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.