable
Located in the LoneLands just east and north of Ost Garuth, full of Elites and a very nasty place with tough bosses. There is a quest hub there but there are also quests that come from an NPC in the south of Harloeg near the Epic Book 2 ruins. There is a quest chain that I think comes from the old forest for the Red Maid, its been so long since I have done these, I forget so you may need to look it up. Lots of Wights and Ghosts.
FORNOST:
Lvl40-45 6man resetable
This is a fairly large dungeon and can take several hours to complete (5-6) you work your way through courtyards and dungeons and end up in a large castle, look up as you go. There are 4 bosses that each drop a Hilt, the 4th boss is at the top of the castle and he can be a jerk sometimes. There are numerous quests you can get most from Esteldin but there are a couple others, one that is a random drop from the wargs around Dol Dinen and the other is from clearing the big tent in Dol Dinen. The warg one drops often and is easy to get, the tent is another story and you have to complete this very hard group quest to get the Fornost quest. The Fornost quest you get from completing the Dol Dinen Tent has you kill an Urukai boss in Fornost who is on the way up to the castle off the beaten path a bit. The quest u get from the warg drop is called âCollar from the Kingâ and takes you to the basement of the castle to eliminate a big warg boss. dont worry if you dont get the Tent quest i always skip it on my alts.
GOBLIN TOWN:
Lvl46-50 4-6man
Mostly public dungeon/labyrinth, Great Goblin area is an instance. They did such an awesome job on Goblin Town i highly recomend exploring the whole place. Completing the exploration deed and the Bilbo's Buttons deed will get you 14k xp. Before going in there you may want to google a GT map because it is a maze. Oh and don't forget to see Golum's cave while you are there, very cool. Most quests come from the Highpass Hub but a few come from Bilbo and Gandalf.
Bilbo's Buttons Trait - Locations!
Stained Button: if you come in through the mountain's throat entrance...continue straight. You will come to a place where you can either go down, left, or right. Go right and follow the curve around. You will see a debris pile at the very end...loot it, the button is here.
Bent Button, Tarnished Button, and Blackened Cufflink: all random drops from goblins
Scratched Button: This is found near the named mob Narash. He is in a room off the blogmal tunnels. The button is in a battered chest. (War Steadings)
Shiny Button: This is found near Dagal the Observer. It is in his room inside a discarded pouch. (War Steadings)
Broken Cufflink: this can be found in a ruined bag in a tunnel near the Goblin King instance. (Eglanur)
Polished Button: I found this in Thundergrot. If you take the stairs to the very very bottom, and then follow the tunnels to the left...then take another immediate left...it is in a refuse pile near two lashers.Tabernarius, eruchin.com, AsherPaiger made those Goblin Town maps:
URUGARTH:
Lvl47-50 6man resetable
Uru is on the road to Carn Dum (CD is the next big instance) Urugarth is a fun instance with quite a few bosses. Uru and CD are were your level 45 class quest items come from and each class will need to get certain items off certain bosses from both of these instances, which is no easy task. In Uru there are Urukai bosses, a vicious dragon boss, troll bosses, and a couple Gobo bosses. Easier and shorter than Carn Dum, but still a challenge especially first time there. An Uruk boss drops the key to get into the last boss's chamber (Legmas).
CARN DUM:
Lvl48-50 6man 24hour raid locked
CD at one point, when LotRO first came out, was the "end game", when Book8Chap5 was the last book (pre Book9). To finish Book8 you had to make your way to the Carn Dum entrance, there was no campfire or mustering horn back then and there were alot more elite mobs on the way up there, they since removed a bunch of the elite mobs. took about an hour just to get to the instance. inorder to complete book8 you had to go to the top of the castle and kill Mordorith, the Witch King of Angmar, not an easy task and since so many people complained about how hard it was they ended up making B8C5 a separate instance out of Gath Forthnir. Back then if you saw someone with the "Light from the Shadow" title and the breastplate from the Mordorith fight you knew that person went through alot to get it, i did it and it took our group two nights fridaynight up til 5am and saturday night playing to 5am (none of us had crafted gear and noone knew where we were going either but we did it).
I'm not going to go into specifics about which boss mobs drop which lvl45 class quest items (you can look that up pretty easy) but i will tell you about the two keys you will need. the hard key is the Ornate Key, they easy key is the Iron Key there are two gates at the courtyard entrance to the castle one takes the Ornate, and one takes the Iron key. To get the Ornate key you have to fight your way around some platforms outside and get to a big troll boss (he drops the Guardian item). the iron key drops from a Moroval boss and she is more on the way to the castle, the troll boss is more of a side adventure and if someone has the Ornate key you can shave off alot of time.
BARAD GULARAN:
Lvl48-50 6man resetable
If you have a good computer and want to see a breathtaking view ride south out of Gath Forthnir and gaze at the Castle of Barad Gularan which is built into the mountinous valley there. Becareful adventuring around this area because there are alot of nasties all around. there are 8 POIs around the castle and the ones on the north east side are guarded by tons of Elite Masters. the deed to get these 8 POIs is called "Circle of Dispair" and unless you are a burg, you will die trying to get it (Empathy). There is a key you have to get from the upsatairs boss (Castillian) to open Undunion's lair.
Undunion is the boss and he is a Rogmul, very cool looking. IMHO this is one of the hardest 6man fights in the game. It is a short instance compared to CD and URU. Pre Moria this was a place to go to get some unique lewt and Undunion's swords trophy housing item.
ANUMINAS:
GARDEN
TOMBS
CHRUCH
Lvl48-50 6man
3 instances that noone did when they first came out becuase the armour sets were not very good. Turbine did a very smart thing to get people to go there and im glad they did because these instances are a blast. how they got people to go there was by making barter vendors that you could trade items you got from drops and instance quest rewards for scroll cases and armour. i always grabbed the jewlery scrolls because those recipes were hard to get at the time and were selling for ~5g on the AH. they did improve the armour stats a bit, but aside from that the armour is really nice looking if you wanted to just wear it cosmetically.
HELEGROD:
Lvl48-50 24man 1 week raid locks
Thorog is the main boss, you will get a glimpse of him in Book5Chap8, 5 or 6 big boss fights, epic class armour sets. 24 people, working together for the greater good can be fun, but i prefer the 12 mans since one afk break can take an hour with 24 people.
The Scul of Thorog
THE RIFT:
Lvl 48-50 12man 1 week raid locks
This instance is brilliant and a big reason for people to stay playing LotRO at the time it came out, there wasnt much going on at that time. it is located NE of Barad Gularan and you really get a feeling of decent when you enter the big crack in the ground. Very cool armour sets.
THE SCHOOL:
THE LIBRARY:
Lvl53-55 3man
Challenging 3man instances that are new with Moria. located in SW Eregion the quests come from two short chains out of Mirobel and yield a nice chunk of XP for completeing.
Tips for Library of Steel
THE TREASURY:
Lvl53-55 6man
Short fun instance with good quest XP, one of the best rings in the game drops out of here, the Amber Ring, if you like lots on morale on your rings this is the one for you.
THE GRAND STAIRS:
Lvl55-60 6man resetable
make sure you get all the quests before u go in here because you will get ~140k xp for finishing them. this is a Radiance gear instance and probably the first one you will do. the +10 Radiance boots drop here and alot of really nice jewlery. this place is like a jewlery store for hunters.
SKUM FIL:
Lvl57-60 6man resetable
+10 Radiance Legs.
Skum and Urauth guide
FIL GASHUN:
Lvl57-60 6man resetable
+10 Radiance Gloves.
THE FORGES:
Lvl57-60 6man resetable
+10 Radiance Breastplate.
16th HALL:
Lvl57-60 6man resetable
+10 Radiance Shoulders.
DARK DELVING:
Lvl57-60 6man resetable
+10 Radiance Helm.
THE WATHCER:
Lvl60 12 man 1 week raid lock
Requires Radiance Gear
Drops> 1st age weapons and +20 Radiance Helm and Shoudlers.
Watcher raid guide
most of the loot is BOA in the instances so mind your rolls.... GLHF
