Update 10: Runekeeper Armor Sets

In continuing to look at changes for Update 10, I will dissect what the new RK armor sets are and how existing armor sets changed. For this article, I will consider the Runemakers’ set, the three level 85 Moors armor sets, the three Hytbold sets, the three Erebor sets, and the three Greater Erebor sets.

Some general observations:

(1) The armor sets have been standardized to not offer stat increases for set bonuses. The armor sets have also been standardized to offer bonuses on 2-piece and 4-piece only.

(2) With the removal of stats as armor bonuses, some non-Erebor armor pieces changed. I originally examined many of the Update 9 armor sets and level 75 armors in the post, rohan-85-rk-hytbold-and-moors-armor. For example, Hytbold Peace-caller set decreased 214 morale and 1148 mastery, and gained some crit (due to the change in Critical calculation) since the previous version. I have re-reviewed all armors’ stats to reflect the changes for U10 (as of March 20).

(3) There are non-set armor pieces that are even better than any of these pieces. As they are rare and random versus being bartered and earned, I will not review those, but acknowledge that they exist and are awesome (and “gold” quality).

(4) The Erebor armors can only be bartered once you have completed all seven of the Rohan instances on T1. The Greater Erebor armors can only be bartered with wins in Rohan instances T2.

(5) There isn’t a big gap at all between the level 75 armor sets from TOO or Moors level 75, so don’t feel badly if you already have those. The U10 changes made the previous post at  rohan-85-rk-hytbold-and-moors-armor incorrect, but it gives indication that many of the level 75 armors are (or at least were) reasonable options.

(6) In the Moors, the Moors armors are a must due to their “Audacity” bonuses (I’ll explain Audacity another post, but for perspective, here is how Audacity looked prior to U10, ettenmoors-75-rk-armor-audacity.

Set Bonuses:

So, let’s look at armor set comparisons. I will start by looking at the “set bonuses” for each armor set at 2-piece and 4-piece. As you see in Table 1, there are a lot of repeat bonuses. Most are situational and tied to certain skills. Since now for U10 there are no more stats included as bonuses, you will have to decide whether you really use these skills and utilize the bonuses.

Table 1: Set bonuses for RK Armor sets (click on image to enlarge)

I have a lot of data… so I decided to present the full sets and then present snapshots by piece. I am going to benchmark everything to the Rune-makers’ armor since those pieces can be found at the skirmish vendor and otherwise require no effort at all, except the cost of marks and medallions.

For simplicity, I am going to continue presenting only my “4 pillars of the Runekeeper”: Morale, Tactical Mastery, Critical, and Tactical Mitigation.

Full Sets:

You just turned level 85 and have the option of going to the skirmish vendor to get a set of armor, going to the Moors and hunting Creeps for Commendations, going to rebuild Hytbold and earning tokens, or going through Rohan and Erebor raids.

Ok, Table 2 is a wall of data related to full RK sets. I will translate some observations. Do keep in mind, aside from the numerical data, there is Table 1 to consider, so be mindful of the potential set bonuses, if they are important.

Observation 1: The Moors sets have much less Mastery than the basic Runemakers. However, Moors Audacity of the pieces is essential for the Moors. With 5-7% less Mastery than basic Runemakers, the Moors armor is not worthy anywhere else except the Moors.

Observation 2: The Hytbold armor sets are slightly better than the Runemakers. The set bonuses in Table 1 are better also. Did you do enough quests in Rohan to earn reputation and barter for Hytbold armor? Which makes more sense to earn, 9k marks and 3k medallions, or Rohan rep and Hytbold tokens?

Observation 3: Erebor armors cost a more Marks, Medallions, and Seals but there is almost no benefit versus the basic Runemakers armor. Even if the price was the same, is it worth it?

Observation 4: Greater Erebor armors are the most expensive and hardest to obtain. One would think they are the best, right?

Example: Runemaker vs Greater Erebor Healer (Peace-caller): GE Peace has less morale (-263), better Mastery (+2%), better Critical (+2%), and better tact mit (+2%). GE Peace has slightly better set bonuses (not a fan, but they are better). GE Peace cost “a lot” more. Is it worth it?

Table 2: Cost and stat data for level 85 RK Armor sets, (stats vs Runemakers)

When looking at a single category, it becomes clear that many of the pieces are built similarly. If all things cost the same, which would you choose? Is there an obvious difference between these pieces? I will show a snapshot of the stat differences between the set pieces for each category.

Head:

Shoulders:

Chest Armor:

Gloves:

Leggings:

Boots:

What Would Dana Do?

Because I have as a goal to do all quests and deeds, I have some options available to me as by-product of Completionism, i.e. Hytbold, marks, unlocks.

I’m also told that the number of Marks and Medallions for Runemakers set is a lot. I lose perspective sometimes on what “a lot” means. Is 9k marks and 3k medallions a lot for a 6-piece set of armor? If so, then Hytbold is probably where you want to go, and Runemakers and Erebor are not for you.

I got the Hytbold Thunder-caller set just by doing the quests and following the path. I love to use “Epic Conclusion to reset Shocking Words” and habitually hit Shocking Words, Epic Conclusion, Shocking Words in quick succession with enjoyable effect… I’ve seen the set of three skills critically hit an opponent for over 22k damage during that explosive second.

Hytbold armor is very easy to obtain. For example, to get this Thunder-caller armor you would need Kindred rep with the 4 factions of Rohan (actually, only Ally with Norcroft), and some Hytbold tokens. By the time you got the Reputation, because it would have involved doing Hytbold daily quests, you would have enough tokens to build the correct pieces of town and barter for the armor. Reference here (to-be-a-thane).

Hytbold is one of the cheapest and best options, and as is evident from this article, all the non-Moors armors are fairly close to one another statistically.

If you are going to the Moors, get some Moors armors. I got 2 of each set of Moors armors because there wasn’t apparent value to me to go after the 4-piece bonuses. It isn't as useful for everyday use since it has noticeably less Mastery but is a must in the moors.

Though I have access to it, I won’t barter for the Erebor armor as it has little benefit. 

For comparison from Table 1, for Hytbold Thunder vs Erebor Thunder: Hytbold has +614 morale and +3% Mastery and my preferred set bonuses VS Erebor has +1.5% Critical. The Greater Erebor Thunder is slightly better than the Erebor though not enough that I would choose it even if the price was equal to the Hytbold (and certainly not at the increased cost).

Ettenmoors: 75 RK armor, audacity, and stuff

The Moors, Lotro’s PVP (player versus player)… is a different world. I mentioned before that I spend some time there.

Am I great in the Moors? I would say that I am probably not. I am probably average.

Things I do well… If I have quests or deeds I could be doing, I rarely go to the Moors. So by the time I get there, my gear is often stacked to the nines. Plus, I was born to be a RK, and I know my skills very well. I did not just roll off the truck yesterday.

Things I have not done well… I am just starting to learn about the creep classes so I have no insight as to what to expect for creep tactics or skills. Do I heal a team member? Do I hit a creep with lightning? Stun? Fire DoTs (damage over time)? Slows and ices? Woodstalker taught me some recently, but my decision-making could be better.

Also, the Moors-only attribute, Audacity, makes a big difference, and I only recently got to Audacity 7 (max audacity); thus, I have been fighting uphill for the past few months. As it usually happens, I got my Audacity gear just in time for the moors to receive a major overhaul and time to leave to go level up to 85 and mounted combat.

Audacity: Getting to higher Audacity was a big turning point. It was clear how strongly certain creeps had the ability to dominate a fight, and though I am a stout end-game RK, I had no chance of beating them with only audacity 1. With even audacity, I am much more evenly matched.

You can see the difference in this picture, which shows a large gap between damage mitigations of Audacity 1 versus 7. I see some talented creeps often enough, that I can actually feel the difference, having progressed from Audacity 1 to 7 while they were already maxed out.

10,000 creeps: I hesitated to post this shot, but here is my War Tab. I am rank 8, Master-at-Arms, and this war tab shot was taken at kill number 10,000. I can only imagine that it is on par with other players. My rating ranges from 1100 – 1550, depending on how often I’m being ganged up on (or getting the advantage) in any given outing. My “killing blows” (effectively who gets the final shot) stays just ahead of my “deaths”. For a part-time healer, the killing blows stat did not seem too bad.

Thankful: While I am thankful to my friends with whom I play, I am also thankful for the Creeps. Without them, the area would just be another fun Quest area. (Yes, I do very much enjoy questing around the Moors!) I would never belittle the Creeps, and am amazed and saddened when either side feels the need to be obnoxious about the other.

On a particularly unusual night, after much fighting, my team of two met a team of two Creeps and neither side opened fire. Baglun looks at me as if he has never seen a woman up close before that wasn’t hitting him.

I stopped to rest a moment, and Ijust did as well, while Dwasori watches to make sure nothing interesting happens. In the end, Creeps will be Creeps and they opened fire on us when an obnoxious dog could not control himself. Such is life in the Moors, lol.

Creep-side: One night, when no creeps were out and the entire map was Blue freep controlled, many of my friends decided to log on creep-side to try to turn the balance and even the field a bit. Thus, I followed and a new warg was born.

The first thing I learned is that a fresh warg with basically no skills or talent is really terrible. I never attacked a freep, but it was clear that even if I wanted to, there is no way my “werewarg” self would have had a shot against an experienced freep.

I feel kinda bad for the lowbies. When I am alone, if I am questing alone and come across a single creep in the wild, I rarely ever take the first shot (another reason I am not built for PvP, though I don't begrudge anyone for choosing to fight at any time since that is the absolute intent of the entire zone); but if they think they can take me, they are welcome to bring it. J

That said, I think by the time the creep is higher rank (I am told Rank 5 or so) the creep can be quite formidable. In some cases (like Arachne of Arkenstone)… <in Obi-won voice> they “will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine”. The September-2012 Ettenmoors update should be interesting as it looks like the spiders and a couple others have the potential to become even MORE powerful, on top of probably being the most powerful of the creep classes. Here is a shot of the horde rolling into TR.

RK Armor: I was asked about Moors RK armor and which set is best. Telemnar and I are wearing the old Padded Moors set in this picture. However, I don’t think she ever leaves Glan Vraig so she doesn’t need the Audacity of the better armors. Let’s look at some of the statistics of the better ones.

Here is a table of Moors armors listing “stuff that matters to a RK”.

In this table, Each set shows the stat addition of the combined 6-piece set.

The 2/2/2 row is a mix of 2 of each: Tranquility (robe and hat), Scalding Wit (gloves and legs), Thunder-struck (boots and shoulders). These pieces were chosen to maximize the Morale and Tactical Mastery.

The 3/3 row is a mix of 3 each Traquility and Scalding Wit, with the same basis as 2/2/2.

	Morale	Tact Mastery	Critical	Tact Mit (defense)
Tranquility	1458	34%	0%	9%
Scalding Wit	1275	32%	0%	9%
Thunder-struck	1008	26%	5%	10%
2/2/2	1641	32%	2%	9%
3/3	1641	29%	0%	9%

Dana, which Moors set do I choose? The “special bonuses” associated with sets for getting 3-piece and 5-piece just seem really lame to me. I chose 2/2/2 for its best morale and high tactical mastery and some critical.

If I had opted to go for a complete set, I would have taken Tranquility since it has the highest morale and mastery of the three and its special bonuses seem more useful to me. “Mending verse initial heal applies to both target and caster” has much more likely application than say, “Essence of storm removes induction from Essence of winter on critical hit” (although, with the right traits, this one could be a big win.) 

Essentially, it is difficult to go wrong with any of the choices. The Moors armors are on par with the raid armor as the best in the game.

The natural color of the armor is not one I would normally choose, but it is quite lovely.

As of Update 6, here are the digits on the 2/2/2 “set”. It will be outdated by next month; HOWEVER, the dev notes say that the pieces can be traded in for a 10% discount toward new armor. I am counting on the 2/2/2 to still be a good choice, and will post a column about it when I see it. Enjoy the small victories!