As a
RK, to be your best in any situation, you need to be able to work effectively
as both a DPS leader and as a main healer.
In
lotro, there are four classes whose primary role is Damage: RK, Hunter,
Champion, Burglar. When played correctly, all four equally do the best damage
in game. Like all classes, there is more to it, but the RK is a Tactical nuker,
the Hunter is a Ranged master, the Champion is master of Area Damage, and the
Burglar can disable a foe and carve them up.
Similarly,
the main healers in the game are the Minstrel and the RK.
One
thing to realize is that the RK is NOT going to be the best Damage Dealer AND
the best Healer at the same time. There is an Attunement bar that forces the RK
to choose what “stance” she is in. Know your role in the group and plan accordingly and effectively.
Furthermore,
the build, specifically the choices one makes with LIs and traits, will
determine the Healing or Damage ability of the RK. Therefore, to be effective, we
will build 4 Legendary Items: 2 healing and 2 DPS.
How do we choose legacies for legendary items?
Let’s
break down the options. First, we will look at the RK stones. Next lesson will be on RK
bags. (Update 06/05/12: see legacies-for-rk-bags for RK bags).
When
considering Legacies, there are “Major”
legacies and “Minor” legacies. You
can see the difference by the color of the ring around the icon. Major = gold, Minor = silver.
See
the picture below. Gold. Silver. Got it. Yeah, I know it is hard to see. Trust me, and know that there are Majors and Minors.
When you first identify a LI, it will
have three major legacies. At level 10 Reforge, you get another Legacy, At
level 20 another, and level 30 another. All LIs these days have exactly 6
legacies.
On the
Reforge, you will usually get a Minor legacy, with a slim chance to get a
Major. So, at level 30, you will likely have 3 Majors and 3 Minors. That is really
just fine for a RK. Do NOT begin your build until level 30. But do start your
plan before level 40 (when you are offered tier upgrades).
At
levels 40, 50, 60, and 70 (via a scroll of delving), you gain the option to
gain +1 tier to a legacy. So, you will want to have your 6 legacies locked down
between level 30 and 40 to maximize the natural upgrades without having to use
more Scrolls of Empowerment than necessary.
Major Legacies for RK stones
Here
are the major legacies for RK stones. I subdivided them by what they do. There
are 7 Major legacies. You will likely get to choose 3 of them for your RK
stone.
Major: | Set | Min | Max | ||
Battle Attuned Skill power cost | power | -1% | -15% | ||
Fury of Storm Damage | Lightning | 1% | 15% | ||
Fire skill Damage | Fire | 1% | 15% | ||
Wrath of Flame Damage over time | Fire | 1% | 15% | ||
Healing | Heal | 1% | 6% | ||
Healing Attuned Skill power cost | Heal | -1% | -15% | ||
Healing over Time | Heal | 1% | 10% |
Minor Legacies for RK stones
Likewise,
here are the Minor legacies. There are 8 of them; or you can slot a Stat legacy
instead of those.
Minor: | Set | Min | Max | ||
Chill of Winter Damage | Frost | 1% | 15% | ||
Chill of Winter debuff duration | Frost | 1s | 10s | ||
Distracting Flame CD | Fire | -1s | -30s | ||
Steady Attuned Skill power cost | Power | -1% | -15% | ||
Finesse | debuff | 670 | 750 | ||
Fury of storm critical multiplier | Lightning | 2% | 30% | ||
Vivid Imagery targets | Lightning | 1 | 5 | ||
Legacy stat | x | 28 / 33 | 36 / 41 | ||
Glorious Foreshadowing duration | Heal | 1s | 9s |
Let’s build a RK stone for maximum DPS.
Which to choose?
Of
the 16 choices… 4 are Healing, 2 minimize power consumption, 3 add Lightning
damage, 2 add fire damage, 1 adds cold damage, 1 changes fire CoolDown, 1
changes Cold Debuff, 1 adds Finesse, and finally the last is the for adding a
Stat.
No,
it isn’t scary. Walk with me…
Healing (4): First
and most obvious, we will not choose Healing legacies for a DPS stone; scratch
out the 4 healings. (Healing, Healing Attuned skill power cost reduction, Healing
over Time, Glorious Foreshadowing duration)
Power (2): Second.
You are a RK, you are soaking in Will & power, you aren’t seriously running out of
power, so scratch the power consumptions. (Battle Attuned skill power cost,
Steady Attuned skill power cost). We are here to maximize Damage.
Distracting Flame CD:
Next, let’s look at the Fire Cooldown: Distracting Flame. Maximizing this
legacy would make Distracting Flame have a near nil CD, effectively it would be
like a heftier DOT version of Fiery Ridicule. It is a worthy consideration. If you use it, be sure to get it into rotation.
Damages (3):
Fire skill Damage, Fury of Storm Damage, & Chill of Winter Damage are all
straight damage across the board. We like these.
Wrath of Flame Damage over Time:
This one increases the DOT portion of the Fire skills. It is a very useful
thing when you are in a group and able to “fire” off Fire skills.
Fury of Storm Critical multiplier : This
one is excellent. What RK doesn’t like seeing the crits start to roll and
landing shots that do damage over 10k several times in a fight? Along with good
traiting, good stats, & fortuitous combinations, this legacy is a must to get the big hits.
Vivid Imagery targets: Let’s look at Vivid Imagery. There is a good
daze, and the chance for crits start to roll. The CD is long so this skill is
one of the most cautious of the skills as to when to pull the trigger. The base
targets = 3 (this picture is older and doesn't match my current LI if you are keeping score). What is it worth to you to take out more foes?
Chill of Winter Debuff Duration:
What is it worth to you to have your Chill hits last longer? How many are you
using per fight?
Finesse: This
legacy adds +670 finesse, up to +750 finesse at max. +670 finesse reduces an
enemies resistance, block, parry, and evade by about 1.87%. Is it worth it, or
would a better legacy be more damaging?
Stat: You can always add a
stat to give a bonus to Will, Vitality, Fate. For DPS stone, I am certain we
have enough good options without using a Stat legacy. Plenty of these other legacies will maximize more damage than the addition of a Stat.
Narrow that DPS stone down for me
Danania,
Choose 6 from these 9:
Fire skill Damage, Fury of Storm Damage, Chill of Winter Damage,
Wrath of Flame Damage over Time, Fury of Storm Critical multiplier, Finesse,
Vivid Imagery targets, Chill of Winter Debuff Duration, Distracting Flame CD.
Fire skill Damage, Fury of Storm Damage, Chill of Winter Damage,
Wrath of Flame Damage over Time, Fury of Storm Critical multiplier, Finesse,
Vivid Imagery targets, Chill of Winter Debuff Duration, Distracting Flame CD.
You
can see that I chose to maximize first and most importantly, the Tactical
Damage Rating of the Damage stone. Yeah, I didn't talk about that. For your DPS stone, always always maximize the Tactical Damage before fidgeting with the legacies. (For your Healing bag, always maximize your Tactical Healing.)
Then
I maximized (1) Fury of Storm Damage and (2) Fury of Storm Critical Multiplier. These are obvious to me to have the biggest impact.
Then,
I made some tougher choices. Fire is powerful in group. I nearly maximized (3) Fire Skill Damage and (4) Fire
skill DOT, but I wanted another (5) Vivid Imagery target (I really like that
skill).
A
couple of points were left over so I put them in (6) Finesse. I could have chosen a
different 6th legacy of some of those above, but then you ask the questions,
what is worth more… 1.9% enemy resist reduction from Finesse, or a 2 second improvement in
Chill of Winter debuff duration, or 2% extra Chill of Winter damage?
You
can see that I have spent all I can spend. Every legacy worth adding points to
is at Tier 6 (the icon that looks like a spider); the last one (Finesse) holds
what was leftover.
Ah-ha! But you NEED to be an uber-healer
also dear RK!
Change
your frame of mind and look at the Stone legacies from a healer perspective. When you
are a main healer in a group, everyone is counting on you to keep the bars
full. Heck, when I was younger, I sometimes didn’t even know where we were. It
isn’t important. Let no one die and everything else will work itself out.
Again,
we have 6 Legacy choices.
The
first four are no-brainer. Take the 4 Healer legacies (Healing, Healing Attuned
skill power cost reduction, Healing over Time, Glorious Foreshadowing duration).
The
other two? Well, you are healing, which of the rest of the legacies will help you heal better?
I
will not take away from my ability or my focus to heal my group. The other two
were a clear choice for me… 2 stat legacies. I chose Will and Vitality, though
Fate is a good alternative.
Clearly, with this Healing Stone, I didn't add anything to the Tactical Damage, which would be a waste of points as I am focused on green bars only.
The
observant will notice that my Healing Stone is actually a 3rd Age LI (the
purple colored title). Well, I made it before the skirmish camp started giving
away Worn Symbols of Celebrimbor (cost is 2394 marks and 207 medallions) used
to make the 2nd Age LIs. What is the difference?
At
this point, very little. My 3rd Age LI needed more Scrolls of Empowerment to
gain the same effectiveness, but with the Tiers at max, it got there. The grand
total of what I am giving up by comparison is about +3 Will and +3 Vitality (which
is not worth a remake at this point). I would recommend getting the 2nd Age level
75 if you are just starting out.
7 comments:
Excellent post! Because of the duality of the class, it's hard to focus mostly on either DPS or Healing for a long time, and then *BAM* someone asks if you can come in as the opposite spec.
My RK has mostly just been zapping and fwooshing away, so the section on healing LIs was especially helpful for legacy planning. Thanks!
Yay Zyngor! I am so happy you got something from the post; that is why I write!
The other half, concerning RK Bags, will be posted next Tuesday!
Haladain from Landroval - Thank You for such a concise and easy to use article! Definitely a bookmark!
Thanks Haladain!
I'm glad you enjoyed it, and do check out the RK Bag article linked at the bottom of the post. ;)
This isn't about the legacies, but what are those stats under the ___ DPS line of your legendary item? I understand the + tactical damage rating, since I have that on my weapons too, but how did you get your super heal stone to give you +300 critical rating, + 121 maximum power, and +84.6 ICPR? It doesn't appear to be related to the title you chose, your legacies, your relics, or a star-lit crystal. I would like to get those extra bonuses too if possible.
-Joe
Nevermind, I think I figured out that it is because runestones count as a 2-handed weapon and you get extra stats for some reason because of not being able to dual wield or hold a shield.
Anony-Joe!
Glad you figured it out. All RK stones come with random passives, meaning you have no control over which ones the stone has. However, the better the stone, the more passives it has... a 1st age has more than a 2nd age which has more than a 3rd age. The higher the level the better the passives as well.
At http://www.danania.net/p/danania-85.html, you can see two other stones' passives. Those are 1st age level 85. One has +512 morale, +44 Vit, +44 Will. The other has +43 Vit, +43 Fate, +424 Crit.
Your assessment of the *reason* for the the passives is interesting. I never thought about WHY before. :)
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