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!