Some of you may not know this, but the Lore-master was my first serious alt. I chose the Lore-master class because it seemed to be the polar opposite of the Guardian class. I wanted to play a class that would take a back seat and would provide utility to the group. In past games I had fun playing utility classes like the Enchanter in EverQuest, so I gave the Lore-master a whirl; and I loved it. While years have gone by since my introduction to the class it still holds a place in my heart as one of the more interesting classes to play in LOTRO.
This Week’s Topic
What legacies do you use for the Lore-master in:
- PvMP
- Healing Roles
- DPS Roles
- Debuff Roles
- Raiding
- Small-Fellowship
- Full-Fellowship
The Lore-master’s role has grown over the past years and they’ve become one of the more versatile classes within the game. I’ve seen Lore-masters control fights through the use of their mezzes and debuffs; heal small fellowships; and pull in raids. With all this diversity it will be interesting to see if people use different LI’s depending on their role, or if they only use two.
So let us know what do you use for your Legendary Item Legacies!
August 23, 2012 at 8:36 am
I love the lore-master class as well (play it as my main), it’s good to hear you like it!
I use different LI’s for the lore-master’s DPS and support role myself. You can also get away with just two LI’s, though, it’s just a matter of how far you want to go – although I would suggest at least a support book, especially if you want to do serious (T2) raiding. For a support book you’ll want tactical healing rating maxed out, signs of power durations, healing from beacon of hope and target resistance (debuffing skills). I always try to get a second ager, as the tactical healing rating goes higher on those.
I actually wrote an extensive guide on lore-master LI’s two days ago. I really hope it’s okay if I post the link here, but perhaps it will be helpful to you: http://ravalation.blogspot.nl/2012/08/lotro-lore-master-legendary-items.html
Hope that is of any help!
August 23, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Thank you very much for the link. It’s more than all right that you posted it here.
August 23, 2012 at 9:17 am
DPS legacies are quite varied, and there are enough to customise the skills you use the most. Most of the lightning skill legacies, for instance, are for skills on long CDs – so it’s up to the player to decide whether they want a huge burst every 1-2 minutes or if they want more consistent output. Just going on DPS parses isn’t necessarily the best way to make that decision: there are times when the one-hit power of Lightning Storm saves everyone by wiping out those elite adds in an instance.
Generally, I prefer to go for fire based skills (Burning Embers Pulses, Burning Embers Damage, and Fire Skills Critical & Resist, as well as Fire DoT legacies) for DPS.
The minor legacies are actually the most interesting imho. Adding extra targets to Fire Lore or Ancient Craft is expensive – but you get a “free” +1 just for having the legacy, even if you don’t slot any points in it. On a Yellow-Line LM that might be overkill, except in really mob-heavy instances, but for a standard red-line LM it can be a nice addition to debuffing power, without needing to specialise in it.
The +morale legacy for SotW:Protection on the Book can be good for soloing, especially if you use a pet to off-tank a mob while you deal with another, but it’s rarely necessary for grouping.
Because I so often slot the Improved Inner Flame trait (heals fellowship) the legacy boosting it is on all my Books – and my healing Book supplements it with +Tactical Healing and Beacon of Hope like Ravanel suggests.
August 23, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Thanks Long! Thank you for letting me know there are options and what your preferences are.
August 23, 2012 at 10:40 am
An LM is my main. I’ve tried building two pairs of LIs for DPS and support but didn’t find separate sets to be worth the trouble. I’ve gone back to a single level 75 Second Age staff and one Second Age book.
I always have staff major legacies of Tactical Skills Direct Damage and Staff Strike Cooldown. For a third major I go with Burning Embers Initial Damage or Fire Skills Critical Multiplier. I’ve made four (four!) Second Age level 75 staves and not a one of them identified with a fourth major legacy; I’ve also taken about 50 Third Age staves to item level 31 with none acquiring a fourth major. Either I’m incredibly unlucky or level 75 staves are bugged.
Most LM staff minor legacies aren’t particularly good. After Cracked Earth Damage you might was well put a stat legacy or two in place. Perhaps Lightning Skills Critical Rating…
I’ve had much better results with the LM book. Four majors: Burning Embers Pulses, Wizard’s Fire Pulses, Fire Skills Critical Rating, and Healing from Beacon of Hope. Two minors: Fire Damage over Time and Inner Flame Healing. Basically it’s a fire-damage-plus-healing book.
At higher levels traits are key. For solo play or DPS in groups I go 5 red/2 blue with Improved Sticky Gourd legendary. In 3-mans where I need to heal I’ll go 4 blue/3 red and use the Spirit of Nature pet for its healing abilities. In raids where crowd control and/or debuffing is important (e.g., Orthanc) I’ll trait 5 yellow with Force of Will then add 2 blue or 2 red.
August 23, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Thanks Zeta. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out.
August 23, 2012 at 11:24 am
The usual caveats apply. Know how you like to play your class and support that game play. Me? I’m huge on putting in my combat buffs and debuffs no matter if I’m DPSing or CCing content but I’m also not afraid to go close enough to get in a mob’s grill and kick in my significant melee dmg with my staff. I am not a Moors player. I don’t play blue line and if I did, my chosen LI legacies would change to reflect that as well.
IMO, Staff Strike Cooldown is a must. If it’s not on a staff, I won’t take the staff. I always try to have one or two copies of this legacy in my vault just in case.
Tactical Skills Direct Damage and Fire Skills Critical Multiplier are also very high on my wish list for a staff. Also nice are Light of the Rising Dawn Damage and Cracked Earth Damage because those skills have a quick enough turnaround time that I’m popping them a lot so the more damage they do, the better.
As others have said, you will have more need to go with two books: one for DPS and one for CC/group work.
For my DPS book, I like Fire Skills Damaging and Fire Skills Critical Rating along with Target Resistance Damaging. Target Resistance (Debuffing) is very nice here too as are Burning Embers Pulses.
For CCing, raid support, I like Target Resistance (Debuffing) and Signs of Power Duration. After that, what else I can get from my DPS pool is gravy. Healing from Beacon of Hope is nice if you want to try to take some pressure off of your healers. I can usually do a good bit to help the healer have time to spread their love around. Ditto on taking Share the Power Increase to help me give heals to power.
Also, it’s my opinion that the way you trait your skills is gonna make an enormous difference in the legacies that are appropriate for your LIs.
You also learn to play with the LI you have. I like the challenge of not being an LI swapper and learning how to make good use of what I have got and what I am. Your mileage may vary.
August 23, 2012 at 1:58 pm
Awesome, thanks Sigela. I’ll start getting closer and using the Strikes a bit more.
August 23, 2012 at 2:29 pm
I trait straight blue and focus on support while my bog-guardian does all the work and my legacies reflect that. I max out Share the Power increase, Beacon of Hope increase, etc. Then I focus on fire DOT and crit. And having Staff Strike cooldown reduced is a must for me.
August 24, 2012 at 12:48 pm
I play very similar to this.
Also, my main is a LM and my alt is a guardian (also chose a class most different from my main). I would disagree with the author saying that LM’s are a backseat class. A good LM can completely change the battle and I play my guardian when I want a break from playing hard.
August 23, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Since the Loremaster is currently my main character, I thought I’d share a link I found very helpful when I first started building my legendary items.
Over on Doc Holliday’s MMO Blog, PyschoBabble has created a list of desirable legacies and provided some analysis of various benefits. http://docholidaymmo.com/2011/10/09/lore-mastery-lore-master-legendary-items-in-isengard/
I’ll let the above guide speak for itself, but my recommendation would definitely be to create separate support and dps legendary items. The loremaster is in a very good place, having a large number of equally desirable major legacies, and its usually not too hard to get an item that has at least a couple of them.
August 23, 2012 at 5:14 pm
Thanks for this–I play a Loremaster at 75, but not as my main. I still feel quite green on her, having never ventured out of DPS mode. I find the thought of CC intimidating and this has given me food for thought. I don’t have much helpful to add, but one legacy I’ve gotten attached to is the signs of power duration, to make keeping that stun immunity up in Foundry and Roots.
August 23, 2012 at 6:00 pm
This is my usual set-up. I try to level 2 staves & 2 books:
1. A set geared for DPS. This is the set I use most often, since it’s mostly for solo work. I can also use it in groups in which I’m taking on a DPS role.
2. A Set geared for debuffing/support. This is the set I use for groups, especially raids.
**DPS Staff
Major Legacies
1. Staff Strike Cooldown
2. Tactical Skills Direct Damage
3. Burning Embers Initial Damage
4. Light Of The Rising Dawn Damage
Minor Legacies
1. Sticky Gourd Direct Damage
2. Cracked Earth Damage
3. Test Of Will Damage
**DPS Book
Major Legacies
1. Target resistance (damaging skills)
2. Fire Skills critical rating
3. Burning Embers Pulses or Target Resistance (Fire Skills)
Minor Legacies
1. Fire Damager Over Time
2. Test of Will Devastate Damage
3. Morale – Sign of the Wild: Protection
**Debuffing/Support Staff
1. Share The Power Increase
I fill in the other slots, both major and minor, with whatever I get. If I’m in a support role, I should not be attacking often, but I tend to use more DPS-related options.
**Debuffing/Support Book
Major Legacies
1. Target Resistance (Debuffing Skills)
2. Signs of Power Durations
3. Healing from Beacon of Hope
Minor Legacies
1. Ancient-Craft Targets
2. Fire-Lore Targets
3. Inner Flame Healing
August 23, 2012 at 9:30 pm
There’s already been a lot of good advice in the comments. One point that I haven’t seen though, is to keep the Sign of the Wild: Rage/Protection legacies on a separate buff book, much like a captain’s buff stick. The boosts persist after swapping LIs, so there’s no need to spend a slot on your actual DPS/support books.
My LIs are pretty similar to those suggested:
Staff – Vitality of Elder Days I (all purpose, with a swap stick for Share the Power)
A. Tactical Skills Direct Damage – helps pretty much everything
A. Burning Embers Initial Damage – by far the most used skill with a +damage legacy
A. Staff Strike Cooldown – LM melee damage is quite impressive, especially now that it’s based off will
B. Burning Embers Range – not terribly important, but still handy, at max you get 40m range
B. Sticky Gourd Direct Damage – of the +damage minor legacies, the skill that I use the most. Cracked Earth does have a shorter cooldown, but its damage is lower than Burning Embers; I mostly use it for the delayed root effect.
B. Vitality – I only got 3 majors on my staff, but vit’s always good
DPS book – Vital Flame I(I’m carrying a 75 3rd age with 5 majors, since books have +healing. You can get a 60 FA to more easily max out +pulses and % fire dot, but -resist and +crit ratings will be lower)
A. Target Resistance (Damaging)
A. Target Resistance (Fire)
A. + Wizard’s Fire Pulses – should always be ticking, especially since the improved version has no cooldown
A. + Burning Ember Pulses – improved BE stacks up to 3 dots, this really helps maximize your damage
A. Fire Skills Critical Rating
B. +% Fire Damage Over Time
Support book – Enduring Vitality I
A. Target Resistance (Damaging)
A. Target Resistance (Debuffing)
A. + Signs of Power Durations – extremely important for SoP: See All Ends, whether you use it to debuff a mob’s crit chance (need +15s to keep it up), or use it for the Dragoch set bonus (+5% incoming crit chance, longer is better). It’s also very helpful for keeping stun immunity up with SoP: Righetousness.
A. +% Healing from Beacon of Hope
B. +% Inner Flame Healing – debatable utility, but for those rare times I do use the skill, it’s nice to have
B. Vitality
Swap book 1 (I have a captain alt, so I swap LIs a lot. Ancient Craft and Fire Lore both have a 1m cooldown, so swap to this, fire those off, and swap back. Bane Flare was added on because of the RoR change; still, I can’t justify putting the legacy on a primary LI)
A. Target Resistance (Debuffing) – again, use a max level LI for the most -resistance
B. + Ancient-craft targets
B. + Fire-lore targets
B. + Bane Flare Targets
Swap book 2
B. + Morale – Sign of the Wild: Protection
B. + Threat – Sign of the Wild: Rage
August 24, 2012 at 12:03 pm
As a relatively casual raider, I’m not too big on grinding out different LIs for different roles. The main formula I use is this
DPS staff and a buff book.
While some legacies varied along the way, the must haves for me on the staff were tactical direct, staff strike cool down. The rest I just varied according to what I had that could maximise my damage.
On my book, I was lucky to get 5 majors, so I stuck together (in order of importance) target resistance for damaging and debuffing, SOP increase, healing from bacon of hope and fire skills critical and stuck a will legacy.
I must confess though, that I’m a little disappointed that our legacies don’t improve our CC that much at all and I hope eventually we’ll be able to do that.
That was my build as well while I travelled blue line for a good part of my 65 before RoI came out. After a while your damage pretty much out strips the pet so I didn’t see much point pushing in legacies into pet support since a) I was lazy to build another staff b) pets arent as important as providing support in a fellowship c) maximising my damage would probably make up for any pet support legacies. d) I don’t raid too much so I don’t know how often you’d actually go against more than 3-5 mobs at once. the average is 3-4 and usually the raid/fellowship manages to kill a few pretty quickly…
I’m just a casual player