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!
