Wow! Update 6 has been very
interesting!
A few things to dive into…
** The Runekeeper got a large overhaul.
It has been fun learning the timing and features of the revised skills and
traits and looking at the revisions associated with RK LIs and legacies. Of
course you know, an overhaul means that more bloggy math is on the way. That
will take several posts to fully discuss what just happened. (Tables and
percentages will be involved.)
** New quests and (I believe) a new
instance has been released for the “Great River”.
** Virtue traits rose to a max of 14.
** Relics have increased a Tier, up to
Tier 8, with special relics just for level 75 LIs.
Let’s start with the easy ones: Virtues
and Relics.
Virtues
Each virtue has a primary modifier, a
secondary modifier, and a tertiary modifier. I color-coded the modifiers in the
chart shown (blue – primary, purple – secondary, green – tertiary). I included
a Table for Virtues at 14 and Virtues at 12 to show the difference for Update
6. (As with most pictures on this site, you can zoom in on the tables to see them easier.)
Your choice of virtues depends on who
you are and where you are going.
For RKs, typical virtues are Zeal,
Loyalty, Confidence, Wisdom, Idealism, or Honor. I choose the first five for a
good selection of morale, critical offense, and resistance, with maximum Will. If
you are choosing virtues where the primary modifier and secondary modifier are
not critical to your class, you need to understand what you are giving up.
Update October-2012: The virtues go up to 16 now. Check it out at rohan-begins-crafting-and-virtues-at-16.
LI Relics
I realized a while back that relics
are a mystery to some and I wanted to write a post on them. I’m going to assume
that you know how to find a Relic Master and basically how to slot a relic in
your LI, so I will skip right to the relics themselves and compare the various
options from which you could choose.
The first thing to know is that Relics
come in different flavors: Settings,
Gems, Runes, Crafted. Easy enough. You can get the first three types from
many places including instance rewards, skirmish rewards, quest rewards, and deconstructing LIs. The crafted ones come from… Crafters. J I will now go through the options for
Settings, Gems, and Runes at Tier 6, 7, 8 and the special ones. If you are over
level 65 and aren’t progressing toward at least have some T6 relics, you might
want to reevaluate what you are doing and why you aren’t getting relics. (We
can talk about that another time.)
Each description below is set up to
show in this order: Tier 6, Tier 7, Tier 8, Extraordinary (65 special), Westfold (70 special), Great River (75
special).
The level 65 specials have a set known as the “True” set. The True originals were designed by players. With Update 6, there are more True relics now available and I will list all of them here.
You will need to think about what is
important to you. I circled the ones that are important for Runekeepers and
will explain some reasons why as we go along. After writing this guide, I
decided to leave out a lot of the math behind what is happening. Explaining
what stats modify what features needs another post.
Relic - Settings
You can see that the Settings are designed in patterns. (For example, a T8 that modifies will has a similar T7 at a slightly lower will, which is better than a similar T6, and so on.)
For the T6/7/8, you get a choice of +Will, or +Might, or +Morale, or +Power. At each level, all relics of that level have the same
Tactical (and Physical) Mastery. (For example, all T6 have +520 Tactical Mastery.)
The Specials 65/70/75 for settings are
shown also. Are they “special” for your build?
The "of Stability" Settings give a
reduction in item wear chance, bonuses to block, parry, evade, and bonuses to
incoming healing. The Stability setting is for non-RKs.
The "of Beginnings" Settings give Physical
Mitigation (protection from damage), ICPR, and Vitality. Vitality is important,
as one would guess, because it modifies all the features that help keep you
alive (resistance and mitigations).
The "of Endings" Settings give some ICMR,
has a Critical rating, and +7.5% Devastate Magnitude. The Devastate Magnitude
is interesting but know that the 7.5% is factor added onto your devastate
damage. How often you hit a
devastating blow is still calculated based on your “Critical” rating, which is
modified by Fate.
The 65 True Settings are the “True
Setting of the Ages” and the "True Setting of Continuance".
Relics - Gems
Like the Settings, T6/7/8 are set up
in a pattern. All basic gems modify Critical rating. So with the basics, you
get to choose from +Vitality, +Agility, or +Fate.
The "of Faith" Gems are built for Block, Parry,
and Might. Do you have a shield? If not, block has zero value for you.
The "of Charity" Gems have the best
Tactical Mastery of the available options. It also has Power and Tactical Mitigation.
The "of Hope" Gems have good Morale, Power,
and Critical Defense.
Comparing the Gems as a RK, both the
Charity and Hope have the same power and a smidge of some defensive protection.
So, it comes down to a choice of +730 Tactical Offense or +283 Morale.
The True Gems here are the “True Gem of the Circling Seas” and the "Truen Gem of the king under the mountain". If you are going for Offense from the Circling Seas, the Charity Gem
is a better option.
Relics - Runes
In the T6/7/8, there are patterns
again. This time the options are (1) Incoming Healing and block, (2) ICMR and parry,
or (3) ICPR and parry. None of these choices are very exciting for RK.
"of Courage" runes give Agility, Evade and Parry.
"of Power" runes, despite the name, have
nothing to do with power. They boost Fate, Physical Mitigation (defense), and Physical
Mastery (useful for non-tactical classes).
"of Wisdom" runes boost Will, Evade, and Attack
duration. This one is a legitimate contender for a RK, although the max evade
boost is ~1.5% chance to evade and the attack duration is not a modifier for
inductions like I would have thought it might be (it modifies action animation
time).
The interesting Rune is the “True Rune
of the Two Trees”, the special for 65. It gives bonuses to Morale, Power, ICMR,
and ICPR. The other True Rune is the "True Rune of the Dark Watch" for those who want more overall base stats.
Relics - Crafted
There are now 5 levels of crafted
runes.
Each crafting guild can make a
different type of crafted relic, depending on what you want to modify. The modifiers
and their associated guild are (a) Morale
– Cook, (b) Power – Scholar, (c) Vitality
– Weaponsmith, (d) Will – Jeweller, (e) Fate – Tailor, (f) Agility –
Woodworker, (g) Might – Metalsmith. Good to know, breaking a crafted symbol is a good way to get shards.
Here is a shot of what Tailors make. The other crafts are similar with the modifications (stat, morale, power) just mentioned.
(1) Minor Symbol: The options for the first level “minor
symbols” are +10 to any of the five stats, +50 morale, or +50 power.
(2) Symbol: The next level of crafted relics
require a Compendium volume 1, obtained in Moria (repeatable orc and dragonet
slaying) or the skirmish camp (86 marks, 9 medallions). Similar to the minor symbols, these symbols come in flavors that modify +20 to any of the five stats, +100 morale,
or +100 power.
(3) Device: The third level of crafted symbols are
new for Update 6. They are similar to the
previous symbols. These devices come in flavors of +30 to any of the stats, +150
morale, or +150 power.
(4) Symbol of Tactics: The fourth level of crafted symbols
require a Compendium volume 2 and are not shared by outsiders. When a crafter
makes one, it is bound to the crafter. The Compendium comes from Mirkwood
(repeatable spider slaying) or from the skirmish camp (258 marks, 18 medallions). The crafter can trade
them for one of two options: (a) +390 Critical, +390 Tactical mastery, or (b) +390 Critical +390 Physical Mastery.
(5) Device of Tactics: The best crafted symbols, also not
shared by outsiders, require a Compendium volume 3, which comes from Bron in
Galtrev. The crafter can make symbols for
- (a) +20 Will, +540 Tactical, +540 Critical
- (b) +20 Fate, +540 Tactical, +540 Critical
- (c) +20 Agility, +540 Physical, +540 Critical
- (d) +20 Might, +540 Physical, +540 Critical
Table of
Crafted Relics:
|
|
Cooldown
to make
|
Shards
obtained on Refine
|
Crafter only?
|
Minor symbol
|
+10
stat
|
18h
|
64
|
|
Symbol
|
+20
stat
|
2d
18h
|
158
|
|
Device
|
+30
stat
|
2d
18h
|
162
|
|
Symbol of (Tactics)
|
+390
Critical,
+390
offense
|
6d
18h
|
384
|
Bound
|
Device of (Tactics)
|
+20
stat,
+540
Critical,
+540
offense
|
6d
18h
|
768
|
Bound
|
Need
to make a specific relic?
The Relic-master can help you meld any
relic you want, for a price. His price is in shards. Shards are obtained
randomly while breaking LIs and merging relics to higher tiers. OR, you can
obtain them deliberately by breaking other relics. The greatest source for
relics to break is by crafting them for the purpose of breaking them. The
primary job of my entire team of lil danas when we are not at festival is the
creation of relics for conversion to shards or for sale on the market (where
others break them for shards).
Table of relic melding costs:
|
Relics
needs
|
Shards
needed
|
T6
|
1
T6
|
96
|
T7
|
1
T7
|
232
|
T8
|
1
T8
|
484
|
Extraordinary (65)
|
3
T6
|
696
|
Extraordinary (65
True)
|
4
T6
|
1392
|
Westfold (70)
|
4
T7
|
1,566
|
Great River (75)
|
4
T8
|
3,523
|
Personal preferences?
My advice is to make a plan and go for it. Without a plan, you will be in the moment wondering if that +Block and evade relic is good for you.
My current Relic sets for my 2 DPS and 2 Healing LIs are the same; since the modification to Tactical (offense and healing are now combined into one modifier), I don't differentiate relic needs based on when I am healing versus hitting. My current relics were fairly good for Update 5 but could use a tuneup now that Tier 8 and Great River 75 are available.
(1) I have the Tier 6 Gold Setting of Precision (for morale) and am following the same line toward the Tier 8 Calendard Setting of Boldness (similar but more).
(2) I have both the Westfold Gem of Hope and Westfold Gem of Mastery. I took them both, one for the stone and one for the bag, because I liked the morale of the "Hope" and the tactical of the "Charity". I will continue along the same line toward the better gems of Hope and Mastery... the Great River Gem of Hope.
(3) I have the True Rune of the Two Trees. The only other rune that is reasonable for a RK is the Westfold/Great River of Wisdom, which give Will. In my opinion, the tradeoff is not worth it, and I will keep the Two Trees (compare +180 morale, +160 power, +96 ICMR, +96 ICPR ...versus... +26 will, +584 evade, -2.5% attack duration and the cost of construction).
(4) I have the crafted Symbol of Tactics (#4 above) and as soon as my cooldowns are done, I will move to the new Devices of Tactics (#5 above).