Blessing of the Valar Upgrade Unveiled

The Package - Unopened

Robinya, my hunter finally opened the Blessing of the Valar Upgrade Package after savouring it in her bag for a day or two. Kind of like seeing the presents under the Christmas tree with your name on and you know you're going to get to open them soon. The waiting and wondering what is in them can be part of the enjoyment.

The items that went into my bags

The items from the package as shown in chat

So you don't get instantly levelled to 95 - you have to use the Blessing of the Valar for that and when you do you'll be teleported to Éowyn's Camp in Dunharrow.

The Giant Pile of Silver Scraps is the only item not character-bound and is worth 1 gold 800 silver. 

On opening the package, you automatically get a medium war-steed added to your mounts. However, the war-steed riding skill [Trait: Mounted Combat] requires minimum level 75.

The [Trait: Legendary Items] lets you use legendary items but requires a minimum level 51 and is unusable if you already have the "Seeker of Deep Places" passive skill.
 
Virtue Pack 1 says it contains "4 ranks of each virtue Charity-Honour" (the virtues on the right half of the virtue panel). Virtue Pack 2 says it contains "4 ranks of each virtue Idealism-Zeal" (the virtues on the left half of the virtue panel). When you open these, the chat window shows that for each virtue you receive a bundle (e.g. [Bundle of Compassion] ) that permanently increases the virtue by 4 ranks, but it is auto-consumed and if you have the virtues panel open, you'll see the virtues increase instantly.

The Level 95 Weapon Pack contained a level 95, purple quality, item level 176, offhand weapon (a dagger for my hunter) and 3 Unidentified Third Age Legendary Item Box. These have a minimum level of 51 and say they contain level and class appropriate items. Don't open these until you are level 95! It would be such a shame to open it at level 51 and be stuck with a level 51 legendary weapon at level 95 until you can craft, buy or find a new one! I'm not sure yet whether there are 3 legendary weapons to choose from, or whether there is a main-hand weapon, class item (or bow for hunters) and war-steed bridle. I'll have to wait and see when we get to Dunharrow.

The Level 95 Armor Pack says it contains armour to get you started at level 95 - so I'm not expecting Best-in-Slot gear. Everything is item level 176, purple quality and you get the full set of armour (helmet, shoulders, chest, gloves, legs, boots and cloak) plus jewellery (necklace, 2 earrings, 2 bracelets and 2 rings). Everything had 4 stats and as a hunter these were: agility, vitality, fate plus something else - the armour had physical mastery, while the necklace had finesse rating, the earrings had max power, the bracelets had max morale and the rings had critical rating.

My bags are nearly full so I'll wait to open the Blessing of the Valar Item Pack until I get to Dunharrow and have replaced my gear. Off we go!

Goodbye level 50!

Hello level 95!

Well! There was a flash of chat spam as we completed a bunch of deeds and gained character trait points, new and upgraded skills, titles, destiny points, skirmish marks, a Westemnet Iron Coin and 10 Turbine Points. Then we were whisked away by a loading screen and a moment later we're standing in front of Éowyn in Dunharrow.

So I've got my new armour and jewellery on and it looks rather ugly. Never mind - thank the Valar for cosmetics! To open the Unidentified Third Age Legendary Item Box just right-click and then you can choose what weapon, class item or war-steed bridle you want. Once you've selected which items you want, then you will need to see a Forge-master to identify the items. Don't forget to equip them!  Adding relics and titles and some heritage runes for an IXP infusion would be great too, but they don't come in the Upgrade Package.

By the way, after I gained the war-steed riding skill, I was equipping the war-steed bridle and noticed the war-steed had no name at all, so time for renaming. I decided to call her steed GwenLaegel - gwen for little, laegel for Green Elf. Because like the Green Elves, my little hobbit hunter likes to spend time in the woods, blending into the background and avoiding conflict if possible.

I just spent the new character trait points and had to rearrange her skillbars to make some room for new skills (yay!). She will try them out, sooner or later. O_o (Excited for skills she hopes she won't have to use - go figure!)

Last thing to open from the Upgrade Package - the Blessing of the Valar Item Pack. Apparently it "contains a number of items to help you at level 95." Let's see ...

Everything in the Item Pack is account-bound except the Riding Trait which is character-bound.

• [Trait: Riding Characteristic] - learn to ride normal mounts. Already known.
• [Steed of the Citadel] - ooh pretty mount (and war-steed appearance set too)!
• [25 Dale-men's Crams] - basic food, but won't complain
• [25 Rejuvenation Potions] - basic healing potions, always handy
• [5 Tomes of Extraordinary Experience] - get to 100 a little quicker? great!
• [Map to Rivendell] - aww I like Rivendell, but do I have to go back just yet?
• [Map to the Sutcrofts - Snowbourn] - a useful travel point and town to visit
• [Map to Eastfold - Aldburg] - another useful travel point and town to visit
• 25 Mithril Coins - nice!

Steed of the Citadel

That's all folks! Robinya is now level 95 and could level to 100, or travel the world, or make friends with new factions, or find a nice farm to retire at near some ruins (Hytbold perhaps?), or go back to helping Bingo Boffin on his journey. Which will she choose? Well, she's not called Robinya, Honorary Boffin for nothing!