Level 115 Gear

Myndariel finally reached level 115 while doing some Erebor quests in Northern Mirkwood. It's been a slow and arduous journey levelling from 105 to 115 and I hope they don't make any regions like Mordor again because it wasn't fun. Northern Mirkwood, on the other hand, is beautiful and a joy to explore and quest through.

Now that I'm 115, I need new gear. So where do I get level 115 gear?

• Crafted gear
• Quests in Northern Mirkwood
• Dungeons/raids/instances
• Barter with factions
• World drops
• Auction hall

Unfortunately, skirmish camp gear only goes up to level 105 at present.

The maximum level for legendary items is still level 100.

World Drops

These scaled items have no Light of Eärendil and generally no essence slots. Item levels range from about 304 to 315. They can drop from mobs, be found in treasure caches, or for sale at the auction hall.

Quests

Some quest chains in Northern Mirkwood reward you with level 115 gear with item level 340. I got gloves from Dale, a helmet from Erebor, and boots from Felegoth.

Crafted Gear

Some crafted gear have essence slots and most have Light of Eärendil. Recipes must be purchased from barterers. Crafted gear may be for sale at the auction hall.

Conquest of Gorgoroth (Mordor)

The Quartermaster (Conquest of Gorgoroth Crafting) has Doomfold recipes for item level 323 to 326 armour, weapons, jewellery and minstrel instruments. There are also superior minstrel instrument recipes for item level 336 instruments.

The Quartermaster (Gorgoroth Crafting Vendor) has superior versions of Doomfold recipes for item level 333 to 335 weapons, armour and jewellery. Ally standing with Conquest of Gorgoroth is required to purchase recipes.

Men of Dale (Northern Mirkwood)

The Quartermaster (Men of Dale Crafting) has Doomfold recipes for item level 345 helmets, Will pocket and Will necklace. Kindred standing with the Men of Dale is required to purchase recipes.

Elves of Felegoth (Northern Mirkwood)

The Quartermaster (Elves of Felegoth Crafting) has Doomfold recipes for item level 345 helmets, Agility pocket and Agility necklace. Kindred standing with the Elves of Felegoth is required to purchase recipes.

Dwarves of Erebor (Northern Mirkwood)

The Quartermaster (Dwarves of Erebor Crafting) has Doomfold recipes for item level 345 helmets, Might pocket and Might necklace. Kindred standing with the Dwarves of Erebor is required to purchase recipes.

Barter with Factions

Gear can be earned by completing quests and tasks to impress various factions and collecting the appropriate tokens of barter.

Conquest of Gorgoroth (Mordor)

The Quartermaster (Gorgoroth Rewards Vendor) has item level 330 off-hand weapons and shields for barter. Ally standing with Conquest of Gorgoroth is required to purchase items.

The High Enchanter (Elf-smith) has item level 330 armour and jewellery for barter using Ash of Enchantment. Ally standing with Conquest of Gorgoroth is required to purchase items.

The Keeper of Mysteries (Vendor of Rare Oddities) has item level 337 armour for barter using Ash of Enchantment.

Men of Dale (Northern Mirkwood)

The Quartermaster (Men of Dale Rewards Vendor) has item level 340 light armour and jewellery for barter. Acquaintance standing with Men of Dale is required to purchase items (some items require higher levels of reputation).

Elves of Felgoth (Northern Mirkwood)

The Quartermaster (Elves of Felegoth Rewards Vendor) has item level 340 medium armour and jewellery for barter. Acquaintance standing with Elves of Felegoth is required to purchase items (some items require higher levels of reputation).

Dwarves of Erebor (Northern Mirkwood)

The Quartermaster (Dwarves of Erebor Rewards Vendor) has item level 340 heavy armour and jewellery for barter. Acquaintance standing with Dwarves of Erebor is required to purchase items (some items require higher levels of reputation).

Allegiance Halls

Quartermasters for the Court of Lothlórien, Durin's Folk, The Kingdom of Gondor, and Hobbits of the Company have item level 330 armour and jewellery for barter.

Instances (dungeons/raids/challenges etc.)

The Featured Challenge Rewards Vendor has item level 340 class sets of armour (with set bonuses) for barter.

The Plateau of Gorgoroth instances (The Court of Seregost - small fellowship, The Dungeons of Naerband - fellowship, The Abyss of Mordath - raid) are designed for level 105-115 and has gear drops with Light of Eärendil. The item level will depend on the instance level (based on preliminary data from Lotro-Wiki, it appears that at level 115 the item level will be at least 330).

Essences

You can purchase Tier 10 essences from:

• Keeper of Mysteries (Vendor of Rare Oddities)
• Quartermaster (Men of Dale Rewards) - requires Kindred standing with Men of Dale
• Quartermaster (Elves of Felegoth Rewards) - requires Kindred standing with Elves of Felegoth
• Quartermaster (Dwarves Rewards) - requires Kindred standing with Dwarves of Erebor

Crafting essences of your choice may also be an option:

Essence	Item Level	Recipe Source	Requirements
Shadow Essence	326	Conquest of Gorgoroth Crafting	...
Empowered Shadow Essence	330	Gorgoroth Crafting Vendor	Ally (Conquest of Gorgoroth)
Abyssal Essence	337	...	...
Empowered Abyssal Essence	345	...	...
Northern Stronghold Essence	345	Men of Dale Crafting Elves of Felegoth Crafting Dwarves of Erebor Crafting	Kindred (Men of Dale) Kindred (Elves of Felegoth) Kindred (Dwarves of Erebor)

I will try to update this if changes occur or I learn of other sources of level 115 gear.

Level 105 Gear - Update 19

I previously looked at the different sets of armour available at level 100, so now that I've reached the new level cap of 105, we will look at the new options available. Ozraid has covered some of the sets that were available from instances in update 18, so I will mainly cover the gear from North Ithilien and other sources.

Instances

For more information, see Ozraid's guide.

Gear from Osgiliath instances scale up to level 105. These are trait tree specific (3 sets per class), have set bonuses and do not have essences.

Gear from Pelennor instances scale up to level 105. These are class specific (1 set per class), have set bonuses and 4 essence slots.

Gear from Featured Instances scale up to level 105 and are also known as Recollection armour sets. These are class specific (1 set per class), have set bonuses and 2 essence slots.

Raids

Throne of the Dread Terror is a 12-man raid at level 105. Armour and Jewellery tokens can be exchanged for gear at the Master of Battle Lore (Pelennor Rewards Vendor) or their associates (Sage for light armour, Scout for medium armour, Warrior for heavy armour). Armour is trait tree specific (3 sets per class), have set bonuses and 4 essence slots. Jewellery is divided into will/agility/might categories and T1 jewellery has 2 essence slots while T2 jewellery has 3 essence slots. T1 gear is prefixed with "Lesser" and T2 gear is prefixed with "Greater".

You can also get level 105 class-specific items (such as a legendary lute for minstrels) with 1 essence slot, and off-hand items.

The T2 gear can be upgraded at the Herb-master in North Ithilien to "Supreme" gear.

Questing in North Ithilien

Some of the Epic Quests in Volume 4, Book 7 offer level 105 essence gear (chest and cloaks) and North Ithilien essence boxes. Quests in North Ithilien also offer typically ilvl 222, 2-slot essence gear.

North Ithilien Flora Bartering System

Flowers can be picked all over North Ithilien to obtain phials of extracts that can be exchanged for gear at the Herbalist. The armour has 4 essence slots and jewellery has 3 essence slots and they are fairly easy to get (but getting the necessary essences may take some time). Note that medium armour comes with vitality, not agility or might. Legendary rings can be bartered from the Herb-master.

Tier 8 North Ithilien essences can be obtained through epic quests, normal quests and by turning in four Ithilien Essence Fragments obtained from repeatable quests to the Herb-master. These essences can also be used to create Wild Essences through crafting professions, which can then be exchanged at the Herb-master for more powerful Ithilien-infused Essences.

ilvl 246 Ithilien Armour	Light	Medium	Heavy
Head	4 Essences 652 Armour 90 Will 442 Morale	4 Essences 968 Armour 90 Vitality 422 Morale	4 Essences 1254 Armour 90 Might 442 Morale
Shoulders	4 Essences 652 Armour 90 Will 442 Morale	4 Essences 968 Armour 90 Vitality 422 Morale	4 Essences 1254 Armour 90 Might 442 Morale
Chest	4 Essences 2169 Armour 90 Will 442 Morale	4 Essences 3220 Armour 90 Vitality 422 Morale	4 Essences 4174 Armour 90 Might 442 Morale
Hands	4 Essences 1054 Armour 90 Will 442 Morale	4 Essences 1610 Armour 90 Vitality 422 Morale	4 Essences 2087 Armour 90 Might 442 Morale
Legs	4 Essences 1808 Armour 90 Will 442 Morale	4 Essences 2683 Armour 90 Vitality 422 Morale	4 Essences 3478 Armour 90 Might 442 Morale
Feet	4 Essences 869 Armour 90 Will 442 Morale	4 Essences 968 Armour 90 Vitality 422 Morale	4 Essences 1673 Armour 90 Might 442 Morale
Appearance

ilvl 246 Ithilien Jewellery	Will	Agility	Might
Earring	3 Essences 225 Will 589 Morale	3 Essences 225 Agility 589 Morale	3 Essences 225 Might 589 Morale
Necklace	3 Essences 225 Will 589 Morale	3 Essences 225 Agility 589 Morale	3 Essences 225 Might 589 Morale
Bracelet	3 Essences 225 Will 589 Morale	3 Essences 225 Agility 589 Morale	3 Essences 225 Might 589 Morale
Ring	3 Essences 225 Will 589 Morale	3 Essences 225 Agility 589 Morale	3 Essences 225 Might 589 Morale

ilvl 258 Ithilien Jewellery	Will	Agility	Might
Legendary Ring	3 Essences 237 Will 1401 Morale	3 Essences 237 Agility 1401 Morale	3 Essences 237 Might 1401 Morale

Throne of the Dread Terror raid gear upgrades

T2 raid gear can be upgraded at the Herb-master (see the raid section above).

Epic/Big Battles

You can get level 105 jewellery (no essence slots) from participating in epic battles such as The Defence of Minas Tirith, but the Stars of Merit vendors currently only offer level 95 or 100 jewellery.

Skirmish Camps

Skirmish Camps offer level 105 (ilvl 213) armour, off-hands and jewellery (Pelennor Guardsman's set) with no essence slots for marks and medallions.

Crafting

Unfortunately, crafters cannot make level 105 gear currently, only the wild essences, but there has been talk of a possible crafting update in the future.

World Drops and the Auction House

And of course there are the usual random world drops that can be obtained and sold on the auction house. I have noticed that there doesn't seem to be much level 105 gear available on the auction house, but what is for sale is fairly cheap.

Quick Update

Bingo Boffin

I've added some more items to the Bingo Boffin and Housing Decorations page. There is still quite a lot more to collect but at least now thanks to Update 18.2, we have more places in our houses to display the decorations!

I plan to finish the Ballad of Bingo Boffin soon, as I believe the last quest in the story, chapter 52, is due out this week. It's been a great journey and the rewards have been awesome. Definitely worth giving it a try if you haven't already.

Level 105 Gear

I found a couple of good guides for level 105 gear. My characters still aren't level 105 and haven't done any of the new group instances yet, but it's always good to know what options will be available when you get there.

Ozraid has an article called Update 18 Armour Guide: Level 105 which explains the various level 105 armour sets and how to get them from instances, and a similar article called Update 18 Jewellery Guide: Level 105.

For Level 105 Essences, Dadi's Lotro Guides has an article called U18: 105 Essence Guide with information about how to get the recipes by completing instances and what you need to craft the essences.

The Department of Strategery also has an article on Level 105 gear (Update 18: New armour sets, instance jewellery, essences and featured instances), with screenshots taken during beta testing.

These articles don't mention the gear from the new raid (they were written before Update 18.2), but if you're looking to gear up to storm the Throne of the Dread Terror, they might be helpful.

I'm still hoping they bring out some crafted level 105 gear, and perhaps some gear with stats instead of essence slots from a faction quartermaster. Options are good.

Level 100 Beorning

Hooray! Tyravorth my Beorning has reached level 100 in Central Gondor. It might not be the max level, but it's the beginning of the end.

Questing along the Gilrain river at night

Now she has to start worrying about essence gear and getting the perfect legendary items for imbuing.

Essence Gear

As a tailor, she has made a set of Anórien armour and cloak for starters. She didn't have anywhere near enough essences to fill the 18 slots, and certainly not with the essences she needs. Questing through West and Central Gondor since level 95 has so far earned her about half a dozen essences. A couple for morale and finesse, and one each for evasion, tactical mitigation essence and critical rating.

She still needs new jewellery, and the crafted jewellery has more essence slots to fill too! 

Crafted Anórien Medium Armour

There is other gear available at level 100 with stats or essence slots, but the crafted gear is easy to get.

Where can fresh level 100s get essences?

• The skirmish camp - the curiosity vendor sells level 100 major essences for 500 marks each. 
• The auction house - since level 105 is now the max level, level 100 essences have reduced in price a lot.
• Essence vendor in Dol Amroth - completing quests for the city guard factions in Dol Amroth rewards tokens used to buy essences (some RNG involved for which essence you'll get though).
• Crafting - The Dol Amroth quartermaster has level 100 greater essences recipes, and each crafting profession can make a few types. 
• Quartermasters in Central Gondor - class-specific essences can be obtained with rep tokens. 
• Questing - some quests have guaranteed essences as rewards, particularly in the epic quest chains.
• Mob drops - occasionally. Elite mobs and instances may have a higher chance of dropping something.

I decided to go the skirmish camp route for essences - I'd rather have cheap level 100 gear and save up for good max level gear.

Dol Amroth Skirmish Camp

As an aside, I hated Dol Amroth when it first came out because of all the extravagant building decorations, but after travelling deeper into Gondor where the zones become more gloomy, Dol Amroth seems beautiful and bright by comparison, and now I quite like it.

So what essences to get for a Beorning who is mainly questing?

1. Mitigation - My physical mitigation was nearly capped but I needed a lot more tactical mitigation, so that was my first priority.
2. Avoidances - My parry was capped at 13% but I didn't have much evade, so that was my next priority.
3. Defence - My critical defence wasn't too bad for solo questing - I don't see my health dropping suddenly from enemy crits, but I increased it to 50% to be on the safe side.
4. Finesse - I've noticed mobs avoiding too many of my attacks, so I wanted more finesse.
5. Might - I grabbed a couple of might essences so that I wouldn't lose too much dps/healing. My mastery has still gone down, so I will aim to add more to my jewellery.
6. Morale - I filled the rest of the slots with morale. From everything I've heard, morale is the best for survival.

Your priorities may be different, especially if you do lots of instances or pvp or have already capped your stats.

Some people suggest grouping similar essences together so that you can easily switch pieces of gear and stats to suit the situation. For example, switching between one pair of boots with lots of critical defence and another pair of boots with lots of critical rating.

Legendary Items and Imbuement

Legendary items can be a real grind if you want to max them out, and if you do - good on you! Fortunately, the grind is mostly optional. You can get through most, if not all, content without maxed out legendaries, but the more effort you put into improving them, the easier the content will be.

While I'm saving up materials and/or gold for first age items, I'm going to be trying to get lots of third age items so I can extract the legacies I want and get plenty of relics and IXP runes.

Many of the consumable items for enhancing legendary items can be used before or after imbuement with only minor differences in outcomes.

Here are a couple of guides that may also help explain the legendary item and imbuement system:

• LOTRO Players: Imbued Legendary Items - Tips, Tricks and a Guide to the Grind
• LOTRO Wiki: Legendary Items

Pre-imbuement

1. Level a legendary item up to at least level 30 to unlock six legacies.
2. Use a crystal of remembrance to add a seventh legacy.
3. Use legacy replacement scrolls to swap out unwanted legacies for more useful legacies. Most legacies will have the same effect before and after imbuement, but a few may have a different effect. Check LOTRO-Wiki (the Legendary Items page has a comparison table) to find out which legacies are affected.
4. Use a scroll of delving to unlock an extra 10 levels. This will also increase the maximum tier by one for each legacy when the legendary item is imbued.
5. Level the legendary up to level 70 and get legacy tier upgrades (saves scrolls of empowerment).
6. Use 3 star-lit crystals to increase the base dps and passive stats on applicable legendary items (e.g. 2H-weapons).
7. Spend points to rank up legacies. Make sure the default legacy (e.g. the dps legacy on weapons) is at max rank so the highest possible base stats will be on the item post-imbuement.

Imbue legendary items at the Forge-master.

Post-imbuement

The maximum tier for each legacy will initially depend on what tier the legacy was pre-imbuement.

1. The maximum tier for the default legacy can be increased towards the final tier with star-lit crystals.
2. The maximum tier for normal legacies can be increased towards the final tier with scrolls of empowerment.
3. Use IXP runes or gain IXP through game-play to increase the current tier of each legacy.

When all legacies have full final tier experience bars, the item is maximised (until the next update that increases the final tier level). Don't forget to add some good relics and legendary titles to boost your stats too - these may help reduce the need for some essences!

Comparing Level 100 Armour Sets

Following on from looking at what level 100 armour sets are available in Level 100 Gear Updated for U17, the next obvious question is which one is best?

There has been some debate about this on the forums and some of the feedback there related to how many essence sockets were available and what quality of essences you used.

I mostly play a level 100 Lore-master so I will be using light armour sets as an example, looking at the potential stats for each set and with different essence qualities.

The main stats I will be prioritising are Will, Vitality, Tactical Mastery and Critical Rating. Fate is nice-to-have but I assume I'll either pick up some passively or will get it from elsewhere (e.g. accessories/virtues).

Skirmish Camps

I thought the Skirmish Camps had a full armour set, but it is only helmet, shoulders and gloves in the non-essence gear and head and gloves with 3 essence slots each. Here are the base stats they could provide:

Stat	Non-Essence	Essence (Empty Slots)
Armour	1891	1376
Will	513	238
Vitality	513	34
Tactical Mastery	768	0
Critical Rating	2304	0
Fate	85	34
Finesse	2343	0

I would pretty much only use these if I was desperate for gear and couldn't find anything on the AH or any crafters who could make something.

In such circumstances, I would only use the essence armour if I had some appropriate essences in the Vault but I wouldn't waste good quality essences on armour which I would hope to soon replace with something better.

Dol Amroth - class-specific armour set

These armour sets have fixed stats. The Armour of the Night Watcher for lore-masters provides:

Armour	6039
Will	1434
Vitality	1230
Tactical Mastery	1382
Critical Rating	2918
Fate	255
Finesse	1874
Critical Defence	1544
Max Power	377

Dol Amroth - Nadhin armour set

The armour available from the vendors have 4 essence slots per piece of armour - 24 in total for the set. Assuming I used Will, Vitality, Tactical Mastery and Crit Rating essences in each piece of armour, the potential stats are shown below:

Stat	Minor	Major	Greater	Supreme
Armour	6039	6039	6039	6039
Will	1410	1428	1530	1548
Vitality	696	714	816	936
Tactical Mastery	6318	6450	7374	7374
Critical Rating	6318	6450	7374	7374
Fate	0	0	0	102
Max Power	0	0	0	564
Critical Defense	0	0	0	2316

Based on this, if I was going to use this armour, I might only use 2 or 3 Critical Rating essences and replace the others with more Vitality to improve survival. I could also swap a couple of Tactical Mastery essences for other stats such as Fate or Finesse.

Using Supreme essences provide extra stats (e.g. Supreme Tactical Mastery also gives a little Max Power) which is a definite bonus compared to using the lower quality essences.

Scalable Instances - "Greater Resolute" sets

These items drop by chance so obtaining a full set may be difficult, however, you could also mix and match sets based on what's available or which pieces have better stats for you.

These might be useful gap-fillers until something better is available.

World Drop - light armour set with bonuses

These armour sets have fixed stats. These items drop by chance so obtaining a full set may be difficult. The stats below include the set bonuses.

Stat	Western Shore	Guardian of the Watchwood
Armour	6039	6039
Will	854	1110
Vitality	513	854
Tactical Mastery	7680	7680
Critical Rating	3072	3072
Fate	1281	938
Finesse	7029	0

Both of these sets are low in will and vitality. The tactical mastery and fate are high, critical rating is ok and the finesse in the Western Shore set is pretty good if you need it. Personally I think the low will and vitality but high fate and secondary stats makes these armour sets more suitable for "glass cannon" builds rather than general purpose builds. I think even for "glass cannons" they would want more of the primary damage stat (in this case, will).

Maybe a few pieces of these sets may be helpful for filling in gaps until something better is available.

Osgiliath Instances

There are class-specific (even spec-specific) armour sets with fixed stats and set bonuses, and essence armour set available for barter with 5 essence slots per piece.

Class-specific sets for Lore-masters

Stat	Osgiliath Armour of the Animal-friend	Armour of Osgiliath's Fury	Osgiliath Armour of the Ancient Master
Armour	6239	6239	6239
Will	2160	2160	2160
Vitality	540	540	630
Tactical Mastery	4020	1608	1608
Critical Rating	1608	4020	1608
Fate	270	270	270
Finesse	2450	2450	2450
Morale	578	578	578
Critical Defense	0	0	4040

Very nice having the slightly different flavours of stat distributions. These are clearly more suited for instances compared to the Dol Amroth class sets - these have more will and finesse and less vitality (can focus more on damage when you have a healer looking after your health), whereas the Dol Amroth sets have more balanced stats.

Osgiliath essence armour (Armour of Faramir's Faithful)

With no base stats except armour, I would be looking at using 2 will, 1 vitality, 1 tactical mastery and 1 critical rating essences for starters (shown below). Some of the critical rating and tactical mastery essences could be swapped for other stats - some more vitality, fate and finesse for example.

Stat	Minor	Major	Greater	Supreme
Armour	6239	6239	6239	6239
Will	1392	1428	1632	1668
Vitality	696	714	816	936
Tactical Mastery	6318	6450	7374	7374
Critical Rating	6318	6450	7374	7374
Fate	0	0	0	102
Max Power	0	0	0	564
Critical Defense	0	0	0	2316

This is almost identical to the Dol Amroth Nadhin armour, just more armour and more will when using greater or supreme essences.

Crafted Anórien armour

By default, the crafted armour is of incomparable quality and has 3 essence slots per item. Critical results are epic quality but only the amount of armour and base morale increase from what is shown below.

Since these already have a chunk of morale on them, I would skip the vitality essence and just use will, tactical mastery and critical rating, maybe swapping a few for other stats.

Version #1

Stat	Minor	Major	Greater	Supreme
Armour	5922	5922	5922	5922
Will	696	714	816	834
Vitality	0	0	0	102
Tactical Mastery	6318	6450	7374	7374
Critical Rating	6318	6450	7374	7374
Fate	0	0	0	0
Max Power	0	0	0	564
Critical Defense	0	0	0	2316
Morale	6246	6246	6246	6246

Yuck. That's not much will! I think I'd have to sacrifice some tactical mastery and critical rating and use 2 will essences per item, and 1 tactical mastery for half the set and 1 critical rating for the other half.

Version #2

Stat	Minor	Major	Greater	Supreme
Armour	5922	5922	5922	5922
Will	1392	1428	1632	1668
Vitality	0	0	0	204
Tactical Mastery	3159	3225	3687	3687
Critical Rating	3159	3225	3687	3687
Fate	0	0	0	0
Max Power	0	0	0	282
Critical Defense	0	0	0	1158
Morale	6246	6246	6246	6246

That looks a little better, in terms of will, but the loss of tactical mastery and critical rating means that this is probably not as good as the Nadhin armour. Let's check.

Comparison of crafted armour (version #2 essences) and Nadhin armour using Greater essences. Note that 1 Will = 8 Tactical Mastery and 1 Vitality = 3 Morale.

Stat	Anórien	Nadhin
Armour	5922	6039
Tactical Mastery	3687 + (1632*8) = 16743	7374 + (1530*8) = 19614
Critical Rating	3687	7374
Morale	6246	816*3 = 2448

The Nadhin set is better than the crafted Anórien set for armour, tactical mastery and critical rating but won't increase morale by as much.

Minas Tirith Fellowship armour

This is similar to the crafted armour in that it has 3 essence slots and morale, but it also comes with baseline primary stats (will for light armour). It should therefore be better.

Assuming that 1 will, 1 tactical mastery and 1 critical rating essence is used in each piece (not using vitality because the armour already has baseline morale):

Stat	Minor	Major	Greater	Supreme
Armour	6306	6306	6306	6306
Will	1464	1482	1584	1602
Vitality	0	0	0	102
Tactical Mastery	6318	6450	7374	7374
Critical Rating	6318	6450	7374	7374
Fate	0	0	0	0
Max Power	0	0	0	564
Critical Defense	0	0	0	2316
Morale	4944	4944	4944	4944

This might actually be quite similar to the Nadhin armour in stats. Again, comparing using Greater essences:

Stat	Minas Tirith	Nadhin
Armour	6306	6039
Tactical Mastery	7374 + (1584*8) = 20046	7374 + (1530*8) = 19614
Critical Rating	7374	7374
Morale	4944	816*3 = 2448

Hooray! We have a new champion!

One last comparison - class-specific armour versus Minas Tirith armour:

Stat	Dol Amroth class set	Osgiliath's Fury set	Minas Tirith
Armour	6039	6239	6306
Tactical Mastery	1382 + (1434*8) = 12854	1608 + (2160*8) = 18888	7374 + (1584*8) = 20046
Critical Rating	2918	4020	7374
Morale	1230*3 = 3690	578 + (540*3) = 2198	4944

The Osgiliath class sets are better than the Dol Amroth set, but the essence armour is better still.

Conclusion

With the introduction of essence armour and empty essence slots, it can be more difficult to compare armour when you can't see all the stats. There are so many different ways people could fill those essence slots - some people might stack one stat, while others try to balance their gear. I have described what I would do. Your mileage may vary.

In conclusion, I would have to pick the Minas Tirith fellowship armour, obtained with tokens earned by completing daily quests around Pelennor Fields, as the best armour currently available.

Level 100 Gear Updated for U17

Last year when West Gondor was released I wrote an article about level 100 gear for Lore-masters. With the arrival of update 17 and a new tier of crafted gear plus new factions, it seems time to reconsider how we gear up, but I'll try to be more general so as to be relevant to all classes.

Skirmish Camps

Item Level 192

Skirmish camps have rare quality level 100 armour, weapons and accessories available for marks and medallions. A few pieces of the rare quality Nadhin armour set with essence slots are also available from the light/medium/heavy armour vendors.

Dol Amroth Faction (West Gondor)

Item Level 192

Dol Amroth offers barterers with incomparable quality armour sets; class-specific sets (including legendary second age weapon) plus light/medium/heavy sets with essence slots for customisation (variations of the essence slot armour may also be available as quest rewards or world drops). These items are purchased with tokens earned by completing quests and daily quests around Dol Amroth.

Scalable Instances

Item Level 192

Scalable instances set to level 100 can drop incomparable quality armour, jewellery and off-hand weapons of the Greater set (or rare quality items of the Potent set) but there are no set bonuses. These items may also be found on the auction house.

World Drops

Item Level 192

Light/medium/heavy sets of incomparable quality gear with set bonuses may drop from mobs or be available from the auction house. For example, the Guardian of Watchwood set of light armour.

With similar stat weightings to the Greater and Potent sets, the uncommon quality Lesser set also drops from mobs and can be found on the auction house.

Epic Battles

Item Level 192-204

Completing the quests in epic battles can reward jewellery of various qualities or tokens that can be used to purchase class-specific jewellery.

The Minas Tirith epic battles can reward epic quality cloaks with an essence slot.

Rangers of Ithilien Faction (East Gondor)

Item Levels 195-198

The quartermaster sells rare quality shoulders and jewellery and incomparable quality off-hand weapons for tokens earned by completing quests and tasks in East Gondor.

Osgiliath Instances (East Gondor)

Item Level 201

The Osgiliath Rewards Vendor sells incomparable quality light/medium/heavy armour sets with essence slots for tokens earned from Osgiliath instances.

Crafting - Tier 10 (Anórien)

Item Level 201

Rare or incomparable quality items can now be crafted with most armour and jewellery having essence slots.

Minas Tirith Fellowships (Old Anórien)

Item Level 204

Fellowships within Minas Tirith have different incomparable armour available for the appropriate tokens (earned by completing daily quests near Minas Tirith). The armour has essence slots.

Builder's Fellowship - head, shoulders, chest
Smith's Fellowship - gloves, legs, feet
 

Update: Crafted Light Armour Gallery

I don't know about you, but when I'm planning a cosmetic outfit, I always consider which crafted pieces could be used to complement a theme.

Darzil's LOTRO Crafting Guide has been an excellent resource in the past, but it is no longer updated so I'm making my own galleries. I'd also like to mention that the Item Treasury plugin by Galuhad is a great tool for being able to preview items in-game.

I've just finished updating the Tailor-made: Crafted Light Armour gallery with cloaks, armour sets requiring reputation and high level gear. Please have a look!

Here's a few of the recent additions to the gallery:

Lvl 42 Ajokoira Armour (Light)

Lvl 60 Lothlórien Hooded Cloak of the Elder

Lvl 75 Wyrmscale Acrobat's Cloak

Lvl 95 Fangorn Armour (Light)

I will be working on the crafted medium and heavy armour galleries soon. If you have any suggestions about the galleries, please leave a comment.

Level 100 Gear for Lore-masters

As I am trying to gear up my level 100 lore-master, I've found limited resources on what options are available (online wiki and databases not being up to date yet) - obviously the class armour set and the slotted armour sets in Dol Amroth, but is there anything else? No crafted gear recipes were made available with update 14 so that leaves PVP, instances and drops from mobs I guess.

PS. See Comparing Level 100 Armour Sets for new Lore-master armour sets available since Update 17.

Light Slotted Armour Set - Dol Amroth

Note: Level 95 Light Nadhin Shoulders (3 slots) and level 100 Light Nadhin Robe is available free by completing the epic questline Volume IV, Book 1.

Item	iLevel	Armour	Will	Extras
Light Nadhin Hood	192	544	119	4 empty slots
Light Nadhin Shoulders	192	544	119	4 empty slots
Light Nadhin Robe	192	1811	119	4 empty slots
Light Nadhin Gauntlets	192	905	119	4 empty slots
Light Nadhin Leggings	192	1509	119	4 empty slots
Light Nadhin Shoes	192	726	119	4 empty slots

Light Nadhin Armour

Lore-master Class Set (Armour of the Night Watcher) - Dol Amroth

Note: You need to complete each of the Dol Amroth sub-factions' questing deed to unlock each piece of gear.

2-piece bonus: Water-lore incoming healing buff increased by 3%
4-piece bonus: +5% Tactical skills direct damage

Item	iLevel	Armour	Will	Extras
Circlet of the Night Watcher	192	544	239	205 Vitality 768 Critical Rating 1874 Finesse
Shoulderpads of the Night Watcher	192	544	239	205 Vitality 85 Fate 614 Critical Rating
Robe of the Night Watcher	192	1811	239	205 Vitality 768 Critical Rating 614 Tactical Mastery
Gloves of the Night Watcher	192	905	239	205 Vitality 768 Tactical Mastery 1544 Critical Defense
Leggings of the Night Watcher	192	1509	239	205 Vitality 85 Fate 377 Maximum Power
Boots of the Night Watcher	192	726	239	205 Vitality 68 Fate 768 Critical Rating

Armour of the Night Watcher

You can also buy a Lore-master's Staff of the Second Age (base stats: 475-791 common damage, 253.2 DPS) from Brandarth, the Lore-master Armour vendor in Dol Amroth. However, it requires Mason tokens which won't be available until your server has unlocked the caves of Emyn Ernil.

Guardian of Watchwood (world drops)

This is a set of bind-on-equip incomparable item level 192 gear with set bonuses that comes from random world drops. Pieces of this set may also be found at the auction house.

2-piece bonus: 85 Will
3-piece bonus: 85 Fate
4-piece bonus: 85 Vitality
5-piece bonus: 85 Fate
6-piece bonus: 85 Will plus 768 Tactical Mastery

Item	iLevel	Armour	Will	Extras
Amarthgarab (head)	192	544	171	171 Vitality 85 Fate 1536 Tactical Mastery
Eiliadhranc (shoulders)	192	544	171	171 Fate 768 Critical Rating 1536 Tactical Mastery
Tiriacham (chest)	192	1811	171	85 Vitality 256 Fate  768 Critical Rating
Braigmaib (gloves)	192	905	171	171 Vitality 768 Critical Rating 1536 Tactical Mastery
Thorembadanir (leggings)	192	1509	171	171 Vitality 85 Fate 1536 Tactical Mastery
Delendail (boots)	192	726	85	171 Vitality 171 Fate 768 Critical Rating 768 Tactical Mastery

This set is fairly balanced between Will and Fate and has a lot of Tactical Mastery.

Western Shore (world drops)

This is a set of bind-on-equip incomparable item level 192 gear with set bonuses that comes from random world drops. Pieces of this set may also be found at the auction house.

2-piece bonus: 768 Tactical Mastery
3-piece bonus: 85 Fate
4-piece bonus: 85 Vitality
5-piece bonus: 768 Tactical Mastery
6-piece bonus: 85 Fate plus 768 Tactical Mastery

Item	iLevel	Armour	Will	Extras
Golthol (head)	192	544	171	256 Fate 1536 Tactical Mastery
Gweluranc (shoulders)	192	544	171	171 Fate 1536 Critical Rating 2343 Finesse
Formen Falas (chest)	192	1811	85	171 Vitality 171 Fate 1536 Tactical Mastery
Aelin (gloves)	192	905	171	171 Fate 1536 Critical Rating 2343 Finesse
Andúnë (leggings)	192	1509	0	171 Vitality 171 Fate 1536 Tactical Mastery 2343 Finesse
Helegdail (boots)	192	726	171	171 Vitality 171 Fate 768 Tactical Mastery

This set has more Fate than Will, with only a little Vitality but a lot of Finesse.

At the Auction House

Scalable instances can drop a variety of bind-on-equip incomparable item level 192 items known as the Greater Resolute set, e.g. Greater Resolute Robe of Tactics. This set also includes jewellery and weapons but does not offer set bonuses. The base stats on the armour are similar to the Armour of the Night Watcher set, but the extra stats vary.