Myndariel Finally Max Level 140

Myndariel and her loyal bodyguard Nixe

Myndariel has finally reached the current max level of 140 while questing in Gundabad. I really wanted her to get there before the next expansion came out. The last time she was max level was when level 100 and Dol Amroth dailies was the big deal. 

Myndariel celebrated reaching max level by buying the Elk of Felegoth's Glory from the Curator in Bree as her reward. 

Elk of Felegoth's Glory - Myndariel's reward for reaching level 140

She still has lots of quests to go in Gundabad. I'm enjoying the story but the zone and the outfits are rather ugly. I'm looking forward to the Umbar expansion - that should be something totally new and interesting! I guess I'll have to try out the new Mariner class and I really hope the new zones will have some amazing corsair-themed armour. I'm nervous and hopeful for the crafting changes - I love crafting in games and I just hope they make it better and not worse (and please bring back all the beautiful old legendary weapon skins as craftable cosmetics!).

Now that she's max level, I've made a list of goals for her to work on. Perhaps this list might help some other new level 140 players too.

Things to Do at Level 140:

• Finish quests in Gundabad
• Do Zhélruka missions in Gundabad
• Do Gundabad crafting instances 
• Craft some level 140 gear 
  
• Do solo instances at level 140 (Minas Morgul, War of Three Peaks, Gundabad)
  
• Do quests in King's Gondor (Gondor Renewed has a new epic quest-line)
• Try some Delvings
• Go back and finish quests and deeds in other zones
  

I'm not interested in raiding but dungeons and raids usually have the best gear for those that want to min-max. Especially for level 140, there are several options in Gundabad and then the Return to Carn Dûm group of instances.

Have fun in Middle Earth!

Introducing the Lore-master: Level 1-20

Lore-master is my favourite class in LOTRO. They have everything - magic spells to cast from a distance, melee attacks if the mobs are close, healing spells, lots of utility, buffs and debuffs and a variety of pets to choose from that can tank, dps or heal. Like Gandalf, they wield a staff and a sword, and also like Gandalf, they are a powerful ally for any group.

Here I'll record my experience levelling a lore-master from level 1 to 20, talking about skills, specs, pets and anything else that might be useful to know.

Level 1 Elf Lore-master

Here's our brand new lore-master and some information about her:

• Wears light armour
• Wields a staff (can wield a sword in off-hand at higher levels)
• Primary stat is Will
• Starts with a bear as a pet
• Starting abilities are: Burning Embers (a damage-over-time fire spell that also slows enemies), Sign of Battle: Wizard's Fire (an instant-cast damage-over time fire spell that can restore some health if your pet has recently "flanked" the enemy), Gust of Wind (a frost spell that can spread Burning Embers to nearby mobs), Lightning Strike (a lightning spell that deals extra damage if the enemy is affected by Burning Embers), Staff-strike (a melee attack that deals extra damage if your pet has recently "flanked" the enemy) and Friend of Bears (summons your bear pet).

Starting pet is a bear

Your pet has a special skill bar:

• Attack - tell your pet to attack your selected target
• Follow - tell your pet to follow you
• Stay - tell your pet to stay still unless it enters combat
• Aggressive Mode - your pet will attack anything in range
• Passive Mode - your pet won't attack anything unless you tell it to
• Guard Mode - your pet will only attack if you or it is attacked
• Assist Mode - your pet will attack whichever target you attack
• Return to Master - your pet will instantly return to you (out of combat only)

The final three abilities are pet specific. Bears start with one ability and unlock the other two abilities at higher levels.

• Roaring Challenge - your pet will taunt the target

Your pet can provide a special "flanked" debuff to mobs that make them more vulnerable and gives some of your attacks bonus effects - like restoring health or power. A chiming sound will play when the debuff occurs.

The flanked debuff looks like an open mouth

You can also rename your pets. Right click on your pet's portrait/health bar to open the pet menu and select "Rename [Pet name]". There is also an option to "Dismiss [Pet name]" which can be useful sometimes, for example to switch pets or when you level up. Your pet does not automatically level up with you if it is summoned (the "floaty name" over its head may turn blue, showing it is lower level than you), so dismiss pet and re-summon then your pet will level up too.

Right click for pet menu

The first quest in the introduction provides a satchel that contains a better staff. At level 2 you are sent to the Lore-master trainer. They tell you how your bear will aid you with its strength and its ability to draw the attention of the mobs away from you (i.e. it can taunt and tank mobs), and asks you to practise summoning it. Once summoned, you can see your pet on the mini-map as a large blue dot. If it gets too far away from you, your pet will despawn and need to be re-summoned.

At level 4 you get a healing spell, Light of Hope. It can be used on pets or allies, but not yourself.

At level 6 you get Sign of Power: Command. This is a debuff that reduces the enemy's attack speed and chance to parry attacks. It can be used before combat without causing any threat/aggro (won't make the mob attack).

Also at level 6, you can choose a specialisation. The options are:

• Blue = Keeper of Animals - focuses on the mutually beneficial relationship between the lore-master and their pet. Your pet gets increased health and stats and your spells become instant-cast when your pet delivers a critical strike.
• Red = Master of Nature's Fury - focuses on your DPS. You do more fire damage and Lightning Strike has a chance to strike twice. Your pet gets a small buff to health and damage.
• Yellow = The Ancient Master -  focuses on crowd control, debuffing enemies and providing group support buffs. You also gain the skill Test of Will which deals light damage and stuns enemies, and Burning Embers deals extra damage to stunned mobs.

Blue spec is great for soloing and has good survivability. Red spec is most popular in groups because it has the highest DPS. It has particularly good AOE damage. Yellow spec can be useful as support in groups for crowd control and buffs/debuffs, but it lacks DPS and pet synergy.

At level 7 you get your first trait point to put into your chosen specialisation. I normally play Blue spec, so I decided to try Red spec and put my first point in Master of Fire to increase fire damage by 5% (most of our damage will be fire). You get a new trait point every odd level.

After completing the introduction, don't forget to check your mail for the adventurer's gift. It contains several useful items and starts a couple of quests, including one that rewards 5 Tokens of Salutations which can be traded with the Barterer for a pocket item that increases run speed and some health or power potions. The run speed buff can be quite helpful, especially if you don't have a mount.

At level 10 you get Blinding Flash, a crowd control skill which interrupts and dazes a target for up to 30 seconds. You are now eligible for Epic Battles such as Retaking Pelargir, but although you get scaled up to level 100, without all your equipment slots filled and with limited abilities, it may not be a very successful or satisfactory experience.

At level 14 you get an AOE fire skill, Cracked Earth, which also roots mobs in place.

At level 15 you get a new pet: Raven-lore lets you summon a Raven which debuffs enemies. The raven starts with two specialised skills - Benediction of the Raven which makes the target more vulnerable to fire damage, and Distraction which causes a light damage-over-time effect,  decreases a target's ranged damage by 50% and increases the target's miss chance. You can only have one pet active at a time.

The pet raven debuffs enemies

Also at level 15, you should get a quest to visit the Lore-master Trainer in Bree, who wants you to help Dorset Oakes who is near the Yellow Tree to the south of town. His father was a great Lore-master and built a library in a cave in Bree-land, but Dorset needs help finding a book "On the Hardiness of Animals in the Wilderness" before the library is overrun by invading goblins.

Benton Oakes' Library

Completing the class quest earns you the title "the Well-ordered Mind" and new robes.

You get two utility skills at level 16: Knowledge of Cures that removes debuffs such as poison, wounds, fear or disease from you or an ally (very useful!), and Power of Knowledge which is a channeled life-steal skill that reduces the enemy's health and power, and increases your own.

You get two crowd-control skills at level 18. Bane Flare is a short-range AOE skill that will daze up to 5 enemies nearby. Light of the Rising Dawn deals light damage to a single target and stuns them for 3 seconds. I find Light of the Rising Dawn is a very useful skill - it hits hard (especially against Orcs, Goblins, Trolls and Spiders), stuns, has a fast cast time and a reasonably short cooldown (30 seconds).

At level 19, your pets unlock some new skills. The bear gets Shatter Arms which is an armour debuff that increases the melee and ranged damage taken by an enemy by 10%. The raven gets Evasion which increases the raven's chance to avoid damage, especially shadow damage.

Level 20 grants many new passive and active abilities. Knowledge of the Lore-master is a debuff you can use before combat to inspect an enemy and find out more about their strengths and weaknesses, and also reduces their resistances to most types of damage. Wind-lore is a debuff which increases damage taken by the enemy. Clever Escape is a utility skill that frees you from crowd-control effects such as a daze or stun.

Friend of Nature lets you summon a new pet: the Bog-guardian looks rather strange but is quite effective at dealing ranged damage. It has three special abilities on its skill bar: Angry Bees (deals damage over time), Root Strike (a burst of damage that makes the enemy more vulnerable to critical strikes from ranged attacks) and Bursting Root (a burst of damage with a chance to stun the enemy).

The bog-guardian deals ranged damage

You also gain the passive ability to use books of lore in your class slot. A basic book can be purchased from the lore-master class trainer, and better versions can be crafted by scholars. These books reduce the power costs of certain abilities and are later replaced by legendary lore-master books which buff your character and make some abilities more powerful.

At level 20, there are three types of books of lore available:

• Book of Beasts - decreases power cost of Sign of the Wild skills (these skills are now obsolete so don't get this book!).
• Book of Nature - decreases power cost of Lore skills (such as Wind-lore and Knowledge of the Lore-master; these are useful debuff skills so this book may be some benefit).
• Book of the Dúnedain - decreases power cost of Sign of Power/Battle (Sign of Power: Command is a useful debuff skill and Sign of Battle: Wizard's Fire is a key damage-over-time skill so this book will give the most benefit).

You can obtain special pet food, either from the class trainer or crafted by cooks:

• Bears like honey and oats to increase their armour, mitigations and threat (so they're more tanky). 
• Birds like crumbs to increase their mitigations, melee damage and chance to evade attacks (so they can be agile while they peck their target).
• Bog-guardians like water to increase their mitigations, ranged damage and power (so they can keep casting).

Jewellers can craft brooches that can be equipped in the ranged slot from level 20 onwards. There are two types of brooches: Brooches of Rage give your active pet offensive bonuses by increasing critical strike rating, while Brooches of Regrowth give your active pet more defensive bonuses by increasing their morale regeneration and chance to evade attacks. Jewellers can also craft talismans which change the look of your pet - for example, instead of a black raven you could have a white frost-raven, or, instead of a brown bear you could have a tundra bear cub.

After reaching level 20, I visited the Skirmish Camp and upgraded my questing gear. Here's how my lore-master looks now:

Level 20 Elf Lore-master

I then went to the training dummies in the Training Hall in Bree and tested each spec's DPS with no consumable buffs active over 3 minutes or until I ran out of power, and took a screenshot at the end to eliminate the effects of DoTs that kept going after I stopped attacking. I repeated this for each test and recorded the best result below. I also compared the DPS of different active pets. For virtues, I had four tiers of Charity and one tier of Compassion. With my 7 trait points, I focused on damage-boosting traits where possible.

Normally I would try to use Sign of Power: Command and Wind-lore debuffs on my target, but for the training dummy I didn't because the Combat Analysis plugin reset if I wasn't dealing damage constantly. My rotation was Burning Embers followed by Wizard's Fire twice (the first Wizard's Fire debuff gets upgraded to a more powerful version called Searing Embers if the Burning Embers debuff is present), Lightning Strike then Wizard's Fire twice (to refresh DoTs and prevent Combat Analysis from resetting), Light of the Rising Dawn then Wizard's Fire twice, then Burning Embers followed by Wizard's Fire twice is repeated several times until Lightning Strike and Light of the Rising Dawn are off cooldown.

Here are my DPS results comparing each pet while in Master of Nature's Fury spec (collected with Combat Analysis plugin; LM = Lore-master):

Statistics	Bear	Raven	Bog-guardian
Pet Damage	9410	17614	23334
LM Damage	9172	9536	10298
Time	3 m 0.3 s	3 m 0.4s	3 m 0.3 s
Pet DPS	52.2	97.6	129.4
LM DPS	50.9	52.9	57.1
Combined DPS	103.1	150.5	186.5
Minimum Hit	12	12	12
Average Hit	47.1	49.9	51.7
Maximum Hit	327	314	327
Attacks	263	252	260
Critical Strikes (%)	68 (25.9%)	51 (20.2%)	66 (25.4%)
Power (%)	1058/1318 (80.3%)	424/1318 (32.2%)	924/1318 (70.1%)
Skill Priorities:	Burning Embers Sign of Battle: Wizard's Fire Lightning Strike Light of the Rising Dawn	Burning Embers Sign of Battle: Wizard's Fire Lightning Strike Light of the Rising Dawn	Burning Embers Sign of Battle: Wizard's Fire Lightning Strike Light of the Rising Dawn

I was surprised to see how much my power dropped when using the raven pet. Is it using my power to fuel its attacks? These tests showed that the Lore-master has pretty low dps and the active pet is critical for our damage output.

Blue spec gains access to another pet, the Lesser Giant Eagle at level 17 (requires 6 trait points). The eagle deals melee damage, has a battle rez and provides a Nobility buff that grants both you and the eagle increased in-combat power regeneration. Its special abilities on the pet bar are: Fan the Flames (deals burst damage and has a fear effect), Beak Rend (a life-steal skill that deals damage and restores health to the eagle), and Sacrifice (can resurrect lore-master if eagle is still in combat).

The lesser giant eagle has a battle-rez

Here are my DPS results with the Lesser Giant Eagle in Keeper of Animals (Blue) spec:

Statistics	Lesser Giant Eagle
Pet Damage	19531
LM Damage	6922
Time	3 m 0.4 s
Pet DPS	108.3
LM DPS	38.1
Combined DPS	146.4
Minimum Hit	9
Average Hit	37.2
Maximum Hit	232
Attacks	250
Critical Strikes (%)	62 (24.8%)
Power (%)	877/1318 (66.5%)
Skill Priorities:	Burning Embers Sign of Battle: Wizard's Fire Lightning Strike Light of the Rising Dawn

DPS with the raven and eagle seems to be similar, so unless you really want the special features the eagle offers, it's not necessary to spend trait points to get it. As expected, combined DPS was highest when paired with the bog-guardian. I then compared each spec with the bog-guardian active:

Statistics	Keeper of Animals (Blue)	Master of Nature's Fury (Red)	The Ancient Master (Yellow)
Pet Damage	21752	23334	14998
LM Damage	7473	10298	7028
Time	3 m 0.4 s	3 m 0.3 s	3 m 0.3 s
Pet DPS	120.6	129.4	83.2
LM DPS	41.4	57.1	39.0
Combined DPS	162.0	186.5	122.2
Minimum Hit	9	12	9
Average Hit	37.4	51.7	36.2
Maximum Hit	315	327	315
Attacks	262	260	256
Critical Strikes (%)	64 (24.4%)	66 (25.4%)	50 (19.5%)
Power (%)	617/1318 (46.8%)	924/1318 (70.1%)	422/1318 (32.0%)
Skill Priorities:	Burning Embers Sign of Battle: Wizard's Fire Lightning Strike Light of the Rising Dawn	Burning Embers Sign of Battle: Wizard's Fire Lightning Strike Light of the Rising Dawn	Burning Embers Sign of Battle: Wizard's Fire Lightning Strike Light of the Rising Dawn

Red was clearly the best spec for damage-dealing. At higher levels, several new pets become available such as a lynx (ST melee damage and bleeds), a sabertooth cat (AOE melee frost damage) and spirit of nature (healing). It would be interesting to see how their damage compares to the pets shown above, although I suspect the bog-guardian would still be the winner.

General Observations

Some of your skills cost morale as well as power, so looking after your health is important. Little heals from casting Wizard's Fire on a flanked target, Power of Knowledge, Water-lore, Inner Flame and Wisdom of the Council can all help keep you alive. Increasing your Fate stat can also help with in-combat regeneration and increasing your Morale means you can use more skills with less risk of dying.

Lore-masters were originally the only class to have non-combat pets such as rabbits, sparrows, frogs, and turtles which could be obtained through special class quests, faction vendors or tomes that rarely dropped from mobs in Angmar. Now everyone can get non-combat pets, but some are still only available to lore-masters. 

Lore-masters have a huge toolkit of abilities and there are many more skills to add at higher levels, including AOE abilities, out-of-combat resurrection, more heals (Water-lore is a very useful heal-over-time skill that can be used on yourself or allies, while Inner Flame heals you and your pet and provide a fire damage buff), survival (Wisdom of the Council heals 50% of your morale, reduces damage taken, reflects damage and stuns those who attack you) and utility skills (e.g. slow mobs, detect stealthed mobs, restore power to allies, dispel corruptions, protect an ally from crowd-control or interruptions).

The trait trees also provide some iconic abilities, with Blue having Sic'Em which lets you summon a stampede of pets to attack your target, Red has Ring of Fire which spreads fire over a large area and Lightning Storm which deals a strong burst of AOE lightning damage, while Yellow has Warding Knowledge which places a ward on the ground that causes enemies on it to take more damage and miss more often.

Specialisations

Blue - Keeper of Animals: Look after your pet and your pet will look after you. You can solo a lot of content in Blue spec, especially with the bear tanking and you healing and cleansing debuffs from it, but it can be slow, like you're gradually whittling away at the enemy's morale.  If you're feeling squishy, blue may be a good spec to try because it has great survivability. I have had a lot of fun levelling as blue on other characters, and felt like my pets and I had been through so much together, they're like kin members.

Red - Master of Nature's Fury: I would recommend Red as the default levelling spec for lore-masters. It has more damage and feels faster, more exciting and dramatic, like an elemental mage with fire and lightning bursting all over the place like Gandalf's fireworks! It is also a lot of fun, but be careful not to take on too much because although you have great AOE and a pet, you are not a tank and can't take a beating.

Yellow - The Ancient Master: Buffs and debuffs and crowd control are great, but focussing on them instead of dealing damage makes levelling feel very slow and tedious. It is probably more useful at high levels when your role is supporting a group, or as a secondary spec once you've filled your main spec - i.e. once you reach the bottom of the Red or Blue tree, you might want to spend some trait points in Yellow on Fire-lore (melee damage debuff), Frost-lore (tactical damage debuff) and Mending Lore (increases healing).

Stats

• Will - your main stat that increases damage
• Morale and Vitality - increases survivability 
• Fate - increases survivabilty (morale/power regeneration) and damage (critical strike chance and magnitude)
• Critical Strike rating - increases damage
• Mitigations and resistances - reduces damage taken

These stats should help make the levelling process a bit easier in the beginning. Look for light armour with will and maybe some jewellery with critical strike rating or fate. Morale is always helpful (vitality also increases morale). The best place to get mitigations and resistances at low level is probably from virtues.

Here are some virtues that may be helpful for Lore-masters and how to get them by level 20:

Virtue	Activity	Deed
INNOCENCE (physical mitigation, tactical mitigation, resistance)	Complete 75 quests in The Shire	Life of a Bounder (Final)(The Shire)
COMPASSION (physical mitigation, tactical mitigation, non-combat power regeneration)	Complete 15 quests in The Shire Complete 20 quests in Ered Luin	Life of a Bounder (The Shire) Defender of Ered Luin (Ered Luin)
WISDOM (will, in-combat power regeneration, resistance)	Explore Elf-ruins in Ered Luin Explore the Old Forest in Bree-land Find pages from the Journal of Cardolan in the Barrow-downs	Elf-ruins Exploration (Ered Luin) The Old Forest (Bree-land) Lore of the Cardolan Prince (Bree-land)
IDEALISM (will, fate, resistance)	Find relics of the Dúnedain in Bree-land Find flowers in The Old Forest in Bree-land	The History of the Dúnedain (Bree-land) Flowers of the Old Forest (Bree-land)
PATIENCE (physical mitigation, resistance, in-combat power regeneration)	Explore Dwarven settlements in Ered Luin Retrieve spoiled pies in The Shire Deliver mail between settlements in The Shire Explore the ruins of Bree-land Explore the Barrow-downs in Bree-land	Places of the Dwarves (Ered Luin) No Place for Spoiled Pies (The Shire) Restoring the Quick Post (The Shire) The Ruins of Bree-land (Bree-land) The Barrow-downs (Bree-land)
ZEAL (morale, physical mitigation, armour)	Defeat 90 goblins in Ered Luin Defeat 90 spiders in Ered Luin Defeat 90 Barrow-spiders in Bree-land	Goblin-slayer (Advanced)(Ered Luin) Spider-slayer (Advanced)(Ered Luin) Brood-hunter (Advanced)(Bree-land)
FIDELITY (tactical mitigation, vitality, power)	Explore landmarks in The Shire Explore Dourhand strongholds in Ered Luin	The Sights of the Shire (The Shire) Scouting the Dourhands (Ered Luin)

Pros of the Lore-master Class

• Versatile - provides DPS, heals, buffs, debuffs, crowd-control, utility
• Lots of pets to choose from (different types of pets and appearances)
• Reasonable ST and AOE damage
• Has ranged and melee abilities
• Great at soloing and also very useful in groups

Cons of the Lore-master Class

• Can be squishy
• Low DPS without pet active
• Complex class with lots of situational abilities to master

I hope this has been helpful. Feel free to leave any questions or advice for new lore-masters in the comments below.

Coming soon in the Introducing X Class series: the Minstrel.

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.

Legendary Titles for Lore-masters

Legendary titles provide extra bonuses to your legendary weapon and book but which ones are good for lore-masters and how do you get them?

Legendary Titles for Lore-master Staff

Recommendation: Knowledge of the Eldar Days for the Beleriand Damage (good against lots of common enemies) and the boost to Tactical Mastery will improve dps and outgoing healing.

Note:
Beleriand Damage - good against half-orcs, spiders, insects and ancient evil
Westernesse Damage - good against the dead, unseen and gaunt-lords

Scion of the Drowned Kingdom (Tier 1) Westernesse Weapon Damage
[57] The Morroval-outcasts (repeatable quest in Dolven-view, Moria)
Defender of the Forgotten West (Tier 1) Beleriand Weapon Damage
[60] Midnight Raid (repeatable small fellowship quest in Eregion)

Hero of Caras Galadhon (Tier 1) Beleriand Weapon Damage, +4 damage to Orc-kind
[60] Requires Ally standing with the Galadhrim (Lothlórien)
Costs 20 Lothlórien Gold Leaves + 60 Lothlórien Silver Branches
Númenórean Uruk-slayer (Tier 3) Westernesse Weapon Damage, +9 damage to Orc-kind
[65] Vol 3, Book 2, Chapter 5: Forces at Work in Eregion (epic quest reward)
Costs 2 Golden Tokens of the Wild + 5 Silver Tokens of the Wilds (Legendary Vendors in Enedwaith)

Knowledge of Eldar Days I (Tier 1) Beleriand Weapon Damage, +300 Tactical Mastery
[75] Defence of Galtrev (repeatable quest in Dunland)
Knowledge of Eldar Days II (Tier 2) Beleriand Weapon Damage, +400 Tactical Mastery
[85] Parphád: Order of Magnitude (repeatable quest in Hytbold)
Knowledge of Eldar Days III (Tier 3) Beleriand Weapon Damage, +400 Tactical Mastery
[95] Requires Friend standing with the Ents of Fangorn Forest (West Rohan)
Costs 100 Fangorn Leaves

Potency of Eldar Days II (Tier 2) Beleriand Weapon Damage, +380 Critical Rating
[85] Requires Kindred standing with People of Wildermore (Wildermore)
Costs 50 Wildermore Coins
Potency of Elder Days III (Tier 3) Beleriand Weapon Damage, +460 Critical Rating
[95] Requires Friend standing with Dol Amroth
Costs 50 Amroth Silver Pieces

Will of Eldar Days II (Tier 2) Beleriand Weapon Damage, +37 Will
[75] Costs 50 Silver Tokens of the Riddermark (East Rohan)

Legendary Titles for Lore-master Book

Recommendation: Molten Courage for the Tactical Mastery which will increase dps and healing, and the bonus fire damage will make many skills more powerful.

Fire-temper (Tier 1) +2% Fire Damage
[54] A Flight of Drakes (repeatable small fellowship quest in Eregion)
Burning Rager (Tier 2) +3% Fire Damage
[57] The Siege of Barad Morlas (repeatable small fellowship quest in Eregion)
Flame-striker (Tier 3) +5% Fire Damage
[60] Midnight Raid (repeatable small fellowship quest in Eregion)
[65] Vol 3, Book 2, Chapter 5: Forces at Work in Eregion (epic quest reward)
Costs 5 Golden Tokens of the Wild + 15 Silver Tokens of the Wilds (Legendary Vendors in Enedwaith)

Willful Flame I (Tier 1) +27 Will, +5% Fire Damage
[75] Requires Ally standing with Heroes of Limlight Gorge (Great River)
Costs 5 Golden Tokens of the Anduin + 10 Silver Tokens of the Anduin
Willful Flame II (Tier 2) +37 Will, +5% Fire Damage
[75]Costs 50 Silver Tokens of the Riddermark (East Rohan)

Ardent Counsel I (Tier 1) +300 Tactical Mastery, +608 Physical Mitigation
[75] Defence of Galtrev (repeatable quest in Dunland)
Ardent Counsel II (Tier 2) +400 Tactical Mastery, +689 Physical Mitigation
[85] Parphád: Order of Magnitude (repeatable quest in Hytbold)
Ardent Counsel III (Tier 3) +400 Tactical Mastery, +689 Physical Mitigation
[95] Requires Friend standing with the Ents of Fangorn Forest (West Rohan)
Costs 100 Fangorn Leaves

Enduring Wisdom I (Tier 1) +300 Tactical Mastery, + 608 Tactical Mitigation
[75] Defence of Galtrev (repeatable quest in Dunland)
Enduring Wisdom II (Tier 2) +400 Tactical Mastery, +689 Tactical Mitigation
[85] Parphád: Order of Magnitude (repeatable quest in Hytbold)
Enduring Wisdom III (Tier 3) +400 Tactical Mastery, +689 Tactical Mitigation
[95] Requires Friend standing with the Ents of Fangorn Forest (West Rohan)
Costs 100 Fangorn Leaves

Molten Courage I (Tier 1) +300 Tactical Mastery, +5% Fire Damage
[75] Defence of Galtrev (repeatable quest in Dunland)
Molten Courage II (Tier 2) +400 Tactical Mastery, +5% Fire Damage
[85] Parphád: Order of Magnitude (repeatable quest in Hytbold)
Molten Courage III (Tier 3) +400 Tactical Mastery, +5% Fire Damage
[95] Requires Friend standing with the Ents of Fangorn Forest (West Rohan)
Costs 100 Fangorn Leaves

Lore-master Stat Priorities

It's not just the quality of gear, but the stats on your gear that make a big difference in how well your lore-master can perform. Different play-styles may favour different stats but I hope to identify some reasonable goals for improving your lore-master. Please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this.

The Basics

Lore-masters need lots of Will and Vitality. Lore-masters are primarily lightly armoured spell-casters who use Will, but it can be advantageous to be in melee range to make full use of special staff attacks, hence the importance of Vitality.

Will increases your major damage stats and some defensive stats as well:

• increases your damage
• increases your outgoing healing
• increases your tactical and physical mastery (increases damage)
• increases your tactical mitigation (protects against elemental damage)
• increases your resistance to debuffs (wound/fear/disease/poison)

Vitality increases your survivability:

• increases your health pool (morale)
• increases your out-of-combat health regeneration
• increases your resistance to debuffs (wound/fear/disease/poison)

Other important stats for lore-masters:

50% Resistance, 40% Tactical/Physical Mitigation, Tactical Mastery, Critical Rating

Offense Stats

Critical Rating increases your chance to get critical hits which do extra damage. The maximum critical hit chance from your gear is 25% (the % can be seen when you mouse-over the critical rating score in your character sheet).

Fate also contributes to critical rating and some Lore-master gear will have Fate and/or Critical Rating. For example, Shoulderpads of the Nightwatcher (lvl 100) has 85 Fate (equivalent to 212.5 Critical Rating) plus 614 Critical Rating.

If you want to do more damage, increase critical rating.

Tactical Mastery increases the damage of your tactical abilities. When you mouse-over the icons for your abilities, they mention "Tactical Skill". Examples are abilities that deal fire or lightning or light damage, as well as your healing spells.

If you want to do more damage, increase tactical mastery.

Physical Mastery increases the damage of your melee skills. Lore-masters only have a couple of melee abilities: staff-strike and staff-sweep, so this is not a huge priority. You get physical mastery from Will.

Finesse reduces your enemy's resistance to debuffs such as wounds/fear/bleeds/poison and their chance to block/evade/parry your attacks. Therefore, this makes your enemy more vulnerable to your attacks and less likely that your attacks will miss. More successful attacks means more damage dealt. 

Enemy mobs also have finesse, with instance and raid bosses having quite a lot, but most landscape mobs won't have much.

Lore-masters don't deal wounds/fear/bleeds/poisons but some of their pets can (lynx critical hits can apply a bleed, eagles can apply a fear). Finesse may help reduce the miss chance of your debuff spells (i.e. lore skills). Tactical abilities cannot be blocked/evaded/parried.

Having some finesse may be useful but is not a top priority.

Defense Stats

Resistance, as mentioned above, reduces your chance to be debuffed by wounds/fear/bleeds/poison. As these effects can increase your damage taken or make you deal less damage, avoiding them by increasing resistance is recommended.

Both Will and Vitality provide resistance, as does many virtues, therefore it may not be necessary to specifically gear for it. Resistance is capped at 50%.

Critical Defence reduces the chance of your enemy to score a critical hit against you. This is usually more important for tanks, but if you've got top threat and/or getting hit a lot (e.g. in PvP or soloing), increasing this stat could reduce your damage taken.

This is probably a situational stat that you should increase if you're feeling "squishy".

Tactical and Physical Mitigation reduce the damage you take. They're very important and have a cap of 40% which you should aim for. Instance mobs and PvP "Creeps" tend to deal more tactical damage, while landscape mobs are normally melee or archer types dealing physical damage.

Will and virtues are the primary source of mitigations, and some may also be found on jewellery and legendary item relics.

If you want to stay alive, increase mitigations (to cap ideally).

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.